AN INTERRUPTED TIME SERIES ANALYSIS EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF HELLER ON VIOLENT GUN CRIME TRENDS IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND DETROIT, MICHIGAN

This thesis set out to determine whether the Supreme Court’s abolishment of Washington D.C.’s Firearms Control Regulations Act handgun ban in 2008 had any impact on the city’s violent gun crime rates. Using an interrupted time series design, analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report monthly data revealed no statistically significant association between the removal of the FCRA’s handgun band and decreasing gun violence in Washington D.C. from 1998 to 2015

Architectural Approach for the Integration of Wireless Sensor Networks with Cloud Computing for a Secure Healthcare System

The general scope of our work is to propose an architecture to integrate the healthcare cloud with wireless sensor network (WSN) technology through smart phones. This will enable monitoring patient health wirelessly with the smart phone devices providing real-time updates of patient's health via the cloud to doctors and other medical professionals. To achieve this, we propose a filter system on a smart phone running different healthcare apps which monitor and record the patient's vital signs. The proposed system model is simulated by creating an EMR system for a hospital using Java Spring web services and deploying it on Cloud foundry, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) environment. The proposed filter system is simulated using the filter app running on the android emulator sending alert SMS to another emulator instance on detection of abnormal patient health data. A priority ranking algorithm for finding the list of doctors to whom the abnormal data is to be sent, is proposed and implemented using Java 1.6 on Eclipse IDE.Computer Science Departmen

Effect of β2 Adrenergic Agonist and Hif1α Antagonist on Neuroprotection in Cerebral Hypoperfusion Model

The present study identified that salbutamol and propranolol showed significant neuroprotection by restoring muscle coordination, cerebral blood flow and downregulating nitrite level, lipid peroxidation and pro-inflammatory cytokines levels and also by upregulating the GSH and ATP levels in cortex, hippocampus and striatum regions of ischemic rats. Combination of salbutamol and YC-1 showed synergistic effect on salbutamol neuroprotection. Hence, our current study clearly reveals the neuroprotective effect of salbutamol and propranolol and its synergistic effect in combination treatment with YC-1 during ischemic insult in cerebral hypoperfusion model. The study also states that the molecular mechanistic pathways have to be further elucidated with different set of proteins to get a clear insight on the neuroprotective molecular mechanism

A Critical Assessment of the Index of Industrial Production Data in India

This paper flags the basis weaknesses of the 1993-94 series of index of industrial production (IIP) data and calls for both base year revisions as also an overhaul of its contents so that it correctly captures the structural changes that have occurred in the economy. While highlighting some of the basic flaws in the compilation of IIP data, an attempt has also been made to gauge at the output growth pattern of the industrial sector emerging from the estimates of IIP and the annual survey of industry (ASI). Our analysis reveals divergences between the output growth trend of these two datasets

A Method: Fornix Depth Measurement in Ophthalmic Socket

Several methods have been publicized to measure the fornix depth but the error in the measurement makes them inconvenient for the correct diagnosis of fornix depth in the eye. In view of the cruelty of disease the precise method is needed to correctly evaluate the fornix depth measurement. In this report, a novel approach is being addressed, to solve the depth measuring issue with the logical experimental design. The explanation with the proposed hypothesis is described here with the relevant scientific approach, the emphasis of certain advantages of the present invention over the conventional measurement approaches. In this case the diagnosis and the process of diagnosis should be accurate, but in the field of ophthalmology an accurate measurement of fornix depth without committing any error was a challenging task. So far in the development of the measurement of fornix depth is concern. Currently, we discussed a novel method for the measurements of fornix depth in ophthalmic eye, which will be beneficial to get the accurate value, however it was not possible in the previously reported methods. It will have many advantages over the existing methods

Analysis of Oil and Gas Industry in Asia with Reference to Investment and Expansion Strategies of Asian National Oil Companies (ANOC’s)

Demand for crude oil and natural gas in the Asian region has increased over the past few years at a rate of 1.3% during 2000-2012 and the demand for natural gas is likely to increase at an average annual growth rate of 6.8% during 2009-2020. Scarcity of resources forced many Asian National Oil Companies (ANOCs) to explore the opportunities in various corners of the world looking for prospective lands and partnerships which led them to aggressively invest in global acquisition of oil and gas assets. This paper deals with the strategies adopted by the ANOCs to secure their energy needs and conducts an in-depth analysis of Asian Oil and Gas industry. It also analyses the investments, mergers & acquisitions and growth strategies of major ANOCs. Results of the study show that increasing domestic needs have driven ANOCs’ decision to expand overseas. It can be concluded that acquiring of assets internationally will play a prominent role in ANOCs’ future operations. Key words: Crude oil, Natural gas, Energy needs, Mergers, Acquisitions

An Efficient Information Extraction Mechanism with Page Ranking and a Classification Strategy based on Similarity Learning of Web Text Documents

Users have recently had more access to information thanks to the growth of the www information system. In these situations, search engines have developed into an essential tool for consumers to find information in a big space. The difficulty of handling this wealth of knowledge grows more difficult every day. Although search engines are crucial for information gathering, many of the results they offer are not required by the user because they are ranked according on user string matches. As a result, there were semantic disparities between the terms used in the user inquiry and the importance of catch phrases in the results. The problem of grouping relevant information into categories of related topics hasn't been solved. A Ranking Based Similarity Learning Approach and SVM based classification frame work of web text to estimate the semantic comparison between words to improve extraction of information is proposed in the work. The results of the experiment suggest improvisation in order to obtain better results by retrieving more relevant results

KEY FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AT TERM IN NEPAL: A CASE CONTROL STUDY

Background:Low Birth Weight (LBW) is a major public health problem in developing countries including Nepal. Nepal has a prevalence of LBW of 21%. There are various factors associated to high prevalence of LBW. This study aimed to identify specific factors associated to LBW at term in hospital settings in Nepal. Methodology: This study used a hospital based case control design. Hospital nurses interviewed mothers aged 15-45 years who had delivered a full term, single and live baby. Results: A total of 1533 respondents (511 cases and 1022 controls) were taken which is slightly more than the estimated sample size. The mean weight of newborns among case group was 2215 gm (SD:203); and among control group was 3012gm (SD:367). This study revealed that factors such as mothers under 20 years old (OR=1.436, 95% CI:1.074-1.920); height below 145cm (OR=1.504, 95% CI:1.087 -2.083); primigravida (OR=1.423, 95% CI:1.132-1.788); illiterate (OR=1.407 95% CI:1.011-1.957); <4 ANC visits (OR=1.534, 95% CI:1.202-1.957); and iron supplement <180 tabs (OR=1.434, 95% CI:1.152-1.786) were associated with LBW. However, variables like <20 years at the first pregnancy (OR=1.139, 95% CI: 0.904-1.433), disadvantaged ethnicity (OR=1.077, 95% CI: 0.861-1.347) were not associated with LBW in this study.Conclusion: Maternal height, education, number of ANC visits, and iron consumption were strong predictors for LBW in Nepal. It would benefit the country to develop effective strategies on maternal nutrition, female education, and quality ANC to overcome LBW.KEYWORDS: Low Birth Weight; Socio-demographic and antenatal care, Case control design

KEY FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AT TERM IN NEPAL: A CASE CONTROL STUDY

Background:Low Birth Weight (LBW) is a major public health problem in developing countries including Nepal. Nepal has a prevalence of LBW of 21%. There are various factors associated to high prevalence of LBW. This study aimed to identify specific factors associated to LBW at term in hospital settings in Nepal. Methodology: This study used a hospital based case control design. Hospital nurses interviewed mothers aged 15-45 years who had delivered a full term, single and live baby. Results: A total of 1533 respondents (511 cases and 1022 controls) were taken which is slightly more than the estimated sample size. The mean weight of newborns among case group was 2215 gm (SD:203); and among control group was 3012gm (SD:367). This study revealed that factors such as mothers under 20 years old (OR=1.436, 95% CI:1.074-1.920); height below 145cm (OR=1.504, 95% CI:1.087 -2.083); primigravida (OR=1.423, 95% CI:1.132-1.788); illiterate (OR=1.407 95% CI:1.011-1.957); <4 ANC visits (OR=1.534, 95% CI:1.202-1.957); and iron supplement <180 tabs (OR=1.434, 95% CI:1.152-1.786) were associated with LBW. However, variables like <20 years at the first pregnancy (OR=1.139, 95% CI: 0.904-1.433), disadvantaged ethnicity (OR=1.077, 95% CI: 0.861-1.347) were not associated with LBW in this study.Conclusion: Maternal height, education, number of ANC visits, and iron consumption were strong predictors for LBW in Nepal. It would benefit the country to develop effective strategies on maternal nutrition, female education, and quality ANC to overcome LBW.KEYWORDS: Low Birth Weight; Socio-demographic and antenatal care, Case control design

Modeling and sensitivity analysis of grid-connected hybrid green microgrid system

The demonstrated research work analyses the technoeconomic modelling and sensitivity analysis of the available resources for the rural community in India. The various resources used in this study are solar, wind, hydro, battery and utility grid-connected system. The usefulness of the on-grid system in the rural sector is that excess amount of electricity produced through renewable energy sources (RES) could be sold back to the utility grid. A total of 12 possible configurations of various resources with and without a grid-connected system was analyzed for minimum Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and Total Net Present Cost (TNPC). Further, sensitivity analysis is accomplished for different sensitive variables to understand the nature of the system for wider application in rural communities. The solar-wind-hydro-based utility grid-connected network is observed to be the best optimal configuration with a minimum value of LCOE of 0.056 $/kWh. The simulation results reveal that the effective utilization of RES has been a cost-efficient and reliable system to the power supply in remote communities