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Background: Reflux symptom index(RSI) and reflux finding score (RFS) are widely used scoring systems used to diagnose laryngopharyngeal reflux disease(LPRD). However many patients do visit the outpatient department with minimal symptoms not sufficient to fit the criteria described by Belafsky et al. for diagnosing LPRD. Most of these patients are provisionally diagnosed and treated for LPRD. Reflux symptom index(RSI) and reflux finding score (RFS) are widely used scoring systems used to diagnose(LPRD) (Belafsky PC et al., J Voice 16(2):274–7, 2002, Belafsky PC et al, Laryngoscope 111(8):1313–7, 2001). RSI has nine questions that the patient must grade from 0 to 5. An abnormal score is greater than 13. Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) may or may not be diagnosed using the RSI and RFS especially when patients present with minimum symptoms not sufficient to score more than 13 and 7 respectively. These patients may miss the diagnosis and have to be treated empirically. Pepsin's presence in the saliva is indicative of reflux as pepsin is a gastric enzyme (NICE advice on Peptest for diagnosing gastro-oesophageal reflux, 2015, Wood JM et al., J Laryngol Otol 125(12):1218–24, 2011). Patients with minimum symptoms may be missed if diagnosis relies only on RSI AND RFS. The present study aims to see the correlation of pepsin-proven LPRD and RSI and RFS. Methods: This is a prospective study, 49 patients with symptoms suggestive of LPRD who tested positive for the pepsin test were further analysed for RSI and RFS. A cut-off value of > 25 ng/mL was considered diagnostic of LPRD (Dhillon VK et al., Curr Gastroenterol Rep 18(8):44, 2016). Result: The average RSI and RFS were respectively 10 and 4. The mean age of the patients in the study was 39 years and the mean weight was 60 kg. The association between RSI and PEPSIN detection is considered to be not statistically significant. Chi-squared equals 0.086 with 1 degree of freedom. The two-tailed P value equals 0.7698. Chi-squared equals 0.233 with 1 degree of freedom. The two-tailed P value equals 0.6295. The association between RFS and PEPSIN detection is considered to be not statistically significant. In terms of correlation analysis, neither the RSI nor the RFS had Pearson's correlation coefficient that was statistically significant. Conclusion: Since salivary pepsin detection and the RSI do not have any significant correlation, the RSI is not a valid diagnostic method for LPR and should not be used exclusively. Level of evidence: 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's fast-paced world, recommendation systems have become indispensable tools, aiding users in making personalized decisions amidst an overwhelming array of choices. These systems leverage user data and preferences to generate tailor-made recommendations based on individual tastes and behaviors. This research paper introduces the development and implementation of Pranik Movies, an ultimate recommendation system for personalized movie suggestions. The system incorporates collaborative and content-based filtering techniques, utilizing machine learning algorithms to analyze user behaviors, ratings, and viewing histories. A comprehensive overview of the research framework is provided, encompassing system architecture, data pre-processing, feature engineering techniques, and model selection and design. Text processing methods such as stemming, bag-of-words (BoW), and TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) are employed for processing and analyzing textual movie data. The accuracy of recommendations is enhanced through the assessment of film similarities, utilizing algorithms like cosine similarity and Euclidean distance. The paper concludes by outlining future directions for advanced machine learning techniques, social media integration, expanded content support, and the refinement of the evaluation framework. Pranik Movies signifies a significant advancement in recommendation systems, enabling personalized and precise movie recommendations within a vast and diverse cinematic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for benign gallbladder diseases is being practised as a day-care procedure in many centres around the world. This has been justified in view of the low rate of adverse events or complications following the surgery. There is a lack of uniform protocol for hospital admission and duration of hospital stay for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy especially in developing countries in remote areas. The purpose of this study was to find out the possibility whether it was safe and feasible to discharge elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients as day-care (6 h) in a centre like ours where there is no dedicated unit for ambulatory surgery. It is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data. The study was conducted in the Department of general surgery in a rural healthcare setup. The suitability for discharge was assessed at 6 h after surgery. All patients were re-evaluated the following morning to rule out any negative outcomes that might have resulted from being released from the hospital at 6 h post-surgery. Total of 145 patients underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the said period. The mean age is 39.6 years. Out of 145, 125 (86%) patients were dischargeable according to the modified Alderete score at 6 h. Duration of surgery (p-value-0.001), occurrence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (p-value-.002), critical view of safety visibility (p-value-.03) and need for foley's catheterization (p < 0.001) have significant associations with suitability for discharge at 6 h. Elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery as a day-care procedure has its own advantages. According to the modified Alderete score, most of the patients in our study who were eligible for discharge after six hours did not experience any difficulties while they were hospitalised, making them candidates for same-day discharge. However, case selection should take care of patient and logistic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biotechnology has revolutionized plant propagation by providing plant tissue culture as a rising alternative platform to conventional methods. In the present scenario, plant tissue culture becomes the key technique for the large-scale production and conservation of germplasm, maintenance of genetic stability, and meets out the economic demands of plant and plant products. It is the science of artificially growing test tube plantlets under optimized microclimatic conditions isolated from the external environment. This micro-scale environment resembles the natural environment consisting of culture vessels, humidity, gases, light irradiation, spectrum, temperature, nutritional media, and its constituents as major growth-affecting factors. The efficient architectural development of any genotype depends on these factors and requires a specifically optimized climate. Here, we are reviewing the interaction of physical factors of in vitro artificial climate including culture vessel, light, and temperature with the developing plantlets. The outcomes can increase the understanding of the developmental response of plants toward their environment in the recently changing climatic conditions. Further, this can also eliminate the challenges of cost, labor, and timings and introduce the advancements of efficient large-scale production of plant and plant products which will be effective in fulfilling the population demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is unusual to get an isolated thyroid abscess. Thyroid abscess or acute suppurative thyroiditis accounts for 0.7–1% of all instances of thyroid diseases. The thyroid gland typically has a high level of iodine, a well-enveloped capsule, and resistance to infections. The diagnosis and treatment of this unusual entity are covered in this paper. Case presentation. An adult male patient presented with anterior neck swelling for 15 days and pus discharge for 2 days. The neck ultrasound revealed characteristics that could indicate a thyroid abscess. The thyroid function test and other laboratory data were within normal bounds. A neck contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan was performed, and it only revealed a single thyroid abscess and no other abnormalities. After starting the patient on intravenous antibiotics, the abscess was incised and drained. The patient's symptoms got better. Conclusion: In the era of advanced antibiotics incidence of thyroid abscess is extremely rare. Early diagnosis and intervention may improve the outcome of this condition. Knowledge of disease and its potential complications can prevent morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, microporous biochar was prepared from the waste plant fruit shell of Pterospermum acerifolium. To improve porosity and nitrogen content in biochar, the powder form of the fruit shell was pre-treated by HNO3 before the biochar synthesis. Furthermore, to enhance the adsorption capacity of biochar for cationic methylene blue (MB) dye, the surface of biochar was modified by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant to increase the negative charge density on the biochar surface. Before the performance of the adsorption experiments, the nitric acid-treated Pterospermum acerifolium fruit waste biochar (NAT-PABC) and SDS-modified nitric acid-treated Pterospermum acerifolium fruit waste biochar (SDS-NAT-PABC) were characterized by various sophisticated instruments such as FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, elemental mapping, BET, XPS, and point of zero charge. An in-depth study of the functional groups and their interactions in NAT-PABC and SDS-NAT-PABC were examined with the help of the XPS technique and identified the functional groups responsible for the adsorption of MB dye. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to determine the optimal adsorption conditions. The maximum removal percentage of MB dye was achieved at pH 10 and 9 for NAT-PABC and SDS-NAT-PABC, respectively, within 240 min. The isotherm, kinetic, and mass transfer modeling were also examined and fitted with the experimental data. According to correlation coefficient (R2), nonlinear forms of the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models were best suited for both NAT-PABC and SDS-NAT-PABC. The present work also reported a possible reaction mechanism that describes the adsorption phenomenon. The Gibbs energy and enthalpy for the MB adsorption process by NAT-PABC and SDS-NAT-PABC was found to be negative and positive, respectively, suggesting that the process was spontaneous and endothermic nature; therefore, the reaction was highly attainable at higher temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deformation and displacement phenomena of liquid droplets from solid substrates are important in sub-surface processes such as enhanced oil recovery, chemical processing, and others, where the velocity of the continuous fluid is a key parameter. In the present work, a pioneering mathematical model equation for the minimum fluid velocity at which perturbation development begins, termed the 'critical velocity of perturbation' that is associated with the elongated part of a droplet and water has been developed using viscous potential flow analysis. Furthermore, the deformation and detachment of large (2 mL and 4 mL) aniline droplets, small (120 μ L) aniline droplet and small (5 μ L and 40 μ L) iso-quinoline droplets in close channels have been experimentally investigated in the verification of the proposed mathematical model equation. The developed model equation was successfully verified. Tails were formed, and the droplet partially detached when the continuous fluid velocity exceeded the critical velocity of perturbation. This study will aid in enhancing process efficiency and lowering operational costs in the field of liquid recovery and associated process industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron nanoparticles have emerged as promising nanomaterials with a wide array of applications in the biomedical, industrial, and environmental fields. However, the potential impact of these nanoparticles on aquatic organisms is not yet known. In the present study, the comparative impact of boron nitride nanoparticles and its bulk form is investigated on two freshwater algae. For this purpose, the effect on the physiological index, cellular morphology, and biochemistry profiles are examined. In Chlorella vulgaris, nano form of boron nitride is found to reduce the growth more (40%) than its bulk form (with ~ 25% growth reduction) at 50 mgl−1 treatment level. While in case of Coelastrella terrestris, 40% reduction under nano form and 33.33% reduction under bulk form is observed at 100 mgl−1 of boron nitride. Chlorophyll and carotenoid levels were also reduced under nanoparticles compared to the bulk. Proline, lactate dehydrogenase, and malondialdehyde assay were found significantly high under nanoparticle exposure. Additionally, increased catalase and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity under nanoparticle exposure revealed that the antioxidant system was activated in both the algae to eliminate the adverse influence of reactive oxygen species. The shading effect and aggregation of nanoparticles over the surface of algal cells are also important factors in attributing toxicity which are confirmed through the compound, TEM, and SEM micrographs. The study suggests that the nano form is more toxic than the bulk form and toxicity is concentration-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) is a rare disease entity characterized by acute, non-ischemic, reversible myocardial dysfunction that mimics acute myocardial infarction. Activation and excessive outflow of sympathetic nervous system are believed to be central to the figure in the disease pathogenesis. Adrenocortical hormones potentiate the systemic actions of sympathetic nervous system and accordingly are essential for regulation of myocardial function. We present an unusual case of a middle-aged woman with primary adrenal insufficiency who presented paradoxically with TCM. Case presentation: A 50-year-old woman with past history of hypothyroidism presented to emergency department with history of acute chest pain and syncope. There was no significant drug history or history of an emotional or physical stimulus prior to admission. Prominent pigmentation over the tongue and skin creases of hands were noted. On presentation, she was in shock and had ventricular tachycardia which required electrical cardioversion. The subsequent electrocardiogram demonstrated diffuse T-wave inversions with prolonged QTC. There was apical hypokinesia on echocardiogram, and cardiac biomarkers were elevated. There was persistent inotropic requirement. She had marked postural symptoms, and a postural blood pressure drop of 50 mm Hg was present. Initial laboratory parameters were significant for hyperkalemia (7.8 mEq/L) and hyponatremia (128 mEq/L). These findings prompted evaluation for adrenal insufficiency which was confirmed with appropriate tests. Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome II was thus diagnosed based on the above findings. Coronary angiography revealed normal coronaries. The diagnoses of TCM was established in accordance with the International Takotsubo Diagnostic Criteria. She was started on stress dose steroid replacement therapy and improved dramatically. At one month of follow-up, the patient is asymptomatic, and there was normalization of her left ventricular function. Conclusions: Intricate relationship and interplay exist between the steroid hormones and catecholamines in the pathogenesis of TCM. Steroid hormones not only potentiate the actions of catecholamines, but they also regulate and channelize catecholaminergic actions preventing their deleterious effects on the cardiac tissue. Hence, both steroid deficiency and exogenous steroid replacement may precipitate TCM. Evidence from more such cases and larger perspective studies in future will further improve our understanding of this complex disease process and its myriad associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to aggregate and summarize the complication rates among various modified techniques of pectoralis major myocutaneous flap harvesting. Various databases were searched from its inception to September 2020. Studies describing surgical management of head and neck oncologic reconstruction using pectoralis major myocutaneous flap and its surgical modifications were included in study. All included studies: (1) described a pectoralis major flap harvesting technique categorized by author as conventional technique, bipaddle or bilobed flap, segmental flap, flap transfer using subclavicular route, skin paddle over Pectoralis Major, Flap with Multiple vascular supply, U shaped skin paddle, modified short incision technique; and (2) reported the number of postoperative complications in participants. Meta-analysis was performed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A total 183 studies were included. Segmental flap (0.20%), flap with multiple vascular supply (5.18%) and parasternal skin flap (6.38%) had the highest rates of total complications and were the only techniques to show a statistically significant increase in odds ratio compared with conventional technique (odds ratio 1.89, 9.05 and 7.26, respectively, P < 0.05). Bipaddle flap (57.48%) and u shaped skin flap (78.05%) show statistically significant decrease in odds ratio as compared to conventional technique. Among all the modifications in surgical technique of pectoralis major myocutaneous flap harvesting bipaddle flap and u shaped skin flap show least total complication rates. But on the contrary rates of partial flap necrosis and fistula are significantly higher in bipaddle flap as compared to conventional technique. As such, the choice of surgical technique should primarily be made based on the defect size, patient selection and surgeons' discretion rather than the presumed complication rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern healthcare system, the function of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the data mining methods with cloud computing plays an essential role in controlling a large number of big data for predicting and diagnosing various categories of diseases. However, when the patients suffer from more than one disease, the physician may not identify it properly. Therefore, in this research, the predictive method using the cloud with IoT-based database is proposed for forecasting the diseases that utilized the biosensors to estimate the constraints of patients. In addition, a novel Generalized Fuzzy Intelligence-based Ant Lion Optimization (GFIbALO) classifier along with a regression rule is proposed for predicting the diseases accurately. Initially, the dataset is filtered and feature extracted using the regression rule that data is processed on the proposed GFIbALO approach for classifying diseases. Moreover, suppose the patient has been affected by any diseases, in that case, the warning signal will be alerted to the patients via text or any other way, and the patients can get advice from doctors or any other medical support. The implementation of the proposed GFIbALO classifier is done with the use of the MATLAB tool. Subsequently, the results from the presented model are compared with state of the art techniques, and it shows that the presented method is more beneficial in diagnosis and disease forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the tin coating layer is utilized as a solid lubricant for the cold steel tube drawing process. The effect of different thicknesses of tin coatings as a tribo-layer has been investigated. The electroplating process has been used for depositing a tin coating layer by deploying an environmentally benign citric acid–based electrolyte bath and the layer thickness is controlled by varying the time of the electroplating process. Characterization of the coating layer is carried out using SEM, EDS, and 3D digital microscopy techniques. Experimental trials of the tube drawing process have been conducted for tin-coated tubes and the effects on drawing force and surface roughness have been analyzed. The draw force gradually decreases and reaches a minimum value as the tin layer thickness increases from 4.5 to 16.5 μm, while for further increase in layer thickness, the draw force increases again, yielding an optimal tin layer thickness of around 16.5 μm. The drawn tube samples are found to have a superior surface finish with roughness (Ra) as low as 0.165 μm even for the smallest tin coating thickness of around 5 μm while it improves marginally up to 0.134 μm when the tin layer thickness is increased gradually to around 25.7 μm. A sizeable thickness of tin coating is retained on the drawn tube, which enhances the surface appearance as well as corrosion resistance. The tape adhesion test was carried out as per the ASTM D3359 standard and it confirmed the adequacy of adhesion of the coating on the drawn tubes. Also, comparison of draw force variation with the well-known Stribeck curve and the insights into the working mechanism of soft metal as a lubricant are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the optimum process parameters for the fabrication of B4C-reinforced Al-Zn-Cu-Mg matrix composite by powder metallurgy route. Since casting could lead to problems in dispersion, pressure-assisted sintering was adopted for the fabrication of composites. The influence of various process parameters on the hardness and compressive strength were analyzed by using analysis of variance. Artificial neural network (ANN) and regression analysis were used to predict the hardness and compressive strength. ANN predicted better values than the regression analysis with mean squared error values of 0.27 and 4.72% for the hardness and compressive strength, respectively. Three cross-fold validation was used to check the accuracy of the model. Further, genetic algorithm was used to determine the optimum conditions for attaining maximum hardness and compression strength. The optimum conditions were a compaction pressure of 428 MPa, sintering temperature of 475 °C, sintering time of 75 min, and weight fraction of B4C 45%, giving compressive strength 552.06 MPa and hardness 186.12 HV. The validation experiments conducted on the optimal parameter setting, and the validation results were in good accord with the predicted results. Among all the samples, the 45% weight fraction of the B4C-reinforced sample was fractured during compression testing. Fractographic studies were performed using scanning electron microscopy, and cracking in B4C particles along with debonding in B4C-Al alloy interface was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing firms generate a massive amount of data points because of higher than ever connected devices and sensor technology adoption. These data points could be from varied sources, ranging from flow time and cycle time through different machines in an assembly line to shop floor data collected from sensors viz. temperature, stress capability, pressure, etc. Analysis of this data can help manufacturers in many ways, viz. predict breakdown—reduction in downtime and waste, optimal inventory level—resource optimization, etc. The data may be highly voluminous, highly unstructured, coming from varied sources at a higher speed. Thus, big data analytics has become more critical than ever for the manufacturing industry to have the capability of effectively deriving business value from the vast amount of generated data. Manufacturing firms face hindrances and failures in the implementation of big data analytics. It is, therefore, necessary for the companies in the Indian manufacturing sector to identify and examine the reason and nature of barriers resisting the implementation of Big Data Analytics (BDA) to their organization. This paper explores the existing literature available to identify the barriers, categorized based on different functions of an organization. A total of 16 barriers are determined from the rigorous review of existing research. A survey is conducted on the industry experts from automobile, steel, automotive parts manufacturer, and electrical equipment industries to obtain a contextual relationship between the barriers. Interpretive Structural Modeling and MICMAC (Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) are the analytical techniques used in this research to classify the barriers into different impact levels and importance. Independent factors (barriers) have high driving power and are the key factors that were further analyzed using Fuzzy AHP to determine their comparative priority/importance. The result of this research shows that barriers related to Management and Infrastructure & Technology are the main hurdles in the implementation of big data analytics in the manufacturing industry. Six critical barriers (based on high driving power) are; lack of long-term vision, lack of commitment from top management, lack of infrastructure facility, lack of funding, lack of availability of specific data tools, and lack of training facility. Lack of commitment from top management is the most critical barrier. Research focuses on a comprehensive analysis of the barriers in implementing big data analytics (BDA) in manufacturing firms. The novelty lies in (a) finding an extensive list of barriers, (b) application domain and geography, and (c) the multi-criteria decision making technique used for finding the critical barriers to the implementation of big data analytics. The findings of this research will help industry leaders to formulate a better plan before the application of BDA in their organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coercive pressure has forced firms to take up environmental measures in the last two decades in emerging economies. Under normative pressure, large firms with farsightedness take up the environmental practices as industry leaders. In a little mature emerging economy, such as India, where triple bottom line awareness is growing, the government facilitates the firms to operate in an environment-friendly ecosystem. We investigate how do environmental compliance and environmental practices influence the overall firm performance? The performance was measured in terms of financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth performance. A survey instrument was designed using well-established scales and administered to the middle to top-level corporate management executives to gather 240 data from the Indian firms. A rigorous statistical validity, diagnostics, and SEM were used to test the hypotheses. The environmental practices showed a full mediation effect on the effect of environmental compliance on performance. The examination of mediation relationships in an environmental context is limited in the reported literature. This paper is among the initial works that deal with complicated mediation relationships drawn from institutional theory propositions. The study established and argued that environmental practices' ecosystem would turn firms towards voluntary environmental compliance and eventually enjoy the long-term performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is vital to envisage accurately the fracture limits of high strength superalloys when noticeable localized necking or thinning tendency is not observed during sheet-metal stretch forming process. The present study mainly focuses on fracture limits evaluation of Inconel 718 alloy (IN718) in the effective plastic strain (EPS) vs. average triaxiality space. First, uniaxial tensile test, to analyze the material properties, were instigated at different test temperatures (RT-700 °C). Subsequently, stretch forming is performed to evaluate forming and fracture forming limit diagrams (FLD and FFLD) of IN718 using Nakazima test. It is observed that forming and fractured limits of IN718 are significantly influenced by variation of processing temperatures (with approximately 65–70% improvement in major safe and fracture strains) in all deformation regions (with respect to RT). In average triaxiality (η) vs effective plastic strain (EPS) space, higher fracture limits of IN718 are noticed in the entire triaxiality path of deformation region. Seven different ductile fracture models, namely McClintock (M-Mc), Brozzo, Rice-Tracey (R-T), Ko, Oh, Cockcroft and Latham (C-L), and Clift, are formulated so as to foresee the fracture loci of IN718 in EPS vs. triaxiality space. Overall, Oh model, showed best predictability at all temperatures with least Average absolute error (AAE < 13.5%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aimed to assess the influence of multiple dimensions of innovation on performance. The research is motivated from the possible impact of the internal organizational factors on the firm performance. We investigate the effect of dynamic capabilities such as product innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture on the firm performance. We collect a sample of 115 respondents and unique primary data from the executives of Indian firms. Established scales were used to design the survey instrument. A measurement model was developed in AMOS to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis and validate the scale again. A path model was developed to test the hypotheses. We find support for process innovation but not for product innovation and innovation culture. We extend the analysis further to understand whether the size of the firms has differences in the results. We find further support for innovation culture in large-size firms. We discuss the results in the Indian context to substantiate our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate constitutive model is essential for analyzing deformation behavior of material and reliable numerical simulations in metal forming processes. In this study, hot tensile tests of Inconel 718 alloy have been conducted over a wide range of temperatures (300-973 K at an interval of 100 K), strains (0.01-0.3 at an interval of 0.01) and quasi-static strain rates (0.0001, 0.001, 0.01 s−1). Flow stress behavior is significantly affected by test temperatures and strain rates. Microstructure characteristics of deformed test specimens have been examined using scanning electron microscope and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The fractography study revealed that fracture is mix-mode type, i.e., ductile and brittle. Subsequently, EBSD analysis shown that dynamic recrystallization mechanism is more pronounced at a higher temperature. Furthermore, four constitutive models, namely modified Cowper–Symonds, modified Johnson Cook, modified Zerillie-Armstrong and integrated Johnson Cook–Zerillie-Armstrong (JC-ZA) models have been investigated for flow stress prediction. Capability of models has been evaluated based on the correlation coefficient (R), average absolute error (Δ) and its standard deviation (δ). Accurate prediction of flow stress behavior is found by integrated JC-ZA model with R = 0.9873, Δ = 2.44 and δ = 4.08%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to high chances of loss in connectivity, a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) can be used to communicate between nodes without having any fixed connection between the source and destination. A Post Disaster Scenario presents a very challenging environment to communicate in and to analyze those situations is even a harder task to accomplish. It necessitates very efficient co-ordination to successfully accomplish situation analysis and resource management. Efficient co-ordination between relief and rescue teams in such situations can be achieved through multicasting, since it allows sending single packet to multiple destinations. Though multicasting in MANET has been studied extensively, but the implementation of efficient multicasting in DTN is a very challenging task due to its frequent partitioning characteristic. In this work a Collaborative Time-Stamp based Multicast Routing (CTMR) Protocol has been proposed. The messages have been implemented using customized bundles, where the destination of a multicast bundle consists of a group of nodes. Node grouping mechanism has been adopted to suit a post disaster condition. Collaborative bundle creation and selection mechanism has been utilized so that localized redundant information flow is minimized. Suitable time and space limits have been selected to further reduce redundancy. The group forwarding strategy is based on probabilistic measures calculated using historical encounter records, and on a multiple parameter priority queue. This protocol has been implemented in the ONE simulator and is compared with other existing unicast and multicast routing protocols on important routing parameters like delivery ratio and delivery delay. Comparison results show that CTMR can be a novel efficient solution to multicasting in a DTN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a brief review on job shop scheduling techniques in semiconductor manufacturing. The manufacturing environment in a semiconductor industry is considered a highly complex job shop, involving multiple types of work centers, large and changing varieties of products, sequence-dependent setup times, reentrant process flow, etc., in a dynamic scheduling environment. Due to the stubborn nature of the deterministic job shop scheduling problem itself, many of the solutions proposed are of hybrid construction cutting across the traditional disciplines. The problem has been investigated from a variety of perspectives resulting in several analytical techniques combining generic as well as problem-specific strategies. In this paper, we seek to provide a brief overview of the problem, the techniques used and the researchers involved in solving this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scheduling of highly complex job shops, such as those found in semiconductor manufacturing, involves multiple types of work centers, large and changing varieties of the products, sequence dependent set up times, reentrant process flow, dynamically changing environment, etc. These complexities make the job shop scheduling problem very strongly nondeterministic polynominally (NP)-hard and intractable to solve by the traditional scheduling approaches. This paper presents the concept and applications of the conjunctive simulated scheduling (CSS) approach, which incorporates the benefits of discrete event simulation in scheduling the shop and avoids the NP-hard formulation of these complex scheduling problems. The differences between CSS and typical simulation studies and its application to online simulation are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deal with today’s stiff competition in the logistics of semiconductor manufacturing, the development of an efficient scheduling approach for the complex semiconductor back-end testing operations is very essential, where more than one objective, such as cycle time, machine utilization and due date accuracy are kept in the focus to various degrees simultaneously. In this paper, the problem of scheduling N independent jobs on a single testing machine with due dates and sequence-dependent setup times is addressed, where the multiple objectives are to minimize average cycle time and average tardiness and to maximize machine utilization. A near optimal solution, which is not inferior to any other feasible solution in terms of all objectives, is generated combining the analytically optimal and conjunctive simulated scheduling approach. First, the machine-scheduling problem is modeled using the discrete event simulation approach and the problem is divided into simulation clock-based lot selection sub-problems. Then, at each decision instance in simulated time, a Pareto optimal lot is selected using the compromise programming technique for multi-objective optimization. With the help of a broad experimental design, this developed solution is then compared with common heuristic-dispatching rules used in industry such as the shortest processing time (SPT) and earliest due date (EDD). The developed scheduling method shows better results for all the objectives over a wide range of problems. It shows approximately 16.7% reduction in average cycle time, 25.6% reduction in average tardiness, and 21.6% improvement in machine utilization over the common dispatching rules, SPT and EDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospital facilities were limited in rural areas and there is no awareness about disease infection and so on. Hence, the Internet of Things (IoT) technology was designed in the health care industry to treat and save illiterate people from the harmful diseases. Recently, the health care system based on IoT technology became a huge demand in the online and medical industry. However, offering the protection frame for gathered data in cloud becomes a challenging task, because the cloud contains a lot of different patient data. To overcome this issue, the current research has designed a novel Elapid Encryption in cloud frame to secure the gathered data. Moreover, the security function is executed by encrypting the collected information in the cloud storage. Also, a novel generalized fuzzy intelligence and ant lion optimization model was developed for disease prediction and severity calculation. Hence, the developed design is implemented using MATLAB and its efficiency is compared with the existing approaches such as H-DT, DNN, and DTNNN. From the comparison, proposed model has finest and highest performance like high accuracy, precision, recall and confidential rate then lower error rate and processing time. Consequently, AUC value by the developed model is 89.8%, sensitivity rate as 99% and specificity rate as 97.8%, less error rate as 0.08, accuracy rate as 99.92% and 99.9% of precision, high recall measure as 99.92%, time consumption of the proposed model is 10 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate the role of molecular switching of TrkA/p75NTR signaling cascade in organophosphate pesticide-Monocrotophos (MCP) induced neurotoxicity in stem cell derived cholinergic neurons and in rat brain. Our in-silico studies reveal that MCP followed the similar pattern of binding as staurosporine and AG-879 (known inhibitors of TrkA) with TrkA protein (PDB ID: 4AOJ) at the ATP binding sites. This binding of MCP to TrkA led to the conformational change in this protein and triggers the cell death cascades. The in-silico findings are validated by observing the down regulated levels of phosphorylated TrkA and its downstream molecules viz., pERK1/2, pAkt and pCREB in MCP-exposed cells. We observe that these MCP induced alterations in pTrkA and downstream signaling molecules are found to be associated with apoptosis and injury to neurons. The down-regulation of TrkA could be linked to increased p75NTR. The in-vitro studies could be correlated in the rat model. The switching of TrkA/p75NTR signaling plays a central role in MCP-induced neural injury in rBNSCs and behavioral changes in exposed rats. Our studies significantly advance the understanding of the switching of TrkA/p75NTR that may pave the way for the application of TrkA inducer/p75NTR inhibitor for potential therapeutic intervention in various neurodegenerative disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]