Development,validation,and transportability of several machine-learned,non-exercise-based VO_(2max)prediction models for older adults

Background:There exist few maximal oxygen uptake(VO_(2max))non-exercise-based prediction equations,fewer using machine learning(ML),and none specifically for older adults.Since direct measurement of VO_(2max)is infeasible in large epidemiologic cohort studies,we sought to develop,validate,compare,and assess the transportability of several ML VO_(2max)prediction algorithms.Methods:The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging(BLSA)participants with valid VO2_(max)tests were included(n=1080).Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator,linear-and tree-boosted extreme gradient boosting,random forest,and support vector machine(SVM)algorithms were trained to predict VO_(2max)values.We developed these algorithms for:(a)the overall BLSA,(b)by sex,(c)using all BLSA variables,and(d)variables common in aging cohorts.Finally,we quantified the associations between measured and predicted VO_(2max)and mortality.Results:The age was 69.0±10.4 years(mean±SD)and the measured VO_(2max)was 21.6±5.9 mL/kg/min.Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator,linear-and tree-boosted extreme gradient boosting,random forest,and support vector machine yielded root mean squared errors of 3.4 mL/kg/min,3.6 mL/kg/min,3.4 mL/kg/min,3.6 mL/kg/min,and 3.5 mL/kg/min,respectively.Incremental quartiles of measured VO_(2max)showed an inverse gradient in mortality risk.Predicted VO_(2max)variables yielded similar effect estimates but were not robust to adjustment.Conclusion:Measured VO_(2max)is a strong predictor of mortality.Using ML can improve the accuracy of prediction as compared to simpler approaches but estimates of association with mortality remain sensitive to adjustment.Future studies should seek to reproduce these results so that VO_(2max),an important vital sign,can be more broadly studied as a modifiable target for promoting functional resiliency and healthy aging.

A Novel Approximate Message Passing Detection for Massive MIMO 5G System

Massive-Multiple Inputs and Multiple Outputs(M-MIMO)is considered as one of the standard techniques in improving the performance of Fifth Generation(5G)radio.5G signal detection with low propagation delay and high throughput with minimum computational intricacy are some of the serious concerns in the deployment of 5G.The evaluation of 5G promises a high quality of service(QoS),a high data rate,low latency,and spectral efficiency,ensuring several applications that will improve the services in every sector.The existing detection techniques cannot be utilised in 5G and beyond 5G due to the high complexity issues in their implementation.In the proposed article,the Approximation Message Passing(AMP)is implemented and compared with the existing Minimum Mean Square Error(MMSE)and Message Passing Detector(MPD)algorithms.The outcomes of the work show that the performance of Bit Error Rate(BER)is improved with minimal complexity.

Peak-Average-Power Ratio Techniques for 5G Waveforms Using D-SLM and D-PTS

Multicarrier Waveform(MCW)has several advantages and plays a very important role in cellular systems.Fifth generation(5G)MCW such as Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access(NOMA)and Filter Bank Multicarrier(FBMC)are thought to be important in 5G implementation.High Peak to Average Power Ratio(PAPR)is seen as a serious concern in MCW since it reduces the efficiency of amplifier use in the user devices.The paper presents a novel Divergence Selective Mapping(DSLM)and Divergence Partial Transmission Sequence(D-PTS)for 5G waveforms.It is seen that the proposed D-SLM and PTS lower PAPR with low computational complexity.The work highlighted a combination of multi-data block partial transmit schemes along with tone reservation.In this,an overlapping factor is used to determine the number of data blocks for every group.Here,considering only those data blocks that have minimum signal power,the use of DSLM and DPTS are required to eliminate the segment’s peaks.Simulation results reveal that the suggested hybrid technique proves to be better than the conventional PTS scheme.Furthermore,the power saving performance of FBMC and NOMA is compared with the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM)waveform.

Protection Strategies against Cascading Failure for Power Systems of Ring Network

Power grid vulnerability is a key issue with large blackouts, causing power disruption for millions of people. The complexity of power grid, together with excessive number of components, makes it difficult to be modeled. Currently, researchers use complex networks to model and study the performance of power grids. In fact, power grids can be modeled into a complex network by making use of ring network topology, with substations and transmission lines denoted as nodes and edges, respectively. In this paper, three protection schemes are proposed and their effectiveness in protecting the power network under high and low-load attacks is studied. The proposed schemes, namely, Cascaded Load Cut-off (CLC), Cascaded Load Overflow (CLO) and Adaptive-Cascaded Load Overflow (A-CLO), improve the robustness of the power grids, i.e., decrease the value of critical tolerance. Simulation results show that CLC and CLO protection schemes are more effective in improving the robustness of networks than the A-CLO protection scheme. However, the CLC protection scheme is effective only at the expense that certain percentage of the network will have no power supply. Thus, results show that the CLO protection scheme dominates the other protection schemes, CLC and A-CLO, in terms of the robustness of the network, improved with the precise amount of load cut-off determined.

Serum uric acid level in newly diagnosed essential hypertension in a Nepalese population:A hospital based cross sectional study

Objective:To develop the missing link between hyperuricemia and hypertension.Methods:The study was conducted in Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with Nephrology Unit of Internal Medicine Department.Hypertension was defined according to blood pressure readings by definitions of the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee.Totally 205newly diagnosed and untreated essential hypertensive cases and age-sex matched nonnotensive controls were enrolled in the study.The potential confounding factors of hyperuricemia and hypertension in both cases and controls were controlled.Uric acid levels in all participants were analyzed.Results:Renal function between newly diagnosed hypertensive cases and nonnotensive healthy controls were adjusted.The mean serum uric acid observed in newly diagnosed hypertensive cases and in nonnotensive healthy controls were(290.05±87.03)μmol/L and(245.24±09.38)μmol/L respectively.A total of 59(28.8%)participants of cases and 28(13.7%)participants of controls had hyperuricemia(odds ratio 2.555(95%CI:1.549-4.213),P<0.00l).Conclusions:The mean serum uric acid leveb and number of hyperuricemic subjects were found to be significantly higher in cases when compared to controls.

Location-Based Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Recently, location-based routings in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are attracting a lot of interest in the research community, especially because of its scalability. In location-based routing, the network size is scalable without increasing the signalling overhead as routing decisions are inherently localized. Here, each node is aware of its position in the network through some positioning device like GPS and uses this information in the routing mechanism. In this paper, we first discuss the basics of WSNs including the architecture of the network, energy consumption for the components of a typical sensor node, and draw a detailed picture of classification of location-based routing protocols. Then, we present a systematic and comprehensive taxonomy of location-based routing protocols, mostly for sensor networks. All the schemes are subsequently discussed in depth. Finally, we conclude the paper with some insights on potential research directions for location-based routing in WSNs.

Effect of simvastatin on paraoxonase 1(PON1) activity and oxidative stress

Objective:To investigate the effect of simvastatin treatment on lipid pr of ile and oxidative stress in hypercholesterolaemic Indian population and determine the effect of simvastatin treatment on the activity of paraoxonase（PON）.Methods:Analyzed initially before medication administration and four months later after medication.Lipid and lipoprotein measurement were done by enzymatic kits,high density lipoprotein（HDL） was determined by phosphotungstic acid precipitation method and low density lipoprotein（LDL） was calculated by Friedewald’s formula.Lipid peroxidation was measured by three markers namely,conjugated diene,total peroxide,and malondialdehyde.Conjugated diene was assayed by Buege and Aust method.Total peroxide was determined by FOX2 method.Malondialdehyde determination was carried out by Flemming method and total antioxidant status was determined by Ozacan.Paraoxonase activity was determined by measuring the absorbance inrease of p-nitrophenol at 405 nm.Arylesterase activity was calculated from the molar coefficient of 1 310 M-1 cm-1.Results:Simvastatin significantly reduced total cholesterol,triglycerides,LDL,conjugated diene,total peroxide and MDA levels,where as antioxidant status was significantly increased.Besides,simvastatin significantly increased PON1 activity towards paraoxon.Conclusions:The results from the current study indicate simvastatin may have important antioxidant properties via increasing PON activity.

Simulations of Eurasian Winter Temperature Trends in Coupled and Uncoupled CFSv2

Conflicting results have been presented regarding the link between Arctic sea-ice loss and midlatitude cooling, particularly over Eurasia. This study analyzes uncoupled(atmosphere-only) and coupled(ocean–atmosphere) simulations by the Climate Forecast System, version 2(CFSv2), to examine this linkage during the Northern Hemisphere winter, focusing on the simulation of the observed surface cooling trend over Eurasia during the last three decades. The uncoupled simulations are Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project(AMIP) runs forced with mean seasonal cycles of sea surface temperature(SST)and sea ice, using combinations of SST and sea ice from different time periods to assess the role that each plays individually,and to assess the role of atmospheric internal variability. Coupled runs are used to further investigate the role of internal variability via the analysis of initialized predictions and the evolution of the forecast with lead time.The AMIP simulations show a mean warming response over Eurasia due to SST changes, but little response to changes in sea ice. Individual runs simulate cooler periods over Eurasia, and this is shown to be concurrent with a stronger Siberian high and warming over Greenland. No substantial differences in the variability of Eurasian surface temperatures are found between the different model configurations. In the coupled runs, the region of significant warming over Eurasia is small at short leads, but increases at longer leads. It is concluded that, although the models have some capability in highlighting the temperature variability over Eurasia, the observed cooling may still be a consequence of internal variability.

Landslide Hazard Zonation in NH-1A in Kashmir Himalaya, India

The paper presents a methodology for landslide hazard zonation mapping using GIS and remote sensing data. The study has been carried out along NH-1A-Udhampur to Banihal in Kashmir Himalaya as this terrain is prone to the landslide hazards. The present study has been made to derive and identify the important terrain factors contributing to landslide occurrences in the region and corresponding thematic data layers are generated in GIS domain. These terrain data are collected from the topographic maps, satellite imageries, field visits and available published maps. A GIS database is prepared by digitizing these maps along with tabular data and their corresponding weightage is assigned using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based criteria ranking method for determining the standardized scores of criteria expressing their factor of importance for a given decision problem in terms of thematic parameters, categories and their normalized weights. Statistically integrating weightages from these thematic maps, a specific landslide hazard map was developed on a GIS platform. The resulting landslide hazard zonation map delineates the area into different zones of six classes of landslide hazard zones i.e., severe, very high, high, moderate, low and very low.

Do parental coronary heart disease risk factors(non-modifiable) effect their young ones?

Objective:To study the differences between the lipid profiles of the subjects whose parents are having known non-modifiable risk factors such as obesity,hypertension(HTN),myocardial infarction and diabetes,and compare them with the lipid profiles of the subjects whose parents are not having those risk factors.Methods:A total of 402 subjects were recruited to this study.A detailed questionnaire which included information on the past medical history,height,weight,blood pressure,physical activity,smoke,alcohol,family history of coronary heart disease,HTN.diabetics and obesity.Basic demographic data and dietary habits were completed by all participants.Blood samples were obtained from all subjects after 14 h.Lipid profiles were analyzed using automated analyzer.The results were analyzed using SPSS software packages.Results:The mean body mass index of the population was well below the cut-off value of obesity(>24.5 kg/m") and high risk of future cardiovascular disorder(CVD) events in this age group.The mean levels of total cholesterol(TC),triglycerides(TG) and TC/high density lipoprotein(HDL) were less than the risk levels indicative of future CVD events according to the ATP Ⅲ cut-off values.However the mean HDL level in our population was slightly greater than the cut-off value while the mean low density lipoprotein level was almost similar to the risk level.Differences were observed when the subjects without history of maternal obesity were compared with subjects with history of maternal obesity.The greater percentage of subjects who are having risk levels of body mass index.TC.low density lipoprotein.TG.and TC/HDI.indicated that maternal obesity contributed to the greater susceptibility of developing CVD risk in their offspring.Conclusions:Advancing age may result in changes that could be atherogenic in the future.Such atherogenic changes have already initialed when the subjects are about 21 years old.The incidence of atherogenic changes is far greater when mothers who are having any of the risk factors such as obesity,diabetes,HTN and myocardial infarction than that fathers who are havine similar risk factors.

Serum TC/HDL-C,TG/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C in predicting the risk of myocardial infarction in normolipidaemic patients in South Asia:A case-control study

Dyslipidemia the major cause of atherosclerosis are suggested to act synergistically with non-lipid risk factors to increase atherogenesis.Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C) is the main therapeutic target in the prevention of CVD.Increased triglycerides(TG) and decreased high-density lipoprotein(LDL-C) are considered to be a major risk factor for the development of insulin resistant and metabolic syndrome.Although the TG/ HDL-C ratio has been used in recent studies as a clinical indicator for insulin resistance,results were inconsistent. The TG/HDL-C ratio is also widely used to assess the lipid atherogenesis.How ever the utility of this rate for predicting coronary heart disease(CHD) risk is not clear.We encountered myocardial infarct patients with normal serum lipid concentration so this study was undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of these lipid ratios in predicting CHD risk in normolipidemic AMI patients and to compare the results with healthy subjects.The aim of the present study was to evaluate serum TC/HDL-C,TG/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C in myocardial infarct subjects with normal lipid profile.To study this,lipid profile was determined in 165 normolipidemic acute myocardial infarction patients and 165 age/sex-matched controls.Total cholesterol,triglycerides,and HDL-cholesterol were analyzed enzymatically using kits obtained from Randox Laboratories Limited,Crumlin,UK. Plasma LDL-cholesterol was determined from the values of total cholesterol and HDL- cholesterol using the friedwalds formula.The values were expressed as means±standard deviation(SD) and data from patients and controls was compared using students t-test.The results and conclusion of the study were:Total cholesterol, TC:HDL-C ratio,triglycerides,LDL-cholesterol,LDL:HDL-C ratio were higher in MI patients(p【0. 001).HDL-C concentration was significantly lower in MI patients than controls(p【0.001).Higher ratio of TC/HDL-C,TG/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C was observed in AMI patients compared to controls.

Biomedical studies on lipid peroxidation and erythrocyte fragility during the process of aging

Objective:To investigate oxidative stress,hemoglobin percentage and erythrocyte osmotic fragility in various aging groups.Methods:A total of 200 healthy volunteers of hoth genders between age group 20-65 years were selected by random method.Determination of hemoglobin percentage was done employing modified cyanide method of Dacie and Lewis.The erythrocyte lysis was observed in hypotonic solution of buffered saline at varying concentrations and optical density was measured at 540 nm.The extent of lipid peroxidation in form of malondialdehyde was measured by thiobarbituric acid method.Results:The study found a significant decrease in hemoglobin percentage,increase in erythrocyte osmotic fragility and increased lipid peroxidation in form of malondialdehyde with increasing age.Conclusions:Supplementation of antioxidants may prevent the oxidative injury in elderly group of subjects.

An Efcient Genetic Hybrid PAPR Technique for 5G Waveforms

Non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA)is a strong contender multicarrier waveform technique for the fth generation(5G)communication system.The high peak-to-average power ratio(PAPR)is a serious concern in designing the NOMA waveform.However,the arrangement of NOMA is different from the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.Thus,traditional reduction methods cannot be applied to NOMA.A partial transmission sequence(PTS)is commonly utilized to minimize the PAPR of the transmitting NOMA symbol.The choice phase aspect in the PTS is the only non-linear optimization obstacle that creates a huge computational complication due to the respective non-carrying sub-blocks in the unitary NOMA symbol.In this study,an efcient phase factor is proposed by presenting a novel bacterial foraging optimization algorithm(BFOA)for PTS(BFOA-PTS).The PAPR minimization is accomplished in a two-stage process.In the initial stage,PTS is applied to the NOMA signal,resulting in the partition of the NOMA signal into an act of sub-blocks.In the second stage,the best phase factor is generated using BFOA.The performance of the proposed BFOA-PTS is thoroughly investigated and compared to the traditional PTS.The simulation outcomes reveal that the BFOA-PTS efciently optimizes the PAPR performance with inconsequential complexity.The proposed method can signicantly offer a gain of 4.1 dB and low complexity compared with the traditional OFDM.

Role of Feature Selection on Leaf Image Classification

The digital images have been studied for image classification, enhancement, image compression and image segmentation purposes. In the present work, it is proposed to study the effects of feature selection algorithm on the predictive classification accuracy of algorithms used for discriminating the different plant leaf images. The process involves extracting the important texture features from the digital images and then subjecting them to feature selection and further classification process. The leaf image features have been extracted by using Gabor texture features and these Gabor features are subjected to Random Forest feature selection algorithm for extracting important texture features. The four classification algorithms like K-Nearest Neighbour, J48, Classification and Regression Trees and Random Forest have been used for classification purpose. This study shows that there is a net improvement in the predictive classification accuracy values, when classification algorithms have been applied on selected features over the complete set of features.

Drinking pattern and its relation to hemoglobin concentration in local brew consumers from the Kathmandu Region

The study was conducted to determine the hemoglobin concentration in alcohol consumers(home made brew-Chang) and compare it with non-alcoholics healthy subjects.Hemoglobin(Hb) concentration was determined in 2053 alcoholic consumers(males: 1056;females: 997) and was compared with 1 027(males: 623;females: 404) healthy non-alcoholic control subjects.The Hb concentration in alcoholic male and female were 13.42 ± 2.14 g/dL and 12.19 ± 1.55 g/dL compared with control showing 14.43 ± 1.07 g/dL and 12.73 ± 1.41 g/dL in males and females respectively.The differences in Hb concentration between alcoholic and non-alcoholic consumers were highly significant in both genders with a P value of 0.000 674 in males and 0.004 732 in females.Alcohol Use Disorders Identification test(AUDIT) scores was advocated to alcoholic consumers to test the severity of drunkenness and disorders related to it.A total of 887 males and 663 females crossed the cut-off limits of ≥8 AUDIT scores showing the addiction towards drinking habits of local brew.

PAPR Reduction of NOMA Using Vandermonde Matrix-Particle Transmission Sequence

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access(NOMA)is an ideal choice for 5G waveforms due to their characteristics such as high data rate,massive device connectivity,high spectral access,and effective frequency selective fading.Thus,it permits gigantic connectivity.The spectrum overlaps with NOMA,which consents several operators to segment the spectrum at the same frequency.These features make NOMA more suitable for use beyond 5G.Peak to Average Power(PAPR)is a major problem in Multi-Carrier Techniques(MCT)like NOMA and it also degrades the performance of the amplifier.The Partial Transmission Sequence(PTS)is a superior algorithm for moderating the PAPR.However,it also increases the complexity of the structure.The PAPR is reduced in NOMA by multiplying the NOMA signal with optimised phase vectors(P).The phase vectors are generated by using the Vandermonde Matrix(VM).In this work,we proposed a VM-PTS algorithm for the NOMA system,and the number of computations to search the optimal phase vectors for NOMA high PAPR signal is less as compared with existing PTS.The outcomes demonstrate that the performance of the recommended PTS in terms of PAPR,Bit Error Rate(BER),and complexity is better than the conventional PTS(C-PTS).

Monthly Forecast of Indian Southwest Monsoon Rainfall Based on NCEP’s Coupled Forecast System

The monthly forecast of Indian monsoon rainfall during June to September is investigated by using the hindcast data sets of the National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)’s operational coupled model (known as the Climate Forecast System) for 25 years from 1981 to 2005 with 15 ensemble members each. The ensemble mean monthly rainfall over land region of India from CFS with one month lead forecast is underestimated during June to September. With respect to the inter-annual variability of monthly rainfall it is seen that the only significant correlation coefficients (CCs) are found to be for June forecast with May initial condition and September rainfall with August initial conditions. The CFS has got lowest skill for the month of August followed by that of July. Considering the lower skill of monthly forecast based on the ensemble mean, all 15 ensemble members are used separately for the preparation of probability forecast and different probability scores like Brier Score (BS), Brier Skill Score (BSS), Accuracy, Probability of Detection (POD), False Alarm Ratio (FAR), Threat Score (TS) and Heidke Skill Score (HSS) for all the three categories of forecasts (above normal, below normal and normal) have been calculated. In terms of the BS and BSS the skill of the monthly probability forecast in all the three categories are better than the climatology forecasts with positive BSS values except in case of normal forecast of June and July. The “TS”, “HSS” and other scores also provide useful probability forecast in case of CFS except the normal category of July forecast. Thus, it is seen that the monthly probability forecast based on NCEP CFS coupled model during the southwest monsoon season is very encouraging and is found to be very useful.

Analysis of macro and micro nutrients in some Indian medicinal herbs grown in Jaunpur (u.p.) soil

Concept of trace elements being “the Inorganic Switches” has evolved during the last several decades. Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicinal system also emphasises the importance of minor and trace elements in human health and disease. To evaluate elemental contents of some commonly used as health promoter and fever, 5 medicine herbs (stems) namely Guduchi, Vach, Mulahati, Joytishmati and Vidhara have been analyzed for four minor (Na, K, Mg and Ca) and eight trace elements (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd) by atomic absorption spectrometry and flame photometry. Their accuracy was measured by replicate analyses. In general, elemental contents were found in varying amounts with large range. It is observed that many of medicinal herbs are enriched in one or more elements. Since these elements are bioavailable in natural form, probably in combination with organic constituents, these are likely to be easily assimilated by human bodies. Besides them, two toxic elements Ni and Cd were also found in insignificant amounts as these are likely to have originated from environmental contamination.

A Preamble-Based Broadcasting Technique for Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks

Broadcasting is a fundamental operation in any wireless networks, more so in wireless ad hoc sensor networks, where each sensor node has limited transmission range as well as battery power. Although broadcasting in wireless ad hoc sensor networks has many advantages but it can cause serious problems like-broadcast storm, which could cause a lot of contention, redundant retransmission, collision and most importantly, drain immense amount of energy from limited battery powered sensor nodes. In this work, our objective is to reduce the number of retransmission and energy consumption of sensor nodes by using the duty cycle property of wireless ad hoc sensor networks. We propose a preamble-based broadcasting technique for wireless ad hoc sensor networks. We show that in dense wireless ad hoc sensor networks a small size preamble can give maximum network-wide data dissemination rather than using the large preamble, which will only consume immense amount of energy during packet reception.

Anthropometric studies on medical students of Nepal and Sri Lanka:height and weight

Nutritional status of a population or an individual could be assessed by clinical,biochemical and anthropometric means.It is widely used in the monitoring of growth and assessment of the nutritional status of children and adults.Even though a large number of anthropometric studies is done in Nepal and Sri Lanka,on various projects related to the nutritional aspects,but only few have been done on anthropometry and due to lack of information on anthropometric data of Nepalese and Sri Lankan medical students,the present study was initiated at Nepal Medical college and Faculty of Medicine,University of Peradeniya,Sri Lanka.The aim of the study was to measure height and weight of medical students of Nepal Medical College and Faculty of Medicine,University of Peradeniya.A total of 1228(males 681;females 547)medical students participated in the study.The ratio of male to female was 1.24:1.The height was measured,to the nearest 0.1 cm without shoes,using a measuring tape affixed to the wall.The weight was recorded using weighing scale,with minimum clothes and without shoes to the nearest 0.1kg.Two tail unpaired t’test was performed to compare mean values.The percentile values were obtained using Microsoft excel for Windows 98.The age of the students varied from 18-26 years with a mean±SD of 20.77±1.17 and 20.90±1.10 in males and females respectively.The heights of the male and female medical students werel.65±0.08 and 1.61±0.08 and the weight was 59.70±9.26 and 55.54±9.16 respectively.The percentile values obtained for height and weight were compared with National Centre for Health statistics(NCHS) standards.The 50th percentile value of males height and weight corresponded to the 20th percentile and below the 20th percentile values respectively of the NCHS standard.The 50th percentile value of female’s height and weight corresponded to less than 10th and 15th percentiles respectively.The height and weight of only 9 males and 8 females were above the 50th percentile value of NCHS standards.The study reveals that the Nepalese medical students and Sri Lankan medical students are underweight and shorter compared to western standards.