•A novel multi-physics computational framework for L-DED process is proposed.•Particle-scale thermofluidic model is integrated with Cellular Automata approach.•Realistic Inconel-625 particle stream ...predicted by DEM modelling is utilized.•Results reveal highly oscillatory and chaotic melt flow due to impinging particles.•Predicted melt pool, temperature, and grain structure compare well with experiments.
High speed imaging of molten pool free-surface hydrodynamics in laser-assisted directed energy deposition process clearly revealed a highly oscillatory and dynamic melt flow due to impinging powder particles. Surprisingly, most of the reported computational work exclude the injection of powder particles and rather adopt a homogeneous mass and energy addition approach, and therefore provides less accurate predictions. In this work, we develop a coupled multi-physics particle-scale approach utilizing the discrete element method for particle trajectory prediction, the computational fluid dynamics for free-surface thermo-fluidic modelling and the cellular automata method for grain growth evolution. In the model, the governing physical phenomena, such as laser-powder interaction, in-flight particle heating, phase change (melting, vaporization and solidification), free-surface evolution, molten pool hydrodynamics and impinging particles-melt interaction have been considered. Experiments for the deposition of Inconel-625 on an Inconel-625 substrate are carried out, and the model predictions are validated with the experimental measurements. For the first time, the predicted thermo-fluidic simulation results reveal highly oscillatory, chaotic and random melt flow attributed to the impinging powder particles. During the deposition, it is found that the role of the Marangoni convection is less significant as compared to the momentum imparted by the impinging powder particles in the melt pool. Using the simulated thermal undercooling data, cellular automata-based grain growth simulation predicts elongated columnar dendrites in the melt pool that grows epitaxially from the melt pool interface and stretches towards the centre. Using the Kurz-Fisher model, the effect of local thermodynamic solidification conditions on the size of dendritic microstructure is also described. The predicted melt pool geometry, temperature field and grain structure compare well with the experimental measurements.
Images are increasingly used for AI-based diagnosis and analysis of many diseases like cervical cancer, mouth cancer, glucose analysis from retina etc. In many cases, data collection is done by ...specialised camera modules which capture images of affected areas. As with any other sources of data, this process is also error-prone and may contain unwanted objects and regions that may require cleaning by removing them. Outliers in these kinds of dataset may adversely affect the performance of machine learning models. Manually cleaning would be a tedious task, especially when the data is collated from different sources. Hence, cleaning the data before training the model is of utmost importance. In this paper, we propose a Few-Shot learning based model pre-trained in supervised contrastive learning settings to automate the process of data cleaning. Our model learns the dataset distribution and distinguishes the accurate data points from noisy data points. We also show that scaling up the model can greatly improve the Few-Shot performance. On the noisy MobileODT cervical data, which was collected from Kaggle, our model obtained 52% accuracy without cleaning data using an EfficientNet architecture for the classification task. Whereas the same architecture with ROI cropping achieved an accuracy of 76.56% after cleaning through the proposed Deep Cleaner approach that requires only 100 clean images. The proposed approach performs 2.74% better than a denoising auto-encoder, which is considered a powerful anomaly detection technique.
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is the gold standard for the detection of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 including those which have immune escape properties, high infectivity, and variable severity. ...This test is helpful in genomic surveillance, for planning appropriate and timely public health interventions. But labs with NGS facilities are not available in small or medium research settings due to the high cost of setting up such a facility. Transportation of samples from many places to few centers for NGS testing also produces delays due to transportation and sample overload leading in turn to delays in patient management and community interventions. This becomes more important for patients traveling from hotspot regions or those suspected of harboring a new variant. Another major issue is the high cost of NGS-based tests. Thus, it may not be a good option for an economically viable surveillance program requiring immediate result generation and patient follow-up. The current study used a cost-effective facility which can be set up in a common research lab and which is replicable in similar centers with expertise in Sanger nucleotide sequencing. More samples can be processed at a time and can generate the results in a maximum of 2 days (1 day for a 24 h working lab). We analyzed the nucleotide sequence of the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) region of SARS-CoV-2 by the Sanger sequencing using in-house developed methods. The SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance was done during the period of March 2021 to May 2022 in the Northern region of Kerala, a state in India with a population of 36.4 million, for implementing appropriate timely interventions. Our findings broadly agree with those from elsewhere in India and other countries during the period.
Cervical cancer accounts for a large number of fatalities among cancer patients. It is ranked fourth in the total cancer patients and total number of deaths due to cancer. Developing countries ...account for 70% of the cases and 90% of the fatalities. Contemporary techniques used for screening cervical cancer are PAP smear test and HPV DNA test. Today there are treatments that can successfully prevent cervical cancer if detected at an early stage. Understanding the cervix type is very important for treatment; computational methods can help us classify the cervix type from cervical images. In this study, we propose an ROI proposal network EfficientCenterDet and a self‐supervision boosted training trick that improves the performance of the network with relatively less labeled data. We use 6114 unlabeled images to perform a pretraining task and 1166 labeled images to retrain the ROI proposal network. The proposed model matches the state‐of‐the‐art IOU of FasterRCNN on the ISIC skin lesions dataset while using one‐third of the number of parameters used in FasterRCNN. On MobileODT cervical data, our self‐supervision boosted model achieves 0.632 IOU, a 10% boost over the state‐of‐the‐art FasterRCNN. Introducing an ensembled EfficientNet B4, the cervix type classification stage achieved an accuracy of 87%.
We report here a Nipah virus (NiV) outbreak in Kozhikode district of Kerala state, India, which had caused fatal encephalitis in a 12-year-old boy and the outbreak response, which led to the ...successful containment of the disease and the related investigations. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR, ELISA-based antibody detection, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) were performed to confirm the NiV infection. Contacts of the index case were traced and isolated based on risk categorization. Bats from the areas near the epicenter of the outbreak were sampled for throat swabs, rectal swabs, and blood samples for NiV screening by real-time RT-PCR and anti-NiV bat immunoglobulin G (IgG) ELISA. A plaque reduction neutralization test was performed for the detection of neutralizing antibodies. Nipah viral RNA could be detected from blood, bronchial wash, endotracheal (ET) secretion, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and anti-NiV immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies from the serum sample of the index case. Rapid establishment of an onsite NiV diagnostic facility and contact tracing helped in quick containment of the outbreak. NiV sequences retrieved from the clinical specimen of the index case formed a sub-cluster with the earlier reported Nipah I genotype sequences from India with more than 95% similarity. Anti-NiV IgG positivity could be detected in 21% of
(
) and 37.73% of
(
). Neutralizing antibodies against NiV could be detected in
. Stringent surveillance and awareness campaigns need to be implemented in the area to reduce human-bat interactions and minimize spillover events, which can lead to sporadic outbreaks of NiV.
Background and aim
Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a severe form of alcoholic hepatitis (SAH). We aimed to study the natural course, response to corticosteroids (CS), and the role of the ...Asian Pacific Association for the Study of Liver (APASL) research consortium (AARC) score in determining clinical outcomes in AH patients.
Methods
Prospectively collected data from the AARC database were analyzed.
Results
Of the 1249 AH patients, (aged 43.8 ± 10.6 years, 96.9% male, AARC score 9.2 ± 1.9), 38.8% died on a 90 day follow-up. Of these, 150 (12.0%) had mild–moderate AH (MAH), 65 (5.2%) had SAH and 1034 (82.8%) had ACLF. Two hundred and eleven (16.9%) patients received CS, of which 101 (47.87%) were steroid responders by day 7 of Lille’s model, which was associated with improved survival Hazard ratio (HR) 0.15, 95% CI 0.12–0.19. AARC-ACLF grade 3 OR 0.28, 0.14–0.55 was an independent predictor of steroid non-response and mortality HR 3.29, 2.63–4.11. Complications increased with degree of liver failure AARC grade III vs. II vs I, bacterial infections 48.6% vs. 37% vs. 34.7%;
p
< 0.001); extrahepatic organ failure 66.9% vs. 41.8% vs. 35.4%;
p
< 0.001 respectively. The AARC score better discriminated 90-day mortality. Harrell’s C-index was 0.72 compared to other scores.
Conclusion
Nearly 4 of 5 patients with AH present with ACLF. Such patients have a higher risk of infections, organ failures, lower response to CS, and higher mortality. Patients with AH and ACLF with AARC grade 3 should be considered for an early liver transplant.
Network-on-Chip (NoC) has become a cost-effective communication interconnect for Tiled Chip Multicore Processor systems. The communication between cores is done through packet exchange. As the ...computational intensity of applications increases, the amount of packet exchange between cores will also increase. The improper routing of these packets will result in high congestion thereby degrading the system performance. This marks the need for congestion-aware routing in NoC. In the real world, the applications running in NoC create diverse traffic, which in turn creates challenges in routing. Such challenges have resulted in more researchers relying on machine learning algorithms to tackle them. However, the issues pertaining to storage overhead and packet latency prevail in such methodologies. This paper presents an adaptive routing algorithm DeepNR, which uses a deep reinforcement learning approach. The proposed approach considers network information for state representation, routing directions for actions, and queuing delay for reward function. Experiments carried out on synthetic as well as real-time traffics to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of DeepNR using the Gem5 simulator. The results obtained for DeepNR indicate a reduction of up to 21.25% and 44% in overall packet latency under high traffic conditions on real and synthetic traffic respectively, as compared to the existing approaches. Also, DeepNR achieves a throughput of above 90% in both the traffic scenarios.
There is an ongoing debate on the change of terminology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). Experts from the Indian National Association ...for Study of the Liver (INASL) and the South Asian Association for Study of the Liver (SAASL) involved in diagnosing, managing, and preventing NAFLD met in March 2022 to deliberate if the name change from NAFLD to MAFLD is appropriate, as proposed by a group of experts who published a “consensus” statement in 2020. Proponents of name change to MAFLD opined that NAFLD does not reflect current knowledge, and the term MAFLD was suggested as a more appropriate overarching term. However, this “consensus” group which proposed the name change to MAFLD did not represent the views and opinions of gastroenterologists and hepatologists, as well as perceptions of patients across the globe, given the fact that change of nomenclature for any disease entity is bound to have multidimensional impact on all aspects of patient care. This statement is the culmination of the participants' combined efforts who presented recommendations on specific issues concerning the proposed name change. The recommendations were then circulated to all the core group members and updated based on a systematic literature search. Finally, all the members voted on them using the nominal voting technique as per the standard guidelines. The quality of evidence was adapted from the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation system.
Display omitted
•INASL–SAASL consensus group was constituted with experts from different parts of India and South Asia.•They participated in a consensus development process on name change of NAFLD, to enable establishment of an updated document on nomenclature of NAFLD.•The INASL–SAASL consensus group felt that proponents of MAFLD neither represented views of hepatologists nor perceptions of patients across the globe.•The group resolved that the term NAFLD should not be changed to MAFLD since there are no cogent reasons to justify a name change.•The INASL–SAASL consensus group also felt that a name change from NAFLD to MAFLD is replete with demerits.
The sustainability of aquarium trade relies on successful captive breeding and seed production practices to prevent the long-term consequences of wild collection, which can result in irreversible ...damage to natural populations. To establish comprehensive breeding and seed production protocols, it is imperative to gain a deep understanding of the reproductive characteristics of the fish, encompassing aspects such as sexual dimorphism, spawning behavior, embryogenesis, and the crucial period of larval survival. Hence, in this study, we document the captive breeding, spawning behavior, embryonic development, and early larval stages of Chromis viridis, a highly sought-after marine ornamental fish that plays a prominent role in the aquarium trade. Fish were sourced from Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, and reared in controlled conditions. Mature fish (6–9 cm) were kept in 500 L FRP tanks with regulated salinity (35.4 ± 0.5 g/L), temperature (27.1 ± 0.54 °C), and a 12-h light-dark photoperiod. After four months in captivity, spawning commenced, characterized by intense substrate cleaning and rapid swimming motions of the male. Each spawning event yielded 3562 to 20,651 eggs. Egg development included five stages over three days at 27.1 ± 0.54 °C, with hatching on the third day. Egg dimensions varied along both axes and egg volume changed over three days. Newly hatched larvae lacked eye pigments and paired fins, with an average total length (TL) of 1.97 ± 0.35 mm. Larval mouth opening occurred at 38 h, and yolk absorption was complete by the third day post-hatch. Continuous captive reproduction was observed with a spawning frequency of 5.59 ± 0.96 days. This study offers valuable insights for standardizing captive propagation techniques and advancing marine ornamental aquaculture for C. viridis by documenting its breeding, embryonic development, and early larval stages in captivity.
•Chromis virdis is being exploited for tuna bait and aquarium trade.•First report on sexual dimorphism, spawning, and embryogenesis of C. viridis.•Vital data on the mating system, egg incubation, and early larval development.•The species is a year-round spawner but exhibits a very low larval survival rate.
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