Class imbalance in a dataset is a major problem for classifiers that results in poor prediction with a high true positive rate (TPR) but a low true negative rate (TNR) for a majority positive ...training dataset. Generally, the pre-processing technique of oversampling of minority class(es) are used to overcome this deficiency. Our focus is on using the hybridization of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) and Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique (SMOTE) to address class imbalanced problems. We propose a novel two-phase oversampling approach involving knowledge transfer that has the synergy of SMOTE and GAN. The unrealistic or overgeneralized samples of SMOTE are transformed into realistic distribution of data by GAN where there is not enough minority class data available for GAN to process them by itself effectively. We named it SMOTified-GAN as GAN works on pre-sampled minority data produced by SMOTE rather than randomly generating the samples itself. The experimental results prove the sample quality of minority class(es) has been improved in a variety of tested benchmark datasets. Its performance is improved by up to 9% from the next best algorithm tested on F1-score measurements. Its time complexity is also reasonable which is around <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">O(N^{2}d^{2}T) </tex-math></inline-formula> for a sequential algorithm.
Summary Background Improved treatment approaches are needed for visceral leishmaniasis. We assessed the efficacy and safety of three potential short-course combination treatments compared with the ...standard monotherapy in India. Methods Standard treatment (1 mg/kg amphotericin B infusion on alternate days for 30 days, total dose 15 mg/kg) was compared with three drug combinations (single injection of 5 mg/kg liposomal amphotericin B and 7-day 50 mg oral miltefosine or single 10-day 11 mg/kg intramuscular paromomycin; or 10 days each of miltefosine and paromomycin) in an open-label, parallel-group, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial in two hospital sites in Bihar, India. Patients aged 5–60 years with parasitologically confirmed visceral leishmaniasis were randomly assigned one of the four treatments by the trial statistician by use of a computer-generated list. Clinical assessments were done at the end of treatment (15 days on combination treatment; 31 days for standard treatment) and after 45 days and 6 months. The primary endpoint was definitive cure (defined as no sign or symptom of visceral leishmaniasis and parasitologically cured to the last follow-up). Analyses were done both by intention to treat and per protocol. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT00696969. Findings Between June, 2008, and July, 2009, 634 patients were assigned amphotericin B (n=157), liposomal amphotericin B with miltefosine (n=160) or paromomycin (n=158), or miltefosine and paromomycin (n=159). 618 patients were in the per-protocol population. There were two relapses in each group. The numbers with definitive cure at 6 months for the intention-to-treat population were 146 (cure rate 93·0%; CI 87·5–96·3) for amphotericin B, 156 (97·5%; 93·3–99·2) for liposomal amphotericin B and miltefosine, 154 (97·5%; 93·24–99·2) for liposomal amphotericin B and paromomycin, and 157 (98·7%; 95·1–99·8) for miltefosine and paromomycin. All combinations were non-inferior to the standard treatment, in both the intention-to-treat and per-protocol populations. Patients in the combination groups had fewer adverse events than did those assigned standard treatment. Interpretation Combination treatments for visceral leishmaniasis are efficacious and safe, and decrease the duration of therapy, thereby encouraging adherence and reducing emergence of drug-resistant parasites. Funding Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Low-temperature stress (LTS) drastically affects vegetative and reproductive growth in fruit crops leading to a gross reduction in the yield and loss in product quality. Among the fruit crops, ...temperate fruits, during the period of evolution, have developed the mechanism of tolerance, i.e., adaptive capability to chilling and freezing when exposed to LTS. However, tropical and sub-tropical fruit crops are most vulnerable to LTS. As a result, fruit crops respond to LTS by inducing the expression of LTS related genes, which is for climatic acclimatization. The activation of the stress-responsive gene leads to changes in physiological and biochemical mechanisms such as photosynthesis, chlorophyll biosynthesis, respiration, membrane composition changes, alteration in protein synthesis, increased antioxidant activity, altered levels of metabolites, and signaling pathways that enhance their tolerance/resistance and alleviate the damage caused due to LTS and chilling injury. The gene induction mechanism has been investigated extensively in the model crop Arabidopsis and several winter kinds of cereal. The ICE1 (inducer of C-repeat binding factor expression 1) and the CBF (C-repeat binding factor) transcriptional cascade are involved in transcriptional control. The functions of various CBFs and aquaporin genes were well studied in crop plants and their role in multiple stresses including cold stresses is deciphered. In addition, tissue nutrients and plant growth regulators like ABA, ethylene, jasmonic acid etc., also play a significant role in alleviating the LTS and chilling injury in fruit crops. However, these physiological, biochemical and molecular understanding of LTS tolerance/resistance are restricted to few of the temperate and tropical fruit crops. Therefore, a better understanding of cold tolerance's underlying physio-biochemical and molecular components in fruit crops is required under open and simulated LTS. The understanding of LTS tolerance/resistance mechanism will lay the foundation for tailoring the novel fruit genotypes for successful crop production under erratic weather conditions.
CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells (Treg) and programmed death-1 (PD-1) molecules have emerged as pivotal players in immune suppression of chronic diseases. However, their impact on the disease ...severity, therapeutic response and restoration of immune response in human tuberculosis remains unclear. Here, we describe the possible role of Treg cells, their M. tuberculosis driven expansion and contribution of PD-1 pathway to the suppressive function of Treg cells among pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients. Multicolor flow cytometry, cell culture, cells sorting and ELISA were employed to execute the study. Our results showed significant increase in frequency of antigen-reactive Treg cells, which gradually declined during successful therapy and paralleled with decline of M. tuberculosis-specific IL-10 along with elevation of IFN-γ production, and raising the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio. Interestingly, persistence of Treg cells tightly correlated with MDR tuberculosis. Also, we show that blocking PD-1/PD-L1 pathway abrogates Treg-mediated suppression, suggesting that the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway is required for Treg-mediated suppression of the antigen-specific T cells. Treg cells possibly play a role in dampening the effector immune response and abrogating PD-1 pathway on Treg cells significantly rescued protective T cell response, suggesting its importance in immune restoration among tuberculosis patients.
In this paper, the physical layer security of an indoor visible light communication system, that consists of two transmission light‐emitting diodes to broadcast the information towards the legitimate ...user, is investigated. Further, a secure LED selection scheme is proposed to select an LED that can perform secure information broadcasting, in the presence of an active and/or passive eavesdropper. The probability of secure information broadcasting is obtained in terms of the positive secrecy rate which is defined under the constraints of known or unknown imperfect channel state information of both legitimate and eavesdropping links. The channel state information (CSI) knowledge of each transmitting link is estimated with the use of a minimum mean square error technique. The performance metrics of the system are defined in terms of the average secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability parameters. Further, the performance of the system is compared with the conventional stand‐alone VLC system by varying various physical parameters. Further, analytical results are corroborated with the computer simulation results.
A multiuser full‐duplex (FD) two‐wayrelaying system is considered with decode‐and‐forward relaying protocol. All nodes are assumed to have FD abilities, and residual self‐interference (RSI) at each ...node is modeled as a Rician‐distributed random variable. Based on the availability of channel state information (CSI) at the relay node, different scheduling schemes are adopted and investigated in terms of outage probability. For the blind case when CSI is unavailable, the random scheduling is analyzed. In the presence of CSI, the absolute channel power‐based scheduling and normalized channel power‐based scheduling schemes are considered. A precise closed‐form expression for the outage probability is derived for independent and nonidentically distributed channels. The theoretical results are verified through Monte Carlo simulations.
Key Points
We characterize RSI as Rician distributed random variable
We have considered the multiple user pair system adopting different scheduling schemes
Closed‐form expressions for outage probabilities are derived
The full-duplex (FD) radio-frequency wireless communication theoretically doubles the data rates compared to the half-duplex counterpart. However, its performance depends critically on the ...self-interference (SI) that exists between transmit and receive antennas. The intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) which consist of several reflecting elements (known as meta-atoms) are used to engineer the wireless environment and thus to achieve improved performance through constructively focussing the reflected signal. In this letter, the IRS technology is explored for lowering down the effect of SI in an FD wireless communication system. The utility of IRSs in FD technology is investigated in terms of outage and error probabilities. Specifically, the closed-form expressions for outage and average symbol error probabilities are obtained. All the channel coefficients are assumed to be distributed as the generalized Nakagami-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">m </tex-math></inline-formula> random variables. The analytical results are corroborated through Monte-Carlo simulations.
The paper explores simultaneous transmitting and reflecting (STAR) reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) communication. A base-station (BS) transmits ...information to the cell-edge users which are assisted by the STAR RIS in such a way that two users, one placed in front of and other behind the RIS, are served by reflection and transmission, respectively. The energy splitting (ES) and mode switching (MS) configurations of the STAR RIS are considered for analysis. Owing to the close-placement of RIS elements and rectangular geometry of RIS, the Rician distributed RIS channels are assumed to be spatially-correlated. The new expression for the joint moment of spatially-correlated Rician channels is derived. Both, infinite and finite block-length transmissions are analyzed in this work. For infinite block-length transmission, the expressions for outage probability and channel capacity are derived, whereas for finite block-length transmission, the expressions for block error rate (BLER), system goodput and channel capacity are derived. To get further insights, the expression for asymptotic outage probability is also derived. Furthermore, the effects of various parameters, including RSMA power splitting factor, reflection coefficients, inter-element spacing, distances between STAR RIS and users, finite block-length parameters, imperfect channel state information (CSI), etc., are examined.
A one-dimensional (1-D) anomalous-diffusive molecular communication channel is considered, wherein the devices (transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX)) can move in either direction along the axis. For ...modeling the anomalous diffusion of information carrying molecules (ICM) as well as that of the TX and RX, the concept of time-scaled Brownian motion is explored. In this context, a novel closed-form expression for the first hitting time density (FHTD) is derived. Further, the derived FHTD is validated through particle-based simulation. For the transmission of binary information, the timing modulation is exploited. Furthermore, the channel is assumed as a binary erasure channel (BEC) and analyzed in terms of achievable information rate (AIR).
Bionutrients play a vital role in enhancing soil productivity and sustainable agricultural production. In vegetable crops, limited information is available on the relevance of bionutrients in ...solanaceous crops under protected conditions. Therefore, an experiment was planned to study the response of bionutrients under the modified naturally ventilated polyhouse in mid-hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh for two consecutive years. Various bell pepper varieties, viz., Mekong, Orobelle, Indra and DPCY1, were subjected to a set of bionutrient sources (beejamrit, ghanjeevamrit, jeevamrit and mulching). The results showed that there was a substantial increase in yield parameters in the treatment module, i.e., Mekong + beejamrit@ 200 ml/kg + ghanjeevamrit@5q/ha + jeevamrit @ 500 lt/ha at 21-day intervals + mulching @ 10 t/ha. This treatment exhibited a minimum number of days to 50% flowering (24.16), maximum number of marketable fruits per plant (28.40), fruit length (7.68 cm), fruit breadth (7.70 cm), pericarp thickness (9.15 mm), average fruit weight (109.53 g), plant height (84.06 cm) and marketable yield per plant (3.11 kg). However, Mekong + beejamrit @ 200 ml/kg + ghanjeevamrit @5q/ha + jeevamrit@ 500 lt/ha at 28-day intervals + mulching @ 10 t/hattreatment proved best for total soluble solids (4.58 °Brix), ascorbic acid (166.50 mg/100 g), capsaicin content (6.64%) and carotenoid content (2.43 mg/100 g). Horticultural and biochemical traits were appreciably enhanced after bionutrient application in bell pepper. Therefore, outcomes from the study point out that it is a feasible and economical approach for farmers.
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