Intelligent Cloud IoMT Health Monitoring-Based System for COVID-19

The most common alarming and dangerous disease in the world today is the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The coronavirus is perceived as a group of coronaviruses which causes mild to severe respiratory diseases among human beings. The infection is spread by aerosols emitted from infected individuals during talking, sneezing, and coughing. Furthermore, infection can occur by touching a contaminated surface followed by transfer of the viral load to the face. Transmission may occur through aerosols that stay suspended in the air for extended periods of time in enclosed spaces. To stop the spread of the pandemic, it is crucial to isolate infected patients in quarantine houses. Government health organizations faced a lack of quarantine houses and medical test facilities at the first level of testing by the proposed model. If any serious condition is observed at the first level testing, then patients should be recommended to be hospitalized. In this study, an IoT-enabled smart monitoring system is proposed to detect COVID-19 positive patients and monitor them during their home quarantine. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), known as healthcare IoT, is employed as the foundation of the proposed model. The least-squares (LS) method was applied to estimate the linear model parameters for a sequential pilot survey. A statistical sequential analysis is performed as a pilot survey to efficiently collect preliminary data for an extensive survey of COVID-19 positive cases. The Bayesian approach is used, based on the assumption of the random variable for the priori distribution of the data sample. Fuzzy inference is used to construct different rules based on the basic symptoms of COVID-19 patients to make an expert decision to detect COVID-19 positive cases. Finally, the performance of the proposed model was determined by applying a four-fold cross-validation technique.     

Intelligent Cloud Based Load Balancing System Empowered with Fuzzy Logic

Cloud computing is seeking attention as a new computing paradigm to handle operations more efficiently and cost-effectively. Cloud computing uses dynamic resource provisioning and de-provisioning in a virtualized environment. The load on the cloud data centers is growing day by day due to the rapid growth in cloud computing demand. Elasticity in cloud computing is one of the fundamental properties, and elastic load balancing automatically distributes incoming load to multiple virtual machines. This work is aimed to introduce efficient resource provisioning and de-provisioning for better load balancing. In this article, a model is proposed in which the fuzzy logic approach is used for load balancing to avoid underload and overload of resources. A Simulator in Matlab is used to test the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed model. The simulation results have shown that our proposed intelligent cloud-based load balancing system empowered with fuzzy logic is better than previously published approaches.     

Robust Magnification Independent Colon Biopsy Grading System over Multiple Data Sources

Automated grading of colon biopsy images across all magnifications is challenging because of tailored segmentation and dependent features on each magnification. This work presents a novel approach of robust magnification-independent colon cancer grading framework to distinguish colon biopsy images into four classes: normal, well, moderate, and poor. The contribution of this research is to develop a magnification invariant hybrid feature set comprising cartoon feature, Gabor wavelet, wavelet moments, HSV histogram, color auto-correlogram, color moments, and morphological features that can be used to characterize different grades. Besides, the classifier is modeled as a multiclass structure with six binary class Bayesian optimized random forest (BO-RF) classifiers. This study uses four datasets (two collected from Indian hospitals—Ishita Pathology Center (IPC) of 4X, 10X, and 40X and Aster Medcity (AMC) of 10X, 20X, and 40X—two benchmark datasets—gland segmentation (GlaS) of 20X and IMEDIATREAT of 10X) comprising multiple microscope magnifications. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the other methods used for colon cancer grading in terms of accuracy (97.25%-IPC, 94.40%-AMC, 97.58%-GlaS, 99.16%-Imediatreat), sensitivity (0.9725-IPC, 0.9440-AMC, 0.9807-GlaS, 0.9923-Imediatreat), specificity (0.9908-IPC, 0.9813-AMC, 0.9907-GlaS, 0.9971-Imediatreat) and F-score (0.9725-IPC, 0.9441-AMC, 0.9780-GlaS, 0.9923-Imediatreat). The generalizability of the model to any magnified input image is validated by training in one dataset and testing in another dataset, highlighting strong concordance in multiclass classification and evidencing its effective use in the first level of automatic biopsy grading and second opinion.     

Role of catalytic protein and stabilising agents in the transformation of Ag ions to nanoparticles by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Biological routes of synthesising metal nanoparticles (NPs) using microbes have been gaining much attention due to their low toxicity and eco‐friendly nature. Pseudomonas aeruginosa JP2 isolated from metal contaminated soil was evaluated towards extracellular synthesis of silver NPs (AgNPs). Cell‐free extract (24 h) of the bacterial isolate was reacted with AgNO₃ for 24 h in order to fabricate AgNPs. Preliminary observations were recorded in terms of colour change of the reaction mixture from yellow to greyish black. UV‐visible spectroscopy of the reaction mixture has shown a progressive increase in optical densities that correspond to peaks near 430 nm, depicting reduction of ionic silver (Ag⁺) to atomic silver (Ag⁰) thereby synthesising NPs. X‐ray diffraction spectra exhibited the 2θ values to be 38.4577° confirming the crystalline and spherical nature of NPs [9.6 − 26.7 (Ave. = 17.2 nm)]. Transmission electron microscopy finally confirmed the size of the particles varying from 5 to 60 nm. Moreover, rhamnolipids and proteins were identified as stabilising molecules for the AgNPs through Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy. Characterisation of bacterial crude and purified protein fractions confirmed the involvement of nitrate reductase (molecular weight 66 kDa and specific activity = 3.8 U/mg) in the Synthesis of AgNPs.Inspec keywords: microorganisms, silver, nanoparticles, enzymes, molecular biophysics, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, catalysis, biochemistry, nanobiotechnologyOther keywords: catalytic protein, stabilising agents, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, metal nanoparticles, UV–visible spectroscopy, optical densities, ionic silver, atomic silver, X‐ray diffraction spectra, transmission electron microscopy, nitrate reductase, rhamnolipids, Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy, Ag     

Empty nano and micro‐structured lipid carriers of virgin coconut oil for skin moisturisation

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is the finest grade of coconut oil, rich in phenolic content, antioxidant activity and contains medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). In this work formulation, characterisation and penetration of VCO‐solid lipid particles (VCO‐SLP) have been studied. VCO‐SLP were prepared using ultrasonication of molten stearic acid and VCO in an aqueous solution. The electron microscopy imaging revealed that VCO‐SLP were solid and spherical in shape. Ultrasonication was performed at several power intensities which resulted in particle sizes of VCO‐SLP ranged from 0.608 ± 0.002 µm to 44.265 ± 1.870 µm. The particle size was directly proportional to the applied power intensity of ultrasonication. The zeta potential values of the particles were from −43.2 ± 0.28 mV to −47.5 ± 0.42 mV showing good stability. The cumulative permeation for the smallest sized VCO‐SLP (0.608 µm) was 3.83 ± 0.01 µg/cm² whereas for larger carriers it was reduced (3.59 ± 0.02 µg/cm²). It is concluded that SLP have the potential to be exploited as a micro/nano scale cosmeceutical carrying vehicle for improved dermal delivery of VCO.Inspec keywords: skin, cosmetics, vegetable oils, ultrasonic applications, electron microscopy, particle sizeOther keywords: empty nanostructured lipid carrier, empty microstructured lipid carrier, virgin coconut oil, skin moisturisation, phenolic content, antioxidant activity, medium chain triglyceride, MCT, VCO‐solid lipid particle, VCO‐SLP, molten stearic acid ultrasonication, electron microscopy imaging, power intensity, particle size, dermal delivery     

Nature‐Inspired Lightweight Cellular Co‐Continuous Composites with Architected Periodic Gyroidal Structures

Shell‐core cellular composites are a unique class of cellular materials, where the base constituent is made of a composite material such that the best distinctive physical and/or mechanical properties of each phase of the composite are employed. In this work, the authors demonstrate the additive manufacturing of a nature inspired cellular three‐dimensional (3D), periodic, co‐continuous, and complex composite materials made of a hard‐shell and soft‐core system. The architecture of these composites is based on the Schoen's single Gyroidal triply periodic minimal surface. Results of mechanical testing show the possibility of having a wide range of mechanical properties by tuning the composition, volume fraction of core, shell thickness, and internal architecture of the cellular composites. Moreover, a change in deformation and failure mechanism is observed when employing a shell‐core composite system, as compared to the pure stiff polymeric standalone cellular material. This shell‐core configuration and Gyroidal topology allowed for accessing toughness values that are not realized by the constituent materials independently, showing the suitability of this cellular composite for mechanical energy absorption applications.

     

A meta-analysis of relationships between organizational characteristics and IT innovation adoption in organizations

Adoption of IT in organizations is influenced by a wide range of factors in technology, organization, environment, and individuals. Researchers have identified several factors that either facilitate or hinder innovation adoption. Studies have produced inconsistent and contradictory outcomes. We performed a meta-analysis of ten organizational factors to determine their relative impact and strength. We aggregated their findings to determine the magnitude and direction of the relationship between organizational factors and IT innovation adoption. We found organizational readiness to be the most significant attribute and also found a moderately significant relationship between IT adoption and IS department size. Our study found weak significance of IS infrastructure, top management support, IT expertise, resources, and organizational size on IT adoption of technology while formalization, centralization, and product champion were found to be insignificant attributes. We also examined stage of innovation, type of innovation, type of organization, and size of organization as moderator conditions affecting the relationship between the organizational variables and IT adoption.     

Effect of dissolved oxygen tension and ph on the production of extracellular protease from a new isolate of bacillus subtilis K2, for use in leather processing

Scale‐up of production of an alkaline protease, previously characterised from a new isolate of Bacillus subtilis for use as a bating enzyme in leather processing, is described. Before large‐scale commercial production of the protease is possible, characteristics of the growth of the bacterium and enzyme production in fermenters must be defined. In 2 dm³ fermenters an optimal specific activity of 296×10³ U g ⁻¹ cell dry weight was obtained after 60 h with the dissolved oxygen tension (DOT) kept above 10% and pH left uncontrolled. Culture pH was 6 on inoculation, falling to 5.3 after 12 h before rising steadily to ∽8 at the end of fermentation. DOT was maintained above 10% by agitation in the range 300 to 500 rpm. The same criteria were adopted for scale‐up to 20 dm³ but the increase in activity occurred 24 h later. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry     

Contour ranking on coarse grained machines: a case study for low-level vision computations

In the paper we present parallel solutions for performing image contour ranking on coarse-grained machines. In contour ranking, a linear representation of the edge contours is generated from the edge contours of a raw image. We describe solutions that employ different divide-and-conquer approaches and that use different communication patterns. The combining step of the divide-and-conquer solutions uses efficient sequential techniques for merging information about subimages. The proposed solutions are implemented on Intel Delta and Intel Paragon machines. We discuss performance results and present scalability analysis using different image and machine sizes. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of ER Stress and ER-Mitochondrial Crosstalk in Huntington’s Disease

Accumulation of misfolded proteins is a common phenomenon of several neurodegenerative diseases. The misfolding of proteins due to abnormal polyglutamine (PolyQ) expansions are linked to the development of PolyQ diseases including Huntington’s disease (HD). Though the genetic basis of PolyQ repeats in HD remains prominent, the primary molecular basis mediated by PolyQ toxicity remains elusive. Accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER or disruption of ER homeostasis causes ER stress and activates an evolutionarily conserved pathway called Unfolded protein response (UPR). Protein homeostasis disruption at organelle level involving UPR or ER stress response pathways are found to be linked to HD. Due to dynamic intricate connections between ER and mitochondria, proteins at ER-mitochondria contact sites (mitochondria associated ER membranes or MAMs) play a significant role in HD development. The current review aims at highlighting the most updated information about different UPR pathways and their involvement in HD disease progression. Moreover, the role of MAMs in HD progression has also been discussed. In the end, the review has focused on the therapeutic interventions responsible for ameliorating diseased states via modulating either ER stress response proteins or modulating the expression of ER-mitochondrial contact proteins.