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Editorial Note
Get PDFI am delighted to introduce the 2nd issue of volume 2 of the International Journal of Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (IJAAIML). Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have applications in wide range of domains such as finance, national security, health care, criminal justice, transportation, and smart cities. With the focus on new ideas related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, this journal offers a platform to the authors in academia and industry to publish their novel research. It aims to serve the scientific community with brand new research publications to advance the research in AI and ML
Road safety for fleets of vehicles
Get PDFRoad safety for fleets of vehicles has been neglected in the insurance literature, mainly because appropriate data and methodology were not available. This article makes a threefold contribution: 1) Produce statistics on current fleets’ road safety offences and accidents using a panel of 20 years of data on truck fleets; 2) relate fleets’ offences to accidents; and 3) identify and classify the riskiest fleets for insurance ratemaking based on past experience in managing road safety. Our main technical innovation to the insurance literature is in the estimation of fleets’ distributions of accidents. For each fleet size (or group of sizes), we estimate the parameters of the negative binomial (NB) distribution of the annual number of accidents according to the characteristics of the fleets, the years, and the number of driver (DRV) and carrier (CAR) road safety violations accumulated in the previous year. When the NB model does not accurately predict the mathematical expectation of the number of accidents of larger fleets, we proceed in two steps. First, we estimate the probability of having zero accidents in a year, and then estimate the negative binomial distribution using the estimated probability of having zero accidents, to weight the zeros of each fleet. To achieve our third objective, we construct risk classes for the vehicle fleets using the predicted accident probabilities obtained from the estimated models. Our results show a substantial heterogeneity between fleets in terms of road safety. This information should be very useful for optimal insurance pricing and better incentives for road safety
The Morphometric analysis of accessory sutural bones with an emphasis on association with parietal emissary foramina
No full textBackground: The sutural bones and fontanelle of the skull display unique morphological characters. Sutural bones are also called supernumerary bones or ossicles or Wormian bones (WB). These are irregular and develop from the independent ossification centers present along the cranial sutures. They appear on periosteal and endosteal surfaces of the skull with variations in size, number, shape, and location. In the present study, we aimed to determine the morphological characteristics of sutural bones and emphasize the significance of the same. One interesting entity of skull near the posterior fontanelle is the presence of Inca bones.
Methods: The present study was done on 128 dry human skulls by a convenient sampling method. The skulls were collected from the Department of Anatomy and significant characteristic features of Inca and Wormian bones like shape, number, size and location were recorded.
Results: Of the 128 dry skulls examined Wormian bones were seen in 13.2 % of skulls and Inca bones in 5.4 % of skulls. Incorporation of Wormian bones in lambdoid suture was noted in 12.5 % in sagittal suture in 0.7 % skulls respectively. The Wormian bones were found frequently on the left side (n=12) as compared to the right side (n=5). The morphometry of the accessory bones showed quadrilateral as the most common shape (n=9, 37.5 %) followed by triangular (n=4, 16.6 %). Radiological examination of all 24 skulls with accessory bones showed a zigzag pattern of accessory suture lines.
Conclusions: The presence of Wormian and Inca bones can be easily confused with fractures of the related bony regions. The surgeons need to be aware of this fact in order to make a proper and accurate diagnosis. The knowledge regarding these bones is highly beneficial to the clinician, radiologist, and neurosurgeon
Tweaking Internal Quality Controls for Cost Cutting in Resource Poor Settings
Get PDFCommercial Internal Quality Control (IQC) materials are used regularly nowadays by most laboratories for ensuring that their test results are accurate, and the equipment used for analysis is functioning optimally. IQC may be procured from the company supplying reagents for a closed system or from an unrelated vendor who is not involved in supplying the equipment or reagents (third-party controls). Most IQC for Complete Blood Count have a short shelf life of up to three months and often the company further restricts the usage to 2-3 weeks after opening the pack or for few hours after reconstitution for coagulation-based assays. Some simple methods can go a long way in increasing the shelf life and enable substantial cost cutting, as we have succeeded in our laboratory for hematology and coagulation
An Unusual Case of Tuberculous Lymphadenitis and Comparison of Various Methods for Diagnosis of Tuberculous Lymphadenitis
Get PDFAlthough tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is extremely common in India, sometimes it may pose a diagnostic dilemma even after multimodality testing. This case report is about a patient who had undergone multiple fine needle aspirations (FNAC), Ziehl-Neelsen staining of aspirate, GeneXpert Nucleic acid amplification test (TBNAAT), biopsy and immunohistochemistry before arriving at a provisional diagnosis by hematoxylin-eosin staining of additional deeper sections. Additional information obtained by TBNAAT is whether the isolated strain is sensitive to Rifampicin. Emergence of multidrug resistance tuberculosis (resistance to rifampicin and INH) and extensively drug resistant strains implying resistance to fluoroquinolones and second-line injectable drugs can be a huge problem in the management of the disease. She is now under treatment and follow up. This case report highlights that caseation necrosis on FNAC even in the absence of acid-fast bacilli and a negative TBNAAT is strongly suggestive of tuberculous aetiology and may be used for initiating definitive treatment. A comparison of results of ZN stain of aspirate with TBNAAT for 22 cases of clinically suspected TBLN is also brought out
Unusual presentation of Erdheim-Chester disease complicated by severe hypercalcemia in a 25-year-old male: initial assessment and follow-up with 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography and 3 Tesla MR imaging
Get PDFWe present a newly diagnosed case of Erdheim-Chester disease in a patient who presented with influenza-like symptoms, and whose course was complicated with life-threatening hypercalcemia. The imaging features were characteristic, and diagnosis was confirmed with immunohistochemical staining. The FDG-PET-CT was useful in diagnosis and follow-up
An Empirical Analysis of Bank Efficiency in Gambia
Get PDFThis study evaluates the Technical Efficiency (TE), Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE) and Scale Efficiency (SE) of commercial banks in the Gambian banking sector. In the first stage, a non-parametric approach (DEA) is used to evaluate the relative efficiency of 12 banks from 2009 to 2017 based on “the production approach” of modeling bank efficiency. In the second stage the relationship between certain bank-specific and environmental variables and efficiency scores are examined by employing the Tobit regression model.
The empirical analyses from the first stage reveals that about 42% of commercial banks were CRS technically efficient and 83% of them were VRS technically efficient in 2017. Only 42% of the banks were at the optimal size for their particular input–output mix, the remaining eight banks were scale inefficient. The level of overall technical efficiency of commercial banks in the Gambia accounted 86.5% in terms of TE, 93.1% in terms of PTE and 92.5% in terms of SE. The second stage analyses reveal that banks with the ability to charge lower interest on deposits and maintain higher interest rates on loans attain higher efficiency scores. Further, banks with large market share and market power in pricing their products can improve their efficiency levels. Lower liquidity risk is associated with higher efficiency scores. There is a weak evidence of negative association with bank size and efficiency, suggesting that smaller banks may obtain operational advantages that bring about higher efficiencie
Palmaris Longus Inversus Muscle Present Bilaterally in an 82 Year-old White Female Cadaver and Unilaterally in a 68 Year-old White Female Cadaver
No full textThe palmaris longus muscle is one of the most variable muscles in the human body. Palmaris longus muscle anatomical variations include reversed (palmaris longus inversus muscle), duplicated, triplicated, bifid, hypertrophied, accessory (additional) slips, and/or complete absence. During anatomical dissection of fifty cadavers in the 2019 undergraduate first-year anatomy course at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, we found a palmaris longus inversus muscle bilaterally on an 82 year-old White female cadaver and a unilateral palmaris longus inversus muscle on the right forearm of a 68 year-old White female cadaver. Due to the prevalence of anatomical variations in the palmaris longus muscle, adequate knowledge of such prevalence and clinical significance is needed in multiple medical specialties for its reconstructive use, and the possibility and treatment of clinical syndromes. An accessory (additional) palmaris longus muscle, hypertrophied palmaris longus muscle, hypertrophied palmaris longus inversus muscle, or just the presence of a palmaris longus inversus muscle, can all cause compression to adjacent neurovascular structures, such as the median nerve, ulnar nerve, ulnar artery, and/or the anterior interosseous artery, in the distal forearm and wrist. Palmaris longus tendons are used as grafts in various surgeries, such as extensor tendon repair in rheumatoid arthritis patients, injuries of flexor tendons and repair, lip augmentation, reconstructive hand surgery, frontalis suspension sling in ptosis correction, plastic surgery, and pulley reconstructions. Surgeons, physicians, radiologists, and physiotherapists must be knowledgeable of the many PLM anatomical variations and their possible contributions to pathological processes
Cadaveric Study: An Honour and a Privilege
Get PDFWith the auspicious beginning of this new journal, it is important to recognize and celebrate the continued examination of human anatomy and the wild variation that occurs in each of us
Case Reports: Endovascular Treatment of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis
No full textBackground:
The causes of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) are diverse, and headache is the only symptom in mild cases. However, in severe cases, perfusion disorders may concomitantly cause intracerebral hemorrhage, resulting in serious complications. Herein, we report two severe CVST cases in which good outcomes were obtained following endovascular treatment.
Patients and Methods:
Case 1. A 42-year-old man consulted an ophthalmologist with a chief complaint of decreased vision. The patient had a considerably high intraocular pressure and papilledema. However, due to unknown etiology, he was only prescribed eye drops. He subsequently developed headaches and experienced an alteration in his. An urgent surgery was performed with using the pull-back technique using a suction catheter, following which, the patient’s neurological symptoms improved.
Case 2. A 50-year-old man was transferred to our hospital with a chief complaint of generalized clonic convulsions. The patient was diagnosed with venous sinus thrombosis. Attempts were made to crush the thrombus with a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty balloon and aspirate the thrombus with an aspiration catheter. However, thrombus removal and recanalization could not be achieved. Subsequently, a thrombectomy was performed using the FilterWire technique with a distal embolic protection device. Anterograde blood flow was restored, and the convulsive seizures disappeared.
Conclusion:
Venous perfusion injury should be avoided in severe cases of CVST, and endovascular treatment using various devices is a therapeutic option in such cases