18 research outputs found
Retracted: Visualisation‐based binary classification of android malware using vgg16
No full textAbstract Retraction: [Aryan Marwaha, Rami Qays Malik, Shehab Mohamed Beram, Ali Rizwan, Hari Kishore Kakarla, Deepak Thakur, Tanya Gera, Mohammad Shabaz, Visualisation‐based binary classification of android malware using vgg16, IET Software 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1049/sfw2.12094)]. The above article from IET Software, published online on 23 January 2023 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the Editor‐in‐Chief, Hana Chockler, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (the IET) and John Wiley and Sons Ltd. This article was published as part of a Guest Edited special issue. Following an investigation, the IET and the journal have determined that the article was not reviewed in line with the journal’s peer review standards and there is evidence that the peer review process of the special issue underwent systematic manipulation. Accordingly, we cannot vouch for the integrity or reliability of the content. As such we have taken the decision to retract the article. The authors have been informed of the decision to retract
An exploratory study of peer group influence : how young Indian women choose the clothes that they buy
No full textThe purpose of this research study is to explore the concept of peer group influence as a
socio-psychological factor behind the behaviour of consumers in the field of marketing,
which is now well integrated with the field of psychology. The researcher has come in terms
with various different arguments and elements that different authors have proposed to exist
behind the concept of peer group influence.
The research involves primary as well as secondary research, followed by an analysis of the
interviews conducted during the course of this research. Firstly, the researcher has explored
the various bases of peer group influence that exists, critically evaluated the literature that
exists from the past and explored different arguments. Post that, various research methods
and designs available were evaluated and the researcher chose to conduct the research
using a subjective-deductive approach using qualitative interviews on young Indian women
to test the knowledge explored from the literature.
Results of the research show that:
• Peer Group Influence can be related to an array of different factors that in a sociopsychological
way influences the consumer behaviour.
• Peer Group Influence is pivotal in case of young women when they engage in
purchasing fashion apparels.
• Peer Group Influence not only drives the need to conform and fit in, but also drives the
need to maintain the social identity and peer group memberships.
This value of this research is that it provides knowledge to marketers and academicians
about how far the concept of peer influence has been studied and explored so far. It also
gives an insight into how consumers from collectivist societies such as an Indian society,
who are now under the light of globalisation and are turning individualistic, are affected by
their peers. Author keywords: Consumer behaviour, peer group influence
Corporate governance and whistle blowing in India: promises or reality?
No full text
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to analyze the legal provisions relating to the protection extended to the private company employees who blows the whistle. It is a major requirement of the country that Whistle Blowers Protection Act should not only be made compulsory for public sector but also be made compulsory for private companies of any size so that illegal activities could be identified and major risk could be avoided. Presently, private sector is growing rapidly, and it has a growth in way of economic resources, and private sector is also entering into the public domain by privatization, so exclusion of private sector by the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 is very dangerous.
Design/methodology/approach
The researcher has resorted to primary as well as secondary sources of data. The primary sources of data are the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011, Official Secrets Act, 1923, Right to Information Act, 2005, The 179th Law commission report, report of Second Administrative Reforms Commissions, 2007 and recommendations made by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law and Justice, 2011. The secondary data are the books and articles of different authors.
Findings
This Act provides a mechanism to receive complaints and inquire into the allegations of corruption or willful misuse of power by the public servants only. Although, this act has not come into existence, but on bare perusal, it seems to be inadequate and still needs more amendments for efficient outcomes or else the zeal of whistle blowers particularly in a private sector will fade away. The need of exhaustive and complete law is also necessary so that the evils like corruption can be curbed completely and effectively.
Originality/value
Private sector, if included in the above-mentioned act, would definitely resolve the problem, but on the same hand, it will raise the question of space that needs to be given to private organization. So in concluding remarks, the author would like to suggest that, to improve the organizational quality of private sector, there should be a national legislation which should deal with substantial guidelines that needs to be adopted by private companies. There is a significant need to raise the standard of corporate governance in India, only then it could achieve stability, transparency and growth.
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Protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled study of a multicomponent intervention to promote a sustainable return to work of workers on long-term sick leave — PROWORK: PROmoting a Sustainable and Healthy Return to WORK
No full text© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which
permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the
original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or
other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line
to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory
regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this
licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco
mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.The cost of sickness absence has major social, psychological and financial implications for individuals and organisations. Return-to-work (RTW) interventions that support good quality communication and contact with the workplace can reduce the length of sickness absence by between 15 and 30 days. However, initiatives promoting a sustainable return to work for workers with poor mental health on long-term sickness absence across small, medium and large enterprises (SMEs and LEs) are limited. This paper describes the protocol of a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the feasibility of implementing a RTW intervention across SMEs and LEs across all sectors.https://pilotfeasibilitystudies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40814-022-01143-
The emerging role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in urban and regional planning in India
No full textUrban and regional planning faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century, ranging from rapid urbanization and population growth to climate change and resource depletion. In addressing these challenges, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative toolset for planners, offering advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and optimization capabilities. In this paper, the author discusses how artificial intelligence can be integrated into urban and regional planning in India’s socio-economic landscape. It highlights the use of machine learning to predict future trends and interpret complex data sets, geospatial analysis using various AI-powered tools for spatial planning, as well as Natural Language Processing for data mining. As a way of understanding and improving urban infrastructure, deep learning techniques can be used in urban image analysis and agent-based modeling along with urban simulation for better prediction and decision-making. Nevertheless, a great number of actors make it difficult to implement such techniques locally such as the absence of valuable local data, limited infrastructure facilities, professional knowledge gaps among employees and their poor integration into existing planning processes. The article strongly stresses institutional capacity building, interagency cooperation through governance structures and open data initiatives. Importantly, there has been an indication that the Indian government is committed to artificial intelligence based on various initiatives and policies showing its willingness to embrace these technologies despite their minimal
direct application in Indian urban and regional development so far
Bipolar At-Risk Criteria: An Examination of Which Clinical Features Have Optimal Utility for Identifying Youth at Risk of Early Transition from Depression to Bipolar Disorders
No full text\ua9 The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. Background: A clinical and research challenge is to identify which depressed youth are at risk of "early transition to bipolar disorders (ET-BD)." This 2-part study (1) examines the clinical utility of previously reported BD at-risk (BAR) criteria in differentiating ET-BD cases from unipolar depression (UP) controls; and (2) estimates the Number Needed to Screen (NNS) for research and general psychiatry settings. Methods: Fifty cases with reliably ascertained, ET-BD I and II cases were matched for gender and birth year with 50 UP controls who did not develop BD over 2 years. We estimated the clinical utility for finding true cases and screening out non-cases for selected risk factors and their NNS. Using a convenience sample (N = 80), we estimated the NNS when adjustments were made to account for data missing from clinical case notes. Results: Sub-threshold mania, cyclothymia, family history of BD, atypical depression symptoms and probable antidepressant-emergent elation, occurred significantly more frequently in ET-BD youth. Each of these "BAR-Depression" criteria demonstrated clinical utility for screening out non-cases. Only cyclothymia demonstrated good utility for case finding in research settings; sub-threshold mania showed moderate utility. In the convenience sample, the NNS for each criterion ranged from ∼4 to 7. Conclusions: Cyclothymia showed the optimum profile for case finding, screening and NNS in research settings. However, its presence or absence was only reported in 50% of case notes. Future studies of ET-BD instruments should distinguish which criteria have clinical utility for case finding vs screening
Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from India, with lytic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
No full textBacteriophages are being considered as a promising natural resource for the development of alternative strategies against mycobacterial diseases, especially in the context of the wide spread occurrence of drug-resistance amongst the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis. However, there isnâ t much information documented on mycobacteriophages from India. Here, we report the isolation of 17 mycobacteriophages using M. smegmatis as the bacterial host where 9 phages also lyse M. tuberculosis H37Rv. We present detailed analysis of one of these mycobacteriophage (PDRPv). TEM and PCR analysis (of a conserved region within the TMP gene) shows PDRPv to belong to Siphoviridae family and B1 sub-cluster, respectively. The genome (69110 bp) of PDRPv is circularly permuted double-stranded DNA with ~66% GC content and has 106 open reading frames (ORFs). On the basis of sequence similarity and conserved domains, we have assigned function to 28 ORFs and have broadly categorized them into six groups that are related to replication genome maintenance, DNA packaging, virion release, structural proteins, lysogeny related genes and endolysins.
The present study reports the occurrence of novel anti-mycobacterial phages in India and highlights their potential to contribute to our understanding of these phages and their gene products as potential antimicrobial agents.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
The effectiveness of a primary care based collaborative care model to improve quality of life in people with severe mental illness: the PARTNERS2 cluster randomised controlled trial
No full textThis is the final version. Available on open access from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this recordData Availability and Governance Statement:
Anonymised data may be made available by request to corresponding author. The study protocol has been
published and a link to statistical analysis plan is included in the paper. CONSORT 2010 guidelines were
followed in the reporting of this trial.
Several authors had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit
for publication.
Changes from the original funding proposal include, following pilot work, a funded extension for a full trial
(rather than an external pilot trial as originally funded), which is described in the published protocol, trial
registry and statistical analysis plan.
The discrepancies from the published protocol included provision of top up training for existing practitioners
during the trial, changes made in response to COVID-19 included online delivery and remote data collection.
The study protocol and statistical analysis plan have been publishedBackground
Individuals living with severe mental illness can have significant emotional, physical and social challenges.
Collaborative Care combines clinical and organisational components.
Aim
We tested whether a primary care-based Collaborative Care model (PARTNERS) would improve quality of life
for people with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other psychoses compared to usual care.
Methods
A general practice-based cluster randomised controlled superiority trial (ISRCTN 95702682). Practices were
recruited from four English regions and allocated (1:1) to intervention or control. Individuals receiving limited
input in secondary care or who were under primary care only were eligible. The 12-month PARTNERS
intervention incorporated person centred coaching support and liaison work. The primary outcome was change
in Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA).
Results
We allocated 39 general practices, with 198 participants, to the PARTNERS intervention (20 practices; 116
participants) or control (19 practices; 82 participants). Primary outcome data were available for 99 (85.3%)
intervention and 71 (86.6%) control participants. Mean change in overall MANSA score did not differ between
the groups (0.25 (s.d. 0.73) for intervention vs 0.21 (s.d. 0.86) for control); estimated fully adjusted between group difference 0.03, 95% CI -0.25 to 0.31; p=0.819. Acute mental health episodes (safety outcome) included
three crises among those receiving the intervention and four among those not.
Conclusion
There was no evidence of a difference in quality of life, as measured with the MANSA, between those receiving
the PARTNERS intervention and usual care. Shifting care to primary care was not associated with increased
adverse outcomesNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR
A systematic review of interventions in the early course of bipolar disorder I or II: a report of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders Taskforce on early intervention
No full text\ua9 2023, The Author(s).Background: Given the likelihood of progressive illness in bipolar disorder (BD), it is important to understand the benefits and risks of interventions administered early in illness course. We conducted a systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions in the early course of BD I or II. Methods: We completed a systematic search on MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL and Google Scholar from 1/1/1979 till 14/9/2022. We included controlled trials examining intervention effects on symptomatic, course, functional and tolerability outcomes of patients in the ‘early course’ of BD I or II. We classified patients to be in early course if they (a) were seeking help for the first time for a manic episode, (b) had a lifetime history of up to 3 manic episodes, or (c) had up to 6 lifetime mood episodes. Evidence quality was assessed using the GRADE approach. Results: From 4135 unique publications we included 25 reports representing 2212 participants in 16 randomized studies, and 17,714 participants from nine non-randomized studies. Available evidence suggested that in early illness course, lithium use was associated with lower recurrence risk compared with other mood stabilizers. Mood stabilizers were also associated with better global functioning, compared with the use of antipsychotics in the medium term. While summative findings regarding psychological therapies were limited by heterogeneity, family-focused and cognitive-behavioral interventions were associated with reduced recurrence risk or improved symptomatic outcomes. There was some evidence that the same pharmacological interventions were more efficacious in preventing recurrences when utilized in earlier rather than later illness course. Conclusions and recommendations: While there are promising initial findings, there is a need for more adequately powered trials to examine the efficacy and tolerability of interventions in youth and adults in early illness course. Specifically, there is a compelling need to compare the relative benefits of lithium with other pharmacological agents in preventing recurrences. In addition to symptomatic outcomes, there should be a greater focus on functional impact and tolerability. Effective pharmacological and psychological interventions should be offered to those in early course of BD, balancing potential risks using shared decision-making approaches
Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar (CRiB2): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial assessing efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive remediation therapy compared to treatment as usual
No full text\ua9 2023, The Author(s).Background: A substantial proportion of people with bipolar disorder (BD) experience persistent cognitive difficulties associated with impairments in psychosocial functioning and a poorer disorder course. Emerging evidence suggests that cognitive remediation (CR), a psychological intervention with established efficacy in people with schizophrenia, can also benefit people with BD. Following a proof-of-concept trial showing that CR is feasible and potentially beneficial for people with BD, we are conducting an adequately powered trial in euthymic people with BD to 1) determine whether an individual, therapist-supported, computerised CR can reduce cognitive difficulties and improve functional outcomes; and 2) explore how CR exerts its effects. Methods: CRiB2 is a two-arm, assessor-blind, multi-site, randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing CR to treatment-as-usual (TAU). Participants are people with a diagnosis of BD, aged between 18 and 65, with no neurological or current substance use disorder, and currently euthymic. 250 participants will be recruited through primary, secondary, tertiary care, and the community. Participants will be block-randomised (1:1 ratio, stratified by site) to continue with their usual care (TAU) or receive a 12-week course of therapy and usual care (CR + TAU). The intervention comprises one-on-one CR sessions with a therapist supplemented with independent cognitive training for 30–40 h in total. Outcomes will be assessed at 13- and 25-weeks post-randomisation. Efficacy will be examined by intention-to-treat analyses estimating between-group differences in primary (i.e., psychosocial functioning at week 25 measured with the Functional Assessment Short Test) and secondary outcomes (i.e., measures of cognition, mood, patient-defined goals, and quality of life). Global cognition, metacognitive skills, affect fluctuation, and salivary cortisol levels will be evaluated as putative mechanisms of CR through mediation models. Discussion: This study will provide a robust evaluation of efficacy of CR in people with BD and examine the putative mechanisms by which this therapy works. The findings will contribute to determining the clinical utility of CR and potential mechanisms of action. Trial registration: Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar 2 (CRiB2): ISRCTN registry: https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN10362331 . Registered 04 May 2022. Overall trial status: Ongoing; Recruitment status: Recruiting
