Context-Aware Resource Management in Heterogenous Smart Environments

ROY, Abhishek,SAXENA, Navrati,SHIN, Jitae The Institute of Electronics, Information and Comm 2009 IEICE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS - Vol.92 No.1

<P>An information-theoretic, optimal framework is developed for tracking the residents in a Context-aware Heterogenous Smart Environment. The resident-tracking problem is formulated in terms of weighted entropy. The framework provides an optimal, online learning and prediction of users movement, location as well as most probable path segments from the symbolic domain. Successful prediction helps in on-demand operations of automated indoor devices along the users future paths and locations, thus providing the necessary comfort at a near-optimal cost. Simulation results corroborate the high prediction success, thereby providing resident-comfort while reducing energy consumption and manual operations.</P>

A Novel Resource Allocation and Admission Control in LTE Systems

ROY, Abhishek,SAXENA, Navrati,SHIN, Jitae The Institute of Electronics, Information and Comm 2010 IEICE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS - Vol.93 No.3

<P>In this letter we propose a novel resource allocation and admission control strategy for OFDMA-based emerging LTE systems. Considering users' reneging and migration between service providers, we first prove that the optimal resource allocation problem, which maximizes the service provider's gross income is, NP-complete. Subsequently, we propose two different heuristics based on dynamic programming and greedy algorithms to get a near-optimal resource allocation and admission control strategy in computationally feasible time. Simulation results point out that the solutions offer increased gross income of the service provider, while offering low latency, adequate throughput and session acceptance.</P>

Multi-Objective Handover in LTE Macro/Femto-Cell Networks

Abhishek Roy,신지태,나브라티색서나 한국통신학회 2012 Journal of communications and networks Vol.14 No.5

One of the key elements in the emerging, packet-based long term evolution (LTE) cellular systems is the deployment of multiple femtocells for the improvement of coverage and data rate. However, arbitrary overlaps in the coverage of these femtocells make the handover operation more complex and challenging. As the existing handover strategy of LTE systems considers only carrier to interference plus noise ratio (CINR), it often suffers from resource constraints in the target femtocell, thereby leading to handover failure. In this paper, we propose a new ef-ficient, multi-objective handover solution for LTE cellular systems. The proposed solution considersmultiple parameters like signal strength and available bandwidth in the selection of the optimal target cell. This results in a significant increase in the handover success rate, thereby reducing the blocking of handover and new sessions. The overall handover process is modeled and analyzed by a three-dimensional Markov chain. The analytical results for the major performance metrics closely resemble the simulation results. The simulation results show that the proposedmulti-objective handover offers considerable improvement in the session blocking rates, session queuing delay, handover latency, and goodput during handover.

Multi-Objective Handover in LTE Macro/Femto-Cell Networks

Roy, Abhishek,Shin, Jitae,Saxena, Navrati The Korea Institute of Information and Commucation 2012 Journal of communications and networks Vol.14 No.5

One of the key elements in the emerging, packet-based long term evolution (LTE) cellular systems is the deployment of multiple femtocells for the improvement of coverage and data rate. However, arbitrary overlaps in the coverage of these femtocells make the handover operation more complex and challenging. As the existing handover strategy of LTE systems considers only carrier to interference plus noise ratio (CINR), it often suffers from resource constraints in the target femtocell, thereby leading to handover failure. In this paper, we propose a new efficient, multi-objective handover solution for LTE cellular systems. The proposed solution considers multiple parameters like signal strength and available bandwidth in the selection of the optimal target cell. This results in a significant increase in the handover success rate, thereby reducing the blocking of handover and new sessions. The overall handover process is modeled and analyzed by a three-dimensional Markov chain. The analytical results for the major performance metrics closely resemble the simulation results. The simulation results show that the proposed multi-objective handover offers considerable improvement in the session blocking rates, session queuing delay, handover latency, and goodput during handover.

Location-based social video sharing over next generation cellular networks

Roy, Abhishek,De, Pradipta,Saxena, Navrati IEEE 2015 IEEE communications magazine Vol.53 No.10

<P>The popularity of video sharing over social networks is straining service providers to maintain high quality of service. With the introduction of live video streaming over social networks, video sharing is truly becoming social and real time. However, existing video distribution architecture, split across content providers and mobile network operators, cannot leverage crossprovider information. We argue that MNOs can explore the knowledge of users' location to route video traffic intelligently. This can enable better quality of experience for live social video sharing. We show different scenarios in existing cellular networks, where user experience can suffer due to current video distribution mechanism. We propose that use of the location information of the receiver with respect to the sender can be exploited by next generation cellular networks for improving video streaming quality. Our simulation experiments validate that on all QoE metrics there is opportunity for significant improvement in live video streaming by using relative locations of the receivers and senders.</P>

Change in Trend in Various Clinico-Pathological Factors and Treatment Profile of Breast Cancer Patients: a Tertiary Cancer Centre Experience

Shankar, Abhishek,Roy, Shubham,Rath, GK,Kamal, Vineet Kumar,Bhandari, Menal,Kulshrestha, Rashi,Prasad, Neelam,Sachdev, Jaineet,Jeyaraj, Pamela Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.8

Background: Breast cancer is by far the most frequent cancer of women (23% of all cancers), ranking second overall when both sexes are considered together. Since there has been change in clinico-pathological factors and treatment profiles for breast cancer patients over the years, the present study to evaluate the change trends in India. Materials and Methods: A detailed analysis was carried out with respect to age, menopausal status, family history, disease stage, surgery performed, histopathology, hormone receptor status, and use of chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Change in various clinico-pathological factors and treatments of breast cancer cases was recorded and analysed. Results: Mean age at presentation was found to be earlier in 2005-2006 compared with 1997-98 (p value: 0.046). More premenopausal women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005-2006 when this was compared with initial years of assessment (p value ${\leq}0.001$). When change in the receptor status was evaluated, we observed that there was a decrease in cases of ER and PR receptor positivity which was significant (p value: 0.007). Over the period of time, more f patients were not offered surgery initially in view of advanced disease when the two time periods were compared (p value: ${\leq}0.001$). There was a significant increase in patients who were initially offered neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in view of advanced disease at presentation (p value: ${\leq}0.001$). There was increasing number of patients who received palliative treatment for symptoms in 2005-2006 when compared to patients treated in 1997-98((p value: ${\leq}0.001$). Conclusions: Changes in mean age at presentation, premenopausal status, and stage at presentation have occurred over the years. More aggressive patterns of disease have become more common with early age at presentation and aggressive biological behaviour with receptor negative tumours.

Contralateral Breast Cancer: a Clinico-pathological Study of Second Primaries in Opposite Breasts after Treatment of Breast Malignancy

Shankar, Abhishek,Roy, Shubham,Malik, Abhidha,Kamal, Vineet Kumar,Bhandari, Ruchir,Kishor, Kunal,Mahajan, M.K.,Sachdev, Jaineet,Jeyaraj, Pamela,Rath, G.K. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.3

Background: Breast cancer is by far the most frequent cancer of women (23 % of all cancers), ranking second overall when both sexes are considered together. Contralateral breast cancer (CBC) is becoming an important public health issue because of the increased incidence of primary breast cancer and improved survival. The present communication concerns a study to evaluate the role of various clinico-pathological factors on the occurrence of contralateral breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A detailed analysis was carried out with respect to age, menopausal status, family history, disease stage, surgery performed, histopathology, hormone receptor status, and use of chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. The diagnosis of CBC was confirmed on histopathology report. Relative risk with 95%CI was calculated for different risk factors of contralateral breast cancer development. Results: CBC was found in 24 (4.5%) out of 532 patients. Mean age of presentation was 43.2 years. Family history of breast cancer was found in 37.5% of the patients. There was statistically significant higher rate (83.3%) of CBC in patients in age group of 20-40 years with RR=11.3 (95% CI: 1.4, 89.4, p=0.006) seen in 20-30 years and RR=10.8 (95% CI:1.5-79.6, p=0.002) in 30-40 years as compared to older age of 60-70 years. Risk of development was higher in premenopausal women (RR=8.6, 95% CI: 3.5-21.3, $p{\leq}0.001$). Women with family history of breast cancer had highest rate (20.9%) of CBC (RR=5.4, 95% CI: 2.5-11.6, $p{\leq}0.001$). Use of hormonal therapy in hormone receptor positive patients was protective factor in occurrence of CBC but not significant (RR=0.7, 95% CI: 0.3-1.5, p=0.333). Conclusions: Younger age, premenopausal status, and presence of family history were found to be significant risk factors for the development of CBC. Use of hormonal therapy in hormone receptor positive patients might be protective against occurrence of CBC but did not reach significance.

Aromatase Inhibition and Capecitabine Combination as 1^st or 2^nd Line Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer - a Retrospective Analysis

Shankar, Abhishek,Roy, Shubham,Rath, Goura Kishor,Julka, Pramod Kumar,Kamal, Vineet Kumar,Malik, Abhidha,Patil, Jaineet,Jeyaraj, Pamela Alice,Mahajan, Manmohan K Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.15

Background: Preclinical studies have shown that the combination of an aromatase inhibitor (AI) and capecitabine in estrogen receptor (ER)- positive cell lines enhance antitumor efficacy. This retrospective analysis of a group of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) evaluated the efficacy and safety of combined AI with capecitabine. Materials and Methods: Patients with hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer treated between 1st January 2005 and 31st December 2010 with a combination of capecitabine and AI were evaluated and outcomes were compared with those of women treated with capecitabine in conventional dose or AI as a monotherapy. Results: Of 72 patients evaluated, 31 received the combination treatment, 22 AI and 19 capecitabine. The combination was used in 20 patients as first-line and 11 as second-line treatment. Mean age was 46.2 years with a range of 28-72 years. At the time of progression, 97% had a performance status of <2 and 55% had visceral disease. No significant difference was observed between the three groups according to clinical and pathological features. Mean follow up was 38 months with a range of 16-66 months. The median PFS of first-line treatment was significantly better for the combination (PFS 21 months vs 8.0 months for capecitabine and 15.0 months for AI). For second-line treatment, the PFS was longer in the combination compared with capecitabine and Al groups (18 months vs. 5.0 months vs. 11.0 months, respectively). Median 2 year and 5 year survival did not show any significant differences among combination and monotherapy groups. The most common adverse events for the combination group were grade 1 and 2 hand-for syndrome (69%), grade 1 fatigue (64%) and grade 1 diarrhoea (29%). Three grade 3 hand-foot syndrome events were reported. Conclusions: Combination treatment with capecitabine and AI used as a first line or second line treatment was safe with much lowered toxicity. Prospective randomized clinical trials should evaluate the use of combination therapy in advanced breast cancer to confirm these findings.

Level of Awareness of Cervical and Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Safe Practices among College Teachers of Different States in India: Do Awareness Programmes Have an Impact on Adoption of Safe Practices?

Shankar, Abhishek,Rath, G.K.,Roy, Shubham,Malik, Abhidha,Bhandari, Ruchir,Kishor, Kunal,Barnwal, Keshav,Upadyaya, Sneha,Srivastava, Vivek,Singh, Rajan Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.3

Background: Breast and cervical cancers are the most common causes of cancer mortality among women in India, but actually they are largely preventable diseases. Although early detection is the only way to reduce morbidity and mortality, there are limited data on breast and cervical cancer knowledge, safe practices and attitudes of teachers in India. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of awareness and impact of awareness programs in adoption of safe practices in prevention and early detection. Materials and Methods: This assessment was part of a pink chain campaign on cancer awareness. During cancer awareness events in 2011 at various women colleges in different parts in India, a pre-test related to cervical cancer and breast cancer was followed by an awareness program. Post-tests using the same questionnaire were conducted at the end of the interactive session, at 6 months and 1 year. Results: A total of 156 out of 182 teachers participated in the study (overall response rate was 85.7 %). Mean age of the study population was 42.4 years (range- 28-59 yrs). There was a significant increase in level of knowledge regarding cervical and breast cancer at 6 months and this was sustained at 1 year. Adoption of breast self examination (BSE) was significantly more frequent in comparison to CBE, mammography and the Pap test. Magazines and newspapers were sources for knowledge regarding screening tests for breast cancer in more than 60% of teachers where as more than 75% were educated by doctors regarding the Pap test. Post awareness at 6 months and 1 year, there was a significant change in alcohol and smoking habits. Major reasons for not doing screening test were found to be ignorance (50%), lethargic attitude (44.8%) and lack of time (34.6%). Conclusions: Level of knowledge of breast cancer risk factors, symptoms and screening methods was high as compared to cervical cancer. There was a significant increase in level of knowledge regarding cervical and breast cancer at 6 months and this was sustained at 1 year. Adoption of BSE was significantly greater in comparison to CBE, mammography and the Pap test. To inculcate safe practices in lifestyle of people, awareness programmes such as pink chain campaign should be conducted more widely and frequently.

Prevention of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Cancer Patients

Shankar, Abhishek,Roy, Shubham,Malik, Abhidha,Julka, PK,Rath, GK Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.15

The supportive care of patients receiving antineoplastic treatment has dramatically improved over the past few years and development of effective measures to prevent nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy serves as one of the most important examples of this progress. A patient who starts cancer treatment with chemotherapy lists chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting as among their greatest fears. Inadequately controlled emesis impairs functional activity and quality of life, increases the use of health care resources, and may occasionally compromise adherence to treatment. New insights into the pathophysiology of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, a better understanding of the risk factors for these effects, and the availability of new antiemetic agents have all contributed to substantial improvements in emetic control. This review focuses on current understanding of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and the status of pharmacological interventions for their prevention and treatment.