Background: Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a highly selective a 2 -adrenoceptor agonist that has been used increasingly in children. However, the effect of caudal DEX has not been evaluated before in children. This prospective randomized double-blinded study was designed to evaluate the analgesic efficacy of caudal DEX with bupivacaine in providing pain relief over a 24-h period. Methods: Sixty children (ASA status I) aged 1-6 years undergoing unilateral inguinal hernia repair/orchidopexy were allocated randomly to two groups (n 5 30 each). Group B received a caudal injection of bupivacaine 2.5 mg/ml, 1 ml/kg; Group BD received the same dose of bupivacaine mixed with DEX 1 mg/kg during sevoflurane anesthesia. Processed electroencephalogram (bispectral index score), heart rate, blood pressure, pulse oximetry and end-tidal sevoflurane were recorded every 5 min. The characteristics of emergence, objective pain score, sedation score and quality of sleep were recorded post-operatively. Duration of analgesia and requirement for additional analgesics were noted.

Relative positions are recent solutions to overcome the limited accuracy of GPS in urban environment. Vehicle positions obtained using V2I communication are more accurate because the known roadside unit (RSU) locations help predict errors in measurements over time. The accuracy of vehicle positions depends more on the number of RSUs; however, the high installation cost limits the use of this approach. It also depends on nonlinear localization nature. They were neglected in several research papers. In these studies, the accumulated errors increased with time due to the linearity localization problem. In the present study, a cooperative localization method based on V2I communication and distance information in vehicular networks is proposed for improving the estimates of vehicles’ initial positions. This method assumes that the virtual RSUs based on mobility measurements help reduce installation costs and facilitate in handling fault environments. The extended Kalman filter algorithm is a well-known estimator in nonlinear problem, but it requires well initial vehicle position vector and adaptive noise in measurements. Using the proposed method, vehicles’ initial positions can be estimated accurately. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method has superior accuracy than existing methods, giving a root mean square error of approximately 1 m. In addition, it is shown that virtual RSUs can assist in estimating initial positions in fault environments.

<abstract><p>Soft set has limitation for the consideration of disjoint attribute-valued sets corresponding to distinct attributes whereas hypersoft set, an extension of soft set, fully addresses this scarcity by replacing the approximate function of soft sets with multi-argument approximate function. Some structures (i.e., possibility fuzzy soft set, possibility intuitionistic fuzzy soft set) exist in literature in which a possibility of each element in the universe is attached with the parameterization of fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets while defining fuzzy soft set and intuitionistic fuzzy soft set respectively. This study aims to generalize the existing structure (i.e., possibility intuitionistic fuzzy soft set) and to make it adequate for multi-argument approximate function. Therefore, firstly, the elementary notion of possibility intuitionistic fuzzy hypersoft set is developed and some of its elementary properties i.e., subset, null set, absolute set and complement, are discussed with numerical examples. Secondly, its set-theoretic operations i.e., union, intersection, AND, OR and relevant laws are investigated with the help of numerical examples, matrix and graphical representations. Moreover, algorithms based on AND/OR operations are proposed and are elaborated with illustrative examples. Lastly, similarity measure between two possibility intuitionistic fuzzy hypersoft sets is characterized with the help of example. This concept of similarity measure is successfully applied in decision making to judge the eligibility of a candidate for an appropriate job. The proposed similarity formulation is compared with the relevant existing models and validity of the generalization of the proposed structure is discussed.</p></abstract>