A decreased ratio of the width of retinal arteries to veins [arteriolar-to-venular diameter ratio (AVR)], is well established as predictive of cerebral atrophy, stroke and other cardiovascular events in adults. Tortuous and dilated arteries and veins, as well as decreased AVR are also markers for plus disease in retinopathy of prematurity. This work presents an automated method to estimate the AVR in retinal color images by detecting the location of the optic disc, determining an appropriate region of interest (ROI), classifying vessels as arteries or veins, estimating vessel widths, and calculating the AVR. After vessel segmentation and vessel width determination, the optic disc is located and the system eliminates all vessels outside the AVR measurement ROI. A skeletonization operation is applied to the remaining vessels after which vessel crossings and bifurcation points are removed, leaving a set of vessel segments consisting of only vessel centerline pixels. Features are extracted from each centerline pixel in order to assign these a soft label indicating the likelihood that the pixel is part of a vein. As all centerline pixels in a connected vessel segment should be the same type, the median soft label is assigned to each centerline pixel in the segment. Next, artery vein pairs are matched using an iterative algorithm, and the widths of the vessels are used to calculate the AVR. We trained and tested the algorithm on a set of 65 high resolution digital color fundus photographs using a reference standard that indicates for each major vessel in the image whether it is an artery or vein. We compared the AVR values produced by our system with those determined by a semi-automated reference system. We obtained a mean unsigned error of 0.06 (SD 0.04) in 40 images with a mean AVR of 0.67. A second observer using the semi-automated system obtained the same mean unsigned error of 0.06 (SD 0.05) on the set of images with a mean AVR of 0.66. The testing data and reference standard used in this study has been made publicly available.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the dimensions of service quality used in different countries across the world, especially in the higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis is used to get a comprehensive insight of the studies accumulated from some of the selected databases such as Emerald Insight, Ebsco ABI/inform, etc. All these studies are related to the measuring of service quality in higher education. Findings The result of this paper reveals that SERVQUAL is the most widely accepted scale which has its dominance in the higher education setting. The paper focuses on revealing the dimensions which are used in the past studies. The paper notices a huge variation in the items as well as constructs while exploring the dimensions. Further, it is observed that many of the studies considered in this paper picked dimensions from other studies, expert opinions and factor analysis. In addition to this, it is found that different scales are proposed and checked for their reliability and validity through the confirmatory factor analysis. Few studies confirm the validity using average variance extracted (AVE), model fit values and correlations. Practical implications The study will help other researchers to get a summarised form of different dimensions used in the higher education setting. It also points out the essential and common dimensions of similar studies. Further, with different samples and geographical location, it can help us to identify how the dimension varies as we move from one part to another around the globe with different samples. Further, it formulates directions to pick correct combination of scale, administration and methods that are useful in collecting the data and getting the inference out of it under correct settings. Originality/value The summarisation of different studies will help the researchers to have a holistic view of the important studies that took place in the higher education setting.

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Purpose Using job demand-control-support (JDCS) model as its foundation, the purpose of this paper is to examine the important, but under-explored, relationship between perceptions of work–life conflict and burnout being mediated and moderated by support systems and resilience among female employees in India. Design/methodology/approach A total of 270 female employees belonging to various sectors such as Information Technology/ Information Technology enabled services, retail, bank and hospitality located in Northern India were surveyed. The study used stratified sampling method for good coverage from different departments of the organizations. The structural equation method was used to test the direct effect, and for the mediation effects, they were tested by the method of indirect effects (Preacher and Hayes, 2004). Findings The results supported the hypothesized model that there exists a significant and positive relationship of work–life conflict with burnout, and work–life conflict has a negative association with both family support and organizational support. The findings also supported the hypothesis that family support and organizational support mediate the relationship of work–life conflict and burnout. This analysis expectedly confirmed that resilience not only displayed a negative relationship with burnout but also exhibited a moderated relationship with organizational and family support. Research limitations/implications The research design was co-relational and cross-sectional, so inferring causality is not possible. Future research must incorporate a longitudinal design to investigate the causal effects of work–life conflict on employees’ experiences of burnout and whether it gets buffered by availability of workplace support and family support. Practical implications It is imperative for the organizations to take substantial steps to reduce job burden and deadline pressure on the female employees, nurture decision autonomy at all levels of hierarchy and encourage amiable relationships of employees with their supervisors and peers based on mutual trust and support. Originality/value Although most of the research studies on work–life conflict have been unidirectional, i.e. investigating spillover of work demands on to family domains (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Byrne and Barling, 2017), these conflicts have been found to be bidirectional, meaning thereby that family issues do spill over into work realm (Makela and Suutari, 2011). This study examines both directions of work–life conflict.