Micro-eukaryotic diversity in hypolithons from Miers Valley, Antarctica

The discovery of extensive and complex hypolithic communities in both cold and hot deserts has raised many questions regarding their ecology, biodiversity and relevance in terms of regional productivity. However, most hypolithic research has focused on the bacterial elements of the community. This study represents the first investigation of micro-eukaryotic communities in all three hypolith types. Here we show that Antarctic hypoliths support extensive populations of novel uncharacterized bryophyta, fungi and protists and suggest that well known producer-decomposer-predator interactions may create the necessary conditions for hypolithic productivity in Antarctic deserts

Ketamine as an adjuvant in sympathetic blocks for management of central sensitization following peripheral nerve injury

Proliferation of NMDA receptors and role of glutamate in producing central sensitization and 'wind up' phenomena in CRPS [complex regional pain syndrome] forms a strong basis for the use of Ketamine to block the cellular mechanisms that initiate and maintain these changes. In this case series, we describe 3 patients of CRPS Type II with debilitating central sensitization, heat/mechano allodynia and cognitive symptoms that we termed 'vicarious pain'. Each of these patients had dramatic relief with addition of Ketamine as an adjuvant to the sympathetic blocks after conventional therapy failed

Effects of different sub-lethal concentrations of plasticizer-Diethyl phthalate on Fresh water murrel, Channa striatus (Bloch)

In the present study, effects of exposure to different sub lethal concentrations of diethyl phthalate on hematological, biochemical and histological parameters of fresh water murrel, Channa striatus were evaluated. LC50 of DEP was determined and was found to be 70ppm for the present study. The experimental fishes were divided into control and DEP exposed groups. DEP exposed fish species were subjected to 0.4 ppm, 4 ppm and 40ppm concen-trations of DEP and observed after an interval of 7, 14 and 21days. Exposure to sub lethal levels of DEP revealed significant decrease in haematological parameters due to anemic condition induced by impaired haem synthesis. Exposure to DEP caused reduction in level of protein in muscle (*182.5, *180.7, *176.7, *176.1, *173.4,*167.5 and *165.7) and liver (*104.7, *98.6, *92.7, *87.7, *87.4, *86.4, *80.8, *75.6 and*68.6) due to impairment of protein synthesis. Levels of cholesterol in muscle and liver of DEP exposed fish were found to be decreased after treatment indicating either an inhibition of cholesterol biosynthesis in liver or reduced absorption of dietary cholesterol. Histo-pathological examination of liver of DEP exposed fish species showed necrosis in hepatocytes and cytoplasmic vacuolization. Histoarchitecture of kidney of DEP exposed fish species revealed shrinkage of glomeruli, glomerular distortion, vacuolization of tubular cells, necrosis and atrophy of renal tubules. As an endocrine disruptor, DEP interferes with the haematopoietic system metabolic machinery and histoarchitecture of organs of Channa striatus

Emphysematous pyelonephritis: The role of renal conservation

INTRODUCTION: Emphysematous pyelonephritis was first reported by Kelly and MacCallum in 1898 and was considered to be rare. The term EPN was first used by Schultz and Klorfein and is applied when gas is formed only in or around the kidney. The lack of a strict definition of EPN has resulted in the use of multiplicity of terms, such as renal emphysema, pneumonephritis, pyelonephritis emphysematosa and pneumonephrogram. As suggested by Schultz and Klorfein, emphysematous pyelonephritis is the preferred designation. Gas-forming bacteria using glucose as a substrate cause necrotizing lesions in infected tissue, especially in diabetic patients or those with an obstructive urinary tract infection. EPN can be complicated by acute sepsis, resulting in a poor prognosis. Thus the disease presents a urologic emergency. It deserves special attention because of its life-threatening potential. Mortality rates associated with Emphysematous pyelonephritis vary from 7 to 75%. It has generally been regarded as a rare infection in the earlier reports. However, with the more extensive use of ultrasonography and computed tomography in the evaluation of patients with features of sepsis or complicated urinary tract infection (UTI), more cases of Emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) are being recognized. Huang et al believe that EPN is not rare and should be considered an important clinical entity. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1) To study the feasibility of renal conservation in emphysematous pyelonephritis. 2) To analyse the various prognostic factors that favour renal conservation in emphysematous pyelonephritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective study conducted in Kilpauk Medical College in its constituent hospitals Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Government Royapettah Hospital from September 2004 to April 2007. Inclusion criteria: 1) Patients with features of acute pyelonephritis with gas in the renal parenchyma and beyond it, The symptoms were Fever, chills, loin pain, vomiting. 2) Patients admitted in the emergency, but subsequently evaluated and found to have gas in the renal parenchyma and beyond it with features of acute pyelonephritis. Exclusion criteria: 1) Patients with features of acute pyelonephritis without gas in the renal parenchyma, 2) History of recent endoscopic or open interventions in the urinary Tract, 3) History of recent catheterization. RESULTS: The descriptive statistics of the study population and their derived variables including the mean, standard deviation and maximum and minimum values. Sample size: Total number of patients included in this study was 25. Age: The mean age was 55.12 yrs with a standard deviation of 9.71.The youngest patient was 38 yrs and the oldest was 82 yrs old. Age was not significantly related to the outcomes in our study (p=0.094). Sex: 62% of the total cases were males and 32% were females. There was no significant relationship between sex and outcomes (p=0.0607). CONCLUSION: 1) There is a definite role for renal conservation in properly selected patients of emphysematous pyelonephritis. 2) The following factors at presentation could tilt the balance towards nephrectomy in conservatively managed cases of emphysematous pyelonephritis • Shock, • Altered mental status, • Raised serum creatinine, • Total count >10000/cmm, • Platelet count < 120000/cmm, • Positive blood cultures, • Absence of urinary tract obstruction

Formulation and optimization of Aceclofenac gel

The present research work is to formulate and optimize Aceclofenac gel. Fourier Transfer Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) study revealed no chemical interaction between drug and polymers. The formulations were prepared by using various polymers like Carbopol 934 and HPMC K15M. The formulated gels were evaluated for several physicochemical parameters like drug-polymer interaction, pH, Viscosity, Spredability, Drug content uniformity, In vitro drug release. The formulation F9 Showed maximum drug diffusion rate. The optimization study was carried out to find out effect of two independent variable on diffusion rate at 3 hour and diffusion rate at 6 hour. Optimization was performed by the help of software DESIGN EXPERT 8.0.6 trial. From this study, it was find out that as the concentration of polymer increases, the drug release will decreases

IOT BASED HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM

Health monitoring is a major issue in today’s world. Due to the lack of health monitoring, patientssuffer from serious health problems. Health experts are also taking advantage of these smart devices to keepan eye on their projects. Here in this project, we will make an IOT based health monitoring system whichrecords the patient heartbeat rate, body temperature and skin pressure. Heartbeat rate, body temperatureand skin pressure values are recorded over thingspeak and Google sheets so that patient health can bemonitored from anywhere in the world over the internet. We will use Thinspeak to monitor patient heartbeat,temperature and skin pressure online using internet. We will also use IFTTT platform to connect thingspeakto SMS so that alert message can be sent whenever the patient is in critical state

Optimizing Pre-Trained Models of Deep Learning for Identification of Plant Disease

The Plant diseases should be identified early to prevent the economic loss of farmers and ensure the availability of food for humans. The plant disease identification can be automated by using the Artificial Intelligence techniques. Researchers have proposed many deep learning methods for identifying plant diseases. Deep learning models use an increased number of parameters, it requires higher computational power, training a deep learning model from start requires more time. In this article we utilized transfer learning along with fine tuning for identification of plant diseases. Cassava plant disease dataset was utilised for training. and evaluate the suggested model. The performance accuracy achieved by Resnet50 is 73.12 % and fine-tuned Resnet50 is 80.84 %. The fine-tuned model achieves greater accuracy with a lesser amount of parameters Impact Statement–Artificial Intelligence is evolving all around the world. The AI techniques are used to automate the process of plant disease identification. Traditional methods are not accurate and time consuming. To help the farmers in diagnosing plant disease and stop economic loss to them, we employ deep learning models to do the work. The pretrained models predict the plant diseases, further we fine-tune them in order to get high accuracy. Early identification of the diseases accurately will avoid loss and improve productivity of the crops

Zero noise extrapolation on logical qubits by scaling the error correction code distance

In this work, we migrate the quantum error mitigation technique of Zero-Noise Extrapolation (ZNE) to fault-tolerant quantum computing. We employ ZNE on \emph{logically encoded} qubits rather than \emph{physical} qubits. This approach will be useful in a regime where quantum error correction (QEC) is implementable but the number of qubits available for QEC is limited. Apart from illustrating the utility of a traditional ZNE approach (circuit-level unitary folding) for the QEC regime, we propose a novel noise scaling ZNE method specifically tailored to QEC: \emph{distance scaled ZNE (DS-ZNE)}. DS-ZNE scales the distance of the error correction code, and thereby the resulting logical error rate, and utilizes this code distance as the scaling `knob' for ZNE. Logical qubit error rates are scaled until the maximum achievable code distance for a fixed number of physical qubits, and lower error rates (i.e., effectively higher code distances) are achieved via extrapolation techniques migrated from traditional ZNE. Furthermore, to maximize physical qubit utilization over the ZNE experiments, logical executions at code distances lower than the maximum allowed by the physical qubits on the quantum device are parallelized to optimize device utilization. We validate our proposal with numerical simulation and confirm that ZNE lowers the logical error rates and increases the effective code distance beyond the physical capability of the quantum device. For instance, at a physical code distance of 11, the DS-ZNE effective code distance is 17, and at a physical code distance of 13, the DS-ZNE effective code distance is 21. When the proposed technique is compared against unitary folding ZNE under the constraint of a fixed number of executions of the quantum device, DS-ZNE outperforms unitary folding by up to 92\% in terms of the post-ZNE logical error rate.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Cluster integrals and virial coefficients for realistic molecular models

We present a concise, general, and efficient procedure for calculating the cluster integrals that relate thermodynamic virial coefficients to molecular interactions. The approach encompasses nonpairwise intermolecular potentials generated from quantum chemistry or other sources; a simple extension permits efficient evaluation of temperature and other derivatives of the virial coefficients. We demonstrate with a polarizable model of water. We argue that cluster-integral methods are a potent yet underutilized instrument for the development and application of first-principles molecular models and methods