Assessing the role of probiotics for the enhancement of soil quality under cover crops

Use of agro-chemicals over the past few decades has increased land productivity, however, frequent use of agro-chemicals may result in some negative impacts on the environment and soil microbial biodiversity. Use of alternative management such as application of probiotics for soil and plants is a believed to promote soil biodiversity and soil nutrient cycling. Probiotics are believed to improve plant growth, root development and production of plant growth promoting substances. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effects of SCD Probiotics (Bio-Ag) on soil quality (SQ; microbial biomass, microbial communities, enzymatic activity) in association with cover crops in field and greenhouse studies. This research was conducted at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Soil Health Demonstration Farm, Chariton County, Missouri to quantify probiotic effects on soil biology and enzyme activity. Prior to 2012, the site was comprised of conventional corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean (Glycine max L.) rotation with tillage and chemical fertilizer (anhydrous) use. Soils at the study site were Armstrong loam (fine, smectitic, mesic Aquertic Hapludalfs). The treatments included: control, treatment 1 (Trt1; 60L ha-1 yr-1 of Bio-Ag probiotics), treatment 2 (Trt2; 90L ha-1 yr-1 of Bio-Ag probiotics) and treatment 3 (Trt3; 120L ha-1 yr-1 of Bio-Ag probiotics) with three replications. Two equal split soil applications of probiotics were applied in September 2013 and May 2014. Soil samples were collected in August 2013, September 2013 and June 2014 from 0-6cm depth. Soil microbial biomass and community structures were analyzed using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Standard enzyme assays were used to analyze B-glucosidase, fluorescein diacetate hydrolase (FDA), dehydrogenase (DHA) and B-glucosaminidase activities. Total fungi biomass was highest in Trt3 followed by control, Trt1 and Trt2. Saprophytic fungi, protozoa and rhizobia biomarkers were significantly higher in Trt3 than control. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that PC1 and PC2 accounted for 62% of total variance. PCA also revealed that with time saprophytic fungi, protozoa and rhizobia biomass increased in Trt3 treatment. DHA (p<0.001) and FDA (p<0.037) were significantly higher in Trt3 than control, Trt1 and Trt2. Increasing trends in the values of soil fungal communities, rhizobia, DHA, B-glucosaminidase and FDA with probiotic concentration imply that probiotics can be used to improve SQ parameters. A secondary study was conducted to quantify probiotic effects on hairy vetch roots and precursor-independent auxin production in soils in greenhouse study with control and treatment 3 (Trt3; 120L ha-1 yr- 1 of Bio-Ag probiotics) treatments. Soil dilutions were plated on King's B medium selective for fluorescent pseudomonads. Fluorescent pseudomonads were significantly higher in Trt3 than control after the second probiotic application. Auxin production in soil samples was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography-Mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Probiotics showed no effect on the precursorindependent production of auxin in soil samples. Two plant root samples (36 days old) with replicated images were also collected 7 days after the first probiotic application for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. Images of SEM revealed more root hair growth and microbial colonization on hairy vetch roots treated with probiotic compared to control. Our secondary study implied that root hair growth and fluorescent pseudomonads are increased in hairy vetch with probiotic application. However, there was no effect of probiotic on auxin content in the soils. Our results also suggest that auxin-like substances can be detected using HPLC-MS/MS method and compounds can be recovered up to 87%

The Effects of Prohibition of Non-Audit Services on the Audit Quality and Fees: A Study on Bangladesh

In this paper we have tried to find an answer to the question: does the prohibition of non-audit services affect the audit quality and audit fees in Bangladesh. A questionnaire survey was used to pick-up opinions from a sample of auditors who are working at Big-4 and non-Big-4 audit firms. The results suggest that preventing joint NAS and audit services will lead to the decrease in the number of auditors who provide audit services and hence audit fees would increase. Furthermore, auditors select NAS on the account of audit services due to the less effort required and the higher income gained. It is expected that audit services will be carried out by small audit firms of less experienced and unqualified staff. Demographics as auditors’ academic degree and experience have influenced the respondent auditors’ perceptions on some of the questions. It was found that type of audit firm has no impact on auditors’ perceptions, where all auditors expressed the same views on the impact of the NAS on the audit fees and the audit quality.  It is hope that the findings of this study would pave the way for policy setters to find out the mechanisms that would help in controlling audit fees and ensure a high level of audit quality in the audit market of Bangladesh. Keywords: Auditing, non-audit services, audit quality, audit fees, Bangladesh

ASSESSMENT OF DRUG UTILIZATION AMONG PEDIATRIC PATIENTS IN PRIVATE CLINIC AND PUBLIC HOSPITAL OF BANGLADESH

Objective: Aim of the study was to assess drug utilization among pediatric patients in both private practice and hospital settings in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. Methods: This observational study was conducted during a period of two months (March to April) in 2017. Prescriptions were randomly collected from patients and recorded in a predesigned questionnaire form. The data analysis was carried out by using a statistical software package GraphPad Prism. Results: The study involved a total of 185 patients, of which 62.70% were male and 37.30% were female. The patient’s age ranges from 1 mo-12 y and highest number of patients visited physicians belong to group 1 mo-1 y (47.57%). Most commonly occurring disease conditions were pneumonia (24%), the leading cause of hospitalizations among the children's age group of 1 mo-1 y. The results indicated that physician’s handwriting was not clear and legible in 50 (27.03%) prescriptions. A total of 468 drugs were prescribed with an average of 2.53 per prescription. However, none of the drugs were prescribed by generic name. The most commonly prescribed drugs were antibiotics 173 (93.5%). About 78% patients were exposed to antibiotics, of which single antibiotic was prescribed in 116 (62.70%) and two antibiotics in 23 (12.43%) prescriptions. Among the drugs, NSAIDS 65 (35.14%), anti-histamine 57 (30.81%), anti-asthmatic 49 (26.49%) drugs were assigned in prescriptions followed by vitamin and minerals 51 (27.57%). Steroids 57 (30.81%) and hypnotics 26 (14.05%) were also accounted in many prescriptions. Interestingly, antibiotics were indiscriminately prescribed in private practices without any bacteriological examinations, whereas in hospital settings, most of the treatment was initiated after culture and sensitivity tests. Conclusion: Children were highly exposed to antibiotics, steroids and hypnotics in both private practice and hospital settings. &nbsp;So Medical practitioners should be aware of current guidelines for prescriptions of antibiotics and drugs in child

Morphological Classification of Radio Galaxies using Semi-Supervised Group Equivariant CNNs

Out of the estimated few trillion galaxies, only around a million have been detected through radio frequencies, and only a tiny fraction, approximately a thousand, have been manually classified. We have addressed this disparity between labeled and unlabeled images of radio galaxies by employing a semi-supervised learning approach to classify them into the known Fanaroff-Riley Type I (FRI) and Type II (FRII) categories. A Group Equivariant Convolutional Neural Network (G-CNN) was used as an encoder of the state-of-the-art self-supervised methods SimCLR (A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations) and BYOL (Bootstrap Your Own Latent). The G-CNN preserves the equivariance for the Euclidean Group E(2), enabling it to effectively learn the representation of globally oriented feature maps. After representation learning, we trained a fully-connected classifier and fine-tuned the trained encoder with labeled data. Our findings demonstrate that our semi-supervised approach outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods across several metrics, including cluster quality, convergence rate, accuracy, precision, recall, and the F1-score. Moreover, statistical significance testing via a t-test revealed that our method surpasses the performance of a fully supervised G-CNN. This study emphasizes the importance of semi-supervised learning in radio galaxy classification, where labeled data are still scarce, but the prospects for discovery are immense.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted in INNS Deep Learning Innovations and Applications (INNS DLIA 2023) workshop, IJCNN 2023, to be published in Procedia Computer Scienc

MRR and TWR study of powder mix EDM and pure EDM based on response surface methodology

Powder-mixed electrical discharge machining (PMEDM) enhances the machined surface's output by combining dielectric fluid with various types of powders. This process is quickly gaining acceptance in the electrical discharge machining (EDM) sector. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a dielectric fluid containing tantalum carbide (TaC) powder can improve the material removal rate (MRR) also, lessen tool wear rate (TWR) during the subsequent EDM machining of stainless steel material. The material removal rates, tool wear rate, and mathematical models of two different EDM mediums were examined during the machining. For the machining procedure, kerosene dielectric fluid containing TaC powder at a concentration of 25.0 g/L was used. The machining input variables were used peak current, pulse on time, and pulse off time. We determined how these variables affected the MRR and TWR of the copper-based EDMed electrode tools. During electrical discharge machining, the MRR for stainless steel (SUS 304) was increased by MRRPMEDM by 4.3 to 5.3% and TWRpEDM was reduced by 37.9% when TaC powder additive was used. Optimized results also show that TWR and maximum MRR can be achieved at 81.98% and 13.779mm3/min respectively with 83.50% desirability whenever the pulse on-time and pulse off-time are 6.20 µs and 6.50 µs respectively. The models are reliable and can be used to forecast the machining responses within the experimental region, it can be said. The MRR and TWR model for EDM with TaC powder additive (MRRPMEDM) identifies current as the most significant factor, followed by pulse on time and off-time

THE Visual Outcomes and Prognostic Factors Associated With Open-Globe Injuries among the Pakistani Population

Objective: To determine the visual outcomes and prognostic factors associated with open globe-injuries in patients attending Sindh Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (SIOVS), Hyderabad, Pakistan. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Sindh Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (SIOVS), Hyderabad from January 2022 to February 2023. All patients irrespective of age and gender attended the institute with open globe injury were enrolled. Visual outcomes of open-globe injury were recorded as length of wound and lens status. Complications associated with open-globe injury were also noted. Results: Of 336 patients, the mean age of the patients was 17.6 ± 15.6 years. There were 231 (68.7%) males and 105 (31.3%) females. The most common object of injury was stick/thorn and metal/iron i.e., 117 (34.8%) and 105 (31.3%) respectively. Center of cornea/visual axis involvement was observed in 207 (61.6%) patients. The mean length of the wound was 6.28 ± 3.65 mm. Status of the lens showed an intact lens in 140 (41.7%) patients and traumatic cataract with intact/rupture of capsule in 196 (58.3%) patients. A significant association between the length of the wound and the status of the lens was found with the object of injury (p-value <0.001), and center of cornea/visual axis involvement (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: In this study, the majority of patients with globe injuries were younger. Object of injury and center of cornea/visual axis involvement were two prognostic factors that were significantly associated with visual outcomes of globe injuries