Probing photon-ALP oscillations from the MAGIC observations of FSRQ QSO B1420+326

At the beginning of the year 2020, MAGIC reported a very-high-energy (VHE) flaring activity from the FSRQ QSO B1420+326. It is now the fourth known most distant blazar (z=0.682) with an observed VHE gamma-ray emission. In this work, we investigate the effect of photon-axion-like particle (ALP) oscillations in the gamma-ray spectra measured by Fermi-LAT and MAGIC around the flaring state. We set 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limit on the ALP parameters and obtain a constraint on the photon-ALP coupling constant $g_{a\gamma} < 2\times10^{-11}$ GeV$^{-1}$ for ALP masses $m_{a} \sim 10^{-10}-10^{-9}$ eV. Assuming the hadronic origin of VHE photons, we also estimate the expected neutrino flux from this source and the contribution to diffuse neutrino flux from QSO B1420+326-like FSRQs at sub-PeV energies. Furthermore, we study the implications of photon-ALP oscillations on the counterpart $\gamma$-rays of the sub-PeV neutrinos. Finally, we investigate a viable scenario of invisible neutrino decay to ALPs on the gamma-ray spectra and diffuse $\gamma$-ray flux at sub-PeV energies. Interestingly, we find that for the choice of neutrino lifetime $\tau_{2}/m_{2} = 10^3$ s eV$^{-1}$, the $\gamma$-ray flux has a good observational sensitivity towards LHAASO-KM2A.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; comments and feedback are welcom

Ensemble Boosted Tree based Mammogram image classification using Texture features and extracted smart features of Deep Neural Network

/n This work proposes a technique of breast cancer detection from mammogram images. It is a multistage process which classifies the mammogram images into benign or malignant category. During preprocessing, images of Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database are passed through a couple of filters for noise removal, thresholding and cropping techniques to extract the region of interest, followed by augmentation process on database to enhance its size. Features from Deep Convolution Neural Network (DCNN) are merged with texture features to form final feature vector. Using transfer learning, deep features are extracted from a modified DCNN, whose training is performed on 69% of randomly selected images of database from both categories. Features of Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) are merged to form texture features. Mean and variance of four parameters (contrast, correlation, homogeneity and entropy) of GLCM are computed in four angular directions, at ten distances. Ensemble Boosted Tree classifier using five-fold cross-validation mode, achieved an accuracy, sensitivity, specificity of 98.8%, 100% and 92.55% respectively on this feature vector

Pharmacoeconomic analysis of drugs used for peptic ulcer in India

Background: Acid peptic disorders are common medical problems in daily clinical practice leading to a significant economic burden on healthcare expenses. Due to lack of information on comparative drug prices and quality, it becomes difficult for physicians to prescribe the most economical treatment. So the present study was planned to analyse the price variations of various anti-ulcer drugs available in India.Methods: The cost of a particular anti-ulcer drug being manufactured by different companies, in the same dose and dosage forms, was obtained from latest issue of ‘‘current index of medical specialties’’ January to April, 2016. The difference between the maximum and minimum prices of same drug was analysed and percentage variation in the prices was calculated.Results: Overall, the prices of a total of 12 anti-ulcer drugs belonging to four different categories available in 38 different formulations were analysed.  Among the proton pump inhibitors, pantoprazole (40 mg; EC tablet) showed the maximum price variation of 500.75%. With regard to H2 blockers, ranitidine (50 mg; injection) showed the maximum price variation of 989.92%. The maximum price variation among various formulations of ulcer protective was seen with sucralfate (1000 mg; tablet) of 166.00% while misoprostol (200µg; tablet) was the only drug present in prostaglandin analogues and it showed a price variability of 14.33%.Conclusions: The average percentage variations of different brands of the same anti-ulcer drugs in same dose and dosage form manufactured in India were very wide. The government and drug manufacturing companies must direct their efforts in reducing the cost of anti-ulcer drugs and thereby minimizing the economic burden on the patients

In-vitro anti-oxidant studies on ethanolic extract of Alpinia galanga linn

Background: The free radical scavenging activity by in-vitro antioxidant assay is performed on ethanolic extract of Alpinia galanga. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules produced as a by-product during metabolism of oxygen. From the current understanding of pathophysiology, it is extensively proved about the positive role of reactive oxygen species in degenerative disease. Nature has provided abundant fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants with rich source of antioxidants as the natural defense against free radical induced damage to living organisms.Methods: The present study is to screen and document the antioxidant property of Alpinia galanga from Zingiberaceae family by lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil radical scavenging in vitro antioxidant assay.Results: The results are the percentage inhibitory concentration (IC) of       Alpinia galanga are as follows IC50 102.70 mcg/ml, IC50 63.35 mcg/ml and IC50 8.80 mcg/ml and for control vitamin E is IC50 29 mcg/ml, IC50 15 mcg/ml and IC50 18 mcg/ml by Lipid peroxidation, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil and nitric oxide free radical scavenging activity respectively.Conclusions: The Alpinia galanga root ethanolic extracts from Zingiberaceae family has significant nitric oxide free radical scavenging activity

An analysis of aspartic peptidases expressed by trophoblasts and placenta of even-toed ungulates

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on February 23, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Jonathan A. Green.VitaPh.D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2008.The Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins (PAGs) represent a multigene family of trophoblast expressed proteins, found exclusively in the placenta of even-toed mammals such as ruminants (cattle, sheep), pig, etc. In ruminants, the PAGs can be classified into ancient and modern PAGs based on their coding sequence. In addition, there are also differences in purported enzymatic activity as well as transcriptional regulation of expression. Many of the modern PAGs have accumulated mutations in and around the catalytic center, and some of those that incurred mutations in the two catalytic aspartates are predicted to be proteolytically inactive. In contrast, most of the ancient PAGs of ruminants and swine, have all the hallmarks of typical aspartic peptidases (APs). From the analysis of cattle genome, we found that there are 18 distinct PAG genes and 14 pseudogenes. Based on our preliminary analysis of the proximal promoter regions [500 base pairs (bp) upstream of the translational start point] of PAG genes, we found that there are pockets of conserved transcription factor binding sites that are different between ancient and modern PAGs. These differences likely influence the observed differences in expression between ancient and modern boPAGs. We gathered evidence by Real-time PCR and global analysis of expressed ESTs that confirm that, boPAG-2 is the most abundant of all boPAGs. We identified boPAG-2 and its closest paralog boPAG-12, as well as poPAG-2 the ancient PAG found in pigs, as the candidates for investigation of proteolytic activity. From our experiments we found that, boPAGs -2 and -12 and poPAG-2 are proteases with optimal activity under acidic pH conditions. We also illustrated differences in proteolytic activity towards substrates, and in their relative affinity towards an AP inhibitor (pepstatin A). We found that, in comparison to the two bovine paralogs, boPAGs -2 and -12, poPAG-2 was found to be a more robust enzyme. Finally, we demonstrated that APs secreted by embryos such as PAGs can be objectively measured in the medium conditioned by the culture of porcine embryos either individually or in pools for variable lengths of time in acidic conditions. We also observed that such activity seemed to correlate with stage and quality of embryos (assessed morphologically) in vitro. We, therefore, believe that this proteolytic activity potentially could serve as a marker for developmental competence of the embryos.Includes bibliographical references

Time-Optimal Control Studies for Additional Food provided Prey-Predator Systems involving Holling Type-III and Holling Type-IV Functional Responses

In recent years, time-optimal control studies on additional food provided prey-predator systems have gained significant attention from researchers in the field of mathematical biology. In this study, we initially consider an additional food provided prey-predator model exhibiting Holling type-III functional response and the intra-specific competition among predators. We prove the existence and uniqueness of global positive solutions for the proposed model. We do the time optimal control studies with respect quality and quantity of additional food as control variables by transforming the independent variable in the control system. Making use of the Pontraygin maximum principle, we characterize the optimal quality of additional food and optimal quantity of additional food. We show that the findings of these time-optimal control studies on additional food provided prey-predator systems involving Holling type III functional response have the potential to be applied to a variety of problems in pest management. In the later half of this study, we consider an additional food provided prey-predator model exhibiting Holling type-IV functional response and study the above aspects for this system

Stochastic Time-Optimal Control Studies for Additional Food provided Prey-Predator Systems involving Holling Type-IV Functional Response

We consider an additional food provided prey-predator model exhibiting Holling type IV functional response with combined continuous white noise and discontinuous L\'evy noise. We prove the existence and uniqueness of global positive solutions for the considered model. By considering the quality and quantity of additional food as control parameters, we formulate a time-optimal control problem. We obtain the condition for the existence of an optimal control. Furthermore, making use of the arrow condition of the sufficient stochastic maximum principle, we characterize the optimal quality of additional food and optimal quantity of additional food. Numerical results are given to illustrate the theoretical findings with applications in biological conservation and pest management

Stochastic Optimal and Time-Optimal Control Studies for Additional Food provided prey-predator Systems involving Holling Type-III Functional Response

This paper consists of a detailed and novel stochastic optimal control analysis of a coupled non-linear dynamical system. The state equations are modeled as additional food provided prey-predator system with Holling Type-III functional response for predator and intra-specific competition among predators. We firstly discuss the optimal control problem as a Lagrangian problem with a linear quadratic control. Secondly we consider an optimal control problem in the time-optimal control setting. Stochastic maximum principle is used for establishing the existence of optimal controls for both these problems. Numerical simulations are performed based on stochastic forward-backward sweep methods for realizing the theoretical findings. The results obtained in these optimal control problems are discussed in the context of biological conservation and pest management

A prospective study of prescribing pattern of drugs among in-patients of gynaecology department in a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India

Background: Analysis of prescribing pattern can be helpful for the assessing the beneficial and adverse impacts of the prescribed drugs. Even though drugs used for gynaecological disorders are one of the commonly used, they are least studied in terms of prescribing patterns. Hence the present study was planned to analyse the prescribing pattern of drugs among in-patients of gynaecology department in our institute.Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out in a total of 162 in-patients of department of gynaecology in our institute for a period of one year. Along with baseline demographic data, the total number and categories of drugs prescribed, percentage of individual drugs in each category, their dosage forms, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and drugs prescribed from essential drug list were analysed.Results: Overall a total of 1647 drugs were prescribed. Antimicrobial agents (35.76%), vitamin and mineral preparations (28.29%) and anti-ulcer drugs (10.32%) were the top three categories of drugs prescribed in our study. Metronidazole (27.34%) was the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial drug whereas ferrous sulphate (31.97%) was the highest prescribed vitamin and mineral preparation. Among the anti-ulcer drugs, ranitidine (89.42%) was the most frequently prescribed drug. Most commonly used analgesic was diclofenac (59.05%), antiemetic was ondansetron (77.92%) and intravenous fluid was ringer lactate (37.03%). Tablet was the most common dosage form (38.01%) followed closely by injection (33.27%). The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 26.17% and from essential drug list was 84.86%.Conclusions: Antimicrobial agents and vitamins and mineral preparations were the most commonly prescribed drugs. Usage of injections should be reduced as they were relatively more commonly prescribed in our study. Prescription of drugs by generic names must be increased substantially to reduce the economic burden on patients