Toxicity evaluation of e-juice and its soluble aerosols generated by electronic cigarettes using recombinant bioluminescent bacteria responsive to specific cellular damages

Electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarette) are widely used as an alternative to traditional cigarettes but their safety is not well established. Herein, we demonstrate and validate an analytical method to discriminate the deleterious effects of e-cigarette refills (e-juice) and soluble e-juice aerosol (SEA) by employing stress-specific bioluminescent recombinant bacterial cells (RBCs) as whole-cell biosensors. These RBCs carry luxCDABE-operon tightly controlled by promoters that specifically induced to DNA damage (recA), superoxide radicals (sodA), heavy metals (copA) and membrane damage (oprF). The responses of the RBCs following exposure to various concentrations of e-juice/SEA was recorded in real-time that showed dose-dependent stress specific-responses against both the e-juice and vaporized e-juice aerosols produced by the e-cigarette. We also established that high doses of e-juice (4-folds diluted) lead to cell death by repressing the cellular machinery responsible for repairing DNA-damage, superoxide toxicity, ion homeostasis and membrane damage. SEA also caused the cellular damages but the cells showed enhanced bioluminescence expression without significant growth inhibition, indicating that the cells activated their global defense system to repair these damages. DNA fragmentation assay also revealed the disintegration of total cellular DNA at sub-toxic doses of e-juice. Despite their state of matter, the e-juice and its aerosols induce cytotoxicity and alter normal cellular functions, respectively that raises concerns on use of e-cigarettes as alternative to traditional cigarette. The ability of RBCs in detecting both harmful effects and toxicity mechanisms provided a fundamental understanding of biological response to e-juice and aerosols.open

Predictive value of subendometrial – endometrial blood flow assessment by transvaginal 3D power doppler on the day of HCG on clinical outcome of IVF cycles

Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate the role of subendometrial-endometrial blood flow assessment by 3D Tran-vaginal Power Doppler in predicting pregnancy outcome in IVF-ET cycles. The study was a prospective, non-randomized clinical study.Methods: A total of 107 infertile women undergoing their first IVF-ET cycle with good response were taken for study (From March 2014 to Nov 2014 at Jaipur Fertility Centre, ART unit of Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences & Technology). Women with Tubal factor, Male factor and unexplained infertility were included in the study. Those with past h/o Genital Koch’s and hypo menorrhea were excluded. Assessment of subendometrial-endometrial blood flow was done on the day of HCG with endometrial thickness ≥ 6.5mm by Tran-vaginal 3D- Power Doppler.Results: There was no significant difference in mean age, duration of infertility, BMI, cause of infertility, stimulation protocol, serological hormone levels, number of mature oocytes, number of good quality embryos and mean endometrial thickness on the day of HCG. According to Doppler study (3D-Power Doppler), women with blood flow to zones 1, 2 and 3 were categorized in to groups A (n=15), B (n=36) and C (n=56).  Overall pregnancy rate was 32.71%. The clinical pregnancy rate was significantly higher in Group C in comparison of Group B and A (42.85% vs. 27.77% and 6.66%). Similarly implantation rate was also higher in group C (23.20% vs. 11.22% and 2.38%).Conclusions: The presence of good subendometrial-endometrial vascularity significantly improves pregnancy outcome in IVF-ET cycles in our study.

The Tracking Tapered Gridded Estimator (TTGE) for the power spectrum from drift scan observations

Intensity mapping with the redshifted 21-cm line is an emerging tool in cosmology. Drift scan observations, where the antennas are fixed to the ground and the telescope's pointing center (PC) changes continuously on the sky due to earth's rotation, provide broad sky coverage and sustained instrumental stability needed for 21-cm intensity mapping. Here we present the Tracking Tapered Grided Estimator (TTGE) to quantify the power spectrum of the sky signal estimated directly from the visibilities measured in drift scan radio interferometric observations. The TTGE uses the data from the different PC to estimate the power spectrum of the signal from a small angular region located around a fixed tracking center (TC). The size of this angular region is decided by a suitably chosen tapering window function which serves to reduce the foreground contamination from bright sources located at large angles from the TC. It is possible to cover the angular footprint of the drift scan observations using multiple TC, and combine the estimated power spectra to increase the signal to noise ratio. Here we have validated the TTGE using simulations of $154 \, {\rm MHz}$ MWA drift scan observations. We show that the TTGE can recover the input model angular power spectrum $C_{\ell}$ within $20 \%$ accuracy over the $\ell$ range $40 < \ell < 700$.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

New Trends in Artificial Intelligence: Applications of Particle Swarm Optimization in Biomedical Problems

Optimization is a process to discover the most effective element or solution from a set of all possible resources or solutions. Currently, there are various biological problems such as extending from biomolecule structure prediction to drug discovery that can be elevated by opting standard protocol for optimization. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) process, purposed by Dr. Eberhart and Dr. Kennedy in 1995, is solely based on population stochastic optimization technique. This method was designed by the researchers after inspired by social behavior of flocking bird or schooling fishes. This method shares numerous resemblances with the evolutionary computation procedures such as genetic algorithms (GA). Since, PSO algorithms is easy process to subject with minor adjustment of a few restrictions, it has gained more attention or advantages over other population based algorithms. Hence, PSO algorithms is widely used in various research fields like ranging from artificial neural network training to other areas where GA can be used in the system

Estimation of Cosmological Parameters from HI Observations of Post-reionization Epoch

The emission from neutral hydrogen (HI) clouds in the post-reionization era (z < 6), too faint to be individually detected, is present as a diffuse background in all low frequency radio observations below 1420 MHz. The angular and frequency fluctuations of this radiation (~ 1 mK) is an important future probe of the large scale structures in the Universe. We show that such observations are a very effective probe of the background cosmological model and the perturbed Universe. In our study we focus on the possibility of determining the redshift space distortion parameter, coordinate distance and its derivative with redshift. Using reasonable estimates for the observational uncertainties and configurations representative of the ongoing and upcoming radio interferometers, we predict parameter estimation at a precision comparable with supernova Ia observations and galaxy redshift surveys, across a wide range in redshift that is only partially accessed by other probes. Future HI observations of the post-reionization era present a new technique, complementing several existing one, to probe the expansion history and to elucidate the nature of the dark energy.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

HI Fluctuations at Large Redshifts: I--Visibility correlation

We investigate the possibility of probing the large scale structure in the universe at large redshifts by studying fluctuations in the redshifted 1420 MHz emission from the neutral hydrogen (HI) at early epochs. The neutral hydrogen content of the universe is known from absorption studies for z<4.5. The HI distribution is expected to be inhomogeneous in the gravitational instability picture and this inhomogeneity leads to anisotropy in the redshifted HI emission. The best hope of detecting this anisotropy is by using a large low-frequency interferometric instrument like the Giant Meter-Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We calculate the visibility correlation function <V_nu(u) V_nu'(u)> at two frequencies nu and nu' of the redshifted HI emission for an interferometric observation. In particular we give numerical results for the two GMRT channels centered around nu =325 and 610 MHz from density inhomogeneity and peculiar velocity of the HI distribution. The visibility correlation is ~10^-9 to 10^-10 Jy^2. We calculate the signal-to-noise for detecting the correlation signal in the presence of system noise and show that the GMRT might detect the signal for integration times ~ 100 hrs. We argue that the measurement of visibility correlation allows optimal use of the uncorrelated nature of the system noise across baselines and frequency channels.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, Submitted to JA

Using Gravitational Lensing to study HI clouds at high redshift

We investigate the possibility of detecting HI emission from gravitationally lensed HI clouds (akin to damped Lyman-$\alpha$ clouds) at high redshift by carrying out deep radio observations in the fields of known cluster lenses. Such observations will be possible with present radio telescopes only if the lens substantially magnifies the flux of the HI emission. While at present this holds the only possibility of detecting the HI emission from such clouds, it has the disadvantage of being restricted to clouds that lie very close to the caustics of the lens. We find that observations at a detection threshold of 50 micro Jy at 320 MHz (possible with the GMRT) have a greater than 20% probability of detecting an HI cloud in the field of a cluster, provided the clouds have HI masses in the range 5 X 10^8 M_{\odot} < M_{HI} < 2.5 X 10^{10} M_{\odot}. The probability of detecting a cloud increases if they have larger HI masses, except in the cases where the number of HI clouds in the cluster field becomes very small. The probability of a detection at 610 MHz and 233 MHz is comparable to that at 320 MHz, though a definitive statement is difficult owing to uncertainties in the HI content at the redshifts corresponding to these frequencies. Observations at a detection threshold of 2 micro Jy (possible in the future with the SKA) are expected to detect a few HI clouds in the field of every cluster provided the clouds have HI masses in the range 2 X 10^7 M_{\odot} < M_{HI} < 10^9 M_{\odot}. Even if such observations do not result in the detection of HI clouds, they will be able to put useful constraints on the HI content of the clouds.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, minor changes in figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Detecting neutral hydrogen in emission at redshift z ~ 1

We use a large N-body simulation to examine the detectability of HI in emission at redshift z ~ 1, and the constraints imposed by current observations on the neutral hydrogen mass function of galaxies at this epoch. We consider three different models for populating dark matter halos with HI, designed to encompass uncertainties at this redshift. These models are consistent with recent observations of the detection of HI in emission at z ~ 0.8. Whilst detection of 21 cm emission from individual halos requires extremely long integrations with existing radio interferometers, such as the Giant Meter Radio Telescope (GMRT), we show that the stacked 21 cm signal from a large number of halos can be easily detected. However, the stacking procedure requires accurate redshifts of galaxies. We show that radio observations of the field of the DEEP2 spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey should allow detection of the HI mass function at the 5-12 sigma level in the mass range 10^(11.4) M_sun/h < M_halo < 10^(12.5)M_sun/h, with a moderate amount of observation time. Assuming a larger noise level that corresponds to an upper bound for the expected noise for the GMRT, the detection significance for the HI mass function is still at the 1.7-3 sigma level. We find that optically undetected satellite galaxies enhance the HI emission profile of the parent halo, leading to broader wings as well as a higher peak signal in the stacked profile of a large number of halos. We show that it is in principle possible to discern the contribution of undetected satellites to the total HI signal, even though cosmic variance limitation make this challenging for some of our models.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Submitted To MNRA

Using HI to probe large scale structures at z ~ 3

The redshifted 1420 MHz emission from the HI in unresolved damped Lyman-\alpha clouds at high z will appear as a background radiation in low frequency radio observations. This holds the possibility of a new tool for studying the universe at high-z, using the mean brightness temperature to probe the HI content and its fluctuations to probe the power spectrum. Existing estimates of the HI density at z~3 imply a mean brightness temperature of 1 mK at 320 Mhz. The cross-correlation between the temperature fluctuations across different frequencies and sight lines is predicted to vary from 10^{-7} K^2 to 10^{-8} K^2 over intervals corresponding to spatial scales from 10 Mpc to 40 Mpc for some of the currently favoured cosmological models. Comparing this with the expected sensitivity of the GMRT, we find that this can be detected with \~10 hrs of integration, provided we can distinguish it from the galactic and extragalactic foregrounds which will swamp this signal. We discuss a strategy based on the very distinct spectral properties of the foregrounds as against the HI emission, possibly allowing the removal of the foregrounds from the observed maps.Comment: 16 pages, includes 6 figures, accepted in JAA (minor revisions, references added