The Morpho-Syntax of Polarity in Gujarati

This paper explores the various expressions of polarity and tense in Gujarati, focusing on the standard dialect. The expressions of negation in Gujarati provide support for the cross-linguistically possible position of the Polarity head in the functional projection. I propose that some expressions of polarity can be analyzed as portmanteau morphemes, which gives support to the idea that these morphemes are in fact realizations of spans of independent, syntactic heads. Furthermore, there is some variability in the position of these forms of negation, which sheds light on possible postsyntactic movements that languages may have, especially regarding the inversion of post-syntactic elements

Phytoremediation: a tool for restoring land degraded due to opencast coal mining

This research set on a former reclaimed opencast coal spoil in Varteg Hills, South Wales, UK explores the phytoremediation potential of Alnus glutinosa (Alder), Betula pendula (Roth) (Birch) and Larix decidua (Larch), which are commonly used in UK land reclamation, to sequester metals: Zn, Cd, Mn, Pb and Cu, from mine spoils. This study also compares the abilities of newly planted trees to sequester metals on a new experimental site, within the landscape and compares these with those from older plantations on adjoining land. This chronosequence is used to evaluate the overall impact of forestation on metals levels in soils over two decades. Metal concentrations in soil were measured over three years and those in tree leaves were measured over two years. The majority of the samples examined lie between the UK defined thresholds for contamination but below levels that trigger immediate action and treatment. Samples within this range are placed within a new 'critical soil' category. Mapping the spatial distribution of contaminants across selected test plots shows the presence of micro-scale contamination hotspots on these sites. These show that while such sites may, on average, have sub-critcial levels for metal contamination, they may still contain sections where contaminants reach very severe levels. Planting trees in mixes is beneficial because different trees selectively remove different metal contaminants while some species benefit the soil in other ways. For example, while Alder leaves showed average concentrations of Cd, Zn and Mn, their roots also aid nitrogen fixation. Of the five metals selected for this study, two are known to be highly mobile (CD, Zn), two iii relatively immobile (Pb, Cu) and one is intermediate (Mn). Foliar analysis of Birch shows consistency in accumulation of Cd and Zn in leaves, while young Larch needles accumulated the highest concentrations of Mn and Pb. Correlation between movement of metals in soil and leaves over time, discovered that the uptake of Mn in Alder and Birch foliar on all plots and Larch on the new experimental plot is positively correlated to the presence of Zn in the soil. Studies of the general effects of forestation on metal concentrations in soil showed that metal levels declined significantly even on the most recently planted test sites. On four year old plots a 14-18% decrease in Mn concentrations and about 8% decrease in Cd and Zn concentrations were observed. Observations of the soils on the full 18 year chronosequence found that metal levels declined very significantly (p= 0.003 to 0.0002) through time. Based on the reduction of metal concentration in soil and uptake in leaves, it is possible to project 40 - 45 years for concentration of Mn to reach normal soil levels and about 20 - 25 years for Cd level to reach normal soil levels, provided the soil is not further disrupted by physical, chemical or biological activities which may recontaminate the spoil. This demonstrates, conclusively, that forestation is an effective means of metal remediation on the moderately contaminated lands produced by opencast coal-mining in Wales. Keywords: Opencast coal mining; Phytoremediation; contaminated land; Heavy metal uptake; Alder; Birch

Immediate effect of muscle energy technique versus passive stretching for upper trapezius muscle on neck pain

Background: Neck pain is a common musculoskeletal problem in the General population. Upper trapezius is a superficial postural muscle that tends to get shortened due to overuse activity which causes neck pain and reduces neck mobility. The aim of this study was to compare the immediate effect of Muscle energy technique (MET) and passive stretching of upper trapezius muscle in neck pain patients.Methods: An experimental study was undertaken during period from March 2017 to March 2018. 358 participants with Neck pain were included in this study. Participants were divided in two groups: Group A received Hot pack and MET for upper Trapezius. Group B received Hot pack and Passive stretching for upper trapezius. Visual analogue scale (VAS) at end range of motion (ROM), same cervical side flexion and opposite side cervical rotation by goniometer and tape were taken as outcome measures. Participants were assessed prior to the treatment, immediately after the treatment and post 24 hours to see the carry over treatment.Results: Mann Whitney U test showed that VAS at end range of motion, opposite side cervical rotation and same side cervical side flexion had significant improvement in MET group as compared to passive stretching group (p<0.0001). Carry over effect was less significant with p<0.0001.Conclusions: A single session of MET for upper trapezius muscle reduced the pain intensity (VAS) and increased the cervical rotation and cervical side flexion

Probiotics: An Adjuvant therapy for D-Galactose induced Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic and slowly progressing neurodegenerative disorder which has become a major health concern worldwide. The literature has shown that oxidative stress is one of the most important risk factors behind the cause of AD. Oxidative stress often leads to the production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). D-Galactose, a physiological nutrient and reducing sugar, non-enzymatically reacts with amines of amino acids in proteins and peptides to form Advanced Glycation End products which activate its receptors coupled to Biochemical pathways that stimulate free radical production and induces mitochondrial dysfunction which damages the neuron intracellularly. High dosage of D-Galactose also suppresses the expression of nerve growth factors and its associated protein which results in the degeneration of nerve cells and reduction of acetylcholine levels in brain regions. This article put forwards the advantages of using Lactic Acid Bacteria (Probiotics) possessing anti-oxidant properties and which produces Acetyl Choline against D-Galactose induced Alzheimer’s disease

Phytoremediation: Metal decontamination of soils after the sequential forestation of former opencast coal land

Phytoremediation through forestry may be an effective means for reducing the metal loading in lands reclaimed after surface-coal-mining in the UK. Planted with mixed woodland, the soil loading of 5 key metals (Zn, Cd, Mn, Pb and Cu) decreased, significantly and progressively, compared to soils left as grassland through a 14 year forestation chronosequence on land reclaimed from the former Varteg opencast coalmine, South Wales. Fourteen years after initial tree planting, soil metal loadings decreased by 52% for Cd (4.3 mg∙kg−1 per year), 48% for Cu (2.1 mg∙kg−1 per year), 47% for Zn (7.3 mg∙kg−1 per year), 44% for Pb. (7.1 mg∙kg−1 per year) and 35% for Mn (45 mg.kg-1 per year). Analysis of metal loadings in the leaves of Alnus glutinosa (L. Gaertn) (Common Alder) and Betula pendula (Roth) (Silver Birch) found both to be involved in metal uptake with birch taking up more Cd, Cu, Zn and Mn and Alder more Pb. Concentrations of Zn, Mn and Cd (Birch only) increased significantly in leaves from, but not in soils, under older plantings. Since different tree species take up metals at different rates, mixed plantings may be more effective in forest phytoremediation

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION FOR CHEMOINFORMATICS AND BIOMEDICAL INFORMATION EXTRACTION OF OVARIAN CANCER

With the massive amount of data that has been generated in the form of unstructured text documents, Biomedical Named Entity Recognition (BioNER) is becoming increasingly important in the field of biomedical research. Since currently there does not exist any automatic archiving of the obtained results, a lot of this information remains hidden in the textual details and is not easily accessible for further analysis. Hence, text mining methods and natural language processing techniques are used for the extraction of information from such publications.Named entity recognition, is a subtask that comes under information extraction that focuses on finding and categorizing specific entities in text. In this paper, bibliometric analysis of named entity recognition of ovarian cancer is carried out using information about publications from Scopus. The most productive journals, countries and authors are determined. The most frequently cited article and its citation history has been described. Also bibliometric maps based on citation network among countries are constructed. This study can assist people in the medical field to get a comprehensive understanding of the study of BioNER. It can also be utilized for reference works, for the research and application of the BioNER visualization methods

IPAC Image Processing and Data Archiving for the Palomar Transient Factory

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a multiepochal robotic survey of the northern sky that acquires data for the scientific study of transient and variable astrophysical phenomena. The camera and telescope provide for wide-field imaging in optical bands. In the five years of operation since first light on 2008 December 13, images taken with Mould-R and SDSS-g′ camera filters have been routinely acquired on a nightly basis (weather permitting), and two different Hα filters were installed in 2011 May (656 and 663 nm). The PTF image-processing and data-archival program at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) is tailored to receive and reduce the data, and, from it, generate and preserve astrometrically and photometrically calibrated images, extracted source catalogs, and co-added reference images. Relational databases have been deployed to track these products in operations and the data archive. The fully automated system has benefited by lessons learned from past IPAC projects and comprises advantageous features that are potentially incorporable into other ground-based observatories. Both off-the-shelf and in-house software have been utilized for economy and rapid development. The PTF data archive is curated by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). A state-of-the-art custom Web interface has been deployed for downloading the raw images, processed images, and source catalogs from IRSA. Access to PTF data products is currently limited to an initial public data release (M81, M44, M42, SDSS Stripe 82, and the Kepler Survey Field). It is the intent of the PTF collaboration to release the full PTF data archive when sufficient funding becomes available

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new robotic time-domain survey currently in progress using the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt Telescope. ZTF uses a 47 square degree field with a 600 megapixel camera to scan the entire northern visible sky at rates of ~3760 square degrees/hour to median depths of g ~ 20.8 and r ~ 20.6 mag (AB, 5sigma in 30 sec). We describe the Science Data System that is housed at IPAC, Caltech. This comprises the data-processing pipelines, alert production system, data archive, and user interfaces for accessing and analyzing the products. The realtime pipeline employs a novel image-differencing algorithm, optimized for the detection of point source transient events. These events are vetted for reliability using a machine-learned classifier and combined with contextual information to generate data-rich alert packets. The packets become available for distribution typically within 13 minutes (95th percentile) of observation. Detected events are also linked to generate candidate moving-object tracks using a novel algorithm. Objects that move fast enough to streak in the individual exposures are also extracted and vetted. The reconstructed astrometric accuracy per science image with respect to Gaia is typically 45 to 85 milliarcsec. This is the RMS per axis on the sky for sources extracted with photometric S/N >= 10. The derived photometric precision (repeatability) at bright unsaturated fluxes varies between 8 and 25 millimag. Photometric calibration accuracy with respect to Pan-STARRS1 is generally better than 2%. The products support a broad range of scientific applications: fast and young supernovae, rare flux transients, variable stars, eclipsing binaries, variability from active galactic nuclei, counterparts to gravitational wave sources, a more complete census of Type Ia supernovae, and Solar System objects.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figures, Published in PASP Focus Issue on the Zwicky Transient Facility (doi: 10.1088/1538-3873/aae8ac

The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg 2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order of magnitude improvement in survey speed relative to its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory. We describe the design and implementation of the camera and observing system. The ZTF data system at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center provides near-real-time reduction to identify moving and varying objects. We outline the analysis pipelines, data products, and associated archive. Finally, we present on-sky performance analysis and first scientific results from commissioning and the early survey. ZTF’s public alert stream will serve as a useful precursor for that of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope