First record of Chrysopelea taprobanica Smith, 1943 (Squamata: Colubridae) from India

Chrysopelea taprobanica Smith, 1943 was previously considered to be endemic to the dry and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka. However, an adult specimen of C. taprobanica was collected from Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve of Andhra Pradesh, India, being the first record of this snake species from India, significantly extending the known range of distribution of the species. The dry zones of peninsular India were connected with Sri Lanka as recently as ca. 17,000 years ago, which probably allowed movement of species between these two regions

Marine climate and fisheries scenario of Tamil Nadu Climcard-1

Marine climate and fisheries scenario of Tamil Nadu Climcard-

Prognostic indicators and patterns of renal recovery in patients requiring hemodialysis for acute kidney injury

Background: The outcome of patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) is highly variable. Patients who receive renal replacement therapy (RRT) for similar diseases may recover differently. The factors that operate in each patient may alter the prognosis and outcome. Aims: Our study aims at identification of prognostic factors influencing recovery in patients who required hemodialysis for AKI. Material and Methods: Patients admitted in different ICUs with AKI who underwent hemodialysis in a tertiary care hospital over a three year period were included in the study. Time from day one of disease to first dialysis, hematological and biochemical parameters were noted. Patients were grouped based on the time taken for recovery of renal function following hemodialysis into group A (<2 weeks) and group B (>2 weeks). Studied parameters have been statistically analyzed to find any significant association with recovery time. Results: Out of 63 patients, 9 progressed to chronic kidney disease. In the remaining 54, Group A comprised 31 and group B 23. Out of all the factors studied, serum creatinine (7.0±1.3 vs 8.4±3.8; P=0.018), S. bicarbonate (21.7±2.8 vs 19.7±3.8; P=0.03), pH at admission (7.25±0.13 vs 7.1±0.19; P=0.048); number of hemodialysis sessions (3.5 ±1.5 vs 5±2.4; P=0.016) and time lag from day one of disease to first hemodialysis (8.6 ± 3.6 vs 11.5±5.9; P=0.007) showed significant association with recovery time. Conclusion: Recovery following AKI is influenced by factors liked delayed presentation, late initiation of hemodialysis, low pH and low bicarbonate which can predict delayed renal recovery following hemodialysis

Evaluation of cervical erosion in symptomatic women

Background: The objective of this study was evaluation of symptomatic women with cervical erosion.Methods: Prospective clinical study done in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, VIMS, Ballari for one-year period from June 2016 to May 2017. All patients with symptoms of white discharge, post coital bleeding and menstrual irregularities were examined by per speculum examination and all those who had cervical erosion (112 Patients) were included in the study. Pap smear and colposcopy were done in all subjects. Colposcopic guided biopsy was done in women with abnormal findings on colposcopy. Histological prediction of colposcopic findings was done according to the Reid’s modified colposcopic index. The result of the biopsy was correlated with the predicted histology of the Reid’s modified colposcopic index and statistical analysis done to calculate diagnostic efficacy of colposcopy in the evaluation of symptomatic women with cervical erosion.Results: Out of the 112 patients, 5.35% (6/112) had abnormal Pap smear. All patients underwent colposcopy and colposcopic guided biopsy, 11.6% (13/112) had abnormal colposcopic findings. Histopathology confirmed CIN I in 6.25% (7/112) and CIN II in 1.78% (2/112) patients. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of PAP smear was found to be 22.22%, 96.11%, 33.33%, 93.39% and 90.17%. The above values for colposcopy were found to be 88.89%, 95.15%, 61.54%, 98.99% and 94.64%.Conclusions: Colposcopy should be done in all symptomatic patients with cervical erosion as it is a good diagnostic tool for premalignant conditions of the cervix and correlates well with histopathological findings

Measuring ‘Brand Love’ : Understanding the Attitude of Millennials towards Select Brands

The dynamic environment of markets has forced the market researchers to study customer orientation towards a product and his associations with the brand.&nbsp; Millennial are opinion leaders across all business domains in the society; this emphasizes the importance of this particular segment and their impact on brand equity.&nbsp; Indian business is very dynamic and is continuously being affected by the various changes due to the entry of new foreign players, high technological up gradations and changing consumer needs. Hence it has become very important for the marketers of the brands to make their brands more attractive to gain more loyalists. This study intends to propose the importance of the various factors that are responsible for creating ―brand love‖ in the mind of the consumer and thus make the business of the brand profitable for a long time. The validation of the scales for measurement has been proven through this study and top loved brands have been got from the respondents. Brand Love scales on the various brands in the Indian context have proven that love towards the brand generate a high amount of loyalty and have significant effects through&nbsp; a positive ‗word of mouth‘ comment

Utilization of canola seed fractions in ruminant feeds

Canola fibre-protein and can-sugar are the two by-products arising from a process for separating high quality protein fractions from canola meal. In the first trial chemical characteristics of fibre-protein and can-sugar were examined in comparison with commercial canola and soy meal. In the second trial in situ rumen degradability and kinetics of test feed was studied. Based on the findings of those two trials, available energy values were estimated based on NRC (2001) while protein contents potentially absorbable at small intestine were predicted using both NRC (2001) and DVE/OEB models. Subsequently a mixture of fibre-protein and can-sugar was used as an additive to dehydrated alfalfa pellet and two dairy cow trials were conducted to determine the palatability and examine effect on lactation performances of blended alfalfa pellet feeding in comparison with standard alfalfa pellet. Palatability difference was evaluated by “Paterson -two choice alternating access method” through a 7 day experimental period using 6 lactating Holstein cows. In the lactating performance trial, 6 cows were randomly assigned into two groups and two treatments were allocated over three experimental periods in a switchback design. Can-sugar consisted of water soluble components (CP 15.6 %DM; SCP 96.2 %CP; NFC 99.9 %CHO) with non-protein nitrogen as the main CP fraction (NPN 96.2 %CP). Fibre-protein was a highly fibrous material (NDF: 55.6%; ADF: 46.3%; ADL: 24.1%) comparing to canola meal (NDF: 25.4%, ADF: 21.2%, ADL: 9.0%) due to presence of higher level of seed hulls in fibre-protein. Comparing to canola meal, fibre-protein contained 9% less CP and 1/4 of that consisted of undegradable ADIP. Rumen degradability of can-sugar was assumed as immediate and total as it was water soluble. Most of the ruminally undegradable nutrient components present in canola meal appeared to be concentrated into fibre protein during the manufacturing process and as a result fibre-protein has shown a consistently lower effective degradability of DM, OM, CP NDF and ADF comparing to both canola and soy meal. Available energy content in can-sugar was marginally higher than that of canola meal while fibre-protein contained only 2/3 that of canola meal. The predicted absorbable protein content at small intestine was about 1/2 that of canola meal. These results indicate that fibre-protein can be considered as a secondary source of protein in ruminant feed and a mixture of fibre-protein and can-sugar would nutritionally complement each other to formulate into a cheaper ingredient in ruminant ration. In the palatability study, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in intake preference or finish time between the blended and standard alfalfa pellets. The results from the lactation study showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in milk yield, dairy efficiency or milk composition between the blended and standard alfalfa pellets. The results from the two studies indicated that fibre-protein and can-sugar fractions could be used as an additive to alfalfa dehydrated pellet at 15% inclusion rate without compromising its palatability or the performance of dairy cows. For future studies it is proposed to conduct feeding trials with varying levels of inclusions to alfalfa pellet to know the nutritional effect of fibre-protein and can-sugar while ascertain optimum inclusion rate

Investigating optimal features in log files for anomaly detection using optimization approach

Logs have been frequently utilised in different software system administration activities. The number of logs has risen dramatically due to the vast scope and complexity of current software systems. A lot of research has been done on log-based anomaly identification using machine learning approach. In this paper, we proposed an optimization approach to select the optimal features from the logs. This will provide the higher classification accuracy on reduced log files. In order to predict the anomalies three phases are used: i) log representation ii) feature selection and iii) Performance evaluation. The efficacy of the proposed model is evaluated using benchmark datasets such as BlueGene/L (BGL), Thunderbird, spirit and hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) in terms of accuracy, converging ability, train and test accuracy, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) measures, precision, recall and F1-score. The results shows that the feature selection on log files outperforms in terms all the evaluation measures

Breast cancer detection through attention based feature integration model

Breast cancer is detected by screening mammography wherein X-rays are used to produce images of the breast. Mammograms for screening can detect breast cancer early. This research focuses on the challenges of using multi-view mammography to diagnose breast cancer. By examining numerous perspectives of an image, an attention-based feature-integration mechanism (AFIM) model that concentrates on local abnormal areas associated with cancer and displays the essential features considered for evaluation, analyzing cross-view data. This is segmented into two views the bi-lateral attention module (BAM) module integrates the left and right activation maps for a similar projection is used to create a spatial attention map that highlights the impact of asymmetries. Here the module's focus is on data gathering through medio-lateral oblique (MLO) and bilateral craniocaudal (CC) for each breast to develop an attention module. The proposed AFIM model generates using spatial attention maps obtained from the identical image through other breasts to identify bilaterally uneven areas and class activation map (CAM) generated from two similar breast images to emphasize the feature channels connected to a single lesion in a breast. AFIM model may easily be included in ResNet-style architectures to develop multi-view classification models

An Experimental Study into Behaviour of Circular Footing on Reinforced Soil

The experimental investigations are reported on the study of load-deformation behavior of a model circular footing on reinforced soil in respect of two-layered system comprising clay as sub-grade and mine waste as backfill material. The footing was subjected to axial load. Two different types of reinforcing materials such as Kolon Geo-grid (KGR-40) and rubber grids derived out of waste tyres were used in the study. The study revealed appreciable increase in ultimate bearing pressure and decrease in settlement with the provision of a single layer reinforcement. Further, rubber grid performed better than the Geo-grid in respect to BCR and SRF. The study indicates significance of solid waste materials such as mine wastes and discarded tyres as effective civil engineering construction materials