Intrauterine insemination: a retrospective review on determinants of success

Background: To determine the prognostic factors such as female patient’s characteristics and of semen parameters on the pregnancy rate following intrauterine inseminationMethods: This study was done at Assisted Reproduction Centre, KLE’s Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum, India between June 2011 to May 2012. A total of 264 IUI cycles in which clomiphene citrate with or without human menopausal gonadotropin was used for ovarian stimulation were analysed retrospectively to identify prognostic factors regarding treatment outcome.Results: In this study the pregnancy rate was 17.25%. The logistic regression analysis of variables showed that number of follicles and total IUI cycles were significantly associated with success rate but age of the couple, duration of infertility, endometrial thickness, size of the follicles, sperm count and sperm motility did not show significant differences between pregnant and non pregnant women.Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that age of the couple, duration of infertility, endometrial thickness, size of the follicles, sperm count and sperm motility did not correlate with pregnancy occurrence in an IUI cycle but number of follicles and total IUI cycles correlated with the occurrence of pregnancy.

Genetic Diversity Analysis among Inbred Lines of Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] Based on Grain Yield and Yield Component Characters

An experiment was conducted to assess genetic divergence among 60 inbred lines included 27 maintainer (B-) and 33 restorer (R-) lines of pearl millet based on quantitative data of grain yield and its ten component traits using hierarchical cluster and principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA identified four principal components (PCs) with Eigen value greater than 1.00 and accounted for 70.97 per cent of total variation. Most important traits in PC1 are days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, ear length, ear diameter, grain yield per plant, fresh stover yield per plant, dry matter yield per plant and grain harvest index and captured 26.85 per cent of total variation. PC2 was represented by ear diameter and dry matter yield per plant and contributed 18.06% of total variation. Two characters, grain yield per plant and grain harvest index contributed positively on all the first four PCs. Cluster analysis grouped the inbred lines into eight clusters and the characters, plant height, 1000 grain weight, dry matter yield per plant and productive tillers per plant contributed maximum towards genetic divergence. The grouping patterns of parental lines in PCA and cluster analysis were almost in agreement with each other with minor deviations. The study noticed maximum inter cluster distance between lines of cluster I and II with cluster VII, indicating that lines included in these clusters may have high heterotic response and produce better seggregants when used in Pearl millet hybridization programme

Wound Healing Ethnomedicinal Plants Popular among the Malayali Tribes in Vattal Hills, Dharmapuri, TN, India

Healing of chronic lower extremity wounds is a global problem, especially in developing countries where traditional medicine is often used by the people in remote places. India has a rich tradition of plant based knowledge pertinent to healthcare. A survey of ethnomedicinal plant species used by Malayali’s to heal cut/ wounds in Vattal Hills of Dharmapuri was made. A large number of plants/ extracts/ decoctions/ pastes are used by tribals to heal wounds, cuts and burns. In the present study, an attempt has been made to document ethnobotanical knowledge base and methods employed by Malayali’s for treatment of cut/ wounds. A large number of ethnomedicinal plants used by the Malayali’s have not been validated for wound healing potential. The present investigation resulted in the identification of 82 medicinal plant species distributed across 39 families that are used by Malayali’s to heal cut/ wounds. This study is an attempt to gather the information on the existing ethnobotanical knowledge base and document the traditional claims toward the development of safe of effective herbal drugs for cut/ wounds. Results of the study is organized in table form depicting the botanical name, family, vernacular name and habit with a brief note on plant parts used and method of administration

Comparative pharmaceutical and analytical study of Kasisadi Ghrita prepared by two different methods

Introduction: Sneha Kalpana are the dosage forms which can be used both internally as well as externally. Generally, Sneha Kalpana is prepared by using Agni as source of heating. However, Kasisadi Ghrita is an exception where the sunlight is used as source of heating. This unusual method of preparation looks attractive because of natural heat (sunlight) that is required in the preparation and the yield that may be obtained. The Sneha is heated with volatile drugs in Surya Paka for a specific time so that less heat allows them to leave their active principles in Sneha. The difference between Bhanupaka and Agnipaka is also an area of interest, on this formulation as far as its manufacturing is considered. Kasisadi Ghrita is a herbo-mineral formulation indicated for various skin diseases. Materials and Methods: Kasisadi Ghrita were prepared by classical method of Bhanupaka (KGB) and usual method of Agnipaka (KGA). Both KGB and KGA were analyzed as per the standard protocol. Discussion and Conclusion: Preparation of Kasisadi Ghrita by Agnipaka method is easy as it consumes less time. There were no pharmaceutical constraints in preparation of both samples. Tamra Paatra helps to retain more heat than other vessels during Bhanupaka. The results of the pharmaceutical and analytical study can be considered as the preliminary standards for the preparation of Kasisadi Ghrita

Semantic-Based Classification of Toxic Comments Using Ensemble Learning

A social media is rapidly expanding, and its anonymity feature completely supports free speech. Hate speech directed at anyone or any group because of their ethnicity, clan, religion, national or cultural their heritage, sex, disability, gender orientation, or other characteristics is a violation of their authority. Seriously encourages violence or hate crimes and causes social unrest by undermining peace, trustworthiness, and human rights, among other things. Identifying toxic remarks in social media conversation is a critical but difficult job. There are several difficulties in detecting toxic text remarks using a suitable and particular social media dataset and its high-performance, selected classifier. People nowadays share messages not only in person, but also in online settings such as social networking sites and online groups. As a result, all social media sites and apps, as well as all current communities in the digital world, require an identification and prevention system. Finding toxic social media remarks has proven critical for content screening. The identifying blocker in such a system would need to notice any bad online behavior and alert the prophylactic blocker to take appropriate action. The purpose of this research was to assess each text and find various kinds of toxicities such as profanity, threats, name-calling, and identity-based hatred. Jigsaw's designed Wikipedia remark collection is used for this

Phosphorus Mobilizers from Mangrove Ecosystem and their Role in Desalination of Agricultural Lands

Globally the agricultural activities are having shrinkage in terms of area and salinization of agricultural lands is one of the most serious environmental problems. Nationally our land is affected by salinity and alkalinity, and thus results in decreased production. Phosphorus being one of the essential mineral nutrients limits the plant growth and is unavailable to plants due to its low solubility and high fixation in the soil. Hence, this is rectified with additional supply of as phosphatic fertilizers. However, major portion of soluble inorganic phosphate in form of chemical fertilizer applied to soil is immobilized rapidly and occurs in oxidised form as phosphates bounded to aluminium, calcium or iron and becomes unavailable to plants. Hence, the use of phosphorus-mobilizing bacteria can provide a solution to the problem of limited phosphorus availability in salt-affected soils. The application of phosphorus-mobilizing bacteria as biofertilizer can not only improves the growth and quality of produce, but also drastically reduces the usage of chemical fertilizers. Hence, phosphorus-mobilizing bacteria can be used as environment friendly bio-fertilizers help to reduce the requirement of phosphatic fertilizer

Star Formation Histories of the LEGUS Dwarf Galaxies (I): recent History of NGC1705, NGC4449 and Holmberg II

We use HST observations from the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey to reconstruct the recent star formation histories (SFHs) of three actively star-forming dwarf galaxies, NGC4449, Holmberg II and NGC1705, from their UV color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). We apply a CMD fitting technique using two independent sets of stellar isochrones, PARSEC-COLIBRI and MIST, to assess the uncertainties related to stellar evolution modelling. Irrespective of the adopted stellar models, all the three dwarfs are found to have had almost constant star formation rates (SFRs) in the last 100-200 Myr, with modest enhancements (a factor of $\sim$2) above the 100 Myr-averaged-SFR. Significant differences among the three dwarfs are found in the overall SFR, the timing of the most recent peak and the SFR$/$area. The Initial Mass Function (IMF) of NGC1705 and Holmberg II is consistent with a Salpeter slope down to $\approx$ 5 M$_{\odot}$, whereas it is slightly flatter, s$=-2.0$, in NGC4449. The SFHs derived with the two different sets of stellar models are consistent with each other, except for some quantitative details, attributable to their input assumptions. They also share the drawback that all synthetic diagrams predict a clear separation in color between upper main sequence and helium burning stars, which is not apparent in the data. Since differential reddening, significant in NGC4449, or unresolved binaries don't appear to be sufficient to fill the gap, we suggest this calls for a revision of both sets of stellar evolutionary tracks.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication on Ap

A Combination of Two Human Monoclonal Antibodies Limits Fetal Damage by Zika Virus in Macaques

Human infection by Zika virus (ZIKV) during pregnancy can lead to vertical transmission and fetal aberrations, including microcephaly. Prophylactic administration of antibodies can diminish or prevent ZIKV infection in animal models, but whether passive immunization can protect nonhuman primates and their fetuses during pregnancy has not been determined. Z004 and Z021 are neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to domain III of the envelope (EDIII) of ZIKV. Together the two antibodies protect nonpregnant macaques against infection even after Fc modifications to prevent antibody-dependent enhancement in vitro (ADE) and extend their half-lives. Here we report on prophylactic co-administration of the Fc-modified antibodies to pregnant rhesus macaques challenged 3 times with ZIKV during first and second trimester. The two antibodies did not entirely eliminate maternal viremia but limited vertical transmission protecting the fetus from neurologic damage. Thus, maternal passive immunization with two antibodies to EDIII can shield primate fetuses from the harmful effects of ZIKV

Performance analysis of bee-hive routing in multi-radio networks

In recent years, wireless communication technology has reduced the distance between people and has hence become a significant part of our lives. Two such technologies are WiFi(IEEE 802.11) and WiMAX(IEEE 802.16) where the latter is a long range system covering many kilometers, whereas former is a synonym for WLAN providing a coverage of only short ranges. This work describes the implementation of a framework in which a multi-hop, ad-hoc network is deployed with hybrid nodes to enhance network throughput. The data traffic received is split between the WiFi and WiMAX radios on the basis of th e split coefficient value statically. The routing algorithm being implemented in this paper is the be e-hive algorithm. Bee-hive algorithm is a multi-path routing algorithm inspired by the social behavior of swarms of bees. It is dynamic, robust and flexible yet simple algorithm which can prove helpful for optimal