Effects of feeding frequency on growth, survival and water quality of rearing tanks of the Indian white shrimp (Penaeus indicus)

The effects of feeding frequency on growth performance, feed conversion ratio and survival of post-larvae Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus were evaluated in a 56-day study. The study was conducted in sixteen fiberglass tanks provided with aerated re- circulating water with four replicate tanks for each treatment. Twenty post larvae with a mean weight of 1.56 0.02g were hand-counted and stocked into each of the replicate tanks and fed 2, 4, 6 and 8 times a day, respectively. Final body weights were measured significantly lower at 2 and 4 times/day (5.76 0.08 and 5.96±0.15g, respectively) than 6 and 8 times/day (8.54±0.16 and 8.31 0.19g, respectively) treatments (P<0.05). There were significant differences for the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) of shrimps fed 6 and 8 times/day with other treatments. The best mean FCR was obtained from the sixth daily-feeding (P<0.05). The Specific Growth Rate (SGR) of shrimps fed 6 times/ day was significantly (P<0.05) higher (3.03 0.04%) than shrimps fed with all other feeding regimes, while shrimps fed 8 times/ day had a higher SGR (2.95 0.05%) than shrimps fed 2 times/day (2.36 0.06%) and 4 times/day (2.39 0.11%). Survival rate was significantly different (P<0.05). The best mean survival rate was obtained from 6 times/day feeding (P<0.05). There were significant differences for survival rates (P<0.05). The water quality parameters (salinity, dissolved oxygen and temperature) were not different among treatments. However, some water quality parameters (ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and pH) were significantly different among the treatments. Results suggested that there was an advantage in feeding P. indicus more frequently than 4 times per day

SPECTRAL-SPATIAL CLASSIFICATION OF HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGERY USING NEURAL NETWORK ALGORITHM AND HIERARCHICAL SEGMENTATION

This paper describes a new framework for classification of hyperspectral images, based on both spectral and spatial information. The spatial information is obtained by an enhanced Marker-based Hierarchical Segmentation (MHS) algorithm. The hyperspectral data is first fed into the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network classification algorithm. Then, the MHS algorithm is applied in order to increase the accuracy of less-accurately classified land-cover types. In the proposed approach, the markers are extracted from the classification maps obtained by MLP and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifiers. Experimental results on Washington DC Mall hyperspectral dataset, demonstrate the superiority of proposed approach compared to the MLP and the original MHS algorithms

Association between age at disease onset of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis and clinical presentation and short-term outcomes

Objectives: ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) can affect all age groups. We aimed to show that differences in disease presentation and 6 month outcome between younger- A nd older-onset patients are still incompletely understood. Methods: We included patients enrolled in the Diagnostic and Classification Criteria for Primary Systemic Vasculitis (DCVAS) study between October 2010 and January 2017 with a diagnosis of AAV. We divided the population according to age at diagnosis: &lt;65 years or ≥65 years. We adjusted associations for the type of AAV and the type of ANCA (anti-MPO, anti-PR3 or negative). Results: A total of 1338 patients with AAV were included: 66% had disease onset at &lt;65 years of age [female 50%; mean age 48.4 years (s.d. 12.6)] and 34% had disease onset at ≥65 years [female 54%; mean age 73.6 years (s.d. 6)]. ANCA (MPO) positivity was more frequent in the older group (48% vs 27%; P = 0.001). Younger patients had higher rates of musculoskeletal, cutaneous and ENT manifestations compared with older patients. Systemic, neurologic,cardiovascular involvement and worsening renal function were more frequent in the older-onset group. Damage accrual, measured with the Vasculitis Damage Index (VDI), was significantly higher in older patients, 12% of whom had a 6 month VDI ≥5, compared with 7% of younger patients (P = 0.01). Older age was an independent risk factor for early death within 6 months from diagnosis [hazard ratio 2.06 (95% CI 1.07, 3.97); P = 0.03]. Conclusion: Within 6 months of diagnosis of AAV, patients &gt;65 years of age display a different pattern of organ involvement and an increased risk of significant damage and mortality compared with younger patients