Effect of thermization of dahi on post fermentation acidification during refrigerated storage

Post fermentation acidification is defined as the development of acidity past the desired level of fermentation or acid development. Effect of thermization at 65oC for different periods (30 sec, 60 sec, 2 min and 5 min) on post fermentation acidification of dahi samples prepared using Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus 18 or Lacticaseibacillus casei 01 upon refrigerated storage was assessed in this study. Significant changes (p< 0.01) were observed between the two starter cultures in terms of their post acidification potential with L. rhamnosus 18 dahi showing lower pH, higher titratable acidity and lactobacilli count than L. casei 01 during refrigerated storage. On assessing the impact of heat treatment on post acidification, significant decrease (p< 0.05) in pH, increase (p< 0.01) in titratable acidity and lactobacilli count of the heat treated and control samples were observed throughout the storage. Based on this study, it can be inferred that heat treatment at 65oC for even upto 5 min is not having any significant inhibitory effect on post fermentation acidification characteristics of the lactobacilli cultures tested

Predicting optical coherence tomography-derived diabetic macular edema grades from fundus photographs using deep learning

Center-involved diabetic macular edema (ci-DME) is a major cause of vision loss. Although the gold standard for diagnosis involves 3D imaging, 2D imaging by fundus photography is usually used in screening settings, resulting in high false-positive and false-negative calls. To address this, we train a deep learning model to predict ci-DME from fundus photographs, with an ROC–AUC of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.87–0.91), corresponding to 85% sensitivity at 80% specificity. In comparison, retinal specialists have similar sensitivities (82–85%), but only half the specificity (45–50%, p < 0.001). Our model can also detect the presence of intraretinal fluid (AUC: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.81–0.86) and subretinal fluid (AUC 0.88; 95% CI: 0.85–0.91). Using deep learning to make predictions via simple 2D images without sophisticated 3D-imaging equipment and with better than specialist performance, has broad relevance to many other applications in medical imaging

The Quasar Feedback Survey: characterising CO excitation in quasar host galaxies

We present a comprehensive study of the molecular gas properties of 17 Type 2 quasars at $z$10^{42.1}$$\rm ergs^{-1}$), selected by their high [OIII] luminosities and displaying a large diversity of radio jet properties, but dominated by LIRG-like galaxies. With these data, we are able to investigate the impact of AGN and AGN feedback mechanisms on the global molecular interstellar medium. Using APEX and ALMA ACA observations, we measure the total molecular gas content using the CO(1-0) emission and homogeneously sample the CO spectral line energy distributions (SLEDs), observing CO transitions (J$_{up}$= 1, 2, 3, 6, 7). We observe high$r_{21}$ratios (r$_{21}$= L'$_{CO(2-1)}$/L'$_{CO(1-0)}$) with a median$r_{21}$= 1.06, similar to local (U)LIRGs (with$r_{21}$$\sim$1) and higher than normal star-forming galaxies (with r$_{21}$$\sim$0.65). Despite the high$r_{21} values, for the 7 targets with the required data we find low excitation in CO(6-5) & CO(7-6) (r_{61}$and$r_{62}$ < 0.6 in all but one target), unlike high redshift quasars in the literature, which are far more luminous and show higher line ratios. The ionised gas traced by [OIII] exhibit systematically higher velocities than the molecular gas traced by CO. We conclude that any effects of quasar feedback (e.g. via outflows and radio jets) do not have a significant instantaneous impact on the global molecular gas content and excitation and we suggest that it only occurs on more localised scales.Comment: 32 pages (20 in the main body of the paper and 12 in the appendix), 28 figures (10 in main body of paper and 18 in appendix) Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Data available at https://doi.org/10.25405/data.ncl.2431250

Heat Stress and Goat Welfare: Adaptation and Production Considerations

This review attempted to collate and synthesize information on goat welfare and production constraints during heat stress exposure. Among the farm animals, goats arguably are considered the best-suited animals to survive in tropical climates. Heat stress was found to negatively influence growth, milk and meat production and compromised the immune response, thereby significantly reducing goats’ welfare under extensive conditions and transportation. Although considered extremely adapted to tropical climates, their production can be compromised to cope with heat stress. Therefore, information on goat adaptation and production performance during heat exposure could help assess their welfare. Such information would be valuable as the farming communities are often struggling in their efforts to assess animal welfare, especially in tropical regions. Broadly three aspects must be considered to ensure appropriate welfare in goats, and these include (i) housing and environment; (ii) breeding and genetics and (iii) handling and transport. Apart from these, there are a few other negative welfare factors in goat rearing, which differ across the production system being followed. Such negative practices are predominant in extensive systems and include nutritional stress, limited supply of good quality water, climatic extremes, parasitic infestation and lameness, culminating in low production, reproduction and high mortality rates. Broadly two types of methodologies are available to assess welfare in goats in these systems: (i) animal-based measures include behavioral measurements, health and production records and disease symptoms; (ii) resources based and management-based measures include stocking density, manpower, housing conditions and health plans. Goat welfare could be assessed based on several indicators covering behavioral, physical, physiological and productive responses. The important indicators of goat welfare include agonistic behavior, vocalization, skin temperature, body condition score (BCS), hair coat conditions, rectal temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, sweating, reduced growth, reduced milk production and reduced reproductive efficiency. There are also different approaches available by which the welfare of goats could be assessed, such as naturalistic, functional and subjective approaches. Thus, assessing welfare in goats at every production stage is a prerequisite for ensuring appropriate production in this all-important species to guarantee optimum returns to the marginal and subsistence farmers

Erratum to: Changes in patterns of uveitis at a tertiary referral center in Northern Italy: analysis of 990 consecutive cases

Erratum to: Changes in patterns of uveitis at a tertiary referral center in Northern Italy: analysis of 990 consecutive case

Evolutionarily Conserved Herpesviral Protein Interaction Networks

Herpesviruses constitute a family of large DNA viruses widely spread in vertebrates and causing a variety of different diseases. They possess dsDNA genomes ranging from 120 to 240 kbp encoding between 70 to 170 open reading frames. We previously reported the protein interaction networks of two herpesviruses, varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). In this study, we systematically tested three additional herpesvirus species, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), murine cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, for protein interactions in order to be able to perform a comparative analysis of all three herpesvirus subfamilies. We identified 735 interactions by genome-wide yeast-two-hybrid screens (Y2H), and, together with the interactomes of VZV and KSHV, included a total of 1,007 intraviral protein interactions in the analysis. Whereas a large number of interactions have not been reported previously, we were able to identify a core set of highly conserved protein interactions, like the interaction between HSV-1 UL33 with the nuclear egress proteins UL31/UL34. Interactions were conserved between orthologous proteins despite generally low sequence similarity, suggesting that function may be more conserved than sequence. By combining interactomes of different species we were able to systematically address the low coverage of the Y2H system and to extract biologically relevant interactions which were not evident from single species

The Quasar Feedback Survey: Revealing the Interplay of Jets, Winds & Emission Line Gas in Type 2 Quasars with Radio Polarization

We present results from a combined radio polarization and emission line study of five type 2 quasars at $z<0.2$ with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) B-array at 5 GHz and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) [O III] observations. These five sources are known to exhibit close association between radio structures and ionized gas morphology and kinematics. Four sources (J0945+1737, J1000+1242, J1356+1026 and J1430+1339) show polarization in the current data. J1010+1413 is the unpolarized source in our sample. We detect $0.5-1\%$ fractional polarization in the radio cores and a high fractional polarization ($10-30\%$) in the lobes of these sources. The morphological, spectral and polarization properties suggest a jet origin for radio emission in J0945+1737, J1000+1242, J1010+1413 and J1430+1339 whereas the current data cannot fully discern the origin of radio emission (jet or wind) in J1356+1026. An anti-correlation between various polarized knots in the radio and [O III] emission is observed in our sources, similar to that observed in some radio-loud AGN in the literature. This suggests that the radio emission is likely to be depolarized by the emission-line gas. By modeling the depolarization effects, we estimate the size of the emission-line gas clouds to be $\sim(2.8\pm1.7)\times10^{-5}$ parsec and the amount of thermal material mixed with the synchrotron plasma to be $\sim(1.01\pm0.08)\times10^{6}$M$_\odot$ in the lobe of J0945+1737 (which exhibits the most prominent polarization signature in its lobe). The current work demonstrates that the interplay of jets/winds and emission-line gas is most likely responsible for the nature of radio outflows in radio-quiet AGN.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures; v2: matches published versio