Potable Water Identification with Machine Learning: An Exploration of Water Quality Parameters

In this research, we aim to determine the water potability using three machine learning classification algorithms: decision tree, gradient boosting and bagging classifier. These algorithms were trained and tested on a dataset of water quality measurements. The outcomes of the experiment showed that the gradient boosting algorithm achieved the highest F1-score of 0.78 among all the algorithms. This indicates that the gradient boosting algorithm was most effective in correctly identifying both the safe and contaminated water samples. The results of this study demonstrate that gradient boosting is a promising approach for determining water potability and can be used as a reliable method for water quality assessment

Genetic affinities among the lower castes and tribal groups of India: inference from Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA

BACKGROUND: India is a country with enormous social and cultural diversity due to its positioning on the crossroads of many historic and pre-historic human migrations. The hierarchical caste system in the Hindu society dominates the social structure of the Indian populations. The origin of the caste system in India is a matter of debate with many linguists and anthropologists suggesting that it began with the arrival of Indo-European speakers from Central Asia about 3500 years ago. Previous genetic studies based on Indian populations failed to achieve a consensus in this regard. We analysed the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of three tribal populations of southern India, compared the results with available data from the Indian subcontinent and tried to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Indian caste and tribal populations. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed in the mitochondrial DNA between Indian tribal and caste populations, except for the presence of a higher frequency of west Eurasian-specific haplogroups in the higher castes, mostly in the north western part of India. On the other hand, the study of the Indian Y lineages revealed distinct distribution patterns among caste and tribal populations. The paternal lineages of Indian lower castes showed significantly closer affinity to the tribal populations than to the upper castes. The frequencies of deep-rooted Y haplogroups such as M89, M52, and M95 were higher in the lower castes and tribes, compared to the upper castes. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that the vast majority (>98%) of the Indian maternal gene pool, consisting of Indio-European and Dravidian speakers, is genetically more or less uniform. Invasions after the late Pleistocene settlement might have been mostly male-mediated. However, Y-SNP data provides compelling genetic evidence for a tribal origin of the lower caste populations in the subcontinent. Lower caste groups might have originated with the hierarchical divisions that arose within the tribal groups with the spread of Neolithic agriculturalists, much earlier than the arrival of Aryan speakers. The Indo-Europeans established themselves as upper castes among this already developed caste-like class structure within the tribes

Clinical profile and predictors of Severe Dengue disease: A study from South India

Background: Dengue is endemic and prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical countries including India and can cause significant mortality and morbidity. There are limited studies available on factors associated with severe dengue from India, to investigate the predictors of severe dengue in south Indian patients. Methods: We recruited 334 patients with dengue admitted in Yashoda Hospital, Hyderabad. Study period was between March 2015 and February 2017. Based on clinical symptoms, we divided patients into severe dengue and non-severe dengue. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed for prognostic factors of severe dengue. Results: Out of 334 patients, there were 186(55.6%) males with mean age 30.3±14.3 39 years (age range: 10-73 years), severe dengue was seen in 117(35%) and non-severe dengue in 217(65%). Clinical symptoms of diabetes, low platelet count (5days after onset) elevated hematocrit, lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, convulsions and mortality were significantly associated with severe dengue. After multivariate analysis, diabetes (OR: 2.12; 95% CI:1.34-4.65) (<0.0001), elevated hematocrit (OR: 3.14; 95% CI:2.17-6.14) (<0.0001), skin rashes (OR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.11-3.55) (<0.0001), melena (OR: 2.59; 95% CI:1.40-4.93) (<0.0001), low platelet count (OR: 6.71; 95% CI:4.12-13.6) (<0.0001), lymphadenopathy (OR: 3.12 95% CI: 1.91-7.85) (<0.0001) and delayed admission (OR: 2.40; 95% CI:1.31-3.41) (<0.0001) were significantly associated with severe dengue disease. Conclusions: In our study, it was established that low platelet count, elevated hematocrit, diabetes, skin rash, melena, lymphadenopathy and delayed in admission (>5days) were independently associated with severe dengue

Persistent inflammation during anti-tuberculosis treatment with diabetes comorbidity

Submitted by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2019-08-12T17:29:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Kumar, P. N. Persistent inflammation.pdf: 2995177 bytes, checksum: 4768d795e0eef3adcae0c8e8e11dd985 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2019-08-12T18:10:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Kumar, P. N. Persistent inflammation.pdf: 2995177 bytes, checksum: 4768d795e0eef3adcae0c8e8e11dd985 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-12T18:10:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kumar, P. N. Persistent inflammation.pdf: 2995177 bytes, checksum: 4768d795e0eef3adcae0c8e8e11dd985 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-01-04Ethics Committee of the Prof. M. Viswanathan Diabetes Research Centre (ECR/51/INST/TN/2013/MVDRC/01). The Brazilian cohort study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Maternidade Climério de Oliveira, Federal University of Bahia (CAAE: 0115.0.054.000-09).National Institutes of Health. National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis. International Center for Excellence in Research. Chennai, India.Fundação José Silveira. Multinational Organization Network Sponsoring Translational and Epidemiological Research. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciências. Salvador, BA, Brazil.Prof. M. Viswanathan Diabetes Research Center. Chennai, India.Fundação José Silveira. Multinational Organization Network Sponsoring Translational and Epidemiological Research. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Universidade Salvador. Laureate Universities. Salvador, BA, Brasil.Fundação José Silveira. Multinational Organization Network Sponsoring Translational and Epidemiological Research. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciências. Salvador, BA, Brazil.Fundação José Silveira. Multinational Organization Network Sponsoring Translational and Epidemiological Research. Salvador, BA, Brazil.University of Massachusetts Medical School. Worcester, United States.National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis. Chennai, India.Prof. M. Viswanathan Diabetes Research Center. Chennai, India.National Institutes of Health. National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis. International Center for Excellence in Research. Chennai, India.Fundação José Silveira. Multinational Organization Network Sponsoring Translational and Epidemiological Research. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Faculdade de Tecnologia e Ciências. Salvador, BA, Brazil / Universidade Salvador. Laureate Universities. Salvador, BA, Brasil.University of Massachusetts Medical School. Worcester, United States.Diabetes mellitus (DM) increases risk for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and adverse treatment outcomes. Systemic hyper-inflammation is characteristic in people with TB and concurrent DM (TBDM) at baseline, but the impact of TB treatment on this pattern has not been determined. We measured 17 plasma cytokines and growth factors in longitudinal cohorts of Indian and Brazilian pulmonary TB patients with or without DM. Principal component analysis revealed virtually complete separation of TBDM from TB individuals in both cohorts at baseline, with hyper-inflammation in TBDM that continued through treatment completion at six months. By one year after treatment completion, there was substantial convergence of mediator levels between groups within the India cohort. Non-resolving systemic inflammation in TBDM comorbidity could reflect delayed lesion sterilization or non-resolving sterile inflammation. Either mechanism portends unfavorable long-term outcomes including risk for recurrent TB and for damaging immune pathology

Cardiac abnormalities in adults with the attenuated form of mucopolysaccharidosis type I

Background: Cardiac involvement in mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) has been studied primarily in its most severe forms. Cardiac involvement, particularly left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function, in the attenuated form of MPS I is less well known. Methods: Cardiac function was prospectively investigated in 9 adult patients with the attenuated form of MPS I. All patients underwent 12-lead electrocardiography, 24 h Holter monitoring and two-dimensional echocardiography including tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Eighteen age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers served as a control group. Results: Aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve thickening was seen in, respectively, 5 (56%), 4 (44%) and 2 (22%) patients. Moderate mitral valve stenosis was seen in 1 patient and moderate aortic stenosis in 2 patients. All patients had mild-to-moderate aortic and mitral valve regurgitation and 6 patients (67%) had mild-to-moderate tricuspid valve regurgitation. Despite normal LV dimensions, ejection fraction and mass index, MPS patients had lower mean systolic mitral annular velocities (6.1±0.6 vs 9.1±1.4 cm/s, p<0.01) compared to normal control subjects. Similarly, mean early diastolic mitral annular velocities were lower in MPS patients (7.8±0.9 vs 13.3±3.3 cm/s, p<0.01). Conclusion: MPS I patients with the attenuated phenotype have not only valvular abnormalities but also LV diastolic and systolic abnormalities

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

c-di-GMP Turn-Over in Clostridium difficile Is Controlled by a Plethora of Diguanylate Cyclases and Phosphodiesterases

Clostridium difficile infections have become a major healthcare concern in the last decade during which the emergence of new strains has underscored this bacterium's capacity to cause persistent epidemics. c-di-GMP is a bacterial second messenger regulating diverse bacterial phenotypes, notably motility and biofilm formation, in proteobacteria such as Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella. c-di-GMP is synthesized by diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) that contain a conserved GGDEF domain. It is degraded by phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that contain either an EAL or an HD-GYP conserved domain. Very little is known about the role of c-di-GMP in the regulation of phenotypes of Gram-positive or fastidious bacteria. Herein, we exposed the main components of c-di-GMP signalling in 20 genomes of C. difficile, revealed their prevalence, and predicted their enzymatic activity. Ectopic expression of 31 of these conserved genes was carried out in V. cholerae to evaluate their effect on motility and biofilm formation, two well-characterized phenotype alterations associated with intracellular c-di-GMP variation in this bacterium. Most of the predicted DGCs and PDEs were found to be active in the V. cholerae model. Expression of truncated versions of CD0522, a protein with two GGDEF domains and one EAL domain, suggests that it can act alternatively as a DGC or a PDE. The activity of one purified DGC (CD1420) and one purified PDE (CD0757) was confirmed by in vitro enzymatic assays. GTP was shown to be important for the PDE activity of CD0757. Our results indicate that, in contrast to most Gram-positive bacteria including its closest relatives, C. difficile encodes a large assortment of functional DGCs and PDEs, revealing that c-di-GMP signalling is an important and well-conserved signal transduction system in this human pathogen