[Accepted Manuscript] Galleria mellonella is low cost and suitable surrogate host for studying virulence of human pathogenic Vibrio cholerae.

Vibrio cholerae causes a severe diarrheal disease affecting millions of people worldwide, particularly in low income countries. V. cholerae successfully persist in aquatic environment and its pathogenic strains results in sever enteric disease in humans. This dual life style contributes towards its better survival and persistence inside host gut and in the environment. Alternative animal replacement models are of great value in studying host-pathogen interaction and for quick screening of various pathogenic strains. One such model is Galleria mellonella, a wax worm which has a complex innate immune system and here we investigate its suitability as a model for clinical human isolates of O1 El TOR, Ogawa serotype belonging to two genetically distinct subclades found in Pakistan (PSC-1 and PSC-2). We demonstrate that the PSC-2 strain D59 frequently isolated from inland areas, was more virulent than PSC-1 strain K7 mainly isolated from coastal areas (p=0.0001). In addition, we compared the relative biofilm capability of the representative strains as indicators of their survival and persistence in the environment and K7 showed enhanced biofilm forming capabilities (p=0.004). Finally we present the annotated genomes of the strains D59 and K7, and compared them with the reference strain N16961

Youth Driven Engagement in the Homestay Program

Community-based tourism (CBT) is one of the tourist attracting ways involving local community which aims to develop and to enhance the era as well as to bring renewal to the local community. It includes the involvement of youth. CBT comes in various types and this study was conducted to find how CBT can create youth engagement in the homestay program. There were various factors that motivate youth to participate in homestay program. This study involved one case study of a qualitative study conducted in a district in Sabah, namely in Kundasang. In this study, Mersilou Homestay and Walai Tokou Homestay were chosen to be used as a place of study to review factors youth engagement in the homestay program. Data collection was through interviews in partial structures. Data were analyzed using NviVo 10 software and based on certain themes. The findings shown that there were several factors which drive engagement of youth in the homestay program in terms of interests, income, parental encouragement and comfort working in their own areas. In conclusion, the engagement of youth in the homestay program is based on the factors discovered in the study

Cardiac acceleration as a marker of vagal withdrawal in heart rate control during exercise in humans

Objective: To investigate whether the time rate of change in heart rate i.e. cardiac acceleration, during aerobic exercise in human subjects could be used to differentiate vagal withdrawal from sympathetic stimulation.Methods: Fifteen male subjects exercised on a bicycle ergometer at 50 Watts (Step 1), then 100 Watts (Step 2), for 2 minutes each.Results: Heart rate (HR) was monitored from a resting value (mean +/- SD) of 80.3 +/- 12.9 to 113.8 +/- 13.6 beats min-1 in Step 1. In Step 2 exercise, HR increased from 113.8 +/- 13.6 to 145 +/- 20 beats min-1. At the initiation of Step 1, a rapid acceleration of HR was observed in the form of an overshoot response. In contrast to Step 1, a small overshoot response of cardiac acceleration was observed during Step 2. The difference between the mean cardiac acceleration at 10 seconds in Steps 1 and 2 was significant (2.40 +/- 0.19 and 0.71 +/- 0.12 beats min-1 sec-1, p \u3c 0.0001).CONCLUSION: The initial vagal withdrawal of exercise-induced tachycardia, as a frontline adaptive mechanism, can be indirectly identified from HR transients using cardiac acceleration as a new marker

Weighing the Milky Way

We describe an experiment to measure the mass of the Milky Way galaxy. The experiment is based on calculated light travel times along orthogonal directions in the Schwarzschild metric of the Galactic center. We show that the difference is proportional to the Galactic mass. We apply the result to light travel times in a 10cm Michelson type interferometer located on Earth. The mass of the Galactic center is shown to contribute 10^-6 to the flat space component of the metric. An experiment is proposed to measure the effect.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Draft Genome Sequence of the Enteropathogenic Bacterium Campylobacter jejuni Strain cj255.

Published onlineJournal ArticleThe enteropathogen Campylobacter jejuni is a global health disaster, being one of the leading causes of bacterial gastroenteritis. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of C. jejuni strain cj255, isolated from a chicken source in Islamabad, Pakistan. The draft genome sequence will aid in epidemiological studies and quarantine of this broad-host-range pathogen.Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and British Counci

Educational game platform kahoot! In teaching and learning process: a case study of new norms

In the world of education especially on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), a learning media is required to increase students' understanding and absorption of the subject matter being studied, as well as to attract greater student attention so that learning can run more smoothly. One option is to implement the educational game Kahoot!, which is one of the online-based interactive quiz learning media. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of technical students on the use of educational games Kahoot! in the Teaching and Learning (T&L) process. The objective of this study is (i) perception of technical students about the educational game; (ii) perspective of technical students about the effectiveness of educational game Kahoot! and (iii) perspective of technical students about the environment of educational game Kahoot!. This study used a quantitative approach by using online questionnaire as instrument (google form). A total of 50 technical students from various backgrounds of study was selected a purposeful sample. The results of the analysis obtained show that the mean value is at a high level (educational game = 3.84; effectiveness = 3.77 and environment = 4.05). This method was also found to have a positive impact on student motivation. In conclusion, educational game has an effect on students, making them more ambitious and driven in their studies

Projective analysis and preliminary group classification of the nonlinear fin equation ut=(E(u)ux)x+h(x)uu_t=(E(u)u_x)_x + h(x)u

In this paper we investigate for further symmetry properties of the nonlinear fin equations of the general form $u_t=(E(u)u_x)_x + h(x)u$ rather than recent works on these equations. At first, we study the projective (fiber-preserving) symmetry to show that equations of the above class can not be reduced to linear equations. Then we determine an equivalence classification which admits an extension by one dimension of the principal Lie algebra of the equation. The invariant solutions of equivalence transformations and classification of nonlinear fin equations among with additional operators are also given.Comment: 9 page

A Framework to Estimate the Nutritional Value of Food in Real Time Using Deep Learning Techniques

There has been a rapid increase in dietary ailments during last few decades, caused by unhealthy food routine. Mobile-based dietary assessment systems that can record real time images of meal and analyze it for nutritional content can be very handy and improve the dietary habits, and therefore, result in healthy life. This paper proposes a novel system to automatically estimate food attributes such as ingredients and nutritional value by classifying the input image of food. Our method employs different deep learning models for accurate food identification. In addition to image analysis, attributes and ingredients are estimated by extracting semantically related words from a huge corpus of text, collected over the Internet. We performed experiments with a dataset comprising 100 classes, averaging 1000 images for each class to acquire top 1 classification rate of up to 85 percent. An extension of a benchmark dataset Food-101 is also created to include sub-continental foods. Results show that our proposed system is equally efficient on basic Food- 101 dataset and its extension for sub-continental foods. The proposed system is implemented as a mobile app that has its application in healthcare sector

Valsartan Improves β-Cell Function and Insulin Sensitivity in Subjects With Impaired Glucose Metabolism: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE Recently, the Nateglinide and Valsartan in Impaired Glucose Tolerance Outcomes Research Trial demonstrated that treatment with the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) valsartan for 5 years resulted in a relative reduction of 14% in the incidence of type 2 diabetes in subjects with impaired glucose metabolism (IGM). We investigated whether improvements in beta-cell function and/or insulin sensitivity underlie these preventive effects of the ARB valsartan in the onset of type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In this randomized controlled, double-blind, two-center study, the effects of 26 weeks of valsartan (320 mg daily; n = 40) or placebo (n = 39) on beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity were assessed in subjects with impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance, using a combined hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic and hyperglycemic clamp with subsequent arginine stimulation and a 2-h 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Treatment effects were analyzed using ANCOVA, adjusting for center, glucometabolic status, and sex. RESULTS Valsartan increased first-phase (P = 0.028) and second-phase (P = 0.002) glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared with placebo, whereas the enhanced arginine-stimulated insulin secretion was comparable between groups (P = 0.25). In addition, valsartan increased the OGTT-derived insulinogenic index (representing first-phase insulin secretion after an oral glucose load; P = 0.027). Clamp-derived insulin sensitivity was significantly increased with valsartan compared with placebo (P = 0.049). Valsartan treatment significantly decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared with placebo (P < 0.001). BMI remained unchanged in both treatment groups (P = 0.89). CONCLUSIONS Twenty-six weeks of valsartan treatment increased glucose-stimulated insulin release and insulin sensitivity in normotensive subjects with IGM. These findings may partly explain the beneficial effects of valsartan in the reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes

Risk measures for direct real estate investments with non-normal or unknown return distributions

The volatility of returns is probably the most widely used risk measure for real estate. This is rather surprising since a number of studies have cast doubts on the view that volatility can capture the manifold risks attached to properties and corresponds to the risk attitude of investors. A central issue in this discussion is the statistical properties of real estate returns—in contrast to neoclassical capital market theory they are mostly non-normal and often unknown, which render many statistical measures useless. Based on a literature review and an analysis of data from Germany we provide evidence that volatility alone is inappropriate for measuring the risk of direct real estate. We use a unique data sample by IPD, which includes the total returns of 939 properties across different usage types (56% office, 20% retail, 8% others and 16% residential properties) from 1996 to 2009, the German IPD Index, and the German Property Index. The analysis of the distributional characteristics shows that German real estate returns in this period were not normally distributed and that a logistic distribution would have been a better fit. This is in line with most of the current literature on this subject and leads to the question which indicators are more appropriate to measure real estate risks. We suggest that a combination of quantitative and qualitative risk measures more adequately captures real estate risks and conforms better with investor attitudes to risk. Furthermore, we present criteria for the purpose of risk classification