To study the evaluation of conventional culture methods and serodiagnostic methods for clinically Diagnosed as meningoencephalitis in patients admitted in Thanjavur Medical College Hospital with Special reference to Japanese Encephalitis.

OBJECTIVES: Japanese encephalitis is an acute viral infection caused by mosquito borne Japanese encephalitis virus. JE virus is a virus from flaviviride Domestic pigs and wild birds are reservoirs of the virus, the most important vectors of the disease are the culex mosquitos .Japanese encephalitis virus causes most serious clinical disease among the flavivirus group. Approximately 3 billion people live in endemic regions. It is the most common cause of arbo viral encephalitis Japanese encephalitis is diagnosed by detection of antibodies in serum by IgM capture ELISA. METHODOLOGY: This is prospective study that aims to analyze 100 cases of clinically diagnosed meningoencephalitis. Clinical data and CSF samples to be collected for cytological and chemical analysis in serological positive cases molecular characterization of JE virus to be done by polymerase chain reaction in serologicaly positive cases. RESULTS: The study was conducted at Thanjavur Medical College Hospital. Thanjavur over a period of June 2015 to June 2016.The aim of the study is to determine the seroprevalence Japanese encephalitis virus in patients attending tertiary care hospital and molecular characterization for JEV. CSF samples were collected from 100 suspected meningoencephalitis patients. All these samples were initially tested for IgM antibodies by Elisa. Molecular detection method was done for the positive samples by real time PCR assay. CSF samples were stored at - 20 c until tested for molecular detection. Real time PCR was done for 6 sample, including both positive and negative for IgM ELISA for JEV. Out of 6 samples, 1 sample was positive by igm ELISA. One sample was positive for JEV by Real-time PCR assay and this one positive sample was further processed for JEV genotyping. . • Prevalence of JEV 1%. • High prevalence was seen among children in the age group 5-10 years. • Real –time PCR for JEV was positive for one sample (100%) out of 1 positive sample by Elisa. CONCLUSION: This study estimates the seroprevalence of Japanese encephalitis in a tertiary care hospital. The seroprevalence of Japanese encephalitis was 1% .The prevalence was high among children when compare to adults for JEV. This study estimates the magnitude and dynamics of disease transmission . Real –time PCR is the gold standard method, because it estimates the viral load and genotyping, because both viral load and genotyping plays an important role in treatment strategy. Moreover knowing about the genotypes in the community helps in the development of future vaccine. Further studies of genotype distribution will helps in the development, adaptation and prevention strategies. Early diagnosis prevents the disease progression and further complications

Brain Tumour Biomarkers by Deep Learning Architectures

                Brain tumour may be detected by the use of different medical imaging modalities such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI has been shown to be effective in screening brain tumour than CT. Deep features have been proposed for brain image classification on the basis of two different architectures; Visual Geometric Group (VGG) and Inception Architectures (IA).  The need to characterize the brain images as normal or abnormal leads to different deep learning algorithms for the extraction of deep features. The MRI brain image dataset REpository of Molecular BRAin Neoplasia DaTa (REMBRANDT) is studied in this work for the classification. It contains 200 brain images with 100 related to normal and 100 to abnormal. For the analysis, same set of training and testing samples obtained via random split of 50:50 are used by the VGG-16, VGG-19, IA-V1 (GoogleNet) and IA-V3.The classification performance in percentage accuracy, sensitivity and specificity with the above architectures are recorded. Results show that IA-V3 provides best average performance of 95.1% accuracy.     &nbsp

Effects of microalgal diets on larval growth and survival of Paphia malabarica chemnitz

The effects of food availability on the larval growth and survival of Paphia malabarica were studied in two experiments by feeding the larvae with six algal diets. Newly hatched larvae of P. malabarica were fed with six different marine microalgae species, singly and in a combination of two species. The best growth was with Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis salina as a single species of diet. The nutritional value of single-species diets was in the order of N. salina, I. galbana, Dicrateria inornata, Chaetoceros calcitrans,Tetraselmis gracilis and Dunaliella salina. Of the mixtures tested, 50% I. galbana/50% N. salina supported growth and metamorphosis equivalent to those of the I. galbana control

Effects of copper on development and survival rate of Paphia malabarica Chemnitz larvae under low saline condition

Venerid clam, Paphia malabarica Chemnitz, is the commercially exploited species distributed exclusively in Vembanad Lake and Ashtamudi estuary, along the south west coast of India. In this study, the survival rate and development of P. malabarica larvae were studied for 3 days in ambient salinity (33), copper (2.5 μg Cu2+ l−1), reduced salinities (25 and 20) and a combination of copper in low salinities. No significant differences were found in larval development between treatments. The survival rates decreased considerably with low salinities although the combination of copper and low salinity gave synergistic effects. The reduced survival in low salinities would limit population growth of this species in estuarine areas experiencing low salinities and also explains the absence of larval settlement on habitats close to harbors or river mouths

Retracted due to plagiarism-------Effects of diet, stocking density and environmental factors on growth, survival and metamorphosis of clam, Paphia malabarica (Chemnitz) larvae

A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the e¡ects of diet, stocking density and environmental factors on the growth, survival and metamorphosis of short neck clamPaphiamalabarica larvae.These experiments examined the following factors: diet [Isochrysis galbana, Nannochloropsis salina and a mixture of I. galbana and N. salina (1:1 w/w)], stocking density (1, 3, 5 and 7 larvaemL_1), light intensity (unshaded, partially shaded and fully shaded) and water ¢ltration (un¢ltered and sand ¢ltered). Results indicated that N. salina could replace 50%of I. galbana as a food source for the clam larvae with an increase in growth, survival (47.2%), metamorphosis (33.5%) and early settlement. Larval growth decreased signi¢cantly with increasing stocking density. A density of 1^3 larvaemL_1 appeared to be optimal for normal growth of clam larva

Micro algae culture as live feed

The early life stages of every cultivable organism in a hatchery system depend on the feed provided. Micro algae form the basic food for all the larval stages of crustaceans, molluscs, sea cucumber and finfishes. Even though, large number of micro algae is identified, only a few are used as live feed. Identification, isolation and the maintenance of stock culture and mass culture of required micro algae as feed is the prior task in every hatchery system. Moreover, the preference of the organisms varies with species and in its different stages of life cycle. Here, we try to discuss the present status, methods and protocols adopted for the production of micro algae as live feed for the benefit of aquaculture

Studies on plankton production in the inshore waters of Tuticorin

The results of hydro-biological investigations, with special reference to plankton production, in the inshore areas off Tuticorin for the period 1976 to 1985 have been presented. The primary production revealed three distinct peaks during the years, 1982-85, the first in January-April, the second in June August and the third October -December. The annual cycle of zooplankton production was dicyclic with slight variations throughout the period of study. Components of zooplankters showed definite seasonal fluctuations. Occurrence of fish eggs and larvae in increased percentages during March, June, July and September-October indicated the spawning seasons in this area. The distribution of bivalve and gastropod larvae exhibits two distinct modes during February-March and October-December, revealing the breeding season of this group. The environmental conditions of the inshore area relating to primary and secondary production are briefly discussed

Growth and proximate composition of the Chaetoceros calcitrans f. pumilus under different temperature, salinity and carbon dioxide levels

The marine diatom Chaetoceros calcitrans f. pumilus has been examined for its potential source as live feed in aquaculture. The present study investigated e¡ects of temperature (20,25 and 30 1C), salinity (25 and 35) and carbon dioxide addition (air1CO2) on the growth and proximate composition of C. calcitrans under laboratory conditions. The growth and biomass of C. calcitrans were primarily a¡ected by carbon dioxide addition, and to a lesser extent by temperature and salinity

Distribution of chlorophyll 'a' and 'b' in the eastern Arabian Sea (west coast of India) in relation to nutrients during post monsoon

The distribution of chlorophyll 'a' and 'b' in the Arabian Sea along the west coast of India from Cape Comorin to Veraval in the 40-200rn depth contour, in a single cruise of FORV Sagar Sampada (Cruise no. 177) was studied, covering 58 stations duringng the post monsoon period October-November, 1999. Data on nitrates and phosphates were also collected along with chlorophylls. The results indicated that the coastal waters along the south west coast of Inaia are more productive than the waters along the north west coast during the post monsoon period. Earlier observations on chlorophylls and nutrients from eastern Arabian Sea are briefly discussed

Digital Filters Using Identical Blocks

Improved response of non-recursive digital filters is achieved using Amplitude Change Functions (ACFs) on a prototype filter. A generalized ACF with interesting properties is suggested. Methods for achieving variable cut-off frequency and frequency transformation are explained. A modular hardware implementation is also presented