Membership of Stars in Open Clusters using Random Forest with Gaia Data

Membership of stars in open clusters is one of the most crucial parameters in studies of star clusters. Gaia opened a new window in the estimation of membership because of its unprecedented 6-D data. In the present study, we used published membership data of nine open star clusters as a training set to find new members from Gaia DR2 data using a supervised random forest model with a precision of around 90\%. The number of new members found is often double the published number. Membership probability of a larger sample of stars in clusters is a major benefit in determination of cluster parameters like distance, extinction and mass functions. We also found members in the outer regions of the cluster and found sub-structures in the clusters studied. The color magnitude diagrams are more populated and enriched by the addition of new members making their study more promising.Comment: Accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal ST, Special Issue on Modeling Machine Learning and Astronom

The enhanced YSO population in Serpens

The Serpens Molecular Cloud is one of the most active sites of ongoing star formation at a distance of about 300 pc, and hence is very well-suited for studies of young low-mass stars and sub-stellar objects. In this paper, for the Serpens star forming region, we find potential members of the Young Stellar Objects population from the Gaia DR3 data and study their kinematics and distribution. We compile a catalog of 656 YSOs from available catalogs ranging from X-ray to the infrared. We use this as a reference set and cross-match it to find 87 Gaia DR3 member stars to produce a control sample with revised parameters. We queried the DR3 catalog with these parameters and found 1196 stars. We then applied three different density-based machine learning algorithms (DBSCAN, OPTICS and HDBSCAN) to this sample and found potential YSOs. The three clustering algorithms identified a common set of 822 YSO members from Gaia DR3 in this region. We also classified these objects using 2MASS and WISE data to study their distribution and the progress of star formation in Serpens.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (JoAA

Stillbirth in Pigs

Piglets that are born dead may have died at any time during the farrowing process or before. Causes of stillborn piglets can be divided into infectious and noninfectious. Infectious causes perhaps are overemphasized but are certainly important in epidemic situations. Noninfectious causes of stillborns are most common in endemic situations. Genetic, maternal, piglet and environmental factors can all affect the stillborn rate. The review attempts to describe the causes of stillborn piglets and the ways to mitigate them

Evaluation of Bacteriological Quality of Ready-to-eat Chicken Products by Total Viable Count Method

The present investigation describes the total viable count of ready-to-eat chicken products (chicken patties and chicken rolls) in Srinagar city during two seasons viz. autumn and winter. A total of 120 ready-to-eat chicken products comprising of 60 chicken patties and 60 chicken rolls were tested. The mean bacterial count of 60 chicken patties and 60 chicken rolls was 5.1281 and 4.9395 log10 cfu/g. Bacillus cereus strains were isolated from 25 of chicken patties and 22 of the chicken rolls resulting in prevalence of 41.66% and 36.67%, respectively

Experimental study on the effect of vitamin C administration on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzyme activity in rats exposed to chlorpyriphos and lead acetate

Aim :To evaluate the effects of chlorpyriphos, lead acetate, vitamin C alone, and in combination on the activity of oxidative stress parameters in wistar rats. Materials and Methods: Rats of 150-200g body weight were divided into eight groups of six animals each and were subjected to various daily oral treatment regimes for 98 days. Group I served as control receiving only corn oil, group II received th chlorpyriphos @ 5.5 mg/ kg in corn oil, group III received lead acetate @100 ppm in water, whereas animals in group IV th received a combination of chlorpyriphos @ 5.5mg/kg in corn oil and lead acetate @ 100 ppm in water. Group V received th vitamin C @ 100mg/kg in water, group VI received a combination of chlorpyriphos @ 5.5mg/kg and vitamin C @ th th 100mg/kg , group VII received lead acetate @ 100 ppm in water and vitamin C @ 100mg/kg and group VIII received chlorpyriphos @ 5.5mg/kg , lead acetate @100ppm in water and vitamin C @ 100mg/kg. Results: Administration of both chlorpyriphos and lead acetate caused a significant decrease in oxidative stress parameters viz. blood glutathione, catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione-s-transferase (GST) along with a significant increase in lipid peroxidation level when given alone or in combination. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that treatment of chlorpyriphos and lead treated rats with vitamin C significantly improved some of altered oxidative stress parameters revealing the protective effect of this vitamin C against oxidative stress induced by chlorpyriphos and lead. [Vet World 2013; 6(8.000): 461-466