A Reflective Analysis of Image Processing Operations on Kato-Katz Images for the Pathological Diagnosis of Neglected Tropical Diseases

This paper gives an insight into the interdisciplinary work that has been carried out to diagnose some of the neglected tropical diseases, in particular micro-parasitic diseases, using image processing operations. The infections from micro-parasites are collectively called Helminthiasis. The Kato-Katz method is a slide scanning technique commonly used for the qualitative and semi-quantitative diagnosis of helminthiasis. This paper explains the image analysis and processing of Kato-katz images to extract meaningful information and convert the qualitative features of the images to quantitative data and thereby effectively diagnose the disease. This is the preliminary stage of a pioneering work done in the field of neglected tropical disease diagnosis and would be beneficial for thousands of people including children in the endemic region

Ethno-Medicinal Profile of Different Plant Parts of Clotropis procera (AIt.) R. Br.

The present paper reviews the literature on recent ethno medicinal uses of every plant part of Calotropis procera (1968-2009) and its medicinal properties used for the treatment of various ailments as in the case of many types of fevers, rheumatism, indigestion, cough, cold, eczema, asthma, elephantiasis, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, etc. The review includes accounts of medicinal values of all parts of the plant that have been used in folk medicine as a remedy. The name and parts of the plant studied, the spectrum of activity, and methods used are discussed in this review paper

Disentangling source of moisture driving glacier dynamics and identification of 8.2 ka event: evidence from pore water isotopes, Western Himalaya

Two atmospheric circulation patterns, the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and mid-latitude Westerlies control precipitation and thus glacier variability in the Himalaya. However, the role of the ISM and westerlies in controlling climate and thus past glacier variability in the Himalaya is poorly understood because of the paucity of the ice core records. In this article, we present a new Holocene paleorecord disentangling the presence of the ISM and mid-latitude westerlies and their effect on glacier fluctuations during the Holocene. Our new record is based on high-resolution multi-proxy analyses (δ18Oporewater, deuterium-excess, grain size analysis, permeability, and environmental magnetism) of lake sediments retrieved from Chandratal Lake, Western Himalaya. Our study provides new evidence that improves the current understanding of the forcing factor behind glacier advances and retreat in the Western Himalaya and identifies the 8.2 ka cold event using the aforementioned proxies. The results indicate that the ISM dominated precipitation ~ 21% of the time, whereas the mid-latitude westerlies dominated precipitation ~ 79% of the time during the last 11 ka cal BP. This is the first study that portrays the moisture sources by using the above proxies from the Himalayan region as an alternative of ice core records.publishedVersio

Electromagnetic transition from the 4+^+ to 2+^+ resonance in 8^8Be measured via the radiative capture in 4^4He+4^4He

An earlier measurement on the 4$^+$ to 2$^+$ radiative transition in $^8$Be provided the first electromagnetic signature of its dumbbell-like shape. However, the large uncertainty in the measured cross section does not allow a stringent test of nuclear structure models. The present paper reports a more elaborate and precise measurement for this transition, via the radiative capture in the $^4$He+$^4$He reaction, improving the accuracy by about a factor of three. The {\it ab initio} calculations of the radiative transition strength with improved three-nucleon forces are also presented. The experimental results are compared with the predictions of the alpha cluster model and {\it ab initio} calculations.Comment: 5 pages and 7 figures, Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Direct Evidence of Multi-Bubble Sonoluminescence using Therapeutic Ultrasound and Microbubbles

The intense conditions generated in the core of a collapsing bubble have been the subject of intense scrutiny from fields as diverse as marine biology and nuclear fusion. In particular, the phenomenon of sonoluminescence, whereby a collapsing bubble emits light, has received significant attention. Sonoluminescence has been associated predominantly with millimeter-sized bubbles excited at low frequencies and under conditions far removed from those associated with the use of ultrasound in medicine. In this study, however, we demonstrate that sonoluminescence is produced under medically relevant exposure conditions by microbubbles commonly used as contrast agents for ultrasound imaging. This provides a mechanistic explanation for the somewhat controversial reports of “sonodynamic” therapy, in which light-sensitive drugs have been shown to be activated by ultrasound-induced cavitation. To illustrate this, we demonstrate the activation of a photodynamic therapy agent using microbubbles and ultrasound. Since ultrasound can be accurately focused at large tissue depths, this opens up the potential for generating light at locations that cannot be reached by external sources. This could be exploited both for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, significantly increasing the range of applications that are currently restricted by the limited penetration of light in the tissue

Heterogeneous catalyst Mn(salicylaldimine) complex covalently bonded to α-titanium phosphate: Synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity for oxidation of cyclohexane

A new heterogeneous catalyst, Mn(salicylaldimine) complex covalently bonded to α-titanium phosphate has been synthesized by in situ method and characterized by BET surface area, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of α-TiP.Mn(salicylaldimine) is studied for the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane using tert-butylhydroperoxide as an oxidant under solvent-free condition. In the oxidation reaction, cyclohexane is oxidized to cyclohexanol, cyclohexanone and some unidentified products. A maximum conversion (14.75%) of cyclohexane with 91.70% selectivity of KA-oil is obtained at 353 K after 6 h of reaction time. The catalyst can be reused for four cycles without significant loss of catalytic activity

Coarse grained description of the protein folding

We consider two- and three-dimensional lattice models of proteins which were characterized previously. We coarse grain their folding dynamics by reducing it to transitions between effective states. We consider two methods of selection of the effective states. The first method is based on the steepest descent mapping of states to underlying local energy minima and the other involves an additional projection to maximally compact conformations. Both methods generate connectivity patterns that allow to distinguish between the good and bad folders. Connectivity graphs corresponding to the folding funnel have few loops and are thus tree-like. The Arrhenius law for the median folding time of a 16-monomer sequence is established and the corresponding barrier is related to easily identifiable kinetic trap states.Comment: REVTeX, 9 pages, 15 EPS figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Post-K/PB younger ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages of the Mandla lavas: Implications for the duration of the Deccan volcanism

We present new age determinations, derived from ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar incremental heating experiments, for basaltic lava flows from the Mandla lobe, located on the eastern margin of the main Deccan volcanic province, some ~ 1000 km from the Western Ghats escarpment. The most reliable estimates of crystallization ages come from 5 plateau ages from plagioclase separates, from a stratigraphically controlled succession of 37 lava flows. We detect no statistically significant age difference from bottom to top (range 63-65 Ma) and calculate a weighted mean age for the section at 64.21 ± 0.33 Ma. These lava flows are significantly younger than the majority of the main Deccan volcanic activity documented from the Western Ghats (67-65 Ma). The new ages are consistent, however, with geochemical correlation of the Mandla lobe lavas with the uppermost succession (Poladpur-Ambenali-Mahabaleshwar Formations) of the SW Deccan, and indicate that this post K/PB youngest phase of flood basalt activity erupted over much of the province.Keywords: Deccan volcanism, ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar dating, Mandla lavas, K/PBKeywords: Deccan volcanism, ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar dating, Mandla lavas, K/P