Efficient Two-Level Swarm Intelligence Approach for Multiple Sequence Alignment

This paper proposes two-level particle swarm optimization (TL-PSO), an efficient PSO variant that addresses two levels of optimization problem. Level one works on optimizing dimension for entire swarm, whereas level two works for optimizing each particle's position. The issue addressed here is one of the most challenging multiple sequence alignment (MSA) problem. TL-PSO deals with the arduous task of determination of exact sequence length with most suitable gap positions in MSA. The two levels considered here are: to obtain optimal sequence length in level one and to attain optimum gap positions for maximal alignment score in level two. The performance of TL-PSO has been assessed through a comparative study with two kinds of benchmark dataset of DNA and RNA. The efficiency of the proposed approach is evaluated with four popular scoring schemes at specific parameters. TL-PSO alignments are compared with four PSO variants, i.e. S-PSO, M-PSO, ED-MPSO and CPSO-Sk, and two leading alignment software, i.e. ClustalW and T-Coffee, at different alignment scores. Hence obtained results prove the competence of TL-PSO at accuracy aspects and conclude better score scheme

Study of prevalence of maternal anaemia and its fetal outcome at rural tertiary care centre

Background: Anaemia is a major public health problem especially among low socioeconomic class of the population in developing countries. Prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women in developing countries is 51%. Anaemia is defined by the WHO as haemoglobin levels of less than 11 gm. %   in pregnancy. The present study was aimed to find out prevalence of anaemia in rural tertiary care centre to see the foetal outcome in anaemic women.Methods: This is a retrospective observational study done in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of medical sciences Saifai, Etawah from June 2017 to November 2017. All the women admitted to labour room in third trimester and delivered here were included in the study excluding the patients with pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, heart disease, patients with other medical disorders and patients with twin pregnancy, antepartum haemorrhage and the patients who did not deliver here.Results: Prevalence of anaemia was 87.3 %. severe anaemia was found in 3.5 % women. The percentage of preterm births was more in anaemic women that is 16.9 %.Conclusions: Anaemia in pregnancy is a major public health problem in India. The number of IUGR and LBW babies were more in anaemic women. Anaemia is related to serious consequences in mother and baby if not diagnosed and treated timely. It can be prevented by increasing the awareness regarding need of iron intake during pregnancy

Role of intrauterine tubo-peritoneal insemination and intrauterine insemination in the treatment of infertility

Background: Infertility management has become more substantial and relevant with an increase in the number of infertile patients as well as advances in the science of reproduction. The objective of our study was to assess the role of intrauterine tuboperitoneal insemination (IUTPI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI) in the treatment of infertile patients.Methods: 236 infertile patients, 118 in each group attending the infertility clinic, after applying both inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in the present study. Patients in each study group were given clomiphene citrate for ovarian stimulation followed by injection hCG for triggering ovulation. Insemination with washed husband’s sperm was performed about 36-40 hours after hCG administration, using 10ml of  inseminate in IUTPI and 0.5ml inseminate in IUI. The patient was then called after 2 weeks for urine pregnancy test (UPT) which, if positive was considered as clinical pregnancy.Results: Out of the total 236 cases, 42 cases had a positive outcome. Out of these 42 positive cases, 27 were from IUTPI group whereas 15 from IUI group. The pregnancy rate was 22.88% in IUTPI and 12.71% in IUI (p=0.039), which was a statistically significant difference. Endometrial thickness, preovulatory follicle number and prewash sperm motility significantly affected positive outcome in IUTPI. Factors like patient’s age, BMI<25, bilateral patent tubes and decreased duration of infertility also positively affected the treatment outcome.Conclusions: Our study found IUTPI to have better pregnancy rate compared to IUI. IUTPI may become a first line option for treatment of infertile patients

A rare case of repeated expulsions of a giant cervical fibroid per vaginum followed by delivery of near term babies in two consecutive pregnancies

Huge cervical fibroid polyp with red degeneration, obstructing birth canal might be a night mare for obstetricians. Most of us will plan for a caesarean section but somehow due to lack medical consultation; a patient in rural setup with a huge cervical fibroid, delivered normal in two consecutive pregnancies. This case is unique because no such case has been reported in literature where normal delivery took place twice in the same patient, with such a huge fibroid with red degeneration, obstructing the birth canal

The most ancient spiral galaxy: a 2.6-Gyr-old disk with a tranquil velocity field

We report an integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) observation of a gravitationally lensed spiral galaxy A1689B11 at redshift $z=2.54$. It is the most ancient spiral galaxy discovered to date and the second kinematically confirmed spiral at $z\gtrsim2$. Thanks to gravitational lensing, this is also by far the deepest IFS observation with the highest spatial resolution ($\sim$ 400 pc) on a spiral galaxy at a cosmic time when the Hubble sequence is about to emerge. After correcting for a lensing magnification of 7.2 $\pm$ 0.8, this primitive spiral disk has an intrinsic star formation rate of 22 $\pm$ 2 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, a stellar mass of 10$^{9.8 \pm 0.3}$$M_{\odot}$ and a half-light radius of $r_{1/2}=2.6 \pm 0.7$ kpc, typical of a main-sequence star-forming (SF) galaxy at $z\sim2$. However, the H\alpha\ kinematics show a surprisingly tranquil velocity field with an ordered rotation ($V_{\rm c}$ = 200 $\pm$ 12 km/s) and uniformly small velocity dispersions ($V_{\rm \sigma, mean}$ = 23 $\pm$ 4 km/s and $V_{\rm \sigma, outer-disk}$ = 15 $\pm$ 2 km/s). The low gas velocity dispersion is similar to local spiral galaxies and is consistent with the classic density wave theory where spiral arms form in dynamically cold and thin disks. We speculate that A1689B11 belongs to a population of rare spiral galaxies at $z\gtrsim2$ that mark the formation epoch of thin disks. Future observations with JWST will greatly increase the sample of these rare galaxies and unveil the earliest onset of spiral arms.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in Ap

High Resolution spatial analysis of a z ∼\sim 2 lensed galaxy using adaptive coadded source-plane reconstruction

We present spatially resolved analysis of a lensed galaxy, SDSS1958+5950 at $z = 2.225$, from the Cambridge Sloan Survey of Wide Arcs in the Sky (CASSOWARY). We use our new high resolution imaging data to construct a robust lens model for the galaxy group at $z = 0.214$. We employ the updated lens model to combine the Integral Field Spectrographic observations on two highly distorted images of the lensed target. We adopt a forward-modeling approach to deconvolve the effects of point spread function from the combined source-plane reconstruction. The approach is adapted to the lens model magnification and enables a resolution of $\sim$170 pc in the galaxy-source plane. We propose an ongoing merger as the origin of the lensed system on the basis of its source-plane morphology, kinematics and rest-frame emission line ratios. Using our novel technique of adaptive coadded source plane reconstruction, we are able to detect different components in the velocity gradient that were not seen in previous studies of this object, plausibly belonging to different components in the merging system.Comment: 15 pages, 9 Figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

High-resolution spatial analysis of a z ∼ 2 lensed galaxy using adaptive coadded source-plane reconstruction

We present spatially resolved analysis of a lensed galaxy, SDSS1958+5950 at z = 2.225, from the Cambridge Sloan Survey of Wide Arcs in the Sky. We use our new high-resolution imaging data to construct a robust lens model for the galaxy group at z = 0.214. We employ the updated lens model to combine the Integral Field Spectrographic observations on two highly distorted images of the lensed target. We adopt a forward-modelling approach to deconvolve the effects of point spread function from the combined source-plane reconstruction. The approach is adapted to the lens model magnification and enables a resolution of ∼170 pc in the galaxy-source plane. We propose an ongoing merger as the origin of the lensed system on the basis of its source-plane morphology, kinematics and rest-frame emission-line ratios. Using our novel technique of adaptive coadded source plane reconstruction, we are able to detect different components in the velocity gradient that were not seen in previous studies of this object, plausibly belonging to different components in the merging system

The Most Ancient Spiral Galaxy: A 2.6-Gyr-old Disk with a Tranquil Velocity Field

We report an integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) observation of a gravitationally lensed spiral galaxy A1689B11 at redshift z = 2.54. It is the most ancient spiral galaxy discovered to date and the second kinematically confirmed spiral at . Thanks to gravitational lensing, this is also by far the deepest IFS observation with the highest spatial resolution (∼400 pc) on a spiral galaxy at a cosmic time when the Hubble sequence is about to emerge. After correcting for a lensing magnification of 7.2 ± 0.8, this primitive spiral disk has an intrinsic star formation rate of 22 ± 2 M o yr-1, a stellar mass of M o, and a half-light radius of , typical of a main-sequence star-forming galaxy at . However, the Hα kinematics show a surprisingly tranquil velocity field with an ordered rotation ( km s-1) and uniformly small velocity dispersions ( km s-1 and km s-1). The low gas velocity dispersion is similar to local spiral galaxies and is consistent with the classic density wave theory where spiral arms form in dynamically cold and thin disks. We speculate that A1689B11 belongs to a population of rare spiral galaxies at that mark the formation epoch of thin disks. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope will greatly increase the sample of these rare galaxies and unveil the earliest onset of spiral arms.This research was conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. T.Y. acknowledges the support from the ASTRO 3D fellowship. B.G. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council as the recipient of a Future Fellowship (FT140101202). C.F. acknowledges funding provided by the ARC Discovery Projects (grants DP150104329 and DP170100603). D.B.F. acknowledges support from ARC Future Fellowship grant (FT170100376). J.R. acknowledges support from the ERC starting grant 336736-CALENDS. L.K. gratefully acknowledges support from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowship (FL150100113). R.C. acknowledges grants NNX12AF91G and AST15-15389. Y.B. acknowledges ISF grant 1059/1

Online classes during Covid 19 Pandemic: A Student’s Perspective

Background: In the wake of corona pandemic, online classes became need of hour to fulfill the educational requirement of ongoing batches without much waste of time. Context &amp; purpose: Educational institutes had to resort to these online classes without adequate preparation &amp; infrastructure. So, the need to assess the quality of online classes was felt. Results: Majority of students were in favour of offline classes because that resulted in better learning outcome. Conclusion: No matter how much enthusiastic &amp; techno friendly facilities for online classes are available. Offline face- face interaction and hands on practical training cannot be replaced in subjects like Anatomy