Molecular Characterisation, Pathogenicity and Immunological Studies of Chicken Anaemia Virus Isolated In Malaysia

A comprehensive study was carried out to isolate, identify and characterise chicken anaemia virus (CAV) isolated in Malaysia. The study resulted in the isolation of five CAV isolates from broiler chickens, designated as BL-1, BL-2, BL-3, BL-4 and BL-5. These isolates together with three isolates (SMSC-1, SMSC-2 and 3-1) provided by Veterinary Research Institute (VRI), Malaysia and a reference Cux-1 isolate were analysed by different restriction endonuclease enzymes. The whole genome of each CAV isolate was amplified by PCR into four fragments: Fragments A, B, C and D. Fragment A was digested with Styl, fragment B with StyI, Hpall and Mbol, fragment C with Haelll, and fragment 0 with EcoRI. The overall analysis revealed that the four isolates, BL-1, BL-2 , BL-4 and BL-5, exhibited the same restriction profiles in all enzymatic reactions and they are placed in one group, whereas, the other five isolates (SMSC-1, SMSC-2, 3-1, BL-3 and Cux-1) were found to be different from each other and also from the group of four isolates mentioned above. The pathogenicity studies in specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens inoculated with SMSC-1, 3-1 and BL-5 isolates at 1-day old showed that, the isolates produced clinical signs and characteristic lesions suggestive of CAV infection at 14-16 days post inoculation (p.L). The histopathological lesions in infected chicks showed severe depletion of lymphocytes from thymus, bursa and spleen and aplastic changes in bone marrow. The repeated passages of two VRI isolates, SMSC-1 and 3-1, in MSB1 cell line until passage sixty (P60), and passage 123 (P123), produced attenuated viruses (SMSC-1/P60, 3-1/P60. SMSC-1/P123 and 3-1/P123) which showed significantly reduced level of pathogenicity in SPF chickens compared to the pathogenic parent isolates. The whole genome of two non-attenuated isolates (SMSC-1 and 3-1) and two attenuated isolates (SMSC-1/P60 and 3-1/P60) were sequenced using the Perkin Elmer's BigDye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kit. The high G:C regions of the CAV genome were sequenced using the same kit by the development of a modified method. The results showed that the complete genome of all isolates consisted of 2298 nucleotides. Three major ORFs of 1347 bp, 648 bp and 363 bp long were found in the plus DNA strand in all isolates, coding for putative proteins of about 52 kDa (VP1). 24 kDa (VP2) and 13 kDa (VP3). respectively. The alignment and antigenic index of VP1 sequence revealed the appearance of a hypervariable region from amino acid positions 139 to 157. The results showed that 76 nucleotide changes in SMSC-1/P60 and 43 nucleotide changes in 3-1/P60 isolates compared to their parent isolates, were thought to contribute to virus attenuation. Among these nucleotide changes, only one nucleotide difference (T-C) at position 816 resulted in changes of amino acid residues at positions 153 in VP2 from V to A, and 118 in VP3 from C to R. This single nucleotide change is probably important for the change in virus pathogenicity or attenuation. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the SMSC-1 isolate is close to the Australian 704 and Japanese TR20, the 3-1 isolate is close to the German Cux-1 isolate and the attenuated cloned isolate 10 (derived from the Cux-1). The attenuated SMSC-1/P60 and 3-1/P60 isolates were very close to the Japanese isolate A2. The apoptosis study carried out with electron microscopy and DNA fragmentation analysis, detected apoptosis both in infected thymocytes and infected MSB1 cells. The immunological studies with P1, P60 and P123 isolates of SMSC-1 and 3-1, and also with BL-5 isolate, after inoculation into 1-day-old SPF chickens showed that each of the isolates elicited CAY antibody responses, both at 14-16 days and 30 days p.i. Based on the findings of antibody response and pathogenicity studies, the attenuated isolates of P60 and P123 are potential candidates for live vaccines

Complex Odontoma associated with Dentigerous cyst

Odontomas are most commonly occurring tumors of the jaws. Large odontomas may be associated with local disturbances such as eruption delay of permanent teeth. However  cases of simultaneous pathologies are uncommon. Here we report a case of a complex odontoma associated with dentigerous cyst in relation to mandibular first molar. &nbsp

Multi-objective optimal placement of distributed generations for dynamic loads

Large amount of active power losses and low voltage profile are the two major issues concerning the integration of distributed generations with existing power system networks. High R/X ratio and long distance of radial network further aggravates the issues. Optimal placement of distributed generators can address these issues significantly by alleviating active power losses and ameliorating voltage profile in a cost effective manner. In this research, multi-objective optimal placement problem is decomposed into minimization of total active power losses, maximization of bus voltage profile enhancement and minimization of total generation cost of a power system network for static and dynamic load characteristics. Optimum utilization factor for installed generators and available loads is scaled by the analysis of yearly load-demand curve of a network. The developed algorithm of N-bus system is implemented in IEEE-14 bus standard test system to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method in different loading conditions

Governing environmental security in the Arctic : the perspective of the Arctic Council on climate change, fossil fuel exploration and shipping operation

Global climate change is one of the most pressing environmental issues in the history of mankind and like any other parts of the world, the Arctic region is also under a severe threat. Climate change is already causing noticeable impact to Arctic environment, which may contribute to further complicacies inside and outside this region in the future. On the other hand, the melting of sea ice due to climate change has unveiled opportunities for fossil fuel exploration and shipping in the Arctic. As the new record for global warming is being observed regularly, the Arctic ice sheet melting will most likely continue in upcoming years and the Arctic environment will be encountering a far more complex version of the current situation. This study identifies the Arctic Council as the most influential actor in the Arctic governance and discusses the contribution of this intergovernmental panel to the region's environmental security, primarily, concerning the issue of climate change. Qualitative content analysis of the nine declarations of the Arctic Council from 1996 to 2015 not only reveals its achievements in the field of climate change but also discusses its role in the sectors of fossil fuel exploration and shipping operation in the Arctic. Furthermore, this study indicates about the Arctic Council's lack of significant contribution in the fight against climate change and discusses about strengthening its role in the wake of new challenges

Non-Standard Imaging Techniques

The first objective of the thesis is to investigate the problem of reconstructing a small-scale object (a few millimeters or smaller) in 3D. In Chapter 3, we show how this problem can be solved effectively by a new multifocus multiview 3D reconstruction procedure which includes a new Fixed-Lens multifocus image capture and a calibrated image registration technique using analytic homography transformation. The experimental results using the real and synthetic images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions by showing that both the fixed-lens image capture and multifocus stacking with calibrated image alignment significantly reduce the errors in the camera poses and produce more complete 3D reconstructed models as compared with those by the conventional moving lens image capture and multifocus stacking. The second objective of the thesis is modelling the dual-pixel (DP) camera. In Chapter 4, to understand the potential of the DP sensor for computer vision applications, we study the formation of the DP pair which links the blur and the depth information. A mathematical DP model is proposed which can benefit depth estimation by the blur. These explorations motivate us to propose an end-to-end DDDNet (DP-based Depth and Deblur Network) to jointly estimate the depth and restore the image . Moreover, we define a reblur loss, which reflects the relationship of the DP image formation process with depth information, to regularize our depth estimate in training. To meet the requirement of a large amount of data for learning, we propose the first DP image simulator which allows us to create datasets with DP pairs from any existing RGBD dataset. As a side contribution, we collect a real dataset for further research. Extensive experimental evaluation on both synthetic and real datasets shows that our approach achieves competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Another (third) objective of this thesis is to tackle the multifocus image fusion problem, particularly for long multifocus image sequences. Multifocus image stacking/fusion produces an in-focus image of a scene from a number of partially focused images of that scene in order to extend the depth of field. One of the limitations of the current state of the art multifocus fusion methods is not considering image registration/alignment before fusion. Consequently, fusing unregistered multifocus images produces an in-focus image containing misalignment artefacts. In Chapter 5, we propose image registration by projective transformation before fusion to remove the misalignment artefacts. We also propose a method based on 3D deconvolution to retrieve the in-focus image by formulating the multifocus image fusion problem as a 3D deconvolution problem. The proposed method achieves superior performance compared to the state of the art methods. It is also shown that, the proposed projective transformation for image registration can improve the quality of the fused images. Moreover, we implement a multifocus simulator to generate synthetic multifocus data from any RGB-D dataset. The fourth objective of this thesis is to explore new ways to detect the polarization state of light. To achieve the objective, in Chapter 6, we investigate a new optical filter namely optical rotation filter for detecting the polarization state with a fewer number of images. The proposed method can estimate polarization state using two images, one with the filter and another without. The accuracy of estimating the polarization parameters using the proposed method is almost similar to that of the existing state of the art method. In addition, the feasibility of detecting the polarization state using only one RGB image captured with the optical rotation filter is also demonstrated by estimating the image without the filter from the image with the filter using a generative adversarial network

Study of SMS security as part of an electronic voting system

This thesis report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering, 2006.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis report.Includes bibliographical references (page 48).E-voting is a new technology in voting system. Recently it was experimented in UK. Basically, this system is proposed to work via Short Message System (SMS). Using secure messaging system we are trying to develop the e-voting system here in our country. Our goal is to develop a system, which will be able to send SMS from a registered cell phone to a server located in the base polling station and cast a vote for a voter. The system must be secured so that while voting, no outside interference can be made to change the vote. So, there will be no tension of casting false vote. By the help of this system our voters will be able to cast their votes in a secure way and also the results will be available immediately when the vote casting finishes. This is going to be a pioneer change in our voting system. Some work on this proposed system has already been done. We wish to carry out the proposed system into further details. That is security aspects and implementation.B. Computer Science and Engineerin

An evidence theoretic approach for traffic signal intrusion detection

The increasing attacks on traffic signals worldwide indicate the importance of intrusion detection. The existing traffic signal Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) that rely on inputs from connected vehicles and image analysis techniques can only detect intrusions created by spoofed vehicles. However, these approaches fail to detect intrusion from attacks on in-road sensors, traffic controllers, and signals. In this paper, we proposed an IDS based on detecting anomalies associated with flow rate, phase time, and vehicle speed, which is a significant extension of our previous work using additional traffic parameters and statistical tools. We theoretically modelled our system using the Dempster-Shafer decision theory, considering the instantaneous observations of traffic parameters and their relevant historical normal traffic data. We also used Shannon's entropy to determine the uncertainty associated with the observations. To validate our work, we developed a simulation model based on the traffic simulator called SUMO using many real scenarios and the data recorded by the Victorian Transportation Authority, Australia. The scenarios for abnormal traffic conditions were generated considering attacks such as jamming, Sybil, and false data injection attacks. The results show that the overall detection accuracy of our proposed system is 79.3% with fewer false alarms

A Beneficial Resemblance of the Origin of Hindu Law : Religious Observation

This paper aims to improve our understanding about the prevalence and determinants of Hindu law in both historical and comparative perspectives with an introductory reflections on the nature and role of law in society the inter relationship between religion and their sources in general further issues covered include the triple origins of Hindu law in priestly codes Dharmaas religious law and the controversy over religion and secularism in the courts today Attention is given to definition of the category Hindu attempts to legislate the universal structure of Hindu Scriptures as It is especially pertinent for students interested in comparative legal theory of Hindu law the inter sections of law religion and religious practices and the role of law in determining or reforming the social orde

Investor Sentiment and Stock Returns: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

Abstract A plethora of academic research has been under way investigating the effect of individual investor sentiment on stock returns. It seems that the issue is not resolved yet because the empirical findings are not entirely conclusive. Most authors argue that there is a place for sentiment as a determining factor in the stock retu rn generating process while several others find that it is exactly the opposite. This paper aims at contributing to the existing debate by examining the relationship between investor sentiment and stock market returns of firms listed in the Athens Stock Exchange. We employ two investor sentiment prox ies, a direct and an indirect. As the direct me asurement of sentiment we use the historical investor sentiment indicators compiled by the European Commission, and for the indirect one we resort to the closed - end equity fund discount/premium. Using monthly data for the period January 199 5 to April 2014 the regression results indicate that investor sentiment weakly explains returns. B ecause this type of risk is not diversifiable, for practical purposes somehow it ought to be priced. Thus, it appears t hat behavio ral factors may be consider ed in empirical asset pricing models for the Greek market