The implementation of a novel graphical python editor (STREMECODER) in a rodent discrimination apparatus

As the interest in neuroscience and the desire to perform behavioral tasks in a higher level of specificity and accuracy increases, the need to have tools and techniques to conduct experimentations in a low-cost automated manner is essential. Although such methods have been proposed previously by other researchers, they have presented their data and tools in a manner that would have been difficult to comprehend for non-programmers. In labs that do not have the accessibility to individuals who can understand the published procedures, it is very difficult for them to get started and manipulate the published procedures to their interests. Here in this paper, I discuss designing and implementing a computer program for a rodent odor discrimination apparatus using a novel graphical python programming editor named STREMECODER. The objective of this project is to create a program interface that helps the laboratory staff conduct their experiments in an automated, dynamic, and userfriendly manner

PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF DRIED FLOWERS OF ADENIUM OBESUM

Objective: To estimate the antimicrobial activity of methanolic extract of Adenium obesum (family Apocyanaceae) in association with phytochemical analysis. Methods: The methanolic extract of the flowers of Adenium obesum was prepared and investigated for phytochemical constituents using standard methods. Antimicrobial activity of methanolic extract Adenium obesum has been carried out against one gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and one gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and the antifungal activity of the plant extract was evaluated on Candida albicans species. The testing was done by the disc diffusion method to visualize the zone of inhibition of methanolic extract was compared with that of standard drug i.e., Ciprofloxacin for antibacterial activity and Fluconazole for antifungal activity. The minimum inhibition concentration was determined by micro dilution method (cup-plate method). Results: The present investigation shows the phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloids, saponin glycosides, flavonoids, phenols, proteins and amino acids, cardiac glycosides, steroids, tannin, and phenolic compounds. The anti-microbial activity of the methanolic extract of the plant showed significant results against all the three of the test organisms in compare to the standard drugs. Conclusion: The present study concluded that methanolic extract of the flowers of adenium obesum proved the existence of phytochemical constituents. The methanolic extract of the was found to possess promising antimicrobial activity when compared with the standards and it can be useful for the development of antibiotics

REAL TIME LEARNING LEVEL ASSESSMENT USING EYE TRACKING

E-Learning is emerging as a convenient and effective learning tool. However, the challenge with eLearning is the lack of effective tools to assess levels of learning. Ability to predict difficult content in real time enables eLearning systems to dynamically provide supplementary content to meet learners’ needs. Recent developments have made possible low-cost eye trackers, which enables a new class of applications based on eye response. In comparison to past attempts using bio-metrics in learning assessments, with eye tracking, we can have access to the exact stimulus that is causing the response. A key aspect of the proposed approach is the temporal analysis of eye response and stimulus (concept) that is causing the response. Variations in eye response to the same concept over time may be indicative of levels of learning. The proposed system analyses slide images to extract words and then maps eye response to those words. We propose an analytical model (refer figure 1) for predicting various levels of learning in real time and the model achieves a prediction accuracy of 70%

Detection of Bundle Branch Block using Adaptive Bacterial Foraging Optimization and Neural Network

AbstractThe medical practitioners analyze the electrical activity of the human heart so as to predict various ailments by studying the data collected from the Electrocardiogram (ECG). A Bundle Branch Block (BBB) is a type of heart disease which occurs when there is an obstruction along the pathway of an electrical impulse. This abnormality makes the heart beat irregular as there is an obstruction in the branches of heart, this results in pulses to travel slower than the usual. Our current study involved is to diagnose this heart problem using Adaptive Bacterial Foraging Optimization (ABFO) Algorithm. The Data collected from MIT/BIH arrhythmia BBB database applied to an ABFO Algorithm for obtaining best(important) feature from each ECG beat. These features later fed to Levenberg Marquardt Neural Network (LMNN) based classifier. The results show the proposed classification using ABFO is better than some recent algorithms reported in the literature

Layout Design of 32-bit Brent Kung Adder (Cmos Logic)

Adders play a key role in the arithmetic circuits. These arithmetic circuits perform operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, parity calculation etc. The performance of the microprocessors mainly depends upon the speed of the response of these arithmetic operations. Apart from the arithmetic operations the adders are also used for calculating the addresses, tables and similar operations. It is also used in digital signal processor (DSP). As adder is the main circuit, the performance depends on its functioning or speed. Improving its performance is the main area of research in VLSI system design. The conventional adders may work well for small number of bits but when the length increases (say 32-bit, 64-bit, 128-bit and so on) the performance of the conventional adders degrades. Thus in industries tree adders or parallel prefix adders are used for arithmetic operations. There are 6 types of tree adders. Here in this work the layout of 32-bit Brent Kung adder is designed and its delay is calculated. The layouts of 16-bit Brent Kung, Sklansky, Kogge Stone adders are also designed and their delays are compared. The critical path for all these tree adders is computed. For designing these layouts the software used is �magic layout tool� and outputs are verified using �IRSIM�. Minimum transistor width (5lambda) is used in these designs.Electrical Engineerin

Quantitative phase imaging of cells using White Light Diffraction Phase Microscopy

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) techniques are very advantageous compared to the qualitative phase imaging techniques like bright field microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, differential interference contrast microscopy as the QPI techniques render phase information quantitatively whereas qualitative phase imaging techniques yield phase information qualitatively and cannot provide exact phase values. In QPI techniques, there is no need of exogenous contrast agents to stain or tag the specimen. White light diffraction phase microscopy (wDPM) is one of the QPI techniques which is used to quantify the phase information from the samples

Anaerobic Contributions Are Influenced by Active Muscle Mass and The Applied Methodology in Well-Controlled Muscle Group

International Journal of Exercise Science 15(7): 599-615, 2022. The anaerobic metabolism determination is complex and the applied methodologies present limitations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different calculations (MAOD vs. AOD) on the anaerobic contribution using the dynamic knee extension. Twenty-four male were recruited [Mean (SD); age 27 (1) years, body mass 90 (3) kg, height 181 (2) cm]. This study was divided into two independent experiments (EXP1: ­one-legged; EXP2: two-legged). In both experiments, it was performed a graded exercise test to determine maximal power (MP-GXT); 2-4 submaximal efforts (VO2-intensity relationship); and an exhaustive effort. The theoretical energy demand for the exhaustive effort (TEDex) was constructed from the submaximal efforts. Therefore, MAOD was assumed as the difference between the TEDex and the accumulated VO2 (AVO2). In contrast, the energy demand for AOD was calculated as the product between VO2 at the end of exercise and time to exhaustion (TEDaod). Thus, AOD was assumed as the difference between TEDaod and AVO2. Bayesian paired t-test was used to compare the differences between the applied methods. Also, correlations between the anaerobic indices and performance were verified. In EXP1, AOD was higher than MAOD [1855 (741) vs. 434 (245); BF10 = 2925; ES = 2.5]. In contrast, in EXP2, MAOD was higher than AOD [2832 (959) vs. 1636 (549); BF10 = 3.33; ES = 1.4]. Also, AOD was correlated to performance (r = .59; BF10 = 4.38). We concluded that MAOD and AOD are a distinct phenomenon and must be utilized according to the exercise model

A importância das ações extensionistas na avaliação e acompanhamento das dislipidemias em idosos

Anais do 35º Seminário de Extensão Universitária da Região Sul - Área temática: SaúdeO projeto “Contribuição laboratorial à saúde em uma instituição de longa permanência de idosos de Ponta Grossa – Paraná” da UEPG promove a integração da universidade com idosos de uma Instituição de Longa Permanência para Idosos (ILPI). As ações extensionistas, desenvolvidas por professores e alunos do curso de Farmácia, visam contribuir no acompanhamento clínico-laboratorial e na melhoria qualidade de vida desses idosos com graus variados de dependência para atividades de autocuidado. O convênio entre UEPG e ILPI garante a execução de exames sem custos para os idosos e a formação acadêmica dos alunos. No contexto do atendimento e do envelhecimento populacional abordou-se, neste trabalho, a importância da dislipidemia com fator de risco em idosos. Participaram do estudo 68 idosos, avaliados no período de setembro de 2016 a julho de 2017. Coletou-se sangue venoso para a determinação do perfil lipídico, segundo a V Diretriz de Dislipidemia e Prevenção da Aterosclerose. A dislipidemia esteve presente em 51% dos idosos. Seu controle tem sido apontado como medida preventiva primária de eventos cardiovasculares e o projeto extensionista tem sido essencial para o mapeamento do risco nos idosos. Por outro lado, a integração das ações: ensino, pesquisa e extensão, enriquece a formação de recursos humanos para o atendimento em saúde no cenário do envelheciment

Photo-acoustic tomographic image reconstruction from reduced data using physically inspired regularization

We propose a model-based image reconstruction method for photoacoustic tomography(PAT) involving a novel form of regularization and demonstrate its ability to recover good quality images from significantly reduced size datasets. The regularization is constructed to suit the physical structure of typical PAT images. We construct it by combining second-order derivatives and intensity into a non-convex form to exploit a structural property of PAT images that we observe: in PAT images, high intensities and high second-order derivatives are jointly sparse. The specific form of regularization constructed here is a modification of the form proposed for fluorescence image restoration. This regularization is combined with a data fidelity cost, and the required image is obtained as the minimizer of this cost. As this regularization is non-convex, the efficiency of the minimization method is crucial in obtaining artifact-free reconstructions. We develop a custom minimization method for efficiently handling this non-convex minimization problem. Further, as non-convex minimization requires a large number of iterations and the PAT forward model in the data-fidelity term has to be applied in the iterations, we propose a computational structure for efficient implementation of the forward model with reduced memory requirements. We evaluate the proposed method on both simulated and real measured data sets and compare them with a recent reconstruction method that is based on a well-known fast iterative shrinkage threshold algorithm (FISTA).Comment: This manuscript has been published in Journal of Instrumentatio

ANALISIS POTENSI, TANTANGAN DAN STRATEGI PENGEMBANGAN PERTANIAN DI KABUPATEN NIAS, PROVINSI SUMATERA UTARA

Indonesia merupakan negara yang kaya akan sumber daya alam, dengan kondisi tanah dan musim yang cocok untuk sektor pertanian. Indonesia juga dikenal sebagai negara agraris karena sebagian besar mata pencaharian masyarakat Indonesia berasal dari sektor pertanian yang memegang peranan penting bagi perekonomian Indonesia. Sektor pertanian berkontribusi besar bagi perekonomian indonesia. Hal ini dilihat dari pertumbuhan domestik bruto (PDB), pertanian merupakan tiga besar penyumbang Produk Domestik Bruto (PDB) nasional yang tumbuh bersama industri dan pertambangan yaitu sebesar 12,98 persen dengan pertumbuhannya sebesar 1,37 persen. Penentuan daerah penelitian ini dilakukan secara sengaja (Purposive Method) yakni di Kabupaten Nias, Provinsi Sumatera Utara. Adapun pengambilan sampelnya adalah petani sebanyak 30 responden yang berada di Kecamatan Somolo-molo dari populasi seluruh petani yang berada di Kabupaten Nias. Metode analisis data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif. Dari hasil penelitian disimpulkan bahwa Kabupaten Nias memiliki potensi besar dibidang pertanian yaitu dibidang SDA, iklim, luas lahan pertanian dan Sumber daya manusia (SDM) yang mayoritas bekerja sebagai petani. Tantangan yang dihadapi dalam pengembangan pertanian di Kabupaten Nias adalah ketersediaan bibit, pupuk, dan pestisida, rendahnya pengetahuan petani akan teknologi, teknik budidaya yang masih konvensional, kurangnya perhatian pemerintah, pertanian dipandang sebelah mata, rendahnya minat regenerasi muda untuk terjun ke dunia pertanian dan rantai niaga yang merugikan petani. Strategi yang dapat dimanfaatkan dalam pengembangan pertanian di Kabupaten Nias adalah pengembangan bibit unggul dari tanaman sendiri, pertanian berbasis teknologi, digitalisasi informasi dan pemasaran produk pertanian, pembangunan infrastruktur pendukung pertanian, kebijakan pemerintah yang pro dengan petani dan pertanian.   &nbsp