Network of Recurrent events - A case study of Japan

A recently proposed method of constructing seismic networks from 'record breaking events' from the earthquake catalog of California (Phy. Rev. E, 77 6,066104, 2008) was successfull in establishing causal features to seismicity and arrive at estimates for rupture length and its scaling with magnitude. The results of our implementation of this procedure on the earthquake catalog of Japan establishes the robustness of the procedure. Additionally, we find that the temporal distributions are able to detect heterogeneties in the seismicity of the region.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

A study on finite difference method using explicit and monotone scheme hyperbolic partial differential equation

All the problems almost in science and technology can be expressed mathematically in the form of partial differential equation. Mainly all the types of partial differential equation has a specific characters. Specially hyperbolic equation is associated with vibrations and sounds especially problems related to time, heat, diffusion and elasticity. In this paper, the author discussed the explicit and monotone scheme based on finite difference method to find the numerical solution of hyperbolic partial differential equation with linear advection equation and also discussed the upwind difference scheme which was extended to an monotone scheme

Interplanetary Consequences of a Large CME

We analyze a coronal mass ejection (CME) which resulted from an intense flare in active region AR486 on November 4, 2003. The CME propagation and speed are studied with interplanetary scintillation images, near-Earth space mission data, and Ulysses measurements. Together, these diverse diagnostics suggest that the internal magnetic energy of the CME determines its interplanetary consequences.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, To appear in "Magnetic Coupling between the Interior and the Atmosphere of the Sun", eds. S.S. Hasan and R.J. Rutten, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, 200

Prevalence of goitre and its associated factors in a coastal district of Karnataka

Context: Iodine deficiency Disorders (IDDs) are a major public health problem globally. In India more than 200 million are at risk for this disorder. It affects people of all ages and both sexes. The mental impairment caused by IDD especially in children is an important consequence of IDD. Aim: To find the prevalence of IDDs and the associated factors with it. Settings and Design: A school based cross – sectional study. Methods and Material: The study was done in Udupi district of Karnataka using a pretested, semistructured questionnaire. The villages of the three talukas (Udupi, Kundapur and Karkala) of Udupi district were sampled according to Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS).One school was chosen for the study from each of the 30 selected villages. Minimum of 90 students were selected from each school. Salt and urine samples were collected for Iodine estimation from a sub sample. Goitre was graded according to WHO/UNICEF/ICCIDD criteria. Results: A total of 3023 children were examined (M = 49.1%, F = 50.9%). The prevalence of goitre in Udupi district was 19.8%. The prevalence of goitre was found to be more amongst females compared to males (p = 0.021) and also was found to be increasing with the increasing age (p = 0.003). Of the 539 salt samples analyzed 23.7 % were inadequately iodized. Education of the father, fish consumption and occupation of the mother were found to be significant predictors of goitre. Conclusions: Goitre is a public health problem in Udupi district of Karnataka. The adequately Iodized salt coverage which should have been more than 90 % is not fulfilled. More awareness is required amongst the people about IDDs and its predictors

Network of Earthquakes and Recurrences Therein

We quantify the correlation between earthquakes and use the same to distinguish between relevant causally connected earthquakes. Our correlation metric is a variation on the one introduced by Baiesi and Paczuski (2004). A network of earthquakes is constructed, which is time ordered and with links between the more correlated ones. Data pertaining to the California region has been used in the study. Recurrences to earthquakes are identified employing correlation thresholds to demarcate the most meaningful ones in each cluster. The distribution of recurrence lengths and recurrence times are analyzed subsequently to extract information about the complex dynamics. We find that the unimodal feature of recurrence lengths helps to associate typical rupture lengths with different magnitude earthquakes. The out-degree of the network shows a hub structure rooted on the large magnitude earthquakes. In-degree distribution is seen to be dependent on the density of events in the neighborhood. Power laws are also obtained with recurrence time distribution agreeing with the Omori law.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Glimpse towards cultivable hemolymph microbiota of marine crabs: Untapped resource for aquatic probiotics/antibacterial agents

Bacterial diseases have turned out to be the primary constraint in sustainable aquaculture production, where, probiotics can play an important role to prevent or control fish and shellfish diseases. As the autochthonous preparations would be more effective than commercial products, continued search for novel antibacterial strains native to aquatic environment are warranted against aquatic pathogens. Further, knowledge on abundance, composition and role of hemolymph microbes is also essential to predict the health status and disease diagnosis. Hence, in present study, 4 commercially significant marine crabs that are important for aquaculture were used to unravel the implication and significance of cultivable hemolymph microbes. Bacterial abundance was found to be individual- and species-dependent; and statistically significant interaction was present between growth media and abundance. Gram negative isolates represented 84% of hemolymph microbes. Vibrio was the principal genera in all species; each carrying a specific hemolymph microbiota (both in terms of abundance and diversity). The present study forms the first report of genera viz., Enterovibrio, Pantoea, Kluyvera and Enterobacter in crustacean hemolymph. Interestingly, new Vibrio species were also found. Further, the study forms the first observation on inhibitory activity of marine crab hemolymph microbes against aquatic pathogens. Overall, the results highlight marine crab hemolymph microbiota as a promising moreover, an untapped resource for probiotics/ antimicrobial agents to combat aquatic pathogens. Concurrently, the present study fetches a platform for the prediction of health and disease diagnosis of 4 potentially important aquaculture crab species

Speaker identification using multimodal neural networks and wavelet analysis

© 2014 The Authors. Published by IET. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-bmt.2014.0011The rapid momentum of the technology progress in the recent years has led to a tremendous rise in the use of biometric authentication systems. The objective of this research is to investigate the problem of identifying a speaker from its voice regardless of the content. In this study, the authors designed and implemented a novel text-independent multimodal speaker identification system based on wavelet analysis and neural networks. Wavelet analysis comprises discrete wavelet transform, wavelet packet transform, wavelet sub-band coding and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs). The learning module comprises general regressive, probabilistic and radial basis function neural networks, forming decisions through a majority voting scheme. The system was found to be competitive and it improved the identification rate by 15% as compared with the classical MFCC. In addition, it reduced the identification time by 40% as compared with the back-propagation neural network, Gaussian mixture model and principal component analysis. Performance tests conducted using the GRID database corpora have shown that this approach has faster identification time and greater accuracy compared with traditional approaches, and it is applicable to real-time, text-independent speaker identification systems

Secretion of Clostridium difficile Toxins A and B Requires the Holin-like Protein TcdE

The pathogenesis of Clostridium difficile, the major cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, is mainly associated with the production and activities of two major toxins. In many bacteria, toxins are released into the extracellular environment via the general secretion pathways. C. difficile toxins A and B have no export signature and their secretion is not explainable by cell lysis, suggesting that they might be secreted by an unusual mechanism. The TcdE protein encoded within the C. difficile pathogenicity locus (PaLoc) has predicted structural features similar to those of bacteriophage holin proteins. During many types of phage infection, host lysis is driven by an endolysin that crosses the cytoplasmic membrane through a pore formed by holin oligomerization. We demonstrated that TcdE has a holin-like activity by functionally complementing a λ phage deprived of its holin. Similar to λ holin, TcdE expressed in Escherichia coli and C. difficile formed oligomers in the cytoplamic membrane. A C. difficile tcdE mutant strain grew at the same rate as the wild-type strain, but accumulated a dramatically reduced amount of toxin proteins in the medium. However, the complemented tcdE mutant released the toxins efficiently. There was no difference in the abundance of tcdA and tcdB transcripts or of several cytoplasmic proteins in the mutant and the wild-type strains. In addition, TcdE did not overtly affect membrane integrity of C. difficile in the presence of TcdA/TcdB. Thus, TcdE acts as a holin-like protein to facilitate the release of C. difficile toxins to the extracellular environment, but, unlike the phage holins, does not cause the non-specific release of cytosolic contents. TcdE appears to be the first example of a bacterial protein that releases toxins into the environment by a phage-like system

Genetic diversity and risk factors for the transmission of antimicrobial resistance across human, animals and environmental compartments in East Africa: a review.

BACKGROUND The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) present a challenge to disease control in East Africa. Resistance to beta-lactams, which are by far the most used antibiotics worldwide and include the penicillins, cephalosporins, monobactams and carbapenems, is reducing options for effective control of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The World Health Organization, Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health have all advocated surveillance of AMR using an integrated One Health approach. Regional consortia also have strengthened collaboration to address the AMR problem through surveillance, training and research in a holistic and multisectoral approach. This review paper contains collective information on risk factors for transmission, clinical relevance and diversity of resistance genes relating to extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing (ESBL) and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) across the human, animal and environmental compartments in East Africa. MAIN BODY The review of the AMR literature (years 2001 to 2019) was performed using search engines such as PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Google and Web of Science. The search terms included 'antimicrobial resistance and human-animal-environment', 'antimicrobial resistance, risk factors, genetic diversity, and human-animal-environment' combined with respective countries of East Africa. In general, the risk factors identified were associated with the transmission of AMR. The marked genetic diversity due to multiple sequence types among drug-resistant bacteria and their replicon plasmid types sourced from the animal, human and environment were reported. The main ESBL, MRSA and carbapenem related genes/plasmids were the CTX-Ms (45.7%), SCCmec type III (27.3%) and IMP types (23.8%), respectively. CONCLUSION The high diversity of the AMR genes suggests there may be multiple sources of resistance bacteria, or the possible exchange of strains or a flow of genes amongst different strains due to transfer by mobile genetic elements. Therefore, there should be harmonized One Health guidelines for the use of antibiotics, as well as regulations governing their importation and sale. Moreover, the trend of ESBLs, MRSA and carbapenem resistant (CAR) carriage rates is dynamic and are on rise over time period, posing a public health concern in East Africa. Collaborative surveillance of AMR in partnership with regional and external institutions using an integrated One Health approach is required for expert knowledge and technology transfer to facilitate information sharing for informed decision-making