Exploratory Data Analysis on Blueberry yield through Bayes and Function Models

Agricultural researchers are using machine learning to predict crop yield. Many machine learning algorithms need lots of data. One of the major challenges in training and experimenting with machine learning algorithms is the availability of training data in sufficient quality and quantity remains a limiting factor. The Linear Discriminant Analysis produces 95.88% of accuracy which is most efficient of selected models; The Nave Bayes Multinomial has 69.88% accuracy, while the Linear Discriminant Analysis has 0.96 precision. The NBM has 0.71 precision, while Linear Discriminant Analysis has 0.95 recall. The Linear Discriminant Analysis produces 0.99 of ROC, which is the most efficient outcome of selected models. The NBM gives least ROC, which is 0.80. The Linear Discriminant Analysis produces 0.99 of PRC, which is the most efficient outcome of selected models. The NBM gives least PRC, which is 0.72. The LDA explores efficient outcome with low deviations. Four machine-learning-based predictive models were then built using the simulated dataset. This simulated data provides researchers with actual field observation data and those who want to test machine learning algorithms' response to real data with crop yield prediction models

Strategies to modulate charge variants of a Biosmilar monoclonal antibody through cell culture conditions

Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) are the most successful and rapidly growing class of biopharmaceuticals used in treating several diseases. Biosimilar mAb, an approved version of an original biological medicinal product (reference product) with demonstrated similarity to the reference in terms of critical quality attributes, safety and efficacy, is an increasingly accepted solution to provide greater access at affordable cost to the patients across the world. But, given the complex nature of mAbs, developing a biosimilar using a new cell line and a process is challenging, especially with regards to matching the glycosylation and charge profiles to the appropriate level. It is reported that culture environment during the production of monoclonal antibody affects its various quality attributes including charge variant profiles1. The charge variants are usually formed due to chemical modification of amino acids by deamidation, oxidation, glycation and methylglyoxal adducts2, and may lead to increase in acidic charge variants. These unintended changes in the protein are mainly due to it being exposed during the long duration of the cell culture to an environment, like elevated temperature, nutrients from media and feed, metabolites from live and lysed cells, culture pH, which favours certain chemical modifications. Understanding and controlling cell culture process parameters are vital in developing a protein biologic to ensure process consistency and product quality. In the present study, we discuss a case study of development of a cell culture process to produce a proposed biosimilar mAb using a CHO cell line, and ways to modulate its charge variants in the cell culture. The initial screening experiments were performed in an ambr® 15 cell culture micro bioreactor system, from which an optimal 12-day process was chosen and subsequently tested in 3L and 10L bioreactors. Significant time-dependent increase in acidic charge variants was observed from day 10 to 12 at both bioreactor scales, while all other quality parameters remained largely unchanged during the last days of the culture. Further various strategies such as use of different basal media, feed, and additives (amino acids/metal ions and insulin), and changes in culture temperature and pH, were applied during the cell culture process to control the charge variants, in particular the acidic charge variants. The impact of various additives, cell culture pH, temperature on the charge profiles, as well as on productivity and glycosylation, during the development of this biosimilar mAb using a CHO cell line is discussed in detail. References: Liu, H., Nowak, C., Shao, M., Ponniah, G. and Neill, A. (2016), Impact of cell culture on recombinant monoclonal antibody product heterogeneity. Biotechnol Progress, 32: 1103–1112. Chumsae, C., Gifford, K., Lian, W., Liu, H., Radziejewski, C. H., & Zhou, Z. S. (2013). Arginine modifications by methylglyoxal: discovery in a recombinant monoclonal antibody and contribution to acidic species. Analytical chemistry, 85(23), 11401-11409

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SOME FOLKLORE MEDICINAL PLANTS FROM SOUTH INDIA

Antibacterial activity and phytochemical tests of eight whole plant methanol extracts belonging to family Euphorbiaceae were evaluated. In agar well diffusion assay the diameter of inhibition zones ranged from 3-13 mm. Phyllanthus emblica showed maximum activity of 13 mm. The MIC and MBC observed were 30-140 mcg/ml and 40-160 mcg/ml, respectively. P. piscatorum and P. emblica showed the lowest MIC (30 mcg/ml), P. emblica the lowest MBC (40 mcg/ml) and thus an effective inhibitor of the tested bacteria. Alkaloids, saponins and tannins were detected in 7 out of 8 tested plants

Appropriate Switching State Selection to Avoid Sapacitor Imbalance in Five-Level NPC

An intrinsic problem with neutral point clamped (NPC) multilevel inverters (MLI) is unbalance of capacitor voltage. There are many mitigation techniques well established in the literature to balance the neutral point voltage for 3-level inverter. These techniques employ either Carrier based pulse width modulation (CBPWM), Space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) or hybrid of both the PWM techniques. Balancing becomes complicated as the level of the inverter increases due to addition of capacitor junctions. The imbalance in capacitor voltages may cause uneven voltage distribution among switching devices and sometimes may cause failure. It also increases harmonic content in its output waveform. This paper develops new modulation scheme for balancing capacitor voltages for Five-level inverter .The scheme is a hybrid PWM which is a combination of both CBPWM and SVPWM techniques. As per this scheme CBPWM is applied to meet the load demand and at the zero crossings of the reference signal, CBPWM is blocked and for one carrier cycle. During this SVPWM is applied with   appropriate switching state selection to neutralize the imbalance in capacitor voltage

Velocity-space contours of collision integrals

Based on the recently found closed-form expressions of the Boltzmann collision integrals in a rigid-sphere gas for multi-Maxwellian distributions, a few typical sets of contour surfaces of the integrals in the space of molecular velocities are presented. These show graphically the tendency toward equilibrium under the influence of collisions. A brief preliminary comparison with Monte Carlo results is also given

Repair Effectiveness Studies on Impact Damaged Sandwich Composite Constructions

Experimental studies were carried out using sandwich composite panel specimens, consisting of both polyurethane foam core (PUF) and aramid honeycomb core (Nomex) type constructions. These specimens were subjected to impact damage at energy levels ranging between 7.56 and 15.6J. A ply-drop-patching technique was employed to repair the impact damaged sandwich specimens. The undamaged (virgin), impact damaged, and repaired specimens were then subjected to flexural (four point bending) and edgewise compression tests and strength recoveries were measured to determine the efficiency of the repair technique employed. In flexure, strength recoveries of upto 97% in PUF core and 90% in honeycomb core sandwich specimens were realized after repair, whereeas in compression, the corresponding values were upto 9O% in PUF core and 88% in honeycomb core sandwich specimens. A repair effectiveness factor(Ref)has been conceived and introduced to quantify the efficiency of the repair technique. Further, the repair quality was assessed using a simple NDT method prior to subjecting the sandwich specimens for destructive tests