Classification of Animal Sound Using Convolutional Neural Network

Recently, labeling of acoustic events has emerged as an active topic covering a wide range of applications. High-level semantic inference can be conducted based on main audioeffects to facilitate various content-based applications for analysis, efficient recovery and content management. This paper proposes a flexible Convolutional neural network-based framework for animal audio classification. The work takes inspiration from various deep neural network developed for multimedia classification recently. The model is driven by the ideology of identifying the animal sound in the audio file by forcing the network to pay attention to core audio effect present in the audio to generate Mel-spectrogram. The designed framework achieves an accuracy of 98% while classifying the animal audio on weekly labelled datasets. The state-of-the-art in this research is to build a framework which could even run on the basic machine and do not necessarily require high end devices to run the classification

Assessing Listeria Risk during Different Stages of Ice Cream Manufacturing and Storage

Listeriosis is a life-threatening infection caused by foods contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Some of the major ice cream recalls in recent years reaffirm the ability of this food-borne pathogen to survive in diverse dairy processing environments and cause cross contamination. Inspection reports revealed certain lapses in implementing adequate hygienic practices for Listeria persistence in the processing environment, leading to cross contamination of ice cream. The higher levels of cross contamination of raw ice cream mix might result in random heat-injured cells when exposed to minimum heat treatment (69°C for 30 min). Evidence about the presence of injured cells in ice cream mix may thus prove useful to establish the overall Listeria risk, which was the aim of this study. Challenge studies were conducted to evaluate the dose dependent presence of heat-injured cells of Listeria. Ice cream mix formulations of 4 different types (36, 40, 42, and 45% total solids) were inoculated at 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 log cfu/g levels of Listeria innocua (an established surrogate). The dose levels were selected based on a likely cross contamination on the raw side from environmental Listeria, especially due to their resident nature and growth in harborage sites. The samples were exposed to minimum heat treatment (69°C for 30 min) and the survivors, including heat-injured cells, were enumerated using standard protocols. A binary logistic regression model was fitted for evaluating the severity of risk. The influence of total solids, water activity, and pH variability were also studied on Listeria survival. The enrichment protocol, using buffered Listeria enrichment broth, followed by plating on modified oxford (MOX) agar and Rapid L’mono (RLM) medium, revealed the random presence of heat-injured cells in buffered Listeria enrichment broth, only at the highest dose level of 4+logs. Any potential risk from heat-injured cells was thus limited only to the highest levels of cross contamination, irrespective of the type of the mix. Significantly, none of the pasteurized ice cream mix samples supported the recovery of any heat-injured cells of Listeria during 72h holding at 7°C, even at the highest dose level of 4+logs, under the conditions of experimentation. Based on this part of the study, the level of cross contamination (dose) emerged as a predictor of the potential presence of heat-injured cells of Listeria when exposed to minimum pasteurization treatment. In the second phase of the study, we proposed a novel concept involving the possible protective role of air cells in the random presence of heat-injured cells. Challenge studies were conducted by inoculating ice cream mix samples (42% total solids) with L. innocua at a mean spiking level of log 4.0 cfu/g. The inoculated samples were subjected to minimum batch pasteurization treatment at 69°C for 30 min, and any heat-injured cells were enumerated using buffered Listeria enrichment broth (BLEB), followed by plating on MOX and RLM agar. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were conducted on the air-dried, spiked ice cream mix samples, at pre- and post-thermal treatment stages, which showed the presence of large air cells with some entrapped cells of Listeria. In the post heat- treated mix, SEM and AFM micrographs showed entrapped cells only within the larger air cells, whereas the mix matrix, did not show the presence of any Listeria cells. These observations thus suggested that the Listeria cells entrapped within the larger air cells might not have received adequate thermal effect and resulted in their random presence as heat-injured cells, as detected by enrichment protocol. In the third phase of the study we compared the effect of any temperature abuse of ice cream with the exposure to simulated gastro-intestinal fluids on the recovery potential of any carried over injured cells. Ice cream mix samples with injured cells were used in this study. Direct plating on Listeria selective agars was used for enumerating intact cells, while the heat-injured cells were recovered using BLEB, prior to enumerating on selective media. Although no intact cells were observed, the enrichment protocol revealed the random presence of heat-injured cells at the post-pasteurization stages of processing. Freezing and hardening steps did not appear to have any further detrimental impact on heat-injured cells, carried over from the pasteurized ice cream mix. The temperature abuse conditions, evaluated in the current study, although led to pudding consistency of ice cream, did not support the recovery of heat-injured cells. This thus implies that the post-pasteurization contamination with intact Listeria might pose a greater risk than any carried over injured cells. Similarly, such injured cells did not show any recovery in the simulated gastro-intestinal fluids tested under in vitro conditions. In the case of spiked intact cells, no detrimental effect of freezing and hardening steps was observed. Results from this study emphasize a need to design stage-specific critical control points to prevent any potential Listeria outbreaks

A natural biodrug targeting melanomas with varying mutational status

 This project helped develop a natural therapeutic protein for treating skin cancer that varies in their mutational and drug-resistant status. It helped target molecules and markers that were critical in skin cancer development and progression. It also focused on the importance of using natural therapeutics when compared to other treatment regimens

A comparative analysis of machine learning algorithms for genome wide association studies

Variations present in human genome play a vital role in the emergence of genetic disorders and abnormal traits. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) is considered as the most common source of genetic variations. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) probe these variations present in human population and find their association with complex genetic disorders. Now these days, recent advances in technology and drastic reduction in costs of Genome Wide Association Studies provide the opportunity to have a plethora of genomic data that delivers huge information of these variations to analyze. In fact, there is significant difference in pace of data generation and analysis, which led to new statistical, computational and biological challenges. Scientists are using numerous approaches to solve the current problems in Genome Wide Association Studies. In this thesis, a comparative analysis of three Machine learning algorithms is done on simulated GWAS datasets. The methods used for analysis are Recursive Partitioning, Logistic Regression and Naïve Bayes Classifier. The classification accuracy of these algorithms is calculated in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Conclusively, the logistic regression model with binary classification seems to be the most promising one among the other four algorithms, as it outperformed the other tools in the AUC value

Pancytopenia in pregnant patients with COVID-19 infection and vitamin B12 deficiency: a case report study

Background: Folate and vitamin B 12 deficiency can lead to pancytopenia in pregnancy. Some cases of pancytopenia due to COVID-19 infection have also been reported. The two cases that we present are related to the coincidence of pregnancy and deficiency of folic acid and vitamin B12 with COVID-19 infection. Case presentation: A 26-year- woman G3P1L1A1 and 21-year-woman G2P1L1 presented with pancytopenia and mild COVID-19 infection. The antenatal period was uneventful, and both cases also had folate and vitamin B12 deficiency. They received blood products, folic acid, and vitamin B12 supplementation. COVID- 19 infection was managed well with analgesic and vital monitoring. Postpartum hemorrhage occurred in the second case, which was well managed with uterotonics. All laboratory parameters came out to be normal after three months of supplementation of folic acid and vitamin B12. Conclusion: Pancytopenia in pregnancy due to folate and vitamin B12 deficiency and COVID- 19 infection can be easily managed with timely intensive targeted therapy, but we should be extra vigilant while handling such complicated cases, keeping in mind all possible differential diagnoses for pancytopenia

Saree-Shirt Fitting Problems and Consumer Preference for Saree-Shirt Style

One of the most crucial aspects that shoppers take into account while selecting clothing from racks is fit, and even clothes manufactured by tailors are accepted. When designers create clothing for them, one of the first things that clients look at is fit. The current study was carried out in Delhi and NCR. The study focuses on the age range that includes young adult women (18-35). To gather data on the study criteria i.e., ever purchasing readymade saree-shirt, place of purchasing, kinds of fitting problem they faced, type for saree-shirt style they like the most etc, a questionnaire was developed. The study\u27s samples were chosen through the use of purposeful random sampling. Majority of respondents belongs from Meerut district and faced difficulty to find the accurate size, they prefer boutique for their saree-shirt as they have the opinion that finishing of the saree-shirt is good, they get the saree-shirt within the time duration, and they give preference for four dart style over other styles. The present study was undertaken to assess the fitting problems with saree-shirt facing by customer. Customers face fitting problems not only with readymade as well as stitched saree-shirt. A proper fit for clothing is crucial. A proper fit increase confidence and frees body from impediments so that you can move quickly in the workplace, at home, or at the gym

Prenatal diagnosis of fetal cholelithiasis: a rare case

Fetal gallstones are a rare ultrasonography finding. Authors came across a similar case of fetal gallstones detected in routine third trimester scan. Patient had Rh negative blood group which might be the cause of fetal gallstone in this case however in most cases, the cause is undefined. Case was confirmed to have gallstones in postnatal scan which eventually resolved spontaneously within 1 month. The presence of gallstones in the fetus does not alter the fetal prognosis or obstetrical management since complete resolution is seen in most of the cases in late third trimester or neonatal period which may be due to either spontaneous passage of gallstones during early neonatal period or dilution of cholesterol crystals with postnatal hydration

Successful management of pregnancy with dual mechanical heart valves: a case report

Incidence of cardiovascular diseases in pregnancy is increasing due to advanced maternal age at first conception and frequent association of comorbid chronic medical conditions. Rheumatic heart diseases comprise 56-89% of all CVDs in pregnancy in non-western countries. Management of pregnant women with mechanical valves is very challenging due to high risk of cardiac and non-cardiac complications either due to heart disease itself or changes in hemodynamics during pregnancy or due to anticoagulant therapy. We presented here a case of a 35-year-old pregnant woman with rheumatic heart disease with dual mechanical (aortic and mitral) valve replacement who was managed successfully by our team of expert clinicians with intensive antepartum surveillance with good obstetric outcome. It is very important for managing clinicians to have necessary information about high-risk cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy along with their management and treatment related feto-maternal complications in order to have optimal feto-maternal outcome