Involvement of Mycoplasma synoviae in Respiratory Distress Cases of Broilers

Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) is an important pathogen of poultry worldwide, causing respiratory tract infection and infectious synovitis in chickens and turkeys. The study was designed to detect M. synoviae through serology, culture isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to document the involvement of MS infection in respiratory distress cases of broiler birds. The validated PCR assay amplifying the conserved gene region of 16SrRNA gene was applied for the detection of M. synoviae from culture as well as in clinical samples. The results indicated that 04 out of total 17 commercial broiler flocks showing respiratory distress signs were found positive with M. synoviae infection indicating 76.57% sero-positivity as, determined with rapid serum agglutination (RSA) test. Out of 85 clinical specimens (collected from sero-positive birds); M. synoviae culture isolation was successfully attained in 36 (42.35%) samples. Whereas, PCR test has detected 84 (98.82%) positive cases. The prevalence of MS in broiler birds was observed maximum as measured through PCR. It is suggested that the true prevalence of MS may best be reflected by combining RSA and PCR test findings

Towards the Formalization of Fractional Calculus in Higher-Order Logic

Fractional calculus is a generalization of classical theories of integration and differentiation to arbitrary order (i.e., real or complex numbers). In the last two decades, this new mathematical modeling approach has been widely used to analyze a wide class of physical systems in various fields of science and engineering. In this paper, we describe an ongoing project which aims at formalizing the basic theories of fractional calculus in the HOL Light theorem prover. Mainly, we present the motivation and application of such formalization efforts, a roadmap to achieve our goals, current status of the project and future milestones.Comment: 9 page

Pharmacists and telemedicine: an innovative model fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The lack of access to safe medicines and quality healthcare services in peri-urban and rural areas is a major challenge driving a health system to innovate new models of care. This commentary will discuss the implementation and impact of the “Guddi baji” tele-pharmacy model, a project piloted by doctHERs, one of Pakistan’s leading telemedicine organizations. This innovative model has described the reintegration of women into the workforce by leveraging technology to improve the level of primary health care services and contributes to safe medication practice in a remote area. Our intervention proposed the deployment of technology-enabled, female frontline health workers known as the Guddi baji (meaning The Good Sister) in a rural village. They serve as an “access point to health care” that is linked to a remotely located health care professional; a licensed doctor or a pharmacist within this model

Prevalence of active HCV infection among the blood donors of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and FATA region of Pakistan and evaluation of the screening tests for anti-HCV

Hepatitis C is a fatal liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. In this study, blood donors, from various districts of the KPK province and the federally administered tribal area (FATA) of Pakistan were tested for anti-HCV antibodies and HCV RNA by ICT (Immuno-chromatographic test), ELISA and RT-PCR. Out of the 7148 blood donors, 224 (3.13%) were positive for anti-HCV antibodies by ICT, 135 (1.89%) by ELISA while 118 (1.65%) blood donors had active HCV infection as detected by RT-PCR. We suggest that ELISA should be used for anti-HCV screening in public sector hospitals and health care units

High-Performance Design of a 4-Bit Carry Look-Ahead Adder in Static CMOS Logic

Design of a 4-bit Carry Look-Ahead (CLA) process in static CMOS logic has been presented. CLA architecture proposed in this work computes carry-out terms without using carry-propagate and carry-generate signals which are used in conventional static CMOS (C-CMOS) 4-bit CLA adder. Performance parameters of the proposed 4-bit CLA architecture have been simulated and validated by comparing with the conventional design using Cadence design toolset in 45 nm technology. The designs were compared in terms of average power consumption, propagation delay and power delay product (PDP). The proposed 4-bit CLA topology obtained 34.53 % improvement in speed, 4.84 % improvement in power consumption and 37.696 % improvement in PDP while the source voltage was 1.0 V. Hence, as per acquired simulation results, the proposed 4-bit CLA structure is proven to be an excellent alternative to the conventional design for data-path design in modern high-performance processors.Design of a 4-bit Carry Look-Ahead (CLA) process in static CMOS logic has been presented. CLA architecture proposed in this work computes carry-out terms without using carry-propagate and carry-generate signals which are used in conventional static CMOS (C-CMOS) 4-bit CLA adder. Performance parameters of the proposed 4-bit CLA architecture has been simulated and validated by comparing with the conventional design using Cadence design toolset in 45 nm technology. The designs were compared in terms of average power consumption, propagation delay and power delay product (PDP). The proposed 4-bit CLA topology obtained 26.67 % improvement in speed, 5.966 % improvement in power consumption and 31.06 % improvement in PDP while the source voltage was 1.0 V. Hence, as per acquired simulation results, the proposed 4-bit CLA structure is proven to be an excellent alternative to the conventional design for data-path design in modern high-performance processors

Effect of Pulsing Treatments for Enhancing Shelf-Life of Cut Asiatic Lilium cv. Elite

Studies were conducted on cut Asiatic Lilium cv. Elite to assess the effectiveness of various floral preservatives as pulsing treatments for delaying senescence and prolonging vase life. Uniform spikes of lilium at bud colour break stage were brought to the laboratory in the morning and placed in 8 different pulsing solutions consisting of sucrose (Suc) 5%, aluminium sulphate (AS) 400 ppm, silver thio-sulphate (STS) 2.0 mM and citric acid (CA) 1000 ppm alone and in combination with sucrose. Distilled water without any chemical served as the control. Among individual treatments, STS 2.0 mM maintained better water relations and flower quality compared to others. STS also showed superiority over other treatments when combined with Suc 5% by providing largest flower size (16.74 cm) with maximum vase life (17.29 days) owing to most-favourable water relations parameters

Effect of Various Microorganisms Culture Feeding Against Salmonella Infection in Broiler Chicks

ABSTRACT Effect of various microorganisms on the performance of broilers and control of Salmonella infection in broiler chicks was studied. Lactobacillus acidophilus and Aspergillus oryzae were isolated from the intestinal contents of healthy birds while Streptococcus thermophilus was obtained from the yogurt. Stock cultures were maintained with viable count of ≥ 10 8 CFU in separate pure cultures. These (single / and in combinations) cultures were administered to different experimental groups for two weeks at the dose rate of ≥10 8 microorganisms per litre of drinking water. Feed intake, water intake and weight gain of the birds were recorded per week. Various experimental groups were also monitored for immune response against Newcastle disease and infectious bursal disease by measuring geometric mean titres upto 45 days of age. At the age of three weeks, five birds from each group were challenged with Salmonella gallinarum at the dose rate of 1x10 6 microorganisms per litre of drinking water. Clinical signs, morbidity and mortality were recorded after challenge. There was more feed intake, water intake, weight gain and antibody titres in the group administered combined beneficial microorganisms. After challenge, no mortality was observed in this group indicating the effective role of microorganisms culture in the prevention of Salmonella infection in broiler chicks

Formalization of Transform Methods using HOL Light

Transform methods, like Laplace and Fourier, are frequently used for analyzing the dynamical behaviour of engineering and physical systems, based on their transfer function, and frequency response or the solutions of their corresponding differential equations. In this paper, we present an ongoing project, which focuses on the higher-order logic formalization of transform methods using HOL Light theorem prover. In particular, we present the motivation of the formalization, which is followed by the related work. Next, we present the task completed so far while highlighting some of the challenges faced during the formalization. Finally, we present a roadmap to achieve our objectives, the current status and the future goals for this project.Comment: 15 Pages, CICM 201

Temperature and magnetic-field dependence of the conductivity of YBaCuO films in the vicinity of superconducting transition: Effect of Tc-inhomogeneity

Temperature and magnetic field dependences of the conductivity of YBaCuO films in the transition region are analyzed taking into account spatial inhomogeneity in transition temperature, Tc. (i) An expression for the superconducting contribution to conductivity, \sigma_s(T,H,Tc), of a homogeneous superconductor for H<<Hc2(T=0) is obtained using the solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equation in form of perturbation expansions [S.Ullah, A.T.Dorsey, PRB 44, 262 (1991)]. (ii) The error in \sigma_s(T,H,Tc) occurring due to the presence of Tc-inhomogeneity is calculated and plotted on an H-T plane diagram. These calculations use an effective medium approximation and a Gaussian distribution of Tc. (iii) Measuring the temperature dependences of a voltage, induced by a focused electron beam, we determine spatial distributions of the critical temperature for YBaCuO microbridges with a 2 micron resolution. A typical Tc-distribution dispersion is found to be approximately 1K. For such dispersion, error in \sigma_s(T,H,Tc) due to Tc-inhomogeneity exceeds 30% for magnetic fields H < 1 T and temperatures |T-Tc| < 0.5 K. (iv) Experimental R(T,H) dependences of resistance are well described by a numerical solution of a set of Kirchoff equations for the resistor network based on the measured spatial distributions of Tc and the expression for \sigma_s(T,H,Tc).Comment: REVTeX, 12 pages including 7 figures, resubmitted to Phys. Rev.