Genetic markers in s. Paratyphi c reveal primary adaptation to pigs

Salmonella enterica with the identical antigenic formula 6,7:c:1,5 can be differentiated biochemically and by disease syndrome. One grouping, Salmonella Paratyphi C, is currently considered a typhoidal serovar, responsible for enteric fever in humans. The human-restricted typhoidal serovars (S. Typhi and Paratyphi A, B and C) typically display high levels of genome degradation and are cited as an example of convergent evolution for host adaptation in humans. However, S. Paratyphi C presents a different clinical picture to S. Typhi/Paratyphi A, in a patient group with predisposition, raising the possibility that its natural history is different, and that infection is invasive salmonellosis rather than enteric fever. Using whole genome sequencing and metabolic pathway analysis, we compared the genomes of 17 S. Paratyphi C strains to other members of the 6,7:c:1,5 group and to two typhoidal serovars: S. Typhi and Paratyphi A. The genome degradation observed in S. Paratyphi C was much lower than S. Typhi/Paratyphi A, but similar to the other 6,7:c:1,5 strains. Genomic and metabolic comparisons revealed little to no overlap between S. Paratyphi C and the other typhoidal serovars, arguing against convergent evolution and instead providing evidence of a primary adaptation to pigs in accordance with the 6,7:c:1.5 strains

A Generalized Log-Weibull Distribution with Bio-Medical Applications

Here we consider a generalized log-transformed version of the Weibull distribution and investigate some of its important properties like expressions for the cumulative distribution function hazard rate function, quantile function, characteristic function, raw moments, incomplete moments, etc. The distribution and moments of order statistics are obtained along with some results on certain structural properties of the distribution. The maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the distribution is attempted for both complete and censored data sets and the usefulness of the distribution is illustrated with the help of real-life data sets from biomedical fields

Passive Shallow Water Automated Target Recognition using Deep Convolutional Bi directional Long Short Term Memory

The extremely challenging nature of passive acoustic surveillance makes it a key area of research in NavalNon-Co-operative Target Recognition especially in Anti-Submarine Warfare systems. In shallow waters, thecomplex acoustics due to the highly varying ambient background noise as well as the multi-modal propagation in the surface-bottom bounded channel makes surveillance even difficult. In this work, an ensemble of Convolutional Neural Networks and Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory stages employing soft attention is used to effectively capture the spectro-temporal dynamics of the target signature. In order to alleviate the overall computational cost associated with the optimal model search in the extensive hyperparameter space, a recursive model elimination scheme, making frugal use of the available resources, is also proposed. Experimental analysis on acoustic target records, collected from the shallows of Arabian Sea, has yielded encouraging results in terms of model accuracy, precision and recall

Inverse Kies distribution: Properties and applications

In this paper, a new class of distribution namely “the inverse Kies distribution” is proposed and some of its important aspects are studied by deriving expressions for its percentile measures, raw moments, reliability measures etc. The maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the distribution is discussed and the distribution has been fitted to certain real life data sets. The asymptotic behaviour of maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of the distribution are also studied by using simulated data sets

SAFETY AND EFFICACY STUDY OF HERBAL POLYPHYTO FORMULATIONS: FOR ITS LEARNING AND MEMORY ENHANCING PROPERTIES

Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the poly photo formulation for its learning and memory activity.Methods: The Indian origin test drug, FM7 phyto formulation compose of Convolulus pluricaulis, Habiscus rosasinnsis, Withania somnifera, Terminalia arjuna and Emblica officinalis, having the potential effect to improving memory studied at a dose of 50 mg and 100 mg/kg p. o. by using three different animal model like Elevated plus maze (EPM), Morris water maze (MWM) and Pole Climbing apparatus (PCA) for the effect of nootropic action; against standard drug Bacopa monnieri evaluated on the basis of transfer latency reduction on a rat, before and after drug administration.Results: On treatment with polyherbal formulation FM7 showed a significant effect on enhancing learning and memory properties. It was observed that significant (p<0.001) reduction in transfer latency in Elevated Plus Maze, Morris Water Maze test and escape latency in Pole Climbing Apparatus test as compared with the control; as well as standard Bacopa monnieri. Conclusion: The polyphyto formulation FM7 composed of (Convolulus pluricaulis 20%, Habiscus rosasinnsis 20%, Withania somnifera 20%, Terminalia arjuna 20% and Emblica officinalis 20%) found to be safe and effective in enhancing learning and memory properties.Keywords: Learning and memory, Convolulus pluricaulis, Phyllanthus Emblica, Withania somnifera, Habiscus rosasinnsis, Terminalia arjun

Custom Made Movable Ocular Prosthesis: Esthetics for Social Acceptance

An artificial eye is a prosthetic unit that serves to replace the lost orbital volume when the living eye is either shrunken or surgically removed. The custom prostheses are made to adapt to the contour of the orbital tissues and eyelids, and colored to match the companion eye. Although implant eye prosthesis has a superior outcome, due to economic factors it may not be advisable in all patients. Therefore, a custom-made ocular prosthesis is an excellent alternative. But the common failing of such custom made ocular prosthesis has been that there is no or very limited mobility of the eye prosthesis, which marks it as what it is, an artificial prosthesis. In the following clinical report it will be demonstrated with the help of a patient the use of a movable custom made ocular prosthesis, which shows marked mobility

On a Modified Yule Distribution

A modified version of Yule distribution is introduced here and discuss some of its properties by deriving expressions for its probability generating function, raw moments, factorial moments etc. Certain recursion formulae for its probabilities, raw moments and factorial moments are also developed. Various methods of estimation are employed for estimating the parameters of the distribution and certain test procedures are suggested for testing the significance of the additional parameters of the distribution. The distribution has been fitted to certain real-life data sets for illustrating its usefulness, compared with certain existing models available in the literature. Further, a simulation study is conducted for assessing the performance of the maximum likelihood estimators

Integrated campaign for aerosols, gases and radiation budget (ICARB): an overview

During March-May 2006, an extensive, multi-institution, multi-instrument, and multi-platform integrated field experiment 'Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget' (ICARB) was carried out under the Geosphere Biosphere Programme of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO-GBP). The objective of this largest and most exhaustive field campaign, ever conducted in the Indian region, was to characterize the physico-chemical properties and radiative effects of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases over the Indian landmass and the adjoining oceanic regions of the Arabian Sea, northern Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal through intensive, simultaneous observations. A network of ground-based observatories (over the mainland and islands), a dedicated ship cruise over the oceanic regions using a fully equipped research vessel, the Sagar Kanya, and altitude profiling over selected regions using an instrumented aircraft and balloonsondes formed the three segments of this integrated experiment, which were carried out in tandem. This paper presents an overview of the ICARB field experiment, the database generated, and some of its interesting outcomes though these are preliminary in nature. The ICARB has revealed significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity in most of the aerosol characteristics both over land and ocean. Observed aerosol loading and optical depths were comparable to or in certain regions, a little lower than those reported in some of the earlier campaigns for these regions. The preliminary results indicate: - low (< 0.2) aerosol optical depths (AOD) over most part of the Arabian Sea, except two pockets; one off Mangalore and the other, less intense, in the central Arabian Sea at ~18°N latitude - High Angstrom exponent in the southern Arabian Sea signifying steep AOD spectra and higher abundance of accumulation mode particles in the southern Arabian Sea and off Mangalore - Remarkably low Angstrom exponents signifying increased concentration of coarse mode aerosols and high columnar abundance in the northern Arabian Sea - Altitude profiles from aircraft showed a steady BC level up to 3 km altitude with structures which were associated with inversions in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) - A surprisingly large increase in the BC mass fraction with altitude - Presence of a convectively mixed layer extending up to about 1 km over the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal - A spatial off shore extent of < 100 km for the anthropogenic impact at the coast; and - Advection of aerosols, through airmass trajectories, from west Asia and NW arid regions of India leading to formation of elevated aerosol layers extending as far as 400 km off the east coast

Short-period modulations in aerosol optical depths over the central Himalayas: role of mesoscale processes

Multiyear measurements of spectral aerosol optical depths (AODs) were made at Manora Peak in the central Himalaya Range (29°22N, 79°27E, ~1950 m above mean sea level), using a 10-channel multiwavelength solar radiometer for 605 days during January 2002-December 2004. The AODs at 0.5μm were very low (≤0.1) in winter and increased steeply to reach high values (~0.5) in summer. It was observed that monthly mean AODs vary significantly (by more than a factor of 6) from January to June. Strong short-period fluctuations (within a daytime) were observed in the AODs. Further investigations of this aspect have revealed that boundary layer dynamics plays a key role in transporting aerosols from the polluted valley region to higher altitudes, causing large contrast in AODs between forenoon and afternoon. The seasonal variations in AODs, while examined in conjunction with synoptic-scale wind fields, have revealed that the transport of dust aerosols from arid regions to the valley regions adjacent to the observational site and their subsequent transport upward by boundary layer dynamics are responsible for the summer increases