Knowledge Discovery Process in the Image-Segmentation Data

This paper discusses in detail the behavior of the different classification on image segmentation data. The result predicts the different aspects of the classification model. It is found that NNEG is the best classifier with accuracy of 96.2771%. ROC|max and ROC|min are computed for different classes and are found to be interesting

Climate change and vulnerability of Coastal Villages in Tamil Nadu

Climate change is mainly the effect of human activities such as burning of fossil fuels, land conversion, deforestation, infrastructure development, industrial processes and from agriculture processes

Observational constraints on the afterglow of GRB 020531

We present the data acquired by the TAROT automated observatory on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Up to now, no convincing afterglow emission has been reported for this short/hard GRB at any wavelength, including X-ray and optical. The combination of our early limits, with other published data allows us to put severe constraints on the afterglow magnitude and light curve. The limiting magnitude is 18.5 in R band, 88 minutes after the GRB, and the decay slope power law index could be larger than 2.2.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to A&A (letter

Teratogenic effects of retinyl palmitate during early and late gestation periods in rats.

Retinyl palmitate or vitamin A palmitate has been associated with dose-related developmental toxicity when administered orally to mice, rats, rabbits, and monkeys during critical stages of embryonic development. We report a study to determine the teratogenic effects of retinyl palmitate in pregnant Sprague Dawley rats during early and late gestation periods and to observe the toxic effects of retinyl palmitate in dams. Forty sexually mature fertile female Sprague Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups: Early control, Late control, Early gestation (Early) and Late gestation (Late) groups. Control groups were given a placebo of maize oil while treatment groups were given the same dosage of retinyl palmitate. Pregnant females were randomly assigned to the different groups and treated with retinyl palmitate during early pregnancy on gestation day (GD) 1-7 for Early group and GD 8-14 for Late group. The results obtained showed that retinyl palmitate treated groups had no significant difference in maternal body weights compared to control groups. Maternal kidney weights in early treated group showed significant difference (p<0.05) compared to early control group while liver weights had no significant difference in both control and treatment groups. Fetuses from both early and late treated groups showed a significant decrease in weight compared to control groups. For fetal skeletal anomalies, treatment with retinyl palmitate in Early and Late groups showed malformed wavy ribs and thoracic vertebrae, additional ribs, lumbar vertebral defect and extra ossification center. This preliminary experiment suggests that retinyl palmitate show significant teratogenic effects when fed to pregnant Sprague Dawley rats during early and late gestation periods

Study of seasonal incidence and impact of abiotic factors on sucking pests of brinjal

The present investigation was undertaken to find the impact of abiotic factors on seasonal incidence and sucking pest complex of brinjal under field conditions during kharif 2015-2016. The incidence of leaf hopper population (2.80 Lh/L i.e., Leaf hopper mean population/leaf) was noticed during 34th standard week and reached peak by 40th standard week (5.00 Lh/L) (October) whereas the aphid population was noticed during the 34th standard week (3.00 Lh/L) and peak population observed during the 40th standard week (4.60 Lh/L) (October). Correlation studies showed that among the various abiotic factors, maximum temperature showed highly significant positive correlation (r= 0.77) and sunshine hours (r = 0.61) showed significant positive correlation with the leaf hopper population. In case of aphid population, maximum temperature showed significant positive correlation (r = 0.70), rainfall showed highly significant negative correlation (r = -0.74) and relative humidity evening (r = -0.59) showed significant negative correlation with aphid population. The present investigations will give a brief idea about how the abiotic factors influencing the sucking pests of brinjal

பருவ நிலை அட்டை: தமிழ்நாட்டின் பருவ நிலை மற்றும் மீன் வளம் CMFRI - NICRA Pamphlet No. 4/2016

CMFRI - NICRA Pamphlet No. 4 பருவ நிலை அட்டை: தமிழ்நாட்டின் பருவ நிலை மற்றும் மீன் வளம

Marine climate and fisheries scenario of Tamil Nadu Climcard-1

Marine climate and fisheries scenario of Tamil Nadu Climcard-

Effects of biomaterials keratin-gelatin and basic fibroblast growth factor-gelatin composite film on wound healing in dogs

Eighteen clinically healthy dogs weighing 10-15 kg body weight were used in this study over a 20-day period. They were allocated randomly into 3 groups of 6 animals each. After the creation of 5 cm x 5cm open wound, Group I was control treated with Gentamycin ointment. Groups II and ill were treated with keratin-gelatin and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-gelatin composite film respectively. On application, the keratin-gelatin and bFGF-gelatin composite film were well accepted by the animals without any adverse reaction. On clinical examination, Group II showed bright beefy red color granulation tissue with angiogenesis when compared to Groups I and ill. On bacteriological examination, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, Proteus and Klebsiella species were isolated from all the groups. Mean percentage of epithelialisation, wound contraction and total healing were significantly better in Group II (P<0.05). Keratin is a biocompatible protein which does not interfere with the body's normal immunologic response and therefore it can be used in extensive wounds and also in non healing chronic wounds which need a trigger to stimulate the normal healing process. In extensive wounds when there is lack of autologous tissue, biomaterials like keratin-gelatin may be beneficial and can be used

Cardiac-specific suppression of NF-kappa B signaling prevents diabetic cardiomyopathy via inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system

Activation of NF-kappa B signaling in the heart may be protective or deleterious depending on the pathological context. in diabetes, the role of NF-kappa B in cardiac dysfunction has been investigated using pharmacological approaches that have a limitation of being nonspecific. Furthermore, the specific cellular pathways by which NF-kappa B modulates heart function in diabetes have not been identified. To address these questions, we used a transgenic mouse line expressing mutated I kappa B-alpha in the heart (3M mice), which prevented activation of canonical NF-kappa B signaling. Diabetes was developed by streptozotocin injections in wild-type (WT) and 3M mice. Diabetic WT mice developed systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunction by the 12th week, as measured by echocardiography. in contrast, cardiac function was preserved in 3M mice up to 24 wk of diabetes. Diabetes induced an elevation in cardiac oxidative stress in diabetic WT mice but not 3M mice compared with nondiabetic control mice. in diabetic WT mice, an increase in the phospholamban/sarco(endo) plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 2 ratio and decrease in ryanodine receptor expression were observed, whereas diabetic 3M mice showed an opposite effect on these parameters of Ca2+ handling. Significantly, renin-angiotensin system activity was suppressed in diabetic 3M mice compared with an increase in WT animals. in conclusion, these results demonstrate that inhibition of NF-kappa B signaling in the heart prevents diabetes-induced cardiac dysfunction through preserved Ca2+ handling and inhibition of the cardiac renin-angiotensin system.National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstituteTexas A&M Hlth Sci Ctr, Div Mol Cardiol, Dept Med, Coll Med, Temple, TX USABaylor Scott & White Hlth, Temple, TX USACent Texas Vet Hlth Care Syst, Temple, TX USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Nephrol, São Paulo, BrazilLoyola Univ Chicago, Maywood, IL USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Med, Div Nephrol, São Paulo, BrazilNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: 5-R01-HL-090817Web of Scienc

Realistic Tight Binding Model for the Electronic Structure of II-VI Semiconductors

We analyze the electronic structure of group II-VI semiconductors obtained within LMTO approach in order to arrive at a realistic and minimal tight binding model, parameterized to provide an accurate description of both valence and conduction bands. It is shown that a nearest-neighbor $sp^3d^5$ model is fairly sufficient to describe to a large extent the electronic structure of these systems over a wide energy range, obviating the use of any fictitious $s^*$ orbital. The obtained hopping parameters obey the universal scaling law proposed by Harrison, ensuring transferability to other systems. Furthermore, we show that certain subtle features in the bonding of these compounds require the inclusion of anion-anion interactions in addition to the nearest-neighbor cation-anion interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure