Sleep related disorder causes diminished quality of lives in human beings. Sleep scoring or sleep staging is the process of classifying various sleep stages which helps to detect the quality of ...sleep. The identification of sleep-stages using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is an arduous task. Just by looking at an EEG signal, one cannot determine the sleep stages precisely. Sleep specialists may make errors in identifying sleep stages by visual inspection. To mitigate the erroneous identification and to reduce the burden on doctors, a computer-aided EEG based system can be deployed in the hospitals, which can help identify the sleep stages, correctly. Several automated systems based on the analysis of polysomnographic (PSG) signals have been proposed. A few sleep stage scoring systems using EEG signals have also been proposed. But, still there is a need for a robust and accurate portable system developed using huge dataset. In this study, we have developed a new single-channel EEG based sleep-stages identification system using a novel set of wavelet-based features extracted from a large EEG dataset. We employed a novel three-band time-frequency localized (TBTFL) wavelet filter bank (FB). The EEG signals are decomposed using three-level wavelet decomposition, yielding seven sub-bands (SBs). This is followed by the computation of discriminating features namely, log-energy (LE), signal-fractal-dimensions (SFD), and signal-sample-entropy (SSE) from all seven SBs. The extracted features are ranked and fed to the support vector machine (SVM) and other supervised learning classifiers. In this study, we have considered five different classification problems (CPs), (two-class (CP-1), three-class (CP-2), four-class (CP-3), five-class (CP-4) and six-class (CP-5)). The proposed system yielded accuracies of 98.3%, 93.9%, 92.1%, 91.7%, and 91.5% for CP-1 to CP-5, respectively, using 10-fold cross validation (CV) technique.
•A novel three-band time-frequency localized (TBTFL) wavelet filter bank (FB) for analysis of sleep-stage EEG signals.•A new Single-channel EEG based automated sleep scoring system.•A large population dataset is used for six multiple-class classification problems.•The model surpasses all existing models.
Controlling weeds is critical for improving the yield and quality of crops. Herbicides are the most commonly applied pesticides in agro-ecosystems. Herbicides affect insects directly as contact ...damage and indirectly by influencing food supplies. The innate susceptibility, life stages, and mode of feeding of insects can affect the herbicide–insect interaction. Interaction of herbicides with insect pest and beneficial insects is mainly indirect and absence of weeds either can reduce the insect population or causes switching of host plant and hence can also increase the population. The direct effect of herbicides depends on carrier or surfactant used. Presence of herbicides also provides surfactant to insecticides and increases impact of insecticides. At present, most reports on impact of herbicides indicate alterations in insect survival or egg production due to increase or decrease in host plant population as an indirect affect, only a handful studies reported a direct topical effect of these herbicides on egg, larvae/nymphs and adults of various insects. Further exploration of this interaction seems intriguing. Use of bio-herbicides, cultural control methods, and judicious use of herbicides could offer ecologically sustainable approaches to reduce impact of herbicides on insects.
Multidimensional effect of herbicides on weeds, crops and insects. Arrows in red color shows negative impact on associate. (Positive and negative impact were analyzed on the basis of higher number of studies in this manuscript). Display omitted
•Herbicides as the most commonly applied pesticides in agro-ecosystems impact insects.•Herbicides can directly influence the life cycle of insect pests and beneficial insects.•Herbicides can indirectly impact pollinators by amending their food source.•Use of bioherbicides and prudent use of conventional herbicides should be practiced.•Studies on intriguing aspects of insect-herbicide interactions and biodiversity are needed.
Introduction: Involuntary childlessness is a distressing condition that has considerable social implications in developing nations. Aim: The present study aims to investigate the less known ...sociocultural determinants of infertility stress in patients undergoing assisted conception and reproductive treatments. Methods: This cross-sectional research was conducted on 300 men and women with primary infertility. The profile of sociodemographic variables, clinical variables, and sociocultural variables was collected using a locally devised questionnaire. Infertility stress was assessed using the psychological evaluation test. Statistical Analysis: Research data were analyzed using SPSS 15. Chi-square test is used for univariate analysis. Multiple logistic regression with enter method is used to examine the association between infertility stress and sociocultural variables. Results: The findings suggest that in both men and women, low spousal support, financial constraints, and social coercion in early years of marriage predicts infertility distress. Peer-support neither predicts nor protects against distress. Discussion: Family acceptance and social security for infertility is low. Stigma, concealment, and discrimination among men are reported to be high. Distress is three times greater in women with overinvolved family members who had unrealistic expectations from treatments. Taking continuous cycles of fertility treatments seems unaffordable for most patients. Subfertile individuals were socially perceived to be deprived, blemished, incomplete, and sexually incompetent. Conclusion: Data from this investigation, provides a glimpse into sociocultural aspects of infertility. The findings may be useful for identifying targets for individual and family-focused psychological interventions for distress reduction in infertility.
Particulate pollution of mainly anthropogenic origin is a widely spread phenomenon in southern Asia, influencing climate and causing adverse health effects on humans. In this paper, we analyze ...continuous measurements of aerosol scattering and absorption properties that were conducted in Mukteshwar, a remote site in the Himalayan Mountains in northern India, during September 2005–September 2007. While aerosol concentrations were somewhat lower than those measured closer to urban areas in India, some optical parameters had a noticeable resemblance to those measured elsewhere in India. The average value of the measured single‐scattering albedo was 0.81 at 525 nm, being indicative of a substantial amount of absorbing material. Annually, there were two periods when aerosol scattering and absorption coefficients were relatively low. These were the rainy season during July and August and the winter months December and January when particulate pollution seemed to reside partly below the altitude of the measurement station. During December and January, local cooking and warming of houses by biomass burning, normally not visible in the data, became evident yet weak sources of absorbing material.
The free radical nitric oxide (NO) and the phenolic phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) are signal molecules which exert key functions at biochemical and physiological levels. Abiotic stresses, ...especially in early plant development, impose the biggest threats to agricultural systems and crop yield. These stresses impair plant growth and subsequently cause a reduction in root development, affecting nutrient uptake and crop productivity. The molecules NO and SA have been identified as robust tools for efficiently mitigating the negative effects of abiotic stress in plants. SA is engaged in an array of tasks under adverse environmental situations. The function of NO depends on its cellular concentration; at a low level, it acts as a signal molecule, while at a high level, it triggers nitro‐oxidative stress. The crosstalk between NO and SA involving different signalling molecules and regulatory factors modulate plant function during stressful situations. Crosstalk between these two signalling molecules induces plant tolerance to abiotic stress and needs further investigation. This review aims to highlight signalling aspects of NO and SA in higher plants and critically discusses the roles of these two molecules in alleviating abiotic stress.
This manuscript demonstrates the signalling features of nitric oxide (NO) and salicylic acid (SA) in plants as well as systematically confers the importance of both molecules in counteracting abiotic stresses.
Capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) is a classical combinatorial optimization problem in which a network of customers with specified demands is given. The objective is to find a set of routes ...which originates as well as terminates at the depot node. These routes are to be traversed in such a way that the demands of all the customers in the network are satisfied and the cost associated with traversal of these routes come out to be a minimum. In real-world situations, the demand of any commodity depends upon various uncontrollable factors, such as season, delivery time, and market conditions. Due to these factors, the demand can always not be told in advance and a precise information about the demand is nearly impossible to achieve. Hence, the demands of the customers always experience impreciseness and randomness in real life. The decisions made by the customers about the demands may also have some scope of hesitation as well. In order to handle such demands of customers in the network, fuzzy random variables and intuitionistic fuzzy random variables are used in this work. The work bridges the gap between the classical version of CVRP and the real-life situation and hence makes it easier for the logistic management companies to determine the routes that should be followed for minimum operational cost and maximum profit. Mathematical models corresponding to CVRP with fuzzy stochastic demands (CVRPFSD) and CVRP with intuitionistic fuzzy stochastic demands (CVRPIFSD) have been presented. A two-stage model has been proposed to find out the solution for the same. To explain the working of the methodology defined in this work, different examples of networks with fuzzy and intuitionistic fuzzy demands have been worked out. The proposed solution approach is also tested on modified fuzzy stochastic versions of some benchmark instances.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. Gut microbiota (GM) are specific groups of microbes colonized in the ...gastrointestinal (GI) tract. They profoundly influence health, disease protection, and associated with metabolic activities, and play a vital role in the production of functional metabolites from dietary substances. Dysbiosis of GM has been linked to the onset of T2DM and can be altered to attain eubiosis by intervention with various nutritional bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, prebiotics, and probiotics. This review presents an overview of the evidence and underlying mechanisms by which bioactive compounds modulate the GM for the prevention and management of T2DM.
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•Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is caused by lifestyle changes, physical inactivity and genetic susceptibility.•Changes in the dietary pattern influence gut microbiota (GM).•Imbalance in GM composition leading to dysbiosis, linked to the onset of T2DM.•GM produced metabolites can initiate several metabolic pathways that regulate glucose absorption and insulin sensitivity.•Bioactive compounds from a healthy diet positively influence gut eubiosis.
Fins are utilized to considerably increase the surface area available for heat emission between a heat source and the surrounding fluid. In this study, radial annular fins are considered to ...investigate the rate of heat emission from the surface to the surroundings. The effects of a ternary nanofluid, magnetic field, permeable medium and thermal radiation are considered to formulate the nonlinear ordinary differential equation. The differential transformation method, one of the most efficient approaches, has been used to arrive at the analytical answer. Graphical analysis has been performed to show how nondimensional characteristics dominate the thermal gradient of the fin. The thickness and inner radius of a fin are crucial factors that impact the heat transmission rate. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that a cost-effective annular rectangular fin can be achieved by maintaining a thickness of 0.1 cm and an inner radius of 0.2 cm.
This article reports the development of a microscopy imaging system that gives feasibility for studying spatio-temporal dynamics of physiological activities of alive biological specimens (over entire ...volume not only for a particular section, i.e., in 4D). The imaging technology facilitates to obtain two image frames of a section of the larger specimen (Formula: see text) with different FOVs at different resolutions or magnifications simultaneously in real-time (in addition to recovery of 3D (volume) information). Again, this imaging system addresses the longstanding challenges of housing multiple light sources (6 at the maximum till date) in microscopy (in general) and light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) (in particular), by using a tuneable pulsed laser source (with an operating wavelength in the range Formula: see text-670 nm) in contrast to the conventional CW laser source being adopted for inducing photo-excitation of tagged fluorophores. In the present study, we employ four wavelengths (Formula: see text 488 nm, 585 nm, 590 nm, and 594 nm). Our study also demonstrates quantitative characterization of spatio-temporal dynamics (velocity-both amplitude and direction) of organelles (mitochondria) and their mutual correlationships. Mitochondria close to the nucleus (or in clustered cells) are observed to possess a lower degree of freedom in comparison to that at the cellular periphery (or isolated cells). In addition, the study demonstrates real-time observation and recording of the development and growth of all tracheal branches during the entire period (Formula: see text min) of embryonic development (Drosophila). The experimental results-with experiments being conducted in various and diversified biological specimens (Drosophila melanogaster, mouse embryo, and HeLa cells)-demonstrate that the study is of great scientific impact both from the aspects of technology and biological sciences.
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