Abstract
Background
The present study was aimed at establishing the prevalence, epidemiology and molecular characterization of major haemoprotozoons (
Babesia
and
Theileria
) and rickettsia (
...Anaplasma
) of cattle in Jammu region (North India) using microscopy and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Hematology, microscopy and PCR based prevalence studies were undertaken with 278 whole blood samples from cattle. Molecular prevalence studies were followed by genetic characterization of the isolates of
Babesia
,
Anaplasma
and
Theileria
spp. based on 18S rRNA, 16S rRNA and Tams1 gene, respectively. The data related to metrology and epidemiological variables like temperature, rainfall, season, age and type of livestock rearing was analyzed and correlated with occurrence of disease by statistical methods.
Results
The prevalence based on microscopy was 12.9% (36/278) whereas PCR recorded 30.22% (84/278) animals positive for haemoparasitic infections. All the samples found positive by microscopy were also recorded positive by PCR. Thus the study revealed prevalence of
Babesia bigemina
,
Anaplasma marginale
and
Theileria annulata
to be 9.7, 16.5 and 0.7% respectively. The metrological and epidemiological variables made inroads for the propagation of vector ticks and occurrence of infection. Haematological alterations predominantly related to decrease in haemoglobin, red blood cell count and packed cell volume were evident in diseased animals and collaterally affected the productivity. Further the genetic characterization of
Babesia bigemina
. (MN566925.1, MN567603, MN566924.1),
Anaplasma marginale
. (MH733242.1, MN567602.1) and
Theileria annulata
(MT113479) provided a representative data of the isolates circulating in the region and their proximity with available sequences across the world.
Conclusions
Despite holding much significance to the animal sector, comprehensive disease mapping has yet not been undertaken in several parts of India. The present study provides a blue print of disease mapping, epidemiological correlations and genomic diversity of
Babesia bigemina
,
Anaplasma marginale
and
Theileria annulata
circulating in the region.
Our aim was to compare the ability of radiologists to detect breast cancers using one-view breast tomosynthesis (BT) and two-view digital mammography (DM) in an enriched population of diseased ...patients and benign and/or healthy patients.
All participants gave informed consent. The BT and DM examinations were performed with about the same average glandular dose to the breast. The study population comprised patients with subtle signs of malignancy seen on DM and/or ultrasonography. Ground truth was established by pathology, needle biopsy and/or by 1-year follow-up by mammography, which retrospectively resulted in 89 diseased breasts (1 breast per patient) with 95 malignant lesions and 96 healthy or benign breasts. Two experienced radiologists, who were not participants in the study, determined the locations of the malignant lesions. Five radiologists, experienced in mammography, interpreted the cases independently in a free-response study. The data were analysed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and jackknife alternative free-response ROC (JAFROC) methods, regarding both readers and cases as random effects.
The diagnostic accuracy of BT was significantly better than that of DM (JAFROC: p=0.0031, ROC: p=0.0415). The average sensitivity of BT was higher than that of DM (∼90% vs ∼79%; 95% confidence interval of difference: 0.036, 0.108) while the average false-positive fraction was not significantly different (95% confidence interval of difference: -0.117, 0.010).
The diagnostic accuracy of BT was superior to DM in an enriched population.
This study is aiming to focus on hydrogeochemical investigation of water samples from Rangit river basin and assessment of water quality for human consumption and agricultural purposes. River water ...is neutral to mildly alkaline, with dominance of K
+
, Ca
2+
, HCO
3
−
, and SO
4
2−
in ionic strength. K
+
–Ca
2+
–Mg
2+
–HCO
3
−
is the major hydrochemical facies in upstream river water, whereas Ca
2+
–K
+
–Mg
2+
–HCO
3
−
water-type dominates in downstream stretches of river. The weathering of rock-forming minerals mainly controls the solute acquisition process. The high equivalent ratios of (Ca
2+
+ Mg
2+
)/(Na
+
+ K
+
) and the low ratio of (Na
+
+ K
+
/TZ
+
) reveal that the chemical composition of river water is mostly determined by carbonate weathering with partial contribution from silicate weathering. An evaluation of Water Quality Index of sampled river water indicates that the majority of the water samples are good–moderate for human consumption and domestic usages. Irrigation suitability of river water in relation to EC content, SAR, and RSC values suggests that river water is good–excellent type for agricultural applications.
Abstract The rat possesses hemochorial placentation with deep intrauterine trophoblast cell invasion and trophoblast-directed uterine spiral artery remodeling; features shared with human ...placentation. Recognition of these similarities spurred the establishment of in vitro and in vivo research methods using the rat as an animal model to address mechanistic questions regarding development of the hemochorial placenta. The purpose of this review is to provide the requisite background to help move the rat to the forefront in placentation research.
Purpose: Search involves identifying the locations of potential lesions. Classification involves determining if an identified region is a lesion. The area (AUC) under the ROC curve is affected by ...both search and classification performance. The purpose of this work is to suggest a method for quantifying the two distinct contributions. Methods: The search model for free‐response data involves sampling from noise and signal site unit variance normal distributions. It predicts ROC curves that extend from (0,0) to (x,y), where (x,y) is to the lower left of (1,1). The quantity (y‐x) is proposed as a measure of search performance. It equals the perpendicular distance from (x,y) to the chance diagonal multiplied by the square root of 2. The probability that a sample from the signal distribution is greater than a sample from the noise distribution is proposed as a measure of classification performance. AUC performance is the probability that the highest sample from an abnormal image is greater than the highest sample from a normal image. Search, classification and AUC performance were calculated for mammographer data from a FROC study in which 5 radiologists interpreted 96 normal and 89 disease‐present cases in breast tomosynthesis (BT) and digital mammography (DM) modalities. Results: Search performance ranged from zero to 0.65, classification performance ranged from 0.64 to 0.98 and AUC performance ranged from 0.68 to 0.88. AUC correlated positively with search performance while classification performance was inversely correlated with search performance. All three measures were greater for the BT modality. Conclusions: The method, which is applicable to FROC or ROC data, allows separation of physically distinct contributions to AUC, and consequent identification of the weak link. The preliminary results suggest that search is generally the weak link but that radiologists may learn to compensate for poor search performance with better classification performance.
This work was supported by grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, R01‐EB005243 and R01‐ EB008688.
Nanoporous silicon produced by electrochemical etching of highly B-doped p-type silicon wafers can be prepared with tubular pores imbedded in a silicon matrix. Such materials have found many ...technological applications and provide a useful model system for studying phase transitions under confinement. This paper reports a joint experimental and simulation study of diffusion in such materials, covering displacements from molecular dimensions up to tens of micrometers with carefully selected probe molecules. In addition to mass transfer through the channels, diffusion (at much smaller rates) is also found to occur in directions perpendicular to the channels, thus providing clear evidence of connectivity. With increasing displacements, propagation in both axial and transversal directions is progressively retarded, suggesting a scale-dependent, hierarchical distribution of transport resistances ("constrictions" in the channels) and of shortcuts (connecting "bridges") between adjacent channels. The experimental evidence from these studies is confirmed by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in the range of atomistic displacements and rationalized with a simple model of statistically distributed "constrictions" and "bridges" for displacements in the micrometer range via dynamic Monte Carlo (DMC) simulation. Both ranges are demonstrated to be mutually transferrable by DMC simulations based on the pore space topology determined by electron tomography.
A theoretical frame work is developed for strain gage based determination of mixed mode (KI/KII) stress intensity factors (SIFs) in slant edge cracked plate (SECP) made of orthotropic materials. ...Using three parameter strain series around the crack tip and appropriate stress functions, the present formulation shows that mixed mode SIFs in orthotropic materials could be determined using only four strain gages. A finite element based methodology is developed to determine the upper bound on the radial location (rmax) of strain gages ensuring accurate determination of SIFs. Proposed technique is applied to numerical simulation of 02/902S and 0/±45/90S glass-epoxy SECP laminates to demonstrate accurate determination of mixed mode SIFs by placing the gages within rmax. Results from the present work provide clear guidelines in terms of number of strain gages and their suggested locations for accurate determination of mixed mode SIFs in orthotropic materials.
PDF
