Search

The logarithmic exponential regression model is proposed for the pure MgB2 superconductor in this study. The predicted values of normalized pinning force as a function of the reduced field are evaluated and compared to the measured values at a wide range of temperatures. The proposed model well described the best-suited model for the estimated predicted values. The predicted values of the reduced field dependence of normalized pinning force are in good agreement with the measured values for the pure MgB2 superconductor. Some statistical error estimations namely mean bias error, mean absolute bias error and root mean square error is calculated at different temperatures from 10−30K. The large value of the coefficient of regression, R2 confirms the effectiveness and significance of the proposed model. The proposed model is applicable in this study to find the accurate and precise values of the computational data.

The current outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has created havoc worldwide. Understanding early transmission risk in asymptomatic individuals and estimating the efficiency of control measures is critical to find out the new infectious cases of transmission in new areas. Applying the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) mathematical model with six datasets of countries including USA, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Iran, I have estimate the transmission dynamics from the date of onset to the 5 April 2020. The trajectory of the time-dependent population increases initially with the infection at the peak of the graph, afterward it tends to decrease with some interventions. The algorithm reveals a significant result in this pandemic if cases were introduced.

In the mouse, two distinct populations of Leydig cells arise during testis development. Fetal Leydig cells arise from a stem cell population and produce T required for masculinization. It is debated whether they persist in the adult testis. A second adult Leydig stem cell population gives rise to progenitor-immature-mature adult type Leydig cells that produce T in response to LH to maintain spermatogenesis. In testis of adult null male mice lacking either only LH (Lhb−/−) or LHR (Lhr−/−), mature Leydig cells are absent but fetal Leydig cells persist. Thus, it is not clear whether other ligands signal via LHRs in Lhb null mice or LH signals via other receptors in the absence of LHR in Lhr null mice. Moreover, it is not clear whether truncated LHR isoforms generated from the same Lhr gene promoter encode functionally relevant LH receptors. To determine the in vivo roles of LH-LHR signaling pathway in the Leydig cell lineage, we generated double null mutant mice lacking both LH Ligand and all forms of LHR. Phenotypic analysis indicated testis morpho-histological characteristics are identical among double null and single mutants which all showed poorly developed interstitium with a reduction in Leydig cell number and absence of late stage spermatids. Gene expression analyses confirmed that the majority of the T biosynthesis pathway enzyme-encoding mRNAs expressed in Leydig cells were all suppressed. Expression of thrombospondin-2, a fetal Leydig cell marker gene was upregulated in single and double null mutants indicating that fetal Leydig cells originate and develop independent of LH-LHR signaling pathway in vivo. Serum and intratesticular T levels were similarly suppressed in single and double mutants. Consequently, expression of AR-regulated genes in Sertoli and germ cells were similarly affected in single and double mutants without any evidence of any additive effect in the combined absence of both LH and LHR. Our studies unequivocally provide genetic evidence that in the mouse testis, fetal Leydig cells do not require LH-LHR signaling pathway and a one-to-one LH ligand-LHR signaling pathway exists in vivo to regulate adult Leydig cell lineage and spermatogenesis.

The primary objective of this study is to provide a methodology to generate a dense point cloud of digital surface model (DSM) and digital terrain model (DTM) from 0.6 m GSD stereo images acquired by CARTOSAT-2E satellite of the Indian Space Research Organization. These products are required for many high-resolution applications such as mapping of watersheds and watercourses; river flood modeling; analysis of flood depth, landslide, forest structure, and individual trees; design of highway and canal alignment. The proposed method consists of several processes such as orienting the stereo images, DEM point cloud extraction using the semi-global matching, and DSM to DTM filtering. The stereo model is built by performing aero triangulation and block adjustment using the ground control points. The semi-global matching algorithm is used on the epipolar images to generate the DSM in the form of dense point cloud corresponding to one height point for each pixel. The planimetric and height accuracies are evaluated using orthoimages and DSM and found to be within 3-pixel (~ 2 m) range. A method for extracting DTM by ground point filtering, to discriminate the probable ground points and the non-ground points, is provided by using discrete cosine transformation interpolation. This robust method uses a weight function to differentiate the noise points from the ground points. The overall classification efficiency kappa (κ) value averages at 0.92 for ground point classification/DTM extraction. The results of benchmarking of the GPS-aided GEO augmented navigation GPS receiver by operating it over IGS station, in static mode for collecting the checkpoints, also are presented.

In this paper we solve the field equations for Scale covariant theory of gravitation which was introduced by Caunato et al. [1], for Bianchi V line element in the presence of perfect fluid medium. Here the deceleration parameter is considered to be time dependent which gives the average scale factor a(t)=[sinh⁡(βt)]1/n, where n and β are positive constants. This value of average scale factor is the key expression for solving the field equations. Using the recent observational value of q0=−0.52−0.04+0.08 and H0=69.2±1.2 derived from BAO/CMB and H(z) data by Santos et al. (2016) [46], we have evaluated three different pairs of (n,β). We observe that the model represents a phase transition from early deceleration to a present accelerating phase for a particular choice of the pair (n=2,β=92.75). Applying some recently developed diagnostic tools like jerk parameter and statefinders, we find that the derived model is exactly in accordance with standard ΛCDM model. Along with these, many physical, geometric and kinematic properties of the model are thoroughly studied and found consistent with recent observations., Applied mathematics; Cosmology; Scale Covariant theory; Bianchi type V model; Variable deceleration parameter

Most of the Indian remote sensing systems, provide sensors with one high spatial resolution panchromatic (PAN) and several multispectral (MS) bands. An increasing number of applications, such as feature detection, change monitoring, and land cover classification, often demand the use of images with both high spatial and high spectral resolution. Image fusion or pan sharpening, is a technique to enhance the spatial resolution. The most significant problem in the traditional fusion methods is spectral distortion of fused images. The main reason for this being, the physical spectral characteristic of the sensors are not considered during the fusion process, resulting in undesirable effects such as modified spectral signatures resulting in classification errors and resolution over injection. For most earth resource satellites which provide both PAN and MS bands, in ideal condition, all MS bands would be well separated and would cover exactly the same wavelengths as the PAN band. Theoretically, the measured energy in the PAN band can be obtained with the summation of corresponding MS bands. As the measured energy in an individual channel is the sum of incoming radiation and relative spectral response: Lk = L(λ) Rk(λ); where λ is the wavelength, the in-band radiance, L(λ) at aperture spectral radiance and Rk(λ) the peak-normalized spectral response. Therefore, the energy in PAN band can be estimated by defining weights as follows: Pan = wR R + wG G + wNIR NIR + other; where Pan, G, R, NIR represent the radiance of individual spectral bands wG, wR, wNIR are the weights of corresponding MS bands and other for the influence of the spectral range which is missing from MS bands but still covered with the PAN band. In this paper, a novel spectral preservation fusion method for remotely sensed images using Cartosat-1 PAN and Resourcesat-Liss4 Mx data is presented by considering the physical characteristics of the sensors. It is based on the curvelet transform using relative spectral response (RSR) values of the sensor, improved in two parts: 1) the construction of PAN image using RSR values and the curvelet components, 2) the injection method of detail information. The performance and efficiency of the proposed method is compared with traditional IHS, wavelet based methods both visually and quantitatively. The results show that the proposed method preserves spatial details and minimize spectral distortion.

In this paper, we propose a software architecture for a feature extraction tool which is suitable for automatic extraction of sparse features from large remote sensing data capable of using higher order algorithms (computational complexity greater than O(n)). Many features like roads, water bodies, buildings etc in remote-sensing data are sparse in nature. Remote-sensing deals with a large volume of data usually not manageable fully in the primary memory of typical workstations. For these reason algorithms with higher computational complexity is not used for feature extraction from remote sensing images. A good number of remote sensing applications algorithms are based on formulating a representative index typically using a kernel function which is having linear or less computational complexity (less than or equal to O(n)). This approach makes it possible to complete the operation in deterministic time and memory.Feature extraction from Synthetic Aparture Radar (SAR) images requires more computationally intensive algorithm due to less spectral information and high noise. Higher Order algorithms like Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Gray Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM), wavelet, curvelet etc based algorithms are not preferred in automatic feature extraction from remote sensing images due to their higher order of computational complexity. They are often used in small subsets or in association with a database where location and maximum extent of the features are stored beforehand. In this case, only characterization of the feature is carried out in the data.In this paper, we demonstrate a system architecture that can overcome the shortcomings of both these approaches in a multi-threaded platform. The feature extraction problem is divided into a low complexity with less accuracy followed by a computationally complex algorithm in an augmented space. The sparse nature of features gives the flexibility to evaluate features in Region Of Interest (ROI)s. Each operation is carried out in multiple threads to minimize the latency of the algorithm. The computationally intensive algorithm evaluates on a ROI provided by the low complexity operation. The system also decouples complex operations using multi-threading.The system is a customized solution developed completely in python using different open source software libraries. This approach has made it possible to carry out automatic feature extraction from Large SAR data. The architecture was tested and found giving promising results for extraction of inland water layers and dark features in ocean surface from SAR data.

Ocean Heat Content (OHC) and Ocean Mean temperature (OMT) products at seven different depths between 50 and 700 m along with Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential (TCHP) are hosted at Bhuvan website of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for activities carried out under the National Information System for Climate and Environment Studies (NICES) program. These products are generated using Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Sea Surface Height Anomaly (SSHA) over the north Indian Ocean between 40–120°E and 0–30°N on daily basis. These products have been generated till the availability of Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission Microwave Imager (TMI) SST. Since TMI SST is no longer available beyond April 2015, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) derived SST is considered to continue generation of the OHC and related products. The AMSR2 derived products are found well related with TMI based estimations (R2 > 0.99) at all the depth levels of 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 500, and 700 m depth. We have also observed a good relationship for TCHP and OMT products. The maximum Root Mean Square Error of 7.9 kJ/cm2 for OHC at 700 m depth and low scatter index (

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a slow progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects more elderly women than elderly men. It impairs memory, typically progresses into multidomain cognitive decline that destroys the quality of life, and ultimately leads to death. About 5.3 million older Americans are now living with this disease, and this number is projected to rise to 14 million by 2050. Annual health-care costs in the United States alone are projected to increase to about US$1.1 trillion by 2050. The initial theory that decreasing estrogen levels leads to AD development in postmenopausal women has been proven inconclusive. For example, Women's Health Research Initiative Memory Study and the population-based nested case-control study have failed to demonstrate that estrogen/progesterone (hormone replacement therapy [HRT]) or estrogen replacement therapy could prevent the cognitive decline or reduce the risk of AD. This led to the realization that AD development could be due to a progressive increase in luteinizing hormone (LH) levels in postmenopausal women. Accordingly, a large number of studies have demonstrated that an increase in LH levels is positively correlated with neuropathological, behavioral, and cognitive changes in AD. In addition, LH has been shown to promote amyloidogenic pathway of precursor protein metabolism and deposition of amyloid β plaques in the hippocampus, a region involved in AD. Cognate receptors that mediate LH effects are abundantly expressed in the hippocampus. Reducing the LH levels by treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists could provide therapeutic benefits. Despite these advances, many questions remain and require further research.

It is a herculean task to predict air quality of a particular area due to indefinite characteristics. As air pollution is a complex mixture of toxic air components that include ozone (O3), particulate matter 2.5_m (PM2:5), SO2, RSPM, SPM and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). These small particles penetrate deep into the alveoli as far as the bronchioles, interfering with a gas exchange within the lungs. Though research is being conducted in environmental science to evaluate the severe impact of particulate matters on public health. The capital city of Maharashtra, Nagpur is used as a case study since nearly ten thousand motor vehicles are being registered in Nagpur on a monthly basis contributing exponentially to air pollution. Various machine Learning-based algorithms are checked to compare and to find out the predictive analysis using available dataset. After comparing seven different machine learning algorithms, Boosted Random Forest algorithm was found out to be the most accurate predictive algorithm, with the maximum coefficient of determination and less mean absolute error.

Different characteristics of two or more images can be combined to achieve the merits of both in the resultant image. In proposed work image fusion is performed on pair of images, LISS-III and AWiFS of Resourcesat-I satellite (ISRO) LISS-III sensor data have high-spatial resolution, whereas AWiFS sensor data has high temporal resolution and larger swath. Different techniques namely regression, support vector machines (SVM), non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) are used for acquiring images with high temporal, finer spatial and larger swath. The results of the resultant images with high resolutions are found to be satisfactory.

Road feature extraction from the remote sensing images is an arduous task and has a significant role in various applications of urban planning, updating the maps, traffic management, etc. In this paper, a new band combination (B652) to form a road index (RI) from OLI multispectral bands based on the spectral reflectance of asphalt, is presented for road feature extraction. The B652 is converted to road index by normalization. The morphological operators (top-hat or bottom-hat) uses on RI to enhance the roads. To sharpen the edges and for better discrimination of features, shock square filter (SSF), is proposed. Then, an iterative adaptive threshold (IAT) based online search with variational min-max and Markov random fields (MRF) model are used on the SSF image to segment the roads and non-roads. The roads are extracting by using the rules based on the connected component analysis. IAT and MRF model segmentation methods prove the proposed index (RI) able to extract road features productively. The proposed methodology is a combination of saturation based adaptive thresholding and morphology (SATM), and saturation based MRF (SMRF), applied to OLI images of several urban cities of India, producing the satisfactory results. The experimental results with the quantitative analysis presented in the paper.

Mycoremediation of low molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is well studied. This study highlights the degradation of high molecular weight PAH (HMW-PAHs): Benz (a) anthracene (BAA), Dibenz (a, h) anthracene (DBA), and Indeno pyrene (IND) by Aspergillus terricola var americanus. The metabolism of the HMW-PAHs by this fungus was investigated in liquid submerged culture added with 60 mg/L of each compound. Depletion of BAA, DBA, and IND was 94.80, 90.16, and 93.80%, respectively, after 10 days of culture. Fungal broth solvent extracts were analyzed for the presence of metabolites by gas chromatography mass spectrometry and the extracellular enzymes produced were also assayed. The coexistence of two metabolic pathways, cytochrome P450 monooxygenase and ligninolytic pathway were identified. A high laccase activity was observed in BAA cultures on day 4 when compared to other PAH's studied. In conclusion, A. terricola might be a promising fungus for bioremediation of HMW-PAH mixtures ...

Painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis is a debilitating chronic bladder disease that primarily affects women. The disease is due to a damage of urothelial cell lining. As a result, potassium particles and other toxic substances in urine can leak into bladder mucosa, causing the symptoms of lower abdominal/pelvic discomfort, pain, increased urination frequency, urgency, nocturia, and so on, all of which can substantially reduce the quality of daily life. There are multiple symptom reliving therapies. Among them, only pentosan polysulfate sodium, sold under the brand name of Elmiron, has been approved for oral use by US Food and Drug Administration. It provides the relief after several months of use. Based on the scientific leads presented in this article, we propose that human chorionic gonadotropin has a therapeutic potential that is worth investigating for the treatment of this disease.

Preterm births are an expensive global health problem. Despite the basic science and clinical research advances to better understand and prevent preterm births, the rates are increasing. There are several therapeutic options. While some options such as progestins work for selected women, others such as magnesium sulfate can only be used for delaying births for 24 to 48 hours so that the patients can be treated with corticosteroids to promote fetal lung maturity. Based on the scientific and clinical evidence, we recommend testing human chorionic gonadotropin in a large multicenter, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trials in women with active preterm labor and those with a previous history of preterm births. Human chorionic gonadotropin is not only inexpensive but also has not shown any side effects so far in the infants or in the mothers.

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Sjögren syndrome (SS) ameliorate during pregnancy, through dampening (immunotolerance) of the maternal immune system which protects the fetus from rejection. A large number of studies have shown that human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) contributes to this tolerance. Studies on animal models have reaffirmed that hCG treatment mimics the benefits of pregnancy. Based on the scientific evidence, randomized clinical trials comparing hCG with current therapies and/or placebo are recommended for RA, SS, and for other autoimmune diseases such as, type 1 diabetes and ankylosing spondylitis, which also get better during pregnancy and hCG treatment seems to help.

Female laboratory macaques were studied under a variety of treatment protocols to determine if immunoreactive luteinizing hormone/gonadal chorionic gonadotropin (LH/CG) receptors were present in the adrenal cortex. All adrenal tissues revealed an absence of immunoreactivity in the in the medulla while staining was present in all three outer zones of the cortex. Increased staining was observed in the zonae reticularis with least staining in the zonae glomerulosa. Moderate and variable staining was found in the zonae fasciculata. These results demonstrate that LH/CG receptors in the adrenal cortex may be more common in higher primates than previously recognized and help explain some aspects of the endocrine changes observed in mid-aged women during the menopausal transition when circulating LH concentrations are rising.

Constituents of hydrologic network, River and water canals play a key role in Agriculture for cultivation, Industrial activities and urban planning. Remote sensing images can be effectively used for water canal extraction, which significantly improves the accuracy and reduces the cost involved in mapping using conventional means. Using remote sensing data, the water Index (WI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Modified NDWI (MNDWI) are used in extracting the water bodies. These techniques are aimed at water body detection and need to be complemented with additional information for the extraction of complete water canal networks. The proposed index MNDWI-2 is able to find the water bodies and water canals as well from the Landsat-8 OLI imagery and is based on the SWIR2 band. In this paper, we use Level-1 precision terrain corrected OLI imagery at 30 meter spatial resolution. The proposed MNDWI-2 index is derived using SWIR2 (B7) band and Green (B3) band. The usage of SWIR2 band over SWIR1 results in very low reflectance values for water features, detection of shallow water and delineation of water features with rest of the features in the image. The computed MNDWI-2 index values are threshold by making the values greater than zero as 1 and less than zero as zero. The binarised values of 1 represent the water bodies and 0 represent the non-water body. This normalized index detects the water bodies and canals as well as vegetation which appears in the form of noise. The vegetation from the MNDWI-2 image is removed by using the NDVI index, which is calculated using the Top of Atmosphere (TOA) corrected images. The paper presents the results of water canal extraction in comparison with the major available indexes. The proposed index can be used for water and water canal extraction from L8 OLI imagery, and can be extended for other high resolution sensors.

Building foot prints and building count information in urban areas are very much essential for planning and monitoring developmental activities, efficient natural resource utilization, and provision of civic facilities by governments. Remote sensing data such as satellite/aerial imagery in association with digital elevation model is widely used for automatic extraction of building information. Many researchers have developed different methods for maximizing the detection percentage with minimum errors. A comparative study of different methods available in the literature is presented in this paper by analyzing the primary data sets, derived data sets, and their usage in the automated and semiautomated extraction methods. It is found that the success of the method for automatic building detection in urban areas primarily depends on using combination of high-resolution image data with digital elevation model.

The scientific evidence suggests that Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) infects human fallopian tubes by molecular mimicry in which pathogens act like a ligand to bind to epithelial cell surface human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG)/luteinizing hormone (LH) receptors. The hCG-like molecule has been identified as ribosomal protein L12 in NG coat surface. Human fallopian tube epithelial cells have been shown to contain functional hCG/LH receptors. As previously shown in human fallopian tube organ and cell culture studies, cellular invasion and infection can be prevented by exposing the cells to excess hCG, which would outnumber and outcompete NG for receptor binding. Based on these data, we suggest testing hCG in clinical trials on infected women.

We investigated the possible presence of functional human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)/luteinizing hormone (LH) receptors in β-cells of pancreas, using a combination of techniques on hCG/LH receptor knockout mice, immortalized rat insulinoma cells, and human pancreatic islets. The results showed the presence of receptors and their activation resulted in a dose-dependent increase in glucose-induced release of insulin. These findings place hCG and LH among the regulators of insulin release with potential implications for insulin-level changes during the periods of altered hCG and LH secretion.

Small water harvesting ponds are crucial to sustain productivity by providing supplemental/life saving irrigation in the small holdings of Indian dryland agriculture. Applications of such water however, are always a major issue in these regions, since efficient and cost effective pumping system is generally not available. In order to achieve the holistic utilization of water resources, a gravity-fed type micro-irrigation system integrated with low cost solar based pumping system was designed. The system was designed considering the properties of flow characteristics derived from hydraulic study of different components of drip irrigation system. The system thus developed, has the capability to provide uniform emitter discharge over the small plot of 18 m × 6 m. The star configuration of micro-tube layout where the lateral line feed four rows as devised by Bhatnagar and Srivastva (2003) , was successfully integrated in the developed irrigation system. The field experimentation and testing suggested that the system performance was found satisfactory as the flow rate variation, Christiansen uniformity coefficient and distribution uniformity were 18.96%, 93.65% and 91.55% respectively.

Acquiring satellite images having high spectral, spatial, temporal, and radiometric resolutions simultaneously is very difficult. In this work, data from two sensors, viz., LISS III and AWiFS (DataPair) of Resourcesat-1 satellite (ISRO), are fusioned for improving the spatial resolution of AWiFS data. Best temporal resolution available from Resourcesat-1 is at 5-day repetivity by AWiFS. Using high spatial temporal resolution images, more information can be extracted from the images. Non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) is used for the fusion of LISS III and AWiFS data. Through this fusion, even fine details can be extracted from the surface of the earth. Fusion of one or more images can be used, to determine the information content more accurately in our unambiguous manner. Image fusion process deals with two images with different characteristics and combines the merits of both. Here, an image with high spatial resolution (HSR) is used for a corresponding low spatial resolution (LSR) image. The quality of the output data are checked with the quality of the original image. The results of the desired high-resolution image through this current method are found to be satisfactory.

Graphical abstract, Highlights • Oral administration of ethanolic root extract (ERE) at dose levels 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg effectively inhibits Naja naja venom-induced lethality in mice as well as venom-induced proteolysis, fibrinogenolysis, DNase activity. • ERE at a dose of 200 mg/kg inhibits myotoxicity induced by Naja naja venom measured by creatine kinase activity in rats. • Molecular docking studies revealed that stigmasterol isolated from the ERE is probably responsible for inhibition of Naja naja venom PLA2., Coix lacryma-jobi, commonly known as job’s tear, is a tall grain-bearing tropical plant of the family Poaceae. The ethanolic root extract (ERE) of the plant was investigated for the first time for anti-venom activity against Indian cobra Naja naja venom. In-vitro studies were conducted to determine neutralization of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity of the Naja naja venom by the ERE. ERE showed significant inhibition of PLA2 activity, which was further confirmed from effective neutralization of human red blood cells (HRBC) lysis induced by the venom. In addition, venom-induced proteolysis, fibrinogenolysis, DNase activity were also neutralized by the ERE, which contained carbohydrates, glycolides, resins and tannins. Oral administration of ERE at doses levels 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg effectively inhibited Naja naja venom-induced lethality in mice. Myotoxicity induced by Naja naja venom, measured by creatine kinase activity in rats was significantly neutralized by the ERE at a dose of 200 mg/kg. Stigmasterol, as one of the component isolated from the ERE, was found to have venom phospholipase A2 inhibition potential, which was confirmed by molecular docking studies with PLA2. In summary, these studies indicate the ability of ERE of Coix lacryma-jobi to effectively neutralize the toxic effects of the venom is, in part, contributed by the inhibition of PLA2 activity among other venom-derived factors.

Breast cancers (BCs) are the most common malignancies among women worldwide. Giving birth to a first child before 24 years of age decreases the BC risk by about half, when women reach menopausal years. The scientific evidence suggests that the actions of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are responsible for this decrease. Human BC cells and tissues contain hCG/luteinizing hormone receptors. The activation of the receptors results in an increase in cell differentiation and apoptosis. Conversely, it decreases the cell proliferation, invasion, and survival. The hCG actions are primarily cyclic adenosine monophosphate/protein kinase A mediated, require the presence of receptors, and involve blocking the activation and nuclear translocation of the transcription factor, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB). The women with a higher hCG levels during pregnancy tend to have a lower BC incidence and those with the receptor-positive tumors have a longer metastasis-free survival. The long-term benefits of pregnancy/hCG seem to come from permanent signature genomic imprinting and expression changes, which are characterized by low cell proliferation, increased efficiency of DNA repair mechanisms, cell differentiation, and cells resistance to carcinogenesis. These findings could provide clinical opportunities to use hCG for the prevention of BC in this modern era of increasing number of young women in our societies waiting longer than ever to have their first child. In addition, hCG may be useful to reduce and/or eliminate cellular targets of carcinogenic changes during an active ongoing disease.

Modern depth imaging is a model-driven technology. At the heart of the process is the challenging task of building an accurate earth model — one that yields a reliable and geologically consistent image at the right depth and accurate earth properties such as pore pressure, lithology, and pore fluid at those depths.

Background/Objectives: Bioremediation of High Molecular Weight PAHs (HMW PAHs) with a combination of microorganisms was investigated. In the present study, the PAHs degradation capacity of a microbial consortium consisting of fungal, bacterial cultures was evaluated. Within 7 days, consortium showed 64% and 69% degradation of Benzo (a) pyrene (BaP) and Benzo (k) fluoranthene (BkF) each PAH of 30mg/L concentration respectively as the sole carbon source. The culture broth was analyzed for the presence of metabolites by gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and the activities of enzymes produced by the consortium were also assayed during the degradation process. Coexistence of three metabolic pathways, cytochrome P450 monooxygenase with the detection of epoxy derivatives leading to phenols, trans-dihydrodiols, cis-dihyrodiols leading to salycyclicacid and catechol by bacterial dioxygenases and via quinones of ligninolytic pathway were identified. Besides, Microbial consortia also demonstrated good biosurfactant production capacity, achieving a maximum emulsification activity of 61% (BaP and BkF) in the presence of PAHs as sole carbon source. These results indicate that this consortium can be used in the bioremediation of PAHs mixtures cometabolically in the contaminated environments.

The ability of space borne sensors is limited to acquire images having wide swath with high temporal resolution and high spatial resolutions simultaneously. Fine details of the earth's surface features can be captured using high resolution (HR) remote sensors in remote sensing (RS) data collection. Data fusion from two or more sensors can be used to derive enough information to satisfy observation needs for a specified application. This work aims to predict a HR image for the corresponding low resolution (LR) image using a LR-HR image pair. Quality Assessment is performed for original HR and predicted HR images. Simulation results proved the strength of the proposed method of HR image prediction.

The most important parameter for urban information system is the building information which is represented by the geographic location of the buildings as well as the area, perimeter, density, inter building distances. This data is integrated with demographic data for various applications. High resolution Remote sensing images are widely used as primary data for automatic extraction of building information. Many researchers have developed different methods for maximizing the detection percentage with minimum errors. This paper analyzes the primary data available for researchers, deriving the secondary information and utilizing it effectively. Case studies by various researchers were analyzed and a methodology has been outlined using their experiences, which is expected to be more efficient and reduced errors.

Image acquisition in a wider swath, cannot assess the best spatial resolution (SR) and temporal resolution (TR) simultaneously, due to inherent limitations of space borne sensors. But any of the information extraction from remote sensed (RS) images demands the above characteristics. As this is not possible onboard, suitable ground processing techniques need to be evolved to realise the requirements through advanced image processing techniques. The proposed work deals with processing of two onboard sensor data viz., Resourcesat-1 (RS1): LISS-III, which has medium swath combined with AWiFS, which has wider swath data to provide high spatial and temporal resolution at the same instant. LISS-III at 23m and 24 days, AWiFS at 56m and 5 days spatial and temporal revisits acquire the data at different swaths. In the process of acquisition at the same time, the 140km swath of LISS-III coincides at the exact centre line 740km swath of AWiFS. If the non-overlapping area of AWiFS has same features of earth’s surface as of LISS-III overlapping area, it then provides a way to increase the SR of AWiFS to SR of LISS-III in the same non-overlapping area. Using this knowledge, a novel processing technique Fast One Pair Learning and Prediction (FOPLP) is developed in which time is optimized against the existing methods. FOPLP improves the SR of LISS-III in non-overlapping area using technique Single Image Super Resolution (SISR) with Non Sub sampled Contourlet Transforms (NSCT) method and is applied on different sets of images. The proposed technique resulting into an image having TR of 5 days, 740km swath at SR of 23m. Results have shown the strength of the proposed method in terms of computation time and prediction accuracy assessment.

Five different types of bacteria were isolated from Municipal Solid Waste and identified as Neisseria subflava, Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacterium kutscheri, Bacillus pasteurii and Aeromonas species. Of these five different types, Neisseria subflava and Staphylococcus aureus were capable of growing on propoxur containing media. These two bacteria were grown on synthetic broth containing 100 and 200 ppm of propoxur respectively for 12 days. Residual phenol produced as a metabolite was estimated every 24 hours by colorimetry using 4 - aminoantipyrine method. Degradation pattern showed that, Neisseria subflava and Staphylococcus aureus degraded propoxur into residual phenol and basic compounds. Neisseria subflava showed constant increase in degradation of propoxur over the time after 144hrs of exposure to propoxur at 100 and 200 ppm. Nevertheless, degradation of 200 ppm propoxur was comparatively less than that of 100 ppm propoxur by Neisseria subflava. Staphylococcus aureus showed zigzag pattern of degradation indicating that for every 24 or 48 hrs of degradation of propoxur, there was decrease in growth rate indicating that the metabolite of propoxur was inhibiting the growth and then there was recovery once again leading to increased growth rate for another 24 hrs. Keywords - Municipal solid waste (MSW), Bacteria, Carbamate, Propoxur, Phenol derivative, Metabolism, Hydrolysis, biodegradation

Secretion of embryonic IL-1beta seems to be the first response of the blastocyst to receptive endometrium, inducing molecular changes that are essential for attachment of the blastocyst. Here, we report that human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a glycoprotein hormone that plays a critical role in the initiation and maintenance of pregnancy, markedly down-regulates the expression of the decoy inhibitory IL-1 receptor type II (IL-1R2) in human endometrial epithelial cells. Treatment with hCG resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in IL-1R2 soluble and membrane bound protein forms and mRNA steady-state levels, whereas no significant effect on the expression of the activating IL-1 receptor type I (IL-1R1) was seen. Cell infection with the wild-type human LH/chorionic gonadotropin receptor corroborated the aforementioned data, whereas cell infection with the constitutively activated LH chorionic gonadotropin receptor led to similar effects on IL-1R2 and IL-1R1 expression without hCG treatment. Cloning of human IL-1R2 gene promoter in the pGL3 luciferase reporter vector and transient transfection experiments further showed a significant dose-dependent diminution of IL-1R2 promoter activity in response to hCG. These data suggest that hCG, by down-regulating the expression of IL-1R2, a potent and specific inhibitor of IL-1, without affecting the expression of the functional activating IL-1R1, diminishes the ability of endometrial epithelial cells to counterbalance the local effects of IL-1, making these cells probably more responsive to the cytokine. In view of IL-1's role as an embryonic signal, these data reveal a new mechanism by which hCG sustains human pregnancy and promotes embryonic growth.

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a common form of urinary incontinence, resulting from spontaneous and random contractions of the urinary bladder. The affected individuals have an uncontrollable urge to urinate and experience incontinence and nocturia, which can greatly reduce the quality of daily life. There are several drugs for the treatment, and all of them have serious side effects. The following findings suggested that human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) has a therapeutic potential that is worth investigating for the treatment of OAB. The finding are (1) human detrusor muscle contains hCG receptors, (2) detrusor muscle becomes quiescent during pregnancy, (3) hCG can inhibit detrusor muscle contractions induced by cholinergic stimulation in rats, and (4) hCG can mimic the anticholinergic drug on detrusor muscle contractions.

The mechanisms driving steroid production in aldosterone-producing adenomas (APAs) are poorly defined. However, previous studies have shown that steroid production in some cortisol-producing adenomas is regulated by aberrant expression of G protein-coupled receptors. Aberrant adrenal expression of LH receptors has been shown to cause Cushing's syndrome, but the role of LH receptors in Conn's disease (hyperaldosteronism) has not been studied.The objective of the study was to determine whether APAs express elevated LH receptor, compared with normal adrenal (NA).Pools of RNA from NA and APAs were hybridized to oligonucleotide microarrays. Data were confirmed using real-time RT-PCR analysis of RNA derived from NA (n = 20) and APAs (n = 18). Aldosterone synthase transcription was studied in H295R adrenocortical cells transfected with an LH receptor expression construct and reporter constructs prepared from CYP11B2 5'-flanking DNA.The patient population consisted of 20 normal control adrenals and 18 adenomas from patients with APAs.Regulation of CYP11B2 gene expression by aberrant LH receptor expression in aldosterone-producing adrenal adenoma was measured.LH/choriogonadotropin receptor gene and CYP11B2 are indicated as having greater than 25-fold expression in one pool of APA mRNA samples over NA using microarray analysis. Real-time RT-PCR analyses indicated that one APA sample (APA-LH receptor) exhibited more than 2400-fold elevation in LH receptor expression over NA. Examination of LH receptor mRNA levels in 18 independent APA samples indicated elevated expression in nine samples when compared with NA. In H295R cells transfected with LH receptor, LH treatment caused a concentration-dependent increase in CYP11B2 reporter activity.LH receptor expression is elevated in many APAs, which makes LH a potential cause of the excessive production of aldosterone in a subset of these adrenal tumors.

Analysis of means (ANOM) is a graphical technique initially developed for testing the equality of several population means. Later, ANOM was extended for testing the equality of several (i) treatment effects, (ii) interaction effects, (iii) linear contrasts, (iv) proportions, (v) counts, (vi) variances, (vii) correlation coefficients. ANOM procedures reveal the statistical significance as well as the practical significance of samples being compared. Hence, ANOM procedures are vital aids in the search-and-identification process. ANOM procedures are highly useful in general and in particular to the practitioners in decision making. This paper presents a brief review of work done so far along with the bibliography in this area.

Receptors for LH/human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) have been found in a variety of nongonadal tissues including the female breast. Using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, we demonstrated the presence of LH/hCG receptor mRNA and protein in normal male breast tissue obtained at autopsy (n = 4) and archival samples of benign gynecomastia (n = 14) and male breast carcinoma (n = 5). Although the function of these receptors remains to be determined, the findings suggest the possibility that LH and hCG may play a role in the pathogenesis of male breast disorders.

SummaryA significant number of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) in human umbilical cord blood could serve as a reservoir for the placental vasculature, yet, their morphological and functional features are not completely understood. Here, we describe the characterization of purified CD133+ progenitor cells from umbilical cord blood, a subset of CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors that were grown in proliferation medium containing Flt3-ligand, thrombopoietin and stem cell factor. Following isolation and enrichment of the CD133+ cells by immunomagnetic cell sorting, they remained non-adherent for up to 40 days in culture and expressed different pluripotency markers including Sox-1, Sox-2, FGF-4, Rex-1 and Oct-4. Oct-4 expression was confirmed by laser-assisted single cell picking with subsequent quantitative real-time RT-PCR.The expression of Oct-4 indicates a pluripotent phenotype of CD133+ cells and appears to be of functional relevance: After three weeks in endothelial differentiation medium, suspended cells became adherent, developed an endothelial cell-like morphology, bound fluoresceine isothiocyanate-labeled Ulex europaeus agglutinin-1, took up acetylated Di-LDL, and expressed other endothelial markers such as PECAM-1 or VEGFR-2. Concomitantly, Oct-4 expression was significantly reduced. Moreover, following treatment with retinoic acid, CD133+ cells exhibited neural morphology associated with the expression of β-III-tubulin. CD133+ cells were found to express the luteinizing hormone/human chorionic gonadotropin (LH/hCG) receptor, detected by RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry. The recombinant human chorionic gonadotropin induced proliferation of the CD133+ cells in a dose-specific manner. Our results indicate that CD133+ HSPC from umbilical cord blood may have a greater differentiation potential than previously recognized and give rise to proliferative endothelial cells participating in placental vasculogenesis.

We report a case of a virilized 59-yr-old woman with elevated serum testosterone levels and bilateral macronodular adrenal hyperplasia. The patient underwent laparoscopic right adrenalectomy, after which the elevated testosterone level transiently normalized. The immediate postoperative depression of the testosterone level suggested that the process was driven by gonadotropins that were suppressed by the stress of surgery. The excised right adrenal mass contained testosterone by immunohistochemistry and LH receptor mRNA by in situ hybridization. The recurrence of hyperandrogenemia suggested that the enlarged left adrenal was also secreting testosterone. The serum testosterone level increased in response to im injection of human chorionic gonadotropin, suggesting control by aberrant LH receptors. Injection of leuprolide acetate (7.5 mg im) to suppress LH levels resulted in normalization of the testosterone level 12 d later that persisted for several weeks. Ectopic receptors mediating Cushing's syndrome have been described in several cases of bilateral adrenal hyperplasia and adrenal adenoma. This is the first case to our knowledge in which pure androgen overproduction in adrenal hyperplasia has been shown to be controlled by LH receptors. In our patient, the control of androgen secretion by LH may explain the postmenopausal onset of virilization and the transient postoperative normalization of the serum testosterone level.

Angiogenesis and vascular remodeling are crucial processes in tumor invasion and metastasis as well as in embryo implantation and normal development of the placenta. We have previously shown that hCG expressed in trophoblast and various malignant tumors promotes cellular motility and that uterine endothelium expresses hCG/LH receptor in vivo. In this study hCG was proposed to promote angiogenesis. A three-dimensional in vitro angiogenesis system consisting of uterine microvascular endothelial cells seeded on microcarriers and entrapped in a fibrin matrix was used to study the influence of hCG on neovascularization. Physiological concentrations of hCG (5-50,000 mU/ml) significantly increased in vitro capillary formation (up to 2.5-fold) and migration of endothelial cells in a Boyden chamber assay (up to 3.6-fold) in a dose-dependent manner, whereas hCG had no effect on cell proliferation. In vivo, hCG induced neovascularization in the chicken chorioallantoic membrane assay comparable to the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor. hCG-secreting tumors (choriocarcinoma, endometrium, and ovarian carcinoma) promoted in vitro neovascularization (up to 3-fold), whereas hCG-neutralizing antibody, pertussis toxin (G protein inhibitor), or GRGDTP peptide (integrin antagonist), respectively, abolished both tumor- and hCG-induced capillary sprout formation. Our data indicate a novel function for hCG in uterine adaptation to early pregnancy as well as in tumor development and underline the importance of hCG as an as yet unrecognized angiogenic factor.

Cushing's syndrome occurring during pregnancy is frequently due to an adrenal neoplasm. Adrenal gland tumors occasionally respond to luteinizing hormone (LH) or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). We report a case of Cushing's syndrome during and following pregnancy due to an adrenal carcinoma which expressed the LH/hCG receptor. The presence of these receptors may have led to the growth and function of the tumor during pregnancy.