A novel Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis Index using higher-order spectra features in EEG signals

Higher-order spectra (HOS) is an efficient feature extraction method used in various biomedical applications such as stages of sleep, epilepsy detection, cardiac abnormalities, and affective computing. The motive of this work was to explore the application of HOS for an automated diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Resting-state EEG signals collected from 20 PD patients with medication and 20 age-matched normal subjects were used in this study. HOS bispectrum features were extracted from the EEG signals. The obtained features were ranked using t value, and highly ranked features were used in order to develop the PD Diagnosis Index (PDDI). The PDDI is a single value, which can discriminate the two classes. Also, the ranked features were fed one by one to the various classifiers, namely decision tree (DT), fuzzy K-nearest neighbor (FKNN), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), naive bayes (NB), probabilistic neural network (PNN), and support vector machine (SVM), to choose the best classifier using minimum number of features. We have obtained an optimum mean classification accuracy of 99.62%, mean sensitivity and specificity of 100.00 and 99.25%, respectively, using the SVM classifier. The proposed PDDI can aid the clinicians in their diagnosis and help to test the efficacy of drugs.

     

Hybrid Active Contour Mammographic Mass Segmentation and Classification

This research implements a novel segmentation of mammographic mass. Three methods are proposed, namely, segmentation of mass based on iterative active contour, automatic region growing, and fully automatic mask selection-based active contour techniques. In the first method, iterative threshold is performed for manual cropped preprocessed image, and active contour is applied thereafter. To overcome manual cropping in the second method, an automatic seed selection followed by region growing is performed. Given that the result is only a few images owing to over segmentation, the third method uses a fully automatic active contour. Results of the segmentation techniques are compared with the manual markup by experts, specifically by taking the difference in their mean values. Accordingly, the difference in the mean value of the third method is 1.0853, which indicates the closeness of the segmentation. Moreover, the proposed method is compared with the existing fuzzy C means and level set methods. The automatic mass segmentation based on active contour technique results in segmentation with high accuracy. By using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system, classification is done and results in a sensitivity of 94.73%, accuracy of 93.93%, and Mathew’s correlation coefficient (MCC) of 0.876.     

A maintenance hemodialysis diabetic patient with unexplained pulmonary and gastrointestinal involvement

A 50‐year‐old man with diabetes mellitus with diabetic retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, hypertension, and end‐stage renal disease on maintenance hemodialysis, presented with persistent cough and hiccups, continued to be unwell with weight loss, poor appetite, and recurrent respiratory symptoms such as wheezing and cough. Whole body positron emission tomography‐computed tomography scan showed metabolically active lesions in liver, stomach/lesser sac, pancreas, and left sixth rib. As he had repeated bilateral transudative pleural effusion, left mini thoracotomy with pleural biopsy showed no evidence of granuloma or malignancy. Upper gastroscopy showed tiny gastric polyp; biopsy revealed benign lesion. Left posterior rib biopsy from the lesion and iliac crest biopsy showed no evidence of malignancy or granuloma. Further evaluation showed plasma chromogranin A ?5737 μg/L (<100 μg/L) with a repeat value of 6950 μg/L (<100 μg/L). He was initiated on oral sunitinib 25 mg once a day and injection octreotide 20 mg subcutaneously once a month. The plasma chromogranin A level and his symptoms, however, showed an initial improvement, but gradually worsened after 4 months despite being on treatment. After 6 months, the patient developed a gangrenous lesion of his glans penis with necrosis. Due to severe pain on conservative measures, penectomy with perineal urethrostomy was performed. Biopsy of the lesion showed blood vessels with intimal calcifications and thrombosis suggesting penile necrosis.     

Omentoplasty in the management of filarial lymphoedema

OBJECTIVE: Peer review is an important part of the publication of scientific results. We analysed the peer review process of abstracts submitted to the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) congress in Copenhagen in 1995. DESIGN: Comparative study. All abstracts were reviewed by all six members of the EASL scientific committee. Furthermore, each abstract was evaluated by three to six experts within 17 specific study fields, appointed by the scientific committee. All abstracts received a score on a scale from 1 to 5, one being the best. For each abstract the average was calculated for the scores of the committee members and the expert reviewers separately. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Abstract score. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the scores between the committee members, who scored 3.31 on average, and the expert reviewers, who scored 3.02 on average. Within most of the study fields the tendency was that the expert reviewers gave the highest scores. Moreover, there was a significant variation in the estimates among the individual reviewers as well as between the 2 groups of reviewers. Only 25% of the abstracts that received the best scores by the expert reviewers were classified in the same way by the committee members. The predictive value of a positive evaluation by the committee members was 0.6, the predictive value of a negative evaluation was 0.90. CONCLUSIONS: There was a considerable variation in the peer review process for abstracts submitted to the 1995 EASL congress depending on selection of reviewers. Various types of peer review strategies should be tested and evaluated to secure the highest possible scientific quality of published research results.     

Investigation of surface integrity in end milling of 55NiCrMoV7 die steel under the cryogenic environments

Abstract

Cryogenic assisted machining is experiencing growing popularity and acceptance as a toxic-free, eco-friendly, hazardless process producing improved structural components. This article deals with the analysis of 3D and 2D roughness profiles, surface morphology, residual stress and microhardness of 55NiCrMoV7 die steel after end milling operation under dry, wet, cryogenic CO₂ and LN₂ cooling environments. Among different cooling methods, the cryogenic CO₂ was seen enhancing the surface topography and morphology due to the presence of minimal wear track. The result indicates the production of an insignificant amount of residual stress in the machined surface by the cooling environments at a spindle speed of 1989?rpm and feed rate of 0.02?mm/rev. The surface microhardness values were higher under cryogenic conditions compared to dry and wet conditions. Cryogenic LN₂ provided the highest microhardness value among the four cooling methods.     

Emission characteristics of a CI engine using preheated CNSL oil & diesel blends and ethanol fumigation

ABSTRACT

In this study, emission level under different load conditions at constant speed was tested for a one-cylinder Compression ignition engine using preheated cnsl oil & diesel blends and ethanol fumigation. According to the emission characteristics and performance of the engine, the temperature of 80°C is considered to be excellent at preheated state. The various blends are [(Preheated CNSL20?+?D80) +E fumigation], [(Preheated CNSL40?+?D60) +E fumigation], [(Preheated CNSL60?+?D40) +E fumigation), (Preheated CNSL80?+?D20) +E fumigation], [(Preheated CNSL100) +E fumigation] are being examined at 80° C. The outputs comprehension is done with pure diesel.     

Assessment of crtRB1 Polymorphism Associated with Increased β-Carotene Content in Maize (Zea mays L.) Seeds

Breeding for increasing β-carotene levels in maize (Zea mays L.) kernel aims to address the dietary vitamin A deficiency. Due to 3’TE polymorphism, the crtRB1gene (that encodes β -carotene hydroxylase 1) exists in the three allelic forms, viz., 3’TE allele 1 (termed favorable allele, for it favors higher β-carotene accumulation in kernels), 3’TE allele 2 and 3’TE allele 3 (both termed unfavorable alleles, for they do not favor β-carotene accumulation). Here, we aimed to identify maize lines with favorable allele. First, 3’TE polymorphism assay in 210 inbreds revealed that only “UMI 176” had the favorable allele while the rest had the unfavorable alleles, confirming the previous finding that favorable allele is rare in frequency. Second, β-carotene content analysis in 24 inbreds revealed that it varied from 4.5 to 7.92 (μg/g), 0.23 to 2, and 0.42 to 4.22 for lines with allele 1, 2, and 3 respectively, corroborating the previous findings that the presence of favorable allele correlates with higher β-carotene content. In summary, UMI 176 has the favorable allele and had the highest amount of β-carotene content (7.92 μg/g), indicating that it is a promising donor line that can be utilized in β-carotene biofortification breeding.     

An Improved Steganographic Scheme Using the Contour Principle to Ensure the Privacy of Medical Data on Digital Images

With the improvement of current online communication schemes, it is now possible to successfully distribute and transport secured digital Content via the communication channel at a faster transmission rate. Traditional steganography and cryptography concepts are used to achieve the goal of concealing secret Content on a media and encrypting it before transmission. Both of the techniques mentioned above aid in the confidentiality of feature content. The proposed approach concerns secret content embodiment in selected pixels on digital image layers such as Red, Green, and Blue. The private Content originated from a medical client and was forwarded to a medical practitioner on the server end through the internet. The K-Means clustering principle uses the contouring approach to frame the pixel clusters on the image layers. The content embodiment procedure is performed on the selected pixel groups of all layers of the image using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution technique to build the secret Content embedded image known as the stego image, which is subsequently transmitted across the internet medium to the server end. The experimental results are computed using the inputs from “Open-Access Medical Image Repositories (aylward.org)” and demonstrate the scheme’s impudence as the Content concealing procedure progresses.     

Surface crack detection using deep learning with shallow CNN architecture for enhanced computation

Neural Computing and Applications - Surface cracks on the concrete structures are a key indicator of structural safety and degradation. To ensure the structural health and reliability of the...     

Biodegradable Hydrophobic Injectable Polymers for Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine

Biodegradable, hydrophobic, and injectable liquid polymers are capable of achieving the minimally invasive, sustained, and local release of drugs. These hydrophobic injectable polymers also have potential in the area of regenerative medicine where the biomaterial should be stable for a certain period and then degrade to allow the growth of cells/tissues. This review presents exclusive coverage of biocompatible hydrophobic injectable pasty or liquid polymers that can be injected without the use of any solvent for drug delivery, tissue augmentation, and regenerative medicine application. The synthesis methodologies of several major types of hydrophobic pasty polymers used in the biomedical fields and their properties with the foremost criteria to serve as injectable biomaterial for localized drug delivery and regenerative medicine is described. The hydrophobic biodegradable injectable polymers discussed are aliphatic polyesters, polycarbonates and polyanhydrides, prepared from: lactic acid, glycolic acid, caprolactone, aliphatic diols and diacids, hydroxy fatty acids, and triglycerides such as castor oil.