Hybrid intelligent techniques for MRI brain images classification

This paper presents a hybrid technique for the classification of the magnetic resonance images (MRI). The proposed hybrid technique consists of three stages, namely, feature extraction, dimensionality reduction, and classification. In the first stage, we have obtained the features related to MRI images using discrete wavelet transformation (DWT). In the second stage, the features of magnetic resonance images have been reduced, using principal component analysis (PCA), to the more essential features. In the classification stage, two classifiers have been developed. The first classifier based on feed forward back-propagation artificial neural network (FP-ANN) and the second classifier is based on k-nearest neighbor (k-NN). The classifiers have been used to classify subjects as normal or abnormal MRI human images. A classification with a success of 97% and 98% has been obtained by FP-ANN and k-NN, respectively. This result shows that the proposed technique is robust and effective compared with other recent work.     

Copy-move forgery detection of duplicated objects using accurate PCET moments and morphological operators

This paper presents a new method for copy-move forgery detection of duplicated objects. A bounding rectangle is drawn around the detected object to form a sub-image. Morphological operator is used to remove the unnecessary small objects. Highly accurate polar complex exponential transform moments are used as features for the detected objects. Euclidian distance and correlation coefficient between the feature vectors are calculated and used for searching the similar objects. A set of 20 forged images with duplicated objects is carefully selected from previously published works. Additional 80 non-forged images are edited by the authors and forged by duplicating different kinds of objects. Numerical simulation is performed where the results show that the proposed method successfully detect different kinds of duplicated objects. The proposed method is much faster than the previously existing methods. Also, it exhibits high robustness to various attacks such as additive white Gaussian noise, JPEG compression, rotation, and scaling.     

Electrochemical AFM investigation of horseradish peroxidase enzyme electro-immobilization with polypyrrole conducting polymer

In this paper we investigate the nano-characterization of polypyrrole (Ppy) thin film electro-synthesized on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) with and without horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) using Atomic force microscopy (AFM) performed in contact mode and fluid cell with electrolyte and potential control (ECAFM). In situ electro-synthesis of thin polypyrrole film was made by cyclic volt–amperommetry achieving structured Ppy nanoparticles with two types of particle sizes and the same ellipsoidal shape. Furthermore, the electro-immobilization of HRP, onto this film, was made at a fixed potential, achieving different morphology characterized by highly rough, non-homogeneous structure, and partial maintaining of the ellipsoidal particle in specific sites. The effect of polarization time on morphological parameters was studied and two mechanisms of electro-immobilization of HRP with Ppy conducting polymers were proposed.     

Fast computation of accurate Zernike moments

Zernike polynomials are continuous orthogonal polynomials defined in polar coordinates over a unit disk. Zernike moment’s computation using conventional methods produced two types of errors namely approximation and geometrical. Approximation errors are removed by using exact Zernike moments. Geometrical errors are minimized through a proper mapping of the image. Exact Zernike moments are expressed as a combination of exact radial moments, where exact values of radial moments are computed by mathematical integration of the monomial polynomials over digital image pixels. A fast algorithm is proposed to accelerate the moment’s computations. A comparison with other conventional methods is performed. The obtained results explain the superiority of the proposed method.     

Field Evaluation of Surge and Continuous Flows in Furrow Irrigation Systems

The objective of this paper is to study the performance of surgeand continuous furrow irrigation based on field experiments. Theexperiments took place on two farms located in the State of NewMexico, U.S.A., cultivated with Beans and Alfalfa and havingdifferent types of soil. Each farm was divided into two parts,where the first was designed to practice surge and the secondcontinuous irrigation. The analysis of the results showed thatsurge flow proides the desired crop water requirement at almost40% saving in water and time as well as improving the distribution uniformity and application efficiency of irrigation to about 90%.     

Experimental investigation of tracking paraboloid and box solar cookers under Egyptian environment

Two full tracking solar cookers, namely a paraboloid dish solar cooker (PDSC) and a booster mirror solar box cooker (BMSBC) have been designed, constructed and tested during a winter season in Cairo (30° N and 30° E). The cookers are made simple, durable and of low cost. Tests are carried out to compare the performance of these two cookers under the same operating conditions. The results showed that the rate of cooking of the PDSC is higher than that of the BMSBC. Also, the PDSC can handle various types of cooking even under the intermittent sunny and cloudy conditions of the winter.The effect of wind speed on the heat loss from the receiver is of utmost importance for the evaluation of PDSC performance. Therefore, the effect of wind speed on the heat loss coefficients from new or black painted receivers is experimentally determined, analysed and presented in graphical form. The overall heat loss coefficients are correlated in terms of wind speed and surface conditions (painted or unpainted). During the indoor test, the wind speed was varied from 0 to 8 m/s. Based on these experimental results, a wind shield has been designed to reduce the wind effect. Tests confirmed that the wind shield improves the PDSC performance and allows boiling to take place even for high wind speeds. This is confirmed by the thermal analysis which shows reductions of 24 to 35% in the heat loss from the receiver with the presence of the wind shield.     

Optothermal properties of fibers. X. Temperature dependence of the skin—core structure of nylon-6 fibers

Refractive indices and birefringence for skin and core changes with annealing, produced by different annealing conditions in nylon-6 fibers, were measured interferometrically. Applications were carried out using multiple-beam Fizeau fringes in transmission to determine Cauchy's constants and dispersive coefficients for the fibers. The resulting data were used to calculate the polarizability per unit volume for each layer. By optical microscopy, the geometrical parameters of the fiber cross section were found. The effect of temperature and time of annealing on the refractive index and birefringence for each layer were also investigated. The relationships between temperature and time of annealing with the optical parameters were drawn. Illustrations are given using microinterferograms and curves. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 66: 695–709, 1997     

Preparation and Evaluation of Controlled Release Propranolol Hydrochloride Beads

Conventional pan coating method was utilized to prepare propranolol-HCl sustained release coated beads. Eudragit RS 100 was used as release controlling materials. Overcoating of the beads with beeswax was also investigated. The beads were characterized for their particle size distribution, drug loading efficiency and their dissolution behaviour in 0.1N HCl, Most of the finished beads (72.4%) fall in the particle size range 800-1700 um. The actual drug content, calcu-lated as opposed to the theoretical drug content were 77.6% and 74.2% of the drug for the beads having particle size range 1700-1250 um and 1250-800 um respectively, The coating level of the polymer, the particle size of the beads and overcoating with beeswax play a major role in determining the release rate of the drug from the coated beads.     

The Ameliorative Effect of Dexamethasone on the Development of Autoimmune Lung Injury and Mediastinal Fat-Associated Lymphoid Clusters in an Autoimmune Disease Mouse Model

In our previous study, we revealed the ameliorative therapeutic effect of dexamethasone (Dex) for Lupus nephritis lesions in the MRL/MpJ-Fas ^lpr/lpr (Lpr) mouse model. The female Lpr mice developed a greater number of mediastinal fat-associated lymphoid clusters (MFALCs) and inflammatory lung lesions compared to the male mice. However, the effect of Dex, an immunosuppressive drug, on both lung lesions and the development of MFALCs in Lpr mice has not been identified yet. Therefore, in this study, we compared the development of lung lesions and MFALCs in female Lpr mice that received either saline (saline group “SG”) or dexamethasone (dexamethasone group “DG”) in drinking water as a daily dose along with weekly intraperitoneal injections for 10 weeks. Compared to the SG group, the DG group showed a significant reduction in the levels of serum anti-dsDNA antibodies, the size of MFALCs, the degree of lung injury, the area of high endothelial venules (HEVs), and the number of proliferating and immune cells in both MFALCs and the lungs. A significant positive correlation was observed between the size of MFALCs and the cellular aggregation in the lungs of Lpr mice. Therefore, this study confirmed the ameliorative effect of Dex on the development of lung injury and MFALCs via their regressive effect on both immune cells’ proliferative activity and the development of HEVs. Furthermore, the reprogramming of MFALCs by targeting immune cells and HEVs may provide a therapeutic strategy for autoimmune-disease-associated lung injury.