Character Segmentation for Telugu Image Document using Multiple Histogram Projections

TEXT line segmentation is one of the major component of document image analysis. Text line segmentation is necessary to detect all text regions in the document image. In this paper we propose an algorithm based on multiple histogram projections using morphological operators to extract features of the image. Horizontal projection is performed on the text image, and then line segments are identified by the peaks in the horizontal projection. Threshold is applied to divide the text image into segments. False lines are eliminated using another threshold. Vertical histogram projections are used for the line segments and decomposed into words using threshold and further decomposed to characters. This approach provides best performance based on the experimental results such as Detection rate DR (98%) and Recognition Accuracy RA (98%)

The Meaning, Experience, and Value of \u27Common Space\u27 for Women and Children in Urban Poor Settlements in India

Housing and basic services in urban poor settlements have been the focus of bi-lateral agencies, national governments as well as NGOs and CBOs. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the value of common spaces in these settlements, or in the planning and design of common spaces in upgraded or redeveloped settlements. Common spaces include communal areas like childcare and play facilities, religious and cultural establishments, shops, physical infrastructure like roads and sanitation, and informal spaces like courtyards, steps, lanes, and corridors where women perform daily chores and interact and children play. This dissertation focuses on understanding the significance that families, particularly women and children, living in poor urban communities in India give to common space in their settlements. This study was carried out in the Indian cities of Bangalore and Mumbai in partnership with an organization called The Alliance , the largest and most successful NGO- CBO partnership in India for the organized participatory development of slums. Individual interviews, group tours, and focus groups with women and children were used to investigate the meaning, use, and value of common spaces in eight urban poor settlements at various stages of the redevelopment process. In addition, key stakeholders in the urban redevelopment process such as politicians, municipal officers, planning officials, and members of The Alliance were also interviewed to better understand how political and institutional forces shape common spaces. The study finds that common spaces are recognized for their utilitarian value, but rarely for their `common\u27 or shared nature. In existing settlements, spaces adjoining homes, small shops, religious spaces, and community meeting rooms all support women and children in their work, play and socialization activities. However, poor access to basic services such as water, sanitation and drainage, and unpaved streets render many of these spaces unusable, unhealthy, or conflict-laden. In extremely dense settlements very narrow streets do little to support daily activities and hinder the movement and gathering of people. Residents living in redeveloped housing value common spaces such as wide corridors, entrance-steps, terraces, community meeting rooms, and religious spaces as they provide opportunities for children\u27s play, social interaction, and special occasions such as weddings. However, resident aspirations to live like the middle-class often lead to self-imposed restrictions on the use of these common spaces for activities like informal socialization or for personal household chores. In both existing and redeveloped settlements children\u27s play tends to occur in the common spaces and is often the reason for tension and discord between residents. Most participants in the study requested that common spaces like playground and parks, childcare centers, study rooms, libraries, training centers, community meeting rooms, shops, and religious spaces be included in current or new housing. A key finding was that upgrading moderately dense settlements in a holistic manner is a crucial step for preserving and encouraging time-tested spatialities of housing that support the diverse needs of poor people and resident participation in the process is crucial to achieve this. In addition, a number of key principals for the successful development of common spaces in urban poor settlements were identified: encouraging large tract redevelopments instead of pocket-sized efforts, recognizing existing common spaces at the start of the planning process, and aiming to preserve long-term relationships by more sensitive allocation of housing

Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma - A Case Report

15 year old male who presented with a 6 month history of nasal obstruction and recurrent nasal bleeding. He had had about ten episodes of epistaxis in the 3 months. Examination revealed that vital signs were essentially within normal limits.The nasal cavity revealed fresh blood in the right nasal cavity but the bleeding site could not be visualized. An impression of epistaxis secondary rhinosinusitis was made

GC-171 - Source Localization of Electroencephalogram (EEG) Waves with Convolutional Neural Network

This project investigates the use of deep learning for Heterogeneous robotics trajectory and communication planning which will be assisted by prioritizing by electroencephalogram (EEG) waves for the purpose of improvisation by different emotional responses of human subjects. The Convolutional Deep Learning  model is trained to recognize EEG reading corresponding to different usage of the heterogeneous robots which are then used as an additional(imitation) input to the Reinforcement Learning based robotic operation. This project mainly focuses on delivery drone and aerial base station drone operations from source to destination considering energy efficient path, shortest distance, charging points, and to avoid collisions. This investigation is also assessed if near real-time performance can be achieved for such  approach. Such a system can be useful in many domains including unmanned driving, drone air corridor etc

Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robotic Systems: A Survey on Hardware Architectures

Modular self-reconfigurable robots present wide and unique solutions for growing demands in the domains of space exploration, automation, consumer products, and so forth. The higher utilization factor and self-healing capabilities are most demanded traits in robotics for real world applications and modular robotics offer better solutions in these perspectives in relation to traditional robotics. The researchers in robotics domain identified various applications and prototyped numerous robotic models while addressing constraints such as homogeneity, reconfigurability, form factor, and power consumption. The diversified nature of various modular robotic solutions proposed for real world applications and utilization of different sensor and actuator interfacing techniques along with physical model optimizations presents implicit challenges to researchers while identifying and visualizing the merits/demerits of various approaches to a solution. This paper attempts to simplify the comparison of various hardware prototypes by providing a brief study on hardware architectures of modular robots capable of self-healing and reconfiguration along with design techniques adopted in modeling robots, interfacing technologies, and so forth over the past 25 years

Fabricating multifunctional nanoparticles bonded to enzymatically oxidized fabrics for their various applications

381-388An effective procedure for obtaining fragrance finished fabric based on cellulose and chitosan has been developed. The first step involves the formation of oxidized cellulose, which is able to form a schiff’s base with the chitosan. In order to maintain the strength of fabric, a novel enzymatic method for oxidation of cellulose is adopted. In the second step, chitosan nanoparticles loaded with the jasmine oil are prepared and coated on the oxidized cellulosic fabric by forming a strong covalent bond. The FTIR analysis proves the formation of cellulose-chitosan composite. Scanning electron microscopic study demonstrates the coating of nanoparticles on the cotton fabrics. The retention capacity of the jasmine oil in the fabric after repeated washings is proved by GC analysis. The cotton fabrics finished by the covalent bonded coating of chitosan nanoparticles loaded with the jasmine fragrance are found to have a better sustained release capability for a longer time as compared to the conventionally entrapped nanoparticles in the fabric

Fabricating multifunctional nanoparticles bonded to enzymatically oxidized fabrics for their various applications

An effective procedure for obtaining fragrance finished fabric based on cellulose and chitosan has been developed. Thefirst step involves the formation of oxidized cellulose, which is able to form a schiff’s base with the chitosan. In order tomaintain the strength of fabric, a novel enzymatic method for oxidation of cellulose is adopted. In the second step, chitosannanoparticles loaded with the jasmine oil are prepared and coated on the oxidized cellulosic fabric by forming a strongcovalent bond. The FTIR analysis proves the formation of cellulose-chitosan composite. Scanning electron microscopicstudy demonstrates the coating of nanoparticles on the cotton fabrics. The retention capacity of the jasmine oil in the fabricafter repeated washings is proved by GC analysis. The cotton fabrics finished by the covalent bonded coating of chitosannanoparticles loaded with the jasmine fragrance are found to have a better sustained release capability for a longer time ascompared to the conventionally entrapped nanoparticles in the fabric

Laxative Property of Safoof-E-Sana, a Unani Formulation

An investigation was carried out to study the laxative property of aqueous extract Safoof-ESana in the unani formulation. Aqueous extract of Safoof-E-Sana was evaluated for laxative property and was measured by weighing the fecal out at 8th and 16th hour of drug administration. Safoof-E-Sana at 50, and 100 mg/kg showed dose dependent laxative effect. The results are compared with standard Senna. Safoof-E-Sana was showed significant laxative activity

ERBB2 overexpression suppresses stress-induced autophagy and renders ERBB2-induced mammary tumorigenesis independent of monoallelicBecn1loss

Defective autophagy has been implicated in mammary tumorigenesis, as the gene encoding the essential autophagy regulator BECN1 is deleted in human breast cancers and Becn1+/− mice develop mammary hyperplasias. In agreement with a recent study, which reports concurrent allelic BECN1 loss and ERBB2 amplification in a small number of human breast tumors, we found that low BECN1 mRNA correlates with ERBB2-overexpression in breast cancers, suggesting that BECN1 loss and ERBB2 overexpression may functionally interact in mammary tumorigenesis. We now report that ERBB2 overexpression suppressed autophagic response to stress in mouse mammary and human breast cancer cells. ERBB2-overexpressing Becn1+/+ and Becn1+/− immortalized mouse mammary epithelial cells (iMMECs) formed mammary tumors in nude mice with similar kinetics, and monoallelic Becn1 loss did not alter ERBB2- and PyMT-driven mammary tumorigenesis. In human breast cancer databases, ERBB2-expressing tumors exhibit a low autophagy gene signature, independent of BECN1 mRNA expression, and have similar gene expression profiles with non-ERBB2-expressing breast tumors with low BECN1 levels. We also found that ERBB2-expressing BT474 breast cancer cells, despite being partially autophagy-deficient under stress, can be sensitized to the anti-ERBB2 antibody trastuzumab (tzb) by further pharmacological or genetic autophagy inhibition. Our results indicate that ERBB2-driven mammary tumorigenesis is associated with functional autophagy suppression and ERBB2-positive breast cancers are partially autophagy-deficient even in a wild-type BECN1 background. Furthermore and extending earlier findings using tzb-resistant cells, exogenously imposed autophagy inhibition increases the anticancer effect of trastuzumab on tzb-sensitive ERBB2-expressing breast tumor cells, indicating that pharmacological autophagy suppression has a wider role in the treatment of ERBB2-positive breast cancer