Robust extraction of text from camera images using colour and spatial information simultaneously

The importance and use of text extraction from camera based coloured scene images is rapidly increasing with time. Text within a camera grabbed image can contain a huge amount of meta data about that scene. Such meta data can be useful for identification, indexing and retrieval purposes. While the segmentation and recognition of text from document images is quite successful, detection of coloured scene text is a new challenge for all camera based images. Common problems for text extraction from camera based images are the lack of prior knowledge of any kind of text features such as colour, font, size and orientation as well as the location of the probable text regions. In this paper, we document the development of a fully automatic and extremely robust text segmentation technique that can be used for any type of camera grabbed frame be it single image or video. A new algorithm is proposed which can overcome the current problems of text segmentation. The algorithm exploits text appearance in terms of colour and spatial distribution. When the new text extraction technique was tested on a variety of camera based images it was found to out perform existing techniques (or something similar). The proposed technique also overcomes any problems that can arise due to an unconstraint complex background. The novelty in the works arises from the fact that this is the first time that colour and spatial information are used simultaneously for the purpose of text extraction

Host microbiome in tuberculosis: disease, treatment, and immunity perspectives

Tuberculosis (TB), an airborne pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), poses an unprecedented health and economic burden to most of the developing countries. Treatment of TB requires prolonged use of a cocktail of antibiotics, which often manifest several side effects, including stomach upset, nausea, and loss of appetite spurring on treatment non-compliance and the emergence of antibiotic resistant M. tb. The anti-TB treatment regimen causes imbalances in the composition of autochthonous microbiota associated with the human body, which also contributes to major side effects. The microbiota residing in the gastrointestinal tract play an important role in various physiological processes, including resistance against colonization by pathogens, boosting host immunity, and providing key metabolic functions. In TB patients, due to prolonged exposure to anti-tuberculosis drugs, the gut microbiota significantly loses its diversity and several keystone bacterial taxa. This loss may result in a significant reduction in the functional potency of the microbiota, which is a probable reason for poor treatment outcomes. In this review, we discuss the structural and functional changes of the gut microbiota during TB and its treatment. A major focus of the review is oriented to the gut microbial association with micronutrient profiles and immune cell dynamics during TB infection. Furthermore, we summarize the acquisition of anti-microbial resistance in M. tb along with the microbiome-based therapeutics to cure the infections. Understanding the relationship between these components and host susceptibility to TB disease is important to finding potential targets that may be used in TB prevention, progression, and cure

Spatiotemporal persistence of multiple, diverse clades and toxins of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

Diphtheria is a respiratory disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Although the development of a toxin-based vaccine in the 1930s has allowed a high level of control over the disease, cases have increased in recent years. Here, we describe the genomic variation of 502 C. diphtheriae isolates across 16 countries and territories over 122 years. We generate a core gene phylogeny and determine the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes and variation within the tox gene of 291 tox+ isolates. Numerous, highly diverse clusters of C. diphtheriae are observed across the phylogeny, each containing isolates from multiple countries, regions and time of isolation. The number of antimicrobial resistance genes, as well as the breadth of antibiotic resistance, is substantially greater in the last decade than ever before. We identified and analysed 18 tox gene variants, with mutations estimated to be of medium to high structural impact

An Improved Method for High Quality Metagenomics DNA Extraction from Human and Environmental Samples

To explore the natural microbial community of any ecosystems by high-resolution molecular approaches including next generation sequencing, it is extremely important to develop a sensitive and reproducible DNA extraction method that facilitate isolation of microbial DNA of sufficient purity and quantity from culturable and uncultured microbial species living in that environment. Proper lysis of heterogeneous community microbial cells without damaging their genomes is a major challenge. In this study, we have developed an improved method for extraction of community DNA from different environmental and human origin samples. We introduced a combination of physical, chemical and mechanical lysis methods for proper lysis of microbial inhabitants. The community microbial DNA was precipitated by using salt and organic solvent. Both the quality and quantity of isolated DNA was compared with the existing methodologies and the supremacy of our method was confirmed. Maximum recovery of genomic DNA in the absence of substantial amount of impurities made the method convenient for nucleic acid extraction. The nucleic acids obtained using this method are suitable for different downstream applications. This improved method has been named as the THSTI method to depict the Institute where the method was developed

Genomic plasticity associated with antimicrobial resistance in Vibrio cholerae.

The Bay of Bengal is known as the epicenter for seeding several devastating cholera outbreaks across the globe. Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of cholera, has extraordinary competency to acquire exogenous DNA by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and adapt them into its genome for structuring metabolic processes, developing drug resistance, and colonizing the human intestine. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in V. cholerae has become a global concern. However, little is known about the identity of the resistance traits, source of AMR genes, acquisition process, and stability of the genetic elements linked with resistance genes in V. cholerae Here we present details of AMR profiles of 443 V. cholerae strains isolated from the stool samples of diarrheal patients from two regions of India. We sequenced the whole genome of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) V. cholerae to identify AMR genes and genomic elements that harbor the resistance traits. Our genomic findings were further confirmed by proteome analysis. We also engineered the genome of V. cholerae to monitor the importance of the autonomously replicating plasmid and core genome in the resistance profile. Our findings provided insights into the genomes of recent cholera isolates and identified several acquired traits including plasmids, transposons, integrative conjugative elements (ICEs), pathogenicity islands (PIs), prophages, and gene cassettes that confer fitness to the pathogen. The knowledge generated from this study would help in better understanding of V. cholerae evolution and management of cholera disease by providing clinical guidance on preferred treatment regimens.DBT Indi

Molecular Studies On Stringent Response Modulator Gene spoT of Vibrio cholerae

The speculations of Koch have proven to be prescient, since the most recent data show that toxigenic Vibrio cholerae exist outside the human intestine and the autochthonous nature of V. cholerae is an important factor in the epidemiology of cholera, significantly so in endemic areas. If one statistically charts the frequency of occurrence of human diseases, infectious diseases top the list with an average of 17-20% cases causing high mortality every year (WHO, 2001). While some of these infections were caused by eukaryotic parasites, bacterial pathogens continue to pose a threat to the well being of humans and animals both in the developing and developed countries. One of the principal infections spread by bacterial pathogens is the incidence of diarrhea that leads to more than two million deaths each year (WHO, 2001). Although there are several viral and bacterial enteropathogens, which are responsible for infective diarrhea, but fatal diarrhoeal disease cholera caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae has produced repeated pandemics. Cholera is characterized by profuse watery diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration, which leads to death if untreated

Filamentous Bacteriophage in Bio/Nano/Technology, Bacterial Pathogenesis and Ecology

Filamentous phage (genus Inovirus) infect almost invariably Gram-negative bacteria. They are distinguished from all other bacteriophage not only by morphology, but also by the mode of their assembly, a secretion-like process that does not kill the host. “Classic” Escherichia coli filamentous phage Ff (f1, fd and M13) are used in display technology and bio/nano/technology, whereas filamentous phage in general have been put to use by their bacterial hosts for adaptation to environment, pathogenesis, biofilm formation, horizontal gene transfer and modulating genome stability. Many filamentous phage have a “symbiotic” life style that is often manifested by inability to form plaques, preventing their identification by standard phage-hunting techniques; while the absence or very low sequence conservation between phage infecting different species often complicates their identification through bioinformatics. Nevertheless, the number of discovered filamentous phage is increasing rapidly, along with realization of their significance. “Temperate” filamentous phage whose genomes are integrated into the bacterial chromosome of pathogenic bacteria often modulate virulence of the host. The Vibrio cholerae phage CTXf genome encodes cholera toxin, whereas many filamentous prophage influence virulence without encoding virulence factors. The nature of their effect on the bacterial pathogenicity and overall physiology is the next frontier in understanding intricate relationship between the filamentous phage and their hosts. Phage display has been widely used as a combinatorial technology of choice for discovery of therapeutic antibodies and peptide leads that have been applied in the vaccine design, diagnostics and drug development or targeting over the past thirty years. Virion proteins of filamentous phage are integral membrane proteins prior to assembly; hence they are ideal for display of bacterial surface and secreted proteins. The use of this technology at the scale of microbial community has potential to identify host-interacting proteins of uncultivable or low-represented community members. Recent applications of Ff filamentous phage extend into protein evolution, synthetic biology and nanotechnology. In many applications, phage serves as a monodisperse long-aspect nano-scaffold of well-defined shape. Chemical or chenetic modifications of this scaffold are used to introduce the necessary functionalities, such as fluorescent labels, ligands that target specific proteins, or peptides that promote formation of inorganic or organic nanostructures. We anticipate that the future holds development of new strategies for particle assembly, site-specific multi-functional modifications and improvement of existing modification strategies. These improvements will render the production of filamentous-phage-templated materials safe and affordable, allowing their applications outside of the laboratory

Functional Analysis of the Essential GTP-Binding-Protein-Coding Gene cgtA of Vibrio cholerae▿

The cgtA gene, coding for the conserved G protein CgtA, is essential in bacteria. In contrast to a previous report, here we show by using genetic analysis that cgtA is essential in Vibrio cholerae even in a ΔrelA background. Depletion of CgtA affected the growth of V. cholerae and rendered the cells highly sensitive to the replication inhibitor hydroxyurea. Overexpression of V. cholerae CgtA caused distinct elongation of Escherichia coli cells. Deletion analysis indicated that the C-terminal end of CgtA plays a critical role in its proper function