Neural Network-Based Expression Recognition System for Static Facial Images

Affective Computing is a field of studying the human effect to interpret, recognize, process, and simulate in computer science, psychology, and cognitive science. Humans express their emotions in a variety of ways such as body gesture, word, vocal, and mainly facial expression. Non-verbal behavior is a significant component of communication, and facial expressions of emotions are the most important complex signal. Facial Expression Recognition (FER) is an interesting and challenging task in artificial intelligence. FER system in the study three steps including preprocessing, feature extraction and expression classification. In the paper, comparative analysis of expression recognition is implemented based on Neural Network (NN) with three feature extraction methods of Sobel Edge, Histogram of Oriented Gradient and Local Binary Pattern. NN-based expression recognition system achieves an accuracy of 95.82% and 97.68% for JAFFE and CK+ dataset respectively. The result has shown that the Edge features are the effected features for recognizing human expression using still images

Survey on Emotion Recognition Using Facial Expression

Automatic recognition of human affects has become more interesting and challenging problem in artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction and computer vision fields. Facial Expression (FE) is the one of the most significant features to recognize the emotion of human in daily human interaction. FE Recognition (FER) has received important interest from psychologists and computer scientists for the applications of health care assessment, human affect analysis, and human computer interaction. Human express their emotions in a number of ways including body gesture, word, vocal and facial expressions. Expression is the important channel to convey emotion information of different people because face can express mainly human emotion. This paper surveys the current research works related to facial expression recognition. The study attends to explored details of the facial datasets, feature extraction methods, the comparison results and futures studies of the facial emotion system

Operational experiences associated with the implementation of near point-of-care early infant diagnosis of HIV in Myanmar: a qualitative study

Background: Timely diagnosis and early initiation of life-saving antiretroviral therapy are critical factors in preventing mortality among HIV-infected infants. However, resource-limited settings experience numerous challenges associated with centralised laboratory-based testing, including low rates of testing, complex sample referral pathways and unacceptably long turnaround times for results. Point-of-care (POC) HIV testing for HIVexposed infants can enable same-day communication of results and early treatment initiation for HIV-infected infants. However, complex operational issues and service integration can limit utility and must be well understood prior to implementation. We explored and documented the challenges and enabling factors in implementing the POC Xpert® HIV-1 Qual test (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) for early infant diagnosis (EID) as part of routine services in four public hospitals in Myanmar. Methods: This sub-study was part of a randomised controlled stepped-wedge trial (Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number 12616000734460) designed to investigate the impact of POC testing for EID in Myanmar and Papua New Guinea. Infants recruited during the intervention phase underwent POC testing at the participating hospitals as part of routine care. Semi-structured interviews with 23 caregivers, 12 healthcare providers and 10 key informants were used to explore experiences of POC-EID testing. The research team and hospital staff documented and discussed implementation challenges throughout the study. Results: Overall, caregivers and healthcare workers were satisfied with the short turnaround time of the POC test. Occasional delays in POC testing were mostly attributable to late receipt of samples by laboratory technicians and communication constraints among healthcare staff. Hospital staff valued technical assistance from the research group and the National Health Laboratory. Despite staff shortages and infrastructure challenges such as unreliable electricity supply and cramped space, healthcare workers and caregivers found the implementation of the POC test to be feasible at pilot sites. Conclusions: As plans for national scale-up evolve, there needs to be a continual focus on staff training, communication pathways and infrastructure. Other models of care, such as allowing non-laboratory-trained personnel to perform POC testing, and cost effectiveness should also be evaluated

Caregiver experience and perceived acceptability of a novel near point-of-care early infant HIV diagnostic test among caregivers enrolled in the PMTCT program, Myanmar: A qualitative study

Background: The majority of HIV infection among children occurs through mother-to-child transmission. HIV exposed infants are recommended to have virological testing at birth or 4–6 weeks of age but challenges with centralized laboratory-based testing in Myanmar result in low test- ing rates and delays in result communication and treatment initiation. Decentralized point- of-care (POC) testing when integrated in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services, can be an alternative to increase coverage of early infant diagnosis (EID) and timely engagement in HIV treatment and care. Aim: This paper aims to explore experiences of caregivers of HIV-exposed infants enrolled in the PMTCT program in Myanmar and the perceived acceptability of point-of-care EID testing compared to conventional centralised laboratory-based testing. Methods: This is a sub-study of the cluster randomised controlled stepped-wedge trial (Trial registra- tion number: ACTRN12616000734460) that assessed the impact of near POC EID testing using Xpert HIV-1 Qual assay in four public hospitals in Myanmar. Caregivers of infants who were enrolled in the intervention phase of the main study, had been tested with both Xpert and standard of care tests and had received the results were eligible for this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 caregivers. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated into English. Thematic data analysis was undertaken using NVivo 12 Software (QSR International). Results: The majority of caregivers were satisfied with the quality of care provided by PMTCT ser- vices. However, they encountered social and financial access barriers to attend the PMTCT clinic regularly. Mothers had concerns about community stigma from the disclosure of their HIV status and the potential consequences for their infants. While medical care at the PMTCT clinics was free, caregivers sometimes experienced financial difficulties associated with out-of-pocket expenses for childbirth and transportation. Some caregivers had to choose not to attend work (impacting their income) or the adult antiretroviral clinic in order to attend the paediatric PMTCT clinic appointment. The acceptability of the Xpert testing pro- cess was high among the caregiver participants and more than half received the Xpert result on the same day as testing. Short turnaround time of the near POC EID testing enabled the caregivers to find out their infants’ HIV status quicker, thereby shortening the stressful wait- ing time for results. Conclusion: Our study identified important access challenges facing caregivers of HIV exposed infants and high acceptability of near POC EID testing. Improving the retention rate in the PMTCT and EID programs necessitates careful attention of program managers and policy makers to these challenges, and POC EID represents a potential solution

Characteristics of Different Solar PV Modules under Partial Shading

Partial shadowing is one of the problems that are always faced in terrestrial applications of solar photovoltaic (PV). The effects of partial shadow on the energy yield of conventional mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline PV modules have been researched for a long time. With deployment of new thin-film solar PV modules in the market, it is important to understand the performance of new PV modules operating under the partial shadow in the tropical zone. This paper addresses the impacts of different partial shadowing on the operating characteristics of four different types of solar PV modules that include multi-crystalline, amorphous thin-film, CdTe thin-film and CIGS thin-film PV modules

Advanced abdominal pregnancy with dead foetus: a case report

Abdominal pregnancy is a rare form of ectopic pregnancy in which the zygote implanted within the peritoneal cavity exception at ovaries, fallopian tubes and intra ligament spaces. The diagnosis is challenging and can be missed especially when the imaging facilities are not available in remote areas.A 35 years old, G3P2+0 was admitted to the hospital at 38+2 weeks of pregnancy with the chief complaint of reduced foetal movement for three days. She was taking regular antenatal care with the midwife at the rural health centre and uneventful until 37 weeks of pregnancy. On physical examination, the abdomen was distended, the foetal parts were easily palpable, no visible foetal movement and the foetal heart sound was not audible. Abdominal ultrasound scan identified the term foetus of abdominal pregnancy without foetal cardiac activity. The patient underwent laparotomy and dead, male foetus was extracted uneventfully. The placenta was attached to intestines and mesentery so that which was removed with great caution and secured haemostasis. The mother’s condition was stable throughout the operation and did not need to give the blood transfusion. The sutures were removed after 7 days and the healthy patient discharged from the hospital.Abdominal pregnancy is a rare condition and the diagnosis can be missed during the antenatal period and hence it is crucial to raise the awareness of health care personals especially in remote areas. The suspicious case of abdominal pregnancy should be referred to the experienced clinicians in the centres with diagnosis facilities

Caregiver experience and perceived acceptability of a novel near point-of-care early infant HIV diagnostic test among caregivers enrolled in the PMTCT program, Myanmar : a qualitative study

Background The majority of HIV infection among children occurs through mother-to-child transmission. HIV exposed infants are recommended to have virological testing at birth or 4–6 weeks of age but challenges with centralized laboratory-based testing in Myanmar result in low testing rates and delays in result communication and treatment initiation. Decentralized point-of-care (POC) testing when integrated in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services, can be an alternative to increase coverage of early infant diagnosis (EID) and timely engagement in HIV treatment and care. Aim This paper aims to explore experiences of caregivers of HIV-exposed infants enrolled in the PMTCT program in Myanmar and the perceived acceptability of point-of-care EID testing compared to conventional centralised laboratory-based testing. Methods This is a sub-study of the cluster randomised controlled stepped-wedge trial (Trial registration number: ACTRN12616000734460) that assessed the impact of near POC EID testing using Xpert HIV-1 Qual assay in four public hospitals in Myanmar. Caregivers of infants who were enrolled in the intervention phase of the main study, had been tested with both Xpert and standard of care tests and had received the results were eligible for this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 caregivers. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated into English. Thematic data analysis was undertaken using NVivo 12 Software (QSR International). Results The majority of caregivers were satisfied with the quality of care provided by PMTCT services. However, they encountered social and financial access barriers to attend the PMTCT clinic regularly. Mothers had concerns about community stigma from the disclosure of their HIV status and the potential consequences for their infants. While medical care at the PMTCT clinics was free, caregivers sometimes experienced financial difficulties associated with out-of-pocket expenses for childbirth and transportation. Some caregivers had to choose not to attend work (impacting their income) or the adult antiretroviral clinic in order to attend the paediatric PMTCT clinic appointment. The acceptability of the Xpert testing process was high among the caregiver participants and more than half received the Xpert result on the same day as testing. Short turnaround time of the near POC EID testing enabled the caregivers to find out their infants’ HIV status quicker, thereby shortening the stressful waiting time for results. Conclusion Our study identified important access challenges facing caregivers of HIV exposed infants and high acceptability of near POC EID testing. Improving the retention rate in the PMTCT and EID programs necessitates careful attention of program managers and policy makers to these challenges, and POC EID represents a potential solution

Myanmar traditional medicine formulations and their antioxidant, antiglycation and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities: Potentials for antidiabetes complications

Myanmar Traditional Medicine (MTM) has been used since ancient times to treat life-threatening diseases like diabetes. In this study, various in vitro assays were used to prove that four MTM formulations were effective at treating diabetes. Antioxidant activities were determined using in vitro DPPH, nitric oxide (NO), and superoxide (SO) radical scavenging assays. The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to quantify the total phenolic content, while the BSA-fluorescent antiglycation and α-glucosidase inhibitory assays were utilized to determine the antidiabetic activity of MTMs. Among the tested samples, MTM3 showed the best activities for almost all the biological assays tested in this experiment with the % inhibition of 82.89 ± 1.64 for NO and 65.02 ± 2.82 for SO radical scavenging activity, 92.12 ± 1.18 for α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and IC50 of 180.29 ± 1.6 µg/ml for the antiglycation activity. It also possessed the highest total phenolic content of 149.41 ± 3.7 mg GAE/g of extract/l among the tested samples. Therefore, the findings suggested that MTM could help diabetic patients improve their quality of life through antioxidant activity against several free radicals and their antiglycation and α-glucosidase inhibitory characteristics

Clinical importance of the Mandalay spitting cobra (Naja mandalayensis) in Upper Myanmar – Bites, envenoming and ophthalmia

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Toxicon on 03/06/2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2020.05.023 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Examination of 18 cobras brought to three hospitals in the Mandalay Region by patients bitten or spat at by them distinguished 3 monocled cobras (Naja kaouthia) and 15 Mandalay spitting cobras (N. mandalayensis), based on their morphological characteristics. We confirm and extend the known distributions and habitats of both N. mandalayensis and N. kaouthia in Upper Myanmar. Clinical symptoms of local and systemic envenoming by N. mandalayensis are described for the first time. These included local swelling, blistering and necrosis and life-threatening systemic neurotoxicity. More information is needed about the clinical phenotype and management of bites by N. mandalayensis, the commoner of the two cobras in Upper Myanmar. Since the current cobra antivenom manufactured in Myanmar has lower pre-clinical efficacy against N. mandalayensis than N. kaouthia, there is a need for more specific antivenom therapy.Published versio

Nanocrystalline Lead Sulphide Thin Film Fabrication and Characterization

Nanocrystalline lead sulphide thin films were deposited on clean glass substrates by chemical bath deposition technique. For the sources of Pb+2 and S-2 ions lead acetate and thiourea were used. To obtain a sample with uniform morphology and pure composition, we investigated and optimized the amounts of experimental variables such as thiourea and lead acetate concentrations, deposition time, pH, and bath temperatures. The size, structure and morphology of Nanocrystalline lead sulphide thin films were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-VIS spectroscopy techniques