An Efficient Eulerian Video Magnification Technique for Micro-biology Applications

The micro-biology videos often contain motions of particles which are not visible to naked eye. Therefore an efficient motion magnification technique is required to magnify these motions. A time efficient eulerian video magnification technique for micro-biological applications is proposed. The proposed technique utilizes the concept of time and spatial uniformity to reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme is almost four times efficient and more accurate as compared to state of art video magnification technique

Characterizing neonatal vitamin D deficiency in the modern era : a maternal-neonatal birth cohort from Southern Europe

International audienc

Overlapping White Blood Cells Detection Based on Watershed Transform and Circle Fitting

White blood cell (WBC) count and segmentation is considered to be important step to diagnose diseases like leukemia, malaria etc. Automatic analysis of blood smear images will help hematologists to detect WBCs efficiently and effectively as compared to manual analysis which is quite time consuming. Therefore, an automatic white blood cells detection technique for complex blood smear images is proposed. The proposed scheme uses segmentation and edge map extraction for the separation of overlapped WBCs and further parametric circle approximation is used which is capable of detecting both separated and overlapped white blood cells. Simulation results compared with the existing techniques verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed scheme

Overlapping White Blood Cells Detection Based on Watershed Transform and Circle Fitting

White blood cell (WBC) count and segmentation is considered to be important step to diagnose diseases like leukemia, malaria etc. Automatic analysis of blood smear images will help hematologists to detect WBCs efficiently and effectively as compared to manual analysis which is quite time consuming. Therefore, an automatic white blood cells detection technique for complex blood smear images is proposed. The proposed scheme uses segmentation and edge map extraction for the separation of overlapped WBCs and further parametric circle approximation is used which is capable of detecting both separated and overlapped white blood cells. Simulation results compared with the existing techniques verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed scheme

Low 25OH vitamin D2 levels found in untreated Alzheimer's patients, compared to acetylcholinesterase-inhibitor treated and controls

Following contradictory reports, the aim of this study was to apply our highly specific novel assay to delineate the relationship between vitamin D forms and Alzheimer's disease. The study incorporated patients, both untreated and treated with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, along with controls. Patients were grouped as A: untreated (n=26) and B: treated with donepezil, rivastigmine or galantamine (n=44). The study included a control Group (C, n=35) with no cognitive impairment. Cognitive function was assessed using the MMSE. Levels of vitamin D forms were measured using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and calcium measurements were conducted using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In the cohort studied, no relationship was observed between MMSE score, calcium and any form of vitamin D. The indisputable finding is that the level of 25hydroxyvitamin D2 (25OHD2) (3.165±6.352 nmol/L, p<0.001) was significantly lower in the untreated Group (A) compared to the control and treated groups (7.932±9.196 and 12.138±15.682 nmol/L, respectively). In contrast, the levels of the primary forms, vitamin D2 and total vitamin D were the highest for the untreated group. Vitamin D levels, assessed as 25OHD are significantly lower in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease arising from extremely low levels of 25OHD2 along with low levels of 25OHD3. Treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors reverses this deficit. Further research is warranted to delineate the mode of action of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors with respect to normalising 25OHD2 levels. These observations resulted in the hypothesis that along with the common functions of vitamin D, different forms have distinct roles in health and disease

An observational study reveals that neonatal vitamin D is primarily determined by maternal contributions: Implications of a new assay on the roles of vitamin D forms

Background Vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy are measured to diagnose states of insufficiency or deficiency. The aim of this study is to apply accurate assays of vitamin D forms [single- hydroxylated [25(OH)D2, 25(OH)D3], double-hydroxylated [1alpha,25(OH)2D2, 1alpha,25(OH)2D3], epimers [3-epi-25(OH)D2, 3-epi-25(OH)D3] in mothers (serum) and neonates (umbilical cord) to i) explore maternal and neonatal vitamin D biodynamics and ii) to identify maternal predictors of neonatal vitamin D concentrations. Methods All vitamin D forms were quantified in 60 mother- neonate paired samples by a novel liquid chromatography -mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay. Maternal characteristics [age, ultraviolet B exposure, dietary vitamin D intake, calcium, phosphorus and parathyroid hormone] were recorded. Hierarchical linear regression was used to predict neonatal 25(OH)D concentrations. Results Mothers had similar concentrations of 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3 forms compared to neonates (17.9 +/- 13.2 vs. 15.9 +/- 13.6 ng/mL, p = 0.289) with a ratio of 1:3. The epimer concentrations, which contribute approximately 25% to the total vitamin D levels, were similar in mothers and neonates (4.8 +/- 7.8 vs. 4.5 +/- 4.7 ng/mL, p = 0.556). No correlation was observed in mothers between the levels of the circulating form (25OHD3) and its active form. Neonatal 25(OH)D2 was best predicted by maternal characteristics, whereas 25(OH)D3 was strongly associated to maternal vitamin D forms (R2 = 0.253 vs. 0.076 and R2 = 0.109 vs. 0.478, respectively). Maternal characteristics explained 12.2% of the neonatal 25(OH)D, maternal 25(OH)D concentrations explained 32.1%, while epimers contributed an additional 11.9%. Conclusions By applying anovel highly specific vitamin D assay, the present study is the first to quantify 3-epi-25(OH)D concentrations in mother - newborn pairs. This accurate assay highlights a considerable proportion of vitamin D exists as epimers and a lack of correlation between the circulating and active forms. These results highlight the need for accurate measurements to appraise vitamin D status. Maternal characteristics and circulating forms of vitamin D, along with their epimers explain 56% of neonate vitamin D concentrations. The roles of active and epimer forms in the maternal - neonatal vitamin D relationship warrant further investigation

Immobilized Soybean Peroxidase Hybrid Biocatalysts for Efficient Degradation of Various Emerging Pollutants

In the present study, soybean peroxidase (SBP) was covalently immobilized onto two functionalized photocatalytic supports (TiO2 and ZnO) to create novel hybrid biocatalysts (TiO2-SBP and ZnO-SBP). Immobilization caused a slight shift in the pH optima of SBP activity (pH 5.0 to 4.0), whereas the free and TiO2-immobilized SBP showed similar thermal stability profiles. The newly developed hybrid biocatalysts were used for the degradation of 21 emerging pollutants in the presence and absence of 1-hydroxy benzotriazole (HOBT) as a redox mediator. Notably, all the tested pollutants were not equally degraded by the SBP treatment and some of the tested pollutants were either partially degraded or appeared to be recalcitrant to enzymatic degradation. The presence of HOBT enhanced the degradation of the pollutants, while it also inhibited the degradation of some contaminants. Interestingly, TiO2 and ZnO-immobilized SBP displayed better degradation efficiency of a few emerging pollutants than the free enzyme. Furthermore, a combined enzyme-chemical oxidation remediation strategy was employed to degrade two recalcitrant pollutants, which suggest a novel application of these novel hybrid peroxidase-photocatalysts. Lastly, the reusability profile indicated that the TiO2-SBP hybrid biocatalyst retained up to 95% degradation efficiency of a model pollutant (2-mercaptobenzothiazole) after four consecutive degradation cycles