Straight to Shapes: Real-time Detection of Encoded Shapes

Current object detection approaches predict bounding boxes, but these provide little instance-specific information beyond location, scale and aspect ratio. In this work, we propose to directly regress to objects' shapes in addition to their bounding boxes and categories. It is crucial to find an appropriate shape representation that is compact and decodable, and in which objects can be compared for higher-order concepts such as view similarity, pose variation and occlusion. To achieve this, we use a denoising convolutional auto-encoder to establish an embedding space, and place the decoder after a fast end-to-end network trained to regress directly to the encoded shape vectors. This yields what to the best of our knowledge is the first real-time shape prediction network, running at ~35 FPS on a high-end desktop. With higher-order shape reasoning well-integrated into the network pipeline, the network shows the useful practical quality of generalising to unseen categories similar to the ones in the training set, something that most existing approaches fail to handle.Comment: 16 pages including appendix; Published at CVPR 201

Risk factors in oral carcinoma and the relationship between tumor thickness and regional nodal involvement: a pilot study in a semi urban population in New Delhi, India

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a major public health problem worldwide, with approximately 275,000 cases annually and a strong association with risk factors like smoking. It is a subtype of head & neck cancer involving the oral cavity.  The present study evaluated the role of various risk factors in the development of oral carcinoma among our patient population.Methods: A total of 40 cases of oral carcinoma with radical neck dissection were evaluated. Data on the age, personal history and presenting clinical features were analyzed. The depth of the tumor and the maximum tumor thickness were carefully evaluated. Also, pathological T-stage, the presence/absence of vascular and peri-neural infiltration was evaluated in each case. The presence of nodal metastases and the stage of the tumor was assessed. Data was tabulated and correlation of nodal metastasis with tumor thickness, pathological T-stage, vascular invasion, and peri-neural infiltration was evaluated by appropriate statistical analysis method.Results: A total of 40 cases, 82.5% males and 17.5% females, were all smokers with history of consumption of smoking or smokeless or both. Tongue was the most common site of oral carcinoma (37.5%) involvement, histological characterization of all were Squamous cell carcinoma with majority of the patients in pathological stage II. A significant association between the tumor thickness and metastasis was also seen.  Conclusions: The tumor thickness of oral squamous cell carcinoma was found to be an important prognostic indicator for the occurrence of metastases to the regional cervical lymph nodes

Synthesis and Bio-Spectral Studies of Co(II) Complex of 5-Chloro-2,4-Dihydroxy Butyrophenoneoxime (CDHBOX)

Co(II) complex of 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxy butyrophenoneoxime (CDHBOX) was synthesized from 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxy butyrophenoneoxime by using standard protocol, and characterized by elemental analyses, melting point determination and spectral data. The ML2 (metal/ligand) stoichiometry of the complex was determined by spectrophotometric and potentiometric studies, and mass spectral data. The value of stability constant of the complex was found to be 6.94x 108 while its standard free energy of formation is 12.155 kcal/mol at 27ºC. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration range 2-15 ppm of Co. The value of molar extinction coefficient and sensitivity as per Sandell’s scale were found to 3.35x 103 L.mol-1cm-1and 0.017 μg Co/cm2 respectively. The value of activation energy and the Arrhenius constant Arrhenius constant were found as 4.949 kjmol-1, 74.39. The IR studies reveal that the phenolic proton is lost on complexation and the oxygen of the phenolic (–OH) and nitrogen of the oximino (=NOH) groups coordinate with Co(II) ion. The electronic spectra and magnetic susceptibility measurement indicate that the complex is paramagnetic and tetrahedral in nature. The antimicrobial activity of different concentrations of ligand and its Co(II)-complex  has been evaluated against Curvularia lunata, Fusarium oxysporum and Alternaria alternata fungi  and Streproproteus, Staph, Escherchia coli, Klebsella, and pseudomonas bacteria. The results indicated that the ligand (CDHBOX) and its Co(II) complex have good anti-microbial properties.Â

Space station experiment definition: Long-term cryogenic fluid storage

The conceptual design of a space station Technology Development Mission (TDM) experiment to demonstrate and evaluate cryogenic fluid storage and transfer technologies is presented. The experiment will be deployed on the initial operational capability (IOC) space station for a four-year duration. It is modular in design, consisting of three phases to test the following technologies: passive thermal technologies (phase 1), fluid transfer (phase 2), and active refrigeration (phase 3). Use of existing hardware was a primary consideration throughout the design effort. A conceptual design of the experiment was completed, including configuration sketches, system schematics, equipment specifications, and space station resources and interface requirements. These requirements were entered into the NASA Space Station Mission Data Base. A program plan was developed defining a twelve-year development and flight plan. Program cost estimates are given

Exotic associations and presentations of an age old disease: spectrum of tuberculosis in a developing country

Background:To create an awareness of the associations of tuberculosis with various other infections and its atypical clinical manifestations is important especially in regions where tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem.Methods: This was an observational study of tubercular cases received in the Department of Pathology during the period January 2014 to January 2015.Results: A case series of exotic associations of tuberculosis, along with two cases at unusual sites, not suspected clinically, subsequently diagnosed by pathological examination and ancillary techniques.Conclusions: Tuberculosis continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially in the developing world. This series of cases goes to demonstrate the seemingly endless forms and presentations of this age-old disease and the importance of timely diagnosis and specific treatment