Gradient-orientation-based PCA subspace for novel face recognition

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Face recognition is an interesting and a challenging problem that has been widely studied in the field of pattern recognition and computer vision. It has many applications such as biometric authentication, video surveillance, and others. In the past decade, several methods for face recognition were proposed. However, these methods suffer from pose and illumination variations. In order to address these problems, this paper proposes a novel methodology to recognize the face images. Since image gradients are invariant to illumination and pose variations, the proposed approach uses gradient orientation to handle these effects. The Schur decomposition is used for matrix decomposition and then Schurvalues and Schurvectors are extracted for subspace projection. We call this subspace projection of face features as Schurfaces, which is numerically stable and have the ability of handling defective matrices. The Hausdorff distance is used with the nearest neighbor classifier to measure the similarity between different faces. Experiments are conducted with Yale face database and ORL face database. The results show that the proposed approach is highly discriminant and achieves a promising accuracy for face recognition than the state-of-the-art approaches

A novel user-centered design for personalized video summarization

In the past, several automatic video summarization systems had been proposed to generate video summary. However, a generic video summary that is generated based only on audio, visual and textual saliencies will not satisfy every user. This paper proposes a novel system for generating semantically meaningful personalized video summaries, which are tailored to the individual user's preferences over video semantics. Each video shot is represented using a semantic multinomial which is a vector of posterior semantic concept probabilities. The proposed system stitches video summary based on summary time span and top-ranked shots that are semantically relevant to the user's preferences. The proposed summarization system is evaluated using both quantitative and subjective evaluation metrics. The experimental results on the performance of the proposed video summarization system are encouraging

STANDARDIZATION OF SIDDHA HERBO-MINERAL DRUG AS NANO MEDICINE THROUGH FTIR, ICP-OES AND SEM

Nano medicine in Siddha, is a unique concept and great advancement of Siddhar science. It was clearly explained and documented by many Siddhars by their medicine preparatory and testing methods. They have created many medicines with the use of metals and minerals because of its minimal quantity to avail the high potency results. To reverse the toxicity and adverse reactions they want to convert those heavy metals into Nano particles to modify the physical and chemical characters of the elements. By Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) we can control the Pharmaco Kinetics, Pharmaco Dynamics, non- specific toxicity, immunogenicity and makes bio-recognition and efficacy of drugs. This type of DDS is a major lacuna in our system. To overcome this, now we approach our drug as Novel Drug Delivery System (NDDS). Thirumoolar’s hypothesis about Atomic theory has been reinstated as nanotechnology in this decade. Nano science and technology may be new to the world but Indian systems of Medicines have been using this technology to make Parpam, Chendhuram etc. The physico chemical, Phyto chemical analysis, The FTIR and ICP-OES studies of trial drug Rasa Mezhugu strongly suggesting the safety of the drug by proving heavy metals are in below detectable levels. The active principle Rasam is also within 3ppm as per the admissible level for the medicines. With the help of SEM, the trial drug consists of particles with in 1 to 100nm in size. By this we came to know that the drug has been finished perfectly and able to produce good therapeutic values. By approaching in NDDS, the trial drug increase the therapeutic value, bioavailability and act as smart drug

INCIDENCE AND VIRULENCE TRAITS OF CANDIDA DUBLINIENSIS ISOLATED FROM CLINICALLY SUSPECTED PATIENTS

            Objective: Fungal infections are caused by Candida species are increasing mainly in immunocompromised patients. Among Candida species, Candida dubliniensis has recently increasing opportunistic pathogenic yeast. The present study was aimed to assess the incidence and virulence factors of C. dubliniensis isolated from urine samples of various hospitalized clinically suspected patients. Methods: Totally 1,406 urine samples were processed, among that 9(0.64%) were identified as C. dubliniensis by germ tube production, biochemical test (Candida identification kit), CHROM agar Candida differential medium and growth at 45°C. Virulence factors of the C. dubliniensis viz., phospholipase, proteinase, esterase, lipase, haemolysin and biofilm production were detected by standard procedures. Results: Maximum number of C.dubliniensis have ability to produce protienase 6(66.66%), followed by esterase 5(55.55%), biofilm formation 4(44.44%), haemolysin 2(22.22%) and phospholipase, lipase 1(11.1%) respectively. Conclusion: The result revealed that these enzymes are potential virulence factors are the most important thing to realize pathogenesis of C. dubliniensis.Â

A Rare Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia with Lower Esophageal Atresia and Perforation

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is known to be associated with esophageal atresia, which is a rare association. We report a rare occurrence of congenital diaphragmatic hernia and lower esophageal atresia

IDENTIFICATION OF A NOVEL AGENT THAT CAN SUPPRESS PROLIFERATION, INDUCE APOPTOSIS AND OVERCOME CHEMORESISTANCE IN MULTIPLE MYELOMA

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Diseases observed on pigeonpea in East Africa

Pigeonpea is one of the important pulse crops in East African countries. Little is known about the prevalence of diseases and their relative importance in East Africa...

VIRTUAL SCREENING OF PHYTOCHEMICALS OF MORINDA CITRIFOLIA AS ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTI-ALZHEIMER AGENTS USING MOLEGRO VIRTUAL DOCKER ON p38-α MITOGEN ACTIVATED PROTEIN KINASE ENZYME

Objective: Pharmacological and genetic inhibition of p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38α MAPK) has potential in the treatment of humandiseases such as autoimmune diseases, heart failure, Alzheimer disease, and Parkinsonism. Our aim is to do in-silico screening of phytochemicals ofMorinda citrifolia for p38α MAPK inhibitory property by docking method.Methods: We did docking of various phytochemicals present in M. citrifolia against p38α MAPK enzyme extracted from Protein Data Bank (ID-4F9Y),by utilizing the Molegro virtual docker Software. The docking scores of phytochemicals were compared with the scores of native reference ligandspresent in the crystal structure 4F9Y.Results: Isoprincepin and balanophonin show better docking scores when compared to reference ligands in the protein. Isoprincepin has potentialto act in a highly selective manner on p38α MAPK as it binds to Met 109 in the phylogenetically conserved kinase hinge region and thereby induces aconformational change known as glycine flip phenomenon. Balanophonin has favorable physiochemical properties for blood-brain barrier penetrationand can act on p38α MAPK in the brain.Conclusion: Some of the phytochemicals present in M. citrifolia have p38α MAPK binding and possible inhibitory potential.Keywords: p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase, Isoprincepin, Balanophonin, Molegro virtual docker

Phenotypic speciation of enterococci with special reference to prevalence, virulence and antimicrobial resistance

Background: Now considered as one of the most important Nosocomial pathogen, enterococci have been found to possess virulence factors like biofilm formation and are increasingly exhibiting antimicrobial resistance in India. This study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of enterococci from various clinical samples simultaneously correlating their virulence property and antimicrobial resistance, in addition to speciation.Methods: A total of 126 enterococcal isolates from various clinical samples were included and processed according to standard protocols and speciation was based on Facklam and Collins conventional method. Virulence determinants like hemolysin, gelatinase and biofilm formation were assessed by phenotypic tests. Antibacterial susceptibility pattern was determined by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method with recommended drugs including high level aminoglycoside resistance. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for vancomycin was done by E-test.Results: Out of 1746 clinical samples, enterococci accounted for 7.22%. They consisted of E. faecium 52.38%, E. faecalis 32.54%, and E. avium 15.08% isolated from urine 8.26%, pus 8.44%, blood 0.56% and body fluids 1.28%. Study on virulence factors revealed that 19.84% strains produced gelatinase, 18.25% produced hemolysin and 73.81% produced biofilm. High level resistance to gentamycin and streptomycin were 4.76% and 5.56% respectively. Vancomycin resistance was 3.17%.Conclusions: This study indicates the change in epidemiology of enterococcal infections from E. faecalis to E. faecium and low prevalence of vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) in our region. To maintain the low level of resistance, improvement of antibiotic policies and hospital infection control is essential.