Brovey Transform Based Image Fusion For Impurities Segmentation And Detection On Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is one of the most important products in food and agricultural industry in South East Asia. In Malaysia, the production of EBN soaring because of the exportation of EBN to meet the demand of overseas market. Assurance of cleanliness is one of the major difficulties faced in processing the EBN. Current cleaning method of EBN is labour dependency, time consuming and not cost effective. Automated inspection was introduced but still continues to exist as a challenging field of development as there is no effective algorithms for impurities segmentation. Some impurities have similar colour as EBN features which increase the complexity of image processing. In this study, Brovey transform based image fusion is used to highlight the impurities in EBN and ease the segmentation process. Various types of Multispectral (MS) reference images were considered in image fusion process. Comparison was made to obtain the MS reference image with highest accuracy of segmented region. The performances of fused images are evaluated based on segmentation rate, precision, accuracy, error rate and dice similarity index (DSI). The optimal performances were achieved by the green light without erosion MS reference image with an overall segmentation rate of 49.96%, precision of 48.78%, accuracy of 40.00%, error rate of 60% and DSI of 0.571

Detection of medically important Candida species by absolute quantitation real-time polymerase chain reaction

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most important causes of disability and mortality in the world. Although cigarette smoking and environmental pollutants have been recognized as the major causes of COPD, the role of infection in the pathogenesis and progression of COPD has also been reported. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to find the relationship between Helicobacter Pylori infection and COPD through anti H. pylori IgG serology, real time PCR of bronchoalveolar lavage and trans bronchial biopsy urease tests. Patients and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 60 adults with COPD. After obtaining the patient’s history, physical examination, spirometry and confirmation of COPD diagnosis by pulmonologist, subjects were selected through convenience sampling. In order to determine the severity and prognosis of disease, the global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) criteria and BODE index were used. Subjects underwent bronchoscopy for obtaining bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples and biopsy was performed. Biopsy and BAL samples were investigated respectively by urease test and real time PCR. Moreover, patients’ serum samples were serologically studied for detection of anti H. pylori IgG. Results: Mean age of the participants was 60.65 ± 9.15 years, and 25% were female and 75% were male. The prevalence rate of H. pylori in COPD patients was 10% according to real time PCR, 88.3% according to the serology test and 0% based on the urease test. According to the results of PCR and considering the severity of disease based on the GOLD criteria, from those with a positive PCR, one patient (16.6%) had very severe obstruction, three (50%) had severe obstruction and two patients (33.3%) had moderate obstruction. The relationship between H. pylori presence (based on PCR) and disease severity and prognosis was not statistically significant. Conclusions: These findings can justify the hypothesis of direct injury and chronic inflammation via inhalation and aspiration resulting in H. pylori colonization. In fact, it is thought that H. Pylori infection, beside the host genetic vulnerability and other environmental risk factors might make the patient susceptible to COPD or lead to COPD worsening. Although we found H. pylori infection in some patients with COPD, the results of this study, could not explain the pathogenic mechanisms of COPD

Incidence, mortality and survival patterns of prostate cancer among residents in Singapore from 1968 to 2002

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>From 1968 to 2002, Singapore experienced an almost four-fold increase in prostate cancer incidence. This paper examines the incidence, mortality and survival patterns for prostate cancer among all residents in Singapore from 1968 to 2002.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a retrospective population-based cohort study including all prostate cancer cases aged over 20 (n = 3613) reported to the Singapore Cancer Registry from 1968 to 2002. Age-standardized incidence, mortality rates and 5-year Relative Survival Ratios (RSRs) were obtained for each 5-year period. Follow-up was ascertained by matching with the National Death Register until 2002. A weighted linear regression was performed on the log-transformed age-standardized incidence and mortality rates over period.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The percentage increase in the age-standardized incidence rate per year was 5.0%, 5.6%, 4.0% and 1.9% for all residents, Chinese, Malays and Indians respectively. The percentage increase in age-standardized mortality rate per year was 5.7%, 6.0%, 6.6% and 2.5% for all residents, Chinese, Malays and Indians respectively. When all Singapore residents were considered, the RSRs for prostate cancer were fairly constant across the study period with slight improvement from 1995 onwards among the Chinese.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Ethnic differences in prostate cancer incidence, mortality and survival patterns were observed. There has been a substantial improvement in RSRs since the 1990s for the Chinese.</p

Assessing risk of breast cancer in an ethnically South-East Asia population (results of a multiple ethnic groups study)

10.1186/1471-2407-12-529BMC Cancer12-BCMA

Do Asian breast cancer patients have poorer survival than their western counterparts? A comparison between Singapore and Stockholm

10.1186/bcr2219Breast Cancer Research111-BCRR

Performance of the banking industry

The Singapore economy recorded a lower but respectable growth of 5.8% in 1992 as compared to 6.7% in 1991. This was aided by a rebound in external demand during last quarter of the year 1992 particularly from United States. In 1993, however, the economy improved drastically. Growth rate shot beyond 10%. This rapid, tremendous increment was largely attributable to the growth in the finance sector.BUSINES

Corporate focus and stock returns : evidence from M & A

This project examines both the short-run and long-run wealth effects associated with corporate diversification strategies through analyses of both focus-preserving/increasing and focus-decreasing bidder frims that engage in mergers and acquisitions