Liver segmentation using marker controlled watershed transform

The largest organ in the body is the liver and primarily helps in metabolism and detoxification. Liver segmentation is a crucial step in liver cancer detection in computer vision-based biomedical image analysis. Liver segmentation is a critical task and results in under-segmentation and over-segmentation due to the complex structure of abdominal computed tomography (CT) images, noise, and textural variations over the image. This paper presents liver segmentation in abdominal CT images using marker-based watershed transforms. In the pre-processing stage, a modified double stage gaussian filter (MDSGF) is used to enhance the contrast, and preserve the edge and texture information of liver CT images. Further, marker controlled watershed transform is utilized for the segmentation of liver images from the abdominal CT images. Liver segmentation using suggested MDSGF and marker-based watershed transform help to diminish the under-segmentation and over-segmentation of the liver object. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated on the LiTS dataset based on Dice score (DS), relative volume difference (RVD), volumetric overlapping error (VOE), and Jaccard index (JI). The proposed method gives (Dice score of 0.959, RVD of 0.09, VOE of 0.089, and JI of 0.921)

Liver Segmentation and Liver Cancer Detection Based on Deep Convolutional Neural Network: A Brief Bibliometric Survey

Background: This study analyzes liver segmentation and cancer detection work, with the perspectives of machine learning and deep learning and different image processing techniques from the year 2012 to 2020. The study uses different Bibliometric analysis methods. Methods: The articles on the topic were obtained from one of the most popular databases- Scopus. The year span for the analysis is considered to be from 2012 to 2020. Scopus analyzer facilitates the analysis of the databases with different categories such as documents by source, year, and county and so on. Analysis is also done by using different units of analysis such as co-authorship, co-occurrences, citation analysis etc. For this analysis Vosviewer Version 1.6.15 is used. Results: In the study, a total of 518 articles on liver segmentation and liver cancer were obtained between the years 2012 to 2020. From the statistical analysis and network analysis it can be concluded that, the maximum articles are published in the year 2020 with China is the highest contributor followed by United States and India. Conclusions: Outcome from Scoups database is 518 articles with English language has the largest number of articles. Statistical analysis is done in terms of different parameters such as Authors, documents, country, affiliation etc. The analysis clearly indicates the potential of the topic. Network analysis of different parameters is also performed. This also indicate that there is a lot of scope for further research in terms of advanced algorithms of computer vision, deep learning and machine learning

Amino terminal acetylation of HOXB13 regulates the DNA damage response in prostate cancer

Advanced localized prostate cancers (PC) recur despite chemotherapy, radiotherapy and/or androgen deprivation therapy. We recently reported HOXB13 lysine (K)13 acetylation as a gain-of-function modification that regulates interaction with the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex and is critical for anti-androgen resistance. However, whether acetylated HOXB13 promotes PC cell survival following treatment with genotoxic agents is not known. Herein, we show that K13-acetylated HOXB13 is induced rapidly in PC cells in response to DNA damage induced by irradiation (IR). It colocalizes with the histone variant γH2AX at sites of double strand breaks (DSBs). Treatment of PCs with the Androgen Receptor (AR) antagonist Enzalutamide (ENZ) did not suppress DNA-damage-induced HOXB13 acetylation. In contrast, HOXB13 depletion or loss of acetylation overcame resistance of PC cells to ENZ and synergized with IR

Prostate cancer immunotherapy: Improving clinical outcomes with a multi-pronged approach

Cancer immunotherapy has gained traction in recent years owing to remarkable tumor clearance in some patients. Despite the notable success of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in multiple malignancies, engagement of the immune system for targeted prostate cancer (PCa) therapy is still in its infancy. Multiple factors contribute to limited response, including the heterogeneity of PCa, the cold tumor microenvironment, and a low number of neoantigens. Significant effort is being invested in improving immune-based PCa therapies. This review is a summary of the status of immunotherapy in treating PCa, with a discussion of multiple immune modalities, including vaccines, adoptively transferred T cells, and bispecific T cell engagers, some of which are undergoing clinical trials. In addition, this review also focuses on emerging mechanism-based small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors with immune modulatory properties that, either as single agents or in combination with other immunotherapies, have the potential to improve clinical outcomes

A combined simulation and optimization based method for predictive - reactive scheduling of flexible production systems subject to execution exceptions

Kiran R. MahajanPaderborn, Univ., Diss., 200

Hextuple-inverter configuration for multilevel nine-phase symmetrical open-winding converter

Abstract: Hextuple-inverter configuration for multilevel nine-phase symmetrical open-winding DC converter is articulated in this work. Power modular unit consists of six classical three-phase voltage source inverters (VSI). Each VSI includes one bi-directional device (MOSFET/IGBT) per each phase and link to two capacitors for neutral connection. A modified single carrier five-level modulation (MSCFM) algorithm is developed and modulates each 2-level VSI as 5- level multilevel inverter (MLI). A set of test results is presented, which are observed from the model based developments in numerical simulation software’s (Matlab/PLECS). The results always showed good conformity with the developed theoretical background under working conditions. The proposed converter found suited for (low-voltage/high current) electric vehicles, DC tractions and ‘More-Electric Aircraft’ applications

Prevalence of refractive errors and their association with socio demographic characteristics in pediatric patients attending tertiary eye care centre

Background: Uncorrected refractive errors are one of the major culprits of visual impairment among children in our country. Children included in school going age groups i.e., 6-16 years, represent 25% of population in developing countries. They fall in the category of preventable age group for correction of refractive errors. This paper describes the salient features and results of the cross-sectional study conducted to determine the prevalence of refractive errors and their association with socio demographic characteristics in pediatric population objective were to study the prevalence of refractive errors and their association with socio demographic characteristics in pediatric patients attending tertiary eye care centre.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of one year among children in 0-16 years age group and a total of 444 patients were included. All children were examined by ophthalmologists and refraction was done by optometrists. Data was analysed using web-based software open epi version 3.01.Results: Prevalence of refractive errors was found to be 29.5%. Amongst the socio demographic factors, there was a significant association of age and literacy with refractive errors whereas gender and residence were not found to be significant.Conclusions: Refractive errors are an important preventable cause of childhood ocular morbidity. Schools are an excellent platform to educate children and their parents regarding eye care and signs of ocular morbidity due to refractive errors. Health education activities in schools need to be intensified

SHP2 as a primordial epigenetic enzyme expunges histone H3 pTyr-54 to amend androgen receptor homeostasis

Mutations that decrease or increase the activity of the tyrosine phosphatase, SHP2 (encoded by PTPN11), promotes developmental disorders and several malignancies by varying phosphatase activity. We uncovered that SHP2 is a distinct class of an epigenetic enzyme; upon phosphorylation by the kinase ACK1/TNK2, pSHP2 was escorted by androgen receptor (AR) to chromatin, erasing hitherto unidentified pY54-H3 (phosphorylation of histones H3 at Tyr54) epigenetic marks to trigger a transcriptional program of AR. Noonan Syndrome with Multiple Lentigines (NSML) patients, SHP2 knock-in mice, and ACK1 knockout mice presented dramatic increase in pY54-H3, leading to loss of AR transcriptome. In contrast, prostate tumors with high pSHP2 and pACK1 activity exhibited progressive downregulation of pY54-H3 levels and higher AR expression that correlated with disease severity. Overall, pSHP2/pY54-H3 signaling acts as a sentinel of AR homeostasis, explaining not only growth retardation, genital abnormalities and infertility among NSML patients, but also significant AR upregulation in prostate cancer patients

Factors Impacting Leaflet Coaptation and Durability in Prosthetic Heart Valves

The treatment of Aortic regurgitation using TAVR has not met with excellent outcomes that TAVR did with Aortic stenosis treatment due to differences in patient anatomies, and manifestation of the disease at the native valve annulus. With exception of JenaValve device which relies on proprietary clipping mechanism to anchor the valve, off-label use of TAVR devices that are otherwise indicated for use only to treat AS disease, relied on valve-in-valve for anchoring to prevent paravalvular leakage and valve embolization. The under-expansion of the inside valve due to stiffness and geometry of the outside valve has an impact on leaflet coaptation leading to additional stresses on the leaflets and decreased durability. This article explores the stent frame and leaflet design considerations and their impact on valve durability in AR patient anatomies that rely predominantly on valve-in-valve configuration for anchoring

An original transformer and switched-capacitor (T & SC)-based extension for DC-DC boost converter for high-voltage/low-current renewable energy applications:Hardware implementation of a new T & SC boost converter

In this article a new Transformer and Switched Capacitor-based Boost Converter (T & SC-BC) is proposed for high-voltage/low-current renewable energy applications. The proposed T & SC-BC is an original extension for DC-DC boost converter which is designed by utilizing a transformer and switched capacitor (T & SC). Photovoltaic (PV) energy is a fast emergent segment among the renewable energy systems. The proposed T & SC-BC combines the features of the conventional boost converter and T & SC to achieve a high voltage conversion ratio. A Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controller is compulsory and necessary in a PV system to extract maximum power. Thus, a photovoltaic MPPT control mechanism also articulated for the proposed T & SC-BC. The voltage conversion ratio (Vo/Vin) of proposed converter is (1 + k)/(1 − D) where, k is the turns ratio of the transformer and D is the duty cycle (thus, the converter provides 9.26, 13.88, 50/3 voltage conversion ratios at 78.4 duty cycle with k = 1, 2, 2.6, respectively). The conspicuous features of proposed T & SC-BC are: (i) a high voltage conversion ratio (Vo/Vin); (ii) continuous input current (Iin); (iii) single switch topology; (iv) single input source; (v) low drain to source voltage (VDS) rating of control switch; (vi) a single inductor and a single untapped transformer are used. Moreover, the proposed T & SC-BC topology was compared with recently addressed DC-DC converters in terms of number of components, cost, voltage conversion ratio, ripples, efficiency and power range. Simulation and experimental results are provided which validate the functionality, design and concept of the proposed approach