Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation Algorithm for Diabetic Retinopathy using Wavelet: A Survey

Blood vessel structure in retinal images have an important role in diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. There are several method present for automatic retinal vessel segmentation. For developing retinal screening systems blood vessel segmentation is the basic foundation since vessels serve as one of the main retinal landmark features. The most common signs of diabetic retinopathy include hemorrhages, cotton wool spots, dilated retinal veins, and hard exudates. A patient with diabetic retinopathy disease has to undergo periodic screening of eye. For the diagnosis, doctors use color retinal images of a patient required from digital fundus camera. We present a method that uses Gabor wavelet for vessel enhancement due to their ability to enhance directional structures and euclidean distance technique for accurate vessel segmentation. Retinal angiography images are mainly used in the diagnosis of diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and hypertension etc. In diabetic retinopathy structure of retinal blood vessels change that leads to adult blindness. To overcome this problem automatic biomedical diagnosis system is required.The main stage of diabetic retinopathy are Non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Eye care specialist can screen vessel abnormalities using an efficient and effective computer based approach to the automated segmentation of blood vessels in retinal images. Automated segmentation reduces the time required by a physician or a skilled technician for manual labeling. Thus a reliable method of vessel segmentation would be valuable for the early detection and characterization of changes due to such diseases. This article presents the automated vessel enhancement and segmentation technique for colored retinal images. Segmentation of blood vessels from image is a difficult task due to thin vessels and low contrast between vessel edges and background. The proposed method enhances the vascular pattern using Gabor wavelet and then it uses euclidean distance technique to generate gray level segmented image. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15030

Antimicrobial activity assessment of time-dependent release bilayer tablets of amoxicillin trihydrate

O objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a atividade antimicrobiana de formulações de comprimidos de dupla camada contendo amoxicilina triidratada para liberação tempo dependente e avaliação da liberação in vitro do fármaco pelo ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana utilizando o método de difusão em placa de ágar. Os comprimidos de dupla camada consistem em uma camada para liberação retardada e outra sustentada. O método de compressão direta foi usado para a preparação dos comprimidos de dupla camada contendo Eudragit-L 100 D55 como polímero para liberação retardada e HPMCK4M ou HPMCK15 como polímeros para liberação sustentada. As formulações de comprimidos de dupla camada contendo amoxicilina triidratada foram avaliadas quanto a dureza, espessura, friabilidade, variação de peso e conteúdo de fármaco. Além disso, a liberação do fármaco in vitro foi avaliada por ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana usando S. aureus e E. coli como microrganismos teste. A alíquota das amostras do estudo de liberação do fármaco in vitro demonstrou ser efetiva contra ambos os microrganismos por um período de 16 horas devido à ação sustentada. O estudo de liberação do fármaco in vitro e o ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana mostraram que os comprimidos de dupla camada tiveram um perfil de liberação sustentada do fármaco com um pico de liberação após 2 horas de ensaio. O menor valor de MIC (2 ug/mL) dos comprimidos de dupla camada quando comparados à formulação comercial (5 ug/mL) representa uma boa atividade antimicrobiana.The aim of present study was the assessment of antimicrobial activity of prepared time-dependent release bilayer tablets of amoxicillin trihydrate and in vitro evaluation of drug release by antimicrobial assay using agar plate diffusion method. The bilayer tablets comprised of a delayed and sustained release layer. Direct compression method was used for the preparation of bilayer tablets containing Eudragit-L100 D55 as delayed release polymer, and HPMCK4M and HPMCK15 as sustained release polymers. The prepared bilayer tablets containing amoxicillin trihydrate were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, weight variation and drug content. Further, in vitro drug release was assessed by antimicrobial assay using S. aureus and E. coli as test microorganisms. The aliquot samples of in vitro drug release study were found to be effective against both microorganisms for 16 hours due to sustained action. The in vitro drug release study and antimicrobial assay showed that bilayer tablets have sustained release profile of drug delivery with time-dependent burst release after a lag-time of 2 hours. The lower MIC value (2 µg/mL) of prepared bilayer tablets vis-à-vis marketed preparation (5 µg/mL) represented its good antimicrobial activity

Human surfactant protein D alters oxidative stress and HMGA1 expression to induce p53 apoptotic pathway in eosinophil leukemic cell line

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright: © 2013 Mahajan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Surfactant protein D (SP-D), an innate immune molecule, has an indispensable role in host defense and regulation of inflammation. Immune related functions regulated by SP-D include agglutination of pathogens, phagocytosis, oxidative burst, antigen presentation, T lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine secretion, induction of apoptosis and clearance of apoptotic cells. The present study unravels a novel ability of SP-D to reduce the viability of leukemic cells (eosinophilic leukemic cell line, AML14.3D10; acute myeloid leukemia cell line, THP-1; acute lymphoid leukemia cell lines, Jurkat, Raji; and human breast epithelial cell line, MCF-7), and explains the underlying mechanisms. SP-D and a recombinant fragment of human SP-D (rhSP-D) induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest, and dose and timedependent apoptosis in the AML14.3D10 eosinophilic leukemia cell line. Levels of various apoptotic markers viz. activated p53, cleaved caspase-9 and PARP, along with G2/M checkpoints (p21 and Tyr15 phosphorylation of cdc2) showed significant increase in these cells. We further attempted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of rhSP-D induced apoptosis using proteomic analysis. This approach identified large scale molecular changes initiated by SPD in a human cell for the first time. Among others, the proteomics analysis highlighted a decreased expression of survival related proteins such as HMGA1, overexpression of proteins to protect the cells from oxidative burst, while a drastic decrease in mitochondrial antioxidant defense system. rhSP-D mediated enhanced oxidative burst in AML14.3D10 cells was confirmed, while antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, abrogated the rhSP-D induced apoptosis. The rhSP-D mediated reduced viability was specific to the cancer cell lines and viability of human PBMCs from healthy controls was not affected. The study suggests involvement of SP-D in host’s immunosurveillance and therapeutic potential of rhSP-D in the eosinophilic leukemia and cancers of other origins.Department of Biotechnology, Indi

Tannin extracts from immature fruits of Terminalia chebula Fructus Retz. promote cutaneous wound healing in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tannins extracted from immature fruits of <it>Terminalia chebula Fructus Retz</it>. are considered as effective components promoting the process of wound healing. The objective of this study is to explore the optimal extraction and purification technology (OEPT) of tannins, while studying the use of this drug in the treatment of a cutaneous wound of rat as well as its antibacterial effects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The content of tannin extracts was measured by the casein method, and antibacterial ability was studied by the micro-dilution method in vitro. In wound healing experiment, animals in group Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ were treated with vaseline ointment, tannin extracts (tannin content: 81%) and erythromycin ointment, respectively (5 mg of ointment were applied on each wound). To evaluate the process of wound healing, selected pharmacological and biochemical parameters were applied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After optimal extraction and purification, content of tannin extracts was increased to 81%. Tannin extracts showed the inhibition of <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>and <it>Klebsiella Pneumonia </it>in vitro. After excision of wounds, on days 7 and 10, the percent of wound contraction of group Ⅱ was higher than that of group Ⅰ. After being hurt with wounds, on days 3, 7, and 10, the wound healing quality of group Ⅱ was found to be better than that of group Ⅰ in terms of granulation formation and collagen organization. After wound creation, on day 3, the vascular endothelial growth factor expression of group Ⅱ was higher than that of group Ⅰ.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results suggest that tannin extracts from dried immature fruits of <it>Terminalia chebula Fructus Retz</it>. can promote cutaneous wound healing in rats, probably resulting from a powerful anti-bacterial and angiogenic activity of the extracts.</p

Azimuthal Anisotropy of Photon and Charged Particle Emission in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 A GeV/c

The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. The manuscript has undergone a major revision. The unwanted correlations were enhanced in the random subdivision method used in the earlier version. The present version uses the more established method of division into subevents separated in rapidity to minimise short range correlations. The observed results for charged particles are in agreement with results from the other experiments. The observed anisotropy in photons is explained using flow results of pions and the correlations arising due to the decay of the neutral pion

Multiplicity Distributions and Charged-neutral Fluctuations

Results from the multiplicity distributions of inclusive photons and charged particles, scaling of particle multiplicities, event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations, and charged-neutral fluctuations in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are presented and discussed. A scaling of charged particle multiplicity as $N_{part}^{1.07\pm 0.05}$ and photons as $N_{part}^{1.12\pm 0.03}$ have been observed, indicating violation of naive wounded nucleon model. The analysis of localized charged-neutral fluctuation indicates a model-independent demonstration of non-statistical fluctuations in both charged particles and photons in limited azimuthal regions. However, no correlated charged-neutral fluctuations are observed.Comment: Talk given at the International Symposium on Nuclear Physics (ISNP-2000), Mumbai, India, 18-22 Dec 2000, Proceedings to be published in Pramana, Journal of Physic