A survey on utilization of data mining approaches for dermatological (skin) diseases prediction

Due to recent technology advances, large volumes of medical data is obtained. These data contain valuable information. Therefore data mining techniques can be used to extract useful patterns. This paper is intended to introduce data mining and its various techniques and a survey of the available literature on medical data mining. We emphasize mainly on the application of data mining on skin diseases. A categorization has been provided based on the different data mining techniques. The utility of the various data mining methodologies is highlighted. Generally association mining is suitable for extracting rules. It has been used especially in cancer diagnosis. Classification is a robust method in medical mining. In this paper, we have summarized the different uses of classification in dermatology. It is one of the most important methods for diagnosis of erythemato-squamous diseases. There are different methods like Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and fuzzy classifiaction in this topic. Clustering is a useful method in medical images mining. The purpose of clustering techniques is to find a structure for the given data by finding similarities between data according to data characteristics. Clustering has some applications in dermatology. Besides introducing different mining methods, we have investigated some challenges which exist in mining skin data

Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering in a Strong External Magnetic Field and the Neutrino Emissivity

The nucleon-nucleon scattering in a large magnetic background is considered to find its potential to change the neutrino emissivity of the neutron stars. For this purpose we consider the one-pion-exchange approximation to find the NN cross-section in a background field as large as $10^{15}\texttt{G}-10^{18}\texttt{G}$. We show that the NN cross-section in neutron stars with temperatures in the range 0.1-5 \texttt{MeV} can be changed up to the one order of magnitude with respect to the one in the absence of the magnetic field. In the limit of the soft neutrino emission the neutrino emissivity can be written in terms of the NN scattering amplitude therefore the large magnetic fields can dramatically change the neutrino emissivity of the neutron stars as well.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PR

Cephalometric norms for the upper airway in a healthy Hong Kong Chinese population

Objective. To obtain normative data for cephalometric measurements of the upper airway in the local Chinese population. Design. Observational study. Setting. University department and teaching hospital out-patient clinic. Subjects and methods. Subjects included 74 healthy patients, 29 males (age range, 18-35 years) and 45 females (age range, 16-42 years), with normal skeletal facial profile, no history of snoring, sleep apnoea, upper airway disease, tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy, obesity, of pathology in the pharynx. Twenty cephalometric airway measurements, including size of the tongue, soft palate, nasopharynx, oropharynx, hypopharynx, and relative position of the hyoid bone and valleculae were obtained. Landmarks on cephalometric radiographs were digitised and measurements were made using a specially designed computer programme. Error analysis of measurements was performed and comparison of measurements according to sex was made. Results. Significant sex dimorphism was seen for the majority of measurements, with the exception of minimal depth of the airway, oropharyngeal depth of the airway, and the soft palate angle with the hard palate. Conclusion. A minimum sagittal dimension of the upper airway was evident despite differences in measurements between sexes. Findings from this study should be a useful reference for the assessment of sleep apnoea in the local population.published_or_final_versio