IgM antibodies against malondialdehyde and phosphorylcholine in different systemic rheumatic diseases

IgM antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PC) and malondialdehyde (anti-MDA) may have protective properties in cardiovascular and rheumatic diseases. We here compare these antibodies in systemic rheumatic conditions and study their properties. Anti-PC and anti-MDA was measured using ELISA in patients with SLE (374), RA (354), Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD, 77), Systemic sclerosis (SSc, 331), Sj\uf6gren\u2019s syndrome (SjS, 324), primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPs, 65), undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD, 118) and 515 matched healthy controls (HC). Cardiovascular score (CV) was broadly defined based on clinical disease symptoms. Anti-PC and anti-MDA peptide/protein characterization were compared using a proteomics de novo sequencing approach. anti-MDA and anti-PC were extracted from total IgM. The proportion of Treg cells was determined by flow cytometry. The maximal difference between cases and controls was shown for MCTD: significantly lower IgM Anti-PC but not anti-MDA among patients (median 49.3RU/ml vs 70.4 in healthy controls, p(t-test) = 0.0037). IgM low levels were more prevalent in MCTD, SLE, SjS, SSc and UCTD. IgM anti-PC variable region profiles were different from and more homologous than anti-MDA. Anti-PC but not anti-MDA were significantly negatively correlated with CV in the whole patient group. In contrast to IgM anti-PC, anti-MDA did not promote polarization of Tregs. Taken together, Anti-PC is decreased in MCTD and also in SLE, SjS and SSc but not in other studied diseases. Anti-PC may thus differentiate between these. In contrast, anti-MDA did not show these differences between diseases studied. Anti-PC level is negatively correlated with CV in the patient group cohort. In contrast to anti-PC, anti-MDA did not promote Treg polarization. These findings could have both diagnostic and therapeutic implications, one possibility being active or passive immunization with PC in some rheumatic conditions

Comparing Yeast Cells Segmentation Through Hierarchical Trees

Image filtering and segmentation consists of separating an image into regions according to some criteria and to the application finality. Recent publications in the image processing domain make use of a segmentation strategy called multiscale or hierarchical segmentation. The multiscale segmentation provides a family of partitions of an image, presenting it at several levels of resolution. This work studies a multiscale image representation called Tree of the Critical Lakes (TCL), that provides an set of nested partitions of an image. The Tree of the Critical Lakes is defined from the Watershed Transform, the traditional tool of Mathematical Morphology in image segmentation operations. Moreover, we implement a comparison between TCL and another way of image representation, called Component Tree (CT). The CT consists of a set of cross-sections images and its connected components, linked thanks to the inclusion relation. We show experiments of image segmentation, based on TCLs and CTs, for a group of yeast cells images.1515518Beucher, S., Meyer, F., The morphological approach to segmentation: The watershed transformation (1993) Mathematical Morphology in Image Processing, , E. Dougherty, editorCarvalho, M.A.G., Hierarchical image analysis through the tree of critical lakes (in portuguese) (2004) PhD Thesis, Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, BrazilFitzgibbon, A.W., Pilu, M., Fisher, R.B., Direct least squares fitting of ellipses (1999) IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceJonnes, R. (1997). Attributes signatures for connected filtering and segmentation. In Digital image and vision computing:Techniques and aaplications. R. Chaplin and W. Page (eds)Mattes, J., Richard, M., Demongeot, J., Tree representation for image matching and object recognition (1999) 8th International Conference on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, , SpringerMeyer, F., Maragos, P., The dynamics of minima and contours (1996) P. Maragos, R. W. Schafer and M. A. Butt Editors, Mathematical Morphology and its Applications to Image and Signal Processing, pp. 329-336. , Kluwer Academic PublishersMeyer, F., Maragos, P., Multiscale morphological segmentations based on watershed, flooding and eikonal pde (1999) Scale-Space Theory in Computer Vision, Second International ConferenceNajman, L., Couprie, M., Quasi linear algorithm for the component tree (2004) SPIE Vision GeometryÓShea, D. G. and Walsh, P. K. (2000). The effect of the culture conditions on the morphology of the dimorphic yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus var. marxianus nrrly2415: a study incorporating image analysis. In Applied Microbiology and BiotechnologyPons, M.N., Vivier, H., Rmy, J.F., Dodds, J.A., Morphological characterization of yeast by image analysis (1993) Biotechnology and BioengineeringVachier, C., Extraction de caracteristiques, segmentation dímage et morphologie mathématique (1995) PhD Thesis, Centre de Morphologie Mathmatique, cole de Mines de Paris, Franc

Combining Hierarchical Watershed Metrics And Normalized Cut For Image Segmentation

Combining partitioning techniques became a promising approach in order to implement image segmentation and has produced good results on different applications. Some works has studied the graph spectrum as a partitioning tool, by means of the so-called Normalized Cut method (NCut) as a final partitioning process for images modeled by different types of graphs. This work explores the Watershed Transform as a modeling tool, using different criteria of the hierarchical Watershed (Area, Volume and Dynamics), in order to convert an image into a graph, followed by the use of the NCut to perform the final segmentation. The main goal is to compare the image segmentation results obtained from graphs modeled by Watershed Transform with others relevant results, using images from Berkeley Database. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group.367370De Bock, J., Smet, P.D., Philips, W., Image segmentation using watersheds and normalized cuts (2005) Proc. of the IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 5675, pp. 164-173Carvalho, M.A.G., Ferreira, A.C.B., Costa, A.L., Cesar Jr., R.M., Image segmentation using component tree and normalized cuts (2010) Proc. of 23th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Graphics and Image Processing- SIBGRAPI, pp. 317-320Ferreira, A.C.B., (2010) Um Estudo Comparativo de Segmentacao de Imagens Por Aplicacoes Do Corte Normalizado em Grafos. 2010, p. 94. , Dissertacao (Mestrado em Tecnologia e Inovacao)-Faculdade de Tecnologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, LimeiraMartin, D., Fowlkes, C., Tal, D., Malik, J.A., Database of Human Segmented Natural Images and its Application to Evaluating Segmentation Algorithms and Measuring Ecological Statistics (2001) Proc. of 8th Int'l Conf. Computer Vision, 2, pp. 416-423Monteiro, E.C., Campilho, A., Watershed framework to region-based image segmentation (2008) Proc. Of IEEE 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition- ICPR, pp. 1-4Shi, J., Malik, J., Normalized cuts and image segmentation (2000) IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence PAMI, 22 (8), pp. 888-905Meyer, E., Maragos, P., The dynamics of minima and contours (1996) Mathematical Morphology and Its Applications to Image and Signal Processing, pp. 329-336. , P. Maragos, R.W Schafer and M.A. Butt Editor

Image Segmentation Through Combined Methods: Watershed Transform, Unsupervised Distance Learning And Normalized Cut

Research on image processing has shown that combining segmentation methods may lead to a solid approach to extract semantic information from different sort of images. Within this context, the Normalized Cut (NCut) is usually used as a final partitioning tool for graphs modeled in some chosen method. This work explores the Watershed Transform as a modeling tool, using different criteria of the hierarchical Watershed to convert an image into an adjacency graph. The Watershed is combined with an unsupervised distance learning step that redistributes the graph weights and redefines the Similarity matrix, before the final segmentation step using NCut. Adopting the Berkeley Segmentation Data Set and Benchmark as a background, our goal is to compare the results obtained for this method with previous work to validate its performance. © 2014 IEEE.153156IEEE Computer Society,The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)Arbelaez, P., Maire, M., Fowlkes, C., Malik, J., Contour detection and hierarchical image segmentation (2011) IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., 33 (5), pp. 898-916. , http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2010.161, MayCour, T., Benezit, F., Shi, J., Spectral segmentation with multiscale graph decomposition (2005) Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2005. CVPR 2005. IEEE Computer Society Conference on, 2, pp. 1124-1131. , vol. 2De Bock, J., De Smet, P., Philips, W., A fast sequential rainfalling watershed segmentation algorithm (2005) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems, pp. 476-482. , ACIVS'05, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, HeidelbergJegou, H., Schmid, C., Harzallah, H., Verbeek, J., Accurate image search using the contextual dissimilarity measure (2010) IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 32 (1), pp. 2-11Jiang, J., Wang, B., Tu, Z., Unsupervised metric learning by selfsmoothing operator (2011) IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV'2011), pp. 794-801Monteiro, F., Campilho, A., Watershed framework to region-based image segmentation (2008) Pattern Recognition, 2008. ICPR 2008. 19th International Conference on, pp. 1-4Pedronette, D.C.G., Da S Torres, R., Exploiting contextual spaces for image re-ranking and rank aggregation (2011) ACM International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (ICMR'11), pp. 13:1-13:8Pedronette, D.C.G., Da S Torres, R., Tripodi, R.C., Using contextual spaces for image re-ranking and rank aggregation (2012) Multimedia Tools and Applications, , to appear, On-LineShi, J., Malik, J., Normalized cuts and image segmentation (2000) Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, 22 (8), pp. 888-905Yang, X., Prasad, L., Latecki, L., Affinity learning with diffusion on tensor product graph (2013) Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on, 35 (1), pp. 28-3

Variação dos níveis do componente C3 do complemento em Holochilus brasiliensis nanus experimentalmente infectados com Schistosoma mansoni Variation in the levels of the C3 component of the complement in Holochilus brasiliensis nanus infected with Schistosoma mansoni

As variações dos níveis do componente C3 do complemento foram verificadas em soros de exemplares do roedor silvestre Holochilus brasiliensis nanus infectados experimentalmente com Schistosoma mansoni, aplicando-se a técnica de imunoeletroforese bidimensional quantitativa. Foram utilizados soros de animais normais, da mesma espécie e idade, como controle da experiência. A quantificação foi feita durante oito semanas, contadas a partir da data da infecção. C perfil sérico mostrou que o nível inicial do C3 foi duas vezes menor que o observado no grupo controle. Este nível permaneceu até a 6ª semana de observação. A partir desta semana até a oitava foram registrados níveis aproximadamente 3 a 4 vezes menores que os observados no grupo controle.<br>The quantitative immunoelectrophoretic method was used to determine the consumption of the C3 component of the complement system in the sera of rodents (Holochilus brasiliensis nanus) infected with Schistosoma mansoni, during about eight weeks of observation. Normal animals were used as experimental controls. The results indicated that initial consumption of the C3 component in the infected animals was twice that of the controls. This level was maintained until the 6th week of observation. After the 6th week, the consumption of C3 was³ to 4 times greater than that of the controls

Conhecimento e uso da medicina alternativa entre alunos e professores de primeiro grau Knowledge and use of alternative medicine by elementary school children and teachers

Como parte de um Projeto de Educação em Saúde, investigou-se o conhecimento e como são utilizadas as práticas populares de cura, de modo a desenvolver e ampliar na escola, as possibilidades já existentes de discussão crítica e construtiva dentro do programa de saúde. Espera-se com isso poder resgatar saberes e valorizar esse conhecimento não sistematizado, presente na prática das populações ainda de forma marginalizada e controvertida. Foram aplicados questionários entre 110 professores e 162 alunos das 1ª à 4ª séries do 1&deg; grau de quatro escolas (P.L.S.L., P.H.A., P.A.M.M. e A.M.G.) da periferia de Belo Horizonte. Sendo que, as questões apresentadas foram respondidas somente por 105 docentes. Vinte e três (32,4%) (entre 71 (67,6%)) acreditam em dons especiais de cura; dos 105 (95,4%) que responderam sobre se acham que certas doenças podem ser tratadas com remédios caseiros, somente 69 (65,7%) acreditam que sim; 54 (78,3%) dentre esses, associaram a cura da doença com a planta medicinal e 15 (21,7%) indicam o remédio sem associação com a doença; 36 (34,3%) professores citaram a doença sem relacionar as ervas medicinais. Já, 101 (62,3%) alunos acreditam que os remédios caseiros são positivos para algumas doenças. Entre os alunos e professores foram mencionadas doenças diversas, sintomas e órgãos que podem ser curados por plantas medicinais, rezas ou benzedeiras. Um pouco mais de 50% dos dois grupos de alunos (1ª, 2ª, 3ª e 4ª séries) vivem entre famílias que procuram benzedeiras como alternativa de cura. Foram indicadas pelos professores e alunos mais de 50 plantas ou composições de partes de plantas. Conclui-se, que a medicina alternativa é conhecida e utilizada pela amostra estudada.<br>The knowledge and use of popular cures was investigated as part of health education project in such a way as to develop and expand the existing possibilities for critical and constructive discussion in the school within the health program. It was hoped that this would result in the retrieval and in an increase in the value attributed to information concerning this nonsystematized knowledge present in a controversial and poorly accepted form In the practices of the population. One hundred and five teachers and 162 students of the 1st to 4th grades of the four primary schools on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte were interviewed. One hundred and five of the teachers answered the questions put. Twenty-three (32,4%) of the teachers said they believed in special cures, 69 (65,7%) thought that certain diseases could be treated with homemade remedies for these, 54 (78.3%) were able to associate a particular disease whit a particular medicinal plant and 15 (21.7%) prescribed a treatment without any association with a particular disease, 36 (34.3%) cited a disease without relating this to a particular herb. One hundred and one (62,3%) of the students believed that homemade remedies are effective for certain diseases. Amongst the teachers and students various diseases were mentioned as well as different symptoms and organs that can be cured by medicinal plants, roots or traditional healers. A little more than 50% of the two groups of students (1st and 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th grade) live in families who make use of traditional healers to provide alternative cures. More than 36 plants or preparations of parts of plants were indicated by the teachers and students. It is conclude that these individuals possess knowledge of and do in fact make use of alternative medicine