Detection and diabetic retinopathy grading using digital retinal images

Diabetic Retinopathy is an eye disorder that affects people suffering from diabetes. Higher sugar levels in blood leads to damage of blood vessels in eyes and may even cause blindness. Diabetic retinopathy is identified by red spots known as microanuerysms and bright yellow lesions called exudates. It has been observed that early detection of exudates and microaneurysms may save the patient’s vision and this paper proposes a simple and effective technique for diabetic retinopathy. Both publicly available and real time datasets of colored images captured by fundus camera have been used for the empirical analysis. In the proposed work, grading has been done to know the severity of diabetic retinopathy i.e. whether it is mild, moderate or severe using exudates and micro aneurysms in the fundus images. An automated approach that uses image processing, features extraction and machine learning models to predict accurately the presence of the exudates and micro aneurysms which can be used for grading has been proposed. The research is carried out in two segments; one for exudates and another for micro aneurysms. The grading via exudates is done based upon their distance from macula whereas grading via micro aneurysms is done by calculating their count. For grading using exudates, support vector machine and K-Nearest neighbor show the highest accuracy of 92.1% and for grading using micro aneurysms, decision tree shows the highest accuracy of 99.9% in prediction of severity levels of the disease

Crank - new methods in automated structure solution

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A new MR-SAD algorithm for the automatic building of protein models from low-resolution X-ray data and a poor starting model

Determining macromolecular structures from X-ray data with resolution worse than 3 Å remains a challenge. Even if a related starting model is available, its incompleteness or its bias together with a low observation-to-parameter ratio can render the process unsuccessful or very time-consuming. Yet, many biologically important macromolecules, especially large macromolecular assemblies, membrane proteins and receptors, tend to provide crystals that diffract to low resolution. A new algorithm to tackle this problem is presented that uses a multivariate function to simultaneously exploit information from both an initial partial model and low-resolution single-wavelength anomalous diffraction data. The new approach has been used for six challenging structure determinations, including the crystal structures of membrane proteins and macromolecular complexes that have evaded experts using other methods, and large structures from a 3.0 Å resolution F1-ATPase data set and a 4.5 Å resolution SecYEG–SecA complex data set. All of the models were automatically built by the method to Rfree values of between 28.9 and 39.9% and were free from the initial model bias

Overview of the CCP4 suite and current developments.

The CCP4 (Collaborative Computational Project, Number 4) software suite is a collection of programs and associated data and software libraries which can be used for macromolecular structure determination by X-ray crystallography. The suite is designed to be flexible, allowing users a number of methods of achieving their aims. The programs are from a wide variety of sources but are connected by a common infrastructure provided by standard file formats, data objects and graphical interfaces. Structure solution by macromolecular crystallography is becoming increasingly automated and the CCP4 suite includes several automation pipelines. After giving a brief description of the evolution of CCP4 over the last 30 years, an overview of the current suite is given. While detailed descriptions are given in the accompanying articles, here it is shown how the individual programs contribute to a complete software package

Acute kidney disease and renal recovery : consensus report of the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) 16 Workgroup

Consensus definitions have been reached for both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and these definitions are now routinely used in research and clinical practice. The KDIGO guideline defines AKI as an abrupt decrease in kidney function occurring over 7 days or less, whereas CKD is defined by the persistence of kidney disease for a period of > 90 days. AKI and CKD are increasingly recognized as related entities and in some instances probably represent a continuum of the disease process. For patients in whom pathophysiologic processes are ongoing, the term acute kidney disease (AKD) has been proposed to define the course of disease after AKI; however, definitions of AKD and strategies for the management of patients with AKD are not currently available. In this consensus statement, the Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) proposes definitions, staging criteria for AKD, and strategies for the management of affected patients. We also make recommendations for areas of future research, which aim to improve understanding of the underlying processes and improve outcomes for patients with AKD

Recurrent Chromosome 16p13.1 Duplications Are a Risk Factor for Aortic Dissections

Chromosomal deletions or reciprocal duplications of the 16p13.1 region have been implicated in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, epilepsies, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this study, we investigated the association of recurrent genomic copy number variants (CNVs) with thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections (TAAD). By using SNP arrays to screen and comparative genomic hybridization microarrays to validate, we identified 16p13.1 duplications in 8 out of 765 patients of European descent with adult-onset TAAD compared with 4 of 4,569 controls matched for ethnicity (P = 5.0×10−5, OR = 12.2). The findings were replicated in an independent cohort of 467 patients of European descent with TAAD (P = 0.005, OR = 14.7). Patients with 16p13.1 duplications were more likely to harbor a second rare CNV (P = 0.012) and to present with aortic dissections (P = 0.010) than patients without duplications. Duplications of 16p13.1 were identified in 2 of 130 patients with familial TAAD, but the duplications did not segregate with TAAD in the families. MYH11, a gene known to predispose to TAAD, lies in the duplicated region of 16p13.1, and increased MYH11 expression was found in aortic tissues from TAAD patients with 16p13.1 duplications compared with control aortas. These data suggest chromosome 16p13.1 duplications confer a risk for TAAD in addition to the established risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. It also indicates that recurrent CNVs may predispose to disorders involving more than one organ system, an observation critical to the understanding of the role of recurrent CNVs in human disease and a finding that may be common to other recurrent CNVs involving multiple genes

First Evidence of Axial Shape Asymmetry and Configuration Coexistence in 74^{74}Zn: Suggestion for a Northern Extension of the N=40N=40 Island of Inversion

The excited states of $N=44$ $^{74}$Zn were investigated via $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy following $^{74}$Cu $\beta$ decay. By exploiting $\gamma$-$\gamma$ angular correlation analysis, the $2_2^+$, $3_1^+$, $0_2^+$ and $2_3^+$ states in $^{74}$Zn were firmly established. The $\gamma$-ray branching and $E2/M1$ mixing ratios for transitions de-exciting the $2_2^+$, $3_1^+$ and $2_3^+$ states were measured, allowing for the extraction of relative $B(E2)$ values. In particular, the $2_3^+ \to 0_2^+$ and $2_3^+ \to 4_1^+$ transitions were observed for the first time. The results show excellent agreement with new microscopic large-scale shell-model calculations, and are discussed in terms of underlying shapes, as well as the role of neutron excitations across the $N=40$ gap. Enhanced axial shape asymmetry (triaxiality) is suggested to characterize $^{74}$Zn in its ground state. Furthermore, an excited $K=0$ band with a significantly larger softness in its shape is identified. A shore of the $N=40$ ``island of inversion'' appears to manifest above $Z=26$, previously thought as its northern limit in the chart of the nuclides

Vitamin D status is inversely associated with markers of risk for type 2 diabetes: A population based study in Victoria, Australia

A growing body of evidence suggests a protective role of Vitamin D on the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We investigated this relationship in a population sample from one Australian state. The data of 3,393 Australian adults aged 18±75 years who participated in the 2009±2010 Victorian Health Monitor survey was analyzed. Socio-demographic information, biomedical variables, and dietary intakes were collected and fasting blood samples were analyzed for 25, hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD), HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and lipid profiles. Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between tertiles of serum 25OHD and categories of FPG (<5.6 mmol/L vs. 5.6±6.9 mmol/L), and HbA1c (<5.7% vs. 5.7±6.4%). After adjusting for social, dietary, biomedical and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components (waist circumference, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure), every 10 nmol/L increment in serum 25OHD significantly reduced the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of a higher FPG [AOR 0.91, (0.86, 0.97); p = 0.002] and a higher HbA1c [AOR 0.94, (0.90, 0.98); p = 0.009]. Analysis by tertiles of 25OHD indicated that after adjustment for socio-demographic and dietary variables, those with high 25OHD (65±204 nmol/L) had reduced odds of a higher FPG [AOR 0.60, (0.43, 0.83); p = 0.008] as well as higher HbA1c [AOR 0.67, (0.53, 0.85); p = 0.005] compared to the lowest 25OHD (10±44 nmol/L) tertile. On final adjustment for other components of MetS, those in the highest tertile of 25OHD had significantly reduced odds of higher FPG [AOR 0.61, (0.44, 0.84); p = 0.011] and of higher HbA1c [AOR 0.74, (0.58, 0.93); p = 0.041] vs. low 25OHD tertile. Overall, the data support a direct, protective effect of higher 25OHD on FPG and HbA1c; two criteria for assessment of risk of T2DM