A Novel Color Image Watermarking Scheme Based on Arnold Transform and Discrete Wavelet Transform using B Channel

The expansion of Internet has frequently increased the use of digital media publically. Digital media can be in the form such as audio, images, text and videos to the public. In this paper we have presented a Novel color image watermarking technique using two methods Arnold transform and discrete wavelet transform . The binary watermark is processed by using error correcting coding and Arnold Transform. Arnold transform is applied for the best scrambling round and then the watermark is embedded in the Blue color channel into the Cover image. Discrete wavelet transform method is applied on the cover image for further security. The proposed method concludes to give better results compared to the simple DWT method in image sharpening, smoothening, noise tolerance, rotating, cropping, etc aspects of image transformations and enhancement. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16040

Choriocarcinoma in a 73-year-old woman: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Choriocarcinoma is a highly malignant tumor of trophoblastic origin. Most cases present within one year of the antecedent pregnancy (molar or non-molar). However, very rarely, choriocarcinoma can develop from germ cells or from dedifferentiation of endometrial carcinoma into choriocarcinoma. This article concerns a case of choriocarcinoma developing 38 years after the patient's last pregnancy and 23 years after menopause.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 73-year-old African-American woman presented with a three-week history of vaginal bleeding. A vaginal mass was seen on pelvic examination. Ultrasonography showed a thickened complex endometrial echo. Her β-human chorionic gonadotrophin level was found to be elevated (2,704,040 mIU/mL). Vaginal and uterine biopsies were suggestive of choriocarcinoma. Immunohistochemistry tests were positive for β-human chorionic gonadotrophin as well as cytokeratin and negative for octamer binding transcription factor 3/4 and α-fetoprotein, supporting the diagnosis of choriocarcinoma. A combination of etoposide, methotrexate, and dactinomycin, followed by cyclophosphamide and vincristine (the so-called EMA/CO regimen) was initiated. After seven cycles of chemotherapy, her β-human chorionic gonadotrophin level dropped below 5 mIU/mL. Our patient is being followed up at our oncology institute.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We report an extremely rare case of choriocarcinoma arising 23 years after menopause. A postmenopausal woman presenting with vaginal bleed from a mass and β-human chorionic gonadotrophin elevation should be evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis to rule out the possibilities of a germ cell origin of the tumor or dedifferentiation of an epithelial tumor. Absence of octamer binding transcription factor 3/4, α-fetoprotein and CD-30 staining helps in exclusion of most germ cell tumors. DNA polymorphism studies can be used to differentiate between gestational and non-gestational tumor origin. These require fresh tissue samples and are time consuming. Finally, the effective first-line therapy for β-human chorionic gonadotrophin-producing high-risk gestational as well as non-gestational trophoblastic tumors is combination chemotherapy (the EMA/CO regimen). Therefore, treatment should be commenced when a potential diagnosis of metastatic trophoblastic tumor is being considered.</p

Chemical Screening Approaches Enabling Drug Discovery of Autophagy Modulators for Biomedical Applications in Human Diseases

Autophagy is an intracellular degradation pathway for malfunctioning aggregation-prone proteins, damaged organelles, unwanted macromolecules and invading pathogens. This process is essential for maintaining cellular and tissue homeostasis that contribute to organismal survival. Autophagy dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diverse human diseases, and therefore, therapeutic exploitation of autophagy is of potential biomedical relevance. A number of chemical screening approaches have been established for the drug discovery of autophagy modulators based on the perturbations of autophagy reporters or the clearance of autophagy substrates. These readouts can be detected by fluorescence and high-content microscopy, flow cytometry, microplate reader and immunoblotting, and the assays have evolved to enable high-throughput screening and measurement of autophagic flux. Several pharmacological modulators of autophagy have been identified that act either via the classical mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway or independently of mTOR. Many of these autophagy modulators have been demonstrated to exert beneficial effects in transgenic models of neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, liver diseases, myopathies as well as in lifespan extension. This review describes the commonly used chemical screening approaches in mammalian cells and the key autophagy modulators identified through these methods, and highlights the therapeutic benefits of these compounds in specific disease contexts

Automated quantification of retinal vessel morphometry in the UK Biobank Cohort

The following topics are dealt with: feature extraction; learning (artificial intelligence); image classification; image segmentation; computer vision; object detection; feedforward neural nets; image colour analysis; image representation; medical image processing

Automated retinal image quality assessment on the UK Biobank dataset for epidemiological studies.

Morphological changes in the retinal vascular network are associated with future risk of many systemic and vascular diseases. However, uncertainty over the presence and nature of some of these associations exists. Analysis of data from large population based studies will help to resolve these uncertainties. The QUARTZ (QUantitative Analysis of Retinal vessel Topology and siZe) retinal image analysis system allows automated processing of large numbers of retinal images. However, an image quality assessment module is needed to achieve full automation. In this paper, we propose such an algorithm, which uses the segmented vessel map to determine the suitability of retinal images for use in the creation of vessel morphometric data suitable for epidemiological studies. This includes an effective 3-dimensional feature set and support vector machine classification. A random subset of 800 retinal images from UK Biobank (a large prospective study of 500,000 middle aged adults; where 68,151 underwent retinal imaging) was used to examine the performance of the image quality algorithm. The algorithm achieved a sensitivity of 95.33% and a specificity of 91.13% for the detection of inadequate images. The strong performance of this image quality algorithm will make rapid automated analysis of vascular morphometry feasible on the entire UK Biobank dataset (and other large retinal datasets), with minimal operator involvement, and at low cost

Suitability of UK biobank retinal images for automatic analysis of morphometric properties of the vasculature

To assess the suitability of retinal images held in the UK Biobank--the largest retinal data repository in a prospective population-based cohort--for computer assisted vascular morphometry, generating measures that are commonly investigated as candidate biomarkers of systemic disease.Non-mydriatic fundus images from both eyes of 2,690 participants--people with a self-reported history of myocardial infarction (n=1,345) and a matched control group (n=1,345)--were analysed using VAMPIRE software. These images were drawn from those of 68,554 UK Biobank participants who underwent retinal imaging at recruitment. Four operators were trained in the use of the software to measure retinal vascular tortuosity and bifurcation geometry.Total operator time was approximately 360 hours (4 minutes per image). 2,252 (84%) of participants had at least one image of sufficient quality for the software to process, i.e. there was sufficient detection of retinal vessels in the image by the software to attempt the measurement of the target parameters. 1,604 (60%) of participants had an image of at least one eye that was adequately analysed by the software, i.e. the measurement protocol was successfully completed. Increasing age was associated with a reduced proportion of images that could be processed (p=0.0004) and analysed (p<0.0001). Cases exhibited more acute arteriolar branching angles (p=0.02) as well as lower arteriolar and venular tortuosity (p<0.0001).A proportion of the retinal images in UK Biobank are of insufficient quality for automated analysis. However, the large size of the UK Biobank means that tens of thousands of images are available and suitable for computational analysis. Parametric information measured from the retinas of participants with suspected cardiovascular disease was significantly different to that measured from a matched control group

Students' participation in collaborative research should be recognised

Letter to the editor