Computer-aided segmentation and estimation of indices in brain CT scans

The importance of neuro-imaging as one of the biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of pathologies and traumatic cases is well established. Doctors routinely perform linear measurements on neuro-images to ascertain severity and extent of the pathology or trauma from significant anatomical changes. However, it is a tedious and time consuming process and manually assessing and reporting on large volume of data is fraught with errors and variation. In this paper we present a novel technique for segmentation of significant anatomical landmarks using artificial neural networks and estimation of various ratios and indices performed on brain CT scans. The proposed method is efficient and robust in detecting and measuring sizes of anatomical structures on non-contrast CT scans and has been evaluated on images from subjects with ages between 5 to 85 years. Results show that our method has average ICC of ≥0.97 and, hence, can be used in processing data for further use in research and clinical environment

Computer aided assessment of CT scans of traumatic brain injury patients

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyOne of the serious public health problems is the Traumatic Brain Injury, also known as silent epidemic, affecting millions every year. Management of these patients essentially involves neuroimaging and noncontrast CT scans are the first choice amongst doctors. Significant anatomical changes identified on the neuroimages and volumetric assessment of haemorrhages and haematomas are of critical importance for assessing the patients’ condition for targeted therapeutic and/or surgical interventions. Manual demarcation and annotation by experts is still considered gold standard, however, the interpretation of neuroimages is fraught with inter-observer variability and is considered ’Achilles heel’ amongst radiologists. Errors and variability can be attributed to factors such as poor perception, inaccurate deduction, incomplete knowledge or the quality of the image and only a third of doctors confidently report the findings. The applicability of computer aided dianosis in segmenting the apposite regions and giving ’second opinion’ has been positively appraised to assist the radiologists, however, results of the approaches vary due to parameters of algorithms and manual intervention required from doctors and this presents a gap for automated segmentation and estimation of measurements of noncontrast brain CT scans. The Pattern Driven, Content Aware Active Contours (PDCAAC) Framework developed in this thesis provides robust and efficient segmentation of significant anatomical landmarks, estimations of their sizes and correlation to CT rating to assist the radiologists in establishing the diagnosis and prognosis more confidently. The integration of clinical profile of the patient into image segmentation algorithms has significantly improved their performance by highlighting characteristics of the region of interest. The modified active contour method in the PDCAAC framework achieves Jaccard Similarity Index (JI) of 0.87, which is a significant improvement over the existing methods of active contours achieving JI of 0.807 with Simple Linear Iterative Clustering and Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of intracranial measurements is >0.97 compared with radiologists. Automatic seeding of the initial seed curve within the region of interest is incorporated into the method which is a novel approach and alleviates limitation of existing methods. The proposed PDCAAC framework can be construed as a contribution towards research to formulate correlations between image features and clinical variables encompassing normal development, ageing, pathological and traumatic cases propitious to improve management of such patients. Establishing prognosis usually entails survival but the focus can also be extended to functional outcomes, residual disability and quality of life issues

Negotiating Empowerment: Pakistani Women Exercising Agency in Domestic and Public Spheres

This article explores women negotiating empowerment in domestic and public spheres as beneficiaries of a women’s empowerment project. While these empowerment interventions are noteworthy, they are also misleading because they ignore the local expressions of agency, where women at home also exercise power and conscious decision-making in their own contexts, just as much as any other working women--which is equally significant when talking about empowerment. We argue that there are other expressions of empowerment that are neglected, trivialized, or unacknowledged by the mainstream discourse. In a similar context, we argue that local women, while understanding the NGO’s definition of empowerment, not only have their own opinions on their ‘docile’ lives as wives, sisters and mothers in the domestic sphere but also take a course of action in public that can be interpreted as ‘negotiating empowerment’ in ways that lead to personal gain, thus exercising agency

Assessment of Photosynthetic Pigments and Dust Load in Selected Avenue Plants of Saharanpur and Herbertpur Areas of India

The paper depicts impact of SO2, NO2, ozone and CO in chosen road plants of Saharanpur and Herbertpur regions in Indian dominion. Plant species falling in and around the area of modern territory and street side were chosen for examining purpose. Different morphological attributes and impact of business and vehicular residue on chlorophyll shade were contemplated and noticed the impact of residue molecule on development of the plant species (Ficus religiosa, Mangifera indica). In the examination the impacts of residue on chosen tree species was noticed and which will help in overseeing advancement of green belt to lessen the air contamination in the investigation area. Treatment with dust fundamentally expanded the fixation on leaves and the impacts were more extreme in significant degree of residue medicines. Contrasted with control, chlorophyll and porphyrin in substance were essentially diminished in the residue treated gatherings. This investigation propounds that business and vehicular residue statements affect photosynthetic shades, with broad impacts on development and improvement of plant

Calcifying fibrous pseudotumour of maxilla: A rare entity mimicking malignancy: A case report

Occurrence of inflammatory pseudotumour in head and neck region or nose and paranasal sinuses is rare. However, when they do occur, they could be quite aggressive. Etiologically, they are believed to be reactive than neoplastic, and calcification may suggest end-stage. Their clinical presentation and radiologic features may resemble a malignancy. Grossly, they are not encapsulated, but multilobulated and can be circumscribed or infiltrative. Histologically, they constitute of bland spindle cells with scant cytoplasm and occasional mitotic figures. Scattered lymphocytic and plasma cell infiltrates with abundant dense hyalinized collagenous stroma and focal small calcifications are seen. Presence of atypia, DNA aneuploidy, and abnormal p53 expression may suggest malignant potential. Though not known to metastasize, they can lead to local complications, causing destruction of bone and surrounding tissues. Management is mainly by surgical excision though adjunct corticosteroids have been advocated. We report such a rare case of calcifying fibrous pseudotumour of maxilla

Outcome Comparison of Endoscopic (Endonasal Trans-Sphenoidal) Repairs of CSS Leak vs. Transcranial Approach

Objective:   To compare the effectiveness of Endoscopic (Endonasal transsphenoidal) repair of CSF leak with transcranial approach in terms of post-operative complications like infection, recurrence and hospital stay. Material and Methods:  The comparative experimental randomized study was conducted in the Department of Neurosurgery Unit I, PGMI, Lahore General Hospital, Lahore. After approval from ethical committee this study was carried out in our unit. 40 subjects with the history of CSF leak were randomly divided into two groups; one was treated with endonasal trans-sphenoidal repair and another was treated with trans-cranial approach, the subjects were followed up for 1 year. Detailed history, neurological examination, preoperative CT and MRI scans were performed in all patients. Results:  The mean age of patients with CSF leak was 25.58 ± 14.38 years. Among the patients, 17 were females and 23 were male. The mean age of the female was 31.70 ± 14.29 years. The mean age of the male was 21.04 ± 12.95. The recurrence was observed in 2 (10%) of the patients treated with endoscopic technique and 1 (5%) of the patients treated with trans-cranial approach. Those patients were successfully repaired in a second operation. Overall success rate was 92.5%. One patient (2.50%) among the trans-cranial approach develops infection which was treated successfully. Conclusion:  The endoscopic repair of CSF leak is both safe and effective and should be considered as the standard procedure of choice in most of the cases

A New Paradigm for Improved Image Steganography by using Adaptive Number of Dominant Discrete Cosine Transform Coefficients

Image steganography camouflages secret messages in images by tampering image contents. There is a natural desire for hiding maximum secret information with the least possible distortions in the host image. This requires an algorithm that intelligently optimizes the capacity keeping the required imperceptibility of the image. This paper presents an image steganography scheme that preserves an adaptively chosen block of dominant coefficients from each Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients, whereas the rest of the coefficients are replaced with normalized secret image pixel values. Secret image pixel value are normalized in an adaptively chosen range. Embedding such kind of normalized data in adaptively chosen non-square L- shaped blocks utilize maximum embedding space available in each block that consequently results in maximizing payload capacity, while maintaining the image quality. This scheme achieved payload capacity up to 21.5 bit per pixel (bpp), while maintaining image quality of 38.24 dB peak signal to noise ratio.Comment: 9 page

Community acquired and post-transfusion hepatitis C is there a difference?

We analyzed 77 consecutive hepatitis C antibody positive patients to compare the history, laboratory data and histological features of community acquired (CA) and post-transfusion (PT) hepatitis C. Forty-six patients had CA and 31 PT hepatitis C. Mean age in both groups was same (45.67 vs 46 years). Male to female ratio was 2:1 in the CA group and 1:2.4 in the PT group. Mean duration between jaundice and first presentation was 8.9 years in the CA group and the mean duration between transfusion and first presentation was 9.8 years in PT group. No significant difference was found between two groups in the laboratory data. Liver biopsy was done in 32 patients (19 CA and 13 PT group). Mean histological score for disease activity was 9.3 in both groups, although more (68%) patients in the CA group had cirrhosis with chronic active hepatitis, (CAH) as compared to the PT (54%) group. Hepatitis C is an important cause of CA hepatitis. PT hepatitis C is more common in females because of increased likelihood of receiving transfusion for obstetric and gynaecological reasons. There is no significant difference in the laboratory and histological features between CA and PT hepatitis C

Impact of Ayurvedic Interventions to improve the Nutritional Status among Adolescent Girls and Children under-five years in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat

Introduction: Anaemia is the global public health crisis, so also in India. The most direct connection between Pandu Roga and nutritional deficiency anaemia can be found in Ayurveda. Ayurvedic remedy was put through a clinical study on anaemic adolescent girls because anaemia is commonly prevalent that affects the society and the side effects of oral allopathic iron preparations are highly common. The present study assesses the impact of ayurvedic medicines in improving the nutritional status among anemic adolescent girls and severely underweight children under five years of age in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat. Method: The pre-post study was registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India conducted at Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat. A total of 450 anaemic adolescent girls and 179 severely underweight children were screened respectively. Adolescent girls were provided with Faltrikadhi Kavath, Purnanavardi Mandur, and Amalaki Rasayan. Under-five children was given Shishubhaishaj granules in powder form. The study was conducted in three phases (Baseline, Intervention and Endline Assessment). Results: A total of 219 adolescent girls and 120 under-five children was evaluated during endline assessment. The mean improvement in Hb was +0.36 gm/dL for 219 subjects, however subjects (n=99) with better compliance shows significant improvement (+1.07 gm/dL, P=0.005). Under five children shows improvement in their anthropometric measurements (WAZ). Conclusion: The present study revealed that Ayurvedic intervention can improve Hb status of adolescent girls only with better compliance. The study also reports the reason of non-compliance and ways to address it

Economics and Marketing of Rose Flowers: A case Study of Islamabad and Rawalpindi Districts

Roses have reasonable demand in Pakistan. The study was conducted in rose growing pockets of Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts. The objective of the study was to determine costs and returns of rose producers and marketing intermediaries. Random sampling technique was used to collect the data from thirty farmers and ten retailers. In the study area, per acre yield of roses was 1010 kg per annum. Average establishment cost of rose gardens was Rs. 0.17 million per acre. Total cost of production was calculated to be Rs. 0.26 million per acre per annum. Gross and net returns of rose farmers were calculated to be Rs. 0.32 million and Rs. 0.06 million per acre, respectively. Benefit cost ratio of roses production was 1.24, thus returns from roses’ production are high enough, and it is an attractive farming activity in the study area. Marketing channel for roses was identified as producers, retailers, and consumers. Marketing costs of producers and retailers were Rs. 54.1 and Rs. 17.3 per kg, respectively. Shares of producers and retailers in consumer rupee were 77.4% and 22.6%, respectively. Farmers in the study area obtain low yield of roses than their counterparts in irrigated areas of the country, mainly to due to traditional non-recommended production practices. Thus, farmers should be trained to use recommended production technology for production of roses