Soft White Tissue Detection From Pressure Ulcer Images Using Anisotropic Diffused Total Variation Fuzzy C Means

The goal of image segmentation is to cluster pixels into salient image regions. It can identify the regions of interest in an image or annotate the data. In medical imaging, these segments often correspond to different tissue classes, pathologies, or other biologically relevant structures. Medical image segmentation is made difficult by low contrast, noise, and other imaging ambiguities. The goal of segmentation of pressure ulcer images is to find out the level of tissue wound and soft white tissue present. Soft white tissue protein level changes are mostly found in elderly people. Soft white tissue present may be dark red or light yellow gel based on the different imaging modes of severity of pressure ulcer. This helps in diagnosing the disease and to plan for the treatment. The soft white tissue detection is made difficult for the segmentation because of the noise present in the image. Clustering techniques are best suited to segment the input images with noise. Clustering is usually performed when no information is available concerning to the membership of data items to predefined classes. For this reason clustering is traditionally seen as a part of unsupervised learning

Nutritional status of underfive children of Mumbai suburban region

 Background: Children below five years of age are an at-risk population due to their susceptibility to malnutrition. They contribute significantly for malnutrition related morbidity and mortality, especially in India. Malnutrition in under-five children belonging to middle or low-income group urban or suburban population is more severe and compounded compared to its rural counterparts. The objective of the study was to assess the nutritional status of under-five urban children. To study correlation of determinants like birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding, immunization status, maternal education and socioeconomic status with nutritional status of under five children.Methods: The prospective cross-sectional study included 315 under-five children attending paediatric outpatient department of upcoming new tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. Anthropometric assessment for underweight, wasting and stunting was calculated based on age, weight and height measurements.Results: As per WHO classification, moderate underweight (W/A) was present in 74 (23.49%) and severe underweight in 38 (18.71%). Wasting (W/H) in the form of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) was noted in 64 (20.32%) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in 42 (13.33%). Height for age revealed moderate stunting in 37 (11.75%) and severe stunting in 5 (1.59%). The sociodemographic determinants birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding, immunization status, maternal education and socioeconomic status had statistically significant association with malnutrition.Conclusions: Malnutrition is common between age of 12 to 24 months. Underweight was the commonest type of malnutrition followed by wasting and stunting. None of the patient was overweight. Quality antenatal care to reduce incidence of low birth weight, exclusive breast feeding, and appropriate weaning, complete, immunization, improvement in maternal education and socioeconomic status can reduce the incidence of malnutrition

PERFORMANCE STUDY OF MOVING BIOFILM AEROBIC SEQUENCING BATCH REACTOR (MBASBR) FOR THE TREATMENT OF PAPER AND PULP MILL EFFLUENT

In this study the experiments are conducted to remove the Chemical oxygen demand (COD),Total suspended solids (TSS) and Lignin from paper and pulp mill wastewater using Moving biofilm aerobic sequencing batch reactor (MBASBR) .The laboratory scale reactor of working volume 20 liters used for the study. In addition to the conventional reactor the plastic carrier is used as the moving biomedia for the suspended and attached growth treatment in the reactor. Microbial culture of Phenerochetes chrysosporium and Pseudomonas alcaligens is used for the treatment. These microbes show good attachment with the carrier for the biochemical degradation of the paper and pulp mill wastewater during the treatment process. The average removal efficiencies for COD, TSS and lignin are found to be 96%, 98% and 84 % respectively

Topological phase transition between non-high symmetry critical phases and curvature function renormalization group

The interplay between topology and criticality has been a recent interest of study in condensed matter physics. A unique topological transition between certain critical phases has been observed as a consequence of the edge modes living at criticalities. In this work, we generalize this phenomenon by investigating possible transitions between critical phases which are non-high symmetry in nature. We find the triviality and non-triviality of these critical phases in terms of the decay length of the edge modes and also characterize them using the winding numbers. The distinct non-high symmetry critical phases are separated by multicritical points with linear dispersion at which the winding number exhibits the quantized jump, indicating a change in the topology (number of edge modes) at the critical phases. Moreover, we reframe the scaling theory based on the curvature function, i.e. curvature function renormalization group method to efficiently address the non-high symmetry criticalities and multicriticalities. Using this we identify the conventional topological transition between gapped phases through non-high symmetry critical points, and also the unique topological transition between critical phases through multicritical points. The renormalization group flow, critical exponents and correlation function of Wannier states enable the characterization of non-high symmetry criticalities along with multicriticalities.Comment: 12 pages + supplementary (4 pages), 13 figures. Comments are welcom

Development and elucidation of mechanism of action of new leads to attenuate neuroinflammation in stroke model.

In vitro anti-inflammatory activity screening in LPS intoxicated Raw 264.7 murine macrophage cell line showed tribulusterine/perlolyrine had its activity by down regulating inflammatory mediators such as iNOS, COX2, TNFα and IL1β • Screening of aqueous extract of Tribulus terrestris has shown neuroprotective activity by regulating the GSK-3β pathway protein level and elevating β-catenin and S9-phospho GSK-3β protein level. It also stabilizes GSK-3 β / β-catenin pathway, maintains GSK-3β in inactive state, prevents dephosphorylation thereby reduces β-catenin degradation and mediates its translocation resulting in neuroprotection. • Docking studies revealed tribulusterine / perlolyrine can be a possible prototype from natural source Tribulus terrestris. • Tribulusterine / perlolyrine protected oxygen glucose deprived reperfusion injured differentiated SHSY5Y cells which is revealed by cell viability studies. • The molecular pathway through which tribulusterine/perlolyrine exhibits it neuroprotection is by down regulating both caspase dependent and independent pathway by inhibiting stress kinasess. • Five novel leads have been identified through pharmacophore based structure search which can be explored further for their neuroprotective activity. The study can be concluded that tribulusterine/perlolyrine exhibits it neuroprotection by down regulating both caspase dependent and independent pathway by inhibiting stress kinases. Further it possesses anti inflammatory activity so it can be efficacious in ischemia condition because stroke pathology involves neuro inflammation as a major cascade for disease prognosis. IMPACT OF STUDY: Treatment of neurodegenerative disease such as stroke is a major challenge for the physicians. Neuroprotective effects of voltage dependent calcium channel blockers, NMDA antagonists and radical scavengers were found to be effective in experimental models of cerebral ischemia. The outcome of these drugs as therapeutic regimen is still beyond reach. Medicinal plants have been historically known a rich source for successful lead identification, and always signify an important pool for the discovery of new pharmacological hits as on date. Tribulusterine/perlolyrine, a possible prototype exhibited it neuroprotection is by down regulating both caspase dependent and independent pathway by inhibiting stress kinasess. Five novel leads have been identified from natural source which can be potential candidates as novel anti- inflammatory and neuroprotective agents. In revelation of the increasing cost of development of new drugs, alternative approaches like development from herbal extracts could be beneficial

Development of Molecular Markers for the Identification of Bivalve Molluscan Larvae for Mariculture Applications

Mariculture of Perna viridis (green mussel), Perna indica (brown mussel) and Crassostrea madrasensis (Indian backwater oyster) is getting popular in India but the productivity of this sector is affected by inadequate supply of spats. The natural spat resources are the only viable option available to the bivalve farmers to meet the seed requirements. Early detection of the larvae of the three target species in the plankton samples collected from the coastal waters will be helpful to predict the time of spat settlement which is crucial for the successful spat collection using cultch materials. The present work deals with the development of DNA markers in the form of Species Specific PCR (SSPCR) and Species Specific nested PCR (SSnPCR) for the specific and sensitive detection of the larvae of three target bivalves from unsorted plankton samples. Analysis of the experimental plankton samples using SSnPCR proved that the method can detect even a single veliger larva from a plankton biomass of 40mg. Similarly, SSPCR could be used to detect a minimum of 20 numbers of veliger larve from a plankton biomass of 40 mg. The SSPCR could also be used to assess the numerical density of the target bivalve larvae in coastal water and it was possible to detect approximately 106 larvae in 1000 liters of water. The utility of SSPCR and SSnPCR was also evaluated in the plankton samples collected from the coastal waters. The spat collectors placed in the study area were observed to have rich settlement of the target bivalve larvae showing a positive correlation with the lab results obtained. Screening of the Plankton samples have proved that these methods can be effectively employed to detect the presence of the target bivalve larvae in the coastal waters and it can be used as a ‘spat-fall prediction tool’ to manage the spat collection process more effectively by the bivalve farmers