AN IMPROVEMENT OF CROSS ENTROPY THRESHOLDING FOR SKIN CANCER

Image processing procedures in medical diagnosis are used to improve diagnosis accuracy. An example of this is skin cancer detection using the thresholding approach. Thus, research studies involved in identification of inherited mutations predisposing family members to malignant melanoma have been performed in the Cancer Genetics field. Melanoma is one of the deadliest cancers, but could be cured when diagnosed early. A fundamental step in image processing is segmentation that includes thresholding, among others. Thresholding is based on finding the optimal thresholds value that partitions the image into multiple classes to be able to distinguish the objects from the background. The algorithm developed in this work is based on Minimum Cross Entropy Thresholding (MCET) method, using statistical distributions. We improved the previous work of Pal by using separately different statistical distributions (Gaussian, Lognormal and Gamma) instead of Poisson distribution. We applied our improved methods on bimodal skin cancer images and obtained promising experimental results. The resulting segmented skin cancer images, using Gamma distribution yielded better estimation of the optimal threshold than does the same MCET method with Lognormal, Gaussian and Poisson distribution

Technologies and Solutions for Collaborative Processes in Mutating Cities

The city, a place of contemporary living par excellence, challenges the planner by making it necessary to adapt progressively quicker to changes and to overcome the traditional design approach linked to the modern idea of the industrial city. Indeed, living in non-stationary contexts, the complexity of problems nowadays requires a new planning endeavor capable of testing future solutions ‘in the field’ rather than ‘on paper,’ involving citizens, but also continuously adapting processes to achieve the expected results. The proposed contribution aims to document possible ways to trigger virtuous urban renewal processes, sustainably activating tangible and intangible resources. The topic will be investigated from the point of view of the triad: ‘project, technology, and digital solutions,’ adopting a social perspective. The latter ensures the active involvement of citizens in strategic decisions, increasing their awareness and civic sense, but also supporting the proposition of evolving plan-ning scenarios in order to develop solutions that will be concrete, achievable, and resilient. The core element concerns the way in which it is possible to promote the creation of an extended social mind through which collective behavioral change can be fostered. In some cases, digital technologies prove to be the effective ‘expert instru-ment,’ also for understanding the planned intervention, opening the design process for different stakeholders not necessarily familiar with technical conventions. According to Floridi, digital transformation ‘disconnects and reconnects specific processes,’ and the project represents the most powerful innovation element to promote the ecological transition. These dynamics will be explored through the analysis of some research and project activities that directly involved the authors of this article

The Impact of Learning-language on Students’ awareness of their Identity Lebanon

Language is the motto of existence and identity. It is entrusted with preserving the components of nationhood, the richness of the past and an adequate survey of the future. The identity of every nation suggests and endorses the major features of the education and nurturing process. Likewise it defines the basic lines and cultural targets deemed necessary and preferable for the overall operation of teaching and social normalizing. As such, the nature of language and learning become the “mirror” that reflects the identity of the society. This research aims at investigating the impact of the learning-language in consolidating the awareness of the identity, and developing  national spirit among students in Lebanon. The research tries to answer the following points: - .What meant by “identity”?What are the challenges that face the “identity” and developing the national spirit among students?Does learning foreign language affect the “identity” ?What is the strategic perception of the convenient learning-language? The research realizes that learning-language must be proficient enough to accompany the spirit of modernization without diminishing the status of the students’ identity. The research adopted the descriptive method to recognize the components of the identity, in addition to using the method of strategic planning to formulate the necessary strategy to preserve the identity. The research relied on samples of volunteers, those who studied in schools where the learning-language is Arabic, and others whose language of learning was foreign. The research adopted a questionnaire distributed among these students. Pertaining to the theoretical side, the research dealt with two parallel lines: the first studied the identity, its concept, components and the challenges that it faces. The second studied the learning-language in teaching institutes, the relation of the identity and language, the ideas of the supporters and opponents of adopting a foreign language as a medium of learning. The research made good reference to other relevant studies. After analyzing the data collected, the research reached certain results and recommendations which support the identity.

Applying data visualization techniques for stock relationship analysis

© 2018, University of Nis. All rights reserved. Decision making in stock investment is often made based on current events in the market and the analysis of historical data on specific stocks. Besides, similar rates of price changing over a long-term period on different stocks may indicate potential connections between those listed corporations. The proposed methodology applies the force-directed algorithm and time-series chart to offer stakeholders capability to gain deeper insights initiative on potential relationships between stocks comes with less human interventions. Hence to assist in future decision making on stock investment via graph layouts

ROBUST AND PARALLEL SEGMENTATION MODEL (RPSM) FOR EARLY DETECTION OF SKIN CANCER DISEASE USING HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTIONS

Melanoma is the most common dangerous type of skin cancer; however, it is preventable if it is diagnosed early. Diagnosis of Melanoma would be improved if an accurate skin image segmentation model is available. Many computer vision methods have been investigated, yet the problem of finding a consistent and robust model that extracts the best threshold value, persists. This paper suggests a novel image segmentation approach using a multilevel cross entropy thresholding algorithm based on heterogeneous distributions. The proposed strategy searches the problem space by segmenting the image into several levels, and applying for each level one of the three benchmark distributions, including Gaussian, Lognormal or Gamma, which are combined to estimate the best thresholds that optimally extract the segmented regions. The classical technique of Minimum Cross Entropy Thresholding (MCET) is considered as the objective function for the applied method. Furthermore, a parallel processing algorithm is suggested to minimize the computational time of the proposed segmentation model in order to boost its performance. The efficiency of the proposed RPSM model is evaluated based on two datasets for skin cancer images: The International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) and Planet Hunters 2 (PH2). In conclusion, the proposed RPSM model shows a significant reduced processing time and reveals better accuracy and stable results, compared to other segmentation models. Design/methodology – The proposed model estimates two optimum threshold values that lead to extract optimally three segmented regions by combining the three benchmark statistical distributions: Gamma, Gaussian and lognormal. Outcomes – Based on the experimental results, the suggested segmentation methodology using MCET, could be nominated as a robust, precise and extremely reliable model with high efficiency. Novelty/utility –A novel multilevel segmentation model is developed using MCET technique and based on a combination of three statistical distributions: Gamma, Gaussian, and Lognormal. Moreover, this model is boosted by a parallelized method to reduce the processing time of the segmentation. Therefore, the suggested model should be considered as a precious mechanism in skin cancer disease detection

The Role of Satellite Television Channels in The Political socialization (A Field Study in Lattakia)

 With the momentum in the Presents of the Plethora of events on the political arena، The media plays a great role in shaping the political socialization of a large number of The population who depend on The media as a source of information. Moreover، With the public Concern and political controversy that is taking place nowadays on different levels and in different fields، Most people have Started to express their opinion in accordance with information that they draw on from. what they read or watch through the media. The Current research discusses the role of satellite channels in shaping the political socialization. To achieve the objectives of this study، a questionnaire was designed and administered as Sample of /381/ residents of neighborhoods bsnada and the seventh of April. The results of the study showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the role of the satellite channels in political education and the educational level of the participants. It also revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between the role of the satellite channels in political education and gender

The impact of television advertision on the consumption behavior of youth. " Afield study on a sample of thestudents of the department of sociologies in tishreen University "

  The progress and development of commercial enterprises and the multiplicity of industrial and service activities, opened up broad areas of growth for countries, leading to a large and clear diversity in goods and services. This has made it necessary to find a way to link the product to the consumer, And as the most widespread media, As  Advertising  occupies space of media, especially television. This gave it a feature of promotion among  the different means . The current research deals with the role of television advertisting in the consumer behavior of young people, To achieve the research objectives, aquestionnaire was designed. the results of the study were presented according to the variables presented, that there is a statistically significant relationship between watching television ADS and growing consumer behavior according to gender variable, especially for females at the level of significance( 0,001) There were no statistically significant differences between the growth of consumer behavior and the variable" age group" at the level of significance(0,001), The Anova test  was used to analyze the data statistically

Activation of TRPV2 and BKCa channels by the LL-37 enantiomers stimulates calcium entry and migration of cancer cells.

International audienceExpression of the antimicrobial peptide hCAP18/LL-37 is associated to malignancy in various cancer forms, stimulating cell migration and metastasis. We report that LL-37 induces migration of three cancer cell lines by activating the TRPV2 calcium-permeable channel and recruiting it to pseudopodia through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway. Ca2+ entry through TRPV2 cooperated with a K+ efflux through the BKCa channel. In a panel of human breast tumors, the expression of TRPV2 and LL-37 was found to be positively correlated. The D-enantiomer of LL-37 showed identical effects as the L-peptide, suggesting that no binding to a specific receptor was involved. LL-37 attached to caveolae and pseudopodia membranes and decreased membrane fluidity, suggesting that a modification of the physical properties of the lipid membrane bilayer was the underlying mechanism of its effects

Human antimicrobial protein hCAP18/LL-37 promotes a metastatic phenotype in breast cancer

International audienc

La différenciation érythrocytaire : caractérisation moléculaire de l'engagement cellulaire

During development, cells choose the most appropriate fate between proliferation, differentiation, survival or death. To better understand the differentiation process, our team has previously performed single cell RT-qPCR (scRT-qPCR) gene expression analyses on primary chicken erythrocyte progenitors (T2EC). These studies showed an increase in gene expression variability during the first 24 hours of the differentiation process, a phase during which the cells retained the ability to self-renew before irreversibly committing to differentiation. Furthermore, the application of the WASABI tool on scRT-qPCR data of differentiating T2EC allowed to infer364 candidate gene regulatory networks (GRN) underlying this process. In this context, the aim of this work consists in better molecularly characterizing the dynamics of T2EC differentiation and defining the GRN that best describes this process. In the first part of this work, we analyzed by scRT-qPCR and MARS-seq, the transcriptome of T2EC induced to differentiate for 24 hours and then put back in self-renewal medium (reversed T2EC). The analysis of the expression data by different bioinformatics tools, showed a strong similarity between reversed T2EC and T2EC constantly maintained in self-renewal state. Moreover, reversed cells retained a mark of their involvement in the differentiation process by activating the expression of genes related to the heme synthesis pathway. In the second part of this work, we sought to generate new expression data at the single cell level to better define the GRN underlying the T2EC differentiation process. To this end, we performed Knock Out (KO) experiments of FNIP1 (Folliculin Interacting Protein 1) gene whose positioning is the most uncertain between the networks obtained with the WASABI tool. At the population level, this KO affects T2EC proliferation but has no significant effect on their differentiation. At the single cell level, we have been able to establish a strict protocol for KO validation at the genomic and transcriptomic level and recently obtained 2 KO clones for FNIP1 that are being analyzed by scRT-qPCR. In conclusion, this work has allowed us to better characterize the erythrocytic differentiation and fate reversibility of T2EC that have not yet reached a stable state of differentiation. Those processes are driven by the dynamic and stochastic behavior of an underlying GRN whose structure remains to be defined.Chaque cellule d’un organisme doit faire des choix définissant son destin, choix entre prolifération, différenciation, mais aussi survie ou mort. Afin de mieux comprendre le processus de différenciation, notre équipe a précédemment réalisé des analyses d'expression génique par RT-qPCR en cellule Chaque cellule d’un organisme doit faire des choix définissant son destin, choix entre prolifération, différenciation, mais aussi survie ou mort. Afin de mieux comprendre le processus de différenciation, notre équipe a précédemment réalisé des analyses d'expression génique par RT-qPCR en cellule unique (scRT-qPCR) sur des progéniteurs érythrocytaires primaires de poulet (T2EC). Ces études ont montré une augmentation de la variabilité de l’expression génique pendant les 24 premières heures du processus de différenciation, phase durant laquelle les cellules ont gardé la capacité de s’autorenouveler avant de s’engager irréversiblement en différenciation. De plus, l’application de l’outil WASABI sur les données de scRT-qPCR des T2ECen différenciation a permis d’inférer 364 réseaux de régulation de gènes (GRN) candidats qui sous-tendent ce processus. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de ce travail de thèse a été de mieux caractériser moléculairement la dynamique de la différenciation des T2EC et de définir le GRN qui décrit au mieux ce processus. Ainsi, dans la première partie de ce travail, nous avons analysé par scRT-qPCR et MARS-seq, le transcriptome des T2EC induites à se différencier pendant 24hpuis replacées en milieu d’autorenouvellement (T2EC en réversion). L’analyse des données d’expression par différents outils bioinformatiques, a montré une très forte similarité entre lesT2EC en réversion et les T2EC constamment maintenues en état d’autorenouvellement. Néanmoins, les cellules en réversion ont gardé une marque de leur engagement dans le processus de différenciation en activant l’expression de gènes liés à la voie de synthèse de l’hème. Dans la deuxième partie de ce travail, nous avons cherché à générer de nouvelles données d’expression à l’échelle de la cellule unique afin de définir au mieux le GRN sous-jacent au processus de différenciation des T2EC. Dans ce but, nous avons réalisé des expériences de Knock Out (KO) du gène FNIP1 (Folliculin Interacting Protein 1) dont le positionnement est le plus incertain entre les réseaux obtenus avec l’outil WASABI. A l’échelle de la population cellulaire, ce KO affecte la prolifération des T2EC mais n’a pas d’effet notable sur leur différenciation. A l’échelle de la cellule unique, nous avons pu établir un protocole strict de validation au niveau génomique et transcriptomique du KO et obtenir récemment 2 clones KO pour FNIP1 en cours d’analyse par scRT-qPCR. En conclusion, ce travail a permis de mieux caractériser la différenciation érythrocytaire et la réversibilité de destin des T2EC qui n’ont pas encore atteint un état stable de différenciation, processus dirigé par le comportement dynamique et stochastique d’un GRN sous-jacent dont la structure reste à définir