Breast Cancer Classification using Deep Learned Features Boosted with Handcrafted Features

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women across the globe. It is difficult to treat if detected at advanced stages, however, early detection can significantly increase chances of survival and improves lives of millions of women. Given the widespread prevalence of breast cancer, it is of utmost importance for the research community to come up with the framework for early detection, classification and diagnosis. Artificial intelligence research community in coordination with medical practitioners are developing such frameworks to automate the task of detection. With the surge in research activities coupled with availability of large datasets and enhanced computational powers, it expected that AI framework results will help even more clinicians in making correct predictions. In this article, a novel framework for classification of breast cancer using mammograms is proposed. The proposed framework combines robust features extracted from novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) features with handcrafted features including HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients) and LBP (Local Binary Pattern). The obtained results on CBIS-DDSM dataset exceed state of the art

Genotypic variation for yield and morphological traits in

ABSTRACT Genetic variability is the main basis of improvement in crops. An experiment comprising fifteen old and new wheat varieties was planted in randomized complete block design with three replications at the Agricultural Research Farm of NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar during crop season, 2003-2004. Data were recorded on yield and some other morphological traits. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out and means were separated using the least significance difference test. Correlation coefficients were also determined. Analysis of variance revealed that the varieties differed significantly for days to 50% heading, days to 50% anthesis, plant height and grain yield ha -1 . However, differences were non-significant for physiological maturity, biological yield and harvest index. Days to 50% anthesis showed significantly positive correlations with days to 50% heading, days to maturity and grain yield. Grain yield also exhibited significantly positive correlation with biological yield

Outcome of thyroid lobectomies undergone with and without drains

Background: Thyroid lobectomy is a common operative technique of management of benign solitary thyroid nodules in which drains are used routinely. Objective of this study to compare the outcome of thyroid lobectomies undergone with and without drains in patients of benign solitary thyroid nodules.Methods: A comparative cross-sectional research was completed on 98 patients of benign solitary thyroid nodules at surgery department of Liaquat University Hospital Jamshoro. Patients having age of 18-60 years underwent thyroid lobectomies were included and distributed in two groups A and B. Group A includes thyroid lobectomies with drain and Group B without drain. Postoperative outcomes including pain score assessed via visual analog score (VAS), hospital stay and complications including wound infection, seroma and hematoma.Results: Out of 98 cases, 49 underwent thyroid lobectomy with drain and 49 without a drain. Females patients were in majority in group A 42 (85.7%) and also in group B 47 (95.9%). No significant difference (p-value=0.674) was in mean age of group A 30.8±10.2 years and group B 31.8±12.2 years. Higher mean with significant difference (p-value=0.001) was in pain score of group A 5.61±1.25 as compared to group B 3.55±0.70. No significant difference was in complications; seroma 1 (2.04%) vs 5 (10.20%), hematoma 1 (2.04%) vs 1 (2.04%) and infection 3 (6.12%) vs 0 (0.0%) in group A and B respectively. Higher mean with significant difference (p-value=0.001) was in hospital stay of group A 2.40±1.57 days as compared to group B 1.42±0.54 days. No significant difference (p-value=0.748) was in overall rate of complications in group A 5 (10.20%) and B 6 (12.24%).Conclusions: Thyroid lobectomy with drain is not effective in lowering the postoperative complications whereas enhanced the risk of postoperative pain, wound infection and duration of hospital stay as compared to thyroid lobectomy without a drain

Richter’s Hernia: A Case Report

Richter’s hernia (partial enterocele) is rare disease in which there is a swelling or/and entrapment of a small part of intestine along its antimesenteric border due to minor defect in abdominal wall. Diagnosis of Richter’s hernia & their associated complications are difficult due to absence of obstructive symptoms with presence of early strangulation thereby increases mortality to 20-60%. For early diagnosis of Richter’s hernia ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) are utilized and emergency surgery is necessary to obviate complications of disease. Here, we are presenting a case of 20-year male patient reporting for abdominal pain radiating to right hypochondria, anorexia and low-grade fever for 24 hours in which an incidental diagnosis of Richter’s Hernia along with acute appendicitis was made

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

GENOTYPIC VARIATION FOR YIELD AND YIELD RELATED TRAITS AND THEIR CORRELATION STUDIES IN WHEAT

ABSTRACT The main basis of improvement in crops is the development of desirable genotypes. An experiment consisting of fifteen wheat genotypes was planted in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications at the Agricultural Research Farm, Malakandher, NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar during 2003-04. Data were recorded on some important yield related traits. Statistical analysis was carried out and the means were separated by the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test. Significant differences were observed among the genotypes for the number of productive tillers m -2 and grain yield. However, the differences were not significant for the characters of grains spike -1 , spikelets spike -

Multi-user conflict resolution mechanisms for smart home environments

Context-awareness is a pervasive computing enabling technology that allows context-aware applications to respond to multiple contexts such as activity, location, temperature, and so on. When many users attempt to access the same context-aware application, user conflicts may emerge. This issue is emphasized, and a conflict resolution approach is presented to address it. Although there are other conflict resolution approaches in the literature, the one presented here is unique in that it considers the users’ special cases such as their sickness, examinations, and so on when resolving conflicts. The proposed approach is helpful when several users with different special cases try to access the same context-aware application. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach, a conflict manager is integrated with the UbiREAL simulated context-aware home environment. The integrated conflict manager resolves conflicts by taking users special cases into account and employing either automated, mediated, or hybrid conflict resolution approaches. The evaluation of the proposed approach demonstrates that users are satisfied with it and that it is critical and essential to employ users’ special cases in detecting and resolving users conflicts

Occurrence and Distribution of Long-Term Variability in Precipitation Classes in the Source Region of the Yangtze River

Various precipitation-related studies have been conducted on the Yangtze River. However, the topography and atmospheric circulation regime of the Source Region of the Yangtze River (SRYZ) differ from other basin parts. Along with natural uniqueness, precipitation constitutes over 60% of the direct discharge in the SRYZ, which depicts the decisive role of precipitation and a necessary study on the verge of climate change. The study evaluates the event distribution of long-term variability in precipitation classes in the SRYZ. The precipitation was classified into three precipitation classes: light precipitation (0–5 mm, 5–10 mm), moderate precipitation (10–15 mm, 15–20 mm, 20–25 mm), and heavy precipitation (>25 mm). The year 1998 was detected as a changing year using the Pettitt test in the precipitation time series; therefore, the time series was divided into three scenarios: Scenario-R (1961–2016), the pre-change point (Scenario-I; 1961–1998), and the post-change point (Scenario-II; 1999–2016). Observed annual precipitation amounts in the SRYZ during Scenario-R and Scenario-I significantly increased by 13.63 mm/decade and 48.8 mm/decade, respectively. The same increasing trend was evident in seasonal periods. On a daily scale, light precipitation (0–5 mm) covered most of the days during the entire period, with rainy days accounting for 83.50%, 84.5%, and 81.30%. These rainy days received up to 40%, 41%, and 38% of the annual precipitation during Scenario-R, Scenario-I, and Scenario-II, respectively. Consequently, these key findings of the study will be helpful in basin-scale water resources management

Biochemical profiling of tuberculosis patients co-infected with hepatitis C virus

The present research work was planned to investigate the biochemical parameters in tuberculosis (TB) patients in comparison with healthy individual and TB patients co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). For the study, we determined liver enzymes, serum proteins, hemoglobin photometrically, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) by the Westergren method. The results showed a significant ( P 0.05) increase in the level of aspartate aminotransferase was observed in the Test group while a non-significantly ( P >0.05) reduced level was observed in the TB control group when compared with healthy controls. Alkaline phosphatase was increased significantly ( P 0.05) in the TB control group compared to healthy control group. Significant ( P 0.05) variation in serum calcium level was observed among study groups. ESR was found to be lower in the healthy control group while significantly ( P <0.05) increased in the Test and TB control groups. The HCV co-infected patients were investigated through HCV screening by the immunochromatographic method. We concluded that variation in biochemical and hematological parameters observed in the studied population help us to diagnose HCV co-infected TB patients