Mask Detection Using CNN and OpenCV

With Covid-19 tormenting the entire world, masks have become an essential item when stepping out of the house as it greatly prevents the spread of disease-causing germs and viruses. However, people often seem to take it lightly and not wear their masks when they step out. Therefore, we propose to design a mask detection system that alerts the concerned people with an alarm when the person in question is not wearing a mask. For this, we shall be using the medical imaging dataset obtained on Kaggle. In addition to this, we incorporate CNN and ResNet to train the model and OpenCV to test it with real-time data. We aim to obtain a high accuracy to ensure perfect face mask detection

Contextual Anomaly Detection in Text Data

We propose using side information to further inform anomaly detection algorithms of the semantic context of the text data they are analyzing, thereby considering both divergence from the statistical pattern seen in particular datasets and divergence seen from more general semantic expectations. Computational experiments show that our algorithm performs as expected on data that reflect real-world events with contextual ambiguity, while replicating conventional clustering on data that are either too specialized or generic to result in contextual information being actionable. These results suggest that our algorithm could potentially reduce false positive rates in existing anomaly detection systems

Prediction and Analysis of Allergenic Epitopes of Tree-Nuts and its Cross-Reactivity

With a whopping 10-25% of the world’s population being affected by it, allergies have become one of the top 10 reasons for visit to primary care physicians. Among this, tree-nut allergies are one of the most common allergies causing food substances. In the contemporary times various computational tools have emerged in order to facilitate time and cost-effective study of food allergens. This does not only aid in fabrication of a cure but also in its prevention as by analyzing for cross-reactivity among different allergens, patients can be advised against a number of possible other food substances which are likely to trigger the same response by their immune system. In the present study, the tool being utilized is EpiPro1.0 which has been developed by the authors in order to carry out accurate and efficient epitope prediction of an allergenic sequence (FASTA format). The tool also utilizes a novel algorithm in order to find the consensus of the results obtained through a number of different web-servers. In the present study, 20 different allergenic sequences from 6 major allergy causing tree-nuts, namely Almonds, Black Walnut, Brazil Nut, Cashew Nut, English Walnut and Hazel Nut, have been analyzed and 326 possible allergy causing epitopes have been predicted. Since, patients suffering from one tree-nut allergy tend to show sensitivity towards other tree-nuts as well, their cross-reactivity has also been studied in order to make accurate predictions regarding possible allergic reactions

Nonepithelial neoplasms of the pancreas, part 2: Malignant tumors and tumors of uncertain malignant potential

© RSNA, 2018. Almost all neoplasms of the pancreas are derived from pancreatic epithelial components, including the most common pancreatic mass, primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Nonepithelial neoplasms comprise only 1%–2% of all pancreatic neoplasms. Although some may arise directly from intrapancreatic elements, many originate from mesenchymal, hematopoietic, or neural elements in the retroperitoneal peripancreatic space and grow into the pancreas. Once these tumors reach a certain size, it can be challenging to identify their origin. Because these manifest at imaging as intrapancreatic masses, awareness of the existence and characteristic features of these nonepithelial neoplasms is crucial for the practicing radiologist in differentiating these tumors from primary epithelial pancreatic tumors, an important distinction given the vastly different management and prognosis. In part 1 of this article, the authors reviewed benign nonepithelial neoplasms of the pancreas. This article focuses on malignant nonepithelial neoplasms and those of uncertain malignant potential that can be seen in the pancreas. The most common malignant or potentially malignant nonepithelial pancreatic tumors are of mesenchymal origin and include soft-tissue sarcomas, solitary fibrous tumor, and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. These tumors commonly manifest as large heterogeneous masses, often containing areas of necrosis and hemorrhage. The clinical features associated with these tumors and the imaging characteristics including enhancement patterns and the presence of fat or calcification help distinguish these tumors from PDAC. Hematopoietic tumors, including lymphoma and extramedullary plasmacytoma, can manifest as isolated pancreatic involvement or secondarily involve the pancreas as widespread disease. Hyperenhancing paragangliomas or hypervascular metastatic disease can mimic primary pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors or vascular anomalies

Nonepithelial Neoplasms of the Pancreas, Part 2: Malignant Tumors and Tumors of Uncertain Malignant Potential From the Radiologic Pathology Archives.

© RSNA, 2018. Almost all neoplasms of the pancreas are derived from pancreatic epithelial components, including the most common pancreatic mass, primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Nonepithelial neoplasms comprise only 1%–2% of all pancreatic neoplasms. Although some may arise directly from intrapancreatic elements, many originate from mesenchymal, hematopoietic, or neural elements in the retroperitoneal peripancreatic space and grow into the pancreas. Once these tumors reach a certain size, it can be challenging to identify their origin. Because these manifest at imaging as intrapancreatic masses, awareness of the existence and characteristic features of these nonepithelial neoplasms is crucial for the practicing radiologist in differentiating these tumors from primary epithelial pancreatic tumors, an important distinction given the vastly different management and prognosis. In part 1 of this article, the authors reviewed benign nonepithelial neoplasms of the pancreas. This article focuses on malignant nonepithelial neoplasms and those of uncertain malignant potential that can be seen in the pancreas. The most common malignant or potentially malignant nonepithelial pancreatic tumors are of mesenchymal origin and include soft-tissue sarcomas, solitary fibrous tumor, and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. These tumors commonly manifest as large heterogeneous masses, often containing areas of necrosis and hemorrhage. The clinical features associated with these tumors and the imaging characteristics including enhancement patterns and the presence of fat or calcification help distinguish these tumors from PDAC. Hematopoietic tumors, including lymphoma and extramedullary plasmacytoma, can manifest as isolated pancreatic involvement or secondarily involve the pancreas as widespread disease. Hyperenhancing paragangliomas or hypervascular metastatic disease can mimic primary pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors or vascular anomalies

Overexpression of S4D Mutant of Leishmania donovani ADF/Cofilin Impairs Flagellum Assembly by Affecting Actin Dynamics

Leishmania, like other eukaryotes, contains large amounts of actin and a number of actin-related and actin binding proteins. Our earlier studies have shown that deletion of the gene corresponding to Leishmania actin-depolymerizing protein (ADF/cofilin) adversely affects flagellum assembly, intracellular trafficking, and cell division. To further analyze this, we have now created ADF/cofilin site-specific point mutants and then examined (i) the actin-depolymerizing, G-actin binding, and actin-bound nucleotide exchange activities of the mutant proteins and (ii) the effect of overexpression of these proteins in wild-type cells. Here we show that S4D mutant protein failed to depolymerize F-actin but weakly bound G-actin and inhibited the exchange of G-actin-bound nucleotide. We further observed that overexpression of this protein impaired flagellum assembly and consequently cell motility by severely impairing the assembly of the paraflagellar rod, without significantly affecting vesicular trafficking or cell growth. Taken together, these results indicate that dynamic actin is essentially required in assembly of the eukaryotic flagellum. R eorganization of actin cytoskeleton is central to several fundamental processes in eukaryotes, including cell division, cell shape regulation and, transmission of extracellular stimuli toward the cell interior. Such diverse functions of actin cytoskeleton have been attributed to the dynamic character of actin, which requires high turnover of actin monomers in its filamentous meshwork by a treadmilling process (11). This process is greatly facilitated by the actin-depolymerizing protein (ADF)/cofilin family of actin binding proteins (40). These proteins generally have three distinct biochemical activities, viz., F-actin depolymerization, actin filament severing, and nucleotide exchange (12). By virtue of these activities, ADF/cofilins play a key role in regulating the actin dynamics and associated functions in eukaryotes (7). Functions of the actin cytoskeleton have been considered important not only in higher eukaryotes but also in several parasites that cause lifethreatening human diseases, such as Plasmodium (5, 49), Acanthamoeba (10, 23), Trypanosoma (13, 21), Leishmania (30, 47), and others. Leishmania spp. constitute a group of medically important protozoan parasites that are responsible for a vast array of devastating human diseases, including kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis). These organisms exist in two morphobiological forms, amastigotes (inside the human host) and promastigotes (in the insect vector), which undergo extensive cytoskeletal rearrangement during their transformation from one form to the other (25). The promastigote form possesses a single highly motile protruding flagellum, which drives the cell to move forward, whereas the rudimentary flagellum in amastigotes has been considered important to establish host-parasite interactions (22). Further, a direct involvement of the promastigote flagellum has been demonstrated in sandfly infection (16). Apart from being important for parasite biology, the Leishmania flagellum has also been considered a good model system to study the biology of flagella and cilia in connection with ciliopathies in humans The Leishmania flagellum is comprised of two main structural components, the axoneme and the paraflagellar rod (PFR). Whereas the axoneme powers beating in most eukaryotic flagella (44), the PFR has been implicated in flagellar motility and waveform generation (42). All eukaryotic flagella are microtubulebased dynamic structures, which utilize the microtubule-based motor proteins, kinesins and dyneins, for trafficking proteins from the base to the tip and vice versa in a process called intraflagellar transport (IFT) during their assembly and disassembly (recently reviewed in reference 28). Although there are several studies which have shown the presence of actin and actin binding proteins in the flagellar compartment Our previous studies have shown that besides containing actin (LdACT), Leishmania donovani parasites also contain a homolog of ADF/cofilin (LdCof), not only in their cell bodies but also in the flagella (47, 52). It has further been shown that knockout of the LdCof gene in Leishmania promastigotes results in short, stumpy, and nonmotile cells with shorter and paralyzed flagella (52). Additionally, it has been reported that in LdCof null mutants, most of the actin was present in the form of bundles, suggesting a possible role of LdCof-mediated actin dynamics in assembly of the flagellum. To further investigate this, we have now created LdCof mutants in which the serine-4 residue was replaced with aspartate (S4D) or alanine (S4A) and have analyzed the effects of their overexpression in wild-type cells. In addition, we expressed these mutant proteins in bacteria and, after their purification and characterization, analyzed their biochemical properties in terms of actin binding, actin depolymerization, and exchange of actin-bound nucleotides. Our results revealed that overexpression of the S4

Expression of a PTS2-truncated hexokinase produces glucose toxicity in Leishmania donovani

Compartmentalization of glycolytic enzymes in glycosomes is vital in trypanosomatid parasites. Retention of these enzymes in the cytosol induces sugar toxicity and accumulation of intermediate metabolites, notably the hexokinase product glucose-6-phosphate. However, the role of hexokinase in sugar mediated toxicity remains unexplored. We have generated Leishmania donovani transfectants expressing a catalytically active cytosolic mutant of hexokinase. In the presence of glucose, these transfectants exhibited toxicity during log and stationary phases of growth. These results suggest that targeting of hexokinase to the glycosome is required to prevent uncontrolled and cytotoxic glucose phosphorylation in L. donovani parasites

Nonepithelial neoplasms of the pancreas: Radiologic-pathologic correlation, Part 1—benign tumors

© RSNA, 2016. Solid and cystic pancreatic neoplasms are being recognized more frequently with increasing utilization and spatial resolution of modern imaging techniques. In addition to the more common primary pancreatic solid (ductal adenocarcinoma) and cystic neoplasms of epithelial origin, nonepithelial neoplasms of the pancreas may appear as well-defined solid or cystic neoplasms. Most of these lesions have characteristic imaging features, such as a well-defined border, which allows differentiation from ductal adenocarcinoma. Solid masses include neurofibroma, ganglioneuroma, leiomyoma, lipoma, and perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa). Schwannomas and desmoid tumors can be solid or cystic. Cystic tumors include mature cystic teratoma and lymphangioma. Lipoma, PEComa, and mature cystic teratoma can contain fat, and ganglioneuroma and mature cystic teratoma may contain calcification. Although these unusual benign neoplasms are rare, the radiologist should at least consider them in the differential diagnosis of well-defined lesions of the pancreas. The goal of this comprehensive review is to improve understanding of these rare primary pancreatic mesenchymal tumors