A counting method for complex overlapping erythrocytes-based microscopic imaging

Red blood cell (RBC) counting is a standard medical test that can help diagnose various conditions and diseases. Manual counting of blood cells is highly tedious and time consuming. However, new methods for counting blood cells are customary employing both electronic and computer-assisted techniques. Image segmentation is a classical task in most image processing applications which can be used to count blood cells in a microscopic image. In this research work, an approach for erythrocytes counting is proposed. We employed a classification before counting and a new segmentation idea was implemented on the complex overlapping clusters in a microscopic smear image. Experimental results show that the proposed method is of higher counting accuracy and it performs much better than most counting algorithms existed in the situation of three or more RBCs overlapping complexly into a group. The average total erythrocytes counting accuracy of the proposed method reaches 92.9%

A Leukocyte image fast scanning based on max–min distance clustering

A leukocyte image fast scanning method based on max-min distance clustering is proposed. Because of the lower proportion and uneven distribution of leukocytes in human peripheral blood, there will not be any leukocyte in lager quantity of the captured images if we directly scan the blood smear along an ordinary zigzag scanning routine with high power (100x) objective. Due to the larger field of view of low power (10x) objective, the captured low power blood smear images can be used to locate leukocytes. All of the located positions make up a specific routine, if we scan the blood smear along this routine with high power objective, there will be definitely leukocytes in almost all of the captured images. Considering the number of captured images is still large and some leukocytes may be redundantly captured twice or more, a leukocyte clustering method based on max–min distance clustering is developed to reduce the total number of captured images as well as the number of redundantly captured leukocytes. This method can improve the scanning efficiency obviously. The experimental results show that the proposed method can shorten scanning time from 8.0–14.0min to 2.5–4.0min while extracting 110 nonredundant individual high power leukocyte images

Dynamic Phase Measuring Profilometry Based on Tricolor Binary Fringe Encoding Combined Time-Division Multiplexing

A dynamic phase measuring profilometry (PMP) based on tricolor binary fringe combined time-division multiplexing principle is proposed. Only one tricolor binary fringe combined by red (R), green (G), and blue (B) binary fringes with the same fringe width but without any color overlapping one another is needed and sent into the flash memory of a high-speed digital light projector (HDLP) in advance. A specialized time-division multiplexing timing sequence is designed to control the HDLP to project the tricolor binary fringe saved in the flash memory onto the measured dynamic object separately and sequentially at 234 fps, at the same time, the projected light source mode is set as monochrome mode which means that all the RGB LEDs remain lighting. Meanwhile, it also triggers a high frame rate monochrome camera synchronized with the HDLP to capture the corresponding deformed patterns in R, G and B channels. By filtering, the nearly unbroken phase-shifting sinusoidal deformed patterns for three-step PMP can be extracted from the captured deformed patterns. It is equivalent to the three-dimensional (3D) shape reconstruction of the measured dynamic object at 78 fps. Experimental results verify the feasibility and the validity of the proposed method. It is effective for measuring the dynamic object and can avoid the color cross-talk effectively

Responses of Lactation, Rumen Fermentation and Blood Biochemical Parameters with Increasing Dietary Inulin Supplementation in Mid-Lactation Dairy Cows

Effects of dietary supplementation of inulin in dairy cows were investigated in this study. Thirty-six mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows were randomly divided into six groups with six cows per group and offered a total mixed ration supplemented with 0 (control), 50, 150, 200, 250 and 350 g/d inulin per head, respectively. The animals were pre-fed for 2 weeks before rumen fluid, milk and blood samples were collected weekly for 3 weeks. With increasing inulin doses, milk yield (p 0.01) and milk fat concentration (p = 0.04) were linearly increased, while milk urea nitrogen (p 0.01) and somatic cell count (p = 0.04) were linearly decreased. Linear increases were also detected in the proportions of milk saturated fatty acids (p 0.01) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (p = 0.04); however, milk monounsaturated fatty acids were linearly decreased (p = 0.04). The ruminal concentrations of acetate, propionate and butyrate increased, while the ruminal pH and the concentration of NH3-N reduced at a decreasing rate with increasing inulin doses (p 0.01). Moreover, the concentrations of lactic acid (p = 0.03) and total volatile fatty acids (p 0.01) were linearly upregulated. There were linear increases in the serum concentrations of superoxide dismutase (p = 0.02), immunoglobin G (p 0.01), immunoglobin M (p = 0.04), interleukin-2 (p 0.01) and interleukin-10 (p = 0.04); quadratic increases in serum total protein (p 0.01) and albumin (p = 0.02) and linear decreases in serum total cholesterol (p = 0.02), triglyceride (p 0.01) and malondialdehyde (p 0.01). The results indicated that inulin increased milk production, shifted milk fatty acid profile, upregulated rumen volatile fatty acid concentration, and enhanced antioxidant and immunity function in dairy cows in a dose-dependent manner