Automatic image detection of colonic polyps is still an unsolved problem due to the large variation of polyps in terms of shape, texture, size, and color, and the existence of various polyp-like ...mimics during colonoscopy. In this paper, we apply a recent region-based convolutional neural network (CNN) approach for the automatic detection of polyps in the images and videos obtained from colonoscopy examinations. We use a deep-CNN model (Inception Resnet) as a transfer learning scheme in the detection system. To overcome the polyp detection obstacles and the small number of polyp images, we examine image augmentation strategies for training deep networks. We further propose two efficient post-learning methods, such as automatic false positive learning and offline learning, both of which can be incorporated with the region-based detection system for reliable polyp detection. Using the large size of colonoscopy databases, experimental results demonstrate that the suggested detection systems show better performance than other systems in the literature. Furthermore, we show improved detection performance using the proposed post-learning schemes for colonoscopy videos.
This article focuses on the implications of Sunni persecution of Ahmadiyyat by analyzing texts by the movement’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to identify the epistemological basis of his claims to ...prophecy in 19th century India. Rather than situating the claims within an Arabist, juridico-theological lineage, as is normally done, the analysis emphasizes their points of convergence with Persianate, Illuminationist theosophy of the 12th century mystic, Suhravardi. This convergence rests on acknowledging the existence of an intermediate cosmological realm that Henry Corbin termed the mundus imaginalis, which can be accessed by the subtle imagination of spiritual adepts and prophets. Situating Ahmadiyyat within the Persianate theosophical tradition sheds new light on the community’s persecution. In declaring Ahmadiyyat as “heresy,” and in Sunnism’s symbolic violence against Ahmadiyyat, the theosophical features of Ahmad’s thought have also been marginalized. Consequently, Sunni Muslims around the world are excluding Muslim access to the imaginal realm. The conclusion points out how other communities have faced and are facing similar exclusion on similar grounds, and argues for further investigation into the axiom that exclusion of the imaginal is a feature of modernity.
PurposeGrowing environmental issues worldwide need the engagement of all stakeholders to compliance with the decisions of global leaders made at COP21 and COP26. In this regard, the present study ...looks at the influence of retailer social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility by reinforcing consumer’s green consumption behaviors. Similarly, the proposed study incorporates the mediating role of customer trust and environmental concern to understand whether retailer corporate social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility strengthen green consumption behavior.Design/methodology/approachMultiple hypotheses have been developed in light of the theoretical analysis of the available literature. The information was gathered through a survey method. A web-based portal was used to administer the survey, and 340 useable responses were processed by SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 for experiential analysis. First, the validity and reliability were evaluated. The authors then tested potential relationships using structural equation modeling.FindingsSurvey data analyzed using the SEM approach reveal that consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR does not drive green consumption behavior directly. However, green concern and consumer trust mediates the relation of consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR towards green consumption behavior. Another mediating path was also tested through environmental responsibility and green concern among retailer's CSR and green consumption behavior. The outcomes of this path are also significant.Practical implicationsThe study holds promising implications for green consumption behaviors. The following can be achieved by implementing more sustainable supply chain strategies, such as lowering carbon footprint, purchasing eco-friendly goods and supporting environmental causes through retailers and consumers as well.Originality/valueThis study investigated the joint contribution of retailer CSR and environmental responsibility to green consumption for the first time. The work strengthens the body of knowledge in the field of managerial decision-making and creates new directions for scholarly investigation.
The widespread antigenic changes lead to the emergence of a new type of coronavirus (CoV) called as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 that is immunologically different from the previous ...circulating species. Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) is one of the most important receptors on the cell membrane of the host cells (HCs) which its interaction with spike protein (SP) with a furin-cleavage site results in the SARS-CoV-2 invasion. Hence, in this review, we presented an overview on the interaction of ACE-2 and furin with SP. As several kinds of CoVs, from various genera, have at their S1/S2 binding site a preserved site, we further surveyed the role of furin cleavage site (FCS) on the life cycle of the CoV. Furthermore, we discussed that the small molecular inhibitors can limit the interaction of ACE-2 and furin with SP and can be used as potential therapeutic platforms to combat the spreading CoV epidemic. Finally, some ongoing challenges and future prospects for the development of potential drugs to promote targeting specific activities of the CoV were reviewed. In conclusion, this review may pave the way for providing useful information about different compounds involved in improving the effectiveness of CoV vaccine or drugs with minimum toxicity against human health.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
One of the major obstacles in automatic polyp detection during colonoscopy is the lack of labeled polyp training images. In this paper, we propose a framework of conditional adversarial networks to ...increase the number of training samples by generating synthetic polyp images. Using a normal binary form of polyp mask which represents only the polyp position as an input conditioned image, realistic polyp image generation is a difficult task in a generative adversarial networks approach. We propose an edge filtering-based combined input conditioned image to train our proposed networks. This enables realistic polyp image generations while maintaining the original structures of the colonoscopy image frames. More importantly, our proposed framework generates synthetic polyp images from normal colonoscopy images which have the advantage of being relatively easy to obtain. The network architecture is based on the use of multiple dilated convolutions in each encoding part of our generator network to consider large receptive fields and avoid much contractions of a feature map size. An image resizing with convolution for upsampling in the decoding layers is considered to prevent artifacts on generated images. We show that the generated polyp images are not only qualitatively realistic, but also help to improve polyp detection performance.
The Virgin Mother Mary has always been venerated in Eastern Christianity far beyond her scriptural role. In this paper, we propose a symbolic framework of deep culture and apply it to understanding ...the prominence of Mary and the manner in which she plays a role in people’s lives through a bewildering variety of Marian icons. The framework begins with a mystical/esoteric perspective to appreciate Mary as a symbol that is multivalent, irreplaceable, archetypal, interior, and manifest yet hidden. We analyze images and stories of five highly venerated icons in Greece, Russia, Finland, and amongst diasporic Orthodox Churches, as well as associated hymns. Our analysis reveals that Mary’s significance for Orthodox faithful is best understood in her role as symbolic doorway to mystical religiosity. This role is highly agentic, although not in the sense in which agency is typically—exoterically—understood as analytical and external, but rather as esoterically affective and internally transformative. We show how a deep culture framework adds to our knowledge of Mary in Orthodox Christianity and how it can be used to examine similar figures in other contemporary and historical religious traditions.
This article explores how two seemingly contradictory global trends—scientific rationality and religious expressiveness—intersect and are negotiated in people’s lives in Nordic countries. We focus on ...Finland and Sweden, both countries with reputations of being highly secular and modernized welfare states. The article draws on our multi-sited ethnography in Finland and Sweden, including interviews with health practitioners, academics, and students identifying as Lutheran, Orthodox, Muslim, or anthroposophic. Building on new institutionalist World Society Theory, the article asks whether individuals perceive any conflict at the intersection of “science” and “religion”, and how they negotiate such a relationship while working or studying in universities and health clinics, prime sites of global secularism and scientific rationality. Our findings attest to people’s creative artistry while managing their religious identifications in a secular, Nordic, organizational culture in which religion is often constructed as old-fashioned or irrelevant. We identify and discuss three widespread modes of negotiation by which people discursively manage and account for the relationship between science and religion in their working space: segregation, estrangement, and incorporation. Such surprising similarities point to the effects of global institutionalized secularism and scientific rationality that shape the negotiation of people’s religious and spiritual identities, while also illustrating how local context must be factored into future, empirical research on discourses of science and religion.
The article studies the domestication of foreign news by identifying the different ways in which the Egyptian revolt was reported and discussed in Britain, Finland and Pakistan. The data comprise the ...press coverage of the 2011 events in three newspapers: The Times in Britain, Helsingin Sanomat (HS) in Finland, and the Daily Times in Pakistan. We argue that, in addition to journalists, there are other agents who contribute to domesticating foreign news items. This makes understandable the unexpected differences between the three newspapers. One might assume that coverage of the Arab Spring would have been more impartial and less emotional in Britain and Finland than in Pakistan, which is culturally closer to Egypt. The opposite was true, however. The coverage of the events in Daily Times primarily consisted of hard news. The Times and HS, on the other hand, sent their reporters onsite, and the news stories used several discursive means to bring the events experientially closer to their readers. Yet, the Egypt uprising was used as a lever in domestic politics more forcefully in Pakistan. That is because the uprising was domesticated to local politics by other actors than just journalists.
(Linnaeus, 1758) is a freshwater gastropod belongs to the Lymnaeidae (pond snails) family which act as intermediate hosts or vectors of various parasitic flukes. No study has yet been undertaken on ...the prevalence of
spp. infection in
. Species of
(Dietz, 1909) are a cosmopolitan parasite that utilize snails as the first intermediate host, with vertebrates like amphibians larvae and fish as the second intermediate host, followed by fish-eating birds. The current paper is considered to be the first report of
parasitized
in Iraq, which is supported with molecular and phylogenetic analysis.
Freshwater snails
were collected during October 2016 - September 2017 from different locations of Sufaia village on the Greater Zab river, Erbil province, Iraq.
A total of 307 freshwater snails
were collected, only five of them were infected with a prevalence of
(1.62%).
The current study agrees with the opinion of Selbach, Soldánová (26), which suggested the possibility of a much higher morphological diversity within
species, based on the number of described cercariae, compared with adult forms.It is clear that
specimens have often been erroneously designated as
by many authors (Našincová et al., 1994). Certain morphological similarities and dissimilarities between
and
can be detected: the pear-shaped body resembles
, whereas,
have an elongated body.
Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and IL-4 serum levels and new genetic mutations in breast cancer (BC) patients were assessed in the current study. The serum levels ...of the examined cytokines in 40 BC patients and 40 control subjects were assessed using the ELISA technique. In order to identify genotype variants of the IL-1β, IL-4, and VEGF genes in 40 Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) samples with BC and 10 FFPE samples from healthy women's breast tissue, Sanger sequencing was used. According to this study, BC patients had significantly lower serum concentrations of IL-4 and significantly higher quantities of the tumor markers, CA15-3, IL-1β, and VEGF. In terms of genotype alterations, a total of 21 mutations in three trialed genes (eight in IL-1β, 10 in IL-4, and three in VEGF) were found in BC patients. The results of the current investigation suggested that angiogenesis and the development of BC may be significantly influenced by the genetic differences and higher levels of the examined cytokines.
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