Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) is an advanced stage of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and can lead to permanent vision loss. Currently, it affects 26.7 million people globally and on account of such a huge ...number of DME cases and the limited number of ophthalmologists, it is desirable to automate the diagnosis process. Computer-assisted, deep learning based diagnosis could help in early detection, following which precision medication can help to mitigate the vision loss.
In order to automate the screening of DME, we propose a novel DMENet Algorithm which is built on the pillars of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). DMENet analyses the preprocessed color fundus images and passes it through a two-stage pipeline. The first stage detects the presence or absence of DME whereas the second stage takes only the positive cases and grades the images based on severity. In both the stages, we use a novel Hierarchical Ensemble of CNNs (HE-CNN). This paper uses two of the popular publicly available datasets IDRiD and MESSIDOR for classification. Preprocessing on the images is performed using morphological opening and gaussian kernel. The dataset is augmented to solve the class imbalance problem for better performance of the proposed model.
The proposed methodology achieved an average Accuracy of 96.12%, Sensitivity of 96.32%, Specificity of 95.84%, and F-1 score of 0.9609 on MESSIDOR and IDRiD datasets.
These excellent results establish the validity of the proposed methodology for use in DME screening and solidifies the applicability of the HE-CNN classification technique in the domain of biomedical imaging.
This paper proposes a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) for fast convergence and harmonic minimization in three-phase eleven-level hybrid cascaded multilevel inverter (HC-MLI). Selective ...harmonic elimination pulsewidth modulation (SHE-PWM) technique implemented through MPSO has been used in the proposed work for synthesizing an eleven-level output voltage using two dc sources, a precharged capacitor, and twelve switches. The switching angles of the three-phase eleven-level HC-MLI has been computed for eliminating specified lower order odd harmonics such as 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th from the output voltage of the HC-MLI. In the proposed MPSO optimized HC-MLI, capacitor voltage balance is also ensured even at higher modulation indices by utilizing the redundant switching states available at different switching instances of the HC-MLI. The performance of the MPSO optimized three-phase eleven-level HC-MLI has been verified through simulation and experimentation on a 1.5-kW prototype using closed-loop control. The results obtained through MPSO are compared with the results obtained through genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) in terms of convergence rate and harmonic content. It has been found that MPSO gives improved results in comparison to GA and PSO.
Following the modern-day urbanization and industrialization, heavy metal contamination has become a prime concern for today’s society. Starting from the agricultural soil in our food basket these ...heavy metals and metalloids, like - Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Sn, Hg,Pb and others, showing significant toxic impacts. The intensification of agricultural land-use and changes in farming practices along with technological advancement has led to heavy metal pollution in soil. Metals/ metalloids concentrations in the soil are increasing at alarming rate due to modern day agricultural practices as these could not be degraded and affect plant growth, food safety and soil microflora. The biological and geological reorganization of heavy metal depends chiefly on green plants and their metabolism. Metal toxicity has direct effects and importance to flora that forms the integral component of ecosystem. Altered biochemical, physiological and metabolic processes are found in plants growing in regions of high metal pollution. However, metals like Cu, Mn, Co, Zn and Cr are required in trace amounts by plants for their metabolic activities. The present review aims to catalogue major published works related to heavy metal contamination in modern day agriculture, and draw a possible road map towards future research in this domain.
Skin cancer is considered to be the most common human malignancy. Around 5 million new cases of skin cancer are recorded in the United States annually. Early identification and evaluation of skin ...lesions are of great clinical significance, but the disproportionate dermatologist-patient ratio poses a significant problem in most developing nations. Therefore a novel deep architecture, named as SkiNet, is proposed to provide faster screening solution and assistance to newly trained physicians in the process of clinical diagnosis of skin cancer. The main motive behind SkiNet’s design and development is to provide a white box solution, addressing a critical problem of trust and interpretability which is crucial for the wider adoption of Computer-aided diagnosis systems by medical practitioners. The proposed SkiNet is a two-stage pipeline wherein the lesion segmentation is followed by the lesion classification. Monte Carlo dropout and test time augmentation techniques have been employed in the proposed method to estimate epistemic and aleatoric uncertainty. A novel segmentation model named Bayesian MultiResUNet is used to estimate the uncertainty on the predicted segmentation map. Saliency-based methods like XRAI, Grad-CAM and Guided Backprop are explored to provide post-hoc explanations of the deep learning models. The ISIC-2018 dataset is used to perform the experimentation and ablation studies. The results establish the robustness of the proposed model on the traditional benchmarks while addressing the black-box nature of such models to alleviate the skepticism of medical practitioners by incorporating transparency and confidence to the model’s prediction.
A growing threat to male infertility has become a major concern for the human population due to the advent of modern technologies as a source of radiofrequency radiation (RFR). Since these ...technologies have become an integral part of our daily lives, thus, it becomes necessary to know the impression of such radiations on human health. In view of this, the current study aims to focus on the biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiations on mouse Leydig cell line (TM3) in a time-dependent manner. TM3 cells were exposed to RFR emitted from 4G cell phone and also exposed to a particular frequency of 1800 MHz and 2450 MHz from RFR exposure system. The cells were then evaluated for different parameters such as cell viability, cell proliferation, testosterone production, and ROS generation. A considerable reduction in the testosterone levels and proliferation rate of TM3 cells were observed at 120 min of exposure as compared to the control group in all exposure settings. Conversely, the intracellular ROS levels showed a significant rise at 60, 90 and 120 min of exposure in both mobile phone and 2450 MHz exposure groups. However, RFR treatment for different time durations (15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min) did not have significant effect on cell viability at any of the exposure condition (2450 MHz, 1800 MHz, and mobile phone radiation). Therefore, our findings concluded with the negative impact of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiations on Leydig cell's physiological functions, which could be a serious concern for male infertility. However, additional studies are required to determine the specific mechanism of RFR action as well as its long-term consequences.
The many-body localization transition is a dynamical quantum phase transition between a localized and an extended phase. We study this transition in the XXZ model with disordered magnetic field and ...focus on the time evolution following a global quantum quench. While the dynamics of the bipartite entanglement and spin fluctuations are already known to provide insights into the nature of the many-body localized phases, we discuss the relevance of these quantities in the context of the localization transition. In particular, we observe that near the transition the long time limits of both quantities show behavior similar to divergent thermodynamic fluctuations.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) using biventricular pacing (BVP) is effective in patients with heart failure, bundle branch block (BBB), or right ventricular pacing. Permanent His-bundle ...pacing (HBP) has been reported as an alternative option for CRT.
The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and outcomes of HBP in CRT eligible or failed patients.
HBP was attempted as a rescue strategy in patients with failed left ventricular lead or nonresponse to BVP (group I), or as a primary strategy in patients with AV block, BBB, or high ventricular pacing burden as an alternative to BVP (group II) in patients with indications for CRT. Implant characteristics, New York Heart Association functional class, and echocardiographic data were assessed in follow-up.
HBP was successful in 95 of 106 patients (90%): 30 in group I and 65 in group II. Mean age was 71 ± 12 years and 30% were female, with BBB in 45%, paced rhythm in 39%, and AV block in 16%. His capture and BBB correction thresholds were 1.4 ± 0.9 V and 2.0 ± 1.2 V at 1 ms, respectively. During mean follow-up of 14 months, both groups demonstrated significant narrowing of QRS from 157 ± 33 ms to 117 ± 18 ms (P = .0001), increase in left ventricular ejection fraction from 30% ± 10% to 43% ± 13% (P = .0001), and improvement in New York Heart Association functional class from 2.8 ± 0.5 to 1.8 ± 0.6 (P = .0001) with HBP. Lead-related complications occurred in 7 patients.
Permanent HBP is a promising alternative for CRT. HBP may be considered as a rescue strategy for failed BVP and may be a reasonable primary alternative to BVP for CRT.
The higher airborne microbial concentration in indoor areas might be responsible for the adverse indoor air quality, which relates well with poor respiratory and general health effects in the form of ...Sick building syndromes. The current study aimed to isolate and characterize the seasonal (winter and spring) levels of culturable bio-aerosols from indoor air, implicating human health by using an epidemiological health survey. Microorganisms were identified by standard macro and microbiological methods, followed by biochemical testing and molecular techniques. Sampling results revealed the bacterial and fungal aerosol concentrations ranging between (300-3650 CFU/m3) and (300-4150 CFU/m3) respectively, in different microenvironments during the winter season (December-February). However, in spring (March-May), bacterial and fungal aerosol concentrations were monitored, ranging between (450-5150 CFU/m3) and (350-5070 CFU/m3) respectively. Interestingly, Aspergillus and Cladosporium were the majorly recorded fungi whereas, Staphylococcus, Streptobacillus, and Micrococcus found predominant bacterial genera among all the sites. Taken together, the elevated levels of bioaerosols are the foremost risk factor that can lead to various respiratory and general health issues in additional analysis, the questionnaire survey indicated the headache (28%) and allergy (20%) were significant indoor health concerns. This type of approach will serve as a foundation for assisting residents in taking preventative measures to avoid exposure to dangerous bioaerosols.
•The current review is an extensive study on agricultural utilization of biosolids and its potential effects on soil and plant grown.•Both positive as well as negative aspect of agricultural ...utilization of biosolids has been extensively discussed.•Even new aspect like biosolids and omics has also been covered in.•It has been tried to update the existing knowledge at its best and present the insight of pro and cons of agricultural utilization of biosolids.
Environmental and economic implications linked with the proper ecofriendly disposal of modern day wastes, has made it essential to come up with alternative waste management practices that reduce the environmental pressures resulting from unwise disposal of such wastes. Urban wastes like biosolids are loaded with essential plant nutrients. In this view, agricultural use of biosolids would enable recycling of these nutrients and could be a sustainable approach towards management of this hugely generated waste. Therefore biosolids i.e. sewage sludge can serve as an important resource for agricultural utilization. Biosolids are characterized by the occurrence of beneficial plant nutrients (essential elements and micro and macronutrients) which can make help them to work as an effective soil amendment, thereby minimizing the reliance on chemical fertilizers.
However, biosolids might contain toxic heavy metals that may limit its usage in the cropland. Heavy metals at higher concentration than the permissible limits may lead to food chain contamination and have fatal consequences. Biosolids amendment in soil can improve physical and nutrient property of soil depending on the quantity and portion of the mixture. Hence, biosolids can be a promising soil ameliorating supplement to increase plant productivity, reduce bioavailability of heavy metals and also lead to effective waste management.
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