Lung cancer histopathological image classification using wavelets and AlexNet

Among malignant tumors, lung cancer has the highest morbidity and fatality rates worldwide. Screening for lung cancer has been investigated for decades in order to reduce mortality rates of lung cancer patients, and treatment options have improved dramatically in recent years. Pathologists utilize various techniques to determine the stage, type, and subtype of lung cancers, but one of the most common is a visual assessment of histopathology slides. The most common subtypes of lung cancer are adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, lung benign, and distinguishing between them requires visual inspection by a skilled pathologist. The purpose of this article was to develop a hybrid network for the categorization of lung histopathology images, and it did so by combining AlexNet, wavelet, and support vector machines. In this study, we feed the integrated discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients and AlexNet deep features into linear support vector machines (SVMs) for lung nodule sample classification. The LC25000 Lung and colon histopathology image dataset, which contains 5,000 digital histopathology images in three categories of benign (normal cells), adenocarcinoma, and squamous carcinoma cells (both are cancerous cells) is used in this study to train and test SVM classifiers. The study results of using a 10-fold cross-validation method achieve an accuracy of 99.3% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.99 in classifying these digital histopathology images of lung nodule samples.

Abnormal amyloid β42 expression and increased oxidative stress in plasma of CKD patients with cognitive dysfunction: A small scale case control study comparison with Alzheimer's disease

Background

Cognitive dysfunction has been increasingly recognized in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Senile plaques are important pathophysiological characteristic of cognitive dysfunction. The major component of plaques is the amyloid β (Aβ) peptide released from proteolytic cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Plasma Aβ has been a focus of the growing literature on blood based biomarkers for cognitive dysfunction. Oxidative stress is prevalent in CKD and it plays an important role in cognitive dysfunction. Increased oxidative stress leads to cause cleavage of APP and Aβ production. The aim of this study is to assess the antioxidant status and Aβ₄₂ levels in plasma of CKD patients with cognitive dysfunction compared to CKD without cognitive dysfunction.

Methods

A total of 60 subjects divided into 30 CKD without cognitive dysfunction and 30 CKD with cognitive dysfunction based on neuropsychological assessment tests. To compare antioxidant status and Aβ₄₂ levels in plasma, the following groups such as healthy subjects (n = 30), normocytic normochromic anemia (n = 30) and Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 10) patients were also maintained. Plasma Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT), Glutathione peroxidase (GPx), Reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were determined by spectrophotometrically. Aβ level was determined by immunoblotting method. The parameters were statistically compared with healthy, normocytic normochromic anemia and AD subjects.

Results

Like AD subjects, significantly increased Aβ and LPO level while decreased SOD, CAT, GPx and GSH levels were observed in plasma of CKD patients with cognitive dysfunction when compared to healthy, CKD without cognitive dysfunction and normocytic normochromic anemic subjects.

Conclusion

Results suggest that elevated plasma oxidative stress and Aβ were seen in CKD patients with cognitive dysfunction may be attributed to pathological changes within the brain.

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Cognitive dysfunction has been increasingly recognized in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.

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The major component of plaques is the amyloid β peptide released from proteolytic cleavage of amyloid precursor protein.

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Plasma Aβ has been a focus of the growing literature on blood based biomarkers for cognitive dysfunction.

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Oxidative stress is prevalent in CKD and it plays an important role in cognitive dysfunction.

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Increased oxidative stress leads to cause cleavage of APP and Aβ production.

Evaluation of the relative accuracy of anthropometric indicators to assess body fatness as measured by air displacement plethysmography in Indian women

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relative accuracy of anthropometric indicators of body fatness or adiposity as compared to the percent fat measured by air displacement plethysmography in Indian women with normal body mass index (BMI).

METHODS

Percent body fat was assessed using the BodPod in 58 women, aged 30-56 years. The relative accuracy of anthropometric indicators of body fatness like BMI, waist-stature-ratio (WSR), waist-thigh-ratio (WTR), waist-hip-ratio (WHR), and circumferences at arm, neck, chest, waist, hip, and thigh were tested using an ROC curve analysis.

RESULTS

Seventy-nine percent women had excess body fat (≥30%). Among the 10 indicators tested, BMI and arm circumference (AC) demonstrated high accuracy (AUC > 0.9) to assess body fatness with derived cutoffs of 21.2 kg/m(2) and 24.2 cm, respectively. WSR and circumferences at neck, chest, waist, hip, and thigh showed moderate accuracy to assess body fatness, whereas WHR and WTR demonstrated poor accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

BMI and AC were the best performing indicators of adiposity among the indicators studied. AC, being a single measurement, is practical and a good choice. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:743-745, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy-based investigation and classification of pharmaceutical tablets using multivariate chemometric analysis

We report the effectiveness of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in probing the content of pharmaceutical tablets and also investigate its feasibility for routine classification. This method is particularly beneficial in applications where its exquisite chemical specificity and suitability for remote and on site characterization significantly improves the speed and accuracy of quality control and assurance process. Our experiments reveal that in addition to the presence of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, which can be primarily attributed to the active pharmaceutical ingredients, specific inorganic atoms were also present in all the tablets. Initial attempts at classification by a ratiometric approach using oxygen (∼777 nm) to nitrogen (742.36 nm, 744.23 nm and 746.83 nm) compositional values yielded an optimal value at 746.83 nm with the least relative standard deviation but nevertheless failed to provide an acceptable classification. To overcome this bottleneck in the detection process, two chemometric algorithms, i.e. principal component analysis (PCA) and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), were implemented to exploit the multivariate nature of the LIBS data demonstrating that LIBS has the potential to differentiate and discriminate among pharmaceutical tablets. We report excellent prospective classification accuracy using supervised classification via the SIMCA algorithm, demonstrating its potential for future applications in process analytical technology, especially for fast on-line process control monitoring applications in the pharmaceutical industry.

First-trimester prenatal diagnosis of pyruvate kinase deficiency in an Indian family with the pyruvate kinase-Amish mutation

Pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency is a rare red cell glycolytic enzymopathy. The purpose of the present investigation was to offer prenatal diagnosis for PK deficiency to a couple who had a previous child with severe enzyme deficiency and congenital non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia. PK deficiency was identified in the family by assaying the enzyme activity in red cells. Chorionic villus sampling was performed in an 11-week gestation and the mutation was located in exon 10 of the PKLR gene characterized by polymerase chain reaction and using restriction endonuclease digestion with the MspI enzyme, which was confirmed by DNA sequencing on the ABI 310 DNA sequencer. Both the parents were heterozygous for the 1436G-->A [479 Arg-->His] mutation in exon 10 and the proband was homozygous for this mutation. The fetus was also heterozygous for this mutation and the pregnancy was continued. Prenatal diagnosis allowed the parents with a severely affected child with PK deficiency to have the reproductive choice of having the fetus tested in a subsequent pregnancy.