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Background: Empirical use of pharmacogenetic test(PGT) is advocated for many drugs, and resource-rich setting hospitals are using the same commonly. The clinical translation of pharmacogenetic tests in terms of cost and clinical utility is yet to be examined in hospitals of low middle income countries (LMICs). Aim: The present study assessed the clinical utility of PGT by comparing the pharmacogenetically(PGT) guided- versus standard of care(SOC)- warfarin therapy, including the health economics of the two warfarin therapies. Methods: An open-label, randomized, controlled clinical trial recruited warfarin-receiving patients in pharmacogenetically(PGT) guided- versus standard of care(SOC)- study arms. Pharmacogenetic analysis of CYP2C9*2(rs1799853), CYP2C9*3(rs1057910) and VKORC1(rs9923231) was performed for patients recruited to the PGT-guided arm. PT(Prothrombin Time)-INR(international normalized ratio) testing and dose titrations were allowed as per routine clinical practice. The primary endpoint was the percent time spent in the therapeutic INR range(TTR) during the 90-day observation period. Secondary endpoints were time to reach therapeutic INR(TRT), the proportion of adverse events, and economic comparison between two modes of therapy in a Markov model built for the commonest warfarin indication- atrial fibrillation. Results: The study enrolled 168 patients, 84 in each arm. Per-protocol analysis showed a significantly high median time spent in therapeutic INR in the genotype-guided arm(42.85%; CI 21.4-66.75) as compared to the SOC arm(8.8%; CI 0-27.2)(p < 0.00001). The TRT was less in the PG-guided warfarin dosing group than the standard-of-care dosing warfarin group (17.85 vs. 33.92 days) (p = 0.002). Bleeding and thromboembolic events were similar in the two study groups. Lifetime expenditure was ₹1,26,830 in the PGT arm compared to ₹1,17,907 in the SOC arm. The QALY gain did not differ in the two groups(3.9 vs. 3.65). Compared to SOC, the incremental cost-utility ratio was ₹35,962 per QALY gain with PGT test opting. In deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the base case results were found to be insensitive to the variation in model parameters. In the cost-effectiveness-acceptability curve analysis, a 90% probability of cost-effectiveness was reached at a willingness-to-pay(WTP) of ₹ 71,630 well below one time GDP threshold of WTP used. Conclusion: Clinical efficacy and the cost-effectiveness of the warfarin pharmacogenetic test suggest its routine use as a point of care investigation for patient care in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Robotic surgery, also known as robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), involves a camera and a small surgical instrument attached to a robotic arm. A trained surgeon operates the robot from a viewing screen while being in the same room. Methodology: This review was prepared following Cochrane collaboration guidelines and reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Two authors independently searched and appraised the studies published in PubMed, cumulative index to nursing and allied health literature (CINAHL), Embase, Clinical Key, and Google Scholar. Pooled data analyzed and reported in RevMan software version—5.4. Results: This systematic review and meta-analysis comprised 1400 medical students, from 8 studies. The participants’ age ranged from 23 to 49 years. Similarly, the sample size ranged from 25 and 300. The pooled prevalence of the existing studies revealed that 29.8% of medical students, were favorable towards RAS. Effect size (ES), 95% confidence intervals (CI) and heterogeneity (I2) [ES = 29.8, 95% CI 16.4–43.2, I2 = 95.1%, P < 0.00]. About 40% of Australian medical students’ positive opinion on RAS [ES = 40.4, 95% CI 25.7–55.2]. Similarly, 34.2% of students from Saudi Arabia [ES = 29.8, 95% CI 22.4–90.8, I2 = 99.3%, P < 0.00], 27.8% students from Canada [ES = 27.8, 95% CI 15.9–39.6], 24.8% from USA [ES = 24.8, 95% CI 6.9–42.7, I2 = 77.3%, P < 0.00] and 24% [ES = 24, 95% CI 18–30] from India favorable towards RAS. Discussion: Medical students from developed nations display favorable attitudes towards RAS. However, implementing of revised curriculum at the beginning of the graduation level sparks medical students' attitude towards robotic surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a de-noising method for speckle noise removal called de-speckling, retinal optical coherence tomography image by combining the features of wavelet transform, statistical modeling, Bayesian estimators and Gaussianization procedure. De-speckling methods based on statistical modeling of wavelet coefficients depend on the correct estimation of probability density function (PDF). The density estimation problem has been solved by using the Gaussianization procedure. The dynamic range capability of Gaussian PDF has been used for sharp estimation of density. A Cauchy PDF is used for modeling wavelet coefficients and finding the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of wavelet coefficients. This CDF is used as the input to the Gaussianization procedure, where it equalizes with the Gaussian CDF to estimate the density function of wavelet coefficients. Finally, the wavelet coefficients are recovered using Bayesian minimum mean square error estimator. Both visual and quantitative comparisons are performed for demonstrating the prominence of the proposed method. From simulation result it is seen that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity, correlation coefficient (CoC) and edge preservation index (EPI). The proposed method has been achieved improvement of 5.13% in PSNR, 2.44% in SSIM, 2.11% in CoC and 3.45% in EPI over the well accepted existing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) is congenital pulmonary anomaly characterized by multicystic areas, over-distension, and proliferation of terminal bronchioles with lack of normal alveoli. Clinical presentation may vary from mild respiratory symptoms to severe respiratory distress and frequent pneumothoraxes. We report a rare case of neonatal CPAM type I manifested with neonatal respiratory distress and pneumothorax, which was managed successfully with left lower lobectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WBAN has been gaining wide interest as it enables continuous and real-time monitoring of applications like healthcare, sports, entertainment and military. IEEE 802.15.6 is the IEEE WBAN standard supporting low power wireless communication in and around the human body. On-body WBAN comprises of several nodes deployed on the human body to measure various physiological data and further forward it to the central node. For efficient working of WBAN, the central node which may act as the gateway is preferably placed on the body itself. In this work for the considered scenarios best location for the central node is computed using Reflection Coefficient (S11) of an antenna positioned on the body and IEEE 802.15.6 CM3A path loss model between the communicating nodes. Considering a steady position of the body in the laboratory, computations have been carried out by using a standard λ/4 microstrip monopole patch ultra-wideband antenna attached with a vector network analyzer (VNA). Various parameters are evaluated from the measured data and compared to investigate the effect of different node positions on WBAN performance and hence explore best suitable location for the central node. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a prototype filter design using the orthant optimization technique to assist a filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) modulation scheme of a NextG smart e-healthcare network framework. Low latency and very high reliability are one of the main requirements of a real-time e-healthcare system. In recent times, FBMC modulation has gotten more attention due to its spectral efficiency. The characteristics of a filter bank are determined by t's, prototype filter. A prototype filter cannot be designed to achieve an arbitrary time localization (for low latency) and frequency localization (spectral efficiency), as time and frequency spreading are conflicting goals. Hence, an optimum design needed to be achieved. In this paper, a constraint for perfect or nearly perfect reconstruction is formulated for prototype filter design and an orthant-based enriched sparse ℓ1-optimization method is applied to achieve the optimum performance in terms of higher availability of subcarrier spacing for the given requirement of signal-to-interference ratio. Larger subcarrier spacing ensures lower latency and better performance in real-time applications. The proposed FBMC system, based on an optimum design of the prototype filter, also supports a higher data rate as compared to traditional FBMC and OFDM systems, which is another requirement of real-time communication. In this paper, the solution for the different technical issues of physical layer design is provided. The presented modulation scheme through the proposed prototype filter-based FBMC can suppress the side lobe energy of the constituted filters up to large extent without compromising the recovery of the signal at the receiver end. The proposed system provides very high spectral efficiency; it can sacrifice large guard band frequencies to increase the subcarrier spacing to provide low-latency communication to support the real-time e-healthcare network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an automated method for detection of the diagnostically prominent frames containing optic nerve sheath (ONS) from ocular ultrasonography video using deep learning; such frames are referred to as "Good View" frames in this paper. Vivid acquisition and measurement of diagnostic features during ultrasound imaging is a challenging task; it needs a highly skilled and experienced medical expert. Automated detection of the Good View frame and the subsequent automatic measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD), predicting elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) status, will eliminate the need for frequent intervention of a medical expert for continuous monitoring and ICP status in traumatic patients. In the presented work, the proposed model automatically detects the appropriate frames containing ONS, from an ultrasound video, by using faster region-based CNN (Faster R-CNN) object detection model. The region proposal detection network finds the ONS by using bounding boxes. In addition, three CNN-based architectures are used for its feature extraction. Finally, SoftMax classifier classifies the ONS containing Good View frame. The Inceptionv2, ResNet50, and ResNet101 architectures are then compared by utilizing the optimized learning rate and epoch parameters for the CNN model so as to provide better detection of the Good View frame. The performance of the developed module has been analyzed by proposing a grading criterion of the Good View frame. Based on the detection score and mean opinion score, an USG frame is considered a Good View for a 95–99% detection score, and this Good View frame is used for measuring the ONSD value. It is found that Faster R-CNN ResNet101 (model 3) is an optimal model in terms of sensitivity and specificity for Good View frame detection at a learning rate of 0.0003. The sensitivity and specificity of this model are obtained as 90.41 and 91.45, respectively. Furthermore, the ONSD value is measured from Good View-detected frames using an automated algorithm involving image processing and computational methods. Considering the Good View frame (detection score 95–99), the algorithm-generated ONSD values are compared with the radiologist's measured value of ONSD to validate the findings; a small percent root mean square difference (PRD) of 0.501 is found between these values, which is strong indicative of the accuracy of algorithm generated ONSD measurement using automatically detected Good View ocular USG frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a low cost, robust, portable and automated cataract detection system which can detect the presence of cataract from the colored digital eye images and grade their severity. Ophthalmologists detect cataract through visual screening using ophthalmoscope and slit lamps. Conventionally a patient has to visit an ophthalmologist for eye screening and treatment follows the course. Developing countries lack the proper health infrastructure and face huge scarcity of trained medical professionals as well as technicians. The condition is not very satisfactory with the rural and remote areas of developed nations. To bridge this barrier between the patient and the availability of resources, current work focuses on the development of portable low-cost, robust cataract screening and grading system. Similar works use fundus and retinal images which use costly imaging modules and image based detection algorithms which use much complex neural network models. Current work derives its benefit from the advancements in digital image processing techniques. A set of preprocessing has been done on the colored eye image and later texture information in form of mean intensity, uniformity, standard deviation and randomness has been calculated and mapped with the diagnostic opinion of doctor for cataract screening of over 200 patients. For different grades of cataract severity edge pixel count was calculated as per doctor's opinion and later these data are used for calculating the thresholds using hybrid k-means algorithm, for giving a decision on the presence of cataract and grade its severity. Low value of uniformity and high value of other texture parameters confirm the presence of cataract as clouding in eye lens causes the uniformity function to take lower value due to presence of coarse texture. Higher the edge pixel count value, this confirms the presence of starting of cataract as solidified regions in lens are nonuniform. Lower value corresponds to fully solidified region or matured cataract. Proposed algorithm was initially developed on MATLAB, and tested on over 300 patients in an eye camp. The system has shown more than 98% accuracy in detection and grading of cataract. Later a cloud based system was developed with 3D printed image acquisition module to manifest an automated, portable and efficient cataract detection system for Tele-Ophthalmology. The proposed system uses a very simple and efficient technique by mapping the diagnostic opinion of the doctor as well, giving very promising results which suggest its potential use in teleophthalmology applications to reduce the cost of delivering eye care services and increasing its reach effectively. Developed system is simple in design and easy to operate and suitable for mass screening of cataracts. Due to non-invasive and non-mydriatic and mountable nature of device, in person screening is not required. Hence, social distancing norms are easy to follow and device is very useful in COVID-19 like situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents early-automated glaucoma detection algorithm by extracting early diagnostic parameters, namely, parapapillary atrophy and Cup to Disc ratio using DIP. Glaucoma is optic neuropathy chronic eye diseases, which is progressed as intraocular pressure inside eyeball increases. Proposed method mainly consists of five stages, namely ROI extraction, pre-processing, diagnostic parameter extraction, feature extraction, and classification. First, optic disc region is extracted from fundus image because diagnostic parameters lie around OD. ROI is extracted using the horizontal and vertical edge of vascular tree in OD region. Diagnostic parameters such as CDR and PPA are extracted from ROI region. CDR is calculated using K-means clustering and polar transform. PPA is earliest sign of glaucoma. In many cases, occurrence of PPA before the increased CDR value gives indication of early glaucoma. PPA detection and extraction are accomplished using polar transform method and direct least-square fitting algorithm of an ellipse. Optimal categorization of PPA area and residue area is done by K-means clustering. Features of diagnostic parameters such as CDR and area of PPA are extracted for classification model. Features of fundus images are taken as input and labels as output for training parameters of SVM. SVM model is trained with five-fold validation on 141 images, which consists of healthy and glaucoma due to PPA and CDR. Thirty-nine images are used for testing of SVM model and sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy values are 100%, 88.2%, and 97.3% respectively. Diagnostic results obtained by proposed algorithm, about early glaucoma presence is further validated by ophthalmologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study is to elucidate the potential risk zones prone to the invasion of perennial ornamental plant Lantana camara, which is native to South America and has invasive tendency in Jharkhand, eastern India, for present (2020) and the future (2050) climatic conditions under four different Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios (RCPs). We analysed the current distribution pattern of L. camara in the plateau region of eastern India and identified potentially suitable habitats prone to its further infestation in the future under the climate change scenario. Results: Results showed the presence of L. camara invasion in ~ 13% of the geographical area of Jharkhand, Chotanagpur plateau which may expand up to 20–26% by 2050 depending upon emission scenarios as characterised by the four RCPs. Analysis for the current scenario suggests the dominance of L. camara in sub-zone V (12.77% under high risk zones (HRZ) and 9.5% under critical risk zones (CRZ)) followed by sub-zones IV (6.7%: HRZ; 4.19%: CRZ) and VI (2.49%: HRZ; 2.14%: CRZ). Future projection (2050) indicates a possible expansion of its distribution range across all agro-climatic sub-zones with dominance in sub-zones V and IV. Variable Bio_4 (temperature seasonality) was observed as the most contributing factor for the distribution of L. camara for current and future scenarios across all RCPs. Suitable habitat for L. camara mostly occurred under natural vegetation (66.05% of CRZ and 60.71% of HRZ) and agriculture landscape (29.51% of CRZ and 34.48% of HRZ). Conclusions: The study provides an insight of invasion of L. camara in the plateau region of eastern India, and reveals wide distribution across all the agro-climatic sub-zones of Jharkhand, mostly in open and disturbed areas under natural vegetation and agriculture landscapes. Future projections for the year 2050 suggest a continuous increase in the expansion range of invasion across Jharkhand and call for urgent initiatives to combat its further invasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has a great potential to strengthen health care sector, as it paves ways for the development of new services and applications. In making WBAN technically feasible, high Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) and low outage probability plays a vital role. In vivo communication is one where communication between living beings can be carried out wirelessly. It utilizes data gathered in real time for quick and accurate responses in emergency situations. To fully benefit from and further explore the potentiality of WBANs for realistic applications, it is critical to analyze the performance of in vivo WBAN communication over different frequency bands. Over the past many years, Medical Implant Communication System (MICS) band has extensively been used for implant medical applications and Terahertz (THz) band shows promising link capability to support increased data rates. In the proposed work, performance of an in vivo WBAN system, at MICS and Terahertz frequencies based upon IEEE 802.15.6 channel models (CM), CM1 and CM2 has been assessed. The effect of incorporating cooperative communication for in vivo WBAN is then presented to see how it enhances the network performance at both the bands. The impact on the system's SNR and outage probability is investigated for number of relays. The outage behavior of amplify and forward cooperative communication with multiple relays is investigated over a Rayleigh fading channel. Results show considerable increase in the system SNR and decrease in outage probability with increase in number of relays, which strongly indicates the possibility of incorporating cooperative communication to elevate the performance of in vivo WBAN at both MICS and terahertz frequencies. Further, nature inspired optimization is done to reduce the outage probability. Results show that the projected technique surpasses the non-optimized technique and ensures favorable results. The results achieved at THz band have also been compared to that obtained at MICS band and it is demonstrated that better performance can be achieved at THz band by incorporating cooperative communication in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method for automated detection of retinal detachment from ocular ultrasound image using digital image processing and computational techniques. Retinal detachment (RD) is an ocular emergency in which retina gets detached from the tissues lying underneath it and often requires immediate intervention to prevent rapid, irreversible vision loss. Direct fundoscopy and visual field testing are most common methods for the detection of RD. These methods are difficult to perform and they do not completely rule out retinal detachment. Generally, Ophthalmologists use ocular ultrasound to enhance their clinical acumen in detecting RD. Sometimes it is difficult to extract diagnostic features from ultrasound (USG) images due to its poor quality. Also, noise present in the image would cause misinterpretation during visual inspection;this demands development of intelligent and automated techniques for detection of retinal detachment. Further, the paper proposes a novel frame work for accurate and automatic retinal detachment using image processing techniques and mathematical analysis of detached area contour detected within the ocular globe. Furthermore, the estimation of diagnostic parameters, indicative of retinal detachment is also computed. Based on the mathematical analysis, three such parameters, percentage area of detached retina (PADR) compared to the ocular globe, angular width of detachment (α) and maximum radial distance of detachment to choroid layer beneath it (β), are calculated. These estimated parameters are very useful in determining the exact location and extent of retinal detachment. Results obtained through the proposed retinal detachment detection scheme are validated by the radiologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical ultrasound images are used in clinical diagnosis and generally degraded by speckle noise. This makes difficulty in automatic interpretation of diseases in ultrasound images. This paper presents a speckle removal algorithm by modeling the wavelet coefficients. A Bayesian approach is implemented to find the noise free coefficients. Cauchy prior and Gaussian Probability Density Function (PDF) are used to model the true wavelet coefficients and noisy coefficients respectively. A Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) estimator is used to estimate the noise free wavelet coefficients. A Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) estimator is used to find the variance of affected wavelet coefficients in finest scale. The proposed method is compared with existing denoising methods. The experimental results show that the method offer up to 21.48% enhancement in Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), 1.82% enhancement in Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), 1% enhancement in Correlation coefficient (ρ) and 7.68% enhancement in Edge Preserving Index (EPI) than best existing wavelet modeling method. The results indicate that the proposed method outperforms over existing methods, both in noise reduction and edge preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an improved wavelet based medical image watermarking algorithm is proposed. Initially, the proposed technique decomposes the cover medical image into ROI and NROI regions and embedding three different watermarks into the non-region of interest (NROI) part of the transformed DWT cover image for compact and secure medical data transmission in E-health environment. In addition, the method addressing the problem of channel noise distortion may lead to faulty watermark by applying error correcting codes (ECCs) before embedding them into the cover image. Further, the bit error rates (BER) performance of the proposed method is determined for different kind of attacks including 'Checkmark' attacks. Experimental results indicate that the Turbo code performs better than BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hochquenghem) error correction code. Furthermore, the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in terms of BER and embedding capacity compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Therefore, the proposed method finds potential application in prevention of patient identity theft in e-health applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, natural neighbor Galerkin meshless method is employed for adaptive analysis of plates and laminates. The displacement field and strain field of plate are based on Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. The interpolation functions employed here were developed by Sibson and based on natural neighbor coordinates. An adaptive refinement strategy based on recovery energy norm which is in turn based on natural neighbors is employed for analysis of plates. The present adaptive procedure is applied to classical plate problems subjected to in-plane loads. In addition to that the laminated composite plates with cutouts subjected to transverse loads are investigated. Influence of the location of the cutout and the boundary conditions of the plate on the results have been studied. The results obtained with present adaptive analysis are accurate at lower computational effort when compare to that of no adaptivity. Further, the adaptive analysis provided accurate magnitude of maximum stresses and their locations in the laminate plates with and without cutout subjected to transverse loads. Additionally, failure prone areas in the geometry of the plates subjected to loads are revealed with the adaptive analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a computationally efficient joint imperceptible image watermarking and joint photographic experts group (JPEG) compression scheme. In recent times, the transmission and storage of digital documents/information over the unsecured channel are enormous concerns and nearly all of the digital documents are compressed before they are stored or transmitted to save the bandwidth requirements. There are many similar computational operations performed during watermarking and compression which lead to computational redundancy and time delay. This demands development of joint watermarking and compression scheme for various multimedia contents. In this paper, we propose a technique for image watermarking during JPEG compression to address the optimal trade-off between major performance parameters including embedding and compression rates, robustness and embedding alterations against different known signal processing attacks. The performance of the proposed technique is extensively evaluated in the form of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), correlation, compression ratio and execution time for different discrete cosine transform (DCT) blocks and watermark sizes. Embedding is done on DCT coefficients using additive watermarking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss multimedia data, image processing and histopathology.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including reversible data hiding technique in encrypted images (RDH-EI), a hybrid technique of multiple watermarking for medical images, and framework of face recognition system.

This paper presents a new secure multiple text and image watermarking scheme on cover eye image using fusion of discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) for Teleophthalmology. Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-512) is used for generating hash corresponding to iris part of the cover digital eye image and this unique hash parameter is used for enhancing the security feature of the proposed watermarking technique. Simultaneous embedding of four different watermarks (i.e. Signature, index, caption and reference watermark) in form of image and text using fusion of discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) is achieved in this paper. The suggested technique initially divides the digital eye image into Region of interest (ROI) containing iris and Non-Region of interest (NROI) part where the text and image watermarks are embedded into the Non-Region of interest (NROI) part of the DWT cover image. The selection of DWT decomposition level for embedding the text and image watermarks depends on size, different characteristics and robustness requirements of medical watermark. The performance in terms of Normalized Correlation (NC) and bit error rate (BER) of the developed scheme is evaluated and analyzed against known signal processing attacks and 'Checkmark' attacks. The method is found to be robust against all the considered attacks. The proposed multilevel watermarking method correctly extracts the embedded watermarks without error and is robust against the all considered attacks without significant degradation of the medical image quality of the watermarked image. Therefore the proposed method may find potential application in secure and compact medical data transmission for teleophthalmology applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effects of different error correction codes on the robustness and imperceptibility of discrete wavelet transform and singular value decomposition based dual watermarking scheme is investigated. Text and image watermarks are embedded into cover radiological image for their potential application in secure and compact medical data transmission. Four different error correcting codes such as Hamming, the Bose, Ray-Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (BCH), the Reed-Solomon and hybrid error correcting (BCH and repetition code) codes are considered for encoding of text watermark in order to achieve additional robustness for sensitive text data such as patient identification code. Performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated against number of signal processing attacks by varying the strength of watermarking and covers image modalities. The experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm provides better robustness without affecting the quality of watermarked image.This algorithm combines the advantages and removes the disadvantages of the two transform techniques. Out of the three error correcting codes tested, it has been found that Reed-Solomon shows the best performance. Further, a hybrid model of two of the error correcting codes (BCH and repetition code) is concatenated and implemented. It is found that the hybrid code achieves better results in terms of robustness. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the obtained experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cystic hygromas, also known as lymphangiomas, are unusual congenital malformations of the lymphatic system and commonly involve the head and neck region or axilla. Involvement of other sites such as breasts is very rare. The preferred mode of treatment for lymphangioma of the breast in adults or children is surgery. We report a case of breast lymphangioma in a 3-month-old male child, which was managed successfully by intralesional bleomycin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous perforation is a rare complication of a choledochal cyst that is difficult to diagnose because of its nonspecific clinical presentation. These patients usually present with an insidious course characterized by progressive abdominal distension, vomiting, and pain. Here, we present a series of three cases for clues for diagnosis.All patients with spontaneous perforation of a choledochal cyst who were presented to our institute from January 2009 to December 2011 were included in the study and symptoms and signs at the time of presentation were analyzed.All patients had clinical jaundice and acholic stools at the time of presentation; pain and vomiting was not a consistent feature. Abdominal paracentesis helped us diagnose these cases.Abdominal paracentesis is very useful in cases of suspected spontaneous perforation of the bile duct. Simple drainage with a T-tube, if possible, is safe, efficacious, has low morbidity, and aids in the establishment of the diagnosis as well as delineation of the anatomy of the concerned region for definitive surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel is being promoted worldwide as a supplement and alternative automotive fuel for petroleum diesel in spite of several technological, economical and social barriers. This has provided an impetus for new research to overcome these deterrents in its production, to establish its quality criteria (standards), and to develop superior analytical methods for quality control and quality assessment of biodiesel in production and entire distribution chain until consumed by end user. The present review paper briefly covers the production, characterization and standardization of biodiesel, having relevance to the preparation of certified reference materials (CRMs) of biodiesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-day-old newborn male child with a rare variant of exstrophy bladder was managed in our institute. The child has true duplicate bladder exstrophy which is extremely rare and only 8 cases reported in the world literature so far. We describe another one and briefly review the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]