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Aim: Histomorphological study of urothelial carcinoma on TRBT and Cystectomy specimen and its categorization on the basis of WHO grading & pTNM staging and to nd out the correlation between CK20 and CD44 exprression with tumour grade, pTNM staging. Material And Method: This descriptive cross sectional prospective study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, R G Kar Medical College & Hospital Kolkata in collaboration with Department of Urosurgery, R G Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal. The present study is intended to nd out over expression of CD44 & CK20 in Urothelial Carcinoma of Bladder and correlate with tumour grade and clinical features. Result: There is strong association between CD44, CK20 expression and Stage of Urothelial Carcinoma cases and had a strong association between CD44 expressions and grade Urothelial Carcinoma cases. Conclusion: CK20 overexpression was seen more signicantly in High Grade tumours HGPUC (p < 0.05) as well as advanced stage pT2 and CD44 overexpression was more signicantly in lower grade tumours LGPUC (p

“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.”~ Lee BolmanEffective strategies and proper planning are the key instruments to achieve our goals. Strategic planning is important to any organisation because it provides a sense of direction and outlines measurable goals. This tool is useful for taking decisive measures and evaluating progress. Hence, sketching proper strategies for successful business development and career growth is very important. In the Corporate World, communication is one of the essential building blocks of success for a Company and hence planning strategies for enhancing Business Communication is very essential for the growth of the business. Effective business communication is how employees and management interact among each other to reach organizational goals and be more aligned with the core company values. Its main purpose is to improve organizational practices, keep employees informed and reduce errors. Enhancing business communication is very important as it develops the Company as a whole and throws light on various scopes of achieving success. Public Speaking Skills and Networking Skills are the two most important weapons for Business Communication and Corporate Development. Sketching effective public relations and networking strategies is, therefore, very essential and will help in the growth of one’s career. In this paper, various PR and Networking Strategies have been discussed, which aims at enhancing Business Communication and hence will lead to effective business development and career growth.

Background The conventional Papanicolaou-stained cervical smear is the most common screening test for cervical cancer. The sensitivity of the test in detecting abnormal cells is 67–75% in various studies. Owing to the volume of smears at cancer screening centres, significant man-hours are expended in the test. We have developed a software program for identification of foci of abnormal cells from conventional smears. We have chosen the convolutional neural network (CNN) model for its efficacy in image classification. Methods A total of 1838 microphotographs from cervical smears, containing 1301 ‘normal’ foci and 537 ‘abnormal’ foci were included in the study. The data set was split into training, testing and validation sets. A CNN was developed in the Python programming language. The CNN was trained with the training and testing set. At the end of training, 94.64% accuracy was achieved in the testing set. The CNN was then run on the validation set (441 images). Results The CNN showed 94.28% sensitivity, 96.01% specificity, 91.66% positive predictive value and 97.30% negative predictive value. The CNN could recognise normal squamous cells, overlapping cells, neutrophils and debris and classify the focus appropriately. False positives were reported when the CNN failed to recognise overlapping cells (2.7% microphotographs). It could correctly label cell clusters with high nuclear cytoplasmic ratio and hyperchromasia. In 1.8% of microphotographs, a false negative was reported. Conclusion The CNN showed 95.46% diagnostic accuracy, suggesting potential use in screening.

Aim of this study is to assess the expression of p16 as an immunohistochemical marker (which is a predictor or surrogate marker of high risk HPV infection) in oropharyngeal, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and its correlation with different histomorphological features. Our study was an observational, descriptive study with cross-sectional design, done in the Department of Pathology, in collaboration with the Department of Plastic Surgery. It was conducted on a group of patients admitted in Department of plastic Surgery, R G KarMedical College & Hospital, and Kolkata. The samples included 54 specimens of, oropharyngeal & head neck SCC. Here, in this study, the expression of P16 in oropharyngeal & head neck SCC was shown& correlated with their histomorphological features. In present study median age of p16 positive patients were 54 years and male were more commonly affected than female. According to Socio economic status p16 positive cases were most commonly found in Lower status. Present study also showed that most of the p16 positive patients with SCC were married and literate. In most of the p16 positive cases history of one or more predisposing factors were present. Tobacco chewing came out as a most common risk factor. Most of the p16 positive cases were located at Oropharynx that came out as most common site. In all p16 positive cases, most of them had Non Keratinizing SCC which was statistically significant.

Introduction: The class mammalian is remarkable for the evolution of modied skin appendages that provide complete nourishment and immunological protection to the young. The breasts form a secondary sexual feature of females and are the source of nutrition for the neonate. They are also present in a rudimentary form in males. Aims And Objectives: Histomorphological study of invasive breast carcinoma on mastectomy specimens and its categorization on the basis ofhistologic grading and PTNM staging. Expression prole of immunohistochemical marker CD44 on invasive breast carcinoma. Correlation between CD44 expression with tumour grade and PTNM staging. Microscopic diagnosis and histopathological analysis of invasive breast carcinoma and its categorization on histologic grading and PTNM staging. Expression of CD44 in invasive breast carcinoma after histopathological diagnosis. Correlation of CD44 expression with that of tumour grade and PTNM staging. Materials And Methods: This study was conducted on a group of patients admitted in Department of General Surgery in collaboration with the Department of Pathology, R G Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata over a period of 18 months. Cross sectional observational descriptive study. Conclusion: The main strength of our study was tertiary care hospital set-up, having infrastructure supportive enough to enable us to study invasive breast carcinoma from various socio-economic background, with diverse mode of presentation. We were able to do the necessary investigations in each case. There were some limitations in our study as limited duration of time, small sample size, unable to follow up results. This study needs to be extrapolated to a large population based sample with nancial support sufcient enough to nd relationship of expression of biomarker with grade and stage of tumour. In short, the present study has revealed various facets of breast carcinomas keeping comparable results with different studies. These ndings need to be conrmed by a larger prospective cohort.

The increasingly assertive position of social media as a news source means that news audiences can no longer depend on traditional journalists for information verification. Instead, they must determine the news credibility on their own. The majority of information credibility studies have considered news audiences’ information evaluation as a purely cognitive endeavor, implying that individuals can arrive at valid information without social validation. By drawing on self-categorization theory, this article re-conceptualizes audiences’ acts of news authentication by considering it not as a one-off activity under the uncontested control of the individual, but as a cycle of collective authentication strategies whereby individual authentication and social validation are entangled in the context-dependent processing of social news. To do this, we unpacked the social dimension of news authentication by looking at the social motivation, strategies, as well as the consequences that support it through a series of focus group discussions in Singapore.

Aim: Study aims to investigate the effect of cigarette smoking on cancer-related transformation in oral epithelial cells of smokers through evaluating the alteration in Wnt/β-catenin and MAPK pathways. Materials & methods: Exfoliated oral epithelial cells were collected from 138 subjects and categorized into nonsmokers, smokers and clinically diagnosed precancer and cancer patients. Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to detect the fold changes of related genes. Expressions of biomarkers were assessed using immunofluorescence and western blot. Results: Study shows significant (p

Autofluorescence imaging is an emerging method for detection of cancer associated risks, depending on the variation in autofluorescence property of normal and cancer cells. In the present study, autofluorescence images of cervical cell were assessed for early cervical cancer risk prediction. For classification of cervical epithelial cells collected from normal and clinically diagnosed cancer patients, a set of spectral texture features (SPTF) were extracted from 2-dimensional (2-D) Fourier transform of autofluorescence images. To discriminate the normal and the abnormal cells, SPTFs were evaluated by two 1-D functions, i.e., radial function and angular function, accumulated from the frequency spectrum. The classification was assessed by four different types of support vector machines (SVMs), namely, Linear SVM, Quadratic SVM, Cubic SVM, and Gaussian SVM. The best accuracy was achieved by Gaussian SVM (0.95) with a sensitivity of 0.90 and specificity of 0.88. The overall accuracy of all the classifiers was more than 0.82. This experiment was also evaluated by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve and area under ROC curve (AUC) of each classifier, which reveals the comparative results for this database.

Background The wives of serving soldiers constitute a special demographic cohort, as they spend variable amount of time in co-habitation with their husbands. The present study aims to find if any independent association, adjusted for age, exists between the time spent living together with the husband and findings on cervical smear. Methods Over a period of one year, cervical smears were taken from subjects at two different hospitals. The approximate length of co-habitation with husbands in the last 10 years was elicited through a questionnaire. Results Among 262 subjects, majority of smears showed normal findings (82.06%). 17.93% of the smears displayed abnormality, the maximum proportion of cases with abnormal findings were seen in the group who have spent 61–90 months, in the last ten years. Age adjusted chi square statistics failed to show statistically significant association between period of co-habitation and abnormal Pap smear. Odds’ ratio (OR) for each age stratum varied from each other and was also different from the overall (crude) OR, suggesting that age is an effect modifier. Variation in epithelial cytology did not appear to be an effect of duration of cohabitation but was because of the increasing age. Conclusions Cervical cytology does not show association with length of cohabitation with husbands in this study. However, age is seen to be an effect modifier.

Context: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women. The liquid based cervical cytology (LBCC) is a useful tool of choice for screening cervical cancer. Aims: To train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify abnormal foci from LBCC smears. Settings and Design: We have chosen retrospective study design from archived smears of patients undergoing screening from cervical cancer by LBCC smears. Materials and Methods: 2816 images, each of 256 × 256 pixels, were prepared from microphotographs of these LBCC smears, which included 816 “abnormal” foci (low grade or high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) and 2000 ‘normal’ foci (benign epithelial cells and reactive changes). The images were split into three sets, Training, Testing, and Evaluation. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was developed with the python programming language. The CNN was trained with the Training dataset; performance was assayed concurrently with the Testing dataset. Two CNN models were developed, after 20 and 10 epochs of training, respectively. The models were then run on the Evaluation dataset. Statistical Analysis Used: A contingency table was prepared from the original image labels and the labels predicted by the CNN. Results: Combined assessment of both models yielded a sensitivity of 95.63% in detecting abnormal foci, with 79.85% specificity. The negative predictive value was high (99.19%), suggesting potential utility in screening. False positives due to overlapping cells, neutrophils, and debris was the principal difficulty met during evaluation. Conclusions: The CNN shows promise as a screening tool; however, for its use in confirmatory diagnosis, further training with a more diverse dataset will be required.

The impending energy crisis due to rapid exhaustion of fossil fuels has necessitated the exploitation of solar energy in more efficient ways. Solar tracking systems track the maximum insolation by mechanically orienting the photovoltaic panel conforming to the actual position of the sun and electrically through MPPT which is inbuilt in solar inverters. Dual axis tracking system tracks both the altitude angle of the sun corresponding to seasonal variations and azimuth angle of the sun corresponding to diurnal changes to harness the maximum efficiency. However, with the passage of time, unwanted particles such as dust, sand, twigs, and dry leaves tend to accumulate on the solar panels thereby decreasing the maximum output power and hence the efficiency. The novelty in this work is that we have designed and analysed a low-cost self-cleaning mechanism inbuilt in a designed dual-axis solar tracker. The cleaning mechanism system has been implemented in the same tracking system by a slight change in the fabrication technology. The design and operating principle, efficiency with and without the in-built self-cleaning mechanism, the future scope have been discussed and analysed in detail.

Introduction: Stathmin, one of the most important intracellular phosphoprotein that plays the vital role in the regulation of cell cycle and cell proliferation. It acts by disassembly of Microtubules (MT) that helps in the formation of mitotic spindle. It is overexpressed in various human cancers. Aim: To investigate the expression status of stathmin and its relation with clinicopathologic significance in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) and its association with age, sex, tobacco chewing, histomorphological features and pathological staging. Materials and Methods: A descriptive and observational study in cross-sectional design was conducted in a tertiary care centre of Kolkata, West Bengal, India, from January 2020 to March 2020 in the Department of Pathology of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in collaboration with Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology of the same institute. Stathmin expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 28 OSCC cases. The association between stathmin expression and clinicopathological parameters like age, sex, tobacco chewing, tumour site, histomorphological type, Tumor Nodes Metastases (TNM) stage and Worst Pattern Of Invasion (WPOI) were evaluated on the basis of Chi-square test and Fisher’s-exact test (software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) V 25.0). Results: Stathmin was overexpressed in 18 cases out of 28 cases of OSCC. In this study a positive association was observed between stathmin expression and age group, history of tobacco chewing, advanced T stage, advanced pTNM staging and WPOI of OSCC. Conclusion: The study suggests that overexpression of stathmin could contribute to cancer progression. There is a higher likelihood that stathmin may be used as a potential biomarker as well as therapeutic target for OSCC.

Oral cancer is a major healthcare problem and accounts for approximately 40% of cancer risk. It is evident that the detection of oral cancer at an early stage can markedly improve the survival rate. Though several invasive ‘gold standard’ methods continue to be practiced clinically, non-invasive detection modalities look promising for early oral cancer risk assessment. Exfoliative cytology is one such method in which the desquamated cells are collected from the oral epithelium and examined under microscope. However, the main challenge in automated quantification arises here on the formation of cellular clump during the smear preparation. In this chapter, the role of computational advances in segmentation of overlapping cells is illustrated. A computational model, based on Voronoi-based hybrid active contour method, is proposed for segmenting the overlapping oral epithelial cells.

Renewable energy sources (RESs) are becoming increasingly important day by day to tranquilize the world’s energy crisis and consume fossil fuels in the lower rung. A microgrid system that assimilates clean and green energy-based sources such as solar, wind, and biogas is acquiring much prominence over the conventional grid-based power systems in this day and age. For the up and running of the inexhaustible energy sources in the AC power network, numerous conversions of the power sources occur. In the process of conversion, some amount of power is lost, which minimizes conversion efficiency. However, with the increasing use of DC loads and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), DC Microgrid could be more beneficial than the conventional AC power system by avoiding several types of drawbacks. This paper demonstrates an efficient system of digitally controlled boost converter for the parallel operation in DC microgrid. Here, the converter of 2.5kW 400V is designed and implemented to validate its functioning in a Microgrid. The whole system has been simulated in MATLAB with an input voltage range of 220–380 V. It has been found that the designed converter can maintain the desired output voltage in the DC Busbar at and around 400 V. Finally, some simulation results have been presented to analyze the converter’s operational characteristics and effectiveness in the practical domain.

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is a severe type of peripheral artery disease (PAD) which occurs due to an inadequate supply of blood to the limb extremities. Patients with CLI often suffer from extreme cramping pain, impaired wound healing, immobility, cardiovascular complications, amputation of the affected limb and even death. The conventional therapy for treating CLI includes surgical revascularization as well as restoration of angiogenesis using growth factor therapy. However, surgical revascularization is only suitable for a small percentage of CLI patients and is associated with a high perioperative mortality rate. The use of growth factors is also limited in terms of their poor therapeutic angiogenic potential, as observed in earlier clinical studies which could be attributed to their poor bio-availability and non-specificity issues. Therefore, to overcome the aforesaid disadvantages of conventional strategies there is an urgent need for the advancement of new alternative therapeutic biomaterials to treat CLI. In the past few decades, various research groups, including ours, have been involved in developing different pro-angiogenic nanomaterials. Among these, zinc oxide nanoflowers (ZONFs), established in our laboratory, are considered one of the more potent nanoparticles for inducing therapeutic angiogenesis. In our earlier studies we showed that ZONFs promote angiogenesis by inducing the formation of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide (NO) as well as activating Akt/MAPK/eNOS cell signaling pathways in endothelial cells. Recently, we have also reported the therapeutic potential of ZONFs to treat cerebral ischemia through their neuritogenic and neuroprotective properties, exploiting angio-neural cross-talk. Considering the excellent pro-angiogenic properties of ZONFs and the importance of revascularization for the treatment of CLI, in the present study we comprehensively explore the therapeutic potential of ZONFs in a rat hind limb ischemia model (established by ligating the hind limb femoral artery), an animal model that mimics CLI in humans. The behavioral studies, laser Doppler perfusion imaging, histopathology and immunofluorescence as well as estimation of serum NO level showed that the administration of ZONFs could ameliorate ischemia in rats at a faster rate by promoting therapeutic angiogenesis to the ischemic sites. Altogether, the present study offers an alternative nanomedicine approach employing ZONFs for the treatment of PADs.

There exists a significant demand to develop patient-specific prosthesis in reconstruction of cranial vaults after decompressive craniectomy. we report here, the outcomes of an unicentric pilot study on acrylic cranial prosthesis fabricated using a 3D printed cranium model with its clinically relevant mechanical properties. Methods The semi-crystalline polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) implants, shaped to the cranial defects of 3D printed cranium model, were implanted in 10 patients (mean age, 40.8 ± 14.8 years). A binderjet 3D printer was used to create patient-specific mould and PMMA was casted to fabricate prosthesis which was analyzed for microstructure and properties. Patients were followed up for allergy, infection and cosmesis for a period of 6 months. Results As-cast PMMA flap exhibited hardness of 15.8 ± 0.24Hv, tensile strength of 30.7 ± 3.9 MPa and elastic modulus of 1.5 ± 0.1 GPa. 3D microstructure of the semi-crystalline acrylic implant revealed 2.5–15 µm spherical isolated pores. The mean area of the calvarial defect in craniectomy patients was 94.7 ± 17.4 cm2. We achieved a cranial index of symmetry (CIS -%) of 94.5 ± 3.9, while the average post-operative Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) score recorded was 4.2 ± 0.9. Conclusions 3D printing based patient-specific design and fabrication of acrylic cranioplasty implant is safe and achieves acceptable cosmetic and clinical outcomes in patients with decompressive craniectomy. Our study ensured clinically acceptable structural and mechanical properties of implanted PMMA, suggesting that a low cost 3D printer based PMMA flap is an affordable option for cranioplasty in resource constrained settings.

The field of Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that work towards creating functional tissue-constructs mimicking native tissue for repair and/or replacement of damaged tissues or whole organs have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. However, traditional tissue engineering approaches comprising of scaffolds, growth factors and cells showed limited success in fabrication of complex 3D shapes and in vivo organ regeneration leading to their non-feasibility for clinical applications from a logistical and economical viewpoint. In this regard, 3D bioprinting, which is an extended application of additive manufacturing is now being explored for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as it involves the top-down approach of building the complex tissue in a layer by layer fashion, thereby producing precise geometries due to controlled nature of matter deposition with the help of anatomically accurate 3D models of the tissue generated by computer graphics. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of the 3D bioprinting technology along with associated 3D bioprinting strategies including ink-jet printing, extrusion printing, stereolithography and laser assisted bioprinting techniques. We then focus on the applications of 3D bioprinting technology on construction of various representative tissue and oragans, including skin, cardiac, bone and cartilage etc. We further attempt to highlight the steps involved in each of those tissues/organs printing and discuss on the associated technological requirements based on the available reports from recent literature. We finally conclude with current challenges with 3D bioprinting technology along with potential solution for future technological advancement of efficient and cost-effective 3D bioprinting methods.

Micro-grid integrates the different distributed renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and biomass. It can operate either in the stand-alone condition or in synchronization with the utility grid. Extensive research is being done on the implementation of SCADA systems for micro-grids that perform efficiently and are cost-effective. The development of effective and cost-effective real-time data acquisition and remote monitoring systems for micro-grid is essential to study the generated and consumed power quality measurement, stability, reliability, and maintenance optimization. Incomplete data and inaccurate measurement of energy output can lead to false conclusions and lost revenue. In this work, we have used Raspberry Pi for data communication and remote monitoring in a solar-wind-biogas integrated micro-grid system. Data acquisition has been done from smart meters of Elite 440-443 series of Secure Pvt. Ltd. Once the data comes to Raspberry Pi it has been used for different purposes like data display, warnings as parameters go off-limit and online remote monitoring. The operation, results and future scope of the developed data communication and remote monitoring system have been studied and analyzed in detail.

Background Surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the most common healthcare-associated infections. Under-nutrition is an important risk factor for SSIs and can lead to delayed wound healing and longer hospital stays. Oral nutritional supplements are prescribed to reduce the risk of infection and improve health status, but data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have shown mixed results. Thus, the objective of our planned systematic review is to evaluate oral nutritional supplements on preventing SSIs in adult surgical patients Methods RCTs conducted in adult surgical patients who receive oral nutritional support will be included. The primary outcome will be the incidence of SSIs (within 30 days of surgery or within 90 days for joint replacement surgery). Secondary outcomes will be changes in nutritional status, mortality, health-related quality of life and costs. Literature searches will be conducted in several electronic databases (from inception onwards): MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Grey literature will be identified through searching clinical trial registers and dissertation databases. Two reviewers will independently screen all citations, full-text articles and abstract data. The study methodological quality (or bias) will be appraised using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. If feasible, we will conduct random effects meta-analysis where appropriate. Discussion This systematic review will evaluate the evidence for pre- and post-surgical intervention with oral nutritional supplements in adults. Findings from this planned review may inform subsequent nutritional interventions for hospitalised patients who undergo surgery. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42020140954

Ensuring the high quality of end product steel by removing phosphorus content in Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) is essential and otherwise leads to cold shortness. This article aims at understanding the dephosphorization process through end-point P-content in BOF steelmaking based on data-mining techniques. Dephosphorization is often quantified through the partition ratio (lp) which is the ratio of wt% P in slag to wt% P in steel. Instead of predicting the values of lp, the present study focuses on the classification of final steel based on slag chemistry and tapping temperature. This classification signifies different degrees (&lsquo, High&rsquo, &lsquo, Moderate&rsquo, Low&rsquo, and &lsquo, Very Low&rsquo, ) to which phosphorus is removed in the BOF. Data of slag chemistry and tapping temperature collected from approximately 16,000 heats from two steel plants (Plant I and II) were assigned to four categories based on unsupervised K-means clustering method. An efficient decision tree-based twin support vector machines (TWSVM) algorithm was implemented for category classification. Decision trees were constructed using the concepts: Gaussian mixture model (GMM), mean shift (MS) and affinity propagation (AP) algorithm. The accuracy of the predicted classification was assessed using the classification rate (CR). Model validation was carried out with a five-fold cross validation technique. The fitted model was compared in terms of CR with a decision tree-based support vector machines (SVM) algorithm applied to the same data. The highest accuracy (&ge, 97%) was observed for the GMM-TWSVM model, implying that by manipulating the slag components appropriately using the structure of the model, a greater degree of P-partition can be achieved in BOF.

New Technology of cooperative learning requires an upgrade from standard classrooms to interactive classrooms. A smart classroom is a modern technology that amalgamates information with novel teaching and other new technologies. The smart classroom should be developed in such a manner that it can bring up active participation and interaction among learners. This provides an important element that allows teachers to help them for interaction with each other. The smart classroom concept appeared with the evolution of the internet-based learning such as e-learning, and many other distance education systems. In this paper, we have proposed the smart touch technology by employing the concept of infrared image processing. Our proposed technology requires an IR modulated camera, a smart pen, and a projector. The smart pen which consists of infrared light emitting diode (IR LED) fitted with a circuit of two batteries and a relay switch. We have developed new software for camera to detect single stroke of the switch. The proposed design is surface independent and very cost-effective compared to traditional smart classroom technology.

Automated identification of healing progression in lower limb wounds is an important clinical challenge since such wounds fail to heal in an orderly and timely manner. Selection of suitable target features and employment of appropriate analytical tool are critical for the precise monitoring of the healing progression through automated diagnostic method. The present study aims at automated detection of healing trend based on characteristics of epithelial rete pegs, which is considered as an important parameter for monitoring and hence healing progression of epithelial maturation. To this aim, the applicability of various segmentation methods namely, watershed, marker-controlled watershed, k-means clustering and active contour method and comprehensive characterization of rete-pegs are studied and compared. Among them active contour provided better performance in terms of non-linear objective assessments including performance metrics like-peak-signal-to-noise-ratio, processing speed and Mean Square Error. Further, support vector machine is trained for classification of the rete-peg features at different time points of clinically diagnosed non-healing wounds treated with a specific protocol. Kappa scoring tests inter-rater agreement between applied segmentation protocol and ground truth images. The overall accuracy of the system has been found to be 95%. It is thus concluded that with the aid of the proposed segmentation and classification method an automated detection system can be developed for precise monitoring of lower limb wound healing progression.

The joy of procuring anything new always comes with an added tension of accidental damage or losing it. Although it is as small as gold ring, a mobile or as big as any car, home etc., our primary concern is to ensure the security of that item. A smart system is proposed here for vehicle tracking which ensures to track a car automatically if it is lost/stolen or in danger. This system is developed by using two units, namely, controlling unit and monitoring unit installed in the vehicle and at the users’ end respectively. These units are configured using simple modules like GPS, GSM and Arduino board. During tracking the user/monitoring unit sends a RqstSMS for tracking the vehicle, and immediately gets back another RplySMS that contain the coordinates of that vehicle’s location. The delay between RqstSMS and RplySMS is negligible. In comparison to the existing high-end tracking system, the proposed system provides automated tracking/security while ensuring low cost of production.

Background: Assessment of the occurrence of maternal near-miss (an event in which a woman comes close to maternal death, but survive), identify the factors of maternal near-miss and to find out the association between determining factors and selected sample characteristics of maternal near-miss women.Methods: A descriptive survey is carried out among purposively selected women admitted in the maternity unit of two tertiary hospitals of Kolkata. Data are collected by face-to-face interview using valid and reliable semi-structured interview schedule to identify factors of maternal near-miss. WHO selected maternal near-miss proforma (2011) is used for assessment of occurrence of maternal near-miss by using record analysis.Results: The occurrence of maternal near-miss is identified as 100 out of 1669 women admitted in maternity unit. Eclampsia occurred maximum (27%) followed by severe pre-eclampsia (19%), severe PPH (6%) among potentially life-threatening conditions. Multigravida (65%), multipara (54%), non-booked cases (5%), duration of labour more than 18 hours (65%), caesarean section (78%), referred cases (79%), maternal type 1 delay (53%) and type 2 delay (67%) all are the factors mainly responsible for developing maternal near-miss. Significant association present between reproductive and obstetrical factors and maternal education, marital age (p

BACKGROUND Cytological evaluation of effusion fluid has become integral part of management especially in suspected malignant cases. Conventional Cytosmear (CS) is relatively simple, but sometimes become challenging to differentiate between reactive mesothelial cells and malignant cells. Hence, Cell Block (CB) preparation is increasingly gaining popularity for management, though it is time consuming, costly and little more cumbersome. MATERIALS AND METHODS All the fluid samples received in the departmental laboratory were divided into two parts for Leishman-Giemsa and Papanicolaou (PAP) stained conventional cytosmear and Haematoxylin-Eosin stained cell block preparation. Diagnoses obtained by CS and CB method were statistically analysed. RESULTS Out of total 115 fluid samples, 84 were pleural fluid, 24 ascitic fluid and 7 pericardial fluids. 9 cases in pleural fluid and 6 cases in ascitic fluid were false-negative by CS, which were proved to be malignant by CB method. So, additional 13.1% yield were obtained by CB method to diagnose malignant cases. CONCLUSION CB is superior to CS for diagnosis of malignant effusions and hence it should be used in adjunct to CS in difficult or suspected malignant cases for better yield.

BACKGROUND Corneal ulcer is one of the leading causes of ocular morbidity in developing country. Early diagnosis and targeted therapy is indispensable. Sociodemographic variables along with predisposing factors plays a major role in its development and clinicopathological correlation in diagnosis is very much helpful in diagnosis and subsequent management. The aim of the study is to identify the epidemiological factors and causative organism of the suppurative corneal ulcer. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this observational cross-sectional study, after taking proper history, patients with suppurative corneal ulcer are examined for clinical diagnosis. Applying sterile method of swab collection from the ulcer for standard microbiological examination (staining, culture) swabs are taken for predetermined laboratory investigations. Sociodemographic variables (age, gender, occupation) relevant injury history, microbiological data are tabulated for statistical calculations. RESULTS After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria wiling 81 patients, M:F=55:26 were assessed. Major number of patients (n=61, 75.30%) are middle aged between 33-62 years of age. Occupation played a major role as evidenced by 44.44% (n=36) contribution from agricultural workers (tea garden worker, pineapple farmer, other agricultural worker) followed by household worker (n=13, 16.05%). Positive history of prior corneal injury is common in fungal corneal ulcer (n=22, 51.16%) as well as in bacterial (n=8, 66.66%). Among the prior corneal injury associated fungal ulcer vegetative matter injury in 15 patients (32.60%), while in bacterial variety, it is 5 (10.86%) in number. In laboratory investigations, pure fungal growths are found in 37 patients (45.68%), while pure bacterial are 12 in number (14.81%). A good number (n=8, 9.81%) shows mixed infection. Culture negative ulcers are good in number (n=24, 29.63%) among which 6 (7.47%) are microscopically positive. The sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnosis of fungal corneal ulcer are 84.61% and 72.41% respectively with a high correlation between clinical and microbiological diagnosis of fungal corneal ulcer (either smear positive or culture positive and a quiet high positive predictive value for clinical diagnosis (84.61%). But, in case of bacterial corneal ulcer, the positive predictive value is 41.37%, while negative predictive value is 84.61% in our study. CONCLUSION Middle-aged agricultural workers are more prone to develop corneal ulcer and fungal corneal ulcers are more prevalent in this region of India than bacterial. History of prior corneal injury is a major risk factor. Fungal corneal ulcers have high correlation between clinical and microbiological diagnosis than bacterial.

Habitual smokers are known to be at higher risk for developing oral cancer, which is increasing at an alarming rate globally. Conventionally, oral cancer is associated with high mortality rates, although recent reports show the improved survival outcomes by early diagnosis of disease. An effective prediction system which will enable to identify the probability of cancer development amongst the habitual smokers, is thus expected to benefit sizable number of populations. Present work describes a non-invasive, integrated method for early detection of cellular abnormalities based on analysis of different cyto-morphological features of exfoliative oral epithelial cells. Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy provides a potential optical tool as this mode provides a pseudo three dimensional (3-D) image with detailed morphological and textural features obtained from noninvasive, label free epithelial cells. For segmentation of DIC images, gradient vector flow snake model active contour process has been adopted. To evaluate cellular abnormalities amongst habitual smokers, the selected morphological and textural features of epithelial cells are compared with the non-smoker (-ve control group) group and clinically diagnosed pre-cancer patients (+ve control group) using support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Accuracy of the developed SVM based classification has been found to be 86% with 80% sensitivity and 89% specificity in classifying the features from the volunteers having smoking habit.

Aim: This study aims to develop a novel noninvasive method for early cancer trend diagnosis in habitual smokers by corroborating cytomorphological and autofluorescence alterations. Materials & methods: A total of 120 subjects were included and categorized into nonsmoker, smoker and clinically diagnosed oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD) patients. Oral exfoliative epithelial cells were studied through differential interference contrast and fluorescence microscopy. Fuzzy trend analysis was performed using measured parameters for determining the risk factors among smokers. Results: The risk assessment in this study showed a positive correlation of smoking duration with early cancer risk factors with a correlation co-efficient of 0.86. Conclusion: Alterations in cellular morphology and autofluorescence intensities showed positive correlation with OPMD. The present study will benefit to investigate early prediction of OPMD among susceptible individuals.

Dysregulation in mitochondrial dynamics has been associated with several diseases including cancer. Present study assessed the alteration in mitochondrial fission protein (Drp1) in oral epithelial cells collected from clinically confirmed pre-cancer and cancer patients and further correlates it with the cellular apoptosis signaling. Results indicate the ROS accumulation in OSCC patients is accompanied by several changes including increase in mitochondrial mass, expression of mitochondrial fission protein (Drp1) and alteration in apoptotic signaling. The positive co-relation has been observed between the expressions of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2proteinswith mitochondrial fission protein Drp1. Higher mitochondrial fission in oral cancer cells was also correlated with the increased expression of cell cycle marker CyclinD1 indicating highly proliferative stage of oral cancer cells. The clinical correlation can be extended to develop biomarker for diagram and program in oral cancer management.

Owing to the continuous deterioration in the quality of iron ore and scrap, there is an increasing focus on improving the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) process to utilize lower grade input materials. The present paper discusses dephosphorization in BOF steelmaking from a data science perspective, which thus enables steelmakers to produce medium and low phosphorus steel grades. In the present study, data from two steel mills (Plant I and Plant II) were collected and various statistical methods were employed to analyze the data. While most operators in steel plants use spreadsheet-based techniques and linear regression to analyze data, this paper discusses on the suitability of selecting various statistical methods, and benchmarking tests to analyze such dephosphorization data sets. The data contains a wide range of operating conditions, both low and high phosphorus input loads, different slag basicity&rsquo, s, different slag chemistries, and different end point temperatures, etc. The predicted phosphorus partition from various statistical models is compared against plant data and verified against previously published research.

Non-invasive ultrasound imaging is an emerging approach for detection of prostate cancer. However appropriate segmentation of ultrasound images of prostate tissue is challenging due to their inherent complex structure and heterogeneity. To overcome such limitation, sonoelastography is a promising method for cancer detection based on variation in tissue stiffness. In this study, a scaling based segmentation algorithm has been developed for sonoelastography (SE) images of prostate. Proposed algorithm converts the input color SE image in the form of a parametric image by representing pixels in terms of elasticity values. Further, segmentation of images was performed through Otsu's multilevel method. Segmentation results are verified by expert clinician justifying the validation of the method for probable use in segmentation of SE images.

Introduction: Adenocarcinoma of the prostate may be clinically suspected based on elevated serum PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) and/or abnormal digital rectal examination. Serum PSA has been used in prostatic carcinoma screening and for diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic purposes. Aim: To evaluate the role of serum PSA to differentiate between benign and malignant pathology of prostate diagnosed by Transrectal Ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostatic core biopsy with special emphasis on its correlation with risk stratification based on Gleason score and Grade grouping system. Materials and Methods: Total 45 cases of Prostatic core biopsy specimens of the patients where serum PSA value was known were included in this cross-sectional observational study. Biopsy specimens were processed for routine HaematoxylinEosin stain and diagnosed as benign or malignant by histopathological examination along with Gleason score and Grade-Grouping was done. The comparison of PSA value between benign and malignant cases along with its significance of association with higher Grade-Grouping was statistically judged by unpaired t-test. Results: Out of total 45 cases, 23 (51.11%) cases showed presence of adenocarcinoma and rest 22 cases were of benign pathology. Mean PSA value (ng/mL) was significantly higher in malignant cases i.e., 58.47 (±22.191) compared to benign cases i.e., 3.45 (±0.987). However, in malignant cases which have been categorised as low to intermediate risk group (Gleason score

Teratoma is a germ cell tumor common in anterior mediastinum but intrapulmonary location is rare. Gonadal and extra-gonadal primary site needs to be ruled out first to call the tumor as intrapulmonary teratoma. Here, we report a case of benign intrapulmonary cystic teratoma in a 28 year old female who presented with left sided chest pain and shortness of breath and was initially provisionally diagnosed to have hydatid cyst in lung.

Background: The adequacy of haemodialysis in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus with chronic kidney disease stage 5 depends on several clinical as well as laboratory parameters. Previous studies from Western literature have identified several clinical and laboratory markers for predicting adequacy of dialysis. There is a dearth of literature regarding the same in Indian patient populace. Authors aimed to find correlation, if any, between glycemic control and adequacy of dialysis in this cohort of patients.Methods: A set of 200 patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus who have undergone hemodialysis at a tertiary care hospital were included in the study. Random blood sugar (RBS), Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured at admission. After 4 hours of dialysis, the urea reduction ratio (URR) and Kt/V was measured for each patient. The correlation coefficient as well as linear equation of the association between these variables were calculated. Standard statistical method and software were used in the process.Results: The study revealed a linear negative correlation between the variables RBS, HbA1c and URR as well as Kt/V. This suggests the importance of pre dialysis glycemic control in patients undergoing hemodialysis.Conclusions: Authors formulate the hypothesis that glycated hemoglobin and random blood sugar at admission correlate well with the outcome and adequacy of dialysis in patients of stage 5 chronic kidney disease undergoing haemodialysis. Good glycemic control (HbA1c

Stem cell research is one of the most promising and fascinating field in regenerative medicine and dentistry. The use of embryonic stem cells is restricted due to the very many ethical issues while the dental pulp stem cell research is relatively free from such embargoes. Recently published research articles relating to dental pulp stem cells are voluminous but are very diversifying in nature. The observations of these researchers require critical analysis and evaluation in a focused way as is presented in this review article.

Introduction: The Pap stained cervical smear is a screening tool for cervical cancer. Commercial systems are used for automated screening of liquid based cervical smears. However, there is no image analysis software used for conventional cervical smears. The aim of this study was to develop and test the diagnostic accuracy of a software for analysis of conventional smears. Materials and Methods: The software was developed using Python programming language and open source libraries. It was standardized with images from Bethesda Interobserver Reproducibility Project. One hundred and thirty images from smears which were reported Negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy (NILM), and 45 images where some abnormality has been reported, were collected from the archives of the hospital. The software was then tested on the images. Results: The software was able to segregate images based on overall nuclear: cytoplasmic ratio, coefficient of variation (CV) in nuclear size, nuclear membrane irregularity, and clustering. 68.88% of abnormal images were flagged by the software, as well as 19.23% of NILM images. The major difficulties faced were segmentation of overlapping cell clusters and separation of neutrophils. Conclusion: The software shows potential as a screening tool for conventional cervical smears; however, further refinement in technique is required.

Oral cancer is one of the biggest health care burdens in the Indian subcontinent (40% of the cancer risk). In most of the cases, it is evident that, like any other cancer, oral cancer is usually detected at advanced stages, which considerably reduce the survival rates. Hence, early detection of cancer is of utmost importance to enhance the survival rates. Among various carcinogenic agents, tobacco smoking has detrimental effect on oral cancer. So routine screening of habitual smokers may improve the early detection possibilities. In this chapter, an attempt has been taken to analyze the importance of computer-aided diagnosis in early cancer monitoring. In our previous study, we have shown the application of SVM to detect the precancer risk in habitual smokers by classifying them on the basis of selected features. Along with morphological features in previous study, the texture features were extracted by GLCM method. However, in many cases, ambiguous results had been obtained by this method. So, in the proposed work, we have used LBP method for extraction of texture features and the performance measures are calculated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in order to improve the diagnostic accuracy. According to our study, the LBP method is proved as better feature extractor as classification accuracy has been improved. To classify habitual smoker in comparison to nonsmoker and precancer by SVM method, the present study is 91.66% sensitive, 87.3% specific, and 88.33% accurate.

Recent trends in medical imaging enable overcoming the limitations of noninvasive histological assessment and subjectivity concerns in diagnosis of several diseases. These advancements are complemented by computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) algorithms to further enhance accuracy of diagnosis. CAD algorithms are able to monitor the prognosis of chronic diseases like cancer. Among different cancer types, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Early diagnosis of this cancer is known to significantly enhance the survival rate of patients. In this chapter, a CAD algorithm has been presented for sonoelastography images, which is an ultrasound-based imaging technique that determines cancers through analyzing tissue elasticity. Fourier and wavelet-based transformations were used to classify the images after segmenting them into affected and unaffected regions based on the ground truth information obtained from clinician. Classification rate of a maximum of 97% was obtained using the stationary wavelet transform (SWT) method, whereas 94%, 96%, and 61% were obtained with fast Fourier transform (FFT), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), and spatial domain, respectively. The proposed study shows that sonoelastography images can be used for diagnosis of prostate cancer by applying wavelet technique.

Advancements in our understanding of vestibular physiology and how it is changes in different diseases have established that of the three therapeutic approaches to treat disorders of the vestibular system viz. pharmacotherapy, surgery and physical therapy, it is the later i.e., physical therapy which is the most efficacious modality in the management of balance disorders. The futility of vestibular sedatives in the correction of vestibular disorders and in the restoration of balance and the very limited role of surgery has now been recognised. Advancements in vestibulometry now enable us to localise any lesion in the vestibular system with utmost precision and also determine the exact cause of the balance disorder. The site of lesion and the specific organ that is defective can now be very precisely identified. Treatment modalities especially that for physical therapy hence have to be organ specific, and if possible, also disease specific. The study aims at evaluating the efficacy of physiotherapy in the management of balance disorders and also assesses the efficacy of organ targeted physical therapy, a new concept in restoring balance after vestibulometry has identified the offending organ. The study was conducted in the specialised physical therapy unit for balance and gait disorder patients which is a part of Vertigo and Deafness Clinic in Kolkata, India. Special instruments for physical therapy devised by the first author were used for stimulation of specific sense organs in the vestibular labyrinth that were found to be defective in vestibulometry. Specially made Virtual reality programs were used in patients suffering from psychogenic balance disorders. The pre and post therapy status was evaluated by different standard scales to assess balance and dizziness. Very promising results were obtained. Organ targeted physiotherapy where defective sense organs were specifically stimulated showed remarkable improvement in different measures. Virtual reality exercises too showed very promising results in patients of psychogenic vertigo.

Steroid cell tumors of ovary constitute an uncommon group of ovarian neoplasms composed of large cells with intracellular lipid that resemble leydig cells or luteinized stromal cells. They are characterized by their clinical manifestations which are reflections of the underlying hormonal disturbances. This case report is of a 22yrs old female with an abdominal mass whose presenting symptom was just amenorrhea for 9 months. However the final diagnosis after excision of the mass and histopathological examination left the unsuspecting physicians in surprise.

Metabolic alterations of oral epithelial cells under oxidative stress are important signatures for early diagnosis of oral cancer. Amongst different metabolic alterations, non-invasive photo-diagnostic methods have been extensively used for determining cellular heme metabolism and accumulation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) under administration of suitable photosensitizer. In this study, we report these metabolic alterations by direct analysis of oral exfoliated cells obtained from individuals with prolonged smoking habit without the exogenous administration of any photosensitizer. The relative expression level of relevant biomolecules of study groups were compared with clinically diagnosed and histopathologically confirmed leukoplakia (OLPK) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. The energy imbalance and variation in 'redox ratio' were examined through spectroscopic studies which showed an increasing trend (p < 0.001) in smokers to OSCC groups in comparison to nonsmoker control. Gene expression of important intermediates of the heme metabolic pathway (viz. 5-aminolevulinate synthase 1 (ALAS1), Ferrochelatase (FECH), hemeoxygenase 1 (HO-1) and ATP binding cassette subfamily G member 2 (ABCG2)) which affect production of PpIX was assessed. Relative mRNA level of ALAS1 and HO1 was upregulated whereas mRNA level of other genes (viz. FECH and ABCG2) were found to be downregulated in smokers as well as in cancer groups. Outcome of different spectroscopic studies on exfoliated cells (viz. fluorescence, atomic absorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) corroborated with the expression of biomarkers related to cellular endogenous metabolism related to heme cycle. This study indicates significant alterations in endogenous metabolic products, and cellular functional groups in oral epithelial cells among the study groups. Our study reports a strong possibility of diagnosis of early cancer signatures amongst habitual smokers by direct and non-invasive assessment of metabolic status of oral epithelial cells without exogenous administration of photosensitizers. The knowledge accrued from the study may guide clinicians in precise detection of precancer trend in the susceptible population through a noninvasive rapid screening method.