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  1. Robotic-assisted thermal ablation of liver tumours
    Abdullah BJ, Yeong CH, Goh KL, Yoong BK, Ho GF, Yim CC, et al.
    Eur Radiol, 2015 Jan;25(1):246-57.
    PMID: 25189152 DOI: 10.1007/s00330-014-3391-7
    OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level of liver thermal ablation using a computed tomography (CT)-guided robotic positioning system.

    METHODS: Radiofrequency and microwave ablation of liver tumours were performed on 20 patients (40 lesions) with the assistance of a CT-guided robotic positioning system. The accuracy of probe placement, number of readjustments and total radiation dose to each patient were recorded. The performance level was evaluated on a five-point scale (5-1: excellent-poor). The radiation doses were compared against 30 patients with 48 lesions (control) treated without robotic assistance.

    RESULTS: Thermal ablation was successfully completed in 20 patients with 40 lesions and confirmed on multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT. No procedure related complications were noted in this study. The average number of needle readjustment was 0.8 ± 0.8. The total CT dose (DLP) for the entire robotic assisted thermal ablation was 1382 ± 536 mGy.cm, while the CT fluoroscopic dose (DLP) per lesion was 352 ± 228 mGy.cm. There was no statistically significant (p > 0.05) dose reduction found between the robotic-assisted versus the conventional method.

    CONCLUSION: This study revealed that robotic-assisted planning and needle placement appears to be safe, with high accuracy and a comparable radiation dose to patients.

    KEY POINTS: • Clinical experience on liver thermal ablation using CT-guided robotic system is reported. • The technical success, radiation dose, safety and performance level were assessed. • Thermal ablations were successfully performed, with an average performance score of 4.4/5.0. • Robotic-assisted ablation can potentially increase capabilities of less skilled interventional radiologists. • Cost-effectiveness needs to be proven in further studies.

    Matched MeSH terms: Robotics/methods*; Catheter Ablation/methods*; Surgery, Computer-Assisted/methods*
  2. Fulltext Stochastic optimized relevance feedback particle swarm optimization for content based image retrieval
    Imran M, Hashim R, Noor Elaiza AK, Irtaza A
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:752090.
    PMID: 25121136 DOI: 10.1155/2014/752090
    One of the major challenges for the CBIR is to bridge the gap between low level features and high level semantics according to the need of the user. To overcome this gap, relevance feedback (RF) coupled with support vector machine (SVM) has been applied successfully. However, when the feedback sample is small, the performance of the SVM based RF is often poor. To improve the performance of RF, this paper has proposed a new technique, namely, PSO-SVM-RF, which combines SVM based RF with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The aims of this proposed technique are to enhance the performance of SVM based RF and also to minimize the user interaction with the system by minimizing the RF number. The PSO-SVM-RF was tested on the coral photo gallery containing 10908 images. The results obtained from the experiments showed that the proposed PSO-SVM-RF achieved 100% accuracy in 8 feedback iterations for top 10 retrievals and 80% accuracy in 6 iterations for 100 top retrievals. This implies that with PSO-SVM-RF technique high accuracy rate is achieved at a small number of iterations.
    Matched MeSH terms: Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods*; Information Storage and Retrieval/methods*
  3. Fulltext A review of feature extraction software for microarray gene expression data
    Tan CS, Ting WS, Mohamad MS, Chan WH, Deris S, Shah ZA
    Biomed Res Int, 2014;2014:213656.
    PMID: 25250315 DOI: 10.1155/2014/213656
    When gene expression data are too large to be processed, they are transformed into a reduced representation set of genes. Transforming large-scale gene expression data into a set of genes is called feature extraction. If the genes extracted are carefully chosen, this gene set can extract the relevant information from the large-scale gene expression data, allowing further analysis by using this reduced representation instead of the full size data. In this paper, we review numerous software applications that can be used for feature extraction. The software reviewed is mainly for Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Partial Least Squares (PLS), and Local Linear Embedding (LLE). A summary and sources of the software are provided in the last section for each feature extraction method.
    Matched MeSH terms: Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods*; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis/methods*; Gene Expression Profiling/methods*
  4. Effectiveness of a brief physician counselling session on improving smoking behaviour in the workplace
    Han YW, Mohammad M, Liew SM
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(17):7287-90.
    PMID: 25227830
    BACKGROUND: Brief physician counselling has been shown to be effective in improving smokers' behaviour. If the counselling sessions can be given at the workplace, this would benefit a larger number of smokers. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a ten-minute physician counseling session at the workplace in improving smoking behaviour.

    MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective randomised control trial was conducted on smokers in a factory. A total of 163 participants were recruited and randomised into control and intervention groups using a table of random numbers. The intervention group received a ten-minute brief physician counselling session to quit smoking. Stages of smoking behaviour were measured in both groups using a translated and validated questionnaire at baseline, one month and three months post intervention.

    RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in smoking behaviour at one-month post intervention (p=0.024, intention to treat analysis; OR=2.525; CI=1.109-5.747). This was not significant at three-month post intervention (p=0.946, intention to treat analysis; OR=1.026; 95% CI=0.486-2.168).

    CONCLUSIONS: A session of brief physician counselling was effective in improving smokers' behaviour at workplace, but the effect was not sustained.

    Matched MeSH terms: Counseling/methods*; Occupational Health Services/methods*; Smoking Cessation/methods*
  5. Whole-genome multiparametric screening to identify modulators of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
    Said NA, Gould CM, Lackovic K, Simpson KJ, Williams ED
    Assay Drug Dev Technol, 2014 Sep;12(7):385-94.
    PMID: 25181411 DOI: 10.1089/adt.2014.593
    Metastasis accounts for the poor prognosis of the majority of solid tumors. The phenotypic transition of nonmotile epithelial tumor cells to migratory and invasive "mesenchymal" cells (epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition [EMT]) enables the transit of cancer cells from the primary tumor to distant sites. There is no single marker of EMT; rather, multiple measures are required to define cell state. Thus, the multiparametric capability of high-content screening is ideally suited for the comprehensive analysis of EMT regulators. The aim of this study was to generate a platform to systematically identify functional modulators of tumor cell plasticity using the bladder cancer cell line TSU-Pr1-B1 as a model system. A platform enabling the quantification of key EMT characteristics, cell morphology and mesenchymal intermediate filament vimentin, was developed using the fluorescent whole-cell-tracking reagent CMFDA and a fluorescent promoter reporter construct, respectively. The functional effect of genome-wide modulation of protein-coding genes and miRNAs coupled with those of a collection of small-molecule kinase inhibitors on EMT was assessed using the Target Activation Bioapplication integrated in the Cellomics ArrayScan platform. Data from each of the three screens were integrated to identify a cohort of targets that were subsequently examined in a validation assay using siRNA duplexes. Identification of established regulators of EMT supports the utility of this screening approach and indicated capacity to identify novel regulators of this plasticity program. Pathway analysis coupled with interrogation of cancer-related expression profile databases and other EMT-related screens provided key evidence to prioritize further experimental investigation into the molecular regulators of EMT in cancer cells.
    Matched MeSH terms: Tissue Array Analysis/methods; Drug Discovery/methods*; High-Throughput Screening Assays/methods*
  6. Fulltext Detection of quorum sensing activity in the multidrug-resistant clinical isolate Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain GB11
    Cheng HJ, Ee R, Cheong YM, Tan WS, Yin WF, Chan KG
    Sensors (Basel), 2014;14(7):12511-22.
    PMID: 25019635 DOI: 10.3390/s140712511
    A multidrug-resistant clinical bacteria strain GB11 was isolated from a wound swab on the leg of a patient. Identity of stain GB11 as Pseudomonas aeruginosa was validated by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Detection of the production of signaling molecules, N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs), was conducted using three different bacterial biosensors. A total of four different AHLs were found to be produced by strain GB11, namely N-butyryl homoserine lactone (C4-HSL), N-hexanoylhomoserine lactone (C6-HSL), N-octanoyl homoserine lactone (C8-HSL) and N-3-oxo-dodecanoylhomoserine lactone (3-oxo-C12-HSL) using high resolution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Of these detected AHLs, 3-oxo-C12-HSL was found to be the most abundant AHL produced by P. aeruginosa GB11.
    Matched MeSH terms: Chromatography, Liquid/methods; Biosensing Techniques/methods; Tandem Mass Spectrometry/methods
  7. Fulltext Medical image visual appearance improvement using bihistogram Bezier curve contrast enhancement: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative
    Gan HS, Swee TT, Abdul Karim AH, Sayuti KA, Abdul Kadir MR, Tham WK, et al.
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:294104.
    PMID: 24977191 DOI: 10.1155/2014/294104
    Well-defined image can assist user to identify region of interest during segmentation. However, complex medical image is usually characterized by poor tissue contrast and low background luminance. The contrast improvement can lift image visual quality, but the fundamental contrast enhancement methods often overlook the sudden jump problem. In this work, the proposed bihistogram Bezier curve contrast enhancement introduces the concept of "adequate contrast enhancement" to overcome sudden jump problem in knee magnetic resonance image. Since every image produces its own intensity distribution, the adequate contrast enhancement checks on the image's maximum intensity distortion and uses intensity discrepancy reduction to generate Bezier transform curve. The proposed method improves tissue contrast and preserves pertinent knee features without compromising natural image appearance. Besides, statistical results from Fisher's Least Significant Difference test and the Duncan test have consistently indicated that the proposed method outperforms fundamental contrast enhancement methods to exalt image visual quality. As the study is limited to relatively small image database, future works will include a larger dataset with osteoarthritic images to assess the clinical effectiveness of the proposed method to facilitate the image inspection.
    Matched MeSH terms: Image Enhancement/methods*; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods*
  8. Breast cancer detection from MR images through an auto-probing discrete Fourier transform system
    Sim KS, Chia FK, Nia ME, Tso CP, Chong AK, Abbas SF, et al.
    Comput Biol Med, 2014 Jun;49:46-59.
    PMID: 24736203 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2014.03.003
    A computer-aided detection auto-probing (CADAP) system is presented for detecting breast lesions using dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, through a spatial-based discrete Fourier transform. The stand-alone CADAP system reduces noise, refines region of interest (ROI) automatically, and detects the breast lesion with minimal false positive detection. The lesions are then classified and colourised according to their characteristics, whether benign, suspicious or malignant. To enhance the visualisation, the entire analysed ROI is constructed into a 3-D image, so that the user can diagnose based on multiple views on the ROI. The proposed method has been applied to 101 sets of digital images, and the results compared with the biopsy results done by radiologists. The proposed scheme is able to identify breast cancer regions accurately and efficiently.
    Matched MeSH terms: Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods*; Imaging, Three-Dimensional/methods
  9. Fulltext Development of a pyrG mutant of Aspergillus oryzae strain S1 as a host for the production of heterologous proteins
    Ling SO, Storms R, Zheng Y, Rodzi MR, Mahadi NM, Illias RM, et al.
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2013;2013:634317.
    PMID: 24381522 DOI: 10.1155/2013/634317
    The ease with which auxotrophic strains and genes that complement them can be manipulated, as well as the stability of auxotrophic selection systems, are amongst the advantages of using auxotrophic markers to produce heterologous proteins. Most auxotrophic markers in Aspergillus oryzae originate from chemical or physical mutagenesis that may yield undesirable mutations along with the mutation of interest. An auxotrophic A. oryzae strain S1 was generated by deleting the orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase gene (pyrG) by targeted gene replacement. The uridine requirement of the resulting strain GR6 pyrGΔ0 was complemented by plasmids carrying a pyrG gene from either Aspergillus nidulans or A. oryzae. β -Galactosidase expression by strain GR6 pyrGΔ0 transformed with an A. niger plasmid encoding a heterologous β -galactosidase was at least 150 times more than that obtained with the untransformed strain. Targeted gene replacement is thus an efficient way of developing auxotrophic mutants in A. oryzae and the auxotrophic strain GR6 pyrGΔ0 facilitated the production of a heterologous protein in this fungus.
    Matched MeSH terms: Protein Engineering/methods*; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed/methods*; Genetic Enhancement/methods*
  10. Micro-solid phase extraction with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of aflatoxins in coffee and malt beverage
    Khayoon WS, Saad B, Salleh B, Manaf NH, Latiff AA
    Food Chem, 2014 Mar 15;147:287-94.
    PMID: 24206720 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.09.049
    A single step extraction-cleanup procedure using porous membrane-protected micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) in conjunction with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the extraction and determination of aflatoxins (AFs) B1, B2, G1 and G2 from food was successfully developed. After the extraction, AFs were desorbed from the μ-SPE device by ultrasonication using acetonitrile. The optimum extraction conditions were: sorbent material, C8; sorbent mass, 20mg; extraction time, 90 min; stirring speed, 1,000 rpm; sample volume, 10 mL; desorption solvent, acetonitrile; solvent volume, 350 μL and ultrasonication period, 25 min without salt addition. Under the optimum conditions, enrichment factor of 11, 9, 9 and 10 for AFG2, AFG1, AFB2 and AFB1, respectively were achieved. Good linearity and correlation coefficient was obtained over the concentration range of 0.4-50 ng g(-1) (r(2) 0.9988-0.9999). Good recoveries for AFs ranging from 86.0-109% were obtained. The method was applied to 40 samples involving malt beverage (19) and canned coffee (21). No AFs were detected in the selected samples.
    Matched MeSH terms: Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods*; Solid Phase Microextraction/methods*; Tandem Mass Spectrometry/methods*
  11. Fulltext Biases in small RNA deep sequencing data
    Raabe CA, Tang TH, Brosius J, Rozhdestvensky TS
    Nucleic Acids Res, 2014 Feb;42(3):1414-26.
    PMID: 24198247 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkt1021
    High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is considered a powerful tool for novel gene discovery and fine-tuned transcriptional profiling. The digital nature of RNA-seq is also believed to simplify meta-analysis and to reduce background noise associated with hybridization-based approaches. The development of multiplex sequencing enables efficient and economic parallel analysis of gene expression. In addition, RNA-seq is of particular value when low RNA expression or modest changes between samples are monitored. However, recent data uncovered severe bias in the sequencing of small non-protein coding RNA (small RNA-seq or sRNA-seq), such that the expression levels of some RNAs appeared to be artificially enhanced and others diminished or even undetectable. The use of different adapters and barcodes during ligation as well as complex RNA structures and modifications drastically influence cDNA synthesis efficacies and exemplify sources of bias in deep sequencing. In addition, variable specific RNA G/C-content is associated with unequal polymerase chain reaction amplification efficiencies. Given the central importance of RNA-seq to molecular biology and personalized medicine, we review recent findings that challenge small non-protein coding RNA-seq data and suggest approaches and precautions to overcome or minimize bias.
    Matched MeSH terms: Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods*; Gene Expression Profiling/methods*; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods*
  12. Fulltext Surface electromyography signal processing and classification techniques
    Chowdhury RH, Reaz MB, Ali MA, Bakar AA, Chellappan K, Chang TG
    Sensors (Basel), 2013;13(9):12431-66.
    PMID: 24048337 DOI: 10.3390/s130912431
    Electromyography (EMG) signals are becoming increasingly important in many applications, including clinical/biomedical, prosthesis or rehabilitation devices, human machine interactions, and more. However, noisy EMG signals are the major hurdles to be overcome in order to achieve improved performance in the above applications. Detection, processing and classification analysis in electromyography (EMG) is very desirable because it allows a more standardized and precise evaluation of the neurophysiological, rehabitational and assistive technological findings. This paper reviews two prominent areas; first: the pre-processing method for eliminating possible artifacts via appropriate preparation at the time of recording EMG signals, and second: a brief explanation of the different methods for processing and classifying EMG signals. This study then compares the numerous methods of analyzing EMG signals, in terms of their performance. The crux of this paper is to review the most recent developments and research studies related to the issues mentioned above.
    Matched MeSH terms: Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Electromyography/methods*; Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods*
  13. A context evaluation approach for structural comparison of proteins using cross entropy over n-gram modelling
    Razmara J, Deris SB, Parvizpour S
    Comput Biol Med, 2013 Oct;43(10):1614-21.
    PMID: 24034753 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2013.07.022
    The structural comparison of proteins is a vital step in structural biology that is used to predict and analyse a new unknown protein function. Although a number of different techniques have been explored, the study to develop new alternative methods is still an active research area. The present paper introduces a text modelling-based technique for the structural comparison of proteins. The method models the secondary and tertiary structure of proteins in two linear sequences and then applies them to the comparison of two structures. The technique used for pairwise comparison of the sequences has been adopted from computational linguistics and its well-known techniques for analysing and quantifying textual sequences. To this end, an n-gram modelling technique is used to capture regularities between sequences, and then, the cross-entropy concept is employed to measure their similarities. Several experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the method and compare it with other commonly used programs. The assessments for information retrieval evaluation demonstrate that the technique has a high running speed, which is similar to other linear encoding methods, such as 3D-BLAST, SARST, and TS-AMIR, whereas its accuracy is comparable to CE and TM-align, which are high accuracy comparison tools. Accordingly, the results demonstrate that the algorithm has high efficiency compared with other state-of-the-art methods.
    Matched MeSH terms: Sequence Alignment/methods*; Computational Biology/methods*; Sequence Analysis, Protein/methods*
  14. Fulltext I feel you: the design and evaluation of a domotic affect-sensitive spoken conversational agent
    Lutfi SL, Fernández-Martínez F, Lorenzo-Trueba J, Barra-Chicote R, Montero JM
    Sensors (Basel), 2013;13(8):10519-38.
    PMID: 23945740 DOI: 10.3390/s130810519
    We describe the work on infusion of emotion into a limited-task autonomous spoken conversational agent situated in the domestic environment, using a need-inspired task-independent emotion model (NEMO). In order to demonstrate the generation of affect through the use of the model, we describe the work of integrating it with a natural-language mixed-initiative HiFi-control spoken conversational agent (SCA). NEMO and the host system communicate externally, removing the need for the Dialog Manager to be modified, as is done in most existing dialog systems, in order to be adaptive. The first part of the paper concerns the integration between NEMO and the host agent. The second part summarizes the work on automatic affect prediction, namely, frustration and contentment, from dialog features, a non-conventional source, in the attempt of moving towards a more user-centric approach. The final part reports the evaluation results obtained from a user study, in which both versions of the agent (non-adaptive and emotionally-adaptive) were compared. The results provide substantial evidences with respect to the benefits of adding emotion in a spoken conversational agent, especially in mitigating users' frustrations and, ultimately, improving their satisfaction.
    Matched MeSH terms: Sound Spectrography/methods*; Speech Production Measurement/methods*; Biomimetics/methods*
  15. Fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization in the surveillance of urothelial cancers: can use of cystoscopy or ureteroscopy be deferred?
    Ho CC, Tan WP, Pathmanathan R, Tan WK, Tan HM
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2013;14(7):4057-9.
    PMID: 23991952
    BACKGROUND: Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) testing may be useful to screen for bladder carcinoma or dysplasia by detecting aneuploidy chromosomes 3, 7, 17 and deletion of the chromosome 9p21 locus in urine specimens. This study aimed to assess the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of FISH in a multi-ethnic population in Asia.

    MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with haematuria and/or past history of urothelial cancer on follow-up had their voided urine tested with FISH. Patients then underwent cystoscopy/ ureteroscopy and any lesions seen were biopsied. The histopathological reports of the bladder or ureteroscopic mucosal biopsies were then compared with the FISH test results.

    RESULTS: Two hundred sixty patients were recruited. The sensitivity and specificity of the FISH test was 89.2% and 83.4% respectively. The positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) were 47.1% and 97.9%. By excluding patients who had positive deletion of chromosome 9, the overall results of the screening test improved: sensitivity 84.6%; specificity 96.4%; PPV 75.9% and NPV 97.9%.

    CONCLUSIONS: UroVysion FISH has a high specificity of detecting urothelial cancer or dysplasia when deletion of chromosome 9 is excluded. Negative UroVysion FISH-tests may allow us to conserve health resources and minimize trauma by deferring cystoscopic or ureteroscopic examination.

    Matched MeSH terms: Cystoscopy/methods*; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence/methods*; Ureteroscopy/methods*
  16. An RP-HPLC-UV method with SPE for cefotaxime in all-in-one total parenteral nutritional admixtures: application to stability studies
    Iqbal MS, Bahari MB, Darwis Y, Iqbal MZ, Hayat A, Venkatesh G
    J AOAC Int, 2013 6 19;96(2):290-4.
    PMID: 23767352
    A simple and selective RP-HPLC-UV method with SPE was developed and validated for the quantification of cefotaxime in all-in-one total parenteral nutrition (AIO-TPN) admixtures. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a 5 pm particle size C18 DB column (250 x 4.6 mm id) using the mobile phase ammonium acetate (25 mM, pH 4.0)-50% acetonitrile in methanol (80 + 20, v/v). The flow rate was 0.9 mL/min and the detection wavelength was 254 nm. The analyte was extracted from AIO-TPN admixtures by means of an SPE method. The cefotaxime calibration curve was linear over a concentration range of 100-1400 microg/mL with a correlation coefficient of > or = 0.9994. The intraday accuracy and precision for cefotaxime were < or = -3.15 and < or = 3.08%, respectively, whereas the interday accuracy and precision were < or = -2.48 and < or = 2.25%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to stability studies of cefotaxime in the presence of micronutrients together with low and high concentrations of macronutrients in AIO-TPN admixtures. Cefotaxime was degraded by 13.00 and 26.05% at room temperature (25 +/- 2 degrees C) after 72 h in low and high macronutrient concentration formulations of AIO-TPN admixtures, respectively. The values of cefotaxime degradation rates for low and high macronutrient concentration formulations of AIO-TPN admixtures were -0.164 and -0.353, respectively. These results indicated that there was a higher rate of degradation in the AIO-TPN admixture formulations containing high concentrations of macronutrients.
    Matched MeSH terms: Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid/methods*; Food Analysis/methods; Solid Phase Extraction/methods*
  17. Multimodal 3-D reconstruction of human anatomical structures using SurLens Visualization System
    Adeshina AM, Hashim R, Khalid NE, Abidin SZ
    Interdiscip Sci, 2013 Mar;5(1):23-36.
    PMID: 23605637 DOI: 10.1007/s12539-013-0155-z
    In the medical diagnosis and treatment planning, radiologists and surgeons rely heavily on the slices produced by medical imaging devices. Unfortunately, these image scanners could only present the 3-D human anatomical structure in 2-D. Traditionally, this requires medical professional concerned to study and analyze the 2-D images based on their expert experience. This is tedious, time consuming and prone to error; expecially when certain features are occluding the desired region of interest. Reconstruction procedures was earlier proposed to handle such situation. However, 3-D reconstruction system requires high performance computation and longer processing time. Integrating efficient reconstruction system into clinical procedures involves high resulting cost. Previously, brain's blood vessels reconstruction with MRA was achieved using SurLens Visualization System. However, adapting such system to other image modalities, applicable to the entire human anatomical structures, would be a meaningful contribution towards achieving a resourceful system for medical diagnosis and disease therapy. This paper attempts to adapt SurLens to possible visualisation of abnormalities in human anatomical structures using CT and MR images. The study was evaluated with brain MR images from the department of Surgery, University of North Carolina, United States and CT abdominal pelvic, from the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing. The MR images contain around 109 datasets each of T1-FLASH, T2-Weighted, DTI and T1-MPRAGE. Significantly, visualization of human anatomical structure was achieved without prior segmentation. SurLens was adapted to visualize and display abnormalities, such as an indication of walderstrom's macroglobulinemia, stroke and penetrating brain injury in the human brain using Magentic Resonance (MR) images. Moreover, possible abnormalities in abdominal pelvic was also visualized using Computed Tomography (CT) slices. The study shows SurLens' functionality as a 3-D Multimodal Visualization System.
    Matched MeSH terms: Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods*; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*; Imaging, Three-Dimensional/methods*
  18. Fulltext GnRH neuron type-specific transcriptome analysis by laser captured single-cell microarray in the medaka
    Moriya S, Ogawa S, Parhar IS
    Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 2013 Jun 14;435(4):562-6.
    PMID: 23669040 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.05.004
    Most vertebrates possess at least two gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuron types. To understand the physiological significance of the multiple GnRH systems in the brain, we examined three GnRH neuron type-specific transcriptomes using single-cell microarray analyses in the medaka (Oryzias latipes). A microarray profile of the three GnRH neuron types revealed five genes that are uniquely expressed in specific GnRH neuron types. GnRH1 neurons expressed three genes that are homologous to functionally characterised genes, GnRH2 neurons uniquely expressed one unnamed gene, and GnRH3 neurons uniquely expressed one known gene. These genes may be involved in the modulation or maintenance of each GnRH neuron type.
    Matched MeSH terms: Cell Separation/methods; Gene Expression Profiling/methods*; Protein Array Analysis/methods*
  19. Fulltext Telepointer technology in telemedicine: a review
    Abdul Karim R, Zakaria NF, Zulkifley MA, Mustafa MM, Sagap I, Md Latar NH
    Biomed Eng Online, 2013;12:21.
    PMID: 23496940 DOI: 10.1186/1475-925X-12-21
    Telepointer is a powerful tool in the telemedicine system that enhances the effectiveness of long-distance communication. Telepointer has been tested in telemedicine, and has potential to a big influence in improving quality of health care, especially in the rural area. A telepointer system works by sending additional information in the form of gesture that can convey more accurate instruction or information. It leads to more effective communication, precise diagnosis, and better decision by means of discussion and consultation between the expert and the junior clinicians. However, there is no review paper yet on the state of the art of the telepointer in telemedicine. This paper is intended to give the readers an overview of recent advancement of telepointer technology as a support tool in telemedicine. There are four most popular modes of telepointer system, namely cursor, hand, laser and sketching pointer. The result shows that telepointer technology has a huge potential for wider acceptance in real life applications, there are needs for more improvement in the real time positioning accuracy. More results from actual test (real patient) need to be reported. We believe that by addressing these two issues, telepointer technology will be embraced widely by researchers and practitioners.
    Matched MeSH terms: Telemedicine/methods*; Remote Consultation/methods; Biomedical Technology/methods
  20. Before and after Silent Spring: from chemical pesticides to biological control and integrated pest management--Britain, 1945-1980
    Gay H
    Ambix, 2012 Jul;59(2):88-108.
    PMID: 23057183
    The use of chemical pesticides increased considerably after World War II, and ecological damage was noticeable by the late 1940s. This paper outlines some ecological problems experienced during the post-war period in the UK, and in parts of what is now Malaysia. Also discussed is the government's response. Although Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring (1962), was important in bringing the problems to a wider public, she was not alone in sounding the alarm. Pressure from the public and from British scientists led, among other things, to the founding of the Natural Environment Research Council in 1965. By the 1970s, environmentalism was an important movement, and funding for ecological and environmental research was forthcoming even during the economic recession. Some of the recipients were ecologists working at Imperial College London. Moved by the political climate, and by the evidence of ecological damage, they carried out research on the biological control of insect pests.
    Matched MeSH terms: Agriculture/methods; Pest Control/methods; Pest Control, Biological/methods
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