ABSTRACT
Advances in digital neuroimaging technologies, i.e., MRI and CT scan technology, have radically changed illness diagnosis in the global healthcare system. Digital imaging technologies produce NIfTI images after scanning the patient's body. COVID-19 spared on a worldwide effort to detect the lung infection. CT scans have been performed on billions of COVID-19 patients in recent years, resulting in a massive amount of NIfTI images being produced and communicated over the internet for diagnosis. The dissemination of these medical photographs over the internet has resulted in a significant problem for the healthcare system to maintain its integrity, protect its intellectual property rights, and address other ethical considerations. Another significant issue is how radiologists recognize tempered medical images, sometimes leading to the wrong diagnosis. Thus, the healthcare system requires a robust and reliable watermarking method for these images. Several image watermarking approaches for .jpg, .dcm, .png, .bmp, and other image formats have been developed, but no substantial contribution to NIfTI images (.nii format) has been made. This research suggests a hybrid watermarking method for NIfTI images that employs Slantlet Transform (SLT), Lifting Wavelet Transform (LWT), and Arnold Cat Map. The suggested technique performed well against various attacks. Compared to earlier approaches, the results show that this method is more robust and invisible.
ABSTRACT
Pathophysiologically, SARS-CoV-2 is similar to SARS-CoV-1, causing a strong characteristic inflammatory reaction that damages the airways [8]. [...]combined antiviral and host responses contribute to disease severity, as seen in cases of SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV infections [9]. [...]a spurt of cytokines released in response to viral infection results in cytokine storm and sepsis, leading to a mortality rate of 28% in critical COVID-19 cases [10]. [...]SARS-CoV-2 decreases ACE2 receptor expression, which is associated with acute lung injury and disease pathology. Since ACE2 controls the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), its suppression can impair RAS homeostasis and influence blood pressure, electrolyte equilibrium, inflammation, and vascular permeability in the airways [14]. The enhanced requirement for antioxidants and consumption of vitamin C by leukocytes could explain the reduction in vitamin C levels observed during infections in general, during lung infections specifically [29], and in critically ill patients [30]. Besides the antioxidative effects of vitamin C, its beneficial functions during pneumonia act via signaling pathways associated with inflammation suppression and enhancement of immunoregulation [31].
ABSTRACT
Cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) belong to the β-subfamily of herpesviruses. Their host-to-host transmission involves the airways. As primary infection of an immunocompetent host causes only mild feverish symptoms, human CMV (hCMV) is usually not considered in routine differential diagnostics of common airway infections. Medical relevance results from unrestricted tissue infection in an immunocompromised host. One risk group of concern are patients who receive hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for immune reconstitution following hematoablative therapy of hematopoietic malignancies. In HCT patients, interstitial pneumonia is a frequent cause of death from hCMV strains that have developed resistance against antiviral drugs. Prevention of CMV pneumonia requires efficient reconstitution of antiviral CD8 T cells that infiltrate lung tissue. A role for mast cells (MC) in the immune control of lung infection by a CMV was discovered only recently in a mouse model. MC were shown to be susceptible for productive infection and to secrete the chemokine CCL-5, which recruits antiviral CD8 T cells to the lungs and thereby improves the immune control of pulmonary infection. Here, we review recent data on the mechanism of MC-CMV interaction, a field of science that is new for CMV virologists as well as for immunologists who have specialized in MC.