Using soft computing techniques to diagnose Glaucoma disease.

Glaucoma is a major cause of blindness. Most patients start to observe that late after the disease causes a high level of damage in the optic nerve head and the high percentage of vision loss. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential and must be taken. Image processing mass-screening and machine learning classification can support early and automatic diagnosis of Glaucoma symptoms so as to take protective measures and to extend symptom-free life of patients. This paper proposes improved techniques to extract disease-related and image-based features. Support Vector Machines and Genetically-Optimized Artificial Neural Networks, pronounced machine learning algorithms, are fine-tuned to combine the two set of features in one automated image classification system. The proposed methodology was applied to a dataset of 106 retina images obtained from three hospitals. The proposed system automatically detected Glaucoma using Support Vector Machines technique with 100% specificity and 87% accuracy. Artificial Neural Network classified the images with 98% accuracy.

Examining requirement for formation of functional Presenilin proteins and their processing events in vivo.

Presenilin (Psn) is a multipass transmembrane protein that functions as the catalytic subunit of gamma-secretase for mediating intramembrane cleavage of type 1 transmembrane proteins. Normally active Psn is in the form of a heterodimer composed by its N-terminal and C-terminal fragments that are generated from a Presenilinase-mediated endoproteolytic cleavage within its large cytosolic loop during assembly of the protease complex. Using the Psn forms that either bypass or disable Presenilinase-mediated endoproteolysis, and a Psn form that has most of the large cytosolic loop deleted, we have established an in vivo system to enable investigations of Psn functional domains in Drosophila. We show that the Presenilinase-mediated endoproteolytic event is not essential for producing Psn activity during animal development, and is regulated by integrity of the large cytosolic loop of Psn in Drosophila. The Psn transgenic flies described here could be applied to a broad range of studies on Psn functioning and its related gamma-secretase activity at any developmental stage.