Performance evaluation of pattern recognition networks using electromyography signal and time-domain features for the classification of hand gestures.

The problem of classifying individual finger movements of one hand is focused in this article. The input electromyography signal is processed and eight time-domain features are extracted for classifying hand gestures. The classified finger movements are thumb, middle, index, little, ring, hand close, thumb index, thumb ring, thumb little and thumb middle and the hand grasps are palmar class, spherical class, hook class, cylindrical class, tip class and lateral class. Four state-of-the-art classifiers namely feed forward artificial neural network, cascaded feed forward artificial neural network, deep learning neural network and support vector machine are selected for this work to classify the finger movements and hand grasps using the extracted time-domain features. The experimental results show that the artificial neural network classifier is stabilized at 6 epochs for finger movement dataset and at 4 epochs for hand grasps dataset with low mean square error. However, the support vector machine classifier attains the maximum accuracy of 97.3077% for finger movement dataset and 98.875% for hand grasp dataset which is significantly greater than feed forward artificial neural network, cascaded feed forward artificial neural network and deep learning neural network classifiers.

Improved medical image fusion based on cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transforms.

PURPOSE: In the medical field, radiologists need more informative and high-quality medical images to diagnose diseases. Image fusion plays a vital role in the field of biomedical image analysis. It aims to integrate the complementary information from multimodal images, producing a new composite image which is expected to be more informative for visual perception than any of the individual input images. The main objective of this paper is to improve the information, to preserve the edges and to enhance the quality of the fused image using cascaded principal component analysis (PCA) and shift invariant wavelet transforms. METHODS: A novel image fusion technique based on cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transforms is proposed in this paper. PCA in spatial domain extracts relevant information from the large dataset based on eigenvalue decomposition, and the wavelet transform operating in the complex domain with shift invariant properties brings out more directional and phase details of the image. The significance of maximum fusion rule applied in dual-tree complex wavelet transform domain enhances the average information and morphological details. RESULTS: The input images of the human brain of two different modalities (MRI and CT) are collected from whole brain atlas data distributed by Harvard University. Both MRI and CT images are fused using cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transform method. The proposed method is evaluated based on three main key factors, namely structure preservation, edge preservation, contrast preservation. The experimental results and comparison with other existing fusion methods show the superior performance of the proposed image fusion framework in terms of visual and quantitative evaluations. CONCLUSION: In this paper, a complex wavelet-based image fusion has been discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method enhances the directional features as well as fine edge details. Also, it reduces the redundant details, artifacts, distortions.

Evaluation of antinociceptive activity of aqueous extract of bark of psidium guajava in albino rats and albino mice.

BACKGROUND: Psidium guajava is commonly known as guava. Psidium guajava is a medium sized tree belonging to the family Myrtaceae found throughout the tropics. All the parts of the plant, the leaves, followed by the fruits, bark and the roots are used in traditional medicine. The traditional uses of the plant are Antidiarrheal, Antimicrobial Activity, Antimalarial/Antiparasitic Activity, Antitussive and antihyperglycaemic. Leaves are used as Anti-inflammatory, Analgesic and Antinociceptive effects. AIM: To evaluate the antinociceptive activity of aqueous extract of bark of Psidium guajava in albino rats with that of control and standard analgesic drugs aspirin and tramadol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mechanical (Tail clip method) and thermal (Tail flick method using Analgesiometer), 0.6% solution of acetic acid writhing models of nociception were used to evaluate the extract antinociceptive activity. Six groups of animals, each consists of 10 animals, first one as control, second and third as standard drugs, Aspirin and Tramadol, fourth, fifth and sixth groups as text received the extract (100, 200, and 400 mg/ kg) orally 60 min prior to subjection to the respective test. RESULTS: The results obtained demonstrated that aqueous extract of bark of Psidium guajava produced significant antinociceptive response in all the mechanical and thermal-induced nociception models. CONCLUSION: AEPG antinociceptive activity involves activation of the peripheral and central mechanisms.

Availability of essential medicines: A primary health care perspective.

The present study was undertaken to assess the availability of the essential medicines to the people of Kunijarla, Khammam district, AP. This was done in two steps: 1) Comparison of PHC-EML (primary health care essential medicines list) with AP-EML (Andhra Pradesh essential medicines list) and NEML (National essential medicines list); and 2) Assessment of availability of the listed medicines in adequate quantity to meet the needs of people of kunijarla. Results showed that the PHC-EML is on par with AP-EML and NEML. The hospital has 100% availability of the listed medicines; however, there was a need for certain add-on drugs like phenytoin tablets, valproic acid, and activated charcoal since they were prescribed frequently and were not included in PHC-EML. All the drugs which were listed in PHC-EML were being used and none were considered as non-utility supply. Suggestions were given for the revision of PHC-EML according to the criteria for identifying medicines for inclusion in the revised list which was mentioned in NEML.

Nitrosomethylurea induced streptomycin resistance in Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.

High frequency of streptomycin resistant variants of Lycopersicon esculentum were isolated on selective shoot regeneration medium supplemented with IAA (0.5 mg/L), zeatin (1.5 mg/L) and streptomycin sulphate (500 mg/L). Nonmutagenized (controls) and NMU treated cotyledons were placed on shoot regeneration medium supplemented with antibiotic streptomycin. Resistant shoots appeared at a high frequency in mutagenized cotyledons, whereas in controls morphogenesis was suppressed, accompanied by bleaching. Shoot regeneration occurred from the nodular tissues developed at the cut ends of cotyledons. Resistant shoots developed into complete plantlets on rooting medium containing selective concentration of antibiotic. Stability of streptomycin resistance was confirmed by leaf assay and reciprocal crosses between streptomycin-resistant and sensitive plants.

Direct somatic embryogenesis and transformation in Cicer arietinum L.

Somatic embryos were induced directly from immature cotyledons of the genotype of chickpea ICC 4918 (annigiri) on B5 medium supplemented with 2,4,5-T or 2,4-D in combination with BA or KN. Successful transformation was achieved via somatic embryogenesis using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404, carrying a binary plasmid vector system containing neomycin phosphotransferase (NPT II) gene as the selectable marker and beta-glucuronidase (GUS) as a reporter gene. Histochemical staining for GUS expression was observed as primary evidence for transformation.