British Journal of Translation, Linguistics and Literature, 2021
This paper aims at introducing the experiment of rendering one of the most remarkable books of Ch... more This paper aims at introducing the experiment of rendering one of the most remarkable books of Christiane Nord, who is regarded as one of the most prominent translation scholars and a salient professor of applied linguistics in Germany, into Arabic, under the title of «الترجمة بوصفها نشاطا هادفا: مداخل نظرية مشروحة». In her book, she dealt with the functional approaches to translation, including new concepts, in theory, which require re-adaptation matching the other culture, i.e., the target Arabic, trying to find a full equivalent or a near-equivalent thereof. The novelty in this field lies in the theorization of translation studies and its theories and concepts as well, except for some cases. It is commonly acknowledged that translation, as a branch of knowledge, is early practiced; it bridged the gap between civilizations and some branches of knowledge among the peoples of the world over ages. However, it was basically based on the axiomatic practice, devoid of any theoretical an...
Strengthening beach sand using enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) was demonstrated. En... more Strengthening beach sand using enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) was demonstrated. Enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) is an emerging biologicallybased ground improvement technique that precipitates calcium carbonate within the pores of a granular soil via hydrolysis of urea catalyzed by free urease enzyme. In this study, samples of a natural beach sand were treated using an EICP solution at one, two, and three cycles of treatment (one pore volume per treatment cycle). Strength and carbonate content of the treated specimens were measured using unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing and acid digestion. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to evaluate the morphology of the precipitates. The treated specimens showed average UCS of 145 kPa, 241 kPa, and 483 kPa at average carbonate content of 1.96%, 2.98%, and 3.69% (corresponding to one, two, and three cycles), respectively. Calcite was observed to be the main crystal ...
Abstract. We consider a unit speed timelike curve α in Minkowski 4-space E41 and denote the Frene... more Abstract. We consider a unit speed timelike curve α in Minkowski 4-space E41 and denote the Frenet frame of α by {T,N,B1,B2}. We say that α is a generalized helix if one of the unit vector fields of the Frenet frame has constant scalar product with a fixed direction U of E41. In this work we study those helices where the function 〈B2, U 〉 is constant and we give different characterizations of such curves.
In this work, we use the formal definition of k-slant helix [5] to obtain the intrinsic equations... more In this work, we use the formal definition of k-slant helix [5] to obtain the intrinsic equations as well as the position vector for slant-slant helices which a generalization of general helices and slant helices. Also, we present some characterizations theorems for k-slant helices and derived, in general form, the intrinsic equations for such curves. Thereafter, from a Salkowski curve, anti-salkowski curve, a curve of constant precession and spherical slant helix, as examples of slant helices, we apply this method to find the parametric representation of some slant-slant helices by means of intrinsic equations. Finally, the parametric representation and the intrinsic equations of Slakowski slant-slant and Anti-Slakowski slant-slant helices have been given.
In soft robotics, there is the fundamental need to develop devices that are flexible and can chan... more In soft robotics, there is the fundamental need to develop devices that are flexible and can change stiffness in order to work safely in the vicinity of humans. Moreover, these structures must be rigid enough to withstand the force application and accuracy in motion. To solve these issues, previous research proposed to add a compliance element between motor and load-Series Elastic Actuators (SEAs). This approach benefits from improved force control and shock tolerance due to the elasticity introduced at joint level. However, series compliance at the joint level comes at the cost of inferior position controllability and additional mechanical complexity. In this research, we move the elastic compliance to the link, and evaluate the characteristics of variable stiffness soft inflatable links. The detailed investigation of the dynamic behaviour of inflatable link takes into consideration different internal pressures and applied loads. Our results demonstrate that the use of soft inflatable links leads to good weight lifting capability whilst preserving compliance which is beneficial for safety critical applications.
Abstract In this paper, non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope in Minkowski 3-space with ... more Abstract In this paper, non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope in Minkowski 3-space with a non-lightlike base curve c ( s ) = ∫ α t + β n + γ b d s , where t , n , b are tangent, principal normal and binormal vectors of an arbitrary timelike curve Γ ( s ) are investigated. Non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope parallel to a tangent of a timelike general helix and normal of timelike slant helix are studied. It is shown that all non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope are developable but not minimal surfaces.
The security pitfalls of IoT devices make it easy for the attackers to exploit the IoT devices an... more The security pitfalls of IoT devices make it easy for the attackers to exploit the IoT devices and make them a part of a botnet. Once hundreds of thousands of IoT devices are compromised and become the part of a botnet, the attackers use this botnet to launch the large and complex distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks which take down the target websites or services and make them unable to respond the legitimate users. So far, many botnet detection techniques have been proposed but their performance is limited to a specific dataset on which they are trained. This is because the features used to train a machine learning model on one botnet dataset, do not perform well on other datasets due to the diversity of attack patterns. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a universal features set to better detect the botnet attacks regardless of the underlying dataset. The proposed features set manifest preeminent results for detecting the botnet attacks when tested the trained machine l...
An improved Exp-function method is described and used for finding a unified solution of a nonline... more An improved Exp-function method is described and used for finding a unified solution of a nonlinear wave equation. The combined KdV–MKdV equation is selected to illustrate the effectiveness and simplicity of the method. A generalized solitary solution with free constants is obtained. This method can be applied also to many other equations.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive liver disease that often leads to fibros... more Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive liver disease that often leads to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease. The diagnosis is made when there is evidence of cholestasis and reactivity to the antimitochondrial antibody. The etiology of PBC is poorly understood; however, several lines of evidence suggest an environmental factor that triggers a series of immune-mediated inflammatory reactions in the bile ducts in a genetically susceptible individual. Fatigue and pruritus are the most common symptoms of PBC; however, many patients are diagnosed with PBC only based on laboratory abnormalities. The only pharmacological treatment approved for PBC is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Several controlled studies have shown that UDCA improves liver biochemistries and prolongs transplant-free survival in PBC patients. Nearly 40% of PBC patients do not respond to UDCA, and those patients are at high risk of serious adverse events, such as the development of liver failure. Therefore, newer alternative therapeutic options for PBC are needed. Obeticholic acid is a first-in-class farnesoid X receptor agonist that has been recently evaluated in PBC patients with inadequate response to UDCA, and demonstrated beneficial results in improving liver biochemistries. Several other agents (fibrates and glucocorticoids) have been previously examined in PBC patients with inadequate response to UDCA, and preliminary results showed biochemical improvement. However, large-scale controlled clinical trials are needed to determine the long-term effects of fibrates and glucocorticoids on the clinical outcomes of PBC. Clinical trials of NGM282 (a fibroblast growth factor-19 analog) and Abatacept (a fusion protein composed of the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G1 fused to CTLA4) are currently underway.
Characterization of high molecular weight glutenin subunits is the fundamental approach for categ... more Characterization of high molecular weight glutenin subunits is the fundamental approach for categorizing genotypes with good bread making quality. Allelic variation at Glu-Dt1 locus is major determinant of bread wheat end use quality. In synthetic hexaploid wheats (SHWs), the D-genome encodes numerous allelic variants of high molecular weight glutenin subunits that require appropriate identification prior to their exploitation for wheat improvement. This study was conducted to identify allelic variation at Glu-Dt1 locus of 47 accessions of D-genome synthetic wheats derived from the crossing of durum cultivar “Decoy” with different accessions of Aegilops tauschii. Biochemical (SDS-PAGE) and molecular marker techniques were used to stringently characterize allelic differentiation. Nine different alleles at Glu-Dt1 locus were observed which formed 13 different subunit combinations. The frequency of inferior quality encoding allele, 1Dx2+1Dy12, was equivalent (21.27%) to the frequency o...
A new approach to align an image of a medical object with a given prototype is proposed. Visual a... more A new approach to align an image of a medical object with a given prototype is proposed. Visual appearance of the images, after equalizing their signals, is modelled with a new Markov-Gibbs random field with pairwise interaction model. Similarity to the prototype is measured by a Gibbs energy of signal co-occurrences in a characteristic subset of pixel pairs derived automatically from the prototype. An object is aligned by an affine transformation maximizing the similarity by using an automatic initialization followed by gradient search. Experiments confirm that our approach aligns complex objects better than popular conventional algorithms.
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2012
Complete Blood Count (CBC) is a standard medical test that can help diagnose various conditions a... more Complete Blood Count (CBC) is a standard medical test that can help diagnose various conditions and diseases. Manual counting of blood cells is highly tedious and time consuming. However, new methods for counting blood cells are customary employing both electronic and computer-assisted techniques. Image segmentation is a classical task in most image processing applications which can be used to count blood cells in a microscopic image. In this research work, we have employed a few existing segmentation techniques, and also proposed a new scheme to count total blood cells in a smear microscopic image. The proposed technique, called Capture Largest Included Circles (CLIC), is a parameterized segmentation algorithm that captures largest possible circles in an object boundary. The algorithm is perfectly suited for appliance in counting blood cells because of high circularity ratio of cells. Comparative study of segmentation by CLIC and a few other state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms such as Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution (DRLSE), Watershed segmentation and Pixcavator (a topology-based segmentation) is also part of this research work. Results have proven the superiority of CLIC over other schemes, especially in case of diseased red blood cells.
In trauma and joint arthroplasty, preoperative templating is an important step that can help in t... more In trauma and joint arthroplasty, preoperative templating is an important step that can help in the selection of implant size, position and alignment. Although the precision (reproducibility) of templating in unicondylar knee arthroplasty has been assessed previously, the accuracy has never been studied. Our aim is to assess the precision and accuracy of using the templating system for one commonly used unicondylar knee arthroplasty, ALPHANORMR design (Alphanorm Medizintechnik, Germany). Eight observers used the templating system to estimate the size of the unicondylar knee prosthesis ALPHANORMR in 29 randomly selected patients with osteoarthritis. The observers, who all were orthopaedic surgeons with two different levels of experience, worked independently and repeated their measurements 2 weeks later. All the patients subsequently underwent unicondylar knee replacements, and the actual size of the femur and tibia was assessed intra-operatively without any knowledge of the template sizes. Our results revealed a high level of intra-observer reproducibility. However, the inter-observer reproducibility and the accuracy all were poor.
Populations of three Gyps vulture species in the Indian subcontinent have undergone recent rapid ... more Populations of three Gyps vulture species in the Indian subcontinent have undergone recent rapid declines due to elevated mortality rates caused by diclofenac poisoning. Researchers have proposed that vultures adopt a previously-undescribed neck-drooping posture prior to death. Our study investigated two hypotheses: (1) neck drooping is temperature-dependent, (2) neck-drooping is indicative of poor health in Oriental White-backed Vultures (Gyps bengalensis) and is a prelude to death. Observations of neckdrooping were highly seasonal, with the majority of vultures observed neck-drooping in the hot season from April to October and no vultures observed neck-drooping during the cold months of December and January. Above a calculated threshold ambient temperature of 15.4uC (95% CI 9.9-22.5uC), there was a significant positive correlation between temperature and the proportion (expressed as an angular transformation) of vultures observed neck-drooping. Neck-drooping vultures were observed significantly more frequently with their back toward the sun with their head in their own shade than birds that were not neckdrooping, and vultures that were not neck-drooping were observed more frequently facing the sun than those neck-drooping. Together, these observations strongly suggest that neck-drooping posture has a role in thermoregulation. In contrast to the highly seasonal pattern of neck-drooping, mortality of vultures occurred in all months of the year. This finding indicates that neck-drooping has low specificity and sensitivity as an indicator of poor health and impending death in vultures.
To define the failure of fixation in tibial plateau fractures, detect its incidence, and determin... more To define the failure of fixation in tibial plateau fractures, detect its incidence, and determine the contributing factors. Design: Mail survey and literature review were used to define the fixation failure; this definition was applied to a radiologic review of patients who were treated surgically for tibial plateau fracture at a Level 1 trauma unit for a three-year period from 1993 to 1995. Patients and Setting: Forty-two consecutive patients treated surgically at our trauma unit for tibial plateau fractures were studied retrospectively, specifically for loss of fixation. Factors that might affect the fracture fixation were reviewed, including age, mechanism of injury, type of fracture, bone quality, severity of fragmentation, severity of displacement, time to surgery, operating time, fixation method, use of bone graft, postoperative bracing, and mobilization. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was failure of fixation, by using criteria defined by the result of a mail survey of experts and literature review. Results: Using a strict definition of radiologic failure of fixation, we reported an overall 31 percent rate of failure of fixation: 79 percent in patients older than sixty years compared with 7 percent in younger patients. The statistically significant associations with loss of reduction were age more than sixty years, premature weight bearing, preoperative displacement, fracture fragmentation, and severe osteoporosis. Conclusion: It is logical to define failure of fixation using the same measures considered as indications for reduction and fixation. Using these strict criteria, the incidence of radiologic failure was much higher than previous published series. In the elderly this was unacceptably high, and treatment goals should be limited to restoring stability and alignment.
The natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in viral infections via their spontaneous cy... more The natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in viral infections via their spontaneous cytolytic activity against virus-infected cells as well as via secreting a variety of soluble mediators. The MHC class I-binding NK receptors of these cells have emerged as the most important regulators of the effector activities of cytolytic cells (both NK and CTL). We have studied the modulation of NK activity and the expression of NK receptors in HIV-infected/AIDS patients and report here that the NK activities of the patients with the lowest plasma HIV load were minimal and vice versa, suggesting a decrease in this activity following suppression of HIV replication. Interestingly, the NK activity correlated negatively with the peripheral blood CD4+ T-cell counts of these patients. Furthermore, these patients showed decreased percentages of CD56+ cells expressing NK receptors of the immunoglobulin superfamily, whereas the percentages of CD8+ cells expressing these receptors were increased. Moreover, the expression of C-type lectin-like NK receptor-associated invariant molecule CD94 was increased on CD8+ cells in these patients as compared with HIV-seronegative controls. These changes in the expression of NK receptors were also evident within groups of these patients having different viral loads. These results show, for the first time, decreased innate immunity and changes in the expression of NK receptors on cytolytic cells in relation to viral burden in HIV-infected/AIDS patient.
The use of template systems has aided the preoperative selection of correct prosthetic size durin... more The use of template systems has aided the preoperative selection of correct prosthetic size during routine arthroplasty. A similar system exists for unicondylar knee arthroplasty. Our goal is to assess the reliability of these templates for preoperatively predicting the correct prosthetic size in unicompartmental knee systems. Ten observers estimated the size of the unicondylar knee prosthesis required for 30 randomly selected patients with osteoarthritis. Estimation of the size was gauged using templates and instructions provided by the manufacturer. The observers worked independently and repeated their measurements 2 weeks later. Intraobserver and interobserver agreement was evaluated using the weighted coefficient, and this revealed poor agreement regardless of the surgeon's experience. This shows that the present system lacks reliability and raises concerns about the place for preoperative radiological templating in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
The study was designed to examine the effect of feeding diets with different energy levels for op... more The study was designed to examine the effect of feeding diets with different energy levels for optimum growth and early puberty of heifers. Twenty Sahiwal heifers (Age = 12 ± 2 months and avg. wt = 125 kg) were assigned to four dietary treatments having five animals on each treatment. Iso-nitrogenous (CP=13.7%) diets having varying energy, viz; ME 100% (Control), ME 88%, ME 112% and ME 124% of NRC (2001) recommended level for small breed non bred heifers were fed to the respective groups until the onset of puberty. Dry matter and protein intakes were similar (P>0.05) across the dietary treatments. The optimum average daily gain (ADG) was achieved during the period from 13 to 18 months of age. The overall ADG was higher (571±15 g/d) in ME 124% than of ME 100, 88 and 112%, whereas ADG found to be lowest in ME 88% (397±07 g/d). Similar trend was observed in feed efficiency for different treatment groups. Heifers fed dietary level of ME 124% of NRC (2001) acquired higher body length, height and heart girth as compared to those fed other dietary energy levels. The digestibility of nutrients, age at puberty, age at 1 st conception and serum progesterone were not influenced by dietary treatments (P>0.05). It is concluded that provision of higher dietary energy level (ME 124% of NRC, 2001 recommendation) enhanced growth parameters and feed efficiency but adequate reproductive performance of Sahiwal heifers in terms of age at puberty was achieved even at lower dietary energy level (ME 88% of NRC, 2001 recommended level) under local environmental conditions of Pakistan.
A method is described for the quantitative characterization of strained Si/Si~Gel_ ~ multilayers ... more A method is described for the quantitative characterization of strained Si/Si~Gel_ ~ multilayers and interfaces by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in [110] and [100] crystal projections. The method relies on systematic variations of the image contrast with variations of the local composition z for certain ranges of objective lens defocus A f and specimen thickness t and takes tetragonal lattice distortions fully into account. From an extensive study of the image formation process for Si~Gel_ ~ alloys and coherent Si/Si=Gel_ ~ interfaces, ranges of A f and t were identified by Bloch-wave and multi-slice image simulations at 400 keV for which a quasi-linear functional relationship between the composition z and the first-order Fourier coefficients of the image intensity exists. By application of a novel image-processing algorithm, which allows a precise measurement of image Fourier coefficients in geometrically distorted lattice images, local composition values z can be determined at near-atomic resolution with an accuracy of Az _< d:0.1 and interface sharpness can be detected at the atomic level. Recent applications of the method to the characterization of interfaces of strained Si~Gel_ x layers and short-period SimGe n superlattices fabricated by different deposition techniques will be presented.
British Journal of Translation, Linguistics and Literature, 2021
This paper aims at introducing the experiment of rendering one of the most remarkable books of Ch... more This paper aims at introducing the experiment of rendering one of the most remarkable books of Christiane Nord, who is regarded as one of the most prominent translation scholars and a salient professor of applied linguistics in Germany, into Arabic, under the title of «الترجمة بوصفها نشاطا هادفا: مداخل نظرية مشروحة». In her book, she dealt with the functional approaches to translation, including new concepts, in theory, which require re-adaptation matching the other culture, i.e., the target Arabic, trying to find a full equivalent or a near-equivalent thereof. The novelty in this field lies in the theorization of translation studies and its theories and concepts as well, except for some cases. It is commonly acknowledged that translation, as a branch of knowledge, is early practiced; it bridged the gap between civilizations and some branches of knowledge among the peoples of the world over ages. However, it was basically based on the axiomatic practice, devoid of any theoretical an...
Strengthening beach sand using enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) was demonstrated. En... more Strengthening beach sand using enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) was demonstrated. Enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) is an emerging biologicallybased ground improvement technique that precipitates calcium carbonate within the pores of a granular soil via hydrolysis of urea catalyzed by free urease enzyme. In this study, samples of a natural beach sand were treated using an EICP solution at one, two, and three cycles of treatment (one pore volume per treatment cycle). Strength and carbonate content of the treated specimens were measured using unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing and acid digestion. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to evaluate the morphology of the precipitates. The treated specimens showed average UCS of 145 kPa, 241 kPa, and 483 kPa at average carbonate content of 1.96%, 2.98%, and 3.69% (corresponding to one, two, and three cycles), respectively. Calcite was observed to be the main crystal ...
Abstract. We consider a unit speed timelike curve α in Minkowski 4-space E41 and denote the Frene... more Abstract. We consider a unit speed timelike curve α in Minkowski 4-space E41 and denote the Frenet frame of α by {T,N,B1,B2}. We say that α is a generalized helix if one of the unit vector fields of the Frenet frame has constant scalar product with a fixed direction U of E41. In this work we study those helices where the function 〈B2, U 〉 is constant and we give different characterizations of such curves.
In this work, we use the formal definition of k-slant helix [5] to obtain the intrinsic equations... more In this work, we use the formal definition of k-slant helix [5] to obtain the intrinsic equations as well as the position vector for slant-slant helices which a generalization of general helices and slant helices. Also, we present some characterizations theorems for k-slant helices and derived, in general form, the intrinsic equations for such curves. Thereafter, from a Salkowski curve, anti-salkowski curve, a curve of constant precession and spherical slant helix, as examples of slant helices, we apply this method to find the parametric representation of some slant-slant helices by means of intrinsic equations. Finally, the parametric representation and the intrinsic equations of Slakowski slant-slant and Anti-Slakowski slant-slant helices have been given.
In soft robotics, there is the fundamental need to develop devices that are flexible and can chan... more In soft robotics, there is the fundamental need to develop devices that are flexible and can change stiffness in order to work safely in the vicinity of humans. Moreover, these structures must be rigid enough to withstand the force application and accuracy in motion. To solve these issues, previous research proposed to add a compliance element between motor and load-Series Elastic Actuators (SEAs). This approach benefits from improved force control and shock tolerance due to the elasticity introduced at joint level. However, series compliance at the joint level comes at the cost of inferior position controllability and additional mechanical complexity. In this research, we move the elastic compliance to the link, and evaluate the characteristics of variable stiffness soft inflatable links. The detailed investigation of the dynamic behaviour of inflatable link takes into consideration different internal pressures and applied loads. Our results demonstrate that the use of soft inflatable links leads to good weight lifting capability whilst preserving compliance which is beneficial for safety critical applications.
Abstract In this paper, non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope in Minkowski 3-space with ... more Abstract In this paper, non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope in Minkowski 3-space with a non-lightlike base curve c ( s ) = ∫ α t + β n + γ b d s , where t , n , b are tangent, principal normal and binormal vectors of an arbitrary timelike curve Γ ( s ) are investigated. Non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope parallel to a tangent of a timelike general helix and normal of timelike slant helix are studied. It is shown that all non-lightlike ruled surfaces of constant slope are developable but not minimal surfaces.
The security pitfalls of IoT devices make it easy for the attackers to exploit the IoT devices an... more The security pitfalls of IoT devices make it easy for the attackers to exploit the IoT devices and make them a part of a botnet. Once hundreds of thousands of IoT devices are compromised and become the part of a botnet, the attackers use this botnet to launch the large and complex distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks which take down the target websites or services and make them unable to respond the legitimate users. So far, many botnet detection techniques have been proposed but their performance is limited to a specific dataset on which they are trained. This is because the features used to train a machine learning model on one botnet dataset, do not perform well on other datasets due to the diversity of attack patterns. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a universal features set to better detect the botnet attacks regardless of the underlying dataset. The proposed features set manifest preeminent results for detecting the botnet attacks when tested the trained machine l...
An improved Exp-function method is described and used for finding a unified solution of a nonline... more An improved Exp-function method is described and used for finding a unified solution of a nonlinear wave equation. The combined KdV–MKdV equation is selected to illustrate the effectiveness and simplicity of the method. A generalized solitary solution with free constants is obtained. This method can be applied also to many other equations.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive liver disease that often leads to fibros... more Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive liver disease that often leads to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease. The diagnosis is made when there is evidence of cholestasis and reactivity to the antimitochondrial antibody. The etiology of PBC is poorly understood; however, several lines of evidence suggest an environmental factor that triggers a series of immune-mediated inflammatory reactions in the bile ducts in a genetically susceptible individual. Fatigue and pruritus are the most common symptoms of PBC; however, many patients are diagnosed with PBC only based on laboratory abnormalities. The only pharmacological treatment approved for PBC is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Several controlled studies have shown that UDCA improves liver biochemistries and prolongs transplant-free survival in PBC patients. Nearly 40% of PBC patients do not respond to UDCA, and those patients are at high risk of serious adverse events, such as the development of liver failure. Therefore, newer alternative therapeutic options for PBC are needed. Obeticholic acid is a first-in-class farnesoid X receptor agonist that has been recently evaluated in PBC patients with inadequate response to UDCA, and demonstrated beneficial results in improving liver biochemistries. Several other agents (fibrates and glucocorticoids) have been previously examined in PBC patients with inadequate response to UDCA, and preliminary results showed biochemical improvement. However, large-scale controlled clinical trials are needed to determine the long-term effects of fibrates and glucocorticoids on the clinical outcomes of PBC. Clinical trials of NGM282 (a fibroblast growth factor-19 analog) and Abatacept (a fusion protein composed of the Fc portion of immunoglobulin G1 fused to CTLA4) are currently underway.
Characterization of high molecular weight glutenin subunits is the fundamental approach for categ... more Characterization of high molecular weight glutenin subunits is the fundamental approach for categorizing genotypes with good bread making quality. Allelic variation at Glu-Dt1 locus is major determinant of bread wheat end use quality. In synthetic hexaploid wheats (SHWs), the D-genome encodes numerous allelic variants of high molecular weight glutenin subunits that require appropriate identification prior to their exploitation for wheat improvement. This study was conducted to identify allelic variation at Glu-Dt1 locus of 47 accessions of D-genome synthetic wheats derived from the crossing of durum cultivar “Decoy” with different accessions of Aegilops tauschii. Biochemical (SDS-PAGE) and molecular marker techniques were used to stringently characterize allelic differentiation. Nine different alleles at Glu-Dt1 locus were observed which formed 13 different subunit combinations. The frequency of inferior quality encoding allele, 1Dx2+1Dy12, was equivalent (21.27%) to the frequency o...
A new approach to align an image of a medical object with a given prototype is proposed. Visual a... more A new approach to align an image of a medical object with a given prototype is proposed. Visual appearance of the images, after equalizing their signals, is modelled with a new Markov-Gibbs random field with pairwise interaction model. Similarity to the prototype is measured by a Gibbs energy of signal co-occurrences in a characteristic subset of pixel pairs derived automatically from the prototype. An object is aligned by an affine transformation maximizing the similarity by using an automatic initialization followed by gradient search. Experiments confirm that our approach aligns complex objects better than popular conventional algorithms.
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2012
Complete Blood Count (CBC) is a standard medical test that can help diagnose various conditions a... more Complete Blood Count (CBC) is a standard medical test that can help diagnose various conditions and diseases. Manual counting of blood cells is highly tedious and time consuming. However, new methods for counting blood cells are customary employing both electronic and computer-assisted techniques. Image segmentation is a classical task in most image processing applications which can be used to count blood cells in a microscopic image. In this research work, we have employed a few existing segmentation techniques, and also proposed a new scheme to count total blood cells in a smear microscopic image. The proposed technique, called Capture Largest Included Circles (CLIC), is a parameterized segmentation algorithm that captures largest possible circles in an object boundary. The algorithm is perfectly suited for appliance in counting blood cells because of high circularity ratio of cells. Comparative study of segmentation by CLIC and a few other state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms such as Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution (DRLSE), Watershed segmentation and Pixcavator (a topology-based segmentation) is also part of this research work. Results have proven the superiority of CLIC over other schemes, especially in case of diseased red blood cells.
In trauma and joint arthroplasty, preoperative templating is an important step that can help in t... more In trauma and joint arthroplasty, preoperative templating is an important step that can help in the selection of implant size, position and alignment. Although the precision (reproducibility) of templating in unicondylar knee arthroplasty has been assessed previously, the accuracy has never been studied. Our aim is to assess the precision and accuracy of using the templating system for one commonly used unicondylar knee arthroplasty, ALPHANORMR design (Alphanorm Medizintechnik, Germany). Eight observers used the templating system to estimate the size of the unicondylar knee prosthesis ALPHANORMR in 29 randomly selected patients with osteoarthritis. The observers, who all were orthopaedic surgeons with two different levels of experience, worked independently and repeated their measurements 2 weeks later. All the patients subsequently underwent unicondylar knee replacements, and the actual size of the femur and tibia was assessed intra-operatively without any knowledge of the template sizes. Our results revealed a high level of intra-observer reproducibility. However, the inter-observer reproducibility and the accuracy all were poor.
Populations of three Gyps vulture species in the Indian subcontinent have undergone recent rapid ... more Populations of three Gyps vulture species in the Indian subcontinent have undergone recent rapid declines due to elevated mortality rates caused by diclofenac poisoning. Researchers have proposed that vultures adopt a previously-undescribed neck-drooping posture prior to death. Our study investigated two hypotheses: (1) neck drooping is temperature-dependent, (2) neck-drooping is indicative of poor health in Oriental White-backed Vultures (Gyps bengalensis) and is a prelude to death. Observations of neckdrooping were highly seasonal, with the majority of vultures observed neck-drooping in the hot season from April to October and no vultures observed neck-drooping during the cold months of December and January. Above a calculated threshold ambient temperature of 15.4uC (95% CI 9.9-22.5uC), there was a significant positive correlation between temperature and the proportion (expressed as an angular transformation) of vultures observed neck-drooping. Neck-drooping vultures were observed significantly more frequently with their back toward the sun with their head in their own shade than birds that were not neckdrooping, and vultures that were not neck-drooping were observed more frequently facing the sun than those neck-drooping. Together, these observations strongly suggest that neck-drooping posture has a role in thermoregulation. In contrast to the highly seasonal pattern of neck-drooping, mortality of vultures occurred in all months of the year. This finding indicates that neck-drooping has low specificity and sensitivity as an indicator of poor health and impending death in vultures.
To define the failure of fixation in tibial plateau fractures, detect its incidence, and determin... more To define the failure of fixation in tibial plateau fractures, detect its incidence, and determine the contributing factors. Design: Mail survey and literature review were used to define the fixation failure; this definition was applied to a radiologic review of patients who were treated surgically for tibial plateau fracture at a Level 1 trauma unit for a three-year period from 1993 to 1995. Patients and Setting: Forty-two consecutive patients treated surgically at our trauma unit for tibial plateau fractures were studied retrospectively, specifically for loss of fixation. Factors that might affect the fracture fixation were reviewed, including age, mechanism of injury, type of fracture, bone quality, severity of fragmentation, severity of displacement, time to surgery, operating time, fixation method, use of bone graft, postoperative bracing, and mobilization. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was failure of fixation, by using criteria defined by the result of a mail survey of experts and literature review. Results: Using a strict definition of radiologic failure of fixation, we reported an overall 31 percent rate of failure of fixation: 79 percent in patients older than sixty years compared with 7 percent in younger patients. The statistically significant associations with loss of reduction were age more than sixty years, premature weight bearing, preoperative displacement, fracture fragmentation, and severe osteoporosis. Conclusion: It is logical to define failure of fixation using the same measures considered as indications for reduction and fixation. Using these strict criteria, the incidence of radiologic failure was much higher than previous published series. In the elderly this was unacceptably high, and treatment goals should be limited to restoring stability and alignment.
The natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in viral infections via their spontaneous cy... more The natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in viral infections via their spontaneous cytolytic activity against virus-infected cells as well as via secreting a variety of soluble mediators. The MHC class I-binding NK receptors of these cells have emerged as the most important regulators of the effector activities of cytolytic cells (both NK and CTL). We have studied the modulation of NK activity and the expression of NK receptors in HIV-infected/AIDS patients and report here that the NK activities of the patients with the lowest plasma HIV load were minimal and vice versa, suggesting a decrease in this activity following suppression of HIV replication. Interestingly, the NK activity correlated negatively with the peripheral blood CD4+ T-cell counts of these patients. Furthermore, these patients showed decreased percentages of CD56+ cells expressing NK receptors of the immunoglobulin superfamily, whereas the percentages of CD8+ cells expressing these receptors were increased. Moreover, the expression of C-type lectin-like NK receptor-associated invariant molecule CD94 was increased on CD8+ cells in these patients as compared with HIV-seronegative controls. These changes in the expression of NK receptors were also evident within groups of these patients having different viral loads. These results show, for the first time, decreased innate immunity and changes in the expression of NK receptors on cytolytic cells in relation to viral burden in HIV-infected/AIDS patient.
The use of template systems has aided the preoperative selection of correct prosthetic size durin... more The use of template systems has aided the preoperative selection of correct prosthetic size during routine arthroplasty. A similar system exists for unicondylar knee arthroplasty. Our goal is to assess the reliability of these templates for preoperatively predicting the correct prosthetic size in unicompartmental knee systems. Ten observers estimated the size of the unicondylar knee prosthesis required for 30 randomly selected patients with osteoarthritis. Estimation of the size was gauged using templates and instructions provided by the manufacturer. The observers worked independently and repeated their measurements 2 weeks later. Intraobserver and interobserver agreement was evaluated using the weighted coefficient, and this revealed poor agreement regardless of the surgeon's experience. This shows that the present system lacks reliability and raises concerns about the place for preoperative radiological templating in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
The study was designed to examine the effect of feeding diets with different energy levels for op... more The study was designed to examine the effect of feeding diets with different energy levels for optimum growth and early puberty of heifers. Twenty Sahiwal heifers (Age = 12 ± 2 months and avg. wt = 125 kg) were assigned to four dietary treatments having five animals on each treatment. Iso-nitrogenous (CP=13.7%) diets having varying energy, viz; ME 100% (Control), ME 88%, ME 112% and ME 124% of NRC (2001) recommended level for small breed non bred heifers were fed to the respective groups until the onset of puberty. Dry matter and protein intakes were similar (P>0.05) across the dietary treatments. The optimum average daily gain (ADG) was achieved during the period from 13 to 18 months of age. The overall ADG was higher (571±15 g/d) in ME 124% than of ME 100, 88 and 112%, whereas ADG found to be lowest in ME 88% (397±07 g/d). Similar trend was observed in feed efficiency for different treatment groups. Heifers fed dietary level of ME 124% of NRC (2001) acquired higher body length, height and heart girth as compared to those fed other dietary energy levels. The digestibility of nutrients, age at puberty, age at 1 st conception and serum progesterone were not influenced by dietary treatments (P>0.05). It is concluded that provision of higher dietary energy level (ME 124% of NRC, 2001 recommendation) enhanced growth parameters and feed efficiency but adequate reproductive performance of Sahiwal heifers in terms of age at puberty was achieved even at lower dietary energy level (ME 88% of NRC, 2001 recommended level) under local environmental conditions of Pakistan.
A method is described for the quantitative characterization of strained Si/Si~Gel_ ~ multilayers ... more A method is described for the quantitative characterization of strained Si/Si~Gel_ ~ multilayers and interfaces by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) in [110] and [100] crystal projections. The method relies on systematic variations of the image contrast with variations of the local composition z for certain ranges of objective lens defocus A f and specimen thickness t and takes tetragonal lattice distortions fully into account. From an extensive study of the image formation process for Si~Gel_ ~ alloys and coherent Si/Si=Gel_ ~ interfaces, ranges of A f and t were identified by Bloch-wave and multi-slice image simulations at 400 keV for which a quasi-linear functional relationship between the composition z and the first-order Fourier coefficients of the image intensity exists. By application of a novel image-processing algorithm, which allows a precise measurement of image Fourier coefficients in geometrically distorted lattice images, local composition values z can be determined at near-atomic resolution with an accuracy of Az _< d:0.1 and interface sharpness can be detected at the atomic level. Recent applications of the method to the characterization of interfaces of strained Si~Gel_ x layers and short-period SimGe n superlattices fabricated by different deposition techniques will be presented.
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