Computer Techniques for Detection of Breast Cancer and Follow Up Neoadjuvant Treatment

This chapter explores several steps of the thermal breast exams analysis process in detecting breast abnormality and evaluating the response of pre-surgical treatment. Topics concerning the process of acquiring, storing, and preprocessing these exams, including a novel segmentation proposal that uses collective intelligence techniques, will be discussed. In addition, various approaches to calculating statistical and geometric descriptors from thermal breast examinations are also considered of this chapter. These descriptors can be used at different stages of the analysis process of these exams. In this sense, two experiments will be presented. The first one explores the use of genetic algorithms in the feature selection process. The second conducts a preliminary study that intends to analyze some descriptors, already used in other works, in the process of evaluating preoperative treatment response. This evaluation is of fundamental importance since the response is directly associated with the prognosis of the disease.

Nutritional Properties and Oxidative Indices of Broiler Breast Meat Affected by Wooden Breast Abnormality

Wooden breast (WB) abnormality adversely impacts the quality of chicken meat and has been linked with oxidative stress. In this study, breast samples were taken from carcasses of 7-week-old Ross 308 broilers 20-min and 24-h postmortem. Five WB and seven non-WB control samples were assigned based on palpatory hardness (non-WB = no unusual characteristics and WB = focal or diffused hardness). WB exhibited lower contents of protein and the amino acids, i.e., isoleucine, leucine and valine, lighter surface color, lower shear force, greater drip loss and altered mineral profiles (p ≤ 0.05). Despite no difference in lipid oxidation, a greater degree of protein oxidation was found in the WB meat (p ≤ 0.05). Absolute transcript abundances of superoxide dismutase, hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 were greater in WB (p ≤ 0.05), whereas lactate dehydrogenase A expression was lower in WB (p ≤ 0.05). The findings support an association between oxidative stress and the altered nutritional and technological properties of chicken meat in WB.