COVID-19 Detection and Analysis Using Chest X-Ray and CT- Scan Images

COVID-19 seems to be the most devastating and lethal illness characterized by an unique coronavirus for the human body. Coronavirus, which is considered to have originated in Wuhan, China, and is responsible for a huge number of deaths, spread swiftly around the world in December 2019. Early discovery of COVID-19 by proper diagnosis, especially in situations with no evident symptoms, could reduce the death rate of patients. The primary diagnostic tools for this condition are chest Xrays and CT scans. COVID-19 may be detected using a machine vision technique from chest X-ray pictures and CT scans, according to this study.The model's performance was evaluated using generalised data throughout the testing step. According to recent studies gained using radiological imaging techniques, such images convey crucial data about the COVID-19 virus. This proposed approach, which makes use of modern artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, has shown to be effective in recognising COVID-19, and when combined with radiological imaging, can aid in the correct detection of this disease. The proposed approach was created in order to provide accurate assessments for COVID and non-COVID patients.The results demonstrate that VGG-16 is the best architecture for the reference dataset, with 98.87 percent accuracy in network evaluations and 95.91 percent success in patient status identification. Convolutional layers were developed, with distinct filtering applied to each layer. As a result, the VGG-16 design performed well in the classification of COVID-19 cases. Nevertheless, by modifying it or adding a preprocessing step on top of it, this architecture allows for significant gains. Our methodology can be used to help radiologists validate their first screenings and can also be used to screen patients quickly via the cloud.

ENDOSCOPIC CARTILAGE TYMPANOPLASTY. OUR TECHNIQUE AND EXPERIENCE OF 157 CASES

Objective: To assess the graft take rate and hearing gain in trans-canal endoscopic tympanoplasty Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Pakistan Naval Ship Hafeez, Islamabad Pakistan, form Dec 2015 to Jun 2018 Methodology: All patients with dry central perforations of >3 months history were included in the study. All Patients with perforations of pars tensa were booked for endoscopic cartilage tympanoplasty. All perforations were divided into four types small, medium, large and subtotal or total based on size of the tympanic membrane perforations. Small perforations involving <25% area of Pars Tensa. Medium perforation are Perforations involving 25-50% of Tympanic membrane. Large perforations include Perforations involving 50-75% of pars tensa. Subtotal or total perforations are defined as perforations with >75% perforation of the tympanic membranes. Wet Ears and perforations involving the Pars Flacida were excluded from the study. Preoperative Audiogram was carried out for all patients and A-B Gap were noted for all groups separately so as the demographic data including age and gender. Success was defined as complete closure of Tympanic membrane perforation at 3 months. All patients were operated with 0 Degree 3mm, 14cm rigid endoscope under general anesthesia. Results: Mean age of patients was. 37 years and standard deviation was 12.34 (range 12-58 years). Out of total 157 cases 81 patients male were males (51%) and 76 patients were females (49). Out of 157 ears operated 146 Perforations healed completely an overall success rate of 92%. Patients with small perforations had 100 percent success.....

The New Addiction Treatment

Addiction is this country’s most pervasive and damaging public health problem, yet most Americans receive care that results in a failure rate that is both astronomically high and shielded from public view. This book examines the current state of the addiction treatment business and explores the reasons why—unlike those for all other behavioral, psychological, or neurological disorders—the treatment of addiction has been frozen in amber and little improved since the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. After describing the size and scope of the problem and examining actual recovery rates for those who undergo treatment, there is the assertion that there are effectively two kinds of treatment regimes in the United States: those that medical doctors receive and those for the rest of us. The former has about an 80 percent success rate, the latter about an 80 percent failure rate. Drawing from personal experience as a former patient and person in long-term recovery, as well as 22 years as a clinician, professor, and researcher, many of the impediments to effective treatment today are described. The book finally offers a plausible and cost-effective way to disrupt the dismal status quo and realistically aspire to an 80 percent success rate for everyone who receives professional help for a substance use disorder.

INTRA-VAGINAL MISOPROSTOL ALONE VS MISOPROSTOL IN COMBINATION WITH INTRA-CERVICAL FOLEY’S CATHETER FOR SECOND TRIMESTER ABORTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Pregnancy termination in the second trimester is riskier than in the first. The primary objective is to create a more effective means of termination while also reducing induction time. To compare the efficacy, safety, and acceptability of intra-cervical foley's catheter with vaginal misoprostol versus vaginal misoprostol for second-trimester pregnancy termination. This clinical study involved 400 pregnant women who were scheduled to have their pregnancy terminated between 13 and 22 weeks of pregnancy for any reason. The enrolled women were divided into two categories: Category I (Misoprostol category): intra-cervical Foley’s catheter inserted with a standard regimen of moistened misoprostol tablets (400 g) 4 hourly inserted vaginally to a maximum of 5 doses; Category II (Combined category): intra-cervical Foley catheter inserted with a standard regimen of moistened misoprostol tablets (400 g) 4 hourly inserted vaginally to a maximum of 5 doses 4 hourly intra-vaginal injections were employed. Misoprostol was retained in the posterior fornix, and the dose was repeated every 4 hours until the catheter was removed, or until a maximum of five doses had been administered. The mean induction to abortion interval in the misoprostol category was 15.38 + 1.25 hours and 8.25 + 2.25 hours in the combination category, which was statistically significant (p= 0.001). The misoprostol category had a 94 percent success rate, while the combined category had a 97 percent success rate. The use of a combined intra-cervical foley's catheter and vaginal misoprostol to end a pregnancy in the second trimester is a novel, safe, effective, and acceptable procedure.

Urethral meatus preserving ventral onlay augmentation urethroplasty for female urethral stricture: our technique with initial experience

Background Female urethral stricture (FUS) is an uncommon cause of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in women. Reconstructive techniques are being increasingly used for strictures resistant to the more conservative form of management. Most forms of reconstruction require cutting open of urethral meatus, thereby resulting in some loss of the meatus function. We hereby describe the technique of urethral meatus sparing ventral onlay mucosal graft augmentation urethroplasty with our initial experience. Methods We performed this procedure in 10 cases of FUS with normal meatus and prospectively studied the outcomes over a period of 6 months follow-up. Results There was 90 percent success rate with one recurrence. The mean Qmax increased from 7.2 to 19.5 ml/s, mean post-void residual urine (PVRU) decreased from 96.5 to 22.7 ml and the mean IPSS decreased from 26.1 to 5.7. There were no major complications noted and the patients demonstrated significant subjective and objective improvement of symptoms in the follow-up period. Conclusion The technique of meatus sparing ventral onlay augmentation graft urethroplasty is a promising approach with good outcomes, is reproducible and has minimal complication rate.

Disrupting Audio Event Detection Deep Neural Networks with White Noise

Audio event detection (AED) systems can leverage the power of specialized algorithms for detecting the presence of a specific sound of interest within audio captured from the environment. More recent approaches rely on deep learning algorithms, such as convolutional neural networks and convolutional recurrent neural networks. Given these conditions, it is important to assess how vulnerable these systems can be to attacks. As such, we develop AED-suited convolutional neural networks and convolutional recurrent neural networks, and attack them next with white noise disturbances, conceived to be simple and straightforward to be implemented and employed, even by non-tech savvy attackers. We develop this work under a safety-oriented scenario (AED systems for safety-related sounds, such as gunshots), and we show that an attacker can use such disturbances to avoid detection by up to 100 percent success. Prior work has shown that attackers can mislead image classification tasks; however, this work focuses on attacks against AED systems by tampering with their audio rather than image components. This work brings awareness to the designers and manufacturers of AED systems, as these solutions are vulnerable, yet may be trusted by individuals and families.

Tissue block staining and domestic adhesive tape yield qualified integral sections of adult mouse orbits and eyeballs

The standard histological processing procedure, which produces excellent staining of sections for most tissues, fails to yield satisfactory results in adult mouse orbits or eyeballs. Here, we show that a protocol using tissue block staining and domestic adhesive tapes resulted in qualified integral serial cryo-sections of whole orbits or eyeballs, and the fine structures were well preserved. The histological processing protocol comprises paraformaldehyde fixation, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid decalcification, tissue block staining with hematoxylin and eosin, embedding, adhesive tape aided sectioning, and water-soluble mounting. This protocol was proved to be the best in comparison with seven other related existing histological traditional or non-traditional processing methods, according to the staining slice quality. We observed a hundred percent success rate in sectioning, collection, and mounting with this method. The reproducibility tested on qualified section success rates and slice quality scores confirmed that the technique is reliable. The feasibility of the method to detect target molecules in orbits was verified by successful trial tests on block immunostaining and adhesive tape-aided sectioning. Application of this protocol in joints, brains, and so on,—the challenging integral sectioning tissues, also generated high-quality histological staining sections.

Artificial intelligence-based classification with classical Turkish music makams: Possibilities to Turkish music education

Makams of Classical Turkish Music have been tried to be classified through various studies for the past years. Significant differences of opinion have emerged in the classification process of the makams in Music Education and Literacy from past to present. This situation creates problems in learning the makams related to music education and recognizing the makams heard. Additionally, there are uncertainties in the classification of the makam genre of the song, as individual mistakes were made while notating the musical notes. Apart from that, this situation constitutes a problem not only for the ones studying Turkish Classical Music but also for the ones interested in this certain type of Music. Therefore, the objective of the research is to contribute to the makam classification in Classical Turkish Music Education by developing an MIR system that determines the makam of the songs. Theoretically, we can extract the properties of sound signals with Time Wavelet Scattering Feature Extraction, classify them with SVM and distinguish between types of makams. In this study, upon eight different Makams, a Musical Information Retrieval system has been created via the Artificial Intelligence (AI) method of Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Time Wavelet Scattering Feature Extraction and through using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerator for the sake of feature extraction. We performed the classification process by modeling it on the MATLAB program. The study's success rate was identified as 98.21% and it acquired a higher success rate compared to the other studies in the literature. After completing the classification procedure, the Makams were identified by sending samples belonging to different sound files from the system consisting of a database belonging to eight different Makams. In our study, the classification and detection processes were realized with nearly a hundred percent success. The difficulties encountered in classifying the makams in Classical Turkish Music mentioned above, with the application of artificial intelligence, the classification difficulty of individuals who have received this type of training or are interested in this subject has been overcome.

Surgical Treatment of Prolapse of the Third Eyelid Gland in Dogs using Modified Morgan Pocket Technique

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical outcome, complications, recurrence rate, and results of the pocket technique in the treatment of prolapse of the third eyelid gland, cherry eye namely. Thirty eyes of 26 dogs diagnosed with prolapse of the third eyelid gland were included the study. Conjunctivitis and ocular discharges were noticed in the affected eyes. The four cases were (15%) bilateral and twenty-two (85%) were unilateral. Of the dogs with unilateral disease, the affected eye was on the left side in 10 (45%) dogs and the right side in 12 (55%). Eighteen dogs were male and eight were female. Twenty-six dogs, 30 eyes with protrusion of the third eyelid gland were treated using Modified Morgan’s pocket technique. In the postoperative period, the dogs were controlled 3 times with 7 day intervals and no clinical problem was detected. Modified Morgan pocket technique was used with 96.1 percent success rate for the re-positioning of prolapsed gland of the third eyelid in dogs.

Manifestation of Income Inequality and Poverty Prevalence in Selected North Central States of Nigeria

<p><em>Poverty in Nigeria has been described as pervasive owing to the fact that the nation has witnessed a persistent increase in poverty level over the years. More so, there has been a renewed and growing concern about poverty and income inequality due to their negative implications for both economic growth and social peace. In Nigeria, the twin issues of poverty and inequitable income distribution present a paradox. This is because, though the country is rich in land, human and natural resources, yet 70 percent of Nigerians are still considered poor with low per capital income. More so, it has been argued that income inequality is a manifestation as well as strong cause of poverty. The study therefore analyses the empirical relationship between manifestation of income inequality and poverty prevalence among households in selected North Central States in Nigeria. This study employed survey method using structured questionnaire. A representative sample of 600 respondents was planned for the survey in order to have at least 462 households responding. However, the study has 501 household respondents representing 84 percent success rate. The result shows that 84 percent households believe that income inequality is a major determinant of poverty in Nigeria and 76 percent also agreed that poverty occur most in rural area than urban areas. It was found that a disproportionate share in income across divide would exacerbate poverty among rural dwellers particularly farmers, artisans, and traders. The study therefore recommends a deliberate policy of reducing income inequality so as to reduce the incidence of poverty especially among the rural dwellers.</em><em></em></p>