CT image segmentation in traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability and death. Speed and accuracy are vital in diagnosing TBI for which computer-aided imaging analysis may speedup and improve the efficiency of diagnosis and help reduce mortality, long-term complications, and the associated costs. However, developing such a system is challenging due to some factors such as the inherent noise associated with obtaining the images, artifacts and quality of the images. An automated system that can preliminary identify, localize and quantify the imaging features of TBI would be beneficial in guiding real-time clinical diagnosis as well as for quality assurance. In this paper we propose an automated system to segment the hematoma region from CT images. The proposed method first performs denoising and image enhancement and then by developing a Gaussian mixture model, segmentation is carried out. We show the performance of the system by comparing the results with ground truth generated by specialists.

Assessment of water quality index of bore well water samples from some selected locations of South Gujarat, India.

The present study calculates the water quality index (WQI) of some selected sites from South Gujarat (India) and assesses the impact of industries, agriculture and human activities. Chemical parameters were monitored for the calculation of WQI of some selected bore well samples. The results revealed that the WQI of the some bore well samples exceeded acceptable levels due to the dumping of wastes from municipal, industrial and domestic sources and agricultural runoff as well. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) was implemented for interpolation of each water quality parameter (pH, EC, alkalinity, total hardness, chloride, nitrate and sulphate) for the entire sampled area. The bore water is unsuitable for drinking and if the present state of affairs continues for long, it may soon become an ecologically dead bore.

Nondestructive determination of curcuminoids from turmeric powder using FT-NIR.

Nondestructive method of measuring curcuminoid content of turmeric powder was developed by fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectrometer. Also, the calibration models describing the relationship between curcuminoid content and the NIR spectra of the turmeric powder were developed and evaluated. To develop the model, NIR reflectance spectra were acquired for each turmeric powder sample. Spectra were pre-processed by applying different spectra correction algorithms. The relationship between spectrometric curcuminoid content and FT-NIR spectra of turmeric powder was examined through partial least square (PLS) regression method in the wave number range of 6102 to 4246 cm(-1). The root mean square error of cross-validation and test set validation were 0.104 and 0.201 whereas the determination coefficient (R(2)) for both the validations were 97.64 and 87.53, respectively. A low value of root mean square error and high value of R(2) indicates a high correlation between the concentration and spectral data. Thus the FT-NIR offers a viable alternative to spectroscopic procedures as well as the method is time and cost effective for determination of curcuminoid content of turmeric.

Evaluation of Antiasthmatic Activity of Curculigo orchioides Gaertn. Rhizomes.

The ethanol extract of Curculigo orchioides was evaluated for antiasthmatic activity by using various in vitro and in vivo animal models. In vitro models like isolated goat tracheal chain preparation and isolated guinea pig ileum preparation were studied to know basic mechanism by which extract shows relaxant activity. The study showed that extract is effective against histamine-induced contraction. In isolated goat tracheal chain preparation and isolated guinea pig ileum preparation extract exhibits maximum relaxant effect (p< 0.01) against histamine at concentrations 100mug/ml and 25mug/ml respectively. Animal studies involved use of histamine induced bronchoconstriction in guinea pigs, egg albumin induced passive paw anaphylaxis in rats and haloperidol-induced catalepsy in mice. These studies showed significant (p< 0.01) protection at lower doses while further increase in the dose level showed reduced activity. Biochemical estimations in milk-induced total leukocytes count and milk-induced differential leukocyte count were also studied. In this study there was maximum increase in leucocytes and lymphocytes (99%) and maximum decrease in eosinophils up to 0% at dose 375mg/kg p.o. body weight was observed. The results of these studies indicated usefulness of ethanol extract of Curculigo orchioides in asthma.

Immunomodulatory activity of petroleum ether extract of flower heads of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn.

The petroleum ether extract from the flower heads of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. was found to be effective in increasing phagocytic activity, hemagglutination antibody titer and delayed type hypersensitivity when tested in mice. Activity of the petroleum extract was tested at five different dosing levels to establish a dose-response relationship. It was found that 200 mg/kg dose was the optimum dose, and at higher doses the activity was either reduced or showed no further increase. The present study, therefore, reveals that the drug shows good promise as an immunomodulatory agent, which acts by stimulating both humoral and cellular immunity as well as phagocytic function.

Immunostimulatory effect of methanol extract of Curculigo orchioides on immunosuppressed mice.

The methanol extract of rhizomes of Curculigo orchioides Gaertn. (Amaryllidaceae) holds potential as a protective agent against cytotoxic drugs. The extract when studied on humoral and cell mediated immunity in normal, as well as cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppressed mice produced an increase in humoral antibody (HA) titre, delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) and levels of WBC in a dose dependent manner.

Protective effect of bioactive fraction of Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. against cyclophosphamide induced suppression of humoral immunity in mice.

The bioactive fraction of Sphaeranthus indicus produced dose dependent increase in humoral immunity and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response as evidenced by increased antibody production and increase in paw edema. The activity at higher doses, however, declines. Humoral antibody (HA) titre lowered by cyclophosphamide (CP) (p < 0.05) was enhanced by bioactive fraction at doses of 200 (p < 0.05) and 400 mg/kg (p < 0.001). There was dose dependent increase in HA titre in normal as well as immunosuppressed animals indicating that drug is effective in humoral immunity. Animals treated with cyclophosphamide and receiving bioactive fraction showed significant change in DTH response, which directly correlates with cell-mediated immunity, as compared to cyclophosphamide alone. Thus, it can be observed that a bioactive fraction of Sphaeranthus indicus acts as potentiator of DTH. Furthermore, the HPTLC fingerprint profile of the bioactive fraction was established to facilitate its identification and characterization. The results suggest that bioactive fraction influences both humoral and cell-mediated immunity and offers protection against immunosuppression induced by the cytotoxic agent cyclophosphamide.