White blood cell (WBC) segmentation, which is important for cytometry, is a challenging issue because of the morphological diversity of WBCs and the complex and uncertain background of blood smear images. This paper proposes a novel method for the nucleus and cytoplasm segmentation of WBCs for cytometry. A color adjustment step was also introduced before segmentation. Color space decomposition and k-means clustering were combined for segmentation. A database including 300 microscopic blood smear images were used to evaluate the performance of our method. The proposed segmentation method achieves 95.7% and 91.3% overall accuracy for nucleus segmentation and cytoplasm segmentation, respectively. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can segment WBCs effectively with high accuracy.

An efficient numerical procedure for computing the scattering coefficients of a multilayered sphere is discussed. The stability of the numerical scheme allows us to extend the feasible range of computations, both in size parameter and in number of layers for a given size, by several orders of magnitude with respect to previously published algorithms. Exemplifying results, such as scattering diagrams and cross-sectional curves, including the case of Gaussian beam illumination, are provided. Particular attention is paid to scattering at the rainbow angle for which approaches based on geometrical optics might fail to provide accurate enough results.

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BackgroundThe present study was performed to explore the presence of informative protein biomarkers of human serum proteome in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).Material/MethodsSerum samples were profiled using iTRAQ coupled with two-dimensional liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (2D-LC-MS/MS) technique, and ELISA was used to validate candidate biomarkers.ResultsA total of 394 proteins were identified and 97 proteins were associated with IPF. Four biomarker candidates generated from iTRAQ experiments – CRP, fibrinogen-α chain, haptoglobin, and kininogen-1 – were successfully verified using ELISA.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates that levels of CRP and fibrinogen-α are higher and levels of haptoglobin and kininogen-1 are lower in patients with IPF compared to levels in healthy controls. We found they are useful candidate biomarkers for IPF.