A counting method for complex overlapping erythrocytes-based microscopic imaging

Red blood cell(RBC)counting 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,an approach for erythrocytes counting is proposed.We employed a classification before counting and a new segmentation idea was implemented on the complex overlapping clusters in a microscopic smear image.Experimental results show that the proposed method is of higher counting accuracy and it performs much better than most counting algorithms existed in the situation of three or more RBCs overlapping complexly into a group.The average total erythrocytes counting accuracy of the proposed method reaches 92.9%.

A Leukocyte image fast scanning based on max–min distance clustering

A leukocyte image fast scanning method based on max min distance clustering is proposed.Because of the lower proportion and uneven distribution of leukocytes in human peripheral blood,there will not be any leukocyte in lager quantity of the captured images if we directly scan the blood smear along an ordinary zigzag scanning routine with high power(100^(x))objective.Due to the larger field of view of low power(10^(x))objective,the captured low power blood smear images can be used to locate leukocytes.All of the located positions make up a specific routine,if we scan the blood smear along this routine with high power objective,there will be definitely leukocytes in almost all of the captured images.Considering the number of captured images is still large and some leukocytes may be redundantly captured twice or more,a leukocyte clustering method based on max-min distance clustering is developed to reduce the total number of captured images as well as the number of redundantly captured leukocytes.This method can improve the scanning eficiency obviously.The experimental results show that the proposed method can shorten scanning time from 8.0-14.0min to 2.54.0 min while extracting 110 nonredundant individual high power leukocyte images.

Dietary supplementation with inulin improves lactation performance and serum lipids by regulating the rumen microbiome and metabolome in dairy cows

This study investigated the effects of inulin on rumen fermentation parameters,ruminal microbiome and metabolites,as well as lactation performance and serum indexes in dairy cows.Sixteen Holstein dairy cows with similar body conditions were randomly divided into 2 groups(n=8 per group),with inulin addition at 0 and 200 g/d percow.The experiment lasted for 6 weeks,including a 1-week adaptation period and a 5-week treatment period.At the end of the experimental period,the milk,serum and rumen fluid were sampled and analyzed.The microbiome and metabolome in the rumen fluid were analyzed via 16 S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics,respectively.The results showed that supplementation with inulin(200 g/d per cow)increased the milk yield(P=0.001),milk protein(P=0.032),lacto se rate(P=0.004)and proportion of saturated fatty acids(SFA)in milk(P<0.001),but decreased the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids(USFA)(P=0.041).Rumen pH(P=0.040)and the concentration of NH3-N(P=0.024)were decreased;however,acetate(P<0.001),propionate(P=0.003),butyrate(P<0.001)and lactic acid(LA)(P=0.043)were increased.The total cholesterol(TC)(P=0.008)and triglycerides(TG)(P=0.01)in serum were also reduced.Additionally,inulin addition elevated the relative abundance of several beneficial symbiotic and short-chain fatty acid(SCFA)-producing bacteria,such as Muribaculaceae(false discovery rate[FDR]-adjusted P<0.01),Acetitomaculum(FDR-adjusted P=0.043),and Bu tyrivibrio(FDR-adjusted P=0.036),while elevating the levels of L-lysine(FDR-adjusted P=4.24×10^(-3)),L-proline(FDR-adjusted P=0.0158),and L-phenylalanine(FDRadj usted P=0.027).In contrast,several pathogens and ruminal bacteria abu ndant in high-fat diets,such as Escherichia-Sh igella(FD R-adj usted P=0.022),Erysipelo trichaceaeUCG-004(FD R-adjusted P<0.01)and RF39(FDR-adjusted P=0.042)were decreased along with the reduction of lysophosphatidylcholine(LysoPC)(18:1(9 Z))(FDR-adjusted P=1.03×10^(-3)),LysoPC(16:0)(FDR-adjusted P=0.0108),LysoPC(18:2(9 Z,12 Z))(FDRadjusted P=1.65×10^(-3))and 8-methylnonenoate.In conclusion,dietary inulin supplementation could increase the relative abundance of commensal microbiota and SCFA-producing bacteria,upregulate amino acidmetabolism and downregulate lipid metabolism in the rumen of dairy cows,which might further improve lactation performance and the level of serum lipids.