Search results for: depression diagnosis

Authors: Aleema Rahman

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Introduction: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of long-term otitis media with effusion (OME) and hearing loss in a prospective longitudinal cohort studyand to study the relationship between the condition and educational and psychosocial outcomes. Methods: Analysis of data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) will be undertaken. ALSPAC is a longitudinal birth cohort study carried out in the UK, which has collected detailed measures of hearing on ~7000 children from the age of seven. A descriptive analysis of the data will be undertaken to estimate the prevalence of OME and hearing loss (defined as having average hearing levels > 20dB and type B tympanogram) at 7, 9, 11, and 15 years as well as that of long-term OME and hearing loss. Logistic and linear regression analyses will be conducted to examine associations between long-term OME and hearing loss and educational outcomes (grades obtained from standardised national attainment tests) and psychosocial outcomes such as anxiety, social fears, and depression at ages 10-11 and 15-16 years. Results: Results will be presented in terms of the prevalence of OME and hearing loss in the population at each age. The prevalence of long-term OME and hearing loss, defined as having OME and hearing loss at two or more time points, will also be reported. Furthermore, any associations between long-term OME and hearing loss and the educational and psychosocial outcomes will be presented. Analyses will take into account demographic factors such as sex and social deprivation and relevant confounders, including socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and IQ. Discussion: Findings from this study will provide new epidemiological information on the prevalence of long-term OME and hearing loss. The research will provide new knowledge on the impact of OME for the small group of children who do not grow out of condition by age 7 but continue to have hearing loss and need clinical care through later childhood. The study could have clinical implications and may influence service delivery for this group of children.

Keywords: educational attainment, hearing loss, otitis media with effusion, psychosocial development

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Authors: Issam Alnader, Aboubaker Lasebae, Rand Raheem

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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are distributed network systems used in a wide range of applications, including safety-critical systems. The latter provide critical services, often concerned with human life or assets. Therefore, ensuring the dependability requirements of Safety critical systems is of paramount importance. The purpose of this paper is to utilize the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to elongate the service availability of WSNs by increasing the time it takes a node to become obsolete via optimal load balancing. We propose an HMM algorithm that, given a WSN, analyses and predicts undesirable situations, notably, nodes dying unexpectedly or prematurely. We apply this technique to improve on C. Lius’ algorithm, a scheduling-based algorithm which has served to improve the lifetime of WSNs. Our experiments show that our HMM technique improves the lifetime of the network, achieved by detecting nodes that die early and rebalancing their load. Our technique can also be used for diagnosis and provide maintenance warnings to WSN system administrators. Finally, our technique can be used to improve algorithms other than C. Liu’s.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks, IoT, dependability of safety WSNs, energy conservation, sleep awake schedule

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Authors: Wenxiao Liu, Kun Zhang, Yongqing Li

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Bovine herpesvirus 1, a member of the genus Variellovirus of the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae, has caused severe economic cost to the bovine industry. In this study, BoHV-1 glycerol protein gD was expressed in insect cells, and the purified gD was immunized in the Balb/C mice to generate monoclonal antibodies. Based on hybridoma cell fusion techniques, 20 monoclonal antibodies against Bovine herpesvirus 1 have been obtained. Further, mAb 3F8 with neutralizing activity and gD were applied to develop a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa) for detecting neutralizing antibodies against BoHV-1, which shows a significant correlation between the blocking Elisa and VNT. The sensitivity and specificity of the test were estimated to be 94.59% and 93.42%, respectively. Furthermore, antibody pairing tests revealed that mAb 1B6 conjugated to fluorescence microspheres was used as the capture antibody, and mAb 3F9 was used as the detectable antibody to establish the immunochromatographic assay (ICS). The ICS was conducted to detect BoHV-1 in bovine samples with high sensitivity, specificity, and good stability. Clinical sample testing revealed that the results of ICS and real-time PCR have a coincidence rate of 95.42%. Our research confirmed that the ICS is a rapid and reliable method for the diagnosis of BoHV-1. In conclusion, our results lay a solid foundation for the prevention and control of BoHV-1 infection.

Keywords: bovine disease, BoHV-1, ELISA, ICS assay

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Authors: Lina, Arlends Chris, Bagus Mulyawan, Agus B. Dharmawan

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Blood cell analysis plays a significant role in the diagnosis of human health. As an alternative to the traditional technique conducted by laboratory technicians, this paper presents an automatic white blood cell (leukocyte) detection system using Image Stitching and Color Overlapping Windows. The advantage of this method is to present a detection technique of white blood cells that are robust to imperfect shapes of blood cells with various image qualities. The input for this application is images from a microscope-slide translation video. The preprocessing stage is performed by stitching the input images. First, the overlapping parts of the images are determined, then stitching and blending processes of two input images are performed. Next, the Color Overlapping Windows is performed for white blood cell detection which consists of color filtering, window candidate checking, window marking, finds window overlaps, and window cropping processes. Experimental results show that this method could achieve an average of 82.12% detection accuracy of the leukocyte images.

Keywords: color overlapping windows, image stitching, leukocyte detection, white blood cell detection

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Authors: Obulesh Avuku, Satwik Sunnam, Sri Charan Mohan Janthuka, Keerthi Yalamaddi

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In the United States alone, there are over 1.5 million spine fractures per year, resulting in about 17,730 spinal cord injuries. The cervical spine is where fractures in the spine most frequently occur. The prevalence of spinal fractures in the elderly has increased, and in this population, fractures may be harder to see on imaging because of coexisting degenerative illness and osteoporosis. Nowadays, computed tomography (CT) is almost completely used instead of radiography for the imaging diagnosis of adult spine fractures (x-rays). To stop neurologic degeneration and paralysis following trauma, it is vital to trace any vertebral fractures at the earliest. Many approaches have been proposed for the classification of the cervical spine [2d models]. We are here in this paper trying to break the bounds and use the vision transformers, a State-Of-The-Art- Model in image classification, by making minimal changes possible to the architecture of ViT and making it 3D-enabled architecture and this is evaluated using a weighted multi-label logarithmic loss. We have taken this problem statement from a previously held Kaggle competition, i.e., RSNA 2022 Cervical Spine Fracture Detection.

Keywords: cervical spine, spinal fractures, osteoporosis, computed tomography, 2d-models, ViT, multi-label logarithmic loss, Kaggle, public score, private score

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Authors: Conchita Martin de Bustamante, Christopher S. Kung, Brianne Lacy, Eunsol Park, Hien Piotrowski, Mustafa Husain, Waseem Ahmed

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Objective: To explore the comorbidity of mental health conditions (major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia) with opioid use disorder in people incarcerated at a large urban jail. Background Schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety are all serious mental health conditions that are highly prevalent amongst incarcerated patients. However, it is seldom the only disorder these patients are suffering from. According to the US Department of Justice, about half of US prisoners, both at the state and federal level, suffer from substance use disorders. Although the opioid epidemic has been studied greatly in the recent years amongst the general population, little has been explored on how the opioid crisis has affected incarcerated patients in local jails, particularly regarding which of these patients are most susceptible. Method The cohort consisted of 507 people incarcerated at a large county jail who were evaluated by mental health providers in December 2020. A retrospective review was performed to evaluate associations between mental health diagnoses, substance use disorder, and other demographic variables. Results Participants had been diagnosed with various mental health conditions, including MDD (22.6%, n = 115), GAD (33.7%, n = 171), Schizophrenia (15.2%, n = 77) and BPD (27%, n = 137). Preliminary Chi square tests were conducted for these conditions against marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, opioid, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, and sedative use disorders. The results showed significant associations between Schizophrenia (p = 0.013), GAD (p M 0.001), and MDD (p = 0.029) with opioid use disorders. Conclusions Determining the extent of these comorbid substance use and mental health disorders within an incarcerated population can help influence treatment plans for future incarcerated patients. Many federal and state jail systems lack pharmacological substance use intervention and the prevalence of these co-morbid conditions can shed light on the importance of treating conditions concurrently upon intake.

Keywords: mental health conditions, opioids, substance use disorder, comorbidity

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Authors: Eman A. Gani, Loay E. George, Faisel G. Mohammed, Kamal H. Sager

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Digital retinal images are more appropriate for automatic screening of diabetic retinopathy systems. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of these images are poor quality that hinders further analysis due to many factors (such as patient movement, inadequate or non-uniform illumination, acquisition angle and retinal pigmentation). The retinal images of poor quality need to be enhanced before the extraction of features and abnormalities. So, the segmentation of retinal image is essential for this purpose, the segmentation is employed to smooth and strengthen image by separating the background and damaged areas from the overall image thus resulting in retinal image enhancement and less processing time. In this paper, methods for segmenting colored retinal image are proposed to improve the quality of retinal image diagnosis. The methods generate two segmentation masks; i.e., background segmentation mask for extracting the background area and poor quality mask for removing the noisy areas from the retinal image. The standard retinal image databases DIARETDB0, DIARETDB1, STARE, DRIVE and some images obtained from ophthalmologists have been used to test the validation of the proposed segmentation technique. Experimental results indicate the introduced methods are effective and can lead to high segmentation accuracy.

Keywords: retinal images, fundus images, diabetic retinopathy, background segmentation, damaged areas segmentation

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Authors: Wan Aminah Hasbullah

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The knowledge of medicine in Malay society stemmed out from the need to remedy disease process. Such knowledge came from observations by looking at the signs on the plants which signify it uses, the doctrine of signature, and also observing what kind of animal and its parts that can be used to treat the disease. Prayers (jampi and doa’) play a very important role in the therapeutic processes addressing the ethereal part of the body. In Malay medicine, prayers were said in the heart of the Malay bomoh (medicine man) when they are first approaching the diseased person, seeking the help of Allah in accurately directing his mind into making the right diagnosis and subsequently the right choice of treatment. In the making of medicine, similar rituals were religiously followed, starting from gathering the materia medica to the final concoction of the medicine. Thus, all the materia medica and the prayers in Malay medicine were gathered and documented in the medical manuscript known as MSS 2999 Kitab Tibb. For this study, a collection of vegetative materia medica which is specialized for the women illness from this manuscript will be gathered and analysed. A medical and cultural interpretation will be highlighted to see the relationship between efficacy in traditional Malay medicine as practiced in the past and the recent practice of the modern medicine.

Keywords: vegetative, materia medica, woman illness, Malay medical manuscript

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Authors: Jean-Francois Feller

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The analysis of the volatolome emitted by the human body with a sensor array (e-nose) is a method for clinical applications full of promises to make an olfactive fingerprint characteristic of people's health state. But the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) to detect, being in the range of parts per billion (ppb), and their diversity (several hundred) justifies developing ever more sensitive and selective vapor sensors to improve the discrimination ability of the e-nose, is still of interest. Quantum resistive vapour sensors (vQRS) made with nanostructured conductive polymer nanocomposite transducers have shown a great versatility in both their fabrication and operation to detect volatiles of interest such as cancer biomarkers. However, it has been shown that their chemo-resistive response was highly dependent on the quality of the inter-particular junctions in the percolated architecture. The present work investigates the effectiveness of poly(hedral oligomeric silsesquioxane) acting as a nanospacer to amplify the disconnectability of the conducting network and thus maximize the vQRS's sensitivity to VOC.

Keywords: volatolome, quantum resistive vapour sensor, nanostructured conductive polymer nanocomposites, olfactive diagnosis

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Authors: Zahra Solgi, Hossein Rassi

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a multi-step disease, and chronic gastric infection with H. pylori could play a role in one or more of the steps in this pathogenic process. Polymorphisms in several miRNAs are considered to increase the risk for the development of CRC by controlling proliferation, apoptosis and H. pylori pathogenesis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate miRNA146a rs2910164 polymorphism and Helicobacter pylori infection in CRC. A total of 65 patients with CRC were divided into 2 groups: 28 patients < 50 years of age and 37 patients ≥ 50 years of age. DNA was extracted from all samples by a standard method and H. pylori cagA and miRNA146a rs2910164 genotypes were determined by PCR method. The results show that there was no significant difference in the frequency of H. pylori cagA gene between the two groups but there was a significant difference in the distribution of rs2910164 genotypes in patients < 50 years of age with the p-value of 0.05 and odds ratio equal to 2.69. On other hand, patients < 50 years of age with genotype CC of miRNA146a showed a significant difference in CRC risk. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between rs2910164 CC genotype with Helicobacter pylori infection in patients < 50 years of age. The present study suggests that the CC genotype of miRNA146a in combination with H. pylori infection can be effective as risk factors and molecular markers for early diagnosis and treatment of CRC.

Keywords: colorectal cancer, Helicobacter pylori, miRNA146a, rs2910164 polymorphism

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Authors: Agnes Simone

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A 52-year-old male with unknown psychiatric and medical history was brought to the Psychiatric Emergency Room by ambulance directly from jail. He had been detained for three weeks for possession of a firearm while intoxicated. On initial evaluation, the patient was unable to provide a reliable history. He presented with odd jerking movements of his extremities and catatonic features, including mutism and stupor. His vital signs were stable. Patient was transferred to the medical emergency department for work-up of altered mental status. Due to suspicion for opioid overdose, the patient was given naloxone (Narcan) with no improvement. Laboratory work-up included complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, thyroid stimulating hormone, vitamin B12, folate, magnesium, rapid plasma reagin, HIV, blood alcohol level, aspirin, and Tylenol blood levels, urine drug screen, and urinalysis, which were all negative. CT head and chest X-Ray were also negative. With this negative work-up, the medical team concluded there was no organic etiology and requested inpatient psychiatric admission. Upon re-evaluation by psychiatry, it was evident that the patient continued to have an altered mental status. Of note, the medical team did not include substance withdrawal in the differential diagnosis due to stable vital signs and a negative urine drug screen. The psychiatry team decided to check California's prescription drug monitoring program (CURES) and discovered that the patient was prescribed benzodiazepine alprazolam (Xanax) 2mg BID, a sedative-hypnotic, and hydrocodone/acetaminophen 10mg/325mg (Norco) QID, an opioid. After a thorough chart review, his daughter's contact information was found, and she confirmed his benzodiazepine and opioid use, with recent escalation and misuse. It was determined that the patient was experiencing alprazolam withdrawal, given this collateral information, his current symptoms, negative urine drug screen, and recent abrupt discontinuation of medications while incarcerated. After admission to the medical unit and two doses of alprazolam 2mg, the patient's mental status, alertness, and orientation improved, but he had no memory of the events that led to his hospitalization. He was discharged with a limited supply of alprazolam and a close follow-up to arrange a taper. Accompanying this case report, a qualitative review of presentations with alprazolam withdrawal was completed. This case and the review highlights: (1) Alprazolam withdrawal can occur at low doses and within just one week of use. (2) Alprazolam withdrawal can present without any vital sign instability. (3) Alprazolam withdrawal does not respond to short-acting benzodiazepines but does respond to certain long-acting benzodiazepines due to its unique chemical structure. (4) Alprazolam withdrawal is distinct from and more severe than other benzodiazepine withdrawals. This case highlights (1) the importance of physician utilization of drug-monitoring programs. This case, in particular, relied on California's drug monitoring program. (2) The importance of obtaining collateral information, especially in cases in which the patient is unable to provide a reliable history. (3) The importance of including substance intoxication and withdrawal in the differential diagnosis even when there is a negative urine drug screen. Toxidrome of withdrawal can be delayed. (4) The importance of discussing addiction and withdrawal risks of medications with patients.

Keywords: addiction risk of benzodiazepines, alprazolam withdrawal, altered mental status, benzodiazepines, drug monitoring programs, sedative-hypnotics, substance use disorder

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Authors: Ayman El Behiry, Rasha Nabil Zahran, Reda Tarabees, Eman Marzouk, Musaad Al-Dubaib

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Mastitis is one of the most economic disease affecting dairy cows worldwide. Its classic diagnosis using bacterial culture and biochemical findings is a difficult and prolonged method. In this research, using of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) permitted identification of different microorganisms with high accuracy and rapidity (only 24 hours for microbial growth and analysis). During the application of MALDI-TOF MS, one hundred twenty strains of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species isolated from milk of cows affected by clinical and subclinical mastitis were identified, and the results were compared with those obtained by traditional methods as API and VITEK 2 Systems. 37 of totality 39 strains (~95%) of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were exactly detected by MALDI TOF MS and then confirmed by a nuc-based PCR technique, whereas accurate identification was observed in 100% (50 isolates) of the coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) and Streptococcus agalactiae (31 isolates). In brief, our results demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS is a fast and truthful technique which has the capability to replace conventional identification of several bacterial strains usually isolated in clinical laboratories of microbiology.

Keywords: identification, mastitis pathogens, mass spectral, phenotypical

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Authors: Hyunjung Lim, Jeonghun Nam, Hyuk Choi

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High-throughput separation is an essential technique for cancer research and diagnosis. Here, we propose a viscoelastic microfluidic device for sheathless, high-throughput isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from white blood cells. Here, we demonstrate a viscoelastic method for separation and concentration of CTCs using closed-loop microfluidics. Our device is a rectangular straight channel with a low aspect ratio. Also, to achieve high-efficiency, high-throughput processing, we used a polymer solution with low viscosity. At the inlet, CTCs and white blood cells (WBCs) were randomly injected into the microchannel. Due to the viscoelasticity-induced lateral migration to the equilibrium positions, large CTCs could be collected from the side outlet while small WBCs were removed at the center outlet. By recirculating the collected CTCs from the side outlet back to the sample reservoir, continuous separation and concentration of CTCs could be achieved with high separation efficiency (~ 99%). We believe that our device has the potential to be applied in resource-limited clinical settings.

Keywords: circulating tumor cell, closed-loop microfluidics, concentration, separation, viscoelastic fluid

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Authors: Ghoul Rachid Brahim

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Introduction: Tuberculous spondylodiscitis is an infection of the spine by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculous spondylodiscitis still remains a topical disease in developing countries and continues to pose a public health problem in endemic countries. Materials and methods: Clinical case: This is a 12-year-old child followed in pediatrics for weight loss and progressively worsening low back pain. The neurological examination found an irritative pyramidal syndrome in both lower limbs with a severe lumbar spinal syndrome. The radiological assessment: (Rx of the spine supplemented by CT and MRI) shows L1L2 spondylodiscitis. Treatment: The child is put on anti-tuberculosis treatment, and the spine is restrained with a corset. Control MRI shows a worsening of the dorsal kyphosis with a backward movement of the posterior wall and spinal cord compression. The child is operated on via the posterior approach (the operative procedure consists of an L1 laminectomy and D11 L3 osteosynthesis). Results: Spinal cord décompression and stabilization of the spine. Conclusion: Tuberculous spondylodiscitis in children remains a rare, aggressive, and progressive condition. The prognosis depends on the diagnosis's precocity and the therapeutic management quality.

Keywords: tuberculous spondylodiscitis, mycobacterium tuberculosis, laminectomy, MRI

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Authors: Sifiso Vilakazi, Lerato Mzenzi

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BACKGROUND :- Human mind is a double-edged sword, it is both arduous and obtuse, vague and explicit. The neuroscience of brain has baffled all and left none. In this labyrinth, a novel neurotransmitter has set its foot. D-Aspartic acid, which has been established in rats and animals’ brain as a neurochemical in controlling behaviour, aggression, fertility, cognition and memory is set to formulate a new benchmark as a marker among suicidal and accidental death victims. Without losing sight of the fact, we have endeavoured to dig out the biochemical relation behind suicide in our research. We in our research have exerted to decipher the puzzle among humans for D-Aspartic acid using HPLC. METHODS:- We have taken 30 samples each of pre-frontal cortex of brain from suicide and road traffic accidents victims for our case-control research to establish brain D-Aspartic acid level using HPLC as a marker for suicide. RESULTS:- By using Independent/Unpaired T-Test Analysis:- The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0044. MEAN (mMOL/mL/G) for D-Aspartic acid in control is 24.2737±7.5958 and for cases is 19.5540±4.2647. By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely statistically significant. CONCLUSION:- (1) Brain D-Aspartic acid has an effect in the act of suicide and its values show a large drop before the act of suicide is commenced as compared to road traffic accidents which correlates with the study where D-AA was studied as a novel endogenous neurotransmitter in case of mental health disorders in humans, though never studied on suicide victims, likely getting it reference from research occurring on rats where it was discovered that D-AA plays a role in cognition, personality development, thought process, aggression. (2)The other study which was related to humans and signified the role of D-AA in reproduction, where low D-AA leads to infertility and depression and hence providing the much needed proof of role of D-AA in mental health disorders and suicide, and subsequently to the act of suicide.

Keywords: green energy, policy, technology, implementation

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Authors: V. V. Povoroznyuk, Lar. P. Martynyuk, N. I. Dzerovych, Lil. P. Martyntyuk

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Objective: Menopause-related changes in female body are associated with the greater risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), which includes obesity, dyslipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension. The aim of our study was to reveal peculiarities of fat and lean mass distribution between postmenopausal women with abdominal obesity and with MS. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 43 postmenopausal 60 – 69 years old women (age: mean = 64,8; S.D. = 0,4); duration of menopause: mean = 14,5; S.D.= 0,9). The diagnosis of MS was considered according to IDF (2005 yr) criteria. Lean and fat mass distrubution were measured by dual-energy X-ray absortiometry, and were compared for the cohorts with and without MS. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package 6.0 (Statsoft). Results: Findings revealed that 24 (55,8 %) of postmenopausal women had MS. In patients with and without MS compared, fat mass was higher in the former group (41248,25±2263,89 and 29817,68±2397,78 respectively; F=11,9; p=0,001) and at different body regions also: gynoid fat (6563,72±348,19 and 5115,21±392,43 respectively; F=7,6; p=0,008), android fat (3815,45±200,8128 and 2798,15±282,79 respectively; F=9,06; p=0,004. Lean mass comparing didn’t show significant differences in female with and without MS (42548,0±1239,18 and 40667,53±1223,78 respectively; F=1,1; p=0,29) and at different body regions also. Conclusion: These findings suggest that in postmenopausal women with MS there is prevalence of fat mass without increasing of lean mass quantity in compare to female with abdominal obesity without MS.

Keywords: lean mass, fat mass, овesity, metabolic syndrome, women, postmenopausal period

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Authors: Fernanda Miranda da Cruz

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This paper aims to systematize, descriptively and analytically, the relations between language, body and material world explored in a specific empirical context: everyday co-presence interactions between children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disease ASD and various interlocutors. We will work based on 20 hours of an audiovisual corpus in Brazilian Portuguese language. This analysis focuses on 1) the analysis of daily interactions that have the presence/participation of subjects with a diagnosis of ASD based on an embodied interaction perspective; 2) the study of the status and role of gestures, body and material world in the construction and constitution of human interaction and its relation with linguistic-cognitive processes and Autistic Spectrum Disorders; 3) to highlight questions related to the field of videoanalysis, such as: procedures for recording interactions in complex environments (involving many participants, use of objects and body movement); the construction of audiovisual corpora for linguistic-interaction research; the invitation to a visual analytical mentality of human social interactions involving not only the verbal aspects that constitute it, but also the physical space, the body and the material world.

Keywords: autism spectrum disease, multimodality, social interaction, non-verbal interactions

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Authors: Andreas Livera, Spyros Theocharides, Michalis Florides, Charalambos Anastassiou

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A main challenge in the quest for ensuring quality of operation, especially for photovoltaic (PV) systems, is to safeguard the reliability and optimal performance by detecting and diagnosing potential failures and performance losses at early stages or before the occurrence through real-time monitoring, supervision, fault detection, and predictive maintenance. The purpose of this work is to present the functionalities and results related to the development and validation of a software platform for PV assets diagnosis and maintenance. The platform brings together proprietary hardware sensors and software algorithms to enable the early detection and prediction of the most common and critical faults in PV systems. It was validated using field measurements from operating PV systems. The results showed the effectiveness of the platform for detecting faults and losses (e.g., inverter failures, string disconnections, and potential induced degradation) at early stages, forecasting PV power production while also providing recommendations for maintenance actions. Increased PV energy yield production and revenue can be thus achieved while also minimizing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

Keywords: failure detection and prediction, operation and maintenance, performance monitoring, photovoltaic, platform, recommendations, predictive maintenance

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Authors: Marina Nosik, Irina Rymanova, Konstantin Ryzhov, Joan Yarovaya, Alexander Sobkin

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Tuberculosis (TB) associated with HIV is one of the top causes of death worldwide. However, early detection and treatment of TB in HIV-infected individuals significantly reduces the risk of developing severe forms of TB and mortality. The goal of the study was to analyze the peculiarities of TB associated with HIV infection. Over the period of 2015-2016 a retrospective cohort study was conducted among 377 patients with TB/HIV co-infection who attended the Moscow Tuberculosis Clinic. The majority of the patients was male (64,5%). The median age was: men 37,9 (24÷62) and women 35,4 (22÷72) years. The most prevalent age group was 30-39 years both for men and women (73,3% and 54,7%, respectively). The ratio of patients in age group 50-59 and senior was 3,9%. Socioeconomic status of patients was rather low: only 2.3% of patients had a university degree; 76,1% was unemployed (of whom 21,7% were disabled). Most patients had disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis in the phase of infiltration/ decay (41,5%). The infiltrative TB was detected in 18,9% of patients; 20,1% patients had tuberculosis of intrathoracic lymph nodes. The occurrence of MDR-TB was 16,8% and XDR-TB – 17,9%. The number of HIV-positive patients with newly diagnosed TB was n=261(69,2%). The active TB-form (MbT+) among new TB/HIV cases was 44,7 %. The severe clinical forms of TB and a high TB incidence rate among HIV-infected individuals alongside with a large number of cases of newly diagnosed tuberculosis, indicate the need for more intense interaction with TB services for timely diagnosis of TB which will optimize treatment outcomes.

Keywords: HIV, tuberculosis (TB), TB associated with HIV, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB)

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Authors: Tamanna Goyal, Divya Bansal, Sanjeev Sofat

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In world-threatening terrorist attacks, where early detection, distinction, and prediction are effective diagnosis techniques and for functionally accurate and precise analysis of terrorism data, there are so many data mining & statistical approaches to assure accuracy. The computational extraction of derived patterns is a non-trivial task which comprises specific domain discovery by means of sophisticated algorithm design and analysis. This paper proposes an approach for similarity extraction by obtaining the useful attributes from the available datasets of terrorist attacks and then applying feature selection technique based on the statistical impurity measures followed by clustering techniques on the basis of similarity measures. On the basis of degree of participation of attributes in the rules, the associative dependencies between the attacks are analyzed. Consequently, to compute the similarity among the discovered rules, we applied a weighted similarity measure. Finally, the rules are grouped by applying using hierarchical clustering. We have applied it to an open source dataset to determine the usability and efficiency of our technique, and a literature search is also accomplished to support the efficiency and accuracy of our results.

Keywords: association rules, clustering, similarity measure, statistical approaches

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Authors: Yuntao Liu, Lei Wang, Haoran Xia

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Machine learning has shown extensive applications in the development of classification models for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using neural image data. This paper proposes a fusion multi-modal classification network based on a graph neural network. First, the brain is segmented into 116 regions of interest using a medical segmentation template (AAL, Anatomical Automatic Labeling). The image features of sMRI and the signal features of fMRI are extracted, which build the node and edge embedding representations of the brain map. Then, we construct a dynamically updated brain map neural network and propose a method based on a dynamic brain map adjacency matrix update mechanism and learnable graph to further improve the accuracy of autism diagnosis and recognition results. Based on the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I dataset(ABIDE I), we reached a prediction accuracy of 74% between ASD and TD subjects. Besides, to study the biomarkers that can help doctors analyze diseases and interpretability, we used the features by extracting the top five maximum and minimum ROI weights. This work provides a meaningful way for brain disorder identification.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, brain map, supervised machine learning, graph network, multimodal data, model interpretability

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Authors: Salam N. Abdo, Orien L. Tulp, George P. Einstein

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The purpose of this exploratory study was to gather the insights into psoriasis etiology, treatment, and patient experience, for developing psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test. Data collection methods consisted of a comprehensive meta-analysis of relevant studies and psoriasis patient survey. Established meta-analysis guidelines were used for the selection and qualitative comparative analysis of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis research studies. Only studies that clearly discussed psoriasis etiology, treatment, and patient experience were reviewed and analyzed, to establish a qualitative data base for the study. Using the insights gained from meta-analysis, an existing psoriasis patient survey was modified and administered to collect additional data as well as triangulate the results. The hypothesis is that specific types of psoriatic disease have specific etiology and pathophysiologic pattern. The following etiology categories were identified: bacterial, environmental/microbial, genetic, immune, infectious, trauma/stress, and viral. Additional results, obtained from meta-analysis and confirmed by patient survey, were the common age of onset (early to mid-20s) and type of psoriasis (plaque; mild; symmetrical; scalp, chest, and extremities, specifically elbows and knees). Almost 70% of patients reported no prescription drug use due to severe side effects and prohibitive cost. These results will guide the development of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test. The significant number of medical publications classified psoriatic arthritis disease as inflammatory of an unknown etiology. Thus numerous meta-analyses struggle to report any meaningful conclusions since no definitive results have been reported to date. Therefore, return to the basics is an essential step to any future meaningful results. To date, medical literature supports the fact that psoriatic disease in its current classification could be misidentifying subcategories, which in turn hinders the success of studies conducted to date. Moreover, there has been an enormous commercial support to pursue various immune-modulation therapies, thus following a narrow hypothesis/mechanism of action that is yet to yield resolution of disease state. Recurrence and complications may be considered unacceptable in a significant number of these studies. The aim of the ongoing study is to focus on a narrow subgroup of patient population, as identified by this exploratory study via meta-analysis and patient survey, and conduct an exhaustive work up, aiming at mechanism of action and causality before proposing a cure or therapeutic modality. Remission in psoriasis has been achieved and documented in medical literature, such as immune-modulation, phototherapy, various over-the-counter agents, including salts and tar. However, there is no psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test to date, to guide the diagnosis and treatment of this debilitating and, thus far, incurable disease. Because psoriasis affects approximately 2% of population, the results of this study may affect the treatment and improve the quality of life of a significant number of psoriasis patients, potentially millions of patients in the United States alone and many more millions worldwide.

Keywords: biologics, early diagnosis, etiology, immune disease, immune modulation therapy, inflammation skin disorder, phototherapy, plaque psoriasis, psoriasis, psoriasis classification, psoriasis disease marker, psoriasis diagnostic test, psoriasis marker, psoriasis mechanism of action, psoriasis treatment, psoriatic arthritis, psoriatic disease, psoriatic disease marker, psoriatic patient experience, psoriatic patient quality of life, remission, salt therapy, targeted immune therapy

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Authors: Jacob Nortey

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Introduction: In recent years, there has been an enormous success in discoveries of scientific knowledge in medicine coupled with the advancement of technology. Despite all these successes, diagnoses and treatment of diseases have become complex. According to the Ibero – American Study of Adverse Effects (IBEAS), about 10% of hospital patients suffer from secondary damage during the care process, and approximately 2% die from this process. Many clinical decision support systems have been developed to help mitigate some healthcare medical errors. Method: Relevant databases were searched, including ones that were peculiar to the clinical decision support system (that is, using google scholar, Pub Med and general google searches). The articles were then screened for a comprehensive overview of the functionality, consultative style and statistical usage of Dxplain Clinical decision support systems. Results: Inferences drawn from the articles showed high usage of Dxplain clinical decision support system for problem-based learning among students in developed countries as against little or no usage among students in Low – and Middle – income Countries. The results also indicated high usage among general practitioners. Conclusion: Despite the challenges Dxplain presents, the benefits of its usage to clinicians and students are enormous.

Keywords: dxplain, clinical decision support sytem, diagnosis, support systems

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Authors: Hamid Karimi, Naegar Mahdavi, Hossein Tayefi Nasrabadi

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Spermatozoids production rate and its quality are more important factors in the diagnosis of infertility. Also, spematozids activity have a more important role in fertilization. Some medicinal plants as Asparagus(Asparagus officinalis) has many antioxidant component. Therefore, They can affect testes tissue to production more and high-quality spermatozoids. In this survey, Asparagus root extract is studied on spermatogenesis index in the laboratory mouse testes. Hydro-alcoholic extract of asparagus root is prepared and examined on four group of the mature male mouse. Blank group without extract, group 1,100ml/kg dose, group 2, 200 ml/kg dose and group 3, 300ml/kg dose. Then, mice are euthanized, and testes are removed. Testes are weighted, and paraffinized blocks are prepared. TDI(Tubular Differentiation Index) and SPI(Spermiation Index) are studied on histological sections by light microscope. This study results were showed that TDI and SPI in treatments groups with 200 and 300 ml/kg dose had significant enhancement (P<0.05). Consequently, Extract of Asparagus root can enhance spermatozoid production and, therefore, cause improve fertility in male laboratory mice.

Keywords: histology, spermatozoid, ASP [aragus, testes

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Authors: Leslie Beale

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Being a patient with a chronic disease is both a physical and emotional experience. The ability to recognize a patient’s emotional health is an important part of a health care provider’s skills. For the purposes of this paper, emotional health is viewed as the way that we feel, and the way that our feelings affect us. Understanding the patient’s emotional health leads to improved provider-patient relationships and health outcomes. For example, when a patient first hears his or her diagnosis from a provider, they might find it difficult to cope with their emotions. Struggling to cope with emotions interferes with the patient’s ability to read, understand, and act on health information and services. As a result, the patient becomes more frustrated and confused, creating barriers to accessing healthcare services. These barriers are challenging for both the patient and their healthcare providers. There are five basic emotions that are part of who we are and are always with us: fear, anger, sadness, joy, and compassion. Living with a chronic disease however can cause a patient to experience and express these emotions in new and unique ways. Within the provider-patient relationship, there needs to be an understanding that each patient experiences these five emotions and, experiences them at different times. In response to this need, the paper highlights a health promotion framework for patients with chronic disease. This framework emphasizes the emotional health of patients.

Keywords: health promotion, emotional health, patients with chronic disease, patient-centered care

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Authors: Hargunjeet Shergill, Palwinder Singh

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The present paper analyzes the lack of teachers' awareness and knowledge regarding the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the college students. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder causes individuals to consistently display extreme inattention, impulsivity and in many cases hyperactivity as a result of the physiological differences of the brain. Teachers have a formative influence on their students and can play a key role in identifying and supporting students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Despite the pervasiveness and salience of this disorder, educators at college continue to labor under a number of misconceptions about the nature of ADHD. In order to fulfill this important role, it is imperative for teachers to have explicit knowledge about this disorder. ADHD in college students remains the most under-recognized and undertreated mental health condition. The overall aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ knowledge and misconceptions of ADHD with a particular focus on recognition, assessment and management of ADHD in adult college students. It designed to assess the college teachers' knowledge, opinions, and experience related to the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and by maintaining open lines of communication with the students and understanding some key elements that can affect students’ overall growth and ability. The discussion focuses on the value of the role of teachers and their relationship with each college student dealing with ADHD.

Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, development of ADHD, diagnostic criteria, role of teachers

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Authors: F. J. Puertas, M. Castro, A. Tebar, P. J. Fito, R. Gadea, J. M. Monzó, R. J. Colom

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There is a great diversity of diseases that affect the integrity of the walls of the esophagus, generally of a digestive nature. Among them, gastroesophageal reflux is a common disease in the general population, affecting the patient's quality of life; however, there are still unmet diagnostic and therapeutic issues. The consequences of untreated or asymptomatic acid reflux on the esophageal mucosa are not only pain, heartburn, and acid regurgitation but also an increased risk of esophageal cancer. Currently, the diagnostic methods to detect problems in the esophageal tract are invasive and annoying, as 24-hour impedance-pH monitoring forces the patient to be uncomfortable for hours to be able to make a correct diagnosis. In this work, the development of a sensor able to measure in depth is proposed, allowing the detection of liquids circulating in the esophageal tract. The multisensor detection system is based on radiofrequency photospectrometry. At an experimental level, consumers representative of the population in terms of sex and age have been used, placing the sensors between the trachea and the diaphragm analyzing the measurements in vacuum, water, orange juice and saline medium. The results obtained have allowed us to detect the appearance of different liquid media in the esophagus, segregating them based on their ionic content.

Keywords: bioimpedance, dielectric spectroscopy, gastroesophageal reflux, GERD

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Authors: Sandeep Pandey, Nimra Habib, Ranjana Singh, Abbas Ali Mahdi

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Leukemia is a malignancy of blood that mainly affects children and young adults; while advancement in the early diagnosis will have the potential to improve the outcome of diseases. A wide range of disease including leukemia shows inflammatory signals in their pathogenesis. In a pilot study conducted in our laboratory, 52 people were screened, of which 26 had leukemia and 26 were free from any kind of malignancy. We performed the estimation of the inflammatory cytokine Interleukin-8 and it was found significantly raised in all the leukemia patients concerning healthy volunteers who participated in the study. Flow cytometry had been performed for the confirmation of leukemia and further genomic, and proteomic, analyses of the sample revealed that IL-8 levels showed a positive correlation in patients with leukemia. The results had shown constitutive secretion of interleukin-8 by leukemia cells. So, our finding demonstrated that IL-8 is considered to have a role in the pathogenesis of leukemia, and quantification of IL-8 levels in leukemia conditions might be more useful and feasible in the clinical setting for the prediction of drug responses where it may represent a putative target for innovative diagnostic toward effective therapeutic approaches. However, further research explorations in this area are needed that include a greater number of patients with all different forms of leukemia, and estimating their IL-8 levels may hold the key for the additional predictive values on the recurrence of leukemia and its prognosis.

Keywords: T-ALL, IL-8, leukemia pathogenesis, cancer therapeutics

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Authors: Ying Qi Chan, Chunyu Li, Xu Rou Yoyo Ma, Yaya Li, Saber Khederzadeh

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In the ever-evolving landscape of genome extraction protocols, the existing methodologies grapple with issues ranging from sub-optimal yields and compromised quality to time-intensive procedures and reliance on hazardous reagents, often necessitating substantial tissue quantities. This predicament is particularly challenging for scientists in developing countries, where resources are limited. Our investigation presents a protocol for the efficient extraction of high-yield RNA from various tissues such as muscle, insect, and plant samples. Noteworthy for its advantages, our protocol stands out as the safest, swiftest (completed in just 38 minutes), most cost-effective (coming in at a mere US$0.017), and highly efficient method in comparison to existing protocols. Notably, our method avoids the use of hazardous or toxic chemicals such as chloroform and phenol and enzymatic agents like RNase and Proteinase K. Our RNA extraction protocol has demonstrated clear advantages over other methods, including commercial kits, in terms of yield. This nucleic acid extraction protocol is more environmentally and research-friendly, suitable for a range of tissues, even in tiny volumes, hence facilitating various genetic diagnosis and researches across the globe.

Keywords: RNA extraction, rapid protocol, universal method, diverse tissues

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Authors: Simona Capossela, Ramona Schaniel, Singer Franziska, Aquino Fournier Catharine, Daniel Stekhoven, Jivko Stoyanov

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A spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic life event that often results in ageing associated health conditions such as muscle mass decline, adipose tissue increase, decline in immune function, frailty, systemic chronic inflammation, and psychological distress and depression. Psychological, oxidative, and metabolic stressors may facilitate accelerated ageing in the SCI population with reduced life expectancy. Research designs using biomarkers of aging and stress are needed to elucidate the role of psychological distress in accelerated aging. The aim of this project is a feasibility pilot study to observe changes in stress biomarkers and correlate them with aging markers in SCI patients during their first rehabilitation (longitudinal cohort study). Biological samples were collected in the SwiSCI (Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study) Biobank in Nottwil at 4 weeks±12 days after the injury (T1) and at the end of the first rehabilitation (discharge, T4). The "distress thermometer" is used as a selfassessment tool for psychological distress. Stress biomarkers, as cortisol and protein carbonyl content (PCC), and markers of cellular aging, such as telomere lengths, will be measured. 2 Preliminary results showed that SCI patients (N= 129) are still generally distressed at end of rehabilitation, however we found a statistically significant (p< 0.001) median decrease in distress from 6 (T1) to 5 (T4) during the rehabilitation. In addition, an explorative transcriptomics will be conducted on N=50 SCI patients to compare groups of persons with SCI who have different trajectories of selfreported distress at the beginning and end of the first rehabilitation after the trauma. We identified 4 groups: very high chronic stress (stress thermometer values above 7 at T1 and T4; n=14); transient stress (high to low; n=14), low stress (values below 5 at T1 and T4; n=14), increasing stress (low to high; n=8). The study will attempt to identify and address issues that may occur in relation to the design and conceptualization of future study on stress and aging in the SCI population.

Keywords: stress, aging, spinal cord injury, biomarkers

Procedia PDF Downloads 106