12,849 research outputs found
Recent finding and new technologies in nephrolithiasis: a review of the recent literature
This review summarizes recent literature on advances regarding renal and ureteral
calculi, with particular focus in areas of recent advances in the overall field
of urolithiasis. Clinical management in everyday practice requires a complete
understanding of the issues regarding metabolic evaluation and subgrouping of
stone-forming patients, diagnostic procedures, effective treatment regime in
acute stone colic, medical expulsive therapy, and active stone removal. In this
review we focus on new perspectives in managing nephrolitihiasis and discuss
recentadvances, including medical expulsive therapy, new technologies, and
refinements of classical therapy such as shock wave lithotripsy, give a
fundamental modification of nephrolithiasis management. Overall, this field
appears to be the most promising, capable of new developments in ureterorenoscopy
and percutaneous approaches. Further improvements are expected from
robotic-assisted procedures, such as flexible robotics in ureterorenoscopy
Computational Tools for the Investigation of the Male Lower Urinary Tract Functionality in Health and Disease
Purpose This paper aims to show the potentialities of computational bioengineering in the field of lower urinary tract pathophysiology. Engineering methods allow the investigation of urine flow in healthy and pathologic conditions and the analysis of urethral occlusion by means of artificial urinary sphincters. Methods Computational models of bladder and urethra were developed and exploited to investigate the lower urinary tract physiology in health and in disease. Average male morphometric configurations were assumed, together with typical properties of both biological tissues and fluids. The reliability of the models was assessed by the mutual comparison of results and the investigation of data from experimental and clinical activities. Results The developed models allowed to analyze typical situations, such as the micturition in health and in disease, and the lumen occlusion by external devices. The models provided information that clinical and experimental tests barely provide, as the occurrence of turbulent phenomena within urine flow, the shear stresses at the lumen wall, the external pressure that is strictly required to occlude the lumen. Conclusions The methods of bioengineering allow broadening and deepening the knowledge of the lower urinary tract functionality. More in detail, modeling techniques provide information that contributes to explain the occurrence of pathological situations, and allows to design and to optimize clinical-surgical procedures and devices
Logistic Regression modelling and Chi Square statistic to predicting chance of survival of STD in Ondo State, Nigeria
Sexually Transmitted diseases are major problems in the health sector. Several researches have shown that it can shorten the lives of people and can cause serious morbidity. This research examined application of Chi Square Statistic and linear logistic regression model to predict the chances of survival among victims of Urinary Tract Infection and Gonorrhoea based on their age, gender and the disease type in Ondo State, Nigeria. Based on the data analysed, we were able to deduce that the male gender irrespective of the age has a greater chance of surviving any sexually transmitted disease. It is therefore recommended that the female sex irrespective of their age undergo constant examination for early detection of any sexually transmitted disease. It is also recommended that there should be sensitization programme for female on sex education irrespective of their age to enable them avoid the infection. Keywords: Sexually Transmitted Disease, Logistic Regression, Odd Ratio, Urinary Tract Infection and Gonorrhoea
A formal theory for spatial representation and reasoning in biomedical ontologies
Objective: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a
formal spatial theory can be used as an important tool for
disambiguating the spatial information embodied in biomedical
ontologies and for enhancing their automatic reasoning capabilities.
Method and Materials: This paper presents a formal theory of parthood
and location relations among individuals, called Basic Inclusion
Theory (BIT). Since biomedical ontologies are comprised of assertions
about classes of individuals (rather than assertions about individuals),
we define parthood and location relations among classes in the
extended theory BIT+Cl (Basic Inclusion Theory for Classes). We
then demonstrate the usefulness of this formal theory for making
the logical structure of spatial information more precise in two
ontologies concerned with human anatomy: the Foundational Model of
Anatomy (FMA) and GALEN.
Results: We find that in both the FMA and GALEN, class-level spatial
relations with different logical properties are not always explicitly
distinguished. As a result, the spatial information included in
these biomedical ontologies is often ambiguous and the possibilities
for implementing consistent automatic reasoning within or across
ontologies are limited.
Conclusion: Precise formal characterizations of all spatial relations
assumed by a biomedical ontology are necessary to ensure that the
information embodied in the ontology can be fully and coherently
utilized in a computational environment. This paper can be seen as
an important beginning step toward achieving this goal, but much
more work is along these lines is required
Peristaltic Transport of a Physiological Fluid in an Asymmetric Porous Channel in the Presence of an External Magnetic Field
The paper deals with a theoretical investigation of the peristaltic transport
of a physiological fluid in a porous asymmetric channel under the action of a
magnetic field. The stream function, pressure gradient and axial velocity are
studied by using appropriate analytical and numerical techniques. Effects of
different physical parameters such as permeability, phase difference, wave
amplitude and magnetic parameter on the velocity, pumping characteristics,
streamline pattern and trapping are investigated with particular emphasis. The
computational results are presented in graphical form. The results are found to
be in perfect agreement with those of a previous study carried out for a
non-porous channel in the absence of a magnetic field
- …