HealthFog: An ensemble deep learning based Smart Healthcare System for Automatic Diagnosis of Heart Diseases in integrated IoT and fog computing environments

Cloud computing provides resources over the Internet and allows a plethora of applications to be deployed to provide services for different industries. The major bottleneck being faced currently in these cloud frameworks is their limited scalability and hence inability to cater to the requirements of centralized Internet of Things (IoT) based compute environments. The main reason for this is that latency-sensitive applications like health monitoring and surveillance systems now require computation over large amounts of data (Big Data) transferred to centralized database and from database to cloud data centers which leads to drop in performance of such systems. The new paradigms of fog and edge computing provide innovative solutions by bringing resources closer to the user and provide low latency and energy-efficient solutions for data processing compared to cloud domains. Still, the current fog models have many limitations and focus from a limited perspective on either accuracy of results or reduced response time but not both. We proposed a novel framework called HealthFog for integrating ensemble deep learning in Edge computing devices and deployed it for a real-life application of automatic Heart Disease analysis. HealthFog delivers healthcare as a fog service using IoT devices and efficiently manages the data of heart patients, which comes as user requests. Fog-enabled cloud framework, FogBus is used to deploy and test the performance of the proposed model in terms of power consumption, network bandwidth, latency, jitter, accuracy and execution time. HealthFog is configurable to various operation modes that provide the best Quality of Service or prediction accuracy, as required, in diverse fog computation scenarios and for different user requirements

Multidisciplinary approach to obesity: Aerobic or resistance physical exercise?

Background: An integrated treatment based on dieting, physical training and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy is an effective tool to reduce obesity and its consequences. However, the feasibility of this approach is problematic. This study aims to compare two multidisciplinary programs used to improve weight loss. Methods: Fifty-two obese individuals were subjected to an Enhanced Lifestyle Counselling associated with, according to their own choice, dieting (N = 11), or dieting + aerobic training (n = 18), or dieting + resistance training program (n = 23). The study experiment spanned 16 weeks divided into two phases. The first phase lasted 04 weeks and was oriented to enhance motivation and establishing changes in behaviours related to dietary and sedentary lifestyle. The second phase lasted 12 weeks and was oriented to add aerobic or resistance training. Body compositions, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and cardio-respiratory fitness were assessed. Results: Data demonstrated that all obesity treatment programs were able to improve all studied variables. Weight loss levels were −6.03 ± 2.08, −10.5 ± 2.33, and −9.37 ± 1.99 kg in Dieting, DAT and DRT groups, respectively. Our results noted also that exercise training could play an important role in reducing obesity and its consequences. Nevertheless, modifications were more important in DRT at the explosivity and muscle strength and in DAT at fat percentage, aerobic capacity, SA, and CVR factors. Conclusion: The current evidence noted that both multidisciplinary weight loss programs were efficient in the treatment of obesity and its comorbidity. Moreover, the use of aerobic exercises was more effective in reducing body fat and improving cardiorespiratory fitness. However, using resistance exercises appeared to be more appropriate to enhance the muscle potential. Keywords: Integrated treatment, Enhanced lifestyle counselling, Dieting, Aerobic training, Resistance training, Obesit

Studying the Antioxidant and the Antimicrobial Activities of Leaf Successive Extracts Compared to the Green-Chemically Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles and the Crude Aqueous Extract from <i>Azadirachta indica</i>

Azadirachta indica has several medicinal uses, especially its leaves. Over 4000 years ago, Ayurvedic medicine used it for its therapeutic benefits. This study examined the biological activity of Neem crude extracts and green-chemically produced Ag-NPs. TPCs and TFCs were measured for polyphenolic burden in consecutive extracts. DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP experiments measured antioxidant and antimicrobial activity against seven strains of food-borne pathogenic bacteria and eight mycotoxigenic fungi. At 1000 μg/mL, ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Neem leaves had 80.10% and 69.41% in DPPH and 71.42% and 74.61% in ABTS assays for the antioxidant activity, compared to 93.58% for BHT. At 800 μg/mL, both extracts showed antioxidant activity with 57.52 and 57.87 μM in the FRAP assay, compared to 139.97 μM for Ascorbic acid. Both extracts demonstrated antimicrobial activity with 0.02 to 0.35 mg/mL as antibacterials, 0.03 to 2.17 mg/mL as antifungals, and 0.04 to 0.42 mg/mL as antibacterials. Compared to Neem crude extract, Neem Ag-NPs had the lowest MIC values as antibacterials and antifungals at 0.05 to 0.07 mg/mL and 0.07 to 0.20 mg/mL, respectively. Neem Ag-NPs and crude extract boost antioxidant and antibacterial properties

Proximate Analysis of <i>Moringa oleifera</i> Leaves and the Antimicrobial Activities of Successive Leaf Ethanolic and Aqueous Extracts Compared with Green Chemically Synthesized Ag-NPs and Crude Aqueous Extract against Some Pathogens

Research on the use of different parts of the Moringa oleifera plant as a nutritional and pharmaceutical resource for human and animals has increased in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and the TPCs and TFCs of Moringa leaves, the antimicrobial activities of Moringa successive ethanolic, aqueous, crude aqueous extracts, and green-chemically synthesized characterized Ag-NPs. The results indicated that the ethanolic extract recorded the highest activity against E. coli. On the other side, the aqueous extract showed higher activity, and its effects ranged from 0.03 to 0.33 mg/mL against different strains. The MIC values of Moringa Ag-NPs against different pathogenic bacteria ranged from 0.05 mg/mL to 0.13 mg/mL, and the activity of the crude aqueous extract ranged from 0.15 to 0.83 mg/mL. For the antifungal activity, the ethanolic extract recorded the highest activity at 0.04 mg/mL, and the lowest activity was recorded at 0.42 mg/mL. However, the aqueous extract showed effects ranging from 0.42 to 1.17 mg/mL. Moringa Ag-NPs showed higher activity against the different fungal strains than the crude aqueous extract, and they ranged from 0.25 to 0.83 mg/mL. The MIC values of the Moringa crude aqueous extract ranged from 0.74 to 3.33 mg/mL. Moringa Ag-NPs and their crude aqueous extract may be utilized to boost antimicrobial attributes

Impact of Gender, Change of Base of Support, and Visual Deprivation on Postural Balance Control in Young, Healthy Subjects

Background: Vision, vestibular sense, proprioception and muscle strength are required to maintain balance. However, gender could also play a crucial role in postural sway. Objectives: This study was used to examine (i) the impact of gender, surface type, and vision on postural sway; (ii) the effects of gender and vision on the limb symmetry of postural sway; and (iii) to understand the effects of gender, stance, surface type and vision on the alterations of dynamic postural sway alterations. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which young, healthy men (n = 15) and women (n = 12) underwent a balance control assessment using a force plate (SATEL, 40 Hz). Postural stances were evaluated in different conditions: opened eyes (EO) and closed eyes (EC), on different surface foam vs. firm, a dominant leg stance (DL) vs. a non-dominant leg stance (NDL), and a mediolateral stance (ML) vs. an anteroposterior stance (AP). The mediolateral sway (ML sway), anteroposterior sway (AP sway), and sway area were calculated from the centre of pressure displacements. Results: ML sway, AP sway and sway area increased when eyes were closed (P < 0.000). Foam surface perturbs balance control more than firm surface under EO and EC conditions for both genders, as observed in the AP sway curve (P < 0.000). A functional symmetry exists between the DL and NDL for all sway parameters: the ML sway, AP sway, and sway area (P = 0.720; P = 0.292; P = 0.954). The AP stance is more stable for the ML sway than the ML stance for both genders (P < 0.001). For the AP sway, the ML stance is more stable than the AP sway AP direction stance for both genders (P < 0.001). Women were significantly more stable than men in the ML stance when vision was absent (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Postural sway was altered more significantly on a foam surface than on a firm surface and symmetry between the DL and NDL was observed. Furthermore, we concluded that women have better dynamic balance control than men

Dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant to Nalbuphine in patient controlled analgesia for post-operative pain in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A preliminary study

Postoperative pain control is an important factor affecting patient recovery, return to normal bowel movement, ambulation and daily activity. Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) which allows the patient to administer his own pain relief is considered as an efficient tool to control postoperative pain. Safety of IV-PCA relies on the concept of negative feedback control system so that the patient will become too sedated to physically push the button to receive more opioid before reaching a critical point of severe respiratory depression [1].</p