A SHETTLE’S METHOD MODEL FOR AUTOMATING PRECONCEPTION SEX SELECTION

The world over, and especially in Africa and Asia, couples show a preference for particular sex of children; eithermale or female. This preference may arise due to economic reasons, customs of the people, or simply for a “genderbalanced family”. Whatever the reasons, the fact still remains that couples would like to be able to choose the sex oftheir children. While there are various options to achieve sex selection, all of them are either too expensive or tooinvasive. This paper presents how Shettles’ method being the least expensive and the most reliable method ofpreconception sex selection was modeled to enable automation. The results show that it is a more consistent andreliable method for gender selection. In addition, the result also shows that the Shettles’ method lends itselffavourably to computer programming and would be very useful in the lives of couples that desire a particular genderof offspring.Keywords: Computer assisted, Preconception, Sex selection, Model, Programming

Analisis Potensi Sungai Atep Oki Serta Desain Dasar Bangunan Sipil Untuk Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Air

Desa Atep Oki merupakan desa pesisir pantai di Kecamatan Lembean Timur Sulawesi Utara yang masih kekurangan energi listrik. Sungai Atep Oki di desa tersebut dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai pembangkit listrik tenaga air untuk memenuhi kekurangan energi yang ada. Analisis potensi sumber daya air sebagai pembangkit listrik dilakukan untuk mendapatkan debit andalan sungai, dengan menggunakan metode F. J. Mock dan Nreca. Data yang digunakan adalah data curah hujan, data klimatologi tahun 2002-2011, dan peta DAS Atep Oki. Analisis debit untuk perencanaan PLTA di ambil sebesar 80% berdasarkan perhitungan probabilitas dan disajikan dalam bentuk grafik. Perhitungan dilanjutkan dengan menghitung daya terbangkit sampai merencanakan dimensi bangunan-bangunan PLTA, termasuk intake dan pipa pesat. Dari hasil penelitian didapat daya terbangkit sebesar 21,07 kW dan hanya mampu memenuhi kebutuhan penduduk Desa Atep Oki sebanyak 46 KK. Berdasarkan hasil perhitungan daya tersebut maka dapat dibangun Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Mikro Hidro

Development of Truss Linear Macro-Element

Macro-elements are among the powerful means in reducing the number of equations to be solved in finite element analysis. In the proposed method, several finite truss elements will be transformed into a single element called the macro-element. This is done by equating the potential energy of the macro-element to the potential energy of the equivalent truss finite elements. If the order of the macro-element function corresponds to the order of the structural behavior that it models, an exact solution is achieved. In this paper, a truss linear macro-element is developed. The developed macro-element was tested and the results were compared with the results of conventional finite element solutions and with closed form solutions. Excellent results were achieved with substantial reduction in the number of equations

Mapping of beef cattle value chain actors in selected states of North-West Zone, Nigeria

This study was aimed at mapping of the various actors of the beef cattle value chain and their functional roles. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of the respondents. A sample size of 576 value chain actors consisting of 120 beef cattle farmers, 60 beef cattle traders, 36 butchers, 60 raw beef marketers, 60 processed beef marketers and 240 consumers. The study made use of primary data which were obtained through the use of a computer-aided personal interview (CAPI) version of survey instrument rather than a paper-based questionnaire. Data were collected on production, marketing and consumption components of beef cattle value chain activities. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that beef cattle value chain actors do not perform only one primary value chain activity but perform other value chain activities as secondary activities. This multiplicity of functions carried out by some of the beef cattle value chain actors implies that the beef cattle value chain is not a linear and straightforward chain where each actor is specialized in one activity. It can be concluded that beef cattle value chain activities involve a complex interrelationship in the activities carried out by the different actors in the physical flow of beef from farm to fork. It is therefore recommended that government should intervene in the area of linking actors in the value chain to prospective markets in order for the actors to benefit from the various activities

Isolation and characterisation of microorganisms contaminating herbal infusion sold in Minna, Nigeria

The microbiological assessment of ten herbal infusion samples from ten different locations in Minna, Niger State was investigated. The assessment of the microbial contamination on the herbal products was carried out, using standard methods. Pour plate method was used to cultivate serially diluted portions of the medicinal plant infusion samples. The results revealed that all the herbal preparations had the presence of microbial contaminants. The total heterotrophic counts of the different herbal samples ranged from 0 cfu/mL to 25.0 × 108cfu/mL while the total fungal counts ranged from 3.0×106cfu/mL to 3.5×108cfu/mL. The total viable bacteria counts showed that the highest counts of 25.0 × 108cfu/mL was recorded in the sample from Bosso and the least counts of 0 cfu/mL from Kasuwan-Gwari while the total fungal counts showed that the highest count of 3.5×108cfu/mL was found in the sample obtained from FUT campus and the least counts of 3.0×106cfu/mL in the sample from Mai-Kunkele. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was significant difference (p<0.05) in the microbial load of the herbal infusions from each location. The microbial isolates identified were E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella sp, Klebsiella sp, Pseudomonas sp, Micrococcus sp, Salmonella sp, Aspergillus sp, Penicillium sp and Saccharomyces cerevisaie. Members of the genus Aspergillus were found to be predominant. This suggests that the herbal infusion harbors microorganisms that could be hazardous to human health and hence producers should maintain the highest possible level of hygiene during the processing and packaging of the products in order to ensure safety of the products

Development of Fingerprint Biometric Attendance System for Non-Academic Staff in a Tertiary Institution

Institutions, companies and organisations where security and net productivity is vital, access to certain areas must be controlled and monitored through an automated system of attendance. Managing people is a difficult task for most of the organizations and maintaining the attendance record is an important factor in people management. When considering the academic institute, taking the attendance of non-academic staff on daily basis and maintaining the records is a major task. Manually taking attendance and maintaining it for a long time adds to the difficulty of this task as well as wastes a lot of time. For this reason, an efficient system is proposed in this paper to solve the problem of manual attendance. This system takes attendance electronically with the help of a fingerprint recognition system, and all the records are saved for subsequent operations. Staff biometric attendance system employs an automated system to calculate attendance of staff in an organization and do further calculations of monthly attendance summary in order to reduce human errors during calculations. In essence, the proposed system can be employed in curbing the problems of lateness, buddy punching and truancy in any institution, organization or establishment. The proposed system will also improve the productivity of any organization if properly implemented. Keywords: Institution, Attendance, Biometric, Fingerprin

Ethnographic study of the use of interventions during the second stage of labor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Routine use of medical interventions during labor has been identified as a clinical area for concern, since such routinized practice is not consistent with an evidence-based approach to care and continues to increase despite efforts to encourage normal childbirth. Therefore, the aim of our study was to explore maternity health professionals' use of interventions during the second stage of labor in two hospitals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to understand what influences their decision-making and practices. METHODS: This was an exploratory study using an ethnographic approach. Data collection methods included participant observations of 19 labors and births (n = 8 at City Hospital and n = 11 at King's Hospital) and semi-structured interviews with 29 health care professionals. In addition, the hospital labor and delivery ward policies and guidelines from those hospitals were collected. Data were analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Medical interventions were used during the second stage of labor routinely, regardless of clinical indication. Three core influences that shaped the clinical decision-making were identified as follows: (a) organizational culture, (b) a medical concept of birth, and (c) a hierarchical system of control. We suggest that the clinical decision-making and routine practice in this setting arises out of the interface between these three core influences whereby hierarchical control and clinicians' exercise of power and feelings of powerlessness are fundamental drivers for an organizational culture of medicalized childbirth, despite the differing models of childbirth which professionals described. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical decisions relating to the use of interventions during childbirth are both complex and socially negotiated. The findings reflect the complexity of the use of interventions during the second stage of labor and the multiple influences on professionals' practices. We have shown how three key influences interact to shape clinical decision-making during the second stage of labor in this cultural setting and how the use of medical interventions can be analyzed as an illustration of the power dynamic in the maternity health care system. We suggest that written policies are insufficient to bring about evidence-based practice and approaches to change need to take into account these different levels of influence

In vitro study of the deployment performance of 3D printed stents in the diseased artery with the lipid arterial plaques

Atherosclerotic plaque is one of the arterial diseases which builds up in the arterial wall and can be identified by the composition of the plaque. Atherosclerosis causes the narrowing or occlusions of the arterial lumen leading to cardiovascular event. Percutaneous (keyhole) endovascular stenting has become the most common revascularisation method due to its minimum invasive nature and low complication rate. The stents, mostly fabricated by laser machines, have uniform geometries which are not ideal to treat the diseased arteries with lesion-specific properties. In addition, the effect of arterial plaque compositions on the performance of stents is not fully investigated. In this study, the deployment performance of the stents with the varied design, made of the 316L stainless steel and fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) technology, were investigated. An in vitro experiment was conducted to test the influence of the atherosclerotic plaque compositions at 55% stenosis on the commercial and AM fabricated stents. Two artificial plaques (lipid and calcified) were prepared manually, and their mechanical testing were conducted using an unconfined compression test. Two types of stents, printed and commercial stents, were used to treat the diseased artificial artery, and the data of the pressure and diameter were collected simultaneously when the stent inflation pressure was applied. The results show that the mechanical property of the artificial lipid plaques was very similar to the real lipid plaque that observed from clinical study. From the deployment performance test for these two types of stents, it was observed that as the pressure inside of balloon increases, the diameters measured at the external wall of the artificial artery also increase when the pressure is above 4 atm. Overall, there is a close linear relationship between pressure and arterial wall movement with lipid plaque in both printed and commercial stents though that the stent made of AM technology is less flexible and has lower elastic property than the commercial one

Acanthamoeba genotype T4 detected in naturally-infected feline corneas found to be in homology with those causing human keratitis

A total of 10 out of 65 cornea swab samples from cats with eye symptoms showed Acanthamoeba-like morphology after cultivation. By PCR and DNA sequencing of Acanthamoeba diagnostic fragment 3 (DF3), all 10 isolates from the positive samples were categorized into two homologous groups of AfC1 (PM1, PM2, PM3, PF6, KM7, KF8, KMK9) and AfC2 (PM4, PM5, KFK10) due to the presence of bases A(354) and G(354), respectively. Furthermore, DF3 of AfC1 and AfC2 showed 100 similarity with Genbank reference isolates with the accession numbers DQ087314, EU146073 and U07401, GU808323, which were Acanthamoeba castellanii strains genotype T4 originating from human keratitis. This finding suggests that A. castellani strains have the capability to infect cats and human under favorable conditions

MODELLING OF A PRE-HOSPITAL EMERGENCY CARE FLOW PROCESS USING TIMED COLOURED PETRI NETS

Pre-hospital emergency care service is a major gateway to the Accident and Emergency Department that determines the rate of quality emergency service in hospitals. In this paper, Timed Coloured Petri Nets (TCPN) formalism is employed to model a pre-hospital emergency care flow process which is characterized by ambulance localization and emergency call responses using Osun State Emergency Management Ambulance Service (O’ambulance) as a case study. The developed TCPN model consists of Next Arrival Call (NAC) and Process Emergency Call (PEC) modules. The NAC module abstracted the emergency calls that were received by one (1) call receiver agent being utilized while the PEC module abstracts the operation (services) carried out in the units. The developed TCPN model was simulated using Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) tools while its validation was explored by comparing the simulated and actual rescue team average response time and turn-around times of the rescue teams in operation at the considered case study. The simulation results of the developed TCPN model yielded maximum Average Waiting Times (AWT) of 1.65 and 0.35 minutes using one and two emergency call receiver agents, respectively. Also, the simulation results showed that 7.05, 26.17 and 35.13 minutes were recorded as minimum values for Rescue team Average Response Time (RART), Rescue team Turn-around Time in case of non-critical (RTTNC) and Rescue team Turn-around Time Critical (RTTC), respectively. Similarly, the simulation results showed that RART, RTTNC and RTTC yielded maximum values of 15, 34 and 41.62 minutes, respectively. Statistically, there were no significant differences between the simulated and the real number of patients entering the health centre at 5% level. This gave a confirmation that the developed TCPN model accurately described the pre-hospital emergency care flow process under study. The developed TCPN model could serve as a referential model for studying and improving pre-hospital emergency care flow process in a named ambulance centre