Banana Knowledge Based System Diagnosis and Treatment

International audienceThis research involved the design of an initial expert system which helps farmers and specialists diagnose and provide appropriate advice on banana diseases. The management of knowledge used in the expert system was also discussed. One of the key elements of this research was to find the appropriate language to diagnose the disease and the current situation in the knowledge base. Expert systems enable effective consultation. Production rules were used to capture knowledge. The expert system was developed using CLIPS with the Delphi 10.2 as user interface. The expert system produced good results in analyzing cases of tested banana disease and enabling the system to determine the correct diagnosis in all cases

ANN for English Alphabet Prediction

Abstract: In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model, for predicting the Letters from twenty dissimilar fonts for each letter. The character images were, initially, based on twenty dissimilar fonts and each letter inside these twenty fonts was arbitrarily distorted to yield a file of 20,000 distinctive stimuli. Every stimulus was transformed into 16 simple numerical attributes (arithmetical moments and edge amounts) which were then ascended to be suitable into a range of numeral values from 0 to 15. We naturally chose, arbitrarily, 1,000 distinctive stimuli for this research. We made certain that the scattering remnants the similar after selecting the one thousand stimuli. In this research, a neural network tool (Just NN) was used for the purpose of predicting to classify every of a huge number of black and white four-sided pixel displays as one of the 26 capital letters in the English language

CFD Analysis of the Influence of Guide Vanes

Advances in wind power and tidal power have grown considerably to offer a clean and sustainable energy alternative. Nevertheless, distributed small-scale energy production from wind in urban areas has been disappointing due to very low turbine efficiencies. Hence, it is the objective of this thesis to study and analyze the performance of a novel wind turbine design, a seven bladed Savonius vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), which is horizontally oriented inside a diffuser-shaped shroud with a flange and attached with four deflectable guide vanes, mounted on the top of a building, which is shown to have the potential to achieve higher efficiencies. The flow field over the turbine is analyzed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software Package of Star CCM+, on a three-dimensional (3D) grid for multiple tip speed ratio (TSR) at four different guide vane angles of 35°, 45°, 55° and 65°, while keeping all vanes open. Another case was analyzed where selected vanes would be open while closing others. In this work, the wind flow directly facing the turbine is studied to compute the coefficient of power Cp. The coefficient of power with detachable guide vane attached was found to be 0.333 at vane angle of 55°. Finally, the most effective case is when the bottom vane is closed compared to the bottom two vanes closed. This case with only one closed vane achieves a maximum Cp value of 0.398

Investigation of cellular and scaffold strategies for engineering articular cartilage

Articular cartilage is a thin hydrated tissue, which covers articulating surfaces. In the native articular cartilage tissue, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is a fibrillar mesh of interacting proteoglycans, collagens, and other non-collagenous proteins residing in a highly aqueous environment. Chondrocytes are surrounded by a pericellular matrix (PCM) forming chondrons. The PCM, exclusively rich in collagen VI, is more easily destroyed during their extraction and subsequent in vitro culture than ECM. The retention of the PCM has a significant influence on the metabolic activity of the chondrocytes in addition to the mechanical signalling from and to the ECM via cell-matrix interactions. The ECM and the residing chondrocytes are organised into three distinct zones: superficial, middle and deep. The complex and organised structure of cartilage allows it to resist the tensile stress ‘superficial zone’, sheer stress ‘middle zone’, and compressive stress ‘middle and deep zones’ imposed by articulation. This study initially focused on the morphology and chondrogenic capacity of chondrocytes, chondrons (bovine) and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs, rat) alone in monolayer cultures to establish a baseline of PCM preservation and regeneration approaches. Co-culture monolayer models of cartilage cells with MSCs (20%, 50% and 80%) was established to assess the effect of MSC on PCM maintenance and ECM production by biochemical assays, immunofluorescence and histological staining. Co-culture of MSCs with chondrons enhanced ECM production, as compared to chondrocyte or chondron monocultures. The co-culture of MSCs with chondrons appeared to decelerate the loss of the PCM as determined by collagen VI expression, whilst the expression of a high temperature requirement family of serine proteases, HtrA1, demonstrated an inverse relationship to that of the collagen VI. The 50:50 ratio of MSCs: chondrons in co-culture presented the highest potential for better cartilage regeneration. For the first time, it is confirmed that MSCs directly or indirectly inhibited HtrA1 activity in the co-culture, which played a role in enhancement of ECM synthesis and the preservation of the PCM. However, PCM could not be fully preserved or regenerated in 2D culture up to 7 day culture even starting from chondron, and co-culture with MSCs. Next 3D model systems using hydrogels to improve PCM formation and maintenance were developed. Four culture conditions were compared; hyaluronic acid (HA) versus agarose hydrogel; basal medium versus chondrogenic medium; chondron or chondrocytes versus co-culture with 50% MSC. Up to 21 day culture, chondron samples in both mono- and co-culture maintained PCM at all culture conditions. The quantity and quality of regenerated PCM in chondrocyte samples were culture condition dependent. HA in combination with chondrogenic media and co-culture with MSC was the best support for PCM generation and ECM deposition. Basal and chondrogenic culture mediums influenced the expression of cartilage-specific ECM markers but did not affect collagen VI synthesis. Synchrotron microFTIR measurements assisting with PCA analysis of spectra in fingerprint and lipid regions on the 3D cultured samples have cross-validated that culturing chondrocytes in HA hydrogel up to 21 days might generate chondron-like cell morphology and composition because day 14 and day 21 samples clustered to chondron spectra, whilst day 7 samples to chondrocyte spectra. Zonal-specific 3D hybrid scaffolds have been fabricated using a combination of polylactic acid and HA to induce the generation of near-native cartilage. For the superficial and middle zones, specifically orientated or randomly arranged polylactic acid nanofibre meshes were embedded in HA. For the deep zone, vertical channels in HA were created. The aligned nanofiber mesh used in the superficial zone induced an elongated cell morphology, lower GAG and collagen II production, than the middle zone scaffold. Within the middle zone scaffold, which comprised of a randomly orientated nanofiber mesh, the cells were clustered and expressed more collagen II. The deep zone scaffold induced the highest GAG production, the lowest cell proliferation and the lowest collagen I expression of the three zones. Overall a convenient and reproducible model system which mimics the zonal organisation of articular cartilage has been developed

A tapered fibre optics biosensor for histamine detection

Purpose: This paper aims to estimate the level of histamine in fish and fish products, as it is very important because of their implication in fish poisoning in humans; hence, ascertaining histamine levels in the aforementioned serves as a chemical index for spoilage. Design/methodology/approach: A technique was developed to immobilize an ordered multilayer of diamine oxidase (DAO) by means of chemical cross-linking on the biconical taper surface stepwisely alternating between chitosan, glutaraldehyde and the enzyme. A spectrophotometric signal results from horseradish peroxidase catalyzed reduction of H2O2, a secondary product of the oxidative deamination of histamine monitored at 450 nm. Findings: The biosensor showed a linear response range up to 1.5 mM, a good sensitivity of 0.64 mM-1 with detection and quantification limits towards histamine of 0.086 mM (15.8 ppm) and 0.204 mM (37.7 ppm) and a linear response range of 0-1.5 mM. It showed a response and recovery time of 14 sec and operational stability up to 40 repeated analyses without significant loss of sensitivity. Practical implications: The developed biosensor has a good potential for use in the quantitative determination of histamine in seafood. Originality/value: The paper described an outcome of an experimental work on tapered fibre optics (taper)-based biosensor coated with DAO embedded into a chitosan membrane to measure histamine

Dose Reference Levels in Radiography for the Most Common Examinations in Sudan

Background: The aim of this study was to establish national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for the first time in Sudan. This is done through evaluation of entrance surface dose (ESD) to patients undergoing selected X-ray examinations.Materials and Methods: ESD per examination was estimated from X-ray tube output parameters in 15 hospitals comprising 20 rooms and a sample of 8 most common X-ray examinations with 11 basic views and a total of 1490 projections. Third quartile was calculated from the resultant distributed mean ESDs in each hospital surveyed.Results: The results obtained in mGy were, 1.9 for PA skull, 1.2 for lateral Skull, 0.539 for PA chest, 3 for abdomen and pelvis, 4.9 for AP lumbosacral spine, 18.5 for lateral lumbosacral spine, 1.35 for AP cervical spine, 1.67 for lateral cervical spine 0.4 for AP knee joint and 1.4 for AP shoulder. With exception of PA chest in all hospitals, mean ESDs were found to be within the international reference dose the major drawback is the large variations in hospitals for the same procedure.Conclusions: The results are valuable for establishing a solid base for national ESDs and can provide a data base for future dose measurements

Adopting E-Commerce to users’ needs

The objectives of this paper are to identify and analyse the extent to which the site is fulfilling all the user’s requirements and needs. The related works comprise the history of interactive design and the benefits of user-centered development, which is the methodology followed in this survey. Moreover, there is a brief comparison between Waterfall and User-centered methodology in terms of addressing the issues of time saving and addressing fulfilment of users’ needs. The data required to conduct this study was acquired using two research methods; the questionnaire and direct user observation, in order to address all the performance related attributes in the usability stage of the evaluation. An evaluation of the website, based on statements of usability goals and criteria, was undertaken in relation to the implementation and testing of the new design. JARIR bookstore website was chosen as a case study in this paper to investigate the usability and interactivity of the website design. The analysis section includes needs, users and tasks and data analysis, whereas the design phase covers the user interface and database design. At the end of this paper, some recommendations are presented regarding JARIR website that can be taken into account when developing the website in the future

Domestic Debt and Economic Growth in Jordan An Empirical Analysis

Jordan’s economy is among the smallest in the Middle East, with insufficient supplies of water, oil, and other natural resources underlying the government's heavy reliance on foreign assistance. Other economic challenges for the government include chronic high rates of poverty, unemployment, inflation, and a large budget deficit. The study investigates the impact of debt on economic growth in Jordan applying the OLS technique for the period of 2000 to 2014. The study indicates that the stock of domestic debt affects the economic growth positively and statistically significant. This indicates that loans partially were utilized by the government for investment oriented projects. On the other hand, the increasing figure of the public debt indicates that the rest used for private and public consumption purposes, which do not bring any return. The study also indicates that the domestic debt servicing affects the economic growth negatively in Jordan. This result is due to the fact that huge amount of money goes for non-development expenditures and also the rest goes for unnecessary expenditures. The study suggests some policies which should be taken by the government to decrease both domestic debt and domestic debt servicing. Keywords: Domestic debt, Economic growth , Jordan Economy

Towards fostering the role of 5G networks in the field of digital health

A typical healthcare system needs further participation with patient monitoring, vital signs sensors and other medical devices. Healthcare moved from a traditional central hospital to scattered patients. Healthcare systems receive help from emerging technology innovations such as fifth generation (5G) communication infrastructure: internet of things (IoT), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI). Healthcare providers benefit from IoT capabilities to comfort patients by using smart appliances that improve the healthcare level they receive. These IoT smart healthcare gadgets produce massive data volume. It is crucial to use very high-speed communication networks such as 5G wireless technology with the increased communication bandwidth, data transmission efficiency and reduced communication delay and latency, thus leading to strengthen the precise requirements of healthcare big data utilities. The adaptation of 5G in smart healthcare networks allows increasing number of IoT devices that supplies an augmentation in network performance. This paper reviewed distinctive aspects of internet of medical things (IoMT) and 5G architectures with their future and present sides, which can lead to improve healthcare of patients in the near future

Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for the Arab Gulf Countries

The concept of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) has been promoted by several international organizations. However, there are no FBDG for the countries in the Arab region. As the Arab Gulf countries share similar a socioeconomic and nutrition situation, an attempt was made to develop FBDG for these countries. This paper summarizes the steps taken to develope such guidelines by the Arab Center for Nutrition. The FBDG were developed through 6 steps: (1) determination of the purpose and goals for establishing FBDG, (2) characteristics of FBDG, (3) determination of the food consumption patterns, (4) review the current nutrition situation, (5) determination of the lifestyle patterns that are associated with diet-related diseases and (6) formulating the FBDG. The FBDG consist of 14 simple and practical pieces of advice taking into consideration the sociocultural status and nutritional problems in the Arab Gulf countries. The FBDG can be a useful tool in educating the public in healthy eating and prevention of diet-related chronic diseases