Laryngotracheal foreign bodies in maiduguri: a ten year review

Foreign body impaction in the larngotracheal tree, a major cause of upper airway obstruction in children, is an otorhinolaryngological emergency. Direct laryngoscopy, tracheoscopy or bronchoscopy is usually employed to remove foreign body in the upper airway However, tracheostomy may be required to secure the airway before endoscopic removal is carried out in some cases. Objective: To determine the prevalence of laryngotracheal foreign body in our community and highlight the life threatening consequences when referrals are delayed. Method: This is a retrospective evaluation of case records of 44 patients who presented with history of foreign body inhalation or features of upper airway obstruction between January 1995 and December 2004 at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. Results:Atotal of 44 patients were found to have foreign body impaction over the study period. Sixty eight point two percent were males and 31.8% females. Children under 4 years of age were mostly affected constituting 61.4%. The commonest type of foreign body inhaled was bean seed constituting 27.2%. Ninety point nine percent of the patients had endoscopic removal of foreign body and 37.5% had emergency tracheostomy to secure the airways pre-operatively.Conclusion: Foreign body inhalation could be life threatening hence children below the age of 4years should not be allowed to play with small toys unattended to, or be allowed to play close to beans or groundnut drying fields as is the case in some farming communities

Control of an Underactuated Double-Pendulum Overhead Crane using Improved Model Reference Command Shaping: Design, Simulation and Experiment

This paper presents a new control scheme based on model reference command shaping (MRCS) for an overhead crane, with double-pendulum mechanism effects. The approach has an advantage in achieving an accurate trolley positioning, with low hook and payload oscillations, under various desired trolley positions and parameter uncertainties, without the requirement for measurement or estimation of system parameters. These are challenging in practice. The previously developed MRCS algorithm is improved in order to reduce its design complexity, as well as to ensure that it can be augmented with a feedback controller so that a concurrent controller tuning can be realised. The combined MRCS and feedback controller is used to achieve both, precise trolley positioning, and low hook and payload oscillations. To evaluate the effectiveness and the robustness of the approach, simulations and experiments using a nonlinear model and a laboratory double-pendulum crane are carried out. Under various desired positions and parameter uncertainties that involve varying the cable lengths (payload hoisting) and the payload mass variations, the superiority of the proposed approach is confirmed by achieving higher hook and payload oscillation reductions when compared with a recently proposed feedback controller. In addition, the desired trolley positions are achieved with smoother responses

PENERAPAN PEMBELAJARAN PEMECAHAN MASALAH PADA ASPEK MINAT BELAJAR MATEMATIKA SISWA SMP

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui: (1) Minat belajar matematika siswa setelah diterapkan model pembelajaran pemecahan masalah; (2) Pembelajaran pemecahan masalah lebih baik dari pembelajaran konvensional pada aspek minat belajar matematika siswa. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian eksperimen. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VIII pada SMP Negeri 2 Kota ternate, dan yang menjadi sampel penelitian adalah kelas VIII-8 dan VIII-9 yang masing-masing berjumlah 28 dan 23 siswal. Instrument yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah angket minat. Hasil angket sesudah pembelajaran diperoleh sebanyak 18 ( 64,29%) siswa berkategori tinggi dan 10 siswa ( 35,71% ) berkategori minat sedang. Pengujian hipotesis menggunakan uji indenpendent sampel test diperoleh nilai thitung = 3,70 dan pada taraf signifikan 0,05, dan dk = (n - 1) diperoleh ttabel = 2,01. Karena thitung > ttabel sehingga Ha diterima dan H0 ditolak artinya penerapan pembelajaran pemecahan masalah lebih baik pada aspek minat belajar matematika siswa. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa penerapan pembelajaran pemecahan masalah lebih baik dalam meningkatkan minat belajar matematika siswa

Penerapan Algoritma MKNN pada Data Historis Gempa Bumi yang Berpotensi Tsunami

In the implementation of modified K-Nearest Neighbor method for the determination of tsunami potential by comparing the calculation of euclidean distance and Manhattan used 3 earthquake criteria namely strength, depth and epicenter with 2 classification classes, potentially tsunami and not potential tsunami. The MKNN algorithm works by retrieving a number of nearby K data (its neighbors) as a reference to determine the class of new data. This algorithm classifies data based on similarity or similarity or proximity to other data. The result is that algortima can classify the status of an earthquake whether it has the potential for a tsunami or not by paying attention to the balance of the composition of the training data used. With the highest accuracy value of 90% for K=1. The results of the euclidean and manhattan comparisons were obtained from several test scenarios, namely changes in the composition of datasets, changes in the value of K and changes in training data. Obtained average system performance of 80% for euclidean distances and 82% for manhattan distance test results showed that the composition of the dataset greatly influenced the performance of the system obtained. So Manhattan has a higher level of accuracy than the euclidean distance with an average difference of 2%

Comparing common average referencing to laplacian referencing in detecting imagination and intention of movement for brain computer interface

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a paradigm that offers an alternative communication channel between neural activity generated in the brain and the user's external environment. This paper investigates detection of intention of movement from surface EEG during actual and imagination of movement which is essential for developing non-invasive BCI system for neuro-impaired patients. EEG signal was recorded from 11 subjects while imagining and performing right wrist movement in multiple directions using 28 electrodes based on international 10-20 standard electrode placement locations. The recorded EEG signal later was filtered and pre-processed by spatial filter namely; Common average reference (CAR) and Laplacian (LAP) filter. Features were extracted from the filtered signal using ERSP and power spectrum and classified by k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) classifiers. The classification results show that LAP filter has outperformed CAR with respect to classification. Classification accuracy ranged from 63.33% to 100% for detection of imagination of movement and 60% to 96.67% for detection of intention of actual movement. In both of detection of imagination and intention of movement k-NN classifier gave better result compared to QDA classifier

Brain computer interface : assessment of spinal cord injury patient towards motor movement through EEG application

Electroencephalography (EEG) associated with motor task have been comprehensively investigated and it can also describe the brain activities while spinal cord injury (SCI) patient with para/tetraplegia performing movement with their limbs. This paper reviews on conducted research regarding application of brain computer interface (BCI) that offer alternative for neural impairments community such as spinal cord injury patient (SCI) which include the experimental design, signal analysis of EEG band signal and data processing methods. The findings claim that the EEG signals of SCI patients associated with movement tasks can be stimulated through mental and motor task. Other than that EEG signal component such as alpha and beta frequency bands indicate significance for analysing the brain activity of subjects with SCI during movements

Budaya Organisasi, Komitmen Organisasi, dan Kompensasi Pengaruhnya Terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura

Tesis ini meneliti meneiliti pengaruh Budaya Organisasi terhadap Kinerja Pegawai, pengaruh Komitmen Organisasi terhadap Kinerja Pegawai, pengaruh Kompensasi terhadap Kinerja Pegawai, dan pengaruh Budaya Organisasi, Komitmen Organisasi, dan Kompensasi secara simultan terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura baik tenaga lapangan maupun tenaga administrasi, yakni sebanyak 89 orang pegawai. Jumlah sampel sebanyak 89 orang pegawai juga sebagai sampel penelitian ini. Temuan membuktikan bahwa 1). Budaya organisasi berpengaruh Positif terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura, 2. Komitmen organisasi berpengaruh Positif terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura, 3). Kompensasi berpengaruh Positif terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura. 4). Budaya Organisasi, Komitmen Organisasi dan Kompensasi secara simultan berpengaruh terhadap Sumber Daya Manusia Pegawai Kantor Balai Pendidikan dan Pelatihan Penerbangan Jayapura.Kata Kunci: Budaya Organisasi, Komitmen Organisasi, Konpensasi, Kinerja Personil

An experimental study and computational validation of waste heat recovery from a lab scale ceramic kiln using a vertical multi-pass heat pipe heat exchanger

European Union's H2020 programm

Molecular epidemiology of hcv among health care workers of khyber pakhtunkhwa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies of the molecular epidemiology and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in health care workers (HCWs) of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region are scarce. Lack of awareness about the transmission of HCV and regular blood screening is contributing a great deal towards the spread of hepatitis C. This study is an attempt to investigate the prevalence of HCV and its possible association with both occupational and non-occupational risk factors among the HCWs of Peshawar.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Blood samples of 824 HCWs, aged between 20-59 years were analysed for anti-HCV antibodies, HCV RNA and HCV genotypes by Immunochromatographic tests and PCR. All relevant information was obtained from the HCWs with the help of a questionnaire. The study revealed that 4.13% of the HCWs were positive for HCV antibodies, while HCV RNA was detected in 2.79% of the individuals. The most predominant HCV genotype was 3a and 2a.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A program for education about occupational risk factors and regular blood screening must be implemented in all healthcare setups of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in order to help reduce the burden of HCV infection.</p