The Requirements for Ontologies in Medical Data Integration: A Case Study

Evidence-based medicine is critically dependent on three sources of information: a medical knowledge base, the patients medical record and knowledge of available resources, including where appropriate, clinical protocols. Patient data is often scattered in a variety of databases and may, in a distributed model, be held across several disparate repositories. Consequently addressing the needs of an evidence-based medicine community presents issues of biomedical data integration, clinical interpretation and knowledge management. This paper outlines how the Health-e-Child project has approached the challenge of requirements specification for (bio-) medical data integration, from the level of cellular data, through disease to that of patient and population. The approach is illuminated through the requirements elicitation and analysis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), one of three diseases being studied in the EC-funded Health-e-Child project.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Presented at the 11th International Database Engineering & Applications Symposium (Ideas2007). Banff, Canada September 200

Comparative effects of Alpha Tocopherol and Ascorbic Acid on Chronic Stress Induced Neuropeptide Y Derangements

Background: Chronic stress decreases resilience of the body mainly due to hormonal imbalance. Neuropeptide Y-ergic system is abnormally regulated in chronic stress due to reduction-oxidation imbalance. The antioxidants such as alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid reduce this imbalance with positive effect on neuropeptide Y synthesis and release. This study was aimed to compare the protective effects of alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid on plasma neuropeptide Y levels in chronic stress.Material and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was done at Al-Nafees Medical College in collaboration with National Institute of Health Islamabad from January 2015 to January 2016 after taking institutional approval. Sixty male Sprague Dawley rats were obtained and divided equally into four groups; group I (control), group II (restraint stress group - chronic restraint stress six hours daily for 28 days), group III (restraint stress + alpha-tocopherol 50mg/kg body weight /day), and group IV (restraint stress + ascorbic acid 100mg /kg body weight /day). Cardiac puncture was done to obtain blood for biochemical analysis.Results: A significant decrease in plasma neuropeptide Y levels was seen in group II compared to group I, group III and group IV. However, alpha-tocopherol administration in group III showed positive effects on maintenance of plasma neuropeptide Y concentration with better p trend than that of ascorbic acid supplementation in group IV.Conclusions: Alpha-tocopherol supplementation has more potent effect than that of ascorbic acid on chronic restraint stress induced derangements in neuropeptide Y levels. It leads to less imbalance in neuropeptide Y levels during chronic stress.Key words: Ascorbic Acid, Alpha-Tocopherol, Chronic Stress, Neuropeptide

Context caches in the clouds

In context-aware systems, the contextual information about human and computing situations has a strong temporal aspect i.e. it remains valid for a period of time. This temporal property can be exploited in caching mechanisms that aim to exploit such locality of reference. However, different types of contextual information have varying temporal validity durations and a varied spectrum of access frequencies as well. Such variation affects the suitability of a single caching strategy and an ideal caching mechanism should utilize dynamic strategies based on the type of context data, quality of service heuristics and access patterns and frequencies of context consuming applications. This paper presents an investigation into the utility of various context-caching strategies and proposes a novel bipartite caching mechanism in a Cloud-based context provisioning system. The results demonstrate the relative benefits of different caching strategies under varying context usage scenarios. The utility of the bipartite context caching mechanism is established both through simulation and deployment in a Cloud platform

Poboljšanje proizvodnje glukoza-oksidaze s pomoću Penicillium notatum

Glucose oxidase (GOD) is an important enzyme that finds a wide range of applications in food and pharmaceutical industry. In this investigation the feasibility of using rice polish as a substrate for the production of GOD by Penicillium notatum in submerged fermentation (SmF) has been evaluated. The intention was to enhance total GOD activity by the selection of economical substrate, microorganism and consecutive optimization of various cultural conditions. Maximum GOD activity of (112±5) U/mL was achieved under optimum growth conditions: rice polish 5 g, incubation period 72 h, buffering agent 3 % (by mass per volume), incubation temperature (30±1) °C and pH=6.0. Addition of carbon and nitrogen sources further enhanced the enzyme yield, indicating an economically attractive process for GOD production.Glukoza-oksidaza je važan enzim koji ima raznovrsnu primjenu u industriji hrane i proizvodnji lijekova. U ovome je radu ispitana primjena otpadaka dobivenih poliranjem riže kao supstrata u proizvodnji glukoza-oksidaze submerznom fermentacijom s pomoću Penicillium notatum. Svrha je rada bila poboljšati ukupnu aktivnost glukoza-oksidaze odabirom ekonomičnog supstrata i mikroorganizma te optimiranjem uvjeta uzgoja. Najveća aktivnost od (112±5) U/mL postignuta je pri optimalnim uvjetima rasta uporabom 5 g otpadaka i 3 % (m/V) puferskog sredstva tijekom 72 h pri (30±1) °C i pH=6. Dodatkom izvora ugljika i dušika još je više poboljšan prinos enzima, čime je potvrđena ekonomska opravdanost ovog procesa za proizvodnju glukoza-oksidaze

Poboljšanje proizvodnje glukoza-oksidaze s pomoću Penicillium notatum

Glucose oxidase (GOD) is an important enzyme that finds a wide range of applications in food and pharmaceutical industry. In this investigation the feasibility of using rice polish as a substrate for the production of GOD by Penicillium notatum in submerged fermentation (SmF) has been evaluated. The intention was to enhance total GOD activity by the selection of economical substrate, microorganism and consecutive optimization of various cultural conditions. Maximum GOD activity of (112±5) U/mL was achieved under optimum growth conditions: rice polish 5 g, incubation period 72 h, buffering agent 3 % (by mass per volume), incubation temperature (30±1) °C and pH=6.0. Addition of carbon and nitrogen sources further enhanced the enzyme yield, indicating an economically attractive process for GOD production.Glukoza-oksidaza je važan enzim koji ima raznovrsnu primjenu u industriji hrane i proizvodnji lijekova. U ovome je radu ispitana primjena otpadaka dobivenih poliranjem riže kao supstrata u proizvodnji glukoza-oksidaze submerznom fermentacijom s pomoću Penicillium notatum. Svrha je rada bila poboljšati ukupnu aktivnost glukoza-oksidaze odabirom ekonomičnog supstrata i mikroorganizma te optimiranjem uvjeta uzgoja. Najveća aktivnost od (112±5) U/mL postignuta je pri optimalnim uvjetima rasta uporabom 5 g otpadaka i 3 % (m/V) puferskog sredstva tijekom 72 h pri (30±1) °C i pH=6. Dodatkom izvora ugljika i dušika još je više poboljšan prinos enzima, čime je potvrđena ekonomska opravdanost ovog procesa za proizvodnju glukoza-oksidaze

Providing traceability for neuroimaging analyses

IntroductionWith the increasingly digital nature of biomedical data and as the complexity of analyses in medical research increases, the need for accurate information capture, traceability and accessibility has become crucial to medical researchers in the pursuance of their research goals. Grid- or Cloud-based technologies, often based on so-called Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), are increasingly being seen as viable solutions for managing distributed data and algorithms in the bio-medical domain. For neuroscientific analyses, especially those centred on complex image analysis, traceability of processes and datasets is essential but up to now this has not been captured in a manner that facilitates collaborative study. Purpose and MethodFew examples exist, of deployed medical systems based on Grids that provide the traceability of research data needed to facilitate complex analyses and none have been evaluated in practice. Over the past decade, we have been working with mammographers, paediatricians and neuroscientists in three generations of projects to provide the data management and provenance services now required for 21st century medical research. This paper outlines the finding of a requirements study and a resulting system architecture for the production of services to support neuroscientific studies of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease.ResultsThe paper proposes a software infrastructure and services that provide the foundation for such support. It introduces the use of the CRISTAL software to provide provenance management as one of a number of services delivered on a SOA, deployed to manage neuroimaging projects that have been studying biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. ConclusionsIn the neuGRID and N4U projects a Provenance Service has been delivered that captures and reconstructs the workflow information needed to facilitate researchers in conducting neuroimaging analyses. The software enables neuroscientists to track the evolution of workflows and datasets. It also tracks the outcomes of various analyses and provides provenance traceability throughout the lifecycle of their studies. As the Provenance Service has been designed to be generic it can be applied across the medical domain as a reusable tool for supporting medical researchers thus providing communities of researchers for the first time with the necessary tools to conduct widely distributed collaborative programmes of medical analysis

Anaesthetic Practices and Maternal Outcome in Rising Placenta Accreta Spectrum in Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: This study was carried out to determine whether the rate of abnormal placentation is increasing in concurrence with the cesarean section and to assess risk factors and outcomes with multidisciplinary team interventions and anesthetic practices. Study design: Prospective cohort study. Material & Methods: A study was conducted in the department of anaesthesia from January 2014 to December 2017. All candidates under the spectrum of placenta accreta were observed for maternal age, parity, mode of anesthesia, blood loss, and outcome. Results: Out of 109 patients, the preoperative diagnosis of PAS was made up of 100 (91.74%) and intraoperative diagnosis of 9 (08. 26%) patients. According to the mode of anesthesia, 100 (91.74%) patients received GA, and 09 (08.26%) patients received spinal anesthesia. In 06 (05.49%) patients, spinal was converted to GA. Perioperative CPR was done in 05 (04.58%) cases. Out of 109 cases, 83 survived uneventfully, and 21 developed complications. 05 patients expired in the following days. (01 immediately postoperative period, 02 in 1st 24 hours and 02 in 1st 48 hours. Conclusion The rate of placenta accreta increased in conjunction with cesarean deliveries; the most important risk factors were previous cesarean delivery, placenta previa, and advanced maternal age and outcomes improved in a multidisciplinary team intervention

Object Oriented Model for Evaluation of On-Chip Networks

Abstract: The Network on Chip (NoC) paradigm is rapidly replacing bus based System on Chip (SoC) designs due to their inherent disadvantages such as non-scalability, saturation and congestion. Currently very few tools are available for the simulation and evaluation of on-chip architectures. This study proposes a generic object oriented model for performance evaluation of on-chip interconnect architectures and algorithms. The generic nature of the proposed model can help the researchers in evaluation of any kind of on-chip switching networks. The model was applied on 2D-Mesh and 2D-Diagonal-Mesh on-chip switching networks for verification and selection of best out of both the analyzed architectures. The results show the superiority of 2D-Diagonal-Mesh over 2D-Mesh in terms of average packet delay

Thermal Characterization of Purified Glucose Oxidase from A Newly Isolated Aspergillus Niger UAF-1

An intracellular glucose oxidase was isolated from the mycelium extract of a locally isolated strain of Aspergillus niger UAF-1. The enzyme was purified to a yield of 28.43% and specific activity of 135 U mg−1 through ammonium sulfate precipitation, anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. The enzyme showed high affinity for D-glucose with a Km value of 2.56 mM. The enzyme exhibited optimum catalytic activity at pH 5.5. Temperature optimum for glucose oxidase, catalyzed D-glucose oxidation was 40°C. The enzyme showed a high thermostability having a half-life 30 min, enthalpy of denaturation 99.66 kJ mol−1 and free energy of denaturation 103.63 kJ mol−1. These characteristics suggest the use of glucose oxidase from Aspergillus niger UAF-1 as an analytical reagent and in the design of biosensors for clinical, biochemical and diagnostic assays