Can MLS Programs Offer a Personalized Education?

In today’s “information age,” the ability to distinguish useful from misleading information is essential. Thus, critical thinking becomes more crucial in order to facilitate integration of presented material and aid in the acquisition of new material. Through class activities, group discussions, technology, and intellectual interaction, students should be challenged to look beyond the boundaries of the classroom and to integrate the world outside of it

Necrotizing Fasciitis caused by Streptococcus pyogenes: A case report and literature review of disease diagnosis and management

Background: A 55-year-old male presented to the emergency room at a local hospital complaining of chest discomfort and severe left elbow pain. Case Presentation: Erythema and symptoms of peripheral neuropathy were evident in the left hand. The patient reported recent trauma to his left elbow; however a radiograph of the left arm was unremarkable for fracture. After being admitted to the intensive care unit for observation, he developed worsening pain out of proportion and progressive decreased sensation in his left hand. Diagnosis: Initially, left arm compartment syndrome was suspected and treated accordingly. After surgical intervention, the patient’s subsequent symptoms and preliminary blood culture results revealed Gram positive cocci in chains, indicating necrotizing fasciitis. The isolate was identifi ed as group A betahemolytic Streptococcus (GABS). Treatment and Follow-up: Broad-spectrum antibiotics given at outset were extended with additional antibiotics. Treatment consisted of fi ve separate surgeries involving extensive debridement of necrotic tissue amounting to approximately 55 to 65 percent of the patient’s body surface area. The patient was eventually released to a burn center for skin grafting and wound closure and in less than three months, he expired

Healthcare and Education in Qatar

In mid-2011, I received an invitation from the Biomedical Sciences program at Qatar University to serve as an external reviewer. Recognized as an expert in medical laboratory science education and accreditation, I was asked to critically evaluate the curriculum and provide comprehensive feedback on various aspects of the program, such as its goals, study plan, learning outcomes, sequence of the content, and assessment methods. This voluntary evaluation was part of the self-assessment conducted by the College of Arts and Sciences to enhance teaching and learning in its programs. I immediately accepted the invitation

Evolution of Molecular Biology and Cancer: Crucial Turning Points and Startling Discoveries in a Continual Battle

Cancer is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Comprehensive understanding of the evolution of molecular cell biology and cancer, and their crucial turning points in a chronological order, is of enormous importance for researchers, physicians, medical students, & other health professionals. This would allow better recognition of what we currently do have and what we have to do next to beat cancer. It is also central to realize that, while the field of molecular cell biology of cancer strived to bare the etiology of cancer or to produce a cure, it had immensely increased the understanding of the molecular biology of mammalian cells. We thus also discuss in this article how the study of cancer cells helped us to develop many of the molecular techniques used nowadays in our laboratories and clinics. Despite the surplus capacity of our cells in accommodating defects, cancer has frighteningly become a disease of the genome, and genomics is thus now considered a “dissecting” tool and a major part of cancer care. Looking to the future, there is a need to generate “individual” comprehensive genomic-based signatures, and develop better information systems for collection and integration of multiple data to improve our understanding of malignancy processes and tackle the increasing complexity (intra-/inter-individual heterogeneity) of cancer patients. This would be another turning point in the history of cancer research, and inevitably pave the way for a successful translation into clinical application in precision cancer medicine

Intelligent agent for formal modelling of temporal multi-agent systems

Software systems are becoming complex and dynamic with the passage of time, and to provide better fault tolerance and resource management they need to have the ability of self-adaptation. Multi-agent systems paradigm is an active area of research for modeling real-time systems. In this research, we have proposed a new agent named SA-ARTIS-agent, which is designed to work in hard real-time temporal constraints with the ability of self-adaptation. This agent can be used for the formal modeling of any self-adaptive real-time multi-agent system. Our agent integrates the MAPE-K feedback loop with ARTIS agent for the provision of self-adaptation. For an unambiguous description, we formally specify our SA-ARTIS-agent using Time-Communicating Object-Z (TCOZ) language. The objective of this research is to provide an intelligent agent with self-adaptive abilities for the execution of tasks with temporal constraints. Previous works in this domain have used Z language which is not expressive to model the distributed communication process of agents. The novelty of our work is that we specified the non-terminating behavior of agents using active class concept of TCOZ and expressed the distributed communication among agents. For communication between active entities, channel communication mechanism of TCOZ is utilized. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed agent using a real-time case study of traffic monitoring system

Effect of fuel injection strategies on performance and emissions in HCCI engines: a review

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) technology in internal combustion engines has improved several performance characteristics of engines. For instance, it has improved thermal efficiency and it has lowered the level of engine emissions, too. The application of this technology requires the usage of various blends of fuels, which are popularly injected into the engine using direct injection method at different timings i.e. early direct, late direct, and Single/Split (multiple) injections. This paper reviews the research that has shown that these three types of injection strategies have different impacts on the performance and on the emissions of engines with a particular interest in power output and thermal efficiency, cylinder pressure, heat release, pressure rise, combustion rate, energy consumption, combustion efficiency and brake mean effective pressure. Different researchers have applied varying methods in studying the impacts of these injection strategies, e.g. a method that involved a variation of the injection angles in investigating the rates of emissions at different injection timings. Furthermore, early direct injection timing strategy has proved to be more advantageous if compared to the other two injection timing strategies as it increases ignition delay (ID) thus resulting in the formation of a well-mixed fuel-oxidizer homogeneous mixture. Consequently, the early direct approach is recommended for usage in engines that adopt the HCCI technology

The Blue Button Project: Engaging Patients in Healthcare by a Click of a Button

The Blue Button project has become a way for many Americans to download their health records by just a click in any way that suits them, such as in print, on a thumb drive, or on their mobile devices and smartphones. Several organizations have developed and applied Blue Buttons on their websites to allow beneficiaries to securely access and view personal medical information and claims. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the significance of the Blue Button project in the field of health information management. Findings suggest that the project could empower and engage consumers and patients in a healthcare system by allowing access to medical records, thereby promoting better management and overall improvement of their healthcare. To date, the project has gained wide support from insurers, technology companies, and health providers despite the challenges of standardization and interoperability

Integration of Wearable Technologies into Patients’ Electronic Medical Records

Health Wearable Technologies are becoming more popular all around the world. Smart watches and fitness trackers are currently being used by many and the utilization is expected to continue to grow. The innovative technology will certainly play a key role to the optimal operating of future society, especially with applications in healthcare. This article will introduce the concept of wearable technology with advantages and challenges of its application in the healthcare industry

Acoustic Properties of Lanthanum-Samarium Phosphate Glasses

From measurements of changes in transit time of 10 MHz of ultrasonic waves as a function of temperature and hydrostatic pressure, the acoustic properties of (La203)x(Sm203)y(P20,,) (l-x-y) glasses with compositions near to that corresponding to the metaphosphate have been determined. For each glass, the second order elastic stiffness tensor components Cij ' (SOEC) continue to increase down to 10 Kin a manner consistent with phonon interactions with tVi'Qlevel systems. Measurements of the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the ultrasonic wave velocities have been used to determine the hydrostatic pressure derivatives (dCij/dP) T,P=O of the SOEC and (dBo'/ dP) T,P=O of the bulk modulus Bo at room temperature (293K). For these glasses, (dCll/dP), (dC44/dP), and (dBo / dP), are small but positive; the corresponding glasses stiffen under pressure. The elastic behaviour under pressure of these glasses lies intermediate between those of (Sm203)y(P20,,),(I_x) and (La20:1)y(P20,,) (I-x) glasses. Replacement of La3+ by Sm3+ in the temary phosphate glasses drives a slight acoustic mode softening. Possible. sources of the different effect of La:>+ and Sm3+ modifiers on the nonlinear acoustic properties of metaphosphate glasses are discussed