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

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

Specific-heat Study of Low-energy Vibrational State m Vitreous Samarium Phosphates

Measurements of specific heat in the temperature range 1.5K to 30K were made for two samples of vitreous samarium phosphates. A large contribution to the specific heat, well above what is expected from acoustic phonons (in the Debye approximation), is discussed in terms of the theoretical predictions of a phonon-fracton cross-over approach. The phonon-fracton density of states used to fit the excess specific heat gives rise to model parameters with the same magnitudes as those found previously for a wide range of glasses