150 research outputs found
Clinical skill learning for tomorrowβs doctors - a step towards better obstetric care
Background: Female urethral catheterization is the most commonly performed procedure in obstetrics and gynecology, for the assessment of urinary output. Many times catheterization is done by junior colleagues with improper technique resulting in improper catheterization and urethral injury. It is a must to know skill for every graduating medical student to avoid devastating consequences of performing it poorly. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the effectiveness of four step method of skill learning of bladder catheterization in female patients by interns and demonstrate the competency in the proper insertion and removal of an indwelling urinary catheter and also the study aimed to determine the effectiveness of bladder simulator training for medical interns.Methods: A prospective, observational and skill imparting study done using a specially designed model, after ethical committee approval. 30 Interns were divided in to six groups of five each for skill learning. It was done with Kirkpatrik model using specially designed objective structured clinical examination forms and scoring sheets. Sample paired t test was used.Results: 80% of the interns could perform the skill with maximum scores.Conclusions: It is an innovative teaching learning method for incoming interns which will help them to improve knowledge and practice and finally reduce the risk of complications and injury.
RFFE β Random Forest Fuzzy Entropy for the classification of Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes is a category of metabolic disease commonly known as a chronic illness. It causes the body to generate less insulin and raises blood sugar levels, leading to various issues and disrupting the functioning of organs, including the retinal, kidney and nerves. To prevent this, people with chronic illnesses require lifetime access to treatment. As a result, early diabetes detection is essential and might save many lives. Diagnosis of people at high risk of developing diabetes is utilized for preventing the disease in various aspects. This article presents a chronic illness prediction prototype based on a person's risk feature data to provide an early prediction for diabetes with Fuzzy Entropy random vectors that regulate the development of each tree in the Random Forest. The proposed prototype consists of data imputation, data sampling, feature selection, and various techniques to predict the disease, such as Fuzzy Entropy, Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Stochastic Gradient Descent with Momentum (SGDM), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Classification and Regression Tree (CART), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and NaΓ―ve Bayes (NB). This study uses the existing Pima Indian Diabetes (PID) dataset for diabetic disease prediction. The predictions' true/false positive/negative rate is investigated using the confusion matrix and the receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROCAUC). Findings on a PID dataset are compared with machine learning algorithms revealing that the proposed Random Forest Fuzzy Entropy (RFFE) is a valuable approach for diabetes prediction, with an accuracy of 98 percent
Bio-nanotechnology application in wastewater treatment
The nanoparticles have received high interest in the ο¬eld of medicine and water puriο¬cation, however, the nanomaterials produced by chemical and physical methods are considered hazardous, expensive, and leave behind harmful substances to the environment. This chapter aimed to focus on green-synthesized nanoparticles and their medical applications. Moreover, the chapter highlighted the applicability of the metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the inactivation of microbial cells due to their high surface and small particle size. Modifying nanomaterials produced by green-methods is safe, inexpensive, and easy. Therefore, the control and modiο¬cation of nanoparticles and their properties were also discussed
Synthesis, characterisation of polyanilineβFe3O4 magnetic nanocomposite and its application for removal of an acid violet 19 dye
Decellularised skeletal muscles allow functional muscle regeneration by promoting host cell migration
Pathological conditions affecting skeletal muscle function may lead to irreversible volumetric
muscle loss (VML). Therapeutic approaches involving acellular matrices represent an
emerging and promising strategy to promote regeneration of skeletal muscle following injury.
Here we investigated the ability of three different decellularised skeletal muscle scaffolds to
support muscle regeneration in a xenogeneic immune-competent model of VML, in which
the EDL muscle was surgically resected. All implanted acellular matrices, used to replace
the resected muscles, were able to generate functional artificial muscles by promoting host
myogenic cell migration and differentiation, as well as nervous fibres, vascular networks, and
satellite cell (SC) homing. However, acellular tissue mainly composed of extracellular matrix
(ECM) allowed better myofibre three-dimensional (3D) organization and the restoration of
SC pool, when compared to scaffolds which also preserved muscular cytoskeletal
structures. Finally, we showed that fibroblasts are indispensable to promote efficient
migration and myogenesis by muscle stem cells across the scaffolds in vitro. This data strongly support the use of xenogeneic acellular muscles as device to treat VML conditions in absence of donor cell implementation, as well as in vitro model for studying cell interplay during myogenesis
An Extensive Circuitry for Cell Wall Regulation in Candida albicans
Protein kinases play key roles in signaling and response to changes in the external environment. The ability of Candida albicans to quickly sense and respond to changes in its environment is key to its survival in the human host. Our guiding hypothesis was that creating and screening a set of protein kinase mutant strains would reveal signaling pathways that mediate stress response in C. albicans. A library of protein kinase mutant strains was created and screened for sensitivity to a variety of stresses. For the majority of stresses tested, stress response was largely conserved between C. albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. However, we identified eight protein kinases whose roles in cell wall regulation (CWR) were not expected from functions of their orthologs in the model fungi Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Analysis of the conserved roles of these protein kinases indicates that establishment of cell polarity is critical for CWR. In addition, we found that septins, crucial to budding, are both important for surviving and are mislocalized by cell wall stress. Our study shows an expanded role for protein kinase signaling in C. albicans cell wall integrity. Our studies suggest that in some cases, this expansion represents a greater importance for certain pathways in cell wall biogenesis. In other cases, it appears that signaling pathways have been rewired for a cell wall integrity response
Advances in Social Media Research:Past, Present and Future
Social media comprises communication websites that facilitate relationship forming between users from diverse backgrounds, resulting in a rich social structure. User generated content encourages inquiry and decision-making. Given the relevance of social media to various stakeholders, it has received significant attention from researchers of various fields, including information systems. There exists no comprehensive review that integrates and synthesises the findings of literature on social media. This study discusses the findings of 132 papers (in selected IS journals) on social media and social networking published between 1997 and 2017. Most papers reviewed here examine the behavioural side of social media, investigate the aspect of reviews and recommendations, and study its integration for organizational purposes. Furthermore, many studies have investigated the viability of online communities/social media as a marketing medium, while others have explored various aspects of social media, including the risks associated with its use, the value that it creates, and the negative stigma attached to it within workplaces. The use of social media for information sharing during critical events as well as for seeking and/or rendering help has also been investigated in prior research. Other contexts include political and public administration, and the comparison between traditional and social media. Overall, our study identifies multiple emergent themes in the existing corpus, thereby furthering our understanding of advances in social media research. The integrated view of the extant literature that our study presents can help avoid duplication by future researchers, whilst offering fruitful lines of enquiry to help shape research for this emerging field
The dominant Anopheles vectors of human malaria in the Asia-Pacific region: occurrence data, distribution maps and bionomic prΓ©cis
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The final article in a series of three publications examining the global distribution of 41 dominant vector species (DVS) of malaria is presented here. The first publication examined the DVS from the Americas, with the second covering those species present in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Here we discuss the 19 DVS of the Asian-Pacific region. This region experiences a high diversity of vector species, many occurring sympatrically, which, combined with the occurrence of a high number of species complexes and suspected species complexes, and behavioural plasticity of many of these major vectors, adds a level of entomological complexity not comparable elsewhere globally. To try and untangle the intricacy of the vectors of this region and to increase the effectiveness of vector control interventions, an understanding of the contemporary distribution of each species, combined with a synthesis of the current knowledge of their behaviour and ecology is needed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Expert opinion (EO) range maps, created with the most up-to-date expert knowledge of each DVS distribution, were combined with a contemporary database of occurrence data and a suite of open access, environmental and climatic variables. Using the Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) modelling method, distribution maps of each DVS were produced. The occurrence data were abstracted from the formal, published literature, plus other relevant sources, resulting in the collation of DVS occurrence at 10116 locations across 31 countries, of which 8853 were successfully geo-referenced and 7430 were resolved to spatial areas that could be included in the BRT model. A detailed summary of the information on the bionomics of each species and species complex is also presented.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This article concludes a project aimed to establish the contemporary global distribution of the DVS of malaria. The three articles produced are intended as a detailed reference for scientists continuing research into the aspects of taxonomy, biology and ecology relevant to species-specific vector control. This research is particularly relevant to help unravel the complicated taxonomic status, ecology and epidemiology of the vectors of the Asia-Pacific region. All the occurrence data, predictive maps and EO-shape files generated during the production of these publications will be made available in the public domain. We hope that this will encourage data sharing to improve future iterations of the distribution maps.</p
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