Addressing challenges in healthcare big data analytics

The exponential growth of healthcare data poses significant challenges for clinical researchers who strive to identify meaningful patterns and correlations. The complexity of this data arises from its high dimensionality, sparsity, inaccuracy, incompleteness, longitudinality, and heterogeneity. While conventional pattern recognition algorithms can partially address issues related to high dimensionality, sparsity, inaccuracy, and longitudinality, the problems of incompleteness and heterogeneity remain a persistent challenge, particularly when analyzing electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs often encompass diverse data types, such as clinical notes (text), blood pressure readings (longitudinal numerical data), MR scans (images), and DCE-MRIs (longitudinal video data), and may only include a subset of data for each patient at any given time interval. To tackle these challenges, we propose a kernel-based framework as the most suitable approach for handling heterogeneous data formats by representing them as matrices of equal terms. Our research endeavours to develop methodologies within this framework to construct a decision support system (DSS). To achieve this, we advocate for the incorporation of preprocessing mechanisms to address the challenges of incompleteness and heterogeneity prior to integration into the kernel framework

The Role of Housefly (Musca Domestica) in Mechanical Transmission of Intestinal Parasites in Maiduguri Metropolis, North Eastern Nigeria.

Housefly is the best known and most widely distributed insects accounting for 90% of all flies in human habitation. A study was undertaken to determine the role of housefly (Musca domestica) in the transmission of human intestinal parasites in Maiduguri metropolis. A total of 1151 Houseflies were collected using insect sweep net, from four different breeding sites and were examined for human intestinal parasites using Formol-saline concentration techniques. The highest fly abundance recorded was 453 (39%) while the least recorded was 135 (12%) houseflies. Four intestinal parasites were isolated from fly external body with the following frequency of infection in their external surfaces respectively; Ascaris lumbricoides 22(2%), Hookworm 21(1.8%), Trichuris trichiura 3(0.3%), Hymenolepis nana 1(0.09%) and the transmission rate from four sampling sites was (0.8%) Abattoir, (2.0%) open defecation area, (1.3%) Maiduguri main market and (1.6%). Housefly was found to be a potential mechanical transmitter of parasitic infection and significantly contribute to the spread of food borne parasitic diseases, since this research detected the presence of four gastrointestinal parasites in flies’ exoskeleton and therefore its role in disease transmission cannot be over emphasized. Keywords: Housefly, Intestinal parasites, Maiduguri, Mechanical transmission, Nigeri

Interpretable chronic kidney disease risk prediction from clinical data using machine learning

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a major cause of illness and death worldwide, with over 2 million cases diagnosed in the U.K. and potentially up to 1.8 million undiagnosed. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies on CKD in India, resulting in limited data on its prevalence. CKD is often asymptomatic until 70% of the kidneys are severely damaged, and once this occurs, there is no cure. Patients may require dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. Detecting the risk of CKD early is therefore crucial. In developing countries like India, many people cannot afford regular laboratory blood tests. This study aims to develop machine learning models to predict the likelihood of CKD using limited blood test results collected in India, including blood pressure, albumin, red and white blood cell count, blood urea, serum creatinine, HbA1Cs, and other biomarkers. Decision Trees and Logistic Regression classification algorithms were used, with hyperparameter tuning, achieving an F-score of 1. These promising results suggest that state-of-the-art results may be achievable with just six laboratory tests

Charge carrier interaction with a purely electronic collective mode: Plasmarons and the infrared response of elemental bismuth

We present a detailed optical study of single crystal bismuth using infrared reflectivity and ellipsometry. Colossal changes in the plasmon frequency are observed as a function of temperature due to charge transfer between hole and electron Fermi pockets. In the optical conductivity, an anomalous temperature dependent mid-infrared absorption feature is observed. An extended Drude model analysis reveals that it can be connected to a sharp upturn in the scattering rate, the frequency of which exactly tracks the temperature dependent plasmon frequency. We interpret this absorption and increased scattering as the first direct optical evidence for a charge carrier interaction with a collective mode of purely electronic origin; here electron-plasmon scattering. The observation of a \emph{plasmaron} as such is made possible only by the unique coincidence of various energy scales and exceptional properties of semi-metal bismuth.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

In-situ electric field control of THz non-reciprocal directional dichroism in the multiferroic Ba2_2CoGe2_2O7_7

Non-reciprocal directional dichroism, also called the optical-diode effect, is an appealing functional property inherent to the large class of non-centrosymmetric magnets. However, the in-situ electric control of this phenomenon is challenging as it requires a set of conditions to be fulfilled: Special symmetries of the magnetic ground state, spin-excitations with comparable magnetic- and electric-dipole activity and switchable electric polarization. We demonstrate the isothermal electric switch between domains of Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$ possessing opposite magnetoelectric susceptibilities. Combining THz spectroscopy and multiboson spin-wave analysis, we show that unbalancing the population of antiferromagnetic domains generates the non-reciprocal light absorption of spin excitations.Comment: version accepte

Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis as an Initial Presentation of Nephrotic Syndrome: A Case Report

Yassir Balla,1 Abdullahi Said Hashi,2 Ahmed Adam Osman,3,4 Mohamed Sheikh Hassan,5 Eren Mutlu3 1Department of Internal Medicine, Somali-Sudanese Specialized hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia; 2Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Mogadishu Somalia Turkish Training and Research Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia; 3Department of Radiology, Mogadishu Somalia Turkish Training and Research Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia; 4Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Somalia, Mogadishu, Somalia; 5Department of Neurology, Mogadishu Somalia Turkish Training and Research Hospital, Mogadishu, SomaliaCorrespondence: Ahmed Adam Osman, Department of Radiology, Mogadishu Somalia Turkish Training and Research Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia, Email [email protected]: Cerebral sinovenous thrombosis (CSVT) encompasses a spectrum of disorders involving thrombosis of the cerebral venous system. As shown by previous epidemiological studies, the prevalence of cerebral sinovenous thrombosis is 4– 7 cases per million people. Nephrotic syndrome was very rarely associated with thrombosis cerebral veins or sinuses. Hypercoagulability and thrombotic complications in nephrotic syndrome are most commonly seen in deep veins of the lower extremities and renal veins. Our case highlights a unique scenario in which cerebral sinovenous thrombosis was the initial presentation of nephrotic syndrome in a patient that was not an important past medical or surgical problem. The patient was brought to the emergency department with severe headache, vomiting, altered mental status, and generalized body swelling. Laboratory results showed proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia and hyperlipidemia. Non-contrast brain CT demonstrated hemorrhagic venous infarct associated with vasogenic edema. A subsequent brain MR venogram demonstrated occlusion of superior sagittal and right transverse sinuses. She was managed with low molecular weight heparin and intervenous corticosteroids then shifted to rivaroxaban and oral steroids, respectively, which resulted in massive clinical improvement and resolution of thrombus.Keywords: nephrotic syndrome, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, MR venograph

Strigolactones inhibit auxin feedback on PIN-dependent auxin transport canalization

Directional transport of the phytohormone auxin is a versatile, plant-specific mechanism regulating many aspects of plant development. The recently identified plant hormones, strigolactones (SLs), are implicated in many plant traits; among others, they modify the phenotypic output of PIN-FORMED (PIN) auxin transporters for fine-tuning of growth and developmental responses. Here, we show in pea and Arabidopsis that SLs target processes dependent on the canalization of auxin flow, which involves auxin feedback on PIN subcellular distribution. D14 receptor- and MAX2 F-box-mediated SL signaling inhibits the formation of auxin-conducting channels after wounding or from artificial auxin sources, during vasculature de novo formation and regeneration. At the cellular level, SLs interfere with auxin effects on PIN polar targeting, constitutive PIN trafficking as well as clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Our results identify a non-transcriptional mechanism of SL action, uncoupling auxin feedback on PIN polarity and trafficking, thereby regulating vascular tissue formation and regeneration

Azimuthal asymmetries at CLAS: Extraction of e^a(x) and prediction of A_{UL}

First information on the chirally odd twist-3 proton distribution function e(x) is extracted from the azimuthal asymmetry, A_{LU}, in the electro-production of pions from deeply inelastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons off unpolarized protons, which has been recently measured by CLAS collaboration. Furthermore parameter-free predictions are made for azimuthal asymmetries, A_{UL}, from scattering of an unpolarized beam on a polarized proton target for CLAS kinematics.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, late

On the Role of Higher Twist in Polarized Deep Inelastic Scattering

The higher twist corrections $h^N(x)/Q^2$ to the spin dependent proton and neutron structure functions $g_1^N(x, Q^2)$ are extracted in a model independent way from experimental data on $g_1^N$ and found to be non-negligible. It is shown that the NLO QCD polarized parton densities determined from the data on g1, including higher twist effects, are in good agreement with those found earlier from our analysis of the data on g1/F1 and A1 where higher twist effects are negligible. On the contrary, the LO QCD polarized parton densities obtained from the data on g1, including higher twist, differ significantly from our previous results.Comment: 18 pages, latex, 6 figures, final version which will be published in Phys. Rev. D, fig. 5 is changed, misprints in Table 2 are remove