Correlation of mechanical factors and gallbladder pain

Acalculous biliary pain occurs in patients with no gallstones, but is similar to that experienced by patients with gallstones. Surgical removal of the gallbladder (GB) in these patients is only successful in providing relief of symptoms to about half of those operated on, so a reliable pain-prediction model is needed. In this paper, a mechanical model is developed for the human biliary system during the emptying phase, based on a clinical test in which GB volume changes are measured in response to a standard stimulus and a recorded pain profile. The model can describe the bile emptying behaviour, the flow resistance in the biliary ducts, the peak total stress, including the passive and active stresses experienced by the GB during emptying. This model is used to explore the potential link between GB pain and mechanical factors. It is found that the peak total normal stress may be used as an effective pain indicator for GB pain. When this model is applied to clinical data of volume changes due to Cholecystokinin stimulation and pain from 37 patients, it shows a promising success rate of 88.2% in positive pain prediction

Automated call receiving and forwarding mechanism for supporting integrated disaster management system

Disasters have caused great loss of lives and economic loss besides disruption of services and infrastructure. In any case of a disaster, prolonged arrival of relevant agencies such as the rescue teams means delayed commencement of all restoration work that should be done after the incident. This prolonged arrival is one of the factors that delay in alerting the relevant agencies for them to commence in action. Currently in Malaysia, the call receiving and forwarding procedure is handled by MERS99 with human intervention, i.e telephone operators. This research proposed an algorithm which able to receive a call and identify the relevant agencies to be directed to the event based once the GPS location of the mobile user who made the report. Thus, human intervention in the current procedures is being minimized. The efficiency of the algorithm is evaluated by comparing the response time of the current procedures with the implementation of the algorithm in the proposed prototype. Based on the evaluation, it is shown that the proposed algorithm are able to shorten the length of time between and incident happens and relevant agencies being dispatched to the event

Comparison on Cloud Image Classification for Thrash Collecting LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Robot

The world today faces the biggestwaste management crisis due to rapid economicgrowth, congestion, urban planning issues,devastating negative symptoms and politicalaffairs. In addressing this waste managementproblem, many methods of solving wastemanagement have proven not to be as planned.In this high technology era, the innovation ofhumanoid robots is found to be helpful to supportthe everyday human life. The industry is gearingtowards automation to increase productivity at thesame time will improved quality of life to localcommunities. Therefore, in this paper ThrashCollecting Robot (TCR) is proposed to helpprovide automatic control in thrash collection. TheTCR, built on the LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robot, candistinguish between static and dynamic barriers,and can move according to the programming thathas been created. TCRs are basically composedof sensors designed according to differentrequirements in order to detect dynamic barriers.TCR is one type of Cloud Robot that implementsimage processing techniques to identify the typeof waste that has been collected. The concept ofimage processing built in TCR by using CloudRepresentational State Transfer (REST API).This concept has been applied by Google CloudAPI and Sighthound. This cloud services usedmachine vision techniques to identify and classifythe type of thrash images; whether it is plastic,metal or paper. Experiment results show thatSightHound gives accurate result compared toGoogle Cloud in classifying thrash types

Self-consistent quantum effects in the quark meson coupling model

We derive the equation of state of nuclear matter including vacuum polarization effects arising from the nucleons and the sigma mesons in the quark-meson coupling model which incorporates explicitly quark degrees of freedom with quark coupled to the scalar and vector mesons. This leads to a softer equation of state for nuclear matter giving a lower value of incompressibility than would be reached without quantum effects. The {\it in-medium} nucleon and sigma meson masses are also calculated in a self-consistent manner.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 5 figure

The effects of meson mixing on dilepton spectra

The effect of scalar and vector meson mixing on the dilepton radiation from hot and dense hadronic matter is estimated in different isospin channels. In particular, we study the effect of $\sigma$-$\omega$ and $\rho-a_0$ mixing and calculate the corresponding rates. Effects are found to be significant compared to standard $\pi$-$\pi$ and $K$-${\bar K}$ annihilations. While the mixing in the isoscalar channel mostly gives a contribution in the invariant mass range between the two-pion threshold and the $\omega$ peak, the isovector channel mixing induces an additional peak just below that of the $\phi$. Experimentally, the dilepton signals from $\rho$-$a_0$ mixing seem to be more tractable than those from $\sigma$-$\omega$ mixing.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Dilepton Spectra from Decays of Light Unflavored Mesons

The invariant mass spectrum of the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $\mu ^{+}\mu ^{-}$ pairs from decays of light unflavored mesons with masses below the $\phi (1020)$-meson mass to final states containing along with a dilepton pair one photon, one meson, and two mesons are calculated within the framework of the effective meson theory. The results can be used for simulations of the dilepton spectra in heavy-ion collisions and for experimental searches of dilepton meson decays.Comment: 73 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, REVTeX, new references adde

Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO

For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial change

Search for Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Binary Coalescences in the Galactic Halo

We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole (PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$. The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50 kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

IgE allergy diagnostics and other relevant tests in allergy, a World Allergy Organization position paper

Currently, testing for immunoglobulin E (IgE) sensitization is the cornerstone of diagnostic evaluation in suspected allergic conditions. This review provides a thorough and updated critical appraisal of the most frequently used diagnostic tests, both in vivo and in vitro. It discusses skin tests, challenges, and serological and cellular in vitro tests, and provides an overview of indications, advantages and disadvantages of each in conditions such as respiratory, food, venom, drug, and occupational allergy. Skin prick testing remains the first line approach in most instances; the added value of serum specific IgE to whole allergen extracts or components, as well as the role of basophil activation tests, is evaluated. Unproven, non-validated, diagnostic tests are also discussed. Throughout the review, the reader must bear in mind the relevance of differentiating between sensitization and allergy; the latter entails not only allergic sensitization, but also clinically relevant symptoms triggered by the culprit allergen

Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe