On Intelligent Home Offices – A Model and Potential Impacts

CABA Intelligent & Integrated Buildings Council (IIBC): CABA White PaperThe idea of “teleworking” or “telecommuting” or “working from home” is not new. The practice is still not very popular because most organizations lack a policy for “telecommuting.” There are two schools of thought fighting against each other related to the implementation of this practice in a broad sense. The main theme of this CABA White Paper suggests that technology is available to let employees, whose work is information-based, work at home for three or four days a week. While many employees are provided with cell and smart phones to be accessible while they work from anywhere when away from their desks, what is lacking is a cultural acceptance and clearly defined guidelines for telecommuting as part of business activities. The thesis of this paper is to inquire hoe home offices would become popular.published_or_final_versio

Reducing calcium-mediated endoplasmic reticulum stress could attenuate beta-amyloid peptide neurotoxicity

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Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of ocular biotransport in normal and hypertensive eyes

Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference, 2008, p. 835-838This study aims to employ in vivo dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) to evaluate the ocular transport following an induction of ocular hypertension in a rat model of chronic glaucoma. Upon systemic administration of Gd-DTPA solution, T1-weighted signal increase was observed in the vitreous body of the glaucomatous eye but not the control eye. This increase occurred earlier in the anterior vitreous body than the preretinal vitreous. Further, there was an earlier Gd-DTPA transport into the anterior chamber in the majority of glaucomatous eyes. Our DCE-MRI findings revealed the leakage of Gd-DTPA at the aqueous-vitreous interface, which was likely resulted from increased permeability of blood-aqueous or aqueous-vitreous barrier. These may explain the sources of changing biochemical compositions in the chamber components, which may implicate the neurodegenerative processes in the glaucomatous visual components. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Computed Tomography Study Of Complicated Bacterial Meningitis

To monitor the structural intracranial complications of bacterial meningitis using computed tomography (CT) scan. Retrospective study of medical and radiological records of patients who underwent CT scan over a 4 year period. AUniversityTeachingHospital in a developing country. Thirty three patients with clinically and laboratory-proven cases of bacterial meningitis who had clinical features of central nervous systemcomplication of the disease. Only patients with available complete records were studied with material obtained from themedical records and radiology departments of the hospital. Persistent headache (30.3%), persistent fever (18.18%), seizures (15.5%) and torticollis (12.12%) were the most common presenting features that necessitated the request for CT scan. Communicating hydrocephalus (36.36%), cerebral abscess (12.12%), multiple areas of cerebral infarction (12.12%) and subdural empyema (9.09%)were themost common CTscan findings. The complicationsweremore common in children aged less than 15 years. Computed Tomography is an accurate and useful means of diagnosing intracranial complications of bacterialmeningitis. Early and effective diagnosis of treatable lesions such as hydrocephalus, cerebral abscess and subdural empyema will help improve prognosis of the patients. There appears to be no alternative to prevention, adequate and early treatment of this condition to reduce its long-term neurological sequelae. Keywords: Computed tomography, Bacterial, Meningitis, Complications, Brain. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol. 11 (4) 2008: pp. 351-35

Surgical wound infection

Objective. To review the risk factors for surgical would infection; the use of prophylactic antibiotics in the prevention of wound infection; and the benefits of wound surveillance programmes to reduce the rate of surgical wound infection. Data sources. Medline literature search and review of published work on surgical wound infection, and the references cited in them. Study selection. Critical studies containing supporting evidence were selected. Data extraction. Data were extracted independently by multiple observers. Data synthesis. Factors that effect the susceptibility of a wound to infection include a pre-existing illness, the duration of the operative procedure, wound contamination, three or more diagnoses at the time of discharge, and abdominal operations. Antibiotic prophylaxis can decrease postoperative morbidity, shorten hospital stay, and reduce overall costs attributable to infection; the choice of antibiotic depends on the would class. Wound surveillance can also decrease wound infection rates. Conclusion. Surgical wound infections are common and consume a considerable portion of health care finances. A reduction in the infection rate to a minimal level, however, can be achieved by the judicious use of antibiotic prophylaxis and the use of an organised system of wound surveillance and reporting.published_or_final_versio

Longitudinal 1H MRS of hamster superior colliculus following retinotectal deafferentation

Session: Applications of MRS to the Animal Brain - TRADpublished_or_final_versionThe 17th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM 2009), Honlolulu, HI., 18-24 April 2009. In Proceedings of ISMRM 17th Scientific Meeting & Exhibition, 200

Energy Efficiency Optimization for a Multiuser IRS-aided MISO System with SWIPT

Combining simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) and an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a feasible scheme to enhance energy efficiency (EE) performance. In this paper, we investigate a multiuser IRS-aided multiple-input single-output (MISO) system with SWIPT. For the purpose of maximizing the EE of the system, we jointly optimize the base station (BS) transmit beamforming vectors, the IRS reflective beamforming vector, and the power splitting (PS) ratios, while considering the maximum transmit power budget, the IRS reflection constraints, and the quality of service (QoS) requirements containing the minimum data rate and the minimum harvested energy of each user. The formulated EE maximization problem is non-convex and extremely complex. To tackle it, we develop an efficient alternating optimization (AO) algorithm by decoupling the original nonconvex problem into three subproblems, which are solved iteratively by using the Dinkelbach method. In particular, we apply the successive convex approximation (SCA) as well as the semi-definite relaxation (SDR) techniques to solve the non-convex transmit beamforming and reflective beamforming optimization subproblems. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the AO algorithm as well as the benefit of deploying IRS for enhancing the EE performance compared with the benchmark schemes

A profile of wound infections in National Hospital Abuja

Background: Wound Infections cause prolonged hospital stay, increased costs and also can result in increased patient morbidity and mortality.The current spread of multi -drug resistant bacteria has further heightened the need for regular bacteriological review of infected wounds and regular antibiotics surveillance studies so as to avoid the unguided empirical treatment of wound infections which is quite common in this environmentAim: To determine the distribution of the isolates from wound specimens submitted to the medical microbiology laboratory of National Hospital Abuja for processing.Method: A review and analysis of 380 woundspecimens results from various wards in the hospital over a period of 10 months (1st Marto Dec 31st 2010) was conducted.Result: A total of 314 isolates were recovered from the 380 wound specimens giving a yield of 83%. 240(76%) yielded single isolates of various pathogens, while 74(24%) were poly-microbial. Gram negative bacilli constituted 66% of all the pathogens with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19%) and Proteus species (18%) as the most frequent, while gram positive isolates made up 33% with S aureus (27%) as most predominant and most frequently isolated bacteria from all the wound specimens. Two candida species comprised about 1% of the isolates. Frequency of infection was highest in surgical wards (27%), gynaecology ward (14%) and accident and emergency unit (12%). The fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, and Beta-lactam antibiotics were the most effective drugs for most of the isolates. Staphylococcus aureus was most sensitive to amikacin (83%) and erythromycin (79%); Pseudomonas aeruginosa to imipenem (96%) and amikacin (83%) and Proteus species to amikacin (100%) and imipenem (78%).Conclusion: S aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus species were the predominant bacteria from wounds, with surgery and gynaecology wards having the highest prevalence. Resistance to commonly used antibiotics is high. There is need to institute antibiotic stewardship and effective and efficient infection control measures in the hospitalKeywords: Wound infections, National Hospital , Abuj

Brassiere wearing and breast cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

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