Automated Low-Cost Malaria Detection System in Thin Blood Slide Images Using Mobile Phones

Malaria, a deadly disease which according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) is responsible for the fatal illness in 200 million people around the world in 2010, is diagnosed using peripheral blood examination. The work undertaken in this research programme aims to develop an automated malaria parasite-detection system, using microscopic-image processing, that can be incorporated onto mobile phones. In this research study, the main objective is to achieve the performance equal to or better than the manual microscopy, which is the gold standard in malaria diagnosis, in order to produce a reliable automated diagnostic platform without expert intervention, for the effective treatment and eradication of the deadly disease. The work contributed to the field of mathematical morphology by proposing a novel method called the Annular Ring Ratio transform for blood component identification. It has also proposed an automated White Blood Cell and Red Blood Cell differentiation algorithm, which when combined with ARR transform method, has wide applications not only for malaria diagnosis but also for many blood related analysis involving microscopic examination. The research has undertaken investigations on infected cell identification which aids in the calculation of parasitemia, the measure of infection. In addition, an automated diagnostic tool to detect the sexual stage (gametocytes) of the species P.falciparum for post-treatment malaria diagnosis was developed. Furthermore, a parallel investigation was carried out on automated malaria diagnosis on fluorescent thin blood films and a WBC and infected cell differentiation algorithm was proposed. Finally, a mobile phone application based on the morphological image processing algorithms proposed in this thesis was developed. A complete malaria diagnostic unit using the mobile phones attached to a portable microscope was set up which has enormous potential not only for malaria diagnosis but also for the blood parasitological field where advancement in medical diagnostics using cellular smart phone technology is widely acknowledged

Cu/Zn Thermal Conductivity: Experimental And ANFIS Modelling

السوائل النانوية هي اللتي تضمن عليقات نانوية الحجم. من ناحية الخواص الحرارية, السوائل النانوية لديها معامل انتقال حرارة و موصلية حرارية اعلى من السوائل التقليدية. جزيئات المواد النانوية الحجم الثنائية قلب/قشرة هي جديدة و مبتكرة, ولها اختلافات كثيرة في مجالات الاستخدام. لتحضير سائل نانوي مختلف التراكيز, علقت ذرات ذات احجام نانوية في السائل الاساسي. الجهاز ذو الاسلاك العابرة الساحنة قد نصب و اجريت معايرته للبدء بعملية حساب الموصلية الحرارية النسبية, التراكيز, درجات حرارة السائل الاساسي و الموصلية الحرارية للسوائل النانوية. بعد ذلك طبق نموذج "نظام الاستدلال العصبي العشوائي" لتوليد النتائج. اظهر اختبار عشوائي ل 20% من سوائل نانوية مختلفة ان نسبة الخطأ لاتتجاوز 1% بين النتائج المقاسة و المنمذجة. كذلك قد استنتج ان الموصليات الحرارية تزدادا بزيادة التركيز للجزيئات النانوية, وخصوصا عندما يكون التركيز 1 فأن الموصلية الحرارية النسبية تساوي 1,35. مع ذلك, اظهر كلا من شكل و طريقة تحضير الجزيئات النانوية ان لها تأثير كبير في تحسين الموصلية الحرارية للجزيئات النانوية الثانوية مقارنة بالجزيئات الاحادية.Nanofluids are fluids within which particles of nanometre sizes are suspended. In terms of thermal characteristics, nanofluids have a greater heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity than other traditional fluids. Bimetallic core/shell Cu/Zn particles of nanometre sizes are novel invented nanoparticle materials with considerable variations in its applications. The particles of nanometre size were suspended in a base fluid for the preparation of nanofluids for different volume fractions. A coated transitory hot wire device were built and standardized and this was subsequently employed for the determination of heat conductivities of the nanofluids for bimetallic ratios, volume fraction, base fluid temperatures and base fluids thermal conductivity. The Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model was subsequently employed for modelling the determined results generated. A random test of 20% from various nanofluids showed a deviation less than 1% between measured and modeled results. It was inferred that heat conductivities increase with increase in the particle volume concentrations, especially when the later one at value of 1, the heat conductivities ratio approach to 1.35. Nevertheless, the shape and the method of preparing the particles of nanometre size reveals anomalous enhancements in heat conductivities of bimetallic compared to monocular metallic nanofluids

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FUNCTION AND DESIGN OF SPACES IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES THROUGH THE DIGITAL ERA

Along with technology development in all fields of contemporary life, activities come development regarding architectural requirements. The functions, spaces usage, types of buildings, etc. have changed. Certain architectural elements and spaces have disappeared while other functions have either disappeared or been minimized. The change has also exceeded the architectural level to the urban level, affecting the urban planning elements, sizes, and decision-making processes. Developments in technology exert a great influence on communication as well as data entry, saving, and archiving; which, in return, has had a direct impact on libraries’ spaces, operating systems, functions, and user types. As a result, the traditional space requirements and old architectural theories should be revised. This research aims to study the theoretical requirements of architectural academic libraries and the implications of technology development for spaces, functions, and types of users in the last ten years, through analyzing ten university libraries that were recently established in Europe and the USA that use the latest technologies. The outcome is applied to a case study: the architectural academic library of Beirut Arab University on Debbieh campus. The research finds that physical libraries will not be replaced by digital libraries easily, although the extensive use of technology has led to continuous changes in library spaces. The technological revolution in the field of mobile phones and applications which facilitated the accessibility of information and the possibility of searching and indexing has boosted the trend in changing library collections from physical to digital phenomena. In addition, the ideas of shared spaces and Pop-up Campuses, where libraries are completely virtual and universities are without boundaries, will also affect these traditional library-related theories. It is hoped that the results and recommendations will assist the development of a new approach and method regarding library design, which may consequently affect university buildings design, especially since the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing us toward social distancing and online applications

Behavior of Concrete Structures Reinforced with High Strength Steel

The structural strength and corrosion resistance of concrete members are improved when A1035 steel is used as the main reinforcement. The enhancement of A1035 is achieved by the modification of the composition and microstructure of the steel. Therefore, the behavior of concrete structures reinforced with high-performance steel (A1035) is different from those reinforced with the regular steel (A615). Concrete bridge decks reinforced with different amounts of A1035 were studied in this research program. The structural behavior of twelve concrete bridge decks reinforced with A615 Grade 420 (60 ksi) and A1035 Grade 830 (120 ksi) steel was investigated at both service and strength limit states. The tensile strain of steel and compressive strain of the concrete were measured in each load step. In addition to measuring the deflection, a microscope was used to measure the maximum crack width during testing. Then, the finite element method was used to model the concrete bridge decks. ABAQUS software was used to represent the model. The concrete material was represented by C3D8 elements, and the steel material was modeled by T3D2 elements. Concrete Damaged Plasticity Model was used to represent the nonlinear behavior of concrete. The plastic behavior of the reinforcing steel was represented by Plasticity option. The final part of the dissertation focuses on investigating the structural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with A1035 and cast with different concrete strengths. The structural behavior of eight reinforced concrete beams was investigated. Two types of reinforcement were used, regular steel (A615) and high-performance steel (A1035). Three different concrete strengths were used, normal, high, and ultra-high strength. The deflection, maximum crack width, compressive strain of concrete, and tensile strain of steel were measured during testing

THE IMPACT OF ATRIUMS ON THERMAL AND DAYLIGHTING PERFORMANCE

The energy crisis is one of the main focuses of attention across the world. Atrium spaces have become a main part of most public buildings all over the world, regardless of their environmental aspects. The arguments of a good space, the psychological atmosphere and the impact on energy consumption are the main problems that face any designer, environmental designers in particular. In atrium design, there is more than one aspect to be considered; architectural, functional, economic, environmental, construction and psychological aspects are the main aspects that should be considered in the early design stage. The environmental aspect is the most important of all; this is affected by several factors, such as the daylighting and thermal performance. Much research has studied this aspect in relation to a certain location, case, factor or multiple factors; these results might thus be limited. The complication and contradiction of these factors leads to the necessity of studying and analysing them. The question that this research aims to answer is how a building can benefit from daylighting with or without excess heat gain according to the climatic conditions, through determining the main factors that should be studied and their impacts on the design of atrium space

From dependency to Interdependencies: The emergence of a socially rooted but commercial waste sector in Kampala City, Uganda

Urban waste has traditionally remained for municipal councils to manage in several sub-Saharan cities such as Kampala. However, due to noticeable inefficiencies at municipal level, there is a manifest of low-income groups that take the initiative to extract and add value to materials from the waste stream, although higher-income groups are engaged in similar activities. This signifies the gradual shift from dependency on municipal councils to neighborhood interdependencies in the management of urban waste. To gain an in-depth understanding of this shift, we conducted purposive observations and twelve (12) focused-group interviews amongst selected respondents, in the neighborhood of Kasubi-Kawaala, Makerere II and Bwaise III parishes, located in the north western part of Kampala. The key finding was that waste-user roles, preferences, and the preceding generation and extraction processes are socially rooted in neighborhood cultural-orientations, and the underlying social mobility and commercial drivers. From the study, three (3) types of low-income commercial waste vendors were identified including, regular waste vendors, wholesale waste dealers, and home to home waste dealers. Unfortunately, these low-income waste vendors still have the least opportunity to negotiate with municipal authorities on scaling-up their commercial activities for a greater social impact.Key words: Wastes, social rootedness, neighborhoods, commercial waste, Kampala City

Effect of ploughing depth, tractor forward speed, and plough types on the fuel consumption and tractor performance

Cost of fuel has a significant impact on the input costs of agricultural production, especially during primary tillage. It is affected by several parameters including tractor forward speed, depths of ploughing, and plough types. The experiment was performed in a Soil Hall at Harper Adams University, United Kingdom, in April 2015. A Massey Ferguson 8480 4WD tractor was used for investigating objectives of this study. The experiment was performed in a sandy loam soil texture at 11.73% soil moisture content and 1.35 (g/cm3) dry bulk density to study the amount of fuel consumption (l/ha) and the performance of tractor with effect of moldboard and disc ploughs as ploughs type, 15 and 20 cm as ploughing depth and 5 and 7 km/h as tractor forward speeds. The results showed that fuel consumption with a disc plough 5% was higher compared to the moldboard. Fuel consumption decreased approximately 8% when tractor at 7 km/h. Fuel consumption significantly decreased about 34% when ploughing depth increased from 15 to 20 cm. The power requirement to operate moldboard plough was higher by about 14% than a disc. The power requirement at speeds of 7 km/h was higher compared to the speeds of 5 km/h by about 27%. When the depth of ploughing increased from 15 to 20 cm, the power requirement increased by about 1.5%

NOVEL ANTICOAGULANTS BEYOND HEPARIN AND WARFARIN

Objective: The objective of the study is to know about newer anticoagulant drugs.Method: The Vitamin K adversaries are the single type of oral anticoagulant in the pharmaceutical, and which is endorsed for long-haul utilize.What is more, the Vitamin K adversaries are exceedingly successful, so it is utilized to avert, and treatment of most thrombotic infections in patients,the noteworthy interpatient and intrapatient are additionally fluctuation in measurement response, and the thin restorative medication record andthe more quantities of medication and dietary communications related with these specialists have lead clinicians, patients, and examiners to scanfor different operators. The three new orally controlled anticoagulants are apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban, which are in the late periods ofprogression and a couple of others they are basically entering (or traveling through), the earlier times of examinations. Those most recent anticoagulantdrugs are being contemplated just for the avoidance and furthermore the treatment of venous for the thromboembolism, and the treatment of intensecoronary conduit disorders, and furthermore the counteractive action of stroke in patients influenced by atrial fibrillation.Results: The pharmacological action of the three new orally controlled anticoagulants is apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban completely reviewedand compared with warfarin.Conclusion: We are compared the newer anticoagulant with warfarin and discussed about advantages of newer anticoagulants

Efficacy of single dose anticoagulants against rodents damaging coconut

Crown baiting with bromodiolone 0.005 per cent ready made rodenticide cake @ four bits, weighning 16.5g each at the base of the four bunches bearing the tender nuts of fist size and above on four sides in the crown of palm was found very effective in controlling rodent damage