INTELLIGENT SOLAR POWERED AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

The main objective of this project is to design and create an intelligent solar powered air conditioning system with feedback that is able to control the air conditioning system in a room. The Cooling Load Temperature Difference is calculated and a calculator is created to replace manual calculation of it. A prototype with Graphic User Interface has been created with several LED's to symbolize the air conditioning system. Study of photovoltaic with the meteorological data is included. The photovoltaic and battery sizing for the system was carried out. This project was carried out because our country is currently facing energy crises and a lot of pollution problems. Also the fact that our country receives very h igh a verage m onthly s olar radiation all throughout the year contributes to another reason why this project was carried out. In this report, all objectives stated were met and data about irradiance in Malaysia is shown and the final result of the project is reported

INTELLIGENT SOLAR POWERED AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

The main objective of this project is to design and create an intelligent solar powered air conditioning system with feedback that is able to control the air conditioning system in a room. The Cooling Load Temperature Difference is calculated and a calculator is created to replace manual calculation of it. A prototype with Graphic User Interface has been created with several LED's to symbolize the air conditioning system. Study of photovoltaic with the meteorological data is included. The photovoltaic and battery sizing for the system was carried out. This project was carried out because our country is currently facing energy crises and a lot of pollution problems. Also the fact that our country receives very h igh a verage m onthly s olar radiation all throughout the year contributes to another reason why this project was carried out. In this report, all objectives stated were met and data about irradiance in Malaysia is shown and the final result of the project is reported

Development of a web-based insulin decision aid for the elderly: usability barriers and guidelines

In recent years, researchers have attempted to shift patient decision aids (PDAs) from paper-based to web-based to increase its accessibility. Insulin decision aids help diabetes patients, most of whom are elderly to make an informed decision to start insulin. However, the lack of usability guidelines applicable for such target group causes developers to struggle to answer the challenging question ‘How can such web service be made usable, and, ultimately, acceptable and accessible for elderly patients?’. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the common usability requirements that may facilitate good practices to empower elderly diabetes patients in utilizing a web-based insulin decision aid for their benefit. We set out an approach to use prototyping and retrospective think-aloud techniques to explore web usability barriers that elderly patients may encounter when using an insulin decision aid web site and use the feedback for improving the prototype. Usability requirements were captured iteratively through scoping, brainstorming, prototype, testing and evaluating. The study suggests that the insights from experts and users are equally important to assure the validity of the identified usability guidelines; they reflect the accessibility needs of the aging community while complementing the key requirements of an insulin decision aid. The study contributes to recommend web usability guidelines backed by a series of expert and user evaluations which could be a proactive resource to improve usability, acceptability and accessibility of online insulin decision aids for elderly with diabetes

Is There Any Association between Use of Smokeless Tobacco Products and Coronary Heart Disease in Bangladesh?

BACKGROUND: Most epidemiological studies exploring the association between smokeless tobacco (SLT) use and coronary heart disease (CHD) have been in Western populations, and have focused on SLT products used in those countries. Few studies come from South Asian countries. Our objective was to determine the association between SLT use and CHD among non-smoking adults in Bangladesh. METHODS: A matched case-control study of non-smoking Bangladeshi adults aged 40–75 years was conducted in 2010. Incident cases of CHD were selected from two cardiac hospitals. Community controls, matched to CHD cases, were selected from neighbourhoods, and hospital controls were selected from outpatient departments of the same hospitals. The Rose Angina Questionnaire (RAQ) was also used to re-classify cases and controls. RESULTS: The study enrolled 302 cases, 1,208 community controls and 302 hospital controls. Current use was higher among community controls (38%) compared to cases (33%) and hospital controls (32%). Current use of SLT was not significantly associated with an increased risk of CHD when community controls were used (adjusted OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.63–1.19), or when hospital controls were used (adjusted OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.63–1.60), or when both control groups were combined (adjusted OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.74–1.34). Risk of CHD did not increase with use of individual types except gul, frequency, duration, past use of SLT products, or using the RAQ to re-classify cases and controls. There was a significant association between gul use and CHD when both controls were combined (adjusted OR 2.93, 95% CI 1.28–6.70). CONCLUSIONS: There was no statistically significant association between SLT use in general and CHD among non-smoking adults in Bangladesh. Further research on the association between gul use and CHD in Bangladesh along with SLT use and CHD in other parts of the subcontinent will guide public health policy and interventions that focus on SLT-related diseases.Muhammad Azia Rahman, Nicola Spurrier, Mohammad Afzal Mahmood, Mahmudur Rahman, Soehl Reza Choudhury and Stephen Leede

A multi-factorial analysis of response to warfarin in a UK prospective cohort

Background Warfarin is the most widely used oral anticoagulant worldwide, but it has a narrow therapeutic index which necessitates constant monitoring of anticoagulation response. Previous genome-wide studies have focused on identifying factors explaining variance in stable dose, but have not explored the initial patient response to warfarin, and a wider range of clinical and biochemical factors affecting both initial and stable dosing with warfarin. Methods A prospective cohort of 711 patients starting warfarin was followed up for 6 months with analyses focusing on both non-genetic and genetic factors. The outcome measures used were mean weekly warfarin dose (MWD), stable mean weekly dose (SMWD) and international normalised ratio (INR) > 4 during the first week. Samples were genotyped on the Illumina Human610-Quad chip. Statistical analyses were performed using Plink and R. Results VKORC1 and CYP2C9 were the major genetic determinants of warfarin MWD and SMWD, with CYP4F2 having a smaller effect. Age, height, weight, cigarette smoking and interacting medications accounted for less than 20 % of the variance. Our multifactorial analysis explained 57.89 % and 56.97 % of the variation for MWD and SMWD, respectively. Genotypes for VKORC1 and CYP2C9*3, age, height and weight, as well as other clinical factors such as alcohol consumption, loading dose and concomitant drugs were important for the initial INR response to warfarin. In a small subset of patients for whom data were available, levels of the coagulation factors VII and IX (highly correlated) also played a role. Conclusion Our multifactorial analysis in a prospectively recruited cohort has shown that multiple factors, genetic and clinical, are important in determining the response to warfarin. VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genetic polymorphisms are the most important determinants of warfarin dosing, and it is highly unlikely that other common variants of clinical importance influencing warfarin dosage will be found. Both VKORC1 and CYP2C9*3 are important determinants of the initial INR response to warfarin. Other novel variants, which did not reach genome-wide significance, were identified for the different outcome measures, but need replication

Measurement of the Z/gamma* + b-jet cross section in pp collisions at 7 TeV

The production of b jets in association with a Z/gamma* boson is studied using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and recorded by the CMS detector. The inclusive cross section for Z/gamma* + b-jet production is measured in a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 inverse femtobarns. The Z/gamma* + b-jet cross section with Z/gamma* to ll (where ll = ee or mu mu) for events with the invariant mass 60 < M(ll) < 120 GeV, at least one b jet at the hadron level with pT > 25 GeV and abs(eta) < 2.1, and a separation between the leptons and the jets of Delta R > 0.5 is found to be 5.84 +/- 0.08 (stat.) +/- 0.72 (syst.) +(0.25)/-(0.55) (theory) pb. The kinematic properties of the events are also studied and found to be in agreement with the predictions made by the MadGraph event generator with the parton shower and the hadronisation performed by PYTHIA.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physic

Genome-Wide Association Study of White Blood Cell Count in 16,388 African Americans: the Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network (COGENT)

Total white blood cell (WBC) and neutrophil counts are lower among individuals of African descent due to the common African-derived “null” variant of the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) gene. Additional common genetic polymorphisms were recently associated with total WBC and WBC sub-type levels in European and Japanese populations. No additional loci that account for WBC variability have been identified in African Americans. In order to address this, we performed a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of total WBC and cell subtype counts in 16,388 African-American participants from 7 population-based cohorts available in the Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network. In addition to the DARC locus on chromosome 1q23, we identified two other regions (chromosomes 4q13 and 16q22) associated with WBC in African Americans (P<2.5×10−8). The lead SNP (rs9131) on chromosome 4q13 is located in the CXCL2 gene, which encodes a chemotactic cytokine for polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Independent evidence of the novel CXCL2 association with WBC was present in 3,551 Hispanic Americans, 14,767 Japanese, and 19,509 European Americans. The index SNP (rs12149261) on chromosome 16q22 associated with WBC count is located in a large inter-chromosomal segmental duplication encompassing part of the hydrocephalus inducing homolog (HYDIN) gene. We demonstrate that the chromosome 16q22 association finding is most likely due to a genotyping artifact as a consequence of sequence similarity between duplicated regions on chromosomes 16q22 and 1q21. Among the WBC loci recently identified in European or Japanese populations, replication was observed in our African-American meta-analysis for rs445 of CDK6 on chromosome 7q21 and rs4065321 of PSMD3-CSF3 region on chromosome 17q21. In summary, the CXCL2, CDK6, and PSMD3-CSF3 regions are associated with WBC count in African American and other populations. We also demonstrate that large inter-chromosomal duplications can result in false positive associations in GWAS