Feasibility of Food Recognition and Calorie Estimation of Fast Food and Healthy Meals Available in the Philippines

This paper presents the design and development of a food recognition smartphone application which can also display the estimated calorie/s of the food itself. It is intended for people who would like to monitor their diet through food calorie intake measurement (i.e. user’s daily calorie intake record). It is equipped with a food database consisting of typical fruits and vegetables commonly found in the Philippines. As part of the study, it also includes some of the meals in food chains (i.e. McDonald's, and The Healthy Corner) found in the Philippines where the calorie information is readily available. The result shows 82.86 % accuracy for the top-1 category, and 99.29 % for the top-5 category. The algorithm being used in this project is Artificial Neural Network (ANN) wherein the recognition process must properly be achieved. Furthermore, the aforementioned database is supported by TensorFlow which is an open-source software library for Machine Intelligence

Relation entre les anomalies du spermogramme et les constituants biochimiques du liquide séminal de sujets consultant pour hypofertilité masculine à Ouagadougou

La présente étude visait à analyser le profil biochimique du liquide séminal de patients consultant pour hypofertilité masculine à Ouagadougou, en relation avec les anomalies du spermogramme. La population d’étude était constituée de 220 sujets masculins âgés de 23 à 64 ans. Les dosages du glucose, du cholestérol, des triglycérides, des protéines totales, du fructose, du calcium, du magnésium, du zinc et de l’α-glucosidase ont été réalisés avec un automate Cobas Mira (Roche) alors que le sodium et le potassium ont été dosés avec un photomètre de flamme (PHF 104 de Hycel). L’électrophorèse a été réalisée sur support hydragel avec une chaîne d’électrophorèse Hydrasis (Sébia). L’analyse du spermogramme a montré que seuls 35 sujets soit 15,9% avaient un spermogramme normal contre 84,1% d’anomalies. La répartition des anomalies du spermogramme observées était : asthénospermie (25%), oligo-asthénospermie (15,5%), oligo-asthéno-tératospermie (13,6%), azoospermie (10,5%), oligospermie (10,5%), tératospermie (9,1%). Le profil électrophorétique des protéines du liquide séminal n’a pas apporté un intérêt notable dans l’étude des différentes anomalies du spermogramme. Cependant, l’augmentation du sodium dans l’azoospermie, la diminution du magnésium et l’augmentation des triglycérides dans l’asthénospermie et la diminution du potassium dans l’oligospermie présenteraient un intérêt s’ils étaient confirmés par d’autres travaux. En effet, ces paramètres de réalisation courante dans la plupart des laboratoires africains, pourraient être utiles dans l’exploration de l’hypofertilité masculine.Mots clés: sperme, profil biochimique, anomalies morphologiques, infertilit&#233

Feasibility of food recognition and calorie estimation of fast food and healthy meals available in the Philippines

This paper presents the design and development of a food recognition smartphone application which can also display the estimated calorie/s of the food itself. It is intended for people who would like to monitor their diet through food calorie intake measurement (i.e. user\u27s daily calorie intake record). It is equipped with a food database consisting of typical fruits and vegetables commonly found in the Philippines. As part of the study, it also includes some of the meals in food chains (i.e. McDonald\u27s, and The Healthy Corner) found in the Philippines where the calorie information is readily available. The result shows 82.86 % accuracy for the top-1 category, and 99.29 % for the top-5 category. The algorithm being used in this project is Artificial Neural Network (ANN) wherein the recognition process must properly be achieved. Furthermore, the aforementioned database is supported by TensorFlow which is an open-source software library for Machine Intelligence. © 2018 Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. All rights rerserved

Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: An example of the interplay between ancient genes and modern medicine

We tested DNA from 15 centrally infected cases of iatrogenic Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease (CJD) (dura mater or corneal homografts and stereotactic EEG electrodes), 11 peripherally infected cases (native human growth hormone or gonadotrophin), and 110 control individuals for the presence of mutations in the chromosome 20 amyloid gene. No patient or control had any of the known pathogenic point or insert mutations found in familial disease, but allelic homozygosity at polymorphic codon 129 was present in all but two (92%) of the 26 patients, compared with 54 (50%) of the 110 controls (p < 0.001). Pooled data from all identified and tested cases of iatrogenic disease yielded a worldwide total of 56 patients, of whom all but four were homozygous at codon 129 (p < 0.001). These findings support the thesis that homozygosity at codon 129 enhances susceptibility to iatrogenic infections of both central and peripheral origin, with evident implications for the population of dura mater homograft and pituitary hormone recipients whose lives have been complicated by the possibility of exposure to the infectious agent of CJD