A survey on utilization of data mining approaches for dermatological (skin) diseases prediction

Due to recent technology advances, large volumes of medical data is obtained. These data contain valuable information. Therefore data mining techniques can be used to extract useful patterns. This paper is intended to introduce data mining and its various techniques and a survey of the available literature on medical data mining. We emphasize mainly on the application of data mining on skin diseases. A categorization has been provided based on the different data mining techniques. The utility of the various data mining methodologies is highlighted. Generally association mining is suitable for extracting rules. It has been used especially in cancer diagnosis. Classification is a robust method in medical mining. In this paper, we have summarized the different uses of classification in dermatology. It is one of the most important methods for diagnosis of erythemato-squamous diseases. There are different methods like Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and fuzzy classifiaction in this topic. Clustering is a useful method in medical images mining. The purpose of clustering techniques is to find a structure for the given data by finding similarities between data according to data characteristics. Clustering has some applications in dermatology. Besides introducing different mining methods, we have investigated some challenges which exist in mining skin data

THE EVALUATION OF GRAIN AND OIL PRODUCTION, SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF AMARANTH ‘CV. KONIZ’ AS INFLUENCED BY THE SALT STRESS IN HYDROPONIC CONDITIONS

The purpose of this study was investigation of salinity effect on some traits of Amaranth. A split plot designed with three replications with two factors: 5 salinity levels (control, 75, 150, 225, 300 mM NaCl) and applied time at 4 levels (plant establishment, branching, flowering, grain filling) in a greenhouse under hydroponic system. Application of 300 mM salinity after plant establishment led to death of amaranth. Salinity application after establishment decreased significantly plant height and number of branches as 44.9 and 31.8, respectively. Production of grain weight was not affected by 75 mM salinity, but at higher salinity showed significantly decrease. The highest decrease in grain weight obtained by applying 225 mM salt after the plant establishment and salinity at 300 mM after branching as 86.6 and 71.3 percent respectively, resulting in a decrease in both 1000 kernel weight and grain number, respectively. Salinity application increased H2O2, MDA and total phenolics contents, severely. Most of characteristics hadnot affect by 75 mM NaCl, but other concentrations had a negative effect on the growth and production of Amaranth and increasing salinity had more negative impact. In this study, the most sensitive to salinity was after plant establishment and grain filling stage was the most tolerant

Production and purification of polyclonal anti-hamster immunoglobulins in rabbits

Polyclonal antibodies are mixtures of monoclonal antibodies that were produced against different epitops. The goal of this project is to know the production, purification and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugation of polyclonal antibodies against hamster immunoglobulins in rabbits. 300 ìg/300 ìl of ten hamster immunoglobulins was mixed with the same volume (300 ìl) of adjuvant and injected into three 6-month-old white New Zealand rabbits. Anti hamster rich rabbits serums were isolated from whole blood and precipitated with ammonium sulfate in the final concentration of 50%. The precipitate was dialysed against phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (pH: 7.4) and applied to ion exchange chromatography (IEC) on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-sepharose 6B with tris-phosphate (pH: 8.1), andtris-phosphate contain 50 mM NaCl buffer. The purity of produced antibody was confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) under reduced condition. Then purifiedimmunoglobulin G (IgG) was conjugated with HRP. For exact measurement of conjugated IgG titer and evaluating of cross reaction, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test was designed. Since IEC is a more simple and inexpensive method for the purification of IgG, we obtained a protein with approximate purity of 95%. Produced IgG showed high titer and high specificity in the designed ELISA. Purified antibody and its conjugation with HRP are used in research and diagnosis of hamster disease.Key words: Production, purification, hamster immunoglobulins

Association between self-efficacy and quality of life in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy

Background: Self-efficacy is known as a factor which influences health behaviors, chronic diseases management and quality of life in patients with cancer. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association of self-efficacy and quality of life in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in 100 women with breast cancer referred to Seyed Al-Shohada Hospital, Isfahan in 2015. The study subjects were selected by simple random sampling method. The measurement tools were the Sherer self-efficacy scale and the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Findings: Mean age was 48.25±11.93 years. The mean self-efficacy score and quality of life score were 55.78± 11 and 75.91±15.28, respectively and both of them were average. There was positive significant correlation between self-efficacy and quality of life. There was also significant association between self-efficacy and quality of life domains including physical health, mental health, social relationships and environment. Conclusion: With regards to the results, it seems that activities such as workshops for patients, presence of a psychologist in department of chemotherapy, and providing health facilities can be effective for increasing self-efficacy and quality of life in patients with cance

Inequity in household's capacity to pay and health payments in Tehran-Iran-2013

Background: Health inequality monitoring especially in Health care financing field is very important. Hence, this study tends to assess the inequality in household's capacity to pay and out-ofpocket health carepaymentsin Tehran metropolis. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2013.Thestudy population was selected by stratified cluster sampling, and they constitute the typical households living in Tehran (2200 households). The required data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Excel and Stata v.11. Concentration Index on inequality was used for measuring inequality status in capacity to pay and household payments for health care expenses; and also the concentration index for out-of-pocket payments and capacity to pay was used to determine the extent of inequality. The recall period for inpatient care was one year and 1 month for outpatient. Results: The average of out-of-pocket payments for receiving the outpatient services was determined to be 44.33US and for each inpatient1861.11 US. Concentration index for household's outof- pocket payments for inpatient health care, out-of-pocket payments for outpatient health care and health prepayments were calculated 0.13, -0.10 and -0.11, respectively. Also, concentration index in household's capacity to pay was estimated to be 0.11whichindicatedinequality to the benefit of the rich. The households used financing strategies like savings, borrowing or lending to pay their health care expenditures. Conclusion: According to this study, the poor spend a greater portion of their capacity to pay for outpatient and inpatient health care costs and prepayment, in comparison to the rich. Thus, supporting the vulnerable groups of the society to decrease out-of-pocket payments and increasing the household's capacity to pay through government support in order to improve the household economic potential, must be considered very important

The productivity and its barriers in public hospitals: Case study of Iran

Background: Due to the increasing health care costs, the issue of productivity in hospitals must be taken into great consideration in order to provide, preserve and promote public health services. Thus, increasing the level of productivity must become the main aim of any hospital. Objective of this study is to determine the total factor productivity and its components over the period under the study. Methods: In this cross sectional study, total factor productivity changes of hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences were measured according to Malmquist index over the period 2009-2014. To estimate total productivity changes using Data Envelopment Analysis method, inputoriented and variable return to scale assumptions were applied and Deap2.1 software was used. Results: The mean value of total productivity changes was 1.013. It means that during the study period the productivity experienced a 1.3 decrease. Technological efficiency changes have the greatest influence on productivity decrease than the other factors. Scale efficiency, managerial efficiency and technical efficiency changes were ranked. Conclusion: Lack of knowledge of hospital personnel on proper application of technology in patient treatment is the main factor leading to productivity decrease resulting from technological changes in the studied hospitals. Therefore, holding courses for personnel in order to teach them the proper use of technology in diagnosis and patient care can be helpful

Estimating fermentation characteristics and nutritive value of ensiled and dried pomegranate seeds for ruminants using in vitro gas production technique

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the chemical composition and estimation of fermentation characteristics and nutritive value of ensiled and dried pomegranate seeds using in vitro gas production technique. Samples were collected, mixed, processed (ensiled and dried) and incubated in vitro with rumen liquor taken from three fistulated Iranian native (Taleshi) steers at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h. The results showed that ensiling lead to significant increase in gas production of pomegranate seeds at all incubation times. The gas volume at 24 h incubation, were 25.76 and 17.91 ml/200mg DM for ensiled and dried pomegranate seeds, respectively. The gas production rate (c) also was significantly higher for ensiled groups than dried (0.0930 vs. 0.0643 ml/h). The organic matter digestibility (OMD), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy for lactation (NEL) and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) of ensiled pomegranate seeds were significantly higher than that of dried samples (43.15%, 6.37 MJ/kg DM, 4.43 MJ/kg DM, 0.5553 mmol for ensiled samples vs. 34.62%, 5.10 MJ/kg DM, 3.56 MJ/kg DM, 0.3680 mmol for dried samples, respectively). It can be concluded that ensiling increases the nutritive value of pomegranate seeds

Relativistic three-body bound states and the reduction from four to three dimensions

Beginning with an effective field theory based upon meson exchange, the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the three-particle propagator (six-point function) is obtained. Using the one-boson-exchange form of the kernel, this equation is then analyzed using time-ordered perturbation theory, and a three-dimensional equation for the propagator is developed. The propagator consists of a pre-factor in which the relative energies are fixed by the initial state of the particles, an intermediate part in which only global propagation of the particles occurs, and a post-factor in which relative energies are fixed by the final state of the particles. The pre- and post-factors are necessary in order to account for the transition from states where particles are off their mass shell to states described by the global propagator with all of the particle energies on shell. The pole structure of the intermediate part of the propagator is used to determine the equation for the three-body bound state: a Schr{\"o}dinger-like relativistic equation with a single, global Green's function. The role of the pre- and post-factors in the relativistic dynamics is to incorporate the poles of the breakup channels in the initial and final states. The derivation of this equation by integrating over the relative times rather than via a constraint on relative momenta allows the inclusion of retardation and dynamical boost corrections without introducing unphysical singularities.Comment: REVTeX, 21 pages, 4 figures, epsf.st

Energy efficient campus landscaping for mitigation of climate change effects

An experiment was conducted within the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) campus with 5 selected arboriculture tree species, namely, Ficus religiosa, Ficus infectoria, Azadirachta indica, Alestonia scholaris and Morus alba to compare their modifying capacity of thermal environment below the canopy with open space during peak summer months (May- June) and winter months (December-January) of 2010-11. Tree species and open space were treated as treatments (6) and 4 replications were taken for each treatment. During summer afternoon of 2010, the open space recorded an average temperature of 41.0ºC. Temperature below the canopy was reduced by each species. Maximum reduction (7.31%) was observed below the canopy of Ficus infectoria (38.0 oC), followed by Morus alba (38.4 oC), minimum reduction to 38.7 oC was observed below the canopy of Alestonia scholaris. During winter afternoon of 2010-11, the open space recorded an average temperature of 24.0oC. Maximum reduction to 19.5 oC was observed below the canopy of Ficus infectoria, followed by Ficus religiosa (19.6 oC), Azadirachta indica (19.7 oC), Alestonia scholaris (20.1 oC) and Morus alba (20.8 oC). An average temperature of 7.7oC was observed in the winter morning throughout the season in the open space and an increase in below canopy temperature was observed under each tree species. However, Morus alba recorded the highest increase to 8.5oC, followed by Ficus religiosa, Azadirachta indica, Alestonia scholaris (8.3oC each). The lowest increase was observed under Ficus infectoria (7.9oC). The maximum increase in the morning temperature and minimum reduction in that at afternoon was desired in the winter at Delhi for comfort