Reporting and methodologic quality of Cochrane Neonatal review group systematic reviews

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Cochrane Neonatal Review Group (CNRG) has achieved a lot with limited resources in producing high quality systematic reviews to assist clinicians in evidence-based decision-making. A formal assessment of published CNRG systematic reviews has not been undertaken; we sought to provide a comprehensive assessment of the quality of systematic reviews (both methodologic and reporting quality) published in CNRG.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We selected a random sample of published CNRG systematic reviews. Items of the QUOROM statement were utilized to assess quality of reporting, while items and total scores of the Oxman-Guyatt Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire (OQAQ) were used to assess methodologic quality. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed quality. A Student t-test was used to compare quality scores pre- and post-publication of the QUOROM statement.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sixty-one systematic reviews were assessed. Overall, the included reviews had good quality with minor flaws based on OQAQ total scores (mean, 4.5 [0.9]; 95% CI, 4.27–4.77). However, room for improvement was noted in some areas, such as the title, abstract reporting, a <it>priori </it>plan for heterogeneity assessment and how to handle heterogeneity in case it exists, and assessment of publication bias. In addition, reporting of agreement among reviewers, documentation of trials flow, and discussion of possible biases were addressed in the review process. Reviews published post the QUOROM statement had a significantly higher quality scores.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The systematic reviews published in the CNRG are generally of good quality with minor flaws. However, efforts should be made to improve the quality of reports. Readers must continue to assess the quality of published reports on an individual basis prior to implementing the recommendations.</p

EVALUATION OF APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL PROSTATE SYMPTOMS SCORE IN SUDANESE PATIENTS WITH BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA

Objectives: The purpose of the present study is to assess the reliability and validity of IPSS in pre- and treatment of Sudanese patients with BPH. Material and methods: In a descriptive prospective study, 350 Sudanese patients with LUTS attended the Urology department of Gezira Hospital for Renal Diseases and Surgery from September 2003 to April 2006. They were interviewed by urologists and answered the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire. Clinical work up was done for all only patients with benign hyperplasia were included in the analysis .Europeans guideline was adopted in the management and the out come was also subjected to IPSS evaluation. Results: The most common voiding symptoms was a weak stream (93% of subjects), followed by intermittency (57%) and hesitancy (54%). The most prevalence of storage symptoms was nocturia (87% of subjects), followed by frequency (73%) and urgency (64%). 64% of the study subjects&nbsp;&nbsp; presented with severe IPSS, 33% with moderate IPSS, while only 3% of the patients presented with mild IPSS. Digital rectal examination (DRE) was done to all study subjects. There was no significant correlation between DRE and IPSS reported. The postoperative IPSS post treatment follow up was mild in 87%, moderate in 4% and sever in 9% of the patients. &nbsp; Conclusion: Our study indicates that IPSS is informative and reproducible in assessment of patients with BPH. &nbsp

Hybrid branch prediction for pipelined MIPS processor

In the modern microprocessors that designed with pipeline stages, the performance of these types of processors will be affected when executing branch instructions, because in this case there will be stalls in the pipeline. In turn this causes in reducing the Cycle Per Instruction (CPI) of the processor. In the case of executing a branch instruction, the processor needs an extra clocks to know if that branch will happen (Taken) or not (Not Taken) and also it requires calculating the new address in the case of the branch is Taken. The prediction that the branch is T / NT is an important stage in enhancing the processor performance. In this research more than one method of branch prediction (hybrid) is used and the designed circuit will choose different types of prediction algoritms depending on the type of the branch. Some of these methods were used are static while the other are dynamic. All circuits were built practically and examined by applying different programs on the designed predictor algorithm to compute the performance of the processor

A new truncation algorithm of low hardware cost multiplier

Multiplier is one of the most inevitable arithmetic circuit in digital signal design. Multipliers dissipate high power and occupy significant amount of the die area. In this paper, a low-error architecture design of the pre-truncated parallel multiplier is presented. The coefficients word length has been truncated to reduce the multiplier size. This truncation scaled down the gate count and shortened the critical paths of partial product array. The statistical errors of the designed multiplier are calculated for different pre-truncate values and compared. The multiplier is implemented using Stratix III, FPGA device. The post fitting report is presented in this paper, which shows a saving of 36.9 % in resources usage, and a reduction of 17 % in propagation time delay

Urethral Stricture; Etiology, Presentation, Complications, and Outcome of Management at Gezira State, Central Sudan

Objectives: The objective is to evaluate urethral strictures in term of etiological factors, presentations and management at GHRDS, Gezira State, Central Sudan. Patients and Methods: One hundred sixty patients, who were diagnosed as urethral stricture, were enrolled in this study. All patients were dealt with through a scientific stratum of a thorough work up and managed according to the EAU guidelines. The bio-data, etiological factors of strictures, presenting symptoms and signs, the pathological types and modalities of treatment were recorded and analyzed. Results: The total number of patients was 160, only two females and the rest were males. The mean age was 46.2 ±2 years. The etiological factors were: post-surgical in 67 patients (41.9%), gonococcal urethritis in 48 patients (30%) followed by post traumatic stricture in 28 patients (17.5%). Concerning the sites 41 (25.6%) patients had bulbar urethral stricture and 24 (15%) with membranous urethra strictures. One hundred forty two (88.8%) patients were treated with visual internal urethrotomy (VIU) and the outcome of treatment was comparable to the literature Conclusion: The commonest etiological factors for urethral strictures in GHRDS were post-surgery followed by gonococcal urethritis. The outcome of management was comparable

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF URINARY STONES IN PATIENTS REFERRED TO GEZIRA HOSPITAL FOR RENAL DISEASES AND SURGERY IN GEZIRA STATE CENTRAL SUDAN

Objective: The purpose of this study was to perform the chemical analysis of stones to know the pattern of biochemical composition of stones in Sudanese subjects. Methods: 169 renal stones were analyzed during the period from February to December 2008. 96 patients were referred to Gezira Hospital for Renal diseases and Surgery (GHRDS), Gezira state, central Sudan. The stones were analyzed by semi quantitative method in the Gezira central laboratory. Kits were used for chemical analysis of stones. Calcium, phosphate, oxalate, uric acid, carbonate and cystine were determined. Results: Male to female ratio was 2:1. Calcium, oxalate and uric acid were the most common forms of stones (90.5%), followed by phosphate (4.7%), carbonate (3.0%) and cystine which accounted for 1.8% of the study subjects. Conclusion: The relative frequency of calcium oxalate stones in our study about 65.1%,outnumbers other types which is compatible with the international literature. While there is relative high percentage of uric acid stones which can be explained by the high animal protein consumption in Sudan together with the hot weather which can be a cause of a highly concentrated urine . Other types phosphates (4.7%), carbonate (3.0%), and cystine which account only ( 1.8%)

A Shortest Data Window Algorithm for Detecting the Power Factor in presence of non-sinusoidal load current

During recent years, nonlinear power electronic equipments introduce harmonic pollution on electric power systems. It makes the traditional power factor meter can not act accurately when it monitors unbalanced and harmonic loads. In this paper, a new algorithm for detecting the power factor in presence of non-sinusoidal load current is proposed. The proposed algorithm detects the true power factor exactly. By uses only two successive sampled data points of the voltage and the current for each displacement power factor value calculation and two sampled data points for each distortion power factor value calculation, the total/true power factor becomes easy to measure using these values directly. The proposed detector implemented using microcontroller as a main part and has been tested for single phase power system. The test results show that it can measure the true power factor of the loads quickly and accurately

Design LC oscillator for MF, HF& VHF using both ideal and practical operation amplifier

In general, the oscillator is a device that used in most circuits and system of electronics, electrical, and telecommunications. There are several kinds of oscillator contingent on frequency band use in a submission such as microwave, audio, and radio frequency. LC oscillator is one of the greatest mutual categories of oscillators, the applications of this oscillator was seemed to be increasing in modern devices, for actual high and very high frequencies to meet the speedy growth of progressive knowledge. That can be secondhand for radio frequency (RF), its productivity signal is frequently applied at the basis of radio communication classification in furthermost applications. In this paper, a designed Colpitts oscillator is covered from voltage amplifier with LC container. This strategy is done by two approaches. Primarily, is approved out exploitation hypothetical scheming. The subordinate is supported out exploitation imitation (Multisim 13). There are two proposal types of circuits the first for generate signal frequencies 0.5MHz,1MHZ,10MHz,20MHz,50MHz &100MHz, the second for generate signal frequencies 4.963MHZ, 5.031MHZ, and 5.756MHz respectively. The consequence is realized to be very hopeful