Implementation of XpertMalTyph: An Expert System for Medical Diagnosis of the Complications of Malaria and Typhoid

The dearth of medical experts in the developing world has subjected a large percentage of its populace to preventable ailments and deaths. Also, because of the predominant rural communities, the few medical experts that are available always opt for practice in the few urban cities. This consequently puts the rural communities at a disadvantage with respect to access to quality health care services. In this work, we designed and implemented XpertMalTyph; a novel medical diagnostic expert system for the various kinds of malaria and typhoid complications. A medical diagnostic expert system uses computer(s) to simulate medical doctor skills in diagnosis of ailments and prescription of treatments, hence can be used to provide the same service in the absence of the experts. XpertMalTyph is based on JESS (Java Expert System Shell) programming because of its robust inference engine and rules for implementing expert system

Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Community-associated Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Healthy Women in Zaria, Nigeria

Purpose: An investigation of the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from healthy women to ten commonly used antimicrobial drugs was carried out as a basis for a guide for empirical antimicrobial treatment using urine samples. Method: The samples collected from healthy women volunteers in Zaria were cultured and screened for S. aureus using standard microbiological procedures. The antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates was investigated using disc diffusion technique. Result: A total of 54(36%) S. aureus isolates were isolated from 150 urine samples collected. Of the 54 isolates, 16 (29.6%), 15 (27.8%) and 23 (42.6%) were from married but not pregnant, pregnant and single women respectively. The isolates were highly susceptible to ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, ofloxacin, sparfloxacin and pefloxacin in both groups (married and single). The differences observed in all the antimicrobial drugs tested for both groups were not statistically significant (p>0.05). A total of 34 (63%) of the isolates showed multi-drug resistance and only 6 (11%) were susceptible to all the antimicrobial drugs tested. Conclusion: This observation calls for measures to reduce the reservoir of antimicrobial resistant organisms in healthy populations. Keywords: Antimicrobial drugs, community-associated, susceptibility, Staphylococcus aureus, healthy women.Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 7 (1) 2008: pp. 929-93

Development of Web-based Interactive Map Using Object-Oriented Programming Concept

The program incorporates an interactive map which responds to origin and destination selection, by analyzing the relative positions of both locations and creating real-time routes on the road network to display to the user the required path from the origin to the destination and the approximate distance/time required. System design is based on the Model- View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, and the application has been developed using Adobe Flash CS3 (with ActionScrip

Implementation of Wi-Ap; An IEEE 802.11b/g Based Electrical Switch Module With Web Enabled Interface for Electrical Appliances Control

The aim of this research study is to design and implement a Wi-Fi-based control panel for remote control of lights and electrical appliances with a web functionality that allows for wide area control via the intranet or Internet. This eliminates the inconvenience of moving from one switch to another for analog operation of light fixtures and appliance in home, office and campus environment. The wireless technology we adopted is IEEE 802.11 (2008) b/g, also called Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) which operates in free band and is easily accessible. Wi-Ap (Wi-Fi Automated Appliance) control system contains a web portal which allows for management and control purposes via the intranet or Internet. We built a standalone Wi-Ap console that allows the wireless switching on and off of any appliance(s) that is(are) ) plugged into it. The prototype we built was tested within the Electrical and Information Engineering department, Covenant University, Nigeria intranet and the test achieved our aim of remote appliances control from a web portal vial the intranet

A Simplified Overview of Text-To-Speech Synthesis

Computer-based Text-To-Speech systems render text into an audible form, with the aim of sounding as natural as possible. This paper seeks to explain Text-To-Speech synthesis in a simplified manner. Emphasis is placed on the Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) components of Text-To-Speech Systems. Applications and limitations of speech synthesis are also explore

Impersonation-as-a-Service: Characterizing the Emerging Criminal Infrastructure for User Impersonation at Scale

In this paper we provide evidence of an emerging criminal infrastructure enabling impersonation attacks at scale. Impersonation-as-a-Service (ImpaaS) allows attackers to systematically collect and enforce user profiles (consisting of user credentials, cookies, device and behavioural fingerprints, and other metadata) to circumvent risk-based authentication system and effectively bypass multi-factor authentication mechanisms. We present the ImpaaS model and evaluate its implementation by analysing the operation of a large, invite-only, Russian ImpaaS platform providing user profiles for more than $260'000$ Internet users worldwide. Our findings suggest that the ImpaaS model is growing, and provides the mechanisms needed to systematically evade authentication controls across multiple platforms, while providing attackers with a reliable, up-to-date, and semi-automated environment enabling target selection and user impersonation against Internet users as scale.Comment: Presented at ACM CCS 2020. Appendix on "Deriving a Threat Model from Observation" available at https://michelecampobasso.github.io/publication/2020-11-10-impaa

The 21^st Century Cerebellum: An Evolution of Cognitive Functions, Connections, Disorders, and Pharmacotherapeutic Modulation

Our understanding of the cerebellum’s role in health and disease has evolved considerably in the past few decades; largely due to the availability of newer and better modalities for studying the relationships between the cerebellum and other segments of the brain, and how these impact behavioural responses like motor function, emotionality, memory and more recently, cognition. In this review, we discuss the evolution of our understanding of the structure and function of the cerebellum; where we were, and how we got here. We also examine the important roles of the cerebellum in neuro-cognitive processing, cognition and cognitive disorders; and ponder on how targeting cerebellar cognition may open a new chapter in the quest for the development and identification of newer cognition-modulating agents

Caffeine and sleep-deprivation mediated changes in open-field behaviours, stress response and antioxidant status in mice

Objectives: Effects of daily caffeine consumption on open-field behaviours, serum corticosterone and brain antioxidant levels were investigated after six hours of total sleep-deprivation in prepubertal mice. We tested the hypothesis that daily caffeine consumption may significantly alter behaviour, stress and antioxidative response of prepubertal mice to an acute episode of total sleep-deprivation. Methods: Prepubertal Swiss mice of both sexes were assigned to two main groups of 120 each (subdivided into 6 groups of 10 each, based on sex), and administered vehicle or graded oral doses of caffeine (10, 20, 40, 80 and 120 mg/kg/day) for 14 days. On day 14, a main group was subjected to 6 h of total sleep-deprivation by ‘gentle-handling’. Open-field behaviours were then assessed in both groups, after which animals were euthanized, and levels of corticosterone, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase assayed. Results: Horizontal locomotion, rearing and grooming increased significantly, compared to control, with sleep-deprived (SD) mice showing stronger caffeine-driven responses at higher doses; and SD female mice showing sustained response to caffeine, compared to respective males. Plasma corticosterone increased with increasing doses of caffeine in both non sleep-deprived (NSD) and SD mice; although SD mice had higher corticosterone levels. Sleep-deprivation and/or higher doses of caffeine were associated with derangements in brain antioxidant levels. Conclusion: Repeated caffeine consumption and/or acute sleep-deprivation led to significant changes in pattern of open-field behaviour and stress/antioxidant response in mice. Responses seen in the study are probably due to modulatory effects of caffeine on the total body response to stressful stimuli

Exogenous Testosterone, Aging, and Changes in Behavioral Response of Gonadally Intact Male Mice

This study tested the hypothesis that aging significantly affects the influence of exogenous testosterone on neurobehavior in gonadally intact male mice. Groups of prepubertal and aged male mice received daily vehicle or testosterone propionate (TP; 2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg intraperitoneal [i.p.]) for 21 days. Behaviors were assessed on days 1 and 21. Weight gain was significant in prepubertal mice. Locomotion and rearing increased in prepubertal mice after first dose and decreased after last dose of TP. Rearing was suppressed in aged mice throughout. Suppression of grooming occurred in both age groups at day 21. Significant increase in working memory in both age groups was seen in the radial-arm maze (at specific doses) and in prepubertal mice in the Y-maze. Elevated plus maze test showed mixed anxiolytic/anxiogenic effects. Aged mice had higher serum testosterone. In conclusion, age is an important determinant for the influence of exogenous testosterone on behavior in gonadally intact male mice

Onaolapo, “Prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from an orthopaedic hospital

Patients with surgical wounds have been reported to be at high risk of MRSA carriage and infection. The prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of this organism in the orthopaedic ward of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), ZariaNigeria, a 547-bed Nigerian hospital, were thus studied. A total of 185 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were confirmed from 217 samples taken from the orthopaedic wards of the hospital using standard isolation methods. Out of these, 44 (23.8%) were from the wounds of patients and 70 (37.8%) from the skin. The remaining 65 (35.1%) and 6 (3.2%) were from their beds and the atmospheric air, respectively. Out of these, 33 (75%), 36 (51.4%), and 48 (73.8%) from wounds, skin, and bed, respectively, were found to be methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using the disc-sensitive test methods. None was detected from the atmosphere. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern results showed the level of resistance to be ampicillin 100% in all the three sites, pefloxacin 90. 9%, 72.2%, 66.7%, ceftriaxone 69.7%, 72.2%, 70.8%, gentamicin 54.5%, 52.8%, 37.5%, and ciprofloxacin 51.5%, 47.2%, 35.4% at the wound, skin, and bed sites, respectively. Results confirm that MRSA continues to pose a threat to the hospitalized patients, especially those with bone and wound infections