IT Solution for Disease Management at PT Panasonic Manufacturing Indonesia

One of company's occupational health programs is disease management which is a part of preventive health care. In its realization, it was discovered that there some challenges in data collection, monitoring of catering and sport activity, employee health reports, and medical costs. The purpose of this study is to design an IT solution for the disease management program at PT. Panasonic Manufacturing Indonesia (PMI). The diseases in focus are diabetes, hypertension, and tuberculosis. Methodology starts with survey on PT. PMI requirements, research parameters, problem analysis, literature study, and system design. Solution is focused on designing a registry system that includes Alert Management System, Food Tracking, EHR, Sport Tracking, Guidelines, and Report System. The results of this study is a web-based information system that can assist health care workers in seeking data, monitoring food intake and sport activity, and reporting systems for upper-level management

Improved cosmological constraints on the curvature and equation of state of dark energy

We apply the Constitution compilation of 397 supernova Ia, the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements including the $A$ parameter, the distance ratio and the radial data, the five-year Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe and the Hubble parameter data to study the geometry of the universe and the property of dark energy by using the popular Chevallier-Polarski-Linder and Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan parameterizations. We compare the simple $\chi^2$ method of joined contour estimation and the Monte Carlo Markov chain method, and find that it is necessary to make the marginalized analysis on the error estimation. The probabilities of $\Omega_k$ and $w_a$ in the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder model are skew distributions, and the marginalized $1\sigma$ errors are $\Omega_m=0.279^{+0.015}_{-0.008}$, $\Omega_k=0.005^{+0.006}_{-0.011}$, $w_0=-1.05^{+0.23}_{-0.06}$, and $w_a=0.5^{+0.3}_{-1.5}$. For the Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan model, the marginalized $1\sigma$ errors are $\Omega_m=0.281^{+0.015}_{-0.01}$, $\Omega_k=0.000^{+0.007}_{-0.006}$, $w_0=-0.96^{+0.25}_{-0.18}$, and $w_a=-0.6^{+1.9}_{-1.6}$. The equation of state parameter $w(z)$ of dark energy is negative in the redshift range $0\le z\le 2$ at more than $3\sigma$ level. The flat $\Lambda$CDM model is consistent with the current observational data at the $1\sigma$ level.Comment: 10 figures, 12 pages, Classical and Quantum Gravity in press; v2 to match the pulished versio

Physical activity and health related quality of life

Copyright @ 2012 Anokye et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.BACKGROUND: Research on the relationship between Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and physical activity (PA), to date, have rarely investigated how this relationship differ across objective and subjective measures of PA. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between HRQoL and PA, and examine how this relationship differs across objective and subjective measures of PA, within the context of a large representative national survey from England. METHODS: Using a sample of 5,537 adults (40–60 years) from a representative national survey in England (Health Survey for England 2008), Tobit regressions with upper censoring was employed to model the association between HRQoL and objective, and subjective measures of PA controlling for potential confounders. We tested the robustness of this relationship across specific types of PA. HRQoL was assessed using the summary measure of health state utility value derived from the EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) whilst PA was assessed via subjective measure (questionnaire) and objective measure (accelerometer- actigraph model GT1M). The actigraph was worn (at the waist) for 7 days (during waking hours) by a randomly selected sub-sample of the HSE 2008 respondents (4,507 adults – 16 plus years), with a valid day constituting 10 hours. Analysis was conducted in 2010. RESULTS: Findings suggest that higher levels of PA are associated with better HRQoL (regression coefficient: 0.026 to 0.072). This relationship is consistent across different measures and types of PA although differences in the magnitude of HRQoL benefit associated with objective and subjective (regression coefficient: 0.047) measures of PA are noticeable, with the former measure being associated with a relatively better HRQoL (regression coefficient: 0.072). CONCLUSION: Higher levels of PA are associated with better HRQoL. Using an objective measure of PA compared with subjective shows a relatively better HRQoL.This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (project number 08/72/01)

Quantum associative memory with improved distributed queries

The paper proposes an improved quantum associative algorithm with distributed query based on model proposed by Ezhov et al. We introduce two modifications of the query that optimized data retrieval of correct multi-patterns simultaneously for any rate of the number of the recognition pattern on the total patterns. Simulation results are given.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Int J Theor Phy

Genome-wide analysis of ivermectin response by Onchocerca volvulus reveals that genetic drift and soft selective sweeps contribute to loss of drug sensitivity

Treatment of onchocerciasis using mass ivermectin administration has reduced morbidity and transmission throughout Africa and Central/South America. Mass drug administration is likely to exert selection pressure on parasites, and phenotypic and genetic changes in several Onchocerca volvulus populations from Cameroon and Ghana-exposed to more than a decade of regular ivermectin treatment-have raised concern that sub-optimal responses to ivermectin's anti-fecundity effect are becoming more frequent and may spread.Pooled next generation sequencing (Pool-seq) was used to characterise genetic diversity within and between 108 adult female worms differing in ivermectin treatment history and response. Genome-wide analyses revealed genetic variation that significantly differentiated good responder (GR) and sub-optimal responder (SOR) parasites. These variants were not randomly distributed but clustered in ~31 quantitative trait loci (QTLs), with little overlap in putative QTL position and gene content between the two countries. Published candidate ivermectin SOR genes were largely absent in these regions; QTLs differentiating GR and SOR worms were enriched for genes in molecular pathways associated with neurotransmission, development, and stress responses. Finally, single worm genotyping demonstrated that geographic isolation and genetic change over time (in the presence of drug exposure) had a significantly greater role in shaping genetic diversity than the evolution of SOR.This study is one of the first genome-wide association analyses in a parasitic nematode, and provides insight into the genomics of ivermectin response and population structure of O. volvulus. We argue that ivermectin response is a polygenically-determined quantitative trait (QT) whereby identical or related molecular pathways but not necessarily individual genes are likely to determine the extent of ivermectin response in different parasite populations. Furthermore, we propose that genetic drift rather than genetic selection of SOR is the underlying driver of population differentiation, which has significant implications for the emergence and potential spread of SOR within and between these parasite populations

Association of serum and fecal microRNA profiles in cats with gastrointestinal cancer and chronic inflammatory enteropathy

Background: Differentiation of gastrointestinal cancer (GIC) from chronic inflammatory enteropathies (CIE) in cats can be challenging and often requires extensive diagnostic testing. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have promise as non‐invasive biomarkers in serum and feces for diagnosis of GIC. Hypothesis/Objectives: Cats with GIC will have serum and fecal miRNA profiles that differ significantly from healthy cats and cats with CIE. Identify serum and fecal miRNAs with diagnostic potential for differentiation between cats with GIC and CIE as compared to healthy cats. Animals: Ten healthy cats, 9 cats with CIE, and 10 cats with GIC; all client‐owned. Methods: Cats were recruited for an international multicenter observational prospective case‐control study. Serum and feces were screened using small RNA sequencing for miRNAs that differed in abundance between cats with GIC and CIE, and healthy cats. Diagnostic biomarker potential of relevant miRNAs from small RNA sequencing and the literature was confirmed using reverse transcription quantitative real‐time PCR (RT‐qPCR). Results: Serum miR‐223‐3p was found to distinguish between cats with GIC and CIE with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.760‐1.0), sensitivity of 90% (95% CI, 59.6‐99.5%), and specificity of 77.8% (95% CI, 45.3‐96.1%). Serum miR‐223‐3p likewise showed promise in differentiating a subgroup of cats with small cell lymphoma (SCL) from those with CIE. No fecal miRNAs could distinguish between cats with GIC and CIE. Conclusion and Clinical Importance: Serum miR‐223‐3p potentially may serve as a noninvasive diagnostic biomarker of GIC in cats, in addition to providing a much needed tool for the differentiation of CIE and SCL

Occurrence of exercise-induced and spontaneous wide complex tachycardia during therapy with flecainide for complex ventricular arrhythmias: A probable proarrhythmic effect

Flecainide acetate, a new antiarrhythmic agent, possesses favorable pharmacokinetic and hemodynamic properties and demonstrates highly favorable antiarrhythmic activity in patients with ventricular arrhythmias. However, the proarrhythmic potential of flecainide deserves further evaluation. In 7 (13%) of 55 consecutive patients treated with oral flecainide, 200 to 600 mg/day, for complex ventricular arrhythmias (including sustained ventricular tachycardia in 14), we observed the appearance of new or more sustained exercise-induced (five patients) or spontaneous (two patients) wide complex tachycardia. The mechanism of wide complex tachycardia appeared to be ventricular tachycardia in all seven. In our series, episodes were self-remitting or successfully treated. In four patients, wide complex tachycardia did not recur during exercise testing during alternative antiarrhythmic therapy (three patients) or no antiarrhythmic therapy (one patient). These observations raise the possibility of flecainide-related proarrhythmia, manifested as an increased propensity to exercise (activity)-induced wide complex tachycardia, which was not reliably predicted by results of Holter recordings or programmed electrical stimulation. Patients with complex ventricular arrhythmias beginning long-term treatment with oral flecainide should be considered for treadmill exercise testing together with ambulatory monitoring as part of the initial assessment of drug efficacy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26728/1/0000278.pd

The 2009 multiwavelength campaign on Mrk 421: Variability and correlation studies

We performed a 4.5-month multi-instrument campaign (from radio to VHE gamma rays) on Mrk421 between January 2009 and June 2009, which included VLBA, F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, Swift, RXTE, Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, and Whipple, among other instruments and collaborations. Mrk421 was found in its typical (non-flaring) activity state, with a VHE flux of about half that of the Crab Nebula, yet the light curves show significant variability at all wavelengths, the highest variability being in the X-rays. We determined the power spectral densities (PSD) at most wavelengths and found that all PSDs can be described by power-laws without a break, and with indices consistent with pink/red-noise behavior. We observed a harder-when-brighter behavior in the X-ray spectra and measured a positive correlation between VHE and X-ray fluxes with zero time lag. Such characteristics have been reported many times during flaring activity, but here they are reported for the first time in the non-flaring state. We also observed an overall anti-correlation between optical/UV and X-rays extending over the duration of the campaign. The harder-when-brighter behavior in the X-ray spectra and the measured positive X-ray/VHE correlation during the 2009 multi-wavelength campaign suggests that the physical processes dominating the emission during non-flaring states have similarities with those occurring during flaring activity. In particular, this observation supports leptonic scenarios as being responsible for the emission of Mrk421 during non-flaring activity. Such a temporally extended X-ray/VHE correlation is not driven by any single flaring event, and hence is difficult to explain within the standard hadronic scenarios. The highest variability is observed in the X-ray band, which, within the one-zone synchrotron self-Compton scenario, indicates that the electron energy distribution is most variable at the highest energies.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 18 pages, 14 figures (v2 has a small modification in the acknowledgments, and also corrects a typo in the field "author" in the metadata

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures