MEMETIC ALGORITHM WITH MULTI-PARENT CROSSOVER (MA-MPC) FOR MULTI-OBJECTIVE NETWORK DESIGN

In many Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), a crossover with two parents is commonly used to produce offsprings. Interestingly, we need not restrict ourselves to two-parent crossover since EA allows us to emulate natural evolution in a more flexible fashion. There are experimental results in the literature which show that multi-parent crossover operators can achieve better performance than traditional two-parent versions. However, most of these experimental results are based on common test functions. Experimental studies involving real-life, NP-hard problems such as network design problem are very rare. This paper presents Memetic Algorithm with Multi-Parent Crossover (MA-MPC) with a view to providing a case study of multi-parent crossover within the framework of MA for network topology design problem. Results show that MA-MPC does not always outperform MA. It depends on the size of the problem and the number parents (be it 3, 5, 7, or any other

THRESHOLD-BASED BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION SCHEME FOR MULTISERVICE WIRELESS NETWORKS

Priority Queuing with Buffer Management (PQBM) has been recently proposed in the literature. The protocol is acclaimed to be a very attractive candidate in current (2.5G and 3G) and next (4G) multiservice wireless networks. However, it suffers bandwidth monopolization by higher priority data packets. This paper proposes a new scheme namely Improved Priority Queuing with Buffer Management (IPQBM) with a view to redistributing service provision to the data classes optimally. In particular, the scheduling discipline of PQBM is modified so as to correct the monopoly problem. IPQBM is compared with PQBM vis-à-vis throughput and mean delay of data packets. Numerical results reveal that IPQBM offers improved throughput for lower priority data packets by ensuring that higher priority data class does not have a monopoly of bandwidth resources

Willingness of Herbal Medicine Practitioners and Herbs Vendors to Contribute Financially to Conservation of Medicinal Plants in Ibadan, Nigeria

Erratum: The earlier version of this paper had some errors. It included references of later than 2014, the year of its publication. These references have been removed in the whole document and replaced with others of 2014 or earlier. Further, in paragraph 1 of the Discussion, after the sentence starting with Male…, the following statement “In contrast, studies in China showed that 59.8%of acupuncturists were females (Robinson et al., 2012)” has been inserted to replace the previous one. In paragraph 6 of Discussion, the words “capita income of $2,748 in 2010. Currently, the poverty level in Nigeria is 83.9% (Akinboade, 2010).” have been added to replace previous text. In paragraph 7 of the Discussion, the words “plants, provide employment” have been added after the word “medicinal” to replace previous text. This is therefore the correct version.The study evaluated the willingness of Herbal Medicine Practitioners (HMPs) and Herb Vendors (HVs) in Ibadan, Nigeria to contribute financially to medicinal plants conservation projects. Data was collected using structured questionnaires administered on 124 HMPs and 83 HVs randomly selected from fourteen herbal associations and marketers respectively. Results showed that 79.03%of all HMPs were males and 20.97% females while 83.13% of HVs were females and 16.87% males. All the HMPs and 97.59% of HVs were willing to contribute financially and provide useful information to conservation projects. Majority (54.84%) of the interviewed HMPs were willing to contribute between N500 - N1500 annually while most of the HVs (51.8%) were willing to contribute between N201 - N500 annually. Lack of financial power and land were identified as major constraints to holding private gardens. A total of 38 commonly used medicinal plant species was identified in the existing small scale private gardens of HMPs. There is need to organise the HMPs and HVs into formidable cooperative societies for easy access to fund and institute awareness campaign on the need for conservation of important local medicinal plants if the health for all dream is to be achieved

ON EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF CHECKLIST-BASED READING AND ADHOC READING FOR CODE INSPECTION

Software inspection is a necessary tool for software quality assurance. To this end a number of inspection techniques have been proposed in the literature with the ad hoc and Checklist-Based Reading (CBR) being the most widely used. This paper investigates the performance of ad hoc and CBR techniques in a traditional paper-based environment. Seventeen undergraduate students of computer science most of whom are in their final year were used as subjects in the controlled experiment. Results of the experiment indicate that CBR is significantly superior to ad hoc reading in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, effort, and number of false positives. On the average, 4 faults were detected in 69 minutes using ad hoc reading while 11 faults were detected in 42.5 minutes using Checklist-based reading. Also the average number of false positive is about 3.13 in checklist-based approach as against about 6.44 in ad hoc approach.&nbsp

Diagmal: A Malaria Coactive Neuro-Fuzzy Expert System

In the process of clarifying whether a patient or patients is suffering from a disease or not, diagnosis plays a significant role. The procedure is quite slow and cumbersome, and some patients may not be able to pursue the final test results and diagnosis. The method in this paper comprises many fact-finding and data-mining methods. Artificial Intelligence techniques such as Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic were fussed together in emerging the Coactive Neuro-Fuzzy Expert System diagnostic tool. The authors conducted oral interviews with the medical practitioners whose knowledge were captured into the knowledge based of the Fuzzy Expert System. Neuro-Fuzzy expert system diagnostic software was implemented with Microsoft Visual C# (C Sharp) programming language and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to manage the database. Questionnaires were administered to the patients and filled by the medical practitioners on behalf of the patients to capture the prevailing symptoms. The study demonstrated the practical application of neuro-fuzzy method in diagnosis of malaria. The hybrid learning rule has greatly enhanced the proposed system performance when compared with existing systems where only the back-propagation learning rule were used for implementation. It was concluded that the diagnostic expert system developed is as accurate as that of the medical experts in decision making. DIAGMAL is hereby recommended to medical practitioners as a diagnostic tool for malaria

An evaluation of biosecurity compliance levels and assessment of associated risk factors for highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 infection of live-bird-markets, Nigeria and Egypt

Live bird market (LBM) is integral component in the perpetuation of HPAI H5N1, while biosecurity is crucial and key to the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Biosecurity compliance level and risk factor assessments in 155LBMs was evaluated in Nigeria and Egypt through the administration of a 68-item biosecurity checklist, scored based on the modifications of previous qualitative data, and analysed for degree of compliance. LBMs were scored as "complied with a biosecurity item" if they had good-very good scores (4). All scores were coded and analysed using descriptive statistics and risk or protective factors were determined using univariable and multivariable logistic regression at p≤0.05. Trading of wild birds and other animal in the LBMs (Odd Ratio (OR)=34.90; p=0.01) and claims of hand disinfection after slaughter (OR=31.16; p=0.03) were significant risk factors while mandatory routine disinfection of markets (OR=0.13; p≤0.00), fencing and gates for live bird market (OR=0.02; p≤0.01) and hand washing after slaughter (OR=0.41; p≤0.05) were protective factors for and against the infection of Nigerian and Egyptian LBMs with the HPAI H5N1 virus. Almost all the LBMs complied poorly with most of the variables in the checklist (p≤0.05), but pathways to improved biosecurity in the LBMs existed. We concluded that the LBM operators play a critical role in the disruption of transmission of H5N1 virus infection through improved biosecurity and participatory epidemiology and multidisciplinary approach is needed.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/actatropica2017-12-31hb2017Veterinary Tropical Disease

Novel functional insights into ischemic stroke biology provided by the first genome-wide association study of stroke in indigenous Africans

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Background: African ancestry populations have the highest burden of stroke worldwide, yet the genetic basis of stroke in these populations is obscure. The Stroke Investigative Research and Educational Network (SIREN) is a multicenter study involving 16 sites in West Africa. We conducted the first-ever genome-wide association study (GWAS) of stroke in indigenous Africans. Methods: Cases were consecutively recruited consenting adults (aged > 18 years) with neuroimaging-confirmed ischemic stroke. Stroke-free controls were ascertained using a locally validated Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-Free Status. DNA genotyping with the H3Africa array was performed, and following initial quality control, GWAS datasets were imputed into the NIH Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) release2 from BioData Catalyst. Furthermore, we performed fine-mapping, trans-ethnic meta-analysis, and in silico functional characterization to identify likely causal variants with a functional interpretation. Results: We observed genome-wide significant (P-value < 5.0E−8) SNPs associations near AADACL2 and miRNA (MIR5186) genes in chromosome 3 after adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cardiac status in the base model as covariates. SNPs near the miRNA (MIR4458) gene in chromosome 5 were also associated with stroke (P-value < 1.0E−6). The putative genes near AADACL2, MIR5186, and MIR4458 genes were protective and novel. SNPs associations with stroke in chromosome 2 were more than 77 kb from the closest gene LINC01854 and SNPs in chromosome 7 were more than 116 kb to the closest gene LINC01446 (P-value < 1.0E−6). In addition, we observed SNPs in genes STXBP5-AS1 (chromosome 6), GALTN9 (chromosome 12), FANCA (chromosome 16), and DLGAP1 (chromosome 18) (P-value < 1.0E−6). Both genomic regions near genes AADACL2 and MIR4458 remained significant following fine mapping. Conclusions: Our findings identify potential roles of regulatory miRNA, intergenic non-coding DNA, and intronic non-coding RNA in the biology of ischemic stroke. These findings reveal new molecular targets that promise to help close the current gaps in accurate African ancestry-based genetic stroke’s risk prediction and development of new targeted interventions to prevent or treat stroke

In vitro Anticancer Screening of 24 Locally Used Nigerian Medicinal Plants

Background: Plants that are used as traditional medicine represent a relevant pool for selecting plant candidates that may have anticancer properties. In this study, the ethnomedicinal approach was used to select several medicinal plants native to Nigeria, on the basis of their local or traditional uses. The collected plants were then evaluated for cytoxicity. Methods: The antitumor activity of methanolic extracts obtained from 24 of the selected plants, were evaluated in vitro on five human cancer cell lines. Results: Results obtained from the plants screened indicate that 18 plant extracts of folk medicine exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against human carcinoma cell lines. Erythrophleum suaveolens (Guill. & Perr.) Brenan was found to demonstrate potent anti-cancer activity in this study exhibiting IC50 = 0.2-1.3 $\mu$g/ml. Conclusions: Based on the significantly potent activity of some plants extracts reported here, further studies aimed at mechanism elucidation and bio-guided isolation of active anticancer compounds is currently underway.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Educational disparities in health behaviors among patients with diabetes: the Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD) Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our understanding of social disparities in diabetes-related health behaviors is incomplete. The purpose of this study was to determine if having less education is associated with poorer diabetes-related health behaviors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This observational study was based on a cohort of 8,763 survey respondents drawn from ~180,000 patients with diabetes receiving care from 68 provider groups in ten managed care health plans across the United States. Self-reported survey data included individual educational attainment ("education") and five diabetes self-care behaviors among individuals for whom the behavior would clearly be indicated: foot exams (among those with symptoms of peripheral neuropathy or a history of foot ulcers); self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG; among insulin users only); smoking; exercise; and certain diabetes-related health seeking behaviors (use of diabetes health education, website, or support group in last 12 months). Predicted probabilities were modeled at each level of self-reported educational attainment using hierarchical logistic regression models with random effects for clustering within health plans.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients with less education had significantly lower predicted probabilities of being a non-smoker and engaging in regular exercise and health-seeking behaviors, while SMBG and foot self-examination did not vary by education. Extensive adjustment for patient factors revealed no discernable confounding effect on the estimates or their significance, and most education-behavior relationships were similar across sex, race and other patient characteristics. The relationship between education and smoking varied significantly across age, with a strong inverse relationship in those aged 25–44, modest for those ages 45–64, but non-evident for those over 65. Intensity of disease management by the health plan and provider communication did not alter the examined education-behavior relationships. Other measures of socioeconomic position yielded similar findings.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The relationship between educational attainment and health behaviors was modest in strength for most behaviors. Over the life course, the cumulative effect of reduced practice of multiple self-care behaviors among less educated patients may play an important part in shaping the social health gradient.</p