3,542 research outputs found

    Multiple Intussusceptions Associated with Polycythemia in an Anabolic Steroid Abuser , A Case Report and Literature Review

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    Intussusceptions are generally associated with mechanical lead points or localized inflammation that function as foci for intestinal telescoping. We present the case of a patient whose abuse of anabolic steroids resulted in the development of multiple simultaneous intussusceptions. Our patient had no additional identifiable risk factors for intussusception. Consistent with previous reports, corticosteroid induced polycythemia and its consequent hyperviscosity led to intravascular sludging and mesenteric ischemia with associated bowel wall thickening. The localized intestinal induration then served as mechanical foci for intussusception. Due to the illicit nature of anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) abuse, the physiologic effects of supraphysiologic doses are sparsely reported and poorly understood. The scope of AAS abuse and its consequences are likely under-reported and under-recognized within the medical community. Our case presented a unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenge with which we aim to increasing awareness and clinical suspicion for AAS among healthcare personnel

    Combining Ability of Pod Yield and Related Traits of Groundnut ( Arachis hypogaea

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    A study was performed using 6×6 F1 diallel population without reciprocals to assess the mode of inheritance of pod yield and related traits in groundnut with imposed salinity stress. Heterosis was found for pod number and yield. Data on general and specific combining ability (gca and sca) indicated additive and nonadditive gene actions. The gca: sca ratios were much less than unity suggesting predominant role of nonadditive gene effects. Cultivars “Binachinabadam-2” and “Dacca-1” and mutant M6/25/64-82 had the highest, second highest, and third highest pod number, as well as gca values, respectively. These two cultivars and another mutant M6/15/70-19 also had the highest, second highest, and third highest pod yield, as well as gca values, respectively. Therefore, “Dacca-1”, “Binachinabadam-2”, M6/25/64-82, and M6/15/70-19 could be used as source of salinity tolerance. Cross combinations showing high sca effects arising from parents with high and low gca values for any trait indicate the influence of nonadditive genes on their expression. Parents of these crosses can be used for biparental mating or reciprocal recurrent selection for developing high yielding varieties. Crosses with high sca effects having both parents with good gca effects could be exploited by pedigree breeding to get transgressive segregants

    Production and characterization of cellulases by Bacillus pumilus EB3

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    Cellulase production from bacteria can be an advantage as the enzyme production rate is normally higher due to bacterial high growth rate. Screening of bacteria, optimisation of fermentation conditions and selection of substrates are important for the successful production of cellulase. This study is conducted to produce cellulase from our local isolate Bacillus pumilus EB3, using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as substrate. Following that, cellulase produced from Bacillus pumilus EB3 was purified using ion exchange chromatography with anion exchanger (HiTrap QXL) for characterisation of the cellulase. Cellulase was successfully produced in 2L stirred tank reactor (STR) with the productivity of 0.53, 3.08 and 1.78 U/L.h and the maximum enzyme activity of 0.011, 0.079 and 0.038 U/mL for FPase, CMCase and β-glucosidase respectively. Purification of cellulase from Bacillus pumilus EB3 using ion exchange chromatography showed that 98.7% of total CMCase was recovered. Protein separation was however based on subtractive separation where the contaminants were bound to the column instead of CMCase. Characterisation of the enzyme found that CMCase from Bacillus pumilus EB3 has a molecular weight range from 30-65 kDa and was optimally active at pH 6.0 and temperature 60℃. The CMCase also retained its activity over a wide pH range (pH 5.0–9.0) and temperature range (30-70℃).Seminar on Engineering and Technology (SET2006), September 4-5, 2006, Putrajaya, Malaysi

    An Explainable AI-Based Computer Aided Detection System for Diabetic Retinopathy Using Retinal Fundus Images

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    Diabetic patients have a high risk of developing diabetic retinopathy (DR), which is one of the major causes of blindness. With early detection and the right treatment patients may be spared from losing their vision. We propose a computer-aided detection system, which uses retinal fundus images as input and it detects all types of lesions that define diabetic retinopathy. The aim of our system is to assist eye specialists by automatically detecting the healthy retinas and referring the images of the unhealthy ones. For the latter cases, the system offers an interactive tool where the doctor can examine the local lesions that our system marks as suspicious. The final decision remains in the hands of the ophthalmologists. Our approach consists of a multi-class detector, that is able to locate and recognize all candidate DR-defining lesions. If the system detects at least one lesion, then the image is marked as unhealthy. The lesion detector is built on the faster R-CNN ResNet 101 architecture, which we train by transfer learning. We evaluate our approach on three benchmark data sets, namely Messidor-2, IDRiD, and E-Ophtha by measuring the sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) based on the binary classification of healthy and unhealthy images. The results that we obtain for Messidor-2 and IDRiD are (SE: 0.965, SP: 0.843), and (SE: 0.83, SP: 0.94), respectively. For the E-Ophtha data set we follow the literature and perform two experiments, one where we detect only lesions of the type micro aneurysms (SE: 0.939, SP: 0.82) and the other when we detect only exudates (SE: 0.851, SP: 0.971). Besides the high effectiveness that we achieve, the other important contribution of our work is the interactive tool, which we offer to the medical experts, highlighting all suspicious lesions detected by the proposed system.<br/

    Coordination of Mobile Mules via Facility Location Strategies

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    In this paper, we study the problem of wireless sensor network (WSN) maintenance using mobile entities called mules. The mules are deployed in the area of the WSN in such a way that would minimize the time it takes them to reach a failed sensor and fix it. The mules must constantly optimize their collective deployment to account for occupied mules. The objective is to define the optimal deployment and task allocation strategy for the mules, so that the sensors' downtime and the mules' traveling distance are minimized. Our solutions are inspired by research in the field of computational geometry and the design of our algorithms is based on state of the art approximation algorithms for the classical problem of facility location. Our empirical results demonstrate how cooperation enhances the team's performance, and indicate that a combination of k-Median based deployment with closest-available task allocation provides the best results in terms of minimizing the sensors' downtime but is inefficient in terms of the mules' travel distance. A k-Centroid based deployment produces good results in both criteria.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, conferenc

    Identification of bovine growth hormone (BGH) gene polymorphism using PCR-RFLP method in buffalo bulls

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    Growth Hormone (GH) is a single polypeptide chain synthesised and secreted from anterior pituitary gland by somatroph cells. The product of GH gene hastens metabolism and promotes the growth of many organs and tissues especially bone, muscle and visceral organs. It also regulates growth, mammary gland development and lactation. Polymorphism in this gene is associated with increase in growth and development of many tissues in the body. Aim: The objective of this study was to investigate the polymorphism of bovine growth hormone (bGH) gene in buffalo bulls (Bubalus bubalis) using the PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism) technique. Design: Genomic DNA was extracted from a total of 10 bulls, consisting of Murrah – Swamp crossbred and pure Swamp buffalo bulls. A The 446 segment of the bGH gene was amplified. The DNA amplicons were detected in 2% agarose gel following 45 minutes of electrophoresis. They were thereafter digesting with AluI endonuclease restriction enzyme, and the digested DNA were detected in 2% agarose gel following electrophoresis for about 45minutes in all samples Results: Similar bands of approximately 300 and 146-bp each, with no variation, were detected in 2% agarose gel following electrophoresis in all the animals tested. Conclusion: Based on the Alu1 digestion result, all samples produced the same allele of the gene, with no polymorphism detected

    Kemiskinan digital, isu dan cabaran, satu penelitian awal

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    Penutupan premis perniagaan semasa perintah kawalan pergerakan (PKP) pastinya memberi kesan kepada pendapatan peniaga kecil dan sederhana (PKS). Sehubungan itu, pihak kerajaan dilihat telah menjadikan perniagaan atas talian sebagai suatu medium alternatif agar golongan ini mampu menjana pendapatan walaupun aktiviti perniagaan terpaksa ditutup untuk mengawal penularan covid-19. Kertas kerja ini merupakan hasil analisis kajian lepas yang menjelaskan mengenai konsep kemiskinan digital, meneliti isu-isu dan cabaran yang dihadapi peniaga serta hubungan pekerjaan dalam industri tidak formal. Dalam berhadapan masalah kemiskinan digital antara isu yang timbul ialah isu penjanaan pendapatan dan mendigitalkan kan perniagaan dalam kalangan peniaga kecil, ini kerana untuk beradaptasi dengan perniagaan atas talian bukan hal yang mudah kerana model perniagaan digital berbeza dengan model perniagaan tradisional. Kekurangan ilmu pengetahuan dan kemahiran teknologi serta keterbatasan akses kemudahan infrastruktur pasti menjadi faktor utama dalam masalah ini. Bukan itu sahaja, keadaan golongan ini yang merupakan Self-employed workers turut menyebabkan mereka tidak mendapat bantuan daripada pihak kerajaan. Justeru itu, penglibatan semua pihak amatlah penting untuk menangani permasalahan ini, agar tidak ada golongan peniaga kecil yang tercicir dan sekali gus mampu bergerak seiring dengan penggunaan teknologi semasa pandemik covid-19
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