Data mining techniques on satellite images for discovery of risk areas

The high rates of cholera epidemic mortality in less developed countries is a challenge for health fa- cilities to which it is necessary to equip itself with the epidemiological surveillance. To strengthen the capacity of epidemiological surveillance, this paper focuses on remote sensing satellite data processing using data mining methods to discover risk areas of the epidemic disease by connecting the environ- ment, climate and health. These satellite data are combined with field data collected during the same set of periods in order to explain and deduct the causes of the epidemic evolution from one period to another in relation to the environment. The existing technical (algorithms) for processing satellite im- ages are mature and efficient, so the challenge today is to provide the most suitable means allowing the best interpretation of obtained results. For that, we focus on supervised classification algorithm to process a set of satellite images from the same area but on different periods. A novel research method- ology (describing pre-treatment, data mining, and post-treatment) is proposed to ensure suitable means for transforming data, generating information and extracting knowledge. This methodology consists of six phases: (1.A) Acquisition of information from the field about epidemic, (1.B) Satellite data acquisition, (2) Selection and transformation of data (Data derived from images), (3) Remote sensing measurements, (4) Discretization of data, (5) Data treatment, and (6) Interpretation of results. The main contributions of the paper are: to establish the nature of links between the environment and the epidemic, and to highlight those risky environments when the public awareness of the problem and the prevention policies are absolutely necessary for mitigation of the propagation and emergence of the epidemic. This will allow national governments, local authorities and the public health officials to effective management according to risk areas. The case study concerns the knowledge discovery in databases related to risk areas of the cholera epidemic in Mopti region, Mali (West Africa). The results generate from data mining association rules indicate that the level of the Niger River in the wintering periods and some societal factors have an impact on the variation of cholera epidemic rate in Mopti town. More the river level is high, at 66% the rate of contamination is high

Efficacy of Artesunate + Sulfamethoxypyrazine/Pyrimethamine versus Praziquantel in the Treatment of Schistosoma haematobium in Children

BACKGROUND:This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of the antimalarial artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) artesunate +sulfamethoxypyrazine/pyrimethamine (As+SMP), administered in doses used for malaria, to treat Schistosoma haematobium in school aged children. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The study was conducted in Djalakorodji, a peri-urban area of Bamako, Mali, using a double blind setup in which As+SMP was compared with praziquantel (PZQ). Urine samples were examined for Schistosoma haematobium on days -1, 0, 28 and 29. Detection of haematuria, and haematological and biochemical exams were conducted on day 0 and day 28. Clinical exams were performed on days 0, 1, 2, and 28. A total of 800 children were included in the trial. The cure rate obtained without viability testing was 43.9% in the As+SMP group versus 53% in the PZQ group (Chi(2) = 6.44, p = 0.011). Egg reduction rates were 95.6% with PZQ in comparison with 92.8% with As+SMP, p = 0.096. The proportion of participants who experienced adverse events related to the medication was 0.5% (2/400) in As+SMP treated children compared to 2.3% (9/399) in the PZQ group (p = 0.033). Abdominal pain and vomiting were the most frequent adverse events in both treatment arms. All adverse events were categorized as mild. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:The study demonstrates that PZQ was more effective than As+SMP for treating Schistosoma haematobium. However, the safety and tolerability profile of As+SMP was similar to that seen with PZQ. Our findings suggest that further investigations seem justifiable to determine the dose/efficacy/safety pattern of As+SMP in the treatment of Schistosoma infections. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00510159

Integrating MDA and SOA for improving telemedicine services

Through telemedicine, the health sector has seized the opportunity offered by development of information and communications technology (ICT) such as the business or industrial sectors, but ICTs are constantly evolving. To benefit from technological progress it is necessary to adapt the computer applications to these technologies, however this operation is costly to health facilities especially in developing countries. In terms of scientific research, this observation explains the development of model-driven engineering of computer systems such as the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach. MDA is a computer design approach for the development of computer systems that considers separately the functional needs of technical needs of an application. MDA mainly uses the models and their transformations whose traces allow MDA to capitalize expertise in terms of technology and to ensure some rapid modernization of applications to new technologies which results in a significant productivity gain. Today there is a huge requirement worldwide in the interoperable services, in particular with regard to their valuable contribution to the collaboration ability of remote information technology systems. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an interesting architectural pattern in which software components contribute to the collaboration and sharing of services. In this way, the principles of SOA are intended to ensure interoperability between heterogeneous and distributed applications. Web services are at the heart of SOA, which splits functions into different services, accessible over a computer network that enables users to associate and reuse them in the exploitation of applications. Health applications have a strong need to communicate with the remote institutions in order to provide the most relevant services to patients and to collaborate with other medical partners to solve complex tasks. For this purpose, the proposed research work shows how the paradigms of SOA and MDA can be configured to implement medical software applications on an e-health platform. The case study concerns the Telemedicine in French-speaking Africa (RAFT) project in which the joint use of MDA and SOA facilitates knowledge combination and reuse in the management of applications supporting a medical collaborative work environment

Deep convolution neural network for image recognition

During an epidemic crisis, medical image analysis namely microscopic analyses are made to confirm or not the existence of the epidemic pathogen in suspected cases. Pathogen are all infectious agents such as a virus, bacterium, protozoa, prion etc. However, there is often a lack of specialists in the handling of microscopes, hence allowing the need to make the microscopic analysis abroad. This results in a considerable loss of time and in the meantime, the epidemic continues to spread. To save time in the analysis of samples, we propose to make the future microscopes more intelligent so that they will be able to indicate by themselves the existence or not of the pathogen of an epidemic in a sample. To have a smart microscope, we propose a methodology based on efficient Convolution Neural Network (CNN) architecture in order to classify epidemic pathogen with five deep learning phases: (1) Training dataset of provided images (2) CNN Training (3) Testing data preparation (4) CNN generated model on testing data and finally (5) Evaluation of images classified. The resulted classification process can be integrated in a mobile computing solution on future microscopes. CNN can improve the accuracy in pathogens diagnosis that are focused on hand-tuned feature extraction implying some human mistakes. For our study, we consider cholera and malaria epidemics for microscopic images classification with a relevant CNN, respectively Vibrio cholerae images and Plasmodium falciparum images. Image classification is the task of taking an input image and outputting a class or a probability of classes that best describes the image. Interesting results have been obtained from the CNN model generated achieving the classification accuracy of 94%, with 200 Vibrio cholera images and 200 Plasmodium falciparum images for training dataset and 80 images for testing data. Although this document addresses the classification of epidemic pathogen images using a CNN model, the underlying principles apply to the other fields of science and technology, because of its performance and its capability to handle more layers than the previous traditional neural networks

Epilepsie et permis de conduire au Mali : connaissances, attitudes et pratiques des moniteurs d’auto-école et des candidats au permis de conduire

Introduction: L’un des sujets les plus controversés dans le domaine de l’épilepsie est la problématique de la conduite chez l’épileptique.Objectif: Nous avons initié une étude, en collaboration avec l’Agence Nationale de la Sécurité Routière au Mali (ANASER), ayant pour but de faire l’état des lieux sur les connaissances, attitudes et pratiques des conducteurs, moniteurs et inspecteurs d’auto-écoles en matière d’épilepsie.Methode: Il s’agissait d’une étude longitudinale, prospective, descriptive et analytique qui s’est déroulée de juin 2009 à juin 2010. Elle a porté sur 31 auto-écoles du district de Bamako. 568 personnes ont été interrogées (488 candidats au permis de conduire, 70 moniteurs d’auto-école et 10 inspecteurs).Resultats: Près de 60 % des personnes interrogées accordaient une origine surnaturelle à l’épilepsie ; plus de 85 % indiquaient que l’épilepsie était incompatible avec la conduite automobile. Plus de la moitié ignorait l’existence d’une réglementation. Près de 70 % pensaient que l’épilepsie était pourvoyeuse d’accident de la voie publique.Conclusion: A l’instar de nos précédentes études communautaires au Mali, ce travail a permis de mettre l’accent, d’une part, sur l’importance des connaissances erronées sur l’épilepsie et, d’autre part, sur la nécessité d’actualiser la réglementation en matière de conduite de véhicules motorisés pour ces patients.Mots clés: Attitudes, Épilepsie, Mali, Permis de conduire, Conduite automobileEnglish Title: Epilepsy and driving licence in Mali : knowledge, attitudes and practices of driving schools monitors and the candidates for the licenceEnglish AbstractBackground: One of the most controversial topics in the field of epilepsy remains the issue of driving license for epileptic patients.Purpose: We initiated a study in collaboration with ANASER (National Agency for Road Safety in Mali) with the goal, on one hand, of assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of drivers and driving school authorities on epilepsy and, on the other hand, to analyze the current regulations on issuance of license to epileptic patients.Methods: Il s’agissait d’une étude longitudinale, prospective, descriptive et analytique qui s’est déroulée de juin 2009 à juin 2010. We interviewed 568 sujects, including 488 candidates for driver’s license, 70 driving school monitors and 10 inspectors.Results: About 60% gave a supernatural origin of the disease, and more than 85% believed that epilepsy was incompatible with driving. More than half were unaware of regulations. Approximately, 70% of respondents believed that epilepsy was a contributory factor to road accident.Conclusion: As in our previous community studies in Mali, this study emphasizes the importance of misconceptions about epilepsy, and has shown the need to update the regulations regarding the driving of motorized vehicles for these patients.Keywords: Epilepsy, Attitudes, Driving , Driving License, Mal

Software services for supporting remote crisis management

Crisis management specifies a series of functions or processes for the identification, analysis and forecasting of crisis issues, and the statement of specific ways that would enable an organization to prevent or cope with a crisis. There are some existing techniques for crisis management. However, to our knowledge none of them is focused on the integration of telemedicine acts especially during transportation phase and also between health structures for saving more lives. Therefore, we propose a novel methodological framework for remote crisis management with three main phases: (1) Crisis definition (2) Crisis Analysis and (3) Crisis Management. The Crisis Management phase is based on the organized collaboration of various acts of telemedicine: Teleconsultation, Teleexpertise, Telemonitoring, Teleassistance, and Medical regulation. Each act of tele- medicine provides services to others and can be represented in Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS design principle considers a software application as a service from which we propose some collaborative services to solve complex crisis management problems. The case studied and modeled concerns the simulation exercise on the Tsunami crisis management in Cannes (France), especially during the transportation phase of patients to various health structures. The proposed methodology adds an additional layer in terms of remote collaboration and information management to improve the management of emergencies and safety, with a view for contributing to protect and save lives when minimizing damages. The expected benefits (main findings) for using the considered approach are not only to provide crisis managers with a relevant computerized decision support system, but also to minimize financial costs, reduce the response time and positively impact the crisis management

Service-Oriented Computing for intelligent train maintenance

The purpose of this work is to apply the servicization of enterprise information systems in maintenance, particularly in the management of the maintenance process of the component parts of trains. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural approach that permits servicization since it provides a flexible set of design principles used during the modeling practices (abstraction and realization). With a view to supporting the model-driven engineering of software systems, Mode Driven Architecture (MDA) is a design approach delivering a set of guidelines for the configuring of specifications in systems development. Therefore, the combination of these two approaches can be fruitful to address the challenging issues the enterprise information system is facing today. Our study is based on a methodological approach using the MDA models for the automatic generation of web service. The case study concerns a Railways Maintenance Workshop (RMW) at Sidi Bel Abbes (Algeria). Finally, the information system for the management of maintenance of the component parts of passengers and baggage railcars, using the generated solution, is realized and deployed. This software helps to have better management of the RMW by the effective planning of interventions, improve performance by increasing reliability, traceability, and availability of the equipment (parts)

Éviscération vaginale post hystérectomie récidivante

L'éviscération vaginale après hystérectomie, bien que rare, est une complication postopératoire grave pour les patients jeunes et les personnes âgées. Chez la femme ménopausée, elle est très souvent due à une chirurgie pelvienne, associée à un trouble de soutien du plancher pelvien. L'iléon distal est l'organe le plus fréquent d'éviscération, mais le prolapsus de l'épiploon, appendice et des trompes de Fallope a été  rapportés. Une patiente âgée de 53 ans était admise au service des urgences chirurgicales viscérales en  raison d'une masse vaginale apparue sans effort notable. Ses antécédents comportaient une  hystérectomie vaginale réalisée en 2009 pour une pathologie bénigne et une éviscération vaginale en 2011 traitée par voie vaginale. L'examen  gynécologique révélait une éviscération vaginale d'anses intestinales par une rupture du sommet du vagin. Le segment intestinal hernié, sale, oedématié avec infiltration de la  graisse mésentérique est jugé viable. La patiente était opérée en urgence immédiatement après le  diagnostic par laparotomie médiane  sous-ombilicale. La réintégration en douceur de l'intestin permettait   d'objectiver une perforation du sommet du vagin. Cette dernière était fermée par un surjet au fil  résorbable après ravivement des berges de la  perforation. Le vagin était ensuite fixé au promontoire par des points séparés. Les suites opératoires étaient simples. La patiente sortait de l'hôpital après six jours d'hospitalisation. L'éviscération vaginale est une  urgence chirurgicale dont les modalités de prise en charge doivent être connues. Si la laparotomie a longtemps été la technique de référence, la voie vaginale exclusive peut être réalisée en cas d'exploration aisée du  segment éviscéré.Key words: Éviscération vaginale ; Récidive ; Urgence chirurgicale

Fréquence des néphropathies congénitales au Centre hospitalier universitaire de Donka à Conakry: Frequency of congenital nephropathies in the University Hospital of Donka in Conakry

Context and objective. The real extent of congenital nephropathies is little known in Africa and in particular in Guinea. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of congenital nephropathies in the University Hospital of Donka. Methods. This was a descriptive retrospective study enrolling patients admitted for congenital nephropathy at both pediatric and pediatric surgery departments of Donka, between January 1st, 2007 and June 30th, 2012. The parameters of the study were epidemiological, clinical and paraclinical data.  Results. Of 34,448 patients recorded during the period studied, 26 had congenital nephropathies. They encompassed nephroblastoma (n=17), SJPU (n=6), hydronephrosis on left multikystic kidney (n=1), multikystic kidney in ptosis (n=1) and renal ectopia (n=1). Male sex was preponderant (21/26) with a sex ratio of 4.2/1. The 29 day-old to 2 year-old children were more affected. Conclusion. Congenital nephropathies appear less frequently in this hospital probably due to the absence of optimal facilities. The early diagnosis of congenital nephropathies should be made during the antenatal time, which would be a key to a better management of these conditions in affected children. Contexte et objectif. L’ampleur réelle des néphropathies congénitales est peu connue en Afrique et notamment en Guinée. L’objectif de cette étude était de déterminer la fréquence des néphropathies congénitales rencontrées. Méthodes. Cette étude documentaire de type descriptif sur la néphropathie congénitale, a été conduite entre les 1er janvier 2007 et 30 juin 2012, dans les services de pédiatrie et de chirurgie pédiatrique de Donka. Les paramètres d’interet englobaient les données épidémiologiques, cliniques et paracliniques.  Résultats. Parmi les 34.448 dossiers colligés, 26 présentaient une néphropathie congénitale. Il s’agissait des néphroblastomes (n=17), des syndromes de jonction pyélo-urétérale (n=6), d’une hydronéphrose sur rein multikystique gauche (n=1), d’un rein multikystique en ptose (n=1) et d’une ectopie rénale (n=1). Le sexe masculin était prépondérant (21/26) avec un sexe ratio de 4,2/1. Les enfants de 29 jours à 2 ans étaient les plus touchés. Conclusion. Les néphropathies congénitales sont paraissent moins fréquentes dans cette institution hospitalière, à cause du manque d’un plateau technique diagnostique optimal. Le diagnostic précoce des néphropathies congénitales devrait être fait dans la période prénatale ce qui permettrait une meilleure prise en charge des enfants affectés

Safety of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for infants and their mothers: randomized controlled community trial in Burkina Faso

Background: Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) are now the main tool for malaria prevention in endemic areas. Synthetic pyrethroids are the only group of insecticides recommended by the World Health Organization for the use on ITNs. There are only few studies which have specifically investigated potential adverse effects of frequent exposure to ITNs in the vulnerable group of young infants and their mothers. Methods: This study was nested into a large randomized controlled ITN effectiveness trial. Ninety newborns and their mothers were selected from the study population for participation. Together with their mothers they were protected with ITNs from birth (group A, n = 45) or from age 6 months (group B, n = 45) and followed up for 18 weeks (daily visits in the first 4 weeks, weekly visits thereafter). Potential side effects related to synthetic pyrethroids (deltamethrin) exposure were systematically investigated by trained field staff. The frequency and duration of respective symptoms was compared between the two study groups. Results: A total of 180 participants (90 mothers and 90 infants) were followed up over the study period without any loss to follow up. There were no significant differences in the frequency and duration of side effects between the two study groups, except that the frequency of headache was significantly higher in group A compared to group B mothers (p = 0.01). Conclusions: The study provides further evidence for ITNs being sufficiently safe in children and even in newborns. The association with headache in mothers could be explained by them handling the ITNs more intensely or it could be a chance finding