The effect of fortified food, e'pap, on oral candidiasis in adult TB patients attending clinics in Alexandra, Johannesburg, South -Africa

Introduction The association between tuberculosis (TB) and malnutrition is well known. Malnutrition also weakens the immune system increasing the chance of latent TB progressing to active disease. Nutritional interventions can help improve overall quality of life and can reduce susceptibility to opportunistic infections including all forms of Oral Candidiasis (OC) which includes: (1) pseudomembranous candidiasis (oral thrush), (2) atrophic (erythematous) candidiasis, (3) hyperplastic candidiasis, and (4) angular cheilitis. This secondary data analysis of a longitudinal follow-up study evaluates the impact of a fortified supplementary food on OC among adult TB patients over a three month period. Results At baseline, an overall prevalence of 33% of OC (27 out of 83) was found in 83 adult TB patients; (pseudo-membranous 46% (16 out of 35), erythematous 26% (9 out 35), angular chelitis 20% (7 out 35) and hyperplastic 8% (3 out of 35). Thirty five different types of OC were found in 27 of the subjects some of whom manifested with more than one type of OC. Almost 89% of these TB patients had low levels of malnutrition (8% for selenium, 55% for iron, 62% for Vit-A, 42% for albumin, 47% for Vit-D and 34% for zinc). Their p values related to OC were (p=0.64 for selenium, p=0.74 for iron, p=0.19 for Vit-A, p=1 for albumin, p=1 for Vit-D and p=0.09 for zinc) showing no statistically significant difference for malnutrition in each different type of micronutrient related to OC at baseline. However, there was a statistically significant difference in HIV status (p=0.01) related to OC among factors such as sex (p=0.34), employment status (p=0.74), ARV status (p=0.46) and wellbeing (p=0.18) at baseline. OC was statistically significant at both 2nd and 3rd visits using univariate analysis p=0.04 (95%CI 0.22 to 0.97) and p=0.00 (95%CI 0.06 to 0.43) and also multivariate analysis p=0.01(95%CI 0.17 to 0.85) and p=0.00 (95%CI 0.04 to 0.34) with reference to the 1st visit (the prevalence of OC was significantly decreased in both 2nd and 3rd visits). For different types of clinical OC, pseudomembranous candidiasis was the only type of OC that showed statistically significant difference at the 3rd visit in both univariate analysis (p= 0.01, 95%CI 0.01 to 0.46) and multivariate analysis (p= 0.00, 95%CI 0.01 to 0.38) with reference to 1st visit. Discussion and Conclusions This study found no significant association between overall micronutrient level and the presence of OC at baseline. However, micronutrient interventions to the 83 adult TB patients receiving treatment at Johannesburg city clinics located in Alexandra showed a decrease in prevalence of different types of OC in both 2nd and 3rd visits. This analysis showed encouraging results which indicated a beneficial effect of e’Pap in adult TB patients

The Near-Linear Regime of Gravitational Waves in Numerical Relativity

We report on a systematic study of the dynamics of gravitational waves in full 3D numerical relativity. We find that there exists an interesting regime in the parameter space of the wave configurations: a near-linear regime in which the amplitude of the wave is low enough that one expects the geometric deviation from flat spacetime to be negligible, but nevertheless where nonlinearities can excite unstable modes of the Einstein evolution equations causing the metric functions to evolve out of control. The implications of this for numerical relativity are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 postscript figures, revised tex

Agricultural Information Needs of Physically Challenged Farmers: A Case Study Of Leprosy Hospital, Etinan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State

The study assessed the agricultural information needs of physically challenged farmers in Leprosy Hospital, Ekpene Obom, Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The specific objectives were: to examine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, determine the sources of available agricultural information, ascertain the respondents’ level of access to agricultural information, examine the agricultural information needs of the respondents in the study area. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select fifty three (53) respondents for the study. Data were collected with well structured questionnaire and analyzed using factor analysis and cluster analysis. A factor analysis performed on the fourteen (14) sources of agricultural information yielded two (2) dimensions namely Individual Contact and Mass Contact factors; these accounted for 61% of the variation. Accessibility to agricultural information was low. Cluster analysis further grouped the respondents into four cluster levels (very high, high, low and very low accessed groups) in terms of access to agricultural information, with the very low accessed group consisting majority (66%) of the respondents. A factor analysis was also performed for the thirty (30) agricultural information need variables. This operation produced nine (9) factors namely; Customized Innovation and Self Development; Inorganic Farming Practices; Soil Conservation; Inputs Access, Agronomic Practices, Processing, Land Preparation Technique, Improved Seedlings and Farm Record Keeping factors. Among other recommendations, the study recommended incorporation of extension services for physically challenged farmers into Agricultural Development Programme (ADP)

Agricultural Information Needs of Physically Challenged Farmers: A Case Study Of Leprosy Hospital, Etinan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State

The study assessed the agricultural information needs of physically challenged farmers in Leprosy Hospital, Ekpene Obom, Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The specific objectives were: to examine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, determine the sources of available agricultural information, ascertain the respondents’ level of access to agricultural information, examine the agricultural information needs of the respondents in the study area. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select fifty three (53) respondents for the study. Data were collected with well structured questionnaire and analyzed using factor analysis and cluster analysis. A factor analysis performed on the fourteen (14) sources of agricultural information yielded two (2) dimensions namely Individual Contact and Mass Contact factors; these accounted for 61% of the variation. Accessibility to agricultural information was low. Cluster analysis further grouped the respondents into four cluster levels (very high, high, low and very low accessed groups) in terms of access to agricultural information, with the very low accessed group consisting majority (66%) of the respondents. A factor analysis was also performed for the thirty (30) agricultural information need variables. This operation produced nine (9) factors namely; Customized Innovation and Self Development; Inorganic Farming Practices; Soil Conservation; Inputs Access, Agronomic Practices, Processing, Land Preparation Technique, Improved Seedlings and Farm Record Keeping factors. Among other recommendations, the study recommended incorporation of extension services for physically challenged farmers into Agricultural Development Programme (ADP)

DIGITAL HEARING AID SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEM USING ANDROID PHONE

Objective: The objective of this research is to propose an Android-based digital hearing aid signal processing algorithm with following key features:(1) Regenerated audio match the patient-specific pattern of hearing loss, (2) noise reduction, and (3) provide flexibility to the users.Methods: The proposed signal processing algorithm is designed based on the specific hearing loss of the hearing disorder patient using inverse Fouriertransform; besides, noise reduction feature is included in the digital algorithm design as well. Proposed digital algorithm has been implemented intoan Android-based smartphone and its performance has been tested under real-time condition.Results: Simulation results show that the frequency response of the proposed digital hearing aid signal processing algorithm is in agreement withthe initial theoretical design that was carried out based on the hearing impaired patient’s audiogram. The proposed algorithm has been implementedin the Android-based smartphone and tested in real time. Results show that most of the patients are satisfied with the regenerated audio quality.According to patient’s comments, the regenerated audio is clear and the users are allowed to control the volume level. Besides, no obvious hearinglatency can be detected.Conclusion: Audio signals generated by the proposed digital signal processing algorithm show similar audio signal frequency response in boththeoretical design and MATLAB simulation results. The only difference between the design and simulation results is the amplification levels. Theproposed algorithm provides flexibility to the users by allowing them to choose the desired amplification level. In real-time testing, the proposedAndroid-based digital hearing aid is able to reduce noise level from the surrounding and the output processed speech match the patient-specifichearing loss

Studies in theoretical high energy particle physics

This report discusses research in string theory; solitons; supersymmetry; conformed field theory; and quarks

Dynamics of Gravitational Waves in 3D: Formulations, Methods, and Tests

The dynamics of gravitational waves is investigated in full 3+1 dimensional numerical relativity, emphasizing the difficulties that one might encounter in numerical evolutions, particularly those arising from non-linearities and gauge degrees of freedom. Using gravitational waves with amplitudes low enough that one has a good understanding of the physics involved, but large enough to enable non-linear effects to emerge, we study the coupling between numerical errors, coordinate effects, and the nonlinearities of the theory. We discuss the various strategies used in identifying specific features of the evolution. We show the importance of the flexibility of being able to use different numerical schemes, different slicing conditions, different formulations of the Einstein equations (standard ADM vs. first order hyperbolic), and different sets of equations (linearized vs. full Einstein equations). A non-linear scalar field equation is presented which captures some properties of the full Einstein equations, and has been useful in our understanding of the coupling between finite differencing errors and non-linearites. We present a set of monitoring devices which have been crucial in our studying of the waves, including Riemann invariants, pseudo-energy momentum tensor, hamiltonian constraint violation, and fourier spectrum analysis.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figure

Analysis Methods for Milky Way Dark Matter Satellite Detection

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) Dark Matter and New Physics Working group has been developing approaches for the indirect detection of in situ annihilation of dark matter. Our work has assumed that a significant component of dark matter is a new type of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) in the 100GeV mass range. The annihilation of two WIMPs results in the production of a large number of high energy gamma rays (>1GeV) that can be well measured by the GLAST LAT. The cold dark matter model implies a significant number of as yet unobserved dark matter satellites in our galaxy. The spectra of these galactic satellites are considerably harder than most, if not all, astrophysical sources, have an endpoint at the mass of the WIMP, and are not power laws. We describe a preliminary feasibility study for the indirect detection of dark matter satellites in the Milky Way using the GLAST LAT