A deep learning approach to diabetic blood glucose prediction

We consider the question of 30-minute prediction of blood glucose levels measured by continuous glucose monitoring devices, using clinical data. While most studies of this nature deal with one patient at a time, we take a certain percentage of patients in the data set as training data, and test on the remainder of the patients; i.e., the machine need not re-calibrate on the new patients in the data set. We demonstrate how deep learning can outperform shallow networks in this example. One novelty is to demonstrate how a parsimonious deep representation can be constructed using domain knowledge

A survey of the attitudes and knowledge of parents of high school children on the East Rand on the usage of nutritional supplements

Background: The use of nutritional supplements (NS) by adolescents seems to be an escalating problem in South Africa. Any supplementary product ingested to boost the nutritional content of a normal diet to either fill a need or presumed deficiency, including any sports or energy drink, tablets or injections, are deemed as NS for the purpose of this study. Parents seem to agree that children who play sport are allowed to use NS to assist them to perform better, without knowledge of the health risks associated with these products. Despite information on websites and information sessions arranged by schools, parents seem to disregard advice given to them by experts.Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes and level of knowledge of parents of children on the East Rand with regard to NS usage.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which used a previously validated, self-administered questionnaire for the parents (n = 198). It also included an interview with a focus group consisting of coaches and administrative staff (n = 9) representing each sports code selected for the purpose of this study. The data were analysed using largely descriptive statistics.Results: Nine percent of parents indicated that they considered themselves well informed with regard to NS; 13% indicated that they would support their children in obtaining NS without efficacy being proven and 75% indicated their awareness of the risk of NS being contaminated. Coaches viewed the role of parents as integral regarding a healthy diet but indicated that the use of NS could not be ignored, also admitting to a lack in knowledge regarding NS.Conclusion: Parents and coaches demonstrated limited knowledge regarding NS. Their knowledge was formed from information on labels and the internet. Parents have a positive attitude towards the use of NS by their children despite indicating an awareness of the health risks related to NS usage.Keywords: adolescents, presumed deficiency, nutrients, health risks, limited knowledg

Describing intelligent agent behaviors

The development of new intelligent agents requires an interdisciplinary approach to programming. The initial challenge is to describe the desired agent behaviors and abilities without necessarily committing the agent development project to one particular programming language. What are the appropriate linguistic and logical tools for creating a top level, unambiguous, program-independent, and consistent description of the functions and behaviors of the agent? And how can that description then be translated easily into one of a number of program languages? This article provides a case study of the application of a simple Belief, Desire, and Intention (EDI) first order logic to a complex set of agent functions of a theoretical community of intelligent nano-spacecraft. The basic research was conducted at NASA-GSFC (Greenbelt), Advanced Architecture Branch, during the summer of 2001. The simple examples of applied BDI logic presented here suggest broad application in agent software development

Successful first-year learning: A social cognitive view of academic literacy

The research data used in this article are drawn from a study conducted in  a business faculty at a Historically Black South African University during  2009 and 2010. A comparison was made in the study between two groups  of first-year students: a group that had passed all their modules and a group that had failed some of their modules at the end of their first year of study. The aim was to investigate factors that had an impact on the successful completion of the first year of study by problematising theperception that those students from disadvantaged backgrounds or under-resourced schools are necessarily disadvantaged and destined to fail. In this article the focus is on the successful group of students and their mastery of academic discourse situated in the complexity of social and academic interaction. The findings indicate that the inter-relatedness of personal, academic, social and institutional factors mirror the inter-related way in which the students had experienced them. These findings furtherunderline the fact that successful learning is a complex and multi-layered process that is ongoing and that needs to be monitored, sustained and evaluated throughout students’ study careers. The students’ personal perspectives on academic study provided not only evidence that the development of academic literacy is socially situated and constructed but also showed how successful students manage their academic learningto mitigate under-preparedness and adverse personal circumstances.Key words: Students, successful learning, academic literacy, interrelated, socially situated

BENCHMARKING OF FDM PRINTED REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR RURAL WHEELCHAIRS

ArticleMany disabled patients rely on wheelchairs for mobility to participate as equal citizens within society. Wheelchairs supplied through state healthcare are often not well suited to especially rural conditions and often break-down. This study investigates if entry level Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) can be used to produce front caster wheels and seat post guides that commonly fail on wheelchairs. Results of the study has shown that these parts can be produced with good quality and at reasonable cost through FDM. The ability to manufacture custom made parts on request through FDM was shown to be a real advantage to supply hard to source wheelchair parts in the rural communities

How do methanol masers manage to appear in the youngest star vicinities and isolated molecular clumps?

General characteristics of methanol (CH3OH) maser emission are summarized. It is shown that methanol maser sources are concentrated in the spiral arms. Most of the methanol maser sources from the Perseus arm are associated with embedded stellar clusters and a considerable portion is situated close to compact HII regions. Almost 1/3 of the Perseus Arm sources lie at the edges of optically identified HII regions which means that massive star formation in the Perseus Arm is to a great extent triggered by local phenomena. A multiline analysis of the methanol masers allows us to determine the physical parameters in the regions of maser formation. Maser modelling shows that class II methanol masers can be pumped by the radiation of the warm dust as well as by free-free emission of a hypercompact region hcHII with a turnover frequency exceeding 100 GHz. Methanol masers of both classes can reside in the vicinity of hcHIIs. Modelling shows that periodic changes of maser fluxes can be reproduced by variations of the dust temperature by a few percent which may be caused by variations in the brightness of the central young stellar object reflecting the character of the accretion process. Sensitive observations have shown that the masers with low flux densities can still have considerable amplification factors. The analysis of class I maser surveys allows us to identify four distinct regimes that differ by the series of their brightest lines.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited presentation at IAU242 "Astrophysical Masers and their environments

A survey of the attitudes and knowledge of parents of high school children on the East Rand on the usage of nutritional supplements

Background: The use of nutritional supplements (NS) by adolescents seems to be an escalating problem in South Africa. Any supplementary product ingested to boost the nutritional content of a normal diet to either fill a need or presumed deficiency, including any sports or energy drink, tablets or injections, are deemed as NS for the purpose of this study. Parents seem to agree that children who play sport are allowed to use NS to assist them to perform better, without knowledge of the health risks associated with these products. Despite information on websites and information sessions arranged by schools, parents seem to disregard advice given to them by experts. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes and level of knowledge of parents of children on the East Rand with regard to NS usage. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which used a previously validated, self-administered questionnaire for the parents (n = 198). It also included an interview with a focus group consisting of coaches and administrative staff (n = 9) representing each sports code selected for the purpose of this study. The data were analysed using largely descriptive statistics. Results: Nine percent of parents indicated that they considered themselves well informed with regard to NS; 13% indicated that they would support their children in obtaining NS without efficacy being proven and 75% indicated their awareness of the risk of NS being contaminated. Coaches viewed the role of parents as integral regarding a healthy diet but indicated that the use of NS could not be ignored, also admitting to a lack in knowledge regarding NS. Conclusion: Parents and coaches demonstrated limited knowledge regarding NS. Their knowledge was formed from information on labels and the internet. Parents have a positive attitude towards the use of NS by their children despite indicating an awareness of the health risks related to NS usage

Novel DNA probes with low background and high hybridization-triggered fluorescence

Novel fluorogenic DNA probes are described. The probes (called Pleiades) have a minor groove binder (MGB) and a fluorophore at the 5′-end and a non-fluorescent quencher at the 3′-end of the DNA sequence. This configuration provides surprisingly low background and high hybridization-triggered fluorescence. Here, we comparatively study the performance of such probes, MGB-Eclipse probes, and molecular beacons. Unlike the other two probe formats, the Pleiades probes have low, temperature-independent background fluorescence and excellent signal-to-background ratios. The probes possess good mismatch discrimination ability and high rates of hybridization. Based on the analysis of fluorescence and absorption spectra we propose a mechanism of action for the Pleiades probes. First, hydrophobic interactions between the quencher and the MGB bring the ends of the probe and, therefore, the fluorophore and the quencher in close proximity. Second, the MGB interacts with the fluorophore and independent of the quencher is able to provide a modest (2–4-fold) quenching effect. Joint action of the MGB and the quencher is the basis for the unique quenching mechanism. The fluorescence is efficiently restored upon binding of the probe to target sequence due to a disruption in the MGB–quencher interaction and concealment of the MGB moiety inside the minor groove