155 research outputs found
Computational Predictive Framework towards the Control and Reduction of Malaria incidences in Africa
Malaria persists as a problematic disease in Africa. It is the main cause of morbidity and mortality of children and efforts are currently being pooled to increase the control measures within endemic countries. With this in mind, we developed and applied a malaria control strategy from a computational perspective, to analyze, predict and offer appropriate recommendations and control measures of malaria data obtained from WHO ten Sub Saharan countries malaria report of 2008 . The analytical tool used is based on the C# programming language embedded artificial neural network intelligence system. From the outcome obtained, the system demonstrated some level of intelligence and showed the effects and impacts of some controllable factors on future malaria occurrence. The system at 90% prediction intensity showed malaria infection course to decline sharply by 2014 in all the study countries, ranging from 15.71% in Madagascar, 35.46% in Malawi, 38.44% in Nigeria, 38.98% in Sudan , 39.05% in Ethiopia 39.09% in Zambia, 40,08% in Ghana, 42.61% in Kenya, 45.21% in Uganda and 46.63% Mozambique respectively. Therefore, more future prevention, control and management interventions are needed in Madagascar and Mozambique by 2014 as compared to the rest of the countries studied. In conclusion, the tool can be used to produce sensible and logical results which can be applied to achieve reduction of possible future malaria occurrences by governmental, NGOs and other relevant health agencies for proper public health planning
Assessment of bacteriological quality of ready to eat food (Meat pie) in Benin City metropolis, Nigeria
Eight triplicate samples of meat pie were randomly sampled from standard eatery and local kiosk in
Benin City and analyzed microbiologically for the rates of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
The mean microbial load on the fresh meat pie from the standard eatery ranged from 3x103 – 5x103cfu/g
while the air preserved and refrigerated meat pie for (2 days) ranged between 2.3 x104 -3.8 x104 cfu/g
and 8x 103-1.5 x104 cfu/g respectively. The mean microbial load of the fresh meat pie from the local
kiosk ranged between 7x103-2.8x104 cfu/g while the air preserved and refrigerated meat pie for 2days
ranged between 3x10-4 to too numerous to count (TNTC) and 1.3 x104 -2.8x104 cfu/g respectively. Six
genera of the isolated bacteria include Staphylococcus, E. coli, klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Bacillus and
Enterococcus. Statistical analysis of the mean microbial load showed a significant difference (P<0.05)
between control and air preserved meat pie and no significant difference in the mean microbial load
between control and refrigerated meat pie were (P>0.05)
An Analysis of the Decay with Predictions from Heavy Quark and Chiral Symmetry
This paper considers the implications of the heavy quark and chiral
symmetries for the semi-leptonic decay . The general kinematic analysis for decays of the form {\sl
pseudoscalar meson vector meson pseudoscalar meson lepton
anti-lepton} is presented. This formalism is applied to the above exclusive
decay which allows the differential decay rate to be expressed in a form that
is ideally suited for the experimental determination of the different form
factors for the process through angular distribution measurements. Heavy quark
and chiral symmetry predictions for the form factors are presented, and the
differential decay rate is calculated in the kinematic region where chiral
perturbation theory is valid.Comment: 15 pages, uses jytex.tex and tables.tex; 3 figures not included but
available on reques
The Exact Critical Bubble Free Energy and the Effectiveness of Effective Potential Approximations
To calculate the temperature at which a first-order cosmological phase
transition occurs, one must calculate , the free energy of a critical
bubble configuration. is often approximated by the classical energy
plus an integral over the bubble of the effective potential; one must choose a
method for calculating the effective potential when . We test different
effective potential approximations at one loop. The agreement is best if one
pulls a factor of into the decay rate prefactor [where ], and takes the real part of the effective potential in the region
. We perform a similar analysis on the 1-dimensional kink.Comment: 11 pages plus 3 figures in jyTeX; CALT-68-188
LEMUR: Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research. European contribution to JAXA's Solar-C mission
Understanding the solar outer atmosphere requires concerted, simultaneous
solar observations from the visible to the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft
X-rays, at high spatial resolution (between 0.1" and 0.3"), at high temporal
resolution (on the order of 10 s, i.e., the time scale of chromospheric
dynamics), with a wide temperature coverage (0.01 MK to 20 MK, from the
chromosphere to the flaring corona), and the capability of measuring magnetic
fields through spectropolarimetry at visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
Simultaneous spectroscopic measurements sampling the entire temperature range
are particularly important.
These requirements are fulfilled by the Japanese Solar-C mission (Plan B),
composed of a spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit with a payload providing a
significant improvement of imaging and spectropolarimetric capabilities in the
UV, visible, and near-infrared with respect to what is available today and
foreseen in the near future.
The Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research (LEMUR), described
in this paper, is a large VUV telescope feeding a scientific payload of
high-resolution imaging spectrographs and cameras. LEMUR consists of two major
components: a VUV solar telescope with a 30 cm diameter mirror and a focal
length of 3.6 m, and a focal-plane package composed of VUV spectrometers
covering six carefully chosen wavelength ranges between 17 and 127 nm. The
LEMUR slit covers 280" on the Sun with 0.14" per pixel sampling. In addition,
LEMUR is capable of measuring mass flows velocities (line shifts) down to 2
km/s or better.
LEMUR has been proposed to ESA as the European contribution to the Solar C
mission.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures. To appear on Experimental Astronom
Relationships of the Location and Content of Rounds to Specialty, Institution, Patient-Census, and Team Size
OBJECTIVE: Existing observational data describing rounds in teaching hospitals are 15 years old, predate duty-hour regulations, are limited to one institution, and do not include pediatrics. We sought to evaluate the effect of medical specialty, institution, patient-census, and team participants upon time at the bedside and education occurring on rounds. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: Between December of 2007 and October of 2008 we performed 51 observations at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Seattle Children's Hospital, Stanford University Hospital, and the University of Washington Medical Center of 35 attending physicians. We recorded minutes spent on rounds in three location and seven activity categories, members of the care team, and patient-census. RESULTS: Results presented are means. Pediatric rounds had more participants (8.2 vs. 4.1 physicians, p<.001; 11.9 vs. 2.4 non-physicians, p<.001) who spent more minutes in hallways (96.9 min vs. 35.2 min, p<.001), fewer minutes at the bedside (14.6 vs. 38.2 min, p = .01) than internal medicine rounds. Multivariate regression modeling revealed that minutes at the bedside per patient was negatively associated with pediatrics (-2.77 adjusted bedside minutes; 95% CI -4.61 to -0.93; p<.001) but positively associated with the number of non-physician participants (0.12 adjusted bedside minutes per non physician participant; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.17; p = <.001). Education minutes on rounds was positively associated with the presence of an attending physician (2.70 adjusted education minutes; 95% CI 1.27 to 4.12; p<.001) and with one institution (1.39 adjusted education minutes; 95% CI 0.26 to 2.53; p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: Pediatricians spent less time at the bedside on rounds than internal medicine physicians due to reasons other than patient-census or the number of participants in rounds. Compared to historical data, internal medicine rounds were spent more at the bedside engaged in patient care and communication, and less upon educational activities
- …