On the Oscillation of the Generalized Food-Limited Equations with Delay

- The objective of the paper is to find conditions for the oscillation of the food-limited equation. We established conditions for the oscillation of all solutions of the generalized foodlimited equation by transforming the equation to a non-linear delay differential equation and then to a scalar delay differential equation and using the property of the scalar delay differential equation to obtain our result. Similarly we establish conditions for the oscillation of all solutions of the foodlimited equation with several delays by transforming the equation to a scalar differential equation to obtain the oscillatory property

Model Predictive Control of Blood Pressure and Urine Production Rate for a Physiological Patient Model

The research proposes the design of a model predictive control (MPC) for automatic drug dosing to regulate high blood pressure and urine production rate in an elderly patient. Combining hydrochlorothiazide and oxybutynin is commonly used for regulation of blood pressure in elderly patients. The patient’s model tries to captures the responses to the drugs as the blood pressure and urine production rates attains their various set-points. Hence, this research aims at improving the control scheme which ensured that these two physiological variables are regulated. Simulation was done in MATLAB/Simulink environment with the use of MPC Toolbox, and the controlled variables were constrained to operate at 80mmHg for blood pressure and between 24-49 ml/kg/hr for urine production rate respectively while the manipulated variables remained unconstrained. From the simulation results, the MPC controller achieved good set-point tracking and disturbance rejection, which is an indication of a healthy level of regulation within acceptable tolerances

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Assessment of nurses’ challenges in crises situation as seen in selected hospitals in Jos Metropolis

Background: Civil unrest has become widespread in the last decade in Nigeria. This study was aimed at assessing the challenges of nursing care during violent crisis.Methods: A descriptive study was carried out on 137 nurses in two selected teaching hospitals in Jos; Jos University Teaching Hospital and Bingham University Teaching Hospitals. Challenges of nursing care during crisis were assessed using a structured questionnaire.Results: A total of 137 nurses made up of mostly females (77.4%) participated in the survey. The age of participants ranged from 20-60years.The Challenges encountered during, and post crises situation includes: performing non-nurses' duties (56.4%), physical illness; headaches 20.1%, waist pains 26%, and sleeplessness 20%.Conclusion: Providing nursing care in crisis situation is quite challenging and often resulted in some health problems in nurses. The need for ambulance services, efficient pre-hospital services, dedicated phone lines, well trained personnel (nurses) on emergency response and occasional conduct of emergency drills are advocated.Keywords: Assessment, Nurses, challenges, crises

Expert System and Decision Support System for Electrocardiogram Interpretation and Diagnosis: Review, Challenges and Research Directions

Electrocardiography (ECG) is one of the most widely used recordings in clinical medicine. ECG deals with the recording of electrical activity that is generated by the heart through the surface of the body. The electrical activity generated by the heart is measured using electrodes that are attached to the body surface. The use of ECG in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been in existence for over a decade, and research in this domain has recently attracted large attention. Along this line, an expert system (ES) and decision support system (DSS) have been developed for ECG interpretation and diagnosis. However, despite the availability of a lot of literature, access to recent and more comprehensive review papers on this subject is still a challenge. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the application of ES and DSS for ECG interpretation and diagnosis. Researchers have proposed a number of features and methods for ES and DSS development that can be used to monitor a patient’s health condition through ECG recordings. In this paper, a taxonomy of the features and methods for ECG interpretation and diagnosis were presented. The significance of the features and methods, as well as their limitations, were analyzed. This review further presents interesting theoretical concepts in this domain, as well as identifies challenges and open research issues on ES and DSS development for ECG interpretation and diagnosis that require substantial research effort. In conclusion, this paper identifies important future research areas with the purpose of advancing the development of ES and DSS for ECG interpretation and diagnosis

Expert System and Decision Support System for Electrocardiogram Interpretation and Diagnosis: Review, Challenges and Research Directions

Electrocardiography (ECG) is one of the most widely used recordings in clinical medicine. ECG deals with the recording of electrical activity that is generated by the heart through the surface of the body. The electrical activity generated by the heart is measured using electrodes that are attached to the body surface. The use of ECG in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been in existence for over a decade, and research in this domain has recently attracted large attention. Along this line, an expert system (ES) and decision support system (DSS) have been developed for ECG interpretation and diagnosis. However, despite the availability of a lot of literature, access to recent and more comprehensive review papers on this subject is still a challenge. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the application of ES and DSS for ECG interpretation and diagnosis. Researchers have proposed a number of features and methods for ES and DSS development that can be used to monitor a patient’s health condition through ECG recordings. In this paper, a taxonomy of the features and methods for ECG interpretation and diagnosis were presented. The significance of the features and methods, as well as their limitations, were analyzed. This review further presents interesting theoretical concepts in this domain, as well as identifies challenges and open research issues on ES and DSS development for ECG interpretation and diagnosis that require substantial research effort. In conclusion, this paper identifies important future research areas with the purpose of advancing the development of ES and DSS for ECG interpretation and diagnosis

Rivaroxaban with or without aspirin in stable cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether rivaroxaban alone or in combination with aspirin would be more effective than aspirin alone for secondary cardiovascular prevention. METHODS: In this double-blind trial, we randomly assigned 27,395 participants with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease to receive rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin (100 mg once daily), rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily), or aspirin (100 mg once daily). The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke, or myocardial infarction. The study was stopped for superiority of the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group after a mean follow-up of 23 months. RESULTS: The primary outcome occurred in fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group than in the aspirin-alone group (379 patients [4.1%] vs. 496 patients [5.4%]; hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 0.86; P<0.001; z=−4.126), but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group (288 patients [3.1%] vs. 170 patients [1.9%]; hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.40 to 2.05; P<0.001). There was no significant difference in intracranial or fatal bleeding between these two groups. There were 313 deaths (3.4%) in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group as compared with 378 (4.1%) in the aspirin-alone group (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.96; P=0.01; threshold P value for significance, 0.0025). The primary outcome did not occur in significantly fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group than in the aspirin-alone group, but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease, those assigned to rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin had better cardiovascular outcomes and more major bleeding events than those assigned to aspirin alone. Rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily) alone did not result in better cardiovascular outcomes than aspirin alone and resulted in more major bleeding events