A hierarchal framework for recognising activities of daily life

PhDIn today’s working world the elderly who are dependent can sometimes be neglected by society. Statistically, after toddlers it is the elderly who are observed to have higher accident rates while performing everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the major impairments that elderly people suffer from, and leads to the elderly person not being able to live an independent life due to forgetfulness. One way to support elderly people who aspire to live an independent life and remain safe in their home is to find out what activities the elderly person is carrying out at a given time and provide appropriate assistance or institute safeguards. The aim of this research is to create improved methods to identify tasks related to activities of daily life and determine a person’s current intentions and so reason about that person’s future intentions. A novel hierarchal framework has been developed, which recognises sensor events and maps them to significant activities and intentions. As privacy is becoming a growing concern, the monitoring of an individual’s behaviour can be seen as intrusive. Hence, the monitoring is based around using simple non intrusive sensors and tags on everyday objects that are used to perform daily activities around the home. Specifically there is no use of any cameras or visual surveillance equipment, though the techniques developed are still relevant in such a situation. Models for task recognition and plan recognition have been developed and tested on scenarios where the plans can be interwoven. Potential targets are people in the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease and in the structuring of the library of kernel plan sequences, typical routines used to sustain meaningful activity have been used. Evaluations have been carried out using volunteers conducting activities of daily life in an experimental home environment. The results generated from the sensors have been interpreted and analysis of developed algorithms has been made. The outcomes and findings of these experiments demonstrate that the developed hierarchal framework is capable of carrying activity recognition as well as being able to carry out intention analysis, e.g. predicting what activity they are most likely to carry out next

Evaluation and comparison: antipyretic activity in compound products of herbal pharmaceutical industries

To reduce an elevated body temperature various antipyretics drugs and medicinal plants are used. This study was designed to evaluate the antipyretic claim compound herbal syrups manufactured by three different herbal pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan. Bukharin (Hamdard Laboratories), Fever-X (Qarshi Industries) and Bukharok (Ashraf Laboratories) products were tested in rabbits. The experimental conditions were produced by E. coli suspension in animal model whereas 150 mg/Kg Paracetamol suspension was used as positive control. Doses with concentration of 5 ml/Kg of syrup were administered to check temperature lowering effect. The administration of Bukharin, Fever-X and Bukhrok significantly reduced the rectal temperature of animals. It was concluded that Bukharok and Bukharin syrups are good antipyretic drug products as they lowered 3 and 2.5 ?C temperature respectively. Keywords: Antipyretic effect, Herbal Syrups, Comparison with Allopathic Medicin

Ontology: Core Process Mining and Querying Enabling Tool

Ontology permits the addition of semantics to process models derived from mining the various data stored in many information systems. The ontological schema enables for automated querying and inference of useful knowledge from the different domain processes. Indeed, such conceptualization methods particularly ontologies for process management which is currently allied to semantic process mining trails to combine process models with ontologies, and are increasingly gaining attention in recent years. In view of that, this chapter introduces an ontology-based mining approach that makes use of concepts within the extracted event logs about domain processes to propose a method which allows for effective querying and improved analysis of the resulting models through semantic labelling (annotation), semantic representation (ontology) and semantic reasoning (reasoner). The proposed method is a semantic-based process mining approach that is able to induce new knowledge based on previously unobserved behaviours, and a more intuitive and easy way to represent and query the datasets and the discovered models compared to other standard logical procedures. To this end, the study claims that it is possible to apply effective reasoning methods to make inferences over a process knowledge-base (e.g. the learning process) that leads to automated discovery of learning patterns and/or behaviour

Role of Haematologist in Radiologic and Nuclear Events

In Nuclear disasters whether they happen in war or occur accidentally the results are always very devastating. Following a Nuclear disaster all doctors, along with haematologists would be called out to participate. It is imperative to develop treatment guidelines for post radiation emergencies. Though such guidelines are available all around the world we outline the current plans for event response including catastrophic events that would require extensive support. The threat of possible nuclear disaster whether due to detonation of a nuclear device or due to accidents in handling of the radioactive materials requires that we develop and implement a plan of response.1 More than 400 radiologic accidents have occurred since 1944, resulting in more than 3000 significant exposures. Approximately 10 million “sealed sources” of radioactive material (e.g., cesium-137, cobalt-60) are used for medical, industrial, agricultural, and research purposes worldwide. More than 600 of these were lost or stolen since 1995 and less than half were eventually recovered. The haemopoietic system is the most rapidly dividing tissue of the body and as such the most vulnerable of all and most radiosensitive. Exposure of the haemopoietic stem cell as well as the progenitor cells results in their exponential death. The haemopoietic progenitor cells cannot survive a dose of >2-3 Gray (Gy).It results in haematological disaster in subsequent days including lymphopenia, bone marrow atrophy ,pancytopenia and bleeding which all contribute to its lethality. 2 Models suggest that, if a device similar to the bomb detonated over Hiroshima struck a city such as Karachi up to 175 000 victims would require intensive medical care and 300 000 would require management for myelosuppression. 3 Establishing National Haematology Radiation Injury Treatment OrganizationIt is purposed that a Pakistan Haematology Radiation Injury Treatment Organization be established on the lines of Radiation Injury Treatmen

Challenges and Opportunities for Reducing Losses to Fast- Arriving Tsunamis in Remote Villages Along the Coast of Pakistan

Fishing villages in coastal Pakistan would need to respond quickly to escape a tsunami from nearby parts of the Makran Subduction Zone. A previous Makran tsunami, in 1945, took hundreds of lives in this coastal area. The majority of those fatalities took place along tidal creeks of the Indus Delta, where the parent earthquake was scarcely felt. Today, many of the Delta villages must be reached by boat, and telecommunication is difficult. These circumstances add to the challenge of their receiving timely warning of an incoming tsunami—whether it is the immediate natural warning from a felt earthquake or a subsequent official warning from government agencies. A study supported by Oxfam GB underscores this challenge. Ten remote coastal villages, each visited by the study team, were found to have limited links to official warning systems through landlines, mobile phones, and the Internet. Two cities, by contrast, have International Maritime Satellite Organization sirens that can be set off by satellite. In addition to technological solutions, partial remedies currently available include improved tsunami awareness, training about natural warnings, and land use informed by hazard assessments

Synthesis, Characterization and Antimicrobial Properties of Silver Nanocomposites

Nanoparticles and polymers in their respective fields have contributed greatly in the form of science and hence in daily life application products. But due to lack in emerging technologies for developing silver nanocomposites with polymers and other materials, the nanoparticle-based products have conquered little less attention. Hereby, an effort is made to put a light on already developed functional materials containing silver nanoparticles and also to look forward their scope in daily life applications. A little more insight into antimicrobial properties of such materials will also be elaborated. Finally, the optimal amounts of silver that cannot be health hazardous to living being especially human and overall environmental impacts of Nanocomposites are presented

Surgical outcome of benign intracranial hypertension in terms of improvement in vision

To know about surgical outcome of benign intracranial hypertension in terms of improvement of vision.METHODOLOGY ; This Prospective observational study was conducted at of 22 patients operated in neurosurgery unit lady reading hospital Peshawar from Jan 2011 to Jun2014. Written consent was obtained from all the patients or their relatives All patients of either age and sex with Diagnosed cases of BIH were included in the study, Patients with depressed conscious level, malignant hypertension, space occupying lesion in brain on MRI and those Patients unfit or unwilling for surgery were excluded from the study. Patients particulars like age ,gender , and post operative outcome was documented on predesigned proforma . All the results were analyzed by spss version 16 and represented in the form o graphs/charts and tables. RESULTS;- Total 22 patients of BIH were studied which were all females (100%) having age range of 18 to 58 years with mean of 38 ± 5 years SD. Headache was present in all (100%) patients followed by visual deterioration having 20(90.90%) cases. CSF manometery showed opening pressure from 28cm of H2O to 50 cm of H2O, with mean of 39. 19. Post operatively headache improved in 16(72%) patients, Papilledema in 18(81.81%) caseswhile 4(18%) patients did not improved. In 2(9.09%) cases there was and CSF leak was in 1(4.54%) case.CONCLUSION; BIH has good surgical outcome in terms of improvement in vision, if managed before advanced stage of Papilledem

Accounting for the Effects of Oil Prices on Exchange Rate in Nigeria: Empirical Evidence from Linear and Non-Linear ARDL Models

This study empirically examines the impact oil prices on the exchange rate in Nigeria. Time series annual dataset spanning 1980 to 2018 was estimated using the linear and nonlinear ARDL model developed by Pesaran and Shin, (1998) & Pesaran, et al. (2001) and Shin, et al. (2014); where oil prices, nominal exchange rate, interest rate, and oil revenue serves as the variables for analysis.  From the result of the linear-ARDL models both the long run and short-run revealed that oil price has positive and significant impact on exchange rate. Similarly, the nonlinear model also revealed that, both in the long run and short-run, the depreciating effect of a fall in oil price is stronger than an appreciating effect of a arise in oil price of an equal magnitude. This, we argue, reflects the dependency of the economy on oil.  One policy implication of this finding is that stability of oil prices and oil revenue is critical for the stability of the domestic currency and, hence, prices. It is, therefore, recommended that authorities should focus on resolving the production difficulties in the Nigeria’s oil industry as a means of reducing the current revenue volatility

Women’s Empowerment and Antenatal Care Utilization in Pakistan

This study aimed at examining the role of women’s empowerment in antenatal care utilization among married women in Pakistan. The population of the study was based on secondary data from the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2017-18. A sample of 6,996 married women was selected, and the women reported their antenatal visits in the last five years. The descriptive, Chi-square, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression methods were used for data analysis through SPSS. The results of the study showed that only 15% of women had adequate antenatal visits. Bivariate analysis showed that women who had higher income status, higher education, and were working in managerial positions had significantly adequate antenatal health care (

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infections in patients visiting to gestroenterology department Rehman Medical Institute Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Gastritis and peptic ulcer is common worldwide as well in Pakistan. H. pylori is causative agent and can survive in acidic medium like stomach. H. pylori is unique bacteria that capable to cause stomach cancer. The objective of present study was to report the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infections in patients visiting to Rehman Medical Institute Peshawar. In the present descriptive cross-sectional study, a total number of 150 patients visiting to Gastroenterology Department Rehman Medical Institute Peshawar were gone through H. pylori screening test by Immunochromatography (BD ICT) method and test was performed to find out prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients visiting to Gastroenterology Department Rehman Medical Institute Peshawar. Data was recorded and analysed by SPSS-22 and shown here in the form of tables. Total number of patients was 150, out of them 44 (29.3%) patients were H. pylori positive and 106(70.7%) were H. pylori negative. The prevalence of H. pylori infection is higher in the patients visiting to gastroenterology department of Rehman Medical Institute Peshawar. It is more common in males as compared to female patients. We conclude here that patients of gastroenterology should be screened for H. pylori to cope with treatment & prevention from further complications