Cycling Through History: Making an American Sport 1880-present, Blog 4

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

An IoT System for Converting Handwritten Text to Editable Format via Gesture Recognition

Evaluation of traditional classroom has led to electronic classroom i.e. e-learning. Growth of traditional classroom doesn’t stop at e-learning or distance learning. Next step to electronic classroom is a smart classroom. Most popular features of electronic classroom is capturing video/photos of lecture content and extracting handwriting for note-taking. Numerous techniques have been implemented in order to extract handwriting from video/photo of the lecture but still the deficiency of few techniques can be resolved, and which can turn electronic classroom into smart classroom. In this thesis, we present a real-time IoT system to convert handwritten text into editable format by implementing hand gesture recognition (HGR) with Raspberry Pi and camera. Hand Gesture Recognition (HGR) is built using edge detection algorithm and HGR is used in this system to reduce computational complexity of previous systems i.e. removal of redundant images and lecture’s body from image, recollecting text from previous images to fill area from where lecture’s body has been removed. Raspberry Pi is used to retrieve, perceive HGR and to build a smart classroom based on IoT. Handwritten images are converted into editable format by using OpenCV and machine learning algorithms. In text conversion, recognition of uppercase and lowercase alphabets, numbers, special characters, mathematical symbols, equations, graphs and figures are included with recognition of word, lines, blocks, and paragraphs. With the help of Raspberry Pi and IoT, the editable format of lecture notes is given to students via desktop application which helps students to edit notes and images according to their necessity

Disproportion of Women in General Surgery and Obstetrics-Gynecology Professions

An increasingly number of women have been enrolling in U.S. medical schools recently and the field of obstetrics-gynecology has become predominantly female, but the profession of general surgery still remains largely unequal between the two genders. There is an observable pattern of gender inequality in both of these specialties, which is a result of several different factors which affect all women regardless of their profession. I studied how the stark difference in the percentages of female surgeons versus the percentages of female obstetricians-gynecologists compared to men has been created due to the prescribed gender roles of women in society. I looked at articles in medical journals in the two individual specialties for articles dealing with the different factors, such as family, marriage, social trajectories, to existing stereotypes, that could influence a woman to choose a particular medical profession. I found that although more women have been enrolling in general surgery over the last couple of years, there is still a large difference in the number of women in general surgery and those in obstetrics-gynecology, due to certain factors which have not been publicly addressed. The decrease of women in general surgery has paralleled with an increase of women in obstetrics-gynecology in the same time span, due to the social factors that women are often forced to consider before entering a career field. Societal expectations about motherhood are often the main reason why women really venture into long, strenuous, and demanding careers like general surgery. However, there are other influences that women experience that deter them from general surgical training, such as the existing negative perceptions and stereotypes, gender-based discrimination, and the lack of motivation by same-sex mentors. Since there is a need to address the gender inequality in general surgery, actions need to be to be taken. Increasing the number of women in surgical faculty, providing flexibility with maternity leave, and adjusting rigorous residency curriculum are possible steps to help encourage women to pursue the career.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1141/thumbnail.jp

A GRAPH-BASED APPROACH FOR ADAPTIVE SERIOUS GAMES

Traditional education systems are based on the one-size-fits-all approach, which lacks personalization, engagement, and flexibility necessary to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of students. This encouraged researchers to focus on exploring automated, personalized instructional systems to enhance students’ learning experiences. Motivated by this remark, this thesis proposes a personalized instructional system using a graph method to enhance a player’s learning process by preventing frustration and avoiding a monotonous experience. Our system uses a directional graph, called an action graph, for representing solutions to in-game problems based on possible player actions. Through our proposed algorithm, a serious game integrated with our system would both detect player errors and provide personalized assistance to direct a player in the direction of a correct solution. To verify system performance, this research presents comparison testing on a group of students engaging in the game both with and without AI. Students who played the AI-assisted game showed an average 20% decrease in time needed and an average 58% decrease in actions taken to complete the game

Effect of eclampsia on pregnancy outcome at tertiary care center, Gujarat, India

Background: Eclampsia, a common medical emergency of pregnancy mainly seen in 5% to 10% of all pregnancies. The objective of the present study was to study the effect of eclampsia on maternal and perinatal outcome.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 50 clinically diagnosed women with eclampsia in their third trimester of pregnancy. Inclusion criteria for the study was; females with singleton pregnancy, all in the third trimester which were diagnosed to have PIH based on the development of hypertension for the first time, proteinuria with or without edema, with no history of previous urinary tract troubles and no evidence of UTI.Results: Almost 84.0% participants were belonged to age group of 20 to 30 years age, 54.0% were belonged to rural area and 92.0% were belonged to lower socio-economical class, 88.0%% participants were registered as emergency case, 34.0% participants were stayed more than 10 days at hospital and 36.0% were completed ANC visit. Almost 24.0% participants were anemic, 6.0% pre-eclampsic and 4.0% have tween pregnancy. Severe hypertension at the time of admission were noted in 50.0% participants followed by absent knee jerk (12.0%), proteinuria (78.0%) and edema (62.0%) respectively. Maternal mortality and still birth observed in 2.0% and 18.0% cases respectively.Conclusions: Early age, lower socio-economic class, anemia, less ANC clinic visit, higher hospital stay and primigravida observed more among study participants and these factors may play an important role in the pathogenesis of eclampsia

Serum magnesium level in eclampsia at tertiary care center, Gujarat, India

Background: Magnesium may be physiologically important in blood pressure regulation whereas changes in magnesium levels could contribute to the patho-etiology of hypertension. The objective of the present study was to study the level and effect of magnesium in eclamptic pregnant women.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 50 clinically diagnosed women with eclampsia in their third trimester of pregnancy. Inclusion criteria for the study was; females with singleton pregnancy, all in the third trimester which were diagnosed to have PIH based on the development of hypertension for the first time, proteinuria with or without edema, with no history of previous urinary tract troubles and no evidence of UTI. The concentration of total serum magnesium was measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy.Results: Mean age, mean gestational age, mean total hospital stays, mean BMI, mean systolic BP and diastolic BP was 24.3 years with 5.1 SD, 36.4 week with 3.3 SD, 7.8 days with 2.4 SD, 28.9 wt/ht2 with 4.8 SD, 146.5 mmHg with 14.7 SD and 95.9 mmHg with 11.2 SD respectively. Mean magnesium level was 1.9 mmol/L with 2.2 SD.Conclusions: Hypomagnesemia is present in eclamptic pregnant women. In developing countries like India, sufficient dietary supplementation should be given above the recommended dietary allowances in pregnancy at least in susceptible pregnant women

Examining Addiction Treatment Facilities: An Observational Study from the Perspective of Medical Students

At the Institute for Research, Education, and Training in Addictions (IRETA), medical students are selected nationwide to learn about addiction and interact with patients undergoing treatment. It is well known that most medical schools do not provide significant training in addiction, and part of IRETA\u27s goal is to remedy this need. In this study, medical students took observational field notes during site visits to various addiction treatment facilities. The data consisted of a comparison of treatment programs, as well as the results of motivational interviewing of patients. A thematic analysis was then conducted by the three students and the IRETA Education Director. The data was coded into five themes essential to the doctor-patient relationship specific to these experiences with patients suffering from substance abuse. The Alcohol and Alcohol Problems and Perceptions Questionnaire (AAPPQ) and the Drug and Drug Problems and Perceptions Questionnaire (DDPPQ) were used as well. From the results, it was found that in categories of Role Support, Therapeutic Commitment, and Role Security, medical students were significantly more comfortable in treating patients with substance abuse. The themes found from compiled data included: Communication, Support, Environment, Empathy, and Physician Education. These themes are useful in educating medical students and professionals alike about the needs of patients suffering from addiction, and the most efficacious way to provide treatment

Can perineal tear be predicted by severity of striae gravidarum score?

Background: The objective of this study was to wether perineal tear predicted by scoring of severity of striae gravidarum. The objective of this study was to predict perineal tear by simple non-invasive method and help to prevent maternal morbidity.Methods: Three hundred ninety four patients delivered normally were included in this study. Striae gravidarum score was assessed using the Atwal numerical scoring system. The association was examined between striae and perineal tear as the outcome measure, defined by tears or laceration, and the total striae scores (TSS) was obtained.Results: In present study population mean age was 25.16 years ranging from 16-40 , mean gravidity was 2.16 ranging from 1 -8 ,average baby birth weight was 2.713 kg ranging from  1.62-4.58 The only predictors of perineal tears that were found to be statistically significant in our study were severity of striae gravidarum and episiotomy given or not. In patients with moderate to severe striae there was tear in 90 patients as compared to 29 patients with no or mild striae. 224 patients belonging to no or mild striae group delivered without any perineal tear whereas 51 patients in moderate to severe striae group delivered without tear. Out of these 51 patients 5 were given episiotomy. 2 patients who were given episiotomy had perineal tear as compared to 117 patients who were not given episiotomy. This shows that patients who had an episiotomy were less likely to have perineal tear in most cases.Conclusions: This study demonstrates a significant relation between severity of striae gravidarum and perineal tear. The findings suggest that striae gravidarum assessment may be used in the clinical setting even by paramedical staff as a simple and noninvasive tool to better define women at risk for perineal tear

Analysis and Implementation of Malicious Node in AODV Routing Protocol

The Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is constructed based on wireless medium and it is of self organizing behaviour. MANET is easy to establish and having dynamic topology. The mobile Ad-hoc networks are vulnerable to various networks attacks because MANET operational environment is open and dynamic or live. MANET uses the Routing protocols for data transfer. Two different types of Routing protocols are available: Table Driven and On Demand Routing Protocols. Malicious node is the one type of mobile node but its work is completely different compared to normal Mobile nodes. Malicious nodes have capability to change or remove Routing Information. It also sends or advertises the fake Route Request to attract user’s data. Malicious node disturbs the Network to carry correct flow of operation. It is responsible for attacks on the existing normal mobile nodes and creates receiver collision, limited transmission power, false misbehaviour etc. Malicious or selfish node carries attacks on the networks so it directly effects to the routing Performance. The objective of this work is to check Network performance in malicious environment and provide prevention for the attack. Throughput and Delay are analysed for Denial of Service (DoS) attack and prevention scenarios. Keywords: MANET, AODV, Selfish Node, DoS Attack, Routing Protocol

Morbidly adherent placenta: management is real challenge

Background: The objective of the present study was to describe management of morbidly adherent placenta with placenta previa and feto-maternal outcome.Methods: All antenatal USG diagnosed cases of morbidly adherent placenta were analyzed. The cases were managed by elective caesarean hysterectomy and non-separation of placenta at delivery. Amount of blood loss, blood transfused, ICU admission, postnatal complications and hospital stay was recorded.Results: From January 2010 to October 2018, 22 cases of morbidly adherent placenta were diagnosed on gray scale and color Doppler during antenatal ultrasound scan. Scheduled caesarean hysterectomy without attempting placental removal was done. Subtotal hysterectomy was performed in 17(77.2%) cases and total hysterectomy in remaining 5(22.8%) cases. All the patients required blood transfusion.  Seven (31.8%) patients had urinary bladder injury. One case developed DIC and One needed ventilatory support. No patient died in this series.Conclusions: Antenatal diagnosed cases of morbidly adherent placenta, avoidance of placental separation and caesarean hysterectomy results in better maternal outcome