Design and Development of a portable Pulse Oximetry system

Heart is the most important part in human body. Thus, it is important to follow-up and monitor its condition. Heart rate (HR) and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) are important indicators directly related to heart-pulmonary system. Monitoring of HR and SpO2 offers us a good indication of heart functionality. Therefore, it is crucial to design and develop a homemade inexpensive device for measuring HR and SpO2. Pulse Oximeter (PO) is an opto-electronic non-invasive medical instrument capable of measuring and recording the changes of HR and SpO2 at the finger tip. In this paper we will demonstrate the overall process involved in the development of a portable (PO) system which can be used for health condition monitoring or for educational and research purposes

Influence of Fertilizer Microdosing on Strigolactone Production and Striga hermonthica Parasitism in Pearl Millet

Parasitism by the root-parasitic plant, Striga (Striga hermonthica L.), is a main threat to pearl millet production in sub-Saharan Africa and nutrient deficiency aggravates this problem, often leading to complete failure of pearl millet crops. Like many other species, pearl millet secretes germination stimulants (strigolactones) into the soil in response to mineral nutrient deficiency, which triggers Striga seed germination resulting in infection. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of different doses of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer on strigolactone production and Striga infection in three different African pearl millet cultivars (KBH, Sadore Local and Striga resistance). All the pearl millet genotypes produced varying amounts of different strigolactones like orobanchol, epi-orobanchol, orobanchyl acetate and 5-deoxystrigol, the level of which decreases with increasing doses of DAP. The control treatment (no DAP) showed maximum Striga germination, emergence and dry biomass production in all cultivars of pearl millet. Supply of DAP fertilizer up to 4 g per hill suppressed Striga germination by 69, 64 and 59%; emergence by 87, 85 and 95% and dry biomass by 91, 98 and 83% in cvs KBH, Sadore Local and Striga Resistance, respectively. The present findings reveal that DAP fertilizer minimizes strigolactones production and, as a result, reduces Striga infection in pearl millet. Low doses of DAP fertilizer is a promising strategy to lower the destructive effect of Striga on pearl millet. The use of small doses of DAP fertilizer combined with resistant crop cultivars, intercropping with legumes and hand pulling of Striga at flowering in an integrated Striga control strategy should be developed to help African farmers control this noxious weed

Vehicle Active Suspension Control using Multi-order PID Approach

This paper presents the comparison among passive, proportional-integral-differential (PID) and multi-order PID (MOPID) controlled active suspensions. The quarter car model is validated with previous experimental results. The active suspension control via simulation is performed at three different frequency regions which are below natural frequency of body, in between natural frequency of body and wheel and above natural frequency of wheel. The parameters are tuned and Dormand-Prince solver is used in the simulation. The MOPID controller produces good performance in controlling vertical body displacement and acceleration thus improve ride performance and comfort

In vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of the extracts of Muntingia calabura leaves.

The in vitro antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of the aqueous, chloroform and methanol extracts of Muntingia calabura leaves were determined in the present study. Assessed using the 3,(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay, the aqueous and methanol extracts of M. calabura inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, HeLa, HT-29, HL-60 and K-562 cancer cells while the chloroform extract only inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, HeLa, HL-60 and K-562 cancer cells. Interestingly, all extracts of M. calabura, which failed to inhibit the MDA-MB-231 cells proliferation, did not inhibit the proliferation of 3T3 (normal) cells, indicating its safety. All extracts (20, 100 and 500 μg/ml) were found to possess antioxidant activity when tested using the DPPH radical scavenging and superoxide scavenging assays with the methanol, followed by the aqueous and chloroform, extract exhibiting the highest antioxidant activity in both assays. The total phenolic content for the aqueous, methanol and chloroform extracts were 2970.4 ± 6.6, 1279.9 ± 6.1 and 2978.1 ± 4.3 mg/100 g gallic acid, respectively. In conclusion, the M. calabura leaves possess potential antiproliferative and antioxidant activities that could be attributed to its high content of phenolic compounds, and thus, needs to be further explored

Analysing count data of Butterflies communities in Jasin, Melaka: a poisson regression analysis

Counting outcomes normally have remaining values highly skewed toward the right as they are often characterized by large values of zeros. The data of butterfly communities, had been taken from Jasin, Melaka and consists of 131 number of subject visits in Jasin, Melaka. In this paper, considering the count data of butterfly communities, an analysis is considered Poisson regression analysis as it is assumed to be an alternative way on better suited to the counting process. This research paper is about analysing count data from zero observation ecological inference of butterfly communities in Jasin, Melaka by using Poisson regression analysis. The software for Poisson regression is readily available and it is becoming more widely used in many field of research and the data was analysed by using SAS software. The purpose of analysis comprised the framework of identifying the concerns. Besides, by using Poisson regression analysis, the study determines the fitness of data for accessing the reliability on using the count data. The finding indicates that the highest and lowest number of subject comes from the third family (Nymphalidae) family and fifth (Hesperidae) family and the Poisson distribution seems to fit the zero values

Development of brain tissue swelling predictive tools for ischaemic stroke patient post-treatment

Ischaemic stroke is one of the causes of death worldwide. Treatments such as thrombolysis and catheterisation must be given within 3 hours after stroke onset, in which treatments beyond this time may pose risk of brain tissue swelling. Thus, a prediction system must be made to determine the suitability of a stroke treatment to avoid the risk of failure. In this report, a mathematical model based on poroelastic theory and asymptotic expansion homogenization has been developed to study the formation of brain tissue swelling after ischaemia-reperfusion treatment. Firstly, the mathematical model of brain tissue swelling after ischaemia-reperfusion treatment is investigated using an ideal 2D brain geometry. The objective here is to observe the effect of infarct size and location towards the formation and severity of brain herniation, which will form due to brain tissue swelling. However, this model assumed that the blood pressure is constant and homogeneous throughout the brain, while in fact, the blood capillaries vary in sizes and shapes. Therefore, asymptotic expansion homogenization technique is applied to allow for the inclusion of capillaries sizes into the initial model. This method transforms the initial model into two types of equations: (1) macroscale governing equations; and (2) microscale cell problems. In order to solve for the macroscale governing equations, the microscale cell problems must first be solved on a brain tissue geometry to calculate the effective parametric tensors, which later be used in the macroscale governing equations. Lastly, the mathematical model is solved in a realistic brain geometry to evcaluate the effect of different mechanical properties of the brain towards brain tissue swelling formation

Investigation of Pulse electric field effect on HeLa cells alignment properties on extracellular matrix protein patterned surface

YesCell behavior in terms of adhesion, orientation and guidance, on extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules including collagen, fibronectin and laminin can be examined using micro contact printing (MCP). These cell adhesion proteins can direct cellular adhesion, migration, differentiation and network formation in-vitro. This study investigates the effect of microcontact printed ECM protein, namely fibronectin, on alignment and morphology of HeLa cells cultured in-vitro. Fibronectin was stamped on plain glass cover slips to create patterns of 25μm, 50μm and 100μm width. However, HeLa cells seeded on 50μm induced the best alignment on fibronectin pattern (7.66° ±1.55SD). As a consequence of this, 50μm wide fibronectin pattern was used to see how fibronectin induced cell guidance of HeLa cells was influenced by 100μs and single pulse electric fields (PEF) of 1kV/cm. The results indicates that cells aligned more under pulse electric field exposure (2.33° ±1.52SD) on fibronectin pattern substrate. Thus, PEF usage on biological cells would appear to enhance cell surface attachment and cell guidance. Understanding this further may have applications in enhancing tissue graft generation and potentially wound repair.Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and UTHM Tier 1 Research Grant (U865

Molecular identification of adenoviruses associated with respiratory infection in Egypt from 2003 to 2010.

BACKGROUND: Human adenoviruses of species B, C, and E (HAdV-B, -C, -E) are frequent causative agents of acute respiratory infections worldwide. As part of a surveillance program aimed at identifying the etiology of influenza-like illness (ILI) in Egypt, we characterized 105 adenovirus isolates from clinical samples collected between 2003 and 2010. METHODS: Identification of the isolates as HAdV was accomplished by an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and confirmed by a set of species and type specific polymerase chain reactions (PCR). RESULTS: Of the 105 isolates, 42% were identified as belonging to HAdV-B, 60% as HAdV-C, and 1% as HAdV-E. We identified a total of six co-infections by PCR, of which five were HAdV-B/HAdV-C co-infections, and one was a co-infection of two HAdV-C types: HAdV-5/HAdV-6. Molecular typing by PCR enabled the identification of eight genotypes of human adenoviruses; HAdV-3 (n = 22), HAdV-7 (n = 14), HAdV-11 (n = 8), HAdV-1 (n = 22), HAdV-2 (20), HAdV-5 (n = 15), HAdV-6 (n = 3) and HAdV-4 (n = 1). The most abundant species in the characterized collection of isolates was HAdV-C, which is concordant with existing data for worldwide epidemiology of HAdV respiratory infections. CONCLUSIONS: We identified three species, HAdV-B, -C and -E, among patients with ILI over the course of 7 years in Egypt, with at least eight diverse types circulating

Genetic variation in strigolactone production and tillering in rice and its effect on Striga hermonthica infection

Tillering in cereals is a complex process in the regulation of which also signals from the roots in the form of strigolactones play an important role. The strigolactones are signalling molecules that are secreted into the rhizosphere where they act as germination stimulants for root parasitic plants and hyphal branching factors for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. On the other hand, they are also transported from the roots to the shoot where they inhibit tillering or branching. In the present study, the genetic variation in strigolactone production and tillering phenotype was studied in twenty rice varieties collected from all over the world and correlated with S. hermonthica infection. Rice cultivars like IAC 165, IAC 1246, Gangweondo and Kinko produced high amounts of the strigolactones orobanchol, 2′-epi-5-deoxystrigol and three methoxy-5-deoxystrigol isomers and displayed low amounts of tillers. These varieties induced high S. hermonthica germination, attachment, emergence as well as dry biomass. In contrast, rice cultivars such as Super Basmati, TN 1, Anakila and Agee displayed high tillering in combination with low production of the aforementioned strigolactones. These varieties induced only low S. hermonthica germination, attachment, emergence and dry biomass. Statistical analysis across all the varieties confirmed a positive correlation between strigolactone production and S. hermonthica infection and a negative relationship with tillering. These results show that genetic variation in tillering capacity is the result of genetic variation in strigolactone production and hence could be a helpful tool in selecting rice cultivars that are less susceptible to S. hermonthica infection