A NOVEL METHOD OF DETECTING HIV/AIDS USING MICROWAVES

HIV/AIDS is one of the most destructive epidemics in ever recorded history claims an estimated 2.4 –3.3 million lives every year. Even though there is no treatment for this pandemic Elisa and Western Blot tests are the only tests currently available for detecting HIV/AIDS. This article proposes a new method of detecting HIV/AIDS based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at the microwave frequencies. The measurements were made at the S-band of microwave frequency using rectangular cavity perturbation technique with the samples of blood from healthy donors as well as from HIV/AIDS patients. An appreciable change is observed in the dielectric properties of patient samples than with the normal healthy samples and these measurements were in good agreement with clinical results. This measurement is an alternative in vitro method of diagnosing HIV/AIDS using microwaves.

Systematic trends in self-consistent calculations of linear quantum wires

Systematic trends in the properties of a linear split-gate heterojunction are studied by solving iteratively the Poisson and Schrödinger equations for different gate potentials and temperatures. A two-dimensional approximation is presented that is much simpler in the numerical implementation and that accurately reproduces all significant trends. In deriving this approximation, we provide a rigorous and quantitative basis for the formulation of models that assumes a two-dimensional character for the electron gas at the junction.

Evaluation Of A Novel Method Of Real Time Computer Assisted Spine Surgery

In this paper the effectiveness of a novel method of computer assisted pedicle screw insertion was studied using testing of hypothesis procedure with a sample size of 48. Pattern recognition based on geometric features of markers on the drill has been performed on real time optical video obtained from orthogonally placed CCD cameras. The study reveals the exactness of the calculated position of the drill using navigation based on CT image of the vertebra and real time optical video of the drill. The significance value is 0.424 at 95% confidence level which indicates good precision with a standard mean error of only 0.00724. The virtual vision method is less hazardous to both patient and the surgeon

Characterization of Linear Low-Density Polyethylene/ Poly(vinyl alcohol) Blends and Their Biodegradability by Vibrio sp. Isolated from Marine Benthic Environment

Increasing amounts of plastic waste in the environment have become a problem of gigantic proportions. The case of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) is especially significant as it is widely used for packaging and other applications. This synthetic polymer is normally not biodegradable until it is degraded into low molecular mass fragments that can be assimilated by microorganisms. Blends of nonbiodegradable polymers and biodegradable commercial polymers such as poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) can facilitate a reduction in the volume of plastic waste when they undergo partial degradation. Further, the remaining fragments stand a greater chance of undergoing biodegradation in a much shorter span of time. In this investigation, LLDPE was blended with different proportions of PVA (5–30%) in a torque rheometer. Mechanical, thermal, and biodegradation studies were carried out on the blends. The biodegradability of LLDPE/PVA blends has been studied in two environments: (1) in a culture medium containing Vibrio sp. and (2) soil environment, both over a period of 15 weeks. Blends exposed to culture medium degraded more than that exposed to soil environment. Changes in various properties of LLDPE/PVA blends before and after degradation were monitored using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) for crystallinity, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for surface morphology among other things. Percentage crystallinity decreased as the PVA content increased and biodegradation resulted in an increase of crystallinity in LLDPE/PVA blends. The results prove that partial biodegradation of the blends has occurred holding promise for an eventual biodegradable product

On Degeneracy of Linear Reconstruction from Three Views: Linear Line Complex and Applications

This paper investigates the linear degeneracies of projective structure estimation from point and line features across three views. We show that the rank of the linear system of equations for recovering the trilinear tensor of three views reduces to 23 (instead of 26) in the case when the scene is a Linear Line Complex (set of lines in space intersecting at a common line) and is 21 when the scene is planar. The LLC situation is only linearly degenerate, and we show that one can obtain a unique solution when the admissibility constraints of the tensor are accounted for. The line configuration described by an LLC, rather than being some obscure case, is in fact quite typical. It includes, as a particular example, the case of a camera moving down a hallway in an office environment or down an urban street. Furthermore, an LLC situation may occur as an artifact such as in direct estimation from spatio-temporal derivatives of image brightness. Therefore, an investigation into degeneracies and their remedy is important also in practice.

Palm-plantar pallor as a diagnostic method of mild-moderate anemia

Objective: to determine the palm-plant paleness’ characteristics in Colombian infant rural population, as a diagnostic method of anemia, and to establish a correlation between the finding of palm-plant paleness and the Hematocrit values. Methodology: a cross sectional study was used to evaluate 169 boys and girls, between 2 months and 12 years old, of the rural area of San Vicente del Caguan, who entered into a Health Campaign. Following the signature of an informed consent, parents accept their children to participate in the study. Those with acute or chronic pathologies were excluded. The presence of palm-plant paleness was determined by observers trained in the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Strategy. Hematocrit was measured to all children, as well as a peripheral blood smear. Interrater concordance evaluation (Kappa index) was determined through a pilot test and a validation (sensitivity, specificity) was performed, using Hematocrit as the standard. Results: 93 of the participants were male and 77 were female. 45% of them had palm paleness. The Hematocrit showed anemia in 34.1% of the children. The validation analysis demonstrated a 67.2% of sensibility, a 66.6% of specificity, a 51.3% of positive predictive values and a 79.5% of negative predictive values. Hypochromic and Eosinophilia were found in most of the peripheral blood smears’ children with anemia. Conclusions: although this tool presents a low sensibility and specificity for low/moderated anemia, it is useful for excluding it in infants without palm paleness.

Elimination of collaborative inhibition effect using the Method of Loci

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Dialogue journal writing: an effective method of improving the writing skills of hearing-impaired children?

This paper discusses a study to determine if dialogue journal writing can improve the writing skills of hearing impaired children.

Comparing sampling needs for variograms of soil properties computed by the method of moments and residual maximum likelihood

It has been generally accepted that the method of moments (MoM) variogram, which has been widely applied in soil science, requires about 100 sites at an appropriate interval apart to describe the variation adequately. This sample size is often larger than can be afforded for soil surveys of agricultural fields or contaminated sites. Furthermore, it might be a much larger sample size than is needed where the scale of variation is large. A possible alternative in such situations is the residual maximum likelihood (REML) variogram because fewer data appear to be required. The REML method is parametric and is considered reliable where there is trend in the data because it is based on generalized increments that filter trend out and only the covariance parameters are estimated. Previous research has suggested that fewer data are needed to compute a reliable variogram using a maximum likelihood approach such as REML, however, the results can vary according to the nature of the spatial variation. There remain issues to examine: how many fewer data can be used, how should the sampling sites be distributed over the site of interest, and how do different degrees of spatial variation affect the data requirements? The soil of four field sites of different size, physiography, parent material and soil type was sampled intensively, and MoM and REML variograms were calculated for clay content. The data were then sub-sampled to give different sample sizes and distributions of sites and the variograms were computed again. The model parameters for the sets of variograms for each site were used for cross-validation. Predictions based on REML variograms were generally more accurate than those from MoM variograms with fewer than 100 sampling sites. A sample size of around 50 sites at an appropriate distance apart, possibly determined from variograms of ancillary data, appears adequate to compute REML variograms for kriging soil properties for precision agriculture and contaminated sites. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.