Abstract: Evidence-based medicine is a new direction in modern healthcare. Its task is to prevent, diagnose and medicate diseases using medical evidence. Medical data about a large patient population is analyzed to perform healthcare management and medical research. In order to obtain the best evidence for a given disease, external clinical expertise as well as internal clinical experience must be available to the healthcare practitioners at right time and in the right manner. External evidence-based knowledge can not be applied directly to the patient without adjusting it to the patient-s health condition. We propose a data warehouse based approach as a suitable solution for the integration of external evidence-based data sources into the existing clinical information system and data mining techniques for finding appropriate therapy for a given patient and a given disease. Through integration of data warehousing, OLAP and data mining techniques in the healthcare area, an easy to use decision support platform, which supports decision making process of care givers and clinical managers, is built. We present three case studies, which show, that a clinical data warehouse that facilitates evidence-based medicine is a reliable, powerful and user-friendly platform for strategic decision making, which has a great relevance for the practice and acceptance of evidence-based medicine.
Abstract: Alpinia galanga is rhizome, generally known as
Greater galangal and is selected for isolation of newer constituents
accountable for various therapeutic activities. Present study is
intended to isolate glycoside from Alpinia galanga rhizomes. Alpinia
galanga methanolic extract was column chromatograph and eluted
with ethyl acetate-methanol (99:1) to isolate compound β-Sitosterol
Diarabinoside. Herein, the isolation and structural elucidation of new
compound is described. Chemical investigation of methanolic extract
of rhizomes of Alpinia galanga furnished a new compound β-
Sitosterol Diarabinoside. The IR, NMR and MASS investigations of
isolated compound confirmed its structure as β-Sitosterol
Diarabinoside, which is isolated for the first time from a medicinal
plant or any synthetic source.
Abstract: Gaharu that produced by Aquilaria spp. is classified as
one of the most valuable forest products traded internationally as it is
very resinous, fragrant and highly valuable heartwood. Gaharu has
been widely used in aromatheraphy, medicine, perfume and religious
practices. This work aimed to determine the factors affecting solid
liquid extraction of gaharu oil using hexane as solvent under
experimental condition. The kinetics of extraction was assumed and
verified based on a second-order mechanism. The effect of three
main factors, which were temperature, reaction time and solvent to
solid ratio were investigated to achieve maximum oil yield. The
optimum condition were found at temperature 65°C, 9 hours reaction
time and solvent to solid ratio of 12:1 with 14.5% oil yield. The
kinetics experimental data agrees and well fitted with the second
order extraction model. The initial extraction rate (h) was 0.0115
gmL-1min-1; the extraction capacity (Cs) was 1.282gmL-1; the second
order extraction constant (k) was 0.007 mLg-1min-1 and coefficient of
determination, R2 was 0.945.
Abstract: Recent years have instance that there is a invigoration
of interest in drug discovery from medicinal plants for the support of
health in all parts of the world . This study was designed to examine
the in vitro antimicrobial activities of the flowers and leaves
methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Chenopodium album L.
Chenopodium album Linn. flowers and leaves were collected from
East Esfahan, Iran. The effects of methanolic and ethanolic extracts
were tested against 4 bacterial strains by using disc,well-diffusion
method. Results showed that flowers and leaves methanolic and
ethanolic extracts of C.album don-t have any activity against the
selected bacterial strains. Our study has indicated that ,there are
effective different factors on antimicrobial properties of plant extracts
Abstract: The plant world is the source of many medicines.
Recently, researchers have estimated that there are approximately
400,000 plant species worldwide, of which about a quarter or a third
have been used by societies for medicinal purposes. The human uses
of plants for thousands of years to treat various ailments, in many
developing countries, much of the population trust in traditional
doctors and their collections of medicinal plants to treat them.
Essential oils have many therapeutic properties. In herbal medicine,
they are used for their antiseptic properties against infectious
diseases of fungal origin, against dermatophytes, those of bacterial
origin. The aim of our study is to determine the antimicrobial effect
of essential oils of the plant Trigonella focnum greacum on some
pathogenic bacteria, it is a medicinal plant used in traditional
therapy. The test adopted is based on the diffusion method on solid
medium (Antibiogram), this method determines the sensitivity or
resistance of a microorganism vis-à-vis the extract studied. Our study
reveals that the essential oil of the plant Trigonella focnum greacum
has a different effect on the resistance of germs. For staphiloccocus
Pseudomonnas aeroginosa and Krebsilla, are moderately sensitive
strains, also Escherichia coli and Candida albicans represents a high
sensitivity. By against Proteus is a strain that represents a weak
sensitivity.
Abstract: The introduction of mass-customization has enabled
new ways to treat patients within medicine. However, the
introduction of industrialized treatments has also meant new
obstacles. The purpose of this study was to introduce and
theoretically test a method for improving dental crown fit. The
optimization method allocates support points in order to check the
final variation for dental crowns. Three different types of geometries
were tested and compared. The three geometries were also divided
into three sub-geometries: Current method, Optimized method and
Feasible method. The Optimized method, using the whole surface for
support points, provided the best results. The results support the
objective of the study. It also seems that the support optimization
method can dramatically improve the robustness of dental crown
treatments.
Abstract: Our results showed that for the growth of qualitative
seedling and vegetative raw material of ðó. marschallianus Willd. and
T. serphyllum L. it is more profitable to use the in vitro and
hydroponics combined method. In in vitro culture it is possible to do
micro-propagation whole year with 98-99% rhizogenesis. 30000
micro-plants were obtained from one explant during 9 months.
Hydroponic conditions provide the necessary microclimate for
microplants where the survival rate without acclimatization was
93.3%. The essential oil content in hydroponic dry herb of both
species in vegetative and blossom phase was 1.3% whereas in wild
plants it was 1.2%, the content of extractive substances and vitamin
C also exceeded wild plants. Our biochemical and radiochemical
investigations indicated that the medicinal raw materials obtained
from hydroponic and wild plants of Thymus species correspond to
the demands of SPh XI, and the content of artificial radionuclides
does not exceed the MACL.
Abstract: Medical image modalities such as computed
tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound
(US), X-ray are adapted to diagnose disease. These modalities
provide flexible means of reviewing anatomical cross-sections and
physiological state in different parts of the human body. The raw
medical images have a huge file size and need large storage
requirements. So it should be such a way to reduce the size of those
image files to be valid for telemedicine applications. Thus the image
compression is a key factor to reduce the bit rate for transmission or
storage while maintaining an acceptable reproduction quality, but it is
natural to rise the question of how much an image can be compressed
and still preserve sufficient information for a given clinical
application. Many techniques for achieving data compression have
been introduced. In this study, three different MRI modalities which
are Brain, Spine and Knee have been compressed and reconstructed
using wavelet transform. Subjective and objective evaluation has
been done to investigate the clinical information quality of the
compressed images. For the objective evaluation, the results show
that the PSNR which indicates the quality of the reconstructed image
is ranging from (21.95 dB to 30.80 dB, 27.25 dB to 35.75 dB, and
26.93 dB to 34.93 dB) for Brain, Spine, and Knee respectively. For
the subjective evaluation test, the results show that the compression
ratio of 40:1 was acceptable for brain image, whereas for spine and
knee images 50:1 was acceptable.
Abstract: The relevance of the study of everyday life in Almaty
and Kyzylorda are associated with the emergence of the modern
trends in historiography and socializing areas of government reform.
The relevance is due to the fact that in the early twentieth century
Kyzylorda and Almaty began to develop as a city and this period has
a special place in the life of the state. An interesting aspect of the
everyday life of the inhabitants of the new city, which was built in the
era of Stalin's Five-Year Plans, can be examined through the eyes of
the Soviet people living in a specific environment, reflecting the life
of the citizens. The study of industrialization of the Soviet Union and
the attention paid to new developments in the first five years of
everyday aspects as the impact of the modernization of the 1930s was
one of the decisive factors in the lives of residents. Among these
factors, we would like to highlight the medical field, which is the
basis of all human life, specifically focusing on the state of medicine
in Alma-Ata in the first 20-30-years of the twentieth century, and
analyze the different aspects of human life, determining the quality of
medical care to the population during this period.
Abstract: Saffron (Crocus sativus) is cultivated as spices,
medicinal and aromatic plant species. At autumn season, heavy
rainfall can cause flooding stress and inhibits growth of saffron. Thus
this research was conducted to study the effect of silver ion (as an
ethylene inhibitor) on growth of saffron under flooding conditions.
The corms of saffron were soaked with one concentration of nano
silver (0, 40, 80 or 120 ppm) and then planting under flooding stress
or non flooding stress conditions. Results showed that number of
roots, root length, root fresh and dry weight, leaves fresh and dry
weight were reduced by 10 day flooding stress. Soaking saffron
corms with 40 or 80 ppm concentration of nano silver rewarded the
effect of flooding stress on the root number, by increasing it.
Furthermore, 40 ppm of nano silver increased root length in stress.
Nano silver 80 ppm in flooding stress, increased leaves dry weight.
Abstract: Young patients suffering from Cerebral Palsy are
facing difficult choices concerning heavy surgeries. Diagnosis settled
by surgeons can be complex and on the other hand decision for
patient about getting or not such a surgery involves important
reflection effort. Proposed software combining prediction for
surgeries and post surgery kinematic values, and from 3D model
representing the patient is an innovative tool helpful for both patients
and medicine professionals. Beginning with analysis and
classification of kinematics values from Data Base extracted from
gait analysis in 3 separated clusters, it is possible to determine close
similarity between patients. Prediction surgery best adapted to
improve a patient gait is then determined by operating a suitable
preconditioned neural network. Finally, patient 3D modeling based
on kinematic values analysis, is animated thanks to post surgery
kinematic vectors characterizing the closest patient selected from
patients clustering.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to develop a dynamic cardiac phantom for quality control in myocardial scintigraphy. The dynamic heart phantom constructed only contained the left ventricle, made of elastic material (latex), comprising two cavities: one internal and one external. The data showed a non-significant variation in the values of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) obtained by varying the heart rate. It was also possible to evaluate the ejection fraction (LVEF) through different arrays of image acquisition and to perform an intercomparison of LVEF by two different scintillation cameras. The results of the quality control tests were satisfactory, showing that they can be used as parameters in future assessments. The new dynamic heart phantom was demonstrated to be effective for use in LVEF measurements. Therefore, the new heart simulator is useful for the quality control of scintigraphic cameras.
Abstract: In this investigation, the antibacterial effects of
ethanolic and 7:3 isopropyl –hexane mixture extracts of Zingiber
officinale were evaluated against three Gram positive bacteria, B.
cereus, S.epidermidis, S. aureus and three Gram negative bacteria, E.
coli, K.pneumonia and P.areuginosa. Utilizing paper disk diffusion
and well methods in-vitro, MIC and MBC were determined by
macrodilution. The results showed that ethanolic rhizome extract of
ginger had significantly active than Isopropyl –hexan extract. Further
work needs to be done in these extracts including fractionation to
isolate active constituents and subsequent pharmacological
evaluation.
Abstract: Clustering techniques have received attention in many areas including engineering, medicine, biology and data mining. The purpose of clustering is to group together data points, which are close to one another. The K-means algorithm is one of the most widely used techniques for clustering. However, K-means has two shortcomings: dependency on the initial state and convergence to local optima and global solutions of large problems cannot found with reasonable amount of computation effort. In order to overcome local optima problem lots of studies done in clustering. This paper is presented an efficient hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm based on combining Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), called PSO-ACO, for optimally clustering N object into K clusters. The new PSO-ACO algorithm is tested on several data sets, and its performance is compared with those of ACO, PSO and K-means clustering. The simulation results show that the proposed evolutionary optimization algorithm is robust and suitable for handing data clustering.
Abstract: Mushrooms are a group of fleshy macroscopic fungi.
They have been valued throughout the world as both edible and
medicine. They are highly nutritious with good amount of quality
proteins, vitamins and minerals. An edible mushroom, Calocybe
indica was selected to validate its nutritional and medicinal
properties. Since tissue damage in hyperglycemia has been related to
oxidative stress, we evaluated the enzymatic and non-enzymatic
antioxidant status in the serum, liver and kidney since they are the
target organs in diabetic complications. From the results, increased
oxidative stress and decreased antioxidants might be related to the
causation of diabetes mellitus. The treatment in the diabetic rats with
the Calocybe indica showed an increase in the antioxidant system
and decrease in the production of free radicals. The mushrooms
which contain antioxidant phytochemicals has potential free radical
scavenging capacity and hence can induce the antioxidant system in
the body significantly reduces the generated free radicals thereby
maintaining the normal levels of the antioxidants
Abstract: Dioscorea species or commonly named as yam is
reported to be one of the major food sources worldwide. This
ethnobotanical study was conducted to document local knowledge
and potentials of DioscoreahispidaDennst. and to investigate and
record its distribution in three districts of Terengganu. Information
was gathered from 23 villagers from three districts of Besut, Marang
and Setiu by using semi-structured questionnaire. The villagers were
randomly selected and no appointment was made prior to the visits.
For distribution, the location of Dioscoreahispida was recorded by
using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The villagers identified
Dioscoreahispida or locally named ubigadong by looking at the
physical characteristics that include its leaf shape, stem and the color
of the tuber-s flesh. The villagers used Dioscoreahispida in many
ways in their life such as for food, medicinal purposes and fish
poison.
Abstract: There is a growing interest in the food industry and in preventive health care for the development and evaluation of natural antioxidants from medicinal plant materials. In the present work, extracts of three medicinal plants (Tilia argentea, Crataegi folium leaves and Polygonum bistorta roots) used in Turkish phytotheraphy were screened for their phenolic profiles and antioxidant properties. Crude extracts were obtained from different parts of plants, by solidliquid extraction with pure water, 70% acetone and 70% methanol aqueous solvents. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined by ABTS.+ radical cation scavenging activity. The Folin Ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic concentrations of the extracts as gallic acid equivalents. A modified liquid chromatography-electro spray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) was used to obtain chromatographic profiles of the phenolic compounds in the medicinal plants. The predominant phenolic compounds detected in different extracts of the plants were catechin, protocatechuic and chlorogenic acids. The highest phenolic contents were obtained by using 70% acetone as aqueous solvent, whereas the lowest phenolic contents were obtained by water extraction due to Folin Ciocalteu results. The results indicate that acetone extracts of Tilia argentea had the highest antioxidant capacity as free ABTS radical scavengers. The lowest phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities were obtained from Polygonum bistorta root extracts.
Abstract: The neurogenic potential of many herbal extracts used
in Indian medicine is hitherto unknown. Extracts derived from
Clitoria ternatea Linn have been used in Indian Ayurvedic system of
medicine as an ingredient of “Medhya rasayana", consumed for
improving memory and longevity in humans and also in treatment of
various neurological disorders. Our earlier experimental studies with
oral intubation of Clitoria ternatea aqueous root extract (CTR) had
shown significant enhancement of learning and memory in postnatal
and young adult Wistar rats. The present study was designed to
elucidate the in vitro effects of 200ng/ml of CTR on proliferation,
differentiation and growth of anterior subventricular zone neural
stem cells (aSVZ NSC-s) derived from prenatal and postnatal rat
pups. Results show significant increase in proliferation and growth of
neurospheres and increase in the yield of differentiated neurons of
aSVZ neural precursor cells (aSVZNPC-s) at 7 days in vitro when
treated with 200ng/ml of CTR as compared to age matched control.
Results indicate that CTR has growth promoting neurogenic effect on
aSVZ neural stem cells and their survival similar to neurotrophic
factors like Survivin, Neuregulin 1, FGF-2, BDNF possibly the basis
for enhanced learning and memory.
Abstract: Case based reasoning (CBR) methodology presents a foundation for a new technology of building intelligent computeraided diagnoses systems. This Technology directly addresses the problems found in the traditional Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, e.g. the problems of knowledge acquisition, remembering, robust and maintenance. This paper discusses the CBR methodology, the research issues and technical aspects of implementing intelligent medical diagnoses systems. Successful applications in cancer and heart diseases developed by Medical Informatics Research Group at Ain Shams University are also discussed.
Abstract: The prospective analysis is presented as an important tool to identify the most relevant opportunities and needs in research and development from planned interventions in innovation systems. This study chose Phyllanthus niruri, known as "stone break" to describe the knowledge about the specie, by using biotechnological forecasting through the software Vantage Point. It can be seen a considerable increase in studies on Phyllanthus niruri in recent years and that there are patents about this plant since twenty-five years ago. India was the country that most carried out research on the specie, showing interest, mainly in studies of hepatoprotection, antioxidant and anti-cancer activities. Brazil is in the second place, with special interest for anti-tumor studies. Given the identification of the Brazilian groups that exploit the species it is possible to mediate partnerships and cooperation aiming to help on the implementing of the Program of Herbal medicines (phytotherapics) in Brazil.