Crypto-Giardia antigen rapid test versus conventional modified Ziehl-Neelsen acid fast staining method for diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis

Objectove:To evaluate the validity of Crypto-Giardia antigen rapid test(CA-RT) in comparison with the conventional mollified Ziehl-Neelsen acid fast(MZN-AF) staining method for the diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis.Methods:Fifteen preserved stool samples from previously confirmed infections were used as positive controls and 40 stool samples from healthy people were used as negative control.A total of 85 stool samples were collected from suspected patients with cryptosporidiosis over 6 months during the period from January till June.2011.The stud) was conducted in the department of parasitology,central laboratory.Alnoor Specialist Hospital, Makkah.Saudi Arabia.All samples were subjected to CA-RT and conventional MZN-AF staining method.Validation parameters including sensitivity(SN).specificity(SP),accuracy index (AI).positive predictive value(PPV).and negative predictive value(NPV) were evaluated for both tests.Results:Out of 15[lositive controls,CA-RT detected 13(86.7%) while MZN-AF detected 11(73.3%) positive cases.However.CA-RT detected no positive case in 40 normal controls but MZN-AF detected 2(5%) as positive cases.Based on the results,the SN.SP.AI.PPV and NPV were high in CA-RT than MZN-AF staining method,ie..86.7%vs.73.3%.100%vs.95%.96.4%vs.89.1%. 100%vs.84.6%and 95.2%vs.90.5%.respectively.Out of a total of 85 suspected specimens.CART detected 7(8.2%) but MZN-AF detected 6(7.1%) cases as positive.Conclusions:CA-RT immunoassay is more valid and reliable than MZN-AF staining method.

Fairness Aware Group Proportional Frequency Domain Resource Allocation in L-SC-FDMA Based Uplink

This paper presents virtual clusters based proportional fairness and resource allocation scheme for Localized Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (L-SC-FDMA). L-SC-FDMA has been selected as the uplink transmission scheme in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) due to its low Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) over OFDMA in general and high rate-sum capacity over Interleaved SC-FDMA in particular. Virtual cluster-based proportional fairness (VCPF) scheduler exploits the link adaptation information available at MAC layer to form virtual clusters. The distributed proportional fairness scheduler ensures a minimum throughput for all users in the coverage area by assigning contiguous RBs, proportional to the throughput and the number of users in a particular cluster or group. Simulations have been performed using practical scenario of uniformly distributed users in Rayleigh faded coverage area and design formulas have been devised for network planning to get the best possible fairness with promising level of quality of service (QoS).

Morphofunctional characterization of hemocytes in black soldier fly larvae

In insects,the cell-mediated immune response involves an active role of hemo-cytes in phagocytosis,nodulation,and encapsulation.Although these processes have been well documented in multiple species belonging to different insect orders,information con-cerning the immune response,particularly the hemocyte types and their specific function in the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens,is still limited.This is a serious gap in knowledge given the high economic relevance of H.illucens larvae in waste management strategies and considering that the saprophagous feeding habits of this dipteran species have likely shaped its immune system to efficiently respond to infections.The present study repre-sents the first detailed characterization of black soldier fly hemocytes and provides new insights into the cell-mediated immune response of this insect.In particular,in addition to prohemocytes,we identified five hemocyte types that mount the immune response in the larva,and analyzed their behavior,role,and morphofunctional changes in response to bac-terial infection and injection of chromatographic beads.Our results demonstrate that the circulating phagocytes in black soldier fly larvae are plasmatocytes.These cells also take part in nodulation and encapsulation with granulocytes and lamellocyte-like cells,devel-oping a starting core for nodule/capsule formation to remove/encapsulate large bacterial aggregates/pathogens from the hemolymph,respectively.These processes are supported by the release of melanin precursors from crystal cells and likely by mobilizing nutrient reserves in newly circulating adipohemocytes,which could thus trophically support other hemocytes during the immune response.Finally,the regulation of the cell-mediated im-mune response by eicosanoids was investigated.

Development and Modeling of Remotely Operated Scaled Multi-wheeled Combat Vehicle Using System Identification

This paper describes the development and modeling of a remotely operated scaled multi-wheeled combat vehicle(ROMWCV)using system identification methodology for heading angle tracking.The vehicle was developed at the vehicle dynamics and crash research(VDCR)Lab at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology(UOIT)to analyze the characteristics of the full-size model.For such vehicles,the development of controllers is considered the most crucial issue.In this paper,the ROMWCV is developed first.An experimental test was carried out to record and analyze the vehicle input/output signals in open loop system,which is considered a multi-input-single-output(MISO)system.Subsequently,a fuzzy logic controller(FLC)was developed for heading angle tracking.The experiments showed that it was feasible to represent the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle using the system identification technique.The estimation and validation results demonstrated that the obtained identified model was able to explain 88.44%of the output variation.In addition,the developed FLC showed a good heading angle tracking.