A serological survey conducted among 196 pregnant women resident in and around Maiduguri, an urban town in north eastern Nigeria showed that 33 (16.8%) were asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (...A serological survey conducted among 196 pregnant women resident in and around Maiduguri, an urban town in north eastern Nigeria showed that 33 (16.8%) were asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). They are within the age range of 14-40 years with mean (± SD) age of 24.7 (± 6.3). The women attend antenatal clinic at the State Specialist Hospital, a secondary health facility in Maiduguri, Borno state. The women are all heterosexuals. The distribution of HBsAg carrier rate according to age of women studied showed a significant (p = 0.0061) increase of the prevalence of HBsAg from 4 (8.7%) in the lower age group (39 years). According to the number of pregnancies, the prevalence of HBsAg infection increased significantly from 6 (9.2%) among primiparous to 13 (13.7%) and 14 (38.9%) among multiparous and grand multiparous respectively. The carrier rate of HBsAg infection among the pregnant women studied based on their duration of pregnancies and their social class showed no significant differences. However, according to the factors known to be commonly associated with the highest risk of transmission of HBV such as history of blood transfusion, Tribal marks/tattooing, use of sharps, sharing of articles, history of jaundice in the women and husbands, history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) of the women and husbands and the type of marriage (monogamous or polygamous), number of sexual relationships per week, only the history of blood transfusion was significantly associated with HBsAg carrier rate (RR = 3.71., 95% Confidence Interval (C.I.), 1.89-7.30, p = 0.0078). The study confirms that pregnant women who attend antenatal clinic in this secondary health facility are at higher risk of being infected with the HBV, which could lead to both prenatal and post natal transmission to their newborns.展开更多
Photoplethysmogram(PPG)is a noninvasive method for detecting human cardiovascular pulse wave using optical technology.The PPG containing a lot of physiological information is from the MIMIC database.This paper propose...Photoplethysmogram(PPG)is a noninvasive method for detecting human cardiovascular pulse wave using optical technology.The PPG containing a lot of physiological information is from the MIMIC database.This paper proposes a combinatorial method of ensemble empirical mode decomposition(EEMD),cepstrum,fast Fourier transform(FFT)and zero-crossing detection to improve the robustness of the estimation of pulse rate(PR),heart rate(HR)and respiratory rate(RR)from the PPG.First,the PPG signal was decomposed into finite intrinsic mode functions(IMF)by EEMD.Because of its adaptive filtering property,the different signals were reconstructed using different IMFs when estimating different physiological parameters.Second,the PR was obtained by zero-crossing detection after rejecting low frequency IMFs containing artifacts.Third,IMFs with frequency between 1.00 Hz to 1.67 Hz(60 beats/min to 100 beats/min)were selected for estimating HR.Then,the frequency band that reflects the heart activity was analyzed by the cepstrum method.Finally,the respiratory signal can be extracted from PPG signal by IMFs with frequency between 0.05 Hz to 0.75 Hz(3 breahts/min to 45 breaths/min).Then the spectrum of signal was obtained by FFT analysis and the RR was estimated by detecting the maximum frequency peak.The algorithm has been tested on MIMIC database obtained from 53 adults.The experiment results show that the physiological parameters extracted by this integrated signal processing method are consistent with the real physiological parameters.And the computation load of this method is small and the precision is high(not larger than 1.17%in error).展开更多
The cardiovascular system undergoes physiological changes during pregnancy. These physiological changes in the heart can be understood by simple procedures like electrocardiography. With the objective of formulating b...The cardiovascular system undergoes physiological changes during pregnancy. These physiological changes in the heart can be understood by simple procedures like electrocardiography. With the objective of formulating basis of alterations in heart rate and impulse conductivity from atria to ventricles during pregnancy, the study was carried out in Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal between calendar year 2012 and 2013 by comparing electrocardiograms between pregnant and non-pregnant participants. The total number of participants in this study was 120: 50% was third trimester pregnant women as cases and the other 50% was non-pregnant women as controls. The statistically significant increase in heart rate and highly significant decrease in PR interval in electrocardiograms of cases conclude that the alterations in cardiac function do occur in pregnancies which all try to meet the growing demands of developing fetus. Thus, these changes neither should be misinterpreted as of pathological origin nor the latter one if present should be misdiagnosed by any health care providers.展开更多
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the somatic cell count (SCC) levels measured at 28-test-day intervals or pregnancy rate at the first artificial insemination of Holstein Friesian cows. All necessary...The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the somatic cell count (SCC) levels measured at 28-test-day intervals or pregnancy rate at the first artificial insemination of Holstein Friesian cows. All necessary information was taken from test day and farm records. Levels of SCC in milk, 30 days before, and 30 days after the first artificial insemination (FAI) date were divided into 4 categories and their interconnection with pregnancy rate (PR) at FAI was evaluated by applying logistic models. A SCC threshold of 150.000 cells/ml of milk was used to differentiate uninfected udders and infected udders of Holstein Friesian cows. A level of SCC > 150.000 cells/ml in milk, and a level of SCC < 150.000 cells/ml before and after FAI respectively were considered udders with new infections. A level of SCC > 150.000 cells/ml in milk before FAI as well as after FAI, was considered chronically infected udders or subclinical intramammary infections (IMI). Data from 792 FAIs from farm and test day records over a 4-year period (2019-2022) were evaluated. The outcome of this study revealed that the risk for low PR at the first AI was increased in cows with infected udders (OR = 1.33, CI 0.99 - 1.78), compared with uninfected udders. Increased levels of SCC after FAI had a negative effect on PR, while before FAI was not affected. To achieve a good PR, mastitis control measures must be fully adopted to a large extent around the first AI.展开更多
针对当前不同的非白噪声背景研究很少,根据噪音、语音和音乐的性质并且结合统计学理论,提出一种在不同噪声背景下低信噪比的语音/音乐分割算法。以往的检测算法很少考虑低信噪比的环境,首先从音频数据中提取新的特征参数概率密度比(prob...针对当前不同的非白噪声背景研究很少,根据噪音、语音和音乐的性质并且结合统计学理论,提出一种在不同噪声背景下低信噪比的语音/音乐分割算法。以往的检测算法很少考虑低信噪比的环境,首先从音频数据中提取新的特征参数概率密度比(probability density ratio,PR)和概率密度比过零率(probability density ratio crossing rate,PRCR),特征参数在低信噪比环境下亦能明显表征语音和音乐的不同特性,然后根据音频的特性对PRCR进行修正,再基于此修正的特征参数对语音和音乐进行改变点检测,最后得到分割结果。实验结果显示,在信噪比达到5dB时分割点准确率达到85%以上,具有良好的鲁棒性。展开更多
Iris du Pré, a professional pianist, wanted a second child, did not conceive quickly and was injected in 1944 by a doctor in Oxford with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG). The doctor joked “This child will...Iris du Pré, a professional pianist, wanted a second child, did not conceive quickly and was injected in 1944 by a doctor in Oxford with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG). The doctor joked “This child will be a racehorse winner!” In January 1945, Jacqueline du Pré, the remarkable, world-famous cellist was born. In the 1920's and 1930's, animal experimentation and clinical studies had shown that pituitary glycoproteins stimulated the ovary (follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH) and the corpus luteum (luteal-stimulating hormone, LH) which prepared the human womb for embedding a fertilized ovum and that pregnant mare’s blood and urine contained the glycoprotein, PMSG whose origin was placental cells, but surprisingly in humans had the actions of both FSH and LH. However, the PMSG serum alone did not bring about pregnancy. The doctor did not know that without subsequent injection of another factor in correct sequence and timing, PMSG was pointless. In 1947, a placental glycoprotein, found in the 1920's in urine of pregnant women (human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG), when injected in mice subsequent to PMSG, achieved ovulation but not pregnancy. Human application of those findings was extremely risky due to impurities (up to 95%). The Federal Drug Administration (FDA), established in 1938, requested easily bye-passed marketing safety. Companies offered material “sufficiently” purified;professional bodies negated clinical use, tempting to a few. Evidence also suggests that, to sustain pregnancy the doctor also prescribed the new “eostrogen”, diethyl stilbestrol (DES) of negative fame. In 1947, the Nuremberg Code of ethics demanded human experiments by qualified personnel and trials preceded by adequate animal studies. It is not the case here. From five, du Pré had a most exceptional musical memory, almost obsessive musicality and a very difficult school-time socially. Later history: adult masculine build, awkward gait, tendency to recurrent depressions from mid-adolescence, unbalanced thyroidal metabolism, symptoms of numbness in late teens, long breaks for rest from age 25, MS diagnosis at 28 when unable to play, death aged 42. Yet at sixteen and after, she astounded all with technique, passion and unique musical interpretation. Her husband, an outstanding musician: “She had a capacity to imagine sound such as I never met in any other musician”. A close musician colleague: “... it was done before she was born”;perhaps much closer to the truth than realization, for her history it may suggest a fetal neurodevelopment abused in the womb.展开更多
文摘A serological survey conducted among 196 pregnant women resident in and around Maiduguri, an urban town in north eastern Nigeria showed that 33 (16.8%) were asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). They are within the age range of 14-40 years with mean (± SD) age of 24.7 (± 6.3). The women attend antenatal clinic at the State Specialist Hospital, a secondary health facility in Maiduguri, Borno state. The women are all heterosexuals. The distribution of HBsAg carrier rate according to age of women studied showed a significant (p = 0.0061) increase of the prevalence of HBsAg from 4 (8.7%) in the lower age group (39 years). According to the number of pregnancies, the prevalence of HBsAg infection increased significantly from 6 (9.2%) among primiparous to 13 (13.7%) and 14 (38.9%) among multiparous and grand multiparous respectively. The carrier rate of HBsAg infection among the pregnant women studied based on their duration of pregnancies and their social class showed no significant differences. However, according to the factors known to be commonly associated with the highest risk of transmission of HBV such as history of blood transfusion, Tribal marks/tattooing, use of sharps, sharing of articles, history of jaundice in the women and husbands, history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) of the women and husbands and the type of marriage (monogamous or polygamous), number of sexual relationships per week, only the history of blood transfusion was significantly associated with HBsAg carrier rate (RR = 3.71., 95% Confidence Interval (C.I.), 1.89-7.30, p = 0.0078). The study confirms that pregnant women who attend antenatal clinic in this secondary health facility are at higher risk of being infected with the HBV, which could lead to both prenatal and post natal transmission to their newborns.
文摘Photoplethysmogram(PPG)is a noninvasive method for detecting human cardiovascular pulse wave using optical technology.The PPG containing a lot of physiological information is from the MIMIC database.This paper proposes a combinatorial method of ensemble empirical mode decomposition(EEMD),cepstrum,fast Fourier transform(FFT)and zero-crossing detection to improve the robustness of the estimation of pulse rate(PR),heart rate(HR)and respiratory rate(RR)from the PPG.First,the PPG signal was decomposed into finite intrinsic mode functions(IMF)by EEMD.Because of its adaptive filtering property,the different signals were reconstructed using different IMFs when estimating different physiological parameters.Second,the PR was obtained by zero-crossing detection after rejecting low frequency IMFs containing artifacts.Third,IMFs with frequency between 1.00 Hz to 1.67 Hz(60 beats/min to 100 beats/min)were selected for estimating HR.Then,the frequency band that reflects the heart activity was analyzed by the cepstrum method.Finally,the respiratory signal can be extracted from PPG signal by IMFs with frequency between 0.05 Hz to 0.75 Hz(3 breahts/min to 45 breaths/min).Then the spectrum of signal was obtained by FFT analysis and the RR was estimated by detecting the maximum frequency peak.The algorithm has been tested on MIMIC database obtained from 53 adults.The experiment results show that the physiological parameters extracted by this integrated signal processing method are consistent with the real physiological parameters.And the computation load of this method is small and the precision is high(not larger than 1.17%in error).
文摘The cardiovascular system undergoes physiological changes during pregnancy. These physiological changes in the heart can be understood by simple procedures like electrocardiography. With the objective of formulating basis of alterations in heart rate and impulse conductivity from atria to ventricles during pregnancy, the study was carried out in Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal between calendar year 2012 and 2013 by comparing electrocardiograms between pregnant and non-pregnant participants. The total number of participants in this study was 120: 50% was third trimester pregnant women as cases and the other 50% was non-pregnant women as controls. The statistically significant increase in heart rate and highly significant decrease in PR interval in electrocardiograms of cases conclude that the alterations in cardiac function do occur in pregnancies which all try to meet the growing demands of developing fetus. Thus, these changes neither should be misinterpreted as of pathological origin nor the latter one if present should be misdiagnosed by any health care providers.
文摘The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the somatic cell count (SCC) levels measured at 28-test-day intervals or pregnancy rate at the first artificial insemination of Holstein Friesian cows. All necessary information was taken from test day and farm records. Levels of SCC in milk, 30 days before, and 30 days after the first artificial insemination (FAI) date were divided into 4 categories and their interconnection with pregnancy rate (PR) at FAI was evaluated by applying logistic models. A SCC threshold of 150.000 cells/ml of milk was used to differentiate uninfected udders and infected udders of Holstein Friesian cows. A level of SCC > 150.000 cells/ml in milk, and a level of SCC < 150.000 cells/ml before and after FAI respectively were considered udders with new infections. A level of SCC > 150.000 cells/ml in milk before FAI as well as after FAI, was considered chronically infected udders or subclinical intramammary infections (IMI). Data from 792 FAIs from farm and test day records over a 4-year period (2019-2022) were evaluated. The outcome of this study revealed that the risk for low PR at the first AI was increased in cows with infected udders (OR = 1.33, CI 0.99 - 1.78), compared with uninfected udders. Increased levels of SCC after FAI had a negative effect on PR, while before FAI was not affected. To achieve a good PR, mastitis control measures must be fully adopted to a large extent around the first AI.
文摘针对当前不同的非白噪声背景研究很少,根据噪音、语音和音乐的性质并且结合统计学理论,提出一种在不同噪声背景下低信噪比的语音/音乐分割算法。以往的检测算法很少考虑低信噪比的环境,首先从音频数据中提取新的特征参数概率密度比(probability density ratio,PR)和概率密度比过零率(probability density ratio crossing rate,PRCR),特征参数在低信噪比环境下亦能明显表征语音和音乐的不同特性,然后根据音频的特性对PRCR进行修正,再基于此修正的特征参数对语音和音乐进行改变点检测,最后得到分割结果。实验结果显示,在信噪比达到5dB时分割点准确率达到85%以上,具有良好的鲁棒性。
文摘Iris du Pré, a professional pianist, wanted a second child, did not conceive quickly and was injected in 1944 by a doctor in Oxford with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG). The doctor joked “This child will be a racehorse winner!” In January 1945, Jacqueline du Pré, the remarkable, world-famous cellist was born. In the 1920's and 1930's, animal experimentation and clinical studies had shown that pituitary glycoproteins stimulated the ovary (follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH) and the corpus luteum (luteal-stimulating hormone, LH) which prepared the human womb for embedding a fertilized ovum and that pregnant mare’s blood and urine contained the glycoprotein, PMSG whose origin was placental cells, but surprisingly in humans had the actions of both FSH and LH. However, the PMSG serum alone did not bring about pregnancy. The doctor did not know that without subsequent injection of another factor in correct sequence and timing, PMSG was pointless. In 1947, a placental glycoprotein, found in the 1920's in urine of pregnant women (human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG), when injected in mice subsequent to PMSG, achieved ovulation but not pregnancy. Human application of those findings was extremely risky due to impurities (up to 95%). The Federal Drug Administration (FDA), established in 1938, requested easily bye-passed marketing safety. Companies offered material “sufficiently” purified;professional bodies negated clinical use, tempting to a few. Evidence also suggests that, to sustain pregnancy the doctor also prescribed the new “eostrogen”, diethyl stilbestrol (DES) of negative fame. In 1947, the Nuremberg Code of ethics demanded human experiments by qualified personnel and trials preceded by adequate animal studies. It is not the case here. From five, du Pré had a most exceptional musical memory, almost obsessive musicality and a very difficult school-time socially. Later history: adult masculine build, awkward gait, tendency to recurrent depressions from mid-adolescence, unbalanced thyroidal metabolism, symptoms of numbness in late teens, long breaks for rest from age 25, MS diagnosis at 28 when unable to play, death aged 42. Yet at sixteen and after, she astounded all with technique, passion and unique musical interpretation. Her husband, an outstanding musician: “She had a capacity to imagine sound such as I never met in any other musician”. A close musician colleague: “... it was done before she was born”;perhaps much closer to the truth than realization, for her history it may suggest a fetal neurodevelopment abused in the womb.
