scholarly journals Quality Assessment of Fruits and Vegetables using Bio-impedance based Expert System

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 965-970
Keyword(s):  
Expert System ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Daily Intake ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
World Health ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Health Organization

World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a daily intake of at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables, to prevent diet related chronic diseases and micronutrient deficiencies. It is essential to ensure the quality of foods consumed by the population on a daily basis. Quality of fruits and vegetables is governed by nutritional level, appearance, flavor and climate. Quality assessment methods should be environment friendly and should also benefit both consumers and farmers by enhancing taste and increasing yield, respectively. Conventionally employed quality assessment methods like bio-chemical analysis, imaging etc. are destructive, inefficient and time consuming. Bio-tissues are made up of cells with selectively permeable cell membranes and this makes them equivalent to resistive-capacitive network. Such a network impedes an alternating current (AC) excitation signal applied to it. This bio-impedance (BI) is measured through LCR meters, impedance analysers and off-the shelf chip based boards. In this work we have developed an accurate, smart and non destructive bio-impedance based quality evaluation technique. BI is measured as magnitude and phase for 7 days for each variety of fruit and vegetable followed by exhaustive frequency (5 kHz-200 kHz), ripening and rot analysis. BI magnitude increases as number of days advance i.e. with ripening and the phase undergoes considerable decrease with rotting. The system is made smart by incorporating an expert system. 178 samples of bio-impedance data are used to train the expert system and supervised classification is done through Random Forest classifier. Any fruit or vegetable can be classified as ’Good’ or ’Bad’ immediately and accurately with a maximum accuracy of 98.57%

Alexithyme Patientenmerkmale und Lebensqualität – Eine Querschnittsstudie an 79 ambulanten Patienten mit Angststörungen

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Leenen ◽  
Michael Rufer ◽  
Hanspeter Moergeli ◽  
Hans-Jörgen Grabe ◽  
Josef Jenewein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
World Health ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
World Health Organization Quality ◽  
Fand Sich ◽  
Quality Of Life Questionnaire ◽  
Organization Quality ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Tas 20

Aus Untersuchungen in der Normalbevölkerung ist bekannt, dass Menschen mit erhöhten Alexithymiewerten eine verminderte Lebensqualität (LQ) aufweisen. Für Patienten mit psychischen Störungen wurde dieser Zusammenhang jedoch kaum untersucht. Ziel dieser Studie war es, den möglichen Zusammenhang zwischen alexithymen Patientenmerkmalen und der LQ bei Patienten mit Angststörungen zu überprüfen. Bei 79 ambulanten Patienten mit Angststörungen wurden alexithyme Charakteristika mit der Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), die LQ mit der Kurzversion des World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire 100 (WHOQOL-BREF) erfasst. Darüber hinaus fand eine Erhebung der psychischen Symptombelastung (SCL-90-R) und depressiven Symptomatik (MADRS) statt. Mittels hierarchischer Regressionsanalysen wurde der Zusammenhang zwischen der alexithymen Charakteristika und den unterschiedlichen LQ-Domänen berechnet. Die Patienten zeigten eine im Vergleich zur Normalbevölkerung deutlich verminderte LQ. Als Hauptergebnis fand sich, auch nach Kontrolle von Depression, Ängstlichkeit und Geschlecht, ein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen den beiden TAS-20 Subskalen Schwierigkeiten, Gefühle zu identifizieren und zu beschreiben und vor allem der psychischen LQ. Unsere Ergebnisse sprechen dafür, bei der Diagnostik und Therapieplanung von Patienten mit Angststörungen alexithyme Merkmale einzubeziehen. Im Falle von ausgeprägten alexithymen Merkmalen sollten psychotherapeutische Interventionen zur Verbesserung der Schwierigkeiten Gefühle wahrzunehmen und zu kommunizieren in Betracht gezogen werden.

Flouride and Nitrate Status of Some Ground Waters in Chittor District of Rajasthan State (India)

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Trapti Sharma ◽  
R. P. Nagar ◽  
R. C. Gaur ◽  
Pooja Gupta ◽  
Charanjit Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
World Health ◽  
Indian Council ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
Ground Waters ◽  
Drinking Waters ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Research World ◽  
Drinking Purpose

In Rajasthan state the ground waters of some areas like Ramganj-mandi, Morak, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Chittor and Udaipur etc. are susceptible from drinking point of view.To test the quality of groundwater in Chittor district 14, ground water samples were collected from various places and analyzed for pH, E.C., Fluoride and Nitrate parameters by standard methods (A.P.H. A., Washington, USA, 1995). The study revealed that none of the ground waters was found suitable completely from drinking point of view. Some are having electrical conductivity > 1.4 dS/m, some are having pH >8.5, some area having fluoride >1.5 ppm and some are having nitrate>45 ppm. These are the limits of various parameters permitted by various International authorities like Bureau of Indian Standard, Indian Council of Medical Research,world health Organization etc. for drinking waters. So, it is recommended to the residents of above areas to use water for drinking purpose only after reverse osmosis or adopting suitable method of removing excess of Fluoride and Nitrate for drinking water to avoid unwanted pathogenic diseases harmful for human health.

Expert System for Quality Assessment of Electronic Book Exhibitions

2013 ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Svetlana V. Savkina
Keyword(s):  
Expert System ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Electronic Book ◽  
Electronic Books ◽  
Comparison Of The Results

The article presents the results of testing the complex methodology of assessment of quality of electronic books exhibitions (EBE). The author describes the project of the expert system, allowing to implement the EBE assessment without the experts’ participation. There is given the comparison of the results of assessments, carried out by experts and by the expert system.

scholarly journals Quality of life in patients with narcolepsy: a WHOQOL-bref study

2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (2a) ◽  
pp. 163-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heloísa Rovere ◽  
Sueli Rossini ◽  
Rubens Reimão
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Patient Group ◽  
World Health ◽  
Control Group ◽  
World Health Organization Quality ◽  
Severe Impairment ◽  
Perception Of Quality ◽  
Social Domains ◽  
Health Organization

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the perception of Quality of Life (QL) in Brazilian patients with narcolepsy. METHOD: 40 adult patients aged between 20 and 72 years (mean=41.55; SD=14.50); (28 F; 12M), with the diagnosis of chronic narcolepsy were followed up at the outpatient clinic (Patient Group). The Control Group was composed of 40 adults. The instrument utilized was the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF). RESULTS: The two groups were homogeneous and no difference was found with regards to age, sex, and demographic characteristics. The perception of QL in physical, psychological and social domains showed lower scores in those patients with narcolepsy than in the control group (p<0.05). Concerning physical domain, all the aspects evaluated were significantly impaired, in patient group, including sleep satisfaction (p<0.001); energy for daily activities (p=0.039); capacity to perform activities (p=0.001); and capacity to work (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: The perception of QL showed severe impairment in patients with narcolepsy for physical, psychological and social domains.

The study of Iranian children and adolescents’ physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Alizadeh ◽  
Reza Negarandeh ◽  
Fahimehe Bagheri Amiri ◽  
Zahra Yazdani
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
World Health ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
The Status ◽  
Newcastle Ottawa Scale ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Iranian Children

Abstract Objectives This systematic and meta-analysis review was conducted to determine the status of Iranian children and adolescents’ physical activity. Content All the related articles which were published in the major databases, including Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, Magiran, SID from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2019, were reviewed by researchers. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was also used to evaluate the quality of articles. Moreover, I 2 index and chi-square were used to assess the heterogeneity between the results. Summary 490 articles were found as a result of the search in the selected international and local databases, where finally, 10 articles were included into the meta-analysis after the elimination of the duplicated articles and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results indicated that 29.5% of the girls were considered active according to WHO criteria (16.1–42.8: 95% CI) and also 20.5% of the boys (7.3–33.7: 95% CI). Outlook Overall, this study’s findings showed that a large percentage of Iranian children and adolescents do not achieve the level of physical activity recommended by the World Health Organization. This can lead to undesirable consequences for this group of population that is considered as the human capital of any country; consequently, it seems necessary to take basic measures at the micro and macro levels in order to reduce such problems in the society.

scholarly journals Psychometric validation of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales among elderly residents in long-term care facilities with joint contractures

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-chang Chen ◽  
Keh-chung Lin ◽  
Chen-Jung Chen ◽  
Shu-Hui Yeh ◽  
Ay-Woan Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Chinese Version ◽  
World Health ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Joint Contractures ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Background Joint contractures, which affect activity, participation, and quality of life, are common complications of neurological conditions among elderly residents in long-term care facilities. This study examined the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales in a population with joint contractures. Methods A cross-sectional study design was used. The sample included elderly residents older than 64 years with joint contractures in an important joint who had lived at one of 12 long-term care facilities in Taiwan for more than 6 months (N = 243). The Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales for joint contractures was generated from the English version through five stages: translation, review, back-translation, review by a panel of specialists, and a pretest. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity were evaluated, and the results were compared with those for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule. Results The Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales had excellent reliability, with a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.975 (mean score, 28.98; standard deviation, 17.34). An exploratory factor analysis showed three factors and one factor with an eigenvalue > 1 that explained 75.176 and 62.83 % of the total variance in the Activity subscale and Participation subscale, respectively. The subscale-to-total scale correlation analysis showed Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.881 for the Activity subscale and 0.843 for the Participation subscale. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed that the correlation coefficient (r) between the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule was 0.770, whereas that for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale was − 0.553; these values were interpreted as large coefficients. Conclusions The underlying theoretical model of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales functions well in Taiwan and has acceptable levels of reliability and validity. However, the Chinese version must be further tested for applicability and generalizability in future studies, preferably with a larger sample and in different clinical domains.

scholarly journals An analysis of heavy metals contamination and estimating the daily intakes of vegetables from Uganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 239784732098525
Author(s):  
Keneth Iceland Kasozi ◽  
Eric Oloya Otim ◽  
Herbert Izo Ninsiima ◽  
Gerald Zirintunda ◽  
Andrew Tamale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Daily Intake ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Absorption Spectrometry ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Daily Intakes

Background: Environmental contamination with elevated levels of copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr6+), cadmium (Cd), and nickel (Ni)—all states of which are found in Uganda—raises health risk to the public. Pb, Cr6+, Cd, and Ni for instance are generally considered nonessential to cellular functions, notwithstanding the importance of the oxidative state of the metals in bioavailability. As such, we aimed in this study (i) to evaluate heavy metal concentrations in four vegetables from a typical open-air market in Uganda, (ii) to assess the safety of consuming these vegetables against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended limits of heavy metals consumption, and (iii) to formulate a model of estimated daily intake (EDI) among consumers in the country. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in five georeferenced markets of Bushenyi district in January 2020. Amaranthus, cabbages, scarlet eggplants, and tomatoes were collected from open markets, processed, and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry. Modeled EDI, principal component (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were conducted to identify relationships in the samples. Results: The levels of essential elements in the four vegetables were found to fall from Co > Cu > Fe > Zn. Those of non-essential metals were significantly higher and followed the pattern Cd > Cr > Pb > Ni. The highest EDI values were those of Cu in scarlet eggplants, Zn in amaranthus, Fe in amaranthus, Co in amaranthus, Pb in cabbages, total Cr in scarlet eggplant, Cd in cabbages and tomatoes, and Ni in cabbages. In comparison to international limits, EDIs for Zn, Cu, Co and Fe were low while Ni in cabbages were high. PCA showed high variations in scarlet eggplant and amaranthus. The study vegetables were found to be related with each other, not according to the location of the markets from where they were obtained, but according to their species by CA. Conclusion: The presence of non-essential elements above WHO limits raises policy challenges for the consumption and marketing of vegetables in the study area. Furthermore, low EDIs of essential elements in the vegetables create demand for nutritious foods to promote healthy communities.

Reflections on FDA and WHO recommendations concerning clinical trials

1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-F. Dreyfus ◽  
D. Cremniter ◽  
J.D. Guelfi
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Measuring Instruments ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The One ◽  
Health Organization

SummaryWe are still confronted by numerous different nosographic models and problems concerning the objective evaluation of patients progress during treatment. It is interesting to consider the consequences of this situation in psychiatry which still involves a relative diversity of practical methods used in clinical trials. The recommendations of the USA Food and Drug Administration, on the one hand, constitute a highly structured and precise reference. The World Health Organization, on the other hand, promulgates general recommendations resulting from a compromise designed to satisfy the greatest number of clinicians.Despite the apparently diverse principles and the different practical methods they propose, both those sets of recommendations have been useful in inspiring clinicians to reflect upon these different methodological approaches. The qualities of the inclusion criteria used in the study of patients and the sensitivity of the different measuring instruments have allowed psychotropic drug users as well as producers to recognize the need for a certain rigour in clinical trials.The FDA and WHO guidelines have certainly improved the quality of clinical trials in psychopharmacology. However, they also represent a source of resistance to innovation.A series of consensus meetings to first reconcile US and European points of view and later to include new techniques in the recognized sets of methods would therefore be helpful.

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