Browsing by Author "Kowa, Yasin"

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Developing a cost-effective computing model for optimal diets for people living with HIV
(NM-AIST, 2016-04) Kowa, Yasin
People living with HIV (PLWHIV) without proper treatment are vulnerable to many kinds of opportunistic infections due to their weaker immune systems than healthy people. Poor nutrition intensifies the progression of HIV into AIDS by further compromising the immune system. Therefore, achieving basic nutritional recommendations is important at all stages of the disease. However, economic limitation (poverty) and lack of knowledge to find adequate amounts with right combinations of different locally available foods hinders them to meet the recommended daily nutrients requirements, leading them to become weak in a very short time and even experience early mortality. In this research, I developed a mathematical model and extended it to a MATLAB based graphical user interface (GUI) that could be used as a computation tool to compute adequate amounts of available foods to achieve the recommended nutrients at a minimum cost compared to an alternative. The mathematical model is the combination of multiple linear regression models and a linear programming model. Multiple linear regression models use the factors of age, weight, height, and gender to predict the nutritional requirements in the body. The results from the multiple linear regression model were used to define the constraints in the linear programming model. The linear programming model was used to compute the adequate amounts of foods that would lead to the achievement of the recommended nutrients taking into consideration practical biological/physical and economic constraints. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed by the Graphical User Interface Development Environment (GUIDE) method in MATLAB. With the incorporated mathematical models it could be used to compute the adequate amount of foods. The GUI has five parts: the first part contains list of foods the user needs to select, the second part is to enter user’s particulars of age, weight, height and gender. The third part is to enter the cost of each selected foods. The fourth part is the computation part, which will initiate the computation. There is a status box, which shows whether the food combinations and financial constraints produce an optimal or non-optimal output and a reset button to enable clearance of previous computations and allowance of new data entrances. The last part is the output section which displays the amounts of foods to be bought and the total cost to be incurred when the computation is optimal. Results show that the multiple linear regression model has high predictive power by suggesting values that are close to the recommended daily/dietary intake (RDI). This was validated by testing the mean difference between paired samples using a t-test. By this analysis we found that there was no statistical ii difference between the means as the p  values were greater than the significance level of 0.05. The cost for optimal diets was less when model predicted values are used to limits the constraints in linear programming compared to when RDI values are used. The GUI developed could serve as the computation tool to compute adequate amount of foods to meet the recommended nutrients at minimum costs.
A Matlab based Graphical User Interface for Computing Optimal Diet of People Living with HIV at Asyptomatic Stage
(International Journal of Computer Applications, 2015-07) Kowa, Yasin; Mpolya, Emmanuel; Nkansah-Gyekye, Yaw
Achieving basic nutritional recommendations for people liv-ing with HIV is important at all stages as the virus affects the immune system and renders an infected person to contract other infections easily. Poor nutrition strengthens the effects of HIV as malnutrition adds to deterioration of the immune system. This leads to a poor prognosis of the disease. Thus a tool to determine adequate amount and good combination of different available foods that ensures optimal nutrients will prove useful if designed. In this paper, a MATLAB based Graphical User Interface (GUI) that will be used to compute adequate amount of foods which will lead to the achievements of recommended nutrient intakes for these patients has been developed. The design and use of a GUI can be extended to various telecommunication devices and be accessible to a normal person and other groups in needs of diet management and therefore it will have a wider application.
Modeling Diet Decisions for People Living with HIV in Consideration of Age, Weight, Height, and Gender Constraints
(Scientific & Academic Publishing, 2015) Kowa, Yasin; Nkansah-Gyekye, Yaw; Mpolya, Emmanuel
People living with HIV as well as AIDS patients, who do not receive proper and timely medical treatment, are open targets for all kinds of other infections owing mainly to their relatively weak immune systems. We emphasizes upon the fact that, in most (if not all) such cases, poor nutrition intensifies the progression of the disease and that achieving basic nutritional recommendations is important at all stages of the disease. This paper aims to develop a cost-effectiveness computing model (mathematical model) in diet decisions for people living with HIV in consideration of age, weight, height, and gender constraints. The consideration of these factors tends to avoid undertaking/overtaking of the nutrients which may lead to more serious problems. This model combines multiple linear regression model and linear programming model. The multiple linear regression model predicts the nutrient requirements in the human body of the factors age, weight, height, and gender. The multiple linear regression model gives out the maximum allowable amount of nutrients (upper bound) and minimum amount of nutrients required (lower bound). These results are used to restrict some constraints in the linear programming model, while others are restricted to the maximum allowable amount of foods. From the linear programming model adequate amount of foods that achieve the nutrients recommended are computed. The linear programming problem formulated is solved by the two phase simplex method in MATLAB. Results show that multiple linear regression predicted values are close enough to the actual recommended dietary/daily intake values. The optimal nutrients are reached at much less cost when the multiple linear regression predicted values are used as nutrient recommendations to restrict the constraints in linear programming model compared to when actual recommended dietary/daily intake values are used. Since our model gives adequate amount of foods at much less cost than when the actual values are used then this justifies that our goal has been successful reached. The mathematical model developed could potentially be extended to different groups of people who must manage their diets and therefore promises to have a wider applicability.