Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) at the University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

This retrospective chart review describes the prevalence, de- mography, and clinical characteristics of patients colonized or infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for the year 1998 at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results of MRSA positive cultures of clinical specimens obtained as part of in- vestigations for suspected infections were retrieved from the Infection Control Department's records. Charts of patients were reviewed. Of 292 S. aureus identified, 111 (38%) were MRSA or 6.0 MRSA isolate per 1,000 admissions which represented a marked increase over MRSA prevalence in 1988 ( 60 years). The prevalence was highest in the medical ward (27%), followed by the pediatrics combined medical and surgical ward (20.7%), Out-patient Department (18%), the adult surgical ward (17.1%), and the intensive care unites (17.1%). Two thirds (66.7%) of cases represented infection and the rest represented col- onization. Surgical wounds (31.1%), chest (27%), and endovascular catheters (20.3%) were the most common sites of infection. Bacteraemia occurred in 27% of patients. Local signs (68.9%), and fever (60.8%) were the most com- mon clinical manifestations. Respiratory distress and septic shock occurred in 28.4% and 6.8% of cases, respectively. Of 74 patients with MRSA infection, and 37 patients with MRSA colonization, 91.9% and 56.8% received anti- biotics in the preceding 6 weeks, respectively (P<0.0001). The total mortality of patients with MRSA infection was 60.8% (45/74). Mortality attributable to MRSA infection was 37.8% (28/74). The prevalence of MRSA is high and rapidly increasing at KAUH, as it is worldwide. Control measures to prevent the spread of MRSA in hospitals should continue with reinforcement of hy- gienic precautions and development of policies to restrict the use of anti- biotics.
The Effect of Instructor-Produced Videos as Supplemental Material for Training Visual Screening Procedures in Occupational Therapy Education

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore student perceptions of instructor-produced videos to enhance knowledge, self-efficacy, and clinical skill with administering visual screening procedures. The video library, hosted by Vimeo™, consisted of 26 videos, with an average video duration less than 90 seconds. The videos were made available to occupational therapy students as supplemental material. Three focus groups consisting of 23 participants captured students’ perceived value of instructor-produced videos to enrich their learning. Three categories emerged from the data analysis including clinical application, learning preferences, and elements of video production. Students commented on how the videos positively influenced their ability to perform visual screening procedures, confidence with screening procedure administration and reasoning skills when evaluating client performance during visual screens. Students expressed how the videos appealed to their learning style (visual/kinesthetic). Also, they reported how the videos allowed them control over the pace of information delivery, the frequency of content delivery, and the environment in which they viewed the content. Students discussed elements of video production that enhanced their learning including actor characteristics and video use pragmatics.
COMPARISON OF THIOPENTONE AND PROPOFOL- AS BETTER ANAESTHETIC AGENT FOR MODIFIED ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY

AIM: To compare a better choice between thiopentone and propofol for Modified electroconvulsive therapy. METHOD: 100 patients of ASA grade I and II of both sexes, aged 18 years and above scheduled to undergo electroconvulsive therapy under general anesthesia were studied in this crossover study. Thiopentone (2.5%) in dosage of 5 mg/kg and propofol (1%) in dosage of 2 mg/kg were given intravenously for anaesthesia. The two drugs were examined for induction and recovery time, effect on serum potassium and duration of seizure and incidence of side effects during induction and post ECT recovery period. RESULTS: Mean induction and recovery time significantly less in propofol as 40.4 seconds and 22.1 minutes while in thiopentone as 49.4 seconds and 28.9 minutes. Mean seizure duration was 25.6 seconds in propofol and 28.1 seconds in thiopentone. The difference in mean seizure duration was statistically non significant. Incidence of side effects during induction and recovery was significantly very less in propofol. In conclusion propofol is a better choice for Modified-ECT.
Uncertainty-Induced Dynamic Inefficiency and the Optimal Inflation Rate

I construct an overlapping-generations model of money with Epstein and Zin (1989) preferences and study how aggregate output uncertainty affects the optimal rate of inflation. When money only serves as savings instruments, I find that the optimality of Friedman Rule breaks up only if agents prefer late resolution of uncertainty. However, if an additional role of money as a medium of exchange is introduced, then the Friedman Rule becomes generally suboptimal regardless of agents’ preferences for the timing of uncertainty resolution. The aggregate output uncertainty, nevertheless, crucially determines the level of optimal inflation rate in this case.
Minimally-Augmented Grammatical Error Correction

There has been an increased interest in low-resource approaches to automatic grammatical error correction. We introduce Minimally-Augmented Grammatical Error Correction (MAGEC) that does not require any error-labelled data. Our unsupervised approach is based on a simple but effective synthetic error generation method based on confusion sets from inverted spell-checkers. In low-resource settings, we outperform the current state-of-the-art results for German and Russian GEC tasks by a large margin without using any real error-annotated training data. When combined with labelled data, our method can serve as an efficient pre-training technique
The Signaling Effect of Insider Trading on the Swedish Stock Market

This paper investigates the signaling effect of insider trading by analyzing the market reaction to 147 insider transactions executed within the period 2014-2016 on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. We present three major findings. First, we find significant market reactions for both insider purchases and insider sales, suggesting a signaling effect of insider trading. Second, we find the signaling effect to be similar for both insider purchases and insider sales. Third, we find that firm size has an influence on the signaling effect. Our findings indicate that the market values information about insider trading and that firm size has an effect on this informative value.
Light Supervised Data Selection, Voice Quality Normalized Training and Log Domain Pulse Synthesis

Training acoustic models with, and synthesising, expressive speech is a challenge for Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems. The 2017 Blizzard Challenge offers an opportunity to tackle this problem by releasing data from “lively” recordings of children books. This paper describes the System J submission to the Blizzard Challenge 2017 Task EH1. Three potential approaches to handling expressive speech within a DNN-based system are discussed. First, mistranscribed and outlier content can be removed from the training data by using lightlysupervised training approaches. Second, the impact of paralinguistic information that cannot be predicted by the contextual labels is handled by marginalising out these aspects when training the acoustic model. This should reduce the implicit averaging effect that normally occurs. Finally, the system makes use of a new vocoder that has the potential to be more flexible than other state-of-the-art solutions. Results of the Challenge show that, even though the intelligibility and pauses are of reasonable quality and an internal test shows improvements using the new vocoder, the marginalisation over the voice quality removed most of the intonation and expressivity, leading to more degradation of the overall impression than expected.
Exploring teachers’ instructional practices for literacy in English in Grade 1: A case study of two urban primary schools in the Shiselweni region of Eswatini (Swaziland)

Background: Literacy education in the foundation phase is a global concern. Studies have shown that mastering literacy in the first three years of school ensured academic success and lack of it had negative effects academically, socially and economically. This research study sought to explore teachers’ instructional practices for literacy in English in Grade 1 in the Shiselweni region of Eswatini. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to establish what instructional practices teachers used in their literacy classrooms, why they used those instructional practices, and how they experienced the teaching of literacy in English in Grade 1. Method: A qualitative case study design was followed where three teachers from two urban schools were purposively sampled and participated in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Focus group discussions with teachers who had experience teaching literacy in English in Grade 1 in each school were conducted, and document analysis was done. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was used as a lens to understand teachers’ instructional practices in literacy. Results: Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings of the study showed that teachers’ instructional practices reflected their lack of pedagogical knowledge for teaching literacy in English in the foundation phase. The study also found that the teachers’ experiences were their rationale for their instructional practices. Conclusion: The study showed that teacher resilience was important for teachers to thrive under trying school conditions; developing a positive attitude towards literacy teaching enabled teachers to develop strategies to improve literacy teaching and learning.
COMPARISON OF MAITLAND AND MULLIGAN MOBILIZATION IN IMPROVING NECK PAIN, ROM AND DISABILITY

Neck pain is a common problem with point prevalence of 13 % (Bovim G et al 1994) 1 . Two-third of the population having neck pain at some point in their lives (Binder AL 2007 ) 2 Neck pain is increasing in both intensity, frequency and severity of episodes as people are increasingly sedentary. Different types of mobilization are employed to treat neck pain, but limited studies are done to compare their effectiveness of two different mobilization techniques in treatment of neck pain. Total of 30 subjects were taken and divided randomly into three groups: Group A, group B, group C (each group with 10 subjects). Group A was under conventional therapy. Group B under Maitland mobilization techniques and group C under Mulligan mobilization technique. Treatment was given 4 times a week for total of 30 days. Pain, disability and ROM were assessed by numerical pain radiating scale, NDI and universal goniometer. Assessment was done at 0, 15 th and 30 th day of treatment. Anova and Paired t-test were used. Statistical significance was set at 5% level. This study showed that mulligan mobilization is more effective in improving pain, ROM and disability. Although both experimental groups showed decrease in pain, disability and improved ROM but Mulligan mobilization was found to be more effective in improving pain, ROM and disability.
MEASUREMENT OF A RANDOM PROCESS IN FUTURES PRICES

This paper presents the results of application of a new method of time-series analysis, which appears to give the first really satisfactory answer to the question of whether commodity futures markets facilitate excessive daily price fluctuations. The method uses an entirely new test statistic, the index of continuity, rather than autocovariance as do virtually all other methods. In order to show why the new statistic is needed, I will first sketch the current status of the relevant area of time-series analysis, and demonstrate the failure of existing methods to solve the problem at hand.
Randomised trial of the fascia-iliaca block versus the “ three-in-one ” block for femoral neck fractures in the Emergency Department

Introduction Femoral neck fractures are a common and painful injury. Femoral nerve blocks, and a variant of this technique termed the ‘3-in-1’ block, are often used in this patient group, but their effect is variable. The fascia iliaca compartment block (FIB) has been proposed as an alternative, but the relative effectiveness of the two techniques in the early stages of care is unknown. We therefore compared the FIB versus the 3-in-1 block in a randomised trial conducted in two UK emergency departments. Methods Parallel, two group randomised equivalence trial. Consenting patients older than 18 years with a femoral neck fracture were randomly allocated to receive either a fascia iliaca compartment block or a 3-in-1 block. The primary outcome was pain measured on a 100mm visual analogue scale at 60 minutes. The between group difference was adjusted for centre, age, sex, fracture type, pre-block analgesia and pre-block pain score Results 178 patients were randomised and 162 included in the primary analysis. The mean 100mm visual analogue pain scale score at 60 minutes was 38mm in the FIB arm and 35mm in the 3-in-1 arm. The adjusted difference between the arms was 3mm, with a 95% confidence interval (-4.7 to 10.8) that excluded a clinically important difference between the two interventions. Conclusions The fascia iliaca compartment block is equivalent to the 3-in-1 block for immediate pain relief in adult neck of femur fractures.
TRADE CENTER IN THE NEW YORK CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT

ABSTRACT Rationale: On September 11 th 2001, the World Trade Center collapse created an enormous urban disaster site with high levels of airborne pollutants. First responders, rescue/recovery workers and residents have since reported respiratory symptoms and developed pulmonary function abnormalities. Objectives: To quantify respiratory health effects of World Trade Center exposure in the New York City Fire Department. Measurements: Longitudinal study of pulmonary function in 12,079 New York City Fire Department rescue workers employed on or before 09/11/2001. Between 01/01/1997 and 09/11/2002, 31,994 spirometries were obtained and the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were analyzed for differences according to estimated World Trade Center exposure intensity. Adjusted average FEV1 during the first year after 09/11/2001 was compared to the 5 years before 09/11/2001. Median time between 09/11/2001 and a worker’s first spirometry afterwards was 3 months; 90% were assessed within 5 months. Main Results: World Trade Center-exposed workers experienced a substantial reduction in adjusted average FEV1 during the year following 09/11/2001 (372ml; 95% confidence interval 364-381ml; p<0.001) This exposure-related FEV1 decrement equaled 12 years of aging-related FEV1 decline. Moreover, exposure intensity assessed by initial arrival time at the World Trade Center site correlated linearly with FEV1 reduction in an exposure intensity-response gradient (p=0.048). Respiratory symptoms also predicted a further FEV1 decrease (p<0.001). Similar findings were observed for adjusted average FVC.
Dermatological problems in kidney recipients in Yazd Province, Iran

Background Kidney transplantation is one of the effective methods to treat kidney disease. In a kidney transplant, due to the use of many immunosuppressive drugs, the body is often subjected to various benign, premalignant and malignant dermatoses. The early diagnosis and effective treatment of such conditions can potentially reduce morbidity and mortality. Objective To determine the distribution of dermatoses in patients who have received kidney transplants. Patients and methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 120 kidney transplant recipients in Yazd University Hospitals in two years. The patients were examined by a dermatologist and diagnosis was made on the basis of clinical observations. Biopsies and scraping of the lesions were taken whenever necessary. Results 120 evaluable patients included 84 males and 36 females with mean age of 32 years. A total of 116 patients developed dermatological symptoms, which included: hypertrichosis (78.3%), photosensitivity (70%), cushingoid face (60%), gingival hyperplasia (43.3%), warts (40%), pityriasis versicolor (33.3%), steroidal acne (26.6%), herpes simplex (13.3%), herpes zoster (10%), nonmelanoma cancer (10%), oral candidiasis (6.6%), striae (6.6%), actinic keratosis (6.6%) and sebaceous hyperplasia (3.3%). Conclusion Skin lesions are a significant problem in kidney transplant recipients. A careful monitoring of these patients is recommended in order to detect these lesions in early stages and treat them.
Assessing The Impact of Shallow Groundwater on Soil Salinity and Biomass Yield of Plants Grown in North Nile Delta Using Remote Sensing and GIS

In arid and semi-arid regions, salinity is a serious and chronic problem for agricultural production (Chen et al., 2010). Salinity causes unfavorable environment and hydrological situation for crop production, depending on the degree of salinity at the critical stages of the plant growth, which reduces yield, especially in the dry season (Rasel et al., 2013). Semiz et al. (2012) reported that increasing ECe decreased biomass production of fennel. Salinity also, is a major limiting factor for crop yield in poorly drained soils (Patel et al., 2002). Also, increasing ECe up to 13.4 dS/m decreased cotton and wheat yields by 29.6 % and 35.4 %, respectively (Cullu, 2003). Mitigating this problem requires assessing and measuring soil ECe in a quick, reliable and cost-effective manner (Amezketa, 2007). Assessing soil ECe can be done using apparent electro conductivity (ECa) measured by EM38 and a small amount of soil samples (Lesch et al., 2006), to map the spatial distribution of soil ECe (Wu et al., 2009). Also, Aboelsoud and Abdel-Rahman (2017) reported that EM38 with satellite images can be used to produce salinity maps in a short time and low T HIS STUDY was conducted to evaluate soil salinity distribution and biomass yield as affected by shallow groundwater (GW) in North Delta by employing GIS and remote sensing. The ground water depth (GWD) in the investigated area is mainly affected by the drainage system status. Thus, GWD was measured by automatic sensors and ranged between 80 and 130 cm based on the performance status of the tile drainage collectors. The drawdown rate (DDR) of GW decreased rapidly by time, due to the poor structured soil. DDR was 18.5-45.1 cm/day through the 1st 24 hr after irrigation, then decreased to 14.6-31.2 cm/day through the 1st48 hr, while it recorded 6.2 -10.1 cm/day through the duration time (DT) which is the time for GW to reach the deepest level after irrigation. The DT is inversely proportional to the DDR and their values are related mainly to the efficiency of the drainage system and soil properties. So, the shallowest GW was recorded with the relative long DT and slow DDR and vice versa.A significant negative correlation was obtained between soil ECe,determined by EM38,and GWD (R2=0.576). Consequently, the soils of the part in the studied area suffers from shallow GW (81cm) having ECe (6.8 dS/m) higher than that in other parts, while the lowest ECe (4.6 dS/m) was found in the part which has deeper GW (125 cm). A positive weak correlation was observed between biomass yield and GWD (R2 = 0.55), whereas its correlation with root zone ECe was significant and negative (R2 =0.68). The yield potential in parts with relative low EC soils (4.64.9 dS/m) was about 10 % higher than that in parts with relative high salinity (6.8 dS/m). The obtained data showed also that the integration of satellite imagery and GIS has enabled new evaluation possibilities in agricultural areas in relative short time and low costs to put proper soil improvement program.
Full Length Research Article PERCEPTIONS ON REMUNERATIONS AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN UGANDA

Introduction: One of the biggest challenges many Public Universities worldwide and more so in developing economies will continue to face is the accelerated academic staff turnover intention due to pay inadequacy. The increasing level of academic staff attrition in Public Universities worries the quality of higher education if corrective measures are not employed. Objective: This research set out to investigate the academic staff perception r egarding remuneration and turnover intension in Public Universities. Methods: A cross - sectional survey design was used and the study adopted a quantitative approach. A sample of 134 (105 males and 29 females) full time academic staff were randomly drawn fr om Gulu University. Results: The study established that academic staff perception regarding remuneration at Gulu University was low. Further, the key challenges facing academic staff regarding remuneration at Gulu University were delays in payment of basi c salary and allowances as well as the unmatched salary scale and allowances with academic qualifications and experiences.
Thyroid Disorders Associated with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Children and Adolescents from Central Province Saudi Arabia

A retrospective study hospital based study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh on 305 diabetic patients to determine the prevalence of thyroid disorders in children and adolescent with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). All children and adolescents with T1D were screened with Thyroid-Stimulating-Hormone (TSH) and free thyroxinFT4, and thyroid microsomal and thyroglobulin antibodies, to detect thyroid disorders at the time of diagnosis and annually thereafter. The study group included threehundred and five Saudi children and adolescents with T1D, 163 (53.4%) patients were females and 142 (46.6%) patients were males. Thyroid dysfunction was evident in 65 (21.3%) patients, 26 (8.5%) had evidence of overt hypothyroidism, 39 (12.8%) patients had subclinical hypothyroidism, and none of our patients had either overt or subclinical hyperthyroidism. Thyroid microsomal peroxidase (TPO) and thyroglobulin (TG) antibodies were done in the sera of 114 (37.4%) patients, 76(66.7%) patients were euthyroid, 20 (17.5%) patient with overt-hypothyroidism, while in 18 (15.8%) patients were diagnosed with sub-clinical hypothyroidism. Interestingly, in 16 (80%) patients, with overt hypothyroidism were positive for both TPO and TG antibodies, while in the majority of the euthyroid patients (93.2%) both TPO and TG antibodies were negative. Children and adolescents with T1D have a significant increase risk of developing thyroid dysfunction with a high prevalence of 21.3%. A routine screening should be implemented annually with determination of anti-thyroid microsomal and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies and TSH. Patients who have positive thyroid antibodies may need the assessment of thyroid function, even, at a shorter intervals, to allow early detection and treatment, hence, avoid the associated complication. Adolescents