Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterizing Occupational Low Back Pain among Surgeons Working in Ministry of Health Hospitals in Jeddah City: Prevalence, Clinical Features, Risk, and Protective Factors

A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence as well as the determinants and clinical features of occupational low back pain among surgeons working at Ministry of Health hospitals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by exploring its history combined with time of onset after starting the operating room work and self-appraisal of the relationship with the surgical work. Factors and predictors such as professional, socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, medical history, etc. were collected and analyzed. Two hundred and sixteen surgeons (69.9% males, mean age 39.03 years, median work: 5.00 years) responded. Prevalence of occupational low back pain was 55.8% (95% CI: 49.0%, 62.3%); high rates of inadequate management and self-treatment had a notable impact on all 4 domains. Multivariate regression showed two independent protective factors (regular physical exercise [OR = 0.27, P = 0.002] and back health education [OR = 0.41, P = 0.031] and two independent risk factors (high exposure to risky activities [OR = 1.06, P = 0.048] and presence of chronic pain other than back pain [OR = 2.59, P = 0.012]). More than one in two surgeons are likely to suff er from occupational low back pain. The protective roles of regular physical activity and back health education are highlighted.
A Comparison of Salivary Mercury Levels in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder When Compared to Age-matched Controls: A Case-control Observational Study.

AIM The aim of this study was to compare the level of mercury in the saliva of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as compared to age- and gender-matched controls in specific age groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS A case-control observational study design was used. In school children with ADHD and outpatient dental clinics of a university dental hospital, the participants were schoolchildren diagnosed with ADHD studying in the first grade (6-7 years), sixth grade (12-13 years), and ninth grade (15-16 years) and were gender-matched to children without ADHD attending regular classes in school. Ninety children with ADHD comprised the test group while 90 children without ADHD comprised the control group. RESULTS In this study, we found that children with ADHD had higher levels of salivary mercury than their age- and gender-matched counterparts; however, this difference was significant only in the 6-7 years of age group. The regression model showed a mild positive association between salivary mercury and ADHD; however, the association was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION While there is some indication that salivary mercury may be higher in children with ADHD, there is insufficient evidence to establish a definite association between the two. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The study highlights the need to evaluate existing evidence on the role of mercury, especially salivary mercury, in ADHD.
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE OF LNA USING HIGH QUALITY FACTOR PGS ON-CHIP SPIRAL INDUCTORS

This paper presents a detailed study of on-chip spiral inductors with patterned ground shield (PGS) inserted between the spiral inductorand the silicon substrate. This new design has been implemented in source degeneration cascode lownoise amplifier (LNA) circuit to show how the PGS inductors improve the performance of the circuit. An operation in 1.8V supply voltage, source degeneration cascode LNA structure was studied with both technology and PGS inductors. In this paper, the Agilent ADS (Advanced Design System) simulation software and TSMC 0. 18μm CMOS process parameters were adopted to achieve the low-cost characteristics and high integration to fit the performance of 2.4 GHz LNA design under IEEE 802.11a specification.According to the co-simulation results, the forward gain (S21) improved from 13.432 to 21.474 dB, and the (S12)is below the typical value of -15dB. The input impedance (S11) and the output impedance (S22) also represented good performance. In addition, the minimum noise figure was quite good. Thus, the LNA circuit with PGS inductorswas better in the availability and the possibility of 802.11a specification.
The Effectiveness of a Behavioral Therapy Program in Social Casework in the Development of Adaptive Behavior among Autistic Children

The lack of basic skills is one of the major issues affecting the behavior of autistic children. This is due to delays in acquiring sensory experiences from the stimuli of the surrounding environment. This study aims to establish an individual behavioral therapy program for developing adaptive behavior skills among autistic children, whilst determining its effectiveness and its role in developing the skills of independence, social interaction, and social communication of autistic children.
A Sub-threshold 9T Static Random-access Memory Cell with High Write and Read Ability with Bit Interleaving Capability

This paper proposes a new sub-threshold low power 9T static random-access memory (SRAM) cell compatible with bit interleaving structure in which the effective sizing adjustment of access transistors in write mode is provided by isolating writing and reading paths. In the proposed cell, we consider a weak inverter to make better write mode operation. Moreover applying boosted word line feature decreases write mode failure. An access buffer seperates storage node from read access transistor to improve cell stability and prevent data-related leakage in read operation. Applying virtual ground also reduces the leakage. Furthermore, we design the cell control unit. The simulation results at VDD=0.5V exhibit the effectiveness of our proposed cell compared with other counterparts which are suitable for bit interleaving structure. Comparison results on the proposed cell and 6T cell show our cell improved 70% in write power consumption and 90.45% in read power consumption. doi : 10.5829/idosi.ije. 2016.29. 05b.06
Energy Management of Wind Power Generation with Pumped Hydro Energy Storage and Participation in Frequency Control: Study in Electricity Market

: The integration of wind power into electric power system has an impact in grid stability (frequency and voltage stability). Recently, the integration of storage element can be compensating the wind power fluctuation and improve their participation in ancillary services. This paper investigated the combination of a wind farm and a PHES facility from the point of view of a generation company in a market environment. A joint operation model between the wind farm and PHES is proposed and the participation of in primary and secondary frequency control is studied. An algorithm of energy management system (EMS) is proposed to identify the daily operational strategy to be followed in order to:1) Minimize the penalty cost resulted from wind-PHES output imbalances; 2) Maximize the daily revenue profit taking into consideration all constraints of joint operation. Simulation results under MATLAB/Similink ®environment are presented and discussed. Keys words: Wind turbine, PHES, EMS, penalty cost, investment cost, reservoir, participation, frequency control.
Procedural Planet Generation based on derivate fBm noise

—Terrains requires large amounts of data to be represented in planetary scale. Procedural Content Generation techniques can reduce storage requirements. This paper uses a derivate fractional Brownian motion algorithm to procedurally generate a planetary terrain model and a view-dependent Level of Detail data structure to achieve realistic planetary terrains, with temporal coherence, in real-time.
Seroprevalence and Risk Factor Analysis of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infections in Adolescent Females

Background Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the leading causes of birth defects and childhood disability in the US. Methods To determine the CMV seroprevalence of adolescent females, serum antibody in 12-17 year olds at Cincinnati Children’s, UT Medical Branch at Galveston, and Vanderbilt University were studied. To determine risk factors associated with CMV (particularly sexual activity) a comprehensive questionnaire was administered. Results The seroprevalence of CMV was 52.2%. Both sexual activity and children in the home were statistically significant risk factors with an approximate two fold increased risk in CMV antibody. Being of white race had an inverse relationship with CMV. Conclusion Identification of CMV negative females is important to develop methods of preventing acquisition of CMV during conception and childbearing years. Adolescent females who have children in the home and are sexually active likely have already been infected with CMV. A larger sample size may indicate additional associated risks.
EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION: A CASE OF 29 DESIGNATED OPERATORS IN THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The main aim of this paper is to perform efficiency and productivity analysis of Universal Service Obligation (USO) based on the Malmquist Productivity Indices (MPI) analysis. The study focuses on 29 Designated Operators (DOs) and two isolated periods, the years 2003 and 2017. There is a clear trend of workforce reduction (12%). Considering the postal services, the data confirm a general trend that the letter-post is in decline (30%) and the parcels are on the rise (52%). Considering the financial results, both costs and revenues are increased; however, there is a higher increase of revenue (33.13%) compared to the cost (32.61%). Further, the results of implemented methodology are twofold. Firstly, a progress is determined at the average level of all observed DOs according to the efficiency and productivity indicators. Among other, the results indicate the increase of productivity for both input MPI (3.5%) and output MPI (8%). However, there are significant variations of efficiency and productivity at the individual level. Secondly, the aim of research was also to examine the sources of productivity changes by considering postal market liberalization, ownership, marketing services and e-commerce. Our findings show that the last three specified variables contribute to the explanation of productivity change.
Multi-sensor data merging of sea ice concentration and thickness

With the rapid change in the Arctic sea ice, a large number of sea ice observations have been collected in recent years, and it is expected that an even larger number of such observations will emerge in the coming years. To make the best use of these observations, in this paper we develop a multi-sensor optimal data merging (MODM) method to merge any number of different sea ice observations. Since such merged data are independent on model forecast, they are valid for model initialization and model validation. Based on the maximum likelihood estimation theory, we prove that any model assimilated with the merged data is equivalent to assimilating the original multi-sensor data. This greatly facilitates sea ice data assimilation, particularly for operational forecast with limited computational resources. We apply the MODM method to merge sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT), respectively, in the Arctic. For SIC merging, the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data are merged together with the Norwegian Ice Service ice chart. This substantially reduces the uncertainties at the ice edge and in the coastal areas. For SIT merging, the daily Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) data is merged with the weekly-mean merged CryoSat-2 and SMOS (CS2SMOS) data. This generates a new daily CS2SMOS SIT data with better spatial coverage for the whole Arctic.
Cryptic massive nest colonisation by ants and termites in the world's largest leatherback turtle rookery

Egg mortality is one of the main factors affecting life history and conservation of oviparous species. A massive and cryptic colonisation of many leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) eggs is presented in the most important rookery for the species in Gabon. A total of 163 nests were exhumed at Kingere beach, revealing that only 16.7% of eggs produced hatchlings. In the 59% of the nests, more than half of the eggs were dead and attacked by invertebrates and 94% had at least one egg affected by invertebrates. The rate of eggs and SAGs (yolkless eggs) affected by invertebrates within a clutch ranged from 0% to 100%, with an average proportion of 39% and 52%, respectively. The most common invertebrates interacting with the eggs were ghost crabs and insects that affected 51% and 82% of the nests, respectively. Crab and insect co-occurred in 33% of the affected nests. Ants, identified as Dorylus spininodis (Emery 1901) were found in 56% of the excavated nests. However, it was not possible to determine if the ants predated alive eggs or scavenged dead eggs. Very often, hundreds of ants were found dead within dead eggs. Termites and other invertebrates were associated with the clutch environment and identified as opportunistic feeders. An unusual ecological interaction within the leatherback clutches between termites and ants was found in 11% of the nests. The abrupt transition between the soil forest and the beach might be favouring a thriving microbial and invertebrate activity in the sand profile that colonises the nests.
Phase I and II studies of the decitabine–genistein drug combination in advanced solid tumors.

e13556 Background: The combination of epigenetic drug decitabine with genistein, a natural isoflavone, produces synergistic responses in preclinical studies with particular activity shown in lung cancer cell lines. Our phase I dose-escalation study of decitabine with a fixed dose of genistein to treat advanced solid tumor was followed by a phase II study in advanced lung cancer patients. Methods: In phase I, decitabine was administered over 10-hours at increasing doses (60, 120, 240 mg/m2) with continuous administration of genistein 300 mg/day orally. Treatment cycles were repeated every 4 to 6 weeks. The MTD was 120 mg/m2 with neutropenia as DLT. Decitabine at 120 mg/m2 and genistein produced plasma levels of 0.62±0.06 µM and 8.5±5.6 µM, respectively. Results: The drug combination was well tolerated and produced stable disease for more than 6 months (7-14 months) in 5/10 patients. One gastric cancer patient had a 50% reduction in tumor burden after 6 months of therapy. Stable disease was also achieved in.
ASSESSMENT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ITS IMPACTS ON CORPORATE REPUTATION OF COMPANIES IN SELECTED BALKAN COUNTRIES FORMER YUGOSLAVIA STATES

The empirical study was conducted in the three selected Balkan Countries from former Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro through totally 270 experts’ surveys, 90 questionnaires were distributed to entrepreneurs (30), policy makers (30) and experts from academia (30) in each country in order to assess the CSR level in the country and the effect the main drivers having on CSR level, then followed by the assessment of CSR impacts on Corporate Reputation (CR). The model of multivariate regression was developed for assessment of the impact of the four independent variables (Institutional Environment, Executive Characteristics, Customers’ Expectations and Political Factors) on dependent variable–CSR. The study also analysed the impact of CSR (dependent variable) on CR. The obtained results show that countries with the higher level of CSR, have achieved the greater level of CR. The degree of the impact of the main drivers on CSR in selected Balkan countries is linked to EU accession level. The political factor has the highest impact on CSR level in all investigated countries, institutional environment is the next.
Evaluation of Ox-LDL and Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase in Hepatitis C Virus Patients Before and After Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) lifecycle is closely connected to host cell lipid metabolism, from cell entry, through viral RNA replication to viral particle production and formation/assembly. Objective: To determine the serum levels of ox-LDL, total antioxidant capability and superoxide dismutase, and estimate their role in HCV hepatitis patients. In addition, the effect of direct-acting antiviral therapy on their levels was evaluated. Methods: This study included forty chronic hepatitis C (genotype 4) patients. Blood samples were taken from the patients before and after taking sofosbuvir (400 mg) and daclatsvir 60 mg; one time daily orally for 24 weeks. Forty volunteers were used as control group. Results: Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) Serum TAC in chronic HCV hepatitis patients were significantly low 1.21 ± 0.28 mmol/liter before treatment as compared to the control group (1.61 ± 0.26 mmol/liter). Ox-LDL Serum levels of ox-LDL were significantly high in patients before (70.21 ± 10.59 μg/L) treatment and after treatment (68.48 ± 9.12 μg/L) as compared to control group (58.64 ± 6.44 μg/L). Antioxidants supplementations and direct antiviral drugs did not affect the levels of ox-LDL significantly.Superoxide dismutase (SOD) Serum levels of extracellular SOD were significantly higher in control group (15.03 ± 4.14U/ml), than levels in HCV patients before treatment (8.6 ± 1.1 U/ml) and after treatment (10.33 ± 1.6 U/ml). Treatment did not restore the levels of serum SOD in patients. Quantitative HCV PCR Direct-acting antiviral agents had a sustained virological response in the chosen group of patients. Conclusion: Direct-acting antiviral agents did not normalize serum levels of ox-LDL and extracellular SOD. In addition, the currently used antioxidants did not decrease the oxidative changes in LDL. New antioxidants as well as inducers of SOD enzymes may be helpful in preventing the formation of ox-LDL (taken as early as possible) and may be helpful in the treatment of HCV hepatitis.
CNN based Off-the-Person ECG Biometrics

Security now a days demanding highly advanced technologies to avoid falsification. There are solid evidences that the human heart beat can be used for biometric security. These trend in physiological signals used in this proposed work where deep learning methodologies incorporated for evaluation. The ECG-based biometric systems are usually less accurate than technologies based on other physiological traits. However ECG found out the best because of its uniqueness, specificity and unidimesional nature. In this work off-the-person category is considered and this mode of acquisition helps to minimize the complexity in acquiring the signal. The proposed work in this literature used raw ECG biometric data and convolutional neural network model for feature extraction and fully connected layers for classification. The performance comparison of different layers of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) were compared with CNN-LSTM model. We have achieved the better performance in terms of accuracy with reduced Equal Error Rate(EER) with different CNN models.
Comparison of UPQC Topologies for Power Quality Enhancement in Grid Integrated Renewable Energy Sources

Unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) is a custom power device that provides a complete power quality solution. The only drawback of UPQC is that it cannot maintain the voltage in case of grid interruption. Different UPQC topologies are reported. This paper presents a detailed comparison of design and operational aspects of two UPQC topologies, namely (i) UPQC− Multiconverter, and (ii) UPQC−Distributed Generation. Both of these topologies address the inability of UPQC to maintain continuous power supply even under grid failure, while meeting the IEEE standard 519. An attempt is made to compare the performance of both these topologies with respect to harmonic current and reactive power compensation, sag/swell mitigation, number of switches, switch ratings, etc. Further, in case of UPQC−Distributed Generation a sub classification based on energy sources and energy storage elements is also presented. The operation of the two topologies under different operating scenarios is also compared.
Machine Learning based System for Automatic Detection of Leukemia Cancer Cell

In recent years, blood cell classification with the help of image processing techniques has attracted many researchers to build an automated system that assists doctors for diagnosis of cancer. Also, it’s very challenging to differentiate cancer cell from normal cell as they look similar in initial stages. In this manuscript, we have presented an approach for cancer cell detection by extracting important features from the blood cell images and learning multiple classifiers. We have observed that Gradient Boosting Decision Tree classification algorithms give better result than Support Vector Machine. We have also derived few important features like presence of adjacent nuclei and measure of irregularity in the shape of a nucleus, which has significant impact on cancer cell detection. Our techniques can be used in a limited computing environment without a Graphics Processing Unit. We have achieved 85.6% of F1 score on validation data. This approach also identified an important feature for the images that can help doctors or technicians for better understanding of stained images to aid diagnosis of leukemia patients.
SitusCall: Location-Based Mobile Communication for Group Calls and Human Augmentation

We introduce SitusCall, a new system that enhances group communication in emergencies quickly. The sytem allows users to communicate face-to-face with location information through a smartphone. To detect a user's position, the system employs GPS and several beacons, and any nearby user can simply select certain other users to initiate communication. Thus, it does not require personal authentication information, such as an email address or a telephone number. Also, SitusCall affords communication with a flexible streaming layout. The system provides several predefined layouts for face-to-face communication from which users can select to communicate with other connected users. Yet our approach is so simple and direct that it is useful for emergency cases. For example, if a person wants to announce evacuation information (e.g., about dangerous places or conditions) to other people nearby, he or she can simply select icons and connect with those people instantly and share information with them. In this paper, we describe SitusCall in terms of its design, implementation, evaluation, and applications.
Pseudo Predictor Feedback Stabilization of Linear Systems with Both State and Input Delays*

This paper is concerned with stabilization of linear systems with both input delay and state delay, by utilizing the predictor based delay compensation method. The future dynamics of system are predicted by the proposed pseudo predictor feedback (PPF) control scheme. It is proved that the stability of the time-delay system under the PPF controller is equivalent to the stability of a corresponding integral delay system. The proposed method is also adopted for the stabilization of time-varying time-delay systems. A numerical example is carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Human posture recognition based on multi-channel SAR at 77GHz

Human posture recognition is gaining increasing attention due to its widespread application. Besides optical and wearable methods for human posture recognition, radar is also an important sensor with the advantage of independence of the condition of work. In this paper, it is proposed to recognize human posture based on multi-channel Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) at 77GHz. We obtain 2D radar images of human postures through synthetic aperture technology, and then obtain 3D radar images through multi-channel interferometry technology. By analyzing radar images with different postures and different resolutions, we find that the height distribution characteristics of radar images are discrepant under different postures. We propose to use the statistical characteristics of their height distribution to discriminate common human postures, like standing, sitting/squatting and lying. The final experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of proposed method.