bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nigerian Radiographers Obligation to Diagnostic Reference levels (DRLs) in Medical Imaging
Authors: Adejoh Tom
Published: September 2022

Background: Diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) help to identify unusually high dose levels in medical procedures involving radiation. This will subsequently, stimulate quality control. There are legislations and guidelines requiring the Member States of the European Union to adopt DRLs. While about 72% of European countries, as well as the United States, have complied, and with subsequent reviews demonstrating signiﬁcant dose reductions (16% – 30%), no evidence links any African country to replicate the same.

Objective: This work brieﬂy reviewed the progress of Nigeria with regards to diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) and with particular attention to eﬀorts by radiographers.

Methods: Google search was made with keywords of diagnostic reference levels as well as radiation dose in Nigeria. Over forty works were retrieved but only twenty- two which had speciﬁc relevance to the focus of the review were archived and read. The works were subsequently scrutinized to piece together the trend of DRLs globally, and locally.

Results: Publications on x-ray, mammography, ﬂuoroscopy and computed tomography dose abound in Nigeria. Doses had wide variations in all modalities. There was no accessible evidence to indicate that any regulatory agency in Nigeria had keyed into the imperative of dose investigation, monitoring and reporting.

Conclusion: In conclusion, diagnostic reference levels in x-ray, mammography and computed tomography have been recommended by independent researchers in Nigeria. Regulatory agencies are urged to summon the will to give guidelines on the implementation of these DRLs in order to improve the optimization of protection for patients.
Sonographic Assessment of Kidneys in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Seropositive Patients: A systematic Review
Authors: Mohammed Sidi , Abbas Kabir
Published: September 2022

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) remains a major challenge globally, and approximately 180,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in Nigeria in 2015. HIV associated nephropathy is the third most common cause of end-stage renal failure.

Objectives: To review published original research articles on the sonographic evaluation of kidneys in HIV seropositive patients, identifying missing gaps and coming up with an area of further study.

Methodology: The study was retrospective and a secondary source of data from published original research articles was used. The search was performed through Google search using Google Scholar, EMBASE, PubMed and Medline. All the published original research articles in the English language and the availability of full-text articles were included in the study.

Results: An electronic search using the search terms had identified 58 related published articles, but only 12 articles were reviewed. This study found out that human immunodeficiency virus-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) to be a most predominant renal disease in HIV positive patients leaving in sub-Saharan Africa with increased renal parenchymal echogenicity and decreased corticomedullary differentiation sonographically, which correlate in raised of serum creatinine level and the degree of patients immune competence (CD4 count). Few studies correlated the sonographic findings with histopathological feature and none uses Doppler ultrasound.

Conclusion: This study has identified a correlation of the sonographic findings with the histopathological features and the use of Doppler ultrasound as the missing gaps from the previously published research articles in the subject area.
Patient waiting time Analysis at Service Points in the Ultrasound Unit of a Nigerian Teaching Hospital
Authors: Idigo F.U , Chijioke N.I , Anakwue A.C , Nwogu U.B
Published: September 2022

Background: Quality of service, as perceived by patients in any healthcare facility is to a great extent, dependent on the waiting time. Reducing patients waiting time increases patients satisfaction and improves system eﬃciency.

Purpose: To measure and analyze the waiting time of patients at the service points in the ultrasound unit of a Nigerian tertiary hospital and to determine the mean examination time for the diﬀerent ultrasound investigations carried out.

Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was carried out in the ultrasound unit of the Radiology department at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Ituku/Ozalla, Enugu. The waiting and examination times of patients were measured directly through observation of system operations. The waiting time at the various service points identiﬁed as costing, update, payment and examination were recorded. Mean, range and standard deviation of waiting and service times formed the descriptive statistics for the. For inferential statistics, ANOVA test was carried out to test for signiﬁcance in the diﬀerent service point waiting times, and the diﬀerent examination times for the diﬀerent investigations.

Results: Mean waiting time was 3 hours 31 seconds and average exam time was 26 minutes 31 seconds. Analysis of variance on the service point where patients wait the most showed that the point after making the payment was the most signiﬁcant. There was no signiﬁcant diﬀerence found in the amount of time spent on diﬀerent examinations (P< 0.05).

Conclusion: Timely delivery of services is of optimum importance, considering the need for patient-centred service. With the information provided on the waiting time at the diﬀerent service points in a typical teaching hospital ultrasound unit, departmental managers will be guided in the planning of the departmental operations, to enhance patient satisfaction and system eﬃciency.
A Survey of Diagnostic X-ray room design and shielding Integrity of Lead Aprons in a State in North Eastern Nigeria.
Authors: Mohammed Anas , Nzotta C.C , Nkubli B.F , Abubakar U , Bappah S.Y , Osayaba P.E , Dukku A.A
Published: September 2022

Background: X-ray facility design and shielding integrity is meant to optimize the radiation safety of patients, staﬀ and the general public.

Objectives: To determine the conformity to x-ray room design standards and the functional eﬃcacy of lead aprons in the surveyed facilities.

Materials and Method: The survey was conducted in six radio diagnostic centres in Gombe State Nigeria labelled A to F for anonymity. The building layout of the radiology departments was sketched to show the dimensions (L x B x H) and adjoining structures. Datasheets were also used to record information about the radio-diagnostic facility. Lead aprons were inspected for defects by physical observation and by x-ray exposure.

Results: The x-ray room dimension of the six radio diagnostic centres with A(24 m2), B (14.8 m2), C (30 m2), D (36 m2), E (21.2 m2) and F (25 m2). All the walls of the radio-diagnostic room of the facility A, B, C and D were lined with 2 mm lead equivalent, whereas E and F were not. About 7 (38.8%) of lead aprons inspected were defective, while 11 (61.1%) were not defective.

Conclusion: There are compromises noted in the design of the facility and the majority of the lead aprons inspected showed good functional eﬃcacy.
Radiological evaluation of lead apron integrity in five selected hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria
Authors: Ilupeju Y. , Ibrahim U. , Yusuf S.D. , Mundi A.A. , Idris M.M.
Published: September 2022

Background: The general consensus is that any exposure to ionising radiation carries a risk. Diagnostic radiology is the largest (87%) contributor to man-made ionising radiation, therefore any economical and socially acceptable means ofreducing dose without compromising the diagnostic value of the procedure must be worth implementing.Aim: This study is aimed at evaluating lead apron integrity in five selected Hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria.Methodology: The methodology approach includes the application of a large area beam for transmission measurement with the placement of OSLD before and behind the ten (10) lead aprons to determine the entrance and exit dose as well as the transmission factor. In this study, lead apron consisting of 0.25mm and 0.35mm thickness were examined.Results: The result shows that the transmittance factor of the entrance and exit dose through the lead equivalent aprons is directly proportional to the age of the apron with NHA1 having the highest transmission factor (0.83) and oldest age (16 years). WGH2 has the lowest transfer factor (0.12) and the least age (1 year).Conclusion: Lead aprons loses their attenuation capability over time and should be replace after 15 years at most for effective protection against ionizing radiation.
Toxicity effect of radiographic developer effluent on giant African snail (Achatina fulica)
Authors: Ama John , Esien-umo Emmanuel , Effiong Francis
Published: September 2022

Background: The decline in the population of snails, a source of protein of people living in the high forest zone due to environmental pollution and the hazard caused by the disposal of radiographic developer effluent into streams, bushes or forests and public sewer systems makes the assessment of the effect on giant African snails (Achatina fulica) from environmental pollution due to radiographic developer effluent very important.Materials and Methods: Ninety 5 months old, 12 months old and 24 months old giant African snails were randomly divided into 6 groups of 15 snails for each age group based on the dose of developer effluent to be administered. One group from each age group was designated the control and the remaining, the experimental group. Range finding test was performed at effluent concentrations of 100 %, 50 %, 25 %, 12.5 %, 6.25 %, 3.125 %, 1.6 % and 0 % (control) in 150 ml of distilled water. The effluent solution was administered on the feed and soil of the experimental snails only.Results: Behavioural changes occurred between 0.2 – 1.0 % concentration and mortality at 24 – 96 hours exposure to the effluent solutions. The percentage (%) mortality of the giant African snails increased as the effluent concentration increased from 0.2 - 1.0 % and at increased exposure time of 24 – 96 hours. The estimated 96 hours LD50 for the 5, 12 and 24 months old giant African snails were 0.20 0.23, 0.23 0.25 and 0.30 0.26 respectively.Conclusion: Radiographic developer effluent is harmful to the giant African snails, with the % mortality increasing with increase in concentration and exposure time to the developer effluent. Legislation is recommended to ensure safe disposal of radiographic developer effluents into the Nigerian environment considering the importance of giant African snails (Achatina fulica) to the ecosystem and the economy.
An evaluation of the evidence of burnout among ultrasound practitioners in Rivers State
Authors: Arimie Christopher O. , Biradee Joy Ngozi
Published: September 2022

BackgroundOccupational burnout has become a critical issue among ultrasound practitioners. Inappropriate management of occupational burnout can lead to serious health problems.AimTo evaluate the evidence of burnout among ultrasound practitioners in Rivers State.Materials and methodsA survey of ultrasound practitioners in selected diagnostic imaging facilities in Port Harcourt and its environs was conducted between November, 2018 and March, 2019 to evaluate the evidence of burnout. A descriptive survey design was employed and selection of the facilities was done using systematic sampling technique. 21 diagnostic imaging facilities were used. Ethical clearance was obtained from Management of the facilities. Data were obtained from structured questionnaires administered to 50 ultrasound practitioners in these facilities, who accepted to participate in the study. The questionnaire surveyed basic demographic data, time taken to get to work, experiences, practices, number of night shifts and other factors that predispose burnout. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.ResultsThe factors contributing to burnout among ultrasound practitioners are understaffing leading to work overload and excessive overtime work (41%), hostile interactions with patients' relatives (34%), interactions with colleagues (20%), and conflict with Boss/supervisor (5%). Burnout manifests differently among the practitioners as feelings of: being worn-out and weary (46%), being sick (31%), being emotionally drained (23%).ConclusionUltrasound practitioners in Rivers State suffer high level of burnout. Issues of understaffing and interpersonal communication skills should be addressed in order to minimize the incidence of burnout.
Carotid doppler indices with age and body mass index in a sampled Nigerian population
Authors: Onwuzu Sobechukwu , Ugwu Antony , Onwuzu Ifunanya , Agbo Julius A
Published: September 2022

Background: Carotid doppler studies are frequently carried out to assess for possible stenosis resulting from presence of carotid plaques. The carotid peak systolic velocity (PSV) and end diastolic velocity (EDV) are key indices for determining the severity of the stenosis. However, normative values of these parameters may be dependent on anthropological variables like age and body mass index (BMI)Objective: The study was aimed at assessing the variations of PSV and EDV with age and BMI in a sampled Nigerian population.Materials and Methods: A total of 204 participants (72 males and 132 non-gravid females) aged between 20 and 70 years who were normotensive with no cardiovascular diseases were selected. Their ages, BMI, PSV and the EDV were measured using standard protocols for the four segments of the carotid artery: common carotid (CC), carotid bulb (CB), internal carotid (IC) and the external carotid (EC). Data obtained were presented using tables and line graphs while the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine significant difference in measurement across the groups.Results: The mean PSV recorded were 88.25 ± 7.43 cm/s for the CC, 73.93 ± 6.23 cm/s for the IC, 51.01 ± 4.30 cm/s for the CB and 50.41 ± 4.25 cm/s for the EC. There was a steady increase of the PSV between 20 and 46 years from 74.91 cm/s to 98.78 cm/s for the CC, from 62.76 cm/s to 82.75 cm/s for the IC, from 42.80 cm/s to 56.43 cm/s for the EC and from 43.30 cm/s to 57.10 cm/s for the CB. The maximum EDV measured for the IC was (24.75 ± 2.11 cm/s). Others were 21.12 ± 1.8 cm/s for the CC, 19.38 ± 1.65 cm/s for CB and 16.92 ± 1.44 cm/s for the EC. The EDV also increased steadily between 20 to 46 years from 17.76 cm/s to 23.68 cm/s for the CC, from 21.04 cm/s to 27.75 cm/s for the IC, from 14.38 cm/s to 18.97 cm/s for the EC and from 16.48 cm/s to 21.73 cm/s for the CB. The PSV and EDV varied significantly with age (p >0.05). Also, the PSV and EDV increased slightly with increasing BMI from 30 – 31.9 kg/m2. For a BMI of 20 kg/m2 to 32 kg/m2, the increase in PSV were from 79.48 cm/s to 90.75 cm/s for the CC, from 66.58 cm/s to 76.03 cm/s for the IC, from 45.40 cm/s to 51.85 cm/s for the EC and from 45.94 cm/s to 52.46 cm/s for the CV. Similarly, the PSV and EDV values decreased at a BMI of 30 – 31.99 kg/m2. Thus, the BMI was significantly associated with PSV and EDV across all segments of the carotid artery (p > 0.05).Conclusion: arotid PSV and EDV with age and BMI. These variations should be taken in to consideration when diagnosis on alterations in carotid artery flow are to be made using PSV and EDV values.
Effect of Whole Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Feeding on the Performance of Commercial Broilers
Authors: Bhagora Nikesh J. , Savaliya Fulabhai P. , Patel Atul B. , Patel Dilip C.
Published: September 2022

An experiment was conducted for six weeks to study the effect of mixed or choice feeding of whole wheat on the performance of commercial broiler chicken. A total of 352 straight-run day-old commercial broiler chickens were randomly divided into 11 treatments from T1 to T11, with 32 chicks in each treatment and eight chicks in each of four replicates. The corn soya control diet (T1) was fed to the broiler birds without the inclusion of wheat. Results indicated that final body weight, weight gain, and FCR were significantly (p < 0.05) improved in broiler birds fed with 40% choice feeding of wheat at marketing age without affecting feed consumption. The wheat consumption was linearly increased in the wheat choice feeding levels from 20 to 100 %. The study concluded that the choice feeding of wheat instead of maize at 40% was cost-effective and beneficial for improving growth performance.
A Study on Horticulture Products in India
Authors: Mrs. R. Sasikala
Published: September 2022

The horticulture forming sector which includes an extensive diversity of crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices, plantation crops, floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants, cashew etc. is nowadays recognized as a significant sector for potential diversification and value addition in agriculture. It has been acknowledged that mounting horticulture crops is at present an ideal alternative to improve livelihood security, boost employment generation, and accomplish income and food security, and increase income through value addition. Horticultural crops, particularly fruits are currently receiving escalating attention in outlook of its increasing commercial significance accentuated by quick transportation to vast internal market. India accounts for ten per cent of world production of fruit crops, mango, plantain, citrus, apple, guava, papaya, pineapple and grapes account for the bulk of fruit production. In dry land areas, ber and amla have become popular. In this context, the present study concentrates horticultural crop production in India.
Early Prone versus Supine Positioning in Moderate to Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Authors: Al Hashim Abdul Hakeem , Al Zakwani Ibrahim , Al Jadidi Abdullah , Al Harthi Ruqaiya , Al Naabi Maadh , Biyappu Ramakrishna , Kodange Sonali , Asati Naveen Kumar , Al Barhi Tamadher , Mohan Mudhun , Jagadeesan Jayachandiran , Sachez Micheline , Sycaayao Praisemabel S. , Al Amrani Khalfan , Al Khalili Huda , Al Mamari Rashid , Al-Busaidi Mujahid
Published: September 2022

Objectives: This study sought to determine whether early prone positioning of patients with moderate to severe COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) lowers the mortality rate. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using data from intensive care units of two tertiary centers in Oman. Adult patients with moderate to severe COVID-19-related ARDS with a PaO2/FiO2 ratio < 150 on FiO2 of 60% or more and a positive end-expiratory pressure of at least 8 cm H2O who were admitted between 1 May 2020 and 31 October 2020 were selected as participants. All patients were intubated and subjected to mechanical ventilation within 48 hours of admission and placed in either prone or supine position. Mortality was measured and compared between the patients from the two groups. Results: A total of 235 patients were included (120 in the prone group and 115 in the supine group). There were no significant differences in mortality (48.3% vs. 47.8%; p =0.938) and discharge rates (50.8% vs. 51.3%; p =0.942) between the prone and supine groups, respectively. Conclusions: Early prone positioning of patients with COVID-19-related ARDS does not result in a significant reduction in mortality.
FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MENGGAMBARKAN PEMILIHAN METODE KONTRASEPSI PIL OLEH AKSEPSOR DI PUSKESMAS BARIMBA KECAMATAN KAPUAS HILIR KABUPATEN KAPUAS
Authors: Purnama Sari Dian
Published: September 2022

Abstrak

 

Usaha pemerintah Indonesia dalam menghadapi laju pertumbuhan penduduk, salah satunya adalah dengan melaksanakan program Keluarga Berencana (KB). Salah satu bagian dari program KB adalah penggunaan kontrasepsi efektif, yaitu kontrasepsi pil. Pada salah satu puskesmas di Kecamatan Kapuas Hilir, jumlah akseptor KB pil pada bulan April 2022 adalah 120 akseptor (47,0%), suntik 103 akseptor (40,3%), kondom 2 akseptor (0,78%), IUD 4 akseptor (1,56%), dan implant 26 akseptor (10,19%). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui gambaran faktor-faktor pemilihan metode kontrasepsi pil oleh aksepsor berdasarkan umur, pengetahuan, pendidikan, ekonomi dan jenis kontrasepsi pil. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif, dengan jumlah populasi sebanyak 92 akseptor. Teknik sampling dilakukan secara purposive sampling. Instrument penelitian menggunakan kuisioner dengan pertanyaan tertutup yang dikembangkan sendiri oleh peneliti. Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan memilih kontrasepsi pil masih kurang baik, tapi masih perlu penelitian lebih lanjut untuk menggali alasan dibalik kurangnya pengetahuan ini.

 

Kata Kunci : Kontrasepsi Pil, Aksepsor KB, Keluarga Berencana, Pengendalian Jumlah Penduduk
Multiple Objects and Road Detection in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Authors: Saranya M. , Tharun Reddy Kariketi , Raju Madhumitha , Kutala Manoj
Published: September 2022

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have greater potential to widely used in military and civil applications. Additionally equipped with the cameras can also be used in agriculture and surveillance. Aerial imagery has its own unique challenges that differ from the training set of modern-day object detectors, since it is made of images of larger areas compared to the regular datasets and the objects are very small on the contrary. These problems do not allow us to use common object detection models. Currently there are many computer vision algorithm that are designed using human centric photographs, But from the top view imagery taken vertically the objects of interest are small and fewer features mostly appearing flat and rectangular, certain objects closer to each other can also overlap. So detecting most of the objects from the birds eye view is a challenging task. Hence the work will be focusing on detecting multiple objects from those images using enhanced ResNet, FPN, FasterRCNN models thereby providing an effective surveillance for the UAV and extraction of road networks from aerial images has fundamental importance.
Digital Transformation of the Health Sector During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Rawash Ahmed , Abdelrahman Mohamed
Published: September 2022

Background: In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia was confirmed. In reaction to the outbreak, Saudi Arabia ordered the closure of the majority of governmental and private services. Technology and digital solutions have made it possible to provide essential services after the implementation of these severe protection requirements. Objective: This study aims to show how Saudi Arabia used digital technology during the COVID-19 epidemic in the fields of public health and health care services, and shedding insight on the efficacy of digital transformation in Saudi Arabia for preventing the spread of Covid-19. Methods: Using public announcements, press briefings and releases, news clips, published statistics, peerreviewed literature, and professional debates, we documented Saudi Arabia's usage of digital technologies throughout the epidemic. Results: The government and business sectors of Saudi Arabia jointly created and released around 19 applications and platforms that support public health duties and offer health care. Detailed descriptions of each are given. Companies in the telecommunications industry collaborated well and took steps to assist continuing efforts. Using social media, websites, and SMS text messages, risk communication initiatives adhered to best practice guidelines. Conclusions: An important step toward digital transformation has been taken by Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 framework. This shift was made possible by COVID-19. For future epidemics in Saudi Arabia, artificial intelligence might be used to integrate data from several sources. Reducing the number of applications and combining their operations may also boost and make it easier for people to utilize them.
Arabic Dataset for Farmers' Intent Identification Toward Developing a Chatbot
Authors: Elsayed Abdelrahman , F. Ellakwa Susan
Published: September 2022

A chatbot is an application of artificial intelligence in natural language processing and speech recognition. It is a computer program that imitates humans in making conversations with other people. Chatbots that specialize in a single topic, such as agriculture, are known as domain-specific chatbots. In this paper, we present a dataset for farmer intents. Intent identification is the first step in building a chatbot. The dataset includes five intents (pest or disease identification, irrigation, fertilization, weed identification, and plantation date). The length of the dataset is 720 records. We applied a Multi-Layers Perceptron (MLP) for intent classification. We tried different numbers of neurons per hidden layer and compared between increasing the number of neurons with the fixed number of epochs. The result shows that as the number of neurons in the hidden layers increases, the introduced MLP achieves high accuracy in a small number of epochs. MLP achieves 97% accuracy on the introduced dataset when the number of neurons in each hidden layer is 256 and the number of epochs is 10.
Impact of 4IR Technology and its Impact on the Current Deployment
Authors: Alsulaimani Bandar , Islam Amanul
Published: September 2022

The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in how we live, work, and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development with remarkable technological advancements comparable to those of the first, second, and third industrial revolutions. These developments are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds in ways that hold great promise as well as the possibility of great danger. The way that modern people live and work is changing as a result of disruptive technologies and trends including the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI). This is known as the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 refers to the incorporation of these technologies into production processes. In this article, we discussed the history of 4IR technology, its impact of 4IR technology, and its impact on the current deployment.
A Short Survey on Constructing an IoT based Intelligent Road System
Authors: Okorodudu F. O. , Omede G. C. , Otegbalor S. A.
Published: September 2022

Road construction is a crucial component of modern infrastructure since it greatly facilitates travel between various areas.Sustainability, Progress, and Transformation refer to the upgrading of roads employing communication, lighting, and control transmission mechanisms that may promote sustainability, road progress, and a better driving experience for users.Smart roads that are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices make it possible to drive more efficiently, sustainably, and safely.For this reason, the range of smart road technology like actuators, sensors, and solar power along with software infrastructures like Artificial Intelligence and big data are now made standard in all new roads. This article provides a framework for patients to employ speech-to-text chatbots to conduct treatment. Using chat-box technology, we have implemented cognitive therapy as a solution.
Comparative Analysis of Existing and a Novel Approach to Topic Detection on Conversational Dialogue Data
Authors: Khalid Haider , Wade Vincent
Published: September 2022

Topic detection in dialogue datasets has become a significant challenge for unsupervised and unlabeled data to develop a cohesive and engaging dialogue system. In this paper, we proposed unsupervised and semi-supervised techniques for topic detection in the conversational dialogue dataset and compared them with existing topic detection techniques. The paper proposes a novel approach for topic detection, which takes preprocessed data as an input and performs similarity analysis with the TF-IDF scores bag of words technique (BOW) to identify higher frequency words from dialogue utterances. It then refines the higher frequency words by integrating the clustering and elbow methods and using the Parallel Latent Dirichlet Allocation (PLDA) model to detect the topics. The paper comprised a comparative analysis of the proposed approach on the Switchboard, Personachat and MultiWOZ dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed topic detection approach performs significantly better using a semi-supervised dialogue dataset. We also performed topic quantification to check how accurate extracted topics are to compare with manually annotated data. For example, extracted topics from Switchboard are 92.72%, Peronachat 87.31% and MultiWOZ 93.15% accurate with manually annotated data.
Adversarial Grammatical Error Generation: Application to Persian Language
Authors: Golizadeh Nassibeh , Golizadeh Mahdi , Forouzanfar Mohamad
Published: September 2022

Grammatical error correction (GEC) greatly benefits from large quantities of high-quality training data. However, the preparation of a large amount of labelled training data is time-consuming and prone to human errors. These issues have become major obstacles in training GEC systems. Recently, the performance of English GEC systems has drastically been enhanced by the application of deep neural networks that generate a large amount of synthetic data from limited samples. While GEC has extensively been studied in languages such as English and Chinese, no attempts have been made to generate synthetic data for improving Persian GEC systems. Given the substantial grammatical and semantic differences of the Persian language, in this paper, we propose a new deep learning framework to create large enough synthetic sentences that are grammatically incorrect for training Persian GEC systems. A modified version of sequence generative adversarial net with policy gradient is developed, in which the size of the model is scaled down and the hyperparameters are tuned. The generator is trained in an adversarial framework on a limited dataset of 8000 samples. Our proposed adversarial framework achieved bilingual evaluation understudy (BLEU) scores of 64.5% on BLEU-2, 44.2% on BLEU-3, and 21.4% on BLEU-4, and outperformed the conventional supervised-trained long short-term memory using maximum likelihood estimation and recently proposed sequence labeler using neural machine translation augmentation. This shows promise toward improving the performance of GEC systems by generating a large amount of training data.
Introduction of a Novel Anomalous Sound Detection Methodology
Authors: Tan Xiao , Yiu S M
Published: September 2022

This paper is to introduce a novel semi-supervised methodology, the enhanced incremental principal component analysis (“IPCA”) based deep convolutional neural network autoencoder (“DCNN-AE) for Anomalous Sound Detection (“ASD”) with high accuracy and computing efficiency. This hybrid methodology is to adopt Enhanced IPCA to reduce the dimensionality and then to use DCNN-AE to extract the features of the sample sound and detect the anomality. In this project, 228 sets of normal sounds and 100 sets of anomaly sounds of same machine are used for the experiments. And the sound files of machines (stepper motors) for the experiments are collected from a plant site. 50 random test cases are executed to evaluate the performance of the algorithm with AUC, PAUC, F measure and Accuracy Score. IPCA Based DCNN-AE shows high accuracy with the average AUC of 0.815793282, comparing with that of Kmeans++ of 0.499545351, of Incremental PCA based DBSCAN clustering of 0.636348073, of Incremental based PCA based One-class SVM of 0.506749433 and of DCGAN of 0.716528104. From the perspective of computing efficiency, because of the dimensions-reduction by the IPCA layer, the average execution time of the new methodology is 15 minutes in the CPU computing module of 2.3 GHz quad-core processors, comparing with that of DCGAN with 90 minutes in GPU computing module of 4 to 8 kernels.
Domain Engineering for Applied Monocular Reconstruction of Parametric Faces
Authors: Borovikov Igor , Levonyan Karine , Rein Jon , Wrotek Pawel , Victor Nitish
Published: September 2022

Many modern online 3D applications and videogames rely on parametric models of human faces for creating believable avatars. However, manually reproducing someone's facial likeness with a parametric model is difficult and time-consuming. Machine Learning solution for that task is highly desirable but is also challenging. The paper proposes a novel approach to the so-called Face-to-Parameters problem (F2P for short), aiming to reconstruct a parametric face from a single image. The proposed method utilizes synthetic data, domain decomposition, and domain adaptation for addressing multifaceted challenges in solving the F2P. The open-sourced codebase illustrates our key observations and provides means for quantitative evaluation. The presented approach proves practical in an industrial application; it improves accuracy and allows for more efficient models training. The techniques have the potential to extend to other types of parametric models.
Preschool Pre-service Teachers’ Metaphoric Perceptions of the Concept of “Environment”: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: GÜLAY OGELMAN Hülya , GÜNGÖR Hande , SARI Betül , DURKAN Nazmi
Published: September 2022

The study attempts to identify the perceptions of preschool pre-service teachers who take the environmental education in early childhood course about the concept of the environment through metaphor analysis. A phenomenological design, one of the most common qualitative designs, was employed in the study. The study group consists of 70 pre-service teachers in the first measurement and 49 pre-service teachers in the final measurement, who took the environmental education in early childhood course in the third year of the education faculty of a public university in the Turkey in the 2021-2022 academic year. The study was designed as a longitudinal study since the data was administrated to the participants in two stages: before they began the early childhood environmental education course (first measurement) and after they completed it (second measurement). To assess the participants' metaphors for the concept of "environment", participants were asked to complete the sentence “I think the environment...... like, because.......”. Content analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it was determined that pre-school teacher candidates produced 48 metaphors in the first measurement and 34 metaphors in the second measurement for the concept of "environment". In the research, it was determined that the metaphors produced in the first measurement and the second measurement formed 19 categories and 12 of them were common. In the second measurement, different from the first measurement, the new categories created are 7 categories: obscurity, valuable, sensitivity, inclusive, coordination, guidance and responsibility.
COVID-19-Related Complications
Authors: Fawole Bolutife , Phimia Kadae , Omosumwen Ede , Adeleye Folake , Elutilo Bolaji , Oluwatuyi Oluwatoyin , Okeke Ogechi
Published: September 2022

The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide. In its aftermath some individuals have been left with a sequela. This article aims to describe the symptoms and clinical findings reported among patients with Long-COVID and discuss treatment options. Authors collected, analyzed, and presented information on pulmonary, cardiovascular, endocrinological and neurological complications of COVID-19. Literature review was done across multiple journals from January 2020 till July 2022 using key words, such as COVID-19, long-COVID, cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrinological and neurological complications. These words were used as Mesh terms, in order to cover other relevant possible words missing. Similar works found in the references of the studies identified were also reviewed. Long-COVID patients reported a number of findings including dyspnea, pneumonia, myocarditis, thyroiditis, increased complications of diabetes mellitus and neurological complications. Clinical findings indicate the likelihood of compromised health in some individuals with long-COVID. Treatment modalities recommend an interdisciplinary approach to ensure an all-encompassing perspective to rehabilitation and enhanced surveillance in individuals with predisposed risks factors.
Impact of Dietary Modification Alone in Controlling Impaired Glucose Intolerance
Authors: Adeleye Folake , Oluwatuyi Oluwatoyin , Phimia Kadae , Fawole Bolutife , Omosumwen Ede , Okeke Ogechi , Elutilo Bolaji
Published: September 2022

The purpose of the literature review is to determine the extent impaired glucose tolerance is controlled by dietary modification alone. The review analyzes the role dietary intervention contributes to preventing the progression of prediabetes to diabetes. Diabetes mellitus describes the diseases of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism that are characterized by hyperglycemia. It is associated with a relative or absolute impairment in insulin secretion, and varying degrees of peripheral resistance to the action of insulin. Clinical practice guidelines describe prediabetes as fasting plasma glucose of 6.1-6.9 mmol/L and HbA1C 6.0-6.4%. Impaired glucose intolerance is a serious health condition and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is a rising threat in our society as the incidence and prevalence has been on the increase among different age population. Articles were identified by searching specified keywords such as prediabetes, dietary modification, and impaired glucose tolerance in three electronic databases (PubMed, GoogleScholar) from 2000 to 2022. About 7 articles fit the inclusion criteria carried out in USA, Serbia, Spain, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, and Germany. The result showed that subjects on low caloric diet and high protein diet experienced a reduction in body weight, waist circumference and BMI. Other studies showed an improvement in impaired glucose within a year, less so in subsequent years as well as remission of prediabetes. However, the findings are varied as the study covers various age groups ranging from 20 years to an average of 59 years for both male and female but does not take into consideration people with pre-existing medical condition like cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and heart failure. The associated risks of complications is high so all efforts are being made to prevent further progression. More evidence is needed on this study as current evidence is limited.
Utilization of LDPE Plastic Waste for Mixed AC-WC Asphalt
Authors: Sutandar Sutandar , Juniardy F. , Supriyadi A. , Setyabudi G. , Azwansyah H. , Aryanto Aryanto
Published: September 2022

Road infrastructure development in Kabupaten Ketapang necessitates asphalt as a building material to support the acceleration of growth. Innovations are required to reduce the consumption of materials derived from nature to conserve diminishing natural resources. Plastic is an element that requires between 500 billion and one trillion years to decompose. With the addition of plastic to asphalt, the permanent deformation value of the mixture decreased and its dynamic stability increased, as determined by the wheel track test. Marshall tests on asphalt mixtures containing plastic revealed that the addition of up to 3% plastic increased the HRA mixture’s stability, bulk density, compacted aggregate density (CAD), and Marshall Quotient. This study evaluated the Marshall value of the modified AC-WC asphalt layer by adding a mixture of Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic waste with a variety of mixed properties. Each of the four variations of the AC- WC mixture (0%, 2%, 4%, and 6% LDPE) that met the specifications yielded stability values. LDPE at 6% has the highest stability value, while LDPE at 0% has the lowest stability value.
How Sports Help the Teens’ Cognitive Development (Reading Performance)
Authors: Feng Harry
Published: September 2022

With the widespread use of electronics nowadays the youths spent more and more screen time rather than outdoor play and school related extracurricular or physical activities. It is important to participate in physical activities not only because it supports physical growth as it improves blood circulation, respiratory function, but also improves mental health, emotional status, as well as increased attention span, increased concentration, executive functioning, cognitive skills, and academic performance. In this study, the importance of physical activity participation in youth was discussed in great depth and an experiment based on self health chart was reported to demonstrate the positive effect of sports on youth health development.
Building Relationships with Customers: How Corporations Use Facebook in Bangladesh
Authors: Yousef Mohammad , Ali Mohammad
Published: September 2022

This study examines the Facebook pages of all four telecom operators in Bangladesh to understand their communication strategies on Facebook and their customers’ engagement patterns. More specifically, this article explores the companies’ communication strategies deployed in terms of five aspects: i) visual vs. textual content; ii) cultural elements; iii) purposes of posts; iv) intimacy with customers; and v) use of different languages. This research also explores customers’ engagement patterns relating to the number of reactions (e.g., likes), comments, and shares. Analyzing their Facebook posts from 2013–2017, this quantitative descriptive study finds that the corporations used Facebook not only to disseminate information but also to build communities around their brands by embedding visual content and cultural elements heavily in status messages. This article also discusses the real-world implications of these findings.
Origen’in Evrensel Kurtuluş Anlayışı: Apokatastasis
Authors: Şahin Nadide
Published: September 2022

Düşmüş bütün ruhların başlangıçtaki orijinal saf akıl konumlarına geri dönmeleri şeklinde tanımladığı apokatastasis doktrini Origen’in teolojik öğretileri arasında önemli bir örnektir. Ancak bu doktrin onun teolojisinin en tartışmalı konularından da biridir. Zira sonun başlangıca benzemesi gerektiğine inanan Origen, bu yolda insan özgürlüğü ve Tanrı’nın takdiriyle insanlık için oluşturduğu planı bağdaştırmak suretiyle tüm varlıkların nihai olarak kurtuluşa ereceği evrensel bir kurtuluş anlayışı sunmaktadır.
Origen’in bu öğretisinin kendisinden sonraki döneme etkisi özellikle apokatastasis doktrininin destekçileri olan Didymus The Blind, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius ve Gregory of Nazianzus gibi teologlar üzerinde aşikardır. Bu bağlamda o, yalnızca erken dönemde değil geçmişten günümüze kilise içerisinde evrensel kurtuluş anlayışı ile tartışmalarda görüşlerine yer verilen ana figürlerden biridir. Bu çalışmada amacımız Origen’in eserlerinden hareketle konu ile ilgili ifadelerini kapsamlı ve analitik bir tarzda inceleyerek apokatastasis fenomeninin mahiyetini ortaya koyabilmektir. Alanımızda bu çerçevede müstakil bir çalışma bulunmamaktadır. Bu bağlamda kurtuluş teorisinin modern düşüncelerle bağlantılı olan ilk dönem görüş ve yorumlarının ele alınması hem patristik zihniyetin daha eksiksiz bir resmini elde etmemize yardımcı olması hem de apokatastasis doktrini ve evrensel kurtuluş anlayışı ile ilgili daha fazla çalışmaya zemin hazırlaması açısından önem arz etmektedir.
Land Potential for Cacao (Theobroma cacao. L) Development in Banggai Regency
Authors: Stibis Muh.Zamalluddin M , Sataral Mihwan , Puspapratiwi Dian
Published: September 2022

Seeing the bright prospects of cacao plants with the available land potential in Banggai Regency, it is necessary to assess land suitability in the development of cacao plants to know the actual potential land suitability level and the limiting factors that affect the potential for cacao plant development, apart from that it can optimize land use in the area, Banggai Regency. The approach used as an indicator for determining the land suitability class for cacao plantations in Banggai Regency is to take an FAO parametric index land quality based on land characteristics that match the requirements for land use for cacao plants, then tabulated into land map units. The results show that the actual land suitability class of Banggai Regency is N = not suitable and S3 = marginally suitable, with the limiting factor of water availability, root media, nutrient retention, available nutrients, and erosion hazard. So that land improvement efforts are needed to increase the land suitability class by considering the existing potential. Improvement efforts that can be done include adding lime, fertilizer, and organic matter, making mound terraces, bench terraces, credit terraces, and erosion-retaining plants. So that the results of the potential land suitability class are S1 = very suitable, S2 = suitable, S3 = marginally suitable, with an area of ​​land that can be developed for cacao plants in Banggai Regency, namely 419,236.9 ha.
Qual a importância da odontologia hospitalar para o paciente internado em UTI?
Authors: Souza Sildely Candido da Silva de , Martins Sillas Campos Viana , Miguel Sarah Moreira , Rodrigues Luana Varanda , Vale Michele Cristina Silva do , Seroli Wagner
Published: September 2022

A odontologia hospitalar é a área de atuação que têm como principal prática as atividades que auxiliam no tratamento de pacientes dentro do ambiente hospitalar. O descuido com os cuidados em relação a saúde bucal é capaz de produzir alterações prejudiciais para a saúde do indivíduo como um todo, o que pode colaborar em alguns casos para a piora do seu estado clínico geral, podendo acarretar a um maior tempo de internação, podendo predispor a situações que podem colaborar que esse paciente venha a óbito. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma revisão narrativa da literatura, com intuito de explanar sobre a importância da presença do cirurgião dentista no ambiente hospitalar, frente aos cuidados indispensáveis para os pacientes internados. Conclusão: A literatura aponta dados que reforçam que a presença do Cirurgião-dentista no ambiente hospitalar é necessária devido a diminuição dos índices de piora nos casos, devido a broncoaspiração de patógenos que podem estar presentes na cavidade bucal.
Impact of environmental stressors on the phytoplankton communities to assess the River Halda, Bangladesh
Authors: HOSSAIN MD. MOSAREF , SARKER MD. JAHANGIR , SARKER MD. MILON , DIPTY AFSANA KABIR , RIMA NAZMUN NAHER , SULTANA NAHID
Published: September 2022

Halda is a 98 km-long tidal freshwater river of Bangladesh, which has a unique feature since it is the only natural breeding ground and the sole source of fertilized eggs of Indian Major Carps globally. The present study firstly summarizes the impact of environmental stressors to understand phytoplankton abundance, community, and their diversity in Halda River, Bangladesh. Environmental data as seasons (Winter, Monsoon), water depths, temperature, pH, Salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients were collected and analyzed from the Halda River in January 2019 and August, 2020.  Thirty-four phytoplankton genera, comprising five classes, were identified from the Halda River, Bangladesh. A two-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the effect of Monsoon and Winter on the physicochemical and biological parameters. It revealed that there was a statistically significant ((F9, 160)= 34.999, p= 0.0) interaction between Monsoon and Winter on the observed parameters. The water temperature (F 125.31, Fcrit 4.130, p= 0.0) and nutrients (F 11.118, Fcrit 2.322, p= 0.0) revealed significant change in the phytoplankton concentrations in the Halda River. As of the temperature and nutrients, water depths also significantly (F 1.790, Fcrit 1.719, p= 0.0) affect the phytoplankton communities in the Halda River showing the highest and lowest cell density in the surface and bottom water, respectively.