Impact of vitamin D deficiency on maternal and birth outcomes in the Saudi population: a cross-sectional study

STROBE Statement. (DOC 92.5 kb

Promoting global virtual teams across the globe: cross-cultural challenges and synergies

This chapter presents a preliminary understanding of cross-cultural challenges and synergistic experiences of multicultural students engaged in Global Virtual Teams (GVTs). In this case study, we introduce the GVT structure as a novel learning platform which utilizes Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools as part of its virtual-based learning. We administer the case study with 30 students (n=30) in the United of Emirates (UAE) who engage in GVTs across the globe-encompassing 26 universities and 22 countries. Qualitative data is collected in the form of documents-reflective reports of the students\u27 experiential learning over a 10-week period. We content analyse the reports based on the thematic analysis with two distinctive categories-cultural challenges and cultural synergies based on the first seven weeks of the experiential learning process. In this study, we find that students experienced challenges such as managing technical difficulty, language barriers, deteriorating motivations, geographical distance, time differences, and non-committed and unresponsive attitude. However, students also experience synergies from the GVTs such as strong relationships and continued friendships, formation of emergent leadership, learned diverse managerial styles and competencies skills, varied use of varied CMC tools, and international exposure to diverse cultures without the need to travel abroad

Benchmarking open source deep learning frameworks

Deep Learning (DL) is one of the hottest fields. To foster the growth of DL, several open source frameworks appeared providing implementations of the most common DL algorithms. These frameworks vary in the algorithms they support and in the quality of their implementations. The purpose of this work is to provide a qualitative and quantitative comparison among three such frameworks: TensorFlow, Theano and CNTK. To ensure that our study is as comprehensive as possible, we consider multiple benchmark datasets from different fields (image processing, NLP, etc.) and measure the performance of the frameworks' implementations of different DL algorithms. For most of our experiments, we find out that CNTK's implementations are superior to the other ones under consideration

Measuring the Levels of Leptin and Serotonin Associated with Obesity in Adult Men in Hilla City, Iraq.

الهدف من الدراسة لتقدير تركيز هرموني اللبتين والسيروتونين في مصل الرجال البالغين وايضا بحث العلاقة بين الهرمونين المذكورين في مجتمع الدراسة. الاساليب وطرائق العمل: شملت الدراسة 98 شخص سليم ظاهريا تتراوح اعمارهم بين (20-50) سنة وتم جمع العينة في الصباح للفترة (8:30- 10:30)وتم اجراء التحليل بطريقة الاليزا وتم تقسيم مجتمع الدراسة حسب المعايير الجسمانية حيث تم حساب الطول و وزن الجسم ومن ثم حساب مؤشر كتلة الجسم ونسبة الدهون وفق معادلات خاصة. النتائج: اظهرت النتائج زيادة معنوية (p<0.01) لمستويات هرمون اللبتين في مصول الاشخاص البدناء مقارنة بمجموعة السيطرة اما السيروتونين فهناك انخفاض معنوي ((p<0.05 عند البدناء مقارنة بمجموعة السيطرة بالإضافة الى وجود علاقة عكسية معنوية (p<0.03 ) بين اللبتين والسيروتونين. الاستنتاج: استنتجنا من الدراسة الحالية ان هناك علاقة عكسية بين هرمون السيروتونين والسمنة فكلما زادت السمنة قلت مستويات السيروتونين في الدم بينما هرمون اللبتين يزداد بزيادة السمنة , كما وجد حصول علاقة عكسية بين الهرمونين مع بعضهما البعض.Objective: The purpose of this study is to estimate the serum level leptin and serotonin in adult men according to the characteristics of anthropometric measurements as well as to investigate its relationship with leptin and serotonin levels. Methods and procedures: This study included ninety-eight adult men volunteers, whose ages ranged between (20-50) years. The blood samples were taken between 8:30 and10:30 o\u27clock in morning. The ELISA kit has been used to assay the serum levels of leptin and serotonin hormones. The research population has been classified according to the anthropometric measurements, such as; the body mass index (BMI), the waist circumference (WC) and the percentage of body fat (BF%) which is calculated by a special formula. The results showed a significant increase (p<0.01) in the serum level of leptin hormone in obese groups in a comparison with the control groups, whereas there is a significant decreased (p<0.05) in the serum level of serotonin hormone in obese groups compared to the control groups. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation (p<0.03) between the serum leptin and serotonin is noticed. Conclusion: we concluded that there is a negative correlation between the serotonin (5- hydroxy tryptamine ,5-HT) hormone and obesity, for whenever the obesity increases, the level of the serotonin in the blood decreases. The leptin hormone, on the other hand, has a positive correlation with obesity. Therefore, the correlation between these two hormones is negative

RFID-Based Inventory and Security System

During the last decades, the technology of Radio Frequency Identification (hereafter RFID) has been widely used for practical functions in different disciples including; air industry, military, library services, health services, sports, security and many other fields. Within the industry, RFID has been utilized for various functions such as: storing security, personnel and vehicle access/tracking, production and inventory tracking, bagging, delivery and logistics. In this research, a prototype of inventory and security system for the devices and equipment in university labs is implemented. The system uses RFID technology, which is a form of wireless communication that is used to identify tagged objects by a reader. Both hardware and software implementation of the system are described in this paper. Keywords: RFID, Inventory system, RFID Implementation

Study the effect of Different Levels of Curcuma longa on Some Physiological and Specific Egg Traits and Intestinal Environment for Quail

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of Curcuma longa on some physiological and biochemical parameters, as well as some egg productive and quality characters and the intestinal microflora of local quail. 240 one-day-old quail were distributed randomly into 4 groups (60 birds/group) with 3 replicates. The groups were as follows: 1st group (control) birds were reared on standard ration, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th groups birds were reared on standard ration supplemented with 3, 6 and 9 gm turmeric/kg ration respectively. The results revealed that the turmeric improve blood picture as represented by the significant increase of RBCs, Hb and PCV% specially in 3rd and 4th treatments. Also, the turmeric reduced significantly triglycerides and cholesterol compared with the control. Curcuma longa treatment improved the intestinal microflora represented by the significant decrease in the number of pathogenic flora (Salmonella and E. coli), and significant increase in the benefit flora (Lactobacillus). On the other hands treatments reduced significantly the age of 1st egg production and enhance the age of 50% egg production. In conclusion, Curcuma longa treatment induced ameliorative effects on some of physiological and productive performance of quail