A framework for pronunciation error detection and correction for non-native Arab speakers of English language

This paper examines speakers’ systematic errors while speaking English as a foreign language (EFL) among students in Arab countries with the purpose of automatically recognizing and correcting mispronunciations using speech recognition, phonological features, and machine learning. Accordingly, three main steps are implemented towards this purpose: identifying the most frequently wrongly pronounced phonemes by Arab students, analyzing the systematic errors these students make in doing so, and developing a framework that can aid the detection and correction of these pronunciation errors. The proposed automatic detection and correction framework used the collected and labeled data to construct a customized acoustic model to identify and correct incorrect phonemes. Based on the trained data, the language model is then used to recognize the words. The final step includes construction samples of both correct and incorrect pronunciation in the phonemes model and then using machine learning to identify and correct the errors. The results showed that one of the main causes of such errors was the confusion that leads to wrongly utilizing a given sound in place of another. The automatic framework identified and corrected 98.2% of the errors committed by the students using a decision tree classifier. The decision tree classifier achieved the best recognition results compared to the five classifiers used for this purpose

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

A New Classification Method for Drone-Based Crops in Smart Farming

During the past decades, smart farming became one of the most important revolutions in the agriculture industry. Smart farming makes use of different communication technologies and modern information sciences for increasing the quality and quantity of the product. On the other hand, drones showed a major potential for enhancing imagery systems and remote sensing usage for many different applications such as crop classification, crop health monitoring, and weed management. In this paper, an intelligent method for classifying crops is proposed to use a transfer learning approach based on a number of drone images. Moreover, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) method is used as a classifier to improve efficiency for obtaining more accurate results in the training and testing phases. Various metrics are measured to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed model such as accuracy rate of detection, error rate and confusing matrix. It is found to be proven from the experimental results that the proposed method presents more efficient results with an accuracy detection rate of 92.93%

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population