37 research outputs found
A Bi-directional Bi-Lingual Translation Braille-Text System
AbstractVisually impaired people are an integral part of the society. However, their disabilities have made them to have less access to computers, the Internet, and high quality educational software than the people with clear vision. Consequently, they have not been able to improve on their own knowledge, and have significant influence and impact on the economic, commercial, and educational ventures in the society. One way to narrow this widening gap and see a reversal of this trend is to develop a system, within their economic reach, and which will empower them to communicate freely and widely using the Internet or any other information infrastructure. Over time, the Braille system has been used by the visually impaired for communication and contact with the outside world. Translation between one language and another, using the Braille coding system, has been limited, problematic, and in many cases, one-directional.This paper describes an Arabic Braille bi-directional and bi-lingual translation/editor system that does not need expensive equipments. With appropriate rule file for any other languages, this system can be generalized to facilitate communication among literate people regardless of their disabilities (visually impaired or sighted), income, languages, and geographical locations
An Arabic Optical Braille Recognition System
Technology has shown great promise in providing access to textual information for visually impaired people. Optical Braille Recognition (OBR) allows people with visual impairments to read volumes of typewritten documents with the help of flatbed scanners and OBR software. This project looks at developing a system to recognize an image of embossed Arabic Braille and then convert it to text. It particularly aims to build fully functional Optical Arabic Braille Recognition system. It has two main tasks, first is to recognize printed Braille cells, and second is to convert them to regular text. Converting Braille to text is not simply a one to one mapping, because one cell may represent one symbol (alphabet letter, digit, or special character), two or more symbols, or part of a symbol. Moreover, multiple cells may represent a single symbol
Arabic Opinion Mining Using a Hybrid Recommender System Approach
Recommender systems nowadays are playing an important role in the delivery of
services and information to users. Sentiment analysis (also known as opinion
mining) is the process of determining the attitude of textual opinions, whether
they are positive, negative or neutral. Data sparsity is representing a big
issue for recommender systems because of the insufficiency of user rating or
absence of data about users or items. This research proposed a hybrid approach
combining sentiment analysis and recommender systems to tackle the problem of
data sparsity problems by predicting the rating of products from users reviews
using text mining and NLP techniques. This research focuses especially on
Arabic reviews, where the model is evaluated using Opinion Corpus for Arabic
(OCA) dataset. Our system was efficient, and it showed a good accuracy of
nearly 85 percent in predicting rating from review
Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London
Surgical site infection after gastrointestinal surgery in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries: a prospective, international, multicentre cohort study
Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common infections associated with health care, but its importance as a global health priority is not fully understood. We quantified the burden of SSI after gastrointestinal surgery in countries in all parts of the world.
Methods: This international, prospective, multicentre cohort study included consecutive patients undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection within 2-week time periods at any health-care facility in any country. Countries with participating centres were stratified into high-income, middle-income, and low-income groups according to the UN's Human Development Index (HDI). Data variables from the GlobalSurg 1 study and other studies that have been found to affect the likelihood of SSI were entered into risk adjustment models. The primary outcome measure was the 30-day SSI incidence (defined by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for superficial and deep incisional SSI). Relationships with explanatory variables were examined using Bayesian multilevel logistic regression models. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02662231.
Findings: Between Jan 4, 2016, and July 31, 2016, 13 265 records were submitted for analysis. 12 539 patients from 343 hospitals in 66 countries were included. 7339 (58·5%) patient were from high-HDI countries (193 hospitals in 30 countries), 3918 (31·2%) patients were from middle-HDI countries (82 hospitals in 18 countries), and 1282 (10·2%) patients were from low-HDI countries (68 hospitals in 18 countries). In total, 1538 (12·3%) patients had SSI within 30 days of surgery. The incidence of SSI varied between countries with high (691 [9·4%] of 7339 patients), middle (549 [14·0%] of 3918 patients), and low (298 [23·2%] of 1282) HDI (p < 0·001). The highest SSI incidence in each HDI group was after dirty surgery (102 [17·8%] of 574 patients in high-HDI countries; 74 [31·4%] of 236 patients in middle-HDI countries; 72 [39·8%] of 181 patients in low-HDI countries). Following risk factor adjustment, patients in low-HDI countries were at greatest risk of SSI (adjusted odds ratio 1·60, 95% credible interval 1·05–2·37; p=0·030). 132 (21·6%) of 610 patients with an SSI and a microbiology culture result had an infection that was resistant to the prophylactic antibiotic used. Resistant infections were detected in 49 (16·6%) of 295 patients in high-HDI countries, in 37 (19·8%) of 187 patients in middle-HDI countries, and in 46 (35·9%) of 128 patients in low-HDI countries (p < 0·001).
Interpretation: Countries with a low HDI carry a disproportionately greater burden of SSI than countries with a middle or high HDI and might have higher rates of antibiotic resistance. In view of WHO recommendations on SSI prevention that highlight the absence of high-quality interventional research, urgent, pragmatic, randomised trials based in LMICs are needed to assess measures aiming to reduce this preventable complication
Extracting and Analyzing the Main Tajweed Rules from The Holy Qur'an
The Tajweed (professional recitation) of Al-Qur'an Al-Kareem is considered one of the most honorable sciences, as it has to do with the Book of Allah that we -the Muslims- have to recite. The objective of this research is to automate a system by which to extract the most important Tajweed rules from the Qur'an, as well to provide some kind of detailed analysis and statistics of these rules from whole or part of the Qur'an (be it a Juz' (Section), Surah (Chapter) or verse(s)). This research will serve a large segment of populace who are interested in the science of Tajweed, both the teachers and students as well. This paper covers the classification of Tajweed rules from the programming point of view and the way the program is used to pull out these rules. It also concentrates on ways to create statistics of Tajweed rules along with supporting examples
Extracting and Analyzing the Main Tajweed Rules from The Holy Quran
The Tajweed , professional recitation, of Al-Qur'an Al-Kareem is considered one of the most honorable sciences, as it has to do with the Book of Allah that we —the Muslims — have to recite. The objective of this research is to automate a system by which to extract the most important Tajweed rules from the Qur'an, as well to provide some kind of detailed analysis and statistics of these rules from whole or part of the Qur'an , be it a Jul , Section, , Surah , Chapter, or verse, s, , . This research will serve a large segment of populace who are interested in the science of Tajweed, both the teachers and students as well. This paper covers the classification of Tajweed rules from the programming point of view and the way the program is used to pull out these rules. It also concentrates on ways to create statistics of Tajweed rules along with supporting examples
Fly-LeNet: A deep learning-based framework for converting multilingual braille images
For many years, braille-assistive technologies have aided blind individuals in reading, writing, learning, and communicating with sighted individuals. These technologies have been instrumental in promoting inclusivity and breaking down communication barriers in the lives of blind people. One of these technologies is the Optical Braille Recognition (OBR) system, which facilitates communication between sighted and blind individuals. However, current OBR systems have a gap in their ability to convert braille documents into multilingual texts, making it challenging for sighted individuals to learn braille for self-learning-based uses. To address this gap, we recommend a segmentation and deep learning-based approach named Fly-LeNet that converts braille images into multilingual texts. The approach includes image acquisition, preprocessing, and segmentation using the Mayfly optimization approach with a thresholding method and a braille multilingual mapping step. It uses a deep learning model, LeNet-5, that recognizes braille cells. We evaluated the performance of the Fly-LeNet through several experiments on two datasets of braille images. Dataset-1 consists of 1404 labeled samples of 27 braille signs demonstrating the alphabet letters, while Dataset-2 comprises 5420 labeled samples of 37 braille symbols representing alphabets, numbers, and punctuations, among which we used 2000 samples for cross-validation. The suggested model achieved a high classification accuracy of 99.77% and 99.80% on the test sets of the first and second datasets, respectively. The results demonstrate the potential of Fly-LeNet for multilingual braille transformation, enabling effective communication with sighted individuals
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ARABIC BRAILLE SELF-LEARNING WEBSITE: Received: 06th April 2023; Revised: 01st August 2023, 14th August 2023; Accepted: 21st August 2023
Blind and visually impaired people have long used assistive technologies, such as Braille, to aid them in their day-to-day lives. Given the importance of communication for these individuals, the ability to self-learn Braille through a specifically designed educational system is crucial for unlocking the ability to communicate while saving time and money. This paper focuses on the "learn-by-my-hand" system used to teach Braille in an Arabic context through an e-dashboard on a self-guided website. The system, which also aids sighted people, is based on content from the Saudi education ministry, allowing users to learn Braille throughout school courses. It is thought to be the first system of its kind designed to be deployed in schools. The future work will focus on conducting a quasi-experiment study involving students with vision impairment in elementary schools, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed website. By addressing usability, user satisfaction, and its impact on academic performance, we aim to comprehensively understand the website's impact on blind students' educational experiences