Emotion and polarity prediction from Twitter

Classification of public information from microblogging and social networking services could yield interesting outcomes and insights into the social and public opinions towards different services, products, and events. Microblogging and social networking data are one of the most helpful and proper indicators of public opinion. The aim of this paper is to classify tweets to their classes using cross validation and partitioning the data across cities using supervised machine learning algorithms. Such an approach was used to collect real time Twitter microblogging data tweets towards mentioning iPad and iPhone in different locations in order to analyse and classify data in terms of polarity: positive or negative, and emotion: anger, joy, sadness, disgust, fear, and surprise. We have collected over eighty thousand tweets that have been pre-processed to generate document level ground-truth and labelled according to Emotion and Polarity. We also compared some approaches in order to measures the performance of K-NN, Nave Bayes, and SVM classifiers. We found that the K-NN, Nave Bayes, SVM, and ZeroR have a reasonable accuracy rates, however, the K-NN has outperformed the Nave Bayes, SVM, and ZeroR based on the achieved accuracy rates and trained model time. The K-NN has achieved the highest accuracy rates 96.58% and 99.94% for the iPad and iPhone emotion data sets using cross validation technique respectively. Regarding partitioning the data per city, the K-NN has achieved the highest accuracy rates 98.8% and 99.95% for the iPad and iPhone emotion data sets respectively. Regarding the polarity data sets using both cross validation and partitioning data per city, the K-NN achieved 100% for the all polarity datasets

Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infections among health students and health care workers in the Najran region, southwestern Saudi Arabia: The need for national guidelines for health students

BACKGROUND: The objectives of the study were to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among health college students (HS) and health care workers (HCWs) in the Najran Region of south-western Saudi Arabia and to study the students’ knowledge of occupational exposure to blood-borne viral infections. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of a representative sample of 300 HS and 300 HCWs was conducted. RESULTS: An overall seroprevalence of HBV of 1.7% and 8.7% was found among HS and HCWs, respectively. Two-thirds of HS (66.7%, 200) and 23.3% (70) of HCWs lack anti-HBs and are susceptible to HBV infection. An overall seroprevalence of HCV of 0% and 0.3% was found among the HS and HCWs, respectively. The present study indicates poor knowledge among HS and moderate knowledge among HCWs regarding occupationally transmitted blood-borne diseases, safe injection practices, and standard precautions to prevent occupationally transmitted blood-borne infections. CONCLUSION: It is mandatory to develop a structured program to raise awareness among HS, and current health colleges’ curricula should be upgraded to address these issues early. The HS should be considered new recruits to health services in terms of their initial screening for blood-borne infections and vaccination against HBV. The development of a novel continuing medical education and pre-employment awareness program for HCWs is recommended to address the following: blood-borne diseases transmitted occupationally, standard precautions to prevent occupationally transmitted blood borne infections, and safe injection practices

The Effect of Cervical Muscle Fatigue on Postural Stability during Immersion Virtual Reality

The visual system is part of the nervous system that enables an individual to scan their environment and assess distance to and from objects. The information captured form our navigating environment is communicated to the brain, which in turn makes the decision on how we respond to spatial orientation. This is particularly useful in helping with balance and determining direction of movement. Our posture and visual stability rely heavily on an efficient and processing of visual, vestibular, and proprioception afferent input. Erroneous sensory information from defective sensory organs may cause a person to experience feelings of lightheadedness, spinning and whirling sensations, and difficulty in maintaining straight posture. Few studies have examined the synergy between cervical spine proprioception and the vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) and as such, their impact on human VOR is less understood. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate how motion sensitivity is impacted by neck muscle fatigue in normal healthy participants. The overall aim of the present work was to investigate whether impaired somatosensory information from the cervical spine, caused by neck muscle fatigue, would negatively impact postural stability in healthy young participants. Results indicated that healthy young participants who were fatigued had significantly poorer postural stability than those who were not fatigued (p\u3c 0.001). In Conclusion, our research suggests that when assessing motion sensitivity in patients complaining of dizziness with a history of neck trauma, one may consider that VOR dysfunction could have a cervical origin due to somatosensory disturbance, which may lead to poor postural stability

Exponential time differencing methods and asymptotic behaviour of solutions of problems in ground water flow

We start this thesis with a numerical study of the convergence of the exponential time differencing (ETD) schemes and the semi-implicit Euler method for the Allen-Cahn equation and a reaction-convection-diffusion equation and also compare the accuracy and efficiency of these methods. Next, we solve the nonlinear convection-diffusion (green roof) model numerically using the ETD method and central difference approximation. This numerical solution is investigated for three different initial values for the saturation. Finally, we study travelling wave solutions and self-similar solutions for the green roof, in particular, for the two limiting cases of being close to a saturated region and a dry region. Travelling waves, in the form of fronts, are found for most realistic limiting values of saturation; travelling waves are also investigated for some limiting versions of the model. Self-similar solutions, valid for high or for low saturations, are additionally investigated

Simulations of events for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment

The LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter search aims to achieve a sensitivity to the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross-section down to (1–2)×10−12 pb at a WIMP mass of 40 GeV/c2. This paper describes the simulations framework that, along with radioactivity measurements, was used to support this projection, and also to provide mock data for validating reconstruction and analysis software. Of particular note are the event generators, which allow us to model the background radiation, and the detector response physics used in the production of raw signals, which can be converted into digitized waveforms similar to data from the operational detector. Inclusion of the detector response allows us to process simulated data using the same analysis routines as developed to process the experimental data

Phytochemical investigations of three Rhodocodon (Hyacinthaceae Sensu APG II) species

The genus Rhodocodon (Hyacinthaceae sensu APG II) is endemic to Madagascar and its phytochemistry has not been described previously. The phytochemistry of three species in this genus has been investigated and eight compounds, including three bufadienolides (compounds 1, 4, and 5), a norlignan (2), and four homoisoflavonoids (compounds 3 and 6-8) have been isolated and identified. Compounds 1-3 and 6-8 have not been described previously. The COX-2 inhibitory activity of compound 6 and compound 7 acetate (compound 7A) were investigated on isolated colorectal cancer cells. Compounds 6 and 7A inhibited COX-2 by 10% and 8%, respectively, at a concentration of 12.5 M compared to 12% for 1 mM aspirin (the positive control)

Syllable structure and related processes in optimality theory :an examination of Najdi Arabic

PhD ThesisThis study is an investigation of syllable structure and related processes in one variety of Saudi Arabic. This is the variety spoken by inhabitants of Riyadh and villages near this city in Najd province, henceforth referred to as Najdi Arabic (NA). Although this dialect has been analysed by scholars including Johnstone (1963, 1967), Lehn (1967), Ingham (1971, 1982, 1994), Abboud (1979), Al-Sweel (1987, 1990), Prochazka (1988), Kurpershoek (1999), Alezets (2007), Alessa (2008), and Alghmaiz (2013), syllable structure and related processes in this dialect have not been accounted for within Optimality Theory (OT). Therefore, the main goal of this thesis is to show how OT, as an analytical framework, is utilized to produce a better understanding syllable structure and related processes such as CV metathesis, epenthesis, vowel shortening, and syncope in NA. Accordingly, the fundamental aims of this thesis are to examine phonological processes that have an impact on the syllable structure in this dialect and to show the insights about NA syllable structures and related processes that can be gained through OT analyses. The research draws on previous work on NA as well as other Arabic varieties more generally. Thus, the theoretical literature on syllables, syllable structures and syllable typologies are taken into consideration in the analysis of NA data. The data for this study are drawn from articles, essays, theses, and journals. These sets of data underwent my own judgment as an NA native speaker. In addition, 15 native speakers of NA were interviewed and consulted on the NA set of data in this thesis. There are four findings in this study. The first deals with the comprehensive analysis of syllable structure in NA, focusing on the types of onsets and codas as well as the weight of syllables in this dialect. The second extends to the comprehensive analysis that deals with the main phonological processes in NA, focusing on CV-metathesis, epenthesis, vowel shortening, and syncope. The third sheds light on the unified set of OT constraints that has been established to explain NA syllable structure and related processes within OT. Finally, the capability of OT to account for cross-linguistic variation is demonstrated by showing how language-specific constraint rankings based on one set of constraints accounts for CV metathesis, vowel epenthesis, and syncope in Najdi and Urban Hijazi Arabic (UHA)

Deciphering the complex three-way interaction between the non-integrin laminin receptor, galectin-3 and Neisseria meningitidis

The non-integrin laminin receptor (LAMR1/RPSA) and galectin-3 (Gal-3) are multi-functional host molecules with roles in diverse pathological processes, particularly of infectious or oncogenic origins. Using bimolecular fluorescence complementation and confocal imaging, we demonstrate that the two proteins homo- and heterodimerize, and that each isotype forms a distinct cell surface population. We present evidence that the 37 kDa form of LAMR1 (37LRP) is the precursor of the previously described 67 kDa laminin receptor (67LR), whereas the heterodimer represents an entity that is distinct from this molecule. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed that the single cysteine (C173) of Gal-3 or lysine (K166) of LAMR1 are critical for heterodimerization. Recombinant Gal-3, expressed in normally Gal-3-deficient N2a cells, dimerized with endogenous LAMR1 and led to a significantly increased number of internalized bacteria (Neisseria meningitidis), confirming the role of Gal-3 in bacterial invasion. Contact-dependent cross-linking determined that, in common with LAMR1, Gal-3 binds the meningococcal secretin PilQ, in addition to the major pilin PilE. This study adds significant new mechanistic insights into the bacterial–host cell interaction by clarifying the nature, role and bacterial ligands of LAMR1 and Gal-3 isotypes during colonization