Automatic Face Mask Identification in Saudi Smart Cities: Using Technology to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus that triggered the COVID-19 outburst is still active around the globe. By now, COVID- 19 has affected practically every facet of progress, most importantly, it has shaken the healthcare system like never before. At its peak, it forced Governments throughout the world into lockdowns to limit the reach of the epidemic. Based on early advisories of the World Health Organization (WHO), the only method of safeguarding oneself from being infected was to wear a face mask. Even today, with fewer cases being reported, masking oneself remains the single most effective and cheap means of prevention. As urban areas continue to grow, effective city management is essential for mitigating the increase of the deadly COVID-19 disease. The success of smart cities depends on significant upgrades to public transportation, highways, companies, homes, and municipal streets. There is room for improvement in the public bus transportation system now in place, and one of those improvements would be to use artificial intelligence. To determine if the person is wearing a face mask, you need an autonomous mask detection and alert system. Therefore, this study introduced a deep learning-based design that combines the attention-based generative adversarial network (ABGAN) with the multi-objective interactive honeybee mating optimization (MOIHBMO) approach to create an automated face mask recognition system. A set of 1386 images has been used to create a real-time dataset. This database contains 690 pictures without face masks and 686 images with them. The suggested algorithm ABGAN-MOIHBMO is compared to other traditional methods for detection of face masks, such as DL, AI, and DNN. The performance indicators used are error rate, inference speed, precision, recall, accuracy, and over fitting assessments. The results demonstrate that the proposed ABGAN-MOIHBMO outperforms the existing methodologies. It provides 96% of precision, 86% of recall, 93% for the f1 score, which are higher/better than the other, traditional methods. The error rate in ABGAN-MOIHBMO is a low 1.1%, which is lower other approaches. To predict and underline the significance of face mask use, the face mask detection technique may be employed in the future at Saudi airports, shopping centers, and other congested locations. On a larger platform, our research will be an effective instrument in helping many nations throughout the globe combat the rapid spread of this contagious illness

HKSVM-DSS: Novel Machine Learning-Based Approach for Decision Support System in Stock Market

The stock market serves as an attractive investment venue that draws interest from a broad cross section of people. At the same time, while it continues to be a substantial source of income, it is frequently seen as one of the riskiest investing options due to the fundamental characteristics of the financial industry and several other elements that frequently escape the notice of inexperienced investors. No one can accurately forecast how well a stock will behave in the times to come, although several factors can aid in stock analysis. To determine the ideal moment to buy stocks and the specific stocks to buy, a decision support system (DSS) that incorporates market patterns, economic analyses, and tactics is thus, urgently needed. This study uses machine learning (ML) approaches to handle various issues presented by the assessment of market data. So, using the hyper-tree kernel-adaptive support vector machine (HKSVM) technique, this study introduces an automatic stock DSS to anticipate the top and bottom stock prices in the forthcoming years. The Z-score normalization method is first used in raw trading statistics to retrieve the data without repeated or redundant information. Then, by using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) approach, feature extraction is carried out. By offering a reliable and automatic framework for research on stock trading data, the experimental findings and comparisons proved good interpretability and prediction effectiveness for the suggested HKSVM approach

Use of Smartphones in Hospitals

Mobile technology has begun to change the landscape of the medical profession with more than two-thirds of physicians regularly using smart phones. Smartphones have allowed healthcare professionals and the general public to communicate more efficiently, collect data and facilitate the clinical decision making. The methodology for this study was a qualitative literature review following a systematic approach of the smartphone usage among physicians in hospitals. Fifty-one articles were selected for this study based on inclusion criteria. The findings were classified and described into seven categories: use of smartphone in obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, and dermatology which were chosen based on the documented use of smartphone application in different healthcare practices. A last section of patient safety and issues with confidentiality is also described. This study suggest that smartphones have been playing an increasingly important role in healthcare. Medical professionals have become more dependent upon medical smartphone applications. However, concerns of patient safety and confidentiality will likely lead to increased oversight of mobile device use by regulatory agencies and accrediting bodies

Orbital solitary fibrous tumors: A multi-centered histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis with radiological description

BACKGROUND: Solitary fibrous tumors (SFT), formerly called hemangiopericytoma, are rare tumors derived from mesenchymal cells originally described in the pleura, but these tumors may affect extraserosal tissues including the lacrimal gland and orbit. OBJECTIVE: Conduct a multi-centered clinical, radiological and histopathological analysis of 17 orbital SFT cases. DESIGN: A retrospective case series. SETTING: Three eye centers in two countries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The data collected from the charts of 17 adult patients presenting with tissue diagnosis of orbital hemangiopericytoma or SFT from January 2003 to December 2018 included demographics, clinical imaging and histopathological information including immunohistochemical (IHC) characteristics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The demographic characteristics, clinical presentation, and histopathological patterns or variants of SFT were analyzed. SAMPLE SIZE: 17 adult patients. RESULTS: Mean age was 45 years (range 23-80 years). Male to female ratio was 3:1. The right eye was affected in 12 (70.5%) patients. Commonest presentation was proptosis in 13/17 (76% of patients). Other symptoms were impaired motility (29%) and ptosis (11%). Lesions mostly affected the medial orbit (35%), then orbital apex in 11%. The histopathological classic pattern-less variant was the commonest. One case with aggressive behavior, multiple recurrences and atypical features was encountered. Immunohistochemical (IHC) markers used included CD34 expression in all cases, Bcl-2 expression in 10/11, CD99 in 9/9 and Vimentin in 4/4. STAT6 was used in 2 cases. CONCLUSIONS: SFTs are rare tumors affecting the orbit in both genders equally in their mid-forties, but showed male predominance in our analysis with a predominant classic histopathological pattern. Tissue diagnosis is essential and requires IHC studies for confirmation. LIMITATIONS: Sample size is relatively small owing to the rarity of this tumor in the orbit. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None

Video-based simulation among Saudi undergraduate nursing students during COVID-19 : a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Because of university closures due to COVID-19 confinement, video-based simulation, a training technique based on high-fidelity simulations, was introduced in reaction to the need to adapt high-fidelity clinical simulation experiences to digital platforms. PURPOSE: This study aims to evaluate the perceptions of nursing students in Saudi Arabia regarding the shift from face-to-face simulation experiences to video-based simulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study employed a phenomenological exploratory qualitative research design among 32 nursing students from various academic levels. RESULTS: The thematic analysis gave rise to five themes namely, “Enhanced Learning and satisfaction”, “Improved communication skills”, “Lack of hands-on experience”, “More comfortable experience”, and “Technical Barriers”. CONCLUSION: The students in this study have indicated that they were satisfied with video-based simulation, where they reported enhanced learning, better communication skills, and more perceived comfort, while concerns regarding technical issues and nursing skills were raised.https://www.cureus.com/Nursing ScienceSDG-04:Quality Educatio

Needle-Stick and Sharp Injuries among Hospital Healthcare Workers in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Needle-stick or sharp injuries (NSIs) are critical occupational hazards for healthcare workers. Exposure to blood and body fluids through NSIs increases the risk of transmission of blood-borne pathogens among them. The objectives of this study were to estimate the annual incidence of NSIs and investigate the associated factors of NSIs among the healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between October and November 2021. A total of 361 healthcare workers participated in the survey from all over Saudi Arabia. The one-year incidence of at least one event of NSIs among the healthcare workers is estimated at 22.2% (95% CI: 18.0, 26.8). More than half of the injury events (53.8%) were not reported to the authority by the healthcare workers. Incidence of NSIs was highest among the physicians (36%) and was followed by nurses (34.8%), dentists (29.2%), and medical technologists (21.1%). The odds of NSIs was higher among the healthcare workers aged 26–30 years compared to the 20–25 years age group (OR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.04, 6.03), as well as among the workers who directly dealt with needles or other sharp objects while working compared to those who did not (OR: 5.9; 95% CI: 2.69, 12.97). The high incidence and low rate of reporting of NSIs highlights the need of education and awareness raising programs targeting healthcare providers with higher risk of injury

Virulence genes expression among methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureusisolated form cancer and non-cancer patients

Relative quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was designed and applied in order to study the expression levels of selected genes encoding the adherence and toxins virulent factors. Relative quantification qPCR showed a significant higher expression level of common genes tested among strains isolated from cancer patients not only within the clone but also among different lineages. This study demonstrated that although all MRSA strains studied from cancer and non-cancer patients possessed several virulence determinantsthe expression rather than presence of virulence determinants may mediate higher pathogenicity potential. These data will aid in developing more effective infection control strategy to improve the management of MRSA infection in cancer patients

The lived experiences of Saudi nursing students in digital clinical experience : a phenomenological study

BACKGROUND : Novel digital methods of simulation are gaining popularity in nursing education in light of the limited access to clinical placement and expensive high-fidelity simulation technologies. AIM : The aim of this study is to explore the lived experiences of Saudi nursing students in digital clinical experiences (DCEs). METHODS : A qualitative phenomenological research design, grounded in Husserlian phenomenology, was employed. Purposive sampling was utilized to select 21 participants actively involved in DCEs. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect rich, narrative data. RESULTS : The thematic analysis has yielded four themes, namely, “comfort and safety”, “critical thinking and problem solving”, “appraisal of knowledge”, and “transition to practice.” CONCLUSIONS : The findings contribute to ongoing discussions about leveraging technology in nursing education, emphasizing the need for educators and policymakers to integrate digital tools that enhance the learning experiences of nursing students.https://www.cureus.comhj2024Nursing ScienceSDG-04:Quality Educatio

Machine Learning for Health: Algorithm Auditing & Quality Control

Developers proposing new machine learning for health (ML4H) tools often pledge to match or even surpass the performance of existing tools, yet the reality is usually more complicated. Reliable deployment of ML4H to the real world is challenging as examples from diabetic retinopathy or Covid-19 screening show. We envision an integrated framework of algorithm auditing and quality control that provides a path towards the effective and reliable application of ML systems in healthcare. In this editorial, we give a summary of ongoing work towards that vision and announce a call for participation to the special issue Machine Learning for Health: Algorithm Auditing & Quality Control in this journal to advance the practice of ML4H auditing

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks