Translating Arabic Poetic Riddles into English: An Approach in Qualitative Studies

A riddle is a question that usually occurs in prose and poetic form. The composition of poetic riddles is complicated since it encompasses trick structure of English utterances that require more efforts and deep thinking on the part of readers to reach the intention of the riddle maker. The present study investigated the interpretation of utterances in poetic riddles when translated into English. The main objective was to extend the tricky utterances in poetic riddles to obtain the intention of the riddle maker through translation. To achieve this target, a Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1986; 1995) was adopted to cognitively interpret how the poetic riddles worked through translation. Then, Bach’s (1994) Ambiguity was also used to explain the meaning that fell under a word, phrase or even a statement. Finally, Gutt’s (1991; 1998; 2000) notion on the directness and indirectness of the interpretation was employed. Overall, the results showed that Arabic poetic riddles included ambiguous words as well as implicit meanings that require decoding to gain the intent word made by the riddle maker. Furthermore, Arabic poetic riddles are full of attribute words to help getting the intent word.&nbsp

A new approach of weighted gradient filter for denoising of medical images in the presence of Poisson noise

Predlažemo ponderirani stupnjevani filtar za otklanjanje Poissonova šuma na rendgenskim slikama. U unaprijed definiranom prozoru izračunat je gradijent središnjeg piksela. Za izračunavanje vrijednosti gradijenta primijenjen je Gaussov ponderirani filtar. Predložena metoda je primijenjena na biomedicinske rendgenske slike, a zatim na različite uobičajene slike LENE i paprika. Rezultati pokazuju učinkovitost i bolju jasnoću slika uz primjenu ponderiranog stupnjevanog filtra. Uz to, predložena metoda je računalno vrlo učinkovita i brža od Non Local Mean (NLM) filtra koji predstavlja unaprijeđenu metodu za otklanjanje Poissonova šuma. Rezultati predložene metode su također bolji u odnosu na parametre za mjerenje performanse t.j. korelacije, Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Maximum Structural Similarity Index Measure (MSSIM) i Mean Square Error (MSE) nego uobičajeni Median, Wiener i NLM filter.We propose a Weighted Gradient Filter for denoising of Poisson noise in medical images. In a predefined window, gradient of the centre pixel is averaged out. Gaussian Weighted filter is used on all calculated gradient values. Proposed method is applied on biomedical images X-Rays and then on different general images of LENA and Peppers. Recovery results show that the proposed weighted gradient filter is efficient and has better visual appearance. Moreover, proposed method is computationally very efficient and faster than Non Local Mean (NLM) filter which is an advanced technique for Poisson noise removal. Proposed method results are also better in terms of performance measures parameters i.e. correlation, Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Maximum Structural Similarity Index Measure (MSSIM) and Mean Square Error (MSE) than the conventional Median, Wiener and NLM filter

An efficient technique for retinal vessel segmentation and denoising using modified isodata and CLAHE

Retinal damage caused due to complications of diabetes is known as a Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). In this case, the vision is obscured due to damage of tiny retinal blood vessels. These tiny blood vessels may cause leakage that affect the vision and can lead to complete blindness. Identification of these new retinal vessels and their structure is an essential for analysis of DR. Automatic blood vessel segmentation plays a significant role to assist subsequent automatic methodologies that aid to such analysis. In literature, most authors have used computationally-hungry strong preprocessing steps followed by a simple thresholding and postprocessing steps. This paper proposed an arrangement of simple preprocessing steps that consist of Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) for contrast enhancement and a difference image of green channel from its Gaussian blur filtered image to remove local noise or geometrical objects. The proposed Modified Iterative Self Organizing Data Analysis Technique (MISODATA) has been used for segmentation of vessel and non-vessel pixels based on global and local thresholding. Finally, postprocessing steps have been applied using region properties (area, eccentricity) to eliminate the unwanted regions/segments, nonvessel pixels, and noise. A novel postprocessing steps are used to reject misclassified foreground pixels. The strategy has been tested on the openly accessible DRIVE (Digital Retinal Images for Vessel Extraction) and STARE (STructured Analysis of the REtina) databases. The average accuracy rates of 0.952 and 0.957 with average sensitivity rates 0.780 and 0.745 along with average specificity rates of 0.972 and 0.974 were obtained on DRIVE and STARE datasets, respectively. The performance of the proposed technique has been assessed comprehensively. The acquired accuracy, robustness, low complexity, and high efficiency make the method an efficient tool for an automatic retinal image analysis. The proposed technique perform well as compared to the existing strategies on the online available databases in term of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, false positive rate, true positive rate, and area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve

Rice Straw Vermicompost Enriched With Cellulolytic Microbes Ameliorate the Negative Effect of Drought in Wheat Through Modulating the Morpho-Physiological Attributes

Wheat growth and productivity are unfavorably pretentious by a lack of sufficient water (drought or water deficit) worldwide. Drought stress significantly affects all the morpho-physiological and biochemical characteristics and the agronomical yield of wheat. Different management approaches have been adopted to cope with the negative effects of water deficit. Soil-applied vermicompost is helpful in improving the growth and developmental processes of wheat under water deficit conditions. Therefore, a trial was carried out to optimize the best amount of vermicompost and to assess its role in ameliorating the negative effects of drought for sustainable crop production. The treatments consisted of 1) two contrasting wheat cultivars Faisalabad-08 (drought-tolerant) and Galaxy-13 (drought-sensitive), 2) drought with three levels [D0 = 70% of field capacity (no drought), D1 = 45% of field capacity (mild drought), and D2 = 30% of field capacity (severe drought)] and 3) cellulolytic microbe-enriched vermicompost prepared from rice straw with four levels (VT0 = Control, VT1 = 4 t ha−1, VT2 = 6 t ha−1 , and VT3 = 8 t ha−1). Data on various morphological, physiological, and biochemical parameters were recorded from sowing to crop harvesting. In this study, it was demonstrated that all these parameters were negatively affected by moisture deficit conditions. The application of vermi-fertilizer significantly increased (p < 0.05) the aforementioned parameters of wheat in both the absence and presence of drought. Under severe drought, VT2 treatment increased the seedling length by 14.02–26.14%, fresh weight by 15.16–22.91%, and dry weight by 0.37–28.20% in both cultivars compared with control. In addition, VT2 treatment reduced the leaf water potential by 6.36 and 3.36%, leaf osmotic potential by 1.74 and 1.68%, and increased the turgor potential by 4.83 and 3.36%, and photosynthetic rate by 18.59 and 26.42% in Faislabad-08 and Galaxy-13, respectively, over control. We concluded that the application of vermicompost is a valuable approach to alleviate the adverse impacts of water stress on wheat

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Novel Data Link Layer Encoding Scheme for Multi-hop Wireless Mesh Network

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) provides multi-hop and multi-path communication by deploying network nodes in form of mesh topology and grasps the attention of research community and industry due to its features like self-healing and self-organizing etc. In multi-hop networks, bandwidth efficiency degrades with the increase in number of intermediate nodes. In this paper, we present a novel encoding scheme at data link layer with the characteristic of cut-through switch. By using the proposed technique, we can increase throughput by reducing re-transmissions in the network. We have verified our proposed method by simulation in NS3. The simulation results indicate that in-spite of high interference, we can achieve improved throughput and less delay with proposed model