Management and outcomes of gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low, middle and high income countries: Protocol for a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Introduction Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of death in children <5 years of age globally, contributing an estimated half a million deaths per year. Very limited literature exists from low and middle income countries (LMICs) where most of these deaths occur. The Global PaedSurg Research Collaboration aims to undertake the first multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of a selection of common congenital anomalies comparing management and outcomes between low, middle and high income countries (HICs) globally. Methods and analysis The Global PaedSurg Research Collaboration consists of surgeons, paediatricians, anaesthetists and allied healthcare professionals involved in the surgical care of children globally. Collaborators will prospectively collect observational data on consecutive patients presenting for the first time, with one of seven common congenital anomalies (oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation and Hirschsprung''s disease). Patient recruitment will be for a minimum of 1 month from October 2018 to April 2019 with a 30-day post-primary intervention follow-up period. Anonymous data will be collected on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions and outcomes using REDCap. Collaborators will complete a survey regarding the resources and facilities for neonatal and paediatric surgery at their centre. The primary outcome is all-cause in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes include the occurrence of postoperative complications. Chi-squared analysis will be used to compare mortality between LMICs and HICs. Multilevel, multivariate logistic regression analysis will be undertaken to identify patient-level and hospital-level factors affecting outcomes with adjustment for confounding factors. Ethics and dissemination At the host centre, this study is classified as an audit not requiring ethical approval. All participating collaborators have gained local approval in accordance with their institutional ethical regulations. Collaborators will be encouraged to present the results locally, nationally and internationally. The results will be submitted for open access publication in a peer reviewed journal

Handwritten Arabic word recognition: A review of common approaches

script are at an early stage compared to their equivalent for the recognition of Latin and Chinese. In this paper, different approaches used for handwritten Arabic word recognition were reviewed. An introduction to the Arabic script is given, followed by a description of algorithms for the process involved: segmentation, feature extraction, classification, and recognition. However, an automatic recognition of text on scanned images has enabled many applications such as words spotting in large volumes of documents, automatic sorting of postal mail, and convenient editing of previously printed documents. The domain of handwriting in the Arabic script presents unique technical challenges and has been addressed more recently than other domains. Many different methods have been proposed and applied to various types of images, and a variety of approaches have been already developed, tested and returned good results. Yet the database used was too small compared to the huge size of Arabic texts, which gives way to other approaches to be developed based on a bigger database. Since handwriting recognition is such a large subject, there is plenty of scope for the work in this field. Finally, a comparison to show pros and cons of the approaches reviewed is conducted

Commercialization Strategy and Implementation Plans for the Proposed Vitual Anti-Spam System based on Feasibility Study

The aim of this feasibility study is to find out objectively, if the proposed vitual anti-spam system (BVAS) with document processing is a viable idea in terms of technology, market considerations and finance. This feasibility study further attempts to identify the potential problems that the proposed system would face and ensure, if it is a workable and profitable business enterprise. In this study, a market strategy of the proposed vitual anti-spam will be discuss on four parts namely, market feasibility study on the use of an effective vitual anti-spam system, market feasibility analysis, formation of anti-spam company and proposed commercialization strategy, strategy justification and implementation plans. The finding from this study has shown the proposed BVAS is cheap, the anti-spam catch rate is above 98% and more importantly the false positive rate is around 0.5%. This makes BVAS to be much desired and in demand among anti-spam users. This means if BVAS is developed commercially, it can compete successfully in the open market