Adopting explicit and implicit social relations by SVD++ for recommendation system improvement

Recommender systems suffer a set of drawbacks such as sparsity. Social relations provide a useful source to overcome the sparsity problem. Previous studies have utilized social relations or rating feedback sources. However, they ignored integrating these sources. In this paper, the limitations of previous studies are overcome by exploiting four sources of information, namely: explicit social relationships, implicit social relationships, users’ ratings, and implicit feedback information. Firstly, implicit social relationships are extracted through the source allocation index algorithm to establish new relations among users. Secondly, the similarity method is applied to find the similarity between each pair of users who have explicit or implicit social relations. Then, users’ ratings and implicit rating feedback sources are extracted via a user-item matrix. Furthermore, all sources are integrated into the singular value decomposition plus (SVD++) method. Finally, missing predictions are computed. The proposed method is implemented on three real-world datasets: Last.Fm, FilmTrust, and Ciao. Experimental results reveal that the proposed model is superior to other studies such as SVD, SVD++, EU-SVD++, SocReg, and EISR in terms of accuracy, where the improvement of the proposed method is about 0.03% for MAE and 0.01% for RMSE when dimension value (d) = 10

Performance evaluation of CCM and TSCP routing protocols within/without data fusing in WSNs

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a large number of small sensor devices that can connect each other wirelessly.WSNs applications are rapidly growing in last decades, furthermore, in WSN research, energy is one of the important issues that must consider when designing a new protocol. Due to the fact, almost all of nodes' energy deplete in the communication part, and the data fusing directly impact the performance of routing protocol.This paper studies the impact of data fusing for chain based routing protocols.In this study, ns-3 simulator used to evaluate Chain-Cluster Mixed (CCM) and Two Stage Chain Protocol (TSCP) routing protocols with deterministic nodes deployment. The experiments show that TSCP overcomes CCM in network lifetime when data fusing applied while CCM overcomes TSCP in the same metric with non-fusing of data for First Node Die (FND), 10%, 25%, 50% and Last node (LND). Furthermore, CCM is still playing a good behavior in delay for both approaches. The main conclusion for this paper is non-fusing of data must be applied when design new routing protocol to study all the packets traffic behaviors in the path from source to destination

Knowledge, Attitudes and Barriers Towards Breast Cancer Health Education Among Iraqi Community Pharmacists

With the increasing prevalence of breast cancer among female internationally, occupies about 25% of all cases of cancer, with a measured 1.57 million up to date cases in 2012. Breast cancer has turn a most warning to health of female in Iraq, where it is the major cause of death among women after cardiovascular diseases, with a mortality rate of 23% related cancer. Recently there is a crucial requirement to include community pharmacists in health elevation activities to support awareness and early diagnosis of cancer, specially breast cancer. The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude and perceived barriers amongst Iraqi community pharmacists towards health promotion of breast cancer. This study is cross sectional research. A questionnaire was given to pharmacists. The questionnaire comprised from four parts: community pharmacists demographics and description of practice; knowledge of signs, symptoms and risk causes; knowledge around breast cancer screening and perceived barriers.300 questionnaires were finished and returned by Iraqi community pharmacists. Mean score of knowledge and screening of breast cancer was 7.9 1.86 and 1.69 0.33 points respectively, categorizing the overall knowledge and screening of breast cancer among participants as poor level, while mean score for pharmacist attitude was 26.44 3.86   points, categorizing the overall attitude as favorable. Lack of time was perceived by a great proportion of pharmacists (68.2%) as a major barrier to providing patient education

Elevated concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in sand: An essential raw material used in Bangladeshi dwellings

Sand is one of the main materials used in the construction industry. Elevated concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in sand may cause great harm to dwellers. Present study determines concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in sand that is widely used as a raw material in the construction industry in Bangladesh, via conventional HPGe γ-ray spectrometry. The average activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the analysed samples were found as 36.8 ± 3.9, 58.9 ± 6.0 and 755 ± 91 Bqkg−1 in Base sand, 68.1 ± 5.3, 185.7 ± 9.9 and 1032 ± 104 Bqkg−1 in Sylhet sand, and 38.1 ± 3.6, 74.7 ± 5.9 and 636 ± 77 Bqkg−1 in Aster sand. All data show relatively higher values than the world average of 35, 30, 400 Bqkg−1, respectively. Key hazard parameters were estimated to realize the radiation effects on human health due to the use of sand as construction and building materials. The estimated parameters for Sylhet sand show relatively higher values than the population-weighted world average values, prescribed by regulatory bodies. Results show that the Sylhet sand may pose a significant radiation hazard to the dwellers via prolonged exposure, and necessary precautionary steps need to be taken to ensure safe dwellings while using this sand for construction and decorative purposes

Measurement of Natural Radioactivity in Coal, Soil and Water Samples Collected from Barapukuria Coal Mine in Dinajpur District of Bangladesh

Abstract The activity concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40, were measured by using a gamma ray spectrometry for coal, soil and water samp les collected fro m the Barapukuria coal mine in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. The average activity concentrations of for coal, respectively. The values were 67.14 n Gyh -1 and 0.083 mSvyr -1 respectively for active soil and 88.86 n Gyh -1 , and 0.11 mSvyr -1 , respectively for passive soil. The average absorbed dose rates were h igher than worldwide average values for soil samples. Whereas, the radiu m equivalent activity and external hazard indices were less than the world average values

Estimation and Correlation Analysis of Heavy Metals of Some Well Water in Zakho City, Iraq

This study was carried out to examine the concentrations of major heavy metals in fifteen different well water in Zakho City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The studied heavy metals were iron, copper, chromium, aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, zinc and lead. The results obtained in the studied area showed that copper, chromium, cobalt, zinc, manganese, aluminum, iron and lead were within the acceptable limits as recommended by WHO for water drinking. However, in all studied areas, cadmium and nickel were mostly founded to exceed the maximum permissible limit set by WHO. It is found that zinc and copper possess a very good positive correlation between each other. The results obtained in this study confirmed the groundwater pollution and hence it is not suitable for consumption without any prior treatment

An innovative state-of-the-art health storytelling technique for better management of type 2 diabetes

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic lifelong disease that requires long-term prevention and management strategies in a community setting. A health story is a novel technique that may be used as an effective tool for better prevention and management of T2D. Objective: The main objective of this study is to develop a story to be used as a social health technique based on contemporary scientific knowledge that may be used at a community level for better communication and management of T2D. Methods: A community–academic partnership was formed with a not-for-profit Nutrition Education, Awareness, and Training (NEAT) organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. We agreed to develop a story that may be used as a health and nutrition education communication tool for better management of patients with T2D. The following phases were followed during the story creation process: (1) the theory phase, (2) the modeling phase, and (3) the evaluation phase. Raters evaluated the story to determine its literary and scientific quality, comprehensiveness, and T2D specificity. Results: The title of the story translated into English is “The Story of Diabetes—The Story of Success.” It is text based and contains 86 pages in the local language, “Pashto,” with an English translation. The story is divided into five chapters and describes the initial diagnosis, fear associated with the disease, issues related to referral to certified practitioners, the importance of a balanced diet, and related lifestyle habits. After story evaluation, the raters suggested its literary and scientific quality, comprehensiveness, and T2D specificity (Pearson correlation scores of \u3e0.8). Conclusion: This unique story was created for T2D and found to be of significant quality in terms of its literary and scientific quality, as well as its comprehensiveness and diabetes specificity. As a result, it may be suggested that it can be used in subsequent studies to improve T2D management among adult patients

Exploring the evidence base for national and regional policy interventions to combat resistance

The effectiveness of existing policies to control antimicrobial resistance is not yet fully understood. A strengthened evidence base is needed to inform effective policy interventions across countries with different income levels and the human health and animal sectors. We examine three policy domains—responsible use, surveillance, and infection prevention and control—and consider which will be the most effective at national and regional levels. Many complexities exist in the implementation of such policies across sectors and in varying political and regulatory environments. Therefore, we make recommendations for policy action, calling for comprehensive policy assessments, using standardised frameworks, of cost-effectiveness and generalisability. Such assessments are especially important in low-income and middle-income countries, and in the animal and environmental sectors. We also advocate a One Health approach that will enable the development of sensitive policies, accommodating the needs of each sector involved, and addressing concerns of specific countries and regions

An innovative state-of-the-art health storytelling technique for better management of type 2 diabetes

BackgroundType 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic lifelong disease that requires long-term prevention and management strategies in a community setting. A health story is a novel technique that may be used as an effective tool for better prevention and management of T2D.ObjectiveThe main objective of this study is to develop a story to be used as a social health technique based on contemporary scientific knowledge that may be used at a community level for better communication and management of T2D.MethodsA community–academic partnership was formed with a not-for-profit Nutrition Education, Awareness, and Training (NEAT) organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. We agreed to develop a story that may be used as a health and nutrition education communication tool for better management of patients with T2D. The following phases were followed during the story creation process: (1) the theory phase, (2) the modeling phase, and (3) the evaluation phase. Raters evaluated the story to determine its literary and scientific quality, comprehensiveness, and T2D specificity.ResultsThe title of the story translated into English is “The Story of Diabetes—The Story of Success.” It is text based and contains 86 pages in the local language, “Pashto,” with an English translation. The story is divided into five chapters and describes the initial diagnosis, fear associated with the disease, issues related to referral to certified practitioners, the importance of a balanced diet, and related lifestyle habits. After story evaluation, the raters suggested its literary and scientific quality, comprehensiveness, and T2D specificity (Pearson correlation scores of >0.8).ConclusionThis unique story was created for T2D and found to be of significant quality in terms of its literary and scientific quality, as well as its comprehensiveness and diabetes specificity. As a result, it may be suggested that it can be used in subsequent studies to improve T2D management among adult patients

Conversion in Turkish : an overview

This paper presents an overview of possible cases of conversion in Turkish. I argue that apparent cases of conversion between nouns and adjectives are cases of syntactic transposition, and apparent cases of conversion between nouns/adjectives and verbs are end products of phonological changes in the history of the language, which resulted in pairs of lexemes that are formally identical synchronically, but not historically. This does not mean that no cases of morphological conversion can be traced in the language. I will present two cases of secondary word-class conversion from derived, inflected and uninflected words to toponyms which might be taken as instances of morphological conversion or derivation by zero-affixation