On CSO-Compact Space

The aim of this paper is to introduces and study the concept of CSO-compact space via the notation of simply-open sets as well as to investigate their relationship to some well known classes of topological spaces and give some of his properties

Pupil Dilation Is Sensitive to Semantic Ambiguity and Acoustic Degradation

Speech comprehension is challenged by background noise, acoustic interference, and linguistic factors, such as the presence of words with more than one meaning (homonyms and homophones). Previous work suggests that homophony in spoken language increases cognitive demand. Here, we measured pupil dilation—a physiological index of cognitive demand—while listeners heard high-ambiguity sentences, containing words with more than one meaning, or well-matched low-ambiguity sentences without ambiguous words. This semantic-ambiguity manipulation was crossed with an acoustic manipulation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, sentences were masked with 30-talker babble at 0 and +6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in Experiment 2, sentences were heard with or without a pink noise masker at –2 dB SNR. Speech comprehension was measured by asking listeners to judge the semantic relatedness of a visual probe word to the previous sentence. In both experiments, comprehension was lower for high- than for low-ambiguity sentences when SNRs were low. Pupils dilated more when sentences included ambiguous words, even when no noise was added (Experiment 2). Pupil also dilated more when SNRs were low. The effect of masking was larger than the effect of ambiguity for performance and pupil responses. This work demonstrates that the presence of homophones, a condition that is ubiquitous in natural language, increases cognitive demand and reduces intelligibility of speech heard with a noisy background

Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy via Vestibular Approach: A series of the first ten cases in Iraq

Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy was first described as an experimental sublingual approach. This approach was modified to a vestibular approach to avoid complications. In this report, we describe the results of the first ten cases of a transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy via vestibular approach (TOETVA) performed in Iraq. All operations were performed at Al Shifa General Hospital, Basrah, Iraq, in 2017 using three laparoscopic ports inserted at the oral vestibule. One out of ten patients underwent a near total thyroidectomy, the remaining cases underwent thyroid lobectomies. The average operative time was 113.5 minutes and the average duration of hospital stay was 41.9 hours. One case of mild cervical emphysema and one case of temporary mental nerve palsy were reported but both were treated conservatively without permanent sequelae. In conclusion, TOETVA is a safe, feasible procedure with an excellent cosmetic outcome when the patients are selected carefully.Keywords: Thyroidectomy; Endoscopy; Mouth; Robotics; Case Reports; Iraq

Pupil Dilation Is Sensitive to Semantic Ambiguity and Acoustic Degradation

© The Author(s) 2020. Speech comprehension is challenged by background noise, acoustic interference, and linguistic factors, such as the presence of words with more than one meaning (homonyms and homophones). Previous work suggests that homophony in spoken language increases cognitive demand. Here, we measured pupil dilation—a physiological index of cognitive demand—while listeners heard high-ambiguity sentences, containing words with more than one meaning, or well-matched low-ambiguity sentences without ambiguous words. This semantic-ambiguity manipulation was crossed with an acoustic manipulation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, sentences were masked with 30-talker babble at 0 and +6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in Experiment 2, sentences were heard with or without a pink noise masker at –2 dB SNR. Speech comprehension was measured by asking listeners to judge the semantic relatedness of a visual probe word to the previous sentence. In both experiments, comprehension was lower for high- than for low-ambiguity sentences when SNRs were low. Pupils dilated more when sentences included ambiguous words, even when no noise was added (Experiment 2). Pupil also dilated more when SNRs were low. The effect of masking was larger than the effect of ambiguity for performance and pupil responses. This work demonstrates that the presence of homophones, a condition that is ubiquitous in natural language, increases cognitive demand and reduces intelligibility of speech heard with a noisy background

OPTIMAL DESIGN OF MODERATE THICK LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES UNDER STATIC CONSTRAINTS USING REAL CODING GENETIC ALGORITHM

The objective of the current research is to find an optimum design of hybrid laminated moderate thick composite plates with static constraint. The stacking sequence and ply angle is required for optimization to achieve minimum deflection for hybrid laminated composite plates consist of glass and carbon long fibers reinforcements that impeded in epoxy matrix with known plates dimension and loading. The analysis of plate is by adopting the first-order shear deformation theory and using Navier's solution with Genetic Algorithm to approach the current objective. A program written with MATLAB to find best stacking sequence and ply angles that give minimum deflection, and the results comparing with ANSYS

Thin films of unsubstituted and fluorinated palladium phthalocyanines: structure and sensor response toward ammonia and hydrogen

In the present work, we study and compare the structure and sensing properties of thin films of unsubstituted palladium phthalocyanine (PdPc) and hexadecafluorosubstituted palladium phthalocyanine (PdPcF16). Thin films of PdPc and PdPcF16 were obtained by the method of organic molecular beam deposition and their structure was studied using UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy techniques. The electrical sensor response of PdPc films toward ammonia and hydrogen was investigated and compared with that of PdPcF16 films. The nature of interaction between the phthalocyanines films and some gaseous analyte molecules has been clarified using Quantum chemical (DFT) calculations

Genotyping of HLA-class-I and II by PCR-SSP of Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

Background: Recurrent aphthous stomatitis is a common condition characterised by recurrent episodes of oral ulceration. Genetic factors have been implicated by numerous studies on the association of recurrent aphthous stomatitis and the genetically determined HLA subtypes. Objectives: Current study was established to shed light on the possible association of HLA class I and II alleles with recurrent aphthous stomatitis in Iraqi patients. Subjects and Methods: The study included 55 subjects: 30 recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients and 25 apparently healthy subjects as control. Polymerase chain reaction-specific sequence primers (PCR- SSP) assay was conducted to assess HLA- typing. Results: The present study showed a significant association of HLA-Cw*12:02:01-and HLADQB1* 02:01:01- alleles with recurrent aphthous stomatitis as compared with healthy control (P= 0.041and P=0.028 respectively). Another interesting finding in this study was the significant low frequency of HLA-DQB1*05:01:01- allele in patients when compared with healthy control (P=0.036). Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that HLA-Cw*12:02:01- and HLA-DQB1*02:01:01-alleles may play a role in the etiology of the disease. Whereas HLA-DQB1*05:01:01-05 may confer protective effects against recurrent aphthous stomatitis