EXPERT PROFILE DATABASE for Computer and Information Sciences Department,UTP

This report basically discusses the research and progress that has been done regarding the development of an Expert Profile Database (EPD) system. This mainly consists of details of the construction of the front end as well as the backend of the system. The targeted research area is within Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). After sufficient data and information collection during the part 1 (FYP 1), part 2 (FYP 2) will focus on the construction of the system; front end as well as back end. As mentioned in part 1 of the project, an open-source website will serve as the front end of the system and a database for the backend. The layout (front end) being fully modified, has been successfully completed during a period of one (1) to two (2) months. Concurrently, the functionalities of the backend of the system are ongoing and will proceed for the next month. The results obtained through questionnaires and interviews during FYP 1 were the main references for the construction of the EPD’s content. Besides obtaining data and information on the user requirements, the questionnaire also returned information on currently available systems used within UTP or CIS. The selection of the front end and back end of the EPD system and why it has been selected will also be discussed in this report. Mock data will be used replacing the information from the lecturer’s profile from the LAN documents due to its inaccessibility

Modulation of the atmospheric turbulence coherent structures by mesoscale motions

The precise modeling of turbulence is indispensable for weather forecasting and environmental heat-removal and pollution-dispersion assessment. Models rely on correlations derived from field measurements. Unfortunately, the readings are usually contaminated with mesoscale motions which alter turbulence statistics and mislead the characterization of turbulence coherent structures, the drivers of the heat and mass transport process. This article depicts the interference of the mesoscales in turbulence statistics and coherent structure detection. Atmospheric measurements were taken at EKOMAR on the east coast of Malaysia. Two ultrasonic anemometers at heights of 1.7 and 12 m were utilized. Twelve samples from the convective atmospheric boundary layer were analyzed. Spectral and auto-correlation analysis were conducted to assess the weight of the mesoscales relative to the shear coherent structure scales. The structure inclination angle and timescale were calculated for the wind speed signal with and without the mesoscale scales filtered out. It was found that these interfering structures largely shifts the calculated length- and time-scales of the coherent structures. The improper filtration of the signal may delete part of the coherent structures and hence worsen the situation

EXPERT PROFILE DATABASE for Computer and Information Sciences Department,UTP

This report basically discusses the research and progress that has been done regarding the development of an Expert Profile Database (EPD) system. This mainly consists of details of the construction of the front end as well as the backend of the system. The targeted research area is within Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). After sufficient data and information collection during the part 1 (FYP 1), part 2 (FYP 2) will focus on the construction of the system; front end as well as back end. As mentioned in part 1 of the project, an open-source website will serve as the front end of the system and a database for the backend. The layout (front end) being fully modified, has been successfully completed during a period of one (1) to two (2) months. Concurrently, the functionalities of the backend of the system are ongoing and will proceed for the next month. The results obtained through questionnaires and interviews during FYP 1 were the main references for the construction of the EPD’s content. Besides obtaining data and information on the user requirements, the questionnaire also returned information on currently available systems used within UTP or CIS. The selection of the front end and back end of the EPD system and why it has been selected will also be discussed in this report. Mock data will be used replacing the information from the lecturer’s profile from the LAN documents due to its inaccessibility

Financial analysis for selected land use options in Malaysian agroforestry system / Ahmad Fauzi Puasa, Huda Farhana Mohamad Muslim and Najib Lotfy Arshad

Agroforestry or farm forestry is a production technique that combines agriculture and forestry on the same piece of land to fully utilise the natural resources of sunlight, water and nutrition. This study focuses on developing several agroforestry cropping systems and land use options, and secondly, estimating the costs and benefits of each of the cropping system. Results show that cost depends on the cropping system design. To some extent, soil erosion and carbon-sink were incorporated in the analysis as well. Based on the costs and benefits estimated, the most profitable cropping pattern and land use options were chosen. Agroforestry projects can contribute to the supply of woods as well as food to the country. The success of agroforestry is largely determined by the extent to which individual forest and agricultural components can be integrated to benefit rather than hinder one another. The choice of trees and crop species combinations are important when setting up the system

Functional diffusion map of malignant brain tumors: A surrogate imaging biomarker for early prediction of therapeutic response and patient survival

AbstractPurposeTo evaluate the ability of functional diffusion mapping “fDM” to predict early treatment response and survival in patients with primary malignant brain tumors.Patients and methodsForty-six brain tumor patients were examined by diffusion MRI before and 3 weeks after initiation of chemo- and/or radiotherapy. Images were co-registered to pretherapy scans, and tumor volumes with significant changes in apparent diffusion coefficient values were spatially displayed as functional diffusion maps. The predictive values of percentage of change in whole-tumor volume, mean ADC and fDM parameters for treatment response were evaluated by their correlation with the standard clinico-radiologic response criteria and overall survival of the two response groups was determined.ResultsOf the analyzed 46 brain tumors, 21 tumors were responding and 25 were stable/non-responding. At 3 weeks after initiation of therapy, the percentage of tumor volume with significant increase in diffusion (VR; red voxels) was the strongest predictor of treatment response than the changes in whole-tumor volume and mean ADC values determined at the same time point as compared to their pretherapy values. VR threshold of 14.5% at 3 weeks had sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of 100% for all differentiating responding from stable/non-responding tumors. Overall survival in stable/non-responding group was shorter than in the responding group (8.7 versus 35.6 months; ∗∗P<0.001).ConclusionThe use of fDM provided an early and direct surrogate marker for predicting treatment response and patient survival in patients with malignant brain tumor

The Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Unit of Ain Shams University in times of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: approach and challenges

The Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (PAI) Unit of Ain Shams University, founded in 1988 by Professor Yehia El-Gamal and currently headed by Professor Shereen Reda, is a tertiary referral center for pediatric allergy, primary immunodeficiency, and rheumatology patients in Egypt. It serves more than 1300 patients with different immunological disorders, with an outpatient and inpatient sections and investigational laboratory. With the widespread of the SARS-CoV-2 and its declaration as a "pandemic", and owing to the heterogeneity of the different disorders managed and followed up in the unit, several measures have been taken in order to provide the necessary services for the patients. This service should maintain a rational balance between the need to mitigate the virus spread and to provide the optimum care for those who get infected, when in the meantime keep their original disease morbidity and mortality to the minimum. These measures were taken by the members of the PAI unit with the help of the head management team of Children’s Hospital, Ain Shams University and were subjected to continuous modification based on the evolving situation, emerging information, problems faced and the availability of human and medical resources

Seeing revolution non-linearly: www.filmingrevolution.org

Filming Revolution, launched in 2015, is an online interactive data base documentary tracing the strands and strains of independent (mostly) documentary filmmaking in Egypt since the revolution. Consisting of edited interviews with 30 filmmakers, archivists, activists, and artists based in Egypt, the website is organised by the themes that emerged from the material, allowing the viewer to engage in an unlimited set of “curated dialogues” about issues related to filmmaking in Egypt since 2011. With its constellatory interactive design, Filming Revolution creates as much as documents a community of makers, as it attempts to grapple with approaches to filmmaking in the wake of such momentous historical events. The non-hierarchical polysemous structure of the project is meant to echo the rhizomatic, open-ended aspect of the revolution and its aftermath, in yet another affirmation and instantiation of contemporary civil revolution as a non-linear, ever-unfolding, on-going, event

Prediction model for hardened state properties of silica fume and fly ash based seawater concrete incorporating silicomanganese slag

Growing concrete consumption has gradually depleted conventional resources. This research incorporates silicomanganese (SiMn) slag, marine sand and seawater as alternative concreting materials. The use of SiMn slag to replace limestone as coarse aggregate enhances sustainability, though reducing strength and durability of concrete. This research aims to enhance the SiMn slag concrete by incorporating silica fume (SF) and fly ash (FA). The interaction of SF and FA on strength, durability and workability of concrete is investigated by statistically evaluating the experimental result. In this regard, the polynomial function prediction model is developed using the Response Surface Method (RSM) for the optimization of SF and FA contents. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using p-value at significance level of 0.05 showed that the models were statistically significant and had marginal residual errors. All models had high fitness with R2 value ranging from 0.853 to 0.999. Adequate precision of models was above 4, indicating that the models had a low prediction error and were fit for optimization. Optimization indicated that a combination of 11.5% SF and 16.3% FA produced concrete that met the optimization criteria. Experimental validation showed that the highest prediction error was 3.4% for compressive strength, 3.2% for tensile strength, 4.9% for sorptivity and 18% for chloride permeability. The optimized concrete exhibited compact microstructure with good bonding between aggregate and cement paste. By using the established linear equation with SiMn slag concrete, the models also predicted the compressive strength of limestone concrete containing SF and FA with an error of between 0.9% and 5.4%

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10&nbsp;years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37&nbsp;years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

MUSiC : a model-unspecific search for new physics in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

Results of the Model Unspecific Search in CMS (MUSiC), using proton-proton collision data recorded at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1), are presented. The MUSiC analysis searches for anomalies that could be signatures of physics beyond the standard model. The analysis is based on the comparison of observed data with the standard model prediction, as determined from simulation, in several hundred final states and multiple kinematic distributions. Events containing at least one electron or muon are classified based on their final state topology, and an automated search algorithm surveys the observed data for deviations from the prediction. The sensitivity of the search is validated using multiple methods. No significant deviations from the predictions have been observed. For a wide range of final state topologies, agreement is found between the data and the standard model simulation. This analysis complements dedicated search analyses by significantly expanding the range of final states covered using a model independent approach with the largest data set to date to probe phase space regions beyond the reach of previous general searches.Peer reviewe