A Closer Look on English Language Education Department Students' Contention of Using Mind Mapping Techniques

Teachers and students have widely used mind-mapping techniques to enhance teaching and learning experiences in education. This study intended to explore the benefits and challenges of applying mind-mapping techniques based on students' perceptions. The current study used a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews were employed to collect the data. The study involved four students in their junior year of an English Language Education Department of a private university who had frequently used mind mapping. All participants in the study viewed that mind mapping positively contributed to their English learning. The contributions included saving time, assisting them in learning and understanding materials, and recalling materials more easily. In addition, the participants also claimed that mind mapping enhanced their creativity in learning, helped them brainstorm ideas, improved language skills, increased their interests, and motivated students to learn. Apart from the benefits, all participants considered mind-mapping techniques challenging due to their complexity, especially when they were new to mind-mapping. In addition, they also believed that applying mind-mapping techniques consumed much time. The study concluded that mind mapping positively contributed to students' learning experiences, especially in organizing the information they gained when learning

Impact of CSR, innovation, and green investment on sales growth: new evidence from manufacturing industries of China and Saudi Arabia

Environmental concerns have got supreme interest from the researchers and policy makers for which experts have revealed their organizational impacts too. At the same time, corporate social responsibility is observed as a key determinant of financial performance both in developed and developing economies. Recognize the same, this study aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibilities, economic innovation, green credit, and green investment on the sales growth of manufacturing industries of China and Saudi Arabia. This study has selected top twelve trading manufacturing companies registered in the Shanghai stock exchange and Saudi stock exchange during the period of 2016 to 2020. For data estimation, panel regression estimations like fixed and random effect models have been used. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility, economic innovation, green credit, and green investment are significantly and positively associated with sales growth of manufacturing industries in China and Saudi Arabia. However, their coefficient’s magnitude varies due to distinct features of both countries. These findings offer valuable policy recommendations for all stakeholders

Rhythmic glucose metabolism regulates the redox circadian clockwork in human red blood cells.

Circadian clocks coordinate mammalian behavior and physiology enabling organisms to anticipate 24-hour cycles. Transcription-translation feedback loops are thought to drive these clocks in most of mammalian cells. However, red blood cells (RBCs), which do not contain a nucleus, and cannot perform transcription or translation, nonetheless exhibit circadian redox rhythms. Here we show human RBCs display circadian regulation of glucose metabolism, which is required to sustain daily redox oscillations. We found daily rhythms of metabolite levels and flux through glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). We show that inhibition of critical enzymes in either pathway abolished 24-hour rhythms in metabolic flux and redox oscillations, and determined that metabolic oscillations are necessary for redox rhythmicity. Furthermore, metabolic flux rhythms also occur in nucleated cells, and persist when the core transcriptional circadian clockwork is absent in Bmal1 knockouts. Thus, we propose that rhythmic glucose metabolism is an integral process in circadian rhythms

[The new 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for the prevention of S. pneumoniae infections in pediatric age: a Health Technology Assessment]

Questo capitolo sintetizza gli aspetti più rilevanti emersi dalla valutazione HTA del vaccino coniugato antipneumococcico 15-valente (PCV15) per la prevenzione delle infezioni da S. pneumoniae in età pediatrica

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Background: Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. // Methods: We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung's disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. // Findings: We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung's disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middle-income countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in low-income countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. // Interpretation: Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Design of a Speech Anger Recognition System on Arduino NANO 33 BLE Sense

Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) has gained growing popularity due to its wide applications in almost every available field. Past work has been done on large-scale processing boards with a variety of extracted features. Many different methods have been proposed for the SER system but have lacked aspects in either size, complexity, or recognition accuracy. Due to limitations on size and resources, designing a system that can overcome these drawbacks becomes imperative. The solution is to design a system that is small, accurate, and economical. Using Tiny Machine Learning and SER is the best solution since it can be done on a small-scale and relatively high emotion recognition rate. This paper presents past work, the hardware, software, and the SER prototype’s field design, focusing on detecting the variations of the Anger emotion. A simple and optimum CNN architecture was developed for Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense implementation. Prototype validation showed that our system could detect not angry, about to be angry, and angry emotions

Lack of knowledge regarding HPV and its relation to oropharyngeal cancer among medical students

Background: Oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is an important cause of cancer-related mortality. Early detection of OPC results in a favorable prognosis and higher survival rates. Infection by high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is a risk factor for OPC with an upward trend globally. Medical students' knowledge and awareness of HPV-related OPC can be crucial in the preventive efforts. Aim: To assess HPV knowledge among medical students at the University of Jordan, with particular focus on its relation to different cancers. Methods: This paper-based survey study was conducted in November 2019. The survey items were based on previously validated surveys used to evaluate HPV-related OPC knowledge among dental students and professionals. To assess HPV knowledge and students' confidence in personal history taking and physical examination, we developed a knowledge and confidence scores that showed acceptable reliability. Results: The total number of participants was 1198 students, with a median age of 21 and female predominance (n = 697, 58.2%). Among the participants, 93.3% heard of HPV prior to this survey (n = 1118). Higher levels of knowledge regarding cervical cancer, OPC and HPV vaccination was seen among clinical students compared to their preclinical counterparts, but their overall HPV knowledge was low. Only 18.4% and 21.0% of the clinical students correctly identified the association of HPV with penile and oropharyngeal cancers, respectively. Additionally, 34.5% of the clinical students were not aware of the availability of HPV vaccines. The majority of students (92.0%) reported that the university courses were their major source of knowledge about HPV. Conclusion: A profound lack of knowledge regarding HPV role in OPC was found among medical students. This insufficiency included several aspects of the virus and its associated diseases. Such gaps in knowledge could have negative consequences in early detection and prevention of OPC and should be addressed by evaluation of the current curriculum