Clinical review: Liberation from mechanical ventilation

Mechanical ventilation is the defining event of intensive care unit (ICU) management. Although it is a life saving intervention in patients with acute respiratory failure and other disease entities, a major goal of critical care clinicians should be to liberate patients from mechanical ventilation as early as possible to avoid the multitude of complications and risks associated with prolonged unnecessary mechanical ventilation, including ventilator induced lung injury, ventilator associated pneumonia, increased length of ICU and hospital stay, and increased cost of care delivery. This review highlights the recent developments in assessing and testing for readiness of liberation from mechanical ventilation, the etiology of weaning failure, the value of weaning protocols, and a simple practical approach for liberation from mechanical ventilation

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS TECHNOLOGY IN INTERPERSONAL SKILLS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES

Purpose Social media has transformed and influenced communication, research and education in general through the vast variety of online tools which are available for communication.The objectives of the research study is to examine and analyze the influence of Social Media on the academic Performance of students and their social interpersonal skills. Design/methodology/approach 195 samples were collected from full-time undergraduate students studying in the University from different faculties including business, engineering, law, English Studies and Language Studies. The descriptive statistics analysis was used to analyze the demographic data while inferential statistics was used in testing the research hypotheses. The results obtained from the analyses were used to interpret the outcomes. Findings The empirical results reveal that the students get to learn through social media differently enabling them new information and are also able to communicate easily with others. The communication exchanged is irrelevant to studies and does not help them in any manner to improve their learning. It is confirmed that the Social Media effects do not support the Learning of the students and most of the students are addicted to social media. Practical Implications The study confirms that it is good means to approach the students through social media whichmight boost the education in an easier way. Originality/value The research work is of its first kind as it focuses on the impact of social media on the academic performances of the students studying in Higher Educational Institutions.&nbsp

Prototyping Across the Disciplines

This article pursues the idea that within interdisciplinary teams in which researchers might find themselves participating, there are very different notions of research outcomes, as well as languages in which they are expressed. We explore the notion of the software prototype within the discussion of making and building in digital humanities. The backdrop for our discussion is a collaboration between project team members from computer science and literature that resulted in a tool named TopoText that was built to geocode locations within an unstructured text and to perform some basic Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks about the context of those locations. In the interest of collaborating more effectively with increasingly larger and more multidisciplinary research communities, we move outward from that specific collaboration to explore one of the ways that such research is characterized in the domain of software engineering—the ISO/IEC 25010:2011 standard. Although not a perfect fit with discourses of value in the humanities, it provides a possible starting point for forging shared vocabularies within the research collaboratory. In particular, we focus on a subset of characteristics outlined by the standard and attempt to translate them into terms generative of further discussion in the digital humanities community

TopoText: Interactive Digital Mapping of Literary Text

We demonstrate TopoText, an interactive tool for digital mapping of literary text. TopoText takes as input a literary piece of text such as a novel or a biography article and automatically extracts all place names in the text. The identified places are then geoparsed and displayed on an interactive map. TopoText calculates the number of times a place was mentioned in the text, which is then reflected on the map allowing the end-user to grasp the importance of the different places within the text. It also displays the most frequent words mentioned within a specified proximity of a place name in context or across the entire text. This can also be faceted according to part of speech tags. Finally, TopoText keeps the human in the loop by allowing the end-user to disambiguate places and to provide specific place annotations. All extracted information such as geolocations, place frequencies, as well as all user-provided annotations can be automatically exported as a CSV file that can be imported later by the same user or other users

Fuel cell membranes – Pros and cons

This investigation provides a critical analysis of the development of PEM fuel cells and related research with specific focus on the membrane material. The catalytic membrane is the most important component of the PEMFC giving rise to the need for the use of efficient, durable and cheap material to reduce the overall cost of the fuel cell. In this work, the need for materials other than Nafion to be used as PEM membranes is established and a case for the use of composite membranes material in fuel cells is made. Composite membranes increase the cell voltage by up to 11% even at high cell operating temperature of 95°C. They also increase the overall performance of the cell by up to 17% when dry hydrogen is utilised. Non-fluorinated membranes are also suitable for use in fuel cells for portable applications but they are very expensive and less conductive. Partially fluorinated membranes have good mechanical stability but expensive. The fluorinated membrane has high stability under oxidation and reduction conditions. Unfortunately, they only reach their optimum performance at temperatures below 100°C which makes them of limited use in PEM fuel cells application at higher temperatures

Evaluating the Effect of Metal Bipolar Plate Coating on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Environmental concerns of greenhouse gases (GHG) effect from fossil commodities and the fast increase in global energy demand have created awareness on the need to replace fossil fuels with other sources of clean energy. PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) is a promising source of energy to replace fossil fuels. The commercialization of the cell depends on its price, weight and mechanical strength. Bipolar plates are among the main components of PEMFC which perform some significant functions in the fuel cell stack. Metal bipolar plate is considered by the research community as the future material for fuel cells. However, surface coating is required for metals to enhance its corrosion resistance, hydrophilicity and interfacial contact resistance (ICR) in PEM fuel cells. Open pore cellular metal foam (OPCMF) materials have been used to replace the conventional flow field channel in recent times due to its low electrical resistance, high specific area and high porosity; however, it endures the same corrosion problem as the metallic bipolar plate. This investigation offers an overview on different types of bipolar plates and techniques in coating metallic bipolar platse and open pore metal foam as flow field channel materials to improve the corrosion resistance which will eventually increase the efficiency of the fuel cell appreciably

Exploring the effects of health behaviors and mental health on students' academic achievement: a cross-sectional study on lebanese university students

Background High academic achievement, an important determinant of future success, is known to be influenced by many factors including dietary behavior, lifestyle and mental health, among others. The objectives of the current study were to explore university students’ nutritive habits, daily lifestyle, and mental status, and to scrutinize the associations between these factors and students’ academic achievement. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of a private Lebanese university, using an electronic survey. Diet, eating habits, physical activity, sleep, and smoking were evaluated, and mental health was assessed using a validated Arabic version of the combined Depression, Anxiety, Stress Score (DASS-8). Academic achievement was measured using the Subjective Academic Achievement Scale (SAAS). Results A total of 1677 students participated in the questionnaire. The results of a linear regression taking the SAAS score as the dependent variable, showed that students who have a non-scientific versus scientific major (Beta = 0.53), and having breakfast ≥ 4 days per week compared to less than 2 days (Beta = 0.28) were significantly associated with higher SAAS scores. More psychological distress (Beta = − 0.06) and a higher number of days of eating out (Beta = − 0.07) were significantly associated with lower SAAS scores. Conclusions This is the first investigation on a Lebanese university students’ academic success in relation to lifestyle and mental profiles. Better academic achievement was demonstrated by students having healthier dietary and lifestyle habits, as well as less distressing mental status. Such results, in light of the compounded and unprecedented crises with which Lebanon has been assailed, suggest the need to focus on promoting healthy habits among students in higher education as a possible driver of better academic success.None.Scopu

Non-invasive ventilation in patients with an altered level of consciousness : a clinical review and practical insights

Non-invasive ventilation has gained an increasingly pivotal role in the treatment of acute hypoxemic and/or hypercapnic respiratory failure and offers multiple advantages over invasive mechanical ventilation. Some of these advantages include the preservation of airway defense mechanisms, a reduced need for sedation, and an avoidance of complications related to endotracheal intubation. Despite its advantages, non-invasive ventilation has some contraindications that include, among them, severe encephalopathy. In this review article, the rationale, evidence, and drawbacks of the use of noninvasive ventilation in the context of hypercapnic and non-hypercapnic patients with an altered level of consciousness are analyzed

Knowledge and awareness of stroke and associated factors in the Saudi general population: a cross-sectional study

IntroductionStroke is a major cause of death and disability globally and in Saudi Arabia as well. Prevention and management of stroke depend highly on raising knowledge and awareness about the disease.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate Saudi adult's knowledge and awareness about stroke and determine the associated factors.Materials and methodsA cross-sectional online survey was conducted in May–July 2022 among Saudi citizens. Assessments of stroke knowledge about risk factors, symptoms, and response to stroke symptoms were evaluated. Logistic regression was conducted to assess the association between the socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge.ResultsA total of 389 participants were enrolled with the majority (81.7%) being male participants. Less than half of the study subjects (43.3%) identified four out of five correct answers related to general knowledge about stroke. Almost all the participants were able to identify at least one risk factor associated with stroke. The majority of the participants (81.2%) believed that physical inactivity was the most common risk factor associated with stroke. Approximately three-quarters of participants considered difficulty speaking and understanding speech, followed by the sudden loss of consciousness as the most common stroke manifestation. Participants with a history of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity had significantly higher odds of identifying at least one early stroke symptom (OR 2.271 [95% CI 1.402 3.677], 2.059 [95% CI 1.273 3.328], and 2.665 [95% CI 1.431 4.963], respectively).ConclusionOur study revealed that participants have good knowledge about stroke. Nonetheless, further efforts are required to raise awareness and educate the public to optimize and ensure better treatment outcomes

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