EUS-guided celiac plexus interventions in pancreatic cancer pain: An update and controversies for the endosonographer

Patients with pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDAC]) can develop abdominal pain that can be debilitating. Celiac plexus neurolysis (CPN) is a chemical ablation of the celiac plexus that can be used to treat pain caused by pancreatic malignancy. It can be performed by an anterior or posterior approach, and also can be done percutaneously or under guidance of transabdominal ultrasound, computed tomography, intra-operatively or most recently under linear endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guidance (EUS-CPN). EUS is well-suited for identification of the celiac plexus due to the close proximity of the gastric wall to the origin of the celiac artery. EUS-CPN is now widely practiced, and different EUS approaches have been developed in order to improve the efficacy of this technique. Our objective is to review the use of EUS-CPN in PDAC, including a description of different techniques, review of its efficacy, predictors of pain response, and describe its limitations and safety, as well as new developments

Importance of Financial Analysis for Published Financial Information to Predict the Stocks Behavior (Case study-ASE –Industrial Sector-Jordan)

This study aimed to identify the dimensions of the financial analysis and its advantages and how to benefit from it; in predicting stock prices by testing group of financial ratios and find a model quantitatively can be relied upon to predict the price per share of the industrial sector in the Amman Stock Exchange in order to help investors make rational decisions when they the investment process. To achieve this purpose has been tested three financial ratios for a sample of 30 companies listed their shares in the financial market, where data has been relying on published financial statements for its annual information. These ratios have been analyzed using the method of statistical known as a multiple regression to find the best model for the industrial sector of the financial market, which includes group of ratios (Many Variables) of Finance in which they can predict the price of stock in companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange by this classification. Has been reached model for the industry where it appeared that the industry was affected by several variables affect the share price of this sector is the ratio of market value to book value and the percentage of the book value per ordinary share and the study concluded that it can rely on a set of financial ratios for each of the sectors (classified by the Palestine Securities Exchange) to predict the price of the arrow, study also recommended increased attention to the financial statements and transparency in the preparation and disclosure of the data and prepared according to international accounting standards, and it can an investor rely on financial analysis of the financial statements when making investment decisions. Keywords: Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAP.M), General Accounting Accepted Principle (GAAP), Earnings per Share (EPS), Book Value of share, Market Value of share, Stock Price

EUS-guided celiac plexus interventions in pancreatic cancer pain: An update and controversies for the endosonographer

Abstract Patients with pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDAC]) can develop abdominal pain that can be debilitating. Celiac plexus neurolysis (CPN) is a chemical ablation of the celiac plexus that can be used to treat pain caused by pancreatic malignancy. It can be performed by an anterior or posterior approach, and also can be done percutaneously or under guidance of transabdominal ultrasound, computed tomography, intra-operatively or most recently under linear endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guidance (EUS-CPN). EUS is well-suited for identification of the celiac plexus due to the close proximity of the gastric wall to the origin of the celiac artery. EUS-CPN is now widely practiced, and different EUS approaches have been developed in order to improve the efficacy of this technique. Our objective is to review the use of EUS-CPN in PDAC, including a description of different techniques, review of its efficacy, predictors of pain response, and describe its limitations and safety, as well as new developments

Digital audio and speech watermarking based on the multiple discrete wavelets transform and singular value decomposition

The ever-increasing illegal manipulation of genuine audio products has been a dilemma for the music industry. This situation calls for immediate, yet effective, solutions to avoid further financial losses and intellectual property violations. Audio and speech watermarking has been proposed as a possible solution, since this technology embeds copyright information into audio files as a proof of their ownership. In this paper, we propose an effective, robust, and an inaudible audio and speech watermarking algorithm. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been brought by virtue of applying a cascade of two powerful mathematical transforms; the discrete wavelets transform (DWT) and the singular value decomposition (SVD). Experimental results will be presented in this paper to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

The effect of Instagram on millennials consumer’s purchase intentions in the fashion industry

The purpose of the current research is to explore the impact of Instagram pages on consumers’ purchasing intentions among millennials in the fashion industry in Jordan. This study uses a quantitative, cause-effect, and cross-sectional approach. Online surveys were used to collect data from 212 respondents through different social media tools. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS software and Smart PLS to test the research hypothesis. Results show that bloggers’ recommendations significantly affect eWOM and engagement; usefulness information significantly affects eWOM and engagement; while trust insignificantly affects eWOM and engagement; brand familiarity insignificantly affects eWOM and engagement; participation and socialization insignificantly affect eWOM and engagement. Finally, useful information, eWOM, and engagement significantly affect consumers buying intention on Instagram. The study gives new information about the influence of Instagram pages on consumers' intentions. Therefore, this research expands the knowledge about factors that affect customers’ buying intentions. Since the study is a quantitative cross-sectional conducted on fashion industry Instagram users through an online survey in Jordan, which may limit its generalization to other industries and countries, therefore, the study suggests applying similar studies to online users of different ages, industries, and countries. Marketers can use Instagram to contact, promote, advertise, and sell their products by developing strong relationships with their customers through different social media tools. Using social media tools for marketing and selling reduces paperwork, printed advertisement, and transportation, which positively affects corporate social responsibility and reduces the consumption of energy and pollution

Does cyst growth predict malignancy in branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms? Results of a large multicenter experience

Background Cyst growth of BD-IPMNs on follow-up imaging remains a concerning sign. Aims To describe cyst size changes over time in BD-IPMNs, and determine whether cyst growth rate is associated with increased risk of malignancy. Methods This is a retrospective study performed at two high volume tertiary centers. Mean cyst size at baseline (MCSB) and mean growth rate percentage (MGRP) were calculated. Rapid cyst growth was defined as MGRP ≥ 30%/year. Patient and cyst related characteristics were studied. Results 160 patients were followed for a median of 27.4 (12-114.5) months. MCSB was 15.1 ± 8.0 mm. During follow-up, 73 (45.6%) showed any cyst size increase, of which 15 cysts (9.4%) exhibited MGRP ≥ 30%/year. Rapid cyst growth was not associated with patient or cyst characteristics. Cyst fluid molecular analysis from 101 cysts showed KRAS mutation in 26. Compared to KRAS-negative cysts, neither MCSB (16.0 mm vs. 17.7 mm; p = 0.3) nor MGRP (3.9%/year vs. 5.8%/year; p = 0.7) was significantly different. Eighteen patients underwent surgery; 15 (83%) had LGD, and 3 had advanced neoplasia. Two cysts with LGD and one cyst with advanced neoplasia had MGRP ≥ 30%/year. Conclusion Increase in BD-IPMNs size was not associated with the known high risk patient or cyst-related characteristics. Rapid growth of BD-IPMNs was not associated with advanced neoplasia on surgical pathology

Digital speech watermarking for anti-spoofing attack in speaker recognition

This paper presents new method for improving the security of speaker recognition in case of spoofing attack. In the proposed technique, digital speech watermarking has been applied on speech signal to increase robustness. To achieve this purpose, watermark is embedded in claimed signal at transmission side and then it is sent through the unsecure channel. In receiver side, watermark is extracted as proof of authentication. The results shows that digital speech watermarking can successfully apply for anti-spoofing attack purposes because the quality of the speech signal is not significantly degraded by watermark

Interacting video information via speech watermarking for mobile second screen in Android smartphone

Video identification as an interesting App in Android smartphone has three main aims including: user friendly, identification accuracy and copyright protection. This paper proposes a technique to meet the aims by applying Second Screen Technique. For this reason, the video information is embedded and transmitted within the audio part, and is extracted at destination. The experimental results show that the recognition rate of new technique is very high if no serious noise contaminates the recorded signal. It can be integrated to other mobile communication systems. Moreover, watermarking could be applied for sender/receiver during interaction for improving the security. By marketing this app, selling and advertising revenue increases 30 %

Frequency domain processing for artificial synthesis of swiftlet's sound waves

Swiftlet is a valuable farming industry in SouthEast Asia for earning foreign exchange. Many countries at this region are competing with each other to localize this industry. However, inviting the swiftlets into the farms based on traditional bird-call playing involves a trial and error process. This paper proposes a new technique to mechanize this process using a spectrogram processing approach. A novel model has been designed to recognize the bird-call and construct the enrollment database. Then, a frequency-based processing of swiftlet's sound waves based on the database was built with real world swiftlet's sound waves. The proposed prototype can be applied successfully to improve this industry

Feature extraction using spectral centroid and mel frequency cepstral coefficient for Quranic accent automatic identification

This paper presents the process of Quranic Accent Automatic Identification. Recent feature extraction technique that is used for Quranic verse rule identification/Tajweed include Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) which prone to additive noise and may reduce the classification result. Therefore, to improve the performance of MFCC with addition of Spectral Centroid features and is proposed for used in feature extraction of Quranic accents. Through implementing the Spectral Centroid Feature, it complements in improving the accuracy result of identifying the Quranic accents. The pattern classification algorithm here used the dimensional reduced technique from Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA) on the features and Gaussian Mixture Model, in purpose to model the effectiveness of both combination of feature extraction. The accuracy of automatic identification for such Quranic Accents are found increasing from 96.9% to 100% with the application of SCF