KACST Arabic Text Classification Project: Overview and Preliminary Results

Electronically formatted Arabic free-texts can be found in abundance these days on the World Wide Web, often linked to commercial enterprises and/or government organizations. Vast tracts of knowledge and relations lie hidden within these texts, knowledge that can be exploited once the correct intelligent tools have been identified and applied. For example, text mining may help with text classification and categorization. Text classification aims to automatically assign text to a predefined category based on identifiable linguistic features. Such a process has different useful applications including, but not restricted to, E-Mail spam detection, web pages content filtering, and automatic message routing. In this paper an overview of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) Arabic Text Classification Project will be illustrated along with some preliminary results. This project will contribute to the better understanding and elaboration of Arabic text classification techniques

Transcriptome profile of early responsive genes in susceptible barley during Rhynchosporium secalis infection

Scald caused by Rhynchosporium secalis, is an economically important disease found worldwide. In order to profile genes and pathways responding to R. seclais infection, leaf transcriptomes before and after fungus inoculation in susceptible barley were compared using cDNA-AFLP technique. Transcriptional changes of 144 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were observed, of which 18 have no previously described function. Functional annotation of the transcripts revealed a wide range of pathways including cell wall fortification, cytoskeleton construction and metabolic processes at different time points. Furthermore, the results of RT-PCR analysis on candidate genes, ABC transporters and lycine-specific demethylase were consistent with the cDNA-AFLP data in their expression patterns. Taken together, our data suggest that susceptible barley reprograms metabolic and biological processes to initiate a suitable response R. secalis infection

Integrating sexual and reproductive health into health system strengthening in humanitarian settings: a planning workshop toolkit to transition from minimum to comprehensive services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, and Yemen.

BackgroundPlanning to transition from the Minimum Initial Service Package for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) toward comprehensive SRH services has been a challenge in humanitarian settings. To bridge this gap, a workshop toolkit for SRH coordinators was designed to support effective planning. This article aims to describe the toolkit design, piloting, and final product.MethodsAnchored in the Health System Building Blocks Framework of the World Health Organization, the design entailed two complementary and participatory strategies. First, a collaborative design phase with iterative feedback loops involved global partners with extensive operational experience in the initial toolkit conception. The second phase engaged stakeholders from three major humanitarian crises to participate in pilot workshops to contextualize, evaluate, validate, and improve the toolkit using qualitative interviews and end-of-workshop evaluations. The aim of this two-phase design process was to finalize a planning toolkit that can be utilized in and adapted to diverse humanitarian contexts, and efficiently and effectively meet its objectives. Pilots occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the Kasai region crisis, Bangladesh for the Rohingya humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar, and Yemen for selected Governorates.ResultsResults suggest that the toolkit enabled facilitators to foster a systematic, participatory, interactive, and inclusive planning process among participants over a two-day workshop. The approach was reportedly effective and time-efficient in producing a joint work plan. The main planning priorities cutting across settings included improving comprehensive SRH services in general, healthcare workforce strengthening, such as midwifery capacity development, increasing community mobilization and engagement, focusing on adolescent SRH, and enhancing maternal and newborn health services in terms of quality, coverage, and referral pathways. Recommendations for improvement included a dedicated and adequately anticipated pre-workshop preparation to gather relevant data, encouraging participants to undertake preliminary study to equalize knowledge to partake fully in the workshop, and enlisting participants from marginalized and underserved populations.ConclusionCollaborative design and piloting efforts resulted in a workshop toolkit that could support a systematic and efficient identification of priority activities and services related to comprehensive SRH. Such priorities could help meet the SRH needs of communities emerging from acute humanitarian situations while strengthening the overall health system

Teachers' perceptions of their role in cognitive awareness, health protection and the promotion of ethical value aspects among students with the Corona Corvid 19 virus pandemic via the distance learning system

This study was conducted by an academic research team at PRINCESS NOURAH BINT ABDULRAHMAN UNIVERSITY with the purpose of promoting the levels of healthy, value and ethical awareness among the students to limit the effects of covid-19. The study applied the descriptive, analytic survey approach to document the conceptions 0f the public education instructors throughout KSA concerning their role in raising the cognitive aspects and healthy and ethical skills for encountering coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The study population included all the instructors of public education (male & female) in all the Kingdom governorates with its both public and private sectors amounting (525,610) instructors as per the MINISTRY OF EDUCAYION statistics for the school year (1441 H ) . The sample contained 357 instructors (male& female). For this purpose, the researchers designed a questionnaire. The study concluded that there is a high level of conceptions of the instructors about their cognitive skills, healthy and ethical responsibility for providing awareness about coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) . The study proposes some supporting and effective strategies to achieve such online learning under this pandemic

Molecular characterization of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec and virulence encoding genes in methicillin-resistant staphylococci at a medical center in Lebanon

Background: Methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) are major human pathogens accounting for most hospital-acquired (HA) and community acquired (CA) infections worldwide. The recent increase in MRS in a medical center in Lebanon elicited the determination of SCCmec types, genotypes, and prevalence of Panton-Valentine leucociden (PVL) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) among the MRS isolates.   Methods: Thirty-six MRS isolates collected between October 2010 and September 2011 at a medical center, Lebanon were typed using phenotypic and genotypic methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using the disk diffusion agar method. SCCmec typing was performed by multiplex PCR and sequence analysis. The prevalence of the genes encoding PVL and TSST-1 virulence factors and their transcription levels, were determined respectively by PCR and semi-quantitative real-time PCR. The genomic relatedness of the isolates was assessed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis.Results: Antimicrobial susceptibility revealed three distinct antibiotypes. The predominant SCCmec type found among the MRS isolates was type IVa (51%). Twenty-nine percent harbored SCCmec type III and 14% harbored SCCmec type II. One isolate harbored SCCmec type IVc, and another  harbored SCCmec type I. All methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates were negative for the gene encoding for PVL, and two were positive for the gene encoding for TSST-1. RAPD analysis demonstrated high genomic diversity among the MRS isolates.Conclusion: This study demonstrated the SCCmec types and the clonality of the MRS strains, allowing the differentiation between HA and CA-MRS strains. CA-MRS have  increased  in the hospital environment and rendered highly resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin

Investigating the impact of benefits and challenges of IOT adoption on supply chain performance and organizational performance: An empirical study in Malaysia

In Malaysia, manufacturing industry is a major contributor to the economic advancement. As a result, cutting-edge technology like the internet of things (IoT) is projected to have a significant impact on business operations and supply chain management (SCM). However, research into the influence of IoT deployment on supply chains and organizational performance is relatively sparse. Therefore, this study is to determine the relationship between benefits and challenges of IoT adoption and organizational performance. Furthermore, this study looks into the mediating role of supply chain performance in the relationship between IoT adoption benefits and challenges and organizational performance. The population of this study is comprised of 3019 manufacturing companies in Malaysia, while the minimum sample size needed is 43 manufacturing companies.1160 complete set of survey questionnaire were distributed through email and 63 responses received representing five per cent of response rate. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to assess all of the study's hypotheses. The results of this paper support six out of the seven hypotheses tested. In conclusion, the manufacturing industry in Malaysia needs to be exposed more to the benefits of IoT rather than keep discussing its challenges. This study can be a guideline to the manufacturing companies in decision making for IoT adoption. The limitations and recommendation for future study is highlighted

The effect of digital supply chain on organizational performance: An empirical study in Malaysia manufacturing industry

Nowadays, global technologies, especially digital things, have become an important tool for businesses to maintain feasible partnerships and build a great value connection with other companies. New digital technologies that are emerging every day are on their way to affect nearly all business processes and activities. This study investigates the effect of the digital supply chain on the supply chain and organization performance in the Malaysia manufacturing industry. This paper also further assesses the mediating effect of supply chain performance in the relationship between the digital supply chain and the organizational performance in the Malaysia manufacturing industry. The objectives are achieved via quantitative research design. The researchers emailed the online survey questionnaire to 1160 manufacturing companies listed in the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) directory via stratified sampling technique and received 63 responses. 7 incomplete responses have been deleted and 56 usable responses representing 5.43% of the response rate used for data analysis. The data was analyzed by using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Three hypotheses are not supported and seven hypotheses are supported, which includes all the hypotheses of moderating effect. The manufacturing companies in Malaysia can consider adopting the DSC in the business process to remain reliable in the competitive market by providing good supply chain performance and best organizational performance as a whole. The implication of the study is given to academics and practitioners, specifically manufacturing companies. The limitations and the recommendation for future study have been highlighted

Synthesis and characterization of sodium alginate/polyvinyl alcohol/zinc oxide/iron oxide nanocomposites for electrochemical applications

Polymer nanocomposites films, based on sodium alginate (NaAlg) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) complexed with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and iron oxide nanorods (Fe3O4 NRs) as nanofiller, were prepared by solution casting technique. Different techniques were used to describe the prepared films. XRD and FTIR were used to pinpoint the complexation of the nanofiller with the polymer mixture. The XRD investigation verified the existence of the crystalline peaks of ZnO/Fe3O4 NPs in the polymeric matrices. The average particle size of nanocomposite was 23 nm. TEM image of the ZnO nanopowder confirming the spherical form of nanoparticles with average size 30 nm. The TEM image of Fe3O4 NRs reveals the free nanorods are around 9–23 nm in diameter and 130–350 nm in length. Peak positions and intensity variations in the FTIR absorption spectra are observed when the concentration increases from 2 to 8 wt% of ZnO NPs/Fe3O4 NRs. AC conductivity showed that the NaAlg/PVA-(8 wt%) ZnO/Fe3O4 NPs nanocomposites have higher electrical conductivity than NaAlg/PVA blend. For samples of 8% ZnO/Fe3O4, the (Formula presented.) of nanocomposites reached 3.66 × 10−8 S cm−1. ZnO/Fe3O4 nanoparticles considerably improved the nanocomposites' ability to conduct electricity. For the development of functional composite materials for the manufacture of electrical devices, sensors, and high-energy storage capacitors, the enhanced characteristics of synthesized NaAlg/PVA-ZnO/Fe3O4 nanocomposites can be helpful

Examine the Perceived Risk of Falls Among Patients Receiving Acute Care

Purpose: In an effort to lower the number of falls that occur among hospitalized patients, several facilities have begun introducing various fall prevention programs. However, the efficacy of fall prevention programs is diminished if patients do not consider themselves to be at risk for falls and do not follow recommended procedures. The goal of this study was to characterize how patients in four different acute care specialist services felt about their risk of falling while in the hospital. Methods: One hundred patients admitted to the study hospital with a Morse Fall Scale score of 45 or higher were given the Patient Perception Questionnaire, a tool designed to assess a patient's perception of their own fall risk, fear of falling, and motivation to take part in fall prevention efforts. Scores on the Morse Fall Scale were gathered through a historical assessment of medical records. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and independent sample t tests were used to examine the data. Results: The average age was 65, and around half (52%) were men and half (48%) were women. Based on their ratings on the Morse Fall Scale, all 100 participants were classified as being at high risk for falls. However, only 55.5% of the individuals agreed with this assessment. The likelihood that a patient would seek assistance and the degree to which they feared falling both declined as their faith in their mobility improved. Patients hospitalized after a fall exhibited considerably lower confidence scores and greater fear scores than patients who had not been injured in a fall. Conclusions: Patients who have a high fall risk assessment score may not believe they are at risk for falls and may not take any steps to reduce their risk. The prevalence of falls in hospitals might be mitigated by the creation of a fall risk assessment technique that takes into account both objective and subjective factors