Awareness and knowledge of radiation protection in interventional laboratory: a comparative study between Australian and Saudi Arabian hospitals

This research project aims to investigate the attitudes and practices of medical staff engaged in interventional procedures regarding personal radiation protection, as well as the relationship between their uses of protective devices and training in radiation protection. Research findings of this study show the necessity and efficacy of radiation protection training for providing a safer environment when utilising the fluoroscopic image-guided machines in clinical practice

Radiation Protection in an Interventional Laboratory: A Comparative Study of Australian and Saudi Arabian Hospitals

This study aimed to investigate whether the use of protection devices and attitudes of interventional professionals (including radiologists, cardiologists, vascular surgeons, medical imaging technicians and nurses) towards radiation protection will differ between Saudi Arabian and Australian hospitals. Hard copies of an anonymous survey were distributed to 10 and 6 clinical departments in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia and metropolitan hospitals in Western Australia, respectively. The overall response rate was 43 % comprising 110 Australian participants and 63 % comprising 147 Saudi participants. Analysis showed that Australian respondents differed significantly from Saudi respondents with respect to their usages of leaded glasses (p < 0.001), ceiling-suspended lead screen (p < 0.001) and lead drape suspended from the table (p < 0.001). This study indicates that the trained interventional professionals in Australia tend to adhere to benefit from having an array of tools for personal radiation protection than the corresponding group in Saudi Arabi

Interpersonal Hardiness as a Critical Contributing Factor to Persistence among International Women in Doctoral Programs: A Trioethnographic Study

Women in PhD programs, in particular minority and international women, are especially at risk for drop-out (Castro, Garcia, Cavazos, & Castro, 2011; Haynes et al., 2012). This initial part of a longitudinal trioethnography captures the experiences of three international women in a doctoral program, highlighting the challenges, support systems, and coping mechanisms they engage with in the process of completing their degrees. Discoveries include the identification of “Interpersonal Hardiness” as the potential vehicle which could ensure our success

A reinforcement learning recommender system using bi-clustering and Markov Decision Process

Collaborative filtering (CF) recommender systems are static in nature and does not adapt well with changing user preferences. User preferences may change after interaction with a system or after buying a product. Conventional CF clustering algorithms only identifies the distribution of patterns and hidden correlations globally. However, the impossibility of discovering local patterns by these algorithms, headed to the popularization of bi-clustering algorithms. Bi-clustering algorithms can analyze all dataset dimensions simultaneously and consequently, discover local patterns that deliver a better understanding of the underlying hidden correlations. In this paper, we modelled the recommendation problem as a sequential decision-making problem using Markov Decision Processes (MDP). To perform state representation for MDP, we first converted user-item votings matrix to a binary matrix. Then we performed bi-clustering on this binary matrix to determine a subset of similar rows and columns. A bi-cluster merging algorithm is designed to merge similar and overlapping bi-clusters. These bi-clusters are then mapped to a squared grid (SG). RL is applied on this SG to determine best policy to give recommendation to users. Start state is determined using Improved Triangle Similarity (ITR similarity measure. Reward function is computed as grid state overlapping in terms of users and items in current and prospective next state. A thorough comparative analysis was conducted, encompassing a diverse array of methodologies, including RL-based, pure Collaborative Filtering (CF), and clustering methods. The results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms its competitors in terms of precision, recall, and optimal policy learning

Diode laser photoacoustic spectroscopy of CO2, H2S and O2 in a differential Helmholtz resonator for trace gas analysis in the biosciences and petrochemistry

Photoacoustic spectroscopy in a differential Helmholtz resonator has been employed with near-IR and red diode lasers for the detection of CO2, H2S and O2 in 1 bar of air/N2 and natural gas, in static and flow cell measurements. With the red distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser, O2 can be detected at 764.3 nm with a noise equivalent detection limit of 0.60 mbar (600 ppmv) in 1 bar of air (35-mW laser, 1-s integration), corresponding to a normalised absorption coefficient α = 2.2 × 10−8 cm−1 W s1/2. Within the tuning range of the near-IR DFB diode laser (6357–6378 cm−1), CO2 and H2S absorption features can be accessed, with a noise equivalent detection limit of 0.160 mbar (160 ppmv) CO2 in 1 bar N2 (30-mW laser, 1-s integration), corresponding to a normalised absorption coefficient α = 8.3 × 10−9 cm−1 W s1/2. Due to stronger absorptions, the noise equivalent detection limit of H2S in 1 bar N2 is 0.022 mbar (22 ppmv) at 1-s integration time. Similar detection limits apply to trace impurities in 1 bar natural gas. Detection limits scale linearly with laser power and with the square root of integration time. At 16-s total measurement time to obtain a spectrum, a noise equivalent detection limit of 40 ppmv CO2 is obtained after a spectral line fitting procedure, for example. Possible interferences due to weak water and methane absorptions have been discussed and shown to be either negligible or easy to correct. The setup has been used for simultaneous in situ monitoring of O2, CO2 and H2S in the cysteine metabolism of microbes (E. coli), and for the analysis of CO2 and H2S impurities in natural gas. Due to the inherent signal amplification and noise cancellation, photoacoustic spectroscopy in a differential Helmholtz resonator has a great potential for trace gas analysis, with possible applications including safety monitoring of toxic gases and applications in the biosciences and for natural gas analysis in petrochemistry

Acute Appendicitis among Saudi and Non-Saudi Patients: A Cross-Sectional Based Study

Objective: We conduct this study to discuss the differences between Saudi and non- Saudi patients with acute appendicitis.Background: Acute appendicitis is one of emergency surgeries in developing and developed countries. Its symptoms are vomiting, lower abdominal pain and decreased appetite. Appendicitis needs urgent surgical prouder to avoid its perforation and associated complications which may lead to death. Method: We conduct cross-sectional based study in one of khamis Mushayt, Saudi Araba. 136 patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis were included and their medical records were reviewed after getting their informed consent.Results: We included 136 patients, 90 were non-Saudi and 46 were Saudi. There were no statistically differences in their diagnosis but the distribution of the diagnosis was different.Conclusion: Acute appendicitis was more prevalent among non-Saudi patients, the diagnosis between both was with no significant differences. Keywords: acute appendicitis, Saudi, non-Saudi, diagnosis, cross-sectional, Saudi Arabia and khamis Mushayt

Magnetic and microwave properties of SrFe12O19/MCe0.04Fe1.96O4 (M = Cu, Ni, Mn, Co and Zn) hard/soft nanocomposites

This paper reports the synthesis, structural characteristics and magnetism of SrFe12O19/MCe0.04Fe1.96O4 (M = Cu, Ni, Mn, Co and Zn) hard/soft nanocomposites. The hard/soft compositions were manufactured via a one-pot reactions citrate sol-gel approach. The hard/soft phases formation was confirmed using XRD, SEM, TEM and HRTEM techniques. M vs. H (Magnetization measurements) were done at unbent temperature and 10 K. Smoothed M against H loops and single peaks in dM/dH vs. H curves were noticed in SrFe12O19/MnCe0.04Fe1.96O4, SrFe12O19/CuCe0.04Fe1.96O4 and SrFe12O19/ZnCe0.04Fe1.96O4 hard/soft nanocomposites. This indicated the manifestation of well exchange-coupled effect among hard and soft phases in these composites. However, SrFe12O19/CoCe0.04Fe1.96O4 and SrFe12O19/NiCe0.04Fe1.96O4 hard/soft nanocomposites showed non-well smoothed M against H loops and two peaks in dM/dH versus H plots, indicating that the dipolar interactions are unimportant compared to exchange-coupling behavior. Among all prepared nanocomposites, the SrFe12O19/MnCe0.04Fe1.96O4 hard/soft nanocomposite showed the highest exchange-coupling behavior. Microwave properties of the SrFe12O19/MCe0.04Fe1.96O4 (M = Cu, Ni, Mn, Co and Zn) hard/soft nanocomposites were investigated using coaxial method with applied frequency values fall between 2 and 18 GHz. Reflection losses were calculated from frequency dependences of the imaginary and real parts of permeability and permittivity. The correlation between the chemical composition of the spinel phase (A-cation) and microwave properties of composites. Most intensive electromagnetic absorption was observed for Ni- and Mn-spinels. This is can be a result of the differences in electron shell configuration and radii for A-site ions in the spinel phase. Change of the absorption mechanisms (transition from ionic polarization to dipole polarization) was observed. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (agreement number 19-72-10071 ). Also Authors are thank to the Institute for Research & Medical Consultations (Projects Application No. 2018-IRMC-S-2 ) of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU – Saudi Arabia) for financial and technical supports