An explainable recommender system based on semantically-aware matrix factorization.

Collaborative Filtering techniques provide the ability to handle big and sparse data to predict the ratings for unseen items with high accuracy. Matrix factorization is an accurate collaborative filtering method used to predict user preferences. However, it is a black box system that recommends items to users without being able to explain why. This is due to the type of information these systems use to build models. Although rich in information, user ratings do not adequately satisfy the need for explanation in certain domains. White box systems, in contrast, can, by nature, easily generate explanations. However, their predictions are less accurate than sophisticated black box models. Recent research has demonstrated that explanations are an essential component in bringing the powerful predictions of big data and machine learning methods to a mass audience without a compromise in trust. Explanations can take a variety of formats, depending on the recommendation domain and the machine learning model used to make predictions. Semantic Web (SW) technologies have been exploited increasingly in recommender systems in recent years. The SW consists of knowledge graphs (KGs) providing valuable information that can help improve the performance of recommender systems. Yet KGs, have not been used to explain recommendations in black box systems. In this dissertation, we exploit the power of the SW to build new explainable recommender systems. We use the SW\u27s rich expressive power of linked data, along with structured information search and understanding tools to explain predictions. More specifically, we take advantage of semantic data to learn a semantically aware latent space of users and items in the matrix factorization model-learning process to build richer, explainable recommendation models. Our off-line and on-line evaluation experiments show that our approach achieves accurate prediction with the additional ability to explain recommendations, in comparison to baseline approaches. By fostering explainability, we hope that our work contributes to more transparent, ethical machine learning without sacrificing accuracy

Chest Wall Tumors: A Spectrum of Different Pathologies and Outcomes of Reconstruction Techniques

Background: Chest wall resection and further reconstruction for tumors represent a challenging concept for surgeons. Thanks to the evolving reconstruction techniques, good results were obtained after extensive resection and reconstruction. Patients and methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted at our University Hospitals throughout 5 years. A total of 43 eligible cases with chest wall tumors were included. All cases were subjected to a multidisciplinary team approach, complete history taking, physical examination, radiological evaluation, and biopsy. The details of surgical techniques, complications, and follow up parameters were included. Results: The mean age of the included cases was 29.45 years. We included a total of 24 males (55.8%). Fibromatosis was the commonest encountered pathology (27.9%), followed by chondrosarcoma (25.5%), and osteosarcoma (21%). Regarding the method of reconstruction, polypropylene mesh was used in 46.5% of cases, followed by direct closure (30.2%). Ten cases were managed by Methyl Methacrylate within the proline mesh (23.3%), while superimposed muscle flap was performed in only 2 cases (4.6%). Post-operatively, bleeding was encountered in 5 cases collectively (11.6%), while wound infection occurred in 11.6% of cases. Pulmonary complications included pneumonia (2.3%) and atelectasis (11.6%). Furthermore, chest wall instability was present in (11.6%) of cases. On follow up, recurrence was diagnosed in (9.3%) of cases (n = 4). Conclusion: Surgical intervention is very effective if tailored to every patient as per team paln. A multidisciplinary team approach is extremely important especially if an extensive demolition is required. Indeed, radical wide en-bloc resection can achieve satisfactory results provided that the extent of resection is not influenced by any anticipated reconstruction problems

Urinary hepcidin level as an early predictor of iron deficiency in children: A case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ideal screening test would be capable of identifying iron deficiency in the absence of anemia. We tried to detect role of urinary hepcidin-25 level in early prediction of iron deficiency in children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a case control study performed on 100 children in Hematology Unit of Pediatric Department, Zagazig University Hospital, Egypt. Our study included 25 cases of iron deficiency (ID) stage-1 (iron depletion), 25 cases ID stage-2 (iron-deficient erythropoiesis), 25 cases ID stage-3 (iron deficiency anemia) and 25 healthy children as a control group. Estimation of iron status parameters was done. Urinary hepcidin-25 level was detected.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Urinary hepcidin-25 level was significantly lower in all stages of iron deficiency than in control group, more significant reduction in its level was observed with the progress in severity of iron deficiency. Urinary hepcidin showed significant positive correlation with hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, hematocrit value, serum iron and ferritin and transferrin saturation. In contrary, it showed significant negative correlation with serum transferrin and total iron binding capacity.</p> <p>Urinary hepcidin at cutoff point ≤0.94 nmol/mmol Cr could Predict ID stage-1 with sensitivity 88% and specificity 88%. Cutoff point ≤0.42 nmol/mmol Cr could predict ID stage-2 with sensitivity 96% and specificity 92%. Cutoff point ≤0.08 nmol/mmol Cr could Predict ID stage-3 with Sensitivity 96% and specificity 100%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We can conclude that detection of urinary hepcidin-25 level was a simple and non invasive test and could predict iron deficiency very early, before appearance of hematological affections.</p

Percutaneous drainage of delayed post-cardiac surgery pericardial effusion

Background: Pericardial effusion and tamponade are common following valve surgery. The optimal treatment of symptomatic pericardial effusions remains controversial. The objective of this study was to present our experience in non-surgical management of delayed postoperative pericardial effusion. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on 64 patients who had delayed pericardial effusion after cardiac surgery from 2016 to 2020. Eight patients were excluded due to the presence of inaccessible posterior or clotted pericardial effusion and were managed surgically, and 56 patients had percutaneous drainage of the pericardial fluid and were included in the analysis. Results: The mean age was 46.84±11.67 years (range: 22- 68 years), and 46.43% were females. The patients had coronary artery bypass grafting (n= 9), Aortic valve replacements&nbsp; (n= 13), Mitral valve surgery (n= 21), double valve replacements (n= 8) and&nbsp; combined procedures (n= 5).&nbsp; All patients complained of varying degrees of exertional dyspnea. There were statistically significant differences between INR in different cardiac surgeries. Mean INR following mitral valve replacement (4.72±0.63) was significantly higher than in aortic valve replacement patients (3.32±0.34; p&lt;0.001) and aortic valve patients (1.76±0.24; p&lt;0.001). Fifteen patients (26.78%) had a large pericardial effusion. Successful drainage was achieved in all cases. Complications were pneumothorax (n= 2, 3.57%), recurrent effusions (n= 4, 7.14%), arrhythmias (n= 7, 12.5%), myocardial punctures (n= 2, 3.57%) and no mortality was reported. Conclusions: percutaneous drainage of postoperative pericardial effusion under radiological guidance is generally safe. Pericardial effusion is common after mitral valve surgery, which could be related to higher INR in these patients

Obesity modulate serum hepcidin and treatment outcome of iron deficiency anemia in children: A case control study

BACKGROUND: Recently, hepcidin expression in adipose tissue has been described and shown to be increased in patients with severe obesity. We tried to assess the effect of obesity on hepcidin serum levels and treatment outcome of iron deficiency anemia in children. METHODS: This was a case control study included 70 children with iron deficiency anemia "IDA" (35 obese and 35 non-obese) and 30 healthy non-obese children with comparable age and sex(control group). Parameters of iron status (Serum iron, ferritin, transferrin, total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation) and serum hepcidin levels were assessed initially and after 3 months of oral iron therapy for IDA. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, serum hepcidin was significantly lower in non-obese children with IDA(p < 0.01) and significantly higher in obese children with IDA (p < 0.01). Hepcidin increased significantly in non-obese children with IDA after 3 months of iron therapy (P < 0.01). On the other hand, obese children showed non-significant change in hepcidin level after iron therapy (p > 0.05). Although hepcidin showed significant positive correlations with Hb, serum iron and transferrin saturation in non-obese children with IDA, it showed significant negative correlations with Hb, serum iron and transferrin saturation in obese children with IDA (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Obesity increased hepcidin levels and was associated with diminished response to oral iron therapy in childhood iron deficiency anemia

SALMA: Arabic Sense-Annotated Corpus and WSD Benchmarks

SALMA, the first Arabic sense-annotated corpus, consists of ~34K tokens, which are all sense-annotated. The corpus is annotated using two different sense inventories simultaneously (Modern and Ghani). SALMA novelty lies in how tokens and senses are associated. Instead of linking a token to only one intended sense, SALMA links a token to multiple senses and provides a score to each sense. A smart web-based annotation tool was developed to support scoring multiple senses against a given word. In addition to sense annotations, we also annotated the corpus using six types of named entities. The quality of our annotations was assessed using various metrics (Kappa, Linear Weighted Kappa, Quadratic Weighted Kappa, Mean Average Error, and Root Mean Square Error), which show very high inter-annotator agreement. To establish a Word Sense Disambiguation baseline using our SALMA corpus, we developed an end-to-end Word Sense Disambiguation system using Target Sense Verification. We used this system to evaluate three Target Sense Verification models available in the literature. Our best model achieved an accuracy with 84.2% using Modern and 78.7% using Ghani. The full corpus and the annotation tool are open-source and publicly available at https://sina.birzeit.edu/salma/

Level and Statistical Distribution of Thyroid Peroxidase and Thyroid Hormones in Iraqi patients with Type1 Diabetes Mellitus at Al-Karkh Side

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease frequently associated with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). The study is conducted at the Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes-Baghdad at Al-karkh side, during December 2013 up to April 2014. In this study, we investigate the prevalence of anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibody in(80) type1 diabetic patients with (AITD) and (30) healthy controls .Blood samples are taken for investigation of thyroid tests by using Vitek Immunodiagnstic Assay System (VIDAS).Enzeme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is used to detect anti-thyroid antibody(anti-TPO). The results show that age, gender and BMI (body mass index) are similar in both groups, p>0.05. Among 80 type1 diabetic patients 15(18.8%) are positive. There is a highly significant difference (p0.05) between T3 &T4 and frequency of positive and negative (anti-TPO)

Studying the Effect of COVID-19 on Liver Enzymes and Lipid Profile in Iraqi Recovering Patients

ثبت ان كوفيد-19 يؤثر على العديد من أجهزة وأنظمة الجسم . بما في ذالك الكبد,. كان الهدف من الدراسة تقييم تأثير كوفيد-19 على انزيمات الكبد واختبارات الدهون للأشخاص المتعافين من كوفيد-19 .وسائل تحقيق الهدف تقييم مستويات ( ناقل امين الاسبارتيت (AST ), وناقل امين الالانين (ALT), وانزيم الفوسفاتيز القلوي (ALP), وسكر الدم العشوائي (    (RBSواختبارات الدهون (الدهون الثلاثية (TG) ,الكولستيرول , البروتين الدهني ذو الكثافة العالية (LDH), البروتين الدهني ذو الكثافة المنخفضة (LDL), البروتين الدهني ذوالكثافة المنخفضة جدا (VLDL), تم جمع 120 عينة ,منها 50 شخص اصحاء ,لم يتعرضوا للفايروس و70  شخصا متعافين من مرض كوفيد-19. أظهرت أنزيمات الكبد اختلافات معنوية وزيادة في مستويات ناقل امين الاسبارتيت (AST ), وناقل امين الالانين (ALT), وانزيم الفوسفاتيز القلوي (ALP) بين المجموعتين حيث كانت قيمة  p&gt; 0.001 وكذالك أظهر ملف الدهون اختلافات واضحة , حيث بين زيادة في مستوى الكولسترول ,الدهون الثلاثية , البروتين الدهني المنخفض الكثافة (LDL), البروتين الدهني ذو الكثافة المنخفضة جدا (VLDL), وانخفاض في مستوى  البروتين الدهني عالي الكثافة (LDH) في مجموعة الأشخاص المتعافين من كوفيد-19 مقارنة بالأصحاء (p&gt; 0.001). اما مستوى سكر الدم العشوائي (RBS)  فلم يظهر أي فرق معنوي (p-value) (0.062) ,كذالك مؤشر كتلة الجسم BMI والعمر لم يضهر هناك فرق معنوي بين المجموعتين.  خلاصة هذا البحث ان الأشخاص المتعافين من كوفيد-19 تسبب لهم اضطرابات في انزيمات الكبد وملف الدهون.  The Covid-19 virus disease has been shown to affect numerous organs and systems including the liver. The study aimed to compare lipid profiles and liver enzyme levels in individuals who had recovered from Covid-19 infection. To achieve the study objectives, liver Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP),  Random Blood Sugar (RBS) and Lipid profile which include cholesterol, High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Triglycerides (T.G), Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL), and Very low-density Lipoprotein (VLDL) were determined. One hundred twenty serum samples were obtained, of which fifty samples were utilized as the control healthy persons (not affected by COVID) and seventy samples came from COVID-19 patients who had recovered. Liver enzymes showed a significant increase in serum AST, ALT, and ALP between the two groups (p-values) of 0.001. The lipid profile demonstrated notable ariations which showed an increase in cholesterol, TG, LDL, and VLDL., as well as a decrease in HDL level in the recovered patients’ group compared to the control (p-values) with a value of 0.001. There were no significant differences in RBS between the recovered patients’ group as compared with the control, (p-value) (0.062). Also, body mass index )BMI( and age showed no significant differences. This study concluded that Covid 19 survivors experienced issues with their lipid profiles and liver enzyme

Effectiveness of daily fluid balance charting versus body weight measurement as a guide for fluid administration therapy after cardiac surgery

Background: Several studies have established a link between fluid overload and an increased risk of death. After cardiac surgery, patients' fluid status should be assessed at close intervals. A daily fluid balance (FB) has several limitations. This study aims to determine the agreement and correlation between fluid status changes calculated by the daily fluid balance through the conventional charting approach and body weight (BW) change using beds equipped with weighing scales. Methods: This is a prospective observational study that included 50 patients who underwent cardiac surgeries. It evaluates the precision and usefulness of determining body fluid status and requirements using daily fluid balance and body weight measurements. Results: The mean age of the study group was 52.9 ±10.44 years. The mean weight, height, and BMI were 87.1 ± 16.68 Kg, 170.4 ± 4.59 cm, and 30.12 ± 6.21 kg/m2. The mean duration of mechanical ventilation was 9.5 ±3.73 h. Mean ICU and hospitalization times were 2.4 ± 0.67 and 6.3 ± 1.36 days, respectively. The mean cumulative fluid balance was 0.52 ± 3.21 L, and the overall change in body weight (discharge weight − admission weight) was 0.55 ± 2.89 kg. There was a highly significant positive correlation between overall bodyweight and cumulative fluid balance (r- coefficeient= 0.947, p-value &lt;0.001). Conclusion: Bodyweight measured by weight-enabled beds could seem sufficiently robust or accurate to replace daily FB in ICU post open heart. Such measurement might be used to monitor overall changes in BW in patients with a prolonged ICU stay

Performance Enhancement of Photovoltaic Panel Using Double-sides Water Glazing Chambers Cooling Technique

The efficiency of the solar PV panel decreases significantly as the PV panel’s operating temperature increases. There are many cooling techniques might be suitably deal with this problem to enhance the solar panel efficiency. The presented cooling technique used for solving the PV panel’s temperature elevation is an active close loop cooling system, accomplished using two water glazing chambers made from acrylic glass placed at the PV panel surfaces (rear and front). These champers are utilized for cooling down the PV cell’s temperature, as well as filtering the useful sunlight spectrum. The results show that the PV cell’s temperature reduction by 50.06% with using the cooling system, this leads to an average increase in the maximum output power and consequently electrical efficiency of the PV panel by about 12.69% and 14.2%, respectively