The Degree to which the Public Relations and Information Department in the Public Security Directorate has achieved the Objectives of Security Awareness from the point of view of Jordanian University Youth

The study aimed to identify the degree to which the Public Relations and Media Department of the Public Security Directorate achieved the objectives of security awareness from the point of view of the Jordanian university youth. The study adopted the descriptive survey approach. The two researchers prepared a questionnaire to measure the degree to which the Public Relations and Media Department in the Public Security Directorate achieved the objectives of security awareness. The study population consisted of all students at the University of Jordan and Yarmouk University, and the study sample consisted of (822) male and female students, who were chosen in the easy-to-random way, and the results of the study showed that the degree to which the Public Relations and Media Department in the Public Security Directorate achieved the objectives of security awareness from the point of view of the Jordanian university youth came with a degree (High); The results revealed that there are statistically significant differences in the degree to which the Public Relations and Media Department at the Public Security Directorate has achieved the objectives of security awareness from the viewpoint of the Jordanian university youth due to the (gender) variable and came in favor of (females), and there are no statistically significant differences in the variable (university type). And the academic year), and the two researchers recommend the need for the Department of Public Relations and Information to form dialogue committees with students to develop and instill love for the homeland and to maintain a safe scientific and intellectual dialogue between them in correct and sound ways based on acceptance of opinion and opinion and the other

An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Covid-19 and Jordanian Banks' Profitability

Purpose:  To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the profitability of Jordanian banks using financial disclosure data.   Theoretical framework:  The study focuses on the impact of external environmental factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and non-performing loans on the profitability of Jordanian banks.   Design/methodology/approach:  The study uses a panel model to analyze financial disclosure data of 15 Jordanian banks between 2017 and 2021. The study employs both descriptive and inferential methods, utilizing a range of secondary sources including official reports, articles, electronic journals, and previous studies.   Findings:  The study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the Return on Assets (ROA) of Jordanian banks. Additionally, the number of bank branches, earnings per share, and non-performing loans were significantly associated with ROA and Return on Equity (ROE).   Research, Practical & Social implications:  The study highlights the sensitivity of banks to external environmental factors such as pandemics and economic shocks, which can impact their solvency and trigger a chain effect that puts the entire economy at risk. The findings can inform policy decisions and help increase bank resilience in the face of future crises.   Originality/value:  The study contributes to the literature on the impact of external environmental factors on the profitability of banks in emerging economies such as Jordan. The study's use of financial disclosure data provides a unique insight into the performance of Jordanian banks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Quality of heart rate variability features obtained from ballistocardiograms

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Electrical and Computer EngineeringDavid E. ThompsonHeartbeat intervals (HBIs) vary over time, and that variance can be quantified as heart rate variability (HRV). HRV has several health-related applications including long-term health monitoring and sleep quality assessment. The focus of this research is obtaining HRV from ballistocardiograms (BCGs), force signals caused by micro-movements of the human body in response to blood ejections. This method of HRV estimation is attractive because it does not require direct attachment of any sensor to the body. However, the HBIs and corresponding HRV measured with BCGs are different than those obtained via electrocardiograms (ECGs), signals obtained by attaching electrodes to the body to detect electrical heart activity. Because ECG-based HRV is typically considered ground truth, differences in BCG-based versus ECG-based parameters are referred to as HBI and HRV errors. This research investigates the effects of HBI error on HRV feature quality. While a few studies have used BCG-based HBIs to estimate HRV features for sleep staging, the effects of HBI error on the quality of the resulting HRV features seem to have been overlooked. As a result, an acceptable HBI error range has not been defined. One contribution of this work is the development of such an acceptable error range. This dissertation work (i) develops a hardware and software system necessary to record BCGs and to perform BCG peak detection to obtain HBIs with the least possible error, (ii) determines an allowable range for HBI error by studying the effects of this error on HRV quality in the context of HRV-based sleep staging, and (iii) compares the determined acceptable HBI error range to the HBI error of our final system. The inherent error in BCG-based HBI determination due to physiological and platform effects is also taken into account in this comparison. A minimum HBI error of 20 ms was obtained from the system developed in (i), and the allowable error range was determined to be 30 ms based on the investigations conducted in (ii). The combined physiological and platform effects led to an error of 8.8 ms on average. Based on the comparisons conducted in (iii), the developed system is suitable for long-term sleep quality assessment. In addition, the effects of the HBI errors introduced by this system on the resulting HRV features are negligible in the sleep staging context

Synthesis, characterization and thermal decomposition kinetics of poly(2-imidazolidinthione-formaldehyde)

A polymeric ligand, 2-imidazolidinthione-formaldehyde (poly-IF), bearing nitrogen and sulfur donor group was synthesized by the polycondensation of 2-imidazolidinthione and formaldehyde in alkaline medium. The synthetic ligand was characterized with micro-analytical and spectral studies. The thermal degradation is investigated by means of dynamic thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) in helium and air atmosphere at various heating rate. The non-isothermal degradation of poly-IF compound was occurred in an inert and air atmosphere. Degradation activation energies were calculated using model free multiple heating rate methods i.e. Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Friedman and Kissinger. The compound poly-IF was also tested against strain (Escherichia coli) and it inhibits the proliferation of bacterial growth

Thermal decomposition kinetics of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose: Model-free methods

Thermal analysis techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) have been widely used because they provide rapid quantitative determination of various processes under isothermal or non-isothermal conditions. It allows the estimation of effective kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for various decomposition and thermal reactions. In this article, thermal degradation of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (SMC) is investigated by means of dynamic thermogravimetric/derivative thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) in helium atmosphere with the flow rate 100 mL/min at the heating rate of 10-30 °C/min until the furnace wall temperature reached 700 °C. The non-isothermal degradation of SMC found to be taking place occurred major one step and minor two steps. Using a non-isothermal kinetic method based on a TGA data, kinetic parameters (Eand ln A) are calculated by Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Friedman methods. The results of studied polymer demonstrated that E and ln A is varied with function of conversion (α), which is in good agreement with literature data

A prospective randomized clinical trial compared the effect of various types of local anesthetics cartridges on hypertensive patients during dental extraction

Objectives: To evaluate hemodynamic changes of blood pressure and heart rate on hypertensive patients under - going tooth extraction using various types of local anesthesia (LA). Study Design: A prospective randomized clinical trial was conducted on 45 hypertensive patients who were divided equally into 3 parallel groups according to LA received. Group 1: Lidociane 2% with epinephrine 1: 80,000. Group 2: Prilocaine 3% with Felypressin 0.03 IU/ml. Group 3: Mepivacaine 3% plain. Inclusion criteria: hypertensive patients, under medical management with blood pressure = 159/99. Exclusion criteria: Blood pressure =160 /100 and patients receiving ß blockers. Negative aspiration was mandatory before the injection of 2 cartridges of LA. Blood pressure and heart rate were evaluated by Electronic Sphygmomanometer and Pulse Oximeters in 3 different time-points; 3 minutes before LA, three minutes after LA and three minutes after extraction. Results: The mean of systolic blood pressure (SBP) had increased after LA injection, and then decreased after ex - traction in the 3 groups of patients. Increase of SBP after extraction with (Mepivacaine plain) was higher than (Li - dociane with Epinephrine) and the difference was statistically significant using ANOVA ( p =0.037). The differences in the mean heart rates and mean diastolic blood pressures in the 3 groups were not significant. Conclusions: The increase of blood pressure with Epinephrine and Felypressin is negligible. Therefore, it is safe to use 2 cartridges of Lidociane 2% with Epinephrine 1:80,000 or Prilocaine 3% with Felypressin 0.03 IU/ml for hypertensive patients whose blood pressure = 159/99 provided negative aspiration is verified before injection

Saudi SCD patients’ symptoms and quality of life relative to the number of ED visits

Background Individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD) have significantly increased emergency department (ED) use compared to the general population. In Saudi Arabia, health care is free for all individuals and therefore has no bearing on increased ED visits. However, little is known about the relationship between quality of life (QoL) and frequency of acute care utilization in this patient population. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 366 patients with SCD who attended the outpatient department at King Fahad Hospital, Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through self-administered surveys, which included: demographics, SCD-related ED visits, clinical issues, and QoL levels. We assessed the ED use by asking for the number of SCD-related ED visits within a 6-month period. Results The self-report survey of ED visits was completed by 308 SCD patients. The median number of SCD-related ED visits within a 6-month time period (IQR) was four (2-7 visits). According to the unadjusted negative binomial model, the rate of SCD-related ED visits increased by (46, 39.3, 40, and 53.5 %) for patients with fever, skin redness with itching, swelling, and blood transfusion, respectively. Poor QoL tends to increase the rate of SCD-related ED visits. Well education and poor general health positively influenced the rate of SCD-related ED visits. Well education tends to increase the rate of SCD-related ED visits by 50.2 %. The rate of SCD-related ED visits decreased by 1.4 % for every point increase in general health. Conclusion Saudi patients with sickle cell disease reported a wide range of SCD-related ED visits. It was estimated that six of 10 SCD patients had at least three ED visits within a 6-month period. Well education and poor general health resulted in an increase in the rate of SCD-related ED visits

Performance Comparison for Ballistocardiogram Peak Detection Methods

Citation: Suliman, A., Carlson, C., Ade, C. J., Warren, S., & Thompson, D. E. (2019). Performance Comparison for Ballistocardiogram Peak Detection Methods. IEEE Access, 7, 53945–53955. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2912650A number of research groups have proposed methods for ballistocardiogram (BCG) peak detection toward the identification of individual cardiac cycles. However, objective comparisons of these proposed methods are lacking. This paper, therefore, conducts a systematic and objective performance evaluation and comparison of several of these approaches. Five peak-detection methods (three replicated from the literature and two adapted from code provided by the methods' authors) are compared using data from 30 volunteers. A basic cross-correlation approach was also included as a sixth method. Two high-performing methods were identified: the method proposed by Sadek et al. and the method proposed by Brüser et al. The first achieved the highest average peak-detection rate of 94%, the lowest average false alarm rate of 0.0552 false alarms per second, and a relatively small mean absolute error between the real and detected peaks: 0.0175 seconds. The second method achieved the lowest mean absolute error of 0.0088 seconds between the real and detected peaks, an average peak-detection success rate of 89%, and 0.0766 false alarms per second. All metrics are averaged across participants