Recognition, Analysis, and Assessments of Human Skills using Wearable Sensors

One of the biggest social issues in mature societies such as Europe and Japan is the aging population and declining birth rate. These societies have a serious problem with the retirement of the expert workers, doctors, and engineers etc. Especially in the sectors that require long time to make experts in fields like medicine and industry; the retirement and injuries of the experts, is a serious problem. The technology to support the training and assessment of skilled workers (like doctors, manufacturing workers) is strongly required for the society. Although there are some solutions for this problem, most of them are video-based which violates the privacy of the subjects. Furthermore, they are not easy to deploy due to the need for large training data. This thesis provides a novel framework to recognize, analyze, and assess human skills with minimum customization cost. The presented framework tackles this problem in two different domains, industrial setup and medical operations of catheter-based cardiovascular interventions (CBCVI). In particular, the contributions of this thesis are four-fold. First, it proposes an easy-to-deploy framework for human activity recognition based on zero-shot learning approach, which is based on learning basic actions and objects. The model recognizes unseen activities by combinations of basic actions learned in a preliminary way and involved objects. Therefore, it is completely configurable by the user and can be used to detect completely new activities. Second, a novel gaze-estimation model for attention driven object detection task is presented. The key features of the model are: (i) usage of the deformable convolutional layers to better incorporate spatial dependencies of different shapes of objects and backgrounds, (ii) formulation of the gaze-estimation problem in two different way, as a classification as well as a regression problem. We combine both formulations using a joint loss that incorporates both the cross-entropy as well as the mean-squared error in order to train our model. This enhanced the accuracy of the model from 6.8 by using only the cross-entropy loss to 6.4 for the joint loss. The third contribution of this thesis targets the area of quantification of quality of i actions using wearable sensor. To address the variety of scenarios, we have targeted two possibilities: a) both expert and novice data is available , b) only expert data is available, a quite common case in safety critical scenarios. Both of the developed methods from these scenarios are deep learning based. In the first one, we use autoencoders with OneClass SVM, and in the second one we use the Siamese Networks. These methods allow us to encode the expert’s expertise and to learn the differences between novice and expert workers. This enables quantification of the performance of the novice in comparison to the expert worker. The fourth contribution, explicitly targets medical practitioners and provides a methodology for novel gaze-based temporal spatial analysis of CBCVI data. The developed methodology allows continuous registration and analysis of gaze data for analysis of the visual X-ray image processing (XRIP) strategies of expert operators in live-cases scenarios and may assist in transferring experts’ reading skills to novices

Attitudes of Students in Jordanian Public Secondary Schools towards Online Exams during the Coronavirus Crisis and the Impact of Such Exams on Motivation

The present study aimed to explore the attitudes of students in Jordanian public secondary schools towards online exams during the Coronavirus crisis.  It aimed to explore the impact of such exams on students’ motivation. A descriptive analytical approach was adopted. The researchers selected a purposive sample that consists from 300 11th grade female and male students. Those students were selected from 10 public secondary schools located in Amman, Jordan. Questionnaire forms were distributed to those students online. However, 292 forms were retrieved and considered valid for analysis. Descriptive statistical methods and the SPSS program were used. Several findings were reached. For instance, respondents have positive attitudes towards online exams. Online exams enable teachers to track students’ progress and develop students’ problem solving skills.  In addition, they positively affect students’ motivation to study and show the best possible achievement. Keywords: Attitudes, assessment, online exams, motivation, Jordan. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-27-12 Publication date:September 30th 202

دور وسائل الإعلام المدرسي في تنمية المسؤولية المجتمعية لدى طلبة المدارس الثانوية في قصبة إربد الأُردن من وجهة نظر المدرسين

هدف المقال التعرف إلى دور وسائل الإعلام المدرسي باعتبارها من أهم الوسائل التربوية في تنمية المسؤولية المجتمعية - من خلال ما تقدمه من مواد علمية وثقافية - لدى الطلبة من وجهة نظر أفراد عينة الدراسة البالغ عددهم 50 معلماً. استخدم الباحثان المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، والاستبانةالتي تكونت من (26) فقرة، بعد التأكد من صدقها وثباتها، كأداة لجمع بيانات الدراسة. واستُخدم برنامج (SPSS) لتحليل بياناتها واستخلاص نتائجها. أهم النتائج: أن هناك دوراً ايجابياً مرتفعاً المستوى لوسائل الإعلام المدرسية في تنمية المسؤولية المجتمعية لدى الطلبة، حيث كان تأثير هذا الدور مرتفع في تنمية المسؤولية تجاه المدرسة وبيئتها، وبدرجة متوسطة في تنمية المسؤولية تجاه المجتمع المحلي. وجود فروق دالة احصائياً عند مستوى الدلالة (0.05≥α) بين متوسطات استجابات أفراد العينة تبعًا للجنس ولصالح الذكور. وعدم وجود فروق تبعاً لباقي متغيرات الدراسة. أهم التوصيات: تفعيل دور وسائل الإعلام المدرسية وخاصة الإذاعة المدرسية لبث الوعي الوطني والتعريف بالمسؤولية المجتمعية التي تعتبر من أهم قيم المواطنة الصالحة لدى الناشئة من الطلبة. التفعيل الايجابي للاستخدام الصحيح للهواتف النقالة كونها من وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي الفعّالة. The article aimed to identify the role of the school media as one of the most important educational methods in developing social responsibility - through what it provides of scientific and cultural materials - among students in Irbid Secondary Schools from a study sample members consisted of (50) individuals. The researchers used the descriptive approach and the questionnaire as a tool to collect data which consisted of (26) paragraphs، after verifying its validity and reliability. The (SPSS) program was used to analyze its data. The results: There is a high-level positive role for school media in developing social responsibility among students as towards the school and its environment، and with a moderate degree in developing responsibility towards the local community. The presence of statistically significant differences at (0.05≥α) between the responses according to gender and in favor to males. Lack of differences according to the rest of the study variables. The Recommendations: Activating the role of school media، especially school radio، to broadcast national awareness and define social responsibility which is considered one of the most important values of good citizenship among young students

Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques for Monitoring Industrial Wastes for Baghdad City

The city of Baghdad is located in the central Mesopotamian plain of the Twin Rivers. According to the geological surveys, the whole area is covered by recent sediments of alluvial origin, deposited by successive floods of Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and by wind action. Since Baghdad city is the capital it surrounded by network of industrial areas for different purposes and this, affect the environment. Solid wastes generated from both animal and domestic sources can significantly impair drinking, irrigation, recreational water, other water sources and soil in rural and urban areas therefore it must be monitored and controlled very well to protect the wild life and environment and this represent the goal of research tool used for this purpose is remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) due to their ability of monitoring and analyzing large amount of data. The techniques demonstrated in this research include procedures for developing regional spatial data into a coordinated GIS database, characterizing and identifying wildlife habitat, quantifying and assessing land use change, pollution due to changes in land use and demonstrating the application of these GIS and modeling methods for assessing cumulative environmental effects associated with landuse change. Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques are used to monitor the environment in Baghdad city especially the industrial waste. Using GIS and remote sensing techniques in the environmental assessment give a quick and low cost. Preliminary investigation can be considered as aiding tools to the traditional and detailed investigation procedures

Isolated trochlear shear fracture of the distal humerus: a case report

Laugier was the first to describe an isolated humeral trochlea fracture in 1853. We report the case of a patient with an isolated fracture of the trochlea and discuss the underlying mechanisms and the clinical, radiological features of this pathology and surgical management of this rare fracture. The elbow arthrotomy was done via an anteromedial approach, with the interval through the flexor-pronator muscles medially and the brachialis muscle laterally. The trochlea was temporally fixed by two Kirschner wires, and the definitive fixation was obtained by two cannulated. Herbert screws from anterior to posterior. The elbow was immobilized and splinted in a flexed position (70 degrees) for two weeks to allow soft tissue healing and minimize pain. After cast removal, rehabilitation of elbow was established and actively assisted mobilization for three months. The isolated trochlea fracture is a rare injury and usually, it is associated with other injuries such as elbow dislocation. Few studies in the literature described such fracture and the anteromedial approach; most of these studies described the use of a direct medial approach to the elbow. Several fixation methods were described in the literature, including k-wires, AO compression screws, and headless compression screws. Isolated fracture of the trochlea is rare. The mechanisms causing this fracture are complex; the usual mechanism of isolated trochlear fractures is falling on the palm with the elbow extended and supinated. In our report, the patient disclosed that he felt directly on his flexed elbow. Trochlear fractures require open reduction and internal fixation to achieve anatomical reduction, with excision of the small osteochondral fragments that may be complicated by arthritic changes

Analysis of genetic diversity and differentiation of sheep populations in Jordan

Background: Genetic diversity of sheep in Jordan was investigated using microsatellite markers (MS). Six ovine and bovine MS located on chromosomes 2 and 6 of sheep genome were genotyped on 294 individual from ten geographical regions. Results: The number of alleles per locus (A), the expected heterozygosity (He) and observed heterozygosity (Ho) were measured. Overall A, He and Ho were 12.67, 0.820 and 0.684, respectively. On the other hand, genetic distances undoubtedly revealed the expected degree of differentiation among the studied populations. The finding showed closeness of three populations fromsouth (Maan, Showbak and Tafeilah) to each other. Populations from themiddle regions of Jordan (Karak, Madaba, Amman, AzZarqa and Mafraq) were found to be in one cluster. Only two populations of the middle region were an exception: AlSalt and Dead Sea. Finally, sheep populations from Irbid were located in separated cluster. It was clear that the studied predefined populations were subdivided from four populations and would be most probably accounted as ancestral populations. These results indicate that number of population is less than the predefined population as ten based on geographical sampling areas. Conclusions: The possible inference might be that geographical location, genetic migration, similar selection forces, and common ancestor account for population admixture and subdivision of Awassi sheep breed in Jordan. Finally, the present study sheds new light on themolecular and population genetics of Awassi sheep fromdifferent regions of Jordan and to utilize the possible findings for future management of genetic conservation under conditions of climate changes and crossbreeding policy

Role of underappreciated vectors in malaria transmission in an endemic region of Bangladesh-India border

Background Despite the efforts of the National Malaria Control Programme, malaria remains as an important public health problem in Bangladesh, particularly in the south-eastern region bordering India. Successful malaria control strategies rely on a detailed understanding of the underlying causes of malaria transmission. Here, an entomological survey was conducted in a malaria endemic area of Bangladesh bordering India to investigate the Anopheles mosquito community and assess their Plasmodium infection status. Methods Monthly entomological collections were undertaken from October 2010 to September 2011 in five villages in the Matiranga sub-district, Khagrachari district in Bangladesh, bordering the Indian State of Tripura. CDC miniature light traps were placed inside houses to collect adult Anopheles mosquitoes. Following morphological and molecular identification of the female Anopheles mosquitoes collected, they were screened for circumsporozoite proteins (CSP) of Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), Plasmodium vivax-210 (Pv-210) and Plasmodium vivax-247 (Pv-247), by ELISA to determine natural infection rates. Variation in Anopheles species composition, relative abundance and Plasmodium infection rates were analysed between sampled villages. Results A total of 2,027 female Anopheles were collected, belonging to 20 species. Anopheles nivipes was the most abundant species in our test villages during the peak malaria transmission season, and was observed sympatrically with An. philippinensis in the studied area. However, in the dry off-peak season, An. jeyporiensis was the most abundant species. Shannon’s diversity index was highest in October (2.12) and evenness was highest in May (0.91). The CSP ELISA positive rate overall was 0.44%. Anopheles karwari (n = 2), An. barbirostris s.l. (n = 1) and An. vagus (n = 1) were recorded positive for Pf. Anopheles kochi (n = 1) was positive for Pv-210 while An. umbrosus (n = 1), An. nivipes (n = 1) and An. kochi (n = 1) were positive for Pv-247. A mixed infection of Pf and Pv-247 was detected in An. barbirostris s.l.. Conclusion High diversity of Anopheles species was observed in areas close to the international border where species that were underestimated for malaria transmission significantly outnumbered principal vector species and these may play a significantly heightened role in malaria transmission

Investigating the impacts of various solvents fractions of Bupleurum lancifolium on the antimicrobial and antioxidant potentials

In the last thirty years, interests in searching for plants with potential antimicrobial and antioxidant activities have been increased due to their probable health benefits. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of various solvents fractions of Bupleurum lancifolium. Methods: The antioxidant activities of four fractions of Bupleurum lancifolium were assessed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay, while the antimicrobial activity was assessed by broth microdilution method. The antimicrobial activity of four plant fractions was examined against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella sonnie and Enterococcus faecium American Type Culture Collection reference strains. Results: The fractionation extraction method succeeds in the assessment of the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of B. lancifolium plant. Hence the methanolic fraction has antioxidant potential with 33.03% of inhibition according to the Trolox antioxidant standard molecule, while n-hexane and methanol fractions showed powerful antibacterial activity against E. faecium and S. sonnie strains with Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)1.5625 mg/ml for both fractions. Conclusion: All plant fractions have potent antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Further investigations, i.e. isolation, identification, and clinical assessment, of the active compound(s) are needed for the possible formulation of new therapeutic alternatives.The authors acknowledge the assistance of the technicians Mohamad Arar and Linda Esa

Knee stiffness post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction- factors to worry about

Background: Knee stability is affected by integrity of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Knee stiffness is a worrying postoperative complication, preventing patients from returning back to pre-injury sport level. In this study, we analyzed incidence of knee stiffness post ACL reconstruction and possible associated risk factors. Methods: This is retrospective study, was held in Royal Medical Services/Jordan–Queen Alia Military hospital/Arthroscopic and Sport injuries division. We analyzed 250 patients’ data using computerized patients record system (CPRS) called Hakeem complaining of knee stiffness post ACL reconstruction between July 2022 and July 2023, whom ACL reconstructive surgeries were performed between March and September 2022. Results: Incidence of knee stiffness post ACL reconstruction is about 1.5% (4 out of 250). All of those 4 patients were males,3 of them had limited flexion (75%), while 1 of them had limited extension (25%). All of the 3 patients having extension contracture had an associated medial meniscus tear, repaired at time of ACL reconstruction, while flexion contracture patient had an isolated ACL tear. Conclusions: Incidence of knee stiffness post ACL reconstruction is about 1.5%. 75% of patients were associated with medial meniscus tear, who underwent meniscus repair and hinged knee brace was applied. We conclude that ACL patients having an associated meniscus tear managed by meniscus repair and hinge knee brace are at higher risk to develop knee stiffness. Therefore, we recommend limiting the usage of knee brace for ACL reconstruction with meniscus repair only