ACOUSTIC BUILDING UNITS FOR FORMANT SYNTHESIS TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR MODERN STANDARD ARABIC

In this paper an inventory of acoustic building units (ABUs) used for the synthesis of Arabic speech is presented. The ABUs are generated for the free programmable PCF-8200 formant synthesizer chip which has been used in the development of the real time text-to-speech multilingual system, the MULTIVOX. To utilize these ABUs for the synthesis of Arabic speech a set of 36 Arabic sounds and all their possible combinations are defined. The inventory of 255 ABUs is designed that each sound combination can be built up by using some of those ABUs. A grapheme-to-phone-code converter is designed so to convert the written input text into its equivalent phone-codes. Furthermore, it contains solutions for the difficult phonetic problems in the Arabic input text

DATA-BASE RULE-SYSTEM FOR THE MULTIVOX TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERTER APPLICATION FOR ARABIC LANGUAGE

The MULTIVOX-Multilingual text-to-speech converter system is adapted to Modern Standard Arabic. In this system, Arabic speech is generated from the concatenation of a set of acoustic building units (ABUs). A 3-dimensional data-base rule-system for the synthesis of unlimited vocabulary Arabic text is organized to concatenate the appropri- ate ABUs for all possible phone-code pairs that may exist in the input text. The main functions of the MULTIVOX are explained. Illustrative examples are given to show the conversion of Arabic graphemes into phone-codes and the use of the data-base rule-system in the concatenation of the ABUs. Hearing tests have been carried out to test the quality of the synthesized speech

Effect of gamma irradiation dose on the structure and pH sensitivity of ITO thin films in extended gate field effect transistor

Even though several studies have demonstrated the use of Indium Tin Oxides (ITO) as an extended gate field effect transistor (EGFET), the effect of different doses of gamma radiation on the intrinsic properties of the ITO films has not been considered. This study investigates the effect of gamma irradiation on the structural, optical, morphological and electrical properties as well as pH sensitivity (as an extended gate field effect transistor) of ITO thin films. ITO thin films with thickness of 400 nm were prepared using a radio frequency sputtering technique. The samples were then subjected to various doses of gamma radiation from a Co-60 radio-isotope (0.5 kGy, 1 kGy, 1.5 kGy, and 2 kGy). The structural and morphological changes as well as transmission and absorption of the thin films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and UV–Vis spectrophotometry, before and after irradiation. The irradiated ITO thin films were then used as an extended gate field effect transistor to determine its ability to improve sensitivity as pH sensors. The grain size and transmittance in the range 300–900 nm of the ITO films were found to decrease with increasing gamma irradiation dose. In contrast, the uniformity and surface roughness of ITO thin films increased with increasing gamma radiation dose due to the formation of lattice defects. Moreover, the electrical resistance of the thin films increased with increasing dose because of the low current density and high number of surface defects associated with irradiation. The pH sensitivity of the ITO thin films improved after irradiation, possibly due to the concomitant increase in surface roughness with increasing radiation dose. The improvements in the pH sensitivity of ITO thin films after irradiation justify their potential use as pH sensors. Keywords: Indium Tin Oxide, Thin films, Gamma irradiation, Optical band gap, X-ray diffraction, EGFET, pH senso

Influence of Laser Irradiation Times on Properties of Porous Silicon

Porous silicon (P-Si) has been produced in this work by photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching process. The irradiation has been achieved using diode laser of (2 W) power and 810 nm wavelength. The influence of various irradiation times on the properties of P-Si material such as P-Si layer thickness, surface aspect, pore diameter and the thickness of walls between pores as well as porosity and etching rate was investigated by depending on the scanning electron micrograph (SEM) technique and gravimetric measurements

Inhibition of fungal growth and mycotoxins formation of selected toxigenic fungi by different bacterial strains

Four bacterial strains (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BICS 08b, B. subtilis AUMC 63,Lactococcus lactis BICS 081b and Pseudomonas fluorescence BICS 0149b) were tested for their ability to inhibit both growth and mycotoxins production by different 11 toxigenic fungi; five local isolates from different Egyptian food sources and six standard strains obtained from CBS, Central Bureau voor Schimmelcultures, Holland. Pseudomonas fluorescence BICS 0149b completely inhibited growth of nine fungi and completely inhibited toxin production by the 11 tested fungi. Bacillus subtilis AUMC 63 reduced fungal growth of the 11 fungal isolates under study by 40-100%, and reduced their toxins formation by 20- 100%. Lactococcus lactis BICS 081b highly reduced both fungal growth and mycotoxins production by 76-100% and 60-100%, respectively. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BICS 08b completely inhibited toxins formation by almost fungi while it was not highly affected their growth. From this result, some bacterial strains may be successfully used as a biological control agent of food contamination with molds and mycotoxin

Extensions of Weak PS-Rings

In this paper, we prove that, under mild conditions, if R is a right weak PS-ring, then so does the skew inverse power series ring R[[x−1;α,δ]], the skew generalized power series ring R[[S,ω]], and the differential inverse power series ring R[[x−1;δ]]

Self- Care Knowledge and Practice for Patients with Permanent Stoma and their Effect on Their Quality of Life and Self Care Efficacy

Background: Quality of life (QOL) and self-care efficacy especially for patients with permanent stoma are importance. Addressing knowledge and self-care practice and their relationship with QOL is needed especially for patients in different age groups. This would serve as a base for developing a culturally competent educational intervention for these specific population.  The aim of present study was to assess the level of knowledge and self-care practice for patients with permanent stoma and its effect on their QOL and self-care efficacy. Methods: A descriptive correlational cross-sectional design was utilized to collect data from Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Department and its relevant outpatient's clinic of Tanta Main University Hospital and Outpatient's Clinic of General Surgical Department of Emergency Hospital at Tanta University. A convenience sampling of 140 adults and adolescents’ patients with permanent stoma were interviewed. The study questionnaire included a self-reported checklist that include sociodemographic data, knowledge of stoma and stoma self-care practice that was developed by the researchers.  A modified version of the Stoma Quality of Life Scale (SQOL) and Stoma self - Efficacy Scale were also utilized.Results: Majority of the adolescents were males, singles and in age group 16 to 21.  The main cause of stoma among adolescents was cancer, 90% had the operation within 6 months and 57% reported having difficulty with self-care.  Regarding adults, 67% were in age group 31 to 60, 50% were married males, 47% were university graduates with a majority were working.   Causes of stoma were mainly abdominal trauma, 46% were smokers, 57% had the operation within 6 months and 43% reported having difficulty with self-care. Two thirds of adolescents and 41% of adults reported fair level of knowledge of stoma definition, causes, types, complication and risks. More than half of the adolescents reported fair knowledge and more than one third reported good knowledge regarding stoma pouch, appliance for stoma, criteria of changing pouch of stoma.  Fifty-eight percent of the adults reported good knowledge and 27% reported fair knowledge regarding same item.  64% of the adolescents and 50% of adults reported fair knowledge of diet, fluids and activity.  Knowledge of self-care practice was presented as fair among 50% of the adolescents and 43% of adults. Meanwhile, good level of knowledge was reported among 52.9% of adults and 28.6% of adolescents for the same item. Total QOL and all subscales except for sexual aspect were reported as fair with statistically significant association between both groups. Self-care efficacy was negative among majority adolescents and positive among most of the adults. Conclusion and recommendations: The current study provided an evidence of unsatisfactory level of knowledge and self-care practice among adolescents and adults patients with permanent stoma.  Quality of life and self-efficacy were also alarming. There is a need for culturally competent intervention with larger sample and qualitative methods of research to deeply explain this area. Keywords: Stoma, self- Care, quality of life, self-care efficacy, adult, adolescent. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/60-13 Publication date:March 31st 201

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TOXOPLASMA GONDII INFECTION IN WOMEN AND THE PRESENCE OF CARDIOLIPIN AND PHOSPHOLIPID ANTIBODIES

IgG and IgM cardiolipin and phospholipid antibodies were measured, by an ELISA technique, in the sera of patients with toxoplasmosis. Immunological methods for autoantibodies had been applied by ELISA. Regarding Anti-cardiolipin it was revealed that 24.7% of toxoplasmosis cases versus 0% of control group showed significant positive result (P=0.0412) . Whereas, 12.5% of toxoplasmosis patients and 12% of healthy controls had anti-cardiolipin antibodies, with no significant differences (P=0.554) between these two groups

Students' Reluctance to Attend Office Hours: Reasons and Suggested Solutions

This paper focuses on investigating students’ reasons for their reluctance to attend faculty members’ office hours. Study participants included 500 male and female students from the Colleges of Engineering (n = 248) and Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) (n = 252) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The study followed a descriptive-analytical approach, and a questionnaire was utilized to collect people’s views. The results of the study indicate that the rates of SQU students’ attendance to office hours were low, and some students (11.2%) do not attend at all as they consider these office hours a waste of time. The main reasons behind the students’ lack of interest in office hours were busy student timetables, conflicts between faculty office hours and students’ timetables, and easier and faster ways of getting information than visiting faculty members. Additional reasons were related to faculty members’ personalities and their discouraging attitudes toward attending office hours. The researchers recommend that SQU adopt a new strategy for encouraging faculty members to hold office hours, familiarizing students with the importance of office hours and assigning part of a course’s grades to meeting with faculty members’ office hours