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Reckless construction and overextraction of resources have placed tremendous stress on the Sultanate of Oman's coastal ecosystems at Al-Batinah. The rate of sea level rise (SLR) intensifies under t...

Effective automated smart home energy control is essential for smart grid approaches to demand response. This is a multi-objective adaptive control problem because it balances an appliance's primary objective with demand response objectives. \textcolor{blue}{One challenge comes from the heterogeneous nature of objectives, requiring trade-offs between comfort, cost, and other objectives. Another challenge comes from the heterogeneous dynamics, which result from different environments and the different appliances used. Another challenge is non-stationary nature of dynamics and rewards due to seasonal changes and time-varying user preferences. Finally, we consider computational challenges, required by the real-time aspect of the control problem, particularly notable due to 'the curse of dimensionality'. We propose a multi-agent multi-advisor reinforcement learning framework to address these challenges. We design a smart-home simulation to demonstrate the performance (in terms of weighted reward of our approach relative to competitive single-objective reinforcement learning algorithms. Furthermore, we theoretically and empirically demonstrate the linear computational scalability of the algorithm.} Finally, we identify \textcolor{blue}{the need for} key performance measures of the proposed system by considering the effect of selected preferences on agents. \textcolor{blue}{Overall, the proposed algorithm is reasonably competitive with conventional approaches while simultaneously enabling behaviour changes with change in preferences without requiring more data.

Regenerative engineering strategies for the oral mucoperiosteum, as may be needed following surgeries, such as cleft palate repair and tumor resection, are underdeveloped compared with those for maxillofacial bone. However, critical-size tissue defects left to heal by secondary intention can lead to complications, such as infection, fistula formation, scarring, and midface hypoplasia. This review describes current clinical practice for replacing mucoperiosteal tissue, including autografts and allografts. Potentially paradigm-shifting experimental regenerative engineering strategies for mucoperiosteal wound healing, such as hybrid grafts and engineered matrices, are also discussed. Throughout the review, the advantages and disadvantages of each replacement or regeneration strategy are outlined in the context of clinical outcomes, quality of life for the patient, availability of materials, and cost of care. Finally, future directions for research and development in the area of mucoperiosteum repair are proposed, with an emphasis on identifying globally available and affordable solutions for promoting mucoperiosteal regeneration. Impact statement Unassisted oral mucoperiosteal wound healing can lead to severe complications such as infection, fistulae, scarring, and developmental abnormalities. Thus, strategies for promoting wound healing must be considered when mucoperiosteal defects are incident to oral surgery, as in palatoplasty or tumor resection. Emerging mucoperiosteal tissue engineering strategies, described in this study, have the potential to overcome the limitations of current standard-of-care donor tissue grafts. For example, the use of engineered mucoperiosteal biomaterials could circumvent concerns about tissue availability and immunogenicity. Moreover, employment of tissue engineering strategies may improve the equity of oral wound care by increasing global affordability and accessibility of materials.

Soil fertility assessment and management are challenging for several African countries, as it requires continuous monitoring of important indicators such as organic matter, potassium and phosphorus, which implies time and chemical inputs consuming techniques. The present study aims to test the feasibility of using three machine learning algorithms, multiple linear regression (MLR), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), to predict three essential soil fertility elements (OM, K2O and P2O5). A sample of 400 soils randomly collected in Doukala, central Morocco, was involved in three machine learning models to evaluate their respective throughput predictions. Data were split in two subsets as follow: 70% of data (n = 280) used for training while 30% (n = 120) for validation. The highest throughput prediction was determined through root-mean-square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2). All examined models displayed satisfactory results in predicting organic matter for training and validation with an average R2 greater than 0.6 coupled with an overall low RMSE value. Regarding K2O and P2O5, the models mentioned above exhibited poor performance levels reflected through the low coefficient of determination for both training (R2

The ability to sense and understanding the driving environment is a key technology for ADAS and autonomous driving. Human drivers have to pay more visual attention to important or target elements and ignore unnecessary ones present in their field of sight. A model that computes this visual attention of targets in a specific driving environment is essential and useful in supporting autonomous driving, object-specific tracking & detection, driving training, car collision warning, traffic sign detection, etc. In this paper, we propose a new framework of visual attention that can predict important objects in the driving scene using a conditional generative adversarial network. A large scale Visual Attention Driving Database (VADD) of saliency heat-maps is built from existing driving datasets using a saliency mechanism. The proposed framework model takes its strength from these saliency heat-maps as conditioning label variables. The results show that the proposed approach makes us able to predict heat-maps of most important objects in a driving environment.

International audience; The monitoring of rolling element bearing is indexed as a critical task for condition-based maintenance in various industrial applications. It allows avoiding unscheduled maintenance operations while decreasing their cost. For this purpose, various methodologies were developed to ensure accurate and efficient monitoring. In this context, this paper proposes an approach for bearing faults early diagnosis based on the variational mode decomposition (VMD), used as a notch filter for dominant mode cancellation, and a machine learning approach, namely the one-dimensional convolution neural network (1D-CNN), for detection and diagnosis purposes. Specifically, the proposed approach first performs features extraction using VMD for fault detection, and then triggers to multi-scale features extraction using CNN convolution and pooling layers for classification and diagnosis. The proposed bearing faults detection and diagnosis approach is evaluated, in terms of robustness and performances, using the well-known Case Western Reserve University experimental dataset. In addition, performances are evaluated versus well- established demodulation techniques, in terms of faults detection, and machine learning strategies, in terms of faults diagnosis. The achieved results show that the proposed VMD notch filter-based 1D-CNN approach is clearly promising for bearing degradations monitoring.

The tactile Internet is the next step after the Internet of Things (IoT). It enables the steering and control of virtual and real objects through the Internet and requires a very low round trip latency. This article is devoted to a case study on the deployment of a tactile Internet application in a hybrid cloud, edge, and mobile ad hoc cloud environment. We deploy a remote phobia-treatment application as a set of components. Remote phobia treatment allows phobia patients to have therapy sessions under the guidance of an expert therapist located remotely, with patients and therapist sharing the same virtual reality (VR) environment. A three-layer architecture (cloud, edge, and mobile ad hoc cloud) is proposed for the deployment. A prototype is built with Microsoft Azure at the cloud layer, laptops at the edge layer, and smartphones at the mobile ad hoc cloud layer. End-users are equipped with an HTC VIVE headset for VR rendering and Gloveone gloves for haptic sensations rendering. Extensive performance measurements are made by varying the component deployment patterns as well as the distance between the therapist and patient. Our results demonstrate clearly that the addition of mobile ad hoc cloud to the edge and cloud does bring added value in terms of latency reduction when deploying tactile Internet applications.

The profitability, and even the survival, of organizations depends on the number and quality of new products introduced into the market. However, the process of developing new products (and estimating the proper timing for their introduction into the market) remains a rich topic for research and investigation within the product development (PD) community as it lies at the intersection of the engineering and marketing disciplines. A unifying model that brings both engineering and marketing concerns together is necessary to bridge the gap between both disciplines. In this article, a mathematical model is introduced to study the tradeoff between product performance and time-to-market for different PD scenarios. These scenarios vary in three main aspects related to product characteristics (i.e., the product complexity and the product newness) and supply chain configuration (i.e., the degree of supplier involvement). The model aims to maximize the revenue of the firm over a limited marketing window. The optimal solution reveals interesting managerial insights regarding the time that must be spent on “system design” and on “detailed design” phases for each PD scenario.

Valve-sparing aortic root replacement (VSRR) techniques have several advantages such as preservation of physiological haemodynamics of the native aortic valve and avoidance of prosthetic valve-related complications. However, VSRR procedures are generally performed in young patients and the long-term results in elderly patients (≥65 years) are scarce.Fifty-six (56) consecutive patients underwent VSRR surgery by a single surgeon at the current centre between January 2006 and December 2013; a modified "remodelling technique" was typically performed. The mean age was 58.86±12.5 years; Marfan syndrome and bicuspid aortic valve were both present in six patients (10.7%); 38 patients (67.8%) presented with greater than moderate aortic regurgitation; and 17 patients (30.4%) were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III before surgery. They were divided into two groups according to their ages receiving VSRR surgery: Group E (elderly patients aged ≥65 years, n=24) and Group Y (young patients aged65 years, n=32). The primary outcomes were aortic valve-related reoperation, cardiovascular reoperation, all-cause mortality, and functional status.One (1) patient in Group E was converted to aortic valve replacement as a result of a failed aortic valve repair. No perioperative mortality was observed. The mean follow-up was 11.5±2.9 years. Aortic valve-related reoperation was noted in two patients of each group (one with endocarditis, one with severe aortic regurgitation). Cardiovascular reoperations were observed in three and six patients, and all-cause deaths in seven and two patients in Group E and Group Y, respectively. The 10-year freedom from aortic valve-related reoperation was estimated to be 91.7±5.6% and 92.7±5.0% (p=0.594), the 10-year freedom from cardiovascular reoperation was 86.4±7.3% and 81.1±7.7% (p=0.781), and the cumulative 10-year survival rates were 74.0±9.2% and 93.8±4.3% (p=0.018) in Group E and Group Y, respectively. During follow-up, 6.7% of patients were in NYHA class III and 6.4% of patients developed moderate-to-severe aortic regurgitation. Cox regression analysis failed to identify predictors for primary outcomes.Valve-sparing aortic root replacement can safely be performed in elderly patients with low early mortality and satisfactory long-term freedom from aortic valve-related and cardiovascular re-intervention.

A 75-year-old woman without any particular medical history, presented with an intensively pruritic scaly rash over the body for 8 months duration. On examination, diffuse, scaly, crusted, hyperkeratotic, erythematous patches and plaques were seen over the body. The lesions were accentuated on the

Dermoid cysts are common orbital developmental tumors in childhood. They account for 3 to 9% of primary orbital tumors. They are considered to be congenital, but not all of them are diagnosed at birth. Dermoid cysts are benign choristomas that arise from sequestration of ectoderm along the lines of embryonic fusion of mesodermal processes destined to be bone. In most cases, the lesion is close to the zygomatic-frontal suture leading to a superotemporal subcutaneous mass in the eyebrow or eyelid. The intraorbital location is relatively rare and more prone to complications, particularly compressive. We report the case of a 41-year-old man with a large intraorbital tumor. The imaging aspects were evocative of an extraconal dermoid cyst. The tumor was resected through a transconjunctival route. Histopathologic examination confirmed the diagnosis of dermoid cyst.

Asphalt concrete materials are often used in the construction of pavement layers. The complex modulus is one of the fundamental properties in mechanistic-empirical pavement design and analysis that can describe the mechanical response of this composite material. In the present study, a new complex modulus predictive model of asphalt concrete, called 9P50F has been established. The main objective of the paper is to develop a predictive empirical equation for the Moroccan pavement design guide based on several complex modulus tests and an existing database of asphalt concrete formulations. The proposed model equation depends on the results of classical tests that related to the most significant formulation parameters including, stiffening effect and proportion of mineral fillers, maximum aggregate size, ratio of coarse aggregates to sand, penetration point, ratio of fillers to asphalt binder, apparent density, softening point, and binder richness modulus. As a result, the developed model provides a higher correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.873). Furthermore, based on the complex modulus measurements of twenty-one asphalt concrete samples, by using a 2-point bending device, the goodness of fit measure for the E* predictions indicates a very good accuracy.

Resume Introduction Parmi les causes identifiees d’infertilite masculine, la varicocele occupe une place importante et est significativement associee a l’alteration de la qualite du sperme. L’apport du traitement chirurgical de la varicocele infraclinique est encore debattu de nos jours. Le but de notre travail etait de comparer la varicocelectomie unilaterale a la varicocelectomie bilaterale quant a l’amelioration des parametres du spermogramme (concentration, mobilite et vitalite des spermatozoides) chez les patients presentant une infertilite. Patients et methodes Nous avons mene une etude retrospective monocentrique entre janvier 2007 et decembre 2015 colligeant tous les patients infertiles qui presentaient une varicocele gauche clinique associee a une varicocele droite infraclinique. Nous les avons reparti en deux groupes. Dans le groupe I, les patients ont eu un traitement unilateral gauche. Dans le groupe II, ils ont eu une varicocelectomie bilaterale. Resultats Quatre-vingt-quinze patients ont ete colliges. Les parametres spermatiques preoperatoires etaient equivalents dans les deux groupes et le traitement chirurgical a permis leur amelioration de facon evidente. L’augmentation de la concentration des spermatozoides etait plus importante dans le groupe II (+9,67 × 106/mL Vs +8,11 × 106/mL) de meme que la mobilite progressive (+8,87 % Vs +6,37 %). Cependant, cette difference n’etait pas significative pour la concentration des spermatozoides (p = 0,53) et pour leur mobilite progressive (p = 0,37). Le taux de grossesse spontanee etait meilleur dans le groupe II avec 26,6 % contre 22,8 % pour le groupe I (p = 0,68). Conclusion Le traitement d’une varicocele infraclinique droite, lorsqu’elle etait associee a une varicocele clinique gauche, a donne de meilleurs resultats en termes de parametres spermatiques et de grossesse spontanee que la varicocelectomie unilaterale mais sans resultat statistiquement significatif. Niveau de preuve 3.

Objectives: Over the last decades, there has been a significant increase in antimicrobial prescribing and consumption associated with the development of patients' adverse events and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to the point of becoming a global priority. This study aims at evaluating antibiotic prescribing during COVID-19 pandemic from November 2019 to December 2020. Materials and Methods: A systematic review was conducted primarily through the NCBI database, using PRISMA guidelines to identify relevant literature for the period between November 1, 2019 and December 19, 2020, using the keywords: COVID-19 OR SARS-Cov-2 AND antibiotics restricted to the English language excluding nonclinical articles. Five hundred twenty-seven titles were identified; all articles fulfilling the study criteria were included, 133 through the NCBI, and 8 through Google Scholar with a combined total of 141 studies. The patient's spectrum included all ages from neonates to elderly with all associated comorbidities, including immune suppression. Results: Of 28,093 patients included in the combined studies, 58.7% received antibiotics (16,490/28,093), ranging from 1.3% to 100% coverage. Antibiotics coverage was less in children (57%) than in adults with comorbidities (75%). Broad-spectrum antibiotics were prescribed presumptively without pathogen identifications, which might contribute to adverse outcomes. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant and wide range of antibiotic prescribing in patients affected by the disease, particularly in adults with underlying comorbidities, despite the paucity of evidence of associated bacterial infections. The current practice might increase patients' immediate and long-term risks of adverse events, susceptibility to secondary infections as well as aggravating AMR.

Drastic increases in the scale and complexity of engineered systems present many new challenges for the product development (PD) and engineering design communities. PD is characterized by the development of large, multidisciplinary, and networked systems that cannot be embraced by a single group or organization. Appropriate PD management principles can circumvent many of the difficulties that arise during the PD process. In this article, the author presents an integrative literature review that includes theories, models, and tools that can be used to manage complex PD. The review is structured around three PD analysis domains: product, people, and process. The review does not identify all the publications in any one PD domain, but instead addresses critical issues that exist within each domain and at the intersection of these domains. By reviewing these representative papers and creating a critical discussion around them, the intent is to provide an overview of the available theories, models, and tools for PD practitioners, while simultaneously identifying opportunities for future research.

Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) is a rare complication of Takayasu's Arteritis. We report the case of an 11-year-old girl who presented with a tonic-clonic seizure and loss of consciousness, without fever. Imaging revealed characteristic white matter edema of the occipital and parietal lobes, in keeping with PRES. Further imaging demonstrated right renal artery stenosis and wall thickening of the abdominal aorta. The combination of hypertension, the discrepancy of blood pressure recordings between upper limbs, and imaging abnormalities of the aorta and the left renal artery led to the diagnosis of PRES secondary to Takayasu's Arteritis. Treatment with oral corticosteroids, azathioprine, amlodipine, and propranolol resulted in the complete resolution of the patient's symptoms and imaging abnormalities.

Orthodontic treatment makes necessary to use a longtime fixed-band appliance, it offers suitable conditions for fungal growth, dentures also allow fungal contamination on their surfaces. The aim of our study is the identification of the fungal species colonizing surfaces of dental appliances, the cross-sectional study was carried out on 60 patients wearing dental appliances, during 5 months, and sterile swabs were used and inoculated into Sabouraud’s dextrose agar tubes. Yeast identification has been based on germ tube test, chlamydoconidia production and biochimical tests (Auxacolor, Api 20 C). The overall prevalence of fungal contamination of dental orthodontic appliance was 35%. The prevalence rate was 40% among patients who had dental appliances for 1 to 2 months, and 45,5% fort patients brushing their teeth at least twice daily, but no statistical relation with mycosis was found. Pain, burning and discomfort were correlated to fungal carriage p=0,038; OR=4,867 IC 95% (1.09-21.74). The fungal species most recovered were Candida parapsilosis 21.47%, Candida Zeylanoides 21.47%, Candida albicans 17.38%, and Cryptococcus terreus 13.04%. Mycological monitoring of dental prosthesis is crucial to prevent possible fungal’s adverse health effects. Key words: Orthodontic appliances, dentures, fungal contamination, Candida sp, Cryptococcus terreus.

Background: Radiosurgery has demonstrated good safety and efficacy in the treatment of multiple brain metastases (BMs). However, multi-target dose planning can be challenging and time-consuming. A recently developed real-time inverse treatment planning (IP) by convex optimization has been demonstrated to produce high-quality treatment plans with good conformity and selectivity in single-target plans. We intended to test the capacity of this IP to rapidly generate efficient plans while optimizing the preservation of normal tissue in multiple BM. Methods: Seventy-nine patients (mean age 62.4, age range 22–85) with a total of 272 BMs were treated by Gamma Knife Radiosurgery. All subjects were treated using a forward planning (FP) technique by an expert neurosurgeon. The new Intuitive Plan was applied and able to automatically generate an alternative plan for each patient. All planning variables were collected from the IP to be compared with the corresponding measurements obtained from the FP. A paired sample t test was applied to compare the 2 plans for the following variables: brain volumes receiving 10 Gy (V10) (primary endpoint), and 12 Gy (V12), planning indices (selectivity, coverage, gradient, and Paddick Conformity Index [PCI]), beam-on time (BOT), and integral doses. Additionally, the noninferiority margin for each item was calculated, and the 2 plans were compared for noninferiority using a paired t test. Results: The mean age of patients was 62.4 years old (age range 22–85), with a sex ratio of 1.02. The average number of lesions per patient was 3.4 (range 1–12). The mean prescription dose was 21.46 Gy (range 14–24 Gy). Noninferiority of the IP was concluded for V10, V12, prescription isodose volume, BOT, PCI, and selectivity. The V10 (and V12) was significantly lower with the IP (p < 0.001). These volumes were 8.69 cm3 ± 11.39 and 5.47 cm3 ± 7.03, respectively, for the FP and 7.57 cm3 ± 9.44 and 4.78 cm3 ± 5.86 for the IP. Only the coverage was significantly lower with the IP (−2.3%, p < 0.001), but both selectivity (+17%) and PCI (+15%) were significantly higher with the IP than FP (p < 0.001). Conclusion: This IP demonstrated its capacity to generate multi-target plans rapidly, with a dose to the brain (V10) and BOT noninferior to the one of a human expert planner. These results would benefit from confirmation in a larger prospective series.

Testing peripheral blood for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) offers a minimally invasive opportunity to diagnose, characterize, and monitor the disease in individual cancer patients. ctDNA can reflect the actual tumor burden and specific genomic state of disease and thus might serve as a prognostic and predictive biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Recent studies in various cancer entities (e.g., melanoma, non–small cell lung cancer, colon cancer, and urothelial cancer) have shown that sequential ctDNA analyses allow for the identification of responders to ICI therapy, with a significant lead time to imaging. ctDNA assessment may also help distinguish pseudoprogression under ICI therapy from real progression. Developing dynamic changes in ctDNA concentrations as a potential surrogate endpoint of clinical efficacy in patients undergoing adjuvant immunotherapy is ongoing. Besides overall ctDNA burden, further ctDNA characterization can help uncover tumor-specific determinants (e.g., tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability) of responses or resistance to immunotherapy. In future studies, standardized ctDNA assessments need to be included in interventional clinical trials across cancer entities to demonstrate the clinical utility of ctDNA as a biomarker for personalized cancer immunotherapy.

The role of nutrition has been investigated for decades under the assumption of one-size-fits-all. Yet there is heterogeneity in metabolic and neurobiological responses to diet. Thus a more personalized approach may better fit biological reality and have increased efficacy to prevent dementia. Personalized nutrition builds on the food exposome, defined as the history of diet-related exposures over the lifetime, and on its interactions with the genome and other biological characteristics (eg, metabolism, the microbiome) to shape health. We review current advances of personalized nutrition in dementia research. We discuss key questions, success milestones, and future roadmap from observational epidemiology to clinical studies through basic science. A personalized nutrition approach based on the best prescription for the most appropriate target population in the most relevant time-window has the potential to strengthen dementia-prevention efforts.

This study aimed to contrast the effects of power training (PT) and plyometric-jump-training (PJT) programmes on measures of physical fitness in prepubertal male soccer players. Thirty-three participants were randomly allocated to PT group (n = 11), PJT group (n = 11), and an active control group (CG; n = 11). Before and after 12 weeks of training, tests were performed for the assessment of sprint-speed , change-of-direction (CoD) speed, muscular strength , and aerobic-endurance (AE). Findings indicated significant group×time interaction effects for all sprint-speed intervals, CoD speed, AE, and strength (

Usually, the One-Class Support Vector Machine (OC-SVM) requires a large dataset for modeling effectively the target class independently to other classes. For finding the OC-SVM model, the available dataset is subdivided into two subsets namely training and validation, which are used for training and validating the optimal parameters. This approach is effective when a large dataset is available. However, when training samples are reduced, parameters of the OC-SVM are difficult to find in absence of the validation subset. Hence, this paper proposes various techniques for selecting the optimal parameters using only a training subset. The experimental evaluation conducted on several real-world benchmarks proves the effective use of the new selection parameter techniques for validating the model of OC-SVM classifiers versus the standard validation techniques

Global electricity consumption has raised in the last century due to many reasons such as the increase in human population and technological development. To keep up with this increasing trend, the use of fossil resources has increased. But these resources are not environmentally friendly, and for this reason, many countries and governments are encouraging the use of green sources. Among these sources, PV technology is widely promoted and used due to its improved efficiency and lower prices for photovoltaic panels. Therefore, the importance of forecasting power production for these plants is necessary. In this work, two hybrid models were proposed (CNN-LSTM and ConvLSTM) to effectively predict the power production of a self-consumption PV plant. To confirm the efficiency of the proposed models, the LSTM model was used as a baseline for comparison. The three models were trained on two datasets, a univariate dataset containing only the power output of the previous days, while the multivariate dataset contains more features (weather features) that affect the production of the PV plant. The time frames for the forecast ranged from one day to one week ahead of time. The results show that the proposed methods are more accurate than a normal LSTM model.

The granular cell tumor or Abrikossoff's tumor is a rare tumor, most often benign in evolution. Malignant forms are exceptional. We report, here, a very rare case of granular cell tumor, localized in the perianal region, in a 54-year-old woman with lung metastases. CT and MRI with contrast showed a locally advanced tumor process in the right para-anal region associated with multiple "balloon release" lung lesions. The diagnosis was confirmed by immunostaining after surgical biopsy. Very few cases of malignant granular cell tumors with lung metastasis have been reported in the literature.

Depression is a prevalent psychiatric disorder that often leads to poor quality of life and impaired functioning. Treatment during the acute phase of a major depressive episode aims to help the patient reach a remission state and eventually return to their baseline level of functioning. Pharmacotherapy, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants, remains the most frequent option for treating depression during the acute phase, while other promising pharmacological options are still competing for the attention of practitioners. Depression-focused psychotherapy is the second most common option for helping patients overcome the acute phase, maintain remission, and prevent relapses. Electroconvulsive therapy is the most effective somatic therapy for depression in some specific situations; meanwhile, other methods have limits, and their specific indications are still being studied. Combining medications, psychotherapy, and somatic therapies remains the most effective way to manage resistant forms of depression.

The complexity of a scene in addition to the need for real-time processing are the main challenges that face any background/foreground separation approach for maritime environment. Recent studies on Low-rank and Sparse Separation (LSS) achieved good performance when compared to traditional background subtraction techniques in segregating the foreground from a complex background. However, the issue of maintaining this type of a separation via an updating mechanism is not well addressed by the majority of LSS approaches. The study presents a tensor based singular value decomposition approach for background/foreground separation. The approach is uniquely designed to deal with most challenges related to a maritime environment such as sea dynamics, boat wakes, variety of foreground objects, and camera jitter. Furthermore, the proposed approach operates incrementally via updating the separation components as opposed to reperforming the decomposition on the entire video sequence when a set of frames arrives. Additionally, a forgetting mechanism is employed in the proposed approach to efficiently handle challenges such as Stationary Foreground Objects (SFOs) and ghost effects. The performance of the proposed method with several state-of-the-art LSS and Non-LSS techniques on videos with complex maritime scenarios are evaluated. The results exhibit better performance over most of the tested challenges and also demonstrate the capability of the proposed method to perform the separation in less computational time.

Evidence suggests that oxidative stress plays an important role in the development of anxiety and depression. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether methyl donors supplementation could exert beneficial effects on hippocampal oxidative stress, anxiety and depression in chronically high fructose-treated rats, a new animal model of anxiety and mood disorders. Rats were divided into two groups and treated for 10 weeks as follows: Group 1 represents the control group and Group 2 was treated with 23% fructose. After 10 weeks, the fructose-fed animals were divided into two groups and treated for 8 weeks as follows: Group 2 continued to receive fructose while Group 3 was treated with methyl donors and fructose. High fructose-fed rats showed increases in glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol as well as in the final body weight and the adipose tissue weight. High fructose induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. High fructose caused an increase of the nitrite content and the Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in the hippocampus tissue in association with an induction of damage in the dorsal hippocampus neurons. The 8-weeks dietary supplementation with methyl donors normalized the depression-like behavior, oxidative stress in the hippocampus, reversed the damage observed in the hippocampal neurons. These findings demonstrate that high fructose induced depression in association with the induction of a hippocampal oxidative stress. The anti-depressive action of methyl donors appears to be associated to their anti-oxidative properties since they normalized the nitrite content and the MDA levels at the hippocampus in the high fructose-fed female rats.

Interfacial materials in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) between the absorber layer and charge selective layers are stimulants to boost performance and stability. Incorporation of a low-temperature processed passivating agent at electron selective layer/perovskite interface can enhance the performance of PSCs; however, the interface at SnO2/(FAPbI3)0.85(MAPbBr3)0.15 suffers from surface phenomena that retard the overall performance of the PSCs. By adopting a synergistic approach, drift–diffusion simulation, and experimental validation, we unravel the interaction of the passivation layer at the electron selective layer/perovskite. Firstly, we elucidated the impact of defect density (Nt) at electron selective layer/perovskite and the conduction band of SnO2 using drift–diffusion simulation to yield a power conversion efficiency of 23.18 %. Secondly, we validate the simulation trend experimentally by depositing the Cs2CO3 passivation layer on the top of the electron selective layer. The impact of Cs2CO3 on electro-optical properties, charge collection, and recombination rate at the interfaces of PSCs was unraveled. The PSC fabricated with Cs2CO3 treatment achieves a higher open-circuit voltage, Voc ∼ 1090 mV. Our findings put forward a combinatorial protocol of drift–diffusion simulation and experimental studies to address the interfacial issues in PSCs.

The place of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) among autoimmune bullous diseases (AIBD) is well established. It is an acquired chronic, autoimmune, vesiculobullous disease in which IgG antibodies target desmosomal proteins to produce intraepithelial mucocutaneous blistering. The diagnosis is often challenging for the clinicians. It requires a combination of three major features: clinical, histopathological, and immunological. Clinically, oral lesions are the first manifestations of the disease in 50-90% of the patients with widespread blisters affecting the oral mucosa. On the skin, lesions are characterized by flaccid blisters that rapidly progress into erosions and crust formation. Umbilical lesions as a clinical manifestation of PV are peculiar and have rarely been reported, and they are not yet completely elucidated. Umbilical region involvement in patients with pemphigus was assessed in a limited study totalling just 10 patients. This localisation may be a valuable hint easing the diagnosis at the clinical level for patients with oral mucosal blisters. Dentists must be familiar with the clinical manifestations of PV to make an early diagnosis and start an early treatment which determines the prognosis of the disease. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the coexistence of these lesions with the oral lesions as a first sign of PV in the absence of skin involvement was reported in only one case of pemphigus vegetans (PVe). In this paper, we describe an observation of a female patient that was diagnosed with PV that begun with simultaneous oral and umbilical locations which coexisted for a period of 4 months before the appearance of other cutaneous lesions. We highlight the role of dentists, by being familiar with the clinical manifestations of PV, to make an early diagnosis to start an early treatment which determines the prognosis of the disease and to follow closely the evolution of lesions to change treatment if required. We also discuss the clinical, histological, and immunological features of the disease that enabled the differential diagnosis as well as the appropriate therapeutic management.

In this study, a novel design of smartphone endoscope adapter is introduced. The different parts of the proposed adapter are firstly designed in consideration of the use of flashlight smartphones as the light source in order to securely fit the endoscope with the smartphone. The entire system combining Smartphone and endoscope via this adapter is then designed in 3D. As a result, Simulation shows strong results in terms of fitting this system. The prototype of the proposed adapter is printed by the 3D printer and is then tested by combining Karl Storz endoscope of 0°, 4mm, 50mm, and iPhone 6s. The inner hand can be considered as dark interior as similar of the nose, ear, etc., is chosen to make this test, in which the significant photo with acceptable color and resolution is obtained. It can be concluded that this system provides a good benefit of its use in continuous development countries (LMICs) and in difficult times such as COVID-19 so that the health care providers can easily share these photos between specialists themselves or and with the patient through the internet especially for the accuracy treatment. © 2021 Seventh Sense Research Group®.

Acupuncture is a centuries-old therapeutic technique. However, because of the large number of complicating circumstances, it has been difficult to clearly prove the treatment's therapeutic effectiveness.As a result, acupuncture has failed to acquire acceptance in the mainstream clinical sector. An electromyography (EMG) sensor was built and used to test the efficacy of acupuncture in alleviating muscular stiffness in this study. Electrodes, differential and inverting amplifiers, filters, and a full-wave rectifier made up the EMG circuit. The output of the circuit was sent to a microcontroller for analog-to-digital transformation in order to perform data acquisition. Acupuncture was used to treat four participants who had muscular dysfunction in various regions of their bodies in our case study. Before and after the therapy, EMG signals at the damaged regions were recorded. The findings revealed that the therapy had no immediate conceivable impact on the patients, since the levels of muscular contraction before and after the treatment were comparable. When the EMG signals were measured 30 minutes after the therapy, signs of muscular alleviation were found. This shows that acupuncture does supply patients with beneficial medicine, although slowly. The act of placing the highly conducting needles into the acupuncture sites, we believe, is similar to connecting a parallel wire to a circuit, resulting in a short-circuited route at the meridian. It permits the meridian's polarized in- ner energy, or qi, to pass through. The equilibrium in qi regulation can therefore be restored by unclogging the ow of qi.The repair process is relatively slow, and the treatment impact may not be immediately apparent, because the consti- tutive qualities at the acupuncture points where the needles are pricked may not alter quickly.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is potentially curative for patients with malignant and benign hematologic conditions. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a known complication of allo-HCT that results in significant morbidity and mortality. A common GVHD prophylaxis strategy combines a calcineurin inhibitor with methotrexate. When mucositis and organ toxicity develop, the day +11 dose is frequently omitted to limit further organ damage. The potential impact of this practice on allo-HCT outcomes is unclear as published data show conflicting results. Thus, we performed a systematic review/meta-analysis of the available literature to assess the impact of omitting day +11 methotrexate on allo-HCT recipients. Data were extracted in relation to benefits (overall survival [OS], progression-free survival [PFS]) and harms (acute and chronic GVHD, non-relapse mortality [NRM], and relapse). Pooled OS rate favored those who received day +11 methotrexate vs. those who did not (HR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.02-1.43; p = 0.03). There was no significant difference in pooled rates of PFS (HR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.60-1.52; p = 0.85), acute GVHD (HR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.35-2.98; p = 0.96), chronic GVHD (HR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.44-1.57; p = 0.57), NRM (HR = 0.86; 95% CI = 0.67-1.11; p = 0.25), and relapse (HR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.75-1.26; p = 0.83) between the two groups. Large prospective multicenter studies are needed to better define the significance of day +11 methotrexate omission.

Riedel's thyroiditis is a very rare inflammatory condition. It affects not only the thyroid gland but also the adjacent vital structures. It may also be associated with different forms of systemic fibrotic disorders. The exact etiology is unknown, but currently, the most favorable opinion is that it is a localized form of the systemic fibrotic process. We report the case of a 38-year-old woman, presented with a 10-month history of progressive hypothyroidism, dysphonia, and dysphagia. A Doppler ultrasound study revealed massive thyroid enlargement with multiple Eu TIRADS 3 and 4 nodules. Fine needle aspiration was noncontributive on two occasions. A hard subtotal thyroidectomy was performed. Pathological study confirmed Riedel's thyroiditis with the presence of IgG4 antibodies in immunohistochemistry. The patient was successfully treated with levothyroxine replacement and corticosteroid therapy with rapid resolution of obstructive symptoms. The case descriptions highlight the diagnostic challenge of this disease, describe the response to surgical management and corticosteroid therapy, and give a short review of the subject.

International audience

The human factor is considered the weakest link in cybersecurity and inside the Security Operation Centers (SOC) and it represents the most important component at the same time. Human factor capabi...

In this paper, a low voltage bandgap reference circuit has been proposed. The introduction of a modified beta multiplier bias circuit decreased the mismatch caused by the PMOS transistors opamp con...

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the impact of the shale gas revolution on manufacturing output and trade in the United States. The shale gas boom has led to significant and persistent regional price differences in natural gas between the United States and the rest of the world. The results show that lower natural gas prices in the United States compared to Europe have led to industrial activity and investment increasing by nearly 3% and 2%, respectively. We also provide empirical evidence of structural breaks in the relationship between natural gas prices and both imports and exports. Finally, we suggest that while the shale gas revolution has helped some industries to expand, its impact on the manufacturing sector as a whole has been relatively weak.

Purpose: To examine the effects of balance exercises conducted prior to complex training (bCT) versus complex training (CT) only on measures of physical fitness in young female elite handball players. Methods: Participants aged 17 years were randomly assigned to bCT (n = 11) or CT (n = 12). The 2 training interventions lasted 8 weeks with 2 sessions per week in replacement of some technical/tactical handball exercises and were matched for total training volume. Before and after training, tests were performed for the evaluation of proxies of muscle power (countermovement jump height, standing long-jump distance, and reactive strength index), muscle strength (back half-squat 1-repetition maximum), dynamic balance (Y-balance test), linear sprint speed (20-m sprint test), and change-of-direction speed (T test). Results: Two-factor repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed significant group × time interactions for the reactive strength index (d = 0.99, P = .03) and Y-balance test score (d = 1.32, P d = 0.69, P = .04) only. For the Y-balance test, significant pre–post increases were found in bCT (d = 0.71, P = .04) with no significant changes in CT (d = 0.61, P = .07). In addition, significant main effects of time were observed for half-squat 1-repetition maximum, countermovement jump, standing long jump, and T test performance (d = 1.50 to 3.10, P Conclusions: Both bCT and CT interventions were effective in improving specific measures of physical fitness in young elite female handball players. If the training goal is to improve balance in addition, balance exercises can be conducted within a CT training session and prior to CT exercises.

Social networks are used by terrorist groups and people who support them to propagate their ideas, ideologies, or doctrines and share their views on terrorism. To analyze tweets related to terrorism, several studies have been proposed in the literature. Some works rely on data mining algorithms; others use lexicon-based or machine learning sentiment analysis. Some recent works adopt other methods that combine multi-techniques. This paper proposes an improved approach for sentiment analysis of radical content related to terrorist activity on Twitter. Unlike other solutions, the proposed approach focuses on using a dictionary of weighted terms, the Word2vec method, and trigrams, with a classification based on fuzzy logic. The authors have conducted experiments with 600 manually annotated tweets and 200,000 automatically collected tweets in English and Arabic to evaluate this approach. The experimental results revealed that the new technique provides between 75% to 78% of precision for radicality detection and 61% to 64% to detect radicality degrees.

Nowadays, web application security is one of the relevant issues in the IT security domain due to the continued growth in the number of web-related attacks. As a result, attacks, with various and v...

Purpose of review The biological knowledge and the new biopathological classification of medulloblastoma subtypes have dramatically changed the therapeutic indications, taking into account not only age and staging but also biopathological risk criteria. This review covers the multidisciplinary approach including surgery, radiation oncology and medical treatments. Recent findings The neurosurgical management of tumor-related hydrocephalus has been modified by the introduction of third ventriculostomy. The initial complete excision is no longer always the first choice, to preserve neurological function. The recent technical improvements of radiotherapy are also implemented to optimize outcome in terms of survival as well as quality of survival. The different medical treatments are adapted according to age and risk factors. The role of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem cell rescue has become larger in the high-risk situations. Summary The rarity of the disease and the high-level of technicity of diagnosis, biopathological subtyping and treatments justifies the referral of these patients to highly specialized centers where all these techniques can be routinely applied, most often in the context of international prospective studies.

Radio over fiber (RoF) is an emerging and promising communication technology based on combining wireless and fiber-optic communications, where light is modulated with radio frequency signals and transmitted over the optical fiber. This paper proposes a modified RoF communication system based on the incorporation of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique into RoF system, called RoF-OFDM. We focus on the transmission of OFDM signals at the frequency of 60 GHz. The performance of the proposed RoF-OFDM system is evaluated in terms of bit error rate (BER) and the constellation diagrams. For this purpose, we use three different formats of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) such as 16-QAM, 64-QAM, and 256-QAM, and various values of data rate, Optical Signal-to-Noise Ratio (OSNR), input optical power, and fiber length. Simulation results show that RoF-OFDM system using 16-QAM gives good results in terms of fiber length and OSNR. However, the best performance using 64-QAM is obtained in the case of optical power. In addition, in terms of bit rate, 16-QAM outperforms both 64-QAM and 256-QAM formats for a bit rate lower than 17 Gbit/s. Otherwise, the best performance is given with 64-QAM.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of dynamic managerial innovative capabilities on the competitive advantage (CA), financial performance (FP) and non-financial performance (NFP) of the health-care sector during the very turbulent Covid-19 pandemic period. The focus is on human behavior and personnel interaction in the hospitals that receive Covid-19 cases.Design/methodology/approachData for this research was collected from the medical sector in Lebanon. The authors approached 14 public hospitals and 60 private hospitals for the study and only 48 hospitals (total of 284 respondents) accepted to complete the survey and provide data using a structured questionnaire.FindingsThis study reveals the moderating impact of CA on the relationship between dynamic managerial innovative capabilities and the performance of the health-care sector. Based on 48 Lebanese health-care centers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results of the structural equation modeling model indicate that dynamic managerial innovative practices positively impact on CA and NFP. The results also reveal that CA has a moderating effect on the relationship between dynamic managerial innovative practices and NFP.Practical implicationsThis study does not reveal any direct or indirect relationship between managerial capabilities and FP during the pandemic.Originality/valueAs the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, the health-care sector needs new approaches and methods for confronting the constantly evolving and turbulent environment. This study examines how health-care leaders are dealing with these dynamic challenges and tests a three-dimensional SEM model of dynamic managerial capabilities (sensing, seizing and reconfiguration) that impact CA.

This paper presents the case of a 13-year-old female patient, operated in 2015 for left temporoparietal hydatid cyst and reoperated in 2016 for recurrence of the cerebral hydatid cyst. At admission, his GCS scores were E3V4M5. Neurological examination revealed a hemilatéral motor deficit estimated at 3/5 on right side without sensitive trouble. The CT scan showed a large left temporal cystic formation with an infected appearance associated with 4 cystic formations with calcified walls exerting a mass effect on the adjacent parechyma and the homolateral lateral ventricle responsible for a triventricular hydrocephalus. No primary focus was found in the lungs, liver, or other organs. In this article, we will discuss the management of complications related to hydatid cysts. Cerebral hydatid cyst is a rare condition, affecting mainly children. The diagnosis of cerebral hydatid cyst must be evoked in endemic countries in front of a symptomatology of intra-cranial hypertension.