38 research outputs found
Interview with Abdullah Al-Baradouni
No full textلقاء مع الشاعر اليمنى عبد الله البرادوني للتكلم عن مكانة الشعر اليوم. أجرى اللقاء إبراهيم عابدين.An interview with Yemeni author and poet Abdullah Al-Baradouni about the role of poetry in modern times. Interview conducted by Ibrahim Abdeen
A Model for the FDA General Principles of Software Validation
No full textTitle: A Model for the FDA General Principles of Software Validation, Author: Marwan M. Abdeen, Location: ThodeSeveral institutions and agencies around the world, from both the private and public sectors,
have adopted the practice of software validation and certification to ensure higher levels
of confidence in software. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of these
organisations. The FDA has published several guidance documents concerning the validation
of medical device software or the validation of software used to design, develop, or produce
medical devices. In its guidance documents for both the medical software industry and FDA
staff, the FDA recommends certain activities to be undertaken and certain deliverables to
be prepared. The FDA believes that undertaking these activities as well as preparing these
deliverables will achieve higher confidence in the software quality and, accordingly, better
validation. In this thesis, we question the clarity and practicability of the FDA approach for medical
software validation. We examine the FDA approach by evaluating the FDA guidance
documents. We base our analysis on distinguishing between product and process aspects.
By bearing in mind these two concepts, we believe that the FDA validation approach leads
to confusion in the minds of both software producers and evaluators and it may well lead to
lower quality software than desired being certified, while the FDA considers its approach as
the least burdensome. As a demonstration of our claim, we analyse "Quality Planning" as
the first activity in the FDA approach. We discuss the corresponding effort for this activity
in another product-oriented evaluation approach, the Common Criteria (CC) for Information
Technology Security Evaluation. As its main objective, the comparison aims to highlight
both the inconsistency and the vagueness of the FDA evaluation function. The FDA guidance documents are natural language in specifying their recommendations because of the wide audience to which they are addressed and the consequent need for simplicity. However, the specification is not sufficiently explicit and precise to be able to impose a contract (obligation) between the two parties (software producers and evaluators). Having illustrated the drawbacks of the FDA approach, with comparison to the CC, as they appear in the "Quality Planning" activity, we use the Product/process (P/p) method to model this activity and all subsequent ones. Despite the application of the P/p method herein to medial device certification, a critical area of application, the P/p method takes a general systems approach. It is appropriate to a variety of areas and has proven its applicability in many field. Thus, reconsideration of these issues by the FDA will lead to a more objective evaluation function and higher confidence in the medical software, which represents the most important concern among the evaluation community and the general public.ThesisMaster of Applied Science (MASc
Hadiths Classification Using a Novel Author-Based Hadith Classification Dataset (ABCD)
No full textReligious studies are a rich land for Natural Language Processing (NLP). The reason is that all religions have their instructions as written texts. In this paper, we apply NLP to Islamic Hadiths, which are the written traditions, sayings, actions, approvals, and discussions of the Prophet Muhammad, his companions, or his followers. A Hadith is composed of two parts: the chain of narrators (Sanad) and the content of the Hadith (Matn). A Hadith is transmitted from its author to a Hadith book author using a chain of narrators. The problem we solve focuses on the classification of Hadiths based on their origin of narration. This is important for several reasons. First, it helps determine the authenticity and reliability of the Hadiths. Second, it helps trace the chain of narration and identify the narrators involved in transmitting Hadiths. Finally, it helps understand the historical and cultural contexts in which Hadiths were transmitted, and the different levels of authority attributed to the narrators. To the best of our knowledge, and based on our literature review, this problem is not solved before using machine/deep learning approaches. To solve this classification problem, we created a novel Author-Based Hadith Classification Dataset (ABCD) collected from classical Hadiths’ books. The ABCD size is 29 K Hadiths and it contains unique 18 K narrators, with all their information. We applied machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) approaches. ML was applied on Sanad and Matn separately; then, we did the same with DL. The results revealed that ML performs better than DL using the Matn input data, with a 77% F1-score. DL performed better than ML using the Sanad input data, with a 92% F1-score. We used precision and recall alongside the F1-score; details of the results are explained at the end of the paper. We claim that the ABCD and the reported results will motivate the community to work in this new area. Our dataset and results will represent a baseline for further research on the same problem
Interview with Salah Montaser
No full textمقابلة مع كاتب وصحفي مصري شهير بجريدة الأهرام وصاحب عمود يومي بعنوان مجرد رأي، صلاح منتصر، يناقش فيها تقييمة وتوقعاتة السلبية لموقف حرب العراق للكويت، والحصار الإقتصادي الذي تفرضه الدول العربية علي العراق. قام بالمقابلة إبراهيم عابدين.An interview with a famous Egyptian writer and journalist in Al-Ahram newspaper and author of a daily column 'Just an Opinion"", Salah Montaser, in which he discusses the Iraq war on Kuwait, and the economic blockade imposed by Arab countries on Iraq. The interview was conducted by Ibrahim Abdeen
Author manuscript, published in "Science of Computer Programming (2014)" The Package Blueprint: visually analyzing and quantifying package dependencies ✩
No full textLarge object-oriented applications are structured over many packages. Packages are important but complex structural entities that are difficult to understand since they act as containers of classes, which can have many dependencies with other classes spread over multiple packages. However to be able to take decisions (e.g., refactoring and/or assessment decisions), maintainers face the challenges of managing (sorting, grouping) the massive amount of dependencies between classes spread over multiple packages. To help maintainers, there is a need for at the same time understanding, and quantifying, dependencies between classes as well as understanding how packages as containers of such classes depend on each other. In this paper, we present a visualization, named Package Blueprint, that reveals in detail package internal structure, as well as the dependencies between an observed package and its neighbors, at both package and class levels. Package Blueprint aims at assisting maintainers in understanding package structure and dependencies, in particular when they focus on few packages and want to take refactoring decisions and/or to assess the structure of those packages. A package blueprint is a space filling matrix-based visualization, using two placement strategies that are enclosure and adjacency. Package blueprint is structured around the notion of surfaces that group classes and their dependencies by their packages (i.e., enclosure placement); whilst surfaces are placed next to their parent node which is the package under-analysis (i.e., adjacency placement). We present two views: one stressing how an observed package depends upon the rest of the system and another stressing how the system depends upon that package
Increased prevalence of human cutaneous leishmaniasis in Israel and the Palestinian Authority caused by the recent emergence of a population of genetically similar strains of Leishmania tropica
No full textAbstractTwelve unlinked microsatellite markers were used to determine the microsatellite profiles of 50 newly and 46 previously typed strains of L. tropica from various Israeli and Palestinian foci. Their microsatellite profiles were compared to those of 99 previously typed strains of L. tropica from 15 countries. Israeli and Palestinian strains of L. tropica fell into three different groups, one of which contained 75 of the 96 Israeli and Palestinian strains. This population separated from all the others at the first hierarchical level by Bayesian statistics and formed a distinct monophyletic group on applying genetic distance and allele frequency analyses. The second cluster contained ten Israeli strains from a specific focus north of the Sea of Galilee, which were previously shown to differ from all other strains of L. tropica in their serological, biochemical and molecular biological parameters. This cluster was closely related to clusters comprising strains of L. tropica from Africa. Four Israeli and five Palestinian strains fell into different genetic entities mostly related to strains from Asian foci of CL.Importation during numerous migrations of humans and, perhaps, infected reservoir animals in the past and, now, through modern travel is the most likely explanation for the existence of so many locally encountered genetic variants of L. tropica in the Israeli-Palestinian region. Geographical and ecological variation may play a role in expanding the genetic heterogeneity once given importations had become established in different foci. Currently, one population is expanding in the area comprising almost all of the Palestinian and Israeli strains of L. tropica isolated since 1996 and investigated in this study, which differ clearly from all other strains of whatsoever origin. This population seems to result from the re-emergence of a previously existing genotype owing to environmental changes and human activities
The story behind the first few cases of monkeypox infection in non-endemic countries, 2022
No full textStarting May 6, 2022, a rising number of monkeypox cases started to be detected in different countries where the disease is not endemic. About 24 countries reported cases by May 28 mostly in Europe. Most of the reported cases so far were among young men particularly men who have sex with men or had a travel history to countries where cases are being registered. In this rapid review we summarized the story behind the first few cases of monkeypox virus infection in non-endemic countries and the prevention measures implemented so far by countries to contain the spread of the disease
Sickness absenteeism among primary health care workers in Qatar before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textObjectives: To explore the patterns, trends, nature, and extent of changes in sickness absence among health care workers (HCWs) at the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) in Qatar-during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years and uncover the main associated factors. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all sick leaves' records of PHCC HCWs regardless of their profession from January 2019 till August 2021. Results: A total of 41,132 sick leaves were taken during the studied period. The majority of HCWs who availed sick leaves were between 30-39 years (45.9%), females (65.1%), and expatriates (65.1%). Compared with pre-COVID-19 (Jan 2019-Feb 2020), Wave 1 of COVID-19 had significantly less incidence of sick leaves per day per 1000 HCWs. While wave 2 had significantly higher incidence of sick leaves compared to both pre-COVID-19 and wave 1. The number of sick leaves per person among female HCWs was significantly higher than that of male HCWs. Moreover, the number of sick leaves per person among locals were about two times the number among expatriate HCWs. Physicians and nurses had significantly lower number of sick leave per person compared to other professions. The rates of sick leaves due to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection, back/neck pain and gastroenteritis were significantly higher in the second wave compared to the first wave of COVID-19. Conclusion: Overall and cause specific sick leave rates among HCWs varied significantly across different periods of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 related sick leave rate was higher during the second wave compared to first one. By addressing the root causes of sick leaves, it is possible to reduce the burden on HCWs and ensure their continued ability to provide essential care to those in need. 2023, The Author(s).Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.Scopu
Developmental neurotoxic effects of a low dose of TCE on 3D neurosphere system
No full textTrichloroethylene (TCE) is one of the industrial toxic products that ever-present in air, soil and water. Several studies illustrated the toxicity of high doses of TCE on several organs. This study aims to determine the toxic effect of a low dose of TCE on development of rat neural stem cells (NSCs). Rat pups brains were collected, minced and harvested cells were cultured in the presence of neural growth factors B27/N8 to develop neurospheres. Afterwards, cells were subjected to a dose of 1ÂľM TCE for 1 and 2 weeks. The data indicated a significant effect of TCE on inhibiting the NSCs differentiation which was confirmed by cell immunolabelling with astrocytes marker GFAP. TCE inhibitory effect on NSCs proliferation was estimated by the decrease at neurospheres diameter, ki67 downregulation and cell cycle arrest at G1/S phase. Immunolabelling of TCE treated cells with annexin V indicated the effect of TCE on induction of NSCs apoptosis. The mechanism of these actions was illustrated via TCE dependent reduction at transcription of SOD enzyme. In conclusion, this study illustrated for the first time the neurotoxic effects of such low dose of TCE on NSCs ability to differentiate, proliferate and induction of cell apoptosis.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
