Amino acid consumption and secretion patterns of Staphylococcus aureus following growth in sub-optimal environmental conditions

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is highly associated with nosocomial infections due to its ability to adapt to wide range of environmental parameters. The aim of this study was to evaluate amino acids consumption and secretion by S. aureus at mid-exponential and stationary phases under growth in sub-optimal conditions, including changes in pH, temperature and osmolality.Methods: The consumption and secretion of amino acids were determined by subtracting the original concentrations of the free amino acids in the media from those estimated at both mid-exponential and stationary phases of growth.Results: The analysis revealed that the consumption and secretion profiles were substantially different between cells grown under optimal control conditions, when compared with those exposed to sub-optimal conditions. The analyses of the supernatants harvested at mid-exponential phase revealed that the total consumption of amino acids was increased by 1.2 and 1.7 times by cells grown at either pH 6 or 8 and 35°C with additional of 5 % NaCl, respectively. However, the final levels of amino acids consumed at stationary phase were significantly reduced in the cells grown in sub-optimal conditions compared with bacteria cells grown under optimal conditions.Conclusion: It was evident that various environmental conditions led to differential profiles of amino acid consumption and secretion.Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; Amino acid metabolism; Stress response

Improving Occurrence Variance Reporting System through Implementing An Educational Program For Staff At King Saud Hospital,Unaizah, Al –Qassim, KSA.

Occurrence variance reporting (OVR) is very essential for ensuring patient and staff safety, quality of care and risk management. Variance is any event or circumstance not consistent with the standard routine operations of the hospital and its staff or the routine care of a patient/visitor. The aim of the study was to improve Occurrence Variance Reporting System at King Saud Hospital, Unaizah, Al Qassim. Design: A quasi experimental research design. Setting: King Saud Hospital, Unaizah, Al –Qassim, KSA. Sample: all occurrence variance reported during 6 months in each of pre test, post test, follow up1 test, and follow up2. Data Collection Tool: OVR trending and analysis. Result: occurrence variance reporting system significantly improved after implementation of an educational program on OVR to hospital staff and administrators than before. Recommendations: Continues monthly and quarterly monitoring and gathering of data to maintain the performance, Continuous education, Rewards and commendations are given for the highest reporting department.   Keywords: incident- report- occurrence variance

Facial Emotion Recognition Using Hybrid Features

Facial emotion recognition is a crucial task for human-computer interaction, autonomous vehicles, and a multitude of multimedia applications. In this paper, we propose a modular framework for human facial emotions’ recognition. The framework consists of two machine learning algorithms (for detection and classification) that could be trained offline for real-time applications. Initially, we detect faces in the images by exploring the AdaBoost cascade classifiers. We then extract neighborhood difference features (NDF), which represent the features of a face based on localized appearance information. The NDF models different patterns based on the relationships between neighboring regions themselves instead of considering only intensity information. The study is focused on the seven most important facial expressions that are extensively used in day-to-day life. However, due to the modular design of the framework, it can be extended to classify N number of facial expressions. For facial expression classification, we train a random forest classifier with a latent emotional state that takes care of the mis-/false detection. Additionally, the proposed method is independent of gender and facial skin color for emotion recognition. Moreover, due to the intrinsic design of NDF, the proposed method is illumination and orientation invariant. We evaluate our method on different benchmark datasets and compare it with five reference methods. In terms of accuracy, the proposed method gives 13% and 24% better results than the reference methods on the static facial expressions in the wild (SFEW) and real-world affective faces (RAF) datasets, respectivelypublishedVersion© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Building Information Modelling adoption in the European Union: An overview

Building information modelling (BIM) is one of the most promising recent developments in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry. However, its adoption remains a challenge for the AECO industry because it requires a shift to a new way of working, leading to a current discrepancy in the adoption of BIM in the EU. The paper aims at assessing the gaps in the BIM adoption between the 28 EU countries and the barriers related to its implementation. The methodology adopted here is twofold: first, secondary data are given by a systematic literature review, completed with the review of current projects funded by the European Commission, and dealing with fostering the BIM adoption. Second, primary data are provided by a questionnaire survey to classify BIM initiatives regarding policies, the level of adoption and the barriers encountered in the 28 EU countries. In order to grade the heterogeneity of BIM adoption in the EU, we have classified the countries into four categories with different levels of awareness, from early adopters (BIM already mandated) to countries without any plan. The survey has enabled the analysis of twenty barriers to BIM adoption using the four grades in relation to the respondent country. We found barriers that are acknowledged by all countries irrespective of their level of BIM adoption. Other barriers have been already tackled by the early adopters but not by the newcomers who have yet to experience some of these issues. Finally, the assessment of the disparities of BIM adoption within the EU can help the European Commission towards unifying European standard on BIM

Enhancing Accuracy and Efficiency of Complete Blood Count (CBC) and Biochemistry Analysis in Medical Laboratories

Complete blood count (CBC) and biochemistry analysis in medical laboratories are routine tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of any disease. In a CBC test, if a sample of blood is mixed with the diluted solution, the elements that form behave in different ways. The red cells settle to the bottom of the solution, but the white cells and platelets are held in suspension. The white cells and platelets are not homogeneous in their distribution; the red cells can settle through the white cells to the bottom of the sample tube. And in biochemistry analysis, the high cost and lengthy time for the several tests for diagnosis were the main drawbacks. To overcome this problem, we are developing an automatic blood analyzer that has an accurate and efficient differential counter. This instrument will eliminate most of the manual procedures to reduce human error and provide an accurate count of different types of cells in the blood. For biochemistry analysis, we are using a Lab-on-Chip device. Since the CBC test and biochemistry analysis are the most commonly performed tests in medical laboratories, the new development of automatic analyzers and lab-on-chip devices will bring a great advantage in terms of rapid, accurate, and multiple analysis results at a low cost. With this great advantage, the new development of CBC tests and biochemistry analysis encourages further research on their clinical applications

Towards facilitating team collaboration during construction project via the development of cloud-based BIM governance solution

Construction projects involve multi-discipline, multi-actor collaboration, and during their lifecycle, enormous amounts of data are generated. This data is often sensitive, raising major concerns related to access rights, ownership, intellectual property (IP) and secu- rity. Thus, dealing with this information raises several issues, such as data inconsistency, different versions of data, data loss etc. Therefore, the collaborative Building Information Modelling (BIM) approach has recently been considered a useful contributory technique to minimise the complexity of team collaboration during construction projects. Further- more, it has been argued that there is a role for Cloud technology in facilitating team collaboration across a building's lifecycle, by applying the ideologies of BIM governance. Therefore, this study investigates and seeks to develop a BIM governance solution util- ising a Cloud infrastructure. The study employed two research approaches: the first being a wide consultation with key BIM experts taking the form of: (i) a comprehensive questionnaire; followed by (ii) several semi-structured interviews. The second approach was an iterative software engineering approach including: (i) Software Modelling, using Business Process Model Notation (BPMN) and Unifed Modelling Language (UML), and (ii) Software Prototype Development. The fndings reveal several remaining barriers to BIM adoption, including Information Communication Technology (ICT) and collabora- tion issues; therefore highlighting an urgent need to develop a BIM governance solution underpinned by Cloud technology, to tackle these barriers and issues. The key fndings from this research led to: (a) the development of a BIM governance framework (G-BIM); (b) defnition of functional, non-functional, and domain specific requirements for develop- ing a Cloud-based BIM Governance Platfrom (GovernBIM); (c) development of a set of BPMN diagrams to describe the internal and external business procedures of the Govern- BIM platform lifecycle; (d) evaluation of several fundamental use cases for the adoption of the GovernBIM platform; (e) presentation of a core BIM governance model (class di- agram) to present the internal structure of the GovernBIM platform; (f) provision of a well-structured, Cloud-based architecture to develop a GovernBIM platform for practical implementation; and (j) development of a Cloud-based prototype focused on the main identified functionalities of BIM governance. Despite the fact that a number of concerns remain (i.e. privacy and security) the proposed Cloud-based GovernBIM solution opens up an opportunity to provide increased control over the collaborative process, and to resolve associated issues, e.g. ownership, data inconsistencies, and intellectual property. Finally, it presents a road map for further development of Cloud-based BIM governance platforms