Comparison of characteristics and ventilatory course between coronavirus disease 2019 and Middle East respiratory syndrome patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome

Imran Khalid,Romaysaa M Yamani,Maryam Imran,Muhammad Ali Akhtar,Manahil Imran,Rumaan Gul,Tabindeh Jabeen Khalid,Ghassan Y Wali 대한중환자의학회 2021 Acute and Critical Care Vol.36 No.3

Background: Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); however, their ARDS course and characteristics have not been compared, which we evaluate in our study. Methods: MERS patients with ARDS seen during the 2014 outbreak and COVID-19 patients with ARDS admitted between March and December 2020 in our hospital were included, and their clinical characteristics, ventilatory course, and outcomes were compared. Results: Forty-nine and 14 patients met the inclusion criteria for ARDS in the COVID-19 and MERS groups, respectively. Both groups had a median of four comorbidities with high Charlson comorbidity index value of 5 points (P>0.22). COVID-19 patients were older, obese, had significantly higher initial C-reactive protein (CRP), more likely to get trial of high-flow oxygen, and had delayed intubation (P≤0.04). The postintubation course was similar between the groups. Patients in both groups experienced a prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation, and majority received paralytics, dialysis, and vasopressor agents (P>0.28). The respiratory and ventilatory parameters after intubation (including tidal volume, fraction of inspired oxygen, peak and plateau pressures) and their progression over 3 weeks were similar (P>0.05). Rates of mortality in the ICU (53% vs. 64%) and hospital (59% vs. 64%) among COVID-19 and MERS patients (P≥0.54) were very high. Conclusions: Despite some distinctive differences between COVID-19 and MERS patients prior to intubation, the respiratory and ventilatory parameters postintubation were not different. The higher initial CRP level in COVID-19 patients may explain the steroid responsiveness in this population.

Using Machine Learning Algorithms for Housing Price Prediction: The Case of Islamabad Housing Data

Imran, Imran,Zaman, Umar,Waqar, Muhammad,Zaman, Atif Institute of Information Science and Technology 2021 Soft computing and machine intelligence Vol.1 No.1

House price prediction is a significant financial decision for individuals working in the housing market as well as for potential buyers. From investment to buying a house for residence, a person investing in the housing market is interested in the potential gain. This paper presents machine learning algorithms to develop intelligent regressions models for House price prediction. The proposed research methodology consists of four stages, namely Data Collection, Pre Processing the data collected and transforming it to the best format, developing intelligent models using machine learning algorithms, training, testing, and validating the model on house prices of the housing market in the Capital, Islamabad. The data used for model validation and testing is the asking price from online property stores, which provide a reasonable estimate of the city housing market. The prediction model can significantly assist in the prediction of future housing prices in Pakistan. The regression results are encouraging and give promising directions for future prediction work on the collected dataset.

Challenges in Distributed Agile Software Development Environment: A Systematic Literature Review

( Imran Ghani ),( Angelica Lim ),( Muhammad Hasnain ),( Israr Ghani ),( Muhammad Imran Babar ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2019 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.13 No.9

Due to increasing interest in distributed agile software development, there is a need to systematically review the literature on challenges encountered in the agile software development environment. Using the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach, 32 relevant publications, dated between 2013 and 2018 were selected from four electronic databases. Data from these publications were extracted to identify the key challenges across the system development life cycle (SDLC) phases, which essentially are short phases in each agile-based iteration. 5 types of key challenges were identified as impacting the SDLC phases; these challenges are Communication, Coordination, Cooperation, Collaboration and Control. In the context of the SLDC phases, the Communication challenge was discussed the most often (79 times, 33%). The least discussed challenges were Cooperation and Collaboration (26 times, 11% each). The 5 challenges occur because of distances which occur in distributed environment. This SLR identified 4 types of distances which contribute to the occurrence of these key challenges - physical, temporal, social-cultural and knowledge/experience. Of the 32 publications, only 4 included research which proposed new solutions to address challenges in agile distributed software development. The authors of this article believe that the findings in this SLR are a resource for future research work to deepen the understanding of and to develop additional solutions to address the challenges in distributed agile software development.

Time-limited Gramians Based Model Reduction Framework for 1-D and 2-D Systems

Muhammad Imran,Muhammad Imran,Syeda Fizza Hamdani 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2022 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.20 No.11

Gawronski and Juang provide an unstable reduced-order model formulation without a priori error bounds for the original one- and two-dimensional models. Several strategies were put forth for the standard linear discretetime one-dimensional models to guarantee the stability of the reduced-order model over a given time-intervals. These frameworks produce significant truncation mistakes and lack time-domain error-bound expressions. For discrete-time, two-dimensional Gramians models, there are no stability-preserving frameworks that the authors are aware of. This study suggests a Gramian-based model reduction strategy for discrete-time models. One- and two-dimensional discrete-time models can be employed with the framework. The suggested model reduction approach is applied using time-limited Gramians after the discrete-time two-dimensional causal recursive separable denominator models are split into two sub-models (two one-dimensional cascaded models). The framework ensures reduced-order model stability and offers time-domain a priori error-bound expressions for one- and twodimensional models. Comparisons and numerical results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework.

Effect of increasing dietary metabolizable protein on nitrogen efficiency in Holstein dairy cows

Muhammad Imran,Talat Naseer Pasha,Muhammad Qamer Shahid,Imran Babar,Muhammad Naveed ul Haque 아세아·태평양축산학회 2017 Animal Bioscience Vol.30 No.5

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the effects of increasing levels of metabolizable protein (MP) on lactation performance and nitrogen (N) efficiencies in lactating dairy cows. Methods: Nine multiparous cows in mid lactation [113±25 days in milk] received three treatments in a 3×3 Latin square design with a period length of 21 days. The treatments were three diets, designed to provide similar energy and increasing supply of MP (g/d) (2,371 [low], 2,561 [medium], and 2,711 [high] with corresponding crude protein levels [%]) 15.2, 18.4, and 20.9, respectively. Results: Increasing MP supplies did not modify dry matter intake, however, it increased milk protein, fat, and lactose yield linearly. Similarly, fat corrected milk increased linearly (9.3%) due to an increase in both milk yield (5.2%) and milk fat content (7.8%). No effects were observed on milk protein and lactose contents across the treatments. Milk nitrogen efficiency (MNE) decreased from 0.26 to 0.20; whereas, the metabolic efficiency of MP decreased from 0.70 to 0.60 in low to high MP supplies, respectively. The concentration of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) increased linearly in response to increasing MP supplies. Conclusion: Increasing MP supplies resulted in increased milk protein yield; however, a higher BUN and low MNE indicated an efficient utilization of dietary protein at low MP supplies.

Feasibility Study of Case-Finding for Breast Cancer by Community Health Workers in Rural Bangladesh

Chowdhury, Touhidul Imran,Love, Richard Reed,Chowdhury, Mohammad Touhidul Imran,Artif, Abu Saeem,Ahsan, Hasib,Mamun, Anwarul,Khanam, Tahmina,Woods, James,Salim, Reza Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.17

Background: Mortality from breast cancer is high in low- and middle-income countries, in part because most patients have advanced stage disease when first diagnosed. Case-finding may be one approach to changing this situation. Materials and Methods: We conducted a pilot study to explore the feasibility of population-based case finding for breast cancer by community health workers (CHWs) using different data collection methods and approaches to management of women found to have breast abnormalities. After training 8 CHWs in breast problem recognition, manual paper data collection and operation of a cell-phone software platform for reporting demographic, history and physical finding information, these CHWs visited 3150 women >age 18 and over they could find-- from 2356 households in 8 villages in rural Bangladesh. By 4 random assignments of villages, data were collected manually (Group 1), or with the cell-phone program alone (Group 2) or with management algorithms (Groups 3 and 4), and women adjudged to have a serious breast problem were shown a motivational video (Group 3), or navigated/accompanied to a breast problem center for evaluation (Group 4). Results: Only three visited women refused evaluation. The manual data acquisition group (1) had missing data in 80% of cases, and took an average of 5 minutes longer to acquire, versus no missing data in the cell phone-reporting groups (2,3 and 4). One woman was identified with stage III breast cancer, and was appropriately treated. Conclusions: Among very poor rural Bangladeshi women, there was very limited reluctance to undergo breast evaluation. The estimated rarity of clinical breast cancer is supported by these population-based findings. The feasibility and efficient use of mobile technology in this setting is supported. Successor studies may most appropriately be trials focusing on improving the suggested benefits of motivation and navigation, on increasing the numbers of cases found, and on stage of disease at diagnosis as the primary endpoint.

A Survey-based Analysis of Agile Adoption on Performances of IT Organizations

( Imran Ghani ),( Mannir Bello ),( Idris Lawal Bagiwa ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2015 인터넷정보학회논문지 Vol.16 No.5

Numerous IT organizations and companies around the world aspire to improve the efficiency and general standard of their software development. The IT organizations want to seize the opportunities and take advantages of new development processes and methodologies. These advantages include higher customers` satisfaction and better software quality among many. In order to achieve them, different agile software methodologies such as scrum, Feature driven development, eXtremeProgramming (XP), Dynamic system development method, Kanban and others have been frequently adopted by IT organizations across the world. Several studies have shown that agile software development methods are effective in a lot of settings. This study, in which 40 agile practitioners from Malaysia participated, additionally confirms the effectiveness of agile development methods. Furthermore, this paper presents some of the critical barriers not well-known by IT-organizations. The results of this analysis can be used to guide IT organization from the obstacles they may face while adopting agile in their environments.

Knowledge and Awareness of Colorectal Cancer among Undergraduate Students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: a Survey-Based Study

Imran, Muhammad,Sayedalamin, Zaid,Alsulami, Salhah S,Atta, Magdi,Baig, Mukhtiar Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.5

Background: This study explored the knowledge and awareness about colorectal cancer (CRC) among undergraduate students of one of the leading universities in Saudi Arabia, along with the mode of information access. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted at the King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, among students of different faculties. The study questionnaire, containing 28 items, was adapted from surveys identified in the relevant literature. The CRC awareness questionnaire consisted of an awareness section (early CRC signs and symptoms, and risk factors) and a knowledge section. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 21.0. Results: A total of 525 undergraduate students participated in the study. The majority were females (63.0%) and approximately half (56.8%) were medical students. The majority of the students (82.3%) were aware of CRC, and 68% thought that CRC is a preventable disease. Regarding colorectal cancer screening tests, only one-third of students (33%) had actual knowledge, while the majority of the students (77.0%) thought that there are tests which help in early detection. Only 4% of the participants had a family history of CRC. The majority of the participants (84%) thought that CRC is a disease that can be cured. Almost 50-60% participants had good awareness level regarding risk factors, and signs and symptoms. Regarding knowledge, participant responses varied for family history (52%), age (59%), chronic infection of the colon (72%), obesity and lack of exercise (66%). More than one-third of the students had received information material regarding CRC from their curriculum followed by social media (20.4%), and nearly 40% from other sources such as TV, hospital and mass media. Female participants had significantly better awareness in a few questions regarding CRC awareness as compared to their male counterparts. There was a significant difference observed between medical and non-medical students (p<0.001) in overall score of awareness and knowledge about CRC while no significant difference found in gender-wise comparison. Conclusions: Knowledge and awareness of students about CRC were not up to the mark. Medical students and female students had better knowledge in a few areas, but the overall situation is dismal.

Experimental Comparison of Five Approximation Algorithms for Minimum Vertex Cover

Imran Khan,Sangeen Khan 보안공학연구지원센터 2014 International Journal of u- and e- Service, Scienc Vol.7 No.6

Numerous approximation algorithms have been presented by researchers for approximation of minimum vertex cover, all of these approaches have deficiencies in one way or another. As minimum vertex cover is NP-Complete so we can’t find out optimal solution so approximation is the way left but it is very hard for someone to decide which one procedure to use, in this comparison paper we have selected five approximation algorithms and have drawn detailed experimental comparison. Best available benchmarks were used for the comparison process which was to compare multiple algorithms for the same task on different aspects. Extensive results have been provided to clarify the selection process, probability of production optimal solutions, run time complexity and approximation ratio were factors involved in the process of selection.

Anticancer potential of CJK-6 compound isolated from Paulownia tomentosa against colon carcinoma cell lines

Imran Khan,Souren Paul,Ki Hun Park,Sun Chul Kang 한국약용작물학회 2015 한국약용작물학술대회 발표집 Vol.2015 No.05