Exclusive Interview with the Palestinian Leaders

( Arafat ) 한국외국어대학교 중동연구소 1993 중동연구 Vol.12 No.-

Hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis): clinical, laboratory, and ultrasonographic findings

Arafat Khalphallah,Nasr-Eldin M. Aref,Ashraf M. Abu-Seida,Enas Elmeligy,Sara A. Bayoumi,Al-lethie A. Al-lethie,Doaa Salman 대한수의학회 2018 Journal of Veterinary Science Vol.19 No.4

This study describes ultrasonographic observations of five hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Fifty buffalo, including 20 clinically normal and 30 hepatobiliary diseased buffalo were enrolled in the study. Complete clinical, radiographic and ultrasonographic examinations and laboratory analyses were conducted. Focal parenchymal lesions including liver abscess (n = 12) and hepatic cyst (n = 6), diffuse parenchymal lesion (hepatobiliary cirrhosis, n = 5) and obstruction of hepatobiliary passages including cholestasis (n = 4), and hepatocholelithiasis (n = 3) were successfully imaged by ultrasonography. Hepatic abscess imaged as a hypoechoic to echogenic circumscribed mass of various diameters with a distinct echogenic capsule. Hepatic cyst imaged as a pear-shaped sac with a bright echogenic margin, anechoic content, and distal acoustic enhancement. In hepatobiliary fibrosis, the liver showed linear bands of increasing echogenicity with less distinct imaging of the portal vasculature. Cholestasis was imaged as dilatation of the gallbladder (GB) with wall thickening and homogeneous or heterogeneous contents. Hepatocholelithiasis imaged as an echoic structure within the hepatic parenchyma, or within and around the GB and bile duct, with more echogenicity of the hepatic parenchyma than normal. Ultrasonography can be an efficient rapid, noninvasive tool for screening of common hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo under field conditions.

Localization and Clustering Based on Swarm Intelligence in UAV Networks for Emergency Communications

Arafat, Muhammad Yeasir,Moh, Sangman IEEE 2019 IEEE Internet of things journal Vol.6 No.5

<P>In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks have been a focus area of the academic and industrial research community. They have been used in many military and civilian applications. Emergency communication is one of the essential requirements for first responders and victims in the aftermath of natural disasters. In such scenarios, UAVs may configure ad hoc wireless networks to cover a large area. In UAV networks, however, localization and routing are challenging tasks owing to the high mobility, unstable links, dynamic topology, and limited energy of UAVs. Here, we propose swarm-intelligence-based localization (SIL) and clustering schemes in UAV networks for emergency communications. First, we propose a new 3-D SIL algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) that exploits the particle search space in a limited boundary by using the bounding box method. In the 3-D search space, anchor UAV nodes are randomly distributed and the SIL algorithm measures the distance to existing anchor nodes for estimating the location of the target UAV nodes. Convergence time and localization accuracy are improved with lower computational cost. Second, we propose an energy-efficient swarm-intelligence-based clustering (SIC) algorithm based on PSO, in which the particle fitness function is exploited for intercluster distance, intracluster distance, residual energy, and geographic location. For energy-efficient clustering, cluster heads are selected based on improved particle optimization. The proposed SIC outperforms five typical routing protocols regarding packet delivery ratio, average end-to-end delay, and routing overhead. Moreover, SIC consumes less energy and prolongs network lifetime.</P>

Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and abiotic stress in plants: A review

Arafat Abdel Hamed Abdel Latef,Abeer Hashem,Saiema Rasool,Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah,Alqarawi A.A,Dilfuza Egamberdieva,Sumira Jan,Naser A. Anjum,Parvaiz Ahmad 한국식물학회 2016 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.59 No.5

Abiotic stresses (such as salinity, drought, cold, heat, mineral deficiency and metals/metalloids) have become major threats to the global agricultural production. These stresses in isolation and/or combination control plant growth, development and productivity by causing physiological disorders, ion toxicity, and hormonal and nutritional imbalances. Some soil microorganisms like arbuscular mycorhizal fungi (AMF) inhabit the rhizosphere and develop a symbiotic relationship with the roots of most plant species. AMF can significantly improve resistance of host plants to varied biotic and abiotic stresses. Taking into account recent literature, this paper: (a) overviews major abiotic stresses and introduces the arbuscular mycorrhizae symbiosis (b) appraises the role and underlying major mechanisms of AMF in plant tolerance to major abiotic stresses including salinity, drought, temperature regimes (cold and heat), nutrient-deficiency, and metal/metalloids; (c) discusses major molecular mechanisms potentially involved in AMF-mediated plant-abiotic stress tolerance; and finally (d) highlights major aspects for future work in the current direction.

Z charmoniumlike mesons

Mokhtar, Arafat Gabareen,Olsen, Stephen Lars science press 2011 Chinese physics. C Vol.35 No.7

<P>A brief review of the experimental situation concerning the electrically charged charmoniumlike meson candidates, Z<SUP>−</SUP>, is presented.</P>

Ellagic acid rich Momordica charantia fruit pulp supplementation prevented oxidative stress, fibrosis and inflammation in liver of alloxan induced diabetic rats

Syed Yeasin Arafat,Ashraful Alam,Mohammad Nayeem,Sharfiat Jahan,Zarifa Karim,Hasan Mahmud Reza,Hemayet Hossain,Mohammad Shohel 경희대학교 융합한의과학연구소 2016 Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine Vol.31 No.4

The present study was undertaken to investigate the hepatoprotective effect of Momordica charantia in alloxan induced diabetic rats. The experimental rats were randomly divided into four groups. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and biochemical analysis for oxidative stress parameters and liver function marker enzymes were analyzed for each group of rats. Moreover, histological staining was also performed on liver sections. Momordica charantia supplementation prevented the rise of blood glucose level and improved oral glucose tolerance test in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Liver marker enzymes such as aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities were increased in alloxan induced rats which were normalized in Momordica charantia supplemented group. In addition, elevated level of oxidative stress markers were also observed in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Momordica charantia supplementation significantly restored the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) enzymes activities and increased reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration in diabetic rats. Histological assessments confirm the mononuclear cell infiltration and fibrosis in liver of alloxan induced diabetic rats which were ameliorated by Momordica charantia supplementation. The present investigation suggests the hepatoprotective nature of Momordica charantia in diabetic rats probably by attenuating oxidative stress and improving the antioxidant competence in hepatic tissues.

A Vehicular License Plate Recognition Framework For Skewed Images

( M. Y. Arafat ),( A. S. M. Khairuddin ),( R. Paramesran ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2018 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.12 No.11

Vehicular license plate (LP) recognition system has risen as a significant field of research recently because various explorations are currently being conducted by the researchers to cope with the challenges of LPs which include different illumination and angular situations. This research focused on restricted conditions such as using image of only one vehicle, stationary background, no angular adjustment of the skewed images. A real time vehicular LP recognition scheme is proposed for the skewed images for detection, segmentation and recognition of LP. In this research, a polar co-ordinate transformation procedure is implemented to adjust the skewed vehicular images. Besides that, window scanning procedure is utilized for the candidate localization that is based on the texture characteristics of the image. Then, connected component analysis (CCA) is implemented to the binary image for character segmentation where the pixels get connected in an eight-point neighbourhood process. Finally, optical character recognition is implemented for the recognition of the characters. For measuring the performance of this experiment, 300 skewed images of different illumination conditions with various tilt angles have been tested. The results show that proposed method able to achieve accuracy of 96.3% in localizing, 95.4% in segmenting and 94.2% in recognizing the LPs with an average localization time of 0.52s.

The Influence of Feedback in the Simulated Patient Case-History Training among Audiology Students at the International Islamic University Malaysia

Ahmad Aidil Arafat Dzulkarnain,Maryam Kamilah Ahmad Sani,Sarah Rahmat,Masnira Jusoh 대한청각학회 2019 Journal of Audiology & Otology Vol.23 No.3

Background and Objectives: There is a scant evidence on the use of simulations in audiology (especially in Malaysia) for case-history taking, although this technique is widely used for training medical and nursing students. Feedback is one of the important components in simulations training; however, it is unknown if feedback by instructors could influence the simulated patient (SP) training outcome for case-history taking among audiology students. Aim of the present study is to determine whether the SP training with feedback in addition to the standard role-play and seminar training is an effective learning tool for audiology case-history taking. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-six second-year undergraduate audiology students participated. A cross-over study design was used. All students initially attended two hours of seminar and role-play sessions. They were then divided into three types of training, 1) SP training (Group A), 2) SP with feedback (Group B), and 3) a non-additional training group (Group C). After two training sessions, the students changed their types of training to, 1) Group A and C: SP training with feedback, and 2) Group B: non-additional training. All the groups were assessed at three points: 1) pre-test, 2) intermediate, and 3) post-test. The normalized median score differences between and within the respective groups were analysed using non-parametric tests at 95% confidence intervals. Results: Groups with additional SP trainings (with and without feedback) showed a significantly higher normalized gain score than no training group (p<0.05). Conclusions: The SP training (with/ without feedback) is a beneficial learning tool for history taking to students in audiology major.

Robust strain-estimation algorithm using combined radiofrequency and envelope cross-correlation with diffusion filtering.

Hussain, Mohammad Arafat,Alam, S Kaisar,Lees, Soo Yeol,Hasan, Md Kamrul Academic Press 2012 Ultrasonic imaging Vol.34 No.2

<P>In ultrasound elastography, the strain in compressed tissue due to external deformation is estimated and is smaller in harder than softer tissue. With increased stress, the nonaxial motions of tissue elements increase and result in noisier strain images. At high strain, the envelope of the rf signal exhibits robustness to signal decorrelation. However, the precision of strain estimates using envelope signals is much worse compared to that using the rf signals. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for robust strain estimation by combining weighted rf cross-correlation and envelope cross-correlation functions. An applied strain-dependent piecewise-linear-weight is used for this purpose. In addition, we introduce nonlinear diffusion filtering to further enhance the resulting strain image. The results of our algorithm are demonstrated for up to 10% applied strain using a finite-element modelling (FEM) simulation phantom. It reveals that the elastographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNRe) and the elastographic contrast-to-noise ratio (CNRe) of the strain images can be improved more significantly than with other algorithms used in this paper. In addition, comparative results in terms of the mean structural similarity (MSSIM) using in vivo breast data show that the strain image quality can be improved noticeably by the proposed method than with the techniques employed in this work.</P>

Effects of Ambient Acoustic Noise on Auditory Brainstem Response to Level-Specific Chirp and Click Stimuli in Normal-Hearing Adults

Dzulkarnain Ahmad Aidil Arafat,Rahed Balqis Aqilah Mat,Shahrudin Fatin Amira,Jamal Fatin Nabilah,Zakaria Mohd Normani 대한청각학회 2022 Journal of Audiology & Otology Vol.26 No.4

Background and Objectives: Despite few reports on the influence of ambient acoustic noise on auditory brainstem response (ABR) to click stimuli, its effects on ABR to level-specific (LS) stimuli have not been systematically investigated. This study aimed to investigate the influence of ambient acoustic noise on ABR findings using both LS chirp and click stimuli.Subjects and Methods: Twelve normal-hearing adults participated in this repeated measure design study. The ABRs were acquired at 80, 50, and 30 dBnHL using two stimuli (LS chirp and click) under two conditions (quiet and noise). The ABRs under noise conditions were acquired using babble noise and white noise. The noise level was set at 55 dBA. Two-way repeated measure analysis was used to identify the main effects of the test conditions, stimulus types, and their interactions at a 95% confidence level.Results: No significant influence of ambient acoustic noise on ABR findings was identified at all intensity levels. No significant difference was found in the number of signal averages to reach the 0.04 μV residual noise as stopping criteria among the ABRs recorded with different types of stimuli and test conditions. The ABR waves I and V amplitudes were larger with LS chirp than with click stimulus.Conclusions: Ambient acoustic noise has no significant influence on ABR findings and the ABR test time based on the 55 dBA noise level used in this study.