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Background To measure the rate of colonization of outborn infants with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to evaluate the need for Contact Precautions (including isolation) at the time of admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods All 239 consecutive infants referred from the neonatal units of other hospitals to a tertiary NICU in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, between January 2000 and December 2007 were screened for MRSA colonization. Swabs from the ear, nose, rectum, axillae, and groin were obtained from each patient, and the rates of colonization were calculated retrospectively. Results Some 72% of newborns were admitted to our NICU in the first week. Only 1 patient, admitted from Oman, grew MRSA from the ear swab (rate, 0.4%; 95% confidence interval = 0.01%∼2.3%). Conclusion This study from a tertiary NICU in a developing country shows that outborn infants are unlikely to harbor MRSA, and thus their routine admission in a single-bed isolation room is not justified. MRSA screening on admission has a very low yield and does not appear to be cost-effective. Contact Precautions should be reserved for those newborns transferred from general pediatric wards and those admitted from home.

We continue the ongoing dialogue in AMLE on business school hubs and addresses from Rogmans (2019, this issue) by evaluating the applicability of Dunning’s OLI advantages—Ownership (O), Location (L...

This study describes the time trends for infant mortality in Hong Kong and aims to develop statistical models that can be used to predict changes of infant mortality in places already having low levels of infant mortality.Data on births and deaths of infants in Hong Kong during the years 1956-90 were analysed annually as well as by aggregating the data into seven consecutive quinquennia. To assess the contribution of preventable infant deaths, causes for infant deaths were classified into two broad categories: (i) congenital anomalies; and (ii) preventable diseases. A simple linear regression model was used to analyse the time trend of the mortality rate of the preventable diseases (PIMR) over the seven quinquennia.During the period 1956-90, the infant mortality rate fell from 60.9 in 1956-5.9 per 1000 in 1990 and the neonatal mortality rate fell from 24.2-3.8 per 1000. There was no clear time trend observed for infant mortality of congenital anomalies. However, the time trend for PIMR (log scale) was very close to a straight line and simple linear regression modelling showed a R2 of 0.9970.As the infant mortality rate (IMR) falls to below 30 per 1000, the further rate of decrease becomes less predictable from the regression model of the IMR. By removing the portion of deaths attributable to congenital anomalies, the further decrease in infant mortality became more predictable down to very low levels of IMR.This study determines the pattern of reliability of infant mortality reports in Hong Kong. Data are obtained from annual reports of the director of Medical and Health Services during 1956-88 and the director of Health during 1989-90. Deaths were grouped in 5-year age periods during 1956-90. Infant deaths were registered according to cause based on 3 different versions of the International Classification of Disease into 4 major groups: congenital anomalies, conditions originating in the perinatal period, pneumonia, and all other causes. Preventable infant deaths were grouped into 2 categories based on Bourgeois-Pichat's classification: congenital causes and preventable ones. These 2 causes were plotted on a line chart by quinquennial period. Infant mortality rates (IMR) declined from 60.9/1000 in 1956 to 5.9/1000 in 1990. The neonatal mortality rate declined from 24.2 to 3.8/1000 in the same period. Postneonatal mortality rates declined the most from 36.7 to 2.2/1000. The 3 mortality trends were mostly linear. All 3 rates were highly correlated with each other. Major decreases occurred for pneumonia and other. The other group of infectious diseases that included tuberculosis, tetanus, gastroenteritis, and other diarrheal diseases declined the most rapidly by as much as 66 times. Mortality rates by congenital causes increased during the early period and declined slowly during the 1980s, while proportional mortality continued to increase. 84.6% of all infant deaths during 1986-90 were congenital deaths and deaths occurring in the perinatal period. The authors suggest reducing congenital deaths by imposing public health measures, raising the medical knowledge of the public, and improving the use of modern technology. Conditions originating in the perinatal period could be reduced by addressing intrauterine hypoxia, birth asphyxia, and other respiratory conditions.

This study aims to examine the impact of financial inclusion on the financial performance of Jordanian banks listed in the Amman Stock Exchange. The study empirically tested the impact of five main indicators of financial inclusion on bank performance. Using a simple regression analysis, findings of the study showed statistically significant impact of two indicators of financial inclusion (i.e., financial access and enterprise financing) and bank financial performance (i.e., bank profitability) of Jordanian banks. The study recommends Jordanian financial institutions to move toward increasing innovative access to financial services as well as enhancing IT infrastructure and the development of financial services to raise the level of digital banking services which is currently considered relatively low when compared to other middle-income countries.

Funding of higher education institutions is a major growing expense for the Oman government (13–14% of the total spending in 2016) and is at par with that of other governments (e.g., 11% in the UK and 15.5% in the US). However, there has been little investigation into the funding of quality higher education in Oman. The present research project aims to explore the sources of funding at Oman universities after it opened the private education sector in 1996. The research methodology includes conducting interviews with leaders in higher education to explore different types of funding (e.g., gifts, tuition fees, government support). This will enhance our understanding, as well as that of decision-makers, regarding universities' funding sources and of the higher education landscape.

© 1982-2012 IEEE. Back propagation (BP) based on stochastic gradient descent is the prevailing method to train multilayer neural networks (MNNs) with hidden layers. However, the existence of the physical separation between memory arrays and arithmetic module makes it inefficient and ineffective to implement BP in conventional digital hardware. Although CMOS may alleviate some problems of the hardware implementation of MNNs, synapses based on CMOS cost too much power and areas in very large scale integrated circuits. As a novel device, memristor shows promises to overcome this shortcoming due to its ability to closely integrate processing and memory. This paper proposes a novel circuit for implementing a synapse based on a memristor and two MOSFET tansistors (p-type and n-type). Compared with a CMOS-only circuit, the proposed one reduced the area consumption by 92%-98%. In addition, we develop a fuzzy method for the adjustment of the learning rates of MNNs, which increases the learning accuracy by 2%-3% compared with a constant learning rate. Meanwhile, the fuzzy adjustment method is robust and insensitive to parameter changes due to the approximate reasoning. Furthermore, the proposed methods can be extended to memristor-based multilayer convolutional neural network for complex tasks. The novel architecture behaves in a human-liking thinking process.

The goal of this paper is to present the first stage of developing an educational laboratory to teach smart grid design and implementations for both under graduate and graduate levels. Hampden 180 simulator that represents conventional generation, transmission, and distribution power system is integrated with intelligent electronic devices and tied together in an architecture that provides reliable and fault-tolerant protection, control and monitoring. The upgraded laboratory will demonstrate high level of functionality and satisfying the design and operation objectives of smart grid metering, protection, control, monitoring and communication. Part 2 of this paper will discuss and present the implementation stage.

Abstract The present experimental investigation describes the impact of surfactants (such as Benzalkonium chloride (BAC), Cetrimonium chloride (CTAC), Ammonium lauryl sulphate (ALS), PLS (Pottasium lauryl sulphate), Brij 700, and Span 80), sonication time (30–240 min.), and temperature (55 °C ~ 80 °C), on the stability and viscosity of hybrid nanoparticle (CeO2 + MWCNT) for different base fluids (water, silicone oil, EG, and therminol VP-I). The results of Zeta potential analysis indicated that BAC surfactant shows the best impact on hybrid nanofluid stability (HNF). The observed optimum sonication time is 60, 120, 90, and 120 min, respectively, for silicon oil, EG, water, and therminol VP-I for which HNF yields maximum zeta potential value. With the increment in operating temperature range, the stability of prepared HNF using different base fluids and adding six different surfactants has decreased. Furthermore, it is found that with the increase in sonication time, the viscosity of HNF firstly decreases up to an optimum time, after which it increases gradually. The rheological behavior of working HNF for various practical applications of the current suspensions is also reported. From 3S analysis such as sonication, surfactant, and stability, De-Ionized (DI) Water is advisable to be used as a base fluid for the particle combination of CeO2 + MWCNT with 80:20 mixture ratio as it provides long-term stability and marginal viscosity enhancement. Finally, results show that the CeO2 + MWCNT (80,20)/ DI water nano colloidal behaves as a Non-Newtonian fluid as there is no linear agreement found between shear stress and shear rate.

The Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted medical education across the world. Online teaching has grown rapidly under lockdown. Yet the online approach for assessment presents a number of challenges, particularly when evaluating clinical competencies. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, reliability and validity of an online Virtual Clinical Encounter Examination (VICEE) to assess non-psychomotor competencies (non-procedure or manual skills) of medical students.Sixty-one final year medical students took the VICEE as part of the final summative examination. A panel of faculty experts developed the exam cases and competencies. They administered the test online via real-time interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) based virtual patients, along with faculty and IT support.Student and faculty surveys demonstrated satisfaction with the experience. Confirmatory factor analysis supported convergent validity of VICEE with Direct Observation Clinical Encounter Examination (DOCEE), a previously validated clinical examination. The observed sensitivity was 81.8%, specificity 64.1% and likelihood ratio 12.6, supporting the ability of VICEE to diagnose 'clinical incompetence' among students.Our results suggest that online AI-based virtual patient high fidelity simulation may be used as an alternative tool to assess some aspects of non-psychometric competencies.