Digital epidemiology of high-frequency search listening trends for the surveillance of subjective well-being during COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in online searches related to psychological distress. Governments worldwide have responded with various measures to mitigate the impact of the virus, influencing public behavior and emotional well-being. This study investigated the relationship between government actions and public reactions in terms of online search behaviors, particularly concerning psychological distress during the pandemic.

Machine learning-based remission prediction in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs: findings from the Kuwait rheumatic disease registry.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common condition treated with biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines (bDMARDs). However, many patients exhibit resistance, necessitating the use of machine learning models to predict remissions in patients treated with bDMARDs, thereby reducing healthcare costs and minimizing negative effects.

Objective: The study aims to develop machine learning models using data from the Kuwait Registry for Rheumatic Diseases (KRRD) to identify clinical characteristics predictive of remission in RA patients treated with biologics.

MPPT algorithm based on metaheuristic techniques (PSO & GA) dedicated to improve wind energy water pumping system performance.

This paper presents a comparative study between four techniques recently used to improve the wind energy conversion system (WECS) to water pumping systems. The WECS is a renewable energy source which has developed rapidly in recent years. The use of the WECS in the water pumping field is a free solution (economically) compared to the use of the electricity grid supply.

Non-word repetition and vocabulary in Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children with down syndrome and typically developing children.

Overview: Non-word repetition (NWR) is one of the most effective predictors of language impairments in children as it has been found to correlate with various language measures and the association between NWR and vocabulary is well documented in typically developing (TD) studies. However, there is a dire need for investigations of language skills in Kuwaiti Arabic individuals with Down Syndrome, and this study set out to fill a gap in this field.

Method: In this paper, we compare the vocabulary and NWR skills of a group of 48 individuals with DS aged 6-20 years to a group of 44 TD children aged 3-10 years matched on nonverbal IQ.

Psychological well-being in Europe after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has had devastating effects on the Ukrainian population and the global economy, environment, and political order. However, little is known about the psychological states surrounding the outbreak of war, particularly the mental well-being of individuals outside Ukraine. Here, we present a longitudinal experience-sampling study of a convenience sample from 17 European countries (total participants = 1,341, total assessments = 44,894, countries with >100 participants = 5) that allows us to track well-being levels across countries during the weeks surrounding the outbreak of war.

Wide-Angle Beam Steering Closed-Form Pillbox Antenna Fed by Substrate-Integrated Waveguide Horn for On-the-Move Satellite Communications.

Wide-angle mechanical beam steering for on-the-move satellite communications is presented in this paper based on a closed-form pillbox antenna system. It includes three main parts: a fixed-feed part, which is a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) horn with an extended aperture attached to a parabolic reflector; a novel quasi-optical system, which is a single coupling slot alongside and without spacing from the parabolic reflector; and a radiating disc, which is a leaky-wave metallic pattern. To make the antenna compact, pillbox-based feeding is implemented underneath the metallic patterns.

Prevalence of Latent Tuberculosis Infection Among Rheumatology Patients and Management Practices in the United Arab Emirates: A Single-Center Retrospective Cohort Study.

Introduction Prior to immunosuppression, rheumatology patients are routinely screened for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection using interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs). Variability in the management of latent and indeterminate IGRA results across institutions limited long-term outcome data. A retrospective study was conducted at Tawam Hospital, United Arab Emirates, to investigate the incidence and management protocols associated with positive and indeterminate IGRA results, as well as TB infection, among patients with rheumatic conditions.

Dietary Intake and Exposure Assessment of Trace Elements in Infants' Diets: A Case Study in Kuwait.

Different types of infant foods categorized as formulas, cereals, and purees imported from seven different countries and available on the Kuwaiti retail market were collected to determine the elemental content, including essential trace elements namely chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), and molybdenum (Mo); potentially toxic trace elements such as aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), antimony (Sb), and uranium (U); and toxic trace elements including arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). The samples were analyzed using ICP-MS. An extensive literature search illustrated the uniqueness of this study since seven different essential elements, five different potentially toxic elements, and four different toxic trace elements were measured in a variety of infant foods; in addition, the different trace etlemental levels measured in the investigated infant foods were compared to the ones associated with the different infant foods types reported in the literature.

Clinicopathological analysis of BRAF and non-BRAF MAPK pathway-altered gliomas in paediatric and adult patients: a single-institution study of 40 patients.

Aims: Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway alteration is a major oncogenic driver in paediatric low-grade gliomas (LGG) and some adult gliomas, encompassing BRAF (most common) and non-BRAF alterations. The aim was to determine the frequency, molecular spectrum and clinicopathological features of MAPK-altered gliomas in paediatric and adult patients at our neuropathology site in Kuwait.

Methods: We retrospectively searched the data of molecularly sequenced gliomas between 2018 and 2023 for MAPK alterations, revised the pathology in view of the 2021 WHO classification and evaluated the clinicopathological data for possible correlations.

Thermal-hydraulic characteristics of nitric acid: An experimental and numerical analysis.

Nitric acid is one of the most important products in the chemical industry, ranking third globally in terms of acid production. Although nitric acid has many industrial applications, its primary function is the production of ammonium nitrate, which is used in the fertilizer industry. In this report, we propose a plan for an Ostwald process plant that will produce 1000 metric tons of nitric acid per day.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced DAS28 index among patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Case study from KRRD.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, autoimmune disease that mostly affects the synovial joints. It has been hypothesized that dietary and other environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to the development of RA and its severity.

Objective: The present study aims to measure the effect of the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) on the disease activity scores (DAS28) among patients with RA.

Archive-based coronavirus herd immunity algorithm for optimizing weights in neural networks.

The success of the supervised learning process for feedforward neural networks, especially multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP), depends on the suitable configuration of its controlling parameters (i.e., weights and biases).

Effective plasmonic spectroscopic amplifiers for hyper-Raman scattering process.

In an asymmetric Au cubic trimer, influence of the rotation angle () and side length () on both plasmonic coupling features and corresponding enhancement factor of hyper-Raman scattering (HRS) process have been investigated comprehensively under the illumination of a longitudinally polarized light. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) electrodynamic simulation tool has been employed to calculate the optical cross-section and associated nearfield intensity of the irradiated coupled resonators. Asincreases, the polarization state that dominates the coupling phenomenon is gradually switched from facing sides into facing edges which results in (1) a dramatic change in the spectral response of the trimer and (2) a significant improvement in the nearfield intensity that is directly related to the improvement of HRS signal.

Classification framework for faulty-software using enhanced exploratory whale optimizer-based feature selection scheme and random forest ensemble learning.

Software Fault Prediction (SFP) is an important process to detect the faulty components of the software to detect faulty classes or faulty modules early in the software development life cycle. In this paper, a machine learning framework is proposed for SFP. Initially, pre-processing and re-sampling techniques are applied to make the SFP datasets ready to be used by ML techniques.

Recent Versions and Applications of Sparrow Search Algorithm.

This paper reviews the latest versions and applications of sparrow search algorithm (SSA). It is a recent swarm-based algorithm proposed in 2020 rapidly grew due to its simple and optimistic features. SSA is inspired by the sparrow living style of foraging and the anti-predation behavior of sparrows.

Anisotropic metallic heterotrimer systems for an ultrahigh plasmonic-based improvement of hyper-Raman scattering signal.

An anisotropic metallic trimer is proposed as an active plasmonic substrate for an ultrahigh enhancement in the spectroscopic signal of the hyper-Raman scattering (HRS) process. The suggested three-particle system is composed from non-aligned asymmetric nanoparticles of a cubic shape. The interacting resonators are made of gold material and illuminated by a longitudinally polarized light.

Recent Advances in Butterfly Optimization Algorithm, Its Versions and Applications.

The butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA) is a recent successful metaheuristic swarm-based optimization algorithm. The BOA has attracted scholars' attention due to its extraordinary features. Such as the few adaptive parameters to handle and the high balance between exploration and exploitation.

Guanfacine Normalizes the Overexpression of Presynaptic α-2A Adrenoceptor Signaling and Ameliorates Neuropathic Pain in a Chronic Animal Model of Type 1 Diabetes.

Background: Diabetes is associated with several complications, including neuropathic pain, which is difficult to manage with currently available drugs. Descending noradrenergic neurons possess antinociceptive activity; however, their involvement in diabetic neuropathic pain remains to be explored.

Methods: To infer the regulatory role of this system, we examined as a function of diabetes, the expression and localization of alpha-2A adrenoceptors (α2-AR) in the dorsal root ganglia and key regions of the central nervous system, including pons and lumbar segment of the spinal cord using qRT-PCR, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence-based techniques.

Correction to: Exploring the impact of air pollution on COVID-19 admitted cases: Evidence from vector error correction model (VECM) approach in explaining the relationship between air pollutants towards COVID-19 cases in Kuwait.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s42081-022-00165-z.].

Solubility of gaseous hydrocarbons in ionic liquids using equations of state and machine learning approaches.

Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as suitable options for gas storage applications over the past decade. Consequently, accurate prediction of gas solubility in ILs is crucial for their application in the industry. In this study, four intelligent techniques including Extreme Learning Machine (ELM), Deep Belief Network (DBN), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), and Boosting-Support Vector Regression (Boost-SVR) have been proposed to estimate the solubility of some gaseous hydrocarbons in ILs based on two distinct methods.

Recent advances of bat-inspired algorithm, its versions and applications.

Bat-inspired algorithm (BA) is a robust swarm intelligence algorithm that finds success in many problem domains. The ecosystem of bat animals inspires the main idea of BA. This review paper scanned and analysed the state-of-the-art researches investigated using BA from 2017 to 2021.

Metallic spherical heterotrimer systems for plasmonic-based improvement in hyper-Raman scattering.

A unique combination between structural parameters of collinearly arranged spherical particles is proposed as an effective plasmonic substrate for ultrahigh enhancement in hyper-Raman scattering signals. The suggested spherical trimer systems are mainly composed from two identical nanoparticle separated by a third alike shape resonator of different size. All the interacting plasmonic element are made from gold, arranged in 1D array and illuminated by a longitudinally polarized light.