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Abstract Background The relationship between the microbiome and oral health is intricate, yet there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge regarding the microbiome’s impact on oral health. Integrating knowledge regarding the oral microbiome and its significance in oral and systemic diseases holds profound implications for dental professionals in patient care and professional development. This study assessed dental professionals’ oral microbiome comprehension and knowledge levels in Saudi Arabia and its implications for oral healthcare. Methods Data were gathered using a cross-sectional design by administering a comprehensive online questionnaire to 253 dental professionals from diverse demographic backgrounds. The questionnaire, administered in English, was divided into four sections: (1) Microbiome awareness and understanding, (2) Diet, nutrition, and microbiome relationship, (3) Microbiome and oral and systemic diseases, and (4) Counselling, education, and implications. Statistical analyses were used to identify and understand underlying patterns, including descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests, ANOVA, and post hoc tests. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was applied to assess self-rated knowledge. Results Of the 253 participants, 94.6% were familiar with the term “microbiome.” Merely 13% of participants considered the oral microbiome to be the second most diverse, following the gut microbiome. About 39.9% of participants knew the connection between oral mucosal diseases and the oral microbiome. Furthermore, only 6.7% thought there was a connection between systemic diseases and the oral microbiome. Participant comprehension of oral microbiome questions averaged 9.19 out of 13, with 83.7% scoring “good”. There were significant differences in knowledge scores among dental specializations (F = 7.082, P

This article presents a four-port multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) flexible antenna design for Ultrawideband (UWB) application using Polydimethylsiloxanes substrate. The single UWB antenna structure consists of modified circular radiator with elliptical slot and partial ground plane. To achieve high isolation among antenna element, a Defective Ground Structure (DGS) is adopted to decouple the low frequency band. DGS comprises a centrally placed square shape slotted structure connected by horizontal and vertical lines, achieving isolation below −20 dB. The proposed antenna has a dimension of 56×41×1.6mm3(0.41λ×0.3λ×0.0117λ), bandwidth of 3.4–11.8 GHz (110.5 %) and 4.3 dBi peak gain. Simulation and measurement findings show that the antenna performs well under bending situations with different curvature radius. At 4 GHz and 8.1 GHz, W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) for 1/10 g tissue is examined. A low value of SAR is obtained at both the resonating frequencies. Additionally, an analysis is conducted on the diversity parameters, and the antenna demonstrates comparatively good results having mean effective gain (MEG) ratio 9.99 dB, implying that it's appropriate for wearable MIMO applications.

A four-port dual-band notch ultrawideband (UWB) multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) antenna for automotive applications is presented. Initially, a circular patch monopole antenna is designed and optimized by embedding a rectangular stub onto the radiator and lowering the ground plane to realize the UWB frequency spectrum. The dual-band frequency notch, from 4.6 to 5.9 and 6.8–8.8 GHz, is achieved using a half wavelength slot onto the feedline and a pair of H-shaped stubs across the feedline, respectively, to cover WLAN and complete x-band satellite communication. Further, the designed dual-band notch UWB antenna is transformed to a four-port MIMO antenna with interelement spacing much smaller than λ/4 (λ at 3.1 GHz) and a size of 0.46 × 0.41 × 0.01 λ3. Isolation improvement is achieved by a hybrid decoupling technique comprising a distinctive neutralization line (NL) and defected ground structure (DGS). The average isolation of the proposed design is better than 22 dB. Characteristic mode analysis of the proposed antenna is performed to analyze the specific significant mode and their contribution to the antenna radiation. The antenna design's diversity and time-domain properties are analyzed and found suitable for automotive applications. The antenna's electromagnetic interaction with the electrically large structure is studied by mounting the antenna onto an open-source automobile model, and the gain is determined to be more than 6.1 dB at the antenna's resonant frequencies.

The rapid augmentation of wearable technology and IoT contributes to a substantial consideration in the design and development of flexible sensor antennas. These types of antennas could detect variations in the signal even when the antenna is deformed when placed over the body for wearable sensing applications. This paper proposes a highly flexible CPW-fed antenna for 5G wearable sensor applications. Holding an overall dimension of 40 × 30 × 0.1 mm3, the antenna covers a measured impedance bandwidth of 4.57–5.50 GHz with a peak gain of 3.8 dBi. The design optimization of the proposed antenna is investigated using the characteristic mode analysis (CMA) which provides a clear insight into the physical performance and radiation characteristics of the antenna. Bending analysis of the antenna is performed for various bending radius along x and y axis, and the antenna gives a satisfactory bending profile. The favourable SAR value as well as the on-body analysis of the antenna demonstrate the application possibilities of the proposed antenna for wireless wearable sensing applications.

Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases are most common worldwide and the death rate can be reduced by early detection. Endoscopy is widely regarded as the gold standard for diagnosing and managing digestive disorders, affecting both the upper and lower GI tracts. Endoscopy is performed to uncover biopsy tissues used to check the presence of cancerous or benign cells, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, or perform colonoscopy in case of the removal of polyps. A systematic review was conducted on databases like PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and IEEE Explore, including research papers published up to May 2023, through the systematic search, 33 papers were identified. This review offers valuable insights to physicians and technological guidance to future researchers by examining GI tract diseases. It provides a detailed analysis of Machine learning (ML) techniques like preprocessing, segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. Additionally, Deep Learning (DL) approaches like transfer learning (TL), Convolution Neural Networks (CNN), optimization, transformer, and reinforcement learning have been analyzed for GI diagnosis. The DL approach has increased its use in GI diseases and CNN was the most commonly used architecture. Lastly, the review highlights the research published in the specialized GI fields and provides technological suggestions and insights for future research prospects. Overall, this study broadens the body of knowledge regarding the existing Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in gastroenterology as a manual for creating and assessing AI models.

This article presents a compact six-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. The proposed structure is planar, having a dimension of $1.28\lambda _{0} \boldsymbol {\times } 2.04\lambda _{0}$ , where $\lambda _{0}$ is the wavelength at 25.5 GHz, resonating in n258 and n260 bands. The antenna is a modified rectangular patch designed to generate TM10 and TM02 modes, resulting in vertical and horizontal polarization at 25.5 GHz and 38 GHz. The measured bandwidth of the MIMO antenna is 800 MHz at the n258 band, i.e., 25.1-25.9 GHz, and 850 MHz at the n260 band, i.e., 37.75-38.6 GHz. The isolation between the elements is improved by incorporating a novel open-ended decoupling structure. It resulted in an isolation that surpass 20 dB at both bands. The antenna has a broadside radiation pattern with a maximum realized gain of 9 dBi and 7.2 dBi at 25.5 and 38 GHz, respectively. The antenna is validated for various diversity parameters such as envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, channel capacity loss, and mean effective gain. Also, the performance of the proposed antenna for V2V communication is analyzed for line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions. The estimated channel capacity, path loss, and link budget for the above-said condition suggest that the antenna is suitable for V2V communications.

Deep learning methods have shown promise for automated medical image analysis tasks. However, class imbalance is a common challenge that can negatively impact model performance, especially for tasks with minority classes that are clinically significant. This study aims to address this challenge through a novel hyperparameter optimization technique for training convolutional neural networks on imbalanced data. We developed a custom Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture and introduced a Tangent Optimization Algorithm (TOA) based on the trigonometric properties of the tangent function. The TOA optimizes hyperparameters during training without requiring data preprocessing or augmentation steps. We applied our approach to classifying B-mode ultrasound carotid artery plaque images as symptomatic or asymptomatic using a dataset with significant class imbalance. On k-fold cross-validation, our method achieved an average accuracy of 98.82%, a sensitivity of 99.41%, and a specificity of 95.74%. The proposed optimization technique provides a computationally efficient and interpretable solution for training deep learning models on unbalanced medical image datasets.

One of the most prevalent forms of malignant tumor affecting the digestive system is the Colorectal Cancer (CRC). Due to the recurrent nature of occurrence of CRC tumors the morbidity and mortality rate associated with CRC tumors is very high, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer worldwide. Although colonoscopy, is considered as pre-dominant screening mechanism for detection of CRC, over the recent years several researchers have attempted in developing AI diagnostic tools for segmenting colonic polyps. However, manual intervention and decreased accuracy rate is a major drawback witnessed by these approaches. In this study, we propose a novel automated colonic polyp segmentation mechanism using U-Net and chroma based deformable model termed as ContourNet. The proposed model eliminates the need for manual identification of region of interest irrespective of the high degree of variability between the lesion and non-lesion pixels. The model considers the chromaticity and statistical information from the identified region of interest to evolve the contour close to the affected area. The proposed algorithm was developed using Clinic CVC dataset for training, and a test accuracy of 94% was obtained. The generalization ability of the proposed design is validated on three different datasets, considering all the images as test set, a high degree of accuracy was obtained in identifying the affected regions. Thereby the results obtained prove the ability of the proposed method to be adopted in developing a CAD tool in detection of pathologies associated with gastroenterology in contrast to the state of art methods reported in literature.

This article presents a flexible four-element MIMO antenna designed on a thin polyimide substrate to operate at 30.50 GHz for wearable applications. The antenna element structure is a combination of circular rings combined with T-shape stubs. The MIMO antenna isolation is enhanced through a novel decoupling structure consisting of a rectangular stub, four open-ended horizontal strip lines, and two vertical strip lines connecting the ground plane. It provides 22.5 dB isolation, even with conformal orientation. A metamaterial (MTM) reflective surface of $9\times9$ unit cells is designed and placed below the antenna to improve its radiation characteristics, bandwidth, gain, and specific absorption rate (SAR). The metamaterial unit cell provides a double negative property with a wide stop-band range of 26.27–36.49 GHz. With an MTM surface, the measured bandwidth is 25.2–33 GHz with a maximum broadside gain of 8.90 dBi. The resulting SAR is reduced from 1.71 W/kg to 0.86 W/kg by incorporating MTM reflective surface. The MIMO antenna with MTM improves the bandwidth by 56%, gain by 32.5%, and radiation from bidirectional to broadside, compared to the MIMO antenna without MTM. Also, the antenna is measured and validated for diversity parameters such as Envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), Diversity gain (DG), Channel coefficient loss (CCL), Total active reflection coefficient (TARC), and Mean effective gain (MEG). The reduced SAR and improved antenna performance suggest the proposed MIMO antenna with an MTM reflective surface is suitable for on-body wearable applications in IoT devices, smart watches, headwear, and footwear devices.

Otoscopy is a diagnostic procedure to visualize the external ear canal and eardrum, facilitating the detection of various ear pathologies and conditions. Timely otoscopy image classification offers significant advantages, including early detection, reduced patient anxiety, and personalized treatment plans. This paper introduces a novel OTONet framework specifically tailored for otoscopy image classification. It leverages octave 3D convolution and a combination of feature and region-focus modules to create an accurate and robust classification system capable of distinguishing between various otoscopic conditions. This architecture is designed to efficiently capture and process the spatial and feature information present in otoscopy images. Using a public otoscopy dataset, OTONet has reached a classification accuracy of 99.3% and an F1 score of 99.4% across 11 classes of ear conditions. A comparative analysis demonstrates that OTONet surpasses other established machine learning models, including ResNet50, ResNet50v2, VGG16, Dense-Net169, and ConvNeXtTiny, across various evaluation metrics. The research’s contribution to improved diagnostic accuracy reduced human error, expedited diagnostics, and its potential for telemedicine applications.

Modern wireless communication systems have undergone a radical change with the introduction of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, which provide increased channel capacity, fast data rates, and secure connections. To achieve real-time requirements, such antenna technology needs to have good gains, wider bandwidths, satisfactory radiation characteristics, and high isolation. This article presents an eight-element CPW-fed antenna for the 5G mid-band. The proposed antenna consists of eight symmetrical, modified circular monopole antennas with a connected CPW-fed ground plane that offers 24 dB isolation over the operating range. The antenna is further investigated in terms of the scattering parameters, and radiation characteristics under both the x and y-axis bending scenarios. The antenna holds a volume of 83 × 129 × 0.1 mm3 and covers a measured impedance bandwidth of 4.5–5.5 GHz (20%) with an average gain of 4 dBi throughout the operating band. MIMO diversity performance of the antenna is performed, and the antenna exhibits good performance suitable for MIMO applications. Furthermore, the channel capacity (CC) is estimated, and the antenna gives a value of 41.8–42.6 bps/Hz within the operating bandwidth, which is very close to an ideal 8 × 8 MIMO system. The antenna shows an excellent match between the simulated and measured findings.

Lung cancer, the treacherous malignancy affecting the respiratory system of a human body, has a devastating impact on the health and well-being of an individual. Due to the lack of automated and noninvasive diagnostic tools, healthcare professionals look forward toward biopsy as a gold standard for diagnosis. However, biopsy could be traumatizing and expensive process. Additionally, the limited availability of dataset and inaccuracy in diagnosis is a major drawback experienced by researchers. The objective of the proposed research is to develop an automated diagnostic tool for screening of lung cancer using optimized hyperparameters such that convolutional neural network (CNN) model generalizes well for universally obtained computerized tomography (CT) slices of lung pathologies. The aforementioned objective is achieved in the following ways: (i) Initially, a preprocessing methodology specific to lung CT scans is formulated to avoid the loss of information due to random image smoothing, and (ii) a sine cosine algorithm optimization algorithm (SCA) is integrated in the CNN model, to optimally select the tuning parameters of CNN. The error rate is used as an objective function, and the SCA algorithm tries to minimize. The proposed method successfully achieved an average classification accuracy of 99% in classification of lung scans in normal, benign, and malignant classes. Further, the generalization ability of the proposed model is tested on unseen dataset, thereby achieving promising results. The quantitative results prove the efficacy of the system to be used by radiologists in a clinical scenario.

Retinal imaging is crucial for observing the retina and accurately diagnosing pathological problems. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been a transformative breakthrough for developing high-resolution cross-sectional images. It is imperative to delineate the multiple layers of the retina for a proper diagnosis. A novel segmentation-based approach is introduced in this study to identify seven distinct layers of the retina using OCT images. The developed approach presents SliceOCTNet, a customized U-shaped Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that introduces group normalization and intricate skip connections. Paired alongside a hybrid loss function, the SliceOCTNet outperformed most state-of-the-art approaches. The introduction of Group Normalization in SliceOCTNet stabilized the model and improved layer identification even when working with small datasets. The use of skip connections also contributed to an improvement in the spatial outlook of the model. Implementing a hybrid loss function addresses the class imbalance problem in the dataset. Duke University’s spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) B-scan dataset of healthy and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) afflicted patients was utilized to train and evaluate the SliceOCTNet. The model accurately recognizes the seven layers of the retina. It can achieve a high dice coefficient value of 0.941 and refine the segmentation process to a higher level of precision.

Objective: Oral health is intricately linked with systemic health. However, the knowledge and practice levels of medical practitioners (MPs) about this concern are extremely variable. The current study, therefore, sought to assess the status of knowledge and practice of MPs concerning the link between periodontal disease and different systemic conditions as well as the efficacy of a webinar as an interventional tool in enhancing knowledge of MPs of Jazan Province of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This prospective interventional study involved 201 MPs. A 20-item questionnaire on evidence-based periodontal/systemic health associations was used. The participants answered the questionnaire before and 1 month after a webinar training that explained the mechanistic interrelation of periodontal and systemic health. McNemar test was performed for statistical analysis. Results: Out of the 201 MPs who responded to the pre-webinar survey, 176 attended the webinar and hence were included in the final analyses. Sixty-eight (38.64%) were female, and 104 (58.09%) were older than 35 years. About 90% of MPs reported not being trained on oral health. Pre-webinar, 96 (54.55%), 63 (35.80%), and 17 (9.66%) MPs rated their knowledge about the association of periodontal disease with systemic diseases as limited, moderate, and good, respectively. Post-webinar, these figures improved remarkably: 36 (20.45%), 88 (50.00%), and 52 (29.55%) MPs rated their knowledge as limited, moderate, and good, respectively. Around 64% of MPs had relatively good levels of knowledge about the positive influence of periodontal disease treatment on diabetic patients’ blood glucose levels. Conclusions: MPs revealed low levels of knowledge on the oral and systemic disease interrelationship. Conducting webinars on the oral–systemic health interrelationship seems to improve the overall knowledge and understanding of MPs.

A compact wearable four-element dual-band antenna with good isolation is presented here. The antenna constitutes of a circular monopole with slits and slots incorporated into it to generate dual-band function, and a unique defected ground structure (DGS) with vertical stubs to neutralize coupling current and enhance isolation. The proposed antenna has a dimension of 62 × 52 × 0.25 mm3, bandwidth of 3.8–4.43 GHz (15.31%) and 5.25–6.3 GHz (18.18%), and 5.2 dBi peak gain. The specific absorption rate (SAR) analysis in W/kg for 1/10 g tissue exhibits values of 0.877/0.356 at 4.1 GHz and 0.309/0.105 at 5.3 GHz respectively. The antenna radiation characteristics are analysed using characteristic mode analysis. Furthermore, the diversity parameters are investigated, and the antenna exhibits relatively good results with envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) 9.99 dB, total active reflection coefficient (TARC)

A double-stub matching technique is used to design a dual-band monopole antenna at 28 and 38 GHz. The transmission line stubs represent the matching elements. The first matching network comprises series capacitive and inductive stubs, causing impedance matching at the 28 GHz band with a wide bandwidth. On the other hand, the second matching network has two shunt inductive stubs, generating resonance at 38 GHz. A Smith chart is utilized to predict the stub lengths. While incorporating their dimensions physically, some of the stub lengths are fine-tuned. The proposed antenna is compact with a profile of 0.75λ1×0.66λ1 (where λ1 is the free-space wavelength at 28 GHz). The measured bandwidths are 27–28.75 GHz and 36.20–42.43 GHz. Although the physical series capacitance of the first matching network is a slot in the ground plane, the antenna is able to achieve a good gain of 7 dBi in both bands. The proposed antenna has a compact design, good bandwidth and gain, making it a candidate for 5G wireless applications.

This article presents a planar, non-angular, series-fed, dual-element dipole array MIMO antenna operating at 28 GHz with the metasurface-based isolation improvement technique. The initial design is a single-element antenna with a dual dipole array which is series-fed. These dipole elements are non-uniform in shape and distance. This dipole antenna results in end-fire radiation. The dipole antenna excites the J1 mode for its operation. Further, with the view to improve channel capacity, the dipole array expands the antenna to a three-element MIMO antenna. In the MIMO antenna structure, the sum of the J1, J2, and J3 modes is excited, causing resonance at 28 GHz. This article also proposes a metasurface structure with wide stopband characteristics at 28 GHz for isolation improvement. The metasurface is composed of rectangle-shaped structures. The defected ground and metasurface structure combination suppresses the surface wave coupling among the MIMO elements. The proposed antenna results in a bandwidth ranging from 26.7 to 29.6 GHz with isolation improvement greater than 21 dB and a gain of 6.3 dBi. The antenna is validated with the diversity parameters of envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, and channel capacity loss.

The growing demand for high-speed communication has resulted in developing terahertz (THz) antennas that operate at high-frequency, high-speed, and high data rates. An ultra-broadband functioning four port THz multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) antenna with a defective ground plane as a decoupling structure is proposed in this study. A rectangular metallic patch was changed by integrating parasitic components onto the radiator with the lowered ground plane on a polyamide substrate to obtain the ultra wideband THz frequency operating antenna. The designed THz antenna has been transformed into a MIMO antenna by replicating horizontally and vertically with the separation of 0.08 λ and 0.01 λ, respectively (λ computed at 2 THz). The proposed THz MIMO antenna operates in the 2–10.7 THz frequency range and has an overall substrate dimension of 40 μm x 46 μm × 2 μm. The proposed antenna equivalent circuit is designed to validate the impedance bandwidth of the antenna. The designed THz MIMO antenna has isolation better than 20 dB across the impedance bandwidth. The isolation enhancement is achieved by creating alternate current channels through the defected ground structure of the antenna. The proposed THz MIMO antenna's MIMO diversity features are studied and determined to be ECC

The wireless communication system is steered towards the millimeter wave spectrum to achieve low latency and high-speed data rate. The MIMO antennas aid in attaining a higher data rate. The prominent spectrum at millimeter wave is Ka-band, suitable for short-range communication. The $\vert \text{S}$ -parameter $\vert $ response and radiation pattern of the existing MIMO antenna at this band are relatively unstable. Hence it encouraged to design and develop a four-element MIMO antenna operating at Ka-band. The antenna is a circular ring shape with two concentric rings with a plus-shape stub overlayed on circular rings. The structure is developed in four-stage with the comprehension of characteristic mode theory (CMA). The proposed structure generated Mode 2 as an efficient mode, with minor Modes 3 and 5 contributing for resonance out of five modes. The overall antenna profile is $3.27\lambda _{0} \times 3.74\lambda _{0}$ (where $\lambda _{0}$ is the wavelength at a resonance frequency of 28 GHz). The novel decoupling structure has improved the isolation to 30 dB and increased the bandwidth. The antenna has an operating bandwidth of 24.1-30.9 GHz, with a maximum gain of 6.5 dBi. The $\vert \text{S}$ -parameter $\vert $ from all the ports has an exact and stable response. The proposed antenna has resulted in bidirectional radiation tilted at an angle of $334^{0}$ and $210^{0}$ in the XZ plane. In the YZ plane, it has a triple beam. The radiation pattern is also stable throughout the bandwidth. The proposed MIMO antenna has a symmetrical design, demonstrating the possibility of expansion to n-element MIMO through a six-element MIMO antenna design. The article also presents the channel capacity, path loss, and link margin calculation for designed antenna line-of-sight (LOS) communication. The antenna has been evaluated with diversity parameters such as ECC, DC, CCL, TARC, and MEG.

Background: Mobile multimedia platforms (MMPs) are prolific tools that can be used by individuals and corporations to share content. However, few studies have shown the effectiveness of MMPs as educational tools. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of MMPs in improving basic dental diagnostic skills. Materials and Methods: In this voluntary interventional study on 70 dental students, we created pilot learning modules through an MMP called Instagram Stories to teach dental diagnosis. We evaluated the efficacy of the modules through diagnostic tests that were given to dental students. Results: The students showed a significant increase in diagnostic test scores after the use of an MMP. Furthermore, the students' feedback on the MMP indicated that most students found it easy and enjoyable to use. Conclusion: Our study data show that MMPs may be used to improve training in basic dental diagnostic skills and can serve as an adjunct teaching tool. Moreover, MMP modules can potentially enrich professional education in developing countries where access to educational resources is limited.

Broadband antennas with a low-profile generating circular polarization are always in demand for handheld/ portable devices as CP antennas counter multipath and misalignment issues. Therefore, a compact millimeter-wave antenna is proposed in this article. The proposed antenna structure comprises two circular rings and a circular patch at the center. This structure is further embedded with four equilateral triangles at a 90° orientation. The current entering the radiator is divided into left and right circular directions. The equilateral triangles provide the return path for current at the differential phase of ±90°, generating circular polarization. Structural development and analysis were initially performed through the characteristic mode theory. It showed that Modes 1 to 4 generated good impedance matching from 20 to 30 GHz and Modes 1 to 5, from 30 to 40 GHz. It also demonstrated the summation of orthogonal modes leading to circular polarization. The antenna-measured reflection coefficient |S11| > 10 dB was 19 GHz (23–42 GHz), and the axial ratio at −3 dB was 4.2 GHz (36–40.2 GHz). The antenna gain ranged from 4 to 6.2 dBi. The proposed antenna was tested for link margin estimation for IoT indoor conditions with line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions. The communication reliability with co- and cross-polarization was also studied under these conditions, and the results proved to be satisfactory.

Skin Cancer is one of the most widely present forms of cancer. The correct classification of skin lesions as malignant or benign is a complex process that has to be undertaken by experienced specialists. Another major issue of the class imbalance of data causes a bias in the results of classification. This article presents a novel approach to the usage of metadata of skin lesions' images to classify them. The usage of techniques addresses the problem of class imbalance to nullify the imbalances. Further, the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to finetune the skin lesion data classification. Ultimately, it is proven that an ensemble of statistical metadata analysis and CNN usage would result in the highest accuracy of skin color classification instead of using the two techniques separately.

The development of electronic systems and wireless communication has led to a proportional increase in data traffic over time. One potential solution for alleviating data congestion is to augment the bandwidth capacity. This study presents a novel asymmetric circular slotted semi-circle-shaped monopole antenna design using a defective ground structure. The extended ultrawide bandwidth is achieved by implementing a design where the semi-circle radiator is etched in a specific asymmetric circular slot. This involves etching a circle with a radius of 1.25 mm at the center of the radiator, as well as a succession of circles with a radius of 0.75 mm along the edges of the radiator. In addition, the ground plane is situated at a lower elevation and features a U-shaped truncation that has been etched onto its surface. The expansion of the impedance bandwidth can be accomplished by making adjustments to the radiator and ground plane. The UWB antenna under consideration possesses a geometric configuration of 21.6 × 20.8 × 1.6 mm3 and the antenna is fabricated using an FR-4 glass epoxy substrate. The UWB antenna operates throughout the frequency range of 2.2–16.5 GHz, exhibiting a gain of at least 3.45 dBi across the entire impedance bandwidth and the maximum peak gain of 9.57 dBi achieved at the mid-resonance frequency of 10.5 GHz. The investigation of the antenna’s physical properties is conducted utilizing characteristic mode analysis. The investigation also includes an analysis of the time-domain characteristics, revealing that the group delay was found to be less than 1 ns across the operational frequency range. The predicted and measured findings demonstrate consistency and confirm that the suggested antenna is suitable for electronic systems and wireless applications.

Advancement in smartwatch sensors and connectivity features demands low latency communication with a wide bandwidth. ISM bands below 6 GHz are reaching a threshold. The millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum is the solution for future smartwatch applications. Therefore, a compact dual-band antenna operating at 25.5 and 38 GHz is presented here. The characteristics mode theory (CMT) aids the antenna design process by exciting Mode 1 and 2 as well as Mode 1–3 at their respective bands. In addition, the antenna structure generates two traverse modes, TM10 and TM02, at the lower and higher frequency bands. The antenna measured a bandwidth (BW) of 1.5 (25–26.5 GHz) and 2.5 GHz (37–39.5 GHz) with a maximum gain of 7.4 and 7.3 dBi, respectively. The antenna performance within the watch case (stainless steel) showed a stable |S11| with a gain improvement of 9.9 and 10.9 dBi and a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 0.063 and 0.0206 W/kg, respectively, at the lower and higher bands. The link budget analysis for various rotation angles of the watch indicated that, for a link margin of 20 dB, the antenna can transmit/receive 1 Gbps of data. However, significant fading was noticed at certain angles due to the shadowing effect caused by the watch case itself. Nonetheless, the antenna has a workable bandwidth, a high gain, and a low SAR, making it suitable for smartwatch and IoT applications.

A low-profile printed six-port ultrawideband (UWB) antenna with a novel decoupling structure for enhancing port-to-port isolation is analyzed in this paper. Six symmetrical pyramidal form UWB antennas with defective ground structures interspersed with parasitic components served as a unique decoupling structure in the proposed design. The grounded branches and modified rectangular stubs on the ground plane generate closed and open current distribution channels, causing the uniform current flow to be disrupted and the coupling effect to be neutralized. The projected six-port antenna has an electrical dimension of $0.68\times 0.89 \times 0.01\,\,\lambda ^{3}$ ( $\lambda $ is computed using a lower frequency of 2.9 GHz), having a below -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 116% from 2.9 to 11 GHz. Across the impedance bandwidth, the average port-to-port isolation is better than 20 dB. The antenna design has acceptable radiation properties with a peak gain of 8.3 dBi at a frequency of 7.5 GHz. Further, the projected design is also exposed to the time domain characteristics and diversity metrics. Among the different ports, the values of the group delay and fidelity factors are less than 1.5 ns and more than 0.92, correspondingly. The values of the diversity parameters such as ECC < 0.075, DG approximately 10 dB, MEG $ < -3$ dB, TARC $ < -10$ dB, CCL < 0.3 bps/Hz, and ME $ < -2$ dB ensure that the projected design is appropriate for the MIMO applications. The designed antenna is fabricated and measured, and the results are in line with the simulation.

A growing body of evidence has revealed that microRNA (miRNA) expression is dysregulated in cancer, and they can act as either oncogenes or suppressors under certain conditions. Furthermore, some studies have discovered that miRNAs play a role in cancer cell drug resistance by targeting drug-resistance-related genes or influencing genes involved in cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis. In this regard, the abnormal expression of miRNA-128 (miR-128) has been found in various human malignancies, and its verified target genes are essential in cancer-related processes, including apoptosis, cell propagation, and differentiation. This review will discuss the functions and processes of miR-128 in multiple cancer types. Furthermore, the possible involvement of miR-128 in cancer drug resistance and tumor immunotherapeutic will be addressed.

This article is aimed at designing an inventive compact-size quad-port antenna that can be operated within terahertz (THz) frequency spectra for a 6G high-speed wireless communication link. The single-element antenna comprises a lotus-petal-like radiating patch and a defected ground structure (DGS) on a 20 × 20 × 2 µm3 polyamide substrate and is designed to operate within the 8.96–13.5 THz frequency range. The THz antenna is deployed for a two-port MIMO configuration having a size of 46 × 20 × 2 µm3 with interelement separation of less than a quarter-wavelength of 0.18λ (λ at 9 THz). The two-port configuration operates in the 9–13.25 THz frequency range, with better than −25 dB isolation. Further, the two-port THz antenna is mirrored vertically with a separation of 0.5λ to form the four-port MIMO configuration. The proposed four-port THz antenna has dimensions of 46 × 46 × 2 µm3 and operates in the frequency range of 9–13 THz. Isolation improvement better than −25 dB is realized by incorporating parasitic elements onto the ground plane. Performance analysis of the proposed antenna in terms of MIMO diversity parameters, viz., envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) < 0.05, diversity gain (DG) ≈ 10, mean effective gain (MEG) < −3 dB, total active reflection coefficient (TARC) < −10 dB, channel capacity loss (CCL) < 0.3 bps/Hz, and multiplexing efficiency (ME) < 0 dB, is performed to justify the appropriateness of the proposed antenna for MIMO applications. The antenna has virtuous radiation properties with good gain, which is crucial for any wireless communication system, especially for the THz communication network.

Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) is a severe ocular complication commonly found in patients with diabetes. The condition can precipitate a significant drop in VA and, in extreme cases, may result in irreversible vision loss. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), a technique that yields high-resolution retinal images, is often employed by clinicians to assess the extent of DME in patients. However, the manual interpretation of OCT B-scan images for DME identification and severity grading can be error-prone, with false negatives potentially resulting in serious repercussions. In this paper, we investigate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven system that offers an end-to-end automated model, designed to accurately determine DME severity using OCT B-Scan images. This model operates by extracting specific biomarkers such as Disorganization of Retinal Inner Layers (DRIL), Hyper Reflective Foci (HRF), and cystoids from the OCT image, which are then utilized to ascertain DME severity. The rules guiding the fuzzy logic engine are derived from contemporary research in the field of DME and its association with various biomarkers evident in the OCT image. The proposed model demonstrates high efficacy, identifying images with DRIL with 93.3% accuracy and successfully segmenting HRF and cystoids from OCT images with dice similarity coefficients of 91.30% and 95.07% respectively. This study presents a comprehensive system capable of accurately grading DME severity using OCT B-scan images, serving as a potentially invaluable tool in the clinical assessment and treatment of DME.

The study investigates EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' opinions, attitudes and the challenges of incorporating AI-powered teaching and learning. It also examines how their ideas and attitudes are affected by demographic variables. 258 students were selected using a random sampling method from a population comprising students studying in different levels of programs at the College of Science and College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam bin Abdul-Aziz University, KSA. A questionnaire was self-developed using some modified items from prior studies as the study looks at how certain independent variables (e.g., study level, residential background and parents' educational level) affect the dependent variable (e.g., learners' opinions, attitudes and challenges for AI-powered learning and teaching). The quantitative approach (descriptive quantitative design) revealed that Saudi EFL students held a high level of positive opinions and attitudes towards AI-powered learning. However, the analysis found that many students thought implementing AI-powered learning was challenging. A one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference based on respondents' residential background and parental education. However, respondents differed significantly based on their level or year of study. The study findings will assist administrators and course teachers in using AI-powered technologies to overcome challenges and prepare students for achievement in the English language.

(1) Objective: To review the criteria proposed by Cerero-Lapiedra et al. and to retrospectively identify the under-diagnosed disease in patients diagnosed with proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. (2) Materials and methods: In this study, we included patients who were diagnosed with leukoplakia (histological label consistent with the clinical diagnosis, n = 95), and cases with a final diagnosis within the spectrum of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (n = 110) as defined by Batsakis et al. We applied the criteria proposed by Cerero-Lepiedra et al. to screen for the possible cases of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. (3) Results: Although many of our patients satisfied specific isolated criteria, only 11 cases satisfied specific combinations of the guidelines to satisfy a diagnosis of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. However, due to the lack of follow-up data, the disease is not confirmed in these 11 cases. (4) Conclusion: A limited number of cases of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia were diagnosed using the criteria given by Cerero-Lapiedra et al. The true natural history of the disease could not be studied due to the lack of follow-up data. (5) Clinical relevance: Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia presenting as hyperkeratosis or mild epithelial dysplasia are often not followed up, and they subsequently transform into carcinoma. Thus, clinicians must be vigilant whenever they encounter leukoplakia, especially with multifocal presentations. In such cases, the follow-up data are the key to understanding the true nature of the disease entity.

The modern electronic device antenna poses challenges regarding broader bandwidth and isolation due to its multiple features and seamless user experience. A compact vase-shaped two-port ultrawideband (UWB) antenna is presented in this work. A circular monopole antenna is modified by embedding the multiple curved segments onto the radiator and rectangular slotted ground plane to develop impedance matching in the broader bandwidth from 4 to 12.1 GHz. The UWB monopole antenna is recreated horizontally with a separation of less than a quarter wavelength of 0.13 λ (λ computed at 4 GHz) to create a UWB multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) antenna with a geometry of 20 × 29 × 1.6 mm3. The isolation in the UWB MIMO antenna is enhanced by inserting an inverted pendulum-shaped parasitic element on the ground plane. This modified ground plane acts as a decoupling structure and provides isolation below 21 dB across the 5–13.5 GHz operating frequency. The proposed UWB MIMO antenna’s significant modes and their contribution to antenna radiation are analyzed by characteristic mode analysis. Further, the proposed antenna is investigated for MIMO diversity features, and its values are found to be ECC < 0.002, DG ≈ 10 dB, TARC < −10 dB, CCL < 0.3 bps/Hz, and MEG < −3 dB. The proposed antenna’s time domain characteristics in different antenna orientations show a group delay of less than 1 ns and a fidelity factor larger than 0.9.

In the last decade, a new dawn for research on microwave imaging (MI) has been observed in the medical domain specially in the breast cancer diagnosis, since it offers many advantages over current imaging systems like computed tomography (CT), X-ray radiography etc. Microwave imaging system (MIS) provides a suitable platform for in-depth inspection of breast tissues. It helps in identification and localisation of morphological changes in these tissues. The emerging Ultrawideband (UWB) MI gives better results due to its non-ionizing signals which operate over the frequency ranging from hundreds of Megahertz (MHz) to tens of Gigahertz (GHz). In these systems, antennas play a significant role in establishing a sensor network. Hence, its optimization is very crucial because the device is placed at close proximity to the human body. In this paper, a miniaturised monopole patch antenna which operates at UWB frequency range with a microstrip feed line is proposed. The design is composed of a small rectangular patch with dimensions 0.17λ×0.25λ×0.02λ (where λ is wavelength calculated at lower operating frequency 4.8 GHz). It has four corner cuts and a centrally located square slot with a truncated ground-plane for achieving UWB properties. The proposed antenna has the measured fractional bandwidth of 141%(3.22-11.92GHz) with linearly increasing gain ranging from (1.4 to 6.43 dBi). The detailed time domain analysis is done to prove the efficacy of antenna for signal propagation. The advantage of proposed antenna is that it has low profile, compact size, easy to design which can be employed in MI breast cancer detection.

Antenna design involves continuously optimizing antenna parameters to meet the desired requirements. Since the process is manual, laborious, and time-consuming, a surrogate model based on machine learning provides an effective solution. The conventional approach for selecting antenna parameters is mapped to a regression problem to predict the antenna performance in terms of S parameters. In this regard, a heuristic approach is employed using an optimized random forest model. The design parameters are obtained from an ultrawideband (UWB) antenna simulated using the high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). The designed antenna is an embedded structure consisting of a circular monopole with a rectangle. The ground plane of the proposed antenna is reduced to realize the wider impedance bandwidth. The lowered ground plane will create a new current channel that affects the uniform current distribution and helps in achieving the wider impedance bandwidth. Initially, data were preprocessed, and feature extraction was performed using additive regression. Further, ten different regression models with optimized parameters are used to determine the best values for antenna design. The proposed method was evaluated by splitting the dataset into train and test data in the ratio of 60:40 and by employing a ten-fold cross-validation scheme. A correlation coefficient of 0.99 was obtained using the optimized random forest model.

The objective of the present article was to qualitatively and quantitatively review the association between chronic mechanical irritation and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases were searched using the keyword combinations “chronic trauma and oral squamous cell carcinoma; chronic irritation and oral squamous cell carcinoma; chronic irritation and oral cancer; and chronic trauma and oral cancer.” Duplicates and irrelevant articles were excluded after the title and abstract screening. The full texts of the remaining articles were assessed using selection criteria. A total of 375 (PubMed-126; SCOPUS-152; WOS-97) articles were screened, and 343 duplicates and irrelevant articles were excluded from the study. Only 9 of the remaining 32 articles met the selection criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. Buccal mucosa and tongue, being highly prone to chronic irritation through the dental prosthesis, were the common sites for OSCC. Edentulous subjects with ill-fitting dentures were at a high risk of developing chronic irritation associated-OSCC. According to the Joanna Briggs Institute of risk assessment, eight of the nine included studies had a low risk of bias. The quantitative analysis showed a significant association (p < 0.00001) between the chronic oral mucosal irritation and OSCC with an overall risk ratio of 2.56 at a confidence interval of 1.96-3.35. Chronic oral mucosa irritation has a significant association with OSCC, and the nature of association could be that of a potential co-factor (dependent risk factor) rather than an independent risk factor.

Dear Editor, We thank Dr. Jian Xie for the valuable inputs on our paper titled ‘Chronic mechanical irritation and oral squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis [1].’ The first concern of Dr. Xie was that we had included two studies that were based on the same population. We re-examined these papers, one was published in 2010 [2] and the other in 2017 [3] by the same group of authors. Given the significant time difference between the two papers, we did not want to presume they were from the same sample population. There is no clear evidence that they are from the same sample population. Read more in PDF.

The 5th generation (5G) network was planned to provide a fast, stable, and future-proof mobile communication network to existing society. This research presents a highly compact arc shape structure antenna resonating at 28 GHz for prospective millimeter-wave purposes in the 5G frequency spectrum. The circular monopole antenna is designed with a radius of 1.3 mm. An elliptical slot on the radiating plane aids in achieving an enhanced bandwidth resonating at the frequency of 28 GHz. Including an elliptical slot creates new resonance and helps improve the bandwidth. The antenna has an ultra-compact dimension of 5 × 3 × 1.6 mm3, which corresponds to an electrical length of 0.46λ × 0.28λ × 0.14λ, where λ is free space wavelength at the resonant frequency. The projected antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 15.73 % (25.83–30.24 GHz). The antenna has a good radiation efficiency of 89%, and the average gain is almost 4 dB over the entire impedance bandwidth. The simulated and experimental S11 findings are in good agreement.

The ever-increasing demand and need for high-speed communication have generated intensive research in the field of fifth-generation (5G) technology. Sub-6 GHz 5G mid-band spectrum is the focus of the researchers due to its meritorious ease of deployment in the current scenario with the already existing infrastructure of the 4G-LTE system. The 5G technology finds applications in enormous fields that require high data rates, low latency, and stable radiation patterns. One of the major sectors that benefit from the outbreak of 5G is the field of flexible electronics. Devices that are compact need an antenna to be flexible, lightweight, conformal, and still have excellent performance characteristics. Flexible antennas used in wireless body area networks (WBANs) need to be highly conformal to be bent according to the different curvatures of the human body at different body parts. The specific absorption rate (SAR) must be at a permissible level for such an antenna to be suited for WBAN applications. This paper gives a comprehensive review of the current state of the art flexible antennas in a sub-6 GHz 5G band. Furthermore, this paper gives a key insight into the materials for a flexible antenna, the parameters considered for the design of a flexible antenna for 5G, the challenges for the design, and the implementation of a flexible antenna for 5G.

This study aims at developing a clinically oriented automated diagnostic tool for distinguishing malignant melanocytic lesions from benign melanocytic nevi in diverse image databases. Due to the presence of artifacts, smooth lesion boundaries, and subtlety in diagnostic features, the accuracy of such systems gets hampered. Thus, the proposed framework improves the accuracy of melanoma detection by combining the clinical aspects of dermoscopy. Two methods have been adopted for achieving the aforementioned objective. Firstly, artifact removal and lesion localization are performed. In the second step, various clinically significant features such as shape, color, texture, and pigment network are detected. Features are further reduced by checking their individual significance (i.e., hypothesis testing). These reduced feature vectors are then classified using SVM classifier. Features specific to the domain have been used for this design as opposed to features of the abstract images. The domain knowledge of an expert gets enhanced by this methodology. The proposed approach is implemented on a multi-source dataset (PH2 + ISBI 2016 and 2017) of 515 annotated images, thereby resulting in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 83.8%, 88.3%, and 86%, respectively. The experimental results are promising, and can be applied to detect asymmetry, pigment network, colors, and texture of the lesions.

Remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton in response to external stimuli is obligatory for many cellular processes in the amoebic cell. A rapid and local rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton is required for the development of the cellular protrusions during phagocytosis, trogocytosis, migration, and invasion. Here, we demonstrated that EhC2B, a C2 domain-containing protein, is an actin modulator. EhC2B was first identified as an effector of EhRab21 from E. histolytica. In vitro interaction studies including GST pull-down, fluorescence-based assay and ITC also corroborated with our observation. In the amoebic trophozoites, EhC2B accumulates at the pseudopods and the tips of phagocytic cups. FRAP based studies confirmed the recruitment and dynamics of EhC2B at the phagocytic cup. Moreover, we have shown the role of EhC2B in erythrophagocytosis. It is well known that calcium-dependent signal transduction is essential for the cytoskeletal dynamics during phagocytosis in the amoebic parasite. Using liposome pelleting assay, we demonstrated that EhC2B preferentially binds to the phosphatidylserine in the presence of calcium. The EhC2B mutants defective in calcium or lipid-binding failed to localise beneath the plasma membrane. The cells overexpressing these mutants have also shown a significant reduction in erythrophagocytosis. The role of EhC2B in erythrophagocytosis and pseudopod formation was also validated by siRNA-based gene knockdown approach. Finally, with the help of in vitro nucleation assay using fluorescence spectroscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we have established that EhC2B is an actin nucleator. Collectively, based on the results from the study, we propose that EhC2B acts like a molecular bridge which promotes membrane deformation via its actin nucleation activity during the progression of the phagocytic cup in a calcium-dependent manner.