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The COVID-19 pandemic preventive measures have successfully limited the spread of the infection but instituted changes in daily activities. This study examined the sociodemographic and health factors associated with lifestyle behavior changes among Omani adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sociodemographic factors investigated were age, gender, education, study (college versus non-college students), and marital status. A cross-sectional design was followed. We translated and tested a 20-item lifestyle behavior change during the COVID-19 pandemic questionnaire. A total of 515 responses were received with an average age of 25.7 years (SD ± 6.83). The participants' lifestyle behavior changes score mean was -2.75 (SD ± 9.08), indicating negative lifestyle change behavior. We found that lower lifestyle behavior changes scores were associated with younger age (p

In our research, we address the problem of coordination and planning in heterogeneous multi-robot systems for missions that consist of spatially localized tasks. Conventionally, this problem has been framed as a task allocation problem that maps tasks to robots. However, all previous work assumes that tasks are atomic procedures. In this work, we relax this assumption and adopt a non-atomic model of tasks that enables robots to accomplish mission tasks incrementally over disjoint periods, precisely to account for the possibility of having a task serviced by numerous individual contributions over time. We propose a cooperative, load-balancing task allocation and scheduling algorithm based on sequential single-item auctions (CoLoSSI) that explicitly considers the non-atomicity of tasks, promotes synergies between agents, and enables cooperation while maintaining computational tractability. We also propose a fully distributed variant of CoLoSSI that tackles sparse, communication-restricted scenarios. Computational and simulation results confirm the efficacy of the proposed approaches for generating good-quality mission plans with low computational effort.

Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of mortality globally. Electrocardiography (ECG) still represents the benchmark approach for identifying cardiac irregularities. Automatic detection of abnormalities from the ECG can aid in the early detection, diagnosis, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Deep Learning (DL) architectures have been successfully employed for arrhythmia detection and classification and offered superior performance to traditional shallow Machine Learning (ML) approaches. This survey categorizes and compares the DL architectures used in ECG arrhythmia detection from 2017–2023 that have exhibited superior performance. Different DL models such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs), Transformers, and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are reviewed, and a summary of their effectiveness is provided. This survey provides a comprehensive roadmap to expedite the acclimation process for emerging researchers willing to develop efficient algorithms for detecting ECG anomalies using DL models. Our tailored guidelines bridge the knowledge gap allowing newcomers to align smoothly with the prevailing research trends in ECG arrhythmia detection. We shed light on potential areas for future research and refinement in model development and optimization, intending to stimulate advancement in ECG arrhythmia detection and classification.

Background/Aim. Healthy periodontium comprises the dento-gingival junction. Periodontal disease starts to appear when the integrity of the junctional epithelium is disturbed. Assessment of the supracrestal tissue attachment (SCTA) is essential because there is a frequent need for restoration or prosthesis after periodontal surgical and non-surgical therapy. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the SCTA variations in a patients with chronic periodontitis before and after treatment. Methods. Thirty systemically healthy patients with periodontitis were enrolled in the study. Fifteen patients were subjected to scaling and root planing and 15 to open flap debridement. Radiographic and clinical findings of the SCTA were assessed before and after treatment at 3-month and 6-month intervals. Results. Comparison between clinical and radiographic findings of the SCTA showed a significant difference in patients with periodontitis (p < 0.05). This difference was not significant after treatment of patients with shallow pockets with scaling and root planing (p > 0.05), but showed a significant difference in patients with moderate pockets treated by open flap debridement (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Progression in periodontal disease causes a reduction in the SCTA dimension, which regains its original dimensions after periodontal therapy. It takes around 3 months for the shallow pockets to regain the supracrestal tissue attachment to the original dimension when treated by scaling and root planing, whereas moderate pockets regain it after 6 months when treated with open flap debridement.

ABSTRACT: Pulmonary hyalinising granuloma (PHG) is a rare fibrosclerosing inflammatory lung condition of unknown aetiology. It is characterised by solitary or multiple pulmonary nodules that are usually found incidentally while imaging the chest for other reasons. We report two cases of histologically proven PHG diagnosed at the Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman. The first case was a 71-year-old male patient who presented in 2010 with a dry cough, weight loss and bilateral pulmonary nodules. The second case was a 58-year-old male patient who presented in 2012 and was found to have incidental bilateral pulmonary nodules on chest X-ray. Both patients were started on prednisolone and on follow-up the PHG nodules remained stable. Although there is no definitive treatment, PHG generally has an excellent prognosis. Keywords: Granuloma; X-Ray Computed Tomography; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules; Lung; Case Report; Oman.

Introduction. Quality of life (QoL) of hemodialysis patients can be examined in two aspects: kidney-specific quality of life and general quality of life. Objective. To determine the QoL among patients undergoing hemodialysis, to assess patients’ QoL on hemodialysis, and to determine the factors associated with QoL among hemodialysis patients in Oman. Method. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 205 patients to measure the QoL across various demographic and clinical variables in Oman. The Arabic version of the KDQOL-SFtool was used to collect data from patients undergoing hemodialysis to give QoL quantitative measures. Results. The physical-QoL was 45.7 (95% CI, 44.3, 47.0), which is less than half that of a healthy human. The emotional-QoL is 53.33 (95% CI, 51.1, 55.5), slightly more than half in a healthy human-QoL. The difference between physical and emotional-QoL scores is −7.66 (95% CI, −10.3, -5.1), showing that physical QoL is significantly less than emotional-QoL. The overall general QoL score was 49.5 (95% CI, 47.8, 51.2), half the QoL score of a healthy human. Younger patients are also more likely to experience emotional problems compared with older patients. Patients with 5–8 mg/l levels of serum creatinine have lower emotional wellbeing. People on low incomes experienced social difficulties, while the maximum burden was found in physical activities and minimum social function. Conclusion. Both physical (45.7) and emotional (53.3) QoL scores in dialysis patients are nearly half those of an average human. Hence, there is a poor QoL among dialysis patients like other studies, and therefore, further improvement of renal rehabilitation in dialysis patients is warranted to improve patients’ QoL.

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM) is a rare and benign condition predominantly seen in young males. Patients present with non-specific pleuritic chest pain, cough, and dyspnea. Hence, it is difficult to diagnose in the acute setting until other serious differential diagnoses involving the integrity of the aerodigestive tract have been excluded. This results in over investigation and overtreatment until a diagnosis has been confirmed. We report a case of a 21-year-old Omani female who presented with a complaint of cough. She was diagnosed based on clinical and radiological findings after exclusion of hollow viscous perforation to have SPM extending to the spinal canal (pneumorrhachis). Her condition improved following conservative management, and she was sent home after three days.

gThis paper is devoted to explore the RICCI and MCs (Matter Collineations of the Som-Ray Chaudhary spacetime. The spacetime under consideration is one of the spatially homogeneous and rotating spacetimes. Collineations are the some kinds of the Lie symmetries. To discuss the required collineations we have used the RICCI and energy momentum tensors. As the RICCI tensor is formulated from the metric tensor, it must possess its symmetries. RCs (RICCI Collineations) leads to conservation laws. On the other hand for the distribution of matter in the spacetimes, the symmetries of energy momentum tensor or MCs provides conservation laws on matter field. Throughout this paper, these collineations are discussed by vanishing Lie derivative of RICCI and energy momentum tensors respectively. Complete solution of the RCs and MCs equations, which are formed in the result of vanishing Lie derivative are explored. Studying all these collineations in the said spacetime, it has been shown that RCs of the spacetime form an infinite dimensional vector space where as MCs are Killing vector fields.

Terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGF) are intense and prompt bursts of X- and gamma-rays of up to 100 MeV of energy. Typically associated with thunderstorm activity, TGFs are produced by bremsstrahlung effects of electrons accelerated in strong electric fields generated by lightning. TGFs can be effectively targeted by gamma detectors with enhanced time stamping capabilities onboard of satellites operating at near-Earth low obits (LEO). Light-1 is a miniature satellite, a 3U CubeSat designed to detect, monitor and study terrestrial gamma ray flashes in low Earth orbit. The two payload detectors are composed of a photomultiplier tube and silicon photomultipliers. The two detectors are mounted at two ends of the CubeSat and the proposed orientation of the CubeSat will ensure maximum TGF detection probability. To allow an increased frequency of data downlink, Khalifa University has collaborated with NanoAvionics Corp, and hence Light-1 has access to three ground stations situated across the map, Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates, Vilnius in Lithuania, and Aalborg in Denmark. The satellite expected to launch in late-2021 is currently in its assembly and integration phase. This paper describes mission, concept, objectives, success criteria, design, analysis, status, and the future plans of Light-1 satellite.

This study is an attempt to investigate the fund-specific determinants of performance of conventional and Islamic mutual funds in Pakistan. For this purpose, Sharpe Ratio, Sortino Ratio, Information Ratio and Jensen Alpha are used as proxies of funds’ performance. We examine several fund-specific characteristics as potential determinants of fund performance such as fund size, turnover, liquidity, management fee, expense ratio, new money, fund age and fund family. A sample of 100 open ended mutual funds were evaluated for a period from 2011-2016. This sample is further divided into overall, conventional and Islamic funds. Data was extracted from the annual reports of mutual funds, business recorder and the daily NAV is obtained from the website of Mutual Fund Association of Pakistan. Fixed and Random effect methodology is used for the data analysis of this study. The result shows that turnover and new money have a significant positive impact on Sharpe ratio for all three samples of funds. Liquidity is positively and significantly related with Sharpe ratio in case of Islamic funds while for conventional funds age has a significant positive effect on fund’s performance. Expense ratio is negatively associated with Sharpe ratio in case of conventional funds. The finding suggested that turnover, liquidity and new money demonstrates significant positive relation with information ratio for conventional funds. On the contrary, Islamic funds’ performance is worsen by the new money. Sortino ratio is influenced significantly positive by fund family and fund age for all the three sample of funds. Turnover has a positive impact on the Sortino ratio of Islamic funds while management fees has negative influence on the Sortino ratio .Fund family and liquidity has been found to be significantly positively related with Jensen alpha of conventional funds while new money has significant negative effect on the Jensen alpha.Keywords: Mutual Fund, Fund-Specific Determinants, Performance, Pakistan.JEL Classifications: G10, G23

Esophageal duplication is the second most common site of gastrointestinal duplication and most cases present with complications. These complications include bleeding, infection, dysphagia, and dyspnea. We report an incidental case of a true intramural esophageal duplication cyst in a new military recruit. The patient was diagnosed in Armed Forces Hospital, Oman. The patient came for a pre-recruitment routine check-up, he was found to have a suspicious soft tissue lesion on chest X-ray. He was referred to the thoracic surgeon for further investigations. The investigations included computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging chest scans, barium swallow, endoscopy and, finally, an endoscopic ultrasound. All workup pointed to a diagnosis of esophageal duplication cyst; therefore, the decision was made to excise the lesion after discussion with the patient about the possible diagnosis and nature of the treatment. The cyst was completely excised thoracoscopically with uneventful recovery. The patient was discharged a few days later and was doing well in subsequent visits to the outpatient department. The histopathological exam confirmed the diagnosis of a true congenital duplication cyst, which was lined by pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium overlying double layers of thick bundles of smooth muscle fibers.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of terminally differentiated plasma cells. MM remains incurable, but overall survival of patients has progressively increased over the past two decades largely due to novel agents such as proteasome inhibitors (PI) and the immunomodulatory agents. While these therapies are highly effective, MM patients can be de novo resistant and acquired resistance with prolonged treatment is inevitable. There is growing interest in early, accurate identification of responsive versus non-responsive patients; however, limited sample availability and need for rapid assays are limiting factors. Here, we test dry mass and volume as label-free biomarkers to monitor early response of MM cells to treatment with bortezomib, doxorubicin, and ultraviolet light. For the dry mass measurement, we use two types of phase-sensitive optical microscopy techniques: digital holographic tomography and computationally enhanced quantitative phase microscopy. We show that human MM cell lines (RPMI8226, MM.1S, KMS20, and AMO1) increase dry mass upon bortezomib treatment. This dry mass increase after bortezomib treatment occurs as early as 1 h for sensitive cells and 4 h for all tested cells. We further confirm this observation using primary multiple myeloma cells derived from patients and show that a correlation exists between increase in dry mass and sensitivity to bortezomib, supporting the use of dry mass as a biomarker. The volume measurement using Coulter counter shows a more complex behavior; RPMI8226 cells increase the volume at an early stage of apoptosis, but MM.1S cells show the volume decrease typically observed with apoptotic cells. Altogether, this cell study presents complex kinetics of dry mass and volume at an early stage of apoptosis, which may serve as a basis for the detection and treatment of MM cells.