Nazeeh Alothmany

Worldwide, there is an agreement on the importance of entrepreneurship for economic and social development. All governments alert of entrepreneurship as economic power, and implement policies to promote it. Consequently, the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment come to be a questioning topic for researcher for quite some time. Therefore, extensive research has investigated this topic. Literature showed an important role of entrepreneurship in job creation and unemployment reduction. Higher rate of unemployment rate may motivate entrepreneurial needs, stimulating more start-ups and business ownerships. Then again, higher entrepreneurship may expedite self-employment in new businesses and reduce unemployment. With an unemployment rate of 30% between Saudi citizen youth, entrepreneurship should be evolved to act as an engine of self-employment. All of these facts highlight the importance of understanding the relationship and interaction between unemployment and entrep...

To characterize point dose response of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) nano dot detector (OSLD) for computed tomography (CT) dosimetry and compare it with the data obtained with various ionization chambers. The OSLD was calibrated at 125 kVp and 15 mAs. A point dose measurement was performed on a custom-made-cylindrical-water phantom (20 cm diameter and 46 cm length) with scan length from 5 to 40 cm range using OSLD. The OSLD was characterized in terms of linearity, re-readability, signal fading, angular dependence, surface dose profile etc. The relative response of OSLD was compared with three PTW ionization chambers:Semiflex 0.125 cm, Farmer 0.6 cm and Pencil 3.14 cm. The OSLD calibration was achieved to be 52.83±7 counts/mRad. The OSLD were reasonably linear with R2 of 0.9989. The average variation OSLD response during rereadability test was ±1.38%. Negligible variation has been seen after 30minutes resting. The maximum angular dependence was 2%. The variations between th...

Literature was reviewed on the current state of methods for detecting arrhythmias. A software package, Heartfelt, was developed that automatically detects arrhythmias from the lead II ECG waveforms. To this end time-frequency distributions for simulated normal and abnormal ECG waveforms were obtained. Then features representing the normal waveform were extracted and used to train a classifier. Finally the performance of the classifier in detecting arrhythmias was tested using unknown ECG waveforms. The execution time of Heartfelt was found to be 0.92 seconds for each minute of ECG recording. It was determined that the accuracy was 96.7% for detecting normal ECG signals, 98.2% for detecting arrhythmic ECG signals suffering from arterial fibrillation, and 96.5% for detecting arrhythmic ECG signals suffering from superventricle arrhythmias.

Human motion analysis is a widely accepted diagnostic tool in the field of medicine, sports, and biomechanics. Clinicians and Rehabilitators use this technology to identify the fundamentals of human gait and posture deviations. Various motion analysis methods exist, some track body motion using markers placed on the body while others track motion without using markers. In this paper, the performance of Microsoft Kinect as a marker-less system to track Sit-to-Stand movement is compared with the performance of a Myomotion system that uses inertial sensors to track the same motion. Four healthy adult persons performed sit to stand movement and Joint angles of hips, knees and ankles were collected at real time using Kinect and Inertial sensors. A correlation analysis was performed on the angles calculated from the data collected using the Kinect and Inertial sensors. Results showed a high correlation for kinematics of knee and lower values for hips and ankles. RMSE (Root mean square err...

Psycho-acoustic tests have indicated that human vision classifies the visemes (visual representation of phonemes) into different classes. This study shows that visual features extracted from 2-D images of lip motion can be used to design an automatic classifier for visemes. Audio-visual recordings from 18 native speakers of American English for 12 Vowel-Consonant-Vowel (VCV) sounds were obtained using the consonants /b,v,w,ð,d,z/ and the vowels /a,i/. The lip height, lip width, motion of the upper lip and the rate at which lips move while producing the VCV words were visual features used to represent each VCV sound. Features extracted from nine of the speakers were used to define Linear Discriminant Analysis functions to classify the visemes and features extracted from the remaining nine speakers were used in testing the classifiers. When the VCV sounds were divided into five classes consistent with those obtained from psycho-acoustic tests, the percentage of correct classification ...

Side effects connected with chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment has led to alternative modalities of combinatorial therapies in an attempt to reduce the drug dosage and associated risks. In the current study we evaluated the potential use of Ajwa Dates Extract (ADE), reported to have anti-cancer effects, as an adjuvant therapy in combination with 5-flurouracil (5FU) against the human-breast-adenocarcinoma cell line (MFC-7) in vitro. The effects of ADE alone and in combination with 5-FU were evaluated in terms of cell viability and cytotoxicity. For drug delivery purpose, we successfully encapsulated 5FU in both presence and absence of ADE through electrospinning together with poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) in different combinations. Physicochemical properties of 5FU and ADE incorporated into PLGA nanofibers remained unaltered as confirmed by Fourier-Transform-Infrared (FTIR), Raman-spectroscopies and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques. The morphological characteriz...

Cone-beam computed tomography CBCT systems are used in radiation therapy for patient alignment and positioning. The CBCT imaging procedure for patient setup adds substantial radiation dose to patient's normal tissue. This study pre-sents a complete procedure for the CBCT dosimetry using the InLight optically-stimulated-luminescence (OSL) nanoDots. We report five dose parameters: the mean slice dose (DMSD); the cone beam dose index (CBDIW); the mean volume dose (DMVD); point-dose profile, D(FOV); and the off-field Dose. In addition, CBCT skin doses for seven pelvic tumor patients are reported. CBCT-dose mea-surement was performed on a custom-made cylindrical acrylic body phantom (50cm length, 32cm diameter). We machined 25 circular disks (2 cm thick) with grooves and holes to hold OSL-nanoDots. OSLs that showed similar sensitivities were selected and calibrated against a Farmer-type ionization-chamber (0.6 CT) before being inserted into the grooves and holes. For the phantom scan...

ABSTRACT Gait analysis is a complex process since it involves tracking motion with high degrees of freedom. It has seen a lot of development in recent years with approaches changing from Marker-based to Markerless systems. This paper presents a new approach for gait analysis that is based on Markerless human motion capture using Microsoft’s popular gaming console Kinect XBOX. For this study, the RGB Camera mode output of the Kinect system was used as Marker-based system. The Skeleton mode output of the Kinect system was used as Markerless system. The system introduced in this paper tracked the human motion in a real time environment using foreground segmentation and computer vision algorithms developed for this purpose. The study shows that Kinect can be used both as Marker-based and Markerless systems for tracking human motion. The degree angles formed from the motion of 5 joints namely shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle was calculated. The RGB camera of Kinect was used to track marks placed over specified joints. The image resulting from the Kinect skeleton mode was considered as the images resulting from marker-less system and used to calculate the angle for the same joints. The developed software application tracked the motion successfully. The study showed a correlation coefficient of 90.16% between the Kinect camera’s Marker-based and Markerless systems.

This project presents an example of a device that is designed using limited resources and low cost to prove that local talent is available and a paradigm shift towards manufacturing is needed. Heart diseases can be diagnosed by recording the Electrical activity of the heart (Electrocardiography or ECG). Chest pains may indicate a heart problem but if the symptoms are not there while the test is done in a hospital, the ECG could turn out absolutely normal. Proper diagnosis of such pain is critical for patients with heart disease, but many of them find it difficult to experience hours of waiting for tests in the Emergency department of a hospital. The Low-Cost ECG Monitor for Home Use solves this problem by providing an affordable and easy method for the patient to use a laptop to record his/her ECG at home, when the symptoms occur. The recorded ECG can be emailed to a physician who can then observe the signal on his/her computer to determine whether these chest pains require medical ...

Literature was reviewed on the current state of methods for detecting arrhythmias. A software package, Heartfelt, was developed that automatically detects arrhythmias from the lead II ECG waveforms. To this end time-frequency distributions for simulated normal and abnormal ECG waveforms were obtained. Then features representing the normal waveform were extracted and used to train a classifier. Finally the performance of the classifier in detecting arrhythmias was tested using unknown ECG waveforms. The execution time of Heartfelt was found to be 0.92 seconds for each minute of ECG recording. It was determined that the accuracy was 96.7% for detecting normal ECG signals, 98.2% for detecting arrhythmic ECG signals suffering from arterial fibrillation, and 96.5% for detecting arrhythmic ECG signals suffering from superventricle arrhythmias.

ABSTRACT Gait analysis is a complex process since it involves tracking motion with high degrees of freedom. It has seen a lot of development in recent years with approaches changing from Marker-based to Markerless systems. This paper presents a new approach for gait analysis that is based on Markerless human motion capture using Microsoft’s popular gaming console Kinect XBOX. For this study, the RGB Camera mode output of the Kinect system was used as Marker-based system. The Skeleton mode output of the Kinect system was used as Markerless system. The system introduced in this paper tracked the human motion in a real time environment using foreground segmentation and computer vision algorithms developed for this purpose. The study shows that Kinect can be used both as Marker-based and Markerless systems for tracking human motion. The degree angles formed from the motion of 5 joints namely shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle was calculated. The RGB camera of Kinect was used to track marks placed over specified joints. The image resulting from the Kinect skeleton mode was considered as the images resulting from marker-less system and used to calculate the angle for the same joints. The developed software application tracked the motion successfully. The study showed a correlation coefficient of 90.16% between the Kinect camera’s Marker-based and Markerless systems.

The M.Sc. program in biomedical engineering at KAAU is designed to combine areas of technology, biology and medicine to improve the quality of life. The department offers the only BSc and MSc Biomedical Engineering program in Saudi Arabia. The new graduate program extends the existing B.Sc. program and focuses on four tracks namely bioinstrumentation, medical imaging, medical informatics and clinical