University Students’ Readiness for Job Opportunities in Big Data Analytics

This study aims to explore the students’ level of readiness in taking up job opportunities in big data analytics and determine the contributing factors to students’ readiness. In addition, the crucial factors that need to be resolved are identified. This job field requires some significant criteria such as, willing to work as a team, self-effort, and specialised skills such as data visualisations and data storytelling, big data analysis, and basic knowledge on tools for big data analytics. Intellipaat.com, a platform that offers various professional online training courses, has ranked position in big data analytics and data science as the highest paying jobs in 2019. However, from 2019 onwards, Malaysia has been predicted to suffer a shortfall of data analysis professionals of up to 7,000-15,000. Our educational institutions are being encouraged to create more graduates to meet this need. The question arises on whether students are prepared and willing to work in this sector once they graduate. An online survey was constructed and distributed to all UiTM students enrolled in various bachelor’s degrees and master’s programmes. One hundred and thirty-nine students participated in this survey. A graphical tool for data tabulation was presented using a box-and-whisker plot. Additionally, correlation analysis and multiple regression were used to determine the relationship and factors that can contribute the students’ readiness for job opportunities in big data analytics. The results from the box-and-whisker plot have discovered an excellent sign of students’ readiness towards job opportunities in big data analytics. Correlation analyses has shown a weak to moderate relationship among factors and multiple linear regression analyses revealed the data visualisation including storytelling skill (DVSS) and teamwork (TW) have significantly given some impacts on the students’ opportunity in big data analytics career. The results of this study are expected to provide insights into students’ readiness for job opportunities in big data analytics.

Statistical Analysis of X-ray Images and Laboratory Studies of COVID-19 Patients

The large increase in COVID-19 cases that continue occurring in Mexico has generated the need to learn more about the damage caused by this virus, for which it has been proposed to carry out a statistical study of the 164 ray images database X and 29 laboratory studies provided by the Salamanca State Center for Critical Care (CECCS) of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and not COVID-19, the purpose is to analyze if there is any correlation between X-rays and laboratory studies. First, the entire database was organized by patient, both for X-ray and laboratory studies. Afterwards, the statistical process of the laboratory studies was carried out. Subsequently, we worked on the selection of patients with a greater number of X-rays, segment of these the area of the lungs, since it was our area of interest. In these radiographs, the statistical process of entropy and box-and-whisker plot is performed. Finally, the results of some laboratory studies are correlated with the entropy and box-and-whisker plot results.

Serum soluble CD26/DPP4 titer variation is a potential prognostic biomarker in cancer therapy with a humanized anti-CD26 antibody

Background The phase I trial of the humanized anti-CD26 monoclonal antibody YS110 for CD26-expressing tumors was conducted recently. The present study identifies a potential prognostic biomarker for CD26-targeted therapy based on the phase I data. Methods Box and Whisker plot analysis, Scatter plot analysis, Peason product moment correlation/Spearman’s rank-difference correlation, Bar graph analysis, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) were used to examine the correlation between sCD26 titer variation with YS110 administration and tumor volume change, RECIST criteria evaluation and progression free survival (PFS). Mechanism for serum sCD26 titer variation was confirmed by in vitro experimentation. Results Serum sCD26/DPP4 titer was reduced following YS110 administration and gradually recovered until the next infusion. Serum sCD26/DPP4 titer before the next infusion was sustained at lower levels in Stable Disease (SD) cases compared to Progressive Disease cases. ROC analysis defined the cut-off level of serum sCD26/DPP4 titer variation at day 29 pre/post for the clinical outcome of SD as tumor response or PFS. In vitro experimentation confirmed that YS110 addition reduced sCD26 production from CD26-expressing tumor and non-tumor cells. Conclusions Our study indicates that serum sCD26/DPP4 titer variation in the early phase of YS110 treatment is a predictive biomarker for evaluating therapeutic efficacy.

An Integrated Statistical-Graphical Approach for the Appraisal of the Natural Background Levels of Major Ions and Some Potentially Toxic Elements in the Groundwater of Urmia Aquifer, Iran

In this study, we attempted to calculate the Natural Background Level (NBL) for 19 selected chemical compounds in the Urmia aquifer, northwestern Iran. In this study, combined methods including pre-selection and statistical methods for determining NBL have been used. In the pre-selection method, the concentration of nitrate (NO3 ≥ 19.97 ppm) and chloride (Cl ≥ 200 ppm) were used as the main criteria to identify and eliminate samples affected by human activities. The selected concentration of nitrate is determined using the comparison of the results of various statistical and graphical evaluations including Quantile-Quantile plot (Q-Q plot), Box & Whisker plot (BW), Box & Whisker plot Iterative (BWI), Grubbs test, Mean and standard deviation (mean ± 2σ) (MSD), and median absolute deviation (MAD). After identifying the final data set, the NBL of the selected chemical compounds was calculated by two techniques including the Iterative 2σ technique (2σ) and calculated distribution function (CDF). Due to higher concentration relative to the reference values (REF), this study has focused on the calculation of NBL of SO4, F, As, Fe and Mn. Results showed that the upper limit of NBL calculated for these variables is about 125 ppm, 1 ppm, 8.5 ppb, 570 ppb, 80 ppb, respectively. Given that no study has been conducted to determine the NBL of chemical compounds in groundwater in Iran, the results of this study can be a roadmap for decision-makers and researchers to better manage this aquifer and other water resources in this country with limited freshwater resources.

A Correlation-Based Sensing Scheme for Outlier Detection in Cognitive Radio Networks

Cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is a vital part of cognitive radio networks, which ensures the existence of the primary user (PU) in the network. However, the presence of malicious users (MUs) highly degrades the performance of the system. In the proposed scheme, each secondary user (SU) reports to the fusion center (FC) with a hard decision of the sensing energy to indicate the existence of the PU. The main contribution of this work deals with MU attacks, specifically spectrum sensing data falsification (SSDF) attacks. In this paper, we propose a correlation-based approach to differentiate between the SUs and the outliers by determining the sensing of each SU, and the average value of sensing information with other SUs, to predict the SSDF attack in the system. The FC determines the abnormality of a SU by determining the similarity for each SU with the remaining SUs by following the proposed scheme and declares the SU as an outlier using the box-whisker plot. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme was demonstrated through simulations.

Serum soluble CD26/DPP4 titer variation is a potential prognostic biomarker in cancer therapy with a humanized anti-CD26 antibody

Background The phase I trial of the humanized anti-CD26 monoclonal antibody YS110 for CD26-expressing tumors was conducted recently. The present study identifies a potential prognostic biomarker for CD26-targeted therapy based on the phase I data. Methods Box and Whisker plot analysis, Scatter plot analysis, Peason product moment correlation/Spearman’s rank-difference correlation, Bar graph analysis, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) were used to examine the correlation between sCD26 titer variation with YS110 administration and tumor volume change, RECIST criteria evaluation and progression free survival (PFS). Mechanism for serum sCD26 titer variation was confirmed by in vitro experimentation. Results Serum sCD26/DPP4 titer was reduced following YS110 administration and gradually recovered until the next infusion. Serum sCD26/DPP4 titer before the next infusion was sustained at lower levels in Stable Disease (SD) cases compared to Progressive Disease cases. ROC analysis defined the cut-off level of serum sCD26/DPP4 titer variation at day 29 pre/post for the clinical outcome of SD as tumor response or PFS. In vitro experimentation confirmed that YS110 addition reduced the sCD26 production from CD26-expressing tumor and non-tumor cells. Conclusions Our study indicates that serum sCD26/DPP4 titer variation in the early phase of YS110 treatment is a predictive biomarker for evaluating therapeutic efficacy.

The Stress and Strains of Modern Life in Nepalese Peacekeepers

In Nepal, stress is the mental phenomenon: caused from the various environmental factors, such as chronic stress, depression, physical, psychological and behavioral problems. The main objectives of this research is to explore the association between the level of stress among peacekeepers and troops of Nepalese Army. The study was conducted among the 101 respondent’s i.e. military officers, non-officers and even peacekeepers staffs and others who are interested in this sector comprising from Likard-Scale I to V level. The Cross-Sectional data were collected from non-probability convenience sampling. Structured as well as non-structured research questionnaires were used to measure the role-stress and mental health. The qualitative research found that by chi-square test i.e.0.0001 means that there is statistically highly significance between them. Furthermore, nature of frequency measured by Box -Whisker plot, whether the opinion of respondents is symmetrical or not. Plot shows that, the difference from median to lower and upper quartile is not normal. So-that, figure shows that Null Hypothesis rejected. In fact the level of stress among Nepalese peacekeepers have higher than other troops and respondents. Fact finding reveals that consistency with theory and Robustness of the conclusion.