Farrukh Nadeem

Social media is crucial for gathering public feedback on government services, particularly in the traffic sector. While Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) offers a means to extract actionable insights from user posts, analyzing Arabic content poses unique challenges. Existing Arabic ABSA approaches heavily rely on supervised learning and manual annotation, limiting scalability. To tackle these challenges, we suggest an integrated framework combining unsupervised BERTopic-based Aspect Category Detection with distance supervision using a fine-tuned CAMeLBERT model for sentiment classification. This is further complemented by transformer-based summarization through a fine-tuned AraBART model. Key contributions of this paper include: (1) the first comprehensive Arabic traffic services dataset containing 461,844 tweets, enabling future research in this previously unexplored domain; (2) a novel unsupervised approach for Arabic ABSA that eliminates the need for large-scale manual annotation, using FastText custom embeddings and BERTopic to achieve superior topic clustering; (3) a pioneering integration of aspect detection, sentiment analysis, and abstractive summarization that provides a complete pipeline for analyzing Arabic traffic service feedback; (4) state-of-the-art performance metrics across all tasks, achieving 92% accuracy in ABSA and a ROUGE-L score of 0.79 for summarization, establishing new benchmarks for Arabic NLP in the traffic domain. The framework significantly enhances smart city traffic management by enabling automated processing of citizen feedback, supporting data-driven decision-making, and allowing authorities to monitor public sentiment, identify emerging issues, and allocate resources based on citizen needs, ultimately improving urban mobility and service responsiveness.

Background/Objectives: Dental caries is a widespread chronic infection, affecting a large segment of the population. Proximal caries, in particular, present a distinct obstacle for early identification owing to their position, which hinders clinical inspection. Radiographic assessments, particularly bitewing images (BRs), are frequently utilized to detect these carious lesions. Nonetheless, misinterpretations may obstruct precise diagnosis. This paper presents a deep-learning-based system to improve the evaluation process by detecting proximal dental caries from BRs and classifying their severity in accordance with ICCMS^TM guidelines. Methods: The system comprises three fundamental tasks: caries detection, tooth numbering, and describing caries location by identifying the tooth it belongs to and the surface, each built independently to enable reuse across many applications. We analyzed 1354 BRs annotated by a consultant of restorative dentistry to delineate the pertinent categories, concentrating on the detection and localization of caries tasks. A pre-trained YOLOv11-based instance segmentation model was employed, allocating 80% of the dataset for training, 10% for validation, and the remaining portion for evaluating the model on unseen data. Results: The system attained a precision of 0.844, recall of 0.864, F1-score of 0.851, and mAP of 0.888 for segmenting caries and classifying their severity, using an intersection over union (IoU) of 50% and a confidence threshold of 0.25. Concentrating on teeth that are entirely or three-quarters presented in BRs, the system attained 100% for identifying the affected teeth and surfaces. It achieved high sensitivity and accuracy in comparison to dentist evaluations. Conclusions: The results are encouraging, suggesting that the proposed system may effectively assist dentists in evaluating bitewing images, assessing lesion severity, and recommending suitable treatments.

Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) lead to higher hospital readmission rates and healthcare costs, representing a significant global healthcare burden. Machine learning (ML) has demonstrated potential in predicting SSIs; however, the challenge of addressing imbalanced class ratios remains. Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate and enhance the predictive capabilities of machine learning models for SSIs by assessing the effects of feature selection, resampling techniques, and hyperparameter optimization. Methods: Using routine SSI surveillance data from multiple hospitals in Saudi Arabia, we analyzed a dataset of 64,793 surgical patients, of whom 1632 developed SSI. Seven machine learning algorithms were created and tested: Decision Tree (DT), Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), Stochastic Gradient Boosting (SGB), and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN). We also improved several resampling strategies, such as undersampling and oversampling. Grid search five-fold cross-validation was employed for comprehensive hyperparameter optimization, in conjunction with balanced sampling techniques. Features were selected using a filter method based on their relationships with the target variable. Results: Our findings revealed that RF achieves the highest performance, with an MCC of 0.72. The synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) is the best-performing resampling technique, consistently enhancing the performance of most machine learning models, except for LR and GNB. LR struggles with class imbalance due to its linear assumptions and bias toward the majority class, while GNB’s reliance on feature independence and Gaussian distribution make it unreliable for under-represented minority classes. For computational efficiency, the Instance Hardness Threshold (IHT) offers a viable alternative undersampling technique, though it may compromise performance to some extent. Conclusions: This study underscores the potential of ML models as effective tools for assessing SSI risk, warranting further clinical exploration to improve patient outcomes. By employing advanced ML techniques and robust validation methods, these models demonstrate promising accuracy and reliability in predicting SSI events, even in the face of significant class imbalances. In addition, using MCC in this study ensures a more reliable and robust evaluation of the model’s predictive performance, particularly in the presence of an imbalanced dataset, where other metrics may fail to provide an accurate evaluation.

This study introduces a novel approach to sentiment classification of Arabic tweets regarding educational reforms in Saudi Arabia. The complexity of the Arabic language, with its numerous dialects, poses challenges for natural language processing tasks, particularly when large volumes of data require manual annotation. To overcome the limitations of traditional labeling methods, we developed a weakly supervised learning framework that combines LLMs (GPT-3.5) and pre-trained language models (MarBERT and XLM-RoBERTa) to generate high-quality weakly labeled training data using the Snorkel framework. We fine-tuned the AraBERT model with this weakly labeled data for sentiment classification. Our experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach, achieving 83% precision, 76% recall, and an 85% F1 score in classifying tweets as positive, negative, or neutral. Comparative analysis showed that GPT-3.5 outperformed Llama 2 in prompting tasks, and our weakly supervised model surpassed baseline machine learning methods. These findings highlight the potential of weakly supervised learning in analyzing public opinion on Arabic social media platforms without relying on large, labeled datasets.

The Saudi government’s educational reforms aim to align the system with market needs and promote economic opportunities. However, a lack of credible data makes assessing public sentiment towards these reforms challenging. This research develops a sentiment analysis application to analyze public emotional reactions to educational reforms in Saudi Arabia using AraBERT, an Arabic language model. We constructed a unique Arabic dataset of 216,858 tweets related to the reforms, with 2000 manually labeled for public sentiment. To establish a robust evaluation framework, we employed random forests, support vector machines, and logistic regression as baseline models alongside AraBERT. We also compared the fine-tuned AraBERT Sentiment Classification model with CAMeLBERT, MARBERT, and LLM (GPT) models. The fine-tuned AraBERT model had an F1 score of 0.89, which was above the baseline models by 5% and demonstrated a 4% improvement compared to other pre-trained transformer models applied to this task. This highlights the advantage of transformer models specifically trained for the target language and domain (Arabic). Arabic-specific sentiment analysis models outperform multilingual models for this task. Overall, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of AraBERT in analyzing Arabic sentiment on social media. This approach has the potential to inform educational reform evaluation in Saudi Arabia and potentially other Arabic-speaking regions.

Recently, there has been growing interest in using smart eHealth systems to manage asthma. However, limitations still exist in providing smart services and accurate predictions tailored to individual patients’ needs. This study aims to develop an adaptive ubiquitous computing framework that leverages different bio-signals and spatial data to provide personalized asthma attack prediction and safe route recommendations. We proposed a smart eHealth framework consisting of multiple layers that employ telemonitoring application, environmental sensors, and advanced machine-learning algorithms to deliver smart services to the user. The proposed smart eHealth system predicts asthma attacks and uses spatial data to provide a safe route that drives the patient away from any asthma trigger. Additionally, the framework incorporates an adaptation layer that continuously updates the system based on real-time environmental data and daily bio-signals reported by the user. The developed telemonitoring application collected a dataset containing 665 records used to train the prediction models. The testing result demonstrates a remarkable 98% accuracy in predicting asthma attacks with a recall of 96%. The eHealth system was tested online by ten asthma patients, and its accuracy achieved 94% of accuracy and a recall of 95.2% in generating safe routes for asthma patients, ensuring a safer and asthma-trigger-free experience. The test shows that 89% of patients were satisfied with the safer recommended route than their usual one. This research contributes to enhancing the capabilities of smart healthcare systems in managing asthma and improving patient outcomes. The adaptive feature of the proposed eHealth system ensures that the predictions and recommendations remain relevant and personalized to the current conditions and needs of the individual.

Recently, there has been growing interest in using smart eHealth systems to manage asthma. However, limitations still exist in providing smart services and accurate predictions tailored to individual patients’ needs. This study aims to develop an adaptive ubiquitous computing framework that leverages different bio-signals and spatial data to provide personalized asthma attack prediction and safe route recommendations. We proposed a smart eHealth framework consisting of multiple layers that employ telemonitoring application, environmental sensors, and advanced machine-learning algorithms to deliver smart services to the user. The proposed smart eHealth system predicts asthma attacks and uses spatial data to provide a safe route that drives the patient away from any asthma trigger. Additionally, the framework incorporates an adaptation layer that continuously updates the system based on real-time environmental data and daily bio-signals reported by the user. The developed telemonitoring application collected a dataset containing 665 records used to train the prediction models. The testing result demonstrates a remarkable 98% accuracy in predicting asthma attacks with a recall of 96%. The eHealth system was tested online by ten asthma patients, and its accuracy achieved 94% of accuracy and a recall of 95.2% in generating safe routes for asthma patients, ensuring a safer and asthma-trigger-free experience. The test shows that 89% of patients were satisfied with the safer recommended route than their usual one. This research contributes to enhancing the capabilities of smart healthcare systems in managing asthma and improving patient outcomes. The adaptive feature of the proposed eHealth system ensures that the predictions and recommendations remain relevant and personalized to the current conditions and needs of the individual.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has revolutionized the world of healthcare by remotely connecting patients to healthcare providers through medical devices connected over the Internet. IoMT devices collect patients’ medical data and share them with healthcare providers, who analyze it for early control of diseases. The security of patients’ data is of prime importance in IoMT. Authentication of users and devices is the first layer of security in IoMT. However, because of diverse and resource-constrained devices, authentication in IoMT is a challenging task. Several authentication schemes for IoMT have been proposed in the literature. However, each of them has its own pros and cons. To identify, evaluate and summarize the current literature on authentication in IoMT, we conducted a systematic review of 118 articles published between 2016 and 2021. We also established a taxonomy of authentication schemes in IoMT from seven different perspectives. We observed that most of the authentication schemes use a distributed architecture and public key infrastructure. It was also observed that hybrid cryptography approaches have become popular to overcome the shortcomings of single cryptographic approaches. Authentication schemes in IoMT need to support end-to-end, cross-layer, and cross-domain authentication. Finally, we discuss some open issues and future directions.

With the recent maturity of Cloud computing technology and the flexibility of the Cloud services, the offering of Cloud services has spread exponentially. Different Cloud service providers offer their services highlighting different performance indicators. Because of the diversity of Cloud services and their highlighted performance indicators, the selection of the most suitable Cloud service is a complex problem for the Cloud users. Many Cloud users are unable to identify the Cloud services that best suit their needs and thus choose an unsuitable Cloud service, which results in financial loses as well as time delays. To this end, in this study, we propose an efficient three layered framework for evaluating and ranking IaaS, PaaS and SaaS Cloud services. We identified the functional and non-functional key performance indicators (KPIs) for Cloud services from 6 KPI classes. We classified these KPIs with respect to their types and criticality so that the Cloud user can easily choose according to his needs. The relative importance of the KPIs was determined using CRITIC method. We combined the KPIs values and their relative importance for an overall evaluation and ranking of the Cloud services using Vikor method. A case study is also presented for a step by step demonstration of the proposed method.