Health challenges represent one of the long-standing issues in the Arab region that hinder its ability to develop. Prevalence of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, liver cirrhosis and cancer among many others has contributed to the deteriorated health status across the region leading to lower life expectancy compared to other regions. For instance, the average life expectancy in the Arab world is approximately 70 years, which is at least 10 years lower than most high-income countries.2 Among many directions of healthcare development across the region, biomedical computing research represents one main arm of tackling health challenges. Advances in computational technologies have enabled the emergence of biomedical computing as one of the most influential research areas worldwide.

The Arab region, composed of 22 countries spanning Asia and Africa, opens ample room for communications and networking innovations and services and contributes to the critical mass of the global networking innovation. While the Arab world is considered an emerging market for communications and networking services, the rate of adoption is outpacing the global average. In fact, as of 2019, the mobile Internet penetration stands at 67.2% in the Arab world, as opposed to a global average of 56.5%.12 Furthermore, multiple countries in the region are either building new infrastructure or developing existing infrastructure at an unprecedented pace. Examples include, Neom city in Saudi Arabia, the new administrative capital in Egypt, as well as the Smart Dubai 2021 project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. This provides a unique opportunity to fuse multiple advanced networking technologies as an integral part of the infrastructure design phase and not just as an afterthought.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran. The flight by the two heavy bombers came as a pro-Iran satellite channel based in Beirut broadcast Iranian military drone footage of an Israeli ship hit by a mysterious explosion only days earlier in the Mideast. While the channel sought to say Iran wasn't involved, Israel has blamed Tehran for what it described as an attack on the vessel. The U.S. military's Central Command said the two B-52s flew over the region accompanied by military aircraft from nations including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It marked the fourth-such bomber deployment into the Mideast this year and the second under President Joe Biden.

The fully connected (FC) layer, one of the most fundamental modules in artificial neural networks (ANN), is often considered difficult and inefficient to train due to issues including the risk of overfitting caused by its large amount of parameters. Based on previous work studying ANN from linear spline perspectives, we propose a spline-based approach that eases the difficulty of training FC layers. Given some dataset, we first obtain a continuous piece-wise linear (CPWL) fit through spline methods such as multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS). Next, we construct an ANN model from the linear spline model and continue to train the ANN model on the dataset using gradient descent optimization algorithms. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis show that our approach reduces the computational cost, accelerates the convergence of FC layers, and significantly increases the interpretability of the resulting model (FC layers) compared with standard ANN training with random parameter initialization followed by gradient descent optimizations.

Analytics leader SAS continues to innovate by making it easier to access its powerful, cloud-native SAS Viya platform. Recent product developments help customers more efficiently democratize analytics throughout their organizations while seamlessly managing analytic workloads and building SAS into a variety of applications. "Among analytics providers, SAS is a recognized leader for reimagining the way analytics and machine learning are consumed so users realize optimal results that solve business challenges faster with more accuracy," said Ritu Jyoti, Program Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Research at IDC. "This iteration of the SAS Viya platform gives users at all levels of an organization an agile, powerful advanced machine learning engine to help master the complex data that's in cloud environments." Recognizing that so many organizations have struggled with the global pandemic and its effects, SAS CEO and founder Jim Goodnight says SAS Viya can help in the toughest times. "SAS Viya helps organizations see their data, customers and operations in new ways that encourage confident decision making," said Goodnight.

The aircraft carrier Nimitz is finally going home. The Pentagon last month ordered the warship to remain in the Middle East because of Iranian threats against President Donald J. Trump and other American officials, just three days after announcing the ship was returning home as a signal to de-escalate rising tensions with Tehran. With those immediate tensions seeming to ease a bit, and President Biden looking to renew discussions with Iran on the 2015 nuclear accord that Mr. Trump withdrew from, three Defense Department officials said on Monday that the Nimitz and its 5,000-member crew were ordered on Sunday to return to the ship's home port of Bremerton, Wash., after a longer-than-usual 10-month deployment. The Pentagon for weeks had been engaged in a muscle-flexing strategy aimed at deterring Iran and its Shia proxies in Iraq from attacking American personnel in the Persian Gulf to avenge the death of Maj. General Suleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed in an American drone strike in January 2020.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. BAGHDAD -- A mock funeral procession marked the anniversary of the assassination of Iran's top general and a senior Iraqi militia leader in a U.S. drone strike that heightened fears of a military escalation in the region. Thousands of mourners joined the march on the highway leading to the Baghdad airport Saturday evening where the strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis took place. Soleimani's killing dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the region and brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war.

Center for Security Policy CEO Fred Fleitz provides insight on'America's News HQ.' DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran said Saturday it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility "as soon as possible," pushing its program a technical step away from weapons-grade levels as it increases pressure on the West over the tattered atomic deal. The move comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the waning days of the administration of President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal in 2018. That set in motion an escalating series of incidents capped by a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad a year ago, an anniversary coming Sunday that has American officials now worried about possible retaliation by Iran. Iran's decision to begin enriching to 20% a decade ago nearly brought an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only abated with the 2015 atomic deal. A resumption of 20% enrichment could see that brinksmanship return.

The Pentagon has abruptly sent the aircraft carrier Nimitz home from the Middle East and Africa over the objections of top military advisers, marking a reversal of a weekslong muscle-flexing strategy aimed at deterring Iran from attacking American troops and diplomats in the Persian Gulf. Officials said on Friday that the acting defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller, had ordered the redeployment of the ship in part as a "de-escalatory" signal to Tehran to avoid stumbling into a crisis in President Trump's waning days in office. American intelligence reports indicate that Iran and its proxies may be preparing a strike as early as this weekend to avenge the death of Maj. Senior Pentagon officials said that Mr. Miller assessed that dispatching the Nimitz now, before the first anniversary this Sunday of General Suleimani's death in an American drone strike in Iraq, could remove what Iranian hard-liners see as a provocation that justifies their threats against American military targets. Some analysts said the return of the Nimitz to its home port of Bremerton, Wash., was a welcome reduction in tensions between the two countries.

The president says he will hold Iran responsible if any Americans are killed as the USS Georgia passes through the Strait of Hormuz; Lucas Tomlinson reports. TEHRAN, Iran – The top commander of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Friday that his country was fully prepared to respond to any U.S. military pressure as tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high in the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration. Gen. Hossein Salami spoke at a ceremony at Tehran University commemorating the upcoming one-year anniversary of the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who headed the expeditionary Quds force, on Jan. 3, 2020. At the time, Iran retaliated by launching a ballistic missile strike on a military base in Iraq that caused brain concussion injuries to about 100 U.S. troops. Washington and Tehran came dangerously close to war as the crisis escalated.