Orbiting Forward (Thoughts On The Nature Of Conflict - Sighs On The Struggles Of Change)

Today’s world is a wide open hyper-connected sphere where human societies worldwide exist in a complex crossroads of historical conditions, ideologies, and power structures. A pool of constant confrontations, minor or major, between the traditional and the progressive, the local and the international, the materialistic and the transcendent, the pragmatic and the idealistic, and countless layers of meaning. For an individual who exists in such an intense moment of history, it seems almost inescapable to be exposed to, affected by, or even involved in a major conflict. A situation that makes individuals always in a critical position where every role they may choose becomes an effective player in the conflict, whether they choose to participate or to retreat. Despite all of the utopian expectations of the last century, this hyper-connected information-flooded reality became a powerful cause of division and polarization. The very systems that have been created to inform and encourage expression evolved to become platforms of mobbing and mobilization. Layering even more and more confusion upon one’s ability to morally judge and participate in the scene. However, there might be a hope of clarity when stepping back and acting as an observer of the scene. Over time, patterns begin to emerge before the eyes of the observer until they eventually form a useful structure for interpretation. The following pages are thoughts on the nature of conflicts from an observer’s lens. An ordinary observer who lives in a time and space that can never be ordinary, as the only constant thing in this world is change

The Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on Financial Performance of Banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain during 2004-15

Following the 2007 global financial crisis, more than 15 M&A transactions took place among financial institutions in the kingdom of Bahrain. This paper evaluates the impact of M&As on the financial performance of four such deals between banks in Bahrain. Data was collected from financial statements of the banks and the Bankscope database during 2004–2015. 15 accounting ratios were applied to CAMEL Rating Model approach. Financial modelling with Excel has been applied to test for the significance of changes in the financial performance of the banks three years before and three years after mergers. No significant difference in the financial performance of the local banks between pre and post M&As in the kingdom of Bahrain was observed. No significant difference in the financial performance of the acquirer bank or the target bank was observed except Bahraini Saudi Bank (target bank) which showed significant improvement in the financial performance after the merger with acquirer bank namely Al Salaam Bank. No significant change in the overall CAMEL ratios was observed for all banks involved in the M&As in Bahrain during 2004-15. The study provides an empirical analysis of the M&As before and after the mergers which can serve as a basis for further evaluation of future strategy of the banking sector in the kingdom of Bahrain

In vivo investigation of interactions between replisome components in Escherichia coli: An expanded model for the processivity switch

Background: Protein interactions within the replisome (a highly coordinated protein complex) are crucial to maintain temporal and spatial regulation for high fidelity DNA synthesis in Escherichia coli (E. coli). A key component of these interactions is the processivity switch, ensuring smooth transition of the replicative DNA polymerase III (Pol III) between Okazaki fragments on the lagging strand. Multiple interaction studies between replisome components have been performed to indicate the essential roles of Pol III (DnaE), β-clamp, DnaB helicase, DNA and the t (DnaX) subunit for this switch.Methods: Known interacting regions of both DnaE and various truncated versions of t were chosen for co-expression in E. coli. Differences in the growth pattern of cells co-expressing various truncated versions of DnaX and DnaE, on liquid and solid media were subsequently analyzed. Based on in vivo analyses to explore the interactions between these components, an expanded model for the processivity switch is presented here.Results: The analyses suggest that residues 481-643 of t are sufficient to establish a functional interaction with the DnaB helicase and DnaE during replication, while residues 461-480 of t interact with the C-terminal tail of DnaE to disengage Pol III from the β-clamp during processivity switching. We also propose that residues 430-460 of t are involved in sensing the DNA structure required for the processivity switch.Conclusion: These observations expand the current understanding of processivity switching and help dissect the regions of t utilized for binding to different replisome components such as DnaB helicase, polymerase and DNA.Keywords: Processivity Switch; Clamp Loader; DnaE; DnaX; DnaB Helicas

Color image compression based on spatial and magnitude signal decomposition

In this paper, a simple color image compression system has been proposed using image signal decomposition. Where, the RGB image color band is converted to the less correlated YUV color model and the pixel value (magnitude) in each band is decomposed into 2-values; most and least significant. According to the importance of the most significant value (MSV) that influenced by any simply modification happened, an adaptive lossless image compression system is proposed using bit plane (BP) slicing, delta pulse code modulation (Delta PCM), adaptive quadtree (QT) partitioning followed by an adaptive shift encoder. On the other hand, a lossy compression system is introduced to handle the least significant value (LSV), it is based on an adaptive, error bounded coding system, and it uses the DCT compression scheme. The performance of the developed compression system was analyzed and compared with those attained from the universal standard JPEG, and the results of applying the proposed system indicated its performance is comparable or better than that of the JPEG standards

Novel Peptidyl Carbamate Inhibitors of the Enzyme Elastase

To see the abstract, please download this patent

The Geochemical Distribution and Assessment of Heavy metals Pollutions in Soil Sediment of Chamchamal City-Sulaimanya Governorate / NortherEastern Iraq.

The current study aims at the geochemical distribution of heavy elements in soil sediments.It assesses environmental pollution using pollution index and potential health hazards in the city of Chamchamal  northeastern Iraq. Twenty-one samples of soil sediments were collected in the area of residential, commercial and industrial areas in mid-July 2017. Heavy metals (As, Cu, Cr, Cd, Co, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Zn) were analyzed using ICP-MS. The results showed that arsenic, chromium, cadmium, cobalt, manganese and nickel were the highest concentration in residential areas.While molybdenum and lead were higher in commercial areas, wheras copper, iron and zinc recorded the highest concentration in industrial areas. The results of pollution indicators (Igeo) showed that the  arsenic was the  (Moderately contaminated), The values of the (EF) index of the arsenic  are (Significant enrichment), the cadmium and nickel were (moderate enrichment), and the values of Cdeg showed that some of  samples are (Contamination Moderate) wheras the rest of the sites are considered (Contaminated) by  heavy metals studied. The PRI values indicated that some models were of (Riskable) and others (Very High Risk). key words: chemchmal area, heavy metal, pollution , health ris

A randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, split patch study to evaluate the effects of platelet rich plasma on alopecia areata

Background: Alopecia Areata is a T-cell–mediated autoimmune, often reversible disease in which the gradual loss of protection provided by immune privilege of the normal hair follicle plays an important role. It manifests as smooth, slightly erythematous (peach color) or normal-colored alopecic patches with short broken hair at the margins. It involves scalp most commonly, although other regions of body may be affected. Platelet rich plasma is an autologous concentration of platelets with a greater count in a small volume of plasma. Study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PRP therapy in Alopecia Areata.Methods: In this randomised, placebo controlled, split patch study, 30 patients of AA were recruited and injected with 1-1.5ml of autologous PRP made by double spin method into half the bald patch area and other half with placebo using insulin syringe once a month for 3 months. Outcome was assessed at the end of study by clinical photographs as regrowth of hair, dermoscopy findings as reduction in black dots, yellow dots and exclamation hair and Physician and patient self-assessment score.Results: Administration of autologous PRP has led to observable improvement in 20% case of PRP and only 3.3% of control cases. Decrease in number of dystrophic hair and hair regrowth with PRP was seen in 20% cases and in 17% patches.Conclusions: PRP in our setting was found to be minimally effective, but more efficacious than no treatment, and safe for AA patients

The Antibacterial Activity of Curcuminoid Deliver

The antibacterial effect of Curcuminoid extract before and after loading on the gel were tested against some of pathogenic microorganisms, and the result shown that the microbial growth  were inhibited largely by the herbal which loaded on gel

Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks with minimum delay and minimum use of energy: A comparative study

Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC), 2015. First published in the Electronic Workshops in Computing series at http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/bcsme2014.2The prime objective of deploying large- scale wireless sensor networks is to collect information from to control systems associated with these networks. Wireless sensor networks are widely used in application domains such as security and inspection, environmental monitoring, warfare, and other situations especially where immediate responses are required such as disasters and medical emergency. Whenever there is a growth there are challenges and to cope with these challenges strategies and solutions must be developed. This paper discusses the recently addressed issues of data aggregation through presenting a comparative study of different research work done on minimizing delay in different structures of wireless sensor networks. Finally we introduce our proposed method to minimize both delay and power consumption using a tree based clustering scheme with partial data aggregation