Understanding the nature of dropouts in MFIs: Evidence from rural Bangladesh

The present study aims to comprehend the nature of drop out from the microfinance institutes (MFIs) in Bangladesh.To this aim, the research incorporates several variables ranging from the demographic to demandled factors that may affect the dropping out behavior of the rural poor in MFIs.Multiple regression model has been used to analyze the data (n = 280) that are collected from the dropout-members from six regions of Bangladesh.The findings demonstrate that eleven of fourteen explanatory variables including the demographics are statistically significant to influence the dropping out behavior of the dropouts in rural Bangladesh

Inferring the Phylogeny of Bovidae Using Mitochondrial DNA Sequences: Resolving Power of Individual Genes Relative to Complete Genomes

Molecular techniques that assess biodiversity through the analysis of a small segment of mitochondrial genome have been getting wide attention for inferring the mammalian diversity. Due to their highly conserved nature, specific mitochondrial genes offer a promising tool for phylogenetic analysis. However, there is no established criteria for selecting the typical mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) segments to achieve a greater resolving power. We therefore chose the family Bovidae as a model and compared the tree-topologies resulting from the commonly used and phylogenetically-informative genes including 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, COI, Cyt b and D-loop with respect to complete mitochondrial genome. The tree topologies from the whole mitochondrial genome of 12 species were not identical albeit similar with those resulting from the five individual genes mentioned above. High bootstrap values were observed for mtDNA compared with that of any single gene. The average pair-wise sequence divergence using different genetic modes was found to be: D-loop (0.229) > Cyt b (0.159) > COI or complete mtDNA (0.143) > 12S rRNA (0.094) > 16S rRNA (0.091). The tree resulting from complete mtDNA clearly separated the 12 taxa of Bovidae into 3 major clusters, one cluster each for subfamily Cervinae and Bovinae and the third cluster comprised the distinctive clades of Caprinae and Antilopinae. However, jumping clades of Antilopinae were observed while using the individual genes. This study showed that Bison bison and Bos Taurus have very close phylogenetic relationship compared to Bubalus bubalis (Bovinae), irrespective of the method used. Our findings suggest that complete mtDNA genome provides most reliable understanding of complex phylogenetic relationships while the reliability of individual gene trees should be verified with high bootstrap support

An approximate analytical formula for estimating the weight of factors affecting the spread of COVID-19: a case study of the first wave

COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live our lives for the foreseen future. To date, there have been over 113 million reported cases and 2.5 million deaths worldwide. Many studies investigated the factors affecting the number of daily cases such as weather conditions, lockdown duration and other factors. In this study, we propose a COVID-19 analytical formula for factors contributing to the number of the new coronavirus daily cases. We have also calculated values of relative weights of those factors. We focus on the first wave data that are publically available. Seven countries were considered including the UK, Italy, Spain, Canada, South Korea, Germany and France. We considered the following factors: temperature, humidity, government expenditure, lockdown hours and the number of daily tests for COVID-19 performed. The weights were calculated based on the hypothesis that a high correlation between recorded data of a given pair of countries implies a high correlation of the pair’s COVID-19 proposed analytical formula. The factors are calculated using the brute-force technique. Our results showed that in five out of the seven countries; temperature, humidity, and lockdown duration were the most dominant with values of 26%, 32% and 38%, respectively. In other countries, however, humidity, government expenditure and the daily performed tests for COVID-19 were the most effective factors, with relative values of 35%, 26%, and 28%

Towards Sustainable Documentation of Geographical Names of Touristic and Heritage Sites in Occupied Jerusalem Using Geographical Information System (GIS)

Geographical Information System (GIS) is an important tool in documenting and managing archaeological and heritage sites in the city of Jerusalem in order to benefit from its high capabilities in monitoring, documentation, analysis, presentation and other capabilities required by the documentation of archaeological and heritage sites in Jerusalem with their Arabic names, which deal with large amounts of spatial and descriptive data, also to maximize the use of spatial data collected on archaeological and heritage sites in Jerusalem, and the conversion of geographical databases electronically, which allows more than one user or management access to data and modifying it simultaneously, which saves a lot of time, effort and cost in medium to long term, giving later a wide horizon for disseminating data and designing practical applications, and contributing to the electronic and comprehensive documentation processes of archaeological and heritage sites in the city of Jerusalem in a sustainable manner. The study has concluded that it is important to adopt modern technology systems in documenting Arabic names of heritage sites in order to preserve these names for future generations and to resist the Judaization and preservation of these names over time. Moreover, this study recommended to adopt the proposed documentation system and to expand the processes of building electronic databases to Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities in order to sustainably protect it based on scientific foundations that contribute in providing the electronic database. Keywords: Geographic Information System (GIS), Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), Logical Model, Physical Model, (RS) Remote Sensing), occupied Jerusalem.

Studi Etnofarmasi Suku Dondo Kecamatan Dondo Kabupaten Tolitoli Sulawesi Tengah

This study aims to inventory and to record plants and their parts used as medicine by Dondo Tribe in Dondo Subdistrict, Tolitoli Regency, Central Sulawesi. This research is a descriptive study using qualitative methods and snowball sampling technique through open-ended interviews to 4 informants using questionnaire. The results showed that 56 plant species divided into 32 familia were used as medicine. The most widely used plant was from Euphorbiaceae family as much as 11%. Parts of plant which were used included leaf, petiole, stem, bark, flower, fruit, seed, rhizomes, tuber, and herb. Part of plant widely used was the leaf with percentage of utilization as much as 62%. The people of Dondo Tribe in Tolitoli District use the plants for treatment of illness, recovery, and maintenance of health. The methods of processing included decocting, mashing, roasting, burning, squeezing, and brewing the parts of the plant. The ways of using included drinking, eating, chewing, smearing, dropping, affixing/compressing, attaching, and rubbing the plant preparations on the sore spot as well as inhaling the fumes, and mixing it with water for bathin

The effects of hydration media on the characteristics of non-ionic surfactant vesicles (NISV) prepared by microfluidics

Non-ionic surfactant vesicles (NISV) are colloidal particles that provide a useful delivery system for drugs and vaccines. One of the methods that is used for NISV preparation is microfluidics in which the lipid components dissolved in organic phase are mixed with an aqueous medium to prepare the particles through self-assembly of the lipids. In this work, we examined the effect of using different types of aqueous media on the characteristics of the NISV prepared by microfluidics. Five aqueous media were tested: phosphate buffered saline, HEPES buffer, Tris buffer, normal saline and distilled water. The resulting particles were tested for their physical characteristics and cytotoxicity. The aqueous media were found to have significant effects on the physical characteristics of the particles, as well as their overall stability under different conditions and their cytotoxicity to different human cell lines. Careful consideration should be taken when choosing the aqueous media for preparing NISV through microfluidics. This is an important factor that will also have implications with respect to the entrapped material, but which in addition may help to design vesicles for different uses based on changing the preparation medium

EFFECT OF LIGHT TRANSMITTING ABILITY OF FIBER POST ON BOND STRENGTH OF SELFADHESIVE RESIN CEMENT TO RADICULAR DENTINE

Aim: to investigate the effect of different light transmitting ability of two fiber posts systems on bond strength to the root canal dentine using dual cure self-adhesive resin cement. Materials and methods: 24 freshly extracted human premolars were decoronated and endodontically treated. Post spaces were prepared to a depth of 8 mm and width of 1.3 mm using manufacture’s supplied drills. Teeth were randomly classified into two main groups (n= 12) according to fiber post light transmission ability; group I; non-light transmitting fiber posts (NLT) (Reforpost, Angelus), group II; light transmitting fiber post (LT) (Exacto, Angelus). Both groups were cemented using self-adhesive resin cement (SpeedCEM, Ivoclar Vivadent). Using low speed saw (IsoMet, Buehler), a 2 mm thickness coronal, middle and apical sections were obtained from each sample. Then they were subjected to push out test using Instron machine (Lloyd Instruments Ltd) until failure. Data was collected and statistically analyzed. Results: the highest means in the coronal and middle parts was found, when using light transmitting fiber post, which scored (11.75, 10.30 MPa) compared with (6.51, 6.98 MPa) when using non-light transmitting group. One-way ANOVA among the groups revealed a significant difference between non-light and light transmitting fiber post. However, there is no significant difference on the middle and the coronal parts. Conclusions: There was no significant difference between non-light and light transmitting fiber post when all sections were added together. There is a reasonable doubt regarding the ability of light to reach more than 4 mm depth

Factors Associated with Patient Visits to the Emergency Department for Asthma Therapy in Jordan

This study aimed at analyzing the factors associated with patient visits to the emergency department for asthma therapy in Jordan, by attempting to answer the study questions: What are the factors associated with patient visits to the emergency department for asthma therapy in Jordan University Hospital, and king Abdullah Hospital in Jordan? And how to reduce the use of the emergency departments for asthma treatment as a major goal of asthma management? This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2016 to June 2016 on 400 patients reporting to the ED of two hospitals (Jordan University Hospital and King Abdullah Hospital. The researchers adopted the descriptive methodology by adopting the questionnaires as the study tool and data collection

EFFECT OF LIGHT TRANSMITTING ABILITY OF FIBER POST ON BOND STRENGTH OF SELFADHESIVE RESIN CEMENT TO RADICULAR DENTINE

Aim: to investigate the effect of different light transmitting ability of two fiber posts systems on bond strength to the root canal dentine using dual cure self-adhesive resin cement. Materials and methods: 24 freshly extracted human premolars were decoronated and endodontically treated. Post spaces were prepared to a depth of 8 mm and width of 1.3 mm using manufacture’s supplied drills. Teeth were randomly classified into two main groups (n= 12) according to fiber post light transmission ability; group I; non-light transmitting fiber posts (NLT) (Reforpost, Angelus), group II; light transmitting fiber post (LT) (Exacto, Angelus). Both groups were cemented using self-adhesive resin cement (SpeedCEM, Ivoclar Vivadent). Using low speed saw (IsoMet, Buehler), a 2 mm thickness coronal, middle and apical sections were obtained from each sample. Then they were subjected to push out test using Instron machine (Lloyd Instruments Ltd) until failure. Data was collected and statistically analyzed. Results: the highest means in the coronal and middle parts was found, when using light transmitting fiber post, which scored (11.75, 10.30 MPa) compared with (6.51, 6.98 MPa) when using non-light transmitting group. One-way ANOVA among the groups revealed a significant difference between non-light and light transmitting fiber post. However, there is no significant difference on the middle and the coronal parts. Conclusions: There was no significant difference between non-light and light transmitting fiber post when all sections were added together. There is a reasonable doubt regarding the ability of light to reach more than 4 mm depth