The Legal Structure of the Proposed International Seabed Authority

The continuing international dispute over the seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction is a phenomenon of a special and important kind. The conflict concerned the ownership of the seabed area and its substantial amount of wealth. There is a wide range of contentious questions to be decided; those questions are related to problems of economic, legal, military and scientific kinds. This is one of the most important issues in history which will crucially determine the distribution of wealth and welfare in the world for years to come. So, we are praying for a successful solution, based on international control of the area and its resources so as to share the benefits, and to close the existing inequalities among nations which divide them and to increase their division for ever. This thesis is an attempt to deal with the problem in the light of the UN Conferences on the Law of the Sea. It consists of an introductory chapter (The importance of the seabed area and the material therein). The importance of the historical review -cause of conflict, its effect on present time (a historical development for establishing the proposed International Seabed Authority since 1967 until the present time) have been dealt with in six chapters. The first chapter is devoted to describing the beginning of the problem, the Maltese move in UN, and the Ad Hoc Committee work. Chapter two is concerned with the Seabed Committee work for the period 1969. The seabed politics and the Law of the Sea, 1970-73, is the subject of Chapter three. In this chapter the problem concerning the elaboration of a regime for the international seabed area: proposals and positions in the seabed committee and the state of seabed politics. At the end of the seabed meetings Chapter four has dealt with the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, 1973-74, Caracas session. Geneva session 1974-75 is the matter of Chapter five, while the sixth chapter is concerned with New York session 1977. The research has sought to analyse the different aspects of the problem concluding our study in considering what type of international seabed authority might best be able to resolve some of the basic difficulties, best reconcile the various conflicting interests involved, and best serve the needs of the international community as a whole

Novel Approaches to Prepare and Utilize SERS Substrates: Multiplex Microfluidics and Nanotransfer Printing

Over the past few decades, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has garnered respect as an analytical technique with significant chemical and biological applications. SERS is important for the life sciences because it can provide trace level detection and a high level of molecular structure information. The development of quantitative, highly sensitive substrates requires control over size, shape, and position of metal nanoparticles which function as the SERS active medium. Thus, creating and successfully implementing a sensitive, reproducible, and robust SERS active substrate continues to be a challenging ask. Its future development depends critically on techniques for lithography and nanofabrication. Herein, we report a novel method for SERS that is based upon using colloidal silver nanoparticles in a multiplexed microfluidics (MMFs) platform. The MMF is created in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer material and used to perform parallel, high throughput, and sensitive detection/identification of single or various analytes under easily manipulated conditions. A facile passive pumping method is used to deliver samples into the channels under flowing conditions that are highly conducive for SERS measurments. Also an unconventional nanofabrication approach is modified to produce efficient SERS substrates. Metallic nanopatterns of silver discs are transferred from a stamp onto PDMS to create nanocomposite substrates with regular periodic morphologies. The stamp with periodic arrays of square, triangular, and elliptical pillars is created via Electron Beam Lithography of ma-N 2403 resist. A modified cyclodextrin is thermally evaporated on the stamp to overcome the adhesive nature of the ebeam resist and to function as a releasing layer. Subsequently, the stamp is over coated with Ag by physical vapor deposition at a controlled rate and thickness and used directly for nanotransfer printing (nTP). Stamps, substrates, and the efficiency of the nTP process were explored by SEM. Ag nano-disc-PDMS substrates are studied by SERS using Rhodamine 6G as the probe analyte. The SERS response of metallic nano-discs of various shapes/sizes on the original stamp is compared to the corresponding nTP substrates. We demonstrate that physical manipulation of the PDMS post nTP can be used to alter morphology. Additionally, stamps are shown to be reusable after the nTP process

Petrophysical Modelling For the Bahariya Formation, Egypt

AbstractLithologic laminations have great consequences on the Bahariya sandstone, which are distinguished by the calculated reservoir statistical parameters. The non-laminated Bahariya studied samples have the lowest mean bulk density and specific internal surface values, while they have the highest mean porosity, permeability and Spor values. On the other hand, the laminated samples exhibit high values. The non-laminated Bahariya samples have the lowest mean permeability anisotropy, due to its relative pore-framework homogeneity. Contrary, the laminated Bahariya samples have the highest mean permeability anisotropy. By the same behaviour, the non-laminated Bahariya samples have the highest mean electrical resistivity value, due to the lack of conductive minerals, while the laminated Bahariya samples have the highest mean electrical resistivity.The non-laminated Bahariya samples show the lowest mean magnetic susceptibility value, while the laminated samples reveal high values. Sonic wave velocities (Vp and Vs) are statistically treated, while the velocity anisotropy is calculated for all samples. Laminated samples display higher velocity in comparable to the non-laminated ones. Thin sections and SEM-micrographs were made for some selected samples in order to recognize the Bahariya sandstone forming minerals. Glauconite, micas, zircon, rutile and pyrite minerals are composing the laminas in the laminated samples, while some glauconitic sandstone are predominant in the non-laminated ones.A number of linear regression models were performed among some measured petrophysical parameters, in order to differentiate between the laminated and the non-laminated sandstones, and to obtain reliable relationships permitting reservoir characterization

Association between dietary patterns and pregnancy induced hypertension: a case control study from Sudan

Background: Dietary patterns and its associated factors and can play an essential role in development of preeclampsia and implication in pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). Objective: This study was performed to determine nutritional factors associated with PIH among pregnant women in Khartoum, Sudan. Methods: This study was a case-control involving 100 women with PIH and 200 normotensive pregnant women. Results: The mean current weight in the control and PIH groups was 70.25 ± 12.35 and 72.42 ± 12.33 kg; whereas the mean energy intake in the control and PIH groups was 1991.58 ±140.72 and 2154.37 ± 130.85 kcal, respectively. The study results indicated a significantly lower risk of PIH among women ingesting fruits and legumes (odds ratio, 8.44 and 4.07, respectively; 95% confidence interval; P < 0.05). Conclusion: PIH was positively associated with higher energy, fat, and protein intake. A lower risk of PIH was calculated for women whose dietary habits included fruits and legumes. Measures with which to ensure proper nutrition education are needed to obtain good health and pregnancy outcomes. PIH is a multifactorial disease with an unclear etiology, and the findings of this study will serve as a baseline for future studies in this field. Keywords: Nutrition; pregnancy-induced hypertension; health; Sudan

Simple RP-HPLC Method for Estimation of Furosemide, Carbamazepine, Diazepam and Carvedilol in Bulk and Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

A simple reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous analysis (separation and quantification) of furosemide (FURO), carbamazepine (CARB), diazepam (DIAZ) and carvedilol (CARV) has been developed and validated. The method was carried out on a NUCLEODUR® 100-5 C18ec column (250 x 4.6 mm, i. d.5µm), with a mobile phase comprising of acetonitrile: deionized water (50: 50 v/v, pH adjusted to 3.6 ±0.05 with acetic acid) at a flow rate 1.5 mL.min-1 and the quantification was achieved at 226 nm. The retention times of FURO, CARB, DIAZ and CARV were found to be 1.90 min, 2.79 min, 5.39 min and 9.56 min respectively. The method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection and limit of quantitation. The developed method was successfully applied for the estimation of furosemide, carbamazepine, diazepam and carvedilol in bulk and in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Keywords: RP-HPLC, Furosemide, Carbamazepine, Diazepam and Carvedilo

Assessment of the association of serum progranulin with autophagy in diabetic patients

Introduction: Progranulin (PGRN) has newly arisen as an important regulatory protein of glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Progranulin expression is interrelated with lysosomal function strongly linked to autophagy pathway. We aimed to evaluate the correlation between PGRN protein and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B) expression level in diabetic patients. Material and methods: Blood samples of 70 type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients were provided for analysis of concentrations of serum progranulin and interleukin 6 (IL-6) using ELISA, and quantifying expression of LC3B RNA level using qPCR. A group of 20 healthy volunteers were also enrolled. Results: Serum levels of PGRN and IL-6 as well as LC3B gene expression levels were markedly higher in type 2 diabetic patients. Additionally, our study revealed a cut-off value of 18.14 ng/mL for progranulin serum level and 3.23 for LC3B expression level, with sensitivities of 83.6% and 75.4% and specificities of 83.8% and 58.3%, respectively. Circulating PGRN levels are positively correlated with body mass index (BMI), glucose concentration, and IL-6. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that progranulin is introduced as a novel marker of chronic inflammatory response in type 2 diabetes that aggravates insulin resistance via activated autophagy, indicating the importance of this novel adipokine in the regulation of glucose metabolism and as a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of diabetes. Key words: diabetes; progranulin; autophagy; microtubule-associated proteins light chain 3B; interleukin

Spectrophotometric-Assisted Chemometric Method for the Simultaneous Analysis of Furosemide, Carbamazepine, Diazepam, and Carvedilol in Their Bulk and Marketed Formulation

Simultaneous determination of Furosemide, Carbamazepine, Diazepam, and Carvedilol in bulk and pharmaceutical formulation using the partial least squares regression (PLS-1 and PLS-2) is described in this study. The two methods were successfully applied to estimate the four drugs in their quaternary mixture using UV spectral data of 84synthetic mixtures in the range of 200-350nm with the intervals ∆λ=0.5nm. The linear concentration range were 1-20 µg.mL-1 for all, with correlation coefficient (R2) and root mean squares error for the calibration (RMSE) for FURO, CARB, DIAZ, and CARV were 0.9996, 0.9998, 0.9997, 0.9997, and 0.1128, 0.1292, 0.1868,0.1562 respectively for PLS-1, and for PLS-2 were 0.9995, 0.9999, 0.9997, 0.9998, and 0.1127, 0.1205, 0.1691, and 0.1686 respectively. Satisfactory results were achieved with applying PLS-1 and PLS-2 in the determination of the cited drugs in their pharmaceutical formulations and a good agreement was found between the proposed methods. Keywords: PLS, spectrophotometry, furosemide, carbamazepine, diazepam, and carvedilo

The Impact of Maternal Employment on Infant Weight-, Length- and BMI-for-Age Based upon WHO Growth Chart Standards

Background: The infancy is a time of phenomenal growth and development. Infant of working mothers have a special concern as they have less time for their infant care. Objective: The present study aims to assess length, weight and BMI of Jordanian infants in nursery in reference to WHO growth chart standard for age Z-score and to study the impact of mothers’ work on their infant’s growth. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 92 infants aged between 3-12 months randomly and recruited from nurseries in Amman, Jordan. All selected infants their mothers are employed and working for at least 8 hour per day. The participants were divided according to gender (male; female) and age group as the following: 3-6 months; 7-9 months; and 10-12 months. Results: The prevalence of overweight or obesity was 15.2% in all studied infants. Overweight or obesity was more prevalent among female infants aged 3-6 months and among male infants aged 7-12 months. No infant (0.00%) regardless of gender or age group was underweight, stunting nor wasting per WHO standards of BMI for age z-score. Conclusion: Most infants of Jordanian working mothers seemingly have normal growth in weight and length and few of them were overweight or obese according to WHO standard of BMI for age z-score. These indicated that Jordan work polices support working mothers and their infants to have better health and development