Digital Shopping and Consumers’ Perceptions in the United Arab Emirates

The purpose of this research is to analyse the perception of digital shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)., A survey was conducted, which included: students, employees, and professionals from different fields of UAE society. The findings show about 89 percent of those surveyed are familiar with online shopping and some of them are found comfortable that their personal information is kept confidential. Some participants still have concerns about the safety and the accuracy of online shopping. The findings show that about 45 percent of those surveyed think that online shopping is still risky. The results also show that about 20 percent of the surveyed population believe that delay in product delivery, lack of accuracy on websites, and information insufficiency are reasons services that do not comply with the needs of buyers and therefore still prefer traditional shopping over online shopping. The study concludes that there is a need for building safety awareness among shoppers which companies need to focus on. Furthermore, companies need to continually improve its offering of online services. This will result in providing customers with accurate information and in enhancing the products’ time delivery

Revisiting Pedagogical Variations in Service-Learning and Student Outcomes

This article presents results from a quasi‐experimental replication study that extended Mabry’s 1998 correlational study by introducing a counterfactual (using psychometrically defensible measures) and controlling for academic motivation and relationships among students, faculty, and staff. The study offered evidence of the effectiveness of frequency of contact, reflection, and service duration in influencing civic and academic outcomes. Though the study’s quasi-experimental approach posed modest limitations, the measured effects were similar to those identified in Mabry’s study, thus improving confidence around findings related to the impacts of service-learning pedagogical variations and their implications for instructional design.

Effect of tillage practices on the soil carbon dioxide flux during fall and spring seasons in a Mediterranean Vertisol

In this study, we assessed the effect of conventional tillage (CT), reduced (RT) and no tillage (NT) practices on the soil CO2 flux of a Mediterranean Vertisol in semi-arid Morocco. The measurements focused on the short term (0 to 96 h) soil CO2 fluxes measured directly after tillage during the fall and spring period. Soil temperature, moisture and soil strength were measured congruently to study their effect on the soil CO2 flux magnitude. Immediately after fall tillage, the CT showed the highest CO2 flux (4.9 g m-2 h-1); RT exhibited an intermediate value (2.1 g m-2 h-1) whereas the lowest flux (0.7 g m-2 h-1) was reported under NT. After spring tillage, similar but smaller impacts of the tillage practices on soil CO2 flux were reported with fluxes ranging from 1.8 g CO2 m-2 h-1 (CT) to less than 0.1 g CO2 m-2 h-1 (NT). Soil strength was significantly correlated with soil CO2 emission; whereas surface soil temperature and moisture were low correlated to the soil CO2 flux. The intensity of rainfall events before fall and spring tillage practices could explain the seasonal CO2 flux trends. The findings promote conservation tillage and more specifically no tillage practices to reduce CO2 losses within these Mediterranean agroecosystems. (Résumé d'auteur

Peutz Jeghers Syndrome Presented as intermittent gastric outlet obstruction

Peutz Jeghers Syndrome (PJS), which was first described in 1921 by Peutz, followed by Jeghers etal in 1949, is an uncommon but not a rare disorder characterized by mucocutaneous melanin pigmentation, gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyps and increased risk of gastrointestinal and otherorgans cancer. The polyps vary in size from few millimeters to several centimeters, with lobulated surface, and could be pedunculated as in large polyps, or sessile as in the small ones. The clinical symptoms of the disease are recurrent abdominal pain, intestinal intussusception and obstruction, gastrointestinal bleeding with symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia. The symptoms usually take place in the second and third decade of life. The complications of PJS which brings the patient to the doctor is severe anemia due to blood loss from GIT, acute abdomen, intestinal obstruction due to tumor-mass obstruction or intussusception, or rarely due to gastric outlet obstruction as in this presented case. The treatment of polyposis is by endoscopic polypectomy, laprotomy and resection which may lead to complications as short bowel syndrome. The other difficulty which the doctor comes across while managing these cases is to follow-up the occurrence of malignant disease in these patients, malignant changes of hamartomatus polyps and other organs cancers have been reported in patients with PJS.Keywords: hamartomatus polyps, polypectomy, mucocutaneous

Peutz Jeghers Syndrome presented as intermittent gastric outlet obstruction and ileoileal intussusceptions

No Abstract

A fluorophore attached to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor beta M2 detects productive binding of agonist to the alpha delta site

To study conformational transitions at the muscle nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor (nAChR), a rhodamine fluorophore was tethered to a Cys side chain introduced at the beta-19' position in the M2 region of the nAChR expressed in Xenopus oocytes. This procedure led to only minor changes in receptor function. During agonist application, fluorescence increased by (Delta-F/F) approximate to 10%, and the emission peak shifted to lower wavelengths, indicating a more hydrophobic environment for the fluorophore. The dose-response relations for Delta-F agreed well with those for epibatidine-induced currents, but were shifted approximate to 100-fold to the left of those for ACh-induced currents. Because (i) epibatidine binds more tightly to the alpha-gamma-binding site than to the alpha-delta site and (ii) ACh binds with reverse-site selectivity, these data suggest that Delta-F monitors an event linked to binding specifically at the alpha-delta-subunit interface. In experiments with flash-applied agonists, the earliest detectable Delta-F occurs within milliseconds, i.e., during activation. At low [ACh] (less than or equal to 10 muM), a phase of Delta-F occurs with the same time constant as desensitization, presumably monitoring an increased population of agonist-bound receptors. However, recovery from Delta-F is complete before the slowest phase of recovery from desensitization (time constant approximate to 250 s), showing that one or more desensitized states have fluorescence like that of the resting channel. That conformational transitions at the alpha-delta-binding site are not tightly coupled to channel activation suggests that sequential rather than fully concerted transitions occur during receptor gating. Thus, time-resolved fluorescence changes provide a powerful probe of nAChR conformational changes

Estimación de la recarga en lechos fluviales mediante sondas TDR flexibles durante eventos de avenida (Río Andarax, Almería)

Acta de las VIII Jornadas de Investigación de la Zona no Saturada del Suelo (Córdoba, España - 2007)[ES] En este trabajo se describe la metodología y la instrumentación instalada en el cauce fluvial para la medida de la infiltración directa en la zona no saturada asociada a las crecidas en el río Andarax (Almería), y se presentan los datos preliminares registrados en el primer año de funcionamiento de la estación. El objetivo final de este seguimiento es cuantificar la recarga a largo plazo de los acuíferos aluviales someros, asociada a eventos de crecida. La estación de medida se localiza en las proximidades de la localidad de Gádor, y permite el registro de los contenidos de humedad en la zona no saturada mediante sondas TDR flexibles (15 en total) hasta los 10 m de profundidad. Igualmente, se dispone de sondas para el registro del niveles del agua superficial durante la crecida y de las variaciones del nivel piezométrico. Los resultados preliminares muestran claramente que la metodología utilizada permite obtener datos de infiltración en la zona no saturada del suelo de manera continua y en tiempo real con mínimas perturbaciones de suelo. El registro de un evento ocurrido el 7 de Enero de 2006, de duración estimada de 7 días y cuyo calado máximo se ha registrado en 7 cm, permite demostrar que el hidrograma de crecida tiene una respuesta clara en el contenido de humedad del suelo en el perfil estudiado, con aumentos de hasta el 5% de humedad en sondas a profundidades superiores a 9 m. Analizando los cambios ocurridos en el nivel freático podemos comprobar que los datos obtenidos en el perfil estudiado son extrapolables al conjunto de la zona no saturada y con ello elaborar una estimación de la recarga.[EN] This work describes the methodological procedure and the instrumentation installed to monitor the infiltration through the vadose zone associated with flood events of the Andarax River (Almeria). First, the preliminary data recorded in the station’s first functional year are presented and discussed. The final objective of this monitoring was to quantify the long-term shallow alluvial aquifer recharge related to flooding. The monitoring station is located near Gador, and records the moisture contents through the vadose profile using 15 flexible TDR probes (FTDR) reaching depths of 10 m. In addition, water surface and groundwater piezometric levels are recorded. The preliminary results clearly show that the methodology chosen permits the collection of real time and continuous infiltration data in the vadose zone with minimum soil disturbances. The 7 January 2006 event recorded, 7 days in length and whose maximum flood height recorded was 7 centimeters, demonstrated that the flood hydrograph gave a clear response in the soil moisture content of the profile studied, with increases in soil water content of up to 5% for soil depths below 9 meters. Analyzing the changes in the ground water level it is obvious that the infiltration data can be applied to the whole vadose zone and therefore the aquifer recharge can be estimated.Este trabajo se ha realizado con la financiación del Proyecto Europeo WADE (FloodWater recharge of alluvial Aquifers in Dryland Environments, contrato no. GOCE-CT-2003-506680), y del proyecto CICYT PALEOREC “Infiltración en lechos fluviales y recarga de acuíferos relacionadas con avenidas y paleocrecidas en ríos efímeros” (Proyecto CGL2005-01977/HID).Peer reviewe