Caravan trade and routes in the northern Sudan in the 19th century: a study in historical geography

Trade is an important aspect of the economic geography of any country and during the 19th century trade in the Sudan laboured under peculiar difficulties. A harsh physical environment, presenting many difficulties, not least the absence of water, was associated with economic backwardness and political unrest. Thus in the 19th century trade was still limited to certain basic natural products, such as gum and ivory which had been articles of trade from earliest times . Further development was curtailed by a scarcity of capital, the absence of a standard currency, heavy and arbitrary taxation associated with administrative incompetence and short-sighted monopolistic policies. Underlying many of these problems was the absence of a cheap and efficient means of transport. As a result of physical barriers along the Nile in form of cataracts, trade routes were forced to cross barren deserts and hence the only mode of transport available was the camel. Slow and temperamental, this beast possessed only a limited carrying capacity and this fact, together with the nature of the routes followed, to a great extent determined the type of articles which could be transported. All fragile and bulky goods were necessarily excluded, and for export, traders of necessity concentrated an those products with a high value per unit weight, such as perfumes, spices and cotton goods. In addition to this trade in high value materials there was internal trade consisting mainly of provisions dealing which tended to be seasonally variable and relatively localised. Throughout the 19th century in an attempt to stimulate trade successive governments resorted to various schemes, attempting to improve communications and develop agricultural resources so as to diversify the articles available for export. These were some short-term successes but in general most of these attempts were a failure because of a singular lack of overall economic planning and the high cost and inadequacy of transport

Commercial cotton growing in the Sudan between 1860 and 1925: a study in historical geography

Commercial cotton production was introduced into the Sudan on two distinct and separate occasions, by the Turks in the 1860's and by the British in the 1900's. The earlier venture, however, was a total failure while the second was a success. This thesis examines the factors underlying failure and success using the records left by travellers, administrators and agriculturalists to discuss and evaluate man's changing attitude to the agricultural resources of the Sudan between the years 1860 and 1925. The thesis, a contribution to the historical geography of an African underdeveloped country in the colonial period, stresses the importance in development schemes of two factors, first, the need for careful, soundly conceived and sympathetic pilot studies prior to the main scheme, drawing as much as possible on indigenous farming practice, and second, the need for a clear view of the ultimate aims of large scale developments as an essential preliminary to the isolation of salient issues and the implementation of a consistent policy. In retrospect it can be seen that the Gezira Scheme proper has been a. great success and this study focuses upon the vital antecedents that made it a success

Development of hybrid silica membrane material for molecular sieve applications

El desarrollo de nuevas membranas de sílice ha ido ganando cada vez más importancia en los últimos años. Se propone una nueva metodología para la modificación del material de membrana de sílice. Un nuevo material de membrana de sílice hidrófobico y dopado con cobalto ha ido desarrollado. El nuevo material se preparó por la hidrólisis catalizada por ácido y el proceso de condensación de ortosilicato de tetraetilo (TEOS) y metiltrietoxisilano (MTES). Los resultados mostraron que la estabilidad térmica del nuevo material se ve reforzada por proceso de dopaje con cobalto. Se logró un material de membrana de sílice microporosa hidrófoba con alta estabilidad térmica de hasta 560 °C en atmósfera oxidante y una distribución de tamaño de poro estrecha. El nuevo material se usó para la preparación de nuevas membranas. Las membranas híbridas dopadas con cobalto mostraron mejores resultados en comparación con las híbridas no dopadas respeto la selectividad de los gases.Development of new silica membranes properties, e.g., molecular sieving properties, has been increasingly gaining importance in the last few years. A new methodology for modification of silica membrane material is proposed. A novel silica membrane material, referred to as hydrophobic metal-doped silica, was developed by cobalt-doping within the organic templated silica matrix (hybrid silica). The novel material was prepared by the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis and condensation process of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES). The results showed that the thermal stability of the organic templated silica matrix was enhanced by cobalt-doping process. A hydrophobic microporous silica membrane material with high thermal stability up to 560 °C in oxidizing atmosphere and a narrow pore size distribution was achieved. The novel material was used for preparation of novel supported silica membranes. The cobalt-doped hybrid membranes showed better results compared with the non-doped hybrid one concerning the ideal selectivity of gases

Acute mastoiditis: A one year study in the pediatric hospital of Cairo university

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute mastoiditis is a serious complication of acute otitis media especially in the pediatric age group. This study reports the authors' experience in the treatment of children admitted with acute mastoiditis to the Pediatric Hospital of Cairo University throughout the year 2007, also we aimed to evaluate our current management of this serious disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Nineteen children were included in this study, 11 females and 8 males, their ages ranged from 9 months to 11 years. All children were treated with intravenous antibiotic on initial admission, myringotomy was considered for cases that did not respond to medical treatment for 48 hours, while cortical mastoidectomy (with myringotomy) was reserved for cases that presented initially with subperiosteal abscess with or without post-auricular fistula, cases with intracranial complications and for cases that showed no response to myringotomy (after 48 hours). Follow up of the patients was carried out for at least 1 year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Medical management alone was enough in 5 cases (26%); all of them had erythematous tender mastoid on first presentation. Seven cases (37%) needed myringotomy; 2 of them showed no response and they needed cortical mastoidectomy and the other 5 cases responded well except for 1 case that developed post-auricular subperiosteal abscess 2 months later necessitating cortical mastoidectomy with no evidence of recurrence till the end of the follow-up period. Seven cases (37%) presented with subperiosteal abscess and they needed cortical mastoidectomy with myringotomy; they showed no recurrence till the end of the study.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Conservative management is an effective method in the treatment of non-complicated acute mastoiditis, but myringotomy should be considered if there is no response within 48 hours. Cortical mastoidectomy should be used in conjunction with the medical management in the treatment of complicated cases.</p

Reshaping the Urban Experience: Prospects for Digital Streetscape towards better Livability in Public Spaces

As addressed through the literature on urban planning and design, urban livability concepts generally focus on the issue of “quality of life”. Streetscape design is a good tool that can be used to create a sense of place and improve the urban quality. Thus, streetscape design and urban livability are strongly interconnected. But this connection needs desirable and attractive urban spaces that could interpret and reflect its richness. However, urban spaces are now exclusive domain managed almost entirely for traffic flow which makes them lose their distinctive character as places for people. Furthermore, with the continuous growth of internet usage, people’s needs of public spaces have differed. These needs have to be specified. New possibilities of use and new atmospheres should be also created to cope with their new needs. Therefore, cities around the world are progressively working on developing new strategies to face the 21st century’s challenges. In this context, the paper raises the question of how urban spaces can be enhanced, depending on streetscape’s improvements, to promote livability for its users. Based on the fundamental idea that streets are places for people more than just being arteries for traffic, the paper proposes the “Digital Streetscape” concept as a hybrid model that correlates the advantages of three techniques to meet the contemporary needs of people as well as to rejuvenate cities. On a broader level, the paper aims to conclude a set of guidelines and recommendations to improve the main elements of streetscape design that are derived from the theoretical study. This is carried out to identify the most suitable design concepts and options that can be adopted in the design of future urban spaces to produce new generation of livable communities

Evidence-Based Medicine; Climbing a Mountain for a Better Decision-Making

Evidence-Based Medicine is a relatively new term used in medical sittings and Health Information Technology (HIT). It is a form of medicine that integrates practitioners’ expertise with the best available practical evidences to improve better patient care. Evidence-Based Medicine has increasingly been used and incorporated into daily medical practices to overcome the shortcomings in the conventional standard care. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the importance of Evidence-Based Medicine and how it can act as a crucial tool in decision-making to empower the quality of medical services for better patient outcomes

New representations for weighted Drazin inverse of matrices

In this paper, the result are established in the following four ways: First, we present a general representation for the weighted Drazin inverse Ad,W of an arbitrary rectangular matrix A ∈ Mm,n involving Moore-Penrose inverse, which reduces to the well-known result if the matrix A is a square and W = In . Second, we find represenations for the weighted Drazin inverse of the Tracy-Singh product A B of the two matrices A ∈ Mm,n and B ∈ Mp,q by using our approach. Third,the results are extended to the case of Tracy-Singh product of any finite number of matrices.The result lead to equalities involving Kronecker product, Drazin inverse and group inverse, as a special case. Finally,We apply our result to present the solution of restricted singular matrix equations

Kynurenine 3-Monooxygenase gene associated with Nicotine initiation and addiction: Analysis of novel regulatory features at 5' and 3'-Regions

© 2018 Aziz, Abdel-Salam, Al-Obaide, Alobydi and Al-Humaish. Tobacco smoking is widespread behavior in Qatar and worldwide and is considered one of the major preventable causes of ill health and death. Nicotine is part of tobacco smoke that causes numerous health risks and is incredibly addictive; it binds to the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) in the brain. Recent studies showed α7nAChR involvement in the initiation and addiction of smoking. Kynurenic acid (KA), a significant tryptophan metabolite, is an antagonist of α7nAChR. Inhibition of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase enzyme encoded by KMO enhances the KA levels. Modulating KMO gene expression could be a useful tactic for the treatment of tobacco initiation and dependence. Since KMO regulation is still poorly understood, we aimed to investigate the 5' and 3'-regulatory factors of KMO gene to advance our knowledge to modulate KMO gene expression. In this study, bioinformatics methods were used to identify the regulatory sequences associated with expression of KMO. The displayed differential expression of KMO mRNA in the same tissue and different tissues suggested the specific usage of the KMO multiple alternative promoters. Eleven KMO alternative promoters identified at 5'-regulatory region contain TATA-Box, lack CpG Island (CGI) and showed dinucleotide base-stacking energy values specific to transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs). The structural features of regulatory sequences can influence the transcription process and cell type-specific expression. The uncharacterized LOC105373233 locus coding for non-coding RNA (ncRNA) located on the reverse strand in a convergent manner at the 3'-side of KMO locus. The two genes likely expressed by a promoter that lacks TATA-Box harbor CGI and two TFBSs linked to the bidirectional transcription, the NRF1, and ZNF14 motifs. We identified two types of microRNA (miR) in the uncharacterized LOC105373233 ncRNA, which are like hsa-miR-5096 and hsa-miR-1285-3p and can target the miR recognition element (MRE) in the KMO mRNA. Pairwise sequence alignment identified 52 nucleotides sequence hosting MRE in the KMO 3' UTR untranslated region complementary to the ncRNA LOC105373233 sequence. We speculate that the identified miRs can modulate the KMO expression and together with alternative promoters at the 5'-regulatory region of KMO might contribute to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm for tobacco smoking