Nutritional assessment of zinc among adolescents in the Gaza Strip-Palestine

Zinc deficiency, obesity and stunting can be observed together in some developing countries. Moreover, zinc deficiency may enhance fat deposition and decrease lean body mass. In term of health, adequate absorbable zinc in food is essential for human health and growth. On the other hand, zinc deficiency affects children’s physical growth and deteriorates health status and increases the risk and severity of a variety of infectious diseases. The aim of the study is to assess zinc nutritional status among early adolescents in the Gaza Strip-Palestine. Methods: A cross sectional study had been performed on 296 adolescents aged 12-15 years old. Three areas in the Gaza Strip were chosen randomly. Systematically, pupils of 7th, 8th and 9th grades were selected. Height and weight measures were taken. Questionnaires including dietary habit and physical activities of pupils were collected in addition to serum zinc level measure. Results: The overall prevalence of serum zinc deficiency among adolescents was 42.5%. Zinc deficiency was more prevalent among the females (47.7%) than the males (37.2%). The overall prevalence of high body mass index was 29%. The overall prevalence of stunting was 7.6%. The stunted males (8.8%) were more prevalent than the females (6.4%). Forty-nine percent of the females live in sedentary life style, whereas 55% of the males practiced active and very active leisure physical activity. The females were less consuming of meat, eggs and milk than the males. Serum zinc level is associated positively with consumption of meat, BMI for age, stunting and physical activities. Conclusion: Zinc deficiency is prevalent

Constructed wetland for sustainable and low-cost wastewater treatment: review article

There is a growing need for more sustainable wastewater treatment technologies to provide non-conventional water sources. Constructed Wetland systems (CW) are viewed as a low-cost treatment technology with proven treatment efficiency. CWS can treat a variety of contaminants using low energy and natural systems by altering various design parameters. There are two configuration types of constructed wetlands: vertical (VF) and horizontal flow CW (HF). Both configurations have been widely adopted in both large and pilot scale studies with proven records of reasonable wastewater treatment efficiency. The current article reviews the recent development of CW technology and highlights the main achievements and successful applications for wastewater treatment at various locations. The review has indicated that a considerable removal efficiency is attained while using engineered CW systems with variable treatment rates for various pollutants. The treatment efficiency is a function of various parameters including wastewater type, scale dimensions, applied plant and the retention time. The review compared the treatment efficiency for both VF and HF and has revealed that various removal rates of BOD, COD, TSS, TN, TP and NH₄ was attained using both configurations. Yet, the removal efficiency in the case of VF was slightly higher compared with the HF with an average treatment level of 77% and 68% was achieved in both systems, respectively. The review revealed that the CW is an effective and sustainable technology for wastewater treatment with the initial influent level, microbial biofilm, detention time, plant species and configuration among the most dominating parameters that are directly controlling the removal rates

Development and Validation of a Clinical Practicum Assessment Tool for the NAACLS-Accredited Biomedical Science Program.

Student perspectives on their final year clinical placements in biomedical sciences at Qatar University are assessed using the clinical practicum assessment tool (CPAT), which was developed in-house following accreditation body requirements. The tool, which we call the CPAT-Qatar University (CPAT-QU), covers the three clinical practicum domains: practicum content, preceptors, and competencies. Here, we validate this tool. The CPAT-QU has 27 Likert-scale questions and free-text open questions. CPAT-QU readability was calculated using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease (FKRE) instrument. Content validity was assessed using the average and universal average scale-level content validity indices (S-CVI/Average and S-CVI/UA). For construct validity, 50 employed graduates who had completed the practicum were consented for study participation, and the validity was calculated by a principal component analysis (PCA). Reliability was analyzed by Cronbach's alpha. The S-CVI/Average and S-CVI/UA were 0.90 and 0.59, respectively, indicating that an adequate proportion of the content was relevant. The PCA extracted two core components, which explained 63% of the variance in the CPAT-QU. Cronbach's alpha values for the items were within the acceptable range of 0.60-1.00, showing that internal consistency has a good level. CPAT-QU appears to be a useful tool for assessing student perspectives on their clinical placements; however, construct validity needs continuous improvement.This study was supported by Qatar University, internal grant No. (QUST-1-CHS-2021-7). The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Anaphylaxis triggers in a large tertiary care hospital in Qatar: a retrospective study

Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic disease that may lead to death if not immediately recognized and treated. Triggers of anaphylaxis including food, drugs, and insect stings can vary widely. The incidence of anaphylaxis seems to be affected by age, sex, atopy, and geographic location. This study aims to examine the common triggers of anaphylaxis in Qatar. A total of 1068 electronic medical records were audited using power chart system: 446 from the medical coding system of anaphylaxis and 622 from the epinephrine auto-injectors (EAIs) dispensed during January 2012-December 2017. Of 1068 patients, 574 (53.5%) had anaphylaxis; male to female ratio was 1.2, and 300 patients (77.9%) were less than 10 years old. The common triggers were food ( = 316, 55.0%), insect stings ( = 161, 28.0%), and drugs ( = 103, 17.9%). Common anaphylaxis food triggers were nuts ( = 173, 30.1%), eggs ( = 89, 15.5%), and seafood ( = 72, 12.5%), and common anaphylaxis medication triggers were antibiotics ( = 49, 8.5%) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ( = 30, 5.2%). Interestingly, 135 anaphylactic patients (23.5%) were due to black ant stings. The anaphylaxis triggers varied significantly between children and adults. Among children (less than 10 years), three quarters of the events were triggered by food (223, 74.3%) while among adults (20-55 years), insect stings ( = 59, 43.0%) and drugs ( = 44, 32.0%) were dominant. This is the first national study stratifying anaphylaxis triggers among different age groups in Qatar. This study will serve as a guide for clinical practice in allergy clinics in Qatar and will help to assess future trends of anaphylaxis in Qatar

Clinical Phenotype in Individuals With Birk-Landau-Perez Syndrome Associated With Biallelic SLC30A9 Pathogenic Variants

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Birk-Landau-Perez syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in SLC30A9 presenting with a complex movement disorder, developmental regression, oculomotor abnormalities, and renal impairment. It has previously been reported in 2 families. We describe the clinical phenotype of 8 further individuals from 4 unrelated families with SLC30A9-related disease. METHOD: Following detailed clinical phenotyping, 1 family underwent research whole-genome sequencing (WGS), 1 research whole-exome sequencing, and 2 diagnostic WGS. Variants of interest were assessed for pathogenicity using in silico prediction tools, homology modeling, and, where relevant, sequencing of complementary DNA (cDNA) for splicing effect. RESULTS: In 2 unrelated families of Pakistani origin (1 consanguineous and 1 not), the same homozygous missense variant in SLC30A9 (c.1253G>T, p.Gly418Val) was identified. Family 1 included 2 affected brothers, and family 2 one affected boy. In family 3, also consanguineous, there were 4 affected siblings homozygous for the variant c.1049delCAG, pAla350del. The fourth family was nonconsanguineous: the 1 affected individual was compound heterozygous for c.1083dup, p.Val362Cysfs*5, and c.1413A>G, p.Ser471=. Despite phenotypic variability between the 4 families, all affected patients manifested with a progressive hyperkinetic movement disorder, associated with oculomotor apraxia and ptosis. None had evidence of severe renal impairment. For the novel missense variant, the conformation of the loop domain and packing of transmembrane helices are likely to be disrupted based on structure modeling. Its presence in 2 unrelated Pakistani families suggests a possible founder variant. For the synonymous variant p.Ser471=, an effect on splicing was confirmed through cDNA analysis. DISCUSSION: Pathogenic variants in SLC30A9 cause a progressive autosomal recessive neurologic syndrome associated with a complex hyperkinetic movement disorder. Our report highlights the expanding disease phenotype, which can present with a wider spectrum of severity than has previously been recognized

Optimization and reliability assessment of water distribution networks incorporating demand balancing tanks

Optimization and reliability assessment of water distribution networks (WDN) are complicated processes. Because of this, most of the researches focused only on the pipes without considering other network components such as the tanks in the both processes. Despite the benefits that the tanks may bring, WDN are usually designed without incorporating the tanks in the optimization process or in reliability considerations. This research aims generally to optimize and assess the reliability of WDN, and specifically to incorporate the demand balancing tanks in the optimization and reliability assessment process and also find out their influence on the total cost and reliability of the network. The research has been carried out by developing a new decision support tool; NORAT (Networks Optimization and Reliability Assessment Tool). NORAT consists of two separate models; network optimization model (NetOpt model) and network reliability assessment model (NetRel model). The hydraulic analysis in both models is performed by integrating the EPANET programmer's toolkit functions. NetOpt model determines the required tank volume, optimizes the pipe diameters and tank elevations, and finally calculates the total cost of the optimized network. The optimization is based on minimizing the cost of the network and constrained by the minimum nodal pressure, maximum pipe unit headloss and tank inflow/outflow that preserve the demand balance. The used optimization approach is EO (Keijzer et al., 2008) which is an unconstrained single-objective GA optimization algorithm. On the other hand, NetRel model assesses the hydraulic reliability of the network using three indices; available demand fraction 'ADF' (Ozger and Mays, 2003), network buffer index 'NBI ' (Trifunovic, 2012) and network resilience 'In' (Prasad and Park, 2004). The model also determines the network hydraulic performance (nodal pressures and demands, and links flow, velocity and headloss) in the normal supply conditions while analyzing the network by both demand-driven (DD) and pressure-driven demand (PDD) simulation. The PDD simulation is performed using the PDD model of Pathirana (2010).NORAT has been applied to 102 network variants with different topographic terrains, different network schemes and different water source and tank locations. The application results have shown that it is difficult to adapt a general pattern demonstrating the relationship between the network total cost and its reliability in all cases, as this depends mainly on the network properties. The results have shown also that incorporating the demand balancing tank at the appropriate location can decrease the total cost and increase the reliability of the network. On the other hand, NORAT application proved that it is able to involve the demand balancing tanks in both the optimization and reliability assessment processes. The application also proved that NORAT is a reliable and robust decision support tool providing full assessment and helping to trade off between the available design alternatives and draw the conclusion about the best one by the compromise between the reliability and the total cost

The right to digital privacy: Essence, scope, and constitutional guarantees: A comparative study between the palestinian and jordanian constitutions

Bu tez, dijital mahremiyet hakkının Ürdün ve Filistin'deki anayasal düzenlemesini ele almakta ve özellikle dijital mahremiyet hakkının gelişimi, yasal kapsamı, Ürdün ve Filistin anayasalarındaki ele alınışı ve iki ülke mevzuatının bu hakka tanınan anayasal güvencelere uygunluğu gibi çeşitli konuları incelemektedir. Ayrıca tezin önemi, dijital mahremiyet hakkı anlayışının yeni olmasından ve anayasa ile diğer mevzuat kapsamında bu hakkın konusunu düzenleyen açık ve net yasal metinlerin bulunmamasından kaynaklanmaktadır. Bu durum, doğalarındaki benzerlikten dolayı özel hayat gizliliği hakkının genel kurallarını dijital mahremiyet hakkı için uyarlama ve örnek alma gerekliliğini doğurmaktadır. Zira günümüz dünyasında dijital mahremiyet hakkı, giderek daha önemli bir hale gelmektedir. Bu tezin ilk bölümü, dijital mahremiyet hakkı anlayışının gelişim tarihini sunarken, ikinci bölüm, bu hakkın Ürdün ve Filistin anayasal ve yasal anlamda ele alınmasını ve bunların karşılaştırılmasını incelemiştir. Üçüncü bölüm ise, Ürdün ve Filistin'de dijital mahremiyet hakkına tanınan anayasal güvenceleri analiz etmiş ve bu hakla ilgili yasaların Ürdün ve Filistin anayasalarının ilkeleriyle ne kadar uyumlu olduğu ele almıştır.This thesis addresses the constitutional regulation of digital privacy rights in Jordan and Palestine. In particular, the thesis discusses the evolution of digital privacy rights and their legal scope, while also examining their status in the Jordanian and Palestinian constitutions and whether the jurisdictions in these two countries offer constitutional guarantees in regard to privacy rights. In addition to an increased interest in digital privacy rights in today's world, the study is also important because it sheds light on a fairly recent phenomenon. Additionally, no explicit and direct juridical or constitutional articles exist to regulate the issue. Therefore, this paper reviews and analyzes the general constitutional rules governing the right to private life, while tailoring them to digital privacy rights given the similarities they both share. Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of the evolution of the concept of digital privacy rights, while chapter 2 reviews and compares the Palestinian and Jordanian constitutional rules governing digital privacy rights. Chapter 3 discusses the constitutional protections of digital privacy rights in Palestine and Jordan, while xiv examining the extent to which the laws relevant to digital privacy rights conform to Palestinian and Jordanian constitutional rules

Optimization and reliability assessment of water distribution networks incorporating demand balancing tanks

This research aims to incorporate demand balancing tanks in network optimization and reliability assessment running extended period simulations. A tool called NORAT (Networks Optimization and Reliability Assessment Tool) has been developed, which determines the required balancing volume, optimizes pipe diameters and tank elevations, and finally calculates the total costs. NORAT further assesses the hydraulic reliability of the network. The tool has been illustrated on a synthetic network by applying different combinations of topography, supply schemes, and locations of water sources and tanks. The results prove the ability of NORAT to employ balancing tanks, both in optimization and reliability assessment processes

Evaluating impacts of recharging partially treated wastewater on groundwater aquifer in semi-arid region by integration of monitoring program and GIS technique

Abunada, Z ORCiD: 0000-0002-4143-1603The current study investigates the impact of recharging of partially treated wastewater through an infiltration basin on the groundwater aquifer quality parameters. A monitoring program supported by a geographic information analysis (GIS) tool was used to conduct this study. Groundwater samples from the entire surrounding boreholes located downstream the infiltration basin, in addition to samples from the recharged wastewater coming from the Beit Lahia wastewater treatment (BLWWTP), were monitored and analysed between 2011 and 2014. The analysis was then compared with the available historical data since 2008. Results revealed a groundwater replenishment with the groundwater level increased by 1.0–2.0 m during the study period. It also showed a slight improvement in the groundwater quality parameters, mainly a decrease in TDS, Cl⁻ and NO3⁻ levels by 5.5, 17.1 and 20%, respectively, resulting from the relatively better quality of the recharged wastewater. Nevertheless, the level of boron and ammonium in the groundwater wells showed a significant increase over time by 96 and 100%, respectively. Moreover, the infiltration rate was slowed down in time due to the relatively high level of total suspended solid (TSS) in the infiltrated wastewater