Issues faced by hotel human resource managers in Alexandria, Egypt

This study investigates challenges faced by human resource (HR) managers and their practices to cope in hotels of Alexandria city, Egypt. The researcher undertook semi-structured interviews with HR managers in four- and five-star hotels in Alexandria. The study findings revealed several themes related to HR challenges faced by HR managers in the process of recruitment, selection, training, turnover and retention. Fortunately, customs and traditions have become limited in adversely affecting work in hospitality, except for married women. The coping practices adopted by HR managers are discussed. The study implications are put forward to HR managers to overcome the HR challenges in the hotel industry, such as conducting a cooperation protocol between hotels and academic institutions, developing educational hotels with faculties, institutions and hotel schools, or signing cooperation protocols with neighbouring hotels. By improving employment conditions and rewards, the negative trends can be reversed. Finally, the paper acknowledges research limitations and makes suggestions for future research, such as other hospitality sectors, hotel grades, geographical areas, and the whole of Egypt.Keywords: Alexandria, hotels, human resource management, qualitative researc

Use of alginate/montmorillonite nanocomposites as drug delivery system for curcumin

Curcumin (Cur.) is a well known traditional medicine due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Its pharmacological mechanism of action and safety have been extensively studied to investigate its use in clinical and therapeutic applications. However, its low water solubility and rapid metabolism are main obstacles. Different techniques were used to overcome the drawbacks of curcumin, with recent attention focusing on approaches based on nanotechnology. Clay-polymer nanocomposites are getting to play a role in nanoformulations for drug delivery. This is due to their improved rheological and mechanical properties, and controlled drug release characteristics compared to their individual components, clays and polymers. Alginate/ montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites are used as drug delivery system for a wide variety of drugs due to numerous advantages of both components such as the high loading capacity of MMT and the ability of alginate release encapsulated drugs in a controlled manner. Accordingly, this study aimed at the preparation of curcumin loaded alginate/MMT nanocomposites and the investigation of their release properties. Exfoliated MMT clay was first prepared by stirring the clay in an aqueous suspension for 4 hours, followed by filtration and drying at 70 °C. Exfoliation was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Curcumin loaded MMT was then prepared by dispersing the exfoliated clay into an ethanoic curcumin solution. Different parameters were tested, namely stirring time, curcumin solution concentration and ratio of MMT to curcumin, in order to find out the maximum loading conditions. Stirring exfoliated MMT into curcumin solution of 1 mg/ml for 1 hour and in 5% W/V ratio was found to be the best condition for maximum loading (6.56 mg/g, corresponding to entrapment efficiency of 25.62 %). The hybrid sample (curcumin loaded MMT) was thus prepared. Visible spectrophotometric measurements of the curcumin solution were used to determine the amount of curcumin loaded by measuring the absorbance of curcumin solution before and after the dispersion of the clay. The hybrid sample was then encapsulated into alginate beads with different hybrid to alginate ratios (W/W) using the ionotropic technique. XRD and FTIR analysis were used for the characterization of the prepared hybrid and nanocomposites. They revealed the increase in the degree of clay exfoliation upon drug loading and encapsulation into the alginate beads and the loss of the crystalline nature of curcumin upon v adsorption onto the clay surface without any chemical interaction between the clay and curcumin. The release of curcumin from different alginate/MMT nanocomposites was studied in different biorelevent media: fast gastric (FaSSGF), fast intestinal (FaSSIF) and fed intestinal media (FeSSIF). The curcumin release in gastric media was negligible and this was attributed to its low solubility in these media and to the shrinkage of alginate beads in the acidic pH environment. Curcumin release in intestinal media was significantly higher and was found to be affected by both the feeding state and the ratio of hybrid to alginate. Increasing the hybrid to alginate ratio decreased the percentage of curcumin release because of the decrease of the swelling ratio of alginate due to the crosslinking effect of the clay. Consequently, the 1:20 (W/W) hybrid to alginate ratio nanocomposite sample (NC 1) showed the highest release percentage in both fast and fed intestinal media (71% in the FaSSIF and 15.5 % in the FeSSIF). On the other hand, the 1:2 (W/W) hybrid to alginate ratio nanocomposite sample (NC 4) demonstrated the lowest release percentage in both media (17.4% in FaSSIF and 6.6 % in FeSSIF). The feeding state played additional role in the percentage of curcumin released as it was found to affect both the pH and the concentration of the natural solubilizing components such as phospholipids and bile salts of the intestine. Accordingly, the percentage of curcumin released was higher in the fasting state than in the fed state due to the higher pH of the former media (88.4% in the FaSSIF and 16.6% in the FeSSIF for NC 1. Curcumin release in both intestinal media demonstrated different behaviors: in FaSSIF sustained release behavior was found to occur for 24 hours, while curcumin release reached a plateau by 8 hours in the FeSSIF. This study reveals the promising use of alginate/MMT nanocomposites as sustained release drug delivery system for curcumin through surface adsorption of curcumin onto the surface of exfoliated clay and encapsulation of the loaded clay into alginate beads. The release of curcumin would be hindered into the gastric environment and start into the intestine. For maximum and sustained release behavior a fasting state is preferred

Contaminant transport in a fractured chalk aquifer at Sigerslev, Denmark, as characterised by tracer techniques

Over the past three decades, the primary interest of hydrogeological investigations has shifted from problems of water supply to water quality issues. Contamination of aquifers is a growing and demanding problem. In the context of assessment studies for feasible radioactive waste disposal sites contaminant transport in fractured aquifers has re-ceived a great attention. Transport processes in fractured aquifer are characterised by a couple of transport mechanisms within the fracture and the neighbouring matrix. In order to investigate the dominant transport mechanisms, various laboratory experi-ments with nitrate as a representative for agricultural contaminants compared to various hydrogeological tracers were performed in Danish chalk samples. The characteristics of the Danish chalk such as it’s sorptive and diffusive properties were evaluated by batch and through-diffusion experiments. The chalk exhibits linear sorption isotherms and low sorption capacities. This was ex-pected due to the high purity of the Danish chalk with a low content of clay minerals and organic matter. Based on a series of through-diffusion experiments a chalk specific ex-ponent m of 2.2 was derived for Archie’s law. According to the results of batch and dif-fusion experiments, nitrate as well as the other used tracers showed a low retardation in the Danish chalk. To understand the possible transport mechanisms of tracers in a frac-tured chalk block, laboratory single- and multi-tracer tests were carried out in two blocks under defined boundary conditions. The breakthrough curves (BTC’s) of the tracers are governed by sharp peaks due to advective transport and dispersive respectively diffu-sive transport processes in the tailing part of the BTC’s. The simulation of the BTC’s with the single fissure dispersion model could not reasonably fit the BTC’s. A multi-channel SFDM with the superposition of BTC’s of at least two different flow paths, re-sulted in an acceptable fit (by calculating the cumulative tracer breakthrough and recov-ery curves). Those simulations indicate the existence of flow channelling effects within the fracture. Comparing the BTC’s of nitrate, uranin and lithium implied possible adsorp-tion and/or degradation of nitrate within the fracture and the chalk matrix. The results showed that matrix diffusion process plays only a minor role in the determination of the fate of nitrate in the groundwater aquifers. The key factor controlling the fate of nitrate in the groundwater is the redox process. Reduction of nitrate is of particular importance for natural remediation process in the case of contaminated aquifers in agricultural areas. Flow and transport behaviour of different solutes in a fractured chalk blocks were visual-ized and showed that flow and transport is concentrated in a few distinct channels. The description of the observed BTC`s with a multi-channel model is still a theoretical sug-gestion and needs more investigations to be confirmed. Those investigations include quantifying and measuring the fracture aperture with different techniques such as NMR and MRI.Stoff Transport in einem geklüfteten Kreide Aquifer in Sigersler; Dänemark; charakterisiert durch Tracer-Techniken Seit den letzten drei Jahrzehnten konzentriert sich das Interesse bei hydrogeologischen Untersuchungen zur Wasserversorgung auf die Sicherung der Wasserqualität. Die wachsende Gefährdung der Grundwasserleiter durch Kontamination stellt hierbei ein wichtiges Problem dar. Besondere Beachtung finden dabei die Prozesse des Schadstofftransports in geklüfteten und porösen Medien, darunter vor allem die Beurteilung von Deponien und Endlagern sowie der Wasserqualität in Kluftaquiferen. Um die physikalischen Mechanismen beim Transport in der Kluft und der benachbarten Matrix zu untersuchen, wurden im Labor Diffusions- und Tracer-Experimente mit Nitrat (repräsentativ für eine Kontamination aus der Landwirtschaft) simultan mit verschiedenen hydrogeologischen Tracern durchgeführt. Anhand von Batch- und Diffusionsexperimenten wurden die Soprtions- und Diffusionseigenschaften der Dänischen Kreide bestimmt. Bedingt durch die hohe Reinheit der Dänischen Kreide und ihres geringen Gehaltes an Tonmineralen und organischem Material wurden bei den Batch-Tests lineare Sorptionsisothermen (Henry-Isothermen) mit geringer Sorptionskapazität ermittelt. Entsprechend dem Gesetz von Archie beträgt der Wert des Kreidespezifischen Exponenten m bei den Diffusionsexperimenten 2,2. Basierend auf diesem Exponenten kann die effektive Diffusion in abhangigkeit von der relativen Diffusivität und der Porosität der Kreideproben ermittelt werden. Die Ergebnisse aus den Batch- und Diffusionsexperimenten an der Dänischen Kreide zeigen sowohl bei Nitrat als auch bei den anderen verwendeten Tracern (Uranin, Pyranin Eosin, Chlorid und Lithium) eine geringe Retardation. Die Durchführung von Einzel- und Multitracer-Tests in zwei Kreideblöcken bei definierten Randbedingungen im Labor tragen zu einem besseren Verständnis der Transportmechanismen in Einzelklüften bei. Die Durchbruchskurven (Breakthrough curves = BTC’s) aus den Tracer-Tests zeigen scharfe Peaks mit einem deutlichen tailing, das auf Dispersion und Matrixdiffusion beruht. Da die Simulation der BTC’s mit einem eindimensionalen Dispersionsmodell keine gute Anpassung der Tracer- Konzentrationskurve ergibt, wurde ein Multichannel-Modell entwickelt um so eine akzeptable Übereinstimmung durch die Berechnung einer kumulativen Tracer-Kurve zu erreichen. Diese Simulationen zeigen deutlich, dass die BTC eine Überlagerung von mindestens zwei verschieden Fliesspfaden ist. Dies deutet eine mögliche Existenz von „flow channeling“-Effekten in der Kluft an. Die Ergebnisse aus den Nitrate Tracer-Tests im Vergleich zu Uranin, Eosin und Lithium zeigen, dass eine Adsorption und Degradation von Nitrat in der Klüftung und in der Matrix stattfinden. Mit diesem Ergebnissen können das Fliess- und Transportverhalten der untersuchten Kluft eindeuting beschrieben werden. Eindeutig ist, dass das Fliess- und Transportfeld sehr unregelmäßig verteilt ist und sich auf wenige bestimmte Fliesskanäle. Die Beschreibung der beobachteten BTC’s mit dem einem Multi-Channel-Modell ist ein theoretischer Ansatz, der noch weiteren Untersuchungen bedarf. Dazu gehören auch Methoden zur verbesserten Quantifizierung und Messung von Kluftöffnungen wie z.B. NMR- und MRI-Technologien. Der mögliche Effekt von Diffusion und Channeling in geklüfteten Medien bedarf ebenfalls weiterer Forschung

Conditional cash transfer in Egypt: the need for proper financial and administrative controls

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, as one of the most efficient social protection programs, use large amount of public resources. Such programs are prone to leakage of public resources due to risks from error, fraud, and corruption. Countries in Latin America have implemented CCT programs since the early 1980\u27s and they have experienced leakages from error, fraud, and corruption (EFC) which requires use of mechanisms and a control system to tackle the risks of EFC. These mechanisms have been introduced in the World Bank toolkit on tackling error, fraud, and corruption. The recommended strategies to mitigate EFC address risks through three main strategies: prevention, detection strategies, and deterrence. This study answers the main research question of what guidance does Egyptian and global experience provide as to what constitutes a proper control system for the implementation of conditional cash transfer programs to prevent error, fraud, and corruption? It provides a vision of what proper controls could be useful for implementing CCT in Egypt and other countries that share similar characteristics. This broader perspective of protection mechanisms has been investigated through contacting global experts from different countries and local social inspectors who worked in the pilot project in Egypt. This combination takes advantage of global and local experiences recommend what could enable Egypt to have a proper control system to reduce EFC. The study findings demonstrate that Egypt can apply proper administration and financial controls in its CCT program at each of its three main stages: eligibility, compliance, and cash disbursing. Recommended control mechanisms are developed around three building blocks of prevention; detection; and deterrence. Other recommendations are provided for CCT program in Egypt regarding interministerial cooperation, the required political support to CCT for program success, use of computerized systems in the verification processes, and a reconsideration of economic, political, and administrative challenges to CCT programs in Egypt

Self-extending symbiosis in symbiodinium microadriaticum and the effect of endosymbiotic / horizontal gene transfer on dinoflagellates and the tree of life

Symbiodinium microadriaticum is a dinoflagellate that lives in a mutualistic relationship with the coral Stylophora pistillata in the Red Sea. Symbiodinium microadriaticum is divided into several clades and the A1 clade of Symbiodinium microadriaticum lives in shallow waters and is resilient to thermal stress. The association between Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 and Stylophora pistillata enables Stylophora pistillata to tolerate the rise in the sea surface temperature caused by global warming and climate change. Here, the first completely sequenced dinoflagellate genome is explored to answer two questions: The first question is whether self-extending symbiosis has a role in the ability of Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 to adapt to thermal stress and other environmental perturbations. The second question is how endosymbiotic / horizontal gene transfer (E/HGT) affects dinoflagellates and the Tree of life (TOL). Using a large scale comparative and phylogenomic analysis, here I am addressing the extent of horizontal and endosymbiotic gene transfer in Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 and in dinoflagellates in general. Two model organisms that do not live in mutualistic relationships with other organisms were used as controls for Stylophora pistillata and Symbiodinium microadriaticum. These two organisms are Nematostella vectensis and Alexandrium tamarense, respectively. Furthermore, because the monophyly of the chromalveolate, the eukaryotic supergroup the dinoflagellates belong to, is in controversy, this key relationship in the Tree of life is investigated in the second part of the thesis. The sequencing of the genome of Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 (CCMP2467) provides a great opportunity to conduct a genome-wide analysis of the phylogenetic affiliation on a gene-by-gene basis. Trees that show monophyly of the stramenopile-alveolate-Rhizaria (SAR) clade were sorted out and the positions of cryptophytes and haptophytes in relation to the SAR clade were manually reviewed. In addition, trees were further sorted to address which clades are more highly involved in E/HGT to dinoflagellates and how E/HGT from these clades affects dinoflagellates. Results showed that most genes obtained from other unicellular eukaryotes encoded proteins that take part in: response to oxidative stress, signal transduction, cell adhesion, and arginine and proline metabolic pathway, besides other proteins that take part in other metabolic pathways. On the other hand, HGT genes from bacteria encoded proteins involved in signal transduction pathways such as the MepB permease, cyclic nucleotide binding domain. In addition, genes transferred to/from Symbiodiniummicroadriaticum A1and either Acropora digitifera or Stylophora pistillata mainly encoded transporters and proteins involved in cell adhesion and in peroxisome synthesis. Moreover, results showed that enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of essential amino Acids such as L-glutamate, glycine and threonine were missing from Stylophora pistillata although they are available, as expected, in Nematostella vectensis and other Metazoa species. Furthermore, contradicting the long-accepted chromalveolate hypothesis and the well-established monophyly of chromalveolates, my results suggest that cryptophytes and haptophytes are not in monophyly with the rest of the chromalveolate clade in most of the analyzed trees. Results also showed that E/HGT from bacteria to dinoflagellates transferred several methyltransferase genes, besides the RuBisCO encoding gene from proteobacteia and the Histone acetyltransferase HPA2 encoding gene that was also transferred from bacteria. To sum up, results identified the proteins that are putatively involved in adapting to environmental stress and where they have evolved from. Further studies can be done to understand their mechanisms of action and hence investigate if their actions can be enhanced to prevent the loss of the symbiont-host mutualistic relationship and to prevent coral bleaching. Also, this thesis challenges the monophyly of the chromalveolate clade and the position of cryptophytes and haptophytes in relation to this clade.

Assessment of Behavioural Disorders in Children with Functional Constipation

BACKGROUND: Functional constipation (FC) is a common health problem in paediatrics that causes significant physical and emotional distress to patients and their families. AIM: In the current work, we assessed the presence of behavioural problems in children with functional constipation and their pattern and relation to various demographic and disease-associated factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional case-control study was conducted, including 55 consecutive children aged 4-16 years diagnosed with functional constipation and 55 healthy age and sex-matched controls. Psychological assessment was done using the Pediatric Symptom Checklist – 17 (PSC-17). RESULTS: Twenty-six (47.3%) patients with FC had positive total PSC-17 scores while none of the controls had positive scores (p-value < 0.001). Positive internalising and externalising behaviours scores and attention problems were found in 36 (65.5%), 15 (27.3%) and 12 (21.8%) of the patients respectively in contrary to controls where only 6 (10.9%) had positive scores in internalising behaviour, and non-showed externalising behaviour and 4 (7.3%) were inattentive. Older age, longer duration of illness, residency in rural areas and presence of encopresis were found to have a significant association with the presence of such problems. CONCLUSION: Children with FC have more behavioural disorders compared to healthy controls. Integration of psychosocial aspects and their management is recommended during dealing with patients with FC

Energy management control strategy for renewable energy system based on spotted hyena optimizer

Hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and other pollutants from the transportation sector harm human health in many ways. Fuel cell (FC) has been evolving rapidly over the past two decades due to its efficient mechanism to transform the chemical energy in hydrogen-rich compounds into electrical energy. The main drawback of the standalone FC is its slow dynamic response and its inability to supply rapid variations in the load demand. Therefore, adding energy storage systems is necessary. However, to manage and distribute the power-sharing among the hybrid proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell (FC), battery storage (BS), and supercapacitor (SC), an energy management strategy (EMS) is essential. In this research work, an optimal EMS based on a spotted hyena optimizer (SHO) for hybrid PEM fuel cell/BS/SC is proposed. The main goal of an EMS is to improve the performance of hybrid FC/BS/SC and to reduce the amount of hydrogen consumption. To prove the superiority of the SHO method, the obtained results are compared with the chimp optimizer (CO), the artificial ecosystem-based optimizer (AEO), the seagull optimization algorithm (SOA), the sooty tern optimization algorithm (STOA), and the coyote optimization algorithm (COA). Two main metrics are used as a benchmark for the comparison: the minimum consumed hydrogen and the efficiency of the system. The main findings confirm that the minimum amount of hydrogen consumption and maximum efficiency are achieved by the proposed SHO based EMS

The potential impact data of Tylosin and Enrofloxacin veterinary antibiotics on germination and accumulation in barley seed as a forage crop and good dietary sources using LC/MS-MS

In this study, the phytotoxic effects caused by the exposure to five different concentrations of two veterinary antibiotics (Tylosin, and Enrofloxacin) that are commonly used for the treatment of farm animals as antibacterial agents were considered. The impact of antibiotic residues was evaluated on the germination percentage, accumulation, and seedling elongation of the barley seeds using Petri dishes under controlled environmental conditions. The treatments were distributed randomly using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The germination percentage was significantly inhibited with the increasing Enrofloxacin dose concentrations, while, it was to some extent on the contrary in the case of Tylosin, where seed germination was enhanced as a result of increasing Tylosin concentrations.Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry LC/MS-MS was used to detect and quantify the uptake dosage after drying and extracting the antibiotic compounds from the seedling