The 43GHz SiO maser in the circumstellar envelope of the AGB star R Cassiopeiae

We present multi-epoch, total intensity, high-resolution images of 43GHz, v=1, J=1-0 SiO maser emission toward the Mira variable R Cas. In total we have 23 epochs of data for R Cas at approximate monthly intervals over an optical pulsation phase range from 0.158 to 1.78. These maps show a ring-like distribution of the maser features in a shell, which is assumed to be centred on the star at a radius of 1.6 to 2.3 times the stellar radii. It is clear from these images that the maser emission is significantly extended around the star. At some epochs a faint outer arc can be seen at 2.2 stellar radii. The intensity of the emission waxes and wanes during the stellar phase. Some maser features are seen infalling as well as outflowing. We have made initial comparisons of our data with models by Gray et. al. (2009).Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

Autoantibodies Status of Leishmanial Patients in Iraq

A total of 145 leishmaniasis Iraqi patients were collected from suspected cases and 30 healthy control. Based on skin smear examination and serum samples analysis, the patients were distributed into two clinical groups: 30 cutaneous leishmaniasis and 30 visceral leishmaniasis patients. The study was conducted for the detection of 17 types of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA) in studied groups, 10 types including (anti-ds-DNA, anti-Nucleosome, anti-SmD1, anti-PCNA, anti-SS-A/Ro60kD, anti-SS-A/Ro52kD, anti-SS-B/La, anti-CENP-B, anti-Mi-2 and anti-Ku antibodies), showed significant differences (P?0.05), (P?0.01) in the two groups, while 7 types which were non-significant included (anti-histones, anti-ribosomal P0, anti-Scl70, anti-U1-snRNP, anti-AMA M2, anti-Jo1 and anti-PM-Scl antibodies). With respect to the Anti-cardiolipin IgG antibodies (aCL), it showed a significant increased level in the serum of VL patients (P?0.01) as compared with control group (8.123 vs. 1.959), also as compared with CL patients (8.123 vs. 2.402). As for CL patients, also there was a significant difference (P?0.01) (2.402 vs. 8.123) when compared with VL patients, but no significant variations (2.402 vs. 1.959) were observed in compare with control group. We conclude that Leishmaniasis in iraqi patients may be considered as a cause autoimmune diseases as in case of inflammatory myopathies (IM), and the pathgenesis of human myositis, especially in VL which contributes in the immunological alterations associated with muscle damage. Keywords: Leishmania species, autoantibodies, antinuclear antibodies, anticardiolipin

Prevalence of smoking (cigarette and waterpipe) and its association with obesity/overweight in UAE and Palestine

This study aimed to assess the prevalence rate of smoking behavior (cigarette and waterpipe) and its association with obesity/ overweight among university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Palestine. A cross-sectional study was conducted at a convenient sample of 10 largest universities in the West Bank- Palestine and Dubai- UAE. In total, 3800 students were randomly selected from the universities, with an 87.6% response rate. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The key measures were: waterpipe smoking, weight, height, cigarette smoking, dieting to reduce weight, and perception and knowledge related to tobacco waterpipe smoking (TWP). Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated using the WHO cutoffs. The analysis included 3,327 students (54% from the West Bank and 46% from Dubai). About 16% of students in Dubai and 18% of students in the West Bank smoke cigarettes. Quarter (26%) of the students in Dubai and 32% of the students in West Bank smoke water pipes. 17% of students in Dubai and 18% of students in the West Bank reported that they smoke waterpipes to reduce their weight. Waterpipe smoking was found to have a significant positive association with obesity/overweight (p \u3c 0.001). Smoking is very common among university students. Waterpipe smoking was associated with obesity. More research is still needed in this field to better understand the relationship between cigarette smoking and obesity

A methodology for setting practice criteria in healthcare

Practice criteria are an important part of health care and have taken a new prominence in the trend to address quality-of-care issues. Once an organisation makes a commitment to addressing its quality-of- care, it must define 'quality' in operational terms. Practice criteria do just that. The organisation ensures consistent, high-quality services through the correct application of practice criteria. This paper outlines a methodology that has been used in at least three countries to date. Early indications are that it is useful for helping an organisation begin its quality improvement 'journey'.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Provisions of Authenticity under the Jordanian Constitutional Court Rulings and their Implications: A Comparative Study

The importance of constitutional judiciary derives from its major role in exercising control over the constitutionality of laws; thereby providing a strong fence protecting the provisions of the Constitution as the supreme legislation in the State. The judgments issued by Constitutional Courts and the authenticity they enjoy along with the impacts incurred constitute ones of the most important topics which should receive major attention and deliberation. This research has concentrated on the authenticity of the judgments of the Jordanian Constitutional Court and their impacts on the Jordanian Law, and on comparing such judgments to those of the Egyptian Law. The research has addressed an extremely important problem which involves the extent of efficient regulation by the Jordanian Law of the authenticity of constitutional judgments and related impacts compared to those of the Egyptian Law. In order to respond to this problem, the research used the comparative descriptive approach, and initially discussed the authenticity of judgments made by the Constitutional Court through clarifying their essence and framework in terms of subject matter together with their legal foundation according to both of Jordanian and Egyptian Laws. Then the research discussed the mandatory aspect of constitutional judgments of the Jordanian Law, commitment of the three executive, legislative, and judiciary authorities to implement such judgments, and compared such judgments to those of the Egyptian Law. Besides, the research highlighted the impacts of Constitutional Judgments through indicating the time frame for putting them into effect and the final nature of the Constitutional Judgments and related disputes either in terms of disputes related to constitutional judgments annulled for invalidity or for material errors contained therein or for decision-making on the topical requests ignored and interpretation of Constitutional Judgments, or executive disputes. The research came to several conclusions; mainly: asserting the need for amending the Jordanian Constitutional Court Law towards obligating the Legislative Authority to cancel the text judged as unconstitutional, to include a text on tackling Courts\u27 abstention from implementing the Constitutional Judgments, and adopting the retroactive effect as a basis for constitutional judgments’ validity instead of the direct effect

PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF FENTANYL TRANSDREMAL PATCHES USING LIDOCAINE AS A MODEL DRUG AND AZELAIC ACID AS A PENETRATION ENHANCER

Transdermal drug delivery offers numerous advantages over the conventional routs of administration; however, poor permeation of most drug across the skin barrier constitutes a major limitation of this rout. Objective: The possibility of utilizing azelaic acid as penetration enhancer was investigated. And then development of a new transdermal controlled-release device using of non-medicated and lidocaine transdermal patches and then testing the feasibility of loading fentanyl patch. Methods: DSC, FTIR, X-ray diffraction analysis and skin permeability measurements were done for both skin sample untreated and treated with azelaic acid to prove the possibility of utilizing it as permeation enhancer. Multilayered lidocaine transdermal patches were prepared by solvent/evaporation casting technique using Eudragit® E100 as transdermal adhesive polymer, and ethyl vinyl acetate as impermeable backing layer. The flexibility of films required for a good compliance and optimum transdermal adhesion of the Eudragit E films was achieved by employing triethyl citrate or dibutylphthalate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of polymer. A physicochemical interaction between azelaic acid and Eudragit E100 (cationic polymer) has been evaluated using FTIR and DSC. Lidocaine as well as fentanyl bilayerd transdermal patches containing triethylcitrate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of Eudragit E100 with and without azelaic acid were selected for further permeation studies Results: The obtained results indicated that fluorescien permeation through epidermal human skin treated with overnight exposure to saturated aqueous solution of azelaic acid was increased by 8.6 folds while, its permeation through rat skin was increased by 10.89 folds. Additional analysis by FTIR, X-ray diffraction, SEM, and DSC showed that azelaic acid disrupted stratum corneum lipid, which supported its action as promising penetration enhancer.Plasticizers as triethyl citrate or dibutylphthalate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of polymer reduced Tg of Eudragit E100 polymer to about 15.50C and 26.20C respectively. A physicochemical interaction between azelaic acid and Eudragit E100 was proven by FTIR study which indicated the present of ionic bonding between them, while DSC showed that azelaic acid may act as non-traditional plasticizer through its reduction in Tg by 7.30 C.The results of permeation studies indicated that the presence of azelaic acid was significantly increased (P < 0.05) the drug flux as the concentration of azelaic acid increased. As well as; fentanyl transdermal permeability studies revealed similar behavior to lidocaine as drug flux increased by 4.82 folds at AZ concentration of 2mg/cm2. Conclusion: the overall obtained data revealed the feasibility of preparing a controlled release fentanyl transdermal patches containing azelaic acid as penetration enhancer

Determinants of Exclusive Breastfeeding and Mixed Feeding Among Mothers of Infants in Dubai and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Breastfeeding (BF) is considered the ultimate method of infant feeding for at least the first 6 months of life. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is one of the most effective interventions to improve child survival. The main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and duration of exclusive breastfeeding and the associated factors among women in Dubai and Sharjah, UAE. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four hospitals and four healthcare centers in Dubai and Sharjah between September 2017 and December 2017. Hospitals and centers are governmental and provide maternal and child health services. A convenience sample of 858 Arab and Emirati mothers with children under the age of 2 years participated in the study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by using structured questionnaires. The study was approved by the University Ethical Committee and the UAE Ministry of Health before data collection. Descriptive statistics were computed to describe all the questionnaire items. The chi-square test was used to compare the study\u27s categorical variables. A binary logistic regression analysis was used to predict the relationship between BF and its associated factors. Statistical tests with P-values \u3c 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The mean age of the participating mothers was 30.6 (SD 5.5) years. Results showed that the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among the study participants was 24.4% (31.1% in Sharjah and 22% in Dubai; P = 0.003). The binary logistic regression reported that mother\u27s and father\u27s education, skin-to-skin period, number of children, mothers\u27 health, and place of living were significantly associated with exclusive breastfeeding (P \u3c 0.05). The results reported a significant association between EB and duration of breastfeeding (OR = 6.9, P = 0.002), husband education (OR = 2.1, P = 0.015), mother education (OR = 1.3, P = 0.027), number of children (OR = 7.9, P = 0.045), having any health problem (OR = 1.2, P = 0.045), and living place (OR = 1.4, P = 0.033), and a non-significant positive effect of family size and family income. Furthermore, the result reported a significant association between mixed breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding (OR = 0.1, P = 0.000), skin-to-skin period (OR = 0.3, P = 0.002), underweight (OR = 4.7, P = 0.034), last infant\u27s sex (OR = 1.6, P = 0.010), having maid at home (OR = 2.1, P = 0.000), number of children (OR = 0.2, P = 0.013), and living place (OR =1.1, P = 0.014), and a non-significant association with family size and family income. Therefore, a health promotion program for exclusive breastfeeding during antenatal health visits, together with initiating health policies in maternal hospitals to encourage the initiation of breastfeeding during the first hour of birth and the introduction of skin-to-skin contact during the first 5 min of birth are highly recommended

Assessment of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 OLI for Small-Scale Inland Water Quality Modeling and Monitoring Based on Handheld Hyperspectral Ground Truthing

This study investigates the best available methods for remote monitoring inland small-scale waterbodies, using remote sensing data from both Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 satellites, utilizing a handheld hyperspectral device for ground truthing. Monitoring was conducted to evaluate water quality indicators: chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and turbidity. Ground truthing was performed to select the most suitable atmospheric correction technique (ACT). Several ACT have been tested: dark spectrum fitting (DSF), dark object subtraction (DOS), atmospheric and topographic correction (ATCOR), and exponential extrapolation (EXP). Classical sampling was conducted first; then, the resulting concentrations were compared to those obtained using remote sensing analysis by the above-mentioned ACT. This research revealed that DOS and DSF achieved the best performance (an advantage ranging between 29% and 47%). Further, we demonstrated the appropriateness of the use of Sentinel-2 red and vegetation red edge reciprocal bands (1/(B4 X B6)) for estimating Chl-a (R2 = 0.82, RMSE = 14.52mg/m3). As for Landsat-8, red to near-infrared ratio (B4/B5) produced the best performing model (R2 = 0.71, RMSE = 39.88 mg/m3), but it did not perform as well as Sentinel-2. Regarding turbidity, the best model (with (R2 =0.85, RMSE = 0.87 NTU) obtained by Sentinel-2 utilized a single band (B4), while the best model (with R2 = 0.64, RMSE = 0.90 NTU) using Landsat-8 was performed by applying two bands (B1/B3). Mapping the water quality parameters using the best performance biooptical model showed the significant effect of the adjacent land on the boundary pixels compared to pixels of deeper water

Nutrition Situation Analysis in the UAE: A Review Study

This review study aimed to assess the nutrition situation in the UAE using published data from 2010 to 2022. It highlights the gaps and challenges that prevail in addressing the nutrition-related problems in the UAE and the opportunities that have been overlooked. The available literature indicates that the UAE is burdened with more than one form of nutrition-related problems, including being underweight, being overweight, obesity, micronutrient deficiencies, and nutrition-related chronic diseases. It is clear that data on micronutrient deficiencies, protein-energy malnutrition, obesity, diabetes, and other nutrition-related diseases among the UAE population are extremely scarce. The UAE has a high prevalence of obesity and diabetes; however, limited studies have been conducted to document this nutritional phenomenon. Few examples of published data are available assessing the burden of stunting, wasting, and being underweight among children under five years of age. Despite the importance of protein-energy malnutrition, no recent publications analyze its prevalence within the UAE population. Therefore, future studies must be conducted, focusing on malnutrition. Based on the literature, and bearing in mind the magnitude of the health issues due to the UAE population\u27s nutrition negligence, there is an urgent need to assess the population\u27s nutrient behaviors, to aid policy decision-makers in developing and implementing effective health policies and strategies

Performance Evaluation of Insoluble Surfactants on the Behavior of Two Electric Layers

The purpose of this study is to establish the effects of insoluble surfactants on the stability of two layers flow down an inclined wall in the limit of Stokes and long-wavelength approximations. The dynamics of the liquid-liquid interface is described for arbitrary amplitudes by evolution equations derived from the basic hydrodynamic equations, in which the fluids are subjected to a uniform electric field. The principle aim of this work is to investigate the interfacial stability as well as the growth rate in the presence of insoluble surfactants. The parameters governing the flow system, such as Marangoni, Weber, capillary numbers and the inclined substrate strongly affect the waveforms and their amplitudes and hence the stability of the fluid. Approximate solutions of this system of linear evolution equations are performed. epending on the selected parameters, the phenomenon of the dual role is found with respect to the electric Weber number as well as the viscosity ratio. The interfacial waves will be more stable due to the growth of the Marangoni number while, while the opposite effect is found for the increase in capillary number. In the longwave perturbations, the stability process is found to confirm the stabilizing effect of the Marangoni number and the destabilizing influence of both capillary and Reynolds numbers, whereas the dual role is observed for the dielectric ratio