EFFECT OF HIGH-PRESSURE PROCESSING ON QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF GREEN FRESH JUICE PRODUCED FROM A BLEND OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE

The technology of high hydrostatic pressure (HPP) in food processing started to take huge attention in food industries due to its ability to increase the shelf life of processed products by inactivating food-borne microorganisms and undesired enzymes that cause changes not acceptable to the consumers. Because of the treatments take place at low temperatures and because no chemical preservatives are added, advantageous and give more value to the product and match consumer demand for healthy products. Aims: The aim of this thesis was to study the effect of HPP on certain quality parameters of green fruit juice compared to the thermal process during shelf-life. Method: A green fruit juice composed of Fresh rocket leaves and green apple fruits was used for the study. HPP treatments were performed at 200 MPa and 600 MPa for 180 seconds at 4°C, and the thermal treatment of the green juice was done at 85°C for 120 seconds in addition to the control. The microbiological, physical, and chemical properties of the juices were analyzed on days 0, 3, 6, 14, 21, and 28. Results: The study confirmed that HPP treatment can maintain the quality of the green juice with very minor changes compared to the thermal process. Results of the microbial growth show a significant reduction in TPC, yeast, and molds for HPP-treated samples compared to the thermally processed samples. The results of Brix, pH and ascorbic acid for all samples show no significant difference during the storage and among the treatments. However, the results of the color analysis were significantly different between both HPP treatments (200 MPa & 600 MPa) and the thermally processed sample. For the chlorophyll a, results showed that the impact of the thermal process is high compared to HPP and this indicates that HPP treatment can maintain chlorophyll in green juices. The study confirmed that HPP would be the preferred non-thermal treatment for treating fresh green juices, however further studies are needed to understand the enzymes reaction during the treatment and shelf life

THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING: PERCEPTIONS OF HRDEPARTMENT, LINE MANAGERS, AND EMPLOYEES

The process of organizational restructuring is an integral and common aspect that has been integrated into the growth and development of organizations all around the globe. It is mainly undertaken to ensure that organizations are up to date with ever-changing external and internal business environments to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency. The government of Abu Dhabi emirate has developed a long-term plan to guide the future growth of the emirate (Abu Dhabi 2030). As a result, all of its departments and entities need to align to this strategic plan, which involves change. In many cases, this has forced organizations/entities to restructure. This study empirically examines and rigorously investigates organizational restructuring covering all of the stages that the organizational restructuring process goes through, starting from the adoption stage, which identifies the main reasons leading organizations to undertake organizational restructuring. Then the study evaluates the role of the HR department in the organizational restructuring implementation and finally, it analyses the perception that line managers, HR department, and organization employees have towards the HR Department’s role played during the organizational restructuring. It takes into consideration government and semi-government entities in Abu Dhabi Emirate, which has undergone restructuring in the last four years. The research methods include desk research and a survey questionnaire given to 307 participants. The study proposes a conceptual framework, which can be used as a guide to improving the management of organizational restructuring including its stages of adoption, implementation, and perception/implications

Social Network Sites And Innovation Capabilities In The Uae Hotel Industry. Reliability And Normality Test

The integration of information technology through social network sites in business operating and management has been recognized as one of the most resource for the development of innovation capabilities. It plays a significant role in knowledge sharing and transform which are the seeds of innovation development. The service sector is now the main domain where IT plays is extensively integrated in operation and management functions. However, the literature still lacks of clear understanding about the concept of SNSs and the innovation capabilities in hotel industry which affect the effectively use IT in their businesses. Therefore, this study aims to model SNSs and innovation capabilities. The reliability test through Cronbach alpha as well as normality tests were used

The Effect of Social Network Sites on the hotels’ Innovation capabilities and performance. A review paper

Social Network Sites SNSs plays an important role in knowledge transfer which can be used in several applications. The past literature paid attention to the role of SNSs on communication and social relationship management in general and marketing activities such as promotion in particular. However, SNSs are important sources of knowledge that can be used not only in social network management or marketing activities but also in the development of innovation capabilities of the firms. Recently, few studies indicate that SNSs are important sources for innovation development and firm performance, but with slight explanation in how SNSs influence innovation capabilities. Therefore, this study aims to explain the role of SNSs on innovation capabilities and Hotels performance. This study also intends to propose a framework that explains the interaction between SNSs and hotels innovative activities and performance

Behavioural correlation for malicious bot detection

Over the past few years, IRC bots, malicious programs which are remotely controlled by the attacker, have become a major threat to the Internet and its users. These bots can be used in different malicious ways such as to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to shutdown other networks and services. New bots are implemented with extended features such as keystrokes logging, spamming, traffic sniffing, which cause serious disruption to targeted networks and users. In response to these threats, there is a growing demand for effective techniques to detect the presence of bots/botnets. Currently existing approaches detect botnets rather than individual bots. In our work we present a host-based behavioural approach for detecting bots/botnets based on correlating different activities generated by bots by monitoring function calls within a specified time window. Different correlation algorithms have been used in this work to achieve the required task. We start our work by detecting IRC bots' behaviours using a simple correlation algorithm. A more intelligent approach to understand correlating activities is also used as a major part of this work. Our intelligent algorithm is inspired by the immune system. Although the intelligent approach produces an anomaly value for the classification of processes, it generates false positive alarms if not enough data is provided. In order to solve this problem, we introduce a modified anomaly value which reduces the amount of false positives generated by the original anomaly value. We also extend our work to detect peer to peer (P2P) bots which are the upcoming threat to Internet security due to the fact that P2P bots do not have a centralized point to shutdown or traceback, thus making the detection of P2P bots a real challenge. Our evaluation shows that correlating different activities generated by IRC/P2P bots within a specified time period achieves high detection accuracy. In addition, using an intelligent correlation algorithm not only states if an anomaly is present, but it also names the culprit responsible for the anomaly

Behavioural correlation for malicious bot detection

Over the past few years, IRC bots, malicious programs which are remotely controlled by the attacker, have become a major threat to the Internet and its users. These bots can be used in different malicious ways such as to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to shutdown other networks and services. New bots are implemented with extended features such as keystrokes logging, spamming, traffic sniffing, which cause serious disruption to targeted networks and users. In response to these threats, there is a growing demand for effective techniques to detect the presence of bots/botnets. Currently existing approaches detect botnets rather than individual bots. In our work we present a host-based behavioural approach for detecting bots/botnets based on correlating different activities generated by bots by monitoring function calls within a specified time window. Different correlation algorithms have been used in this work to achieve the required task. We start our work by detecting IRC bots' behaviours using a simple correlation algorithm. A more intelligent approach to understand correlating activities is also used as a major part of this work. Our intelligent algorithm is inspired by the immune system. Although the intelligent approach produces an anomaly value for the classification of processes, it generates false positive alarms if not enough data is provided. In order to solve this problem, we introduce a modified anomaly value which reduces the amount of false positives generated by the original anomaly value. We also extend our work to detect peer to peer (P2P) bots which are the upcoming threat to Internet security due to the fact that P2P bots do not have a centralized point to shutdown or traceback, thus making the detection of P2P bots a real challenge. Our evaluation shows that correlating different activities generated by IRC/P2P bots within a specified time period achieves high detection accuracy. In addition, using an intelligent correlation algorithm not only states if an anomaly is present, but it also names the culprit responsible for the anomaly

Halal Tourism Destination In UAE : The Opportunities, Threats And Future Research

This paper aims to discuss the opportunities of Halal tourism destination in the UAE and challenges that impede this industry. It also intends to propose the future research to advance this industry. Halal tourism Has globally become attractive industry due to the demand growth not only from Muslims tourists, non-Muslims as well. Thus, many Muslims and non-Muslims countries have taken an initiative to innovative and diversify their tourism industry through developing Halal tourism that attract tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty. The UAE as a leading and innovative country has taken initiative to support this industry and transform UAE to become the first leading Halal tourism in the world. However, the portfolio of tourism industry and its contribution to GDP still very low fills in 12% only. This put a pressure to the country in how to innovate and diversify the tourism industry in general and Halal tourism to become the most attractive world tourism destination.We found that, as the key driver of this industry is the tourists’ perspective about the motivation factors and since the customers behaviour is always changing, we argue that understand the motivation factors from tourists’ perspective towards Halal tourism destination is the key driver to develop world Halal tourism destination

Online social networking websites in innovation capability and hotels’ performance in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the role of social network websites (SNWs) on hotels’ performance through innovation, especially in emerging countries, which is still lacking. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was randomly distributed to 219 of 4- and 5-star hotels in Malaysia and the data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling. Findings – The results confirm that the SNWs have a positive effect on the innovation capacity; meanwhile, the innovation capacity fully mediated the association between online social networks and the firm’s performance. Moreover, the association between SNWs and innovation is partially mediated by absorptive capacity (AC). Originality/value – This paper deliberates the significance of online social networking websites in the improvement of innovation capabilities through business intelligence and information management that improve hotels’ performance. This paper also deliberates the methods in which online social networking websites improve AC and information management

Population prevalence of asthma and its determinants based on European Community Respiratory Health Survey in the United Arab Emirates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>No population study has explored the population distribution of adult asthma in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objective is to estimate asthma prevalence in general population in UAE.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using standard European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) questionnaires and tools, this is a cross-sectional assessment of a random sample of the population in established quotas of the seven Emirates in the UAE. We surveyed 1,220 participants, of which 63.2% were male, and 20.1% were UAE Nationals, with a mean (SD) age of 32.9 (14.1) years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Prevalence of individual respiratory symptoms from the ECRHS screening questionnaire in all participants were generally ranging 8 - 10%, while participants 20-44 years presented lower prevalence in all symptoms (<it>p </it>< 0.05). The expected male:female ratio of reported wheezing and asthma attacks and its treatment by age was not observed. Participating women reported more individual symptoms than men. Overall, there were 15.4% (95% C.I. 13.5 - 17.5) participants who fulfilled our screening criteria for asthma, while for consistency with ECRHS, there were 12.1% (95% C.I. 10.4 - 14.1) participants who fulfilled the ECRHS asthma definition, being 9.8% (95% C.I. 7.8 - 12.2) of those 20-44 years, that is 8.6% of male and 11.8% of female young adults participating.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that asthma is common in the UAE, and gender differences are not observed in reported asthma symptoms in young adults. This being the first population based study exploring the prevalence of asthma and its determinants in the United Arab Emirates based on the ECRHS.</p

Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance trends of Acinetobacter species in the United Arab Emirates: a retrospective analysis of 12 years of national AMR surveillance data

Introduction: Acinetobacter spp., in particular A. baumannii, are opportunistic pathogens linked to nosocomial pneumonia (particularly ventilator-associated pneumonia), central-line catheter-associated blood stream infections, meningitis, urinary tract infections, surgical-site infections, and other types of wound infections. A. baumannii is able to acquire or upregulate various resistance determinants, making it frequently multidrug-resistant, and contributing to increased mortality and morbidity. Data on the epidemiology, levels, and trends of antimicrobial resistance of Acinetobacter spp. in clinical settings is scarce in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. Methods: A retrospective 12-year analysis of 17,564 non-duplicate diagnostic Acinetobacter spp. isolates from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was conducted. Data was generated at 317 surveillance sites by routine patient care during 2010-2021, collected by trained personnel and reported by participating surveillance sites to the UAE National AMR Surveillance program. Data analysis was conducted with WHONET. Results: Species belonging to the A. calcoaceticus-baumannii complex were mostly reported (86.7%). They were most commonly isolated from urine (32.9%), sputum (29.0%), and soft tissue (25.1%). Resistance trends to antibiotics from different classes during the surveillance period showed a decreasing trend. Specifically, there was a significant decrease in resistance to imipenem, meropenem, and amikacin. Resistance was lowest among Acinetobacter species to both colistin and tigecycline. The percentages of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and possibly extensively drug-resistant (XDR) isolates was reduced by almost half between the beginning of the study in 2010 and its culmination in 2021. Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. (CRAB) was associated with a higher mortality (RR: 5.7), a higher admission to ICU (RR 3.3), and an increased length of stay (LOS; 13 excess inpatient days per CRAB case), as compared to Carbapenem-susceptible Acinetobacter spp. Conclusion: Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. are associated with poorer clinical outcomes, and higher associated costs, as compared to carbapenem-susceptible Acinetobacter spp. A decreasing trend of MDR Acinetobacter spp., as well as resistance to all antibiotic classes under surveillance was observed during 2010 to 2021. Further studies are needed to explore the reasons and underlying factors leading to this remarkable decrease of resistance over time