The Photo Degradation of 2,3-dimethyl phenol in Drinking Water using Nano TiO2, ZnS and SnO2 Particles

The work presented in this paper is concernd with the preliminary study of semiconductors photochemical degradation of 2,3-dimethyl phenol by using powder and nanoparticles of TiO2,ZnS and SnO2. Degradation of 2,3-dimethyl phenol was carried out by using UV light at wave length of 267nm in the presence of oxygen.The absorpitivity of 2,3-dimethyl phenol decay was measured in the presence of UV light with capacity of 250 watt .The rate of degradation is increased with the weight of photocatalyst and reached  maximum value at 0.1gm (TiO2), 0.5gm (ZnO) and 1gm (SnO2).In this paper,the effects of various operating parameters of the photolytic degradation of 2,3-dimethyl phenol are presented. It was found that, different parameters, such as type of photocatalyst composition, initial substrate concentration, and amount of catalyst can play an important role on photocatalytic degradation of 2,3-dimethyl phenol. It was also found that the type and particle size of nano TiO2, SnO2 and ZnS play an important factor for accelerating the photo degradation. The activity of nano particle was found in the order: TiO2> ZnS> SnO2. The results of photodegradation are represented by Lagmuir-Hinshelwood relationship and indicate that the results are Pseudo first order. The particle size of TiO2, SnO2 and ZnS was estimated using XRD technique.  Keywords : Photodegradation, Drinking water, Nanoparticle

The use of serious gaming for Open Learning environments

The extensive growth of Open Learning has been facilitated through technological innovation and continuous examination of the global Open Education development. With the introduction of compulsory computing subjects being incorporated into the UK school system in September 2014, the challenge of harnessing and integrating technological advances to aid children's learning is becoming increasingly important, referring to £1.1 million being invested to offer training programs for teachers to become knowledgeable and experienced in computing. From the age of 5, children will be taught detailed computing knowledge and skills such as; algorithms, how to store digital content, to write and test simple programs. Simultaneously, as the Internet and technology are improving, parents and teachers are looking at the incorporation of game based learning to aid children’s learning processes in more exciting and engaging ways. The purpose of game-based learning is to provide a better engagement, and in turn, an anticipated improvement in learning ability. This paper presents a research based on the investigation of properly combining the advantages of serious games and Open Learning to enhance the learning abilities of primary school children. The case study and the adequate evaluation address a learning environment in support of a history subject matter

Spectrophotometric Determination of Sulfanilamide in Pure and in Synthetic Sample based on Condensation Reaction Method

A new, Simple, sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of sulfanilamide (SNA) drug in pure and in synthetic sample. This method based on the reaction of sulfanilamide (SNA) with 1,2-napthoquinone-4-sulphonic acid (NQS) to form N-alkylamono naphthoquinone by replacement of the sulphonate  group of the naphthoquinone sulphonic acid by an amino group. The colored chromogen shows absorption maximum at 455 nm. The optimum conditions of condensation reaction forms were investigated by: (1) univariable method, by optimizing the effect of experimental variables; (different bases, reagent concentration, borax concentration and reaction time),     (2) central  composite design (CCD) including the effect of three experimental factors (reagent concentration, borax concentration, and reaction time). The linearity ranges of sulfanilamide are (5-30 µg.mL-1) at 455 nm with molar absorptivity (6.9568×104 - 7.0774×104 L.mol-1.cm-1), Sandell's sensitivity index (2.4753 - 2.4330 μg.cm-2) and detection limit of (0.546 – 0.536 µg.mL-1) for each procedure respectively. The results showed there are no interferences of excipients on the determination of the drug. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the determination of sulfanilamide in pure and in synthetic sample. Keywords: Spectrophotometric determination, Sulfanilamide, Central  composite design, 1, 2-napthoquinone-4-sulphonic acid (NQS)

Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

This study aimed at exploring the assessment of Quality of Life (QOL) in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and aiming at assessing the QOL of patients with stages 1–5 Chronic Kidney Disease CKD on conservative treatment in order to identify a possible association between Quality Of Life QOL and progression of kidney insufficiency. The results were compared with those obtained for patients on hemodialysis. Sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory data were also evaluated. And the study concluded that research efforts have expanded significantly to determine the state of pediatric CKD patient HRQOL and the factors that impact HRQOL across all stages of CKD and all modalities of renal replacement therapy. Data from all studies suggest that children with a renal transplant fare better with respect to HRQOL than those receiving dialysis

The reality of the implementation of Total Quality Management in the Directorate General of Financial Affairs in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التعرف على واقع تطبيق إدارة الجودة الشاملة في المديرية العامة للشؤون المالية بوزارة التربية والتعليم في سلطنة عمان، ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة استخدم المنهج الوصفي، وتم إعداد استبانة مكونه من 37 فقرة موزعة على خمسة محاور وهي:  التخطيط الاستراتيجي، والقيادة، ومنهجية العمليات، والتعليم والتدريب، والتطوير والتحسين المستمر، وبعد التأكد من صدقها وثباتها تم تطبيقها على عينة الدراسة والتي تمثلت في جميع العاملين في المديرية العامة للشؤون المالية والبالغ عددهم 184 فرداً، وتم جمع الاستجابات من 108 فردًا من أفراد العينة، ومن أبرز النتائج التي توصلت إليها الدراسة: جاءت تقديرات أفراد عينة الدراسة على واقع تطبيق إدارة الجودة الشاملة في المديرية العامة للشؤون المالية بدرجة متوسطة، ووجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية حسب تقديرات أفراد العينة لواقع التطبيق تعزى لمتغير المسمى الوظيفي، والجنس، وسنوات الخدمة. وفي ضوء ما توصلت إليه نتائج الدراسة تم وضع عدد من التوصيات أهمها توفير التدريب والتأهيل للعاملين في المديرية، والتنسيق بين الدوائر والأقسام   لتقسيم الأعمال بشكل تفصيلي بينها، والعمل على غرس ثقافة إدارة الجودة الشاملة.This study aimed to identify the reality of implementing Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman. To achieve the objectives of the study, a descriptive approach was used in which a questionnaire was prepared, consisting of 37 items. The questionnaire was divided into five axes: strategic planning, leadership, operations methods, education and training, continuous development and improvement.  After checking its validity and reliability, it was applied to the study sample, (all 184 employees of the General Directorate of Financial Affairs), and responses were collected from 108 individuals from the sample. Among the most prominent results of the study was that the sample's estimates were at medium degree on the reality of implementing Total Quality Management in the General Directorate of Financial Affairs. Also, there were statistically significant differences according to the sample members’ estimates of the reality of application due to the variables of job title, gender, and years of experience. In light of the findings of the study, a number of recommendations were made such as providing training and education to the directorates’ employees, coordinating between departments and divisions to divide work between them and working to instill a culture of total quality management

Molecular characterization of a Bean yellow mosaic virus isolate from Syria

Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV, genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae) was studied by comparing sequences from the coat protein (CP) gene of a Syrian isolate with sequences of six other isolates from the NCBI database. A homology tree of the CP sequences was developed using DNAMAN Software. BYMV isolates were grouped into two clusters of which the first comprised the Syrian isolate together with the Indian, Australian and Japanese isolates, and the second the BYMV isolates from China, the Netherlands and the USA. Moreover, the homology tree showed that the Syrian isolate was very close to the Indian one, with 99% homology

Evaluating student levelling based on machine learning model’s performance

In this paper, a novel application of machine learning algorithms is presented for student levelling. In multicultural countries such as UAE, there are various education curriculums where the sector of private schools and quality assurance is supervising various private schools for many nationalities. As there are various education curriculums in United Arab Emirates, specifically Abu Dhabi, to meet expats’ needs, there are different requirements for registration and success. In addition, there are different age groups for starting education in each curriculum. Every curriculum follows different education methods such as assessment techniques, reassessment rules, and exam boards. Currently, students who transfer to other curriculums are not correctly placed to their appropriate year group as a result of the start and end dates of each academic year as well as due to their date of birth, in which students who are either younger or older for that year group can create gaps in their learning and performance. In addition, pupils’ academic journeys are not stored which create a gap for the schools to track their learning process. In this paper, we propose a computational framework applicable in multicultural countries such as United Arab Emirates in which multi-education systems are implemented. Machine Learning are used to provide the appropriate student’ level aiding schools to provide a smooth transition when assigning students to their year groups and provide levelling and differentiation information of pupils for a smooth transition between one education curriculums to another, in which retrieval of their progress is possible. For classification and discriminant analysis of pupils levelling, three machine learning classifiers are utilised including random forest classifier, Artificial Neural Network, and combined classifiers. The simulation results indicated that the proposed machine learning classifiers generated effective performance in terms of accuracy

Lumbar spine discs labeling using axial view MRI based on the pixels coordinate and gray level features

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. Disc herniation is a major reason for lower back pain (LBP), a health issue that affects a very high proportion of the UK population and is costing the UK government over £1.3 million per day in health care cost. Currently, the process to diagnose the cause of LBP involves examining a large number of Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) but this process is both expensive in terms time and effort. Automatic labeling of lumbar disc pixels in the MRI to detect the herniation area will reduce the time to diagnose and detect the cause of LBP by the physicians. In this paper, we present a method for automatic labeling of the lumbar spine disc pixels in axial view MRI using pixels locations and gray level as features. Clinical MRIs are used for the training and testing of the method. The pixel classification accuracy and the quality of the reconstructed disc images are used as the main performance indicators for our method. Our experiments show that high level of classification accuracy of 91.1% and 98.9% can be achieved using Weighted KNN and Fine Gaussian SVM classifiers respectively

Association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and the risk of asthma, eczema and allergies in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: Conduct a systematic review and meta‐analysis examining the association between hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and risk of asthma, eczema, food allergies and allergic rhinitis in the offspring. Design: A systematic review and random‐effects meta‐analyses were used to synthesize the published literature. PRISMA guidelines were followed throughout. Two independent reviewers carried out data extraction and quality assessment of included studies. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess certainty of findings. Data Sources: A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and CINAHL was performed from inception of databases‐21 April 2020, supplemented by hand‐searching reference lists of included articles. Eligibility Criteria: Two reviewers independently reviewed titles, abstracts and full‐text articles. English language, cohort, case‐control and cross‐sectional published studies examining the association between HDP (primary exposure: pre‐eclampsia; secondary exposures: all other HDP) and asthma, eczema, food allergies and allergic rhinitis were included. Results: Of the 2833 studies retrieved, 14 studies met inclusion criteria. Of these, 11 studies reported evidence of association between HDP and atopic disorders. Thirteen studies reported estimates for asthma. Seven of these included adjusted estimates (including 3 645 773 participants) for a pre‐eclampsia‐asthma relationship resulting in a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 1.14 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.26) (I2 = 62%). However, this OR was reduced to 1.08 (95% CI: (0.78, 1.48) when the large registry‐based cohort studies were excluded, and only studies using parent‐reported measures to determine a diagnosis of asthma were included. Four studies included adjusted estimates (including 254 998 participants) for other HDP and asthma (pooled OR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.09) (I2 = 0%). Two studies provided adjusted estimates (including 1 699 663 participants) for a pre‐eclampsia‐eczema relationship (pooled OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.14) (I2 = 0%). One study including pre‐eclampsia‐food allergies was identified (OR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.46). Three studies examined a HDP (including pre‐eclampsia) and allergic rhinitis relationship, with effect estimates ranging from 1.14 to 2.10. Studies were classified as low or low‐moderate risk of bias, while GRADE certainty of findings were low to very low. Conclusions: While pre‐eclampsia was associated with a possible increased risk of asthma in offspring, there was no evidence for a relationship between other HDP and asthma. There is a lack of published literature examining the association between HDP and eczema, food allergy and allergic rhinitis. Further primary research is warranted to gain a better understanding of the association between HDP and the risk of childhood atopic disease

Genetic Associations With Diabetic Retinopathy and Coronary Artery Disease in Emirati Patients With Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus

Aim: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is associated with both microvascular complications such as diabetic retinopathy (DR), and macrovascular complications like coronary artery disease (CAD). Genetic risk factors have a role in the development of these complications. In the present case-control study, we investigated genetic variations associated with DR and CAD in T2DM patients from the United Arab Emirates.Methods: A total of 407 Emirati patients with T2DM were recruited. Categorization of the study population was performed based on the presence or absence of DR and CAD. Seventeen Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), were selected for association analyses through search of publicly available databases, namely GWAS catalog, infinome genome interpretation platform and GWAS Central database. A multivariate logistic regression test was performed to evaluate the association between the 17 SNPs and DR, CAD, or both. To account for multiple testing, significance was set at p < 0.00294 using the Bonferroni correction.Results: The SNPs rs9362054 near the CEP162 gene and rs4462262 near the UBE2D1 gene were associated with DR (OR = 1.66, p = 0.001; OR = 1.37, p = 0.031; respectively), and rs12219125 near the PLXDC2 gene was associated (suggestive) with CAD (OR = 2.26, p = 0.034). Furthermore, rs9362054 near the CEP162 gene was significantly associated with both complications (OR = 2.27, p = 0.0021). The susceptibility genes for CAD (PLXDC2) and DR (UBE2D1) have a role in angiogenesis and neovascularization. Moreover, association between the ciliary gene CEP162 and DR was established in terms of retinal neural processing, confirming previous reports.Conclusions: The present study reports associations of different genetic loci with DR and CAD. We report new associations between CAD and PLXDC2, and DR with UBE2D1 using data from T2DM Emirati patients