The Effect of Computerized Instructional Program in the Intermediate First Grade Students Achievement in Arabic language Grammar in Iraq

The aim of this study was to find out the amount of influence of a Computerized Instructional Program on the achievement for intermediate first grad students in the Arabic language grammar in Iraq. The study focused on students from the first intermediate grade, in the education directorate in the Diqar governorate in Iraq.  While the study sample was intentional, that was selected by the researcher from the governorate’s schools that have computers and relevant Instructional means for education. This was represented in four branches in two groups, experimental and control group (60) male and female students in the experimental group and (60) male and female students in the control group. The researcher has utilized the Computerized Instructional Program as he study instrument for the experimental group, while the control group utilized the educational program in the usual way. The achievement test to the two groups, the experimental and the control groups, and the study reached the following results. There are no differences, with statistical significance at significance level (0.5 ≥ α), between the group’s grades average achievement in the Arabic language grammar subject. These two groups are the experimental group students who were taught by using (the Computerized Program) and students of the control group who were taught by the using the (normal) way in education. There are no differences with statistically significance at significance level(0.5 ≥ α) between the grades mean of the experimental group students who were taught by using (the computerized program) and the grades mean of the control group students who were taught by the (normal) way attribute to the gender variable (males, females). Keywords: effectiveness, computerized instructional program, achievement, arabic language, and grammar

Flat plate solar air heater with helical integrated fins for drying processe

[EN] In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out on solar system consists of many main components; solar air collector, drying chamber and air blower. Manufacturing and an analysis of two active double-pass solar air collector integrated with unfinned and helical finned absorbers have been carried out. The helical fins increased the standers solar collector (unfinned) efficiency by about 6%. In five hours for 2 kg of apple slices drying, the final weight of the dried product is 1.237 kg using an unfinned solar collector, while 1.039 kg using helical finned solar collector.Al-Neama, M.; Farkas, I. (2018). Flat plate solar air heater with helical integrated fins for drying processe. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 489-496. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.7767OCS48949

Exploring the ecologies of campylobacter and eimeria infections in UK sheep

Several gastrointestinal parasites of sheep have veterinary and zoonotic importance, includingcoccidia belonging to the genus Eimeria and proteobacteria belonging to the genusCampylobacter. In the UK, both Eimeria and Campylobacter are both frequently isolated fromsheep faeces, and studies have shown that infections or co-infections by 10 or more Eimeriaspecies may occur. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli are the most frequently encountered sheepassociatedCampylobacter species. Despite their potential veterinary and public healthimportance, little work has been reported to date exploring the ecologies of thesemicroorganisms. This project addressed this shortfall by completing cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys ofEimeria and Campylobacter infections in sheep flocks in southern Cumbria. In total almost1000 ovine faecal samples were collected on 27 visits to three farms in the region. Infectionswere diagnosed, and infecting species of both genera delineated, using well-establishedmethods. These results were collated with information about the timing of sample collectionand the age of sheep, and climate data. Significant seasonal trends in the epidemiology ofEimeria and Campylobacter infections were observed. Furthermore, the intensity of Eimeriainfections was also found to be significantly correlated with season, but, in addition with sheepage, rainfall prior to sample collection and, interestingly, to Campylobacter co-infection. Another strand of the study was to assess the role of wildlife as reservoirs for sheep-associatedcampylobacters. A survey of red and roe deer living in the vicinity of the three farms studiedfailed to implicate either species in this role, suggesting they do not contribute to the naturalpersistence of these bacteria in Cumbrian sheep populations. Finally, in an attempt to develop new molecular methods for the delineation of sheep-associatedEimeria species, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to try and attribute 18S rDNAsequences to Eimeria species present in multi-Eimeria species co-infections. In initial studies,18S rDNA libraries derived from mock communities of four chicken-associated Eimeriaspecies were analysed to assess how accurately NGS data matched the relative abundance ofeach Eimeria species, determined using traditional oocyst counting methods. Unfortunately, nosuggestion of a correlation was apparent. Overall the project clarified the epidemiology of two genera of significant sheep-associatedpathogens and was able to identify some important ecological determinants of thisepidemiology

Serpentine minichannel liquid-cooled heat sinks for electronics cooling applications

The increasing density of transistors in electronic components is leading to an inexorable rise in the heat dissipation that must be achieved in order to preserve reliability and performance. Hence, improving the thermal management of electronic devices is a crucial goal for future generations of electronic systems. Therefore, a complementary experimental and numerical investigation of single-phase water flow and heat transfer characteristics of the benefits of employing three different configurations of serpentine minichannel heat sink (MCHS) designs has been performed, to assess their suitability for the thermal management of electronic devices. These heat sinks are termed single (SPSMs), double (DPSMs) and triple path serpentine rectangular minichannels (TPSMs), and their performance is compared, both experimentally and numerically, with that of a design based on an array of straight rectangular minichannels (SRMs) in terms of pressure drop (ΔP), average Nusselt number (Nuavg) and total thermal resistance (Rth). The results showed that the serpentine channel bends are very influential in improving heat transfer by preventing both the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers from attaining a fully-developed state. The SPSM design provides the most effective heat transfer, followed by the DPSM and TPSM ones, both of which out-performed the SRM heat sink. The SPSM heat sink produced a 35% enhancement in Nuavg and a 19% reduction in Rth at a volumetric flow rate (Qin) of 0.5 l/min compared to the conventional SRM heat sink. These improvements in the heat transfer are, however, achieved at the expense of significantly larger ΔP. It was found that the incorporation of serpentine minichannels into heat sinks will significantly increase the heat-removal ability, but this must be balanced with the pressure drop requirement. Therefore, an experimental and numerical investigation of the benefit of introducing chevron fins has been carried out to examine the potential of decreasing pressure drop along with further thermal enhancement. This novel design is found to significantly reduce both the ΔP across the heat sink and the Rth by up to 60% and 10%, respectively, and to enhance the Nuavg by 15%, compared with the SPSM heat sink without chevron fins. Consequently, the design of the SPSM with and without chevron fins was then optimised in terms of the minichannel width (Wch) number of minichannels (Nch) and chevron oblique angle (θ). The optimisation process uses a 30 (without chevron fins) and 50 (with chevron fins) point Optimal Latin Hypercubes Design of Experiment, generated from a permutation genetic algorithm, and accurate metamodels built using a Moving Least Square (MLS) method. A Pareto front is then constructed to enable the compromises available between designs with a low pressure drop and those with low thermal resistance to be explored and appropriate design parameters to be chosen. These techniques have then been used to explore the feasibility of using serpentine MCHS and heat spreaders to cool GaN HEMT

Insights regarding drug permeation into skin

In order to develop safe and effective topical and transdermal formulations to treat either local skin disorders or for systemic drug delivery, it is first imperative to assess skin permeation using a reliable and comprehensive analysis method. The assessment of drug permeation into/across the skin is traditionally accomplished using Franz diffusion cells with subsequent analysis by conventional chromatographic methods such as HPLC and more recently using advanced imaging techniques. In this context, time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) offers distinctive advantages in mapping drugs within skin with high sensitivity and chemical specificity without the need for fluorescent tags or radiolabels. The work in this thesis uses the combination of conventional and advanced methods to evaluate drug permeation into the skin. This approach provides complementary and detailed information regarding the permeated mass, the permeation depth and the spatial distribution and localisation of drugs within skin. As ToF-SIMS does not produce quantitative results, due to the matrix effects, a novel high throughput method was successfully developed to quantify ToF-SIMS data. This method involved the homogenisation of skin tissue followed by microarray printing of this skin homogenate with known concentrations of active pharmaceutical ingredients, specifically imiquimod and chlorhexidine. The subsequent analysis by ToF-SIMS of the resulting array allowed the generation of a calibration curve that can be used in the quantification of the unknown drug concentration in the tape strips. This work has demonstrated the potential of a method to quantify ToF-SIMS data of drugs within skin. Imiquimod is an immune modulator drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but not the nodular lesions. An assessment of imiquimod permeation from commercially available Aldara™ cream into ex vivo porcine skin was carried out using the complementary approach of HPLC and ToF-SIMS analysis. This work represents the most detailed assessment to date of the true extent of permeation of imiquimod from Aldara™ cream as previous studies analysed the permeation of Aldara™ cream showed a limitation in the analytical methodology employed (i.e. analysis by HPLC only). The results showed that imiquimod does permeate into the stratum corneum but is very limited in the deeper skin cell layers. In addition, the ToF-SIMS ion images of Aldara™ cream tape strips illustrated a non-uniform distribution of imiquimod within skin which may result in a decreased efficacy of the cream to uniformly treat whole BCC lesions giving rise to the likelihood of tumour recurrence. This offers previously unobserved insights about the spatial distribution of imiquimod delivered from Aldara™ cream. As other studies have reported that Aldara™ cream has some limitations in the treatment of nodular BCC lesions due to the cream’s inability to deliver imiquimod into the deeper more invasive nodular lesions, an enhancement of imiquimod permeation is thought to be useful to overcome these limitations. Therefore, an attempt to improve delivery of imiquimod into the deeper skin layers using microemulsions and microneedles was investigated. Imiquimod microemulsions were formulated, characterised and then tested for skin permeation enhancement. However, the assessment of imiquimod permeation from the formulated microemulsions alone and with microneedle pre-treatment using HPLC and ToF-SIMS demonstrated a limited ability of the microemulsions to improve delivery of imiquimod over Aldara™ cream. In contrast, Aldara™ cream with microneedle pre-treatment using a derma stamp electric pen showed improved delivery of imiquimod into the skin. This work is believed to be the first attempt to enhance imiquimod delivery using microemulsions and microneedles. Utilising the high sensitivity offered by the ToF-SIMS instrument in the analysis of individual tape strips, an in vivo and ex vivo comparison of chlorhexidine permeation into the stratum corneum was performed using commercial products currently used in hospitals within the UK for skin antisepsis. A comparison was carried out using the tape stripping technique with subsequent analysis of an individual tape strip by ToF-SIMS. The results showed that HiBiSCRUB® 4% produces a higher concentration of chlorhexidine in the upper stratum corneum layers than other products. This work demonstrated the first known application of ToF-SIMS to compare the in vivo skin permeation of commercially available chlorhexidine products and provides the foundation for the potential application of ToF-SIMS in assessing bioequivalence of topical products

Mechanisms of Achieving the Social Sustainability in the Traditional Urban Structure

أصبحت الاستدامة في الدراسات والبحوث الحديثة العنصر الأهم و الجزء المركزي الذي يجب أن يؤخذ بالحسبان في التصميم و التخطيط الحضري للمدن . في حين نجد قصورًا في التغطية المعرفية لأهمية المنظومة الاجتماعية للاستدامة في البنية الحضرية وآليات تحقيقها في البنية الحضرية المعاصرة. لذا يهدف البحث الى ( الكشف عن مقومات الاستدامة الاجتماعية في البنية الحضرية التقليدية، وإستقراء آليات تحقيقها في البنية الحضرية المعاصرة) . وتطبيق المؤشرات المستخلصة من الطرح النظري على حالة دراسية ضمن ( مركز مدينة الكاظمية التقليدية) . لغرض انجاز البحث بما يلبي اهدافه، انطلق البحث من فرضية : (ان البنية الحضرية التقليدية تحمل مقومات الاستدامة الاجتماعية ، فالعمارة العربية الاسلامية التقليدية هي عمارة مستدامة اعتمدت الجوانب الفكرية للدين الاسلامي وعكست الجوانب الثقافية والحضارية والاقتصادية للمجتمعات العربية الاسلامية المتنوعة). ومن الصواب استقراء اليات لتحقيقها وتفعيلها في البنية الحضرية المعاصرة ، وقد تحدد مجال البحث الحالي بدراسة عدد من المقومات الاستدامة الاجتماعية هي: ( استدامة نظام القرابة- استدامة نظام الوقف – استدامة العامل الديني) . بذلك تم تحديد اطار نظري للبحث بثلاث محاور، المحور الاول توضيح مفهوم الاستدامة الاجتماعية والكشف عن مقوماتها في البنية الحضرية التقليدية . المحور الثاني بناء الاطار العام لمؤشرات وآليات تحقيق الاستدامة الاجتماعية في البنية الحضرية التقليدية، ولغرض اختبار الفرضية طبقت مؤشرات الاطار النظري على حالة دراسية لبنية حضرية تقليدية ( مركز مدينة الكاظمية التقليدية )، لكي يخرج البحث بمؤشرات حول اليات تحقيق الاستدامة الاجتماعية وتفعيلها في البنية الحضرية المعاصرة ، وذلك ضمن المحور الثالث (الدراسة التطبيقية) وتحليل نتائج التطبيق