Economics of Oil in Developing Countries between the Dutch Disease and the Norwegian Experience: An Empirical Study on Saudi Economy

The present study was conducted to identify the challenges facing the Saudi economy, which delay and prevent its progress and development, and the extent of the relationship of these challenges to the Dutch disease; this study also probes into the possibility of using the Norwegian experience to tackle these challenges. The researcher utilized the historical, descriptive, analytical and inductive approach to achieve the objectives of the study through the study of the concept of the Dutch disease, the reasons for its emergence, oil experience of Norway, and then the experience of the Saudi economy. This study concluded that the most important challenge facing the Saudi economy is its dependence only on oil, so that the aspects of Dutch disease mostly apply to the Saudi economy, and that the Norwegian experience is no longer in some respects appropriate for tackling the Saudi economy at the moment. The present study recommended diversifying the Saudi economy, reconsidering policies of energy subsidies and developing funds to consolidate the economic stabilization process. Keywords: oil economics, Dutch disease, Norwegian experience, Saudi econom

The Norwegian Oil Experience of Economic Diversification: A Comparative Study with Gulf Oil

Norway is often regarded as a model example of how to manage the natural resources such as oil and gas. As an oil-rich country, Norway has proven its success in oil industry by taking its advantages for establishing and preserving a strong infrastructure and thus promotes and develops its economy. The aim of this study is to indicate how valuable the Norway experience in the Gulf countries by identifying the reasons of success, principles and polices adopted by Norway and to what extent the Gulf countries would benefit from it and what are the steps that should be taken by these countries to switch their concentration from only producing the oil to diversifying the economy. The author of this paper used the historical, descriptive and deductive methodology. Keywords: Norwegian experience, economic diversification, gulf oi

Where You Are Is What You Do: On Inferring Offline Activities From Location Data

In this paper we investigate the ability of modern machine learning algorithms in inferring basic offline activities,~e.g., shopping and dining, from location data. Using anonymized data of thousands of users of a prominent location-based social network, we empirically demonstrate that not only state-of-the-art machine learning excels at the task at hand~(F1 score>0.9) but also tabular models are among the best performers. The findings we report here not only fill an existing gap in the literature, but also highlight the potential risks of such capabilities given the ubiquity of location data and the high accessibility of tabular machine learning models.Comment: Accepted to IEEE ICDM Workshops 202

Factors Affecting Sudanese EFL Teachers’ Teaching Performance at Public Schools Comparing to Their Performance at Private Schools

Teachers’ performance is a fundamental concern of all educational institutions and is negatively influenced by different dissatisfactions such as financial status and learning environments that impact on institutional productivity. Sudanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers of Governmental schools that simultaneously work in public and private schools have a different performances. The performance of these teachers in private schools is usually estimated adequate and of very good quality comparing to their performance in public schools where their performance is rated as less than expected or even inadequate. This study is based on a non-systematic narrative overview and the practical experience of the researcher who has been a secondary school teacher, university English language lecturer and teacher trainer and supervisor for secondary English language teachers in Sudan. Moreover, the study describes and reflects on the male teachers’ condition during the year 2018 in Khartoum, Sudan. Results of the analysis suggest that performance variation of EFL teachers in public and private schools in favour of private schools is influenced by poor financial status of teachers as well as inappropriate teaching/learning environments

Involvement of the putative anion transporter 1 (SLC26A6) in permeation of short chain fatty acids and their metabolites across the basolateral membrane of ovine ruminal epithelium: Involvement of the putative anion transporter 1 (SLC26A6) inpermeation of short chain fatty acids and their metabolites across thebasolateral membrane of ovine ruminal epithelium

Introduction: Microbial fermentation of carbohydrates in forestomach of ruminants produces large amounts of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA, mainly acetic acid, propionic acid, and n-butyric acid). The majority of these substrates is taken up directly across the ruminal wall. After luminal uptake into the epithelial cells, SCFA mainly occur in the dissociated form due to the intracellular pH of ~7.4. Moreover, a big portion of SCFA is metabolised within the cytosol. Main end products of epithelial SCFA metabolism are ketone bodies (D-3-hydroxybutyric acid and acetoacetic acid) and lactic acid. Both intact SCFA and ketone bodies and lactate need to be efficiently extruded from the ruminal epithelial cells to prevent a lethal drop of intracellular pH and counteract osmotic load of the cytosol. All these substances are less lipophilic in comparison to the undissociated form of SCFA. Thus, dissociated SCFA (SCFA-) and their metabolites need Protein mediated mechanisms for the extrusion across the basolateral side of ruminal epithelium. One mechanism suggested to be involved in the extrusion of SCFA- across basolateral membrane of the ruminal epithelium is the monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1). Functionally, MCT1 was first assumed to operate as proton-coupled transporter for monocarboxylates including SCFA. Nonetheless, a recent study found a bicarbonate dependent anion exchange mechanism which turned out to be sensitive to MCT1 Inhibitors at the basolateral side of the ruminal epithelium pointing to the ability of MCT1 to act as an anion exchanger. However, in these experiments the inhibition of MCT1 abolished bicarbonate dependent transport only by half. This suggests the involvement of further anion exchanger(s) in the transport of SCFA across the basolateral membrane of ruminal epithelium. Promising candidates to underlie this exchange are the putative Anion exchanger 1 (PAT1) and a transport protein designated „down-regulated in adenoma“ (DRA). Materials and Methods: Sheep rumen epithelium was mounted in Ussing Chambers under short-circuit conditions. Radioactively labelled acetate (ac) was added to the serosal side. Serosal to mucosal flux of ac (Jsm ac) was measured with or without anion Exchange inhibitors (50 mM NO3- or 1 mM DIDS) or the MCT1 inhibitor p-hydroxy mercuribenzoic acid (pHMB; 1.5 mM) in the serosal buffer solution. The inhibitors were added alone or in combination with each other. Furthermore, mucosal to serosal flux of radioactivelly labelled ac or butyrate (bu) (Jms ac, bu) was measured in the presence or absence of SO42-, Cl- or NO3- (50 mM respectively) as exchange substrate in the serosal buffer solution. Immunohistochemical staining was conducted to locate PAT1 and DRA by use of commercially available antibodies. Results: NO3- and pHMB significantly reduced Jsm ac by 57 % and 51 %, respectively. When pHMB was applied after pre-incubation with NO3- an additional inhibition of Jsm ac was observed. Vice versa, NO3- further inhibited Jsm ac when epithelia were pre-incubated with pHMB before. DIDS had no inhibitory effect on SCFA flux. Serosal presence of SO42- or Cl- enhanced Jms ac significantly. Regarding bu, Cl- or SO4 2- also enhanced Jms bu significantly. The different anions available in the serosal buffer solution numerically enhanced Jms in the order of SO4 2- > Cl- for both ac and bu, which corresponds to the known affinity sequence of PAT1 and DRA. Immunohistochemistry revealed localization of PAT 1 in the stratum basale, whereas DRA was not detectable using this method. Conclusions: Basically, this study supports the suggestion that MCT1 works as an Anion exchanger in ruminal epithelium. In addition, it clearly shows that there is at least one further anion exchanger involved in the basolateral extrusion of SCFA and their metabolites. The functional and immunohistochemical findings suggest that PAT1 holds a significant role in this respect.:1 Introduction 1 2 Literature Review 3 2.1 Importance of short-chain fatty acid production of ruminants 3 2.2 Apical uptake of short-chain fatty acids from the rumen 5 2.2.1 Apical uptake of undissociated SCFA from the rumen 6 2.2.2 Apical uptake of dissociated fatty acids from the rumen 8 2.3 Intraepithelial metabolism of short-chain fatty acids 9 2.4 Mechanisms for the basolateral discharge of the short-chain fatty acids 11 2.4.1 Basolateral extrusion of short-chain fatty acids in other gastrointestinal tract epithelia 12 2.4.2 Basolateral extrusion of short-chain fatty acids in ruminal epithelium 14 2.4.3 Further candidate proteins for extrusion of SCFA- in exchange for HCO3 - 19 2.4.3.1 Putative Anion transporter 1 (PAT1 = SLC26A6) 19 2.4.3.2 Down-regulated in adenoma (DRA = SLC26A3) 21 2.4.3.3 Anion exchanger 2 (AE2 = SLC4A2) 22 2.5 Literature implications for this study 23 3 Materials and Methods 24 3.1 Animals 24 3.2 Ussing chamber studies 24 3.2.1 Buffer solutions 24 3.2.2 Preparation of ruminal epithelium 25 3.2.3 Incubation 25 3.2.4 Electrophysiological parameters 26 3.3 Experimental procedure 27 3.3.1 Determination of the unidirectional SCFA flux rate 29 3.4 Experimental Setups 30 3.4.1 Sensitivity of Jsm ac to inhibitors 30 3.4.1.1 Effect of nitrate and pHMB on Jsm ac 30 3.4.1.2 Effect of DIDS, NO3 - and pHMB on Jsm ac 31 3.4.2 Effect of the basolateral replacement of the anions on the extrusion of SCFA 32 3.4.2.1 Effect of Cl- and NO3 - on Jms of acetate and butyrate 32 3.4.2.2 Effect of SO4 2- on Jms of acetate and butyrate 32 3.4.3 Effect of different anions available in the serosal solution on Jms of acetate and butyrate 33 3.5 Immunohistochemistry 34 3.5.1 Preparation of the samples. 34 3.5.2 Fixation and staining of the samples. 34 3.5.3 Evaluation 35 3.6 Statistical analysis 36 4 Results 37 4.1 Inhibitors sensitivity 37 4.1.1 Effect of nitrate and pHMB on Jsm ac 37 4.1.2 Effect of DIDS, pHMB and NO3 - on Jsm ac 41 4.2 Effect of Cl- and NO3 - on Jms of acetate and butyrate 43 4.2.1 Effect of SO4 2- on Jms of acetate and butyrate 44 4.3 Effect of Cl-, NO3 - or SO4 2- when present in the serosal solution for 150 min 49 4.4 Immunohistochemistry 52 5 Discussion 54 5.1Ussing chamber experiments 56 5.1.1 Effect of Cl- and NO3 - on Jms of acetate 56 5.1.2 Effect of nitrate and pHMB on Jsm of acetate 57 5.1.3 Effect of DIDS, pHMB or NO3 - on Jsm of acetat 58 5.1.4 Effect of SO4 2- on Jms of acetate 59 5.1.5 Comparison between different anions as exchange substrate for the basolateral extrusion of acetate 60 5.2 Immunohistochemistry 62 5.3 Comparison between basolateral extrusion of butyrate and acetate 62 5.4 Conclusions 64 6 Summary 66 7 Zusammenfassung 68 8 References 70 Ac Aknowledgement

Electronic accounting Applications using Cloud Computing technology

Todays’ electronic accounting have become dependent on the information technologies and communication (IcTs) to support processes, business, functions and financial activities technology acts as a major requisite.One of these technologies is acloud computing which has changed the ways we exchange financial information and presentation of this interpreted and analyzed financial data to the end user or the client. cloud computing has a great role in mounting the heights on which e_accounting, cloud computing has helped the facades of business functions particularly e_accounting in achieving flexibility and efficiency like never before. The electronic accounting has again played its role in giving new dimensions to these business functions via the Cloud Computing. E_accounting applications going to move from the desktop into the cloud computing, wheree_accounting applications and accounting books are hosted on a “cloud” consisting of thousands of computers and servers this can gain many benefits for e_accounting application also faces many problems