How can technological creativity be taught in the Saudi Arabian elementary school context?

Teaching technological creativity in the Saudi Arabian school context can support the inclusion of technology education in general education. To support this view, the thesis proposes that technological creativity be a topic taught in the elementary school context. The intention is to assist pupils aged six to twelve years to learn how to be creative through planning and carrying out activities. The thesis attempts to introduce the concept of technological creativity to gain insights that can help to enlighten pupils technologically in a way that aligns with Islamic culture. A Critical Interpretative Synthesis (CIS) methodological approach was conducted to identify, select, synthesise, and analyse integrated papers on teaching technological creativity at the elementary school level from 21 developed countries. Papers from a variety of sources, 135 altogether, were selected for the synthesis and to develop a synthesising argument (theoretical framework), derived from constructs generated in the papers included. The text of each of the papers was treated as data and objects of inquiry. This makes CIS different from meta-ethnography (ME) in that it does not aim only at aggregating or summarising findings from studies but rather at developing a clear argument around the chosen topic in order to produce a mid-range theory based on a large, diverse body of literature. The analyses were performed in two major stages: identification, inclusion, analysis and the appraisal of papers; and developing a synthesising argument derived from the synthetic constructs embedded in the integrated papers dealing with the question, how can technological creativity be taught in the Saudi Arabian elementary school context? The synthesising argument provides a new model of interpretation developed from the findings of CIS and the synthesis process. The thesis argues that a true understanding of the benefits of this topic can be achieved through a consideration of the findings of this thesis based on the critique of relevant papers drawn from the research literature of a number of developed countries. The research study seeks to encourage the education of pupils through teaching them creative processes and helping them both appreciate and enjoy technology education. Thus the aim includes developing their personality and sense of self-worth. It is also hoped that this research will be of interest to teachers in elementary education, curriculum developers, Saudi scholars and future researchers of technology education

Synthesis and characterization of Schiff-base complexes as medical imaging precursors

Schiff-base compounds have been utilized in the medical field as antibiotics, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antiviral agents. The presence of nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur atoms in chelating Schiff-base compounds showed great biological activities. Furthermore, their derivative metal complexes have exhibited greater effects in many reported cases. Some Schiff-base complexes have been reported as medical imaging agents. The aim of my work is to synthesis novel Schiff base ligands and their metal derivatives that have the potential to be used as medical imaging precursors. A novel macrocyclic Schiff-base ligand was developed from 3,5- diformyl-4-hydroxybenzoic acid and 2,2’-oxydianiline. Also, a novel crystal structure for a known macrocyclic Schiff-base was synthesized from 2,2’-oxydianiline and 4-tert-butyl-2,6-diformylphenol. Finally, a novel copper Schiff-base complex synthesized

Pengelolaan Fasilitas Pengunjung Ekowisata Mangrove di Bandar Bakau Kota Dumai

This research aimed about (1) Condition mangrove ecotourism visitor facilities at Bandar Bakau Dumai City. (2) the shape of the management of mangrove ecotourism visitor facilities in Bandar Bakau Dumai City.This study was a qualitative descriptive. This research subject is the key Informan namely, the Chief Manager of Bandar Bakau (PAB), Head of Tourism Department of Tourism Culture Youth and Sports Dumai, mangrove communities around the city, and in addition that Informen Visitors Bandar Bakau.The results showed that the condition of visitor facilities available in Ecotourism Mangrove, Mangrove Bandar Bakau Dumai City less good, because it is less manageable and lack of hygiene of the manager.Organizing shape (organaizing) lodging facilities, food and baverage and support industries not well organized yet appointed a separate manager for each of its facilities. Forms of Implementation (actuacting) lodging facilities, food and baverage and support industries less well, the implementation of these mangrove city manager should continue to control the existing facilities, so in case of direct damage repaired. Shape Control (controlling) facilities lodgings, food and baverage and support industries poor, lack of attention from the government in surveillance, lack of mobilization and supervision of the leader / boss of the existing facilities in the city of mangroves, and lack of organizational strong in developing facilities in Ecotourism Mangrove Mangrove Bandar Kota Dumai

Contributions to Service Level Agreement (SLA), Negotiation and Monitoring in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a dynamic field of research, as the latest advances in the cloud computing applications have led to development of a plethora of cloud services in the areas of software, hardware, storage, internet of things connected to the cloud, and 5G supported by the cloud networks. Due to ever increasing developments and the subsequent emergence of a wide range of cloud services, a cloud market was created with cloud providers and customers seeking to buy the cloud services. With the expansion of the cloud market and the presence of a virtual environment in which cloud services are provided and managed, the face to-face meetings between customers and cloud providers is almost impossible, and the negotiation over the cloud services using the state-of-the-art autonomous negotiation agents has been theorized and researched by several researchers in the field of cloud computing, however, the solutions offered by literature are less applicable in the real-time cloud market with the evolving nature of services and customers’ requirements. Therefore, this study aimed to develop the solutions addressing issues in relation to negotiation of cloud services leading to the development of a service-level agreement (SLA), and monitoring of the terms and conditions specified in the SLA. We proposed the autonomous service-level framework supported by the autonomous agents for negotiating over the cloud services on behalf of the cloud providers and customers. The proposed framework contained gathering, filtering, negotiation and SLA monitoring functions, which enhanced its applicability in the real-time cloud market environment. Gathering and filtering stages facilitated the effectiveness of the negotiation phase based on the requirements of customers and cloud services available in the cloud market. The negotiation phase was executed by the selection of autonomous agents, leading to the creation of an SLA with metrics agreed upon between the cloud provider and the customer. Autonomous agents improved the efficiency of negotiation over multiple issues by creating the SLA within a short time and benefiting both parties involved in the negation phase. Rubinstein’s Alternating Offers Protocol was found to be effective in drafting the automated SLA solutions in the challenging environment of the cloud market. We also aimed to apply various autonomous agents to build the new algorithms which can be used to create novel negotiation strategies for addressing the issues in SLAs in cloud computing. The monitoring approach based on the CloudSim tool was found to be an effective strategy for detecting violations against the SLA, which can be an important contribution to building effective monitoring solutions for improving the quality of services in the cloud market

Isolated tumour microparticles induce endothelial microparticle release in vitro

© 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Cancer induces a hypercoagulable state, resulting in an increased risk of venous thromboembolism. One of the mechanisms driving this is tissue factor (TF) production by the tumour, released in small lipid bound microparticles. We have previously demonstrated that tumour cell line media-induced procoagulant changes in HUVEC. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of tumour microparticles and recombinant human TF (rhTF) on the endothelium. Procoagulant microparticles from the PANC-1 cell line were harvested by ultrafiltration. HUVEC were then incubated with these procoagulant microparticles or rhTF. Flow cytometry was used to investigate the effect of endothelial cell surface protein expression and microparticle release. Microparticles but not soluble TF was responsible for the procoagulant activity of cell-free tumour media. We also demonstrated an increase in endothelial microparticle release with exposure to tumour microparticles, with a positive linear relationship observed (R2 = 0.6630 P ≤ 0.0001). rhTF did not induce any of the changes observed with microparticles. Here we demonstrate that procoagulant activity of tumour cell line media is dependent on microparticles, and that exposure of endothelial cells to these microparticles results in an increase in microparticle release from HUVEC. This suggests a mechanism of transfer of procoagulant potential from the cancer to the remote endothelium

First record of Chiasmognathus from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.pensoft.net/journals/jhr/article/5841/first-record-of-chiasmognathus-from-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia-hymenoptera-apidae-The cleptoparasitic bee genus Chiasmognathus Engel (Nomadinae: Ammobatini) is recorded from Saudi Arabia for the first time. Chiasmognathus nearchus Engel was previously known from specimens collected in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Here we report and figure two individuals captured in central Saudi Arabia

Simultaneous estimation of cinnamaldehyde and eugenol in essential oils and traditional and ultrasound-assisted extracts of different species of cinnamon using a sustainable/green HPTLC technique

A wide range of analytical techniques are reported for the determination of cinnamaldehyde (CCHO) and eugenol (EOH) in plant extracts and herbal formulations either alone or in combination. Nevertheless, sustainable/green analytical techniques for the estimation of CCHO and EOH either alone or in combination are scarce in the literature. Accordingly, the present research was carried out to establish a rapid, highly sensitive, and sustainable high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) technique for the simultaneous estimation of CCHO and EOH in the traditional and ultrasound-assisted methanolic extracts of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia and their essential oils. The simultaneous estimation of CCHO and EOH was performed through NP-18 silica gel 60 F254S HPTLC plates. The cyclohexane/ethyl acetate (90:10, v v−1) solvent system was optimized as the mobile phase for the simultaneous estimation of CCHO and EOH. The greenness score of the HPTLC technique was predicted using AGREE software. The entire analysis was carried out at a detection wavelength of 296 nm for CCHO and EOH. The sustainable HPTLC technique was observed as linear in the range 10–2000 ng band−1 for CCHO and EOH. The proposed technique was found to be highly sensitive, rapid, accurate, precise, and robust for the simultaneous estimation of CCHO and EOH. The content of CCHO in traditional methanolic extracts of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 96.36, 118.49, and 114.18 mg g−1, respectively. However, the content of CCHO in ultrasound-assisted methanolic extracts of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 111.57, 134.39, and 129.07 mg g−1, respectively. The content of CCHO in essential oils of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 191.20, 214.24, and 202.09 mg g−1, respectively. The content of EOH in traditional methanolic extracts of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 73.38, 165.41, and 109.10 mg g−1, respectively. However, the content of EOH in ultrasound-assisted methanolic extracts of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 87.20, 218.09, and 121.85 mg g−1, respectively. The content of EOH in essential oils of C. zeylanicum, C. burmannii, and C. cassia was found to be 61.26, 79.21, and 69.02 mg g−1, respectively. The amounts of CCHO and EOH were found to be significantly higher in ultrasound-assisted extracts of all species compared to its traditional extraction and hence ultrasound extraction has been proposed as a superior technique for the extraction of CCHO and EOH. The AGREE analytical score of the present analytical technique was predicted as 0.75, suggesting excellent greenness profile of the proposed analytical technique. Based on all these observations and results, the proposed sustainable HPTLC technique can be successfully used for the simultaneous estimation of CCHO and EOH in different plant extracts and herbal products

Nesting Biology of the Leafcutting Bee Megachile minutissima (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in Central Saudi Arabia

The leafcutting bee Megachile (Eutricharaea) minutissima Radoszkowski is a widely distributed species in the Middle East and a promising pollinator of alfalfa. We provide information on the nest architecture, foraging behavior, phenology, and host plants of a wild population of M. minutissima studied between March 2010 and September 2012 in Amariah, a typical desert in central Saudi Arabia. Bees nested in preexisting cavities in the sandy, dry, and loose soil, and built between 2 and 14 leaf-lined brood cells per nest. Females built and provisioned 1-2 cells per day, each consisting of a large oval piece from which the cell cup was made and a small semiround piece that was used as cell cap; however, occasionally small oval pieces were also used in the latter. Cells were built from leaves of Ricinus communis L. (Euphorbiaceae), a locally abundant plant. Both sexes were captured from March to October at flowers of 11 species (10 families), indicating some degree of polylecty as well as either bivoltinism or multivoltinism. We also provide comparative taxonomic comments that will assist bee researchers to easily recognize this species

A new species of Chalicodoma from Saudi Arabia with modified facial setae (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae)

Some bees and pollen wasps have independently evolved simple, stiff, erect, apically-curved, curly or hooked facial setae as adaptations to collect pollen from nototribic flowers. A distinctive new species of Chalicodoma Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau subgenus Pseudomegachile Friese from Saudi Arabia with such morphological adaptations, C. riyadhense sp. n., is described and figured. The species was captured visiting flowers of Blepharis ciliaris (L.) (Acanthaceae). The occurrence of modified facial setae is documented and discussed for the first time in eight other species of Pseudomegachile, and a key to the genera and subgenera of Megachilini currently confirmed for Saudi Arabia is provided