The Impact of the Governance of Private Universities in Building Partnership with NGOs Operating in Gaza Strip

The aim of the research is to demonstrate the impact of private universities' governance in building partnership with NGOs operating in Gaza Strip. The researchers used the descriptive analytical method, and the research population consists of employees in the universities in Gaza Strip. It was applied on the University of Palestine and the University of Gaza. A random sample of (57) employees was selected and (52) responses were obtained with a rate of (91.2%). The results of the study showed that the level of availability of the principles of governance in the universities in Gaza Strip from the point of view of employees was high. The relative weight of private universities was 67%. The order of principles is as follows: (laws and regulations, academic freedom, accounting and accountability, board responsibilities, the rights of all stakeholders, transparency and disclosure). The results showed that the level of partnership in private universities from the point of view of employees was high. The relative weight of private universities was 74.5%. The results of the study also showed that there is a statistically significant relationship at the level of (α≤0.0.05) between governance in all its dimensions and strengthening the partnership between universities and NGOs. The study concluded with a set of recommendations, the most important of which is the necessity to work on the interest and benefit from the principles of governance available in the private universities in the Gaza Strip through the preparation of a document for the university governance which includes the identification of the tasks, processes and responsibilities assigned to each member, and the need to increase the level of partnership between private universities on the one hand and community organizations on the other hand, as well as the need to follow up the Ministry of Education to the extent to which universities in Palestine adhere to the principles and rules of governance. Oblige all institutions to disclose and transparency standards and to present the outcomes of their work to the beneficiaries of these services. The establishment of a special unit for partnership and community development, which will support the positive relationship between the university and community institutions. Work to remove all obstacles that limit the partnership between universities and community organizations, the most important of which is the limited powers granted to universities and the weak funding allocated to partnerships where the Ministry of Education and Higher Education can support projects based on partnership, as well as the need to link between production centers and the needs of the community through the development of a clear plan, the philosophy, goals and criteria of partnership with the participation of all parties

The Role of Small Satellites in the Establishment of the Gulf Region\u27s First Graduate Level Space Studies Program

Yahsat, Northrop Grumman, and Khalifa University created the Gulf region\u27s first master\u27s level advanced studies space program. To date this program has graduated three classes of master\u27s students and received accolades from the UAE Space Agency and Abu Dhabi\u27s Mubadala Investment Company. The program\u27s primary goal is to develop the resources and work force that the UAE requires to establish itself as a space-faring nation. Integral to this program are small satellites, initially used to train and educate the students and ultimately growing to accommodate new technologies and scientific payloads developed in the UAE. The first of these small satellites, a 1U CubeSat named MYSat-1 was launched in November of 2018 and deployed from the Northrop Grumman Cygnus on 13 February, 2019. In this paper we present the role small satellites played in the establishment of this program. We discuss the challenges of establishing a satellite program at a university without a formal aerospace curriculum and how the small satellite became the anchor project for the student development. In this context, we explore the advantages of making use of the broadly established small satellite COTS component marketplace relative to the didactical benefits to be gained from having the students develop the new hardware in-house. Finally, we review the process of setting up a new small satellite lab established to be used as the primary resource for developing and testing small satellites in the country

Governance of Public Universities and Their Role in Promoting Partnership with Non-Governmental Institutions

The aim of the research is to demonstrate the role of public universities in promoting partnership with non-governmental organizations in Gaza Strip from the point of view of employees in public universities. The researcher used the descriptive analytical method. The research community consisted of the employees of the Islamic University and Al-Azhar University. The study tool was a questionnaire applied to a simple random sample of employees. A questionnaire was obtained by 228 responses with a recovery rate of 94.2%. The study concluded that there is a statistically significant relationship between governance in all its dimensions (laws and regulations, academic freedom, accounting and accountability, the responsibilities of the board of directors, the rights of all the beneficiaries, transparency and disclosure) and strengthening the partnership between universities and civil society organizations. The study reached a number of recommendations, the most important of which is the need to work on applying the principles of governance, especially after the world has recently witnessed environmental, social and economic phenomena that have clearly affected the financial and administrative performance of many international institutions. The need to focus on human resources and their knowledge of the rules and principles of governance in addition to providing them with all the latest developments and scientific information in this area, and that the departments of universities focused on training programs, seminars and seminars specialized in governance, and the integration of some specialized scientific materials of governance in the courses taught by the scientific

A novel performance metric for Virtual Network Embedding combining aspects of Blocking Probability and Embedding Cost

Network Virtualization offers a solution for Future Internet and it is a key enabler for cloud computing applications. Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) problem deals with resource allocation of a physical infrastructure to Virtual Network Requests (VNRs). Several performance metrics are employed in order to evaluate the efficiency of specific VNE approaches. These existing metrics, mostly related to Infrastructure Provider profit, are computed at the end of the VNE process, after embedding many VNRs. This work proposes a novel performance metric, VNE-NP (VNE Normalized Profit) which combines aspects of the two metrics most used in the literature: Blocking Probability and Embedding Cost.XII Workshop de Arquitecturas, Redes y Sistemas Opearativos (WARSO).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Synthesis, Characterization, and Assessment of Anti-Cancer Potential of ZnO Nanoparticles in an In Vitro Model of Breast Cancer

Advanced innovations for combating variants of aggressive breast cancer and overcoming drug resistance are desired. In cancer treatment, ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have the capacity to specifically and compellingly activate apoptosis of cancer cells. There is also a pressing need to develop innovative anti-cancer therapeutics, and recent research suggests that ZnO nanoparticles hold great potential. Here, the in vitro chemical effectiveness of ZnO NPs has been tested. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized using Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad by green methods approach. The generated ZnO was observed to have a hexagonal wurtzite crystal arrangement. The generated nanomaterials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy. The crystallinity of ZnO was reported to be in the range 50–60 nm. The NPs morphology showed a strong absorbance at 374 nm with an estimated gap band of 3.20 eV to 3.32 eV. Microscopy analysis proved the morphology and distribution of the generated nanoparticles to be around 50 nm, with the elemental studies showing the elemental composition of ZnO and further confirming the purity of ZnO NPs. The cytotoxic effect of ZnO NPs was evaluated against wild-type and doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. The results showed the ability of ZnO NPs to inhibit the prefoliation of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 prefoliation through the induction of apoptosis without significant differences in both wild-type and resistance to doxorubicin

Molecular and cellular effects of gold nanoparticles treatment in experimental diabetic myopathy.

Background This study aims to address the effects of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on diabetic myopathy in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Materials and methods Adult male rats were separated into three groups (n = 15): non-diabetic control (ND), diabetic (D), and diabetic treated with AuNPs (2.5 mg/kg, D + AuNPs) intraperitoneally for 4 weeks. A single injection of 50 mg/kg STZ was used to induce diabetes. Results Treatment with AuNPs lowered blood glucose levels. Skeletal muscle mRNA expression of two muscle-specific E3 ubiquitin-ligases enzymes, F-box-only protein 32 (FBXO32) and muscle RING-finger protein-1 (MuRF1) were upregulated in the D group. Diabetic rats showed significant increases in the skeletal muscle expression levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and a decrease in glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) expression. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity decreased and malondialdehyde (MDA) level increased in skeletal muscles of D group. Compared to the D group, expression levels of FBXO32, MuRF1, PAI-1 TNF-α, and TGF-β1 were decreased in the D + AuNPs group, and mRNA of GLUT4 increased. Furthermore, in D + AuNPs group, skeletal muscle MDA levels decreased while SOD activity increased. Conclusion In experimental models, AuNPs can ameliorate muscle atrophy by reducing hyperglycemia, inflammation, and oxidative stress, and by suppressing the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic process

Alleviation of diabetic nephropathy by zinc oxide nanoparticles in streptozotocin‐induced type 1 diabetes in rats

Abstract This study examines the effect of nanoparticles with zinc oxides (ZnONPs) on diabetic nephropathy, which is the primary cause of mortality for diabetic patients with end‐stage renal disease. Diabetes in adult male rats was induced via intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. ZnONPs were intraperitoneally administered to diabetic rats daily for 7 weeks. Diabetes was associated with increases in blood glucose level, 24‐h urinary albumin excretion rate, glomerular basement membrane thickness, renal oxidative stress markers, and renal mRNA or protein expression of transforming growth factor‐β1, fibronectin, collagen‐IV, tumour necrosis factor‐α and vascular endothelial growth factor‐A. Moreover, the expression of nephrin and podocin, and the mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinase‐9 were decreased in the diabetic group. These changes were not detected in the control group and were significantly prevented by ZnONP treatment. These results provide evidence that ZnONPs ameliorate the renal damage induced in a diabetic rat model of nephropathy through improving renal functionality; inhibiting renal fibrosis, oxidative stress, inflammation and abnormal angiogenesis; and delaying the development of podocyte injury. The present findings may help design the clinical application of ZnONPs for protection against the development of diabetic nephropathy

The influence of picosecond laser generated periodic structures on bacterial behaviour

The formation of a biofilm is preceded by bacterial retention and proliferation on a surface. Biofilm development on surfaces can cause numerous issues in terms of fouling and bacterial transmission and contamination. The design and fabrication of surfaces that prevent bacterial retention and biofilm formation may provide a potential solution to reduce bacterial fouling of surfaces. An EdgeWave, Nd:YVO4 picosecond laser was used to generate two periodic surface topographies on 316L stainless steel surfaces with and without fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) treatment. These were characterised using Optical Laser Microscopy (OLM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurements, and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The surface wettability and retention of Escherichia coli bacteria on the laser generated surfaces were analysed over one month. Without chemical treatment, and with increasing the time to one month, the results showed that the wettability of laser treated surfaces was decreased as was subsequent bacterial retention. However, the control surface recorded the lowest number of adhered bacteria. After reducing the surface tension, the number of bacteria retention was decreased on all surfaces and one of laser generated surfaces which presented higher contact angle and lower surface tension components (CA = 132°, ΔGiwi = −85.26, γs = 13.81, γsLW = 13.37, and γs− = 0.13) recorded the minimal number of bacteria retention. The results showed that reducing the surface tension played an important role which reduced bacterial fouling

The effects of short pulse laser surface cleaning on porosity formation and reduction in laser welding of aluminium alloy for automotive component manufacture

Laser welding of aluminium alloys typically results in porosity in the fusion zones, leading to poor mechanical and corrosion performances. Mechanical and chemical cleaning of surfaces has been used previously to remove contaminants for weld joint preparations. However, these methods are slow, ineffective (e.g. due to hydrogen trapping) or lead to environmental hazards. This paper reports the effects of short pulsed laser surface cleaning on porosity formation and reduction in laser welding of AC-170PX (AA6014) aluminium sheets (coated with Ti/Zr and lubricated using a dry lubricant AlO70) with two types of joints: fillet edge and flange couch, using an AA4043 filler wire for automotive component assembly. The effect of laser cleaning on porosity reduction during laser welding using a filler wire has not been reported before. In this work, porosity and weld fusion zone geometry were examined prior to and after laser cleaning. The nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser cleaning was found to reduce porosity significantly in the weld fusion zones. For the fillet edge welds, porosity was reduced to less than 0.5% compared with 10–80% without laser cleaning. For flange couch welds, porosity was reduced to 0.23–0.8% with laser cleaning from 0.7% to 4.3% without laser cleaning. This has been found to be due to the elimination of contaminations and oxide layers that contribute to the porosity formation. The laser cleaning is based on thermal ablation

A Case Series of Severe Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Treated with Tocilizumab and Glucocorticoids: A Report from Saudi Arabian Hospital

Background: The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 is variable and ranges from asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic, moderately severe and severe disease. A small proportion might develop severe disease and may have cytokine storm. One of the therapeutic options to treat such cases is Tocilizumab (TCZ). In this study, we present cases of severe COVID-19 treated with TCZ and glucocorticoids and discuss the treatment responses. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of severe COVID-19 cases treated with TCZ and glucocorticoids. The case series examined the characteristics and outcome of those patients. Results: This study included 40 Severe Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) confirmed patients who received TCZ and glucocorticoids. The mean age of the included patients was 57.55 (±Standard deviation 12.86) years. There were 34 (85%) males, 19 (47.5%) were obese (BMI >30), 13 (32.5%) over weight, and five (12.5%) normal weight. The mean days from positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to admission was 1.641 (±3.2) days. Of the patients, 18 (45%) had diabetes mellitus, 14 (35%) had hypertension. The mean days from hospital admission to ICU was 1.8 (±2.6), 20 (50%) required mechanical ventilation, 39 (97.5%) had received prone position, seven (17.5%) had renal replacement therapy, 13 (32.5%) required inotropes, four (10%) had plasmapheresis, one (2.5%) had intravenous immunoglobulin, all patients received steroid therapy, and the majority 31 (77.5%) did not receive any anti-viral therapy. Of all the patients, six (15%) died, 28 (70%) were discharged and six (15%) were still in hospital. Conclusion: The overall mortality rate was lower than those cited in meta-analysis. As our understanding of the COVID-19 continues, the approach and therapeutics are also evolving