Scarcity-Induced Conflict: The Lebanese-Israeli Conflict Over Water

This thesis sets out to determine possible links between the depleting water resources in Israel and the country’s hegemony over the water-rich area of south Lebanon. The early Zionist and later Israeli leaders have coveted the Litani river of Lebanon, to which Israel has had access since 1978. Israel’s replenishable water stock is being fully utilized. This fact is the basis of the theoretical motif of the thesis, namely the state conflict induced by resource scarcity. Thus conflict theory is discussed and a model of conflict process is derived. Also discussed are 1) the reasons for the high water consumption in Israel, 2) water supply and demand in the country, 3) the degradation of fresh water sources, and 4) the domestic and foreign options available for Israel to ameloriate the impending water crisis. Lebanon’s Litani river is seen as Israel’s best answer to its water problem. A diversion of the Litani into the Jordan river would, however, strongly affect the economic and demographic growth in both Lebanon and Israel. Such a diversion would also have destablishing regional implications, especially for Lebanon. Against this background the conflict model is tested, and a revised one is proposed; one that is more reflective of the conflict process while under conditions of “natural” scarcity. In conclusion, there appears to be a hydrological dimension to Israel’s presence in the “security belt” of south Lebanon

Exploring communities of practice in the NHS: A core medical trainee experience

Objectives: A community of practice was described by Lave and Wenger as a mutual engagement using a shared repertoire of resources to attain a shared goal. This study explored the extent to which NHS workplaces function as communities of practice for core medical trainees. Methods: All core medical trainees in one region were invited to a semi-structured interview. A framework was produced using communities of practice themes and a hybrid deductive-inductive method used for data analysis. Results: NHS workplaces function as communities of practice by enabling engagement and by formation of mutual relationships. Joint enterprise was evidenced by multidisciplinary team working. Full participation was limited by service provision and short training rotations. Conclusions: Trainee attendance in clinic and procedure lists should be facilitated. Trainees should be enabled to 'act up' as registrar. Flexibility is needed in jobs by allowing swaps between trainees and the facilitation of 'taster weeks'

Synthesis, characterization and spectroscopic studies on Schiff base complexes of 1-phenyl-2, 3-dimethyl-4-amino-5-oxo-pyrazole with salicylaldehyde with some divalent transition metals

In this research, the preparation of bidentate Schiff base was carried out via the condensation reaction of both the salicylaldehyde with 1-phenyl-2,3-dimethyl-4-amino-5-oxo-pyrazole to form the ligand (L). The mentioned ligand was used to prepare complexes with transition metal ions Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II). The resulting complexes were separated and characterized by FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopic technique. Elemental analysis for Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen elements, electronic spectra of the ligand and complexes were obtained, and the magnetic susceptibility tests were also achieved to measure the dipole moments. The molar conductivities were also measured and determination of chlorine content in the complexes and the metal ratio. The complexes have shown the octahydral shapes in the general formula [ML2Cl2], whereas M=Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, ligand which coordinated as bidentate behavior with nitrogen and oxygen as donor atoms

Speech audiometry test with picture-related sentence lists in Modern Greek for partially hearing children

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop Greek Sentence Based Speech Audiometry Test in quiet test for Hearing Impaired (HI) children (G-SEBSAT). Methods: Seventy-six children were recruited following approval by the local ethics committee and after obtaining informed consent from their parents. The collection of vocabulary was based on showing pictures selected from popular reading materials in Greek to hearing impaired HI children. A grammatical content analysis was carried out to determine the average syntactic and morphological structures of the sentences used by the HI children. Ten picture related sentence lists were developed based on the vocabulary and the grammatical analysis, and recorded by a male native speaker of standard Modern Greek. These were presented to both normal hearing (NH) and HI children, and the average speech response threshold (SRT) as well as the slope of the SRT curve at the SRT level of 50% correct responses (S50) were recorded in both groups. Sentence lists were validated with respect to the variability of their difficulty within each group, as well the test-retest variability of the respective SRT scores. Results: The average speech response threshold (SRT) across all lists for HI children was 65.27 dB and the slope of the SRT curve at the SRT level of 50% correct responses was 3.11%/dB. The corresponding results across all lists for NH children were 17.66 dB and 9.7%/dB, respectively. The SRT of HI children were strongly positively correlated, in a statistically significant manner with the PTA in both the test and the retest sessions (test: r=0.750, P < 0.0005; retest: r=0.753, P < 0.0005). The Spearman correlation of the rankings of SRT values and the slope values was 0.998 and 0.997 respectively for the HI and 0.939 and 0.88, for the NH group, indicating very low variability across the test and retest sessions. In addition, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the average SRT in NH children and the SRT residuals in the HI group indicated that the different sentences were of the same difficulty within each group. ((F(9,81)=0.401, p=0.930 and (F(9,93)=2.241, p=0.025 respectively). Conclusions: A validated sentence based speech audiometry test was created in Greek for the first time. SRT and S50 values for both NH and HI children are comparable to similar tests developed in other languages

The Conservatives and the Union: The 'New English Toryism' and the Origins of Anglo-Britishness

The Union has for over a century been one of the cornerstones of Conservative politics, but with the changes to the old union state in the last 20 years, its value has been increasingly questioned. While the Conservative Party remains committed to maintaining the Union, a new English Toryism is emerging, which has a strong continuity with an older English Toryism which was partially buried by the ascendancy of Unionism. English Tories have always considered the Union to be desirable, but it comes second in their thinking to the need to protect the sovereignty of the British state, the core of which is England and its traditional institutions. What is new about the contemporary Conservative Party is that there is within it the revival of an English Toryism which is happy to discard the older clothes of Empire and Union once so important to Conservative identity and which is unabashedly English in its focus. For an increasing number of contemporary Conservatives, there no longer seems to be any passion about defending the Union or even of continuing to think about the United Kingdom in Unionist terms

Molecular study of Oestrus ovis larvae infesting in sheep in Baghdad city, Iraq

The aim of this study is to detect the 28S (rRNA) gene sequences of Oestrus ovis larvae by conventional polymerase chain reaction and to compare their genetic relatedness utilizing phylogenetic analysis. Fifty larvae were collected from sheep for DNA extraction after slaughtering during the period from the beginning of February until the end of April 2019 in Baghdad city. PCR product appeared as the band size 950 bp. Ten of the product PCR were selected for sequence analysis to obtain the partial nucleotides 28S (rRNA) gene. After that the sequence were recorded in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with ID NO. (MT875427, MT875428, MT875429, MT875430, MT875431, MT875432, MT875433, MT875434, MT875435, MT875436) for O. ovis larvae. Then, compared these accession number with another global registered in NCBI by using phylogenetic tree examination which show NCBI-BLAST homology sequence identity between them, and these results were confirmed 99% identity with Spain and Brazil isolates and 98% with Italy

Iris Recognition System Using Convolutional Neural Network

Identification system is one of the important parts in security domains of the present time. The traditional protection methods considered to be inefficient and unreliable as they are subjected to the theft, imitation or forgetfulness. In contrast, biometrics such as facial recognition, fingerprints and the retina have emerged as modern protection methods, but still also suffer from some defects and violations. However, Iris recognition is an automated method that considered as a promising biometric identification due to the stability and the uniqueness of its patterns. In this paper, an iris recognition system based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model was proposed. CNN is used to perform the required processes of feature extraction and classification. The proposed system was evaluated through CASIA-V1 and ATVS datasets, after the required pre-processing steps taken place, and achieved 98% and 97.83% as a result, respectively

Naturally derived phenethyl isothiocyanate modulates induction of oxidative stress via Its N-acetylated cysteine conjugated form in malignant melanoma

This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this record. Data Availability Statement: Data are contained within the article.Phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) is a secondary metabolic product yielded upon the hydrolysis of gluconasturtiin and it is highly accumulated in the flowers of watercress. The aim of the current study was to assess the role of a naturally derived PEITC-enriched extract in the induction of oxidative stress and to evaluate its anti-melanoma potency through the regulation of its metabolism with the concurrent production of the N-acetyl cysteine conjugated by-product. For this purpose, an in vitro melanoma model was utilized consisting of human primary (A375) cells as well as metastatic (COLO-679) malignant melanoma cells together with non-tumorigenic immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT). Cytotoxicity was assessed via the Alamar Blue assay whereas the antioxidant/prooxidant activity of PEITC was determined via spectrophotometric assays. Finally, kinetic characterization of the end-product of PEITC metabolism was monitored via UPLC coupled to a tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Our results indicate that although PhEF showed very minor antioxidant activity in a cell-free system, in a cell-based system, it can modulate the activity of key enzyme(s) involved in cellular antioxidant defense mechanism(s). In addition, we have shown that PhEF induces lipid and protein oxidation in a concentration-dependent manner, while its cytotoxicity is not only dependent on PEITC itself but also on its N-acetylated cysteine conjugated form.Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.)Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (Telethon Cyprus

Fishing the georges river: Cultural diversity and urban environments

The Georges River runs through the heart of Sydney’s most culturally diverse population, including long-established Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic communities as well as the many more recent immigrant communities that have developed since the 1980s. Most people in all these communities are in working-class employment (if they have jobs at all), are living in densely packed suburbs and, despite some gentrification on the margins, still have significant disadvantages in educational and social infrastructure. As well as being a large river with scenic parklands threading along its lower estuarine reaches, the Georges River is also the focus of intensifying ethnic conflicts which often spill over into the media. The names of the river’s suburbs – Cabramatta, Liverpool, Bankstown, Macquarie Fields and Lakemba – are well known around Australia for their tensions. Yet, recent surveys of Australian attitudes to cultural diversity have demonstrated a widespread endorsement of the desire to reach across cultural differences despite the effect of international events and the media in increasing the hostile polarisation between ethnic groups (Ang et al. 2002, 2006). This paper will ask whether considering the area’s complex relationships and tensions through the lens of ‘everyday’ activities might allow us to understand those conflicts more clearly