ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS TO FARMERS AS A RESULT OF PESTICIDES’ MISMANAGEMENT IN KHANYOUNIS GOVERNORATE, GAZA STRIP

Several poisoning and death cases were reported in Khanyounis Governorate as a result of mis-use and mishandling of pesticides. Carcinogenic and internationally banned pesticides are still available in the markets in all the governorates of the Gaza Strip. This study aims to investigate the awareness and health issues of the farmers. Fortyfive farmers were randomly selected to fill a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. The results showed that protective clothing are totally not worn during application of pesticides. Lack of storage faculties, unlicensed pesticide shops, improper disposal of the empty containers and smoking and eating during application are among the hot spots related to pesticides handling and application. Also, 44.5% of the farmers complain of health problems, of which headache, coughing, skin rashes and difficulty in breathing. Only 4.5% of the farmers attended general agricultural training courses. In conclusion the study suggests that the government, public, the non-governmental organizations and all the interested parties should cooperate in a collective and serious work to minimize these environmental and health risks

Quantitative analysis of the dripping and jetting regimes in co-flowing capillary jets

We study a liquid jet that breaks up into drops in an external co-flowing liquid inside a confining microfluidic geometry. The jet breakup can occur right after the nozzle in a phenomenon named dripping or through the generation of a liquid jet that breaks up a long distance from the nozzle, which is called jetting. Traditionally, these two regimes have been considered to reflect the existence of two kinds of spatiotemporal instabilities of a fluid jet, the dripping regime corresponding to an absolutely unstable jet and the jetting regime to a convectively unstable jet. Here, we present quantitative measurements of the dripping and jetting regimes, both in an unforced and a forced state, and compare these measurements with recent theoretical studies of spatiotemporal instability of a confined liquid jet in a co-flowing liquid. In the unforced state, the frequency of oscillation and breakup of the liquid jet is measured and compared to the theoretical predictions. The dominant frequency of the jet oscillations as a function of the inner flow rate agrees qualitatively with the theoretical predictions in the jetting regime but not in the dripping regime. In the forced state, achieved with periodic laser heating, the dripping regime is found to be insensitive to the perturbation and the frequency of drop formation remains unaltered. The jetting regime, on the contrary, amplifies the externally imposed frequency, which translates in the formation of drops at the frequency imposed by the external forcing. In conclusion, the dripping and jetting regimes are found to exhibit the main features of absolutely and convectively unstable flows respectively, but the frequency selection in the dripping regime is not ruled by the absolute frequency predicted by the stability analysis.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Physics of Fluid

Reaction-diffusion dynamics: confrontation between theory and experiment in a microfluidic reactor

We confront, quantitatively, the theoretical description of the reaction-diffusion of a second order reaction to experiment. The reaction at work is \ca/CaGreen, and the reactor is a T-shaped microchannel, 10 $\mu$m deep, 200 $\mu$m wide, and 2 cm long. The experimental measurements are compared with the two-dimensional numerical simulation of the reaction-diffusion equations. We find good agreement between theory and experiment. From this study, one may propose a method of measurement of various quantities, such as the kinetic rate of the reaction, in conditions yet inaccessible to conventional methods

Introduction: Historical thinking, historical consciousness

In September, 2014, the University of Ottawa Education Research Unit, Making History / Faire l’histoire, hosted Canadian History at the Crossroads, a SSHRC-funded symposium in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Québec. The symposium brought together multiple stakeholders, historians, history and museum educators, classroom teachers—including Governor General’s award winners as well as teacher education and graduate students—to stimulate further public dialogue on pedagogies of history and the politics of remembrance. Building on some of the symposium’s original contributions as well as other submissions, this Canadian Journal of Education Special Capsule advances current debates in history education, historical thinking, and historical consciousness, and forges new directions for collective understandings of the past, by connecting with everyday lived experiences in the present. The contributions range from discussions of how young people themselves understand their past to the link- ages between forms of remembering and conceptions of the nation itself.

On two-dimensionalization of three-dimensional turbulence in shell models

Applying a modified version of the Gledzer-Ohkitani-Yamada (GOY) shell model, the signatures of so-called two-dimensionalization effect of three-dimensional incompressible, homogeneous, isotropic fully developed unforced turbulence have been studied and reproduced. Within the framework of shell models we have obtained the following results: (i) progressive steepening of the energy spectrum with increased strength of the rotation, and, (ii) depletion in the energy flux of the forward forward cascade, sometimes leading to an inverse cascade. The presence of extended self-similarity and self-similar PDFs for longitudinal velocity differences are also presented for the rotating 3D turbulence case

Incidence of fracture in adjacent levels in patients treated with balloon kyphoplasty: a review of the literature

The available evidence suggests that the treatment of painful vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) secondary to osteoporosis or multiple myeloma, by cement augmentation with balloon kyphoplasty (BK), is both safe and effective. However, there is uncertainty in the literature concerning the potential of the procedure to influence the risk for adjacent segment fracture. The aim of this article is to review the available peer-reviewed literature, regarding adjacent vertebral body fractures after kyphoplasty augmentation

Examining the moderating effect of individual-level cultural values on users’ acceptance of E-learning in developing countries: a structural equation modeling of an extended technology acceptance model

In this study, we examine the effects of individual-level culture on the adoption and acceptance of e-learning tools by students in Lebanon using a theoretical framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). To overcome possible limitations of using TAM in developing countries, we extend TAM to include subjective norms (SN) and quality of work life constructs as additional constructs and a number of cultural variables as moderators. The four cultural dimensions of masculinity/femininity (MF), individualism/collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance were measured at the individual level to enable them to be integrated into the extended TAM as moderators and a research model was developed based on previous literature. To test the hypothesised model, data were collected from 569 undergraduate and postgraduate students using e-learning tools in Lebanon via questionnaire. The collected data were analysed using the structural equation modelling technique in conjunction with multi-group analysis. As hypothesised, the results of the study revealed perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), SN and quality of work life to be significant determinants of students’ behavioural intention (BI) towards e-learning. The empirical results also demonstrated that the relationship between SN and BI was particularly sensitive to differences in individual-cultural values, with significant moderating effects observed for all four of the cultural dimensions studied. Some moderating effects of culture were also found for both PU and PEOU, however, contrary to expectations the effect of quality of work life was not found to be moderated by MF as some previous authors have predicted. The implications of these results to both theory and practice are explored in the paper

Diffusion of e-health innovations in 'post-conflict' settings: a qualitative study on the personal experiences of health workers.

BACKGROUND: Technological innovations have the potential to strengthen human resources for health and improve access and quality of care in challenging 'post-conflict' contexts. However, analyses on the adoption of technology for health (that is, 'e-health') and whether and how e-health can strengthen a health workforce in these settings have been limited so far. This study explores the personal experiences of health workers using e-health innovations in selected post-conflict situations. METHODS: This study had a cross-sectional qualitative design. Telephone interviews were conducted with 12 health workers, from a variety of cadres and stages in their careers, from four post-conflict settings (Liberia, West Bank and Gaza, Sierra Leone and Somaliland) in 2012. Everett Roger's diffusion of innovation-decision model (that is, knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, contemplation) guided the thematic analysis. RESULTS: All health workers interviewed held positive perceptions of e-health, related to their beliefs that e-health can help them to access information and communicate with other health workers. However, understanding of the scope of e-health was generally limited, and often based on innovations that health workers have been introduced through by their international partners. Health workers reported a range of engagement with e-health innovations, mostly for communication (for example, email) and educational purposes (for example, online learning platforms). Poor, unreliable and unaffordable Internet was a commonly mentioned barrier to e-health use. Scaling-up existing e-health partnerships and innovations were suggested starting points to increase e-health innovation dissemination. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study showed ICT based e-health innovations can relieve information and communication needs of health workers in post-conflict settings. However, more efforts and investments, preferably driven by healthcare workers within the post-conflict context, are needed to make e-health more widespread and sustainable. Increased awareness is necessary among health professionals, even among current e-health users, and physical and financial access barriers need to be addressed. Future e-health initiatives are likely to increase their impact if based on perceived health information needs of intended users

Reaction Front in an A+B -> C Reaction-Subdiffusion Process

We study the reaction front for the process A+B -> C in which the reagents move subdiffusively. Our theoretical description is based on a fractional reaction-subdiffusion equation in which both the motion and the reaction terms are affected by the subdiffusive character of the process. We design numerical simulations to check our theoretical results, describing the simulations in some detail because the rules necessarily differ in important respects from those used in diffusive processes. Comparisons between theory and simulations are on the whole favorable, with the most difficult quantities to capture being those that involve very small numbers of particles. In particular, we analyze the total number of product particles, the width of the depletion zone, the production profile of product and its width, as well as the reactant concentrations at the center of the reaction zone, all as a function of time. We also analyze the shape of the product profile as a function of time, in particular its unusual behavior at the center of the reaction zone

Monitoring the orientation of rare-earth-doped nanorods for flow shear tomography

Rare-earth phosphors exhibit unique luminescence polarization features originating from the anisotropic symmetry of the emitter ion's chemical environment. However, to take advantage of this peculiar property, it is necessary to control and measure the ensemble orientation of the host particles with a high degree of precision. Here, we show a methodology to obtain the photoluminescence polarization of Eu-doped LaPO4 nano rods assembled in an electrically modulated liquid-crystalline phase. We measure Eu3+ emission spectra for the three main optimal configurations ({\sigma}, {\pi} and {\alpha}, depending on the direction of observation and the polarization axes) and use them as a reference for the nano rod orientation analysis. Based on the fact that flowing nano rods tend to orient along the shear strain profile, we use this orientation analysis to measure the local shear rate in a flowing liquid. The potential of this approach is then demonstrated through tomographic imaging of the shear rate distribution in a microfluidic system.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures + supplementary files for experimental and numerical method