Rule of Objects:On the De-Peopling of Safe Havens

What does it mean to be “safe,” and what does it mean to be “endangered”? Who defines these terms, why, and what does this act of definition allow them to do? In December 2016, a conference entitled Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage took place in Abu Dhabi, organized jointly by the governments of the United Arab Emirates and France, and held under the patronage of UNESCO. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Shaykh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was in attendance, as was French President François Hollande and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova; many other dignitaries joined them. The diplomatic spectacle was a sight to behold. The assembled, distinctly elite, group seemed to have given itself sole authority to speak for and about cultural heritage around the world

Oleic Acid Attenuates Palmitic Acid-Induced Impairments in Mouse Blastocyst Development

Palmitic acid (PA) and oleic acid (OA) are the most abundant saturated and monounsaturated non-esterified fatty acids, respectively, in serum. The consequences of PA and OA treatment on preimplantation mouse embryo development were investigated. It was hypothesized that OA treatment from the two-cell stage onwards would attenuate PA-induced reductions in mouse blastocyst development. PA significantly reduced development to the blastocyst stage. Transcript analysis revealed that PA increased ER stress pathway markers activating transcription factor 3 and C/EBP homologous protein transcripts, and XBP1 splicing. Co-culture of PA-treated embryos with OA prevented this PA-induced ER stress and rescued blastocyst development. Cytoplasmic lipid droplet accumulation was significantly increased by OA co-treatment. The results indicate that PA treatment induces ER stress, which limits lipid droplet accumulation and impairs blastocyst development. Co-treatment with OA is protective in reducing PA-induced ER stress and developmental impairments. These findings have applications in improving our understanding of embryo physiology and fertility outcomes for obese patients

Identification Of Pan-Ligands For Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (Ppar) Using Computational Virtual Screening With Molecular Docking

The objective of this study was to use virtual screening with molecular docking to identify potential pan-PPAR ligands from the ZINC database. The 3D structural files of the receptor ligand binding domains (LBD), obtained from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), were energetically minimized and the binding pockets on each LBD were identified and measured. The screening was performed by docking each compound from the lead-like database to the LBD of the three receptors using the AutoDock software

Improvement of Thermal Resistivity of Desert Sand for Use in High Voltage Cable Beddings and Foundation in Arid Zones

The soil thermal resistivity is of a great importance for the design of high voltage cables. Underground cables generate heat as a result of power losses when transmitting current. This heat must be dissipated in a form that will not affect the performance of the cables. The presence of moisture normally helps to reduce the thermal resistivity and keeps it within the design range. In arid areas the moisture content is decreased to very low values in dry seasons. This is found to bring the thermal resistively beyond the design ranges. Major cable failures took place during summer times in Riyadh city and surroundings. This was noted to increase for some years before 2002, which reported high temperature and generally hot climate. The Saudi Electric Company requested AMNK to investigate the possible ways to improve the thermal properties of backfill material used in bedding. In this research, improvement of the thermal resistivety (reduction) is obtained by adding cement and moisture and then dehydrating the mixture. The optimum amount of cement content to suite the Saudi desert material was found 5% after studying two common sand types using a non-steady state probe TP-02 with CR 10 X thermal program. The Saudi Electric Company found the process very successful and used it as part of the specifications and requirements in cable construction procedures

Phytochemical Investigation and B Ioactivity Screening of Vitex (Verbenaceae) and Ficus (Moraceae) Species

The study on Vitex longisepala involves extraction, various chromatographic methods and structural determination by spectroscopic techniques such as IR, compounds were also elucidated by comparison with the previous works. works on leaves and bark of the plant yielded cholesterol (51),para-hydroxybenzoic acid (52), terpene. Crude extracts and isolated compounds from two parts of this plant were screened for antimicrobial activity using disc diffusion method and cytotoxic activity by using microtitration method. compouds exhibited antimicrobial activity against Gram-possitive and Gram-negative bacteria Cholesterol exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against T-lymphoblastic leukemic cell line with IC₅₀ 10 µg/ml. not show any antimicrobial activity against fungi. The methanol crude extract of the bark failed to show any significant antimicrobial activity, while the petroleum ether and the chloroform crude extracts of the bark exhibited weak antimicrobial activity against Bacillus cereus. The study on Vitex quinata involved the same procedure adopted above. Isolation works on the leaves and bark of the plant yielded cholesterol (51), 13- sitosterol (57), para-hydroxybenzoic acid (52), fructose (53), glucose (58), catechin (55), quercetin (59) and quercitrin (60). However, the bark of the plant yielded a mixture of long-chain compound, fatty acid and unidentified terpene. The crude extracts and isolated compounds of this plant were tested for antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity using disc diffusion and microtitration methods respectively. The crude extracts and pure isolated compounds exhibited positive antimicrobial results against two bacteria organisms and negative results against four fungi. Cholesterol and β-sitosterol gave cytotoxic activity against T -lymphoblastic leukemic cell line with IC₅₀ 10 and 25 µg/ml respectively. Detail investigation on the leaves, bark and fruits of Ficus benjamina has resulted in the isolation of seven compounds. The structure of these compounds were elucidated by means of spectroscopic methods including by the extensive use of various NMR techniques and also comparison with previous studies. The use of High Field NMR is essential in structural determination of these complex molecules. With the aids of various NMR experimental techniques and oth er spectroscopic methods such as IR, UV and MS, the correct structures of the pure isolated compounds were established. (63), The presence of bioactive compounds in th is plant was detected by the use of antimicrobial organism. crude plant extracts or pure isolated compounds could be determined. of chloroform and methanol extracts of the leaves of Ficus benjamina gave no significant activity while caffeic acid gave IC₅₀ value of 25 µg/ml. Phytochemical studies on leaves and bark of Ficus elastica have resulted in the isolation of emodin (66), (70) together with long-chain fatty acids. were established based on spectral studies using different spectroscopic methods and on comparison with published data

Application of non-linear optimisation to multipurpose reservoir systems

The aim of this research is to investigate the application of nonlinear programming techniques to multipurpose reservoir systems. A multipurpose multiple reservoir operation problem is a typical nonlinear large scale optimization problem. The currently applied techniques overcome the nonlinearity and dimensionality problems through simplification. To model the problem more closely, a successful trial is made in this study to apply the most efficient and suitable nonlinear programming techniques. Although research in large scale nonlinear optimization has been in recent'years a major subject of interest within the mathematical programming community, its application to reservoir systems is very limited. As a result of these activities software packages, as Lancelot, have been developed. Lancelot is a general purpose software package designed for solving large-scale nonlinear optimization problems. It uses Augmented Lagrangian and Conjugate Gradient methods. This software is used here successfully to solve an optimization problem formulated for a major river system, the Blue Nile in Sudan. The system has two in series reservoirs used for hydropower generation, maintaining minimum downstream flows and irrigation. For optimization, some features of the system have been modelled. These are sedimentation, evaporation, demand and flow. To represent the effect of sedimentation a model is fitted and verified. To include the effect of evaporation a model that estimates the total evaporation losses is fitted using Penman approach and verified using water balance. To cope with flow uncertainty the Blue Nile flow has been modelled. ARMA(1,1) has given the best fitting. Irrigation requirements have been estimated using Penman- Monteith approach. Efficiency of water use has been investigated and other possible demand scenarios resulting from efficient water use are obtained. The results of flow and demand modelling are used as direct input to the optimization model while sedimentation and evaporation models are incorporated in the model. The objective of this model is to maximise power benefits on condition that certain irrigation and downstream requirements be met. To solve this problem a double precision version of Lancelot was installed in a hp-UNIX system. For the problem a specification and a standard input format, SEF, files were written and put under the same directory with Lancelot to run the program. The problem was solved successfully in few minutes. The solution includes values for the objective function, decision variables (releases and storage volumes), penalty parameter, Lagrange multipliers and slack variables. The optimization output is affected by reservoir sedimentation. Therefore the developed optimization and sedimentation models have been linked to investigate sedimentation effect on optimization on output along the course of reservoir operation. Results have shown that this approach can be used to investigate the effect of sedimentation on reservoir optimum output. In, a multipurpose reservoir system, the optimization output for one purpose is affected by the efficiency of water use for other purposes. Therefore the effect of efficient water use in irrigation on power benefits is investigated. Results have shown an increment in benefits due to using irrigation water efficiently. This approach can be applied to systems where priority is given for one purpose over the others

Quercetin from methanol extracts of the leaves of Ficus benghalensis

Flavonoids are ubiquitous in photosynthesising cells and are commonly found in fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, stems, flowers, tea, wine, propolis and honey. For centuries, preparations containing these compounds as the principal physiologically active constituents have been used to treat human diseases. Increasingly, this class of natural products is becoming the subject of anti-infective research and many groups have isolated and identified the structures of flavonoids. In this study we concerned on determination flavonoids content from methanolic extracts of Ficus benghalensis using catechol and quercetin as standard. The result shows high content of quercetin in methanolic extracts.&nbsp

Virus-vector relationships of chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus (CpCDV) and sesame jassid (Orosius orientalis) in chickpea

   Serological testing using tissue blot immunoassay (TBIA) showed a close association between CpCDV and stunt disease in chickpea. Therefore, a glasshouse investigation was initiated at Hudeiba Research Station, the River Nile State, Sudan, in 2006 to verify the role of O. orientalis as an insect vector in disease transmission. The results showed that disease transmission efficiency was increased as the number of leafhopper (O. orientalis) increased from one to 15 insects/ plant. The minimum virus acquisition and inoculation access periods (AAP and IAP) were found to be about 5 min. The latent and retention periods were 180 min and 17 days, respectively.     أوضح استعمال اختبار الوصمة النسيجية السيرولوجى العلاقة الوطيدة بين فيروس تقزم واصفرار الحمص و مرض التقزم. تم اجراء عدد من التجارب بالبيت الزجاجى بمحطة بحوث الحديبة بولاية نهر النيل في عام  2006 وذلك لمعرفة دور حشرة نطاط الاوراق Orius orientalis فى نقل المرض.  أوضحت النتائج ان فاعلية الحشرة فى نقل المرض ازدادت مع زيادة عدد الحشرات المستعملة من واحد الى 15 حشرة، و كذلك أوضحت النتائج أن أقل فترة لاكتساب ونقل الفيروس بواسطة الحشرة هى حوالى 5 دقائق و فترة حضانة الفيروس حوالى 3 ساعات. وجد كذلك ان للحشرة القدرة للاحتفاظ بالفيروس لمدة 17 يوماً وحتى موتها. &nbsp

Editorial – “Together We Build Our Health”: Paving Way Forward Through Analyzing the Context and Ensuring Wide Participation in the First and Second Health Forums in Sudan

This is an Editorial and does not have an abstract. Please download the PDF or view the article HTML.&nbsp