Watching the war against Iraq through pan-Arab satellite TV

It was the first Gulf War in 1991 which led to the satellite television explosion in the Arab world. Arabs then knew about Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait through CNN. Today, Arab satellite channels reach almost every Arab capital and many Middle Eastern and African nations — from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Iran in the east, from Syria in the north to Djibouti in the south. This battle for the airwaves and boom in satellite channels in the Arab world has become both a tool for integration and dispersion. It is raising a glimpse of hope that the flow of information will no longer be pouring from the West to the East, but from the East to the West. Questions, however, remain about the credibility of news coverage by Arabic networks like the maverick Qatar-based al-Jazeera and whether Arab journalists adhere to journalistic norms upheld in the West

Nephropathy and Neuropathy in Diabetic Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Introduction: Several reports described an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Chronic HCV infection is prevalent in Egypt. The present work aimed to evaluate the prevalence of proteinuria and neuropathy among diabetic patients with and without chronic HCV infection Methods: A total of 70 diabetic patients were recruited from patients that attended the outpatient clinic of Mansoura Specialized Medical University Hospital. They were evaluated for diabetic retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy, high blood pressure, urinary albumin excretion (UAE), serum creatinine, lipid profile and assay of HCV-RNA. Results: The prevalence of HCV infection among this group of diabetic patients was 35.7% compared to 10% in a matched control group (P< 0.05). Diabetic patients with chronic HCV infection (n=45) and diabetic patients without HCV infection (n=25) had no significant differences in diabetes type, diabetes duration, prevalence of hypertension, level of glycosylated hemoglobin or prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. The prevalence of macroalbuminuria, peripheral neuropathy and autonomic neuropahty was higher among diabetic patients with chronic HCV infection (P < 0.05). Also, diabetic patients with chronic HCV infection had higher mean arterial pressure, higher serum creatinine, higher triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and higher UAE (P < 0.05). Conclusion: A high prevalence of HCV infection is observed among this group of Egyptian diabetic patients, and it was associated with higher rates of nephropathy and peripheral neuropathy compared to diabetic patients without HCV infection. Key words: Diabetes mellitus; Egypt; HCV infection; Nephropathy; Neuropahty; Retinopath

LEARNING STYLES OF EGYPTIAN BUSINESS STUDENTS

The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument based on the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model was used to determine distribution of learning styles of eighty Egyptian business students enrolled in an Egyptian institution of higher education. Results show that Egyptian business students surveyed in this study prefer sensing, visual, active, and sequential learning styles over intuitive, verbal, reflective, and global learning styles respectively. The majority of business students have a balanced learning style in all four dimensions of the Felder-Silverman model. Gender difference in learning style preference was statistically significant for only two of the four dimensions. The small gender difference was deemed inconsequential for designing teaching and learning methods. More than 85 percent of Egyptian business students are likely to benefit from teaching methods geared toward sensing, visual, active, and sequential learners

Evaluation of Peripheral Vascular Calcification and Serum Magnesium Level in a Group of Egyptian Hemodialysis Patients

Introduction: Vascular calcification is a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality in the general population. It is highly prevalent in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Low magnesium (Mg) levels have been reported to have a strong association with vascular calcification in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of vascular calcification and its relation to serum Mg concentration in a group of Egyptian HD patients. Methods: We studied 65 stable patients undergoing maintenance HD for more than 6 months. Vascular calcification was evaluated using hand roentgenography. Serum Mg, phosphorus, corrected calcium and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) levels were compared between patients with and without vascular calcification. Results: The study included 41 male and 24 female patients, aged 43-70 years. Vascular calcification was present in 38.5% of the patients. Mean serum Mg level was 2.88 ± 0.51 mg/dl. Male gender was more common in patients with vascular calcification, and they had significantly longer HD duration and significantly higher serum phosphorus and iPTH levels. Serum Mg level was significantly lower in patients with vascular calcification (2.36 ± 0.26 mg/dl vs.3.21 ± 0.32 mg/dl, p = 0.001). Serum Mg concentration remained as independent negative predictor of hand-artery vascular calcification after adjustment for age, gender, duration of HD, serum phosphorus and iPTH levels. Conclusion: Vascular calcification is common in the study population and is associated with a lower serum Mg level. High or sustained-normal Mg levels may have a protective role against the development of vascular calcification in HD patients. Keywords: hemodialysis; magnesium; renal failure; vascular calcificatio

Does Culture Influence Learning Styles of Business Students? A Comparative Study of Two Cultures

This paper presents the usage of the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument based on the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model to investigate the influence of culture on learning style distribution of business students. Western culture was represented by the United States and was compared with middle-eastern culture represented by Egypt. Results of this study show that majority of business students have a balanced learning style in each of the four learning style dimensions of the Felder-Silverman model both in the U. S. and in Egypt. Difference in learning style distribution of business students between the U. S. and Egypt was statistically significant only for the sensing-intuitive and visual-verbal dimensions of the Felder-Silverman model. The difference was not statistically significant for the active-reflective and the sequential-global dimensions

Synthesis, characterization, DNA-binding and biological activity of Zn(II) complexes of sulfadiazine with different amino acids

New Zn(II) complexes (ZnII-VS, ZnII-LS, ZnII-SS, ZnII-CS and ZnII-MS) of the sulfonamide antibiotic sulfadiazine with different amino acids were prepared and fully characterized by elemental analyses, thermal analysis and IR, UV/Vis and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The IR and 1H NMR spectral data show that the ligands behave in a dibasic bidentate fashion coordinating to zinc ion. Interactions of these complexes with DNA were investigated by spectrophotometric method. Moreover, the antibacterial and antifungal activities were evaluated for five ligands and their complexes. The computational study for prediction of absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxic factors (ADMET) properties were performed for the prepared ligands

An Assistive Object Recognition System for Enhancing Seniors Quality of Life

AbstractThis paper presents an indoor object recognition system based on the histogram of oriented gradient and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms; such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Random Forests (RF) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) algorithms, for classifying different indoor objects to improve quality of elderly people's life. The proposed approach consists of three phases; namely segmentation, feature extraction, and classification phases. Datasets used for these experiments, are totally consisted of 347 images with different eight indoor objects used for both training and testing datasets. Training dataset is divided into eight classes representing the different eight indoor objects. Experimental results showed that RF classification algorithm outperformed both SVMs and LDA algorithms, where RF achieved 80.12%, SVMs and LDA achieved 77.81% and 78.76% respectively

The Use of Laparoscopy in the Management of Trauma Patients : Brief review

 Laparoscopy is one of the most effective intervention modalities, resulting in improved outcomes for major surgeries. In the past decade, the laparoscopic approach in trauma patients has shown better diagnostic outcomes than traditional laparotomies. Furthermore, this approach is cost-effective, significantly reduces the length of hospital stay and contributes to reduced complication rates. However, the use of laparoscopies in trauma cases is generally restricted to patients with normal haemodynamic parameters and is contraindicated for individuals with head injuries. With advances in knowledge and improved training, laparoscopies can also be used in the treatment of other conditions, such as diaphragmatic injuries and organ lacerations. This article briefly reviews the extent of laparoscopy use and its significance in the management of trauma patients