Uses and gratification of spiritual and religious music in Egypt: A descriptive analysis study

Media is one important constituent of the culture in a society. Its importance is reflected in the contents it presents especially in religion and music. The way both religion and music are blended and used as a medium to gratify certain needs is the interest of this study. In that sense, the relation between religions and music is examined, how music was perceived by religious figures, what disputes the music provoked, and how spiritual music is used as an intrapersonal, interpersonal, or a mass communication tool to influence the audience cognitively, behaviorally, and attitudinally. Accordingly, a descriptive survey is conducted on a purposive sample in six academic institutes in Egypt, the American University in Cairo, the British University in Egypt, the German University in Cairo, Cairo University, Ain Shams University, and Al-Azhar University. The Uses and Gratifications theory and the Social Identity Theory helped to interpret the data that were collected from 383 respondents. Based on the results, 66.8% of 337 participants highly use spiritual and religious music as an emotional therapy. However, using the medium as an emotional therapy did not encourage cultural activities such as attending concerts, buying or selling related products, and reading books

Quantitative Study of Growth of Some Dairy Psychrophiles

Summary and Conclusions: Samples of pasteurized skim milk were steamed for 25 minutes at approximately 100° C. and inoculated with pure cultures of Pseudomonas fluorescens, A and B, at different levels, Pseudomonas fragi, Brevibacterium lipolyticum. The fifth culture was the normal flora of commercially pasteurized skim milk treated as a pure culture. All samples were stored at 4° C. Bacterial growth was determined using agar plates incubated at 25° C. for 3 days. The generation time was calculated for all cultures which ranged from 5.55 hours for Pseudomonas fragi to 11.24 hours for Brevibacterium lipolyticum. The generation time was found the same (7.22 hours) for Pseudomonas fluorescens cultures A and B regardless of differences in inoculum size for the two cultures. In the pure cultures, bacterial count after 7 days of storage was the highest for Pseudomonas fragi, 3.0 x 107, and the lowest for Brevibacterium lipolyticum, 1.9 x 105 cells per ml. However, the mixed flora culture obtained a slightly lower count, 1.7 x 105 cells per ml. The lag phases for the pure cultures studied ranged from 1 day for Pseudomonas fragi to 3 days for both cultures of Pseudomonas fiuorescens. The mixed flora culture showed still a longer lag phase of 4.2 days. Of all cultures studied, Pseudomonas fragi was found to be the most actively growing culture. It had the shortest generation time, the highest counts after 7 days of storage, and the shortest lag phase

Genetic Algorithm-Based Model for Determination of Efficient Management Strategies for Irrigation Canal Networks

An optimization model for the determination of efficient management strategies for an irrigation canal network is developed. The objective is to minimize the total water consumed while satisfying various system constraints. An unsteady flow model is used to simulate the flow in the network. A genetic algorithm- (GA-) based framework is used to solve the model. The suitable GA parameters that should be used within the model, as well as the performance of various constraint-handling techniques, are studied. Uncertainties in crop pattern and water consumption rates are incorporated into the search procedure to identify more reliable solutions. A graphical interface is also developed to make the model more user-friendly

The Importance of Character Education for Tweens as Consumers

Tweens is a term that denotes a market segment mentality that falls between children at the lower end and teens at the upper end. Tweens marketing strategies are considered critical for most global brands. Advocates against excessive consumerism and materialism polluting innocent childhood, specifically tweens, call for values implantation through character education in the school to breed more educated consumers. The effect of implanting character building programs in schools on the consumer behavior of the exposed children in the marketplace, however, has never been tested before. This research endeavor is, in essence, an overlap between consumer behavior and educational psychology, investigating the link between personality and behavior in the market. It falls under both positivist and interpretive consumer research, specifically the consumer socialization of children. The aim of this work is to develop a conceptual model linking character education to purchasing lifestyles and consumption patterns of the exposed children as consumers. Following, prospects for future research are highlighted.Educational psychology, character education, attitudes and lifestyles, opinion-leadership, humanitarianism, ethnocentrism, adolescents and middle schools