DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL CHILD’S SCHOOL PREFERENCES IN QATAR

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of “Quality Education”, “Developing Better Social Skills”, “Homework Assignment”, “Using Private Tutors”, “Charging School Fees” and “Nationality” on “Parental School Preference” using primary data collected from preparatory and secondary school teachers in Qatar. Methodology: The population for this study consists of all parents in Qatar. The current study used a very large stratified sample size n = 1462 that was determined by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) using a 95% confidence interval estimate. The nine items used in this study are part of a huge questionnaire measuring attitude and parental child’s school preferences. Kaisers-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and the Bartless test of sphericity were used to determine the appropriateness of using factor analysis. What are more; principal axis factoring and oblique rotation extracted three factors? Main findings: The representative sample Factor analysis extracted three dimensions (quality education, developing better social skills, homework assignment). The dependent variable (parental school choice) was regressed on the factor scores of these three extracted dimensions in addition to four independent variables (school fees, nationality, repeating a school grade, and parents’ disappointment if their child doesn’t go far in school). The results revealed that parental school choice is significantly determined by three explanatory variables: the quality of education, school fees, and nationality. Implications: Raising standards for teachers should be a key element in educational quality. What’s more, in the spirit of findings the policymakers in Qatar should make funding part of school fees for expatriates a priority. Novelty: This article empirically correlates two main fields of educational research: Parental School Choice is given Quality of Education, Charging School Fees, and Nationality.This work was supported by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University. The authors would like to thank all the parents who took part in the 2015 Qatar Education Study. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Darwish Al-Emadi, Dr. Abdoulaye Diop, Dr. Elmogeira Elawad, and Mr. Anis Miladi, Mr. Isam Mohamed Abdelhameed in giving so generously of their time at various stages of the data collection and entry.Scopu

Small Bowel Tumors: Clinical Presentation, Prognosis, and Outcome in 33 Patients in a Tertiary Care Center

Introduction. Small bowel cancers are rare. Accumulation of data regarding their clinical presentation, pathologic features, prognostic factors, treatment modalities, and outcome is difficult. Methods. This is a retrospective study of the medical records of 33 patients with small bowel cancers treated at the American University of Beirut-Medical Center over a 20-year period. Results. The study included 25 males (76%) and 8 females (24%). Median age at presentation was 56 years. Most common symptoms were abdominal pain (66.7%) and weight loss (57.6%). Thirteen patients presented with abdominal emergencies (39.3%). Lymphoma was the most common malignant tumor (36.4%), followed by adenocarcinoma (33.3%), leiomyosarcoma (15.2%), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (12.1%), and neuroendocrine tumors (3.0%). Tumors were located in the duodenum in 30% of patients, jejunum in 33%, and ileum in 36%. Resectability rate was 72.7% and curative R0 resection was achieved in 54.1% (13/24) of patients. 5-year survival of the 33 patients was 24.2%. Conclusion. Small bowel cancers are difficult to diagnose because of the nonspecific symptoms. Most patients present with advanced disease and have poor prognosis. Adenocarcinoma and duodenal location have the worst 5-year survival in contrast to stromal tumors and those with ileal location which have the best survival

Wind Power Generation Scenarios in Lebanon

Renewable energy in terms of solar and wind energy can be an essential part of Lebanon's strategies to add new capacity, increase energy security, address environmental concerns, and resolve the electricity crisis. In this regard, there is an urgent need to develop road maps in order to reduce the effect of global warming and enhance sustainable technological development for generating clean power in the country. Therefore, the present paper evaluates Lebanon's wind energy generation potential as an alternative solution to supply electricity to households in various locations distributed over Lebanon. In the present study, the measured data are used to evaluate the wind energy potential in Lebanon and to find suitable locations to install wind farms in the country. Accordingly, the results demonstrated that Ain ed Dabaa is the most suitable location for the installation of a wind farm. Moreover, the study aims to develop a wind energy cost analysis techno-economic model for eight conventional wind turbines and a Barber wind turbine, which was found to be very competitive. Consequently, this study showed that the implementation of a wind turbine could provide clean, economical, and continuous production of electricity in countries that suffer from daily blackouts

“In small places, close to home”: urban environmental impacts on child rights across four global cities

Urban environments influence child behaviours, exposures and experiences and may affect health, development, achievement and realization of fundamental human rights. We examined the status of eleven UN Convention on the Rights of the Child articles, in a multi-case study across four global cities. Within all study cities, children experienced unequal exposure to urban environmental risks and amenities. Many violations of child rights are related to car-based transportation systems and further challenged by pressures on urban systems from rapid population increases in the context of climate change. A child rights framework provides principles for a collective, multi-sectoral re-imagination of urban environments that support the human rights of all citizens

Assessing the in vivo biocompatibility of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles

Molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) are high affinity synthetic receptors which show promise as imaging and therapeutic agents. Comprehensive analysis of the in vivo behaviour of nanoMIPs must be performed before they can be considered for clinical applications. This work reports the solid-phase synthesis of nanoMIPs and an investigation of their biodistribution, clearance and cytotoxicity in a rat model following both intravenous and oral administration. These nanoMIPs were found in each harvested tissue type, including brain tissue, implying their ability to cross the blood brain barrier. The nanoMIPs were cleared from the body via both faeces and urine. Furthermore, we describe an immunogenicity study in mice, demonstrating that nanoMIPs specific for a cell surface protein showed moderate adjuvant properties, whilst those imprinted for a scrambled peptide showed no such behaviour. Given their ability to access all tissue types and their relatively low cytotoxicity, these results pave the way for in vivo applications of nanoMIPs

The histone H2B monoubiquitination regulatory pathway is required for differentiation of multipotent stem cells.

Extensive changes in posttranslational histone modifications accompany the rewiring of the transcriptional program during stem cell differentiation. However, the mechanisms controlling the changes in specific chromatin modifications and their function during differentiation remain only poorly understood. We show that histone H2B monoubiquitination (H2Bub1) significantly increases during differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and various lineage-committed precursor cells and in diverse organisms. Furthermore, the H2B ubiquitin ligase RNF40 is required for the induction of differentiation markers and transcriptional reprogramming of hMSCs. This function is dependent upon CDK9 and the WAC adaptor protein, which are required for H2B monoubiquitination. Finally, we show that RNF40 is required for the resolution of the H3K4me3/H3K27me3 bivalent poised state on lineage-specific genes during the transition from an inactive to an active chromatin conformation. Thus, these data indicate that H2Bub1 is required for maintaining multipotency of hMSCs and plays a central role in controlling stem cell differentiation

DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL MICROWELL-PLATE SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC ASSAY FOR DETERMINATION OF VARENICLINE VIA ITS REACTION WITH CYCLOHEXA-3,5-DIENE-1,2-DIONE

This study describes, for the first, the spectrophotometric investigation for the condensation reaction between varenicline (VRC) and cyclohexa-3,5-diene-1,2-dione (CHDD). The reaction gave a violet-colored product exhibiting maximum absorption peak (λ max ) at 540 nm. The variables affecting the reaction were carefully investigated and the optimum conditions were established. The stoichiometry of the reaction was determined, and the reaction pathway was postulated. This color-developing reaction was employed in the development of microwell plate assay for VRC. In this assay, the reaction was carried out in 96-microwell plate and the absorbance of the colored-product was measured by microwell plate absorbance reader. Under the optimized reaction conditions, Beer's law correlating the absorbance with VRC concentration was obeyed in the range of 5 -100 µg/mL with good correlation coefficient (0.9986). The limits of detection and quantification were 2.29 and 6.95 µg/mL, respectively. The assay showed high precision as the values of relative standard deviations (RSD) did not exceed 2%. No interference was observed from the excipients that are present in VRC-containing tablets. The proposed assay was applied successfully for the determination of VRC in its pharmaceutical tablets with good accuracy and precisions; the label claim percentages were 98.80 ± 1.30%. The results were compared favorably with those of a reference prevalidated method. The proposed assay is practical and valuable in terms of its routine application in determination of VRC in in its bulk and tablets in pharmaceutical quality control laboratories

A validated stability-indicating HPLC method for determination of varenicline in its bulk and tablets

A simple, sensitive and accurate stability-indicating HPLC method has been developed and validated for determination of varenicline (VRC) in its bulk form and pharmaceutical tablets. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C8 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 5 μm, maintained at ambient temperature) by a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and 50 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (10:90, v/v) with apparent pH of 3.5 ± 0.1 and a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The detection wavelength was set at 235 nm. VRC was subjected to different accelerated stress conditions. The degradation products, when any, were well resolved from the pure drug with significantly different retention time values. The method was linear (r = 0.9998) at a concentration range of 2 - 14 μg/ml. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.38 and 1.11 μg/ml, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were satisfactory; the relative standard deviations did not exceed 2%. The accuracy of the method was proved; the mean recovery of VRC was 100.10 ± 1.08%. The proposed method has high throughput as the analysis involved short run-time (~ 6 min). The method met the ICH/FDA regulatory requirements. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of VRC in bulk and tablets with acceptable accuracy and precisions; the label claim percentages were 99.65 ± 0.32%. The results demonstrated that the method would have a great value when applied in quality control and stability studies for VRC

Nodal line resonance generating the giant anomalous Hall effect of Co3_3Sn2_2S2_2

Giant anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and magneto-optical activity can emerge in magnets with topologically non-trivial degeneracies. However, identifying the specific band structure features like Weyl points, nodal lines or planes which generate the anomalous response is a challenging issue. Since the low-energy interband transitions can govern the static AHE, we addressed this question in the prototypical magnetic Weyl semimetal Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ also hosting nodal lines by broadband polarized reflectivity and magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy with a focus on the far-infrared range. In the linear dichroism spectrum we observe a strong resonance at 40\,meV, which also shows up in the optical Hall conductivity spectrum and primarily determines the static AHE, thus, confirms its intrinsic origin. Our material-specific theory reproduces the experimental data remarkably well and shows that strongly tilted nodal line segments around the Fermi energy generate the resonance. While the Weyl points only give vanishing contributions, these segments of the nodal lines gapped by the spin-orbit coupling dominate the low-energy optical response