Migration—the choices we face

More than 1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe in 2015, and nearly 390,000 more in 2016, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. European leaders have often accommodated the migrants with admirable generosity, even while facing stiff political opposition. Yet, if developed countries focus only on immediate domestic impacts of mass migration, they will miss a critical point: When thousands of people, including many researchers, leave their home countries, the exodus perpetuates instability in those countries and damages prospects for future development

Influence of Trichoderma reesei or Saccharomyces cerevisiae on performance, ruminal fermentation, carcass characteristics and blood biochemistry of lambs fed Atriplex nummularia and Acacia saligna mixture

The mixtureof A.nummularia and A.saligna (1:1 DM)was autoclaved(TuttnauerUSACo.Ltd.,NY,USA)at121 °C and1.5psi for 15mintodestroyanymicrobes.Thecontentwasallowedto cool andlaterinoculatedwiththesporesof T.reesei at arateof 40 mLofthesporesuspensioncontaining107 spores permL/kg DM ofautoclaved A.nummularia and A.saligna mixture. Thein- oculatedsubstrateswerethenincubatedatambienttemperature for 10days.Bytheendoftheincubationperiod,theforageswere fullycoveredwiththefungus.Theywerethenovendriedat70 °C in aforcedairdryingoven(CascadeTEK’s ModelTFO-10,OR,USA) for 24hsoastostopfungalgrowthandpreventfurtherdena- turationofproteins.The aim of this study was to evaluate whole substitution of Egyptian berseem hay (Trifolium alexandrinum) with a mixture of Atriplex nummularia and Acacia saligna (1:1 DM) in the diet of Barki lambs for 70 days. Thirty six lambs (27.0±0.89 kg initial BW) were divided into four treatment groups of nine lambs each and fed: (1) the Control group with no substitution (70% concentrate mixture and 30% berseem hay, DM basis), (2) A. nummularia and A. saligna mixture without fungal treatment (treatment group AU), or (3) Trichoderma reesei treated A. nummularia and A. saligna mixture (treatment group AF), or (4) A. nummularia and A. saligna mixture supplemented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 0.5 g/kg DM of feed (treatment group AS) replaced 100% of berseem hay in the diet. Live-weight change, rumen fermentation parameters, blood chemistry, carcass characteristics and intestinal histology were investigated. Significant (P0.05). Lambs fed AF and AU diets had lower (P<0.05) feed conversion efficiency than lambs fed the AS and Control diets. Lambs fed AF and AS had increased (P<0.05) volatile fatty acid production compared to Controls. Blood albumin and urea concentrations increased (P<0.05) with lambs in AS treatment compared to lambs in the other treatments, while lambs fed AF had lower (P<0.05) cholesterol and glucose concentrations compared to the Controls. The AS lambs had the highest (P<0.05) dressing percentage. Decreased intramuscular fat weights were obtained with lambs fed halophytes compared to Control lambs. Histology of the ileum, sub mucosa and Peyer's patches were normal in all lambs. In conclusion, untreated halophyte mixtures of A. nummularia and A. saligna (at 1:1 DM) can be substituted for berseem hay without negative effects on performance while treatment with S. cerevisiae may improve performance and, like T. reesei, change certain biochemical responses

Policy challenges and food security in Alqadarif State, Sudan

Food security is under focused issue in Sudan as a whole and AlQadarif State is not apart from that. According to the integrated food security phases classification (IPC) report April (2015), about 60% of the population suffering from food insecurity in the State. This problem needs to be solved by clear and sound policies and strategies.  The main objective of this study is to investigate and evaluate the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) policies and strategies in the State. To achieve this objective secondary data such as annual reports, policy documents were collected from all key line institutions and primary data were collected by the mean of a questionnaire the main results of this research are that: there were no clear food security and nutrition policy documents for the key line institutions in the State.  Also, there was a gap between the policymakers at the State level and the locality level. 42% of the policymakers at the locality level did not aware of the existence of the FSN body in the State. About 94% of the policymakers in the localities believed that the Chamber of Zakat plays a very important role in helping at FSN situations. About 92% of policymakers in the state said that finance is not sufficient. The majority of the localities policymakers, 94%, do not have any (FSN) database in their localities. Finally, the main recommendation of this study is to build a food security and nutrition policy/strategy putting the conservation of the natural resources in consideration

Preparation of Some Eco-friendly Corrosion Inhibitors Having Antibacterial Activity from Sea Food Waste

Chitosan is one of the important biopolymers and it is extracted from exoskeletons of crustaceans in sea food waste. It is a suitable eco-friendly carbon steel corrosion inhibitor in acid media; the deacetylation degree of prepared chitosan is more than 85.16 %, and the molecular weight average is 109 kDa. Chitosan was modified to 2-N,N-diethylbenzene ammonium chloride N-oxoethyl chitosan (compound I), and 12-ammonium chloride N-oxododecan chitosan (compound II) as soluble water derivatives. The corrosion inhibition efficiency for carbon steel of compound (I) in 1 M HCl at varying temperature is higher than for chitosan and compound (II). However, the antibacterial activity of chitosan for Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans is higher than for its derivatives, and the minimum inhibition concentration and minimum bacterial concentration of chitosan and its derivatives were carried out with the same strain

Circulating MCP-1 level and 2518 gene polymorphism as a marker of nephropathy development in Egyptian patients

Objective: Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a member of CC chemokine that plays an important role in the recruitment of monocytes/macrophages into renal tubulointerstitium. A biallelic A/G polymorphism at position 2518 in the MCP-1 gene was found to regulateMCP-1 expression. MCP-1 and its A/G gene polymorphism have been implicated in the pathogenesis of some renal diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of circulating MCP-1 level and the relevance of functional genetic variations of MCP-1 as early predictors of the development of glomerulonephropathy (GN) in Egyptian patients.Methods: This is a case control study that was conducted in 50 GN patients, 20 non-GN cases and 20 ethnically matched healthy controls. MCP-1 serum level was detected by ELISA technique, while genotyping of polymorphisms in the MCP-1 genes was performed using a polymerasechain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)detection.Results: High MCP-1 circulating levels and subsequently MCP-1 2518G polymorphism are associated with the developing of nephropathy  irrespective to the underlying etiology. MCP-1 serum level was significantly high when compared with healthy controls (P = 0.0007) and non-GN cases (P = 0.01). There was predominance of A allele at 2518 of MCP-1 gene in healthy controls (87.5%) and non-GN cases (77.5%). The frequency of the 2518G MCP-1 polymorphism was significantly higher in GN patients than in healthy controls (

STR-867: FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF REINFORCED SCC BEAMS CONTAINING RECYCLED CRUMB RUBBER

This study aimed to investigate the effect of crumb rubber (CR) on the flexural behavior and cracking characteristics of self-consolidating concrete beams. Four full-scale self-consolidating rubberized concrete (SCRC) beams containing recycled CR particles as a partial replacement for fine aggregate with percentage ranging from 0% to 15% (by volume of sand) were tested. The performance of some design codes was evaluated in predicting the cracking moment and crack widths of the tested beams. The results indicated that increasing the CR content noticeably reduced the compressive strength, tensile strength, and first cracking moment of all SCRC beams. However, up to 15% replacement of CR, the flexural capacity of the tested beams was shown to be slightly decreased. In addition, increasing the CR content appeared to improve the beams’ ductility and limit the flexural crack widths. In general, the results of flexural loading tests indicated a promising potential for using SCRC in structural applications

Pharmacological therapy for COVID-19: Where are we now and where are we going?

Background: Up to the point of writing this review, there is no scientific evidence of any effective medical therapy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this review, we attempted to discuss the current summary of evidence of some medication, currently in trial for the treatment of COVID-19. Material and Methods: We have done an electronic literature search using the following database: PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Google scholar. These databases were searched using the keywords COVID-19 and pharmacological therapy. Results: At present, there are no well randomized controlled studies which can give evidence for most of the therapy used for COVID-19. Several medications are in trials for COVID-19, among them: 1/ chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine; &nbsp;2/anti-virals oseltamivir, remdesivir, lopinavir/ritonavir and other protease inhibitors; 3/antibiotics macrolide (Azithromycin); 4/cytokine therapy interferon; 5/ humanized monoclonal antibody tocilizumab; 6/adjunct therapies vitamins C, D, and herbal medicine; 7/ COVID-19 convalescent plasma; 8/systemic steroids; 9/expected COVID-19 vaccine. We have also included some of the herbal medicines that are commonly and widely used in the Middle East, Asia as well in Sudan, (black seeds, honey and Acacia Nilotica). It is worth mentioning that these herbal medicines have shown benefits in treating other diseases, but the evidence of their benefit in COVID-19 still needs to be established. Conclusion: Currently there is no pharmacological therapy for the COVID-19. More research and randomized clinical trials are needed to find effective therapy or vaccine against COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19, Pharmacotherapy, herbal medicine, Suda

Replacement of berseemhay by Salix tetrasperma on physiological performance of New Zealand White rabbits under subtropical conditions of Egypt

Forty-eight growing New Zealand White male rabbits aged 6 weeks (874±1.3 g initial body weight (BW)) were used to study effects of partial replacement of berseem hay (BH) with Salix tetrasperma hay (ST) on growth and physiological responses. Rabbits were allotted to one of four diets of 12 rabbits each for 75 days in a completely randomized design. The treatments were as follows: control (30 % BH), ST25 (7.5 % ST+22.5 % BH), ST50 (15 % ST+15 % BH), ST75 (22.5 % ST+7.5 % BH). Nutrient digestibility coefficients, nutritive value and N utilization of rabbits fed with the ST50 rations were higher (PST25 and ST50>control. Glucose level was higher (P<0.05) for the control than the other diets. Rabbits fed with the mixed diets of ST had lower (P<0.05) total lipids, cholesterol and triglycerides levels than those fed with control. Haematological indices of packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cells, white blood cells and lymphocyte counts were lower (P<0.05), but monocyte was higher, in rabbits fed with the ST75 than the other groups. However, other haematological parameters were similar among diets. Since all the performance and blood parameters were within normal ranges for healthy rabbits, and there were no signs of toxicity, we conclude that partial replacement of BH by ST improves rabbit growth performance, and did not impact rabbit health

Assessment of Natural Radioactivity Levels and Some Associated Radiological Hazards of Portland Cements and Their Raw Materials from Selected Cement Industries in Eastern Uganda

The radiological hazards as a result of the natural radionuclides 238U, 232Th and 40K for Portland cement from different factories were assessed using HPGe detectors. The measured mean activity concentrations for 238U, 232Th and 40K were; 50.34±1.86, 38.01±1.48 and 331.59±13.19 Bq/kg respectively for the Portland cement raw materials, 31.15±1.49, 20.83±1.02 and 267.60 ± 8.65 Bq/kg respectively for the Portland cement products. The radium equivalent activity (Raeq), Excess lifetime cancer Risks (ELCR), external and internal hazard indices were also estimated due to the Portland cement and the respective raw materials and the results obtained were comparable to others cited. The results obtained in this study therefore indicate no significant radiological hazard that may arise from the use of these materials in construction of dwelling places. Keywords: Natural Radioactivity levels, Portland cement, MCNP, Gamma spectroscopy DOI: 10.7176/JEES/13-6-03 Publication date:August 31st 202