Enumeration and survival studies on Helminth eggs in relation to treatment of anaerobic and aerobic sludges in Jordan

PhD ThesisThis research involved survey, laboratory and field studies. First, an evaluation of the present status of intestinal parasitic infections was made in the Jordanian population. Second, laboratory investigations were conducted on the development of a new technique to detect the viability of Ascaris eggs. Third, field studies were carried out to investigate the survival and occurrence of indigenous parasite eggs and indicator pathogens in domestic waste sludges in Jordan. Field investigations were also conducted on the effect of open natural drying beds on the inactivation of parasite eggs and bacterial pathogens. The results of this study and a survey of available literature indicated a need for a universally accepted definition of a "viable" Ascaris egg. A staining technique for detecting Ascaris egg viability was developed in conjunction with research studies of Ascaris eggs in sludge. The vital stain Crystal violet showed high correlation with the incubation method, and was more precise than the other stains tested. Crystal violet showed the best spontaneous detection of changes in egg viability and, within certain limits, it was found to be a strong indicator of the state of egg viability; furthermore it did not show any evidence of toxicity. In the staining method, Crystal violet stain is added directly to an egg preparation and observations are then made immediately using a light microscope. The results are available in only 10 minutes, compared to the 30 days required for the Incubation method. Since only stained or unstained eggs were observed, the method is less subjective than the Incubation method. In order to evaluate the versatility of the staining method, the effect of UV light and temperature was also investigated. The ultimate disposal of domestic wastewater treatment plant sludges has been recognised recently as a problem in Jordan, and has never previously been investigated from the point of view of pathogen survival and transmission. This study showed that a huge volume of sludge (36,600 m3 dry weight basis) accumulated from 1985-1993 in six anaerobic ponds, now requires desludging, treatment and disposal. Anaerobic pond sludges displayed some physico-chemical similarities to digested primary sludge.....This research concludes that sludge drying beds can be an effective method for inactivating parasite eggs, particularly in warmer geographic locations, and thus the treated sludge can be considered safe in terms of parasite transmission for application to agricultural land. Ascaris eggs had degenerated when the percentage of total solids was recorded as more than 88%; this took a shorter time in sand than in gravel drying beds. The inactivation of Ascaris eggs in drying beds is probably due to more factors than desiccation alone. Temperature, oxygen content, solar radiation, exposure time, mould activity, type of sludge, type of media etc., may also affect survival of the eggs. Anaerobic pond sludge bacterial counts showed higher resistance to desiccation and treatment conditions in drying beds compared with oxidation ditch sludge.European Development Fund of the European Commission, The British Council: The Arab British Chamber Charitable Foundation

Social change and agriculture in the West Bank 1950-1967 : Aspects of sharecropping and commercialisation.

The thesis examines agrarian change in the West Bank from 1948 to 1967, when it was under Jordanian rule following the partition of Palestine. It focusses on practices of sharecropping during a period of extensive commercialisation of agriculture, and suggests how sharecropping contributed to this process through the expansion and/or formation of enterprises oriented to specialised commodity production. The major finding that different forms of production in agriculture (simple commodity production, small and larger scale capitalist commodity production) operated through sharecropping and generally employed wage labour, shows that sharecropping in itself does not constitute a determinate form of production, nor relation of production, nor is it indicative of any single process of differentiation of agricultural producers

Corporate Environmental Responsibility of the Tourism Sector in Jordan

Traditionally, environmental protection has been considered to be "in the public interest" and external to private life. Governments have assumed principal responsibility for assuring environmental management, and have focused on creating and preserving a safe environment. They have directed the private sector to adopt environmentally sound behaviour through regulations, sanctions and occasional incentives. Consequently Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) has been considered as part of the broader case of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This study examines CER in the context of Jordanian-based companies working in the tourism sector. It analyses the environmental responsibilities of two representative case studies through investigating their environmental awareness, interaction with CSR drivers, and methods employed to strategically integrate environmental concerns into their operations. Findings outlined from this investigation can be generalized to the tourism sector in the country. Hence, this study contributes to a relatively new area of research in Jordan in three main fields: stakeholder collaboration in CSR in Jordan, guidance for strategic implementation of CSR, and consolidation of CSR efforts in the Jordanian tourism sector

Possible Transmission of Pandemic (HIN1) 2009 Virus with Oseltamivir Resistance

To the Editor: In March 2009, a new strain of influenza A (H1N1) virus of swine origin emerged; the virus had crossed the species barrier to humans and acquired the capability of human-to-human transmission. Soon after, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert to level 6 (www.who.int/en), declaring the first influenza pandemic in the past 42 years. The virus was named influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus. The illness caused by this virus is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and for patients with chronic diseases (1). The preferred treatment is a neuraminidase inhibitor, zanamivir or oseltamivir (2). Around the world, several dozen cases of resistance to oseltamivir in persons with or without exposure to the drug have been reported (3). However, only limited information is available with regard to initial infections with oseltamivir-resistant viruses (4). We report a case of possible human-to-human transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus in Israel. After the recent discovery of oseltamivir-resistant strains, we conducted a retrospective study of oseltamivir-resistance mutations in viral RNA amplified from specimens from patients hospitalized>1 week with pandemic (H1N1) 2009. All samples were first tested for the H275Y mutation by using an in-house real-time reverse transcription–PCR (RT-PCR) assay developed a

Archaeal diversity in the Dead Sea: Microbial survival under increasingly harsh conditions

The Dead Sea is rapidly drying out. The lake is supersaturated with NaCl, and precipitated of halite from the water column has led to a decrease in sodium content, while concentrations of magnesium and calcium greatly increased, making the lake an ever more extreme environment for microbial life. In the past decades, blooms of algae (Dunaliella) and halophilic Archaea were twice observed in the lake (1980-1982 and 1992-1995), triggered by massive inflow of freshwater floods, but no conditions suitable for renewed microbial growth have occurred since. To examine whether the Death Sea in its current state (density 1.24 g ml-1, water activity about 0.67) still supports life of halophilic Archaea, we collected particulate matter from a depth of 5 m at an offshore station by means of tangential filtration. Presence of bacterioruberin carotenoids, albeit at low concentrations, in the particulate material showed the members of the Halobactericacae were still present in the lake\u27s water column. Amplification of 16S rRNA genes from the biomass yielded genes with less than 95% identify with environmental sequences reported from other environments and only 85-95% identity with cultivated Halobacteriaceae. It is thus shown that the Dead Sea, in spite of the ever more adverse conditions to life, supports a unique and varied community of halophilic Archaea. We have also isolated a number of strains of Halobacteriaceae from the samples collected, and their characterization is currently in progress

Forty Five Percent of the Israeli Population were Infected with the Influenza B Victoria virus During the Winter season 2015-16

While infection with influenza A viruses has been extensively investigated, infections with influenza B viruses which are commonly categorized into the highly homologous Victoria and Yamagata lineages, are less studied, despite their considerable virulence. Here we used RT-PCR assays, hemagglutination inhibition assays and antibody titers to determine the levels of influenza B infection. We report of high influenza B Victoria virus prevalence in the 2015-16 winter season in Israel, affecting approximately half of the Israeli population. We further show that the Victoria B virus infected individuals of all ages and that it was present in the country throughout the entire winter season. The vaccine however included the inappropriate Yamagata virus. We propose that a quadrivalent vaccine, that includes both Yamagata and Victoria lineages, should be considered for future influenza vaccination

Genetic Divergence of Influenza A(H3N2) Amino Acid Substitutions Mark the Beginning of the 2016-2017 Winter Season in Israel

BACKGROUND: Influenza vaccine composition is reevaluated each year due to the frequency and accumulation of genetic changes that influenza viruses undergo. The beginning of the 2016-2017 influenza surveillance period in Israel has been marked by the dominance of influenza A(H3N2). OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the type, subtype, genetic evolution and amino acid substitutions of influenza A(H3N2) viruses detected among community patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) and hospitalized patients with respiratory illness in the first weeks of the 2016-2017 influenza season. STUDY DESIGN: Respiratory samples from community patients with influenza-like illness and from hospitalized patients underwent identification, subtyping and molecular characterization. Hemagglutinin sequences were compared to the vaccine strain, phylogenetic tree was created, and amino acid substitutions were determined. RESULTS: Influenza A(H3N2) predominated during the early stages of the 2016-2017 influenza season. Noticeably, approximately 20% of community patients and 36% of hospitalized patients, positive for influenza CONCLUSIONS: Characterization of the 2016-2017 A(H3N2) influenza viruses is imperative for determining the future influenza vaccine composition