Effect of Harvesting Date and Variety of Date Palm on Antioxidant Capacity, Phenolic and Flavonoid Content of Date Palm (Phoenix Dactylifera)

The effect of date palm variety and harvesting date on total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant capacity of seven varieties of date palm fruits collected at different maturation stages obtained from date palm farms located in the Jericho area of the Jordan valley was investigated in this study. During different harvesting times (from June to September 2011), total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant capacity varied between 13.75-231.40 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE), 1.72-9.6 mg catechin equivalents, and 142.0-719.3 μmol Trolox equivalents per 100 g dry weight sample for the seven varieties of date palm, respectively. Pearson correlation indicated that there is a strong significant correlation between antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content, as well as between antioxidant capacity and total flavonoid content for all date palm varieties investigated in this study. It is expected that these results will be useful to farmers particularly in their selection of harvesting time of the date palm fruits with high content of the bioactive compounds to meet the increasing demand on such healthy products.We are grateful to Beit Jala pharmaceutical company for performing HPLC analyses in their laboratories

The impact of the ‘writers’ workshop’ approach on the L2 English writing of upper-primary students in Lebanon

The aim of the action research reported here was to examine the differential effects of the ‘writers’ workshop’ approach on the L2 (English) writing skills of upper-primary students with varying writing abilities. The participants were 31 fifth-grade students (17 boys and 14 girls) aged 10–11, who followed L2 English writing instruction based on the ‘writers’ workshop’ approach at a private primary school in Beirut, Lebanon. The writers’ workshops were conducted twice a week over a period of eight consecutive weeks. An opinion essay served as a pre-test and a post-test in order to gauge writing improvement. Findings revealed statistically significant improvement in students’ writing-related outcomes across all writing ability groups. However, the writers’ workshops intervention was found to result in a differential group effect: generally, above-average writers benefitted more than less-proficient writers. This was particularly clear in relation to the content component of their essay writing

The UfM and the Middle East 'Peace Process': An Unhappy Symbiosis

This contribution explores differing theories on how the failure of the ‘peace process’ featured in the design and goals of the UfM, drawing on lessons from the period when the EMP was pursued in parallel with the peace process. In each case, institutional overlaps are identified, as well as commonalities in the approaches of the actors to both pursuits. Crucially, however, the persistence and intensification of the Arab–Israeli conflict, in combination with the shift from multilateralism to bilateralism embodied in the UfM, has politicized the latter at the expense of the functionalist aspirations of its architects

Neither participation nor revolution: the strategy of the Moroccan Jamiat al-Adl wal-Ihsan

Scholars and students of Islamist movements are divided over the issue of Islamists' commitment to democracy and a number of studies have attempted to discover the true nature of Islamist parties. This paper rejects this approach and argues that the behaviour of Islamist parties can be better understood through an analysis of the constraints and opportunities that their surrounding environment provides. Specifically, the paper aims at explaining the choice of the Moroccan Jamiat al-Adl wal-Ihsan neither to participate in institutional politics nor to undertake violent actions to transform the regime. This is done through an examination of its relations with the other political actors. The paper argues that Jamiat al-Adl wal-Ihsan's behaviour is as much the product of rational thinking as it is of ideology and provides evidence to support this claim. Such findings are important not only in the Moroccan context, but contribute to a growing literature claiming that Islamist movements should be treated as rational political actors operating under 'environmental' constraints and opportunities

Evaluation and minimisation of energy consumption in a medium-scale reverse osmosis brackish water desalination plant

YesThe Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has been expansively used in water treatment as a result of its low energy consumption compared to thermal distillation processes, leading to reduced overall water production cost. Evaluation and minimisation of energy consumption (expressed in kWh/m3 of fresh water production) in a medium-scale spiral wound brackish water RO (BWRO) desalination plant of the Arab Potash Company (APC) are the main aims of this research. The model developed earlier by the authors has been integrated to simulate the process and achieve the main aims. Energy consumption calculations of low salinity BWRO desalination plant, with and without an energy recovery device, have been carried out using the gPROMS software suite. In other words, this research evaluated the impact of adding an energy recovery device on the RO process energy consumption of the APC, which is introduced for the first time. Also, the effects of several operating conditions of BWRO process include the feed flow rate, pressure and temperature on the performance indicators, which include the energy consumption and total plant recovery at different energy recovery device efficiencies, were studied. The simulation results showed that the total energy consumption could be reduced at low values of feed flow rates and pressures and high values of temperatures. More importantly, there is an opportunity to reduce the total energy consumption between 47% and 53.8% compared to the one calculated for the original design without an energy recovery device