Understanding the Drug-Host Relationship Between the Microbiome and Common Chemotherapeutics in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States; prognosis is projected to increase by 50% within the next 12 years. While chemotherapy is somewhat effective, its notorious for the adverse side effects of weakening the immune system, promoting infection, and organ failure. One significant factor that is undermined is the effects of chemotherapy on the diversity of the microbial communities in the gut. To better understand the drug-host relationship in the human microbiome, we investigated the diversity of bacterial communities obtained from stool sample cultures focusing on the response to 4 common chemotherapeutic drugs- 5-Fluorouracil, Cisplatin, Cyclophosphamide, and Capecitabine, over time. The changes in diversity were tested using DNA extraction and 16s RNA sequencing to compare the communities pre and post treatment. The results obtained revealed that there is a stark difference between the microbial community diversity as a function of time (hours) drugs were administered

How cultural brands from evolving markets distinguish its brand image in international market from customers’ perspective? – A case study on Pakistani clothing Brand ‘Khaadi’ launched in London.

2016 dissertation for MSc. International Business Management. Selected by academic staff as a good example of a masters level dissertation. Culture brands is accredited as one of the future significance in branding research in both academic and in business world. Cultural brands describes country’s identity as a whole, including a bond to its cultural roots, connotation of its past and desired future. This research explores the concept of cultural brands in international markets and specifically addresses customers’ perception towards cultural brands image which effect their buying decision. To evaluate this study, a Pakistani cultural brand ‘Khaadi’, is selected who steps into the global market of London just two years back. Depiction from the literature, the primary qualitative research is conducted whose focus is on identifying the customers’ perception of cultural brands image in host city by analysing two psychological behaviours that is nostalgic and ethnocentrism (patriotism). The research also draws conclusions for the effectiveness of cultural branding image, positioning and customers’ perception and recommend different possibilities for further studies. The findings of the research substantiate that cultural branding, now a days, becoming more generalize. Customers in host countries have varied responses and influences with respect to the cultural brands image from their home country. It will be quite injustice to say that ethnocentrism and nostalgic are the factors which influences customers to buy cultural brands. Customers are becoming more analytical in their behaviour when it comes to buy cultural brands. In spite of that fact customers are more likely to see more cultural brands from different countries to internationalize in the future. In the end, the research recommend that more in-depth academic research and study is required to broadly understand the concept of cultural brands and its applications from emerging markets to multi culture international markets

Decision-Feedback Detection for Bidirectional Molecular Relaying with Direct Links

In this paper, we consider bidirectional relaying between two diffusion-based molecular transceivers (bio-nodes). As opposed to existing literature, we incorporate the effect of direct diffusion links between the nodes and leverage it to improve performance. Assuming network coding type operation at the relay, we devise a detection strategy, based on the maximum-likelihood principle, that combines the signal received from the relay and that received from the direct link. At the same time, since a diffusion-based molecular communication channel is characterized by high inter-symbol interference (ISI), we utilize a decision feedback mechanism to mitigate its effect. Simulation results indicate that the proposed setup incorporating the direct link can achieve notable improvement in error performance over conventional detection schemes that do not exploit the direct link and/or do not attempt to mitigate the effect of ISI

Networked Drones for Industrial Emergency Events

Uncontrolled emissions of gases from industrial accidents and disasters result in huge loss of life and property. Such extreme events require a quick and reliable survey of the site for effective rescue strategy planning. To achieve these goals, a network of unmanned aerial vehicles can be deployed that survey the affected region and identify safe and danger zones. Although single UAV-based systems for gas sensing applications are well-studied in literature, research on the deployment of a UAV network for such applications, which is more robust and fault tolerant, is still in infancy. The objective of this project is to design a system that can be deployed in emergency situations to provide a quick survey and identification of safe and dangerous zones in a given region that contains a toxic plume without making any assumptions about plume location. We focus on an end-to-end solution and formulate a two-phase strategy that can not only guarantee detection/acquisition of plume but also its characterization with high spatial resolution. To guarantee coverage of the region with a certain spatial resolution, we set up a vehicle routing problem. To overcome the limitations imposed by limited range of sensors and drone resources, we estimate the concentration map by using Gaussian kernel extrapolation. Finally, we evaluate the suggested framework in simulations. Our results suggest that this two-phase strategy not only gives better error performance but is also more efficient in terms of mission time. Moreover, the comparison between 2-phase random search and 2-phase uniform coverage suggest that the latter is better for single drone systems whereas for multiple drones the former gives reasonable performance at low computational cost

The Role of Arabic Lexicons in Teaching Ta’bîr Material at the Islamic Boarding School for Girls

This research highlights the importance of the Arabic lexicon in teaching and studying ta’bîr courses in Ma’had al-Imarat Bandung. This qualitative research depends on a field study and a descriptive analysis. This importance is due to three aspects: The first is the ta’bîr courses of materials prescribed in any Arabic language learning institutes to develop students’ four skills. The second is that lexicons are tools for teaching and learning the Arabic language, especially in the subject matter of ta’bîr. The third is that the Arabic lexicon is one of the primary sources people refer to correct their linguistic knowledge. The results indicate that language acquisition is the most important of that knowledge. Furthermore, in acquiring the Arabic language, many factors are linguistic and non-linguistic. Dictionaries are considered one of the primary tools in language acquisition in studying the subject matter of ta’bîr

Problems and Prospects of Almajiri Integration Programme in North West Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria

The term Almajiri in Nigeria is used to describe those children or youths who left their hometowns in search for Islamic education. Unlike pre-colonial Nigeria, the Almajiri system of education flourished and recorded exceptional accomplishment in literacy and social services, but today the system is faced with a myriad of challenges with glaring abnormalities. The aim of this study was, therefore, to conduct an empirical inquiry into the problems and prospects of the integration programme in North West Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria. A total of 240 Almajiris/pupils and 60 mallams/teachers responded to questionnaires designed for the study, while 33 community leaders and school heads were interviewed. The study reveals that authorities are performing below expectations in the area of education, which hinders the achievements of quality education for Nigerian Almajiris. Shortage of qualified teachers in some schools and inadequate numbers of Almajiri integrated schools in North West Nigeria were also recorded. The researchers further discovered that the government is not consistent in its policies and programmes there were a lot of irregularities and corrupt practices in institutionalized education, including the Almajiri Integrated Programme. It is therefore, recommended that the government should be consistent in its policy and programmes for the betterment of its citizens. Authorities’ approach to quality education should be centred on the eradication of corrupt practices. Almajiri Integrated Programme should be handled as introduced by president Goodluck’s Administration

Investigating computer aided assessment of mathematical proof by varying the format of students' answers and the structure of assessment design by STACK

Students are increasingly being expected to use Computer Aided Assessment (CAA) systems as support for traditional courses. Assessing a full mathematical proof in an educational context and providing feedback and other outcomes to students is currently well beyond the capabilities of CAA systems. One possible approach to assessing students' answers has been to break up larger tasks into smaller individual steps to which automatic assessment can then be applied. However, the method of marking depends on the format of a mathematical response. This thesis aims to investigate the effectiveness of different formats in computer aided assessment of mathematics. A format effect occurs when the format of an exercise affects the rate of successful outcomes of the exercise. Having established the need to study the format effect when writing mathematical arguments particularly online, I consider three formats for writing open-ended questions: two-column, typing, and Separated Concerns. The first of three studies explored the impact of the two-column format in writing simple mathematical arguments. In conducting this research, I developed a coding scheme to describe and analyse the structure of individual mathematical arguments. The second study focused on the difference and the format effects between uploading handwritten and typing in writing mathematical responses. Another outcome of this study is to provide a further application of using the coding scheme on analysing students’ arguments. The third study focused on updating STACK potential response tree based on Separated Concerns. STACK is a System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer algebra Kernel, is an open source computer aided assessment system for mathematics, and other STEM subjects. Separated Concerns is a phrase used to describe materials in which potential misconceptions are addressed directly. In this study, I focused exclusively on students’ responses, and misconceptions in learning proof by induction using STACK. Mathematical induction is used as a vehicle to illustrate the idea of Separated Concerns. The main goal of the third study is to understand how engagement with learning materials packaged into online quizzes to replace live lectures, a ``lecture quiz'', related to success on the weekly assessed quiz, and the course total. A second goal of the third study is to explore the common mistakes made by students when using online materials to prepare for mathematical induction. This study also illustrates how to use research to update the algorithms which assess students' answers, known as ``STACK potential response trees'', in questions written to support learning mathematical induction based on Separated Concerns

The Prevalence of Hypomagnesemia in Critically Ill Patients Admitted in Medically Intensive Care Unit

Background Magnesium is the fourth most abundant cation in the human body. Hypomagnesemia can result from decreased intake, redistribution of magnesium from the extracellular to the intracellular space, or increased renal or gastrointestinal loss. Hypomagnesemia can cause severe outcomes in ill patients. So, we conducted this study to determine the frequency of hypomagnesemia in critically ill medical patients. Methods This is a Descriptive cross-sectional study involving 120 patients admitted in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) of the Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The study was conducted from July 2020 to September 2021. About 1 ml sample of blood was taken from each patient included and sent to the hospital laboratory for evaluation of serum magnesium levels. All the collected data was entered and analyzed on SPSS v. 23. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was taken significant. Results In our study, the mean age of the patients was 42.76±12.77 years, and the male-to-female ratio of the patients was 1:1. The mean value of the APACHE II score of the patients was 29.68±2.571. Hypomagnesemia was found in 28 (23.33%) patients. Conclusion According to our study, the frequency of hypomagnesemia in critically ill medical patients was 23.33% (28 patients)