A Framework for Personalized Content Recommendations to Support Informal Learning in Massively Diverse Information WIKIS

Personalization has proved to achieve better learning outcomes by adapting to specific learners’ needs, interests, and/or preferences. Traditionally, most personalized learning software systems focused on formal learning. However, learning personalization is not only desirable for formal learning, it is also required for informal learning, which is self-directed, does not follow a specified curriculum, and does not lead to formal qualifications. Wikis among other informal learning platforms are found to attract an increasing attention for informal learning, especially Wikipedia. The nature of wikis enables learners to freely navigate the learning environment and independently construct knowledge without being forced to follow a predefined learning path in accordance with the constructivist learning theory. Nevertheless, navigation on information wikis suffer from several limitations. To support informal learning on Wikipedia and similar environments, it is important to provide easy and fast access to relevant content. Recommendation systems (RSs) have long been used to effectively provide useful recommendations in different technology enhanced learning (TEL) contexts. However, the massive diversity of unstructured content as well as user base on such information oriented websites poses major challenges when designing recommendation models for similar environments. In addition to these challenges, evaluation of TEL recommender systems for informal learning is rather a challenging activity due to the inherent difficulty in measuring the impact of recommendations on informal learning with the absence of formal assessment and commonly used learning analytics. In this research, a personalized content recommendation framework (PCRF) for information wikis as well as an evaluation framework that can be used to evaluate the impact of personalized content recommendations on informal learning from wikis are proposed. The presented recommendation framework models learners’ interests by continuously extrapolating topical navigation graphs from learners’ free navigation and applying graph structural analysis algorithms to extract interesting topics for individual users. Then, it integrates learners’ interest models with fuzzy thesauri for personalized content recommendations. Our evaluation approach encompasses two main activities. First, the impact of personalized recommendations on informal learning is evaluated by assessing conceptual knowledge in users’ feedback. Second, web analytics data is analyzed to get an insight into users’ progress and focus throughout the test session. Our evaluation revealed that PCRF generates highly relevant recommendations that are adaptive to changes in user’s interest using the HARD model with rank-based mean average precision (MAP@k) scores ranging between 100% and 86.4%. In addition, evaluation of informal learning revealed that users who used Wikipedia with personalized support could achieve higher scores on conceptual knowledge assessment with average score of 14.9 compared to 10.0 for the students who used the encyclopedia without any recommendations. The analysis of web analytics data show that users who used Wikipedia with personalized recommendations visited larger number of relevant pages compared to the control group, 644 vs 226 respectively. In addition, they were also able to make use of a larger number of concepts and were able to make comparisons and state relations between concepts

Revolution in parallel times: an Egyptian village's lived revolution

This paper explores revolutionary and rural politics through the case study of Al-Tahseen, a small village in the Egyptian Delta that witnessed an administrative secessionist movement in 2012 and a lineage of protests in 2008. The paper interrogates the relationship between politics at the rural level and the 25 January revolution in 2011, the 18-day mass protest that led to the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Indeed, parallels can be drawn between the protest movement in Al-Tahseen and the 25 January revolution. While the villagers were not part of the latter, they watched it closely on television and modelled their sequence and choice of collective action accordingly. Al-Tahseen experienced its own local revolution which the villagers consciously differentiated from the 25 January uprising. Through this case study, I explore how protest tactics shift with changing political regimes, and highlight the complicated ways in which rural lived experiences relate to the more popularly known 2011 revolution, which is often seen and described as an urban revolution

Modification and performance of activated carbon for CO2 sequestration in pervious concrete

Concrete is one of the most commonly used material in the construction industry, with a global production of ∼10 billion m3/year. The production of Portland cement, the principal binder in most types of concrete, accounts for ∼ 5–7% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Carbon capture and sequestration has been developed as one of several initiatives to help mitigate CO2 emissions associated with cement and concrete production. Pervious concrete, a class of porous concretes, has been developed as a sustainable form of concrete that can be used for a wide range of applications. Its use is considered a ‘Best Management Practice’, recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce storm water runoff, improve storm water quality and contribute to recharge of groundwater supplies. Activated carbon is a well-known adsorbent with a strong affinity for CO2, and its surface chemistry can be further modified to enhance its adsorption capacity. Therefore, this research investigates optimal methods for modifying activated carbon to incorporate within Portland cement-based pervious concrete, in order to enhance its CO2 sequestration capacity and improve its overall sustainability. Two forms of activated carbon (granular and powder) were purchased from Fisher Scientific (UK) and chemically modified using different concentrations of the impregnation agents (NaOH, HCl, CuSO4·5H2O, NH4OH). The CO2 adsorption capacity of the raw and the modified samples was measured using three techniques, which demonstrated that NaOH-modified samples had the highest capacity. A second round of modification was conducted to investigate whether further improvements were possible. A two-step process of modification, first with HCl, followed by NaOH was determined to produce the highest adsorption capacity in this process. Activated carbon modified with this technique was used in three cementitious systems, which were tested in order to determine whether addition of such carbon adversely impacted important properties of the resultant materials. Modified powder activated carbon was used as a partial substitution for cement in cement pastes and pervious concrete, while modified granular activated carbon was used as a partial substitution to fine aggregate in cement mortars and pervious concrete. The investigation revealed that incorporation of small percentages of either form of modified activated carbon did not significantly alter the properties of the tested systems. Therefore, both substitutions were applied in pervious concrete to investigate the performance of modified activated carbon-pervious concrete in terms of CO2 sequestration. The combined presence of the two forms of modified activated carbon had a minor effect on the compressive strength, porosity and permeability of the tested pervious concrete. Importantly, pervious concrete containing modified activated carbon had a higher CO2 sequestration capacity than the control concrete. Furthermore, microstructural analysis showed that modified activated carbon- pervious concrete contained a higher content of calcite than the control concrete. Overall, the addition of modified activated carbon to pervious concrete yielded promising results in terms of CO2 sequestration. Further investigation of the long-term performance of modified activated carbon within pervious concrete systems is essential to realise the potential of this system to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels and improve the sustainability of this essential construction material.Islamic Development Ban

THE POTENTIAL MODULATORY EFFECT OF RUTIN ON TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES-INDUCED RENAL INJURY IN MALE MICE

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the possible protective effect of rutin in management of TiO2NPs-induced renal injury in mice. Methods: Forty male Swiss albino mice were randomly divided into four groups (n=10). Group (I) served as a control group, group (II) received 100 mg/kg body weight (b. wt) of rutin (orally), group (III) received 70 mg/kg b. wt of TiO2NPs,injected intraperitoneally (i. p.), Group (IV) received 70 mg/kg b. wt of TiO2NPs plus 100 mg/kg b. wt of rutin; for 14 successive days. The renal toxicity was determined through evaluating the renal function biomarkers (serum creatinine, urea, and uric acid) and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathion (GSH), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF)-α, B-cell lymphoma (BCL)-2 and caspase-3 in renal tissues. Results: Administration of TiO2NPs plus rutin prevented the deleterious effect of TiO2NPs on mice kidneys through improving the renal functions, and alleviating the increase in MDA, NF-kB, TNF-α, and caspase-3 levels, as well as the decrease in GSH andBCL-2 levels, in renal tissues. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggested that rutin plays a role in alleviating TiO2NPs-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis, and exerts renal protective effects

Overexpression of S6 Kinase 1 in Brain Tumours Is Associated with Induction of Hypoxia-Responsive Genes and Predicts Patients' Survival

mTOR/S6K pathway is a crucial regulator of cell growth and metabolism. Deregulated signalling via S6K has been linked to various human pathologies, including metabolic disorders and cancer. Many of the molecules signalling upstream of S6K have been shown to be either mutated or overexpressed in tumours, leading to S6K activation. The role of S6K1 in brain tumours is not fully investigated. In this study, we investigated the gene expression profile of S6 kinases in brain and CNS tumours using the publically available Cancer Microarray Database. We found that S6K1 but not S6K2 gene is overexpressed in brain tumours and this upregulation is associated with patients' poor survival. Furthermore, we interrogated Oncomine database for the expression profile of hypoxia-induced genes using a literature-defined concept. This gene list included HIF1A, VEGFA, SOX4, SOX9, MMP2, and NEDD9. We show that those genes are upregulated in all brain tumour studies investigated. Additionally, we analysed the coexpression profile of S6K1 and hypoxia responsive genes. The analysis was done across 4 different brain studies and showed that S6K1 is co-overexpressed with several hypoxia responsive genes. This study highlights the possible role of S6K1 in brain tumour progression and prediction of patients' survival. However, new epidemiological studies should be conducted in order to confirm these associations and to refine the role of S6K1 in brain tumours as a useful marker for patients' survival

Employment Security in Egypt in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Rethinking Policies and Practices

Crises such as COVID-19’s have inequitable impacts on different countries, various population groups and diverse sectors of society and the economy. Areas of work and employment were met with a lot of challenges worldwide, and in particular in countries like Egypt with a large sector of vulnerable and precarious workers. This policy paper addresses the question of employment security both in response to crises such as COVID-19, and on the long term. To do so, the research maps ‘vulnerable work’, including informal labor, labor in the gig economy, self-employed and other types of precarious work. It then assesses Egypt’s policy responses to COVID-19 with regards to the issues of unemployment and informal labor, including by assessing the efficacy of the irregular workers’ fund and the diverse methods used to finance the crisis. Although some of those responses were in the right direction, their shortcomings revealed much deeper structural obstacles within employment relations and existing labor market vulnerabilities. This research thus provides policy recommendations, both on the short term in response to the crisis, as well as longer term to address vulnerability and precariousness in the world of employment in Egypt

Generalized closed sets in ditopological texture spaces with application in rough set theory

In this paper, the counterparts of generalized open (g-open) and generalized closed (g-closed) sets for ditopological texture spaces are introduced and some of their characterizations are obtained. Some characterizations are presented for generalized bicontinuous difunctions. Also, we introduce new notions of compactness and stability in ditopological texture spaces based on the notion of g-open and g-closed sets. Finally, as an application of g-open and g-closed sets, we generalize the subsystem based denition of rough set theory by using new subsystem, called generalized open sets to dene new types of lower and upper approximation operators, called g-lower and g-upper approximations. These decrease the upper approximation and increase the lower approximation and hence increase the accuracy. Properties of these approximations are studied. An example of multi-valued information systems are given