Principals\u27 Communication Styles and Processes and Their Relationship to School Performance

This study aimed to describe principals\u27 communication styles and processes and their relationships to school performance in Al Ain city in the UAE as perceived by school staff. The study was guided by three research questions and used the mixed research method. Data for this study were collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured phone interviews. The questionnaire was divided into four sections. The first section included demographic information of participants. The second part included 26 statements that were used to identify the communication processes at school. The third part was comprised of 25 statements that were used to describe the communication styles of the school principals. The last section consisted of 25 statements used to measure school performance. There were also four open-ended questions in the questionnaire that were used with the interview to probe and clarify the participants\u27 responses. The questionnaire was applied in 40 schools in Al Ain, and it was completed by 667 male and female school staff. The means, cumulative means, standard deviations, Kruskal Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test and qualitative data analysis were used to describe communication processes and styles. Pearson r and qualitative data analysis were used to answer the second question about the relationship between communication processes and principals\u27 communication styles and school performance. The third question was answered by analyzing the open-ended questions and interviews. The results of the study showed that school principals use a variety of communication processes and communication styles to communicate with different stakeholders. The study found that communication processes and styles correlated with school performance in different degrees and directions. Finally, school staff perceived that there were relationships between the principals\u27 communication styles and processes and school performance

Enhanced Torsion Mechanism of Small-Scale Reinforced Concrete Beams with Spiral Transverse Reinforcement

The nonlinear torsional behaviour of small-scale reinforced concrete (RC) beams with continuous staggered spiral as transverse reinforcement stirrups is experimentally investigated. Twelve miniatures RC beams were tested under torsion load considering the closed shape of stirrups and compared with continuous staggered spiral ones. All miniatures beams were scaled down to be one-eighth the prototype beam size. The main parameters considered in this research are stirrup spacing and its configurations. Small scale RC beams were taken into account in the existing study because of their construction simplicity and financial feasibility. Mortar without coarse aggregate was applied instead of concrete to reduce the size effect of applying small scale models. Ongoing research trials have been carried out to obtain an efficacious approach to boost torsion failure mechanisms because brittle torsion failure of RC structural elements should be avoided. This study emphasized boosted torsion capacity, dissipated energy, and helical crack propagation. During testing, the primary cracking torsion moment, ultimate torsion moment, peak twist angle, and failure mechanism of the beams were inspected. The use of spiral stirrups showed great enhancement of the torsional behaviour of samples. It was observed that using spiral stirrups rather than closed stirrups could result in a substantial increase in torsion capacity and dissipated energy of 87.7% and 89.8%, respectively. As a result, the predicted capacities of the RC beams prototype were estimated in detail, taking account the scale down factor implemented by the authors. Values obtained based on international specifications and guidelines were used to compare the experimental results. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-11-019 Full Text: PD

CXCR3 renal expression in glomerulonephritis in children: is there a connection with the course of the disease?

Background: Glomerulonephritis (GN) is a common childhood disease that may represent a significant cause of chronic kidney disease at one point of its course. The role of chemokines in glomerulonephritis, has been long anticipated and studied and the possible link between certain chemokines and different renal pathologies, if proved, can pave the road for future use of such markers for early prognosis and possible therapies for this common disease.Objective: in this study, we aimed at detecting CXCR3 in the renal biopsies done for children with glomerulonephritis and to correlate it to the nature of renal pathology and response to therapy.Methods: The glomerular and interstitial expression of CXCR3 in renal biopsies done for 22 patients with glomerulonephritis was studied using immunohistochemical staining. Pathologies already diagnosed in these biopsies were proliferative GN (mesangioproliferative GN, diffuse proliferative GN, focal proliferative GN, IgA nephropathy and crescentic GN) as well as non-proliferative GN (Minimal change disease, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, membranous nephropathy, diffuse mesangial sclerosis and advanced hypertensive nephrosclerosis). History, clinical findings and laboratory investigations in the initial presentation and at the time of the study were obtained.Results: The degree of glomerular and interstitial CXCR3 expression did not vary with gender, age of presentation, response to steroids, or cumulative doses of steroids. Percentage of strong glomerular CXCR3 expression was much higher in proliferative GN compared to non-proliferative GN although the difference was not statistically significant, percentage of renal dysfunction was more among strong glomerular and mild/moderate interstitial CXCR3 expression with no statistically significant difference from the counterparts.Conclusion: Our study revealed that enhanced CXCR3 renal expression on glomerular and interstitial levels did not affect the response to steroids along the course of the disease and so can probably act as a therapeutic target rather than a prognostic marker.Keywords: glom. CXCR3, int. CXCR3, glomerulonephritis, renal biops

Production of high protein quality noodles using wheat flour fortified with different protein products from lupine

AbstractPhysicochemical, cooking quality and sensory characteristics of noodles fortified by whole lupine meal (WLM) and defatted lupine meal (DLM) as different protein products were evaluated. Optimum cooking time significantly decreased with increasing the replacement levels. The prepared noodles contained 10% WLM or DLM had swelling indices similar to that in the control sample. The higher cooking yield was observed in prepared noodles using 20% WLM or DLM. The cooking loss was improved when using DLM with significant (p<0.05) lower values at all replacement levels than that in control sample. Used the WLM and DLM at levels 5% and 10%, respectively gave low nitrogen loss values. Calculated protein efficiency ratio, proportion of essential amino acid to the total amino acids, essential amino acid index, biological value, chemical score and limiting amino acid were improved. The received scores from sensory evaluation showed that WLM or DLM noodles at levels 5–10% or 5–20%, respectively had higher flavor and overall acceptability values with non-significant (p>0.05) differences compared to the control sample

STABILITY INDICATING CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL DOSAGE FORMS CONTAINING CALCIUM DOBESILATE IN THE PRESENCE OF ITS INTERFERING SUBSTANCES

Objective: Two simple, accurate and precise chromatographic methods were developed for the determination of calcium dobesilate in the presence of its interfering substances as its degradation product and/or impurity hydroquinone in pharmaceutical dosage forms with lidocaine hydrochloride alone or in combination with dexamethasone acetate. Methods: The first method is HPTLC-spectrodensitometric one using benzene: methanol: ethyl acetate: ammonia: sodium lauryl sulphate (7: 2.1: 2.5: 0.1: 0.05 v/v/v/v/w) as a developing system and scanned at 220 nm. Second one is an HPLC method where the mixture was separated on an ODS-3 C18 column with flow rate 1 ml/min and the mobile phase was phosphate buffer: acetonitrile (35:65 v/v) (adjusted to pH 3.4 with o- phosphoric acid), scanned at 220 nm. Results: The robustness of the method was determined to assess the effect of small but deliberate variation of the chromatographic conditions on the determination of cited drugs in a presence of interfering substances. Robustness was determined by changing the mobile phase flow rate to 0.5, 1,and 1.5 mLmin−1, pH to 3.5, 4, and 5, and the concentration of acetonitrile in the mobile phase to 60% and 80%. The proposed methods were checked using laboratory-prepared mixtures and were successfully applied for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations containing the cited drugs and were validated via ICH guidelines. Conclusion: The proposed methods could be used for the routine analysis of the cited drugs in their pharmaceutical formulation in quality control laboratories

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ECT PRACTICE IN QATAR

There is paucity of Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) utilization surveys from the Arabian Gulf region and none available from Qatar. There is no literature available on impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on ECT provision. ECT is a lifesaving treatment in psychiatric practice requiring anesthetic support and there were concerns that redeployment of anesthetists due to COVID-19 pandemic might have comparatively bigger impact on the provision of ECT. These concerns stem from the fact that psychiatric patients often get discriminated against in health care systems; largely due to stigma and the belief among healthcare providers that psychiatric illness is somehow not as serious as other types of medical or surgical illness. In this brief report we present pre-COVID ECT utilization from Qatar. We also report findings on ECT utilization during COVID-19 and compare changes with other elective and non-elective surgeries. ECT provision was down by 40% during March to August 2020 in our setting. The decline in ECT provision was comparable to other elective and non-elective surgeries

The diagnostic and monitoring value of serum anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies (anti-MCV) in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Background: JRA is currently diagnosed using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1987 revised criteria that are primarily based on clinical parameters. The criteria may be insufficient for the diagnosis of early RA as they are based upon measurements of disease classification predominately featuring manifestations typical of later-stage disease. Measurement of serum anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies (MCV) has been shown to be a better marker for early adult RA, and it correlates well with the disease activity score (DAS). Objectives: The aim of this work is to evaluate the role of antimutated citrullinated vimentin antibodies (anti-MCV) in the diagnosis, and in monitoring disease activity in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: The study included 40 children with JRA fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology criteria for diagnosis of JRA: 4 children with oligoarticular JRA, 12 with polyarticular JRA and 24 children with systemic onset JRA. Fifty healthy children, matching the patients in age and sex served as a control group. The studied children with JRA were subjected to laboratory tests including CBC, ESR, CRP, ANA and rheumatoid factor (RF). Serum samples from both patients and controls were assayed for anti-MCV levels using an ELISA technique. Results: The study showed high mean serum anti-MCV antibodies level in JRA patients when compared to controls (P= 0.00). In addition, there were no significant correlations between anti-MCV antibody levels and parameters of disease activity, namely, number of swollen joints, number of tender joints, ESR and CRP. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn and it showed that the area under the curve (AUC) was (0.896). At a cutoff level &gt; 17 u/mL, anti-MCV antibodies had diagnostic specificity of 88%, diagnostic sensitivity of 87.5%, negative and positive predictive values of 89.8% and 85.4%, respectively and diagnostic efficacy of 87.8%. We also reported 3/40 of JRA patients to be positive for RF and 2/40 of JRA patients to be positive for ANA. Conclusion: Measurement of serum anti MCV antibody level holds promise as a diagnostic tool in JRA. However, they failed to show a significant efficacy in determining disease activity.Keywords: Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, MCVEgypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2012;10(2):75-8

SIMULTANEOUS EXTRACTION AND RAPID HPLC BASED QUANTIFICATION OF CROCIN AND SAFRANAL IN SAFFRON (CROCUS SATIVUS L.)

Objective: Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the most valuable crops with high medicinal values used in many diseases. The aim of the study was to establish the reliability and rapid HPLC method for analysis of crocin and safranal concentration present in stigmata of saffron in the market as well as field grown samples.Methods: Field grown and market stigmata of saffron were used for extraction of crocin and safranal. The linear dynamic ranges were established after validating the robustness of critical method parameters. The Agilent1260-Infinity Quaternary LC system was used for the preparation of calibration standards and quantification of crocin and safranal in C. sativus stigmata.Results: A good linearity was achieved in the range of 10-30 µg for each compound with the determination coefficient (R2). The calibration curves revealed linear regression (r. 0.997) for this rapid HPLC method and limit of quantifications (LOQs) were achieved in the range of 3.4 µg/ml for crocin and 10.2 µg/ml for safranal. The limit of detection (LODs) for all standards was ≤4.2 µg/ml. The range of crocin content (10.43-16.32 mg/g) and safranal (5.19-5.21 mg/g) was estimated in saffron samples.Conclusion: This method may serve the purpose of accurate quantification of crocin and safranal present in the stigmata of the plant in a quick time period.Keywords: Saffron, Crocin, Safranal, Extraction, Quantification, HPL