Approaching Biophilia in Designing Children´s Educational Environment

In recent decades, several studies started to focus on enhancing connectivity with nature and nurture children´s biophilia to improve their mental health and wellbeing especially in their early formative years. However, in design practice, architects involved in designing children educational environment need to have better understanding on how to enhance this tendency for biophilia. this paper begins to explore this growing body of research and emerging biophilic design dimensions, and attributes in architectural terms, which could help in drawing connections between fields of study, highlight potential avenues for future research, evolve understanding of biophilic design patterns, and capture the cognitive benefits afforded by biophilia in designing educational spaces for childhood. A research methodology consisting of a literature review, analysis of worldwide case studies and a one-to-one interview was conducted with a sample of children (3-7 years old) attending a nature-based nursery in Egypt, was designed to accomplish intended objectives. Findings of this study indicated that early childhood have a positive attraction for all-natural environment and features. Results showed that children enjoy being in, which provides a glimpse into the potentials of integrating nature within architectural context, including offering beauty, freedom, efficient learning, relaxation, and a critical life support system

The relationship between residential density and human activity

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 M367Master of Architectur

Object Detection Algorithms for Ripeness Classification of Oil Palm Fresh Fruit Bunch

Ripe oil palm fresh fruit bunch allows extraction of high-quality crude palm oil and kernel palm oil. As the fruit ripens, its surface color changes from black (unripe) or dark purple (unripe) to dark red (ripe). Thus, the surface color of the oil palm fresh fruit bunches may generally be used to indicate the maturity stage. Harvesting is commonly done by relying on human graders to harvest the bunches according to color and number of loose fruits on the ground. Non-destructive methods such as image processing and computer vision, including object detection algorithms have been proposed for the ripeness classification process. In this paper, several object detection algorithms were investigated to classify the ripeness of oil palm fresh fruit bunch. MobileNetV2 SSD, EfficientDet (Lite0, Lite1 and Lite2) and YOLOv5 (YOLOv5n, YOLOv5s and YOLOv5m) were simulated and compared in terms of their mean average precision, recall, precision and training time. The models were trained on a dataset with four main ripeness classes: ripe, unripe, half-ripe, and over-ripe. In conclusion, object detection algorithms can be used to classify different ripeness levels of oil palm fresh fruit bunch, and among the different models, YOLOv5m showed promising results with a mean average precision of 0.842 (0.5:0.95)

دراسة تأثير إضافة المطاط النتريلي على بعض الخواص الفيزيائية و الميكانيكية والحرارية لريزين البولي استر غير المشبع

يهدف هذا البحث إلى دراسة تأثير المطاط النتريلي على الخواص الميكانيكية والفيزيائية والحرارية لريزين البولي استر غير المشبع UPR. لتحقيق هذا الهدف تم إضافة نسب مختلفة من المطاط حتى 15% ودراسة تأثيرها على منحنيات  الشد وعلى الكثافة والقساوة، وأيضاً على كل من السعة الحرارية والناقلية الحرارية. أظهرت النتائج التجريبية حدوث انخفاض واضح في كل من الكثافة والقساوة السطحية وإجهاد الشد بزيادة نسبة المطاط النتريلي، في حين لوحظ تحسن بكل من الاستطالة النسبية والسعة الحرارية مع زيادة نسبة المطاط المضاف

Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Obese Adolescent

BACKGROUND: Childhood and adolescent obesity is associated with insulin resistance, abnormal glucose metabolism, hypertension, dyslipidemia, inflammation, liver disease, and compromised vascular function. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factor abnormalities and metabolic syndrome in a sample of obese adolescent as prevalence data might be helpful in improving engagement with obesity treatment in future. The high blood lipid levels and obesity are the main risk factors for cardio vascular diseases. Atherosclerotic process begins in childhood.AIM: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between obesity in adolescent and their blood lipids levels and blood glucose level.METHODS: This study was conducted with 100 adolescents of both gender age 12-17 years and body mass index (BMI) greater than 95th percentiles and 100 normal adolescents as control group. The blood samples were collected from all adolescents after overnight fasting (10 hours) to analyze blood lipids (Total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein) and hematological profile (Hemoglobin, platelets and red blood cell, C reactive protein and fasting blood glucose.RESULTS: There were statistical difference between the two groups for red blood cells (P<0.001), Hemoglobin (P < 0.001) and platelets (P = 0.002), CRP (P = 0.02). Positive correlation was found between the two groups as regards total cholesterol (P = 0.0001), P value was positive for HDL (P = 0.005 and Atherogenic index P value was positive (P = 0.002). Positive correlation was found between the two group as regards fasting blood glucose (P = 0.001).CONCLUSION:  Saturated fat was associated with elevated lipid levels in obese children. These results reinforce the importance of healthy dietary habits since child-hood in order to reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood

Estimating the Prevalence of Foodborne Pathogen Campylobacter jejuni in Chicken and Its Control via Sorghum Extracts

Campylobacter jejuni is a Gram-negative bacterium which is considered as the most reported cause of foodborne infection, especially for poultry species. The object of this work is to evaluate the occurrence of C. jejuni in chicken meat as well its control via three types of sorghum extracts (white sorghum (WS), yellow sorghum (YS), and red sorghum (RS)); antibacterial activity, antioxidant power, and cytotoxicity of sorghum extracts were also assessed. It was found that C. jejuni is very abundant in chicken meat, especially breast and thigh. WS extract showed more effectiveness than both yellow and red ones. Lyophilized WS extract offered high total phenolic compounds (TPCs) and total flavonoid compounds (TFCs) of 64.2 ± 0.8 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE/g) and 33.9 ± 0.4 mg catechol equivalent (CE)/g, respectively. Concerning the antibacterial and antioxidant activities, WS showed high and significant antibacterial activity (p < 0.001); hence, WS displayed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 6.25%, and revealed an inhibition zone of 7.8 ± 0.3 mm; it also showed an IC50 at a concentration of 34.6 μg/mL. In our study, different samples of chicken fillet were collected and inoculated with pathogenic C. jejuni and stored at 4 °C. Inoculated samples were treated with lyophilized WS extract at (2%, 4%, and 6%), the 2% treatment showed a full reduction in C. jejuni on the 10th day, the 4% treatment showed a full reduction in C. jejuni on the 8th day, while the 6% treatment showed a full reduction in C. jejuni on the 6th day. Additionally, 2%, 4%, and 6% WS extracts were applied on un-inoculated grilled chicken fillet, which enhanced its sensory attributes. In sum, WS extract is a promising natural preservative for chicken meat with accepted sensory evaluation results thanks to its high antibacterial and antioxidant potentials

Assessing Drought Tolerance of Newly Developed Tissue-Cultured Canola Genotypes under Varying Irrigation Regimes

This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Tolerance under Biotic and Abiotic Stresses[Abstract] Drought is a major abiotic stress that greatly affects canola growth, production, and quality. Moreover, water scarcity is projected to be more severe and frequent as a result of climate change, in particular in arid environments. Thereupon, developing drought-tolerant and high-yielding canola genotypes has become more critical to sustaining its production and ensuring global food security with the continuing population growth. In the present study, ten canola genotypes comprising six developed tissue-cultured canola genotypes, two exotic genotypes, and two commercial cultivars were evaluated under four irrigation regimes. The applied irrigation regimes were well-watered (100% crop evapotranspiration, ETc), mild drought (80% ETc), moderate drought (60% ETc), and severe drought (40% ETc) conditions. Drought-stress treatments (80, 60, and 40% ETc) gradually reduced the chlorophyll content, relative water content, flowering time, days to maturity, plant height, number of pods, number of branches, seed yield, and oil percentage, and increased proline, phenolic, anthocyanin, and glycine betaine contents. The evaluated genotypes exhibited varied responses to drought-stress conditions. The developed tissue-cultured genotypes T2, T3, and T1, as well as exotic genotype Torpe, possessed the highest performance in all evaluated parameters and surpassed the other tested genotypes under water-deficit conditions. Overall, our findings elicited the superiority of certain newly developed tissue-cultured genotypes and exotic ones compared with commercial cultivars, which could be exploited in canola breeding under water-deficit conditions.This research was funded by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD-2023R730), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaKing Saud University (Riad, Arabia Saudí); RSPD-2023R73

Consensus evidence-based clinical practice recommendations for the diagnosis and treat-to-target management of osteoporosis in chronic kidney disease stages G4-G5D and post-transplantation: An initiative of Egyptian Academy of Bone Health

The aim of this study was to reach a consensus on an updated version of the recommendations for the diagnosis and Treat-to-Target management of osteoporosis that is effective and safe for individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) G4-G5D/kidney transplant. Delphi process was implemented (3 rounds) to establish a consensus on 10 clinical domains: (1) study targets, (2) risk factors, (3) diagnosis, (4) case stratification, (5) treatment targets, (6) investigations, (7) medical management, (8) monitoring, (9) management of special groups, (10) fracture liaison service. After each round, statements were retired, modified, or added in view of the experts' suggestions, and the percent agreement was calculated. Statements receiving rates of 7-9 by more than 75% of experts' votes were considered as achieving consensus. The surveys were sent to an expert panel ( = 26), of whom 23 participated in the three rounds (2 were international experts and 21 were national). Most of the participants were rheumatologists (87%), followed by nephrologists (8.7%), and geriatric physicians (4.3%). Eighteen recommendations, categorized into 10 domains, were obtained. Agreement with the recommendations (rank 7-9) ranged from 80 to 100%. Consensus was reached on the wording of all 10 clinical domains identified by the scientific committee. An algorithm for the management of osteoporosis in CKD has been suggested. A panel of international and national experts established a consensus regarding the management of osteoporosis in CKD patients. The developed recommendations provide a comprehensive approach to assessing and managing osteoporosis for all healthcare professionals involved in its management. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022 by The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

Parapharyngeal space hemangiopericytoma treated with surgery and postoperative radiation- a case report

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a rare tumor of uncertain malignant potential arising from mesenchymal cells with pericytic differentiation. It accounts for 3-5% of soft tissue sarcomas and 1% of vascular tumors. It usually presents in 5th to 6th decade of life. Most common sites are limbs, pelvis and head and neck. About 20% of all hemangiopericytomas are seen in head and neck, mostly in adults. Usually it presents in orbit, nasal cavity, oral cavity, jaw, parotid gland, parapharyngeal space, masticator space and jugular foramen. Long term follow up is important because of imprecise nature of the histological criteria for prediction of biologic behavior