Evaluating the Performance of Urban Public Plazas in Al Ain Downtown in Relation to Physical Characteristics and Social Principles

The thesis studies the existing problems of AI Ain Downtown plazas mainly from the physical and social points of view. AI Ain downtown plazas are designed to provide a high level of social life. The main problem of these plazas is that they are used by only a particular social group. This study intends to develop a framework for evaluating and enhancing the urban public spaces in AI Ain city. The framework is classified into two main dimensions; physical and social. Each dimension has a set of principles that affect the performance of the plaza. A descriptive analysis method is used to describe the existing situation of these principles. Different instruments are used to analyze the existing condition of the principles. Aerial maps, drawings and photographic instruments are used to analyze the physical dimension. Surveys using a questionnaire and a unique mapping process using a Geographical Information System (GIS) called cartographica and cartomobile were used for social analysis. These data will be analyzed and studied carefully in order to evaluate the selected plazas and compare the collected data with each other. Finally set of recommendations and suggestions are discussed to find suitable solutions for the existing problems. In order to accommodate the differences in the use of social class and ethnic groups, valuable public sites are essentially needed to enable decisions that sustain cultural and social diversity and also to end up with a final framework helping the designers and planners to design successful urban public spaces

Water Consumption Behavior in Semi Urban Areas Beit Lahya Town AS A Case Study

Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in both urban and rural areas in the Gaza Strip. Population growth and urban expansion have persistently raised the demand for water supply and consequently, greatly increased the exploitation of groundwater in the Gaza strip. The importance of this research is to investigate the water consumption behavior in semi-rural area by studying the current distribution situation, water demand and supply, the unaccounted for water and studying the effect urban agriculture on the system efficiency. Therefore, field survey to determine the sources of water for irrigation, the agricultural area and water meter readings were conducted for continuous three periods two in summer and one in winter. Urban agriculture is one of the most persistent approaches for supplying food in the Gaza Strip. The main outcomes of the study are that farmers use the illegal domestic network for irrigation purposes leading to high percentage of unaccounted for water. This leads to higher water quota per capita in Beit Lahya which apparently exceeds 200 l/c.d. and the unaccounted for water more than 60% in semi urban quarters where green houses are the main agricultural practice. The difference between supply and demand indicates that the farmers use illegal connection to irrigate the adjacent agricultural areas. The overall system efficiency for water distribution is 42.0% and 55.7% for summer and winter periods, respectively. The quarters with intensive agriculture shows high percentage of unaccounted for water 73%, while the urban quarters unaccounted for water is 24%. Therefore new policy and regulation concerning water resources management should be implemented for the semi urban areas in the Gaza Strip

Prédiction des transferts et de la croissance microbienne lors du transport de carcasses de porcs

26eme congrès français de thermique, Pau, FRA, 29-/05/2018 - 01/06/2018National audienceLors du transport de carcasses de porcs, plusieurs facteurs influencent l'évolution de la charge microbienne notamment la température et l'activité de l'eau qui dépendent des transferts dechaleur et d'eau au sein et autour des carcasses. Une expérimentation a été réalisée sur une maquette à l'échelle ~1/3 d'un camion frigorifique chargé de carcasses pour déterminer l'hétérogénéité des coefficients de transfert. Un modèle a ensuite été développé pour simuler les transferts de chaleur et dematière au niveau du jambon de la carcasse. Enfin, ce modèle de transfert a été couplé à un modèle de microbiologie prédictive

WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR IN SEMI- RURAL AREAS IN THE GAZA STRIP: BEIT LAHYA TOWN AS ACASE STUDY

Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in both urban and rural areas in the Gaza Strip. Population growth and urban expansion have persistently raised the demand for water supply and consequently, greatly increased the exploitation of groundwater in the Gaza strip. The importance of this research is to investigate the water consumption behavior in semi-rural area by studying the current distribution situation, water demand and supply, the unaccounted for water and studying the effect of urban agriculture on the system efficiency. Therefore, field survey to determine the sources of water for irrigation, the agricultural area and water meter readings was conducted for continuous three periods two in summer and one in winter. Urban agriculture is one of the most persistent approaches for supplying food in the Gaza Strip. The main outcomes of the study are that; farmers use the domestic network illegally for irrigation purposes leading to high percentage of unaccounted for water. This leads to higher water consumption per capita in Beit Lahya which apparently exceeds 230 l/c/d according to water well production in year 2010 equal (6.098 MCM) and the unaccounted for water more than 60% in semi urban quarters where green houses are the main agricultural practice. The difference between supply and demand indicates that the farmers use illegal connections to irrigate the adjacent agricultural areas. The overall system efficiency for water distribution is 42.0% and 55.7% for summer and winter periods, respectively. The quarters with intensive agriculture show high percentage of unaccounted for water (73%), while the urban quarters unaccounted for water is 24%. Therefore new policy and regulations concerning water resources management should be implemented for the semi urban areas in the Gaza Strip. Key words: Water supply, Unaccounted for water, illegal connections, urban agricultur

A Comparison of the Epidemiological Characteristics Between Influenza and COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective, Observational Cohort Study.

© 2023 Naji et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.enBackground and objective It is crucial to make early differentiation between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and seasonal influenza infections at the time of a patient's presentation to the emergency department (ED). In light of this, this study aimed to identify key epidemiological, initial laboratory, and radiological differences that would enable early recognition during co-circulation. Methods This was a retrospective, observational cohort study. All adult patients presenting to our ED at the Watford General Hospital, UK, with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 (2019/20) or influenza (2018/19) infection were included in this study. Demographic, laboratory, and radiological data were collected. Binary logistic regression was employed to determine features associated with COVID-19 infection rather than influenza. Results Chest radiographs suggestive of viral pneumonitis and older age (≥80 years) were associated with increased odds of having COVID-19 [odds ratio (OR): 47.00, 95% confidence interval (CI): 21.63-102.13 and OR: 64.85, 95% CI: 19.96-210.69 respectively]. Low eosinophils (<0.02 x 10 9/L) were found to increase the odds of COVID-19 (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.44-3.10, p<0.001). Conclusions Gaining awareness about the epidemiological, biological, and radiologic presentation of influenza-like illness can be useful for clinicians in ED to differentiate between COVID-19 and influenza. This study showed that older age, eosinopenia, and radiographic evidence of viral pneumonitis significantly increase the odds of having COVID-19 compared to influenza. Further research is needed to determine if these findings are affected by acquired or natural immunity.Peer reviewe

High potency silencing by single-stranded boranophosphate siRNA

In RNA interference (RNAi), double-stranded short interfering RNA (ds-siRNA) inhibits expression from complementary mRNAs. Recently, it was demonstrated that short, single-stranded antisense RNA (ss-siRNA) can also induce RNAi. While ss-siRNA may offer several advantages in both clinical and research applications, its overall poor activity compared with ds-siRNA has prevented its widespread use. In contrast to the poor gene silencing activity of native ss-siRNA, we found that the silencing activity of boranophosphate-modified ss-siRNA is comparable with that of unmodified ds-siRNA. Boranophosphate ss-siRNA has excellent maximum silencing activity and is highly effective at low concentrations. The silencing activity of boranophosphate ss-siRNA is also durable, with significant silencing up to 1 week after transfection. Thus, we have demonstrated that boranophosphate-modified ss-siRNA can silence gene expression as well as native ds-siRNA, suggesting that boranophosphate-modified ss-siRNAs should be investigated as a potential new class of therapeutic agents

Dissecting the multifunctional role of the N-terminal disordered domain of a plant virus coat protein in RNA packaging, viral movement and interference with antiviral plant defense

[EN] The coat protein (CP) of Melon necrotic spot virus (MNSV) is structurally composed of three major domains. The middle S-domain builds a robust protein shell around the viral genome, whereas the C-terminal protruding domain, or P-domain, is involved in the attachment of virions to the transmission vector. Here, we have shown that the N-terminal domain, or R-domain, and the arm region, which connects the R-domain and S-domain, are involved in different key steps of the viral cycle, such as cell-to-cell movement and the suppression of RNA silencing and pathogenesis through their RNA-binding capabilities. Deletion mutants revealed that the CP RNA-binding ability was abolished only after complete, but not partial, deletion of the R-domain and the arm region. However, a comparison of the apparent dissociation constants for the CP RNA-binding reaction of several partial deletion mutants showed that the arm region played a more relevant role than the R-domain in in vitro RNA binding. Similar results were obtained in in vivo assays, although, in this case, full-length CPs were required to encapsidate full-length genomes. We also found that the R-domain carboxyl portion and the arm region were essential for efficient cell-to-cell movement, for enhancement of Potato virus X pathogenicity, for suppression of systemic RNA silencing and for binding of small RNAs. Therefore, unlike other carmovirus CPs, the R-domain and the arm region of MNSV CP have acquired, in addition to other essential functions such as genome binding and encapsidation functions, the ability to suppress RNA silencing by preventing systemic small RNA transport.This work was funded by grant BIO2014-54862-R from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Prometeo Program GV2014/010 from the Generalitat Valenciana. J.A.N. and M.S.-S. are the recipients of a postdoctoral contract and a PhD fellowship, respectively, from the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia of Spain. We thank L. Corachan for technical assistance. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.Serra Soriano, M.; Navarro Bohigues, JA.; Pallás Benet, V. (2017). Dissecting the multifunctional role of the N-terminal disordered domain of a plant virus coat protein in RNA packaging, viral movement and interference with antiviral plant defense. Molecular Plant Pathology. 18(6):837-849. https://doi.org/10.1111/mpp.12448S83784918