Agarase Production by Marine Pseudoalteromonas sp. MHS: Optimization, and Purification

Agar is an essential polysaccharide that has been utilized in numerous fields. Many kinds of literature have been published regarding agarolytic microorganisms’ isolation and agarases biochemical studies. In this search, a local marine agarolytic bacterium associated with marine alga Ulva lactuca surface was isolated and identified as Pseudoalteromonas sp. MHS. The agarase production was parallel to the growth of Pseudoalteromonas sp. MHS as cells displayed a lag phase (2 h), subsequently an exponential growth that prolonged till 10 h where maximum growth (OD550nm = 3.9) was achieved. The enzyme activity increased rapidly as cells increased exponentially where the maximum activity of 0.22 U/mL was achieved after 8h and remained constant till 12 h during the stationary phase of growth. Agarase production was optimized using Plackett-Burman statistical design by measuring enzyme activity as a response and the design was validated using a verification experiment; the activity of the enzyme increased from 0.22 U/mL to 0.29 U/mL. Pseudoalteromonas sp. MHS agarase was partially purified and its molecular weight (MW) was determined by SDSPAGE (15-25 kDa). Agarase showed approximately 94% of its activity at 40 °C. The enzyme stability decreased as the temperature increased; the enzyme could retain about 98, 90, 80, 75, and 60% of its activity at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 °C, respectively. Biomass of the red alga Pterocladia capillacea proved to be a suitable substrate for agarase production using Pseudoalteromonas sp. MHS; the enzyme activity recorded after 24 h of incubation was 0.35 U/mL compared to 0.29 U/mL from the optimized medium

Creating Bill of Students Rights and Responsibilities at Helwan University

University is open to all persons who are qualified according to its admission standards unless resource limitations results in the closure of academic programs in which applicants have expressed interest. Students' rights refers to a set of rights, responsibilities, and duties under which a student can seek and receive all educational service, encompass legal and ethical issues in the academic institutions and student relationship, including a student's right to privacy and to equal evaluation. So this study aimed to creating bill of students' rights and responsibilities at Helwan University. Operational design was carried out in the twenty faculties at Helwan University; Quota sampling used a sampling method for gathering representative data from two categories first category was university students consisted of 1200 students enrolled in four levels at academic year 2013 / 2014 representative 60 students from every faculty from twenty faculties studied setting at Helwan University. Second category was academic staff consisted of 40 academic staff 20 were professors and 20 were assistant professors 2 from every faculty study setting at Helwan University. Self-administered questionnaire used for the data collection consisted of two parts; the first part is socio-demographic characteristics served to collect information about age, gender, levels and educational qualification. The second part was 98 items divided into four components about academic, non-academic rights and responsibilities. The researchers developed a bill of students' rights and responsibilities based on students' opinions, and second part is an opinionnaire sheet used for the validity of the created students' bill of rights and responsibilities. The response was 3-point Likert scale from "strongly agree" to" disagree." The results are evident that; Mean Score in total agreements upon students' rights were ''1.57 ± 0.37''. While, Mean Score in total agreement upon students' responsibilities were ''1.53 ± 0.41''. There is a highly statistically significant positive correlation between students' scores of agreement upon rights and responsibilities (p<0.01). In conclusion, there is a highly statistical significant positive correlation between students' score of agreement upon rights and responsibilities. There was negative statistically significant correlations were revealed between students' scores of academic responsibilities and non- academic responsibilities with levels. It is concluded that the proposed students' bill of rights was valid, and effective in almost all items related to academic and non-academic students' rights and responsibilities were highest score; this reflects the importance of increasing students' awareness of their rights as well as their responsibilities and involves the students' rights to be informed about all aspects of the learning process and their involvement in the quality of education. The study recommends disseminating this created bill of rights and responsibilities in all universities at the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt.Keywords: bill of rights, quota sampling, responsibilities, rights, and students bill of rights

Simultaneous Determination Of Stock Price Synchronicity And Dividend Payout Ratios: Evidence From The MENA Region

This paper examines the determinants of cross-sectional differences in stock price synchronicity and dividend payout ratio in the MENA region during the period between 2003 and 2013. These variables are related not only directly, but also indirectly, through their relationship with information environment of firms. To distinguish these effects, we examine the determinants of both variables within a system of equations. Our results indicate that both of these variables affect each other negatively. We argue that higher information asymmetries associated with firms exhibiting high synchronicity leads to lower payout ratios, while lower information asymmetries that accompany firms paying high dividends lead to lower synchronicity

Corrosion mechanism and bioactivity of borate glasses analogue to Hench’s bioglass

Bioactive borate glasses (from the system Na2O-CaO-B2O3-P2O5) and corresponding glass-ceramics as a new class of scaffold material were prepared by full replacement of SiO2 with B2O3 in Hench patented bioactive glass. The prepared samples were investigated by differential thermal analysis (DTA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The DTA data were used to find out the proper heat treatment temperatures for preparation of the appropriate glass-ceramics with high crystallinity. The prepared crystalline glass-ceramics derivatives were examined by XRD to identify the crystalline phases that were precipitated during controlled thermal treatment. The FTIR spectroscopy was used to justify the formation of hydroxyapatite as an indication of the bioactivity potential or activity of the studied ternary borate glasses or corresponding glass-ceramics after immersion in aqueous phosphate solution. The corrosion results are interpreted on the basis of suggested recent views on the corrosion mechanism of such modified borate glasses in relation to their composition and constitution

Performance Evaluation of IFAS System Using Honeycomb PVC Media

Recently, Egypt is facing serious problems caused by the deterioration of effluent quality of many wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) especially in rural areas. Unexpected rapid increase in population associated with the increase of organic loading are the main factors causing the failure in operation for many WWTPs. Absence of periodic maintenance and lack of operators’ experience in these rural areas make the situation worse. Many WWTP are recently under rehabilitation and upgrading for the above reasons, however decision makers are facing a real challenge due to the space-limit in many cases. The integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) system has recently proved to be an effective choice to expand the WWTP capacity for growing communities, enhance nitrogen removal and comply with more stringent effluent limits with small footprint. In this research, an IFAS pilot-scale reactor is constructed to optimize its application in upgrading conventional activated sludge (CAS) plants. The effect of carrier position, hydraulic retention time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) on the biological treatment efficiency and nutrient removal compared to CAS process are studied. IFAS configurations with no media, vertical position and cross flow media position are tested with 4, 8 and 12 hours retention times and organic loading rates of 0.84 and 1.44 Kg COD/m3.day. Keywords: Integrated fixed film IFAS, biological nitrogen removal, honeycomb PVC media DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-2-06 Publication date:March 31st 2019

Approach to Provide Single View of Employee Data to Readily Use for Data Analysis

Our aim is to develop a web application which will provide access to updated information about employees in the organization that can be used for data analysis and interpretation. An organization follows a particular structure like functional structure, divisional structure, product or matrix structure for its proper conduct. There can be various functional groups. Employees may be switched from one department to another because of changes in business requirements. They can be promoted or demoted based on their performance. It is necessary to have a system or mechanism that will keep the employee database updated at regular intervals. Many organizations can use this system to provide data for wider analysis. Also the system should be such that it takes care of all the security issues or rules of that organization. The proposed application will allow us to get the new data or existing data as input. Once data is uploaded to database, it can be edited and updated in order to reflect any changes. The application allows updating data monthly, quarterly or yearly based on business requirements. We can browse through the whole data and perform data analysis. Modern tools have been used (like Excel, Grid view) to access the application smoothly. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150610

Developing and Validating of a Managerial Procedures Manual for Head Nurses

The managerial skills are a set of behaviors based on knowledge that can be learned through procedure. Procedures are descriptions of how to carry out an activity. Procedures manual is essential to ensure consistency and quality in products and services. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a managerial procedure manual for head nurses at Ain-shams University Hospital. The study was conducted in Ain Shams University Hospital using operational design. It included a group of 78 head nurses for assessment and a jury group consisting of 16 faculty members of Nursing Administration and 8 nursing directors and assistants. Data were collected using a head nurses' self-administered questionnaire and opinionnaire form for the jury group. The researchers discussed the idea of the study with representatives of the hospital administration to reach to an agreement regarding the importance of the proposed manual and its content, then assessed head nurses’ view of the importance of a managerial manual. The results showed that 25.6% of the head nurses did not know about the presence of a manual for managerial nursing procedures, 96.2% expressed the need for such manual, and 70.7% reported having faced problems due to lack of such manual. Based on analysis of the data the researchers developed the manual that was validated by the jury group, and distributed to head nurses after approval of the hospital administration. The hospital administration participated in all steps of the development of the manual, and adopted its use in the setting. The effectiveness of the manual in reducing head nurses' stress related to managerial problems needs to be assessed after a few months of implementation. Key words: Head nurse, Manual, Managerial skills and Managerial procedure

Workplace Psychosocial Factors and Mental Health among a Sample of Expatriates and the Country’s Nationals Who Working at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Worplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Mental health is an important issue in the workplace, particularly in developing countries. This study was aimed to explore the workplace psychosocial factors and mental health among expatriates and the country’s nationals; examine the relationship between workplace psychosocial factors and mental health. . The sample was composed of 518 country's nationals and 554 expatriates teaching staff on job at King Khalid University. Two tools were used for data collection: Socio-demographic data sheet, and Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). The study results indicated that Poor mental health had a strongly statistically significant positive correlation with “quantitative  demands”,” Work-family conflict”, and “Emotional demands “ in total country’s nationals and expatriates   (p<0.01). While it was a strongly statistically significant negative  correlation with “Work pace”, “Influence at work”, “Social support from colleague”, “Social support from supervisors”, “Meaning of work”, “Commitment to the workplace” “Predictability”, and  “Recognition” (p<0.01). It was concluded that country's nationals experience worse mental health than expatriates and  this  to some extent caused by exposure to psychosocial factors at work. It has indicated the importance of taking action to reduce psychosocial factors, as this would benefit both country’s nationals and expatriate workers. Key words: Expatriates , country's nationals , workplace psychosocial factors, mental health