A Study of the Affective Domain in School Science

It has been found that the present science syllabuses to 'O' grade contain material which is of high social relevance. However, normal classroom teaching can take place quite satisfactorily from a certificate point of view but neglect the conscious teaching of these socially important topics. It seems that schools are successful with the cognitive domain but tend to be less successful in helping to develop desirable social attitudes and the willingness to communicate. The purpose of this study is to enable the 'O' grade pupils to develop desirable social attitudes and awareness, change existing attitudes, and as a bonus, to encourage the development of group skills such as communication, co-operation and discussion. Pour topics were chosen for the purpose of the study - "Food and Man" in the third year biology syllabus; "Water Pollution, "Air Pollution" and "Bronchitis and Cancer of the lung", all these three are in the fourth year biology syllabus. Two different kinds of material were prepared, one for the Experimental Group, and the other for the Control Group. For the Experimental Group it included (a) media : games, simulation games, a multimedia package and audio-visual programme; (b) pupil tests; (c) / (c) teacher questionnaire; (d) articles . For the Control Group it included -(a) factual articles; (b) pupil tests; (c) teacher questionnaire. Six schools were chosen for the purpose of the study, and the pupils who used the material were in third and fourth year leading to 'O' grade. The general method of application was that the Experimental Group was provided with the simulation and other new materials, whereas the Control Group was provided with an article containing the same facts as appeared in the simulation, etc. Then both were given the same cognitive and affective tests. Findings showed that the study for the Experimental Group has - (a) provided a useful addition to the work normally carried out in the classrom; (b) contributed to the knowledge reinforcement and recall; (c) helped the pupils to be willing to communicate their understanding to others (through discussion, argument, presentation and reporting); (d) provided the motivation advantage by helping the pupils to develop a high level of interest, enthusiasm and excitement; (e) / (e) helped the pupils to become capable of making their own decisions; (f) encouraged the pupils to be able to work co-operatively with others; (g) provided interaction and peer learning

Precise positioning systems for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) is a very promising research venue that can offers many useful and critical applications including the safety applications. Most of these applications require that each vehicle knows precisely its current position in real time. GPS is the most common positioning technique for VANET. However, it is not accurate. Moreover, the GPS signals cannot be received in the tunnels, undergrounds, or near tall buildings. Thus, no positioning service can be obtained in these locations. Even if the Deferential GPS (DGPS) can provide high accuracy, but still no GPS converge in these locations. In this paper, we provide positioning techniques for VANET that can provide accurate positioning service in the areas where GPS signals are hindered by the obstacles. Experimental results show significant improvement in the accuracy. This allows when combined with DGPS the continuity of a precise positioning service that can be used by most of the VANET applications.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks (IJWMN) Vol. 4, No. 2, April 201

Long-Term Survival in Patients with Cancers: A SEER-based analysis

Objectives: Long-term survival is an important endpoint in management of different malignancies which is rarely assessed due to unfeasibility of follow-up for long duration of time. In this study, we explored real-world data on cancer’s long-term survival using historical records from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Besides reporting the 5-year relative survival, we analyzed the 10- and 20- year survival rates for different types of cancers. Additionally, survival trends as a function of time, age, and tumor type were reviewed and reported. Methods: We used SEER*Stat (version 8.3.6.1) for data acquisition from the SEER 9 Regs (Nov 2019 Submission) database. Data of patients diagnosed with cancer between 1975 and 2014 were retrieved and included in the analysis. Results: For patients diagnosed with any malignant disease (n = 4,412,024), there was a significant increase in median overall survival over time (p<0.001). The 20-, 10-, and 5-year survival rates were higher in solid tumors compared to hematological malignancies (50.8% vs. 38%, 57% vs. 47.4%, and 62.2% vs. 57.4%, respectively). The highest 20-year relative survival rates were observed in thyroid cancer (95.2%), germ cell and trophoblastic neoplasms (90.3%), melanoma (86.8%), Wilms’ tumor (86.2%), and prostate cancer (83.5%). Conclusions: Long-term follow-up data were suggestive of high 20-year relative survival rates for most tumor types. Relative survival showed an improving trend over time especially in solid tumors. Keywords: Survival; Neoplasms; SEER Program; Prognosis; United States

The utilization of sodium lignosulphonate extracted from Egyptian rice straw in leather tanning process

Massive quantities of rice straw are burned annually in Egypt and caused environmental hazards. The present study investigated the utilization of rice straw to produce sodium lignosulphonate (SLS) as a water-soluble derivative of lignin in leather tanning and evaluate its usage as a tanning or re-tanning material as well as its effect on leather quality. The results of testing SLS as a leather tanning agent were unsatisfactory due to its slight effect on shrinkage temperature of leathers, unlike its use as a re-tanning material. Four concentrations of SLS (0%, 5%, 10%, and 20%) were used in re-tanning forty of sheep wet-blues. The results showed that using SLS as a re-tanning agent with concentration till 10% from pelts weight enhances some organoleptic properties, such as fullness and general appearance together with slight improvement in physical properties of leathers. Moreover, the addition of SLS with concentration 20% led to an excessive swelling in the collagen fibers as shown from depicted scanning electron micrographs and decreased trends of physical properties

Modelling Machining-induced Residual Stresses after Laser-assisted Turning of Steels

Abstract. The current study examines the effects of laser assistance on machining-induced residual stresses (RS), using finite element modelling, during turning of AISI 4340 steel at different feed rates. Dry orthogonal cutting was modelled, along with the pre-heating effect of the laser beam. Laser-assisted machining (LAM) resulted in higher surface tensile RS compared to conventional machining, with more pronounced effects at lower feed rates. This is basically because the assisted material experienced higher plastic deformation, due to thermal softening, as well as higher temperatures, which are both attributed to the pre-heating effect of LAM

A hybrid approach of anfis—artificial bee colony algorithm for intelligent modeling and optimization of plasma arc cutting on monel™ 400 alloy

This paper focusses on a hybrid approach based on genetic algorithm (GA) and an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for modeling the correlation between plasma arc cutting (PAC) parameters and the response characteristics of machined Monel 400 alloy sheets. PAC experiments are performed based on box-behnken design methodology by considering cutting speed, gas pressure, arc current, and stand-off distance as input parameters, and surface roughness (Ra), kerf width (kw), and micro hardness (mh) as response characteristics. GA is efficaciously utilized as the training algorithm to optimize the ANFIS parameters. The training, testing errors, and statistical validation parameter results indicated that the ANFIS learned by GA outperforms in the forecasting of PAC responses compared with the results of multiple linear regression models. Besides that, to obtain the optimal combination PAC parameters, multi-response optimization was performed using a trained ANFIS network coupled with an artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC). The superlative responses, such as Ra of 1.5387 µm, kw of 1.2034 mm, and mh of 176.08, are used to forecast the optimum cutting conditions, such as a cutting speed of 2330.39 mm/min, gas pressure of 3.84 bar, arc current of 45 A, and stand-off distance of 2.01 mm, respectively. Furthermore, the ABC predicted results are validated by conducting confirmatory experiments, and it was found that the error between the predicted and the actual results are lower than 6.38%, indicating the adoptability of the proposed ABC in optimizing real-world complex machining processes

BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system for screening of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex among cattle

Bovine tuberculosis remains a disease of economic and public health importance in developing countries. The largest number of new cases of tuberculosis usually occurs in South-East Asia region and Africa. This study was aimed to evaluate the recent technique (BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system) for screening of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex among cattle in Egypt. From the 1180 cattle examined in three different Governorates (El-Sharkia, El-Gharbia and El-Monefeia) by single intradermal tuberculin test, 29 animals (2.46%) were positive reactors. The post mortem examination of the positive reactors showed that 22 animals (75.9%) had visible lesions [respiratory form (31.0%), digestive form (13.8%), mixed form (20.7%) and generalized form (10.3%)], while seven (24.1%) did not show visible lesions. The results of isolation and identification using conventional culture method (Lowenstein- Jensen medium) were 22 mycobacterial isolates (75.9%), 20 (68.97%) Mycobacterium bovis and 2 (6.9%) unidentified slow growth. The BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was used for recovery of Mycobacteria and compared with conventional culture method (Lowenstein-Jensen medium). The recovery rate of BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was 82.8%, while that of Lowenstein-Jensen medium was 75.9%. The mean time for detection of Mycobacteria was 17.8 ± 0.9 days and 46.5 ± 0.4 days for BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system and Lowenstein-Jensen medium, respectively while the contamination rate with BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was 6.9% and 10.3% in Lowenstein-Jensen medium.Key words: Bovine tuberculosis, tuberculin test, Lowenstein-Jensen medium, BACTEC system

Synthesis of quinone-based heterocycles of broad-spectrum anticancer activity

A synthesis of benzo[e][1,2,4]triazines and 1,2,4-triazolospiro[4,5]deca-2,6,9-trien-8-ones has been developed from reactions of amidrazones with 2-chloro-1,4-benzoquinone in EtOAc containing 0.5 mL of piperidine. This highly regioselective and one-pot process provided rapid access to 1,2,4-triazolospiro[4,5]deca-2,6,9-trien-8-ones (60%-70%) and benzo[e][1,2,4]triazines (11%-18%). On reacting amidrazones with 5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone in an EtOAc/piperidine mixture, the reaction proceeded to give 5-hydroxy-2-(piperidin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione. The structures of the isolated products were proved by infrared, NMR (2D-NMR), mass spectra, and elemental analyses in addition to X-ray structure analysis. The reaction mechanisms are discussed. The anticancer screening of selected compounds showed broad-spectrum anticancer activity against most melanoma cancer cell lines, ovarian cancer OVCAR-3, central nervous system cancer SF-295 and U251, non-small cell lung cancer NCI-H23, renal cancer SN12C, and colon cancer HCT-15 and HCT-116. The selected compounds exhibited moderate to weak anticancer activity to other cell lines.Peer reviewe