Intercultural Obstacles Within a Multicultural Workplace Case Study:A Group of Egyptian Companies

This study was put to examine the different intercultural obstacles that are occurring in a multicultural workplace, as establishing a work environment along with individuals coming from several aspects of the globe stimulates a variety of cultural obstacles that give the managers an urgent requirement to think about their staff members’ cultural backgrounds, and incite the workers to get adapted to various perspectives on what things look like when they interact with their managers. On this basis, we focused on only three main variables: time, gender equity, as well as, customs and traditions, which in turn are able actually to create the root of intercultural difficulties. After conducting a survey addressed to employees, and interviewing the managers, the three variables are found to be significant factors in a multicultural workplace. However, their impact importance is varied

Stroke in young adults: about 128 cases

Ischemic stroke is rare in young adults, but it is genuinely a serious situation giving the fact that it touch a very active part of our society. We report a series of 128 cases. The purpose is to analyze the risk factors, etiologies and outcomes of ischemic stroke in young adults in Marrakesh. Retrospective study performed at the Neurology department Mohammed VI universitary hospital in Marrakesh interesting 128 patients. The diagnosis of ischemic stroke was assessed through clinical and radiological confrontation. Results: The age of our patients varied from 18 to 45 years old, 76 males and 52 females giving a male: female ratio of 1:46. Hypertension was the first risk factor involved with 63 (49.2%) cases, followed by smoking with 52 (40.6%) patients. The causes of ischemic stroke were characterized by the  predominance of the cardio embolic origin with 43 (33.5%) cases, the existence of 14 (11%) cases of syphilitic arthritis, and the 52 (40.6%) cases of unknown etiologies. The authors stress the difficulties faced on supporting ischemic stroke in southern Morocco in particular when concerned by the etiological finding and the rehabilitation after the acute phase of the stroke. Our study points out the high incidence of embolic heart disease in our context. The lack of neurologists, low coverage of the population and the underestimation by physicians are factors that can explain why ischemic stroke remain undiagnosed

Thermométrie, thermomètre primaire et applications phosphores à base de vanadate de terre rare

Avui en dia, la temperatura i la llum ocupen un lloc important en la investigació científica. Exerceixen un paper dominant en l’activitat humana, incloent: salut, seguretat, medi ambient, indústria, agricultura, il·luminació interior i pública, pantalles 3D en color i volumètriques, conversió d'energia, bioimatge i teràpia, termometria per luminescència, entre altres. La termometria a distància ha atret atenció com a solució per superar els problemes que van aparèixer amb els dispositius convencionals degut a la seva mida i a que són invasius. En aquesta tesi, s’han sintetitzat cristalls de Y/GdVO4 dopats amb Er3+, ER3+-Yb3+, i ER3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ pel mètode de reacció d'estat sòlid a alta temperatura per a aplicacions de termometria (termòmetres primaris i secundaris) i fòsfors. Aquests cristalls presenten una alta qualitat per a les aplicacions requerides: alta conductivitat tèrmica, baixa energia de fonons, secció transversal eficient per a una alta absorció òptica i emissió pel ions lantànids, alta estabilitat tèrmica/química i alta eficiència quàntica de fotoluminiscència. S’han estudiat les seves característiques estructurals, morfològiques, luminescents, i els seus rendiments termomètrics i d’il·luminació per condicions d’excitació per down i upconversio. Els resultats revelen que és preferible operar aquests materials com a termpmetres sota condicions de down conversion per aconseguir les millors sensibilitat tèrmica i resolució. Sota up conversió, és millor operar a baixes potències d’excitació per evitar el seu sobreescalfament i obtenir majors rendiments termomètrics. Es poden utilitzar com a termòmetres primaris a baixes potències d’excitació. Els paràmetres termomètrics obtinguts revelen que aquests materials són excel·lents termòmetres de luminescència en el rang de temperatura de 110-513 K. Finalment, presenten un alt potencial per aplicacions com a fosfors de llum vermella, verda i groga.Hoy en día, la temperatura y la luz ocupan un lugar importante en la investigación científica. Desempeñan un papel dominante en la actividad humana, incluyendo: salud, seguridad, medio ambiente, industria, agricultura, iluminación interior y pública, pantallas 3D en color y volumétricas, conversión de energía, bioimagen y terapia, termometría luminescente, entre otros. Los métodos de termometría a remoto han atraído gran atención como solución para superar los problemas que presentan los dispositivos convencionales debido a su tamaño y a que son invasivos. En esta tesis, cristales de Er3 +-dopado, Er3 + -Yb3 + co-dopado y Er3 + -Eu3 + -Yb3 + tri-dopado Y / GdVO4 se han sintetizados por el método de reacción de estado sólido a alta temperatura para aplicaciones de termometría (termómetros primarios y secundarios) y fósforos. Estos cristales presentan una alta calidad para las aplicaciones requeridas: alta conductividad térmica, baja energía de fonones, sección transversal eficiente para una alta absorción óptica y emisión de iones lantánidos, alta estabilidades térmica/química y alta eficiencia cuántica de fotoluminiscencia. Se han estudiado sus características estructurales y morfológicas, así como sus propiedades luminiscentes, así como sus rendimientos termométricos y de iluminación bajo condiciones de excitación por down y upconversio. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que es preferible operar estos materiales como termómetros bajo condiciones de down conversion para obtener unas mejores sensibilidad térmica y resolución. Trabajando en up conversion, es mejor operar a bajas potencias de excitación para evitar el sobrecalentamiento de los materiales y obtener mejores rendimientos termométricos. Se puede operar como termómetros primarios con bajas potencias de excitación. Los parámetros termométricos obtenidos revelan que estos materiales son excelentes termómetros de luminiscencia en el rango de temperatura de 110-513 K. Finalmente, presentan un alto potencial como fósforos para luz roja, verde y amarilla.Nowadays, temperature and light are important in scientific research. They play a dominant role for human activities, including: health, safety, environment, industry, agriculture, indoor and public lighting, 3D colour and volumetric displays, energy conversion, bio-imaging and therapeutics, luminescence thermometry, among others. Non-contact thermometry methods gathered important attention as a solution to overcome the problems related with conventional devices, due to their big sizes and invasive nature. In this thesis, Er3+-doped, Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped and Er3+-Eu3+-Yb3+ tri-doped Y/GdVO4 crystals have been synthesized by the high temperature solid-state reaction method for luminescence thermometry (primary and secondary thermometers) and for phosphor applications. These crystals have a good quality for the required applications: high thermal conductivity, low phonon energy, efficient cross-section for high optical absorption and emission of lanthanide ions, high thermal/chemical stabilities and high photoluminescence quantum efficiency. Their structural and morphological characteristics, as well as their optical properties have been studied and evaluated in detail. Their different thermometric and lighting performances have been studied and discussed for both conditions of excitation (Down and Up-conversion). The results of the current thesis reveal that it is preferable to operate these materials as luminescence temperature sensors under a Down-conversion scheme to achieve the best performance in terms of thermal sensitivity and resolution. Under Up-conversion , it is better to operate at low excitation pump power as much as possible to avoid the extra-heating of the materials and then to get higher thermometric performances. Moreover, it was indicated that a perfect primary calibration can be achieved at a lower pump power excitation. Then, the obtained thermometric parameters reveal that these materials can be excellent candidates for luminescence thermometers operating under either Down or Up-conversion conditions in the 110-513 K temperature range. Indeed, they represent a high potential applications as phosphors that generate red, green and yellow light

Secure and Efficient Video Transmission in VANET

Currently, vehicular communications have become a reality used by various applications, especially applications that broadcast video in real time. However, the video quality received is penalized by the poor characteristics of the transmission channel (availability, non-stationarity, the ration of signal-to-noise, etc.). To improve and ensure minimum video quality at reception, we propose in this work a mechanism entitled “Secure and Efficient Transmission of Videos in VANET (SETV)”. It's based on the "Quality of Experience (QoE)" and using hierarchical packet management. This last is based on the importance of the images of the stream video. To this end, the use of transmission error correction with uneven error protection has proven to be effective in delivering high quality videos with low network overhead. This is done based on the specific details of video encoding and actual network conditions such as signal to noise ratio, network density, vehicle position and current packet loss rate (PLR) not to mention the prediction of the future DPP.Machine learning models were developed on our work to estimate perceived audio-visual quality. The protocol previously gathers information about its neighbouring vehicles to perform distributed jump reinforcement learning. The simulation results obtained for several types of realistic vehicular scenarios show that our proposed mechanism offers significant improvements in terms of video quality on reception and end-to-end delay compared to conventional schemes. The results prove that the proposed mechanism has showed 11% to 18% improvement in video quality and 9% load gain compared to ShieldHEVC

Accuracy of liver stiffness measurement using fibroscan ® to predict the response to antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis c viral infection

Introduction: Antiviral therapy can prevent disease progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C . Transient Elastografy (TE; Fibroscan) is an accurate surrogate marker to liver fibrosis, by measuring liver stiffness (LS). LS decrease has been associated with sustained virologic response (SVR). Aim: to assess the changes of LS measurments in CHC patients during and one year after Interferon (IFN)-based antiviral therapy (IFN/ribavirin) or (telaprevir+IFN/ribavirin). Methods: consecutive 69 CHC patients (53.6% females, mean age 57.9 ± 11.4) who underwent antiviral therapy for at least 20 weeks were enrolled. LS was measured using FibroScan at baseline, after three months, at the end of treatment and one year after treatment discontinuation. Fibrosis was graded using METAVIR score. Results: twenty patients treated with triple therapy and 49 with IFN/ribavirin. Fifty patients had SVR and 19 were non-responders. SVR patients: F0-F1, F2 and F3 patients (39.1%, 7.2% and 17.4%; respectively) showed no significant LS decrease (P= 0.186, 0.068 and 0.075; respectively). Conversely, in F4 patients (36.2%) LS was significantly decreased (P=0.015) after one year of treatment completion. In all patients with no SVR, no significant decrease in LS was observed. Interestingly, all Patients with F4 fibrosis (even non-responders) showed an initial significant decrease in LS (P=0.024) at 3 months after the start of treatment. However, this decrease was not predictive of SVR; area under the ROC curve 0.369 (CI %: 0.145-0.592) P= 0.265. Conclusion: Our study showed that initial decrease in LSM, especially in patients with higher baseline fibrosis score is unlikely to predict an SVR. In addition no significant association was found between clinical or virological parameters and fibrosis improvement. Further studies are needed to delineate the most appropriate clinical scenarios for the LSM by Fibroscan in chronic hepatitis C and its role in monitoring the response to antiviral treatment