Biomimetic Potentials for Building Envelope Adaptation in Egypt

AbstractBiomimicry is a science that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's time-tested 3.8 billion years of patterns and strategies. The paper is concerned with embodying the biomimetic strategies to building envelopes which shall offer a high potential to reduce the energy demand, save material and thus improve the sustainability of buildings, through accessing current practices process of natural ventilation biomimicry in buildings for a potential application in building envelope for environmental adaptation which could help for the emergence of a new generation of biomimetic building envelopes aiming at promoting biomimicry in Egypt by showing the benefits that could be harvested

The Level of Ischemic Modified Albumin (IMA) as Risk Marker for Cardio Vascular D isease (CVD) among some diabetic patients (type II) in Khartoum state -Sudan

Background. Recent literature reports show large interest in ischemic modified albumin (IMA) biochemical marker for detection of myocardial injury. Special attention is focused in estimation of IMA test for the diagnosis and evaluation of myocardial ischemia as well as others acute coronary syndrome in emergency patients.Objective : evaluation of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) in well controlled and uncontrolled patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and estimation of its connection with cardiovascular disease.Measurement thelevelof IMA asrisk marker forcardio vascular disease (CVD) in diabetic patients that arrivedtoemergency department with signs and symptoms of CVD.Methodology. 140 subjects enrolled in thisstudy ,70 diabetes mellitus patients with signs and symptoms of CVD, and other 70 apparently non diabetic healthy subjects' as controls, , the levels of biomarker IMA was measured as the risk marker ofCVDin controlled and uncontrolleddiabeticpatients with type2,the Diagnostic potential was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic analysis and their relationships were analyzed. This study was donein Shab Hospital, Khartoum.Period from 1st of February 2015 to October 2015.Results: The results showed that CVD were predominant among diabetic female 57 % and peaked at age 75.5 years among 40-75 year old. The IMA was significantly increase in diabetic patients when compare with normal healthy group with cut off value ( 0.97 IU/L ), and there is also significantly increase in IMA level in uncontrolled diabetic patients (Mean ± SD; 14.70 + 10.66) that presented with acute chest pain and havea signs and symptoms of cardiac ischemia when compared with the well-controlled diabetic patients(Mean ± SD; 3.74 + 3.68). controlled and uncontrolled diabetic patients were determined by the level of their HBA1c and comparison with the means of IMA level in their serum.Conclusions: increase IMA level in poor control and long stand diabetic patients could help to identify the higher risk for develop to CVD, and The most common complication such as suffering from local or systemic hypoxic conditions, as acute ischemic stroke, peripheral vascular disease.Keywords: Ischemia, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, Ischemic Modified Albumi

The level of Ischemic Modified Albumin (IMA) as risk marker for Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) among some diabetic patients (type II) in Khartoum State-Sudan

Background: Recent literature reports show large interest in ischemic modified albumin (IMA) biochemical marker for detection of myocardial injury. Special attention is focused in estimation of IMA test for the diagnosis and evaluation of myocardial ischemia as well as others acute coronary syndrome in emergencypatients.Objective: evaluation of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) in well controlled and uncontrolled patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and estimation of its connection with cardiovascular disease.Measurement the levelof IMA as risk marker for cardio vascular disease (CVD) in diabetic patients that arrived to emergency department with signs and symptoms of CVD.Methodology: 140 subjects enrolled in this study ,70 diabetes mellitus patients with signs and symptoms of CVD, and other 70 apparently non diabetic healthy subjects’ as controls, , the levels of biomarker IMA was measured as the risk marker of CVDin controlled and uncontrolled diabeticpatients with type2,the Diagnostic potential was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic analysis and their relationships were analyzed. This study was done in Shab Hospital, Khartoum. Period from 1st of February 2015 to October 2015.Results: The results showed that CVD were predominant among diabetic female 57 % and peaked at age 75.5 years among 40-75 year old. The IMA was significantly increase in diabetic patients when compare with normal healthy group with cut off value ( 0.97 IU/L ), and there is also significantly increase in IMA level in uncontrolled diabetic patients (Mean ± SD; 14.70 + 10.66) that presented with acute chest pain and havea signs and symptoms of cardiac ischemia when compared with the wellcontrolled diabetic patients (Mean ± SD; 3.74 ± 3.68). controlled and uncontrolled diabetic patients were determined by the level of their HBA1c and comparison with the means of IMA level in their serum.Conclusions: increase IMA level in poor control and long stand diabetic patients could help to identify the higher risk for develop to CVD, and The most common complication such as suffering from local or systemic hypoxic conditions, as acute ischemic stroke, peripheral vascular disease.Keywords: Ischemia, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, Ischemic Modified Albumi

Community pharmacists’ perception of and practice with drug package inserts in UAE

Background: Written information in drug package inserts (DPIs) is important source of information for doctors and pharmacists. Objectives: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the knowledge, perception and practice of community pharmacists with information in the DPIs, and their views on their usefulness.Methods: Seventy five pre-piloted questionnaires were distributed to community pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates. The questionnaire included questions covering demographics of pharmacists and whether they read and rely on DPI as a source of information. Pharmacists were also asked to evaluate and categorize DPI information with respect to the ease for patient use. The data were analyzed and are expressed as frequency and percentage.Results: The response rate was 90.7%. The majority (52, 76.5%) of pharmacists were in the age range of 20-39 years, with bachelor of pharmacy degree (50, 73.5%) and having 1-10 years of practice experience (48, 70.6%). Two thirds of the respondents obtained their degree outside the UAE. The majority (60, 88.2%) of pharmacists read the DPIs of prescription and OTC drugs, for all the information and think it is useful (67, 98.5%). Most participants think DPI is useful to patients and advise them to read it. The majority (49, 72.1%) of pharmacists believe that DPI are clear to read but their content should be shorter (46, 67.6%) and limited to the most important information (51, 75%). More pharmacists with a degree from outside UAE do not read the DPIs (p < 0.003), and find DPIs easily understood (P <0.008). More pharmacists with 1-5 years’ experience advise their patients to read the DPIs (P<0.033).Conclusions: Our findings suggest that there is a need for improving the content of drug package inserts to provide the necessary information required not only for health care professionals but also patients to further enhance their acceptance of and compliance with their medications

A new perspective on the competitiveness of nations

The capability of firms to survive and to have a competitive advantage in global markets depends on, amongst other things, the efficiency of public institutions, the excellence of educational, health and communications infrastructures, as well as on the political and economic stability of their home country. The measurement of competitiveness and strategy development is thus an important issue for policy-makers. Despite many attempts to provide objectivity in the development of measures of national competitiveness, there are inherently subjective judgments that involve, for example, how data sets are aggregated and importance weights are applied. Generally, either equal weighting is assumed in calculating a final index, or subjective weights are specified. The same problem also occurs in the subjective assignment of countries to different clusters. Developed as such, the value of these type indices may be questioned by users. The aim of this paper is to explore methodological transparency as a viable solution to problems created by existing aggregated indices. For this purpose, a methodology composed of three steps is proposed. To start, a hierarchical clustering analysis is used to assign countries to appropriate clusters. In current methods, country clustering is generally based on GDP. However, we suggest that GDP alone is insufficient for purposes of country clustering. In the proposed methodology, 178 criteria are used for this purpose. Next, relationships between the criteria and classification of the countries are determined using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANN provides an objective method for determining the attribute/criteria weights, which are, for the most part, subjectively specified in existing methods. Finally, in our third step, the countries of interest are ranked based on weights generated in the previous step. Beyond the ranking of countries, the proposed methodology can also be used to identify those attributes that a given country should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e., to transition from its current cluster to the next higher one

The Impact of Promotional Mix Elements on Consumers Purchasing Decisions

The study examined the impact of promotional activities exercised in Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies on their consumers purchasing decisions. The data required for this study has been gained from two sources: the first is gleaned from books, studies and previous research, while the second was the field study. The populations of the study were the 2 Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies registered in Amman financial market, and both of them were surveyed. For the purpose of this study a pre-designed questionnaire has been distributed to a purposeful sample of 36 managers and staff in marketing departments of these companies. A reliability Cronbach’s Alpha to determine the reliability of the questionnaire as a tool to collect the necessary data was performed. A set of results has been found, and can be summarized as follows: The degree of promotional mix elements practice in Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies was high for advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion, while it was moderate to low for publicity, and public relations. There is no statistically significant effect of the following combined promotional activities: (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations) carried out by Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies on consumers purchasing decision. There is a statistically significant effect of the following promotional elements: advertising, Personal Selling, and sales promotion practiced by Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies on consumers purchasing decision. There is no statistically significant effect of the Publicity, and public relations practiced by Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies on consumers purchasing decision. Key words: Promotional mix; Consumer purchasing decision; Viral marketing; Ceramic and glass production companie

Quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients prior to and after pancreas and kidney transplantation in relation to organ function

Improvement of the quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with severe late complications is one of the main goals of pancreas and/or kidney grafting. To assess the influences of these treatment modalities on the different aspects of the quality of life a cross-sectional study in 157 patients was conducted. They were categorized into patients pre-transplant without dialysis (n=29; Group A), pre-transplant under dialysis (n=44; Group B), post-transplant with pancreas and kidney functioning (n=31; Group C), post-transplant with functioning kidney, but insulin therapy (n=29; Group D), post-transplant under dialysis and insulin therapy again (n=15; Group E) and patients after single pancreas transplantation and rejection, with good renal function, but insulin therapy (n=9; Group F). All patients answered a mailed, self-administered questionnaire (217 questions) consisting of a broad spectrum of rehabilitation criteria. The results indicate a better quality of life in Groups C and D as compared to the other groups. In general the scores are highest in C, but without any significant difference to D. Impressive significant differences between C or D and the other groups were found especially in their satisfaction with physical capacity, leisure-time activities or the overall quality of life. The satisfaction with the latter is highest in C (mean±SEM: 4.0±0.2 on a 1 to 5-rating scale; significantly different from A: 3.1±0.1, B: 2.7±0.2 and E: 2.6±0.3; p<0.01), followed by D (3.8±0.2; significantly different from B and E; p<0.01). Group F shows a mean of 3.1±0.4, which is not significantly different from C. The percentages of patients in each group, who are not working: A: 38 %, B: 64 %, C: 74 %, D: 66 %, E: 87 % and F: 78 % indicate that there is no marked improvement in the vocational situation after successful grafting