Prevalence of chronic pain in Libya before and after the uprising of 17 February 2011.

Two questionnaires were translated into Arabic and culturally adapted to measure chronic pain and neuropathic pain in the general population in Derna, Libya (1, 2), and then in a country-wide survey. A point prevalence of chronic pain and neuropathic pain in Libya was determined. The findings of this series of studies suggested that the prevalence of chronic pain in Libya, which was 19.6%, is similar to the average European estimate (3) despite the cultural dissimilarities of the two regions (4) and the environmental differences surrounding the surveyed samples. The studies of chronic pain in Libya conducted by our pain research team, which involved a PhD student sponsored by the Libyan High Education Authority, indicated that Libyan women were found to have more chronic pain conditions than men. These sex and gender differences in chronic pain highlighted a general trend in epidemiological studies in many parts of the world (5). However, this programme of studies on prevalence of chronic pain was conducted just before the uprising of 17 February 2011 in Libya, and one should be cautious about the validity of some of the findings’ implications for immediate pain management priorities in the country. For example, the findings of the pre-conflict survey that being an old woman with children carries double the risk of having a chronic pain condition compared to a young person with no children may have changed as a result of the war which claimed the lives of around 30,000 Libyans and caused serious injuries to more than 20,000 young men. There is an urgent need for a new programme of studies using the PRIME approach on prevalence, impact, and economic cost of chronic pain (6) in post-conflict Libya. This should inform the health authorities in Libya and help plan management of chronic pain conditions resulting from the conflict. This will also serve as a model that can be applied to other countries from the developing world experiencing similar conflicts (7)

Some nutritional properties of unrefined sugar and its promotion of the survival of new-born rats.

1. The claims that rats fed on diets with ‘brown sugar’ (unrefined muscovado) perform better in a number of ways than do rats fed on refined white sugar (sucrose) have been examined. 2. Male Wistar rats were fed on purified diets from weaning, in which the carbohydrate component was either maize starch or unrefined sugar or sucrose. The sugars produced no differences in growth rate, body composition, or the weights of liver or kidneys. Compared with sucrose, unrefined sugar produced an increase in blood cholesterol and in the activity of hepatic fatty acid synthetase, and a greater increase in blood triglyceride. In confirmation of earlier results, rats fed on either sugar had heavier livers and kidneys, increased activity of hepatic glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.49) and a higher concentration of plasma triglyceride compared with rats fed on maize starch. 3. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed on the same three diets as the male rats, and mated when they weighed about 200 g. No difference was seen in their ability to mate, the progress of pregnancies, or the sizes of the litters. Does fed on unrefined sugar produced litters of higher viability than did does fed on starch or sucrose. Survival was between 85 and 100% with unrefined sugar and between 30 and 75% with starch or sucrose. 4. Unrefined muscovado sugar has thus been shown to contain a factor required by female rats for the proper viability of their pups. This may be the same ‘Reproductive Factor R’ as that described by Wiesner & Yudkin (1951). In certain circumstances, unrefined muscovado sugar might therefore contribute to the nutritional value of a human diet, although in what circumstances, in what respect and to what extent it might do so, is by no means clear

Olfaction-enhanced multimedia: Perspectives and challenges

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 Springer VerlagOlfaction—or smell—is one of the last challenges which multimedia and multimodal applications have to conquer. Enhancing such applications with olfactory stimuli has the potential to create a more complex—and richer—user multimedia experience, by heightening the sense of reality and diversifying user interaction modalities. Nonetheless, olfaction-enhanced multimedia still remains a challenging research area. More recently, however, there have been initial signs of olfactory-enhanced applications in multimedia, with olfaction being used towards a variety of goals, including notification alerts, enhancing the sense of reality in immersive applications, and branding, to name but a few. However, as the goal of a multimedia application is to inform and/or entertain users, achieving quality olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications from the users’ perspective is vital to the success and continuity of these applications. Accordingly, in this paper we have focused on investigating the user perceived experience of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications, with the aim of discovering the quality evaluation factors that are important from a user’s perspective of these applications, and consequently ensure the continued advancement and success of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications

Synchronization of Olfaction-enhanced multimedia

This paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out to explore, from an end user perspective, the temporal boundaries within which olfactory data can be used to enhance multimedia applications. Results show the presence of two main synchronization regions, and that olfaction ahead of audiovisual content is more tolerable than olfaction behind content

Tourism and integrated development: a geographic perspective

This article discusses the influence of tourism on integrated development from spatial and temporal points of view. The growth of tourism as an activity has been acknowledged from all parts of the world and it appears the tourism sector is making a lot of contribution to economic development of countries that have developed their tourism potentials. Many empirical studies have come up with evidence that suggests that there exists a relationship between tourism demand and other variables such as transportation and spatial behaviour of tourists. Due to the infancy of tourism as a development strategy in the developing countries only little work has been done to address theoretical underpinnings of tourism and integrated development within the geographic framework. The importance of spatial integration makes geography an integral aspect of development that may be of invaluable relevance to the understanding of tourism growth. Arguments in this paper are marshalled on three levels: the geographers’ view of integrated development; tourism and economic development; and geographic question in tourism and integrated development. It is believed that with the integrated development of tourism at all geographic scales, spatial inequity would be drastically reduced

Perceived synchronization of olfactory multimedia

This is the post-print version of this Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IEEEThe concept of synchronization is of fundamental importance in multimedia systems and applications. The focus of this this paper is on olfaction-enhanced multimedia, which concerns itself with associating computer-generated smell with other media. However, the lingering nature of smell, as opposed to the transitory nature of other media objects that multimedia applications are accustomed to, such as video and audio, means that specific attention needs to be given when synchronizing other media content with olfactory data. Consequently, this paper presents the results of an experimental study carried out to explore and investigate the temporal boundaries within which olfactory-data output in an olfaction-enhanced multimedia application can be successfully synchronized with other media objects from an end-user perspective. Results show the presence of two main synchronization regions, and that olfaction ahead of audiovisual content is more tolerable than olfaction behind content

Control mechanisms and perceived organizational support: exploring the relationship between new and traditional forms of control

Purpose: Taking into account the need to make a clearer distinction between traditional and new organizational controls, this paper aims to investigate similarities and differences between those two forms and explore the extent to which new forms of control can be operationalized from a quantitative point of view. Design/methodology/approach: Suggesting that new organizational controls can be understood also in light of quantitative paradigms, we develop and test a scale to measure the existence of these types of controls, examine its construct validity and evaluate its convergent validity. Findings: The theoretical dimensions of new controls have empirical correspondence. Input and behaviour controls are strongly associated with the promotion of values and beliefs in organizations. New controls become responsible for employees’ acceptance of companies’ management, an aspect measured by Perceived-Organizational-Support (POS)

A Posteriori Error Estimates for Nonconforming Approximations of Evolutionary Convection-Diffusion Problems

We derive computable upper bounds for the difference between an exact solution of the evolutionary convection-diffusion problem and an approximation of this solution. The estimates are obtained by certain transformations of the integral identity that defines the generalized solution. These estimates depend on neither special properties of the exact solution nor its approximation, and involve only global constants coming from embedding inequalities. The estimates are first derived for functions in the corresponding energy space, and then possible extensions to classes of piecewise continuous approximations are discussed.Comment: 10 page