HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT OF PROTEIN ENERGY MALNUTRITION, SUDAN EXPERIENCE

Objectives: To describe the protocol of management of severe protein energy malnutrition (PEM) and the treatment outcome of inpatient children using Gezira Formula and to compare it with the similar WHO protocol for the same purpose. Methods: All children less than five years of age admitted to Academy Charity Teaching Hospital (ACTH) with protein energy malnutrition were included in dietary management using Gezira Formula. Initial management with half strength formula was initiated until signs of improvement occur and thereafter maintained in full strength formula until recovery. The constituents of the two formulae were compared to WHO formula F75 & F100 as well as the outcome of treatment. Results: The total number of children studied was 396, representing 6.1% of the total number of children admitted to ACTH during the study period. The peak range of age at presentation was 6-24 months. Seven percent of children had marasmic-kwashiorkor, 13% had kwashiorkor, 48% had marasmus and 32% were under weight. The outcome of treatment was 72.5% improved, 10.4% died and 17.2% escaped from the ward before criteria for discharge was fulfilled. The management outcome was comparable with international standards suggested by WHO. Conclusion:  Gezira Formula is comparable to WHO formula for inpatient treatment of PEM, it is simple, cheap, easily understood by hospital staff and ingredients are available

A Scalable and Participatory Sustainable Rangeland Management Toolkit with a Holistic and Multidisciplinary Approach to Rehabilitate Degraded Rangelands

Rangelands contribute significantly toward improving livelihoods, offering food security, trade and tourism for pastoral communities. Numerous challenges include poor government policies, loss of indigenous knowledge and top-down approaches toward sustainable rangeland rehabilitation that often fail to consider local development adoption and sustainability. In such situations, effective management is needed for sustainable rangeland ecosystem goods and services in a context characterized by rainfall unreliability, poor soil nutrient status and high uncontrolled grazing. This paper presents a new comprehensive toolkit for identifying and combining suitable and site-specific interventions aimed at reversing the trend of degraded arid rangelands. This toolbox is founded on science-based evidence and experienced practitioners. For severely degraded arid rangelands, the preference of applying an isolated technology may be insufficient to halt degradation. Through targeting a landscape scale that uses an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, this promising tool/approach aims to address the biophysical and socioeconomic linkages and trade-offs existing between the different land uses. The approach highlights the important role of rangeland governance. It also underscores the need to base decision-making on both indigenous knowledge and modern science, in order to empower communities to make good choices based on the best information available

Behavior of Hybrid Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams under Repeated Loading

This research is devoted to investigate the experimental and theoretical behavior of hybrid deep beams under monotonic and repeated two points loading. The dimensions and the flexural reinforcement of the deep beams were kept constant.  In this work, the idea of hybrid beam is completely different. Two types of concrete were used but not in cross section. The first type which is fiberous concrete (FC) was used in casting beam sides (shear spans), while the second type was conventional concrete (CC) which was used in the middle portion of beam (between two shear spans). This was done to strengthen the deep beam sides (shear spans) against cracking due to shear (diagonal strut) failure. The experimental program includes casting and testing of 12 deep beams, six of them are tested as a control beams under monotonic loading and the others were tested under repeated loading at level 70% of the ultimate load of their control beams. The variables include type of load, type of beam, amount of web reinforcement and amount of steel fiber. It was found when adding steel fiber to the shear spans by ratio 1% and 2% under monotonic loading system, the percentages increase in the ultimate load are 29.73% and 50.81%, respectively as compared with beam without steel fiber. Also, it was observed that when the entire deep beam cast with fiberous concrete, the percentages increase in the ultimate load are 5.21% as compared with hybrid beam with the same steel fiber ratio of 1%, and 36.49% as compared with deep beam cast with conventional concrete for all its portions. The increase in web reinforcement ratios from 0.0 to 0.003 and 0.004 under monotonic loading system leads to increase in the ultimate load are 34.08% and 42.46%, respectively. Comparison of experimental results was made with corresponding predicted values using the Strut and Tie procedure presented in Appendix A of ACI 318M-11Code and with other procedures mentioned in the literature.  It was found that the Strut and Tie procedure presented in Appendix A of ACI 318M-11Code give conservative results as compared with the experimental tested results. Keywords: deep beam, hybrid, repeated loading, strengthening, shear spans

THE EFFECT OF ROOTS CONFINEMENT ON THE RELATIVE GROWTH OF ROOTS AND CANOPY OF OPUNTIA FICUS-INDICA

Summary The influence of soil volume on roots and canopy growth performance of cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) was studied at Palermo University. In November 2014, 1-year-old Opuntia ficusindica cladodes were planted in five different volumes of soil 50, 33, 18, 9 and 5 Liters. Three replicates (plants) per pot size were dug out at 6 and 12, 18 and 24 month intervals, thus in total, there were 5 x 3 x 4= 60 experimental plots. The resulting experimental design was a completely randomized design with combinations of two factors, soil volume and month of the sampling, with three replications. Roots of each plant were washed and visually divided into three groups depending on their diameters: Fine roots less ≤ 2 mm; medium roots (2-5 mm); large roots >5 mm, the roots of each group was manually separated and measured. Roots surface area was measured using image processing VegMeasure software®. Root volumes were calculated from surface area and root length by assuming that roots are cylindrical. Root measurements were taken prior to root dry mass estimation. Cladode surface area, thickness, number of new cladodes, cladodes fresh and dry mass were measured and recorded for each plant. Roots: shoot mass, root density, root length density and specific root length were calculated. Mother cladode and roots starch content estimation was performed using the perchloric acid method while the natural signature of δ13C and the roots turnover was determined depending on the portion of C in soil that was derived from the cactus pear root. Results indicated a significant effect of soil volume and sampling dates and their interaction (P<0.01) on: total roots length, roots surface area, dry mass, volume, specific roots length, the large roots surface area, medium roots surface area, dry mass of the large, medium roots, number second generation cladodes, canopy dry mass, total canopy surface area, carbon isotopic signature δ 13C and carbon derived by roots per soil unite. Whereas, root density, roots length density, fine roots dry mass, total number of cladodes, mother cladodes and roots starch content and roots turnover were significantly affected by soil volume and sampling dates only. Increasing the soil volume enhanced the total roots length, surface area, roots dry mass, and total roots volume. However, the smallest soil volume showed stable roots growth over time in terms of the total roots length, total surface area and the total roots volume, as well as the total dry mass. In contrast, soil volume restriction enhanced root density as well as the root length density and the specific root length. On the other hand, the large, medium and fine roots dry mass and surface area and length tended to increase with the soil volume. The number of the first generation cladodes was affected by the soil volume restriction. The lower number of the second generation cladodes produced in the lower soil volume, plants in the smallest soil volume stopped producing new second generation cladodes after the first sampling date. Moreover, the total number of the new cladodes increased with soil volume over time and ranged between (3-15 cladodes per plant). Linear canopy dry mass increases were observed with respect to the soil volume increase. The roots: canopy dry mass and the roots volume: canopy dry mass ratios increased with the soil volume increase, this is because of positive effect of the soil volume increase on both roots and canopy. Results showed an increase in starch accumulation in both roots and the mother cladodes along with soil volume decrease. Furthermore, there was an increasing negative δ13C signature values over time as result of the contribution of cactus pear root (CAM-C) to the soil organic matter (C3-soil). The CAM-C contribution increased from 27 C (g of soil kg-1) in the biggest soil volume to 57 C (g of soil kg-1) in the smallest soil volume. This can be explained by the higher roots mortality in the small soil volume which increased the turnover percentage with time ranging between (10-15.4%). These results suggest that the limitation of soil availability has resulted in root and canopy growth limitation and greater root turnover

Effect of Silver Nano Particle, Ferrous Sulfate and Hydrogen Peroxide on Photodgradtion of Tornasole RPe and Alizarin Yellow G

Abstract: Many industries such as paper, food, cosmetics, textiles etc. use dyes in order to color their products. The presence of these dyes in water even at very low concentration is highly visible and undesirable. Color is the first contaminant to be recognized. Photodgradtion technique offers a good potential to remove color from wastewater. In the present paper these methods were employed for removal of Tornasole RPe and Alizarin yellow G and the techniques were found to be very useful and cost effective for a better removal of dye and comparison between removal dye by hydrogen peroxide, ferrous sulfate, and silver nano particle in sun light effect. We obtain 100% of degradation of dyes

Media Portrayals of Abrahamic Religions in Broadsheet Newspapers: A Corpus-Based Critical Stylistic Analysis

Although there has been a proliferation in the study of religion across a range of disciplines, including media, sociology and theology, investigations of the representation of religion from a critical linguistic perspective are few. More specifically, this topic has not been approached using a range of corpus linguistics tools and approaches to carry out a detailed qualitative analysis of a large corpus. The aim of this thesis is therefore to investigate how three Abrahamic religions in the UK –Judaism, Christianity and Islam –are represented in a corpus of broadsheet newspapers from 2010. The focus of this research is to explore linguistic patterns and practices to investigate the question of whether the newspapers are biased in their representation of the three religions, and thereby whether such representations contribute to perpetuating stereotyped images through the construal of the characteristics drawn from the UK press. The study draws on the contribution of the corpus methodology to critical stylistics to identify patterns of naturally occurring texts constructed by the media world. The textual analyses are based on three purpose-built corpora for each religion: Judaism (3.3 million words), Christianity (3.8 million words) and Islam (5 million words). The analysis focuses on investigating the significant collocates identified using the online corpus tool Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al. 2004), utilised as a starting point in examining the collocation choices co-occurring with the three religions. The results of the corpus analysis reveal that patterns of collocates reflect persistent differences and commonalities in the representation of Jews, Christians and Muslims. The identification of collocates can be ideologically significant for discourse analysis because collocations can help to expose hidden meanings. These collocational patterns are then examined qualitatively, employing the more textually grounded framework of Critical Stylistics (Jeffries, 2010a) to assist in describing and interpreting the data from a wider textual-conceptual perspective. The occurrence of various nominal choices collocating with the words Jewish, Christian and Muslim as adjectives helps to investigate how the three groups are labelled and defined linguistically. The analysis of the collocational patterns demonstrates a stereotypical and imbalanced representation of the three religions in the British newspapers. This analysis also shows that there are commonalities in terms of the collocational choices but also discrepancies in the representation of the three religions. Such representation is explicitly shown in the choices of stories and events which newspapers prioritise over others. This has resulted in a marginalisation of contexts such as culture, social identity and profession, which are less frequently found in the corpus compared with the context of war and conflict. The study shows a set of stereotypical images associated with the different religions. For example, a strong association is made between Jews and suffering, creating an atmosphere of victimization. The linguistic choices present a balanced and sometimes neutral representation of Christians. However, Muslims are portrayed in negatively charged contexts resulting in a stereotypical prejudice. Focusing on my corpus, the salient finding of this study is that the British newspapers most frequently position both Jews and Muslims in the context of conflicts. The current study demonstrates cumulatively formed patterns in the representation of the three religions that are characterised by the linguistic construction of stereotype. Finally, the analysis shows a significant degree of selectivity in the representation of the three religions which could inform us about the British press, and its commitment to democracy and human rights

What forage tree-shrub species are recommended in alley cropping systems under west Asia conditions?

Presentation about the using suitability index based on growth characteristics to evaluate the performance of various shrubs as potential hedgerow species for alley cropping systems under west Asia conditions. Seven shrubs' species were evaluated in this study including three leguminous forage species (Medicago arborea, Colutea istria and Coronilla glauca), three Atriplex species (A. canescens, A. nummularia, A. undulata) and spineless cactus pear (Opuntia ficusindica) intercropped between annual crops of wheat, vetch and barley at the Mushaqqar Research Station in Jordan. Results should that Atriplex species (A. canescens) performed well and can be an ideal species for establishing alley cropping under WA conditions. The multiple benefits of alley cropping can only strengthen resilience of the production system to sustain livelihood of the agrosilvopastoral communities. This presentation was performed during the 5th World Congress on Agroforestry: “Transitioning to a Viable World”. Québec, Canada, July 17-20, 2022