FAMILY, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS: DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM FOR THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Family, school and community educational partnerships (FSCEPs) contribute significantly to the development and growth of students. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this has not received due consideration. This study aimed to evaluate current FSCEPs practices and develop a comprehensive, culturally appropriate program for the UAE. A three-phase mixed method design was used: exploratory sequential design phase, developmental phase using the Delphi Method, and a pilot to test the proposed model. Structured and semi-structured interviews, observation and case study surveys were used to investigate current FSCEPs implementation; barriers and opportunities influencing practices and partnerships, and recommendations from participants. Data was collected from interviews with ten experts from three educational central governing institutions, a collective case study of 15 schools and 891 survey responses. Initial results indicated FSCEPs in schools primarily focused on parental involvement; community involvement was limited. The developmental phase demonstrated four elements for successful FSCEPs programs: a steering team, a bottom-up approach to planning, a gamification framework, and continuous evaluation. Based on these factors, FSCEPs programs were created and piloted. The pilot study established the importance of assigning a program coordinator to ensure its sustainability and building FSCEPs school programs around students’ individual plans encourages more parental involvement. Limitations to the implementation and evaluation of the program existed; therefore, future feasibility studies are recommended to evaluate their implementation and long-term impact on the learning potential of students

A Bayesian Point Process Model for User Return Time Prediction in Recommendation Systems

In order to sustain the user-base for a web service, it is important to know the return time of a user to the service. We propose a Bayesian point process, log Gaussian Cox process (LGCP), to model and predict return time of users. It allows encoding the prior do- main knowledge and non-parametric estimation of latent intensity functions capturing user behaviour. We capture the similarities among the users in their return time by using a multi-task learning approach. We show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches on predicting the return time of users to last.fm music service

PHARMACOKINETICS, BIO-EQUIVALENCE AND TISSUE RESIDUES OF TWO ORAL COLISTIN FORMULATIONS IN BROILER CHICKENS

Objective: The present study was carried out to investigate and provide an overview of the pharmacokinetics, bio-equivalence and tissue residues of colistin in two oral tested products, BAC-Liquido® (Interchemi Co.) and Coline-L® (Medmac Co.) in healthy broiler chickens.Methods: The comparative pharmacokinetics, bio-equivalence, blood and tissue residues of BAC-Liquido® and Coline-L® in broiler chickens was studied after oral administration of both products in a dose of 100.000 IU colistin base/kg. b. wt once daily for 5 consecutive days.Results: Colistin in both products obeyed a two compartments open model following I. V administration. The disposition kinetics of BAC-Liquido® and Coline-L® following oral administration of 100.000 IU colistin base/kg. b. wt revealed that the maximum blood concentration [Cmax.] were 5.10 and 4.95 µg/ml and attained at [tmax.] of 5.90 and 6.40 h, respectively. Colistin in BAC-Liquido® and Coline-L® was eliminated with half-lives [t1/2β] equal to 3.15 and 2.89 h, respectively. The mean systemic bioavailability of colistin in BAC-Liquido® and Coline-L® following oral administration in healthy chickens was 3.75 and 4.05%, respectively. The blood (µg/ml) and tissue (µg/g) residues of Coline-L® and BAC-Liquido® following repeated oral administrations showed that liver, kidney; lung, breast, and thigh muscles contained the limited colistin residues. Colistin in both preparations was completely disappeared from all tissues at 24 h following the last oral dose (except liver 48 h).Conclusion: It was concluded that Coline-L® is bioequivalent to BAC-Liquido® since Cmax test/Cmax reference and AUCtest/AUCreference ratios were 0.97 and 1.06, respectively. Chickens should not be slaughtered for human consumption within treatment and could be consumed after the discontinuation of the treatment (except liver, withdrawal time 48 h) of either BAC-Liquido® or Coline-L®.Keywords: Pharmacokinetics, Colistin, Broiler chickens, Bioavailability, Tissue residue

COMPUTER-AIDED MODEL FOR BREAST CANCER DETECTION IN MAMMOGRAMS

The objective of this research was to introduce a new system for automated detection of breast masses in mammography images. The system will be able to discriminate if the image has a mass or not, as well as benign and malignant masses. The new automated ROI segmentation model, where a profiling model integrated with a new iterative growing region scheme has been proposed. The ROI region segmentation is integrated with both statistical and texture feature extraction and selection to discriminate suspected regions effectively. A classifier model is designed using linear fisher classifier for suspected region identification. To check the system's performance, a large mammogram database has been used for experimental analysis. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy have been used as performance measures. In this study, the methods yielded an accuracy of 93% for normal/abnormal classification and a 79% accuracy for bening/malignant classification. The proposed model had an improvement of 8% for normal/abnormal classification, and a 7% improvement for benign/malignant classification over Naga et al., 2001. Moreover, the model improved 8% for normal/abnormal classification over Subashimi et al., 2015. The early diagnosis of this disease has a major role in its treatment. Thus the use of computer systems as a detection tool could be viewed as essential to helping with this disease

Acaricidal efficiency of solar 50 % new emulsifiable concentrate formulation against the two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) under laboratory and greenhouse conditions

Oils are some of the most efficient and secure alternatives to synthetic fungicides, acaricides and insecticides used as pesticides for decades. Around the world, mineral oils are a potential pesticide against many pests. To provide novel active ingredients and new pesticide formulations to the pesticide industry, the major goal of this research was to formulate one of the petroleum fractions and test its acaricidal efficiency against two-spotted spider mite (TSSM), Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae). Solar's physical features were put to the test. Then, it was prepared as an emulsifiable concentrate following the guidelines provided by specialized pesticide organizations for this kind of formulation. The novel formulation was subsequently biologically tested against T. urticae adults in the lab, and it demonstrated good acaricidal activity with an LC50 of 4548 ppm. Under greenhouse conditions, it was also tested against T. urticae immature, adults (males and females) and number of deposited eggs. There was a direct correlation for all stages between concentration, the percentage of immature and adult mortality, and the percentage of egg-hatching inhibition. In the case of the immature, 100% mortality was shown after 7 days of treatment. However, in the case of adult males and females, 100% mortality was shown after 3 days of treatment. Additionally, after 14 days from treatment, it entirely stopped egg depositing. The new formulation might be applied to manage the TSSM.

Assessment of nitrogen utilization from urea applied in rubber seedling nursery using 15N tracer technique

Nitrogen uptake from urea applied to rubber seedlings in the nursery was evaluated using 15N tracer methodology, in micro-plots established in the field. Effect of varying rates of N on growth, and the relative contribution of soil N and fertilizer N towards total N uptake were studied. Influence of rate of N application on growth of seedlings was observed up to three months, and after six months, growth of plants was comparable for all the four N levels. The efficiency of N absorption by the plant, expressed as percentage N utilization ranged from 13.62 per cent at 125 kg N ha-1 to 5.84 per cent at 500 kg N ha-1. The 15N balance sheet averaged over the four levels of N shows that about 9.27 per cent of applied N was taken up by rubber seedlings, about 8.78 per cent remained in 0-60 cm depth of soil and about 81.95 per cent was unaccounted N

A study on comparison of central corneal thickness in normals, primary open angle glaucoma, and ocular hypertensives

AIM: To compare the central corneal thickness (CCT) and determine the range and distribution in controls, primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients and ocular hypertensives. Also to predict any differences in central corneal thickness in relation to age and sex variation. METHODS : One hundred and fifty patients (50 controls, 50 POAG patients, 50 ocular hypertensives) aged 40 years or more were enrolled in our study and all subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic examination that included applanation tonometry and CCT measurements with an ultrasonic pachymeter. RESULTS : Mean central corneal thickness in 50 control subjects was 533μm (SD 29μm) , 50 POAG patients was 536μm (SD 29μm) , 50 ocular hypertensives was 561μm (SD 28μm ).There were no differences between sexes in our study in POAG and ocular hypertension ,though CCT was higher in females in control group. CONCLUSION : Mean central corneal thickness was similar to that found in clinical studies, and was significantly higher in patients with ocular hypertension. A negative association with age and a positive association with intraocular pressure were seen. CCT can be a confounding factor in the measurement of intraocular pressure

Ex Vivo Perfusion Characteristics of Donation After Cardiac Death Kidneys Predict Long-Term Graft Survival

Background. Ex vivo perfusion is used in our unit for kidneys donated after cardiac death (DCD). Perfusion flow index (PFI), resistance, and perfusate glutathione S-transferase (GST) can be measured to assess graft viability. We assessed whether measurements taken during perfusion could predict long-term outcome after transplantation. Methods. All DCD kidney transplants performed from 2002 to 2014 were included in this study. The exclusion criteria were: incomplete data, kidneys not machine perfused, kidneys perfused in continuous mode, and dual transplantation. There were 155 kidney transplantations included in the final analysis. Demographic data, ischemia times, donor hypertension, graft function, survival and machine perfusion parameters after 3 hours were analyzed. Each perfusion parameter was divided into 3 groups as high, medium, and low. Estimated glomerular filtration rate was calculated at 12 months and then yearly after transplantation. Results. There was a significant association between graft survival and PFI and GST (P values, .020 and .022, respectively). PFI was the only independent parameter to predict graft survival. Conclusions. A low PFI during ex vivo hypothermic perfusion is associated with inferior graft survival after DCD kidney transplantation. We propose that PFI is a measure of the health of the graft vasculature and that a low PFI indicates vascular disease and therefore predicts a worse long-term outcome

Nutritional status, energy and protein consumption among primary schoolchildren in Pulau Mantanani, Kota Belud, Sabah

This study was conducted in April 2007 in Pulau Mantanani, an isolated island northwest of Kota Belud, 80 km north of Kota Kinabalu. Forty-six schoolchildren, boys and girls aged 10, 11 and 12 were included in the study. Anthropometric measurements were taken and compared with the growth charts of the National Centre for Health Statistics. Food consumption based on the 24- hours dietary recall was recorded and calculated using the NutriCal software. It was interesting to know that despite the acceptable protein consumption, the growth indicators showed otherwise. Results showed that 50.0% of the children were stunted (<-2 standard deviation of height for age), 52.2% were underweight (<-2 standard deviation of weight for age) and 17.4% were wasted (<-2 standard deviation of weight for height). 2.2% had a energy consumption of less than 1/3 of the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for Malaysia, 43.5% consumed energy between 1/3-2/3 of the RNI whereas 41.3% consumed between 2/3 to 100% of the RNI while 13% consumed energy more than the RNI. As for protein intake, 39.1% children had protein intake below the RNI. However, there was no significant correlation between growth indicators and energy consumption. In conclusion, this study showed poor nutritional status of the children as shown by the growth indicators. Energy intake was also inadequate among the majority of the children although protein consumption was higher than the RNI by 2/3 of the subjects

Identification of variety-specific ISSR markers in small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton.)

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