Quality of Life and Determinants of Parents’ School Satisfaction in War Contexts

The present mixed-method exploratory study aims at exploring how families’ perceptions of education are influenced by the availability of resources promoting well-being and the ability to cope with political and military violence. A convenience sample of 120 households selected in the Gaza Strip was administered using two self-reported instruments: WHOQOL-BREF (WHO Quality of Life-BREF) adapted to the Palestinian context, and items adapted from the Teacher Involvement of Parents (TIP) Questionnaire. The quantitative results showed interactions between different domains of quality of life—namely, basic needs ( B = .361, p < .01) and psychological distress ( B = .307, p < .05)—while perceptions of education had a statistically significant effect on school satisfaction. Three main themes emerged from the qualitative survey: economic constraints, constraints on the school environment, and issues with the curriculum. The ongoing disruption of general economic, environmental, health, and living conditions affects the domain of education, contributing to further undermining opportunities for improvements in subjective well-being and familial quality of life

Identifying Critical Issues in Smart City Big Data Project Implementation

Many cities across the globe are adopting smart city initiatives, as smart city holds the promise of better quality of life and equity for city\u27s residents, more efficient use of city\u27s infrastructure, and more effective city planning. Big data analytics is the backbone of smart city and the drive engine to achieve smart city\u27s promises. However, statistics indicate that more than 50% of big data projects fail; they either never finish or do not offer the expected value. Resulting in severe consequences as such projects tends to be expensive and require allocating the organization\u27s best resources while doing the project. This is even more crucial in the case of smart city, as cities usually have limited budget and resources. This paper conducted literature review and perspectives analysis to identify challenges, which can cause big data projects to fail, with focus on smart city related big data projects. The goal is to offer a list of challenges, that a project manager can consider as an initial list of risks for the upcoming project, and evaluate the city\u27s readiness against each of them

A multi-stakeholder perspective on the use of alternative test strategies for nanomaterial safety assessment.

There has been a conceptual shift in toxicological studies from describing what happens to explaining how the adverse outcome occurs, thereby enabling a deeper and improved understanding of how biomolecular and mechanistic profiling can inform hazard identification and improve risk assessment. Compared to traditional toxicology methods, which have a heavy reliance on animals, new approaches to generate toxicological data are becoming available for the safety assessment of chemicals, including high-throughput and high-content screening (HTS, HCS). With the emergence of nanotechnology, the exponential increase in the total number of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in research, development, and commercialization requires a robust scientific approach to screen ENM safety in humans and the environment rapidly and efficiently. Spurred by the developments in chemical testing, a promising new toxicological paradigm for ENMs is to use alternative test strategies (ATS), which reduce reliance on animal testing through the use of in vitro and in silico methods such as HTS, HCS, and computational modeling. Furthermore, this allows for the comparative analysis of large numbers of ENMs simultaneously and for hazard assessment at various stages of the product development process and overall life cycle. Using carbon nanotubes as a case study, a workshop bringing together national and international leaders from government, industry, and academia was convened at the University of California, Los Angeles, to discuss the utility of ATS for decision-making analyses of ENMs. After lively discussions, a short list of generally shared viewpoints on this topic was generated, including a general view that ATS approaches for ENMs can significantly benefit chemical safety analysis

A multi-stakeholder perspective on the use of alternative test strategies for nanomaterial safety assessment.

There has been a conceptual shift in toxicological studies from describing what happens to explaining how the adverse outcome occurs, thereby enabling a deeper and improved understanding of how biomolecular and mechanistic profiling can inform hazard identification and improve risk assessment. Compared to traditional toxicology methods, which have a heavy reliance on animals, new approaches to generate toxicological data are becoming available for the safety assessment of chemicals, including high-throughput and high-content screening (HTS, HCS). With the emergence of nanotechnology, the exponential increase in the total number of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in research, development, and commercialization requires a robust scientific approach to screen ENM safety in humans and the environment rapidly and efficiently. Spurred by the developments in chemical testing, a promising new toxicological paradigm for ENMs is to use alternative test strategies (ATS), which reduce reliance on animal testing through the use of in vitro and in silico methods such as HTS, HCS, and computational modeling. Furthermore, this allows for the comparative analysis of large numbers of ENMs simultaneously and for hazard assessment at various stages of the product development process and overall life cycle. Using carbon nanotubes as a case study, a workshop bringing together national and international leaders from government, industry, and academia was convened at the University of California, Los Angeles, to discuss the utility of ATS for decision-making analyses of ENMs. After lively discussions, a short list of generally shared viewpoints on this topic was generated, including a general view that ATS approaches for ENMs can significantly benefit chemical safety analysis

A multi-stakeholder perspective on the use of alternative test strategies for nanomaterial safety assessment.

There has been a conceptual shift in toxicological studies from describing what happens to explaining how the adverse outcome occurs, thereby enabling a deeper and improved understanding of how biomolecular and mechanistic profiling can inform hazard identification and improve risk assessment. Compared to traditional toxicology methods, which have a heavy reliance on animals, new approaches to generate toxicological data are becoming available for the safety assessment of chemicals, including high-throughput and high-content screening (HTS, HCS). With the emergence of nanotechnology, the exponential increase in the total number of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in research, development, and commercialization requires a robust scientific approach to screen ENM safety in humans and the environment rapidly and efficiently. Spurred by the developments in chemical testing, a promising new toxicological paradigm for ENMs is to use alternative test strategies (ATS), which reduce reliance on animal testing through the use of in vitro and in silico methods such as HTS, HCS, and computational modeling. Furthermore, this allows for the comparative analysis of large numbers of ENMs simultaneously and for hazard assessment at various stages of the product development process and overall life cycle. Using carbon nanotubes as a case study, a workshop bringing together national and international leaders from government, industry, and academia was convened at the University of California, Los Angeles, to discuss the utility of ATS for decision-making analyses of ENMs. After lively discussions, a short list of generally shared viewpoints on this topic was generated, including a general view that ATS approaches for ENMs can significantly benefit chemical safety analysis

Influence of COVID-19 on lifestyle behaviors in the Middle East and North Africa Region: a survey of 5896 individuals

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected health and lifestyle behaviors of people globally. This project aims to identify the impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle behavior of individuals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during confinement. Methods: We conducted an online survey in 17 countries (Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, and Sudan) from the MENA region on August and September 2020. The questionnaire included self-reported information on lifestyle behaviors, including physical activity, eating habits, smoking, watching television, social media use and sleep before and during the pandemic. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle behaviors. Results: A total of 5896 participants were included in the final analysis and 62.8% were females. The BMI of the participants was 25.4 &plusmn; 5.8&nbsp;kg/m2. Around 38.4% of the participants stopped practicing any physical activities during the confinement (P &lt; 0.001), and 57.1% reported spending more than 2&nbsp;h on social media (P &lt; 0.001). There were no significant changes in smoking habits. Also, 30.9% reported an improvement in their eating habits compared with 24.8% reported worsening of their eating habits. Fast-food consumption decreased significantly in 48.8% of the study population. This direct/indirect exposure to COVID-19 was associated with an increased consumption of carbohydrates (OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.02&ndash;1.17; P = 0.01), egg (OR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.02&ndash;1.16; P = 0.01), sugar (OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.02&ndash;1.16; P = 0.02), meat, and poultry (OR = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.06&ndash;1.20; P &lt; 0.01). There was also associated increase in hours spent on watching television (OR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.02&ndash;1.12; P &lt; 0.01) and social media (OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.01&ndash;1.18; P = 0.03). However, our results showed a reduction in sleeping hours among those exposed to COVID-19 infection (OR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.77&ndash;0.94; P &lt; 0.01). Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increase in food consumption and sedentary life. Being exposed to COVID-19 by direct infection or through an infected household is a significant predictor of amplifying these changes. Public health interventions are needed to address healthy lifestyle behaviors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic