Working memory learning method and astrocytes number in different subfields of rat's Hippocampus

The aim of this study was evaluation of the astrocytes number in different subfields of rat's Hippocampus after spatial learning with usage of Morris Water Maze technique and working memory method. In this study, between 2005-2006 years in Pasteur institute of Iran-Tehran and histological department of Gorgan University with usage of Morris Water Maze and working memory technique, we used 14 male albino wistar rats. Seventh rats were in control group and 7 rats in working memory group. After histological preparation, the slides were stained with PTAH staining for showing the Astrocytes. Present results showed significant difference in astrocytes number in CA1, CA2 and CA3 areas of hippocampus between control and reference memory group. The number of astrocytes is increased in working memory group. Then we divided the hippocampus to three parts: Anterior, middle and posterior and with compare of different area (CA1, CA2 and CA3) of hippocampus, we found that the differences between Anterior-middle and Middle-Posterior of CA1 and CA2 area of hippocampus were significant, whereas the difference between Anterior-Posterior parts was not significant in CA1 and CA2 areas. In CA3 area, the difference between Anterior-Middle and Anterior-Posterior parts was significant, whereas the difference between middle and posterior parts was not significant. We concluded that the number of astrocytes increased due to spatial learning and working memory technique. © 2008 Science Publications

The Degree of Practicing the Standards of the International Society for Technology in Education by Faculty Members in Jordanian and Palestinian Universities

The goal of this study was to evaluate how closely Jordanian and Palestinian university professors follow the recommendations of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Researchers analyzed a population of all academic staff members teaching at private or public universities in Jordan and Palestine using a descriptive-analytical methodology. A sample of 358 persons was chosen. The questionnaire was distributed and assessed the degree to which faculty members in Jordanian and Palestinian universities adhere to the ISTE requirements. It was found that the degree of adherence to the ISTE standards by faculty members in Jordanian and Palestinian universities was very large. However, it was found that there were no statistically significant differences at the level (α≤0.05) in the degree of adherence to the ISTE standards by faculty members in Jordanian and Palestinian universities according to the variables (country and type university). the study identified a number of recommendations for enhancing Palestinian universities, including scholars, professors, and administrators, complies with the standards established by the International Society of Technology. The report also suggests using technology into the teaching and learning process more

Lightweight and Low-Energy Encryption Scheme for Voice over Wireless Devices

In this work, a novel lightweight and low energy encryption algorithm for voice over wireless networks is being developed and tested. The new encryption algorithm has to meet the QoS requirements of voice traffic and to be suitable for wireless devices. The goal of the research was to reduce the execution time and power consumption of the encryption process compared with the standard algorithm and at the same time at least to maintain or to increase its security level. The proposed algorithm employs similar methods with those used in the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm (AES), with some changes and enhancements considering the limitations of wireless devices. The test results show significant improvements in new design metrics. A range of simulation scenarios are setup; testing data is analyzed to test delay, energy and security. Also, the comparison between the new algorithm and the standard one shows a significant amount of time and energy consumption reduction being achieved (approximately 35%), with good-level of complexity, making it more suitable for the wireless environment

The Need for Emergency Management Models

Emergency agencies can use emergency management models to enable them to better prepare for and respond to emergencies. This qualitative study aims to undertake a critical examination of emergency management models by thematic analysis to determine their significance to emergency management. A review and analysis of the existing literature were used in the study. The models were studied to explore their role in emergency management and to identify any significant constraints or challenges which could limit the ability of the emergency management model to carry out appropriate actions. The study found that such models are indispensable because they simplify and improve emergency management. Additionally, they may support planners, managers, and practitioners in reaching proper decisions, making them a valuable and necessary decision-making support tool. The study also showed that each model has an advantage that distinguishes it from the other models. Consequently, a comprehensive emergency management model should be designed to suit all cases and circumstances. The findings also confirmed the doubts raised about the limitations and concerns associated with the models. Concerns included future events’ unpredictability, the models’ prescriptive nature, the event’s cultural context, and the impact on businesses. The findings also indicated that certain planners, managers, and practitioners had a limited understanding of the use of models in emergency management. As such, they appear to have overlooked the use of models while dealing with emergencies. Hence, the study recommends that the models should be employed in all emergency management activities. The study also recommends that the findings are utilized as a basis for further research into the potential use of emergency management models

Knowledge, attitude and opinion of drug misuse and abuse by pharmacy students: a cross-sectional study in Jordan

Purpose: To assess the knowledge, attitude and opinion of final-year undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students regarding inappropriate drug use in a university campus, Amman, Jordan.Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a self-completed validated anonymous questionnaire that consisted of two parts was adopted. The first part of the questionnaire pertained to respondents’ demographic details, education level and any experience they might have had with drug misuse or abuse. The second part described students' knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the identification, prevention and management of drug misuse and abuse.Results: A total number of 198 pharmacy students filled the questionnaire (N = 131 undergraduate, and N = 67 postgraduate students). A majority of the students strongly agreed/agreed that all pharmacy staff must be trained on recognizing drug abusers (92.0 %), informed of the kinds of drugs abused in the local area of the pharmacy (93.4 %) and trained on methods of dealing with drug abusers (92.6 %).Conclusion: There is a need to implement a well-structured training on the identification, prevention and management of prescription and OTC drug misuse and abuse in undergraduate pharmacy curricula in Jordan. Modules should be updated regularly and tailored to meet the needs of pharmacy practice

Study of the hydromineral regulation of Typhlonectes compressicauda according to the seasonal variation

Introduction. Typhlonectes compressicauda is a viviparous gymnophionan amphibian living in tropical areas of South America. This lengthened amphibian is submitted to seasonal variations characterized by the rainy season (from January to June) and the dry season (from July to December). The mineral homeostasis in amphibians is partly ensured by the neurohormones arginine-vasotocin (AVT), and mesotocin (MST). These two hormones were localized in the hypothalamus, and their receptors, mesotocin receptors (MTR) and vasotocin receptors (VTR2) in the kidney. The aim of the study was to better understand the physiology of the hydromineral regulation of the studied species. Material and methods. The specimens of T. compressicauda male and female adult were divided into 6 groups: males in the rainy season, males in the dry season, females pregnant in the rainy season, females pregnant in the dry season, females not pregnant in the rainy season, females not pregnant in the dry season. We studied the expression of hormones (AVT, MST) and their receptors (MTR, VTR2) in the hypothalamus and the kidney, respectively, by immunohistochemical and histological techniques. We also studied the expression of aquaporin-2 (AQP2), a water-channel protein in the kidney. Results. We found that the MST (diuretic hormone) and its receptor were more intensively expressed during the rainy season, whereas the period of maximal AVT (anti-diuretic hormone) and VTR2 expression was the dry season. A quantitative analysis showed significant differences in the number of labeled cells in the hypothalamus depending on the seasonal variation. The expression of AQP2 was observed in renal tubules during both seasons with an increased intensity during the dry season. Conclusion. The expression of the MST/AVT in brain, their receptors MTRs/VTR2, and AQP2 in kidney changed in T. compressicauda according to the seasonal variations. A direct relationship between the seasonal cycle and reproduction cycle was demonstrated in this species

Natural scene classification, annotation and retrieval. Developing different approaches for semantic scene modelling based on Bag of Visual Words.

With the availability of inexpensive hardware and software, digital imaging has become an important medium of communication in our daily lives. A huge amount of digital images are being collected and become available through the internet and stored in various fields such as personal image collections, medical imaging, digital arts etc. Therefore, it is important to make sure that images are stored, searched and accessed in an efficient manner. The use of bag of visual words (BOW) model for modelling images based on local invariant features computed at interest point locations has become a standard choice for many computer vision tasks. Based on this promising model, this thesis investigates three main problems: natural scene classification, annotation and retrieval. Given an image, the task is to design a system that can determine to which class that image belongs to (classification), what semantic concepts it contain (annotation) and what images are most similar to (retrieval). This thesis contributes to scene classification by proposing a weighting approach, named keypoints density-based weighting method (KDW), to control the fusion of colour information and bag of visual words on spatial pyramid layout in a unified framework. Different configurations of BOW, integrated visual vocabularies and multiple image descriptors are investigated and analyzed. The proposed approaches are extensively evaluated over three well-known scene classification datasets with 6, 8 and 15 scene categories using 10-fold cross validation. The second contribution in this thesis, the scene annotation task, is to explore whether the integrated visual vocabularies generated for scene classification can be used to model the local semantic information of natural scenes. In this direction, image annotation is considered as a classification problem where images are partitioned into 10x10 fixed grid and each block, represented by BOW and different image descriptors, is classified into one of predefined semantic classes. An image is then represented by counting the percentage of every semantic concept detected in the image. Experimental results on 6 scene categories demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Finally, this thesis further explores, with an extensive experimental work, the use of different configurations of the BOW for natural scene retrieval.Applied Science University in Jorda