MOLECULAR STUDIES OF KARENIA MIKIMOTOI (DINOPHYCEAE) FROM THE CELTIC SEA REGION

K. mikimotoi has been classified under many names and has been mis-assigned to different species and genera in the North Atlantic and Pacific because of its morphological similarities to other Gymnodinoid species. It is now known to be widely distributed, but there remain unresolved questions about whether K. mikimotoi was introduced into the North Sea from Japanese waters, or whether it has always inhabited this region and been erroneously classified as Gymnodinium spp. or has been a part of the hidden flora prior to be recognised in a bloom off the Norwegian coast in 1966. To address questions about geographical genetic variation within K. mikimotoi and broader issues about its biogeography it was deemed important to develop a suitable diagnostic molecular marker that could then be used to monitor the presence/absence of different K. mikimotoi ecotypes over long time scales in European waters. This study showed that the partial rDNA LSU (D1-D2) was too conserved to separate the different strains of K. mikimotoi, while, the ITS region was better able to discriminate between the different strains. However, the rbcL gene was the most informative gene and contained sufficient substitutions to separate the different strains of K. mikimotoi. Specific PCR-primers were designed to amplify a variable region of the rbcL gene able to distinguish differences between K. mikimotoi isolates from the different regions. The innovative high resolution melting temperature (HRM) technique based on specific primer set allowed rapid discrimination of K. mikimotoi from distinct geographic localities (= sequence variants) that differed by only a single nucleotide. Moreover, this study used archival environmental samples collected from the Celtic Sea shelf-break region. The high resolution melting temperature assay successfully detected the European K. mikimotoi isolate within the south-western English Channel in a 1963 sample, which is prior to thefirst report of a K. mikimotoi bloom in Norwegian waters in 1966 and in the south-western English Channel in 1975 and in western Japan in 1965. HRM observations were further validated using clone libraries and sequencing. In summary, this data provided more information about the genotypes present over the analysed timescales, revealing that K. mikimotoi sub-species 2 (European and New Zealand strains) was present in south-western English Channel and south-west Ireland for over 47 years, with sub-species 1 (the Japanese isolate) being absent from all examined samples. This finding supports the hypothesis that K. mikimotoi isolates within Europe are not of Japanese origin and suggests that they are native species to the region.Kuwait Institute for Scientific Researc

Social intelligence skills of high school students at Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity in the state of Kuwait and its relationship to some demographic variables

The purpose of this study is to identify the degree of possession of social intelligence skills of High School students at Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity in the State of Kuwait. It also purposes to study the relationship between students' possession of social intelligence skills and other variables. The researcher designs a questionnaire to collect data, and the study methodology used the descriptive analytical approach. The sample consisted of 163 high school students at the Center for Giftedness and Creativity, 94 boys and 69 girls. Using statistical methods, the Finding indicated that High School students at Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Creativity and Giftedness possessed social intelligence skills at a degree between medium and slightly high, as the general average reached (3.89). The Finding showed that the students possess (social competence skills, empathy skills, with others, and communication skills with others) to a high degree, and leadership and organization skills to a degree that tends to decrease somewhat. The study did not find statistically significant differences according to the variables of gender, academic phase and number of brothers and sisters

Evaluation of the effect of air pollution on human health in Kuwait.

Even before the 1990 war the populations of some areas of Kuwait was subject to severe atmospheric pollution. However, little was known about the effect of this pollution on health and on the use of health care. Three areas in Kuwait were chosen for study which were demographically similar and lay at a different distances to the north (i.e. usually downwind) of the industrial area. Plant in this area emits hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and carbon monoxide among other pollutants. A special survey was carried out to gather information on demographic, health and lifestyle factors including age, sex, place of residence, smoking, physical symptoms, psychological effects, life satisfaction, environmental problems, experience of air pollution and use of health care. A random sample of 136 households (1140 persons) was chosen from the three areas and studied over the period from lst February 1988 to 31st January 1989. Data on levels of pollution concentrations and meteorological conditions were also collected over the same period for each area studied. Data on use of health care were available from the health centres in the three areas studied and also from the population survey.The demographic similarity of the three areas studied was generally confirmed by the data from population survey. The relationships involved were examined for different age groups using cross tabulation, time series analysis and regression analysis. There were clear gradients with increased distance from the industrial area in levels of pollution, levels of selfreported physical and psychological symptoms and in the use of health care. Of the individual pollutants it appeared that carbon monoxide levels were most closely correlated with levels of symptoms. For those aged less than 18, the link to CO was closest for respiratory symptoms, while for those aged 18 to 64 the link was with headache. The use of primary care is more closely linked to H2S although this relationship is relatively weak. Consider the relationship between levels of pollution in the three areas studied and Kuwait City and the levels of pollution in Shuaiba area taking meteorological conditions into account. The purpose of this was to allow for estimates of the effect of pollution reduction in Shuaiba on the health of population elsewhere in the country. However, no way was and of making such estimates with sufficient prison. This analysis confirmed a number of recommendations that have been made by others

Genotypic and phenotypic diversity differences of presumptive commensal and avian pathogenic E. coli

1. The objective of the experiment was to characterise the genotypic and phenotypic differences between presumptive commensal E. coli and avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) of poultry. 2. DNA was extracted from 65 confirmed APEC E. coli from chicken, 100 presumptive commensal E. coli from healthy turkey and 35 from healthy chicken. Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR (ERIC-PCR) and virulence factors genotyping was performed to characterise genetic features. 3. Carbon source utilisation and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed to characterise phenotypic features of isolates. 4. The genetic divergence between E. coli strains tested by ERIC-PCR profiles and virulence associated genes showed a clear genetic separation between E. coli APEC and turkey E. coli strains. 5. The carbon utilisation profile of turkey isolates was different from chicken and APEC strains; whereas antimicrobial susceptibility was highest for turkey isolates (53%), and lowest for APEC strains (33.8%). 6. The study showed a significant negative correlation between utilisation of arabitol and adonitol with different virulence determinants tested, which suggests that the ability to utilise some uncommon carbon sources may be used to discriminate between presumptive commensal E. coli and APEC

Big Data Regulatory Legislation: Security, Privacy and Smart City Governance

Dubai is a smart city: this cannot be contested. The city has labelled itself as a globally recognized successful smart city and it has set in place a vision and a strategy to achieve the goal to become a smart city and to keep this status. Therefore, to sustain its competiveness, the Government of Dubai is considering the massive, fast and diverse data moving quickly everywhere creating what is known as “Big Data” era. This data is becoming the most important source of valuable insights and ultimately helping to make more informed decisions. Despite the growing demand and hopes with the big data, legal and ethical issues related to accessing data remains the main challenge. Therefore, in 2017, Dubai has announced its new Big Data Regulations Act aiming at regulating the big data usage and access to improve policies for better quality of life. This comes as part of the Smart Dubai roadmap to prepare Dubai to embrace the future and emerge as a world-leading city by 2021. The new regulations aim at ensuring privacy, security and governance of the data. The paper will explore the new regulatory act, and evaluate how it sustains and develop comprehensive infrastructure for the big data era in Dubai to maintain the city’s vision. Keywords: Big Data, Smart City, Dubai Data Law, Governance DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/95-03 Publication date:March 31st 202

PREDICTION OF A FUNCTION OF MISCLASSIFIED BINARY DATA

We consider the problem of predicting a function of misclassified binary variables. We make an interesting observation that the naive predictor, which ignores the misclassification errors, is unbiased even if the total misclassification error is high as long as the probabilities of false positives and false negatives are identical. Other than this case, the bias of the naive predictor depends on the misclassification distribution and the magnitude of the bias can be high in certain cases. We correct the bias of the naive predictor using a double sampling idea where both inaccurate and accurate measurements are taken on the binary variable for all the units of a sample drawn from the original data using a probability sampling scheme. Using this additional information and design-based sample survey theory, we derive a biascorrected predictor. We examine the cases where the new bias-corrected predictors can also improve over the naive predictor in terms of mean square error (MSE)

Social Alienation and its Relationship to Aggressive Behavior among the Youth in Kuwaiti Society

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between aggressive behavior and social alienation among the youth in Kuwaiti society. Six dimensions of alienation scale were examined: powerlessness, normlessness, social isolation, meaninglessness, selfestrangement and cultural estrangement. A sample of 486 aged between 17-24 years was selected by using opportunistic sample. Questionnaire was the major tool of this study. It included demographic and primary variables. It included also some scales: self-report religiosity, self-report social support, self-report social network, and aggression scales. A social alienation with six dimensions scale was also used. Results show that there are significant differences between male and female in aggression, social alienation scales, and some social variables. Data show also there is a significant correlation between aggression scale and religiosity, some social variables (number of family members), and social support. Also, relationship is found between aggression and alienation scales in all its dimensions. The Youth with high amount of social alienation have more aggressive behavior

Characterization and comparison of Campylobacter bacteriophages

Members of the genus Campylobacter are a major cause of food-borne disease worldwide. They can colonize the intestinal mucosa of poultry, to high levels leading to contamination of meat, at slaughter. Their numbers can be reduced in different ways including chicken treatment with bacteriophages. For such treatments to be successful, in depth understanding of the bacteriophage that infects and kills campylobacters is vital. The work in this thesis describes: isolation and comprehensive characterisation of bacteriophage candidates for future therapy applications. In order to increase the available stocks of characterized candidate bacteriophage, a number of attempts were made to isolate bacteriophages from poultry excreta. The new isolates together with some uncharacterized phages from our laboratory stocks were characterized with respect to their host range and genomic size. Some bacteriophages preparations in previous studies showed genomes of different sizes and a number of attempts were done for their separation. This raised questions about the relationship between the two different sized genomes. Prior to this work, a co isolate pair had been successfully separated and the sequence of the larger genome, CP220, was determined. Part of the work here, was performed to extend this study by obtaining the sequence of the smaller co isolate, CPX and compare it to CP220. They did not appear to have any identifiable relationship at the genetic level, but the availability of the CPX sequence will further extend our knowledge of bacteriophage genetics and this phage has clear therapeutic potential. Attempts were also made to separate and characterize a second co-isolate pair but these were unsuccessful. The availability of the DNA sequence of CP220 allowed a much closer molecular characterisation and comparison of Campylobacter phage genomes, than had previously been possible. One area that was investigated in this study was the presence of repeat regions identified in the CP220 genome, which were amplified by PCR, but could not be cloned in E. coli. Furthermore, genes encoding potential lysins were identified in the CP220 genome and they were amplified, cloned and attempts were made to express the proteins, which may have potential therapeutic value. One gene product was successfully expressed and showed evidence of lytic activity on Campylobacter and other bacterial genera. In summary, this thesis describes a much closer examination of molecular biology of Campylobacter bacteriophage than had previously been possible, including the determination of the sequence CPX phage