HYPERSPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF DATE PALM TREES (PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.)

The goal of this study is to classify the Date Palm varieties based on hyperspectral signature technology since it is difficult to identify the Date Palm cultivars without fruits. It will also help to obtain the hyperspectral signature for different types of date palm trees. Moreover, it also assists to determine the wavelength fingerprint of each cultivar and to recommend the best classification protocol differentiating among different cultivars based on spectral signature. Utilizing the Hyperspectral imaging technology precisely on the leaves of different Date Palm cultivars, thus facilitating identification of date palm cultivars without the fruits and make the spatial classification. Hyperspectral benefits enable to detect mixtures of materials within same pixel, to identify specific materials with high degree of accuracy, to get some measure of relative abundance based on depth of absorption features and, to produce the quantitative (rather than qualitative) results. For the treatments, in this study, the six cultivars of Date Palm trees (Barhi, Khadrawi, Khenaizi, Khalas, Fard and Helali) were tested. Ten samples for each cultivar from tissue culture were taken and tested considering the same age and identical conditions (control). Later, the samples were analyzed by using the RGB bands. Analyzing the tissue culture samples, the overall results indicate that, each cultivar of the Date Palm tree has the different spectral signatur

The Saudi Arabian adaptation of the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination – Revised (Arabic ACE-R)

BACKROUND: The population of the Arab World is about 300 million and the Arabic language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. As with the rest of the world, degenerative neurological conditions represent a major health problem in regions such as the Middle-East where Arab people are in the majority. However, clinical neuropsychology is still in its infancy in this region. Very few tools for the assessment of cognition have been developed for use with Arabic speakers in the Middle-East region. The Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination – Revised is a brief cognitive assessment tool that has been well validated in its original English version as well as a number of other languages, but never been adapted for use with Arabic speakers. An important issue for the assessment of cognition in this region is the high level of illiteracy, particularly in older adults, making the development of tools that can be used with both literate and illiterate participants a priority. OBJECTIVES: The studies presented in this thesis involved the translation, adaptation and validation of an Arabic Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination- Revised (ACE-R) and involved data collection from both literate and iliterate participants. METHODS: The ACE-R was translated into Arabic and the process is described in Chapter 2. Critical to the process was the cultural adaption of the test items. Three parallel versions were developed. Data was collected from four participant samples, recruited in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: (1) Healthy literate (N= 147); (2) Healthy illiterate (N= 283); (3) Literate with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) (N= 54); (4) Illiterate with a diagnosis of AD or MCI (N= 169). Chapter 3 presents a study of the validity of the Arabic ACE-R in literate participants. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses were undertaken to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Arabic ACE-R to MCI/dementia, as well as positive and negative predictive values. Optimal cut-off scores were determined. Chapter 4 presents a study of the reliability of the Arabic ACE-R with literate participants. Parallel forms of the Arabic ACE-R were administered on two occasions separated by approximately one week. Test-retest and internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) were examined. A version of the test was developed for use with non-literate participants and Chapter 5 presents a study of its validity with this population. Chapter 6 reports a study of the reliability of the tool with non-literate participants. Chapter 7 reports normative data for the Arabic ACE-R, identifying fifth percentile cut-off points. RESULTS: Literate participants: Amongst healthy controls Arabic ACE-R data were not normally distributed, hence non-parametric statistics used in analyses. Amongst healthy controls age was correlated with Arabic ACE-R performance (rho = -0.568, p<0.0001) and level of education was also correlated with Arabic ACE-R performance (rho = 0.559, p<0.0001). As there was a significant difference in age between healthy controls and patient groups, groups were matched for age by removal of young controls and participants also examined in three age bands. Groups were matched for level of education. There were significant differences between each of the three groups examined – Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type and healthy controls. As the MCI group was small, Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analyses were conducted on the combined MCI/DAT group compared with the healthy control group. Levels of sensitivity/specificity were high. For a cut-off point of 70, sensitivity was 1.000 and specificity was 0.946. The positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) were also high, particular for base rates that are likely to be closer to those found in clinical practice. For literate participants, internal reliability was high (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.932) as was total score test-retest reliability (rho=0.944). Individual subscale reliability ranged from rho=0.685 (Fluency) to rho=0.865 (Memory). Illiterate participants: Amongst healthy controls Arabic ACE-R data was not normally distributed, hence non-parametric statistics were used again. Amongst healthy controls age was correlated with Arabic ACE-R performance (rho = -286, p<0.001). As there was a significant difference in age between healthy controls and patient groups, groups were matched for age by removal of young controls and participants were also examined in three age bands. At a group level the data showed that there was a significant difference going from healthy to MCI and from MCI to DAT groups. ROC analyses showed that the Arabic ACE-R distinguished well between the healthy controls and patients with a diagnosis of either MCI or DAT. The optimum cut-off point on the Arabic ACE-R (65) had good sensitivity and specificity. Internal reliability was also high (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.987) as was total score test-retest reliability (rho=0.916), with individual sub-scale scores ranging from rho=0.647 (Language) to 0.861 (visuo-spatial). Analysis of normative data indicated the cut-off scores based on fifth percentile point results in somewhat higher cut-off points that those derived from ROC analyses, particularly for the younger literate participants. Potential reasons for these differences are discussed. CONCLUSION: The Arabic ACE-R shows good sensitivity and specificity in the detection of patients with a clinical diagnosis of either AD or MCI. This appears to be the case for both literate and illiterate participants. The Arabic ACE-R (Illiterate version) was straightforward to administer with just four tasks being omitted. This study only compared healthy controls and patients with clear evidence of dementia/MCI (and only small numbers of MCI). Because of the strong tradition of caring for older adults within families, and stigma associated with mental health problems, people with dementia are typically not referred to a doctor until the condition appears very clearly. Further research is needed to examine participants in earlier stages of disease and also participants with psychological/mood disorder. The Arabic ACE-R appears to be a reliable instrument for the assessment of cognitive impairment that may be arising from a degenerative neurological condition for both literate and illiterate participants

Antecedents And Outcomes Of Social Networking Sites Usage Among Students Within Higher Education In UAE. Opportunities Vs Challenges And Future Research

Socialnetworking became a buzzlword in both economic and social life. It speeds up the growth of economy through providing a flexible and effective communication tool. The leading platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatApp, and LinkedIn play an effective role in the development of education system. Yet, few studies have investigated how social networking influence studies education and how to maximize their advantages, especially in the Middle Eastern countries. This leaves gap that needs to be bridged and studies are needed to understand this issue and how the students in higher education institutions benefit from them. Therefore, this study aims to identify the key drivers of socialneworing in the Middle eastern countries in general and from UAE particularly. This study also intends to highlight on the opportunities of socialnetworking as well as the challenges that face the effectiveness utilization socialnetworing in education system. Finally this study conclude with the future research trend

Prevalence and factors associated with overweight and central obesity among adults in the Eastern Sudan

© 2020 Omar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background A global epidemic of obesity has been documented, particularly among African countries. While central obesity and overweight have been reported for many countries, very limited information exists about the prevalence of these health problems in Sudan, and these data are nonexistent for Eastern Sudan. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity and central obesity, as well as the factors associated with both, among adults in Gadarif, Eastern Sudan. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Gadarif, Eastern Sudan, during the period of January through May 2018. Sociodemographic and health characteristics data were collected through a questionnaire. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were measured using the standard methods. Both descriptive and inferential statics were applied to analyze the data. Results A total of 594 adults participated in the study; 70.4% of them were female. The mean (standard deviation) age was 44.98 (16.64) years. Of the 594 enrolled participants, 33.7%, 7.4%, 26.8%, and 32.2% were normal weight, underweight, overweight, and obese, respectively. The prevalence of central obesity was (67.8%). Approximately, one-third of the participants (29.29%) were obese and had central obesity. In the multinomial regression, being married was the main risk factor associated with overweight, and older age, female sex, being married and hypertension were significantly associated with obesity. In the binary regression, the main risk factors associated with central obesity were female sex and being married. Conclusion The prevalence rates of both obesity and central obesity among the study participants were high. Older age and hypertension were only associated with obesity. Obesity and central obesity were significantly associated with female sex and being married. This study provided valuable baseline information to develop appropriate strategies for the prevention and control of obesity in Eastern Sudan

Use of polypropylene ropes in concrete to minimize steel reinforcement

Progress in construction and buildings industry depends on so many parameters especially materials used. Concrete materials are cheap but still need minimization in their costs. Steel is one of the materials used in concrete structural members to support the concrete as reinforcement. In this study a polypropylene rope (PP ropes) were used to support the task of steel reinforcement especially in tension zones and to decrease the total cost of the concrete section. To know how this matter achieved seven concrete beams were casted one of them was without polypropylene ropes as control beam where as others were reinforced only with polypropylene ropes. The dimensions of the concrete beams were (200cm ×30cm ×20cm). Whole concrete tests were done to find out the most effective properties of concrete like compression, rupture modulus and tensile strength. Seven beams were exposed to monotonic load to find out the load at failure and corresponding deflection at mid span. Results show that if four ropes were used in tension zone of the concrete section the strength increased by about 9%. This ratio seems to be low but the cheap cost of these ropes encourages designers to use more number of ropes in concrete section. This idea needs more future work

3,3-Dieth­oxy-5-fluoro-2,3-dihydro-1H-indol-2-one

The title ketal, C12H14FNO3, crystallized with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit. In each molecule the fused ring system is essentially planar [maximum deviations of 0.0169 (11) and 0.0402 (13) Å]. The mol­ecules are each hydrogen bonded across a center of inversion into a dimer; adjacent dimers are linked by another N—H⋯O hydrogen bond, forming a chain running along [100]

Association between Body Mass Index and Bone Mineral Density in Patients Referred for Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry Scan in Ajman, UAE

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a good indicator for measurements of Bone Mineral Density (BMD) which measures the density of minerals present in the bones using a special scan. This study was conducted to assess the association between BMI and status of BMD among 101 individuals who underwent Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. 39 subjects had normal and 62 had low bone mineral density. BMD was low in 82.4% of people with normal BMI, 78.1% among overweight, and 44.2% among obese. There was a statistically significant association between these two variables (P < .001). Low BMD was recorded in 59.1% of females and 76.9% of males. Association between advancing age and lower BMI is an important risk factor in the occurrence of low BMD