A review of the literature on the issues and roles of E-Learning in UAE higher education

E-Learning is becoming a popular delivery method across various universities and colleges in UAE as the region is experiencing a rapid growth of e-Learning in higher education. Adequate infrastructure, changes in demographic profile, globalization, government initiatives, outsourcing and increasing demand for IT knowledge-based jobs are the major factors responsible for e-Learning growth in higher education in UAE. However, e-Learning has many problems such as inadequate equipment, improper guidance on using e- Learning gadgets, inadequate infrastructure, changes in demographic profile, globalization, inadequate government initiatives are the major problems of e-Learning growth in higher education in UAE. Based on this review, e-Learners have shown indeed a very high level of understanding concerning the potential and value of e-Learning. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will offer opportunities to improve policy and practice of e-Learning in higher education in the UAE so as to solidify its position as an e-learning hub in the gulf region

Particle Ratios From Strongly Interacting Hadronic Matter

We calculate the particle ratios for a strongly interacting hadronic matter matter using non-linear Walecka model (NLWM) in relativistic mean-field approximation. A comparison with Hadron Resonance Gas Model is made.Comment: 18 pages, 23 figure

Price of Competition and Dueling Games

We study competition in a general framework introduced by Immorlica et al. and answer their main open question. Immorlica et al. considered classic optimization problems in terms of competition and introduced a general class of games called dueling games. They model this competition as a zero-sum game, where two players are competing for a user's satisfaction. In their main and most natural game, the ranking duel, a user requests a webpage by submitting a query and players output an ordering over all possible webpages based on the submitted query. The user tends to choose the ordering which displays her requested webpage in a higher rank. The goal of both players is to maximize the probability that her ordering beats that of her opponent and gets the user's attention. Immorlica et al. show this game directs both players to provide suboptimal search results. However, they leave the following as their main open question: "does competition between algorithms improve or degrade expected performance?" In this paper, we resolve this question for the ranking duel and a more general class of dueling games. More precisely, we study the quality of orderings in a competition between two players. This game is a zero-sum game, and thus any Nash equilibrium of the game can be described by minimax strategies. Let the value of the user for an ordering be a function of the position of her requested item in the corresponding ordering, and the social welfare for an ordering be the expected value of the corresponding ordering for the user. We propose the price of competition which is the ratio of the social welfare for the worst minimax strategy to the social welfare obtained by a social planner. We use this criterion for analyzing the quality of orderings in the ranking duel. We prove the quality of minimax results is surprisingly close to that of the optimum solution

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome presented with sudden renal failure and history of long-lasting psychosis and hypertension in a 42 years old women

Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education: The catastrophic variant of the antiphospholipid syndrome (CASP) is defined as a potential life-threatening variant of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which is characterized by multiple small-vessel thrombosis that can lead to organ failure especially renal deterioration. This vaso-occlusive nephropathy mainly affects arterioles, interlobular arteries and glomerular tufts. However, interstitial area and tubules maybe subsequently involved. © 2013, Society of Diabetic Nephropathy Prevention. All rights reserved

Drug-Induced Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure in Asian Patients

Objectives: Acute insults from viruses, infections, or alcohol are established causes of decompensation leading to acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Information regarding drugs as triggers of ACLF is lacking. We examined data regarding drugs producing ACLF and analyzed clinical features, laboratory characteristics, outcome, and predictors of mortality in patients with drug-induced ACLF. Metods: We identified drugs as precipitants of ACLF among prospective cohort of patients with ACLF from the Asian Pacific Association of Study of Liver (APASL) ACLF Research Consortium (AARC) database. Drugs were considered precipitants after exclusion of known causes together with a temporal association between exposure and decompensation. Outcome was defined as death from decompensation. Results: Of the 3,132 patients with ACLF, drugs were implicated as a cause in 329 (10.5%, mean age 47 years, 65% men) and other nondrug causes in 2,803 (89.5%) (group B). Complementary and alternative medications (71.7%) were the commonest insult, followed by combination antituberculosis therapy drugs (27.3%). Alcoholic liver disease (28.6%), cryptogenic liver disease (25.5%), and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) (16.7%) were common causes of underlying liver diseases. Patients with drug-induced ACLF had jaundice (100%), ascites (88%), encephalopathy (46.5%), high Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) (30.2), and Child-Turcotte-Pugh score (12.1). The overall 90-day mortality was higher in drug-induced (46.5%) than in non-drug-induced ACLF (38.8%) (P = 0.007). The Cox regression model identified arterial lactate (P \u3c 0.001) and total bilirubin (P = 0.008) as predictors of mortality. Discussion: Drugs are important identifiable causes of ACLF in Asia-Pacific countries, predominantly from complementary and alternative medications, followed by antituberculosis drugs. Encephalopathy, bilirubin, blood urea, lactate, and international normalized ratio (INR) predict mortality in drug-induced ACLF