The Potential of Raman Spectroscopy in the Diagnosis of Premalignant Oral Lesions

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Technological University Dublin, School of Physics December 2017

The Implications of Applying Total Quality Management (TQM) On E-Learning in Egypt. “Suggested E-Learning Service Quality Model”

Egypt is seeking to accelerate comprehensive and sustainable development and to achieve higher growth rates for the interest of all classes and categories of society. According to what was published in 1/7/2013 by the public association for adult education AEA at the information and decision support centre in Egypt; 14.9% of population in age between 15 and 35 years old are illiterate. Here, we have to ask:" How a society where 14.9% of its young working power is illiterate can execute the mentioned adopted strategy of development?!"The Egyptian young working power is poor educated due to the bad education system ranking 131 out of 144 in the world. There is a need for a good High Educational system, affordable to those who does not have the opportunity to leave there jobs, from where they gain to live, in order to have a good education to improve their social life, and help them being part of the required development. Making benefit from the technological revolution and the excitement and passion of using it, can give the chance to offer an E-learning service through which a human development could be achieved. Then, strategies could be well adopted to improve society. In Organizations; Total Quality Management (TQM) has become most widely used management acronym and is considered as the buzz word in the management practices, keeping an eye on details. TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. On the other hand, Enterprises find ways to set themselves apart in the hyper-competitive global marketplace by applying e-service. E-Service may provide the greatest return on investment (ROI) and sets the foundation for adding and integrating other E-Business functionality in the future. Customers can achieve the service through web page without a need to any help or support at any time. E-service and Total quality management (TQM) seek for same goals, but from different perspectives. Now, what if an organisation offers an E-service while applying Total quality management (TQM)? Hoping to achieve a good affordable High educational E-learning system, it was decided to study “The Implications of applying TQM on E-Learning in Egypt”. This is for the great impact of the E- learning quality on the education as main national issue in Egypt. E-Learning was implemented in the near past few years, through limited programs in national Universities, and the Egyptian E-learning University established in 2009. The Quality management were also taken as essential of management in the higher educational institutes there. This research take a track to suggest Total Quality management Model to improve E-learning service offered in one of the Higher Educational Institutes in Egypt. The suggested e-learning Model emphasize that the eight elements of TQM were engaged in the Baldrige criteria framework. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) the main tool of evaluation of all the processes. The Idea of this model is to use Quality function Deployment (QFD) to translate and plan the‖ voice of the customer‖ into the quality characteristique of the service before enter the market. QFD analyse the client‘s requirements,define how each requirement will be satisfied by the service,organize the needs,illustrate the relationship between the requirement of the customer in the market and the needs to fullfil them. The result will be transmitted to the leadership Management,who will deploy the quality ,and apply the eight Total Quality Management Principles going through the seven categories of the Baldrige Criteria. The result of all the model phases shall affect the learner through the afforded high quality E-learning service. The high qualified personnel educated through the high quality E-learning system, will affect the social culture and environment from where comes the ―voice of cutomer‖, to be analyzed through the QFD, to the leadership management, and the improvement cycle continue.The suggested E-learning service Quality Model represents required emerged recognised set of procedures for validation of quality framework

The Effect of Fertilization by Humic Acid and Foliar Spraying with Nano-Micro-Nutrients on the Productive Traits of Solanum melongena L.

A factorial experiment was carried out according to the design of the completely randomized sector (R.C.B.D.) in the greenhouse of one of the nurseries in Al-Khalis district, located in the north of Diyala governorate, about 55 km from the capital Baghdad, investigate the effect of humic acid, nano-zinc oxide and nano-iron oxide on vegetative growth characteristics for eggplant, the planting experiment was carried out in the autumn season, on 9/10/2021. The experiment included treating the eggplants with 50 kg. ha-1 of humic acid and 50 to 100 mg. 1 liter of zinc oxide nanoparticles ZnO and iron oxide nanoparticles Fe3O4. The study results showed significant differences at the probability level of 5% between the averages of all the studied traits due to treating plants with humic acid. The study\u27s results also showed that the highest averages were obtained from the treatment with zinc oxide nanoparticles at a concentration of 50 mg. L-1. Significant differences were also obtained in the length of the fruit (cm), the yield of a plot of fruits (kg. plot-1), and the total yield (kg. hectare-1) as a result of treating the eggplant plant with nano iron oxide at a concentration of 50 mg. L-1

Vibrational Microspectroscopy for Cancer Screening

Vibrational spectroscopy analyses vibrations within a molecule and can be used to characterise a molecular structure. Raman spectroscopy is one of the vibrational spectroscopic techniques, in which incident radiation is used to induce vibrations in the molecules of a sample, and the scattered radiation may be used to characterise the sample in a rapid and non-destructive manner. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a complementary vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the absorption of IR radiation by the sample. Molecules absorb specific frequencies of the incident light which are characteristic of their structure. IR and Raman spectroscopy are sensitive to subtle biochemical changes occurring at the molecular level allowing spectral variations corresponding to disease onset to be detected. Over the past 15 years, there have been numerous reports demonstrating the potential of IR and Raman spectroscopy together with multivariate statistical analysis techniques for the detection of a variety of cancers including, breast, lung, brain, colon, oral, oesophageal, prostate and cervical cancer. This paper discusses the recent advances and the future perspectives in relation to cancer screening applications, focussing on cervical and oral cancer

Unemployment Menace and the Fallacy of Microcredit Policy in Nigeria

This study examined the issue of unemployment and the impact of microfinance  banks’ credit facilities on its reduction for the period of 22 years between 1992 and 2014. The study employed secondary data obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria and National Bureau of Statistics. The data obtained was subjected to stationarity and cointegration tests with the use of Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and  Phillips-Perron (PP) tests. Furthermore, ordinary least square regression was  employed in analyzing the relationship between the dependent variable  (unemployment rate) and the independent variables (microfinance banks’ credit facilities, gross domestic product, interest rate and inflation). The outcomes of the study show that three independent variables (microfinance banks’ credit facilities, interest rate and inflation) at 5% alpha level have significant impact on  unemployment while gross domestic product was found not to have any significant impact on unemployment. The study concludes that credit facilities provided by microfinance banks do not actually go to deserving individuals or borrowers, thus, having no impact on reducing the menace of unemployment in the country. The study therefore recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria re-evaluate the  performances of the operating microfinance banks in order to ascertain the  proportion of their loan portfolio that actually goes to the “unemployed but creative youths”. In addition, the CBN must as a matter of urgency take necessary action in ensuring that loans granted by microfinance banks are serviced at a single digit  interest rate as applied in countries like Kenya and Bangladesh. This is because  employment generation and overall economic development can only be achieved  when entrepreneurial youths can access credit facilities at affordable interest rate.Keywords: unemployment, microcredit, interest rate, inflation, gross domestic productJEL Codes: E24, G2

Study of the role of IL-17F gene polymorphism in the development of immune thrombocytopenia among the Egyptian children

Background: Interleukin 17F (IL-17F) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that is recently proved to have a crucial role in the emergence of autoimmune diseases; it induces the expression of various cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules. IL-17F polymorphism is subsequently related to enhanced IL-17F expression and activity; which may result in susceptibility to many autoimmune diseases including primary immune thrombocytopenia (PIT).Aim of the study: This case-control study aimed to investigate the possible association between IL and 17F gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at rs 7488A/G and PIT susceptibility in Egyptian pediatric patients.Subjects and methods: A total of 50 children with PIT with a mean age of 7 years, together with 50 age and sexmatched healthy controls were enrolled in the study for evaluation. Polymerase chain reactionrestriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used for detection of IL-17F polymorphism at rs7488A/G.Results: Regarding the genotypes distribution, the frequencies of the AA, AG and GG genotypes were 96, 2, and 2% in PIT patients and 90, 10 and 0% in the control group respectively. The A and G allele frequencies were 97 and 3% in the patients’ group versus 95 and 5% in the control group. There was no significant difference in either genotypes or allelic distribution between PIT patients and the controls.Conclusion: Our study suggests that IL17F gene polymorphism at rs7488A/G may not contribute to the susceptibility in development of primary immune thrombocytopenia in the Egyptian children.Keywords: Interleukin 17F (IL-17F), Primary immune thrombocytopenia (PIT), Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), Polymerase chain reaction-restriction, fragment polymorphism (PCR-RFLP

The Potential of Raman Spectroscopy in the Diagnosis of Dysplastic and Malignant Oral Lesions

Early diagnosis, treatment and/or surveillance of oral premalignant lesions are important in preventing progression to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The current gold standard is through histopathological diagnosis, which is limited by inter and intra observer and sampling errors. The objective of this work was to use Raman spectroscopy to discriminate between benign, mild, moderate and severe dysplasia and OSCC in formalin fixed paraffin preserved (FFPP) tissues. The study included 72 different pathologies from which 17 were benign lesions, 20 mildly dysplastic, 20 moderately dysplastic, 10 severely dysplastic and 5 invasive OSCC. The glass substrate and paraffin wax background were digitally removed and PLSDA with LOPO cross-validation was used to differentiate the pathologies. OSCC could be differentiated from the other pathologies with an accuracy of 70%, while the accuracy of the classifier for benign, moderate and severe dysplasia was ~60%. The accuracy of the classifier was lowest for mild dysplasia (~46%). The main discriminating features were increased nucleic acid contributions and decreased protein and lipid contributions in the epithelium and decreased collagen contributions in the connective tissue. Smoking and the presence of inflammation were found to significantly influence the Raman classification with respective accuracies of 76% and 94%

Optimum influence of tensile functions on welded parts of AA 2024-T3 produced from friction stir mechanism utilizing air and water

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a modern technology employed in welding aluminum alloys in various industrial fields such as airplane industries. Therefore, AA 2024-T3 alloy can be one of the active materials used in this field. From here, numerous studies have been conducted on the natural flow of air and water to cool the welded joints of this alloy. Nonetheless, the forced air and water were not utilized with this alloy. Hence, the purpose of this study is to apply these forced convection mechanisms to specify the optimal outputs of tensile functions using multi-objective optimization by the General Full Factorial (GFF) technique. In addition, the rotational speeds were 800, 1000, 1200 rpm in this experimental medium. Therefore, the optimal parameters resulting from this work were 1200 rpm and forced water to achieve the best performance. Furthermore, the morphology of the fracture region is induced by these parameters leading to appearing big dimples. Finally, these dimples contribute to enhancing the plastic fracture without brittleness

Bibliometric Analysis of Scholarly Output on Cardiovascular Disease- Related Research in Qatar: A Preliminary Analysis

Background: Qatar is facing an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). CVDs research is one of the country's priority research areas according to Qatar National Research Funds (QNRF) and Qatar University research roadmaps. Tremendous amount of investment and funding has been dedicated to this area. Study objective: This bibliometric analysis study aimed to provide a quantitative and qualitative description of CVD-related research in Qatar over the last 20 years. Method: Literature search was conducted through Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane. Research published between 2000 and 2020 were included. A preliminary analysis was done for the 534 documents published in the period between 2018 - 2020. Results: There was about a 42% increase in publications from 2018 to 2020. Almost half of the publications (48%) were published in first quartile ranked journals (Q1). Stroke was the main covered research area. Approximately 44% of the publications had a main author from a Qatari affiliation, and 56% of the Qatari funded publication received the grants from QNRF. Conclusion: This study will serve as a tool for better allocation of funding and grants in CVD-related research. Upon the completion of the study, we will be able to visualize more clearly and make a conclusion about CVD-related research in Qatar