Assessment of power plant emission and its health impact in Gaza

The aim of study was to investigate the concentrations of the ambient air pollutants (i.e PM2.5, CO, CO2) and to examine the health impacts on the residentials living surrounding the power plant in Gaza City-Palestine.The pollutants were monitored several distance surrounding the plant for a period of four months during both summer and winter seasons using a portable laser particle counter and gaseous monitor. A public health questionnaire was also distributed on the residents living around the power plant in order to assess the impact of air pollution on their health status.The results showed that the concentration of particulate matter exceeded the WHO standard where the highest level was 79 ?g/m3 and the lowest level was 49?g/m3. However the concentration of carbon monoxide was lower than the WHO standards where the highest level was 2.18 ppm and lowest level was 0.1 ppm. Moreover, the concentration of carbon dioxide oscillated from 254 ppm to 514 ppm. The health assessment results showed that 50% of the study sample suffered of breathing difficulties.This study concluded that the concentration of particulate matter and carbon dioxide were high, while the level of carbon monoxide was low, furthermore the level of public awareness was good. Meanwhile 40% of population sample visited the hospital because of a disease that infects the respiratory tract

The impact of Gaza fishing harbour on the Mediterranean coast of Gaza

The Mediterranean coast of Gaza strip, which is covered about 40 km in length, is rich by coastal resources. The development that occurred along the coastal lines has led to the host of problems such as increased erosion, siltation, loss of coastal resources and the destruction of the fragile marine habitats. In order to conserve the depleting coastal resources, the changes due to development and associated activities must be monitored. Studying the temporal pattern of shoreline change is considered one of the most effective means of monitoring the cumulative effects of different activities. An attempt was made to study the impact of Gaza harbour on shoreline displacement along 6 km. This paper was intended to detect changes of coastal area in Gaza city to provide future database in coastal management studies. The analysis was carried out using image processing technique (ERDAS) and Geographical Information System platform. The variation during 38 years in the shoreline along the Gaza coast was determined by analyzing MSS, TM and ETM Landsat images from 1972 to 2010. The analyses identified the erosion and accretion patterns along the coast. The shoreline was advanced south of the Gaza fishing harbor, where the wave-induced littoral transport was halted by southern breakwater and the annual beach growth rate was 15,900 m 2. On the downdrift side of the harbor, the shoreline was retreating and beaches erode at an annual rate of-14,000 m 2. This study was emphasized that the coastal band is considered as a critical area, it is therefore necessary to monitor coastal zone changes because of the importance of environmental

Composition and Self-Adaptation of Service-Based Systems with Feature Models

The adoption of mechanisms for reusing software in pervasive systems has not yet become standard practice. This is because the use of pre-existing software requires the selection, composition and adaptation of prefabricated software parts, as well as the management of some complex problems such as guaranteeing high levels of efficiency and safety in critical domains. In addition to the wide variety of services, pervasive systems are composed of many networked heterogeneous devices with embedded software. In this work, we promote the safe reuse of services in service-based systems using two complementary technologies, Service-Oriented Architecture and Software Product Lines. In order to do this, we extend both the service discovery and composition processes defined in the DAMASCo framework, which currently does not deal with the service variability that constitutes pervasive systems. We use feature models to represent the variability and to self-adapt the services during the composition in a safe way taking context changes into consideration. We illustrate our proposal with a case study related to the driving domain of an Intelligent Transportation System, handling the context information of the environment.Work partially supported by the projects TIN2008-05932, TIN2008-01942, TIN2012-35669, TIN2012-34840 and CSD2007-0004 funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER; P09-TIC-05231 and P11-TIC-7659 funded by Andalusian Government; and FP7-317731 funded by EU. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Gendering the Politics of Alienation: Arab Revolution and Women’s Sentiments of Loss and Despair

The article suggests that from the start of the revolutions in the Arab region in late 2010 a connection between the law, state, political economy, gender norms and orientalist ideology has formed the foundation of women’s systematic exclusion from politics. As a consequence, women’s alienation from politics – a necessity for the restoration of old regimes of power – took on various forms, including: externalising, exceptionalising, and celebrating women’s revolutionary acts and contributions to revolutions. This article examines these processes that created the ideological and material conditions of women’s alienation, estranging their political involvement and exposing them to various forms of violence The article suggests that alienation of women from revolutions relied on gender normative ideology to create women’s supposedly unique and distinct interests; according to this ideology, women attempt to satisfy such interests through dancing, nikah al-jihad or the desire to be sexually harassed. Women’s power and needs were moulded as distinctly different from those of men. Hence, forms of alienation diminished women’s roles as initiators, producers of revolutions, rendering women apart. This article shows that, whilst forms of alienation differed in various political phases and often contradicted each other, the intent of each form of alienation was to show a defect, a mistake in women’s acts, and thus establish the supposedly ‘correct’ characteristics of women protesters based on women’s intrinsic nature. Through this, gender normativity was reproduced to serve the political class(s)’s specific interests, 2 determining the linkages between the alienation of women from politics, the alienation of the revolution from its people, and the entire sphere of politics. The sphere of politics not only relates to political activism and conflict between revolutions and counterrevolutions, it is also a battlefield for the (re)production of knowledge

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

إجراءات التخفيف من التآكل الساحلي لغزة

Coastal erosion is an ongoing hazard affecting Gaza beach, but is worsening due to a wide range of human activities such as the construction of Gaza fishing harbor in 1994-1998. The net annual alongshore sediment transport is about 190×103 m3, but can vary significantly depending on the severity of winter storms. According to the observed wave heights and directions, the net waves are cross-shore, therefore vast quantities of sediments may transfer to deep sea. The main objective of this study is to mitigate the erosion problem of Gaza coast. Change detection analysis was used to compute the spatial and temporal change of Gaza shoreline between 1972 and 2010. The results show negative rates in general, which means that the erosion was the predominant process. Gaza fishing harbor caused a serious damage to the Beach Camp shoreline. Consequently, several mitigation measures were considered in this study, which are: relocation of Gaza fishing harbor to offshore, groins, detached breakwaters, wide-crested submerged breakwaters and beach nourishment. Several numerical model tests associated with coastal structures are conducted to investigate the influence on morphodynamics. The results show that the relocation of the harbor is the best alternative to stop trapping of the sediments. If for any reason the relocation was not carried out, the wide-crested submerged breakwater alternative is an effective structure for preventing sandy beach erosion. The artificial reef type of submerged breakwaters with beach nourishment is recommended for Gaza beach, because it is an environmentally friendly and improving the ecosystem of marine life.Coastal erosion is an ongoing hazard affecting Gaza beach, but is worsening due to a wide range of human activities such as the construction of Gaza fishing harbor in 1994-1998. The net annual alongshore sediment transport is about 190×103 m3, but can vary significantly depending on the severity of winter storms. According to the observed wave heights and directions, the net waves are cross-shore, therefore vast quantities of sediments may transfer to deep sea. The main objective of this study is to mitigate the erosion problem of Gaza coast. Change detection analysis was used to compute the spatial and temporal change of Gaza shoreline between 1972 and 2010. The results show negative rates in general, which means that the erosion was the predominant process. Gaza fishing harbor caused a serious damage to the Beach Camp shoreline. Consequently, several mitigation measures were considered in this study, which are: relocation of Gaza fishing harbor to offshore, groins, detached breakwaters, wide-crested submerged breakwaters and beach nourishment. Several numerical model tests associated with coastal structures are conducted to investigate the influence on morphodynamics. The results show that the relocation of the harbor is the best alternative to stop trapping of the sediments. If for any reason the relocation was not carried out, the wide-crested submerged breakwater alternative is an effective structure for preventing sandy beach erosion. The artificial reef type of submerged breakwaters with beach nourishment is recommended for Gaza beach, because it is an environmentally friendly and improving the ecosystem of marine life

War, antimicrobial resistance, and Acinetobacter baumannii (WAMRA)

Supplement: 1Meeting Abstract: 0212</p