A SIGNIFICÂNCIA DISCRIMINATÓRIA ENTRE AQUELES COM ALTA E BAIXA EFICÁCIA ACADÊMICA NO PENSAMENTO ESTRATÉGICO E HÁBITOS DE MENTE ENTRE ESTUDANTES UNIVERSITÁRIAS DO SEXO FEMININO

The current research aimed to identify the discriminatory significance between those with high and low academic efficacy in strategic thinking and productive habits of mind among female university students. For this purpose, the academic efficacy scale, the strategic thinking scale, and the productive habits of mind scale were applied to a sample consisting of (126) female students. The descriptive research approach was utilized due to its suitability to the research nature. Results indicated that there was a low level of strategic thinking among university students, there was a relationship between strategic thinking and productive habits of mind, and there were statistically significant differences between those of high and low academic efficacy in strategic thinking and habits of mind. These results can be utilized in enhancing academic proficiency among university female students and providing planners with practical outcomes that contribute to promoting academic proficiency, strategic thinking, and productive mental habits among university students.A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar a significância discriminatória entre aqueles com alta e baixa eficácia acadêmica no pensamento estratégico e nos hábitos produtivos de mente entre estudantes universitárias do sexo feminino. Para esse fim, foram aplicadas a escala de eficácia acadêmica, a escala de pensamento estratégico e a escala de hábitos produtivos de mente em uma amostra composta por (126) estudantes do sexo feminino. A abordagem de pesquisa descritiva foi utilizada devido à sua adequação à natureza da pesquisa. Os resultados indicaram que havia um baixo nível de pensamento estratégico entre estudantes universitários, havia uma relação entre o pensamento estratégico e os hábitos produtivos de mente, e houve diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre aqueles com alta e baixa eficácia acadêmica no pensamento estratégico e nos hábitos de mente. Esses resultados podem ser utilizados para aprimorar a proficiência acadêmica entre estudantes universitárias e fornecer aos planejadores resultados práticos que contribuam para promover a proficiência acadêmica, o pensamento estratégico e os hábitos mentais produtivos entre os estudantes universitários

An In-Vitro Assessment of Anti-Tumor Activity of Some Plant Extract and Natural Products, Using Potato Discs Bioassay Technique

   Objectives: This study aimed to examine some plant extracts and natural products for anti-tumor activity. Methodology: Potato disc bioassay was used to estimate anti-tumor activity of some plant extracts and natural products. Five plant extracts and natural products recommended in a questionnaire filled by local botanists in addition to an introduced fermented food “Manda Koso” were used in this study. Study design: A questionnaire was designed and filled by 60 botanists looking for plant extracts and natural products having anti-cancer activity. In addition, computer surveys were conducted for gathering information on promising natural compounds act as anticancer agents. The potato disc bioassay was conducted using the Complete Randomized Design with three replicates. Each treatment in each replicate was represented by two Petri dishes contained five potato discs each. Petri dishes treated with sterilized water were used as control. Four separate experiments were carried out using TLC technique. Results & Discussion: Results showed highly significant differences among treatments with respect to total number of tumors and inhibition average percentage (%). The inhibition average percentage (IAP) for the different products ranged between 80.95-100% for the different products and equal zero for the control. It was 100% for Manda Kosa and bees honey followed by 90.23% for olive oil. Other treatments showed moderate anti-tumor effect of 80.95% IAP. Conclusions: Results concluded that Manda Koso, bees honey and olive oil have anti-tumor activity. Great association was found between anti-tumor activity obtained in this study and those published for anticancer activity of the promising material. الملخص: أجريت الدراسة بمعمل الاحياء الدقيقة بكلية الهندسة والتكنولوجيا بجامعة الجزيرة فى الفترة من 3 ابريل وحتى21 سبتمبر(2008) وذلك بغرض دراسة  مقدرة بعض المستخلصات النباتية على تثبيط  الاورام المستحثة باستخدام   سلالة محلية من  البكتيريا الزراعية  Agrobacterium tumefaceins تسمى SDB0012”" وذلك باستخدام تقنية قرص البطاطس وتقنية الفصل الكروماتوجرافى للتعرف على الجزيئات الفعالة للمستخلصات الطبيعية المستخدمة فى هذه الدراسة. اوضحت النتائج فروقات معنوية عالية ما بين المستخلصات المستخدمة في العدد الكلي للاورام  واحجامها.   اعطي  المستخلص اليابانى ماندا كوسو " Manda Koso" فعالية عالية على التثبيط الكلي للأورام المستحثة,  تليها عينة محلية لعسل النحل ثم زيت الزيتون ثم زيت الحبة السوداء (الكمون) ثم زيت الثوم  واقل نسبة رصدت في زيت الحلبة. أوصت الدراسة لاستخدام كل من ماندا كوسو, العسل و زيت الحبة السوداء كمثبطات نمو الاورام. اتضح من خلال هذه الدراسة فعالية استخدام تقنية اقراص البطاطس في تحديد مثبطات لنمو الاورام في كل من البطاطس والانسان وذلك من خلال تقارب النتائج بين هذا الاختبار في هذه التجربة و النتائج العالمية في هذه المستخلصات. هذا وقد اقترحت الدراسة إجراء استخدام تقنيات الفصل الكروماتوجرافى و كروماتوجرافيا الغاز GC و تقنية HPLC  بالاضافة لتقنية الهجرة الكهربية electrophoresis gel لفصل البروتينات

Functional Elucidation of The Adipokinetic Hormone/Corazonin Related Peptide and Insights into Its Receptor Specificity Using Receptor Chimera in Aedes Aegypti Mosquito

Mosquitoes Aedes aegypti are an essential organism to study as they are significant vectors responsible for transmitting arboviral diseases such as Yellow fever, Dengue and Zika virus. The adipokinetic hormone/corazonin-related peptide (ACP) is an insect neuropeptide that is structurally intermediate between corazonin (CRZ) and adipokinetic hormone (AKH). A well-known function of the AKH signaling system is the mobilization of energy while CRZ was initially described as a cardioacceleratory factor. Contrastingly, the role of ACP and its receptor (ACPr) remains unclear in many insects. Despite the structural similarity and the close evolutionary relationship between ACP and AKH, their signaling systems function independently due to the high selectivity of their corresponding receptors. In light of this knowledge, this thesis sought to advance our understanding of the role of the ACP in A. aegypti by mapping the distribution of ACP in the nervous system, examining the ACPr transcript expression in the abdominal ganglia, assessing the possible involvement of ACP in controlling energy substrate levels, and determining adult survival rate after injection with ACP. Moreover, this study aimed to determine the most critical regions of the ACPr necessary for ligand-binding specificity and discern specific residues critical for functional ligand-binding by singly replacing the three ACPr extracellular loops or critical highly conserved residues and incorporating those from the AKH receptor and testing these ACPr chimeras using a heterologous functional assay. Together, this study gives insight to advance our mechanistic understanding of the broad and critical functions of the ACP signaling system in A. aegypti

Functional Elucidation of The Adipokinetic Hormone/Corazonin Related Peptide and Insights into Its Receptor Specificity Using Receptor Chimera in Aedes Aegypti Mosquito

Mosquitoes Aedes aegypti are an essential organism to study as they are significant vectors responsible for transmitting arboviral diseases such as Yellow fever, Dengue and Zika virus. The adipokinetic hormone/corazonin-related peptide (ACP) is an insect neuropeptide that is structurally intermediate between corazonin (CRZ) and adipokinetic hormone (AKH). A well-known function of the AKH signaling system is the mobilization of energy while CRZ was initially described as a cardioacceleratory factor. Contrastingly, the role of ACP and its receptor (ACPr) remains unclear in many insects. Despite the structural similarity and the close evolutionary relationship between ACP and AKH, their signaling systems function independently due to the high selectivity of their corresponding receptors. In light of this knowledge, this thesis sought to advance our understanding of the role of the ACP in A. aegypti by mapping the distribution of ACP in the nervous system, examining the ACPr transcript expression in the abdominal ganglia, assessing the possible involvement of ACP in controlling energy substrate levels, and determining adult survival rate after injection with ACP. Moreover, this study aimed to determine the most critical regions of the ACPr necessary for ligand-binding specificity and discern specific residues critical for functional ligand-binding by singly replacing the three ACPr extracellular loops or critical highly conserved residues and incorporating those from the AKH receptor and testing these ACPr chimeras using a heterologous functional assay. Together, this study gives insight to advance our mechanistic understanding of the broad and critical functions of the ACP signaling system in A. aegypti

A model for evaluating the risk effects on construction project activities

Cost overruns and time delays are considered to be very important challenges for the majority of construction projects. These challenges are typically attributed to their associated risks. Due to the risky and uncertain nature of construction projects, an increasing amount of attention is given to estimating and overcoming cost overruns and time delays. New techniques are being developed to help project managers to contractually complete projects within cost and time constraints. The objective of this study was to develop a new qualitative and quantitative risk analysis model that can be employed for construction projects. The proposed model, which is based on a fuzzy logic tool, consists of two modules for assessing risk factors that affect the main construction activities and computing the expected cost overruns and time delays that are associated with these risks. Using numerous logical rules, the model applies the probability of occurrences and impacts of the risks on the cost and time of the main activities. The Spearman and Kendall correlation coefficient tests are applied to verify and select a suitable membership function. Using four proposed membership functions, the results of these tests confirmed that the triangle membership function is suitable for the model. The model is verified by application to HVAC system activities in two actual construction projects, which serve as case studies. Two different methods are proposed and applied to quantify the cost overruns and time delays. The first method is based on determining the cost overruns and time delay values for each activity according to their weight in the system. Triple premise rules are proposed and applied in the second method, which is established to relate all activities. The results from the second method are more accurate compared with the first method based on actual data from the case study projects. In addition, the results demonstrated that the proposed model can be used to quantify the expected cost overrun and time delays in construction project activities and can be generalized and implemented in different construction activities

Stiff Person syndrome: a case report

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is rather unique among neurologic diagnoses. At relaxation, motor- unit activation, continuous agonist and antagonist muscular contractions, as well as contractions triggered by tactile triggers, quiescent stretch, and involuntary movement of affected or unaffected musculature, startled sounds and emotional stimuli are the clinical signs of SPS. Sleep, general anesthesia, myoneural, and peripheral nerve blockage all help to reduce rigidity and spasms. The syndrome may be a sporadic autoimmune syndrome (associated with anti–glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies and often accompanied by other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes) or paraneoplastic (associated with anti–amphiphysin antibodies). People with SPS respond to high doses of diazepam and several anti-convulsants, gabapentin and tiagabine. Immunomodulatory drugs including steroids, plasmapheresis, and intravenous immunoglobulin appear to help significantly. The symptoms of our patient progressed slowly over time. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies ruled out other possible causes of comparable symptoms such as neuromyotonia. Raised anti-GAD autoantibodies titer in serum found by immunocytochemistry assays, our patient's history, clinical examination findings, and reaction to benzodiazepines all pointed to SPS.

Aligning cloud computing security with business strategy

These days, the technological growth in the IT sector is rapid. Cloud computing is also one of the new technologies that have both benefits and limitations. This paper gives an overview of how cloud computing can be helpful for an enterprise. It emphasizes on how cloud computing can be adopted in the IT sector. The paper also discusses the security issues of cloud computing. This article also highlights the issue of data leakage in this technology which faces cloud computing clients. The authors have designed a model to solve this issue through data isolation. A business value will be achieved through the proposed model by aligning the cloud computing security with the business strategy and increase the security procedures to verify the authenticated users through the virtual system

An improved wild horse optimization algorithm for reliability based optimal DG planning of radial distribution networks

This paper introduces a novel technique for optimal distribution system (DS) planning with distributed generation (DG) systems. It is being done to see how active and reactive power injections affect the system’s voltage profile and energy losses. DG penetration in the power systems is one approach that has several advantages such as peak savings, loss lessening, voltage profile amelioration. It also intends to increase system reliability, stability, and security. The main goal of optimal distributed generation (ODG) is a guarantee to achieve the benefits mentioned previously to increase the overall system efficiency. For extremely vast and complicated systems, analytical approaches are not suitable and insufficient. Therefore, several meta-heuristic techniques are favored to obtain better performance from were convergence and accuracy for large systems. In this paper, an Improved Wild Horse Optimization algorithm (IWHO) is proposed as a novel metaheuristic method for solving optimization issues in electrical power systems. IWHO is devised with inspirations from the social life behavior of wild horses. The suggested method is based on the horse’s decency. To assess the efficacy of the IWHO, it is implemented on the 23 benchmark functions Reliability amelioration is the most things superb as a result of DGs incorporation. Thus, in this research, a customer-side reliability appraisal in the DS that having a DG unit was carried out by a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) approach to construct an artificial history for each ingredient across simulation duration. For load flow calculations, the backward Forward Sweep (BFS) technique has been employed as a simulation tool to assess the network performance considering the power handling restrictions. The proposed IWHO method has been measured on IEEE 33 69 and 119 buses to ascertain the network performing in the presence of the optimal DG and the potential benefits of the suggested technique for enhancing the tools used by operators and planners to maintain the system reliability and efficiency. The results proved that IWHO is an optimization method with lofty performance regarding the exploration–exploitation balance and convergence speed, as it successfully handles complicated problems

Percutaneous Transpedicular Fixation: Technical tips and Pitfalls of Sextant and Pathfinder Systems

Study DesignThe efficacy of the operative techniques, possible benefits as well as pitfalls and limitations of the techniques are discussed. Potential drawbacks are also detected.PurposeThis study aims to report indications, techniques, and our experience with the use of the Sextant and PathFinder percutaneous transpedicular screw fixation systems.Overview of LiteraturePercutaneous pedicle screw insertion is a novel technique. Successful percutaneous placement of pedicle screws requires surgical skill and experience because of lack of anatomic surface landmarks. Fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous placement of pedicle screws is effective. Many systems are now available.MethodsWe conducted a prospective operative and postoperative analysis of 40 patients with absolute indication for thoracic or lumbar instability between January 2009 and June 2013. All procedures were performed with the Sextant (group A) and PathFinder (group B) systems under fluoroscopic guidance. Operative techniques are discussed and the results compared.ResultsPercutaneous transpedicular screw fixation minimizes the morbidity associated with open techniques without compromising the quality of fixation. A total of 190 screws were inserted. There was no additional morbidity. Postoperative computed tomography images and plain X-rays were analyzed. Reduction of visual analog scale scores of back pain was evident.ConclusionsFluoroscopy-guided percutaneous pedicular screws are feasible and can be safely done. Current systems allow multi-segmental fixation with significantly less difficulties. The described techniques have acceptable intra- and postoperative complication rates, and overall sufficient pain control with early mobilization of patients

Prevalence of Poultry Coccidiosis and Associated Risk Factors in Intensive Farm and Individual Small Holder Poultry Farm in Benadir Region, Somalia

A cross sectional study was conducted from September2021 to February2022 in Mogadishu, Somalia to determine the prevalence of poultry coccidiosis and associated risk factors in intensive farm and Individual smallholder poultry farm in Benadir region-Somalia. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of poultry coccidiosis, to assess the risk factors associated with poultry coccidiosis. However, floatation technique was used for isolation of coccidian oocysts obtained from 384 fecal samples of chicken and the prevalence revealed was 19.8%. There was no statistically significant difference in poultry coccidiosis between the different ages of chicken (P>0.05) Where the young chickens (chicks) had shown slightly higher prevalence (20.4%) than adult chickens (18.8%). The effect of sex on the disease prevalence was assessed and relatively slightly higher prevalence was recorded in male chickens (20%) than female (19.4%). However, the difference between sex groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05). According to the management system of the chickens, the study had shown a significant difference between extensive and intensive management systems, with the extensive system having a higher prevalence (25.5%) than intensive system (14%) with P-value (0.003). There was a significant difference in poultry coccidiosis between the different body condition score of chickens (P<0.05), where those poor body condition (26.6%) are more prevalence than middle (16%) and good (8.8%) chickens. The study also revealed a statistically significant association between infection rate and housing methods with the chickens kept in floor house had a higher prevalence (25.5%) than cage house (14%) with P-value (0.003) However, appropriate control strategies should be designed considering important risk factors such as age, management system and housing system. Especially, focus should be given to biosecurity practices in the prevention and control of coccidiosis, and in addition, further studies are needed to be conducted to identify the prevalent Eimeria species for strategic control