Education as a Practice of Freedom: Reflections on bell hooks

This paper critically analyses the conceptions of bell hooks on education. It focuses on the relevance of hook’s ideas to the classroom. It is a theoretical paper based on secondary data that seeks to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in education. The paper is a reflection of hook’s reaction to education as a practice of freedom, the feminist theory, progressive holistic education and pedagogy of hope. Hook’s ideologies also revolve around her philosophy of the classroom based on race, capitalism, gender, oppression, class domination, liberation, collaboration and praxis in teaching and learning. Freedom in education gives teaching a performative act that offers space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts and can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique element in each classroom. The transformed and transformative classrooms are a testament to hook’s vision of changing the way we think of pedagogy as liberatory for all involved in education, from the teacher to the student and institutions we teach and learn in everyday. Key words: Freedom, education, liberation, gender, race, literacy, culture

Conflict in the Somali World & How It Is Resolved Through The Use Of Proverb as an Artistic Discourse Strategy

There are many conflicts in the world and especially in Somalia and there are attempts on how to solve them. From the point of view our modern world, solutions to the conflicts are usually sought or left with the United Nations to put in place a peace keeping force or a modern super power state to build coolation of governments to bring a regime change. The study adopts a complete departure and tests a different approach so as to contribute to whatever existing knowledge we have on how to solve conflicts. The study examines the proverb as an artistic discourse strategy in conflict resolution among the Somalis. It explores ways elders use proverbs to hammer points during peace negotiation meetings. To achieve its objectives, the study adopts a composite approach combing Ethno-poetics and Semiotic theories. The study is about the Somali Proverb. The research is based on Northern Region of Kenya where the ethnic Somalis concentrate, however, materials were also collected from inside Somalia, along the Kenyan-Somali border. Thirty two men and twelve women, who are considered opinion leaders, were interviewed. Forty six proverbs were collected through field research and analysed. The researcher actively participated in peace meetings where live performances of the proverb were recorded. The results of the study reveal that he proverb is used to resolve conflicts. In other words, the study tests the role and significance of the Somali proverb in conflict resolution meetings. The study recommends that there is need for a more thorough socio-literacy methodology applied to analyse the functions style and performance of the proverb which include both verbal and non-verbal. Key words: conflict, proverbs, resolution, function

Existence, uniqueness and stability results for fractional nonlinear Volterra-Fredholm integro-differential equations

In this paper, we establish some new conditions for the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a class of nonlinear Caputo fractional Volterra-Fredholm integrodifferential equations with integral boundary conditions. The desired results are proved by using Banach and Krasnoselskii’s fixed point theorems. In addition, the Ulam-Hyers stability and Ulam-Hyers-Rassias stability for solutions of the given problem are also discussed. An example is presented to guarantee the validity of our results.Publisher's Versio

FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY (FNAC) IN DIAGNOSIS OF TUMORAL CALCINOSIS, A REPORT OF THREE CASES

Introduction: Tumoral calcinosis (T.C.) is very rare and generally of unknown aetiology characterized by calcific deposits in the soft tissues. Commonly seen in the second decade of life (reported age range 15 months to 83 years). We are reporting 3 cases of T. C. who were initially diagnosed by FNAC. Two of the 3 cases were female siblings who were referred to us as possible cases of recurrent fibrosarcomas following surgical excision. Case reports:  (1) Two female siblings aged 17 and 14 years  complaining of large swelling in the upper   outer right thigh and the left outer upper thigh around the hip joints respectively. There was no limitation of movement. The masses recurred within a short period after total excision. Neither specimen was subjected to histopathology. Clinical examination showed two masses each approximately 30cm maximum diameter and 10 cm width. In addition the younger sister showed an additional mass 4.5 cm in the outer aspect of her right elbow. (2) 18 months old female child, unrelated to the above two cases, presented with an egg-sized mass in the mid-lateral aspect of her right thigh  cystic and mobile.There is a history of quinine injection in the same area. No positive family history of a similar condition. All three cases showed normocalcaemia and hyperphosphataemia with specks of calcification on x - ray and cysts in ultrasound. FNAC showed structureless gung , calcium granules and inflammatory cells including foreign body type multinucleated giant cells. Histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of T. C. Discussion: Described the three types of T. C. (familial, idiopathic, and that in patients of chronic renal failure on dialysis). The differential diagnoses were also discussed as well as lines of management such as Ca++ supplementation, phosphate restriction, acetazolamide, parathyroidectomy and the treatment of choice is total surgical excision. To our best knowledge this is the first time to report the use of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of T. C. in Sudan.&nbsp

Mainstreaming Islamic Religious Education and Secular Education in Schools as Per the Kenyan Basic Education Act 2013

This paper is an attempt to harmonize the local Quranic schools, the Islamic schools (Madarasa) and the secular schools in Kenya. The article is based on existing literature review, the author’s personal experiences and opinions. It is felt that a change be made to integrate the three-parallel curricula. The curriculum of the Quranic and the Arabic schools can be accommodated into the secular curriculum to give time for the pupils for rest or play or do their homework adequately. The current system makes the child run from one school to another. This starts at the age of six and continues until the child completes primary school. This is strenuous for the child. It is hoped that the integrated approach will alleviate this problem. The child needs to be given a chance to interact with his \ her environment so that he \ she can react to it. It should be concerned with the intellectual, emotional, physical and social growth of the child. Keywords: Quranic Schools, integrated curriculum, secular education, colonial administration DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-27-10 Publication date:September 30th 201

Moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) and metabolic syndrome: where are we now and where are we going?

BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome appears to affect 10% to 25% of adult population worldwide. Several studies have described the association between metabolic syndrome and ischaemic heart disease, however, none linked metabolic syndrome to ischemic mitral regurgitation, a serious clinical problem facing both the cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. Ischemic mitral regurgitation is mitral insufficiency caused by myocardial infarction. The myocardial ischemia can result in altered ventricular geometry, leading to mitral insufficiency. Interestingly metabolic syndrome showed more pronounced alteration of left ventricular geometry and function especially in obese subjects. PRESENTATION OF THE HYPOTHESIS: We have recently proposed that there is link between metabolic syndrome and ischemic mitral regurgitation and associated complications. Operative strategy for moderate ischaemic mitral regurgitation continues to be debated between revascularisation alone and concomitant valve repair at the time of coronary artery bypass surgery. Each of the above group has published studies, with results supporting each argument. TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS: Generally speaking the treatments available for metabolic syndrome are based in both life style modification (dietary advice and advice to increase physical activity) and medical treatment to enhance insulin sensitivity. Randomised controlled trials may show whether the current available treatment of metabolic syndrome may have an impact on moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation. IMPLICATIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS: Metabolic syndrome was shown to alter left ventricular geometry and therefore it is possible to postulate that the variation in the response of different patients with moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation to current management may be attributed to the absence and presence of metabolic syndrome. Research testing of this hypothesis in the future may reveal whether concomitant treatment of metabolic syndrome will play part in the management of moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation

Vibration Signature of Roller Bearing’s Faults

Centrifugal pumps are widely used in many industrial applications. Defective pumps cause higher rate of energy loss with related overall performance degradation. Mechanical components fail due to decrease in pump’s strength or an increase in the force acting on it. Rolling bearings are one of the major components of the centrifugal pumps. Bearings are critical mechanical components in industrial machines. Bearing failure is often attributed to be one of the major causes of breakdown. Early detection of undesired conditions during the operation of the centrifugal pump has become very important in order to avoid consequential damages. Early detection is also vital for increasing availability and reliability. Automated health monitoring can reduce the outage time and repair costs. Using vibration analysis technique to monitor and evaluate the health of the machines has become an important technique in this field. In this research, we studied the vibration signatures of healthy and faulty conditions of the bearings of a pumping system. The pumping system consists of centrifugal pump and electrical motor. The vibration signatures analyze the bearing status with respect to the normal operation. The paper shows how to identify if there is a problem in the outer race of the Bearing Pass Frequency Outer Race (BPFO)

Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image

To facilitate the analysis of human actions, interactions and emotions, we compute a 3D model of human body pose, hand pose, and facial expression from a single monocular image. To achieve this, we use thousands of 3D scans to train a new, unified, 3D model of the human body, SMPL-X, that extends SMPL with fully articulated hands and an expressive face. Learning to regress the parameters of SMPL-X directly from images is challenging without paired images and 3D ground truth. Consequently, we follow the approach of SMPLify, which estimates 2D features and then optimizes model parameters to fit the features. We improve on SMPLify in several significant ways: (1) we detect 2D features corresponding to the face, hands, and feet and fit the full SMPL-X model to these; (2) we train a new neural network pose prior using a large MoCap dataset; (3) we define a new interpenetration penalty that is both fast and accurate; (4) we automatically detect gender and the appropriate body models (male, female, or neutral); (5) our PyTorch implementation achieves a speedup of more than 8x over Chumpy. We use the new method, SMPLify-X, to fit SMPL-X to both controlled images and images in the wild. We evaluate 3D accuracy on a new curated dataset comprising 100 images with pseudo ground-truth. This is a step towards automatic expressive human capture from monocular RGB data. The models, code, and data are available for research purposes at https://smpl-x.is.tue.mpg.de.Comment: To appear in CVPR 201

Penetration enhancers in proniosomes as a new strategy for enhanced transdermal drug delivery

AbstractThe aim of this work is to investigate penetration enhancers in proniosomes as a transdermal delivery system for nisoldipine. This was performed with the goal of optimising the composition of proniosomes as transdermal drug delivery systems. Plain proniosomes comprising sorbitan monostearate, cholesterol, ethanol and a small quantity of water were initially prepared. Subsequently, proniosomes containing lecithin or skin penetration enhancers were prepared and evaluated for transdermal delivery of nisoldipine. The plain proniosomes significantly enhanced the transdermal flux of nisoldipine to reach 12.18μgcm−2h−1 compared with a saturated aqueous drug solution which delivered the drug at a rate of 0.46μgcm−2h−1. Incorporation of lecithin into such proniosomes increased the drug flux to reach a value of 28.51μgcm−2h−1. This increase can be attributed to the penetration enhancing effect of lecithin fatty acid components. Replacing lecithin oleic acid (OA) produced proniosomes of comparable efficacy to the lecithin containing system. The transdermal drug flux increased further after incorporation of propylene glycol into the OA based proniosomes. Similarly, incorporation of isopropyl myristate into plain proniosomes increased drug flux. The study introduced enhanced proniosomes as a promising transdermal delivery carrier and highlighted the role of penetration enhancing mechanisms in enhanced proniosomal skin delivery. The study opened the way for another line of optimisation of niosome proconcentrates

Histopathological Features of Whipple Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Sudan: A Single-center Experience

Background: Periampullary tumors (PATs) are rare and Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy is the commonest surgical approach for its management. The aim of this study was to analyze the histopathological features of Whipple-resected periampullary tumors in Sudanese patients.Methods: This retrospective descriptive study included 62 cases of Whipple resection seen in a center in Khartoum, Sudan from January 2016 to June 2021. The specimens were assessed for nine features of the tumor: site of the tumor (whether within the periampullary region), size of the tumor, histological type of the tumor, grade, perineural invasion, lymph vascular invasion, surgical margin status, lymph node metastasis status, and the pathological stage (pTNM).Results: In total, 62 cases, 40 (64.5%) males and 22 (35.5%) females, were included. Age ranged from 20 to 90 years with a mean age of 56.08 years (±12.98 SD). Of the 62 cases, 58 were malignant (93.5%), while 4 cases were benign (6.5%). The pancreas was the commonest site for malignant tumors (53.4%), followed by the ampulla (24.1%), duodenum (15.5%), and distal common bile duct tumors (DCBD) (7%). The maximum tumor size was 8 cm, and the number of lymph nodes resected ranged from 3 to 33. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) showed the highest percentage of perineural (62.1%) and lymphovascular (55.2%) invasions, and a positive margin was seen in four cases. The most common tumor stage was pT3pN1pMx.Conclusion: PATs in the Sudanese population showed histological diversity regarding subtyping, grading, and staging. Further studies involving molecular prognostic features will support improving patient management. Keywords: periampullary tumors; Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy; resection; histological features; Suda