A model describing the microwave emission from a multi-layer snowpack at 37 GHz

A multilayer emission model is described and applied to emission measurements obtained at 37 GHz and H polarization using a microwave radiometer attached to a truck-mounted boom in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in 1977. Estimated absorption and scattering coefficients and their dependence on wetness were obtained using calculated values of the dielectric constant at 37 GHz along with the model. It was found that the scattering coefficient is comparable in value to the absorption coefficient for dry snow however, the absorption coefficient increases linearly with increasing snow wetness while the scattering coefficient decreases linearly with increasing wetness. The emission from each layer of the snowpack was also calculated using the estimated coefficients. It is shown that for dry snow, the ground underneath the snowpack contributes about 45% of all measured emission while the rest is due to emission from all the layers within the snowpack. When the wetness of the top 5 cm layer of snowpack increases to about 2% by volume, this top 5 cm snowlayer contributes more than 90% of all the measured emission

Molecular characterization of chromosome 7 in AML and MDS patients

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) share many features with acute myeloid leukemias (AML) and in fact 20 - 40% of the patients eventually develop a picture of full blown AML. Chromosome 7 has been a focus of attention as a site harboring tumor suppressor genes whose loss of function contributes to leukemia transformation or tumor progression. Abnormalities of chromosome 7 are frequently encountered in AML and MDS. The aim of the present study was to detect the molecular abnormalities of chromosome 7 in Egyptian AML and MDS patients using the FISH technique and whether the abnormality has an implication on the prognosis of the disease after a period of one year follow up. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) was performed for chromosome 7 using a locus specific probe for 7q31 and a centromeric probe from 7p11.1-q11.1 in a series of 30 patients diagnosed as: AML (20 patients) and MDS (10 patients) according to the FAB criteria. Aberrations of Chromosome 7 were found in 36.6% of AML patients: 3 cases showing monosomy with a mean positivity of 17.3%, 2 cases showing 7q deletion with a mean positivity of 11%. While both monosomy and deletion were detected in 3 cases. However, in MDS patients; monosomy for chromosome 7 was the only abnormality detected and was found in 30% of cases. Genetic abnormality of chromosome 7 showed a significant association with poor prognostic criteria. Patients who had normal FISH results showed a higher percentage (31.6%) of complete remission (CR) versus 0% in patients with monosomy or deletion who showed a higher percentage (100%) of death or poor response to therapy (NR). Although AML patients had a worse prognosis when compared to MDS patients, patients with genetic abnormalities showed the worst outcome. African Journal of Health Sciences Vol. 13 (3-4) 2006: pp. 33-4

The Importance of Upgrading Mosque Furniture and Accessories

Abstract:Mosque is the heart of the Islamic architecture. Since the dawn of Islam until now, mosques are still considered one of the most important places and facilities for Muslims. Muslims gather for prayer in the mosque five times a day, where mosque serves not only for worshiping, but also as a meeting point for Islamic social and intellectual activities that usually reflect religious identity.Indeed, Muslims are doing all their best to preserve and maintain their mosques as an overarching privilege that enhances their religious, social and cultural interactions. Despite the unlimited number of mosques all over the world and the noticeable increasing interest in developing their architectural, structural, fundamental elements, there is a less interest in developing, modernizing and updating the mosque furniture and its accessories.Accordingly, this research paper mainly focuses on clarifying the importance of developing these furniture and accessories that meet the physical and psychological requirements of the mosque visitors (worshipers) as these items and accessories enhance and improve worshipers’ experience inside mosques. In a sequential manner, the paper brief the evolving role of the mosque (from ancient times until today), and then explains its value as an Islamic architectural beacon. The paper goes into depth in diagnosing and discussing significant needs for updating mosque furniture and accessories, by highlighting weakness or shedding light on what is not available. In this context, the researcher present and discuss many contemporary design paths for mosque furniture, in addition to clarifying many different ideas for accessories by presenting drawings and details of many design ideas for contemporary mosque furniture (Footwear shelving system, locker system, chairs …). Moreover, it highlighting some contemporary ideas for various accessories, such as: The Holy Quran reading holder and the central chandeliers in the mosque.Keywords:Mosque, Islamic architecture, design, mosque furniture, mosque accessories

Histomorphometry aspect of thyroid gland and biochemical profile in pregnant and non-pregnant dromedary camels

Modulation of body physiology and metabolism is a prerequisite for successful pregnancy in camels, which is about a year and few months. The present study was carried out to verify the effect of pregnancy on histomorphometry and functional traits of thyroid gland, as well as some biochemical indices of liver and kidney functions and mineral profile in one humped camels, under Egyptian climatic conditions or desert conditions. The thyroid tissues were fixed in 10% formalin solution and processed following routine histological techniques after gross examination and biometric assessment. Serum levels of thyroid hormones (triiodothyronine, thyroxineand thyroid stimulating hormone), serum blood metabolites (total bilirubin, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine), liver enzymatic activity (aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP)), and minerals (sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus) were estimated in pregnant (n=30) and non-pregnant (n=30) camels. There were no significant differences between the right and left thyroid lobes between pregnant and non-pregnant camel. Pregnant status in camels had insignificant influence on histological and functional traits of thyroid as well as serum blood metabolites, liver enzymes and minerals levels, as compared with non-pregnant animals during the first six months of pregnancy. Therefore, reproductive status (during early pregnancy) has no substantial effect on camel physiological mechanisms or metabolic activity.Key words: Biochemical, dromedary, histology, thyroid gland, thyroid hormones

Hypoglossal Facial Nerve Anastomosis for Post-Operative and Post-Traumatic Complete Facial Nerve Paralysis

AIM: This study aims to evaluate the outcome of patients with complete facial paralysis following surgery to cerebellopontine angle tumours or following traumatic petrous bone fractures after reanimation by hypoglossal-facial anastomosis as regards clinical improvement of facial asymmetry and facial muscle contractility as well as complications associated with hypoglossal-facial reanimation procedure. METHODS: This thesis included a prospective study to be carried out on 15 patients with unilateral complete lower motor neuron facial paralysis (11 patients after cerebellopontine angle tumour resection and 4 patients after traumatic transverse petrous bone fracture) operated upon by end to end hypoglossal-facial nerve anastomosis in Cairo university hospitals in the period between June 2015 and January 2017. RESULTS: At one year follow up the improvement of facial nerve functions were as follows: Three cases (20%) had improved to House Hrackmann grade II, eleven cases (73.33%) had improved to grade III, and one patient (6.66%) had improved to House Brackmann grade IV. CONCLUSION: Despite the various techniques in facial reanimation following facial nerve paralysis, the end to end hypoglossal-facial nerve anastomosis remains the gold standard procedure with satisfying results in cases of the viable distal facial stump and non-atrophic muscles. Early hypoglossal-facial anastomotic repair after acute facial nerve injury is associated with better long-term facial function outcomes and should be considered in the management algorithm

Rapid Screening of \u3b2-Globin Gene Mutations by Real-Time PCR in Egyptian Thalassemic Children

Thalassemia is one of the most common genetic disorders in Egypt. With the total population of 70 million, there are approximately 600,000 affected individuals and more than 20 million thalassemia carriers. Thalassemia is therefore one of the major health problems in Egypt. B-Thalassemias are priority genetic diseases for prevention programs. Rapid genotype characterization is fundamental in the diagnostic laboratory, especially when offering prenatal diagnosis for carrier couples. Introduction of the real time PCR has made a revolution in the time taken for the PCR reactions. We present a method for the diagnosis of the common mutations of the B-thalassemia in Egyptian children & families. The procedure depends on the real-time PCR using specific fluorescently labeled hybridization probes. The melting temperature for each of the specific probes obtained after the PCR reaction permits the identification of the specific mutation. Genotyping of 20 thalassemic children attending the hematology clinic of the children specialized hospital and 10 controls was done using Real-time PCR and the conventional Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS) technique. Analysis revealed identical results to most of the patients and they were further checked by the sequencing results of the DNA samples. The established method is a robust, fast and straight forward assay that allows the detection of the common B-thalassemia mutations in Egypt. The described LightCycler system protocol can rapidly screen for many B-globin gene mutations

A Systematic Design of a Compact Wideband Hybrid Directional Coupler Based on Printed RGW Technology

Printed ridge gap waveguide (PRGW) is considered among the state of art guiding technologies due to its low signal distortion and low loss at Millimeter Wave (mmWave) spectrum, which motivates the research community to use this guiding structure as a host technology for various passive microwave and mmWave components. One of the most important passive components used in antenna beam-switching networks is the quadrature hybrid directional coupler providing signal power division with 90° phase shift. A featured design of a broadband and compact PRGW hybrid coupler is propose in this paper. A novel design methodology, based on mode analysis, is introduced to design the objective coupler. The proposed design is suitable for mmWave applications with small electrical dimensions ( 1.2λo×1.2λo ), low loss, and wide bandwidth. The proposed hybrid coupler is fabricated on Roger/RT 6002 substrate material of thickness 0.762 mm. The measured results highlight that the coupler can provide a good return loss with a bandwidth of 26.5% at 30 GHz and isolation beyond 15 dB. The measured phase difference between the coupler output ports is equal 90∘± 5∘ through the interested operating bandwidth. A clear agreement between the simulated and the measured results over the assigned operating bandwidth has been illustrated

Molecular Characterization of Chromosome 7 in AML and MDS Patients

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) share many features with acute myeloid leukemias (AML) and in fact 20 - 40% of the patients eventually develop a picture of full blown AML. Chromosome 7 has been a focus of attention as a site harboring tumor suppressor genes whose loss of function contributes to leukemia transformation or tumor progression. Abnormalities of chromosome 7 are frequently encountered in AML and MDS. The aim of the present study was to detect the molecular abnormalities of chromosome 7 in Egyptian AML and MDS patients using the FISH technique and whether the abnormality has an implication on the prognosis of the disease after a period of one year follow up. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) was performed for chromosome 7 using a locus specific probe for 7q31 and a centromeric probe from 7p11.1-q11.1 in a series of 30 patients diagnosed as: AML (20 patients) and MDS (10 patients) according to the FAB criteria. Aberrations of Chromosome 7 were found in 36.6% of AML patients: 3 cases showing monosomy with a mean positivity of 17.3%, 2 cases showing 7q deletion with a mean positivity of 11%. While both monosomy and deletion were detected in 3 cases. However, in MDS patients; monosomy for chromosome 7 was the only abnormality detected and was found in 30% of cases. Genetic abnormality of chromosome 7 showed a significant association with poor prognostic criteria. Patients who had normal FISH results showed a higher percentage (31.6%) of complete remission (CR) versus 0% in patients with monosomy or deletion who showed a higher percentage (100%) of death or poor response to therapy (NR). Although AML patients had a worse prognosis when compared to MDS patients, patients with genetic abnormalities showed the worst outcome

FRUCTO SYRUP FROM WHEY MILK VIA BIOTECHNOLOGY

The present study deal with hydrolysis of lactose by kluyveromyces fragilis that grown in Whey and synthetic mediumandthe effect of incubated temperature and pH on enzyme activity Lactase (ß- galactosidase) that hydrolyze lactose in whey milk and synthetic medium .Also the conversion of glucose that released from lactose hydrolysis by kluyveromyces fragilis into fructose via addition of glucose isomerase. The present work showed that the optimum pH and incubated temperature were (4,35°C) respectively to optimum enzyme activity Lactase with total glucose reached 60.21 mg/ 100ml in whey medium and 58.61 mg/100ml in synthetic medium after 24 hours. In addition fructose content was 48.15 mg/100ml from released glucose in whey milk that confirmed due to the highest sweet syrup. In conclusion, this study indicated that ability of kluyveromyces fragilis to hydrolyze lactose in natural whey milk higher than synthetic medium

Fabrication and Characterization of a W-Band Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antenna-Coupled Niobium Microbolometer

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a novel antenna-coupled detector configuration for detection at 94 GHz, a coplanar waveguide- (CPW-) fed, slot-excited twin dielectric resonator antenna- (DRA-) coupled niobium (Nb) microbolometer. The antenna is based on two low permittivity cylindrical dielectric resonators (CDRs) excited by rectangular slots placed below the CDRs. The antenna resonant currents are fed to an Nb microbolometer by the means of a CPW feed. The ceramic DRA structure is manufactured using a novel fabrication process that enables patterning an SU-8–Alumina (Al2O3) nanopowder composite using conventional photolithography. The detector measured a voltage responsivity of 0.181 V/W at a modulation frequency of 150 Hz. The detector measured a time constant of 1.94 μs. The antenna radiation pattern of the developed detector configuration was measured and shows a good agreement with the simulation