The Construction and Building Materials Industries for Sustainable Development in Developing Countries:\ud Appropriate and Innovative Local Building Materials and Technologies for Housing in the Sudan

The construction industry (CI) in developing countries (DCs) faces multitude challenges confronting its improved performance and development. Similar to many developing countries, the Sudan faces severe problems in its construction sector which should be seriously addressed\ud and eliminated. Problems related to building materials (BMs) production, supply and management tend to dominate the list of impediments to the development of the Sudanese\ud Construction Industry (SCI).\ud The main objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive and elaborate review and analysis of the construction and building materials industries in the Sudan focusing on locally produced building materials and building technologies employed in the provision of housing.\ud The research aimed to delineate the significance of the construction industry in the socioeconomic development in the Sudan and to assess the potentials of the country in selfsufficiency of key building materials. It reviewed the status quo of the Sudanese Construction Industry (SCI) and the Sudanese Building Materials Industry (SBMI) by investigating the role of construction in the socio-economic development of the country. The study examined the\ud causality relationship between construction and the economy as a whole and its subsectors employing statistical tests, namely the Granger causality test. Data pertaining to the\ud performance of the Sudanese economy during 1982-2009 were employed for the analysis. The study explored the possibility of producing BMs locally in terms of raw materials availability and distribution.\ud The underlying research demonstrated the role that innovation and technology transfer (TT) could possibly play in the adoption of appropriate materials and technologies. It examined the role of globalization, innovation and technology transfer in the development of the CI in the\ud Sudan and the extent of its effectiveness. Case studies were helpful in understanding the mechanisms through which innovative and appropriate technologies are transferred. These case studies covered projects - involving transfer of technology - developed by; research institutes, governmental authorities, national and international NGOs, private sector companies and individual practitioners.\ud The study attempted to evaluate the application of appropriate building materials and technologies for housing in the Sudan by reviewing research efforts in the field and highlighting the potential role that technology transfer could play. A comparative analysis, based on costeffectiveness and environmental impact, was performed to assess the appropriateness of selected building materials and technologies applied or recently introduced in the Sudan.\ud Based on available literature, a generic model was proposed for the categorization of problems facing the SCI. The underlying research scrutinized the challenges facing the SCI and the SBMI and the factors affecting the utilization of local building materials (LBMs). It measured the\ud relative importance of the factors influencing the development of the construction and building materials industries in the country. Ranking these factors forms a reference for the formulation of strategies and policies for the development of the CI to take its due place in the socioeconomic development of the nation. Moreover, the research indicated the interrelationship between these factors, whereby scenarios could be developed for the improvement of the construction sector performance. The study also examined the importance of the factors\ud affecting successful transference of technology for the adoption of appropriate building materials and technologies. A questionnaire was constructed and circulated to different stakeholders of the SCI for the purpose of collecting primary data about the impediments to the development of the SCI and the SBMI. The research proposed a causality model to demonstrate how the successfulness of technology transfer is influenced by the level of awareness of the benefits associated with technology transfer.\ud The subject study provided a set of recommendations for the purpose of attaining sustained development in the construction and building materials industries in the Sudan. Most of these recommendations are expected to be handled by the government and the professional intuitions\ud jointly with other stakeholders of the SCI. The study also identified areas where further research is required

Factors that influence customers to pay more for environmentally friendly products (going green) in Universiti Sains Malaysia

A variety of environmental problems now affect our entire world

Exploring Natural Compounds as Promising Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 inhibitors for Cancer Management: A Biocomputational Study

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) plays a role in breaking down the components of the extracellular matrix, which allows cancer cells to advance and invade. Therefore, the inhibition of MMP2 shows potential as a promising strategy for treating cancer.Methods: This study employed computational screening to identify MMP2 inhibitors from a collection of 2,405 natural compounds. GLXC-26716, the co-crystal ligand of MMP2, served as the positive control. Virtual screening was performed using PyRx 8.0 software to find molecules that might inhibit the active site of MMP2.Results: The virtual screening process has identified five potential candidates: ZINC000000001412, ZINC000001612328, ZINC000001614079, ZINC000000119988, and ZINC0000000047553. These candidates were selected based on their strong binding affinities and interactions with MMP2. These compounds, which adhere to Lipinski's Rule of Five and have significant physicochemical properties, show promise as MMP2 inhibitors.Conclusion: The finding of this study indicates a preliminary investigation into an innovative approach for managing cancer that inhibits the invasion and dissemination of cancer cells.Keywords: Matrix Metalloproteinase-2; Natural compounds; Cancer; Virtual screening

Identification of Novel STAT3 Dimerization Inhibitor Through Structure-Based Virtual Screening for Cancer Management

Background: Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a transcription factor that controls cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis, and immunological responses. In many human malignancies, abnormal STAT3 activation promotes tumor growth via oncogenic gene expression, resulting in tumor malignancy. Many drugs with clinically authorized analogues that are used as STAT3 inhibitors for cancer therapy have several drawbacks in terms of stability and toxicity.Methods: This study used PyRx 0.8 tool to screen the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) database of about 32,364 commercially available natural compounds in order to identify new STAT3 inhibitors. Physicochemical and ADME properties of selected compounds were estimated using Datawarrior and SwissADME.Result: The top 20 compounds were initially chosen based on their strong binding affinities with STAT3. Lipinski and Vaber tools were used to filter the top 20 compounds, yielding the top 6 compounds. The compounds ZINC85542844, ZINC4098720, ZINC85543599, ZINC85593523, ZINC85593528, and ZINC85593537 were passed through these filters. These compounds were found to interact with active site STAT3 residues and have several amino acid interactions in common with the control compound (STX0119).Conclusion: This study suggests that the compounds ZINC85542844, ZINC4098720, ZINC85543599, ZINC85593523, ZINC85593528, and ZINC85593537 could be used as a lead for the development of novel STAT3 inhibitors. However, further experimental validation is required to optimized them as STAT3 inhibitors.Keywords: STAT3; Transcription factor; Natural compounds; Cancer; Virtual screening 

Estimation of Net Rainfall through Guava Tree for \u3cem\u3eIn-Situ\u3c/em\u3e Soil Moisture Conservation in Guava Based Hortipasture System in Central India

Rainfall (R) falling on any vegetation can be partitioned in Stemflow (SF), Throughfall (TF) and Interception loss (I). Stemflow is that part of rainfall which flows down to the ground via leaves, stem, branches and trunk (above ground vegetative part). Throughfall is the part of rainfall which drips down through the canopy to the ground. Interception is the part of the rainfall after absorption by different parts of tree which remains with the above ground vegetative part and later on lost by the process of evaporation. Thus, SF and TF are combined termed as net rainfall and flow as runoff after meeting the infiltration demand of the soil. The water balance equation of rainfall falling on vegetation is written as, R=SF+TF+I. In wooded ecosystem, SF and TF are most important which account about 70-90% of the incident rainfall and rest goes to interception loss (Bryant et al., 2005). Proportion of the rainfall partitioned components depends on different climatic factors and Plant canopy architecture properties. These climatic factors include rainfall amount, intensity, duration, wind speed and its temporal distribution whereas canopy properties are canopy structure, leaf area index (LAI), leaf branch properties etc. Levia et al. (2010) showed that SF volume depends on tree species, crown size, leaf shape and orientation, branch angle, and bark roughness. Throughfall yield depends on canopy density (Bouten et al., 1992), rainfall amount and intensity (Weiqing et al., 2007), wind direction (Herwitz and Slye, 1995) etc. In this study, effect of six treatments i.e. vegetative barrier of Panicum maximum, staggered trenches, stone mulch, guava+pasture, sole guava and sole pasture for conserving in-situ soil moisture were studied in guava based hortipasture system for optimizing and sustaining guava and pasture production. The source of water for conserving in-situ into soil by those techniques is the net rainfall from guava tree and overland runoff. The objective of the paper is to estimate the amount of water that can be conserved directly in soil coming from net rainfall and study the effectiveness of different in-situ moisture conservation techniques in conserving in-situ soil moisture

Assessment of Renal Functions among Saudi Arabian Pregnant Women in Jazan Region

 Introduction: Marked renal hemodynamic changes are apparent by the end of the first trimester. Both the Glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow increase by 50% of pregnant women. Effective renal plasma flow probably increases to a greater extent, and thus, the filtration fraction is decreased during early and mid pregnancy. Objectives: To assess the serum levels of renal functions among Saudi Arabian Pregnant women in Jazan region. Materials and Methods: a prospective, case- control hospital based study conducted in  Jazan region from March 2014– June 2015.30 pregnant women selected in Jazan General Hospital and assessed for renal function tests. 30 healthy subjects selected as control group who were age, and socioeconomic matched to the pregnancy group. SPSS was used for data analysis using student’s ‟t†test and Pearson's correlation for assessment of correlation between different variables. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean of the serum levels of urea and creatinine in test group (p<0.05) when compared to control group with a significant moderate positive correlation between serum levels of creatinine with the period of gestation. Conclusion: Serum levels of urea and creatinine significantly reduced in Saudi Arabian pregnant women. The progressive decrease in the levels of urea and creatinine through the 3 trimesters of pregnancy suggests an increase in Glomerular filtration rate, probably due to increased cardiac output, renal blood flow and changes in fluid distribution

Satisfactory Short‑Term Outcomes of Condylar‑Constrained Knee Implants in Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

Background: This research set out to assess the functional prognosis of constrained condylar knee (CCK) in patients with severe intraoperative instability and/or coronal deformity undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Materials and methods: A prospective cohort study including 25 knees (21 cases) who underwent primary TKA using CCK implants. Senior surgeon operated all patients during 2020/2021 and followed clinically and radiographically at three, six and 12 months and 2 years postoperative. All cases were implanted with a single-design, second-generation CCK implant with a mean follow-up of 2 years. Results: The current research involved 25 knees (21 patients) with mean age 62.8 ± 12.2 years and most of the included patients were females (19; 76%). Preoperatively, valgus was demonstrated in six patients (24%) while varus was reported in 19 patients (76%) with mean preoperative Valgus/Varus angle            24.4 ± 9.9. Mean preoperative Knee Society Score (KSS) was 13.2 ± 2.7, mean preoperative functional KSS was 23.8 ± 19.2 and mean preoperative range of movement (ROM) was 107 ± 19.2. After 6 months, mean values of KSS was 86.2 ± 7.59. After 1 year, 2 years & over 2 years, mean values of KSS were 86.2 ± 7.6, 86.2 ± 7.5, 86.3 ± 7.7 respectively. Degree of change in KSS before and after the operation was 69.1 ± 20.9. Mean values of late functional KSS was 62.5 ± 23.3.  Degree of change in functional KSS before and after the operation was 36.8 ± 19.1. Postoperative ROM mean value was 120 ± 6.9 with degree of change 12.8 ± 6.3. Three cases reported postoperative complications; one cellulitis, one anterior femoral notching and one peroneal nerve injury. KSS increased from baseline to early postoperative with statistically significant variances (p< 0.001) however, no statistically significant changes were discovered in KSS from early postoperatively to 2 years of follow up. Conclusion: Primary TKA utilizing CCK implants in cases with severe coronal abnormalities and/or intraoperative instability had a good short-term survival rate, on par with less limited implants. With positive clinical and radiological results, CCK implants can be thought of as a good alternative in some instances. It is important to exercise caution while utilizing an elevated level of restraint, since less restricted implants should be preferred

القلب عند الشیخ مصطفیٰ صادق الرافعي

The word "heart" which is being used in Urdu language and literature is derived from Arabic word "Qalb". Linguists narrate its different meanings and prospects. Summary of their school of thought and opinions is that heart is a muscular organ which is present in the chest of human body. They have further said that it is a wonderful Divine gift and donation and Almighty Allah addresses to it. Punishment and laurels will be for the heart. To understand the heart references have been taken commonly from linguists and especially from "Rasail Al-Azhan fe Falsafa tul Jamal wal Hub" by   Imam Mustafa Sadiq Alrafi. Mustafa Sadiq Alrafi has been a great writer and philosopher of Egypt of modern era who has beautifully described the philosophy of language and literature along with love and beauty. In this regard he has eloquently described "Qalb" and this essay is a summarization of his opinion. It is a humble effort to describe "Qalb" by taking different cites from his book

Design and evaluation of a virtual private network architecture for collaborating specialist users

The expansion of communication systems is the undeniable advantage of the most contemporary digital technologies. However, when a specialist user such as an inventor or an idea owner communicates through a communication system, their intellects are exposed to theft. Upon the analysis of the requirements of such users, it became evident that in order to implement a global, reliable, yet secure system for specialist users, designing a network architecture that provides centralized private connectivity is crucial. This paper proposes a network architecture that provides centralized private connectivity and accommodates the requirements of the network infrastructure of such a system. The proposed virtual private network (VPN) architecture is designed to provide a trusted environment with centralized control and distributed networking, which is different from existing VPN models. It is entitled as Inventor-Investor Network (IINet) and the name is derived from its significant benefits for inventor and investor sets of users. The real experimental IINet prototype is implemented using OpenVPN. For the purpose of evaluation, round trip time (RTT) is measured and reported as the performance metric based on the different encryption ciphers and digest ciphers as the network metrics