A new English–Arabic parallel text corpus for lexicographic applications

Bilingual lexicographers, translation specialists and English teachers in the Arab world do not have access to computerized corpora of parallel texts for the English–Arabic language pair. This project has been carried out to meet this requirement by establishing the first general parallel corpus of English texts and their Arabic translations. The first phase of the project involved the selection of general source texts having appropriate lexical and stylistic features. The chosen source texts deal with a variety of topics such as the environment, globalization, psychology, history, politics, drama, etc. Their Arabic translations were taken from The World of Knowledge series published by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) in Kuwait. Keywords: parallel corpus, lexicography, translation, bilingual dictionary, collocations, alignment, synonyms, derivatives, antonyms, glossary, frequenc

Teaching and Learning Arabic Writing to Fourth Grade Students in the Basic Education Schools in Oman

This study, which took the form of a case study approach, investigated the teaching and learning of Arabic writing in fourth grade Basic Education (BE) in the Sultanate of Oman. The aim was to understand how Arabic writing is taught in the BE schools, and how this influences students' performance in writing. In order, to achieve this aim, the teaching and learning of Arabic writing was explored from different angles, which incorporated the perspectives of curriculum professionals, teachers and students, in addition to classroom practices and students' written texts. This qualitative study used participant observation, interviews and document analysis to collect data related to investigative issues. An inductive approach was employed, to analyse observation and interview data, and content analysis was conducted for the document analysis. The findings of this investigation were divided into three chapters according to the emerged themes. The first chapter was about knowledge for writing, which included transcriptional and compositional knowledge, knowledge about writing forms (genres) and knowledge about the writing processes. The second chapter explained the writing pedagogy, teaching processes, teaching recourses and teacher’s roles in the writing classroom. The third chapter discussed the successful and limited aspects in the BE curriculum. Generally speaking, this study illustrated that teaching and learning Arabic writing is restricted by the official curriculum, which not only affects students' ability in writing, rather it also influences teachers' perspectives and practices in the writing classroom. Arabic writing in the fourth grade of the BE schools is taught in a prescribed manner, and few opportunities are granted for student to do creative writing. The emphasis in the Arabic writing curriculum of fourth grade is given for writing accuracy in terms of spelling, handwriting and grammar, rather than for creativity in writing. In the conclusion of this study, several recommendations were proposed for policymakers, curriculum professionals and teachers to assist them in enhancing the teaching and learning of Arabic writing.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Role of oxidative stress and telomerase on haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell ageing

PhD ThesisAgeing is associated with the functional decline of both haematopoietic stem and endothelial progenitor cells (HSPCs and EPCs), leading to an imbalance between cellular damage and repair. Telomeres are the end caps of chromosomes that maintain chromosomal integrity and shorten with age. Telomerase is the enzyme responsible for telomere replication. The absence of telomerase leads to premature ageing. Oxidative stress as well as metabolic stress and short telomeres are key contributors to the manifestation of different age-related diseases. However, the exact effect of these factors on HSPCs and EPCs is not clear. The effects of metabolic stress were studied by the addition of different glucose concentrations to low passage (early) cells in culture. Metabolic stress impaired the growth of EPCs and CD34+ HSPCs. There was no change in telomerase enzyme activity under metabolic stress in CD34+ HSPCs. However, metabolic stress upregulated the metabolic co-activator PGC-1α in EPCs but not in CD34+ HSPCs. The effects of oxidative stress were investigated by incubating peripheral blood EPCs, and cord blood CD34+ expanded HSPCs under 40% O2 in culture. While early EPCs show resistance to oxidative stress, CD34+ HSPCs showed impaired growth and differentiation potential. This impairment was associated with increased telomerase activity, no changes to TERT or TERC expression, and maintenance of telomere length. Oxidative stress limited CD34+ HSPC myeloid differentiation. In particular, CD15+ granulocytes were more sensitive to oxidative stress than CD14+ monocytes. Furthermore, CD15+ granulocytes reduced the expression of TERC during myeloid differentiation. In contrast to CD34+ HSPCs under growth conditions, there was no increase in telomerase activity during myeloid differentiation under oxidative stress. To investigate the effects of ageing in vivo with telomerase dysfunction, HSPCs from bone marrow of aged telomerase deficient TERT-/- and TERC-/- first generation mice were studied. Ageing resulted in the accumulation of Lineage-Sca-1+CKit+ stem cells and CFU-GM colonies in wild type mice. TERT-/- mice without telomere shortening showed a normal phenotype at young age (1.5-7.5 months) and augmented ageing of bone marrow with increased age (22 months). On the other hand, TERC-/- mice with short telomeres led to a premature ageing bone marrow phenotype, even at young ages (8-12 months). Interestingly, both TERT-/- and TERC-/- showed more erythroid progenitor colonies. Furthermore, short- (7 months) and long-term (16 months) dietary restrictions ameliorated the ageing bone marrow phenotype. Together, the data presented demonstrates the damaging effect of oxidative and metabolic stress on humans in early EPCs and CD34+ HSPCs. In a mouse model, normal ageing disrupted HSPCs. Telomerase deficiency augmented normal ageing, whilst short telomeres appear to be a major determinant of ageing. These ageing phenotypes in mice can be ameliorated by dietary restriction

Ommatissus Lybicus Infestation in Relation to Spatial Characteristics of Date Palm Plantations in Oman

The agricultural ecosystem and its interaction with the outside environment plays a major role in the population of herbivores. The infestation of the Dubas bug, Ommatissus lybicus, has shown a spatial and temporal variation among different date palm plantations in Oman. This study focused on the relationship of infestation with date palm cultivation environments. The infestation and some selected environmental factors were evaluated in 20 locations for four consecutive infestation seasons over two years. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to identify the significant factors and the global relationship. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) was used to determine the spatial relationship. The results showed that GWR had better prediction than OLS. The model explained 61% of the infestation variation in the studied locations. The most significant coefficient was the tree planting pattern, the trees planted in uneven rows and columns (irregular pattern) had a positive effect; the infestation increased as the irregularity increased due to an increase in tree density. This reduced the interaction of harsh outside weather with the date palm plantation microclimate. The proportion of side growing area had a negative effect on insect population; as the percentage of side growing area increased as the infestation decreased, assuming the side growing crops hosted natural enemies. The study concluded that the variation of spatial and temporal infestation was primarily due to the variation of the cultural practices and spatial environment of the date palm plantations

Simvastatin Ameliorates Diabetic Cardiomyopathy by Attenuating Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Rats

Simvastatin is a lipid-lowering agent used to treat hypercholesterolemia and to reduce the risk of heart disease. This study scrutinized the beneficial effects of simvastatin on experimental diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM), pointing to the role of hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin and both control and diabetic rats received simvastatin for 90 days. Diabetic rats showed significant cardiac hypertrophy, body weight loss, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia. Serum creatine kinase MB (CK-MB) and troponin I showed a significant increase in diabetic rats. Simvastatin significantly improved body weight, attenuated hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, and ameliorated CK-MB and troponin I. Simvastatin prevented histological alterations and deposition of collagen in the heart of diabetic animals. Lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide were increased in the heart of diabetic rats whereas antioxidant defenses were decreased. These alterations were significantly reversed by simvastatin. In addition, simvastatin decreased serum inflammatory mediators and expression of NF-κB in the diabetic heart. Cardiac caspase-3 was increased in the diabetic heart and decreased following treatment with simvastatin. In conclusion, our results suggest that simvastatin alleviates DCM by attenuating hyperglycemia /hyperlipidemia-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis

Quaterionic Construction of the W(F_4) Polytopes with Their Dual Polytopes and Branching under the Subgroups B(B_4) and W(B_3)*W(A_1)

4-dimensional $F_{4}$ polytopes and their dual polytopes have been constructed as the orbits of the Coxeter-Weyl group $W(F_{4})$ where the group elements and the vertices of the polytopes are represented by quaternions. Branchings of an arbitrary \textbf{$W(F_{4})$} orbit under the Coxeter groups $W(B_{4}$ and $W(B_{3}) \times W(A_{1})$ have been presented. The role of group theoretical technique and the use of quaternions have been emphasizedComment: 26 pages, 10 figure

Эпидемиология и факторы риска рака шейки матки

ФАКТОРЫ РИСКАШЕЙКИ МАТКИ НОВООБРАЗОВАНИ

Numerical Model‐Software for Predicting Rock Formation Failure‐Time Using Fracture Mechanics

Real‐time integrated drilling is an important practice for the upstream petroleum industry. Traditional pre‐drill models, tend to offset the data gathered from the field since information obtained prior to spudding and drilling of new wells often become obsolete due to the changes in geology and geomechanics of reservoir‐rocks or formations. Estimating the complicated non‐linear failure‐time of a rock formation is a difficult but important task that helps to mitigate the effects of rock failure when drilling and producing wells from the subsurface. In this study, parameters that have the strongest impact on rock failure were used to develop a numerical and computational model for evaluating wellbore instability in terms of collapse, fracture, rock strength and failure‐time. This approach presents drilling and well engineers with a better understanding of the fracture mechanics and rock strength failureprediction procedure required to reduce stability problems by forecasting the rock/formation failuretime. The computational technique built into the software, uses the stress distribution around a rock formation as well as the rock’s responses to induced stress as a means of analyzing the failure time of the rock. The results from simulation show that the applied stress has the most significant influence on the failure‐time of the rock. The software also shows that the failure‐time varied over several orders of magnitude for varying stress‐loads. Thus, this will help drilling engineers avoid wellbore failure by adjusting the stress concentration properly through altering the mud pressure and well orientation with respect to in‐situ stresses. As observed from the simulation results for the failure time analysis, the trend shows that the time dependent strength failure is not just a function of the applied stress. Because, at applied stress of 6000–6050 psi there was time dependent failure whereas, at higher applied stress of 6350–6400 psi there was no time dependent strength failure

A modified empirical criterion for strength of transversely anisotropic rocks with metamorphic origin

A modified empirical criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely anisotropic rocks. In this regard, mechanical properties of intact anisotropic slate obtained from three different districts of Iran were taken into consideration. Afterward, triaxial rock strength criterion introduced by Rafiai was modified for transversely anisotropic rocks. The criterion was modified by adding a new parameter α for taking the influence of strength anisotropy into consideration. The results obtained have shown that the parameter α can be considered as the strength reduction parameter due to rock anisotropy. The modified criterion was compared to the modified Hoek–Brown (Saroglou and Tsiambaos) and Ramamurthy criteria for different anisotropic rocks. It was concluded that the criterion proposed in this paper is a more accurate and precise criterion in predicting the strength of anisotropic rocks

Herd immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in 10 communities, qatar

We investigated what proportion of the population acquired severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV- 2) infection and whether the herd immunity threshold has been reached in 10 communities in Qatar. The study included 4,970 participants during June 21-September 9, 2020. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected by using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Seropositivity ranged from 54.9% (95% CI 50.2%-59.4%) to 83.8% (95% CI 79.1%-87.7%) across communities and showed a pooled mean of 66.1% (95% CI 61.5%-70.6%). A range of other epidemiologic measures indicated that active infection is rare, with limited if any sustainable infection transmission for clusters to occur. Only 5 infections were ever severe and 1 was critical in these young communities; infection severity rate of 0.2% (95% CI 0.1%-0.4%). Specifi c communities in Qatar have or nearly reached herd immunity for SARS-CoV-2 infection: 65%-70% of the population has been infected.This study was supported by the Hamad Medical Corporation, Ministry of Public Health, and the Biomedical Research Program and the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Biomathematics Research Core, both atScopu