University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education最新文献

{"title":"Influence of Water Table Fluctuation on Natural Source Zone Depletion in Hydrocarbon Contaminated Subsurface Environments","authors":"R. Ismail, S. Shafieiyoun, R. Al-Raoush","doi":"10.29117/cic.2020.0084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/cic.2020.0084","url":null,"abstract":"Most of the prediction theories regarding dissolution of organic contaminants in the subsurface systems have been proposed based on the static water conditions; and the influence of water fluctuations on mass removal requires further investigations. In this study, it was intended to investigate the effects of water table fluctuations on biogeochemical properties of the contaminated soil at the smear zone between the vadose zone and the groundwater table. An automated 60 cm soil column system was developed and connected to a hydrostatic equilibrium reservoir to impose the water regime by using a multi-channel pump. Four homogenized hydrocarbon contaminated soil columns were constructed and two of them were fully saturated and remained under static water conditions while another two columns were operated under water table fluctuations between the soil surface and 40 cm below it. The experiments were run for 150 days and relevant geochemical indicators as well as dissolved phase concentrations were analyzed at 30 and 50 cm below the soil surface in all columns. The results indicated significant difference in terms of biodegradation effectiveness between the smear zones exposed to static and water table fluctuation conditions. This presentation will provide an overview of the experimental approach, mass removal efficiency, and key findings.","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131564837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gut Microbiota and Health: Understanding the Role of Diet","authors":"R. Alasmar, Kavitha Varadharajan, Muralitharan Shanmugakonar, H. Al-Naemi","doi":"10.4236/fns.2019.1011097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2019.1011097","url":null,"abstract":"Microbiome now is considered as an organ within our system to regulate metabolism, cellular immune response and eventually maintain the health. Gut microbiota has been studied extensively in the recent past due to the possibility of high-resolution analysis by next-generation sequencing technology. As the gut microbiota, is essential for the host development and physiological function, a gut microbial community dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes and their relative abundance and dysbiosis influences obese conditions and various disease progression. The microbiota dysbiosis in the gut contributed mainly by diet as a carbon economy of the colon apart from genetic and environmental variations. Postgenomic era reveals the paradigm of the gut-brain axis and association of gut microbial metabolites such as short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and disease progression of inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD) and colon cancer. In addition, the landscape of gut microbiome is influenced by other factors such as pregnancy, smoking, alcohol consumption and stress. The functional consequence of gut microbial dysbiosis towards disease progression and understanding their mechanism in terms of the immune response through studies on rodent animal models also are discussed in this review.","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"286 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114261027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterization of the Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) of Virgibacillus Strains capable of Mediating the Formation of High Mg-Calcite and Protodolomite","authors":"Zulfa Al Disi, N. Zouari, M. Dittrich, S. Jaoua, H. Al-kuwari, T. Bontognali","doi":"10.1016/J.MARCHEM.2019.103693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MARCHEM.2019.103693","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120495844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EFL Teachers’ Phonological Awareness Beliefs and Practices: Help or Prevent EFL Children Developing Reading","authors":"Y. M. Alshaboul, R. Almahasneh","doi":"10.7176/jep/10-12-09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7176/jep/10-12-09","url":null,"abstract":"Families, schools and stakeholders long for developing good readers (Ponitz & Rimm-Kaufman, 2011) and would do all it takes to save young children from becoming illiterate or low achievers (Anthony & Farncis, 2005; Share & Stanovich, 1995; Snowling, 1998). Since the landmark study of Moats (1994), a flow of research has targeted teacher education advocating for teachers being competent in PA (Carlisle, Kelcey, Rowan, & Phelps, 2011; Kennedy, 2013; Washburn et al., 2017). EFL teachers’ proficiency seems to contribute to the reading difficulties that early graders encounter. This paper investigates the knowledge, beliefs, practices and awareness in phonological awareness (PA) of twohundred and ten ramdonly selected EFL in-service teachers and then examines the impact of teachers’ experiences, qualifications, and gender on shaping teachers’ instruction. The researchers used a four-section survey to collect teachers’ demographic information, perceived and actual knowledge of phonological awareness and classroom practices related to PA, phonics, and syllabication. The results reported teachers as moderate level in the beliefs, practice and awareness of PA. In terms of teachers’ knowledge in PA, however, results showed teachers lacking the basics in teaching reading. This study adds to the body of literature and sheds light on the status quo of EFL in-service teachers’ competency and brings to the attention of every stakeholder the critical role EFL teachers play in helping EFL children become readers. Although the results point towards teachers as possible cause behind children’s low-literacy level, this study raises important questions for further investigations, and implications for EFL teacher education and preparation are highlighted.","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124814846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of Heparan Sulphate Binding Domain of Chemokine CCL21 to Migration of Breast Cancer Cells","authors":"M. I. Malki","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2020.0132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2020.0132","url":null,"abstract":"Lymph node metastasis constitutes a key event in breast cancer progression. Chemokines are small proteins, which can promote metastatic spread by inducing cancer cell migration and invasion. Chemokine function is dependant upon their binding to both cell surface heparan sulphate (HS) molecules and to their specific receptor. Our group has demonstrated a significant increase in chemokine receptor CCR7 expression in cancerous breast epithelia compared to healthy controls. This study is designed to test the hypothesis that a non-HS binding forms of chemokine CCL21 can disrupt the normal response to CCL21, therefore reducing the metastasis of CCR7-expressing cancer cells. Truncated CCL21 chemokine (Δ98- 134 c-terminal basic extension), was synthesised to investigate a possible linkage between chemokine binding capacity and cell activation. Wild type (WT) and mutant-CCL21 were tested for their ability to stimulate a dose-dependent increase in intracellular-free calcium in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) and breast cancer epithelial cells MDA-MB-231. Mutant-CCL21 at concentrations 5 and 10nM showed potential to mobilise Ca2+ at levels similar to that produced by WT-CCl21. A series of experiments was performed to determine how deletion of the HS-binding site altered the ability of CCL21 to stimulate chemotaxis within a concentration gradient generated by free solute diffusion. PBMC stimulated to migrate by wild-type CCL21 was not significantly different from that stimulated by mutant (P> 0.05). Similar results were observed in assays using MDA-MB-231 cells. A further series of experiments was performed to compare the potential of WT and mutant-CCL21 to stimulate the migration of cells across endothelium. In contrast to results for trans-filter migration, it was found that the non HSbinding mutant stimulated no increased in transendothelial cell migration above the background at each of the tested concentrations, 10, 30 and 50 nM respectively (P>0.05). However, WT-CCL21 stimulated significant increased PBMC migration at each of the tested concentration (all P <0.001). Furthermore, the effect of heparin on chemotactic properties of WT and mutant- CCL21 was examined. Interestingly, heparin (250 µg/ml) completely inhibit the chemotaxis mediated by WT-CCL21 (5nM) (P < 0.001), whereas it did not inhibit the chemotaxis at concentrations 100, 250 & 500 µg/ml in response to mutant CCL21 (5nM) (P > 0.05). Similar assay will be performed using MDA-MB-231 cells. Work is ongoing to characterise the biophysical properties of mutant-CCL21 and determine its potential role for a therapeutic blockade of the migration of breast cancer cells in-vivo. Our primarily data showed that mutant CCL21 in xenograft brain tumor models showed substantial inhibition of tumour growth. Our results indicate that truncated CCL21 chemokine might be a potential preventive biofactor for human breast cancer metastasis by targeting chemokine receptor genes.","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121424175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"COVID-19 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE): A Potential Source of Microplastic Pollution in the State of Qatar","authors":"S. Veerasingam, J. Al-Khayat, P. Vethamony","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2020.0284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2020.0284","url":null,"abstract":"Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. The personal protection equipment (PPE), especially medical face masks and N95 filtering face piece respirators (FFRs) are typically worn by people at home/office/working place/outside to protect from infection. Thus, the increase in consumption of facemasks and FFRs across Qatar has given rise to a new environmental challenge, adding to the vast plastic waste in the environment. Our team has already established the baseline levels of marine litter (ML) including plastic waste along the west coast of Qatar based on November 2019 ML survey (Veerasingam et al., 2020a). To study the impact of COVID-19 on ML, we have conducted another survey along the west coast of Qatar in July 2020. The distribution of PPE is higher on the southern part of west coast of Qatar than the northern part. Attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy was used to characterize the polymer types of surgical facemasks, N95 FFRs and gloves. Polypropylene (PP) and polyamide (PA) were the abundant polymer types of PPEs. This study confirmed that the PPE could be a potential source for microplastic contaminant in the environment, especially if the present situation continues. Therefore, proper waste removal measures have to be followed.","PeriodicalId":169505,"journal":{"name":"University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123058930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}