ECOLOGICAL STUDY ON GROUND WATER POLLUTION AROUND IBB LANDFILL USING PHY SICOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS

Landfill is still the suitable way for collecting municipal solid waste (MSW). It is one of the sources of water pollution due to high concentration of toxic substances of leachate generation. A study of composition of groundwater was conducted at Ibb landfill, which is located at Al-Sahool area, north of Ibb City, Yemen. The groundwater in the vicinity of Al-Sahool area is used for drinkig water and irrigation purpose. The aim of this paper is to determine the extension of leachate towards downstream boreholes at this area. Groundwater samples were collected from seven different boreholes. The physico-chemical characteristic of groundwater, such as major anions and nitrogenous compound fluoride (F), chloride (Cl), sulphate (SO4), nitrites (NO2), nitrates (NO3), ammonia-N (NH3-N), major cations (Na, Mg, Ca, K, Fe) and heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cd, Cu) were analyzed in the laboratory. Also, pH, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS) were measured in-situ. Our results revealed that, the groundwater near the landfill BH1, BH2 and BH3 was not potable and not suitable for drinking water, since most of the physical and chemical parameters examined such as TDS, Cl, NO2, NH3-N, Ca, Mg and T.H exceeded the permissible limits given by Yemen\u27s Ministry of Water and Environment. On the contrary, boreholes which located far way from landfill were suitable for drinking water which was not affected by leachatemigration. Therefore, the current study suggests building sanitary landfill to prevent further ecological contamination and keep public health more save

QUANTIFYING GENDER AND POLITICAL BIAS IN ARABIC WORD EMBEDDINGS

Word embeddings are a breakthrough in the world of artificial intelligence. They replaced the one hot encoding that is used in many Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems such as sentiment analysis, recommendation systems, and so on. In word embeddings, each word is represented as a vector with related words clustered together. In other words, words that are close in vector space should have similar meanings. Recent research, however, has revealed that these word embeddings contain biases towards specific groups that are transferred from our culture to machines. However, the majority of such research has been conducted for English word embeddings. Other research on languages that incorporate grammatical gender terms have adjusted the bias test to accommodate for gendered words. However, little has been done on the Arabic language. In this study, we focus on quantifying gender and political bias in Twitter, Wikipedia, and two Lebanese newspaper corpora, all of which were trained using the CBOW algorithm. In the Twitter and Wikipedia models, we examine the relation of male and female terms with various categories, including strength, weakness, career, family, domestic work, science, art, money & business, and beauty & appearance. Furthermore, we investigate the relationships between “Palestine” and “Israel” in all of our embeddings with “occupation”, “resistance”, “peace”, and ”violence” & “terrorism”. We rely on manual translation and evaluation due to a scarcity of Arabic language literature. Our findings reveal that some stereotypes, such as the connection of females with domestic work and art as well as males with strength and money & business, are expressed in our embeddings. In terms of political categories, the Lebanese newspapers examined have long portrayed Israel using terms associated with “occupation and violence” & “terrorism”, whereas Palestinians have long been associated with “resistance”. Furthermore, we investigate the political bias in greater depth across decades to demonstrate how newspapers' opinions have evolved over time

Examining and Contextualizing Approaches to Establish Policy Support Organizations

There have been an increasing number of calls emphasizing the need to use the best-available research evidence to inform health system policies and, in response, efforts have been made in many countries to develop and implement policy-support organizations (PSOs) to enhance the use of research in policymaking. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding both the best approaches for the successful establishment of such organizations. Moreover, there are very few attempts to consider how approaches can be applied in particular contexts, and operationalized by policymakers and stakeholders in their efforts to support EIPM through the establishment of PSOs. This dissertation incorporates a mix of methodological approaches to address this gap. First, in chapter two, a critical interpretive synthesis was used to develop a conceptual framework that can guide the process of establishing a PSO or similar entities. The framework outlines the stages in the process of establishing a policy support organization and the contextual factors at the political-, research- and health-system level that influence this process. Second, in chapter three, the framework from the CIS was used to inform the design of a survey tool and interview guide used in a sequential mixed methods study to enrich the framework by soliciting insights from those with practical experience with developing and operationalizing PSOs in real-world contexts. Specifically, this study provides insights into the approaches and strategies for each stage in the establishment process for a PSO. Lastly, in chapter four, the findings from chapter two and three were used -- along with in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews with policymakers, researchers and stakeholders who are familiar with the Omani system -- to develop a model for an Omani knowledge translation department, which can be used in a future co-design process for activating the department. The dissertation chapters build on each other and make substantive, methodological, and theoretical contributions. Substantively this dissertation clarifies and defines key concepts that are essential to enable a rich understanding of the process of establishing a PSO. It highlights that the process of establishing such an organization is iterative and can be influenced by multiple contextual factors that affect the individual approach that has been used to support evidence-informed policymaking. Methodologically, this dissertation is the first study of PSOs that uses a mix of conceptual framework generation, insights from a wide range of fields such as organizational development, and empirical approaches that adopt mixed methods to derive fulsome answers to specific questions about establishing PSOs. Theoretically, this dissertation provides a conceptual framework that can be used to inform the process of establishing a PSO in different contexts. The theoretical constructs of this framework were verified and strengthened through direct application in subsequent studies in the dissertation. This dissertation has many implications for policy and research. Most importantly, for those interested in establishing a PSO, my findings provide a road map for identifying the most appropriate starting point and the factors that might influence the establishment process. In addition, leaders of existing PSOs can use my findings to expand or refine their scope of work. Given that this framework focuses only on PSOs in the health sector, an important next step for research will be to include other sectors and identify any additional insight that can enhance the framework I have developed.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)Health system policymaking is a challenging task because many factors need to be balanced in policy decisions (e.g., efficiency, equity, and politics). There have been an increasing number of calls emphasizing the need to use the best-available research evidence to inform health system policies and, in response, efforts have been made in many countries to develop and implement approaches to enhance the use of research in the policymaking process. In some instances, organizations have been given sole responsibility for supporting evidence-informed policy, but evidence is limited to inform the process of establishing these organizations. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by: I) developing a new conceptual framework for the process of establishing organizations that can support evidence-informed policymaking; ii) identifying approaches that can be used in this process; and iii) developing a model for a proposed Omani knowledge translation department using this framework

Identification and characterization of two amylase producing bacteria Cellulosimicrobium sp. and Demequina sp. isolated from marine organisms

Marine sources have been known to yield novel compounds with a wide range of bioactivity with various commercial applications. In this study, the abilities of bacteria isolated from eight marine organisms to produce α-amylase were examined. All eight organisms were found to harbor amylase producing bacteria. Two bacterial species isolated from the green alga Ulva rigida and the sponge Mycale sp. were further identified and their α-amylases were purified and characterized. The bacterial species isolated from U. rigida and Mycale sp. were identified by DNA sequencing as Cellulosimicrobium sp. and Demequina sp., respectively. Cellulosimicrobium sp. obtained maximum cell growth and amylase production at 29.C and in the presence of lactose as a carbon source. Optimal cell growth and amylase production by Demequina sp. was observed at 35.C. While lactose enhanced cell growth of Demequina sp., maximum amylase production was found when fructose and glycerol were the available sources of carbon. Both strains grew better in the presence of tryptone, whilst peptone stimulated amylase production. Maximal cell growth and amylase production by both of the strains was found at a medium salinity of 3% NaCl

Characterizing No-shows in the Omani Primary Healthcare Setting

Objectives: Patient ‘no-shows’ (failure to keep or cancel appointments) is a global problem that impacts healthcare systems by delaying patient access to healthcare, reducing quality of care, and wasting resources. The no-show phenomenon has not yet been studied in Oman despite it having grown in importance ever since the appointments system was implemented in 2014. This study aimed to characterize the no-shows in primary healthcare facilities in Oman. Methods: We collected and analyzed administrative data during the period 2014–2017 from 14 primary healthcare institutions in Oman focusing on the ophthalmology, ear, nose, and throat, and dermatology clinics therein. Results: The overall no-show rates were > 50.0%. No-show probabilities were higher in males, younger adults, new appointments, early morning appointments, appointments during Ramadan, and appointments scheduled farther in advance. Patient experience with the appointment system reduced the no-show probability. Conclusions: Policymakers should consider these trends to optimize the number of appointments per day, and researchers should further investigate no-shows for other specialties and levels of care