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Institute of Public Health Newsletter, July - December 2024
Get PDFhttps://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/iphnl/1016/thumbnail.jp
Designing A Proposed Educational Program Based on the Principles of Green Chemistry and Measuring its Effectiveness in Developing Related Concepts for Secondary School Students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Get PDFThe study aimed to design a proposed educational program based on the principles of green chemistry and measure its effectiveness in developing related concepts among female students of the natural sciences track at the secondary stage in Mecca. A random sample of (30) female students was selected, and the research followed the mixed approach, and data was collected using a cognitive achievement test and semi-structured interview questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program, and qualitative data were analyzed using the rooted method. The results revealed that there were statistically significant differences at the significance level (α ≤ 0.01) between the average scores of the study group in the pre- and post-application of the cognitive achievement test in favor of the post-application. They also revealed a high effectiveness of the proposed educational program. The qualitative results also confirmed the pioneering role of the educational program in providing female students with green chemistry concepts, and based on the research results; A set of recommendations and suggestions for future studies related to the topic of the current study were presented.
Keywords: design of the educational program, principles of green chemistry, High School
SECURING THE INBOX: ADVANCING PHISHING EMAIL DETECTION WITH FINE-TUNED BERT
No full textIn recent years, phishing attacks have persisted as a widespread threat in the contemporary digital environment, presenting substantial risks to individuals and organizations. Cybercriminals are devising increasingly sophisticated strategies to deceive users through malicious emails. In response to this challenge, this research focuses on developing a new tool for detecting phishing emails utilizing the BERT algorithm. The tool aims to enhance email security by accurately identifying deceptive emails and protecting users from potential cyber threats. The primary objective of this study is to investigate how leveraging the BERT algorithm can improve the detection of phishing emails compared to traditional methods. The methodology involves fine-tuning the pre-trained BERT model on a dataset comprising both legitimate and phishing emails to learn patterns and characteristics of phishing attempts. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the BERT-based detection tool through various experiments and performance assessments.
The results indicate that the BERT algorithm achieves an accuracy of 98% in identifying phishing emails, demonstrating its potential to enhance email security measures significantly. The significant contributions of this research lie in developing an advanced tool for combating phishing attacks, thereby mitigating risks associated with cyber threats. Additionally, this study fills a crucial gap in current email security measures by harnessing the power of state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques for phishing detection. By delivering valuable insights into the effectiveness of the BERT-based approach in safeguarding users against phishing attacks, this research contributes to creating a safer and more secure online environment
DESIGN WITH, NOT FOR, LOCAL COMMUNITY: UTILIZING e- PARTICIPATION TOOLS IN THE DESIGN OF SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE VERTICAL EMIRATI PUBLIC HOUSING
No full textFew years ago, local and federal governments in the UAE started to design and develop vertical public housing for Emirati residents as a new public housing typology that is believed to be more environmentally sustainable. Dibba Al-Hisn Housing Scheme in Sharjah and Al-Ghurfa Project in Al-Fujairah, are two recently developed vertical Emirati public housing projects developed by Sharjah Housing Directorate and Sheikh Zayed Housing Program (SZHP) respectively. Both projects, have been professionally designed, however, the residents’ opinions were not considered in the design process. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to explore the potentials of utilizing the advanced e-Participation tools of Virtual Reality (VR), to genuinely involve Emirati citizens in the design process of the vertical public housing in the UAE. A Qualitative Case Study research method was adopted to achieve this goal. The research steps of this thesis started with, first, initiating a conceptual framework from relevant literature review and global case studies in developed and developing countries, as well as in-depth interviews with Emirati residents about the anticipated design measures of the social sustainability principles in vertical housing. Next, the conceptual framework was utilized to examine the ‘professional’ design of Al-Ghurfa vertical housing project, as a case study, through three investigation tools: pre- e-Participation interviews, e-Participation interviews through the advanced Meta Quest Pro VR tool, and post- e-Participation interviews. A sample of 32 Emirati young citizens were interviewed after developing Al-Ghurfa project design into BIM and VR-ready model through Revit and Prospect Iris VR software packages. This advanced e-Participatory tool managed to successfully explore the opinions of the interviewees regarding the professional top-down design of Al-Ghurfa vertical housing project, as almost all of them have found this immersive tool to be beneficial for understanding and visualizing apartment designs. The obtained detailed opinions revealed the social sustainability-related shortcomings of the current vertical public housing design, and hence, new design guidelines for achieving social sustainability principles have been recommended when designing vertical public housing for Emirate residents in the future
ROLE OF B CELL MEDIATED IMMUNE RESPONSE DURING SKIN ATOPIC DERMATITIS DISEASE
No full textAtopic dermatitis (AD) is the most prevalent non-infectious skin allergy affecting approximately 10-30% adults and 40% children worldwide. It is clinically characterized by eczematic lesions and elevated IgE levels and is a multifactorial disease that is heterogenous in nature. AD results in a dominant Th2 polarized immune response. Until date, there is no cure for this disease. B cells are key players of humoral immune responses and contribute significantly to allergic responses through IgE secretion. However, recently a subset of B cells termed regulatory B cells (Bregs) have been reported to provide protective role by the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Furthermore, Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells (NFATc1) is a transcription factor that functions through a calcium dependent calcineurin/calmodulin pathway to exert its effects on target genes. NFATc1 has an important role in the development and function of the immune system. Previous studies suggested that NFATc1 can inhibit IL-10 by binding to its gene in association with HDAC1. Hence, the aim of this research was to study the role of NFATc1 deficient B cells during allergic responses using AD as a model for skin allergies. To achieve this, we utilized transgenic mice with B cell-specific NFATc1 deficiency (Nfatc1f/f x mb1cre) to induce an AD model and examine the impact of NFATc1 absence in B cell responses during AD. AD was induced using calcipotriol, a vitamin D3 analogue, applied to the ears of the mice and response was assessed by measuring ear thickness as an indicator of inflammation, followed by histological analysis. IgE levels in the serum were also determined by ELISA. The ear draining Lymph Nodes (dLNs) were then used to study the various immune cell populations through immunophenotyping by flow cytometry. Finally, B cells were isolated from dLNs, and RNA sequencing was performed to study the detailed mechanisms during such immune responses at a transcriptome level. It was seen that Nfatc1f/f x mb1cre AD mice exhibited a diminished AD phenotype compared to wild type (WT) control AD mice displaying weaker ear swelling, lower epidermal thickening and cellular infiltration in histological analysis, and no change in IgE levels at the start and end of calcipotriol mediated AD induction. Further the Nfatc1f/f x mb1cre AD mice showcased a higher percentage of IL-10 producing B220+CD5+CD1d+ Bregs supporting the fact that lack of NFATc1 promoted B cells to differentiate into Bregs, producing more anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and hence alleviated the AD symptoms. At the transcriptome level, compared to WT AD mice, Nfatc1f/f x mb1cre AD mice demonstrated differently expressed genes that promoted B cell development and enhanced its response to stress and stimulus. This research sheds light on the possibility of developing NFATc1 as a potential molecular target to alleviate AD responses without compromising B cell functions and by promoting higher endogenous production of anti-inflammatory IL-10. However, further research is required on models of human cells and strategies to manipulate NFATc1 in-vivo to establish this putative molecular target
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF THE JELLYFISH OUTBREAK ALONG THE UAE COASTAL WATERS
Get PDFJellyfish are a ubiquitous occurrence in the world’s oceans. During the past decades, dramatic spatial increases and temporal shifts in jellyfish distributions have been reported around the world. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), coastal area also has experienced several blooms along with severe adverse impacts on its economic facilities. Few studies have been conducted within the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, to identify the blooming species and the environmental parameters that favor such breakout. The present study aimed to identify the jellyfish species found along the coastal area of UAE and trying to link their occurrence with seasonal variations in environmental parameters during the period from December 2019 until August 2022. Another objective of this study was to increase our knowledge of the mechanisms leading to the proliferation of the two most common jellyfish species along the study area i.e. Catostylus mosaicus, and Cassiopea andromeda. Morphological analysis and molecular confirmation were used to identify these two species. Moreover, histological and biochemical analyses of the gonads were carried out to understand the seasonal variations in the reproductive biology of the two-dominant species. During the study period, six species have been identified as Catostylus mosaicus, Cassiopea andromeda, Aurelia aurita, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, Cephea cephea and Carybdea sivickisi. The spatial and temporal occurrence of all identified species have been discussed in light of the monthly temperature variations during the study period. The obtained results indicated that the Gonadosomatic Index (GS-I) of the two-dominant species showed a well-defined fluctuation throughout the study period. Indeed, Gametogenesis resembled descriptions for other rhizostomes and semaeostomes which can reproduce throughout the year with higher rate fluctuations in carbohydrates, protein, and lipid concentrations too. This research represents the most comprehensive study of jellyfish along the UAE coastal area. From the obtained results and observations, the need for continuous monitoring of jellyfish blooms as well as surveying for new species introduction to the Arabian Gulf and the study of its habitat and its reproduction and feeding habits are recommended. This will be helpful in predicting any negative impact of its blooming, and to face the consequences by taking enough precautionary measures
FAST AND RELIABLE AUTHENTICATION METHOD FOR INDOOR CONSTRAINED DRONES
Get PDFOver the last twenty years, the commercial sector of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles has been growing exponentially, owing to their rapid deployment, high mobility, and the number of applications in the industry field such as military, transportation, critical infrastructures, as well as in the academic field for research purposes. One of the main communication systems adopted by the UAVs relies on transmitting wireless signals. In particular, UAVs are adopted for indoor use-case scenarios, such as warehouse inventory applications and indoor building inspections. They need to transmit control messages and sensitive data by leveraging an efficient, short-range, and secure communication channel to avoid man-in-themiddle, spoofing, and hijacking attacks. This dissertation focused on investigating the security of very constrained unmanned aerial systems in IEEE 802.15.4 networks targeted for indoor domains. In this thesis, we propose a new secure protocol based on Bitwise Precomputable Message Authentication Code (BP-MAC) scheme to provide authenticity and integrity protection to the message payload. Further, we propose also a new protocol that can be encapsulated in the MAC layer of IEEE 802.15.4 networks to improve drone accountability in indoor scenarios. Combining the use of the BPMAC scheme and our protocol for UAVs in indoor scenarios results in several benefits in terms of optimization, efficiency, and a reduction in the amount of exchanged data. We provide the results by simulating our proposed solution from the computational and networking perspective. The proposed solution is filling the security gap in the literature (e.g, UMAC) to effectively safeguard the communication of indoor drones. It demonstrates a significant improvement in terms of memory usage, bandwidth, energy savings due to reduced workload, and the ability to attain the same level of security offered by traditional authentication schemes by using lighter techniques. Within this work, we identify and address new security challenges for the future promising research directions
Perceptions of Social Studies Teachers and Supervisors about Teaching Space Education in the Sultanate of Oman
Get PDFThis study aimed to reveal the perceptions of social studies teachers and supervisors about teaching space education in the Sultanate of Oman, and the extent of their interest and satisfaction with the current reality of space education. The questionnaire, which consisted of (28) statements distributed over five axes, was applied to a stratified random sample of (150) teachers and supervisors. The results showed the support of social studies teachers and supervisors for teaching space education in the Sultanate of Oman, and there were no statistically significant differences at the significance level (0.05) according to the variable of years of experience. The researchers recommended the development of social studies curricula; To keep abreast of developments in the field of space education, and to hold training courses for teachers and supervisors of social studies in the field of space education; To develop their knowledge and skills with its developments, and accordingly the researchers suggest some future studies.
Keywords: Perceptions, teachers, supervisors, space education, social studie
Strategic Renewal and its Impact as a Mediating Variable between Core Capabilities and Kuwait University as Organizational Ambidexterity
Get PDFThis study aims to identify the level of strategic renewal at Kuwait University and its impact as a mediating variable on core capabilities and its role in forming the university as an organizational ambidexterity. The study follows the descriptive approach with its correlational design to achieve this goal. The questionnaire is used as a tool for the study, and it was applied to a sample of (47) leaders at Kuwait University. Using the appropriate statistical tools, the study concludes several results, the most important of which are: (1) the level of management of core capabilities at Kuwait University is moderate; (2) the level of Strategic renewal is high in overall dimensions; (3) the level of formation of Kuwait University as a skilled organization is generally low in all dimensions; (4) the Strategic renewal variable plays the role of the mediating variable between the core capabilities and the fully skilled organization. In light of this, the study comes out with several recommendations, the most important of which is: paying attention to the good management of the core capabilities because of their great impact on Strategic renewal and the formation of the organizational ambidexterity.
Keywords: Core Capabilities, Strategic Renewal, Organizational Ambidexterity, Kuwait University, Higher Educatio
PERMISSION RECOMMENDATION FOR ANDROID APPLICATIONS: LEVERAGING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING ON APP DESCRIPTIONS
Get PDFThis study develops an NLP-based system to recommend essential permissions for Android apps by analyzing app descriptions. It leverages advanced models, including LSTM and ensemble techniques, to align permissions with app functionality while minimizing unnecessary requests