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DETECTING TYPES OF PHOBIA IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
Get PDFPhobia in its broadest sense is an irrational fear or feeling, created in a person toward an object or a certain situation that might happen around him or in his imagination and it can be related to natural elements such as animals, insects, oceans, fire and heights. Furthermore, it can be related to build environment and manmade spaces or more simply, to architecture. Unfortunately, architects shifted from the standardisation and regularity to creating innovative and irregular spaces that are reflected by the exterior and interior design of the building without having any concern of the negative consequences such as phobias and anxiety disorder among people. Therefore, this paper aims to detect the contemporary design elements and representations that generated types of phobias to the users of projects. To achieve the main aim, this paper will begin by literature review, based on desk research, defining the meaning of phobia, recognising its types and reasons. Then, the paper will highlight the historical background of phobia in architecture, browsing previous readings about the phobia in the contemporary architecture. After that, the research will analyse three case studies that are Roland Messner Museum in South Tyrol of Italy, The Musée des Confluences in Lyon, Lou Ruvo Centre for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Through the analysis, the research will detect the elements and representations that generated different types of phobias, it can be recognised if the spaces of these three projects targeted to generate phobia on purpose or it was a spontaneous feeling by some users. Another finding can be figured out, a judgment of criticism can determine if these designs were successful through using these thrilling elements or not. In conclusion, a set of contemporary design elements that stimulate phobia for users is defined
DISCOVERY OF PYRAZOLOPYRIDINE DERIVATIVES DUALLY TARGETING INFLAMMATION AND PROLIFERATION IN COLORECTAL CANCER CELL LINES: IN-SILICO DRUG DESIGN APPROACH
Get PDFElimination of inflammation represents a promising strategy for cancer prevention and treatment since cancer and inflammation are related. The combined use of anti-inflammatory agents and cancer therapy is a focal point. In this frame, pyrazolopyridine derivatives DZ-BAU2021-6 and DZ-BAU2021-14, developed in BAU Labs, having promising anti-proliferative activity on colon cancer cells HCT-116 and HT-29 with notable IC50 values and remarkable CDK2 inhibitory effect, were in-silico tested. As an approach to dual anti-inflammatory anticancer potential, their binding modes and energies on the active site of crystalline structure of CDK2 and COX2, (1HCK and 3LN1), respectively were explored. Their physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties as well as their “drug-likeness” were studied. Computational results declared that DZ-BAU2021-6 and DZ-BAU2021-14 exhibited high binding affinities to CDK2 and COX2 receptors. DZ-BAU2021-14 exhibited lower levels of estimated binding energies with COX2 receptor compared to Celecoxib. It demonstrated high GI absorption, low interference with P-glycoprotein and cytochrome P450 isoforms
KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES REGARDING THE USE OF ANTIBIOTICS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY FROM A RURAL AREA OF LEBANON
Get PDFDespite the presence of a national policy restricting the easy access to antibiotics, irrational use of antibiotics continues to be widespread both in human use and livestock production in Lebanon. This study targets the general population in the rural region of Bekaa to assess their knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards antibiotic use. A cross sectional questionnaire was completed by 1151 participants, through face-to-face interviews. Study population was randomly selected. Descriptive statistics and correlation tests were applied in data analysis. 69.2% of participants had a very poor knowledge about antibiotics. More than 70% believed that viral infections may be treated by antibiotics; interrupting therapy when conditions improve and sharing antibiotics were considered appropriate by 79.4% and 80.3%, respectively. Only 14.1% were aware of the concept of “antibiotic resistance” and 58.3% didn’t know that antibiotics were used in animals. Despite their poor knowledge, more than half of participants (55.2%) expressed good attitude in terms of need for prescriptions (79.1%) when needed only (89.5%) and on the minimal use in agriculture (74%). Such positive attitude was generally reflected by their overall moderate practice among participants (65.8%). Nevertheless, only 10.9% of the participants obtained their antibiotics through a prescription, 62.7% kept leftover antibiotic for future use and 83.2% interrupted their antibiotic treatment. Moreover, participants’ attitudes and practices were significantly associated with gender, age and educational level. However, knowledge was associated only with gender and education. Knowledge showed significant positive correlation with attitude and practice. Findings suggest that intervention awareness programs specifically targeting specific segments in rural regions can be effective in directing the public to the rational use of antibiotics. Further research is recommended by conducting nationwide KAP studies covering communities of both urban and rural regions
TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE IN UPGRADING DEPRIVED AREAS: AN APPROACH TO EMPOWER PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT IN EGYPT
Get PDFSlums are a problem facing the whole world as a result of poor housing policies and rapid urbanization. Previous Egyptian housing policies created the problem of slums from scratch. The Egyptian government tries to eliminate slums with centralized policies, but it does not succeed. Egypt recently recognized the need to participate in slum upgrading through community partnership. Previous upgrading policies did not perform as required due to their distance from a participatory and fair representation of stakeholders. The independent participatory intermediary model achieves great results if it has decentralized decision-making. The problem is the relation between the governing parties in Egypt. The gap between them causes resolutions haphazard because of non-participation in decision-making. As a result, the objectives are not achieved as hoped in upgrading slums. This paper aims to draw a framework between governance parties to achieve the objectives through literature reviews and the availability of applying it in Egypt
SELF CARE, MENTAL HEALTH AND COVID-19: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE COPING STRATEGIES OF CAREGIVERS OF INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM DURING THE PANDEMIC (IN HYDERABAD, INDIA)
Get PDFCOVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-19), an infectious condition was first identified in December 2019, in Wuhan, in China. It has led to a worldwide pandemic with millions of people affected—not just health wise, but also economically and psychologically. The uncertainty associated with it, has caused immense anxiety, stress and trauma to people all over the world. India’s response to COVID-19 has comprised of a series of phases of Lockdown and subsequent Unlock. In mid-March, India announced a nationwide Lockdown, that led to the closure of educational institutions, factories, work places, transport, cinema halls, hotels, malls etc. The only places that were open during the Lockdown were essential services. Over the next few months, India has entered the Unlock phase, with most services opening to business. The Lockdown and the subsequent Unlock phases had an immense impact on the lives of the common people, who were confined within their houses, or with some flexibility, within their gated communities. In such a context, the researcher made an attempt to understand how caregivers of individuals with Autism coped with the changes brought on by COVID-19, how it impacted on their self-care and mental health and the creative strategies adopted by them to keep their children on the Autism spectrum, engaged. To this end, a Qualitative approach was adopted and a small sample of five (5) parent caregivers, were selected through Purposive Sampling, in the city of Hyderabad, in south India. A Caregiver Self-Assessment Checklist (developed by the Parkinson’s Foundation) was administered to the participants. An open-ended questionnaire was constructed and telephonic interviews were conducted with the participants. The detailed interviews were then thematically analysed. The study revealed the following—First, the pandemic and the Lockdown was stress inducing (and had far reaching impacts on the caregivers and their families). Secondly, although bogged down by the stressors, the caregivers focused on the positives that the situation brought. Thirdly, the caregivers went above and beyond to creatively engage with their children, even with limited resources at hand. Fourthly, the caregivers tried to engage in self-care activities to improve their mental-health. Fifthly, the scores on the Caregiver Assessment Checklist ranged between ‘Excellent job at taking care of yourself’ and ‘Room for Improvement’ and Sixthly, the caregivers believed that technology provided an important sense of connectedness during the pandemic
EXPLORING A NEW HOUSING DESIGN PARADIGM FOR POST PANDEMIC MULTI-STORY BUILDINGS IN LEBANON
Get PDFWhen the fast-spreading COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), people around the world rushed to go home. This worldwide widespread altogether affected our individual and proficient lives and features a coordinate bearing upon the exceptionally establishments of design hypothesis. As a result, the pandemic has contributed to concerns about how architects and designers should view and install antivirus-related ideas or redesign current spaces, as well as at what point our physical and built environment could be impacted by the pandemic. In forecasting the post-pandemic style and visualizing the appropriate antivirus scheme, the answers to these questions may help. This paper aims to develop a new paradigm of housing design. And especially, a new functional layout for residential unit in a multi-story building in Lebanon. In this order, a literature study and a survey has been conducted. One of the main goal of the literature study is to highlight on previous pandemic and residential experiences. In the other hand, the survey serves on analysing nowadays residential unit users. These two ways will lead for the future of residential units in multi-story buildings
LANDFILL POLLUTION ASSESSMENT IN RESIDENTIAL URBAN SPACES IN LEBANON
Get PDFLandfill site is a significant and risky part at the same time in the city. In planning an urban city, the pollution caused by landfill damages the surrounded areas, especially the residential zones, if it does not follow the sanitary landfill rules. The pollution from landfills threat the environment and, consequently, human health and wellbeing, so it is essential to maintain a safe and healthy environment in selecting the landfill site. From this point of view, the research aims to create a method to evaluate the affected residential zones by the nearest landfills to protect people from pollution\u27s negative impacts. The research objective is to determine the most impacted residential areas of pollution caused by landfills by combining multiple criteria for studying the selected landfill locations that help determine the degree of contamination (high risk to no risk) in each residential area. The study is conducted in four different locations in Lebanon; three coastal areas and one inward area, to evaluate the differentiation in the meteorological conditions and how they increase the landfill pollution that affect the close inhabitants\u27 zones. By combining the buffer zone criteria and weather factors (temperature, humidity, and wind), the data collected is analysed using the overlay analysis method to determine the most affected residential area by landfill. The assessment in this study found that the pollution degree differs in the residential zones according to the criteria applied, and the weather factors play a significant role in increasing the pollution. By adopting this study\u27s assessment, the urban design decisions for a new residential zone could benefit from this research\u27s method to provide a healthy area
THE EIGHT GRIDS: A NEW METHOD TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ SKETCHING SKILLS IN THE SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE
Get PDFSketching is one of the required courses for architecture and design students in higher education since it is considered a necessary skill for architects and designers. However, the lack of visualization skills and practice, students were met with difficulties in grasping the complex concepts of this course, concurrent with the teachers’ lack of familiarity with the various methods. The aim of this paper is to find a new method that allows students to carry out their sketches by examining the problems faced by first-year undergraduate students at the Faculty of Architecture, Design & Built Environment in BAU, Lebanon. To achieve the research aim, a qualitative research methodology is used among subjects involving 120 first-level architecture students with poor visualization abilities in general and is considered to be the key reason that affects the success of students in sketching. These students were tested before beginning the course, during, and after a year of practicing. Sixty students got the method before they began studying the lesson, while the remaining sixty students studied the course without this method. They were then tested after finishing the course, where the method was found to help students grasp perspective more easily, which was favorably mirrored in the student sketching exercise
DESCRIPTIVE LITERATURE REVIEW TO CLASSIFY AND ANALYZE GROWTH OF CHINESE FIRMS FROM 1990’s UNTIL 2018
Get PDFThis paper presents an understanding of the economic situation of the Chinese firms and their growth model, using a descriptive research model with an extensive literature review of factors argued to be generating growth and persistent high-growth in China. The selection of reviewed and embedded papers included several quantitative, as well as qualitative papers for analysis from the 1990s until 2018. Thus, the descriptive literature review was used as the methodology by which researchers present the history of the firm’s development and discuss the work of others using scientific arguments and comments. The examination has revealed that numerous factors discussed in this paper affect growth. However, there is no specific structural characteristics or performance of promising persistent-high-growth. Finally, there is a paucity of existing literature focusing on sustainable high-growth dynamics. Studies do not delve into details on this subject; accordingly, it is suggested that the lack of review articles has been hindering the progress of this area, thus, more investigations are requested from future researchers with attention to the use of a plurality of methods
REVISITING PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES: ENVISIONING FIRST BUILT ENVIRONMENTS TO REPOSSESS GEOGRAPHICALLY SPECIFIC APPROACHES IN ARCHITECTURE
Get PDFSince Prehistoric times, architecture had been a human response to an occurring natural setting. Starting from places of dwelling to buildings that no longer only serve physical requirements for survival. Architectural languages were approached initially as an expression of culture, evolution, and growth of a community within a natural setting. This response resulted in the creation of built environments, humanity’s decision to become sedentary. This decision took place in the Late Stone age, a key phase in our timeline. First built environments were born in a time known as the Neolithic revolution, which shown itself as humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer societies to agrarian based ones. Once Nature shaped man, now man shapes nature. We observe the dynamic created between man the hosting setting. While observing this two sided complex operating system through revisiting prehistoric archeological sites, we can notice how various geographic zones birthed a diversity of built environments. However, by observing the paradigm of duality in our modern world, we can see neglected neighborhoods and cities, and more importantly that we failed to fulfill our fair part of shaping our natural setting and this reflected on the state of our communities as well. By repossessing how to be geographically specific in architecture, we can set the parameters to architectural planning that includes nature as a co-partner and as a result attempt to improve the well-being of our neglected communities