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This research was conducted approximately one year after Egyptian Agricultural Technical School (ATS) instructors attended workshops on integrating placement Supervised Agricultural Experience as an instructional tool in their programs. Following a year of implementation, the purpose of this study was to determine ATS teacher knowledge and ability to apply the 23 placement SAE competencies delivered in the workshops. To some extent, ATS instructors had knowledge of and could apply all 23 placement SAE competencies. However, Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores for knowledge and ability to apply for all 23 placement SAE competencies were positive, indicating some level of need for future workshops on all topics. Based on the rankings, it was recommended that future in-service workshops should be conducted with this group of ATS teachers that focus on: (a) explaining the process of learning by doing; (b) defining the types of experience programs for ATS students; (c) identifying the role of the community in planning and conducting internships; (d) describing the evolution of supervised experience; and (e) explaining the relationship between internship and classroom instruction. (Contains 2 tables.)

Background and Objective: Spinal cord ischemia with subsequent paraplegia secondary to aortic coarctation repair procedures is rare, but it has serious consequences that can affect quality of life. Infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used for non invasive spinal cord oxygenation monitoring to estimate cord perfusion and detect early cord ischemic changes. Several pharmacological agents have been used to improve cord perfusion, the main action of these agents is to improve regional/systemic perfusion and decrease ICP. In the current study, we studied magnesium sulphate and levosimendan for their vasodilating effect that might improve spinal cord perfusion as part of spinal cord protection. Methods: Forty two infants undergoing aortic coarctectomy under general anaesthesia were registered in double blinded randomized controlled study, three groups were included; group C received i.v. saline, group L received levosimendan in loading dose 6ug/kg i.v. for 15 minutes then maintenance dose 0.1 ug/kg/min till end of surgery and group M received levosimendan in loading dose 6 ug/kg i.v. for 15 minutes then maintenance dose 0.1 ug/kg/min in combination with magnesium sulphate in loading dose 25 mg/kg i.v. for 15 minutes then maintenance dose 10 mg/kg/hr till the end of surgery. The vital signs and NIRS values assessed before, during and after clamping of aorta. Results: All baseline demographic data were comparable among all groups except for height (cm), which was significantly lower in Group L compared to Group C (p = 0.013). NIRS values were comparable among the three groups throughout experimental protocol except after cross clamp at 20 minutes, where Group M was significantly higher compared to group C (P = 0.007). Heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure, total fluid intake, urine output, aortic cross clamp time and surgical time was comparable among all groups, were comparable among 3 studied groups. Conclusion: Adding magnesium sulphate to levosimendan has showed improvement in spinal cord perfusion during cross clamping as monitored by NIRS when compared to use of levosimendan alone or placebo in coarctectomy operations without affecting hemodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current investigation was conducted to test the response of five potato varieties; i.e., Arizona, Diamant, Markies, Spunta and Valor, to different irrigation levels during the summer seasons of 2018 and 2019 under Egyptian conditions. The irrigation levels were 100, 75 and 50% of evapotranspiration (ET). Different traits of vegetative growth, some chemical characters and yield were increased with increasing irrigation levels from 50 to 100% of ET for all tested varieties. There were increased bound water and proline content in leaves as well as dry matter and starch content percentages in tubers under drought conditions. Concerning potato varieties, Diamant in both growing seasons gave the highest value for most growth measurements, tuber yield and its components as well as, some parameters of growth analysis, physical and chemical characters and water use efficiency (WUE), followed by the Arizona variety. In terms of the interaction between potato varieties and irrigation levels, Diamant and Arizona were the most drought-tolerant cultivars, with 75 and 50 % ET, respectively, whereas Spunta cv. was the most sensitive. Furthermore, bound water and proline content in leaves, as well as the dry matter and starch content percentage in tubers, increased with decreasing irrigation levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]