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Background: There is limited research on the FL composition writing of Egyptian experimental secondary students. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of the Whole Language Approach on developing the required composition writing skills in English for experimental secondary students. Setting: Salah Salem Experimental Secondary School, Giza, Egypt. Study Sample: A sample of (70) first year experimental secondary students, is randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control one, (35) students each. Intervention: Whole Language Based Programme to develop the composition writing of the experimental group students. Research Design: Quasi-experimental. Control or Comparison Condition: Traditional method of instruction. Data Collection and Analysis: 1- Skills Checklist; 2- Pre-post composition writing test. Findings: Comparing the students' mean scores in the pre and post administrations of the test, it is proved that the experimental group students made a remarkable progress in their composition writing skills due to the use of the suggested programme based on the Whole Language Approach. Conclusion: Thus, using the Whole Language Approach proved to have a very large effect size on developing the required composition writing skills in English for the experimental secondary students. The Whole Language Approach with its unique tenets that proved in previous studies to be very useful to the students' learning of the English language in different aspects in general, proved its success in the present study in developing the composition writing skills in particular through motivating the students to write pieces of composition that are good in terms of both quality and quantity (i.e. writing two or three well organized paragraphs). Citation: Ahmed, Abdelhamid (2006). The Effect of Using the Whole Language Approach on Developing Some Composition Writing Skills in English for Experimental Secondary Students in Egypt, Helwan Faculty of Education, Egypt.

Eleven wheat cultivars were obtained for this study, and three treatments were carried out: salinity treatment in a greenhouse, drought treatment in hydroponics and drought with salinity treatment in hydroponics. In the case of salinity treatment in a greenhouse, the cultivars Sids1 and Giza168 showed a high tolerance to salinity. In the drought treatment in hydroponics using PEG6000 in water irrigation, Sids1 and Giza168 showed a high tolerance to drought. In the drought with salinity treatment in hydroponics using PEG6000 with NaCl 8000 ppm in water irrigation, the cultivars Sahel1 and Misr2 showed medium tolerance to salinity and drought. Also, phenotypic parameters of the cultivars were measured. The tallest cultivar was Misr 1 99.67 cm, while Sids1 showed the highest thousand grain weight at 46.81 g. Based on these results, we selected five cultivars of wheat: Sahel1, Gemmeiza10, Misr1, Sakha93 and Giza168 to complete this study and were done carried out a complete diallele hybridization and reverse hybridization between group one: Sahel1 and Gemmeiza10, group two: Misr1 and Sakha93 and group three: Giza168 and Gemmeiza10. The transcripts levels of salinity (Na+/H+ antiporter) and drought (DREB2) genes in the three groups of wheat hybrid were determined using qRT-PCR; DREB2 gene transcripts significantly in group one by 0.79-fold were compared to group three mRNA levels of DREB2 gene that was 0.24-fold. The change in mRNA levels of DREB2 gene of group two was by 0.2-fold, while the mRNA transcript levels of salinity (Na+/H+ antiporter) gene raised no significantly in the groups. In group one in this group the fold change was 0.0037-fold, while mRNA levels of Na+/H+ antiporter gene was 0.0041-fold, in group two. In group three was found the fold change 0.0024-fold. The (DREB2 & Na+/H+ antiporter) genes in hybrid wheat were identified by amplification followed by sequencing. Our results suggest that the best Egyptian wheat cultivars can be grown under difficult environmental conditions in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the association between c-3279T>G and unconjugated neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. In all, 141 neonates were recruited; 63 had hyperbilirubinemia necessitating treatment, and 78 with bilirubin < 7 mg/dl served as the control group. The frequency of occurrence of c-3279T > G allele was significantly higher in the hyperbilirubinemic (49.2%) than in the control group (25.6%). The homozygous (p = 0.001, OR = 17.7 and CI = 3.9-79.3) rather than the heterozygous state (p = 0.3, OR = 0.7 and CI = 0.3-1.6) was associated with hyperbilirubinemia. Among the hyperbilirubinemic group, comparison between the three genotypes, homozygous mutation, heterozygous mutation and the normal allele, revealed that the former was associated with significantly higher mean peak total serum bilirubin [mean ±  standard deviation (SD): 33.7 ± 8.2, 26.9 ± 2.8 and 21± 2.7, respectively, p-value = 0.0001], higher bilirubin/albumin ratio (p = 0.000) and a longer duration of hospital stay (p = 0.001). Homozygous c-3279T > G mutation represents an important risk factor for the development of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To outline the prevalence of vitamin D and vitamin B 12 deficiencies in enuretic children., Methods: An analytical descriptive study was conducted on enuretic children who were followed up at the outpatient clinic for nocturnal enuresis at the Children's Hospital, Cairo University. Sociodemographic and clinical data were recorded. The levels of vitamin D and vitamin B 12 were assessed and correlated with the severity of enuresis., Results: Two hundred and eighty-eight children were enrolled. Insufficiency of Vitamin D predominated ( n  = 139; 48.3%). Vitamin D deficiency was present in 31.3%, n  = 90 and it was normal in 20.5%, n  = 59). Vitamin B 12 deficiency was observed in 25% of the studied children, n  = 72). The one-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test was significant for both vitamins (P value =0.001). Vitamin D showed a stronger inverse correlation with the number of enuresis episodes per day than vitamin B 12 (-0.680 vs. -0.219 respectively). A cut-off of 13.7 ng/ml for vitamin D was detected, below which the child was predicted to have failed dry nights. Using multivariate logistic regression, higher vitamin D levels and behavioural treatment coexistence were significant protective factors for the absence of dry nights., Conclusion: Low levels of vitamin D and B 12 were detected in children with primary nocturnal enuresis, which could be considered a burden on the clinical severity of enuresis.