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Objective: Poor ovarian response (POR) refers to a subnormal follicular response that leads to a decrease in the quality and quantity of the eggs retrieved after ovarian stimulation during assisted reproductive treatment (ART). The present study investigated the associations of multiple variants of the estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) genes with POR in infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART.Methods: Four polymorphisms, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, FSHR rs6165, and FSHR rs6166, were investigated in 60 infertile Jordanian women undergoing ART (the case group) and 60 age-matched fertile women (the control group), with a mean age of 33.60±6.34 years. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected by restriction fragment length polymorphism and then validated using Sanger sequencing.Results: The p-value of the difference between the case and control groups regarding FSHR rs6166 was very close to 0.05 (p=0.054). However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the other three SNPs, namely ESR2 rs1256049, ESR2 rs4986938, and FSHR rs6165 (p=0.561, p=0.433, and p=0.696, respectively).Conclusion: The association between FSHR rs6166 and POR was not statistically meaningful in the present study, but the near-significant result of this experiment suggests that statistical significance might be found in a future study with a larger number of patients.

Background: The healthcare workforce of Saudi Arabia is characterized by diverse cultural backgrounds as a consequence of the employment of expatriate workers from various countries. The heterogeneity of both providers of health services and clients results in cultural barriers that affect the delivery care. It is paramount to evaluate the cultural competence of healthcare providers (HCPs) to maintain quality holistic care. Purpose: This study aimed to assess the cultural diversity experience, cultural competence behavior (CCB) and cultural awareness and sensitivity (CAS) of HCPs in a hospital setting of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving a survey of 104 HCPs from medical, nursing and laboratory technology disciplines that were taken based on a total sampling procedure. Data collection was conducted using the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) tool that measured cultural diversity experience, CCB, and CAS. Data analysis was performed and presented in descriptive statistics, and significant findings were computed using independent samples t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The characteristics of the respondents resulted in mean age of 38.7±10.4 who were predominantly Asians and nurses. The majority had working experience of 10 years and below, with more than half who had prior diversity training. Reported cultural diversity experience included all HCPs caring for Arab Middle Easterners and Asians and encountering at least one or more special population groups. There was an overall high cultural competence (5.28±0.46), high CCB (5.84±0.56) but only moderately high CAS (4.72±0.35). Significant differences were only identified between CCB scores and three demographic variables (racial/ethnic identification, the area of discipline and years of experience). No significant result was found between CAS scores and demographic variables as well as between CCB and CAS scores. Conclusion: Despite high CCB, the HCPs responded with lower CAS scores. Interventions should be initiated to increase CAS such as cultural diversity training and availability of cultural care resources.

Objectives (background): Requirement for Vitamin D is high at particular stages of the lifecycle especially during pregnancy and infancy. Severe vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy may increase the risk of rickets in childhood. While policies exist in Ireland regarding supplementation of Vitamin D in either pregnancy or infancy, no policy recommendation exists in Saudi Arabia. The main aim of this study was to identify attitudes towards Vitamin D supplementation as well as its prevalence in pregnancy and infancy among Muslim mothers living in Ireland and in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey consisting of 121 Muslim mothers living in Saudi Arabia and 77 Muslim women living in Ireland. Recruitment of mothers took place in three hospitals in Makkah (Saudi Arabia Al-Noor Hospital, Hera'a Hospital and Maternity and Children's Hospital) and a religious Centre in Ireland between June and September 2012. Results: Only 28.6% of the Irish and 7.4% of the Saudi mothers had taken vitamin D supplements during their pregnancy. While 62.3% of the Muslim mothers in Ireland and 37.2% in Saudi Arabia were aware of the recommendation to give a daily vitamin D supplements to their infants until they were one year of age just 49.4% living in Ireland and 13.2% from Saudi Arabia did so. While a majority of mothers living in Ireland and Saudi Arabia were spending > 30 minutes a day outside, clothing that completely cover the body was worn by the entire sample, sunscreen was used by 44.2% in Ireland and 53.7% in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion: Poor vitamin D supplementation practices are evident among Muslim mothers and infants both in Ireland and Saudi Arabia. To improve this situation, mothers should be educated about the importance of vitamin D during pregnancy and infancy.

The spleen is known as an important filter for blood-borne pathogens that are trapped by specialized macrophages in the marginal zone (MZ): the CD209 + MZ macrophages (MZMs) and the CD169 + marginal metallophilic macrophages (MMMs). Acute systemic infection strongly impacts MZ populations and the location of T and B lymphocytes. This phenomenon has been linked to reduced chemokine secretion by stromal cells. Brucella spp. are the causative agent of brucellosis, a widespread zoonotic disease. Here, we used Brucella melitensis infection as a model to investigate the impact of chronic stealth infection on splenic MZ macrophage populations. During the late phase of Brucella infection, we observed a loss of both MZMs and MMMs, with a durable disappearance of MZMs, leading to a reduction of the ability of the spleen to take up soluble antigens, beads, and unrelated bacteria. This effect appears to be selective as every other lymphoid and myeloid population analyzed increased during infection, which was also observed following Brucella abortus and Brucella suis infection. Comparison of wild-type and deficient mice suggested that MZ macrophage population loss is dependent on interferon gamma (IFN-γ) receptor but independent of T cells or tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 1 (TNF-αR1) signaling pathways and is not correlated to an alteration of CCL19, CCL21, and CXCL13 chemokine mRNA expression. Our results suggest that MZ macrophage populations are particularly sensitive to persistent low-level IFN-γ-mediated inflammation and that Brucella infection could reduce the ability of the spleen to perform certain MZM- and MMM-dependent tasks, such as antigen delivery to lymphocytes and control of systemic infection.

The low enrolment in technical education at community colleges compared to that in four and five-year university programmes are the main threat facing the educational system in Jordan. The enrolment rate in community colleges was about 11% in 2005, while, it was 89% in general four and five-year university programmes. 75% of those enrolled in four and five-year university programmes were in humanities and science programmes. One of the main reasons for a low level of enrolment in technical education programmes is the public attitude towards technical education as dead-end applied education with low income and less prestigious position. This paper presents an overview of community colleges education and discusses the challenges facing technical education in Jordanian community colleges. An analysis was performed to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of this type of education in Jordan. As a result of this study, a general guideline for action plan to improve technical education in Jordan was recommended.Keywords: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, (SWOT), Technical Education.

Sovereign credit rating reflects the country ability to meet its financial obligations (at present and in future) on its maturities, therefore, it is an important indicator that concerns international financial institutions and foreign investors who are interested in foreign direct investment in order to know the minimum expectation of risks that can be faced in specific country. This paper aims to i) examine the effect of macroeconomic variables on the Egyptian sovereign credit rating (SCR) and ii) also investigate the impact of investment environment (measured by government effectiveness) on the SCR using the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) method over the period from 1990 to 2014. The results indicate that GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, reserves, current account balance, public domestic debt, and the government effectiveness have a significant impact on the sovereign credit rating in Egypt. This study has important implications for investors and policymakers.

Hydrodynamic behaviour of a fluid flow in micro-venturi is investigated numerically taking into account the effect of the Knudsen number (Kn), diameter ratio (β), and Reynolds number (Re). It is found that the velocity jump in the throat of the venturi increases with increasing Re. The axial velocity takes its maximum values at the narrowest section, and these values increase with decreasing Kn. Also, it is found that the dimensionless pressure distribution and the net pressure loss increase as Kn decreases while pressure attains its maximum values at the entrance section. On the other hand, it is observed that increasing Kn and decreasing β cause the discharge coefficient to decrease.

A heat transfer model was developed to predict a transient thermal behavior of asphalt concrete during service life at different weather conditions. The developed model has the capability to predict the distribution of temperature field with respect to time within the Hot-Mix asphalt body based on surrounding environmental conditions. This will greatly help pavement engineers to select the suitable asphalt grade to achieve the best pavement performance and avoid pavement distresses might be caused due to extreme pavement temperatures. These distresses include fatigue cracks, rutting, and thermal cracking. The resulted model required data on asphalt mixture, incident radiation, surface, and ambient temperatures in addition to thermal properties of Hot-Mix asphalt including absorptivity, heat transfer coefficient, and the emissivity. A sensitivity analyses wasperformed to study the impact of a number of thermalenvironmental and pavement geometric parameters on predicted temperature responses. The results of analysis indicated that the incident radiation, absorptivity, and the heat transfer coefficient have the most significant effect on Hot-Mix asphalt temperature. Also, the emissivity has insignificant effect on surface temperature Hot-Mix asphalt.

The hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors of fluid in micro - Couette flows is investigated numerically. The model that combines both the continuum approach and the possibility of slip at the boundary is adopted in the study. The Effects of Knudsen number Kn, Brinkman number and the pressure gradient on the Couette microchannel hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors are investigated. It is found that as Kn increases the slip in the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary condition increases. Also, it is found that the slip velocity and the temperature jump at the boundaries increases as the Brinkman number and the pressure gradient increases.

The hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors of fluid flow in axially moving micro-concentric cylinders are investigated analytically. Effects of Knudsen number, velocity and radius of the cylinders on the microchannel hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors are investigated. It is found that as Kn increases the slip in the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary condition increases. The slip and the jump at the inner surface are much larger than that of the outer one. When the outer cylinder velocity approaches the inner cylinder one, the slip velocity vanishes. Also, the effect of the variation of U1 on the temperature jump for adiabatic outer surface is insignificant.

The main aim of this paper is to assess empirically the impact of exchange rate volatility (ERV) on the export and import functions in reference to Egypt’s major trading partners over the period of 1980–2016. Estimates of a cointegration relationship are obtained using the ARDL model. The conditional variance of the GARCH (1,1) model is taken as a proxy for exchange rate fluctuation. The observed outcomes reveal a significant negative coefficient of volatility on export and a non-significant positive coefficient on import. Indeed, this finding supports the traditional view that higher volatility will decrease export. To avoid the negative consequences of ERV, policymakers should shift from the concept of specialization based on the comparative advantage to competitive advantage and focus on the diversification of Egyptian exports while avoiding risks associated with market concentration by exploring potential opportunities that would increase trade openness by expanding Egypt’s trade with other countries, especially with low and middle-income and emerging countries.

The hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors of the flow in micro-heat exchanger parallel-plate are investigated numerically. The model that combines both the continuum approach and the possibility of slip at the boundary is adopted in the study. Effects of different parameters, such as, Knudsen number (Kn), heat capacity ratio (Cr), the effectiveness (e) and number of transfer units (NTU) are investigated. It is found that both the velocity slip and the temperature jump at the walls increase with increasing Kn. On the other hand, at low values of Kn, the NTU increases with increasing Cr, but at high values of Kn the NTU decreases with increasing Cr. With regard to the effect of Cr on e, it is found that increasing Cr leads to a reduction in e and for all Kn.

Mechanisms of mass transfer into composite thin slabs consisting of two thin metal layers in perfect contact using the hyperbolic mass conduction model have been studied. The non-Fickian phenomena are analyzed by comparison of the solutions between Fickian and non-Fickian equations. The effects of diffusion ratio of carbon, density ratio, and thermal relaxation time on the spatial and transient behavior of the composite slabs are investigated semi-analytically using the Laplace transformation technique.

The unsteady hydrodynamics and thermal behavior of fluid flow in an open-ended vertical parallel-plate microchannel are investigated semi-analytically under the effect of the dual-phase-lag heat conduction model. The model that combines both the continuum approach and the possibility of slip at the boundary is adopted in the study. The effects of the Knudsen number Kn, the thermal relaxation time τ q , and the thermal retardation time τ T on the microchannel hydrodynamics and thermal behavior are investigated using the dual-phase-lag and hyperbolic-heat-conduction models. It is found that as Kn increases the slip in the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary condition increases. Also, the slip in the hydrodynamic behavior increases as τ T and τ q decrease, but the effect of τ T and τ q on the slip of the thermal behavior is insignificant.

Several milestones have been achieved towards preserving ambient air quality and eliminating source emissions in oil and gas operations. However, compromises were also made along that journey. One of the major compromise is the lack of flowback of non-connected wells for clean-up after rig operations. Delaying flowback of non connected wells had sometimes resulted in formation damage or absence of critical flow data. This paper explores solutions to flow back non-connected wells in a safe, timely and economical manner utilizing a spoolabe Reinforced Thermoplastic Pipe (RTP), eliminating the need to wait for permanent flowline/facilities hookup. The main challenge to temporary flowback of non-connected wells are to provide a strong value proposition to clients and to design packages/procedures to conduct the operation safely and successfully. To tackle this issue, a multidisciplinary team involving client representatives, well testing companies and spoolable RTP manufacturers was established. Initially, a group of candidate wells was selected based on a range of GORs, flow rates, shut-in wellhead pressures and H2S content. This group was then filtered down to suitable candidates after a site visit to study terrain conditions and tie-in points’ proximity. The site setup included phase separators, surge tanks, sand management systems, scrapper launchers and receivers, RTP pipes and a contingency discharge system. The selected pipes were 1500 psi MAOP 4″ ID RTP pipes with high temperature tolerance (up to 200 Deg. F). In addition, fiberglass reinforced pipes were preferred over galvanized steel reinforced ones due to their high H2S tolerance. A total of 1,750 meters of pipe were installed and spooled back in a matter of hours with an innovative deployment design. As a result, both selected wells were flowed-back successfully throughout the project. The trial test included a range of rates of up to 11 MBD, with up to 4% H2S content and up to 750 scf/stb GOR. In total, the cost of the operaion was only a fraction of the sale value of the crude oil recovered by the client. One of the wells was flowed back for logging purposes while the other for clean-up post workover operations. The only hydrocarbon discharge was from the separated gas in one of the wells (observation well) as it had a low wellhead pressure and could not sustain flow against line back pressure. The gas was flared through a smokeless flarestack. The project was a great success with many operational lessons learned and a clear vision for the future that the paper discusses. In order to eliminate the above situation of hydrocarbon flaring, the next step for the team is to include a mobile compressor that can boost the pressure of the gas separated in the phase separator and pump it into the line thus achieving 100% zero Hydrocarbon discharge to the atmosphere. A wide operating- range unit has been designed and is being built. The target trial test for the compression unit is in Q4 2015.

The validity of using the microscopic hyperbolic heat conduction model under the effect of a moving heating source is investigated. In macroscopic heat conduction, the solid lattice and the electron gas have the same temperature, while in the microscopic heat conduction model, the solid lattice and electron gas do not have the same temperature. Two configurations are considered: the finite and the semi-infinite domains. For each configuration, two types of thermal boundary conditions are considered: the isothermal and the insulated types. Four parameters are found to control the thermal behavior of the considered problem: the dimensionless heating source speed, heat capacity ratio, dimensionless relaxation time, and dimensionless plate thickness for the finite domain configuration. It is found that using the microscopic hyperbolic heat conduction model instead of the hyperbolic macroscopic model is essential when the dimensionless speed of the source is greater than 0.01. The heat capacity ratio is found ...

Using Laplace transformation technique, semi-analytical solutions are obtained for three basic viscoelastic fluid flow problems under the effect of the Jeffreys model. These semi-analytical solutions are not available in the literature. The present work investigates the effect of two types of driving forces on the flow behavior. These two types are the velocity-type and shear-type driving forces. The effect of the relaxation and retardation times on the flow behavior for these two types of driving forces may be viewed well using the obtained semi-analytical solutions. The three fundamental problems are transient Couette flow, transient wind-driven flow over finite domains and the transient Poiseuille flow in parallel-plates channels. It is shown that as the dimensionless relaxation time ( λ 1 ) increases, the flow response to the imposed driving force becomes slower. This implies that the flow needs more time to feel the presence of the driving force and hence needs more time to attain steady-state behavior. On the other hand, the effect of the dimensionless retardation time ( λ 2 ) depends on the type of the driving force imposed on the system. For a velocity-type driving force, the flow response becomes faster as the dimensionless retardation time ( λ 2 ) increases and for a shear-type driving force the flow response becomes slower as the dimensionless retardation time ( λ 2 ) increases.