With the enforcement of remote learning, virtual games and apps consider the teachers' rescuer to enrich the curriculum with valuable instructional tools. The present research studied the possibility to emerge digital games and apps to be part of the curriculum design and explored students and teachers' educational virtual experience. The qualitative research aimed to explore if learners and educators are ready to use virtual games and apps and how reliable the digital game is in promoting future innovation and critical thinking skills. Moreover, the study investigated the importance of including digital games in e-learning to engage learners in an immersive learning environment and the urgent need for remote learning through COVID -19. Findings had concluded that the educational infrastructure in the UAE is ready to start e-learning with confidence. However, teachers have to receive proper training as technology is not always their first language.
Studying faculty satisfaction with online courses is important to the faculty's well-being to manifests their productivity. Faculty satisfaction is affected by different factors; in this paper students' interactivity and faculty's age was studied. Faculty's age was tested as a moderator to test whether it will have a negative impact on the mutual student-instructor relationship. Online surveys were collected from eleven different colleges in UAE. The survey items were analyzed using correlation, R square tests, and Anova to test the study model and hypotheses. The results have indicated that students' interactivity has a significant positive impact on faculty's satisfaction with online courses. Faculty's age was found to have no impact on the student-instructors relationship; faculty's age is just a number, and it does not affect their level of satisfaction. The results also denoted to a set of suggestions from the studied colleges that can be considered and applied by UAE universities.
The exact mechanism behind svRNA4 processing in human epidermal stem cells is not known, however our VTRNA pull-downs strongly suggest DROSHA having an active role. we found that knocking-down DROSHA in epidermal stem cells upregulated differentiation markers. The results provide the basis for further analysis of DROSHA in svRNA processing. Furthermore, we showed that svRNA4 targeted OVOL1's 3'UTR and maintained a progenitor state of epidermal stem cells. Collectively, the results demonstrate how RNA modification could be utilized to successfully grow epidermal stem cells in vitro for regenerative medicine. Moreover, future research should engineer a novel culture conditions to grow skin stem cells in functional assays and entitle them to reconstitute skin when required by using small non-coding RNAs.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer among women that still causing high mortality rates worldwide. Plants are becoming a rich source for new anticancer agents with novel targets. Acridocarpus orientalis (AO), a traditional medicinal plant found in UAE and Oman, is known for its use as folk medication against inflammation and thought to have antitumor effect. Based on this, we sought to screen the potential anti-breast cancer activity of Acridocarpus orientalis ethanolic extract (AOEE). Interestingly, our initial screening showed that AOEE inhibits the growth of human breast cancer cells, MDA-MB-231. Further investigations showed that the growth inhibitory effect by AO induces autophagy in breast cancer and senescence in these cells. Thus, AO can be a promising anti-breast cancer agent used in combination with other anti-cancer drugs.
Titanium dental implant therapy is the recent modality to replace missing teeth. Following implant placement, bone around the implant will undergo remodeling, involving osteoblast and osteoclast activity, leading to lifetime osseointegration. Implant surface may leach titanium particles leading to generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation in the peri-implant site. The aim of this in-vitro study is to investigate the influence of titanium dioxide particles and reactive oxygen species production on osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. Human osteoblast cell lines were exposed to different concentration of titanium dioxide particles, with and without anti-oxidant, and ROS assay, cell viability and cytokine release were measured. Our results demonstrated good cell viability and ROS were generated in a dose-dependent manner associated with pro-inflammatory cytokine release. Addition of anti-oxidant reduce ROS production and cytokine secretion. Therefore, treatment with antioxidants may mitigate the effects of ROS and improve osteoblast function during bone remodeling
Citrullus colocynthis is a herbal medicinal plant widely used for its antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. This study assesses the effects of seasonal variation on the antioxidant activity and total polyphenols of several accessions of C. colocynthis from a population in the arid environment of UAE. Extracts were prepared from fruit parts collected in winter and summer seasons. The antioxidant capacity and total phenolic contents were determined using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical test, and Folin-Ciocalteau assay, respectively. Antioxidant activity varied between different seasons and different fruit parts of the same accession, but not between different accessions of the same population. However, the phenolic contents varied between different seasons, different accessions of the same population, and different fruit parts. Fruits collected from the winter season showed more antioxidant activity than the summer season. In conclusion, the antioxidant activity and phenolic contents were partially correlated but mainly influenced by the time of fruit collection.
Alveolar ridge atrophy results from horizontal and vertical bone loss occurring after tooth extraction. Dental implants can only be placed if there is sufficient bone to stabilize them. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of horizontal alveolar ridge augmentation using three different materials, namely autogenous, bovine and customized bone blocks. Dental implant patients with deficient alveolar ridge were recruited. Twenty-six patients underwent alveolar ridge augmentation, with nine patients in Group 1 received autogenous bone graft, 10 patients in Group 2 had a bovine bone substitute and 7 patients in Group 3 received customized bone block. Twenty-five cases were successful and only one failure was encountered. Alveolar ridge augmentation using various bone grafting substitutes has a predictable outcome with a high patient's satisfaction rate.
Introduction: Migrant workers account for 80% of the total population of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and most of the migrants work in the construction industry. Aims & Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated characteristics of time-loss injuries among constructor workers in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi Emirate. Materials & Methods: We recruited a random sample of 1634 construction workers from a list of construction-related industries in Al Ain. Results: A total of 1634 construction workers were surveyed (mean age: 35.9?8.4, range: 19-63). A total of 109 workers reported time-loss injuries (19.9%; 95% CI [16.8-23.5]). Of those with time-loss injuries, 10.7% were hospitalized for the treatment of the injury. Conclusion: The information in this study can guide the prevention efforts of Abu Dhabi Emirate initiatives to reduce injury and illness rates in the construction sector in the UAE.
The cytotoxic aggregation of Amyloid Beta (A?) and Islet Amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and Type 2 diabetes, respectively. Understanding the molecular interactions that drive the early aggregation process of both IAPP and A? will be required for designing potent inhibitors against their aggregation. In this research, we employed protein-protein docking to model the first step of the aggregation process which is the dimerization of two misfolded monomers. In specific, we modeled the interaction interfaces that form within the homo-dimeric IAPP-IAPP and A?-A? and the hetero-dimeric IAPP-A? complexes. Our results show that the interaction interfaces of both homo-dimers and hetero-dimers are stabilized with strong hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction networks. Our results can aid in designing potent inhibitors to prevent the self- or cross-interactions of IAPP and A? which, in turn could prevent their cytotoxic self- and co-aggregation pathways.
We compared the machine learning technique and well-known polygenic risk score for genotype-phenotype prediction. PRS is a more informative quantity as compared to classification in machine learning. PRS predicts the tendency that a particular person will have a specific disease whereas machine learning only classifies it into a phenotype. There are some standard quality control steps that must be performed on the dataset before further analysis. For PRS calculation we used different p-value thresholds and for machine learning, we used mutation difference between SNPs to reduce the number of SNPs. We analyzed the depression phenotype. With machine learning, the accuracy we got was 0.56 and with PRS it was about 0.024.
