Fungal conservation in Arab countries

Annual Meeting, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2009

Guest Editors’ Introduction

New Media and Democratisation John Doyle Centre for International Studies, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University This issue of Irish Studies in International Affairs opens with a collection of articles on the question of 'New Media and Democratisation', drawing on a series of papers presented at the annual conference of the Royal Irish Academy's Committee for International Affairs, held in Dublin in November 2011. The 'traditional' media coverage of the Arab Spring emerging across North Africa and the Middle East during 2011 started a high-level debate on the actual and potential impact of social media in facilitating communication and mobilisation internally in authoritarian states, and also in allowing activists to communicate internationally. The international communication might ultimately have been the more significant (due to limited access to means of communication internally), as it gave media organisations and international activists direct access to information and, crucially for the media, powerful images that commanded widespread attention. Combined with the broad support for internal protests in some countries in the region, this made it very difficult for those states who traditionally lent support to the authoritarian leaders, who they perceived to be better allies than popularly elected Islamist parties, to continue such support. Using the changes in the Arab world as a starting point, Professor Philip Seib (from the University of Southern California), one of the leading international figures on public diplomacy, explores the pressures for diplomacy from, first of all, the vast range of information sources now available to policy-makers and their advisors, and also from the expectations of speed from a public used to getting 'instant' news updates. His analysis of the tensions created by the competing pressures of instant response and the need for careful analysis is an extremely valuable contribution to this debate. Of course, the debate on new media and democratisation goes far beyond the Arab spring. I§il Turkan (Science Po Aix-en-Provence and Bah?e§ehir University, Istanbul), using Turkey as a case study, highlights the tensions caused by a relatively accessible 'new' media in situations where the work of journalists is constrained, not only by controls in advance of publication but also by threats afterwards. Christian Christensen (Uppsala University) provides a very interesting discussion on the ways in which the Swedish government has rationalised offering not only diplomatic but also material support to 'net activists' working on the Arab Spring, and he seeks to analyse the extent to which the Swedish government utilised what is called a 'liberation technology' Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 23 (2012), 1-4. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.2012.23.1 2 Irish Studies in International Affairs perspective on the use of social media in the service of democratic change. In another angle on the role of new media, Michael Foley, Nóirín Hayes and Brian O'Neill (Dublin Institute of Technology) describe a training programme for young journalists in Turkey, Romania, Georgia, Macedonia, Serbia, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, which sought to imbed a children's rights perspective into journalists' training, using new media both in the delivery of training and as an opportunity for building alternative journalism platforms. Bringing these debates back to Ireland, Paul Candon (Trinity College Dublin) explored the use of online intervention in the 2011 Irish general election to examine the extent to which online media represented a new 'public sphere', promoting greater accountability and deeper democratisation. His conclusion highlights the very limited extent to which this actually occurred and is an important counter to the overly exaggerated stories of 'Twitter revolutions'. He does, however, also highlight the increasing use of new media for organisational purposes by political organisations. Ireland is not simply just one other country dealing with a global phenomenon. Behind the construction led elements of the Irish economic boom was a much more sustainable focus on information and communication technologies, and any economic recovery from Ireland's current crisis will need to be grounded in a 'knowledge economy'. The universities will need to play a crucial role here, not only as knowledge generators in new technologies, but more fundamentally in developing a culture of enquiry and problem-solving to deliver a knowledge-based society, and this has...

British Columbia Regional Meeting, 2002, The Canadian Phytopathological Society

Erratum to “Structural Analysis of Toxic Waste-Induced Chromosome Aberrations by Atomic Force Microscopy” [J. Biotechnol. 150S (2010) S435

Incorporation of 14C into Organic and Amino Acids of the Leafy Liverwort, Plagiochila asplenioides (L.) Dum

Journal Article Conformational Changes of Ribosomal Subunits of Dictyostelium discoideum by Salts Get access Kunihiko ITO, Kunihiko ITO The Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido UniversitySapporo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Masaki IWABUCHI Masaki IWABUCHI The Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido UniversitySapporo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar The Journal of Biochemistry, Volume 69, Issue 6, June 1971, Pages 1135–1138, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jbchem.a129568 Published: 01 June 1971 Article history Received: 07 January 1971 Published: 01 June 1971

Over the past few decades, solid waste production, specifically construction waste, in Middle Eastern Arab countries has dramatically increased. This is characterized by several factors, including rapid urbanization, common food wasting habits, diverse culture, lack of proper planning of solid waste processes, insufficient equipment, as well as lack of proper funding. The exponential growth in solid waste generation rates has led to hazards to health and the environment, causing issues related to air and water pollution under the already increasing pressure of climate change. In this review, we analyze the current solid waste challenges in 13 Arab countries, common diseases, and actual projects applied. The selection of Arab countries was mainly based on the countries with the highest population as well as the availability of data in the field of study. This review also highlights the efforts of the Arab governments that implemented several pilot projects that are not sustainable or effective in the long term. We discuss the main issues facing each Arab country and the main challenges they have in common, as well as the potential to use the great amounts of construction waste in these countries. It is recommended that proper disposal and collection plans should be prioritized in the municipalities’ agendas since air and water pollution represent the main challenge in all Arab countries. Adequate treatment, recycling, and compost production facilities should be initiated and monitored regularly to take advantage of the relatively high percentage of organic matter in most Arab countries. Proper cooperation between the informal sector, private companies, and governments should be ensured in order to achieve long-term goals in the solid waste management (SWM) sector in MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa) Arab countries. This review provides a comprehensive study of the construction waste in MENA Arab countries that will help reach the goal of achieving sustainable countries.

This chapter analyzes specific configurations of the civil societies of Arab countries which launched “the Arab Spring”. Political and social science academics have wondered whether civil societies existed in Arab countries, mainly because of the longevity of authoritarianism and the characteristics of the States’ founding pacts in this region. The “Arab Spring” was the sign of a crisis of these founding pacts in the region, mainly because of neoliberal policies. From 2004, Egypt witnessed a series of social and political protests that foreshadowed the 25 January 2011 revolution. The phenomenon was supported by a myriad of non-governmental organizations (NGO) and diverse groups but also by a process of de-monopolization of media sphere, including independent media, political talk shows on satellite television channels and social media. The different parts of the Tunisian civil society are considered–quite rightly–as the main actors of the political pacification in the country and the resulting successive compromises.

The study was conducted to determine the proximate composition and microbiological quality of five selected broiler super starter feeds in Jos North LGA of Plateau State. Five commercial broiler super starter feeds were purchased and designated as samples A, B, C, D and E. A batch of 300g of each feed sample was aseptically collected in plastic bags and analyzed for the proximate composition at the Chemistry Laboratory, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos. The feed samples were also assayed for microbial contamination (bacteria and fungi) at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos. The result of the analysis revealed that percentage crude protein of feed A was highest at 22.49% while feed D had the least crude protein of 18.13%. The metabolizable energy of feeds A, B, C and E were higher than 3000kcal/kg. Feed D was found to fall within the range of 2860-3000kcal/kg recommended for broiler starter chicks. The total plate count ranged from 0.88 to 1.28×105CFU/g, coliform counts ranged between 1.40 to 3.20×104CFU/g, and fungal counts 0.08 to 2.90×105CFU/g. The high coliform count indicated that more attention is needed to improve feed storage practices, warehouse conditions, handling of products and duration of feed storage. The presence of pathogenic microorganisms in poultry feeds is indicative of the level of contamination which could possibly limit growth performance in chickens. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that, advocacy for periodic examination of feed nutritional quality and safety to prevent cross contamination of poultry products should be adhered to for profitable poultry production in and around the study area.

A new killer toxin produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Extremera, A. L., Martin, I. and Montoya, E. (Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain) Curr. Genet.5, 17 (1982)

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate extract development of sorghum grains during malting and utilization of bitter leaf for production of beer using S. cerevisiae.
 Study Design: Randomized experimental design was used to achieve the aim of the study.
 Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted at the Food and Industrial Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State between June 2021 and September 2021.
 Methodology: The grains were bought at a local market, steeped for 24h, germinated for 5days at 30°C and kilned at 45°C for 24h. Alpha and beta amylases were extracted from the malted sorghum and their activities were determined by measuring the maltose produced. Mashing was done using infusion method, bitter leaf extract was used in place of hops, and 500ml of the wort was pitched with 50ml inoculum of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from fresh palm wine. Fermentation lasted for 14 days.
 Results: The results indicated that β-amylase activities were higher with a peak of 1.5mg/ml maltose as against 0.9mg/ml maltose for alpha amylase. Wort properties such as diastatic power and hot water extract were measured as 40°l and 415°l/kg respectively. The resulting beer with bitter leave as substitute for hops gave alcohol content (%) of 3.6 and 3.4, bitterness was 100.38 IBU (International Bitterness Units) and 101.82 IBU while colour was 19.15 EBC (European Brewery Convention) and 21.45 EBC for sorghum wort having 5ml and 10ml of bitter leaf extract respectively.
 Conclusion: The results obtained in this study depicts sorghum malt as a source of enzymes and further reveals the brewing potentials of sorghum grains in beer production with bitter leaf as a potential substitute for hops. The bitter leaf which offered a good degree of bitterness to the beer can potentially serve as a good substitute for hops in brewing industry.

1 Department of Microbiology , Faculty of Science, Mahidol Unisityrve , Bangkok , Thailand 2 Department of Fest or Biology , Faculty of Festryor , Kasetsart Unisityrve , Bangkok , Thailand 3 Department of National Pk s , ar Wildlife and Plant Conservation , Bangkok , Thailand

Aim: To assess ultraviolet radiation microbial deactivation and impact of different types of packaging during the storage of dried cocoa beans. Study Design: Quasi experimental design. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, between January 2023 and May 2024. Methodology: Dried cocoa beans were used for ultraviolet radiation of 743.6 µW/cm² during 0 to 50 minutes. The total bacteria count, Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, yeasts, and moulds were enumerated, and the detection of Salmonella was performed. On the other hand, dried cocoa beans were introduced on 5 different packaging, and stored across two seasons, for 180 days and their microbial content and humidity assessed. Results: The study observed that ultraviolet radiation type C with an intensity of 743.6 µW/cm² for 50 minutes reduces total bacteria count (TBC) by 1.62 log CFU/g (98%) and fungal flora by 2.03 log CFU/g (99%). Time of exposure was a significant factor affecting the ultraviolet antimicrobial efficacy. Based on Weibull model adaptation to experimental data, moulds were more sensitive to these radiation (b=0.09) than total bacteria count (b=0.0012). Hermetic bags show the ability to reduce microbial proliferation during the rainy and dry seasons compared to microaerophilic bags and Jute bags. The Hermetic bags also show an ability to resist humidification compared to microaerophilic bags packaging. Conclusion: Ultraviolet radiation for 50 minutes and storage in hermetic packages of cocoa beans can be proposed as alternatives to the only jute bag storage commonly used today in the cocoa sector.

The study of modern and contemporary art from Islamic lands, and particularly the Arab world, is a developing field. Over the past few decades, a variety of publications on modern and contemporary art from the Arab world and its diasporas has appeared in art magazines, journals, and exhibition and auction catalogues. There is, however, still a lack of scholarly literature and reliable resources on the subject. Many such existing sources have focused on productions that are largely in line with certain interests or agendas pursued by the particular magazine/journal, exhibition, or art market in question. Therefore, although recent scholarly output has played a crucial role in introducing modern art in the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, these publications have not sufficiently filled the gap of discussion regarding certain aspects of the subject. Modern Art in the Arab World, a collection of critical writings by Arab intellectuals and artists, offers an unparalleled source for the study of modernism in the Arab world. Mapping the primary documents with additional entries written by the editors and other scholars, this book addresses the major historical, conceptual, theoretical, and aesthetic issues that inform the modern art paradigm in the Arab world. Arranged largely in a chronological order, it explores the art of the Arab world by tracing the main discourses that have shaped artistic practices and transformations in the region from the mid-nineteenth century until the late 1980s.