Problems of drinking water treatment along Ismailia Canal Province, Egypt

The present drinking water purification system in Egypt Uses surface water as a raw water supply without a pre-liminary filtration process.On the other hand,chlorine gas iS added as a disinfectant agent in two steps,pre- and post.chlorination.Due to these reasons most of water treatment plants suffer low fltering effectiveness and produce the trihalomethane (THM) species as a chlorination by-product.The Ismailia Canal represents the most distal downstream of the main Nile Rivet.ThUS its water contains all the proceeded pollutants discharged into the Nile.In addition.the downstream reaches of the canal act as an agricultural drain during the closing period of the High Dam gates in January and February every year.Moreover,the wide in-dustrial zone along the upstream course of the carlal enriches the canal water with high concentrations of heavy metals.The obtained results indicate that the canal gains up to 24.06×106m3 of water from the surrounding shallow aquifer during the closing period ofthe High Dam gates,while during the rest ofthe year,the callal acts as an influent stream losing about 99.6×106m3 of its water budget.The reduction oftotaI organic carbon(TOC) and suspended particulate mattes(SPMs)should be one of the central goals of any treatment plan to avoid the disinfectants by-products.The combination of sedimentation basins.gravel pre-filtration and slow sand filtration,and underground passage with microbiological oxidation-reduction and adsorption criteria showed good removal of parasites and bacteria and complete elimination of TOC.SPM and heavy metals.Moreover,it reduces the use of disinfectants chemicals and lowers the treatment costs.However,this purification system under the arid climate prevailing in Egypt should be tested and modified prior to application.     

Improving the quality of contextualized questions: an experimental investigation of focus

Setting examination questions in real‐world contexts is widespread. However, when students are reading contextualized questions there is a risk that the cognitive processes provoked by the context can interfere with their understanding of the concepts in the question. Validity may then be compromised. We introduce the concept of focus: a question in a given context is focused to the extent that it addresses the aspects of the context that will be most salient in real life for the students being tested. A more focused context will then help activate relevant concepts, rather than interfering with comprehension and reasoning. In this study, the contexts of questions from a science test for 14‐year‐olds in England were manipulated to increase or decrease the amount of focus. In every instance more focused questions proved better than less focused ones. With additional evidence from interview protocols, we also consider the effects of context focus on the question answering process.     

A comparative study of conventional and supercritical fluid extraction methods for the recovery of secondary metabolites from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Syzygium campanulatum</Emphasis> Korth

Syzygium campanulatum Korth is a plant, which is a rich source of secondary metabolites (especially flavanones, chalcone, and triterpenoids). In our present study, three conventional solvent extraction (CSE) techniques and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) techniques were performed to achieve a maximum recovery of two flavanones, chalcone, and two triterpenoids from S. campanulatum leaves. Furthermore, a Box-Behnken design was constructed for the SFE technique using pressure, temperature, and particle size as independent variables, and yields of crude extract, individual and total secondary metabolites as the dependent variables. In the CSE procedure, twenty extracts were produced using ten different solvents and three techniques (maceration, soxhletion, and reflux). An enriched extract of five secondary metabolites was collected using n-hexane:methanol (1:1) soxhletion. Using food-grade ethanol as a modifier, the SFE methods produced a higher recovery (25.5%?84.9%) of selected secondary metabolites as compared to the CSE techniques (0.92%?66.00%).     

Use of Felder and Silverman learning style model for online course design

Educational technology research and development - Learning Management Systems are used in millions of higher education courses, across various countries and disciplines. Teachers build courses...     

Attitudes of special education teachers towards using technology in inclusive classrooms: a mixed‐methods study

The purpose of this mixed‐methods study was to explore special education teachers’ attitudes towards using technology in inclusive classrooms in Oman. The sample consisted of 428 special education teachers working in Omani public schools (250 teachers of students with learning disabilities (LD), 90 teachers of students with intellectual disability and 88 teachers of students with hearing impairment). Participants responded to the attitudes towards computers questionnaire. For the qualitative section of this study, three semi‐structured group interviews were conducted with a group of special education teachers: 15 teachers of students with hearing impairment, 15 teachers of students with intellectual disabilities and 15 teachers of students with LD). Also, the teachers responded to a survey of educational technology which encompassed seven questions about computer technology. Results of the study indicated that the special education teachers’ attitudes towards using computers were generally positive. The most notable positive attitudes were in the following subscales: special education considerations, staff development considerations, computers use in society, and computers and quality of instruction issues. The analysis of variance results showed that experience and type of disability did not have a significant effect on teachers’ attitudes towards technology.     

News Organizations 2.0

This study aims at understanding international news differences by studying the headlines of over 360,000 news stories posted on the Twitter pages of 12 Arabic and English news organizations. The most referenced countries as well as figures and political actors are examined in these headlines, and the results show that a number of news values elements provide insight into the nature of the news selection. While Arabic channels are mostly focused on the events taking place in the Middle East (proximity), some English-language channels show clear preference for the countries from which they are located, especially CNN and Sky News, as well as Arabic and English state-owned media outlets like France 24 and RT (agenda and ideology). The findings suggest that news content largely follows a number of news values criteria that can explain the news selection process.     

Understanding the Social Media Audiences of Radio Stations

This article investigates the online comments of news items posted on the Facebook pages of two popular Arabic-language radio channels: Radio Monte Carlo—France24 and Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW). This study examines over 184,000 comments with a special focus on the most liked posts in order to understand how audiences of regular radio interact on social media. The results indicate that audiences seem to be more engaged with posts that encourage participating in broad issues, interacting with clever quotes, and entering contests and less so with reading breaking news. With regards to news events and serious issues, this study also examined how social media users of these two Facebook “radio” sites responded to postings that differed from their own opinions, and seemingly actively engaged with contrasting or oppositional views or sentiments.