Conferences and Workshops

Idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IHP) is a rare but increasingly recognized disorder with localized or diffuse thickening of the dura mater of unknown etiology. The inflammation usually involves the cranial or spinal dura mater, with resultant neurological deficits. It has been primarily reported in adults, with focal involvement of the brain or spinal cord. We report a child who presented at the age of 3.5 years with IHP involving the whole neuraxis, with poor response to steroids,cyclophosphamide and intraventricular Cytarabine

Systematic measurements of the AC magnetic susceptibility of polycrystalline RuSr2GdCu2O8 (Ru-1212) samples are reported for various frequencies and magnetic field amplitudes. The study covered frequency range from 22 Hz to 12.5 kHz and field amplitudes between 0.5 to 25 Gauss. Both of the susceptibility components χ', and χ'' are greatly affected by frequency and applied field depending on the relevant range under consideration.
In addition, the measured data of the susceptibility components were employed to extract inter- and intra-grain superconductive transition temperatures as well as the average transition temperature in magnetic superconductor RuSr2GdCu2O8. The intra- and inter-granular components of the granular susceptibility components were also estimated. It was found that both of the intra- and inter-granular transition temperatures increase by increasing field frequencies and decrease by increasing the field amplitudes. This might be an indication that the grains of RuSr2GdCu2O8 behave differently from a homogenous bulk superconductor. The nature of curves indicated the presence of a superconducting transition between grains, coupled by weak links with a distribution of critical temperatures, and the superconducting transition within the grains. The two transitions observed are linked to the typical intra- and intergrain transitions of a granular superconductor. The weak coupling between grains might be modeled in terms of Josephson-junction arrays.

Acne Vulgaris is primarily a chronic inflammatory process of the pilosebaceous unit, clinical presentation as comedones (open=blackheads, closed=white heads), papules, pustules or even cystic lesions in the face, chest, shoulders and upper back.
Acne is the commonest skin compliant as it affects up to 70-85% of adolescents, only 10-20% of them request medical advice. Symptoms of acne may begin at the age of 8-12 years but usually at 15-18ys and began to involute by the age of 25, but 10-12% of females and 3% of males continue to have clinical acne until 45 years of age [1,5].
The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the incidence of acne between dermatology patients in Palestine.

Materials & Methods : we looked through our records during 2000-2009 and collected data of acne patients seen during this period.

Results : During this period we had treated 5528 persons complaining of acne (1674 males and 3854 females). Table 1 shows the year distribution of acne patients and they constituted 9-12% of our Dermatology patients.
Table 2 shows the age distribution of 727 acne pts (215 males & 512 females) seen during 2009. Acne presents in some of our patients by the age of 10ys but most of them were between the age of 16-25ys (531 /727) and 39 females had acne lesions between 31-50ys as pustules mainly in the chin but just few males had acne lesions above 30ys of age in the shoulders and back.
Table 3 shows the month distribution of acne patients during 2009 and revealed that acne pts report all the year and most of them report more regularly than other Der. pts. for periods more than 1 year.

Discussion :
Acne is a common complaint between Der. pts. in Palestine (9-12%). Females report more frequently than males 5:2, most of the patients presented by the age of (16-25ys) with mild to moderate degree of acne. Many of the female patients are psychologically disturbed and need special attention and enough time to explain that acne will involute by time and it is very important to avoid squeezing of lesions which may lead to permanent scaring.
In the management of acne we depend on using systemic antibiotics as Tetracycline 500ml/d, Doxycycline, Azithromycine or Erythromycin. Local treatment in the form of Benzoil peroxide 5-10%, Clindamycin, Erythromycin or Azaleic acid [1,3,4]. Tritinoids locally are helpful in dealing with comedones. Systemic Isotritinoid is used only in severe cases of pustules or nodulocystic Acne.

Summary :
5528 (1674 males & 3854 females) acne patients were seen by us in Palestine during the period 2000-2009 which forms 9-12% of our dermatology patients. Acne was one of the most common skin diseases in Palestine [2]. Male to female ratio between our patients was 2:5. Most of our patients were between the age of 16-25ys (531/727) during 2009. Traditional methods of treatment were enough for management of most of the patients. Systemic Isotritinoin was only used in severe cystic and nodulocystic acne. Further studies are needed to evaluate the incidence of acne in the Palestinian community.

Teachers can be professionals if they recognize their own roles. One of the roles the teacher should play is the role of the researcher which means that teachers should be trained to conduct their own classroom research through action research. Thus, this training program is expected to help teachers improve their competences and performances regularly and continuously so as to help teachers improve their professional competencies and provide their own students with better learning opportunities. The need for this training program emerges from the necessity to involve teachers in the on-going reform projects in the field of education in Palestine. However, the training program aim sat enabling trainees to develop a sufficient understanding of their role as classroom researchers, raising the trainees' awareness of “action research", promoting the trainees ‘ability to plan, implement and evaluate different forms of action research. Another goal of the program is to provide exemplification of good "action research" practices and to motivate the trainees to initiate their own continuing professional development so as to be autonomous professionals and reflective practitioners.

Since most studies designed to prove the efficacy of functional anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) bracing among athletes have been equivocal, we felt it would be helpful to know how far the effect of bracing on stability and muscle power as main goals of this study.Methods 30 athletes clients have had an extra articular surgery (TFL) we redivided into two groups, 15 for each group, braced group and non braced(control) group undergone the same rehabilitation program (progressive accelerated rehabilitation program) for 8 weeks, stability was measured using BBS ( berg balance scale) and muscle power using MMT ( manual muscle testing) at the 1st day, 4th and 8th week postoperative, data was analyzed by SPSS (T-independent test) program. Results: BBS at the1st day postoperative the mean score of BBS for the braced group was14.9 and the 6.9 for the control group as T(degree of freedom)=7.7, at the 4th week the mean score for braced group was 26.9 and 18.7 for the control group as T(degree of freedom)=9.3 ,at the 8th week the mean score was 42 for braced group and 33.3 for control group as T(degree of freedom)=3.2 , and the mean for total score of BBS of the braced group was 83.8 and 59 for control group as T(degree of freedom)=6.4 , which indicate a better result of stability progression among braced group.According to the independent T-test it was a significant difference in testability progression during each period as well as the whole period of the rehabilitation program, as P<0.05 muscle power progression, the mean score at 1st postoperative for the braced group was 2.47 and 2.27for the control group as T(degree of freedom)=1.1, at the 4th week the mean score for the braced group was 3.67 and 3.6 for the control group as T(degree of freedom)=0.3, at 8th week the mean score 4.73 for braced group and 4.7 for control as T(degree of freedom)=0.7 and the mean for total score of MMT of braced group was 10.88 and 10.73 for control

In this study, the adsorption of gemifloxacin mesylate (antibiotic) using selected pharmaceutical adsorbents such as activated charcoal and kaolin was investigated spectrophotometrically in terms of initial pH, residence time, initial concentration of drug (adsorbate), weight of adsorbent and temperature. For equilibrium studies, data for adsorption of gemifloxacin mesylate (GEMX) on charcoal were shown to fit Langmuir isotherm whereas, Freundlich isotherm fitted the data very well for the adsorption on kaolin. The maximum adsorption capacity of GEMX were 137mg/g on charcoal compared to 0.04 mg/g on kaolin. This is due to high surface area of charcoal compared to kaolin. The amount adsorbed at equilibrium decreases as adsorbate's concentration increases and increases as the weight of adsorbent increases. pH played a role in the adsorption of GEMX on charcoal which was more in acidic than in basic medium. The maximum adsorption was at pH 6 and at neutral pH for kaolin. Thermodynamics parameters showed that adsorption process was exothermic and spontaneous as ΔHo and ΔGo had negative values. The positive value of ΔSo showed an increase in freedom of molecules with increasing temperature. This study suggests activated charcoal as an effective antidote for cases of GEMX overdose or poisoning. Keywords: adsorption; Gemifloxacin mesylate; Thermodynamics parameters; poisoning.

Multiphysics scientific and engineering applications have added a new dimension to the challenges of computational complexities associated with geometry, mesh, and field manipulation tasks. While many research issues still remain in meshing methods for single-physics applications, multiphysics simulation adds additional complications that arise from the need to incorporate requirements from many, possibly tightly-coupled phenomena into the meshing process. Unfortunately, requirements for different equations systems may be orthogonal, necessitating the use of different meshes for each physics model and the need for accurate transfer of data between these meshes. The advent of supercomputing creates new opportunities for the representation of the entire fully-integrated designs via meshing at an unprecedented fidelity, particularly as computer architectures move toward the petascale/exascale.The premise of this talk is to present an overview of the challenges in meshing, geometry, and intermesh data transfer for multiphysics simulation and presents methodologies of tackling some of the issues that arise. In addition, we will present ongoing research in the development of adaptive mesh refinement tailored to application areas and highlight its use in several different simulation fields; e.g., climate modeling, astrophysics simulation, Neutron Science and reactor modeling, and materials science. The adaptive meshing approach and its underlying methods are attractive to many application areas when solving three-dimensional, multi-physics, multi-scale, and time-dependent problems.

With the appearance of Ravelstein, Bellow’s most recent novel, we again encounter a familiar character in Chick, who, in more ways than one, functions as a “mentor”, a “brain truster”, a “reality instructor” or a “Machiavellian”, thereby indicating a trend and a tradition in Bellow’s fiction. Despite individual differences, these figures are often presented as actors replete with constantly changing situations, schemes, plots strategies and roles, who through the power of words, try to reinterpret reality and to convince themselves and others to accept their revision of it. However, it is in the nature of such characters to pretend they are good actors; each endorses a conception of life that relies on a strong belief confirming that there are solid systems, rules, codes and values that underlie all social and cultural practices. One of the pioneers of such figures is Kirby Allbee, whose conduct (associated with strong sense of acting) savours of possession and exorcism.
He is both a Jinni who haunts the soul of Asa Leventhal, the protagonist of the novel, and, in consequence, accelerates his deterioration and confusion, and paradoxically the exorcist who helps Asa regain his spirit and expel the devil. While this paper closely examines the roles of Kirby Allbee, his impact on Asa Leventhal and on the narrative aspect, it aims to present Allbee as a typical representative of such figures and, hence, to call for a deeper examination of the tradition.

A new type of solar cells which are designed from single crystals using silver and gold metals to construct point contacted photocells are reported and discussed. The influence of the driving electric field on the performance of the device was tested. The current density-electric field dependence curve reflected a space charge limited photocurrent effect being dominant in the filed region of 1-4.3 V/cm. In addition, the solar cell short circuit and loaded current dependence on the excitation intensity was measured. The short circuit current is observed to exhibit exponential trap distribution effect and supralinear recombination at low and high illumination intensities, respectively. The device displays a current density of 0.5 (mA/cm2) for excitation intensity of 76 klux. When loaded it displayed a stable power dissipation curve. Such behavior reflects the novelty of these types of cells for future application. PACS: 71.55.Ht, 72.20.Dp, 72.20.Jv, 72.40.+w, 72.80.Jc, 78.20.Ci