Genetically Predicted Circulating Concentrations of Micronutrients and Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and devastating neurodegenerative disease with increasing incidence and high mortality, resulting in a considerable socio-economic burden. Till now, plenty of studies have explored the potential relationship between circulating levels of various micronutrients and ALS risk. However, the observations remain equivocal and controversial. Thus, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to investigate the causality between circulating concentrations of 9 micronutrients, including retinol, folate acid, vitamin B12, B6 and C, calcium, copper, zinc as well as magnesium, and ALS susceptibility. In our analysis, several single nucleotide polymorphisms were collected as instrumental variables from large-scale genome-wide association studies of these 9 micronutrients. Then, inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach as well as alternative MR-Egger regression, weighted median and MR-pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) analyses were performed to evaluate causal estimates. The results from IVW analysis showed that there was no causal relationship of 9 micronutrients with ALS risk. Meanwhile, the three complementary approaches obtained similar results. Thus, our findings indicated that supplementation of these 9 micronutrients may not play a clinically effective role in preventing the occurrence of ALS.

The Impact of Digital Media for the development of political culture in Creating Public Awareness: A Study between Entries and Models

The researcher seeks to evaluate and understand digital media in raising awareness of community issues among the public. The research aims to identify theoretical approaches to the impact of digital media on public awareness, and to clarify models of the impact of digital media on public awareness. The research used the descriptive and analytical approach, which attempts to analyze and describe the impact of digital media on social awareness among the public, as the research reached the most important results that the reality imposed itself in the form of digital media through its various means played an important and effective role in the movements and revolutions that the countries witnessed in the movements and revolutions of the democratic spring. Some people described it as "Vmsbouquet revolutions" in relation to the important role that Facebook played in communication between the demonstrators, which prompted some to say that virtual or digital media has replaced political organizations in playing their role aimed at political upbringing in what some have called "" Bringing up the internet.

The role of applying good governance standards on civil society organizations to achieve sustainable development

Countries and governments are seeking to develop their societies and achieve prosperity with growth for their people, through achieving comprehensive sustainable development, which guarantees the right of current generations to well-being, and preserving the right of subsequent generations through good exploitation of available resources, wealth and full preservation to the surrounding environment and not to destroy it. However, good governance reflects to recent global developments and changes that have coincided with changing in the system of political governance and the role of governments, as this concept was put forward in the framework of political programs in order to achieve development goals. Thus, good governance was provided and supported by international non-governmental organizations, such as the United Nations and international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, in order to add an authoritative, ethical way to practice power in managing the affairs of states and societies. The problem in this research paper was the extent of the contribution of civil society organizations in the development process, as a result of the weak role of governments and states, which forced these organizations to work side by side with governments in the process of achieving sustainable development. This paper relied on the descriptive and analytical approach and aimed to identify the important and effective role of civil society organizations in the process of achieving the development of peoples and societies. The study concluded that it is not possible for these civil organizations to contribute to achieving sustainable development with the absence or weakness of implementing and activating the standards of good governance, since good governance is the foundation to Achieve the real sustainable development.

A simple predictor of interface orientation of mesogenic fluids and its implications for organic semiconductors

From classical molecular dynamics simulations, we identify a simple and general predictor of molecular orientation at solid and vapour interfaces of isotropic fluids of anisotropic particles based on their shape and interaction anisotropy. For a wide variety of inter-particle interactions, temperatures, and substrate types within the range of typical organic semiconductors and their processing conditions, we find remarkable universal scaling of the orientation at the interface with the free energy calculated from pair interactions between close-packed nearest neighbours and an empirically derived universal relationship between the entropy and the shape anisotropy and bulk volume fraction of the fluid particles. The face-on orientation of fluid particles at the solid interface is generally predicted to be the equilibrium structure, although the alignment can be controlled by tuning the particle shape and substrate type, while changing the strength of fluid--fluid interactions is likely to play a less effective role. At the vapour interface, only the side-on structure is predicted, and conditions for which the face-on structure may be preferred, such as low temperature, low interaction anisotropy, or low shape anisotropy, are likely to result in little orientation preference (due to the low anisotropy) or be associated with a phase transition to an anisotropic bulk phase for systems with interactions in the range of typical organic semiconductors. Based on these results, we propose a set of guidelines for the rational design and processing of organic semiconductors to achieve a target orientation at a solid or vapour interface.

Design of a Damping Controller Using a Metaheuristic Algorithm for Angle Stability Improvement of an SMIB System

Low frequency oscillations in large power systems may result in system instability under large disturbances. Power system stabilisers (PSS) play an effective role in damping these low frequency oscillations by injecting a modulating signal in the excitation loop of a synchronous machine. A new metaheuristic optimisation algorithm termed the sine cosine algorithm (SCA) was proposed for optimising PSS controller parameters to obtain an optimal solution with the damping ratio as an objective function. The SCA technique was examined on a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system under distinct loading situations and matched with a moth flame optimisation technique and evolutionary programming to design a robust controller of PSS. The simulation was accomplished using a linearised mathematical model of the SMIB. The performance of a designed lead lag-controller of PSS was demonstrated using eigenvalue analysis with simulations, showing promising results. The dynamic performance was validated with respect to the damping ratio, the eigenvalue’s location in the s-plane and rotor angle deviation response to demonstrate system stability.

Comparative Study of the Effect of Midazolam Administration Before and after Seizures on the Prevention of Complications in Children Undergoing Electroconvulsive Therapy Compared with a Control Group

Background: One of the complications of ECT treatment is headache. There is a need to use sedation during ECT. As a result, midazolam has been used to address a safe and effective strategy in this regard. Methods: This study is a double-blind clinical trial that has been performed in three groups: group A, which receives midazolam based on the usual regimen, group B, which receives midazolam after shock, and group C, which is the control group. Patients were asked about headache, nausea, and muscle aches during the recovery time, seizure duration and after becoming fully conscious. Data were analyzed in the PASW version18 software using analysis of variance and repeated measurement tests, ANOVA, independed t and χ2 tests. Results: Analysis showed that the frequency of muscle pain after full consciousness in group C was significantly higher than group B, with group B being higher than group A. χ2 test showed that the frequency of headache, cough and nausea in group C was significantly higher than the two groups A and B. Conclusion: The result of this research showed that midazolam prodrug plays an effective role in preventing post-ECT complications in children. The effect of midazolam before and after ECT on headache, muscle pain and nausea was investigated and compared with the control group. Also, due to its anterograde amnesia, midazolam can reduce the patient's stress in the next visits, and this issue is even more important when the patient is a child.

CASHWAQF AND FINANCING ISLAMIC SCHOOLS

The present study provides a general overview of the concept of Waqf, and an in-depth discussion of how cash Waqf can fund, educational institutions such as Islamic schools, their maintenance, teachers and students in need. It discusses jurists’ opinions regarding the legal ruling of cash Waqf and points out predominant opinions relating to the issue at hand. The study also expounds proposed practical models for cash Waqf to fund Islamic schools. The study uses descriptive, inductive and analytical methods. Based on the discussions, the study concludes that if cash Waqf is implemented in a proper way, it can play a significant and effective role in funding Islamic schools.

UNTAPPED ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGES: THE MISSING LINKAGES IN SUPPORTING THE GROWTH OF GRASSROOTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Investing at the grassroots level is an essential intervention to achieve the goals that the international and national communities have set in terms of sustainable development. However, substantial performance remains the concern of the many developing countries in establishing a strong strategy on education in supporting grassroots economies. The general objective of this paper is to engage in discussion on how the country's strategy is designed to meet the intended results in supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through entrepreneurship at the grassroots level. The specific objectives first will focus on critical analysis on the level of matching of the designed strategy and the implementation and secondly on the role of social innovations and the motivations of social entrepreneurs in supporting socioeconomic progress and employment creation. The paper outlined key issues from Malaysia and Zanzibar experiences using a qualitative approach. The findings indicate that in Zanzibar the grassroots entrepreneurs were dominated by weak education, mindset, and traditional experiences in transforming their practices using emerged innovation initiatives, there is also a weak government initiative on innovative measures and a lacks policy initiatives. While in Malaysia the grassroots entrepreneurs failed to use the existing opportunities of the STI initiative to transform themselves into global and regional opportunities. It is suggested that to realize the effective role of entrepreneurship in supporting SGD's goals in employment, quality life, and poverty reduction, there is a need for a paradigm shift to support entrepreneurship education which will support socio-economic development at all levels.

Swobodny przepływ dokumentów w Unii Europejskiej: znaczenie i oddziaływanie rozporządzenia 2016/1191

The article is dedicated to the (still relatively unknown) EU Regulation 2016/1191. The Regulation disposes of some of the formalities with respect to circulation of the public documents within EU. In particular, no legalization in any form, including the apostille under the Hague Convention, will be needed with respect to documents covered by the Regulation. Unliked originally planned by the Commission, the Regulation does not, unfortunately, completes a more challenging goal of mandating recognition of the civil status throughout the Union. This issue still remains subject to national conflict-of-law rules. Moreover, the scope of Regulation is relatively narrow. It does not, again regrettably, apply to many public documents which are crucial in cross-border transactions (excerpts from commercial registers, powers of attorney for sale of immovable property). The author analyses to what extent Regulation 2016/1191 offers progress in circulation of documents. This question is first raised in light of the long standing application of the Hague Apostille Convention. The author then attempts to discern the effective role of the Regulation given the fact that under Article 1138 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, no legalization in any form is in principle required for the foreign public documents to be treated as authentic and official proof in Poland (although the practice often is to ask for the apostille even if not required by law). Still, the Regulation 2016/1138 might come of assistance for the parties in some respects. First, it will facilitate acceptance of Polish public documents in those Member States, which have so far required apostille. Second, the Regulation may help to overcome an incorrect practice in Poland of requiring apostille by the officials, where Article 1138 actually dispenses of such formality. Third, the Regulation introduces an administrative cooperation based on the IMI system which allows to verify doubts as to the authenticity of the public document from another Member States. This last feature of the Regulation, it is argued, may prove of its true value to the freedom of circulation of public documents within the EU.