Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2011 Issue 1

Renouncing what some psychological studies call for regarding abandoning extending the memorization culture to children (memorization and indoctrination), and taking care of pursuing their talents and refining their creativity assuming it a basis for cognitive configuration in their future life – since the religious discourse is private in its own way of educating children. The way children are addressed requires a high degree of clarity and simplicity keeping in mind the level of their mental ability especially when dealing with religious aspects, in that it contains metaphysical matters and particular terminology. The proliferation of religious awareness as a result of the knowledge revolution through the internet and satellite TV convinced educational institutions, to a certain extent, with the importance of this dimension in modifying the behaviour and instilling values in children.

Here comes the role of preachers and religious leaders - and even those others who use the religious dimension in their discourse - in delivering religious messages to children through various means, including lectures, workshops, print, video or audio releases, and through both the traditional and new communications media.

Religious teachings have always had clear principles regarding the provision of care for children, whose right to education and access to basic needs are guaranteed. Such needs include all that fall under how they are treated and nature of messages targeting them.

This research was carried out to deal with the psychological aspects a religious spokesman needs to observe while directing a religious speech to children in the following areas:

* The carrot and stick

* Training and assignment ages

* Individual differences among children

* Comprehension & perception of speech by children

* Humanitarian needs as per Maslow's hierarchy of needs

* Communication methods and effects according to the theory of psychoanalysis

Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) is developing a variety of different museums. It is essential that QMA understands the needs and expectations of potential audiences. As part of this process, during 2011, a significant ongoing research project investigating potential family audiences for museums in Qatar was undertaken.

The objectives fall into two categories: understanding the demographics of potential family audiences and their perceptions of museums and secondly understanding current family usage of museums in Qatar and neighboring countries.

It focused upon developing an understanding of the needs of families during leisure time, and their motivations for family activities. Perceptions of museums as family destinations were sought and actual behavior in museums recorded.

The research was conducted over two phases from winter 2010 to summer 2011, and consisted of a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

* Questionnaires were sent to all eligible schools in Qatar and forwarded to every pupil's family. Focus groups explored motivations for and expectations of, family engagement with museums.

* Motivations and expectations were further tested through observation of family visits to museums and comparable venues.

* In depth discussions with family groups.

Results have confirmed a significant interest in museum visitation. Families are motivated by a variety of factors, which can be divided into social, intellectual and emotional categories. The majority (72%) of families are motivated by social factors (e.g. the desire to spend enjoyable time with family). This percentage is significantly higher than is normally exhibited in Europe and America, suggesting a cultural difference.

Observations confirmed this social motivation, but highlighted a lack of familiarity with museums as venues for interaction. Challenges faced by family visitors were highlighted, including orientation, exhibit usage and how best to support children's learning.

The research indicated a potential family audience for museums in Qatar, and built an understanding of the motivating factors for visits, illustrating a marked difference from other countries. It has also shown several potential barriers to family engagement in museums which must be addressed for museums to successfully appeal to this key audience.

The ultimate objective of this study is to explore the strengths and weaknesses and the nature of the services available and required in Qatari communities, in order to assist the Council in promoting these communities developmentally in a balanced way, using a number of scientific and systematized methodological that enable us to develop a scientific database that can be relied upon in future planning, in order to realize the idea of sustainable development based on integrating various social groups and strata in a flexible, concrete, methodological and differentiated development process that is centered on the needs and efforts of the local community.

The study aimed to diagnose and analyze the situation in these communities in terms of: (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities: available or that can be made available; Threats; Various obstacles facing developmental efforts in these communities) , to identify key players in these societies and classifying them as either: (Initiators, Influential or Decision-makers), to identify the main difficulties experienced by Qatari society regarding different services, as well as to identify the size and nature of the role played by the State through its various institutions in the following areas: Educational, Economic, Social, Entertainment, Health and Cultural services and to measure the nature and magnitude of the services provided in these communities and their ability to satisfy the needs of citizens and to assess extent of their satisfaction with these services. The study has employed a descriptive survey approach, through conducting a quantitative study on a stratified random sample of 1,100 subjects, distributed according to population distribution cited by the Census Bureau in 2006.

In addition, a qualitative study was conducted through three approaches: targeted discussion groups, through organizing 32 discussions focus groups. The qualitative study will allow us, to a great extent, to identify reasons, justifications and opinions that can only be elicited through this approach. Each session lasted for 1.5 - 2 hours and included 6-8 members of the target population. The study has also relied on in-depth interviews through the descriptive approach based on diagnosing and analyzing the reality lived by Qatari citizens through conducting in-depth interviews with a sample of natural and official opinion leaders in these communities.

Our sample consisted of 229 male and female subjects, selected from natural and official leaders. We have employed a desk research approach, through a survey questionnaire covering the most important services and resources available and required in these communities through the country's ten Municipalities. These services are economic, social, cultural, intellectual, educational, political and other services. We have also employed a comparative approach to make a comparison between the different groups of our target population, based on various demographic and psychological parameters.

Since the late 1990s, Qatar and its capital city Doha have been undergoing a new period of urbanization. Doha is viewed as an important emerging city in the Gulf region with a growing potential to constitute knowledge economies as a foundation for its future prosperity. Driven by economic diversification strategies that aim to establish the city as a global service hub, sport and media events and cultural facilities are being developed in order to brand the city as an international service center. This contribution aims at introducing a responsive framework for analyzing the complex inter-dependencies between knowledge economies and physical urban developments in Doha. In this respect, this is an ongoing research process, as part of a QNRF-NPRP funded project, which seeks to deliver insights into the complexity of the various factors that produce urban space and their individual effects on urban qualities. Based on Henri Lefebvre's triad of space production (conceived-perceived-lived), a framework has been developed and particularly devised to explore the inter-dependencies of Doha's recent economic transformation and the changing structure of its urban environment. The framework involves comprehensive analysis of urban planning decision making processes as well as in-depth investigation that applies interlocking network models to examine how urban space is currently used by companies of new economic sectors. Taking into account the importance of the role played by the employees working in these companies and their perception of contemporary urban space in the city, the framework utilizes empirical research techniques that involve survey studies, focused interviews, and behavioral mapping. In addition to investigating the various factors driving spatial transformation, the evolutionary aspects of the city's urban structure are traced and analyzed using GIS data and space syntax studies. The results of implementing this framework are amenable to establish a comprehensive understanding of the potential and deficits of Doha's urban environment, which in turn, foster the city's aspirations in establishing a thriving knowledge economy.

Background: Although researchers have studied AIDS-related stigma for three decades, there is a serious shortage of this type of work in the Arab world including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Our review revealed only 24 published studies on the social aspects of AIDS from all the GCC countries since the beginning of the epidemic. Unfortunately nothing was published from Qatar. A closer inspection of these studies shows that people living with HIV/ AIDS (PLWHA) were treated as one homogenous group and the importance of layered stigma (e.g., being HIV-positive and female) was not considered. Although Arab HIV-positive women represent nearly 30.4% of all PLWHA in the Arab world, the majority of them contracted the virus while married. For example, a study from Saudi Arabia found that 62 out of 65 of the HIV-positive women were infected by their husbands, whereas, 111 out of the 124 men acquired it from sex workers. This is a new trend in the Arab world. In the past HIV was seen as a male disease.

Objectives: To correct these limitations this paper focuses on stigmatization of HIV-positive women in Qatar among college students.

Methods: The present study collected data from 520 college students at Qatar University using self-administered questionnaire to gauge their attitudes toward HIV-positive women compared to HIV-positive men.

Results: Findings illustrated the extreme negative view of HIV-positive women. For example, 63% of the students agreed that HIV-positive men should be allowed to get married while, 45% approved the same action for HIV-positive women. Further, we found that 78% of the students believed that HIV-positive women should not have children and 56% suggested that they should be sterilized to prevent them from having children. Other negative views and their relations to students’ knowledge of HIV, AIDS-related shame, degree of religiosity and gender will be discussed.

Conclusions: Reactions to HIV-positive people differ according to the gender of the infected individuals. Extreme measures were endorsed toward HIV-positive women compared to HIV-positive men. Further, limits were imposed on HIV-positive women's sexual and reproductive rights. Future studies need to replicate this study among other segments of Qatar society

Background: In 2009 the proposal to establish an international information resource on Islamic bioethics submitted to Qatar National Research Fund was accepted and awarded a three-year grant. The project was conceived and proposed by two of Georgetown University's research libraries: the Bioethics Research Library (BRL) at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington D.C. and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar Library (SFSQL) with the vision to become the world's most comprehensive resource on Islamic bioethics. Building on the valuable experience of these two institutions, the project promises to serve the needs of the local and international community of researchers in the area of bioethics. The project utilizes the best practices gained from work on similar projects on bioethics scholarship in collaboration with renowned institutions in the field such as the National Library of Medicine of the National Institute of Health in the US. Currently the project is in the third year of the grant and the research team believes that the project is on schedule to achieve its vision.

Objectives: This presentation aims to demonstrate the efforts to achieve the targeted goals of the project. It also seeks to share the lessons gained from work on the different components of this project. In addition to highlighting the challenges encountered, the presentation will also illustrate the innovative solutions that were undertaken to fulfill the objectives of each of the project's components.

Methods: The presentation will address each of these components:

- The collection development: the proactive acquisition plan

- Database Development: innovative solutions

- Local Impact: partnerships and networking

- Global Impact: the world's premiere resource on Islamic bioethics

- Future Plans: further expansion and growth

Results and Conclusions: The presentation will share the policies and strategies that were implemented in order to fulfill the targeted goals of each of the components listed above. It will also demonstrate and showcase the results of the project.

Background: A recent survey by the World Bank puts Kenya as the second-highest recipient of inward remittance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), contributing 5.7 percent to the country's GDP. The Gulf Cooperation Countries are becoming a favored destination for migrants, including those from SSA. The existing literature does not adequately examine the impact of remittance, and of migration, on migrants and their families. To our knowledge, this is the first exploratory survey of migrants from Kenya in the Gulf region.

Objectives: This research attempts to track migration and remittance trends between Qatar and Kenya that would enable policy-makers and researchers to monitor the impact of remittance on the local economy. It also serves as a valuable introduction that enhances our understanding of the challenges faced by migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods : Original data from 52 male migrants were collected between June and December 2010. The survey covered the following issues: health, demographics, education, income, expenditure and remittance.

Results: The median Kenyan migrant has the following profile: male, 29 years of age, single, possesses some degree of college education, has been in Qatar for 1.4 years, works 9 hours a day, 6 days a week, earning US$ 3945 per year of which over half is remitted back home to his parents. The migrant has limited savings, rendering him unsatisfied. Most of the migrants surveyed intended to use their saving for further education or start a business enterprise. They also expressed concerns about a mismatch between the skill sets they had and the jobs obtained in Qatar.

Conclusions: This study raises pertinent questions that require a deeper analysis: Is it possible to match the migrants with jobs that they have trained for to reduce underemployment? How can migrants improve their savings? Our findings suggest that remittance and savings amongst Kenyan migrants help in capital accumulation and could contribute to the economic development in Kenya. Hence, there is a need for policy makers to work with Kenyan migrants, to enable them to achieve their financial goals.

This research aims to develop a new economic policy of insurance with a new Islamic template that relies on waqf in order to revive Islamic concepts, and activate their role in global economic policies, showing Islamic economic system's ability to interact with both the economic and social developments, and its ability to achieve high competitiveness with global institutions, by having additional positive features on the humanitarian side, social side and others. In greater detail, this research seeks to achieve several goals, namely:

First: avoiding of the prohibition inflicted on commercial insurance in Islamic jurisprudence and law, and obtaining services that are compatible with Islamic law, with what that entails of effects on the Muslim's life.

Second: avoiding the suspicions brought about by the Islamic mutual (takaful) insurance as it stands now.

Third: surpassing both insurances (commercial & mutual) in the role this insurance is developing small project economics, by providing free-of-charge services or for nominal fees to the owners of small enterprises thus gravely affecting the economy and the income level.

Fourth: exploring the possibility of applying this type of insurance in the State of Qatar (a study on Qatari laws), giving a preliminary design for the proposed endowment insurance company in terms of laws, activities and the distribution of money.

Through this research we will look into:

First: the need for insurance in countries in general, and in Muslim countries in particular.

Second: reasons for the inviolability of the commercial insurance.

Third: doubts and objections from scholars on Islamic mutual (takaful) insurance.

Fourth: the core of the endowment insurance and how it overcomes the problems of the two latter insurances.

Fifth: How to guide insurance surplus in endowment insurance proposal towards small business owners, and the impact of that on the achievement of social justice and economic and social development.

Sixth: how can the endowment insurance institution be created within the laws and regulations in the State of Qatar (an example).

Seventh: a projection for the endowment insurance in terms of labor regulations and the laws, in comparison to an insurance institution to a similar endowment institute that was established in South Africa, giving scholarly solutions to objections that we faced, and how can they be developed to serve the social/economic issues.

And finally: despite the novelty of this proposal, it directs scientists’ and researchers’ energy towards working on the development of economic, social & other policies, where various Islamic concepts (such as endowment, recompense, zakat, and kharaj etc…) play a role in human development on all levels, thus showing the greatness of Islamic regime which has been created to suit every time and place.

This presentation discusses the collection of Qatari child speech data. For a large project, we are obtaining audio recordings of 1/2-hour spontaneous Arabic speech produced by 140 Qatari monolingual children in natural settings (e.g. home and preschools). Fieldworkers produce digital files of the child speech recordings, and text file transcripts of the recordings. Our data are being analysed and coded in the CHILDES format.

Baseline Data for Arabic Acquisition with Clinical applications is a three-year interdisciplinary project in Linguistics and Children's Health. It is multiinstitutional and international. It is a cross-sectional study of child speech which involves research on normal conversational interaction produced by native Arabic-speaking children between the ages of 1 year and 4 months to 3 years and 7 months. The overall goal is to collect extensive new material on five colloquial Arabic dialects: Qatari, Saudi, Jordanian, Palestinian, and Lebanese.

Specifically, the project aims to achieve four online bilingual Arabic-English resources: Arabic Child Language Database, Analysis of the Arabic Child Language Database, Arabic Child Language Norms and Clinical Reference Materials for Arabic Speech-Language Pathology. The project will fill these resources with extensive material on five Arabic dialects. It will provide heretofore nonexistent baseline data on first language acquisition of Arabic, critically essential for Speech-Language pathologists working with Arabic children, and for linguists conducting research into the nature of language and first language acquisition. This is the second year of the project and we are still in the data collection stage.

The aim is to inform our language acquisition colleagues about the project, to facilitate cross-germination of ideas at this relatively early stage of our research. The presentation gives a small taste of the kind of data the Qatar team is encountering. We first summarize the progress made toward accomplishment of the aims of the project in Qatar, and problems and difficulties encountered and how they are being solved. We hope this will be helpful for fellow researchers who do child language research in the Arab Gulf region.

Contemporary Muslim communities, regionally and around the globe, are facing a defining moment. The post 9/11 incident—as agreed upon by different researchers—established a new milestone in the contemporary history of Muslim communities. Crucial questions related to identity, image, misconception and misjudgment of Islam as a religion and Muslims as part of the human community flourished in political, religious, economical and cultural literature. The declared ‘war on terror’ shouldn't be transformed into a war on Islam. As a result of massive fabrication of Islam as an enemy of civilized society as intensified in western media. Islam has become an issue in America. Islamophobia has emerged as an ideology that threatens the tradition of tolerance.

Mosques are undoubtedly the most clear physical representation of Islam as a religion, principles and values. Basically, the mosque is an ideological manifestation in space, time and matter. This paper will examine the architecture and urban status of contemporary mosques in selected contexts with the Arab and Western communities. The paper claims that formerly powerful and dominating image of the mosque is currently subjected to accelerating resistance and rejection. Numerous incidents around the world have shown clearly the volume of such new phenomenon. Ideological conflicts which have emerged after 9/11 and the declared war against terrorism, paved the way for a new perception of Islam and many of its related symbols and icons. The mosque is no exception in this newly constructed western perception which, as many researchers argue, is based on fear.

The paper invites Muslim and non-Muslim architects and planners to transcend the typical mosque prototype extensively scattered around the globe. A move from exclusive to inclusive spatial composition of the mosque is urgently needed. Mosques can be designed as part of a global network of social, cultural and spiritual activities inserted within and blended with global cities and towns. Hence, mosque design could seek creative and innovative solutions by which its form, spatial order, functional components, transparency, and communicated meaning can holistically contribute to diminish the swiftly accelerating Mosquephobia.

Human trafficking is arguably the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. An estimated 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking each year. Despite this prevalence, evidence suggested low awareness and understanding in Qatar of what constitutes human trafficking and its occurrence at a local level. Prior to launching an awareness campaign and capacity building programs, QFCHT deemed it important to identify local attitudes and perceptions about human trafficking.

This paper aims to gauge current awareness and understanding of human trafficking among Qatar residents and to identify community misunderstandings and knowledge gaps.

This quantitative research consisted of a total of 426 face-to-face intercept interviews (in Arabic and English) with a stratified random sample of Qatar residents. Quotas were set according to four nationality groups so that demographic comparisons could be made. Interviews were conducted by 20 volunteers and QFCHT staff throughout July and August 2011. All interviewers underwent an extensive briefing by a qualified market research consultant and a quality audit was conducted on 10% of completed surveys.

The results of this research confirm there is limited awareness and recognition in Qatar of the overall concept of human trafficking. However, in general after being provided with a definition, respondents accurately reflected that the categories of people most affected by human trafficking in Qatar are domestic workers and labourers. Almost half (48%) of respondents did not know which organisations in Qatar provided services to victims.

A significant proportion of Qatar residents interviewed had a limited understanding of the meaning behind the term human trafficking. The findings indicate a further need to build the awareness among residents of Qatar of the types of human trafficking occurrences and ways to combat them. Human trafficking promotional campaigns need to focus on targeting nationalities where understanding is at its lowest and on issues specific to the categories of people most affected in Qatar. Campaigns should also focus on increasing awareness of support services available to victims such as the services offered by the QFCHT. Recommendations are included in the research report.

The state of Qatar has embarked upon an unprecedented period of investment in human, social, economic and environmental development in line with its Qatar Vision 2030 plan. With significant investments in support of the Small and Medium Enterprise Sector, Qatar is making impressive gains towards building a knowledge economy. The College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) has developed its own Strategic Plan in line with the State's to ensure that the college is providing the best service to Qatar and its people. Within CNA-Q's School of Business Studies, the Entrepreneurial Center (EC) was created to assist with the planning and development of small businesses.

In order to better understand the requirements of budding entrepreneurs at CNA-Q, a research project was initiated to measure the Entrepreneurial Potential (EP) of students based on their attitudes towards entrepreneurship and the constituent elements of achievement, personal control, creativity, leadership, intuition and risk taking. The project also gathered data about gender, sponsorship, age, program-of-study, country of citizenship, postgraduate intentions and extra-curricular activities in order to understand any demographic or behavioral characteristics that may be important.

In this cross-sectional, quantitative study, a sample of over 400 diverse students from various faculties at CNA-Q was surveyed. Results showed that students at CNA-Q register relatively high EP in general but lower in the areas of intuition and personal control. There were differences observed in various groups as well. Non-sponsored students scored higher in EP than sponsored students, male students scored higher than female students and business & information technology students scored higher than average. Students who participate in extra-curricular activities scored higher than those who do not and a large percentage of students intend to continue their education while very few intend to start their own businesses after graduation.

The results indicate that if CNA-Q wants to increase EP in students, among other things, the school needs to adapt curriculum to improve students’ intuition and personal control as well as encourage students to take part in more extracurricular activities. CNA-Q should also pursue further research to better understand why so few students have entrepreneurial intentions.

Throughout the Ummah, fertility levels are dropping dramatically for many countries and sub-national populations--and traditional marriage patterns and living arrangements are undergoing tremendous change.

There remains a widely perceived notion that “Muslim” societies are especially resistant to embarking upon the path of demographic/familial change that has transformed “more developed” areas (UN terminology). But such notions are utterly uninformed by the important new demographic realities that reflect today's life patterns within the Islamic world. Indeed: the plain fact today is that the most momentous fertility declines ever witnessed, in both magnitude and tempo, are today being registered in Muslim-majority societies. Changes in family formation patterns, likewise, are occurring faster and at much lower income levels in parts of the Muslim world than were recorded in the past in now-affluent Western societies.

This study will outline, analyze and assess the dimensions, determinants and implications of the profound fertility declines and revolutionary changes in family life now evident within the Ummah, focusing special attention on the Arab world, utilizing data from DHS surveys, national censuses, and international demographic and social science databases (including the World Values Survey).

Applying demographic tools and also what might be called “strategic demographics” to the analysis of changes in patterns of fertility and family formation in the Islamic world will enhance understanding of society, economy, politics, and future development prospects for these peoples and states. This is a neglected area of research inquiry, but it is nevertheless of vital importance to understanding these societies and their futures.

This study examined whether the reactive stress tolerance of male adolescent student athletes of a high-performance sport academy improved after a 24- week intervention which included Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) and imagery. Participants (N=36) responded to a psychomotor test measuring reactive stress tolerance, in which they were presented with visual/coloured stimuli and acoustic signals. The presentation speed of the stimuli adapted to the respondents’ performance level. After the completion of this test, the participants engaged in an intervention designed to learn progressive muscle relaxation and imagery skills through an eight-week education phase, an eight-week practice phase and another eight-week implementation phase. In the implementation phase, progressive muscle relaxation and imagery sessions were expected to become part of the participants’ comprehensive training in sport in an organised manner. At the end of the intervention period, the student-athletes were requested to take the reactive stress tolerance test again. Results showed that student-athletes' reactive stress tolerance was significantly improved (t(35)=2.825, p=0.008) in the post-intervention test (M=0.1742, SD=0.0714) compared to the pre-intervention test (M=0.2049, SD=0.0947). It was concluded that progressive muscle relaxation and imagery have a positive effect on the adolescent student-athletes' reactive stress tolerance.

The status of women in the Middle East has always been a a controversial issue, but there does not seem to have been quantitative studies of how the political and religious attitudes reflect on the presentation of women in the Arabic media.

The current study examines the way women are presented in two websites of general circulation with the purpose of unearthing the linguistic connections of “woman” in liberal versus politico-Islamic discourse.

The study uses computational and corpus linguistics techniques to investigate a corpus of 40 million words extracted from the political Islamic website http://www.ikhwanonline.com and the liberal website www.almasry-alyoum.com in search for the collocates of the word “woman” in all its possible morphological representations. Due to the morphological richness of Arabic, the words were first stemmed, i.e. all the clitics were removed from the words, before all words within the range of 5 words before and after “woman” were subjected to collocational analysis using a combination of pointwise mutual information and raw frequency counts as a measure of association. The top 100 stems in each corpus source were selected for comparison.

The results of the study give a strong support to the conclusion that liberal and Islamic websites treat women differently. While the liberals stress political participation, rights, and work equality, the Islamists stress home, marriage, pregnancy and children. While the results are not new in the sense that this may sound like common knowledge, the study provides quantitative analysis and proof of the results.

We have provided quantitative analysis of large amounts of data in the study of a linguistic and humanities filed, an area that is still lacking in Arabic linguistic research. We hope to augment this with qualitative research in the future over the same data sets.

Background: Qatar Charity is seeking to develop and upgrade its communication strategy not only in Qatar but, all over the world especially at the era of the Arab revolution (Tunisia- Egypt - Syria- Yemen- Libya). The role of Qatar Charity in relief activities presented a model of how the humanitarian organization is supposed to be. This requires knowing the features of the current image. So, this research examined the image of Qatar charity among the Qatari society and how the Qatari public, residents and beneficiaries perceive the organization. In addition the study evaluated the perception and image of Qatar Charity for the beneficiaries in Asia, Africa and Europe. The study is trying to answer the following questions:

What communication tools are frequently used? What are the main components of communication strategy? What about the situational analysis of this communication strategy? (Strengths - weaknesses - opportunities).

Objective: The study seeks to enhance the efforts to reshape and reposition Qatar charity as a model of NGO worldwide.

Method: The study will be descriptive with data gathered via a questionnaire aimed for all groups in the Qatari society and external sectors that we are serving. We will depend on 800 random sample respondents as follows:

250 in Qatar and 550 outside Qatar as follows:

150 Africa sector

150 Asia sector

250 Europe sector.

1. The life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is an eternal source of guidance and inspiration for all humanity in general and Muslims in particular, which provides us with a role model to be eulogized. Luckily, the minutest details about the life, conduct and behavior of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) are preserved with the maximum possible degree of exactitude. However, writing a paper with a focus on Prophet's (PBUH) acumen on Statesmanship and Leadership is a challenging task as there is no dearth of scholarly works on the moral, spiritual and social areas of the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

2. The Prophet (PBUH), during his stay at Madina, acted as the Head of the State, judge, chief administrator, military commander, and educator etc. His experiences in solving problems and difficulties of the citizens covering diverse spheres of the society can be easily copied to sort out governance and administration problems presently faced by the world in general and Islamic countries in particular. In addition, the application of his immense leadership qualities conform to the present change environment needs of 21st century. His quality can be derived from the principles of military tactics and strategy, which he followed for countering subversion, treachery, aggression and invasion, and the training of men in arms and the art of warfare, which were necessary for the ultimate defeat of the enemy.

3. It is time perhaps that we study afresh the superb leadership and statesmanship exhibited by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) depicted under difficult conditions. This will help us to draw appropriate lessons for application in existing change environments need of 21st century particularly for strict adherence of Islamic countries. This paper is a humble attempt towards that direction.

Background: Civic organizations play a major role in the welfare of society and they are a good indication of how developed a society is. Over the last few years the state of Qatar has witnessed the development of several such organizations, dealing with various aspects of the psychological and social life, for both individuals and families. There has been some debate and discussion, particularly in the local media, regarding whether or not people living in Qatar are aware of these civic organizations and to what extent they are aware of the specialties and services provided by these organizations.

Objectives: The Social Rehabilitation Centre Doha, wanted to test the knowledge and awareness of people living in Qatar and so chose ten organizations as examples These ten selected organizations deal mostly with treatment, counseling, rehabilitation and support for individuals or families.

Methods: This is a survey of 505 subjects in Qatar. The participant group was made up of both Qatari citizens and expatriates, both males and females of different age groups. The survey investigated participants’ knowledge of ten civic organizations in Qatar. We used a questionnaire designed specifically for this survey, and we presented the participants with 25 scenarios, each of which raised a different problem, and asked them to name the organization(s) they are more likely to consult for each of these problems. Statistical analysis was then performed.

Results: It is obvious from the results of the survey that although there is some overlap between some of these organizations, the studied participants have a good understanding of the specialties and services provided by these organizations. The study shows that there is still room for these organizations to raise further awareness about themselves through launching campaigns using varied media sources.

Conclusions: Although the survey shows that the studied sample has a good understanding of the roles and specialties offered by these ten organizations, it also shows there is a need for such organizations to communicate effectively with each other in order to improve their services to the society at large. Several recommendations were made, which will be presented at the Conference.

Investigating the impact of the core curriculum on the performance of universities’ graduates worldwide has become a vital trend in determining their institutional effectiveness in providing societies with multi skilful, knowledgeable, and well rounded individuals. In line with this trend, this research attempted to study the role of Qatar University Core Curriculum Program on improving students’ academic achievement, enhancing their career opportunities, and fulfilling Qatar national needs.

The mixed methods research approach was adopted for the purposes of this research. This approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods to provide comprehensive understanding and analysis of the variables examined. In addition, a wide variety of direct and indirect data collection methods were utilized such as surveys, tests, rubrics, focus groups, nominal group technique, benchmarking, and content analysis. A targeted sample of different stake holders inside and outside Qatar University was selected. This covered senior and junior students, alumni, faculty, and marketplace employers.

The results indicate that the Core Curriculum has a positive impact on the students’ academic achievement as seen by students, alumni and employers. Also, the results show that employers have positive opinions related to the graduates’ skills, knowledge and depositions. Moreover, the results clearly illustrate that the program is fulfilling 90% of the identified needs. The use of the triangulation analysis has confirmed that the overall results obtained are complementing, and confirming each other. One of the major outputs of this research was the design and validation of the core curriculum program assessment model. In the mean time, to ensure high quality core education, actionable recommendations for continuous improvements for the Core Program at Qatar University were presented.

It is believed that the results of the research will not only add to the human knowledge but also to the international recognition of Qatar since the research is related to what Qatar and other countries worldwide are seeking when it comes to building information-based communities, knowledge based-societies and economy. Moreover, this research endeavor will contribute to meeting the majority of the societal needs that have been emphasized by the Qatar Vision 2030.

The study aims to analyze the situation of unskilled laborers, in order to identify their problems and to make proposals to improve workers conditions. The study followed the development of presence of foreign workers, as well as analyzing labor laws, and their conformity with the Convention on International Labor and with human rights and applied a survey on random sample of 1114 workers in the construction sector. Interviews were conducted with groups of workers, and with employers.

The Qatari labor law excludes workers in households, agriculture and grazing, which needs to be reviewed and modified, with some gaps exploited by the sponsor such as requiring the transfer of sponsorship with the consent of the sponsor. The National Commission for Human Rights monitoring reports find some workers, especially in the areas of construction, drilling and concrete working under harsh and unsafe conditions, with a lack of adequate health care. 8563 workers of different nationalities had submitted complaints to the Department of Labor, with wages arrears the most important of those complaints.

The sponsorship system eliminates some of the code of labor law, such as the freedom to move to another job or to travel. Workers may remain in custody for long periods without being submitted to the court. The interviews showed that the employers see that the system may need to change, but under an appropriate mechanism to preserve employers rights.

Survey results showed low wages in the construction sector, workers from Nepal are on the lowest wages, and most of workers had borrowed to come to Qatar, low educational levels, poor living conditions, fear of losing their jobs, makes them accept the excesses. Crowding in the rooms and use of only one toilet, lack of drinking water and meals at work sites, lack of awareness about labor laws which exposes them to abuse, whether by the employment offices in their country or the employers in some cases.

The study recommends to look for alternatives to the sponsorship system. Reinforce the concepts of human rights in the relationship between the employer and workers. Improving safety conditions in the workplace.

From Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and the Visual Media is a UREP project whose aim is to preserve and re-present traditional Qatari culture by adapting cross-generational oral narratives into text and graphic form. We are using traditional Qatari oral folk tales as the basis of a series of graphic stories. These graphic stories will be collected in an anthology targeted at all readers who are interested in Qatari culture in general, and young adult readers in particular. We believe that these stories, which are both informative and engaging, could be of valuable use in the classroom and beyond to educate young readers about traditional Qatari culture and lore, to promote literacy, and to instil an appreciation for reading and the visual arts.

The main aims are: To increase awareness of Qatari history, tradition and culture among the general reading public and particularly among young adults in Qatar and beyond; To increase reading among young adults who may be resistant to books and other materials that do not support their specific learning styles and/ or relate to their socio-cultural context; To provide opportunities for general and young adult readers to explore a text-based graphic medium to stimulate interest in reading, the visual arts, and Qatari culture; and To encourage bilingual literacy in Arabic and English by presenting versions of the graphic stories in both languages.

Overall, we regard our project as a way to help realize important national objectives and, moreover, that furthering these initiatives will in turn play a critical role in the development of a robust knowledge-based society in Qatar enriched by the contribution of the arts and humanities. The development of science and technology plays an important role in the growth of any modern society, including Qatar, but for a knowledge society to truly thrive, it must also develop artistic and humanistic values, including creativity, innovation, literacy, preservation of heritage and the fostering of cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.

The aim of this research is to identify some of the possible factors that lead to the uprising of the different Arab states, ultimately leading to what we know better as the “Arab Spring”. To be more precise, we shall see if the people were justified to revolt through their cause, and, if it was rightful, than we would witness the difference between a revolt and the right to revolt; the latter is based on anarchy whereas the former rests on a sense of duty. In order to do that, we shall embed ourselves in canonical western philosophy, as well as history, and apply the “philosophical triggers” on a case-by-case study of handpicked countries. Those countries will be Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Qatar. Furthermore, we shall isolate the various points of views extracted from contemporary authors and articles to see if a match can be established with the philosophers and their theories; used as our foundation of this research. The various theories accumulated from the contemporary authors will then be our dichotomy-meter, measuring to what scale the philosophical suggestions hold any truths as reason to these revolutionary uprising (economical, political, principle, rights, ethics…) When a match has been made we will try to understand why some countries were subject to these uprising and other countries in the region weren't. Our final step would be to foreshadow, in the best of our abilities and based on the research at hand, what the future might hold for these countries, which suffered a revolution. These “Blossoms of Revolution” would then reveal the fruits of their tumult, and they would help us in our last task. Finally, if the Holy Qu'ran, the Mandate of Heaven, and the Magna Carta count amongst their words those of a rightful uprising against oppressive rulers then, the Revolution would become a right, a safe-guard that transcends space and time, a tool passed down to use when the time for the generation in question has come, to restore balance between governed and governor.

Background: Harvard University Graduate School of Design has signed an agreement to lead a research project entitled Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism (GESU). This holistic, multi-year, cross-disciplinary, cross-border study focusing on sustainable urbanism in the Gulf Region is sponsored by MSHEIREB, a subsidiary of Qatar Foundation, Qatar. The methodology will be based on a rigorous understanding of the past, present and future development trajectories in the region as well as on the most current knowledge of sustainability.

Objectives: Through a socio-cultural perspective, this research looks at the tribal migration patterns to and from Qatar and its affect on the concept of “fireeq”. The traditional culture of Qatar was largely based on this concept. It provided the social and physical fabric that bound the Qatari culture together. The research objective is to question and elucidate whether the concept of “fireeq” can be a culturally sustainable urban design model in contemporary times in Qatar.

Methods: Through a research survey of recorded oral histories and written historical accounts, an analysis will be made to determine the relevance of this concept in future residential and neighborhood planning studies for Qatar. This is part of a growing body of multi-disciplinary research to support and inform the goals of the Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism.

Conclusions: Tribes first established their “fireeq” settlements in Qatar upon their physical attainment of land. In a socio-cultural context, the “fireeqs” were built and expanded as a means of survival; against the constant raids of other tribes; and as a manifestation of the tribal and family unity in a predominantly Muslim society. However, with the vast increase of migration of new families with varying value systems to Qatar in the 20th century and the ensuing life style changes came the act of co-modification of land. With the co-modification of land and transformations of socio-cultural customs and values, the actual applicability of the concept of the “fireeq” slowly began to fade. However, will some aspects of the “fireeq” concept evolve to be vitally effective and culturally important in the future well being and social patterns of Qatari communities' remains to be determined?

This thesis examines Qatar's mediation efforts in the Lebanese crisis of 2008 and how it succeeded in resolving the conflict. It explores the possibility of the emergence of a cross-cultural mediation model that may have relevant application to other Muslim countries. The study was informed by the wealth of Western and Islamic approaches to diplomacy. Qatar's mediation in the Lebanese conflict of 2008 demonstrated the use of tactics from both traditions.

The research found that both Islamic and western mediation models are compatible in important respects. The study suggests that building on the strengths of each approach leads to successful outcomes.

Qatar's mediation efforts in the Lebanese conflict employed largely western approaches in combination with Islamic principles and values. The experience has been identified as a new cross-cultural mediation model thvat may have a wider application in the region.

Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma (EOC) is the sixth most common malignancy in women and the leading cause of death of gynecological cancer in the world. EOC has a predisposition to metastasis to the peritoneal cavity. A late stage peritoneal dissemination results in ascites and high mortality rates with an overall survival of 20 to 30 percent at 5 years after surgery.

While many studies in the literature address the issue of distant metastasis, the biology of peritoneal tumor spread in advanced ovarian cancer is not clear. Development of peritoneal carcinomatosis involves well-defined critical steps, including cell shedding and transport, interaction and adhesion to the mesothelial layer, and colonization of and proliferation into the sub-mesothelial microenvironment. It is now appreciated that there must be an initiation of a pre-metastatic niche within the target organ, one that facilitates the survival of tumor cells in a non-receptive organ. We think that a dual approach looking at oncogenomics and heterocellular interaction will allow us to better understand ovarian cancer metastasis biology and help design new therapeutic strategies. Oncogenomic approaches restricted to a given methodology may hinder mechanisms driving progression. We used a comprehensive approach utilizing integrated systems biology platforms to assess the genetic and genomic modifications within a tumor compared to the metastatic lesions. Using this approach we were able to demonstrate the implication of many pathways, in particular the Jak/Stat pathways in the occurrence of metastatic lesions. Moreover we were able to identify NOTCH3 as an amplified locus in primary and metastatic lesions and were able to demonstrate using a cell biology approach the role of the Notch pathway in chemo-resistance.

We will present evidence demonstrating our ability to integrate our oncogenomic approaches with our cell biology findings. Using a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach allowed us to identify some pathways implicated in the development of metastatic lesion in ovarian carcinomas. This will enable us to create new therapeutic strategies aiming at disrupting the interaction between the cancer cells and a permissive environment.

Obesity is a global epidemic and has been implicated as a risk factor for end-stage renal disease. In this study, we investigated the impact of obesity in the absence of hypertension, on renal lipid accumulation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which could play a major role in the development of obesity-induced renal dysfunction. We compared two genetic mouse models of obesity which we have shown to be normotensive, the leptin-deficient ob/ob mice and a hyperleptinemic melanocortin 4 receptor knockout mice (LoxTB MC4R-/-), to lean wild type (WT) C57BL/6J mice and littermate controls (WT-LoxTB) from LoxTB MC4R-/-breeding colony respectively. We measured urinary albumin excretion, creatinine clearance, renal triglycerides, ATP levels, state-3 mitochondrial respiration, protein carbonylation (a marker of oxidative stress) and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) expression (a marker of ER stress) in these mice. Our results indicate that the ob/ob mice and LoxTB MC4R-/-mice exhibit significant albuminuria, increased creatinine clearance (693±61.1 vs. 534±31.5 and 752.3±50.6 vs. 488.9±81.2 μL/min) and renal triglyceride accumulation (8.1±0.8 vs. 4.8±0.2 and 3.9±0.5 vs. 2.2±0.3 mg triglyceride/g tissue) expressed as ob/ob vs. WT and LoxTB MC4R-/- vs. WT-LoxTB respectively. Despite significant decreases in renal ATP levels (6±0.3 vs. 7.9±0.4 and 5±0.2 vs. 8±1.1 pmol/mg) in both obese models, only the LoxTB MC4R-/-mice kidneys showed an impaired state-3 fatty acid oxidation, increased protein carbonylation and 3-fold induction of CHOP protein compared to WT-LoxTB control mice. Taken together, our data suggest that obesity in the absence of hypertension cause only mild renal dysfunction, and unveils the potential involvement of oxidative stress, impaired fatty acid oxidation and ER stress in obesity-induced renal injury associated with MC4R deficiency.

Imatinib is currently the standard drug used in the treatment of CML patients. However, imatinib is not curative since most patients who discontinue therapy will relapse. Interferon alpha (IFN) induces hematologic and cytogenetic remissions and interestingly, prior exposure to IFN allowed Imatinib discontinuation in some CML patients. Arsenic trioxide inhibits the proliferation of BCR-ABL-expressing cells.

We have investigated the effects of the combination arsenic/IFN on the proliferation of CML cell lines. We found that IFN alone had minimal effect. Arsenic alone significantly decreased their proliferation in a time and dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, the addition of IFN to arsenic was synergistic in AR230 and additive in K562. This synergistic effect between IFN and arsenic was accompanied by dose-dependent apoptosis as evidenced by annexin V staining, TUNEL positivity and caspase activation. Colony-forming assay was performed on bone marrow and CD34+ cells collected from CML patients. Interestingly, arsenic and IFN produced a synergistic decrease in myeloid colony formation, especially when compared to Imatinib.

Preliminary results of an in vivo study using the retroviral transduction CML mouse model showed prolonged survival of secondary recipients that received cells from primary leukemic mice treated with arsenic/IFN, as compared to those that received cells from untreated controls. These results suggest that arsenic and IFN synergize to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis and target dormant CML stem cells that are spared by Imatinib.

In addition to physical conditioning, successful sporting performance requires a level of perception coupled with efficiency and accuracy in movement. The FIFA World Cup is usually played during the summer months; therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of heat exposure on cognitive performance.

Three experiments were performed in an environmental chamber under hot (HOT: 50°C, 30% rH) and control (CON: 24°C, 30% rH) conditions. Exposure time ranged from 15 minutes to 4.5 hours. Subjects performed simple and complex cognitive tasks under different levels of thermal strain. Neuromuscular assessments were performed to assess neural drive and muscular force production. Central (Tcore) and skin (Tskin) temperatures were recorded along with subjective measures of thermal comfort (TC) and thermal sensation (TS).

Hyperthermia had no impact upon attention tasks, however, impulsivity increased during sustained attention over prolonged periods. Significant increases in Tcore (>38.30°C) were associated with impaired complex cognitive task performance. The regular application of cold packs to the head limited the detrimental effects of hyperthermia upon short-term memory. However, rapid and substantial variations in Tskin of ∼3°C, independent of changes in Tcore, had similar detrimental effects upon cognitive task performance.

Results suggest that reductions in complex cognitive performance with heat exposure occur via a decrement in motor cortical excitability when Tcore increases to ∼38.3°C, but they also originate from an additional cognitive load imposed by thermal strain and the resulting allesthesial Tskin variations; with both these factors acting as competing variables to the cognitive processes.

The increase in Tcore with prolonged heat exposure impairs cognitive performance; however applying cold packs to the head can preserve these. Increases in Tskin during brief heat exposures appear to be a sufficient physiological response to alter the emotional state of individuals and impair effective decision-making. Hydration protocols and reducing exercise intensity and load can reduce the physiological strain. Strategies to minimise the ‘thermal shock’ of entering a warm environment should be developed to minimise the impact of subjective feelings of thermal discomfort upon cognitive performance.

Background: Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II), CDDP) is a highly effective antitumor drug. However, tumors can acquire resistance to CDDP. CDDP elevates the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca²⁺]i), in various cell lines, leading to the activation of apoptotic pathways and cell death. Using cultured breast cancer (MCF-7) cells we: (1) investigated the effects of CDDP on [Ca²⁺]i, (2) compared these results to a cell line that has been desensitized to CDDP (“resistant”), (3) investigated the source of [Ca²⁺]i by modulating calcium channels and transport mechanisms, and (4) correlated these findings to cytotoxicity. Methods: Changes in the [Ca2+]i were recorded using fluorescence microscopy and Ca2+-binding fluorescent dye, Fluo-4AM. CDDP (1nM-10μM) was administered via a bath perfusion system to the sensitive and CDDP-”resistant” MCF-7 cells over a period of 1.5–2.5h. The [Ca²⁺]i modulators, (caffeine; 10mM, nimodipine; 10μM, ionomycin; 10μM, thapsigargin; 500nM, and 2-APB; 50μM) were administered. MTT assays and trypan blue cell viability tests were performed using CDDP at concentrations of 100pM, 1nM, 10nM, 100nM, 1μM, 10μM, 100μM, 1mM, and 10mM after 4, 8, and 24h of incubation. Results: CDDP induced a concentration-dependent increase of [Ca²⁺i. A concentration of CDDP 0.1μM triggered the largest elevation of [Ca²⁺]i with 120% increase (n=19). Induction of cytotoxicity was most likely directly correlated to the increase of [Ca²⁺]i, and was significantly lower in CDDP-”resistant” cells (P←0.05). Preapplication of the calcium channel blocker, nimodipine as well as the IP3 receptor blocker 2-APB significantly reduced this elevation (46.6%; n=26, 71.4%; n=52, increase, respectively) (p←0.05). Surprisingly, when [Ca²⁺]i was elevated due to the pre-application of caffeine, ionomycin or thapsigargin, the subsequent application of CDDP was also significantly reduced compared to control conditions (37.8%; n=15, 34.9%; n=32, 53.7%; n=21, increase, respectively) (p←0.05). Conclusion: CDDP concentration-dependently elevates [Ca²⁺]i by Ca²⁺ entry and Ca²⁺ release from the stores. These mechanisms, however, seem to be less effective in CDDP-”resistant” cells since they show increased restriction on Ca2+ elevation. The pre-elevation of [Ca²⁺]i, through releasing Ca²⁺ from the stores, reduces this elevation significantly. The exact mechanisms remain unclear and further investigations are required to determine the mechanisms and pathways that are involved in the disruption of [Ca²⁺]i.

Introduction: The application of therapeutic proteins and cytokines like Interleukin-2 (IL-2) for long-term, localized delivery has been hindered by a lack of a delivery device that releases active protein at a concentration within their therapeutic window. The purpose of this oral presentation is to report on the osmotic-driven, controlled-release from novel visible-light photocrosslinked biodegradable elastomeric devices recently designed in an attempt to overcome this limitation.

Materials and Methods: All chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used as received. Novel biodegradable and biocompatible poly (decaneco- tricarballylate) [PDET] elastomers were synthesized by polycondensation reaction between tricarballylic acid and alkylene diols, followed by acrylation and photo-curing. IL-2 loaded micro-cylinder and disk-shaped elastomeric devices were prepared by intimately mixing IL-2 lyophilized powder with the acrylated prepolymer prior to photocrosslinking. IL-2 release was analysed using IL-2 ELISA system and the in vitro bioactivity of released IL-2 was assessed using C57BL/6 mouse cytotoxic T lymphocyte. The influence of various parameters such as the elastomer crosslinking density, the volumetric drug loading percentage and the incorporation of osmotic excipients like trehalose on the release kinetics of the drug was also examined.

Results and discussion: The disk-shaped specimens showed faster IL-2 release profiles than microcylinders, with drug release proceeding via typical zero-order release kinetics. The increase in the device's surface area and the incorporation of trehalose in the loaded lyophilized mix increased the IL-2 release rate. As well, it was shown that the decrease in the degree of prepolymer acrylation of the prepared devices increased the IL-2 release rate. Cell based bioactivity assays showed that IL-2 released over a period of 28 days, retained more than 94% of its initial activity. These bioactivity results represent a highly significant improvement over the other previously published data provided with a quantitative analysis of the actual percentage of bioactive IL-2 released during the period of the release study.

Conclusion: The novel PDET elastomeric drug delivery systems demonstrated to be promising as protein drug delivery vehicles for localized and sustained IL-2 immunotherapy.

Acknowledgements: Work is supported by QNRF through the NPRP grant # 09-969-3-251 awarded to HM Younes.

T-cells genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) against a tumor associated antigen are attractive anti-cancer therapeutic agents. The 5T4 cell surface oncofoetal antigen is an attractive target antigen for cancer immunotherapy as it is expressed by a wide spectrum of cancers including gastric, ovarian and colorectal while showing limited expression in normal adult tissues. Previously it was shown that human and murine T-cells engineered to express human 5T4 specific CAR can specifically lyse human 5T4-expressing tumor targets in vitro and in vivo, respectively. This study aimed to isolate single chain variable fragments (scFvs) specific for murine 5T4 (m5T4) and to examine their efficacy in the context of CAR in a fully autologous model. Screening four novel hybridoma cell-lines producing anti-m5T4 monoclonal antibodies to clone the scFv yielded one functional m5T4-specific scFv from the hybridoma cell-line P1C9. The P1C9 scFv expressed as a fusion protein with the Fc domain of human IgG significantly labels m5T4-expressing targets. Murine T-cells modified to express the P1C9 scFv fused to the CD3? molecule can specifically lyse target cells in vitro and result in IFN-? cytokine release, while T-cells expressing the non-signalling CAR derivative; P1C9 scFv fused to the murine MHC-I transmembrane domain, were unable to lyse m5T4-expressing tumor targets. On-going experiments aim to test the efficacy and assess the toxicity of m5T4-specific CAR against m5T4-expressing tumor models in vivo. This model will allow further understanding of how gene-modified T-cells function in an autologous setting with the aim to improve human T-cell based cancer immunotherapy.

Background: Caring for an autistic child places significant stress on the lives of family members. To date, no study has evaluated how looking after a child with autism affects quality of life (QoL) of caregivers in Qatar or the Gulf country region. Our study is aimed at quantifying the health-related QoL of caregivers of children with autism in Qatar.

Methods: We recruited two groups of caregivers of children between 3 to17 years old. The first group was formed of caregivers of children with autism from two developmental paediatric rehabilitation clinics, and the second group was formed of caregivers of typically-growing children and who were visiting a family clinic for routine medical check-up. Demographic information of all caregivers and children were collected. The Arabic version of the Short Form-36 (SF-36), which is a generic type questionnaire, was administered to caregivers in both groups to assess QoL.

Results: A total of 98 participants consented to take part in the study. 56 were caregivers of children with autism, and 42 were caregivers of a typically-growing children. There was no statistically significant difference in QoL domains between both groups, but caregivers of autistic children rated their health as poor and likely to get worse (p=0.003). Mental health components were consistently poorer than the physical components in the autistic group, and female caregivers had poorer mental health than males in this cohort of participants (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study provided evidence for the impact of caring for a child with autism on the life of the caregiver. However, there seems to be a need to develop condition-specific QoL questionnaires that can specifically measure QoL in caregivers of autistic children more accurately than generic questionnaires. The findings should still help health policy-makers provide more focused support to the children with autism and their families.

Background: Cigarette smoking is one of the preventable causes of ill health in Qatar. Qatar community pharmacists are in an ideal position to play an important role in smoking cessation. This role necessitates adequate smoking cessation knowledge and education. The study objectives were to assess Qatar community pharmacists' smoking cessation knowledge and to gauge their perceptions of which aspects of smoking-related education would be most interesting.

Methods: A pretested survey was used to solicit community pharmacists' anonymous responses. The survey was designed after reviewing relevant smoking cessation literature. A phone call was made to all community pharmacists in Qatar to request their participation. Interested pharmacists were sent the survey link by email or by fax. Data was descriptively analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences software version 18.

Results: Over 20 weeks, we collected 112 surveys (35% response rate). Smoking cessation knowledge was evaluated using 8 true or false questions. Thirty seven percent of respondents scored less than 60% and 13% scored more than 80%. The mean score was 61% with a standard deviation of 17%. Eighty-nine percent of respondents indicated that they have not received before any smoking cessation education. Nevertheless, at least 70% indicated that they were interested in receiving additional smoking cessation education. Respondents were mostly interested in receiving education on motivating smokers to quit and on counseling on behavioral techniques (89% and 86% respectively). Sixty nine percent indicated a preference for mailings of printed materials as method of information delivery.

Conclusion: Despite their low smoking cessation knowledge, Qatar community pharmacists are interested in receiving additional smoking cessation education. A smoking cessation education program should be offered to these pharmacists to give them the knowledge they need to be competent smoking cessation counselors.

Introduction: Controlled drug release from implantable silicone elastomers was reported to occur mainly via the osmotic rupture release mechanism. In this work, we are attempting to determine the effects of drug volumetric loading, particle size, device shape, and dissolution media on the release rate of the water-soluble osmotically active drug, Papaverine Hydrochloride (PH) from silicon elastomers.

Materials and Methods: Medical grade silicone (Sylgard kit) was purchased from Dow Corning. All other chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used as received. The release profiles from devices of three geometries (cylinders, cubes and tablets), of different drug particle sizes (< 45μm, 63–125μm or 125–250μm) in different dissolution media (phosphate buffered saline, distilled water, and 3% sodium chloride solution) were investigated. The effect of degree of elastomer crosslinking and the percentage of volumetric loading of the osmotic excipient and pore forming agent, Trehalose, on the release rate were also investigated. The drug fraction released of PH was analyzed using ultraviolet spectrophotometric analysis. Data obtained was then plotted as cumulative percentage release against time and then further analyzed.

Results and Discussion: Contrary to previous reports, devices formulated with the same volumetric loading and smaller drug particles sizes released drug faster than those devices with a larger particle size. The drug release from tabular implants was of faster rate when compared to cylindrical and cubic devices. Contrary to the expected, higher drug release rate was also observed from cubic elastomeric devices with higher crosslinking density. In addition, the release profiles demonstrated that osmotic release was the predominant mechanism governing the release of PH from silicone elastomers.

Conclusion: Our results show that osmotic rupture is the predominant mechanism of release of PH from silicone elastomer. Further studies must be conducted to confirm the effect of the elastomer crosslinking density on drug release rate.

Acknowledgements: This report was made possible by a UREP award [UREP 07-120-3-027] to HM Younes from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Background: Fetal movements are clinically correlated to fetal wellbeing. Ultrasounds are the most accurate measurements of the fetal movement but expensive and intrusive. To avoid these constraints, Fetal activity is captured through data acquired using low cost and nonintrusive accelerometer . Time-frequency distributions (TFDs) are often used to represent the energy, temporal and spectral characteristics of non-stationary signals in the time and frequency plane.

Many quadratic TFDs were proposed in the literature such as Wigner-Ville distribution, Spectrogram, B-Distribution, Choi-Williams , etc. The drawbacks of the majority of these techniques is that only a few parameters can be modified in the kernel, generally the lag and Doppler parameters, so that they cannot be easily adapted to the data.

Objectives: This work aims at designing a new kernel with several parameters that leads to a higher resolution time frequency representation (TFR) of the signal, therefore improving the characteristic of the fetal movement.

Methods: The proposed TFD can be considered as an extension of the Gaussian TFD (also called Choi-Williams distribution). The kernel function of the proposed kernel is given by the sum of the weighted derivative Gaussian TFD (refer to the equation).

Results and Conclusion: The weighted parameters in the above formula can be estimated by maximizing the concentration of the instantaneous frequency. The resulting TFD is compared with other methods and applied to the analysis and classification of the fetal movement data recorded by the accelerometers. The results obtained indicate that the proposed time-frequency methodology allows the detection of fetal movement data recorded by accelerometers.

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects children at around the age of 3 years old and last throughout the person's lifetime. ASD imposes great burden on the family, and forces family members to considerably modify their daily lives to suit their reality with autistic child(ren). To our knowledge, no previous research assessed the burden of ASD on the lives of parents/caregivers of autistic children in Qatar or the Gulf region.

Methods: Caregivers of a child with autism between 3–17 years were recruited from children rehabilitation clinics. The control group was represented by caregivers of a typically-growing child visiting a primary health care facility for a routine medical examination. Data collected from both groups included demographic information of caregivers and children and quality of life information. The Lebanese Arabic version of the Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used to assess quality of life.

Results: Children in the AG spent more time indoors, watching TV, or sleeping than children in the control group (p←0.05). Around 40% of caregivers in the AG said they would encourage their child to get married and become parent when s/he grows up. Half of the sample in the AG utilizes special education classes and other facilities, and the remaining half has access problems. There was no statistically significant difference between quality of life domains between the two groups of caregivers, but caregivers of autistic children rated their health as poor and likely to get worse (p=0.003). However, mental health components were consistently poorer in the AG compared to the physical components, and female caregivers also had poorer mental health than males in this cohort of participants (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study provided evidence for the impact of caring for a child with autism on the life of the caregiver. The findings should help health policy-makers provide more focused support to the children with autism and their families.

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are common injuries occurring upwards of 250,000 times annually only in the U.S. These injuries create an annual billion dollar expense. It is important to understand these injury mechanisms as these injuries continue to be one of the largest problems in orthopedic sports medicine. Improved understanding of the injury mechanisms may improve prevention, rehabilitation and surgical procedures.

Objective: This study used a 3-Dimensional finite element (FE) knee joint model to investigate the combinations of movement, which cause ACL injury.

Method: Digital bone structures were created from magnetic resonance images (MRI). Ligament bundles were modeled based on the origins and insertion sites determined from MRI. Bone was modeled as rigid, and a transversely isotropic Mooney-Rivlin material was applied to the ligament structures. This study incorporates a novel approach for developing bundle specific prestrain within 3-D ligament structures. The bundles were stretched from their zero load lengths to their reference lengths, producing a strain field mimicking the in vivo strain conditions of the ACL at full knee extension. A failure locus was created by performing multiple FE simulations of knee joint motion combinations until ACL failure.

Result: The relationship between knee joint orientation and ligament rupture was plotted providing a spectrum for the propensity of ACL injury based on knee joint orientations, known as a failure locus. The locus shows which combinations of internal/external femoral rotation and varus/valgus angle cause ACL failure. The results show the posterolateral bundle more susceptible to rupture than the anteromedial bundle in 17 of the 22 simulations. The results also show 45% less varus angle needed for ligament failure relative to valgus angle. The results highlight femoral external rotation as an important factor for ACL injury as it decreases the failure angle by an average of 23% compared to femoral internal rotation.

Conclusion: These results have various clinical applications. In sports where ACL injuries are prevalent, training programs can be adapted to address the avoidance of harmful knee orientations.

Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels are formed by either homomeric or heteromeric assembly of four TRP subunits that have six transmembrane domains (TM) and a P-loop located between TM5 and TM6 defining the channel pore. So far 30 different subunits classified in 6 families sharing as low as 20% homology, have been identified in mammals and about 20 in Xenopus. Although heterotetramers can be formed within a family, the assembly of subunits from members of different families was thought to be unlikely. We here propose that TRPV6 and TRPC1 subunits can co-assemble in the Xenopus oocyte. Western blots performed on naive oocytes lysates revealed that they express both TRPV6 and TRPC1 proteins. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation of tagged xTRPV6 and xTRPC1 proteins expressed in oocytes suggested a heteromeric assembly. In mammals, TRPV6 is mainly expressed in intestinal epithelia and in the placenta where it forms a homomeric channel with high calcium permeability whereas TRPC1 is a ubiquitous protein forming cationic channels with an unclear gating mechanism.

In oocytes, over expression of xTRPC1, as previously reported, did not induce any resting ionic current. Conversely, oocytes overexpressing xTRPV6 alone did show an inward rectifying cationic current that could be blocked by La3+ ions and Ruthenium red. As described for mammals, the xTRPV6 channel was largely permeable to calcium ions and displayed an anomalous mole fraction effect. A striking distinction with its mammalian counterpart is the high permeability of the xTRPV6 channel to Mg2+ over other divalents (Mg2+>Sr2+>Ba2+>Ca2+), the Mg2+/Ca2+ ratio being 2.08.

This high permeability to Mg2+ could be abolished by a point mutation in the P-loop (D525N) lowering the ratio to 1.18. Co-expression of xTRPC1 and xTRPV6 lead to a very strong reduction in the current amplitude and in cationic selectivity, the Mg2+/Ca2+ ratio also dropping to 1.18. Further investigations using heterologously expressed xTRPV6 and xTRPC1 in HEK293, allowing whole-cell recordings, will help us clarify the selectivity and the regulation of the channel. The potential interaction between TRPV6 and TRPC1 in mammals will also be examined using tissue extracts and selected cell lines.

The oscillation of cytoplasmic calcium concentration exists in a large number of non-excitable cells such as astrocytes in the brain, intestinal cells and oocytes (Fig.1). This rhythmic activity carries information into the cell, regulating various processes such as gene expression or transmitter release. In some cells, such as Xenopus oocytes, the oscillations can rely only on calcium being released in the cytoplasm from intracellular stores after stimulation of inositol triphosphate (IP3) receptors located on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To refill the intracellular stores in the ER, the cell has to import extracellular calcium. This is achieved through the STIM/Orai pathway where an ER calcium sensor (STIM) is activated by store depletion and in turn interacts and opens a calcium channel in the plasma membrane (Orai) leading to calcium influx, a process known as Store Operated Calcium Entry (SOCE). In the present work we evaluated the interactions between SOC and intracellular calcium oscillations in Xenopus oocytes. Intracellular calcium levels were monitored using the amplitude of the endogenous calcium-activated chloride currents. Following injection into the cells of a non-hydrolysable analog of IP3 (IP3-DF), long lasting calcium oscillations could be triggered as well as SOCE ( Fig. 1 ). The calcium oscillations were more efficient in promoting SOC than store depletion by ionomycin (2.34 ± 0.55 nA, n=13 vs 0.05 ± 0.02 nA, n=8), the mechanisms involved are currently under study. We also observed that activation of SOC could trigger a calcium wave in a dose-dependent manner following a “Calcium Induced Calcium Release” pattern. This suggests that SOC might not only be involved in replenishing the calcium stores but also in the regulation of the amplitude and timing of calcium oscillations. The well known down-regulation of SOC during oocyte maturation should therefore have important functional consequences on intracellular calcium oscillations.

Recently, a speculative model is proposed that tumor tissue is continuously regenerated by a small population of self-renewing cancer stem cells responsible for initiation, growth and propagation of tumor. Tumor cells reside in a “niche” and have constant interaction with the niche components including tumor vasculature, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and the components of the extracellular matrix. It is believed that the growth advantage acquired by tumor cells as well as the ability of cancer stem cells (CSCs) to maintain tumor propagation is partly the outcome of this interaction.

Our study intends to better characterize this crosstalk by looking into the possibility of BM-MSC/endothelial cell-mediated activation of Notch pathway in breast cancer cells through production of certain cytokines aiming at proposing novel therapeutic approaches for targeting this disease.

The CSCs were enriched by culturing breast cancer cells (BCC) in 3D media to obtain multicellular spheres for further analysis. BM-MSC and Akt-activated endothelial cells were co-cultured with BCC and spheres to assess their capability in promoting cancer cell growth. RNA interference approach was applied to Notch3 to determine its role in BCC survival by the niche players. A human cytokine array was used to identify the cytokines that showed different expression patterns in the BCC co-cultures with the niche residents.

BM-MSC or Akt-activated Endothelium was able to increase BCC growth up to 4- and 5-fold, respectively, in contact and under serum-free condition. Blocking Notch3 in BCC or spheres by siRNA or inhibition of notch pathway by GSI reduced the proliferation rate of both entities to 2.5-fold, which might underline the role of notch in the interaction between tumor cells and the niche components. Also, several cytokines were identified that were differentially regulated in co-cultures system among which IL6, IL8, and GROa showed significant up-regulation.

Our preliminary data suggest the role of BM-MSC and endothelial cells in breast cancer growth and survival. Our results propose the idea of notch involvement in this interaction through stimulation by certain cytokines. Further investigation is required to elucidate the exact mechanism that is triggered by these cytokines in tumor propagation and maintenance.

Background: The reasons behind the differences in the levels of discordancy (that is one partner testing HIV positive while the other testing HIV negative) among spousal and cohabiting partnerships affected by HIV across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain inadequately understood. Recently, many randomized clinical trials have shown substantial efficacies for several prevention interventions among these partnerships.

Moreover, there has been an intense debate about the priority of HIV prevention interventions among discordant couples relative to other prevention approaches such as among commercial sex networks.

Objective: To describe and explain patterns of HIV infection among spousal and cohabiting sexual partnerships, across a range of settings in SSA.

Methods: Demographic health survey (DHS) data for 20 countries in SSA were used to estimate the prevalence of HIV sero-discordancy among stable partnerships with at least one HIV-infected individual in the partnership (P), prevalence of discordancy among all stable partnerships in the population (S), prevalence of discordancy among the entire sexually active population (A), and prevalence of discordancy among HIV infected individuals (I).

Results: Two distinct patterns of HIV among stable partnerships were observed. Countries with low HIV prevalence had a high discordancy prevalence among P and I ranging from 48.4–87.8% and 30.6–60.0%, respectively, but low discordancy prevalence among S and A ranging from 0.4–6.4% and 0.2–3.8%, respectively. Conversely, countries at hyper-endemic HIV epidemics had a low discordancy prevalence among P and I ranging from 36.3–58.5% and 17.2–46.0%, respectively, but high discordancy prevalence among S and A ranging from 9.3–17.2% and 5.8–8.3%, respectively.

Conclusions: Two distinct patterns of HIV in stable partnerships were observed. In high prevalence settings, many partnerships were affected by HIV but relatively few were discordant, whilst the opposite was true for low prevalence settings. This pattern may be arising from variations in the HIV transmission probability which is dependent on biological and behavioral factors and might also be affected by the frequency of infection from external partners especially in high prevalence countries. These findings may complicate considerations for rolling out prevention interventions among stable discordant partnerships in SSA.

Background: Empirical evidence suggests that HIV incidence rate within stable discordant sexual partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) varies between 1.2 and 19.0 per 100 person-years. Estimating HIV incidence rate within stable discordant partnerships is critical for determining the contribution of HIV sero-conversions among these partnerships to total HIV incidence.

Objective: To estimate HIV incidence rate within stable discordant partnerships using nationally representative data and explore potential underlying factors contributing to their variability across a range of epidemic settings in SSA.

Methods: We constructed a mathematical model based on competing-hazards formalism to estimate HIV incidence rate within stable discordant partnerships across 20 countries in SSA. We also used the model to analyze the patterns of HIV discordancy in SSA. The model was parameterized using Demographic Health Survey data and analyses were conducted at endemic equilibrium. Sensitivity analyses were performed to explore the dependence on the dynamical drivers of discordancy.

Results: Our model fitted well the empirical epidemiological measures of HIV discordancy and yielded an estimate for HIV incidence rate among discordant partnerships of 14.7 per 100 person-years (95% CI 9.9–19.4 per 100 person-years). HIV incidence rate ranged between 3.9 and 34.9 per 100 person-years across the countries. We also identified HIV incidence rate within stable discordant partnerships and HIV incidence rate from sources external to the partnership (or equivalently HIV prevalence) as key determinants of the variability in discordancy measures across SSA.

Conclusions: Our estimate for the HIV incidence rate among discordant partnerships agrees well with empirical estimates for this measure. There is however considerable variability across the countries. Biological and behavioral factors including differences in transmission rates such as due to male circumcision, may have contributed to the variability in HIV incidence rates among discordant partnerships across SSA. More research is needed to elucidate the determinants of this variability in incidence rates.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) currently infects around 2% of the world's population. Among all nations, HCV prevalence ranges from 0.01% in Scandinavia to 3% in North Africa, with one exception: Egypt. Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV in the world, estimated nationally at 14.7%. Numerous HCV prevalence studies have published various estimates from different Egyptian communities, suggesting that Egypt, relative to the other nations of the world, might be experiencing an intense ongoing HCV transmission.

Objectives: To review all the evidence on the epidemiology of HCV transmission among different population groups in Egypt.

Methods: This was a systematic review following the PRISMA guidelines of all prevalence data on HCV infection in Egypt. Sources of data included PubMed, international organizations' reports and databases, and country-level reports and databases. Measures were classified into different population categories according to risk of infection.

Results: Seventy-four studies have measured HCV prevalence in Egypt in populations at varying levels of risk. Among Egypt's general population, HCV prevalence in pregnant women was 8.6%, and among blood donors it ranged between 9.0% and 23.2%. A nationally representative survey reported a prevalence of 14.7%. Among populations at high risk of infection, HCV prevalence was found to be as high as 58.3% in multi-transfused children, and 87.5% in adult dialysis patients. Among populations at intermediate risk, diabetic children had a prevalence of 3.1%, barbers a prevalence of 12.3%, health care workers a prevalence of 15.7%, and prisoners a prevalence of 31.4%. Common risk factors appear to be parenteral anti-schistosomal therapy, frequent transfusions, injections or surgical procedures.

Conclusion: Egypt has experienced, and possibly continues to experience, a large HCV epidemic. Prevention measures need to be implemented targeting HCV transmission routes such as better infection control practices in health and dental care facilities, hemodialysis centers, and reducing the excessive numbers of non-therapeutic injections.

Urinary bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and has a high recurrence rate. It has the highest lifetime cost of care per patient due to long follow-up cystoscopic surveillance after surgery to detect the high risk of recurrence.

This research develops a portable custom cystoscopic procedure to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the bladder cancer surveillance. The system uses a segmented bending mechanism that is inserted into the bladder via the urethra to steer a flexible imaging probe to provide a comprehensive diagnostic tool for review by an urologist as illustrated in Fig. 1. The position and orientation of the camera locating at the tip of the probe can be automatically controlled remotely to scan the entire bladder surface.

The structure of the bending segment is shown in Fig. 2. The segment bending is tendon driven. Four distributed small wires are connected to the segment body via guiding rings. The wires to control the distal segments are also guided through the mechanism via the rings of proximal segments. The bending angle and bending direction of a segment can be controlled by pulling and releasing its four wires accordingly. The design of the mechanism and the forward/inverse kinematics simulation were finished. A mockup model is under construction to verify the proposed design.

Images abstracted from the video are used to reconstruct a 3D panorama of the whole bladder surface. Our 3D and image mosaicking software is under developed by our collaborator at University of Washington, USA.

Background: Chronic hypertension is a deadly disease that affects nearly 30–36% of the adult population in Qatar and the regional. Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptors (IP3R) are intracellular calcium (Ca²⁺) channels that mediate the release of Ca2+ from sarcoplasmic reticulum in response to IP3 binding. A rise in cytoplasmic Ca²⁺ mediated by voltage-dependent L-type Ca²⁺ (CaL) channels and IP3-dependent Ca²⁺ release can enhance vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) contractility and determine peripheral vascular resistance.

Objective: The goal of this study is to elucidate the role of IP3R in hypertension.

Methods: Two rat models of hypertension and the A7r5 rat embryonic aortic cells are used in this project. Proteins for western blot were isolated from small mesenteric arteries (SMA) from hypertensive rats and A7r5 cells. Contraction measurements were performed in isolated arterial rings mounted for tension-recording assays. Contraction was induced with KCl and the phospholipase C (PLC) activator m-3M3FBS. The modulation of the vasoconstrictor responsiveness of SMA by IP3R and nitric oxide (NO) was depicted in a pressurized SMA incubated in the presence or absence of 2-APB (IP3R blocker) and L-NAME (NO synthase inhibitor). A7r5 basal Ca²⁺ levels were assessed using a fluorescence Ca²⁺ imaging system.

Results: Our preliminary results show that IP3R is up regulated in SMA from two different hypertensive rat models and following membrane depolarization in A7r5 cells. This up regulation is associated with an enhanced myogenic tone in response to activation of the PLC-IP3 pathway in SMA and with an increased basal Ca²⁺ levels in A7r5 cells. In contrast, pharmacological inhibition of IP3R alters the vasoconstriction response of pressurized vessels. Furthermore, IP3R upregulation and basal Ca²⁺ increase are lost in A7r5 cells treated with Nifedipine (CaL channels blocker) and drugs that block the Calcineurin-NFAT pathway before depolarization with KCl.

Conclusions: These findings improve our basic understanding of the etiology of hypertension by defining the abnormalities of IP3-dependent Ca²⁺ signaling in VSMC. This may provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of hypertension and set the groundwork for developing novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of hypertension.

Each olfactory sensory neuron in the mammalian nose selects just a single member of the large odorant receptor (OR) gene family. The core processes regulating OR selection may involve mechanisms that limit initial OR transcription and once a single OR is chosen, repress subsequent activations. We have used a genetic strategy to monitor the transcriptional permissiveness of the OR gene P2 by inserting an exogenous promoter, the tetracycline-dependent transactivator responsive promoter (teto), into its start site through homologous recombination. We observe that the OR locus limits the expression of the teto: repressing it outside of the wild type P2 zone while allowing sporadic activation from within its zone. Staged conditional expression experiments reveal that the receptor locus becomes fully repressed over time and that this repression does not require the receptor's open reading frame. Further, the exogenous promoter is inhibited by an OR transgene that similarly suppresses the endogenous receptor repertoire. Neurons in which both P2 alleles bear the teto-modified insertion show predominantly monoallelic expression, despite the genetic potential to express both. Finally, we observe that OR genes are expressed from the edge of pericentromeric heterochromatin. These data support a model of initiation of OR choice limited by non-permissive OR chromatin and maintained by repression of the non-selected OR genes.

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may be causally related to breast cancer risk or be indirectly associated with breast cancer risk through linkage disequilibrium with a causal sequence variant. Risk-associated SNPs will have different frequencies among women with or without breast cancer and can be detected using genetic association studies. Recently, several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified novel risk alleles for breast cancer including those related to FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, LSP1 genes and other locus. Replication in independent population samples is essential for validation of the results of any genome-wide association. Since the genetic variants (SNPs) are common, they are likely to be shared across different populations with diverse ancestry backgrounds. It would be of interest to determine and investigate the potential implications of these novel markers revealed by genome-wide association studies to predict the “sporadic” breast cancer risk and progression in MENA populations.

Methods: Using TaqMan® SNP genotyping assays, we characterize the variation of 9 SNPs (include rs1219648, rs2981582, rs8051542, rs12443621, rs3803662, rs889312, rs3817198, rs13387042 and rs13281615) for 520 patients with sporadic breast cancer and 360 healthy controls in the Tunisian population. The association between the genotypes and breast cancer susceptibility and tumors characteristics was estimated by computing odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence levels from logistic regression analyses. Association of the genetic marker with the rates of breast cancer overall survival was assessed using univariate analysis.

Results: Two genetic variants in FGFR2 are significantly associated with the risk of breast cancer: rs1219648 AG/GG (OR=1.23, P=0.002) and rs2981582 AG/ AA (OR=1.33, P=0.003). Two significantly increased risks of breast cancer were respectively associated with T allele of rs8051542 in TNRC9 (OR=1.43, P=0.0003) and C allele of rs889312 in MAP3K1 (OR=1.33, P=0.006). The AG and GG genotypes of rs2981582 in FGFR2 have a significant association with a high risk of lymph node metastasis and a decreased overall survival in breast cancer patients.

Conclusion: Our results for the first time replicated the results of breast cancer GWAS in the Arabic population and indicated that some polymorphisms are associated with increased breast cancer risk and disease progress in the Tunisian population.

Background: Prevalence of metabolic syndrome is directly correlated with increasing occurrence of obesity characterized by accumulation of fat in visceral, lower body, and upper body subcutaneous depots. In a number of species, brown adipose tissue (BAT) converts triglycerides into heat by non-shivering thermogenesis, thus controlling the amount of white adipose tissue. Until recently, BAT was thought to be mostly absent in adult humans but now sizeable BAT depots have been visualized by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT) scanning. Relatively little is known about the signaling pathways differentially regulated in brown adipocytes compared to white adipocytes. However, our progress of understanding is hindered by the paucity of well-characterized reliable in vitro model systems.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to characterize the only in vitro model of human BAT cell line, and to identify signature genes for BAT, and compounds implicated in the enhancement of brown phenotype.

Methods: A human BAT cell line, PAZ6, was previously created by immortalizing somatic cells using the large T antigen of Simian Virus 40. The expression of BAT associated markers has been verified by real time RT-PCR done on RNA and immunoblot using specific antibodies performed on cell lysates and supernatants, before and after differentiation and treatment with various compounds such as adrenergic receptor agonist (isoproterenol) and PPAR agonist (rosiglitazone).

Results: We have identified several BAT associated markers, including PDRM16 and the 3 adrenergic receptor. This marker is highly expressed in PAZ6 cells compared to the white adipocyte. In addition, we demonstrate that these cells share a common precursor with myocytes but not with white adipocytes. Our results show that several genes are up-regulated after PPAR gamma activation. Moreover, we confirm that these cells respond to Beta adrenergic agonist treatment. Finally, we identify that the transcription factor farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) induces the expression of BAT associated marker following treatment by its agonist : CDCA.

Conclusions: The PAZ6 cells constitute a readily available surrogate for human brown adipocytes to develop pharmacologic strategies to promote BAT expansion and activation.

The prevalence of insulin resistance and diabetes has shown a dramatic worldwide increase. In Qatar, the prevalence of diabetes is twice that of the United States today, possibly due to lifestyle and dietary changes. Diabetes has an enormously adverse impact on the afflicted population leading to patient mortality, morbidity and staggering health care costs to the nation. Untreated or inadequately treated diabetes results in serious health complications including eye, heart, kidney and nerve damage.

Mass spectrometry based molecular profiling is a powerful tool for interrogation of the underlying molecular alterations which define the etiology and patho-physiology of a complex disease such as diabetes. As a part of the QNRF funded study, we have used ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) in conjunction with high resolution quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOFMS) for proteomic and metabolomic profiling of bio-fluids derived from diabetic and healthy individuals recruited at the Qatar University Hopsital. The overall goal of this project was to investigate the changes in the molecular profiles in the two groups (normal and diabetic) at the protein and small molecule metabolite level and correlate these changes to define putative biomarkers with potentially diagnostic or prognostic clinical value. We have used a “smart pooling strategy” for bio-fluids from each group to enhance disease associated differences. LCMS/MS based metabolomic analysis of the diabetic and normal pre and post meal metabolome was followed by bioinformatics analysis to identify dysregulated metabolites. Additionally, we have used iTRAQ based UPLC-QTOFMS/MS for quantitative proteomic profiling.

These data were taken together for integrated functional pathway analysis to correlate the changes. Furthermore, we have used a validation cohort for targeted quantitation of candidate markers using multiple-reaction monitoring mass spectrometry. The results will be discussed in context of the state of art technology used for studying pathway perturbations resulting in a diabetic phenotype. A part of this study reported at the HUPO2010, won a “young investigator award” for Dr. Cheema. The ARF presents a unique opportunity to present results from this exciting study, deliberate upon the challenges faced and elaborate on the plans for future studies aimed at a mechanistic insight.

Background: The functional relevance of strength and power measures as an index of functional performance (i.e., sprinting speed) in soccer remains unclear.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among mechanical variables related to strength and power tests and their influences on sprinting speed in professional soccer players across their life-span.

Methods: Isokinetic measures (quadriceps (Q) peak torques and power at 60°/s and 300°/s), kinetic outputs of the counter-movement jump (CMJ), and sprinting speed (the first 5 m split time (i.e., initial speed) and the 15 to 20 m split time (i.e., leading sprint) of a 20 m sprint), were measured in 224 professional soccer players (age 23.7 ± 4.4 y, body mass 71.4±8.8 kg and height 1.75±0.06 m).

Results: The values for each variable for the fast and slow groups are displayed in Table 1. All the mechanical variables were significantly different between the fast and slow players regardless of the results were ranked according to 5 m or 15–20 m times. The results of the multiple regression analyses identified CMJ height as the best predictor of sprinting performance for the 5 m (R=0.39, P=0.000) and 15–20 m (R=0.51, P=0.000) sprint.

Conclusions: All the mechanical variables could discriminate between the fast and slow players. However, a great degree of unexplained variance still remains indicating there may be better mechanical predictors of sprinting speed in soccer players.