Camel Dung-Derived Biochar for the Removal of Copper(II) and Chromium(III) Ions from Aqueous Solutions: Adsorption and Kinetics Studies

This study explores an innovative approach to tackle the critical issue of heavy metal ion contamination in aqueous solutions through the utilization of camel dung-derived biochar. In the context of global environmental concerns and the adverse impacts of heavy metal pollution on ecosystems and human health, the investigation focuses on copper(II) and chromium(III) ions, which are among the most pervasive pollutants originating from industrial activities. The research revealed that camel dung-derived biochar exhibits exceptional potential for the removal of copper(II) and chromium(III) ions, with removal efficiencies of more than 90% and adsorption capacities of 23.20 and 23.36 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption processes followed second-order kinetics, and the data fitted both the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. The underlying mechanisms governing this adsorption phenomenon seem to be grounded in complexation reactions, cation exchange, and cation-π interactions, underscoring the multifaceted nature of the interactions between the biochar and heavy metal ions. This research not only advances our understanding of sustainable materials for water purification but also harnesses the underutilized potential of camel dung as a valuable resource for environmental remediation, offering a promising avenue for addressing global water pollution challenges.

Abdominal volume index, waist-to-height ratio, and waist circumference are optimal predictors of cardiometabolic abnormalities in a sample of Lebanese adults: A cross-sectional study

The prevalence of cardiometabolic abnormalities is high globally. This is concerning since these abnormalities increase the risk of morbidity and mortality. Using noninvasive, low-cost, and ethnic-specific anthropometric indices is crucial for widespread screening and early detection of cardiometabolic abnormalities. In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 221 Lebanese participants (62.9% females; mean age: 43.36 ± 16.05 years; mean body mass index (BMI): 28.43 ± 6.10 Kg/m2). The main outcome measure was cardiometabolic abnormality (CMA), defined as the presence of at least two or more non-anthropometric components of the Metabolic Syndrome. Several anthropometric indices: Total body fat percent, Conicity index, Abdominal volume index (AVI), Weight-adjusted-waist index, Waist circumference (WC), Neck circumference, Hip circumference, Waist-to-hip ratio, Waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), Neck-to-height ratio, and BMI were assessed in their prediction of CMA, using logistic regression modelling and c-statistic [95% confidence intervals (CIs)], and calibration plots, as well sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values measures. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction procedure was used to correct for multiple testing. The prevalence of CMA was 52.0% (47.5% in females and 59.8% in males). Significant associations were found between all the anthropometric indices and CMA, except for neck-to-height ratio. AVI and WC were most predictive for CMA in the total sample. WtHR and WC were most predictive in females with suggested cut-off values of 0.58 and 91.25 cm, whereas AVI and WC were most predictive in males with suggested cut-off values of 19.61 and 101.50 cm. The neck-to-height measurement had the lowest predictive ability for CMA. Adding anthropometric indices to sociodemographic variables did not significantly improve model discrimination. AVI, WHtR, and WC best predicted CMA in a sample of Lebanese adults. These less invasive, low-cost, easy-to-measure indices can be used to screen widely for CMA to better manage and prevent disease and subsequent morbidity and mortality.

Evaluating the Contamination by Indoor Dust in Dubai

Nowadays, people spend most of their time indoors. Despite constantly cleaning these spaces, dust apparition cannot be avoided. Since dust can contain chemical elements that negatively impact people's health, we propose the analysis of the metals from the indoor dust component collected in different locations in Dubai, UAE. Multivariate statistics (correlation matrix, clustering) and quality indicators (QI)-Igeo, PI, EF, PLI, Nemerow-were used to assess the contamination level with different metals in the dust. We proposed two new QIs (CPI and AQI) and compared the results with those provided by the most used indices-PLI and Nemerow. It is shown that high concentrations of some elements (Ca in this case) can significantly increase the values of the Nemerow index, CPI, and AQI. In contrast, the existence of low concentrations leads to the decrement of the PLI.

Exploring transfer learning in chest radiographic images within the interplay between COVID-19 and diabetes

The intricate relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes has garnered increasing attention within the medical community. Emerging evidence suggests that individuals with diabetes may experience heightened vulnerability to COVID-19 and, in some cases, develop diabetes as a post-complication following the viral infection. Additionally, it has been observed that patients taking cough medicine containing steroids may face an elevated risk of developing diabetes, further underscoring the complex interplay between these health factors. Based on previous research, we implemented deep-learning models to diagnose the infection via chest x-ray images in coronavirus patients. Three Thousand (3000) x-rays of the chest are collected through freely available resources. A council-certified radiologist discovered images demonstrating the presence of COVID-19 disease. Inception-v3, ShuffleNet, Inception-ResNet-v2, and NASNet-Large, four standard convoluted neural networks, were trained by applying transfer learning on 2,440 chest x-rays from the dataset for examining COVID-19 disease in the pulmonary radiographic images examined. The results depicted a sensitivity rate of 98 % (98%) and a specificity rate of almost nightly percent (90%) while testing those models with the remaining 2080 images. In addition to the ratios of model sensitivity and specificity, in the receptor operating characteristics (ROC) graph, we have visually shown the precision vs. recall curve, the confusion metrics of each classification model, and a detailed quantitative analysis for COVID-19 detection. An automatic approach is also implemented to reconstruct the thermal maps and overlay them on the lung areas that might be affected by COVID-19. The same was proven true when interpreted by our accredited radiologist. Although the findings are encouraging, more research on a broader range of COVID-19 images must be carried out to achieve higher accuracy values. The data collection, concept implementations (in MATLAB 2021a), and assessments are accessible to the testing group.

Association of the gut microbiota with clinical variables in obese and lean Emirati subjects

Background

Growing evidence supports the role of gut microbiota in obesity, yet exact associations remain largely unknown. Specifically, very little is known about this association in the Emirati population.

Methods

We explored differences in gut microbiota composition, particularly the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio, between 43 obese and 31 lean adult Emirate counterparts, and its association with obesity markers, by using V3-V4 regions of 16 S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing data. Furthermore, we collected anthropometric and biochemical data.

Results

The two major phyla in obese and lean groups were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. We observed a significantly lower alpha diversity (Shannon index) in obese subjects and a significant difference in beta diversity and phylum and genus levels between the two groups. The obese group had higher abundances of Verrucomicrobia and Saccharibacteira and lower abundances of Lentisphaerae. Acidaminococcus and Lachnospira were more abundant in obese subjects and positively correlated with adiposity markers. No correlations were found between the gut microbiota and biochemical variables, such as fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.

Conclusion

We reveal significant differences in the gut microbiota between obese and lean adult Emiratis and an association between certain microbial genera of the gut microbiota and obesity. A better understanding of the interactions between gut microbes, diet, lifestyle, and health is warranted.

Prevalence and Sociodemographic Profiles of Grand Multipara in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The literature shows that grand multipara mothers are major contributors to poor maternal and perinatal health compared to multipara mothers. Data regarding parity profiles are essential, especially in rapidly transforming countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with multipara mothers compared to multipara mothers in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The data were collected from seven health care centers located in Abu Dhabi.From1818 enrolled mothers, the prevalence of grand multipara was 135(7.4%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 7.2, 7.6). In logistic regression analysis, factors associated positively with grand multipara were a higher maternal age (Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR) = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.21, 1.34), Arab mothers (AOR = 5.66, 95% CI 2.81, 11.40), overweight pre-pregnancy (AOR = 2.01, 95% CI = 1.26, 3.21), and limited family support for breastfeeding (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.21, 3.50). The prevalence of grand multipara was low compared to previous researching the UAE. Sociodemographic factors were more prominent and associated with grand multipara mothers compared to obstetrical ones. Therefore, more programs (nutritional, physical activities, and psychosocial) are needed to improve maternal and perinatal health to support grand multipara mothers. Further, research is required to explore the difference in parity based on nationalities, especially from a sociocultural point of view.

Epidemiology of pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) among mothers in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates

Pre-pregnancy obesity is a risk factor for several health problems such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, labor induction, postpartum hemorrhage, and neonatal hypoglycemia. Being underweight is a risk factor for fetal growth restriction. Despite the negative impact of abnormal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (over and underweight) on pregnancy outcomes, a limited amount of studies has been conducted on the prevalence of pre-pregnancy over and underweight and associated factors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity among mothers with children under the age of 2 years in Abu Dhabi, the UAE. A cross-sectional multicenter study was conducted in 2017 and included data from seven government health care centers in Abu Dhabi. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was calculated as the weight in kilograms (kg) divided by the square of the height in meters (m), (kg/m2). A total of 1,622 mother–child pairs were included in this study. Out of the 1,622 mothers, 43 (2.7%) were underweight, 1,068 (65.8%) were normal weight, 412 (25.4%) were overweight, and 99 (6.1%) were obese. Mothers with advanced maternal age (AMA) (≥35 years) were more likely to be overweight, odds ratio [OR] = 1.93, (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.52–2.3), p ≤ 0.001, and obese OR = 2.15 (95% CI 1.32–3.39), p = 0.001. Mothers with lower family income were more likely to be obese OR = 2.72 (95% CI 1.44–5.93), p = 0.002. Mothers with high parity (≥2) were more likely to be overweight OR = 1.91 (95% CI 1.49–2.50), p ≤ 0.001; obese OR = 1.76 (95% CI 1.06–2.92), p = 0.024; and less likely to be underweight OR = 0.52 (95% CI 0.27–0.94), p = 0.037. Obese mothers were more likely to deliver via cesarean section (CS) OR = 1.95 (95% CI 1.27–2.96), p = 0.002. This study provides valuable baseline information on the epidemiology of pre-pregnancy BMI in the UAE. The sociodemographic factors identified in the study can be used to target at-risk women. The study findings can also be used to develop contextualized strategies to prevent and manage complications associated with abnormal pre-pregnancy BMI in Emirati women.

DeeProBot: a hybrid deep neural network model for social bot detection based on user profile data

Use of online social networks (OSNs) undoubtedly brings the world closer. OSNs like Twitter provide a space for expressing one’s opinions in a public platform. This great potential is misused by the creation of bot accounts, which spread fake news and manipulate opinions. Hence, distinguishing genuine human accounts from bot accounts has become a pressing issue for researchers. In this paper, we propose a framework based on deep learning to classify Twitter accounts as either ‘human’ or ‘bot.’ We use the information from user profile metadata of the Twitter account like description, follower count and tweet count. We name the framework ‘DeeProBot,’ which stands for Deep Profile-based Bot detection framework. The raw text from the description field of the Twitter account is also considered a feature for training the model by embedding the raw text using pre-trained Global Vectors (GLoVe) for word representation. Using only the user profile-based features considerably reduces the feature engineering overhead compared with that of user timeline-based features like user tweets and retweets. DeeProBot handles mixed types of features including numerical, binary, and text data, making the model hybrid. The network is designed with long short-term memory (LSTM) units and dense layers to accept and process the mixed input types. The proposed model is evaluated on a collection of publicly available labeled datasets. We have designed the model to make it generalizable across different datasets. The model is evaluated using two ways: testing on a hold-out set of the same dataset; and training with one dataset and testing with a different dataset. With these experiments, the proposed model achieved AUC as high as 0.97 with a selected set of features.

Does diacritics-based lexical disambiguation modulate word frequency, length, and predictability effects? An eye-movements investigation of processing Arabic diacritics

In Arabic, a predominantly consonantal script that features a high incidence of lexical ambiguity (heterophonic homographs), glyph-like marks called diacritics supply vowel information that clarifies how each consonant should be pronounced, and thereby disambiguate the pronunciation of consonantal strings. Diacritics are typically omitted from print except in situations where a particular homograph is not sufficiently disambiguated by the surrounding context. In three experiments we investigated whether the presence of disambiguating diacritics on target homographs modulates word frequency, length, and predictability effects during reading. In all experiments, the subordinate representation of the target homographs was instantiated by the diacritics (in the diacritized conditions), and by the context subsequent to the target homographs. The results replicated the effects of word frequency (Experiment 1), word length (Experiment 2), and predictability (Experiment 3). However, there was no evidence that diacritics-based disambiguation modulated these effects in the current study. Rather, diacritized targets in all experiments attracted longer first pass and later (go past and/or total fixation count) processing. These costs are suggested to be a manifestation of the subordinate bias effect. Furthermore, in all experiments, the diacritics-based disambiguation facilitated later sentence processing, relative to when the diacritics were absent. The reported findings expand existing knowledge about processing of diacritics, their contribution towards lexical ambiguity resolution, and sentence processing.

Vaccine versus Variants (3Vs): Are the COVID-19 Vaccines Effective against the Variants? A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

With the emergence and spread of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, concerns are raised about the effectiveness of the existing vaccines to protect against these new variants. Although many vaccines were found to be highly effective against the reference COVID-19 strain, the same level of protection may not be found against mutation strains. The objective of this study is to systematically review relevant studies in the literature and compare the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines against new variants.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review of research published in Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar until 30 August 2021. Studies including clinical trials, prospective cohorts, retrospective cohorts, and test negative case-controls that reported vaccine effectiveness against any COVID-19 variants were considered. PRISMA recommendations were adopted for screening, eligibility, and inclusion.

RESULTS

129 unique studies were reviewed by the search criteria, of which 35 met the inclusion criteria. These comprised of 13 test negative case-control studies, 6 Phase 1-3 clinical trials, and 16 observational studies. The study location, type, vaccines used, variants considered, and reported efficacies were highlighted.

CONCLUSION

Full vaccination (two doses) offers strong protection against Alpha (B.1.1.7) with 13 out of 15 studies reporting more than 84% efficacy. The results are not conclusive against the Beta (B.1.351) variant for fully vaccinated individuals with 4 out of 7 studies reporting efficacies between 22 and 60% and 3 out of 7 studies reporting efficacies between 75 and 100%. Protection against Gamma (P.1) variant was lower than 50% according to two studies in fully vaccinated individuals. The data on Delta (B.1.617.2) variant is limited but indicates lower protection compared to other variants.

Urinary minerals excretion among primary schoolchildren in Dubai-United Arab Emirates

Introduction

Urinary excretion of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), iodine and fluoride is used to assess their statuses and/or the existence of metabolic abnormalities. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the urinary concentration of these minerals among children have not been documented.

Materials and methods

A cross-sectional study, including 593 subjects (232 boys and 361 girls), was conducted among healthy 6 to 11-year-old Emirati children living in Dubai. Non-fasting morning urine samples and anthropometrical measurements were collected and analyzed. Results were expressed as per mg of creatinine (Cr).

Results

On average, estimated Cr excretion was 17.88±3.12 mg/kg/d. Mean urinary Ca/Cr, Mg/Cr and P/Cr excretions were 0.08±0.07 mg/mg, 0.09±0.04 mg/mg, and 0.57±0.26 mg/mg respectively. Urinary excretion of Ca, Mg and P were found to decrease as age increased. Urinary excretion and predicted intake of fluoride were lower than 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day. Surprisingly, more than 50% of the children were found to have urinary iodine excretion level above adequate.

Conclusion

The Emirati schoolchildren had comparable levels of urinary Ca, Mg and P excretion to other countries. The 95% percentile allows the use of the current data as a reference value for the detection of mineral abnormalities. Fluoride excretion implies that Emirati children are at low risk of fluorosis. The level of urinary iodine excretion is slightly higher than recommended and requires close monitoring of the process of salt iodization to avoid the harmful impact of iodine overconsumption.

Parafoveal processing of orthographic, morphological, and semantic information during reading Arabic: A boundary paradigm investigation

Evidence shows that skilled readers extract information about upcoming words in the parafovea. Using the boundary paradigm, we investigated native Arabic readers' processing of orthographic, morphological, and semantic information available parafoveally. Target words were embedded in frame sentences, and prior to readers fixating them, one of the following previews were made available: (a) Identity preview; (b) Preview that shared the pattern morpheme with the target; (c) Preview that shared the root morpheme with the target; (d) Preview that was a synonym with the target word; (e) Preview with two of the root letters were transposed thus creating a new root, while preserving all letter identities of the target; (f) Preview with two of the root letters were transposed thus creating a pronounceable pseudo root, while also preserving all letter identities of the target; and (g) Previews that was unrelated to the target word and shared no information with it. The results showed that identity, root-preserving, and synonymous preview conditions yielded preview benefit. On the other hand, no benefit was obtained from the pattern-preserving previews, and significant disruption to processing was obtained from the previews that contained transposed root letters, particularly when this letter transposition created a new real root. The results thus reflect Arabic readers' dependance on morphological and semantic information, and suggest that these levels of representation are accessed as early as orthographic information. Implications for theory- and model-building, and the need to accommodate early morphological and semantic processing activities in more comprehensive models are further discussed.

Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes reveals a unique microbial community in three anaerobic sludge digesters of Dubai

Understanding the microbial communities in anaerobic digesters, especially bacteria and archaea, is key to its better operation and regulation. Microbial communities in the anaerobic digesters of the Gulf region where climatic conditions and other factors may impact the incoming feed are not documented. Therefore, Archaeal and Bacterial communities of three full-scale anaerobic digesters, namely AD1, AD3, and AD5 of the Jebel Ali Sewage water Treatment Plant (JASTP) were analyzed by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Among bacteria, the most abundant genus was fermentative bacteria Acetobacteroides (Blvii28). Other predominant bacterial genera in the digesters included thermophilic bacteria (Fervidobacterium and Coprothermobacter) and halophilic bacteria like Haloterrigena and Sediminibacter. This can be correlated with the climatic condition in Dubai, where the bacteria in the incoming feed may be thermophilic or halophilic as much of the water used in the country is desalinated seawater. The predominant Archaea include mainly the members of the phyla Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota belonging to the genus Methanocorpusculum, Metallosphaera, Methanocella, and Methanococcus. The highest population of Methanocorpusculum (more than 50% of total Archaea), and other hydrogenotrophic archaea, is in agreement with the high population of bacterial genera Acetobacteroides (Blvii28) and Fervidobacterium, capable of fermenting organic substrates into acetate and H₂. Coprothermobacter, which is known to improve protein degradation by establishing syntrophy with hydrogenotrophic archaea, is also one of the digesters’ dominant genera. The results suggest that the microbial community in three full-scale anaerobic digesters is different. To best of our knowledge this is the first detailed report from the UAE.

Human Milk Microbiota and Oligosaccharides: A Glimpse into Benefits, Diversity, and Correlations

Human milk represents a cornerstone for growth and development of infants, with extensive array of benefits. In addition to exceptionally nutritive and bioactive components, human milk encompasses a complex community of signature bacteria that helps establish infant gut microbiota, contributes to maturation of infant immune system, and competitively interferes with pathogens. Among bioactive constituents of milk, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are particularly significant. These are non-digestible carbohydrates forming the third largest solid component in human milk. Valuable effects of HMOs include shaping intestinal microbiota, imparting antimicrobial effects, developing intestinal barrier, and modulating immune response. Moreover, recent investigations suggest correlations between HMOs and milk microbiota, with complex links possibly existing with environmental factors, genetics, geographical location, and other factors. In this review, and from a physiological and health implications perspective, milk benefits for newborns and mothers are highlighted. From a microbiological perspective, a focused insight into milk microbiota, including origins, diversity, benefits, and effect of maternal diet is presented. From a metabolic perspective, biochemical, physiological, and genetic significance of HMOs, and their probable relations to milk microbiota, are addressed. Ongoing research into mechanistic processes through which the rich biological assets of milk promote development, shaping of microbiota, and immunity is tackled.

The influence of external electric fields on proton transfer tautomerism in the guanine-cytosine base pair

The Watson-Crick base pair proton transfer tautomers would be widely considered as a source of spontaneous mutations in DNA replication if not for their short lifetimes and thermodynamic instability. This work investigates the effects external electric fields have on the stability of the guanine-cytosine proton transfer tautomers within a realistic strand of aqueous DNA using a combination of ensemble-based classical molecular dynamics (MD) coupled to quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM). Performing an ensemble of calculations accounts for the stochastic aspects of the simulations while allowing for easier identification of systematic errors. The methodology applied in this work has previously been shown to estimate base pair proton transfer rate coefficients that are in good agreement with recent experimental data. A range of electric fields in the order of 104 to 109 V m-1 is investigated based on their real-life medicinal applications which include gene therapy and cancer treatments. The MD trajectories confirm that electric fields up to 1.00 × 109 V m-1 have a negligible influence on the structure of the base pairs within DNA. The QM/MM results show that the application of large external electric fields (1.00 × 109 V m-1) parallel to the hydrogen bonds increases the thermodynamic population of the tautomers by up to one order of magnitude; moreover, the lifetimes of the tautomers remain insignificant when compared to the timescale of DNA replication.

Vitamin D status and blood pressure in children and adolescents: a systematic review of observational studies

BACKGROUND

Childhood hypertension is a growing public health problem. Simultaneously, hypovitaminosis D is widespread in this population and could be associated with hypertension. This study systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship between vitamin D status and blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents.

METHODS

Following the PRISMA guidelines, PUBMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov and the gray literature without language or time restrictions were searched. We included observational studies, assessed their risk of bias, and extracted data on population characteristics, vitamin D status and BP measurements, and the association between the two variables. A narrative analysis of the studies was performed.

RESULTS

In total, 85 studies were included. Prospective cohort studies showed no association between vitamin D and BP, and generally, they were flawed. Also, the majority of non-prospective cohort studies (cross-sectional, retrospective, case-control) did not report an association between vitamin D and BP. They were mostly flawed regarding BP measurement and adjusting to potential confounders.

CONCLUSION

The results on the relationship between vitamin D status and BP in children and adolescents varied between the studies, and mainly pointed towards lack of association.

Complementary feeding practices among infants and young children in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

BACKGROUND

Optimal complementary feeding (CF) promotes health and supports growth and development in children. While suboptimal feeding practices are reported for many countries, very limited information exists about such practices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The present study describes CF practices in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and evaluates them using the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Programming Guide: Infant and Young Child Feeding.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, participating mothers of children below the age of two reported on their children's CF introduction and practices via a structured questionnaire. The study received ethical approval (ZU17_006_F) from Zayed University.

RESULTS

Out of 1822 participating mothers, 938 had initiated complementary feeding for their children, who had a mean age of 7.1 ± 5.9 months. Three quarters of the children (72.2%) were introduced to CF in a timely manner between the ages of 6 and 9 months. A majority (71.4%) consumed ≥4 food groups, i.e. the recommended minimum diet diversity. In total, less than half (47.3%) of the children met the requirements for minimum meal frequency, with the non-breastfed, 6-23 month old children being the least compliant (21.9%) (p < 0.001). Many children were fed with sugar-containing snack items. Overall, 36.2% of the children aged ≥6 months had a minimum acceptable diet.

CONCLUSION

The gap between the suboptimal CF practices and the recommendations may be attributable to poor knowledge about feeding practices rather than food availability problems. Effective intervention programs can facilitate improvements in the feeding practices to better support a healthy upbringing among Abu Dhabi infants and toddlers.

Modified biochar from Moringa seed powder for the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solution

In this study, Moringa seed powder (M_SP) was pyrolyzed at 450 °C to synthesize Moringa seed powder biochar (M_SPB) and treated with phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) to synthesize phosphate-modified Moringa seed powder biochar (M_SPB-HPO) as an adsorbent for the removal of diclofenac (Dfc) from aqueous solution. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and pH point of zero charge (pH_pzc) were conducted to give more insight into the adsorbent's properties. The SEM analysis showed the transformations in the surface morphology from the parent material to the synthesized materials after the thermal and acid treatment. EDS analysis revealed the variation in the elemental composition of the materials prior to and after adsorption of Dfc ions. The FTIR analysis showed changes and peak intensities of functional groups involved in Dfc removal. The pH_pzc showed the charge carried by M_SPB-HPO in different pH conditions. Isotherm data best matched the Sips model, and the pseudo-second-order model best described the adsorption kinetics. The maximum adsorption capacity of M_SPB-HPO by Sips model was found to be 100.876 mg g^-1.

Investigating the effect of wearing the hijab: Perception of facial attractiveness by Emirati Muslim women living in their native Muslim country

The Hijab and other forms of Islamic veiling are important social, cultural, and religious symbols that are central to the identity of millions of Muslim women across the world. However, despite the large body of literature that exists on the political and socio-cultural aspects of Islamic veiling, little is known about how the appearance of women wearing the hijab is perceived by other Muslim women within their native Muslim country. To throw light on this important issue, the current study focussed on the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim Emirati women living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates) who themselves wore the hijab as everyday attire. Participants were shown frontal-head images of women in three different conditions: covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face), partially covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face and the hair around the forehead) and uncovered (heads with no covering). The findings showed that faces in images where heads were covered and partially covered by the hijab were rated as equally attractive but both were rated as significantly less attractive than faces in images where heads were uncovered. These findings suggest that, even for practising Muslim Emirati females living in their native Muslim country for whom wearing the hijab is a normal aspect of everyday life, perception of facial attractiveness is compromised by wearing this garment. We argue that this effect of wearing the hijab is not consistent with a preference for one's own cultural group (cultural endogamy) and may, instead, occur because wearing a hijab occludes external features, such as hair and ears, which normally contribute to the perception of human facial attractiveness. In sum, while wearing the hijab may be dominated by male attitudes towards suppressing female attractiveness towards males, the findings from this study suggest that female Muslims too perceive the negative influence of wearing the hijab on female facial attractiveness.