Zewail City hosts ACRAO’s 37th round for promoting registrar, admission strategies

SEVERAL SCIENTISTS, OFFICIALS, HIGHER EDUCATION EXPERTS ATTENDED

Zewail City of Science and Technology hosted onTuesday the 37th round of the Arab Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers Organisation (ACRAO). The round was titled Registrars and Admissions Between Globalisation Courses and National Methodologies: Innovation and Development.

The conference aimed at gathering all those concerned with scientific research and higher education to discuss ways of promoting higher education in the Arab region.

A number of scientists, officials, and experts in higher education from the Arab region attended the conference. The conference was chaired by Sherif Sedqi,chief executive officer at Zewail City for Science and Technology, and the secretary general of the ACRAO, Bassam Al-Mahadeen, from Mutah University in Jordan, as well as Abla Osman, registration and admissions manager at Zewail City.

Sedqi said that the conference comes in line with the ongoing efforts of Zewail City for research and development in the educational process. He added that the ACRAO is a unique organisation in the Arab region, which is dedicated to training and facilitating the registration and admissions process of students in their universities, as well as providing all the needed help and support for them.

“The organisation provides students with opportunities for exchange at several Arab universities, regardless of geographical and political obstacles,” said Sedqi.

Eman Al-Qafas, adviser to the International Forum for Agricultural Research and Innovation, said, “there is a need for transformational comprehensive education and promoting student leadership in our universities.”

The ACRAO is a non-profit organisation that works on discussing the issues related to admission and registration procedures.The organisation, which includes over 108 Arab member universities, aims at enhancing the process of admission at universities in the region and promote progress in the community at large.

ANY AMOUNT OF CIGARETTE CONSUMPTION COULD BE ASSOCIATED WITH POORER DIET QUALITY

Smokers have worse-quality diets than former smokers or non-smokers, according to a study published in the American journal BMC Public Health. A team of researchers, including Jacqueline Vernarelli from Fairfield University, Connecticut and R Ross MacLean fromYale University, evaluated data from 5,293 US adults.

The researchers found that smokers consumed around 200 more calories a day, despite eating significantly smaller portions of food, than non-smokers or former smokers.

“Smokers had diets that were high in energy density,meaning they consumed smaller amounts of food containing a greater number of calories. Non-smokers consumed more food which contained fewer calories,” the co-author Vernarelli said.

The team of scientists found that people who had never smoked consumed around 1.79 calories per gram (cal/g) of food, daily smokers consumed 2.02 cal/g, and nonsmokers consumed 1.89 cal/g.They also found that former smokers consumed more calories per gram of food (1.84 cal/g) than those who had never smoked, but the former smokers’ dietary energy density was still significantly lower than that of current smokers.

The findings of the study suggest that any amount of cigarette consumption could be associated with poorer diet quality. The researchers also suggest that a diet low in energy density could help prevent weight gain after quitting smoking.

The calorie-dense diets consumed by the smokers whose data was used in this study often included less fruit and vegetables, which means their intake of vitamin C was likely to be lower.The authors suggest that this deficiency could potentially put smokers at further risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, presenting a major public health concern.

Vernarelli explained, “we know from the literature that concerns weight gain are barriers to quitting smoking, and we know that diets high in energy density are associated with higher body weight. Our results suggest that addressing the energy density in diets of current smokers may be a good target for interventions as part of a larger smoking cessation plan.”

In order to reach their findings, the researchers used data from 5,293 adults who took the US National Health and Examination Survey, a programme of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US.

The dietary data used in the study was based on participants recalling what they ate in the past 24 hours.The main dietary energy density (cal/g) was calculated after adjusting for age, gender, race, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, beverage energy density, physical activity, and Body Mass Index (BMI).