Simulating Brain Cancer On Chip

Vistaing socially responsible youngOmanis who are able to meetthe needs of the present without compromising the abilityof future generations to meettheirs. Consequently, there havebeen adaptations and changesin the country’s educationalpolicies, community initiatives,classroom methodologies,teaching methods and instructional approaches to supportstudents’ learning and theirdevelopment as socially responsible individuals who are able topursue innovative ideas with thepotential to benefit the community. For example, Nama Groupand the Environment Society ofOman (ESO) had just recentlyinitiated a Green InnovationECO-Thon aimed at encouraging Omani youth to tackleenvironmental challenges in theSultanate through working oninnovative solutions comprising applications, software andprojects focused on such issuesas waste management, carboncapture and alternatives, andenergy and water efficiency. Inaddition, many institutions ofhigher education in Oman haveinitiated a number of community-based projects that are aimedat influencing the developmentof social responsibility andsustainable behavior throughteaching and learning.Some illustrations of such projects include multiple opportunities students are provided withto learn more about Oman’s environmental challenges, charitywork, social entrepreneurship,just to name a few. For example, in one of the English forBusiness courses offered by theCentre for Preparatory Studiesof Sultan Qaboos University, social responsibility, and social entrepreneurship approaches areintegrated into the curriculum.In the context of the course,these concepts are applied tonon-profit charity organizationsthat students develop while implementing solutions to social,cultural, or environmental issuesand discovering more efficientways and methods of Englishlanguage learning and practice. Doing business for a socialcause also engages studentsin constructing logical writtenarguments supported by thesource material, data analysis,information synthesis, and authentic knowledge application.The main principles that governteaching and learning practicein implementing student projectwork include collaborative, constructive, contextual and self-directed learning as its integralparts. Here, collaboration, oneof 21st century skills, implies encouragement of mutual respectand interaction, willingness tolisten and adjust thinking toa commonly agreed goal andadvance a shared understandingof issues related to becominga responsible citizen throughgiving, sustainability, and volunteerism. The activities related toreal-world social, cultural andenvironmental problems engagestudents in intellectual collaboration, critical analysis of thespecific situations and solutionsthrough the services offered bythe charity, and consequentlyenhance their skills furnished inmore engrossing, meaningfuland challenging contexts fortheir application.In the academic space of theproject, self-directed learning is another opportunity toinvolve students in all aspectsof developing and enhancingsocial responsibility, and socialentrepreneurship skills. Here,self-directed learning refers toa process in which students areencouraged to take the initiativein determining their learningneeds, formulating learninggoals, identifying human andmaterial resources for learning,choosing and implementingappropriate learning goalsand objectives. Consequently,teaching strategies and methods that stimulate, develop andimprove students' aptitudesand competencies, respond to7their needs and further increasetheir personal, academic andprofessional growth are used tofurther support social responsibility, and social entrepreneurship approaches in English forBusiness course’s project work.Another example is English forScience course that effectivelymeets the widely supportedobjective of educating studentsto be socially responsible. Thetopics of the projects studentsare engaged within this courseto include social issues thatrelate to science, promote socialresponsibility and make studentsmore socially conscious. Forexample, such topics, as oceanmicro plastic pollution, high-energy consumption in buildings,ocean oil pollution, desertification, soil salinity, teach studentsto behave ethically and sensitively towards social, economic, and environmental issuesin Oman. Students spend thefull semester on their projects.They start with writing andpresenting a research proposal,and then do their research andpresent their recommendationsin a poster exhibition.In spite of an extensive teachingand learning practice, little hasbeen done to reflect and betterunderstand the role of Englishlanguage classrooms in developing social responsibility amongstudents in Oman and its valuefor future educational policiesand pedagogy. For example, theinstructional techniques that areinfluential to social responsibilityteaching and learning and inassisting the implementationof changes within the academic community have not beenestablished yet. Therefore, moreresearch is needed to developevidence-based guidelines forusing English language classroom as an effective learningenvironment for establishingan ethical framework of socio-cultural understanding thatsuggests societal and individualobligation and enthusiasm actfor the benefit of the society.

8Role ofSocial Mediaon Self-HarmMohammed Ghalib QutishatCommunity & Mental Health DepartmentCollege of NursingSelf-harm is a sign of emotional distress that adolescents andyouths use to relieve stress, anxiety or pain as a distraction fromtheir attention, or draw attentionor peers, to appear as enjoyablepeople, or to seek experienceand curiosity. Several factors playan important role in self- harmamong adolescents and youths,the majority of them associatedsometimes with eating disorders,personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, neglect, sexual orphysical abuse, poor adjustment,and poor communication skills.Social networking sites haverecently played an essential role inthe spread of self-harming amongadolescents and youths throughthe Internet, called the phenomenon of electronic self-bullying,or self-harming; indeed, manyscientific studies indicated that 40percent of published content onsocial media among adolescentsare related to depression or deathand that 13.3 percent had explicitly written about their desire todie. These group of people tendsto disclose these thought in manysocial media platforms, whetherit is linked to each other or not,to create a content about suicideand share it anonymously, so theyappear happy and psychologicallystable in their regular accounts,while they are spreading importantnegative indicators of their mental health condition in other fakeaccounts.Posting messages of self-harmthrough various social media sites,especially when it comes to religious or spiritual rituals, helps theusers to reduce their social isolation since the process of interaction between them in cyberspaceenables them to express themselves easily and to communicateeffectively. Also, it helps to avoidstigmatization associated with

In focustheir mental health conditionand find solutions or alternatives to their problems.Some websites and apps provided simplified instructions fortheir followers on how to harmthemselves for enjoyment. insome cases, the website maymanipulate its name throughsocial media platforms, thus,browsing the word "Suicide,"for example, maybe prohibitedfor the user, while the word"Suiciiideee" may allow themto do that easily, and here canimagine how many websiteswill become available for adolescents and children, not in thecontext of self-harm, but themeaning of sexual problems andpornography, extortion, substances, and othersSocial networking sites andsmartphone applications storesset some particular policies forsharing images, videos, andposts that contain contentsof self-harm such as cutting,scratching, burning, stop eatingand others, but indeed, it doesnot help to mitigate this contentas required due to the abilityof some to circumvent thesepolicies by creating fake sitesand accounts frequently, or touse some programs designed toallow the user to see banned ordangerous materials.Social media has contributed tothe dissemination of many teenagers pictures in which they tryto imitate socially and artistic celebrities, and engage in similarbehavior in some social challenges or tests after watchingit on social networking; thesechallenges can affect their bodies and contribute to many unnecessary accidents such as thechallenge of the ice bucket, thechallenge the cinnamon, or thechallenge of Kiki. Besides, therehave also been several electronic games that have promptedusers to think about self-harmor suicide, such as the game of"Mary," "Pokémon," and "BlueWhale." In Blue whale, for example, the user need 50 days toaccomplish many tasks startingby waking up at 4.am in themorning to watch a horror movie, then sculpt the words F57or draw a blue whale on thehand using a sharp tool, makingwounds on the arm, and standon the bridges, while the finalchallenge is to commit suicideby jumping from a high buildingor stabbing self with a knife.So what can we do? Here aresome tips for managing selfharm and attempted suicide incyberspace: Increase the awareness ofthe members of society in allsegments of the importanceand dangers of excessive useof the Internet and electronicdevices and social networkingplatforms. Monitor internet serviceproviders and urge them to takeresponsibility for what is published through their engines. Establish a suicide helpline(hotline) to report cases of selfharm or suicide attempts andto report its content to relevantauthorities. Activate cybercrime laws thatcontribute to reducing this phenomenon and its social effectson the family and society. Diagnosis, treatment, andearly care for people with psychiatric or substance use disorders, chronic pain, and acuteemotional disorders.9 Observe the pages or applications browsed by childrenafter exiting them, and noteany change in their behaviorand feelings such as the desirefor isolation, aggression, andloneliness. Provide psychological support to this group of peopleor contact a family member orfriends who can help them, andlimit the access of these individuals to the various means ofsuicide, such as guns, firearms,medicines, and others. Avoid maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of theinformation provided by thesuicidal provider if they requestthat, the person's life is at risk,so talk to the people concernedurgently such as specializedmedical care team or securitypersonnel, to preserve the life ofthe person and prevent furthercomplications. The appearanceof signs of self-harm should bemonitored and reported immediately, and should not beignored if a child or adolescentis exposed to a form of it.

10IP Rights andEnforcementin the GCCDavid Price is a Professor in Intellectual Property Law and International Law at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia. His major areas of academic research and teaching are theintersection of intellectual property law, publicinternational law, and international trade law.He has published widely on intellectual property protection regimes in the Middle East andother developing regions, and the impact ofbilateral and regional trade agreements on domestic intellectual property protection. During1999-2001, he was principal of Sohar Collegefor Applied Sciences (now Sohar University),Sultanate of Oman. In October 2019, Prof.Price gave a talk on “Contemporary Issues inIP rights and Enforcement in the GCC” at SQU,which was organized by the Innovation & Technology Transfer Centre and the College of Law.In this interview, Professor Price discussed theimportance of IP rights and GCC IP initiatives.Can you define Intellectual Property (IP) inbrief and explain the importance of IP rightsin the backdrop of changes in the global economic environment?n very simple terms, intellectual property is theexpression of the creative forces of an individual’sintellect and inventiveness – the product of the‘sweat of the brow’.Intellectual property can cover a vast range ofsubject matter that is constantly growing and ex-panding as society and technological increase themeans of effective communication, and businessand trade expand the commercial exploitative opportunity of the range and types of subject matter. On occasion, advances, notably in the digitalenvironment, test the capacity of the currentintellectual property regimes to keep pace withthose advances. Hence, intellectual property, particularly the “big three” of copyright, patents andtrademarks, are subject to constant scrutiny andare thus constantly evolving.

Face to FaceIntellectual property rights area major tool of world tradeand therefore a major tradeexport item for those countrieswhose citizens create or generate products that constitute“intellectual property”. Since1995 and the establishment ofthe World Trade Organisationand the adoption of the WTO’sAgreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights (TRIPS Agreement), the nature of intellectualproperty law has largely beenshaped by global trade imperatives, in which the driving focusis on expansion, exploitativeprotection and enforcementof intellectual property rights.Intellectual property has becomeformalised as a major commodity in the world trade basket,and enforcement of intellectualrights has become a powerfulweapon in world trade. TheTRIPS Agreement has becomethe most significant multilateralagreement over the full range ofintellectual property rights.Can you explain the beginning of enactment of IP lawsin Oman?Development of Oman’s intellectual property rights protectionregime has been a fairly recentachievement, having really onlybeen established as part of itsmembership of the WTO in2000. But it has since developed one of the most sophisticated protection systems in theGCC, incorporating domesticlaws to the participation inconventions and internationaltreaties. Oman is a member ofseveral international treaties,conventions and protocolsincluding the Gulf Cooperation Council, The World TradeOrganization, The World Intel-lectual Property Organization,the Berne Convention, the ParisConvention, the Madrid Protocol and the Patent CooperationTreaty.In addition to the above international treaties and conventionslisted above, Oman has enacted a number of domestic lawsprotecting IP rights. In 2008it updated its laws coveringcopyright (Royal Decree No. 65),and what has become generallyknown as industrial property(Royal Decree No. 67 covering trademarks and patents inparticular, but also industrialdesigns, geographical indications, integrate circuits andplant breeders rights). Omanalso adopted the GCC UnifiedPatents Regulations in 2000,and the GCC Unified TrademarkLaw in 2017.How would you comment onGCC IP Initiatives and GCCPatent Regulation Acts?Consideration for a unifiedpatent regulation at GCC levelcommenced in 1987 and wasapproved in 1992. The Regulation was amended andre-issued in April 2000. TheGCC Supreme Council alsoestablished the GCC PatentOffice in Riyadh. This Regulationallows a GCC member to obtainprotection across all States bylodgment of a single patentapplication with the GCC PatentOffice. However, the Regulation is essentially a registrationstatute, and includes little byway of enforcement provisions,notably infringements, precautionary measures and sanctions,leaving these matters to eachState and their own domesticlaws. Currently all GCC member States have adopted the11Patent Regulation, but each alsohas retained its own domesticpatent law.The GCC approved a regionaltrademark regulation in December 2006. In 2014, the regulation was revised and reissuedas the GCC Unified TrademarkLaw. The primary objective ofthe Law is to replace much ofprovisions in the trademark lawsof each of the GCC memberStates, thereby introducing adegree of consistency in regional trademark protection. However, the Law does not offera unified filing system as doesthe GCC patent regulation andtrademark applications still needto be filed separately in eachState for protection.In your view what are theenforcement challenges forintellectual property infringements and offences?At judicial level, it is more aboutunfamiliarity with the status ofthe prevailing legislation. Localsocietal, cultural and commercial influences play a big rolein the enforcement of IP legislations. There exists a certainconservatism that questionsthe desirability and necessity tocomply with international andnational IP obligations. Societalattitude that holds ownershipof a good confers an unlimited right to use and disposal,including copying and resale is achallenge. The societies believethat protection of IP rights, particularly software and audiovisual goods, foreign-trademarkedconsumer goods and pharmaceuticals represents a protectionof western commercial interestsat the expense of local technology transfer for benefit of localmarkets and communities.

We will buildOman fora brightertomorrow

and love a book affair, be at the Muscat Book Fair that sees ex-hibitors coming in from several countries near and far, and a . Dr. Ikram Ali Burney (senior con-sultant oncology SQUH) and Dr. Mushtaq Khan (National Univer-sity of Sciences and Technology Pakistan). 6 The concept of social r