The Muslim faith requires individuals to fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset during the month of Ramadan. Our recent work has concentrated on some of the changes that take place during the daytime when fasting. A questionnaire was developed to assess subjective estimates of physical, mental and social activities, and fatigue. Four days were studied: in the weeks before and after Ramadan (control days) and during the first and last weeks of Ramadan (experimental days). On each of these four days, this questionnaire was given several times during the daytime and once after the fast had been broken and just before individuals retired at night. During Ramadan, daytime mental, physical and social activities all decreased below control values but then increased to abovecontrol values in the evening. The desires to perform physical and mental activities showed very similar patterns. That is, individuals tried to conserve energy during the daytime in preparation for the evenings when they ate and drank, often with friends. During Ramadan also, individuals were more fatigued in the daytime and napped more often than on control days. This extra fatigue probably reflected decreased sleep, individuals often having risen earlier (before sunrise, to prepare for fasting) and retired later (to enable recovery from the fast). Some physiological measures and objective measures of performance (including the response to a bout of exercise) have also been investigated. Urine osmolality fell during the daytime on control days as subjects drank, but rose in Ramadan to reach values at sunset indicative of dehydration. Exercise performance was also compromised, particularly late in the afternoon when the fast had lasted several hours. Self-chosen exercise work-rates fell and a set amount of exercise felt more arduous. There were also changes in heart rate and lactate accumulation in the blood, indicative of greater cardiovascular and metabolic stress caused by the exercise in subjects who had been fasting. Daytime fasting in Ramadan produces widespread effects which probably reflect combined effects of sleep loss and restrictions to intakes of water and food.

This study is aimed at investigating the interactive effects of reaction parameters such as temperature (330–370 °C), total pressure (30–50 bar) and liquid hourly space velocity LHSV (1–3 h⁻¹) on the performance of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) activity. Experiments were performed based on the central composite rotatable design and analyzed using the response surface methodology (RSM). First, the equation model is used to predict HDS activity as a response. Second, the regression analysis of the HDS activity model is obtained from the output of this developed model. Finally, the RSM and canonical analysis is used to optimize this empirical regression model. R ² = 96.5 % showed that the RSM model fitted the observed data well with and is considered to be accurate and available for predicting HDS activity. The obtained equation for the canonical analysis with different signs of eigenvalues …

This study aimed to identify the impact of domestic investment as a determinant of growth in the Libyan economy during the period (1962-2008). Cobb-Douglas Function was used to analyze the relationship between real per-capita GDP and its most important determinants as described in Cobb-Douglas function. Properties of time series of the model variables have been analyzed by using several tests for determining the integration level of each time series separately. By using Johansen approach, the results showed the significance of the impact of investment on per-capita GDP, the results of tests revealed equilibrium relationship between per-capita GDP and its determinants in the

long and short-run. The study concluded that the elasticity of per-capita GDP to changes in domestic

investment is greater than the elasticity of labour force which appeared inelastic in the short and long-term.

 Abstract. We investigate harmonic Bergman spaces bp = bp(Ω), 0 < p < ∞, where Ω = Rn \Zn and prove that bq ⊂ bp for n/(k + 1) ≤ q < p < n/k. In the planar case we prove that bp is non empty for all 0 < p < ∞. Further, for each 0 < p < ∞ there is a non-trivial f ∈ bp tending to zero at infinity at any prescribed rate.