AL AIN // Four UAE University medical students back from a month-long research scholarship in Britain say they will now look for extra-curricular research work.
The UAEU paid for their travel, and the British Council paid the women's living expenses during their placements at medical schools.
The chance for such hands-on research was rare. Even at UAEU, with its focus on laboratory work, it is optional for medical undergraduates.
This month Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and chancellor of UAEU, stressed the need for its undergraduates to be involved in more research.
"We must provide undergraduate students with opportunities to conduct research under the supervision of their professors," Sheikh Nahyan said.
The scholarships were originally intended to promote female education, but have recently been opened to men.
Amira Ahmadi from Al Ain researched child cardiovascular health at Bristol University.
"I wanted to better understand what lab work means," said Miss Ahmadi, a first-year student. "Everything I was studying before was based on visualising and theory, but with no hands-on techniques.
"My learning was based on getting high marks in exams but now it's different. My emphasis is now more focused on learning for life in the future and having a good career, which means acquiring skills, too."
The placement helped her learn techniques such as heart perfusion (artificially pumping blood through the heart), histology (the study of microscopic tissues) and analytical techniques. She is now hungry for more lab experience.
"One month wasn't enough," Miss Ahmadi said. "I'd like to go back and continue this and learn even more. I want more opportunities so I will be looking for other things here."
Bushra Kamalboor, 21, a fourth-year student, gained invaluable insight into the importance of research from her time at King's College London.
"It's important to have this exposure and access to experts and more up to date research and techniques," Miss Kamalboor said. "It's the only way medicine develops and updates each year."
She and classmate Reem Ali, 20, were at the college's centre for age-related diseases, focusing on neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia.
Ms Ali said the laboratory work was very different to anything she had done at UAEU.
"We were using the human brain rather than brains of mice or rats, which is much more accurate for us," she said.
It should help the women with their fourth-year neuroscience course, and both say they will continue their research projects in their free time.
"These cases have been great preparation for this year," said Miss Kamalboor.
Dr Chris Howarth, head of pathology at UAEU and co-ordinator of the scholarships, said they were a good way to help students decide on their future study.
"Sometimes the experience can turn them on to a particular specialisation," Dr Howarth said. "A student might even choose to do that in the UK after they have made these contacts too."
The younger the student, the more time they have to put into practice the skills they bring back, he explained.
Richard Cotton, the UAE director at the British Council said: "The scholarship programme aims to catch researchers at an early stage in their careers, when the chance to build new international links can have real benefit to their future in research."
mswan@thenational.ae
* This article has been amended since it was first published to correct the spelling of Miss Amira Ahmadi and Miss Bushra Kamalboor’s names.
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Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
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The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
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Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
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Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
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However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
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She was held in her native country a year later.
Result
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Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
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Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
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FIXTURES
Nov 04-05: v Western Australia XI, Perth
Nov 08-11: v Cricket Australia XI, Adelaide
Nov 15-18 v Cricket Australia XI, Townsville (d/n)
Nov 23-27: 1ST TEST v AUSTRALIA, Brisbane
Dec 02-06: 2ND TEST v AUSTRALIA, Adelaide (d/n)
Dec 09-10: v Cricket Australia XI, Perth
Dec 14-18: 3RD TEST v AUSTRALIA, Perth
Dec 26-30 4TH TEST v AUSTRALIA, Melbourne
Jan 04-08: 5TH TEST v AUSTRALIA, Sydney
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England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
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South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
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Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
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STAGE 4 RESULTS
1 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 4:51:51
2 David Dekker (NED) Team Jumbo-Visma
3 Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal
4 Elia Viviani (ITA) Cofidis
5 Matteo Moschetti (ITA) Trek-Segafredo
General Classification
1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 12:50:21
2 Adam Yates (GBR) Teamn Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:43
3 Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:03
4 Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:43
5 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
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Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
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Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
Neymar's bio
Total club appearances 411
Total goals scored 241
Appearances for Barca 186
Goals scored for Barca 105
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
MATCH INFO
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Barcelona v Inter Milan
Camp Nou, Barcelona
Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
PRIMERA LIGA FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
Atletico Madrid v Sevilla (3pm)
Alaves v Real Madrid (6.15pm)
Malaga v Athletic Bilbao (8.30pm)
Girona v Barcelona (10.45pm)
Sunday
Espanyol v Deportivo la Coruna (2pm)
Getafe v Villarreal (6.15pm)
Eibar v Celta Vigo (8.30pm)
Las Palmas v Leganes (8.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Valencia (10.45pm)
Monday
Real Betis v Levante (11.pm)
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 1
Alonso (62')
Huddersfield Town 1
Depoitre (50')
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29 – Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30 - UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1 - UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2 – Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4 - Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6 – Final
Sunday's Super Four matches
Dubai, 3.30pm
India v Pakistan
Abu Dhabi, 3.30pm
Bangladesh v Afghanistan
