Category: Science

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Higher Education and Research between Cyprus and Egypt was scheduled at a meeting of the Cypriot

Cyprus’ Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Prodromos Prodromou agreed with the Minister of Higher Education and Research of Egypt, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Higher Education and Research between the two countries.

According to an announcement by the Ministry of Education, in the context of the first Egypt-Cyprus Intergovernmental Meeting in Cairo, Prodromou had a working meeting last Saturday, with his Egyptian counterpart.

During the meeting with the Egyptian Minister, it was agreed to speed up the procedures and to sign, within the next period, the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Higher Education and Research pr

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus will host in October 2022 the 9th Ministerial Summit for the Environment and Sustainable Development Education of the Economic and Financial Committee of the UN.

A briefing meeting about the Summit took place on Tuesday at the Ministry of Education and Minister Prodromos Prodromou said that the agenda includes issues such as circular economy and education on sustainable development and tourism. He said that it is an honour for our country to host this international Summit.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Cyprus’ Ministry of Health announced on Saturday the death of two people to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 477 (307 men and 170 women). Their median age is 77. The two patients who died were a man, 81 years old and a woman, 57 years old. Both died in Nicosia.

Moreover, 311 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed with the positivity rate standing at 0.60%. Since the pandemic broke out, 111,140 people in Cyprus have been infected.

The Ministry also announced that 194 patients are receiving treatment in hospitals, 70 of whom in a serious condition.

Out of the 70 patients who are hospitalised in a critical condition 37 are intubated, while 82.48% of all patients are not vaccinated.

Moreover, 17 post-COVID patients are still being treated in ICUs and are intubated.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

A new study by University of Cyprus researchers on disease transmission from touchscreen user interfaces in an airport has found that the first and second person to use such a screen immediately after an infected person, will have an increased probability of transferring the virus to their hands, as a result of which the likelihood of the third person becoming infected is reduced significantly.

In a press release the University of Cyprus says that the new study was carried out by Dr. Orestis Georgiou, Marie S. Curie Fellow and postdoctoral researcher in the university`s research team “IRIDA” and Dr. Chrisots Nicolaides, Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Management and Public Administration and was recently published in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science, entitled “Modelling Disease Transmission from Touchscreen User Interfaces.”

Researchers modelled the human–fomite interaction at an airport with a network of touchscreens which allowed them to look into the different parameters which could affect the transmission of infectious diseases.

It is added that one of the study`s interesting findings is that the first and second person to use a touch screen immediately after an infected passenger uses it, have an increased probability of transferring the virus on their hands. As a result the possibility of the third person to touch the screen becoming infected is significantly reduced. The first two people using the touchscreen after the infected person, are in essence cleaning it by absorbing most of the pathogens on their fingers thus preventing later users of receiving a significantly infectious load, Georgiou said.

The study also focused on how often the screens were cleaned and whether regular cleaning could deter transmission. “Unfortunately the rate of cleaning necessary to fully eliminate the possibility of transmission is prohibitively high, Nicolaides said, suggesting that the use of alternative technological solutions should be looked into in order to appropriately mitigate the risk.

The study, the press release says, has been carried out in cooperation with scientist Andrew DiBattista of Ultraleap UK and had been funded by Ultraleap and Marie Sklodowska-Curie NEWSENs (787180) ?a? NISHealth (786247) actions.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

The share of “early school leavers”, a term that refers to early leavers from education and training (aged 18-24), has steadily decreased in the European Union (EU) over the last 10 years (from 13.8% in 2010 to 9.9% in 2020). In Cyprus in 2020 the rate was 11.5%.

More young men left education and training early than women in 2020 – 11.8% of men compared to 8.0% of women. Compared to 2019, the share of male early school leavers remained the same, while the share of female dropped slightly (by 0.4 percentage points).

The EU Member States have set themselves a target to reduce the rates of early school leavers to below 9% at the EU level by 2030.

Compared with 2010, nearly all EU Member States reported a smaller proportion of early leavers in 2020, except for Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg and Bulgaria which all reported a

Source: Cyprus News Agency