The College of Science at United Arab Emirates (UAEU) has approved three MA theses in Chemistry and Biology. The first thesis entitled ‘Study of Y-Chromosome STR Makers in United Arab Emirates Population’ is in Molecular Biology and is submitted by Tareq Ahmed. The study, which is the first of its kind in the country and the Arab World, aims to study the Y chromosome polymorphism among UAE Arabs male population. It also aims to study the forensic parameters of 27 Y-STR loci among UAE Arabs male population. This set of loci including seven rapidly mutating loci (RM Y-STRs), which are useful for the discriminating between closely related and unrelated males. Professor Rabah Iratni, supervisor of the thesis, expressed his pleasure over the successfulness of the innovative application to find the results of the study.

Khadega Al Maqdi, MA student in Chemistry, presented he thesis entitled ‘Comparative Degradation of Emerging Pollutants Using Chemical and Enzymatic Approach’. The study carried out the degradation of an antibiotic pollutant, Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and a model thiazole pollutant, Thioflavin T (ThT) in the presence of either an advanced oxidation process (AOP), using UV + H2O2 or a peroxidase enzyme system. The degradation was followed both spectrophotometrically and using liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS), and the products formed were identified using tandem liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). The results showed, for the first time, that the two remediation approaches produced different sets of intermediates suggesting that different degradation schemes were operating in the two systems (AOP vs. Peroxidase enzyme system).

The MA student, Rubab Ammad, Biology Department, presented a thesis entitled ‘A Field Study on Treating Wastewater Using Bioretention and Permeable Pavement Systems’. The study investigated the performance of two water sensitive urban design systems, the Permeable Pavement and the Bioretention System, in improving the wastewater quality from fish tanks. Conventionally, these systems are used for storm water treatment, but as UAE is situated in an arid climatic zone and experiences minimal rainfall, the two systems in undertaken study have been used in treatment of wastewater to gage their performance abilities. Wastewater from fish tanks was supplied to these units from the existing fish tank in the Aquaculture Research Center, located in close proximity to these units. The outcomes of the study have delineated the performance capabilities of both systems in treating the wastewater from the fish tanks and have also provided an insight into the systems’ mechanics which could be addressed to enhance these capabilities of both systems.