• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.41.1-41.6
• /
• 2023

Many viruses can infect different types of birds, with poultry being the most susceptible. These viral diseases have a direct negative impact on the poultry industry, with significant economic losses. This study examined a group of the most important viruses that infect backyard chickens in 2 specific areas of Basrah Governorate, south of Iraq. The study analyzed avian influenza viruses (AIVs), Newcastle disease virus (NDV), and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). Two hundred and ninety oropharyngeal swabs, 150 from Abu Al-Khasib and 140 from Shatt Al-Arab regions in the Basrah governorate, were obtained from backyard chickens with clear respiratory signs. The samples were subjected to viral RNA extraction, and the viral nucleic acids were detected using a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction technique. The overall rate of viral infections was 74.8%, which varied depending on the type of virus: 15.8%, 31.3%, and 27.5% for AIV, NDV, and IBV, respectively. The NDV and IBV had much higher infection rates than that of AIV. In addition, the prevalence of AIV in the Shatt Al Arab district was significantly higher than in the Abul Khasib district. Moreover, there were no significant differences between the NDV and the IBV distributions in either of the targeted regions in this study.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.327-357
• /
• 2023

Adopting the Tools of Liberalism and Clash of Civilizations theories of international relations, this study examines the perceptions of 25,406 Arabs in 11 Arab countries as expressed in an Arab Barometer survey exploring their perceptions of violence against the United States (US), American citizens as "good," President Donald Trump's foreign policy in the Middle East, increasing economic relations with the US, and welcoming American foreign aid. As aspects of the Clash of Civilizations theory, this study examines religiosity, religious ritual practices, and political Islam and, as aspects of liberalism, this study explores the roles of online media as well as perceptions about US foreign aid in the prediction of the criterion variables. The findings suggest that religious indicators, and aspects of the Clash of Civilizations generally, were negative predictors of the perceptions, while social media and motivations for US foreign aid as aspects of liberalism, positively predicted the perceptions. The study discusses the results in relation to implications for policy makers.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.2564-2588
• /
• 2024

Due to COVID19 pandemic, most of educational institutions and schools changed the traditional way of teaching to online teaching and learning using well-known Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, etc. Accordingly, LMS started to generate a large data related to students' characteristics and achievements and other course-related information. This makes it difficult to teachers to monitor students' behaviour and performance. Therefore, a need to support teachers with a tool alerting student who might be in risk based on their recorded activities and achievements in adopted LMS in the school. This paper focuses on the benefits of using recorded data in LMS platforms, specifically Moodle, to predict students' performance by analysing their behavioural data and engagement activities using data mining techniques. As part of the overall process, this study encountered the task of extracting and selecting relevant data features for predicting performance, along with designing the framework and choosing appropriate machine learning techniques. The collected data underwent pre-processing operations to remove random partitions, empty values, duplicates, and code the data. Different machine learning techniques, including k-NN, TREE, Ensembled Tree, SVM, and MLPNNs were applied to the processed data. The results showed that the MLPNNs technique outperformed other classification techniques, achieving a classification accuracy of 93%, while SVM and k-NN achieved 90% and 87% respectively. This indicates the possibility for future research to investigate incorporating other neural network methods for categorizing students using data from LMS.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.23
• /
• pp.10157-10164
• /
• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the State of Qatar. Due to low participation in breast cancer screening (BCS) activities, women in Qatar are often diagnosed with breast cancer at advanced stages of the disease. Findings indicate that low participation rates in BCS activities are significantly related to women's low level of awareness of breast cancer screening. The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine the factors that influence Qatari women's awareness of breast cancer and its screening activities: and (2) to find ways to effectively promote breast cancer screening activities among Arabic speaking women in Qatar. Materials and Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional quantitative survey of 1,063 (87.5% response rate) female Qatari citizens and non-Qatari Arabic-speaking residents, 35 years of age or older, was conducted in Qatar from March 2011 to July 2011. Outcome measures included participant awareness levels of the most recent national recommended guidelines of BCS, participation rates in BCS activities, and factors related to awareness of BCS activities. Results: While most participants (90.7%) were aware of breast cancer, less than half had awareness of BCS practices (28.9% were aware of breast self-examination and 41.8% of clinical breast exams, while 26.4% knew that mammography was recommended by national screening guidelines. Only 7.6% had knowledge of all three BCS activities). Regarding BCS practice, less than one-third practiced BCS appropriately (13.9% of participants performed breast self-examination (BSE) monthly, 31.3% had a clinical breast exam (CBE) once a year or once every two years, and 26.9% of women 40 years of age or older had a mammogram once every year or two years). Awareness of BCS was significantly related to BCS practice, education level, and receipt of information about breast cancer and/or BCS from a variety of sources, particularly doctors and the media. Conclusions: The low levels of participation rates in BCS among Arab women in this study indicate a strong need to increase awareness of the importance of breast cancer screening in Qatari women. Without this awareness, compliance with the most recent breast cancer screening recommendations in Qatar will remain low. An increased effort to implement mass media and public health campaigns regarding the impact of breast cancer on women's health and the benefits of early detection of breast cancer must be coupled with an enhanced participation of health care providers in delivering this message to Qatar population.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.18
• /
• pp.7533-7537
• /
• 2014

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer type, and the leading cause of death from cancer among women in Israel. The Bedouin-Arab (BA) population in southern Israel is characterized by a high rate of consanguinity, common hereditary disorders, and transition from a semi-nomadic, traditional society to a more sedentary and urbanized society. In this hospital-based study, the demographic and the clinicopathological characteristics of BC in BA were compared with Jewish patients. Materials and Methods: 85 BA patients treated at the Soroka Medical Center, Beer Sheba, during the years 2004-2012, were studied and compared with 180 consecutive Jewish patients treated during the year 2007. Clinicopathological features compared included age, menopausal state, number of births, a history of BC in first-degree relatives, tumor size (T), extent of lymph-node involvement (N), distant metastases (M), stage, grade, estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR), and Her2 status. Types of treatment, relapse rate and site, as well as outcome were also studied. Cox's regression models were applied for studying disease-free, and overall survival. Results: Compared with Jewish patients, BA patients were younger (average age $49{\pm}12$ yrs vs $59{\pm}13$, p<0.001), had a lower rate of BC in first-degree relatives (p<0.001), and a larger number of births ($6{\pm}4.2$ vs $2.5{\pm}1.9$, p<0.001). BA patients had larger tumors (p=0.02), more extensive lymph-node involvement (p=0.002), and more advanced stage (p=0.003). Grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in the two ethnic groups. Relapse type was most commonly systemic in BA patients (p=0.05), and loco-regional in Jewish patients (p=0.02). Median survival was 63, and 35 months for Jewish and BA patients, respectively (log-rank test, p=0.02). In Cox multivariate analysis, stage and PR status (HR-0.14, p<0.0001; HR-3.11, p=0.046), but not ethnicity, influenced overall survival. Conclusions: BC presents a decade earlier, and with more advanced disease in BA compared with Jewish patients. Biologic parameters including grade, ER, PR, and Her2 status were similar in both groups. Although prognosis was worse in BA than in Jewish patients, it was affected only by stage and PR status, but not by ethnicity.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.63-77
• /
• 2021

Given that music is not part of the national/regular curriculum and how music therapy is a new endeavor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this study aimed to investigate parents' perceptions of the music therapy given to their children with disabilities in the UAE. A survey was administered to 33 parents of children with disabilities living in Sharjah, UAE. The survey consisted of 43 questions related to characteristics of the music therapy sessions that the participants' children received and the parents' satisfaction with their children's music therapy. The results showed that participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the music therapy provided to their children. In terms of their participation in music therapy sessions, 33.3% of parents co-participated in music therapy sessions with their children, and 45.5% of parents observed their children's sessions. Parents who had direct participation in music therapy sessions were significantly more satisfied with their children's music therapy (p < .05) and perceived greater positive changes in their children as a result of the therapy (p < .05). Parents perceived their children as being able to positively respond to music, leading to positive changes in behavior. Despite these benefits, participants also reported the need for formal opportunities for family members to learn about the applications and outcomes of music therapy. The findings of this study supports the implementation of music therapy throughout the UAE and point to the need for future studies as music therapy expands across the country.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.17-27
• /
• 2005

The problem of the onset stability in an inclined layer of dielectric viscoelastic fluid (Walter's liquid B') is studied. The analysis is made under the simultaneous action of a normal a.c. electric field and the natural convection flow due to uniformly distributed internal heat sources. The power series method used to obtain the eigen value equation which is then solved numerically to obtain the stable and unstable solutions. Numerical results are given and illustrated graphically.

• Water Engineering Research
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.155-173
• /
• 2003

Parameters and quantiles of the 2-parameter generalized Pareto distribution were estimated using the methods of regular moments, modified moments, probability weighted moments, linear moments, maximum likelihood, and entropy for Monte Carlo-generated samples. The performance of these seven estimators was statistically compared, with the objective of identifying the most robust estimator. It was found that in general the methods of probability-weighted moments and L-moments performed better than the methods of maximum likelihood estimation, moments and entropy, especially for smaller values of the coefficient of variation and probability of exceedance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.15-21
• /
• 2004

A Conjugate Gradiant (CG) method is proposed for unconstained optimization which is invariant to a nonlinear scaling of a strictly convex quadratic function. The technique has the same properties as the classical CG-method when applied to a quadratic function. The algorithm derived here is based on a logarithmic model and is compared to the standard CG method of Fletcher and Reeves [3]. Numerical results are encouraging and indicate that nonlinear scaling is promising and deserves further investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.7-13
• /
• 2004

A Conjugate Gradient (CG) algorithm for unconstrained minimization is proposed which is invariant to a nonlinear scaling of a strictly convex quadratic function and which generates mutually conjugate directions for extended quadratic functions. It is derived for inexact line searches and is designed for the minimization of general nonlinear functions. It compares favorably in numerical tests with the original Dixon algorithm on which the new algorithm is based.