• Title/Summary/Keyword: Islamic education

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Household Overcrowding in Iran, a Low-middle-income Country: How Major of a Public Health Concern Is It?

  • Hosseini, Leila Jansar;Samadi, Ali Hussein;Woldemichael, Abraha;Gharebelagh, Masoumeh Najafi;Rezaei, Satar;Rad, Enayatollah Homaie
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.54 no.1
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    • pp.73-80
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    • 2021
  • Objectives: Household overcrowding (HC) can contribute to both physical and mental disorders among the members of overcrowded households. This study aimed to measure the status of HC and its main determinants across the provinces of Iran. Methods: Data from 39 864 households from the 2016 Iranian Household Income and Expenditures Survey were used in this study. The Equivalized Crowding Index (ECI) and HC index were applied to measure the overcrowding of households. Regression models were estimated to show the relationships between different variables and the ECI. Results: The overall, urban, and rural prevalence of HC was 8.2%, 6.3%, and 10.1%, respectively. The highest prevalence of HC was found in Sistan and Baluchestan Province (28.7%), while the lowest was found in Guilan Province (1.8%). The number of men in the household, rural residency, the average age of household members, yearly income, and the household wealth index were identified as the main determinants of the ECI and HC. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that the ECI and HC were higher in regions near the borders of Iran than in other regions. Therefore, health promotion and empowerment strategies are required to avoid the negative consequences of HC, and screening programs are needed to identify at-risk families.

Shifting Meme Content during Information Development on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

  • Kadri, Kadri;Jumrah, Jumrah
    • Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.30-44
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    • 2022
  • This research aims to identify and reveal the meaning of memes about COVID-19, and explain changes in meme content in regard to the information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia published by the mass media and online media. The data is sourced from memes that are shared on social media, especially WhatsApp groups in the period of January to June 2020. To reveal the meaning of memes, a semiotic analysis of Roland Barthes' model is used. Qualitative analysis is used to reveal the relationship between memes and the information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia. The results of the study show that meme content has shifted according to three stages of information development of COVID-19 in Indonesia published by the mass media and online media. When COVID-19 was not yet confirmed in Indonesia, meme content contained mostly humor that was not educative, moreover it seemed to underestimate the coronavirus. Meme content which is mostly humorous and pornographic occurred when COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia and during the lockdown policy. At last, as the government has begun to distribute social assistance, the meme content looks more critical. The results of this research emphasize the urgency of the mass media as a source of public information during the COVID-19 pandemic, become a reference for the community in making memes as a forum for expressing feelings and social criticism, and serve as a reference for the government to act and make the right decisions related to the pandemic that is endemic in their country.

Banana agriculture waste as eco-friendly material in fibre-reinforced concrete: An experimental study

  • Mohammed M., Attia;Abd Al-Kader A., Al Sayed;Bassam A., Tayeh;Shymaa M.M., Shawky
    • Advances in concrete construction
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    • v.14 no.5
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    • pp.355-368
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    • 2022
  • This paper investigates the impact of length and volume fractions (VFs) of banana fibres (BFs) on the mechanical and physical properties of concrete. The mechanical properties were compressive strength, splitting tensile, flexural strength, and bond stress, while the physical properties were unit weight and absorption. The slump test was used to determine workability. The concrete's behaviour with BFs was studied using scanning electron microscopy. Experimental work of concrete mixtures with BFs of various lengths (12 mm, 25 mm, and 35 mm) and VFs (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) were carried out. The samples did not indicate any agglomeration of fibres or heterogeneity during mixing. The addition of BFs to concrete with VFs of up to 1.50% for all fibre lengths have a significant impact on mechanical properties, also the longer fibres performed better than shorter ones at all volume fractions of BFs. The mix10, which contain BFs with VFs 1.5% and length 35 mm, demonstrated the highest mechanical properties. The compressive strength, splitting tensile, flexural strength, and bond stress of the mix10 were 37.71 MPa, 4.27 Mpa, 6.12 MPa, and 6.75 MPa, an increase of 7.37%, 20.96%, 24.13%, and 11.2% over the reference concrete, which was 35.12 MPa, 3.53 MPa, 4.93 MPa, and 6.07 MP, respectively. The absorption is increased for all lengths by increasing the VFs up to 1.5%. Longer fibres have lower absorption, while shorter fibres have higher absorption. The mix8 had the highest absorption of 4.52%, compared to 3.12% for the control mix. Furthermore, the microstructure of concrete was improved through improved bonding between the fibres and the matrix, which resulted in improved mechanical properties of the composite.

A vibration-based approach for detecting arch dam damage using RBF neural networks and Jaya algorithms

  • Ali Zar;Zahoor Hussain;Muhammad Akbar;Bassam A. Tayeh;Zhibin Lin
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.32 no.5
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    • pp.319-338
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    • 2023
  • The study presents a new hybrid data-driven method by combining radial basis functions neural networks (RBF-NN) with the Jaya algorithm (JA) to provide effective structural health monitoring of arch dams. The novelty of this approach lies in that only one user-defined parameter is required and thus can increase its effectiveness and efficiency, as compared to other machine learning techniques that often require processing a large amount of training and testing model parameters and hyper-parameters, with high time-consuming. This approach seeks rapid damage detection in arch dams under dynamic conditions, to prevent potential disasters, by utilizing the RBF-NNN to seamlessly integrate the dynamic elastic modulus (DEM) and modal parameters (such as natural frequency and mode shape) as damage indicators. To determine the dynamic characteristics of the arch dam, the JA sequentially optimizes an objective function rooted in vibration-based data sets. Two case studies of hyperbolic concrete arch dams were carefully designed using finite element simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the RBF-NN model, in conjunction with the Jaya algorithm. The testing results demonstrated that the proposed methods could exhibit significant computational time-savings, while effectively detecting damage in arch dam structures with complex nonlinearities. Furthermore, despite training data contaminated with a high level of noise, the RBF-NN and JA fusion remained the robustness, with high accuracy.

The Association Between Dietary Energy Density and Musculoskeletal Pain in Adult Men and Women

  • Niki Bahrampour;Niloufar Rasaei;Fatemeh Gholami;Cain C. T. Clark
    • Clinical Nutrition Research
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.110-119
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    • 2022
  • Musculoskeletal pains (MPs), defined as persistent or recurrent pain, is a complex health problem. High overall calorie and fat intake have been related to obesity and MPs. Dietary energy density (DED), defined as energy content of food and beverages (in kcal) per unit total weight, has been associated with chronic muscle, cartilage, bone damage and pain. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the association between DED and MPs in adult men and women. A total of 175 men and women (> 18 years) with MP participated in the study. A validated short form physical activity (PA) questionnaire, demographic, and McGill Pain Questionnaire were used. Anthropometric measurements were evaluated via standard protocols. Furthermore, a seven-day 24-hour recall of diet was used to determine the dietary intake. Total DED was calculated and divided into quartiles. Linear regression was used to discern the association between DED and MPs in adults. Participants assigned in the highest category of DED were characterized by lower intake of potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, folate, and fiber. However, results showed displayed higher intake of sodium, vitamin E, vitamin B3, fat, protein, cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (p < 0.001). Finally, after adjustment for confounders such as age, gender, PA, body mass index, waist circumference, education, job, marital status, history of some chronic diseases and vitamin C supplementation, a significant positive association was detected between DED and pain intensity. There was no significant association between DED and pain frequency in all models.

olymerization behavior and thermal characteristics of two new composites at five temperatures: refrigeration to preheating

  • Jafarzadeh-Kashi, Tahereh Sadat;Mirzaii, Marzieh;Erfan, Mohmmad;Fazel, Akbar;Eskandarion, Solmaz;Rakhshan, Vahid
    • The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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    • v.3 no.4
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    • pp.216-220
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    • 2011
  • PURPOSE. Heat of composite polymerization (HP) indicates setting efficacy and temperature increase of composite in clinical procedures. The purpose of this in vitro experimental study was to evaluate the effects of 5 temperatures on HP of two new composites. MATERIALS AND METHODS. From each material (Core Max II [CM] and King Dental [KD]), 5 groups of 5 specimens each were prepared and their total HPs (J/gr) were measured and recorded, at one of the constant temperatures $0^{\circ}C$, $15^{\circ}C$, $23^{\circ}C$, $37^{\circ}C$ and $60^{\circ}C$ ($2{\times}5{\times}5$ specimens) using a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyzer. The data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA, a Tukey's test, an independent-samples ttest, and a linear regression analysis (${\alpha}=0.05$). RESULTS. No polymerization reactions occurred at $0^{\circ}C$; then this temperature was excluded from statistical analyses. The mean HP of the remaining 20 KD specimens was $20.5{\pm}14.9$ J/gr, while it was $40.7{\pm}12.9$ J/gr for CM. The independent-samples t-test showed that there were significant differences between the HP of the two materials at the temperatures $15^{\circ}C$ (P=.0001), $23^{\circ}C$ (P=.0163), $37^{\circ}C$ (P=.0039), and $60^{\circ}C$ (P=.0106). Linear regression analysis showed statistically significant correlations between environment temperatures and HP of CM ($R^2=0.777$). CONCLUSION. Using CM is advantageous over conventional composite because of its better polymerization capacity. However due to its high HP, further studies should assess its temperature increase in vivo. Preheating KD is recommended. Refrigerating composites can negatively affect their polymerization potential.

A Study on the Spatial Data Infrastructure Development Methods in Abu Dhabi through Gap Analyses on Spatial Information between the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the Republic of Korea (한국-아부다비 공간정보 격차분석을 통한 아부다비 공간정보인프라의 발전 방안 연구)

  • Kim, Kirl
    • Spatial Information Research
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.101-111
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    • 2015
  • The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is swiftly rising into a newly industrialized country by achieving economic prosperity among the Islamic cultural regions of Middle East and North Africa(MENA). Abu Dhabi Emirate is performing the conversion from oil economy to non-oil economy and the sustainable urban development policy. However, there are various social and environmental problems in Abu Dhabi. In order to solve the urban problems caused by the rapid economic growth and the changes in society and environment, Abu Dhabi is recognizing the importance of spatial information and triggering the establishment of spatial information. Spatial information is regarded as a basic infrastructure for urban construction and enlarged as a blue ocean market in Abu Dhabi. However, the base of spatial data infrastructure in Abu Dhabi is not well managed in comparison to that of Korea. Especially, Abu Dhabi has some characteristics that it depends on foreign multinational companies and it does not have its own systemic organization and law system. To advance into Abu Dhabi spatial data market under-controlled by global vendors, it is necessary to identify the advantage and disadvantage on spatial data infrastructure of Abu Dhabi and required to establish the advance methods into niche markets by considering priority order of spatial information. Thus, this study aims to analyze the gap of spatial information between Abu Dhabi and Korea and suggest the short and long term development methods for spatial data infrastructure of Abu Dhabi. The results of gap analyses will be the milestone for Korean companies' advance into MENA.

Performance of ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 on U.S. dental examinations: the INBDE, ADAT, and DAT

  • Mahmood Dashti;Shohreh Ghasemi;Niloofar Ghadimi;Delband Hefzi;Azizeh Karimian;Niusha Zare;Amir Fahimipour;Zohaib Khurshid;Maryam Mohammadalizadeh Chafjiri;Sahar Ghaedsharaf
    • Imaging Science in Dentistry
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    • v.54 no.3
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    • pp.271-275
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    • 2024
  • Purpose: Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly tools such as ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, a U.S.-based AI research organization, have transformed the healthcare and education sectors. This study investigated the effectiveness of ChatGPT in answering dentistry exam questions, demonstrating its potential to enhance professional practice and patient care. Materials and Methods: This study assessed the performance of ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 on U.S. dental exams - specifically, the Integrated National Board Dental Examination (INBDE), Dental Admission Test (DAT), and Advanced Dental Admission Test (ADAT) - excluding image-based questions. Using customized prompts, ChatGPT's answers were evaluated against official answer sheets. Results: ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 were tested with 253 questions from the INBDE, ADAT, and DAT exams. For the INBDE, both versions achieved 80% accuracy in knowledge-based questions and 66-69% in case history questions. In ADAT, they scored 66-83% in knowledge-based and 76% in case history questions. ChatGPT 4 excelled on the DAT, with 94% accuracy in knowledge-based questions, 57% in mathematical analysis items, and 100% in comprehension questions, surpassing ChatGPT 3.5's rates of 83%, 31%, and 82%, respectively. The difference was significant for knowledge-based questions(P=0.009). Both versions showed similar patterns in incorrect responses. Conclusion: Both ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 effectively handled knowledge-based, case history, and comprehension questions, with ChatGPT 4 being more reliable and surpassing the performance of 3.5. ChatGPT 4's perfect score in comprehension questions underscores its trainability in specific subjects. However, both versions exhibited weaker performance in mathematical analysis, suggesting this as an area for improvement.

The Multi-door Courthouse: Origin, Extension, and Case Studies (멀티도어코트하우스제도: 기원, 확장과 사례분석)

  • Chung, Yongkyun
    • Journal of Arbitration Studies
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.3-43
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    • 2018
  • The emergence of a multi-door courthouse is related with a couple of reasons as follows: First, a multi-door courthouse was originally initiated by the United States government that increasingly became impatient with the pace and cost of protracted litigation clogging the courts. Second, dockets of courts are overcrowded with legal suits, making it difficult for judges to handle those legal suits in time and causing delays in responding to citizens' complaints. Third, litigation is not suitable for the disputant that has an ongoing relationship with the other party. In this case, even if winning is achieved in the short run, it may not be all that was hoped for in the long run. Fourth, international organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP, and Asia Development Bank urge to provide an increased access to women, residents, and the poor in local communities. The generic model of a multi-door courthouse consists of three stages: The first stage includes a center offering intake services, along with an array of dispute resolution services under one roof. At the second stage, the screening unit at the center would diagnose citizen disputes, then refer the disputants to the appropriate door for handling the case. At the third stage, the multi-door courthouse provides diverse kinds of dispute resolution programs such as mediation, arbitration, mediation-arbitration (med-arb), litigation, and early neutral evaluation. This study suggests the extended model of multi-door courthouse comprised of five layers: intake process, diagnosis and door-selection process, neutral-selection process, implementation process of dispute resolution, and process of training and education. One of the major characteristics of extended multi-door courthouse model is the detailed specification of individual department corresponding to each process within a multi-door courthouse. The intake department takes care of the intake process. The screening department plays the role of screening disputes, diagnosing the nature of disputes, and determining a suitable door to handle disputes. The human resources department manages experts through the construction and management of the data base of mediators, arbitrators, and judges. The administration bureau manages the implementation of each process of dispute resolution. The education and training department builds long-term planning to procure neutrals and experts dealing with various kinds of disputes within a multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish networks among courts, law schools, and associations of scholars in order to facilitate the supply of manpower in ADR neutrals, as well as judges in the long run. This study also provides six case studies of multi-door courthouses across continents in order to grasp the worldwide picture and wide spread phenomena of multi-door courthouse. For this purpose, the United States and Latin American countries including Argentina and Brazil, Middle Eastern countries, and Southeast Asian countries (such as Malaysia and Myanmar), Australia, and Nigeria were chosen. It was found that three kinds of patterns are discernible during the evolution of a multi-door courthouse model. First, the federal courts of the United States, land and environment court in Australia, and Lagos multi-door courthouse in Nigeria may maintain the prototype of a multi-door courthouse model. Second, the judicial systems in Latin American countries tend to show heterogenous patterns in terms of the adaptation of a multi-door courthouse model to their own environments. Some court systems of Latin American countries including those of Argentina and Brazil resemble the generic model of a multi-door courthouse, while other countries show their distinctive pattern of judicial system and ADR systems. Third, it was found that legal pluralism is prevalent in Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asian countries. For example, Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia have developed various kinds of dispute resolution methods, such as sulh (mediation), tahkim (arbitration), and med-arb for many centuries, since they have been situated at the state of tribe or clan instead of nation. Accordingly, they have no unified code within the territory. In case of Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Malaysia, they have preserved a strong tradition of customary laws such as Dhammthat in Burma, and Shriah and the Islamic law in Malaysia for a long time. On the other hand, they incorporated a common law system into a secular judicial system in Myanmar and Malaysia during the colonial period. Finally, this article proposes a couple of factors to strengthen or weaken a multi-door courthouse model. The first factor to strengthen a multi-door courthouse model is the maintenance of flexibility and core value of alternative dispute resolution. We also find that fund raising is important to build and maintain the multi-door courthouse model, reflecting the fact that there has been a competition surrounding the allocation of funds within the judicial system.