Learning from the Perspectives of Albert Bandura and Abdullah Nashih Ulwan: Implications Towards the 21st Century Education

A vast existing literature in educational research has been explored on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) with the focus on addressing self-efficacy, self-regulation and social interactions in learning. This theory is used as a framework to predict behaviours and interventions. However, researchers have managed to comprehend and adopt the theory comprehensively with regards to all the factors involved specifically in the domain of pedagogical potentials in education and metaphysics. Thus, this paper has two-fold purposes. Firstly, this paper seeks to revisit the SCT from Islamic perspectives. Secondly, it attempts to propose a new pedagogical framework adapted from both theories for enhancing classroom teaching and learning. For this, the theoretical approach of Abdullah Nashih Ulwan has been compared and contrasted with an analytical approach by framing the references of the theory and the domain in education and well-being. Based on the analytic summary, this research has adopted comparative holistic visual representation by analyzing the SCT and Islamic perspectives. In consequence, a proposed learning model is given for a comprehensive view from both perspectives. The findings will advocate teachers and researchers when dealing with holistic human behaviour and personality development

Exploring the acceptance of augmented reality among TESL teachers and students and its effects on motivation level: a case study in Kuwait

Education research around the world has witnessed unprecedented technology integrated curriculum aiming at exploring the potentials of innovative technology tools on teaching and learning practices. Augmented Reality (AR) becomes the latest technology embedded in pedagogical strategies to enhance effective teaching and learning specifically in language. This study attempted to explore AR integration in English subject as second language (ESL) in primary schools in Kuwait. The objectives were designed to explore: i. the perceived acceptance of teachers and students, ii. the strategies used by teachers in planning and implementing ESL classes using the AR, iii. students' and teachers’ motivation from the model of Attention, Relevance, Confidence & Satisfaction (ARCS), and iv. students' engagement. The study was designed as a case study via qualitative approach through employing semi-structured individual interviews with two ESL teachers and eight students from two primary schools in Kuwait. It was also incorporated two observations for each school. To compliment the pedagogical affordances of AR, the study proposed an AR-aided module. The findings reveal that teachers and students of AR classroom context have perceived acceptance not only from usefulness and ease of use but also the willingness to use AR in the future. The students' engagement is evidenced from their enjoyment and interest. The teachers' and students' motivation have been maximized. Lastly, the efficacy and practicality of the AR model framework incorporating the Theory of Acceptance Model (TAM), Situated Learning Theory (SLT), and ARCS were materialised. The study has extended TAM with effectiveness as an additional factor, spearhead towards practical importance of the designed module

Socio-cultural determinants and impact of HIV infection in the Sudan

Background: Sudan, among the Subsaharan African countries has a low prevalence of HIV infection particularly in the North of the predominantly Muslim population. The peace agreement (2005) which stopped the civil war in the South opened the boarders with the HIV-high prevalence countries of Central and West Africa. This is expected to increase the transmission of HIV in the whole of Sudan. Methods and results: The present study interviewed 635 HIV positive individuals reporting for testing in three voluntary counseling and treatment (VCT) centres in Khartoum. Socio-cultural determinants of the infection showed that the young adults less than 50 years constitute 66.1% of all infected, with 60% males, 40% females and majority 64.9% are either illiterate or had minimum level of education. 61% of them were Muslims and 39% were Christians or non believers, 50.1% were married. The quality of life changed in 89% of individuals.Conclusion: It is concluded that the infection with HIV in Sudan may increase and health education messages need to be tailored according to the sociocultural determinants of the infection in a multicultural, multi-religious country like the Sudan. Muslims will not be protected against HIV infection unless they adhere to the code of Islam.Keywords: human immuno-deficiency virus, Muslims, Subsahara

Safety performance of school buses in the State of Qatar

School buses and minibuses are one of the major modes of traveling for students in the state of Qatar. Many studies pointed to the fact that school buses travelling are safer for students than walking or car riding (Bolte, et al., 2000; Hinch, et al., 2002). For that reason, safety measures and performance of school buses in the State of Qatar should be studied and evaluated carefully and wisely. The project aims were done through merged qualitative and quantitative methods. Initially a safety checklist was constructed for school buses and a comprehensive schools map to evaluate of the current safety measures in school buses and to understand the conditions around the surrounding areas like the location of the bus stops and the availability of signage. Then, the second step focuses on conducting a survey for school bus drivers, school bus guides, students, and parents. Finally, the third steps compares between the school bus safety strategies followed in the State of Qatar and the strategies followed in other high income countries. The results of the field visits revealed many very important statistics for all surveys on the safety of school bus and the surrounding areas as well as the behavior of students and drivers. The results revealed that most of the parents are not happy with the safety while loading and unloading and with the safety procedures. In addition, 43% of school bus users didn't attend any training or workshops about the safety procedures in school bus. References: [1] Bolte, K. et al., 2000. Simulations of Large School Bus Crashes. [Online] Available at: http://papers.sae.org/2000-01-0469/ [Accessed 10 october 2014]. [2] Hinch, J. et al., 2002. School Bus Safety: Crashworthiness Research, Washington: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.Qscienc

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Parametric optimization and experimental tests of a new seismic isolation device TROCKSISD

La presente trattazione ha riguardato un continuo sullo studio del comportamento dinamico di un isolatore sismico ad attrito (TROCKSISD), un dispositivo di isolamento sismico per elementi o strutture a torre ideato e progettato dal Prof. Ing. Maurizio Froli dell’università di Pisa . Il TROCKSISD introduce una sconnessione tra la struttura da proteggere e il terreno, liberando le oscillazioni per rocking del sistema e sfruttando queste oscillazioni per dissipare energia sismica. Gli obiettivi della trattazione sono stati tre. Il primo ha riguardato lo sviluppo dei parametri costituenti il modello analitico che descrivere il comportamento dinamico del TROCKSISD confrontando I risultati ottenuti con prove sperimentali. Il secondo obiettivo è stato quello di ottimizzare il modello analitico mediante una indagazione parametrica dei component meccanici che costituiscono il modello. Il terzo ha riguardato un esempio progettuale di un modello sperimentale, il modello è costituito dal TROCKSISD in scala reale più una Colonna zavorrata di una massa nota

Modeling Catalyst Activity and Selectivity for the Gas to Liquid Technology (GTL)

The activity and selectivity of catalytic systems used in gas to liquid (GTL) technology have been studied. In the activity study, seven catalytic systems that were used in the dry reforming of methane have been analyzed. The generalized power law expression (GPLE) model was used to fit the activity profile and predict mechanism of catalyst deactivation. The first and second order GPLE fit well to the experimental data with regression factor (R2 ) ranged between 0.95 and 0.99. Also, it was possible to deconvolute the deactivation mechanism into two main causes, fast deactivation by sintering and the slow deactivation by carbon deposition. In the selectivity study, a detailed kinetics model was developed to estimate the product distribution of the cobalt catalyst in the supercritical fluid phase of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction (SCF-FTS) up to carbon number 15. The adopted mechanism to describe the reaction network is the alkyl mechanism. Six experimental runs were conducted, corresponding to three temperature levels of experimental data (230℃, 240℃ and 250℃), three total pressures (45 bar, 65 bar, and 80 bar) to capture the critical and near critical condition, (H2:CO=2:1) and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 500 (1/h). To estimate the model parameters a genetic algorithm code was developed in MATLAB. The model results showed that the maximum mean absolute relative residual (MARR) was 35.32%. Moreover, the model was able to predict the n-paraffin formation rate and Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) product distribution with acceptable range of error

Scheduling External Trucks Appointments in Container Terminals to Minimize Cost and Truck Turnaround Times

Background: Scheduling the arrival of external trucks in container terminals is a critical operational decision that faces both terminal managers and trucking companies. This issue is crucial for both stakeholders since the random arrival of trucks causes congestion in the terminals and extended delays for the trucks. The objective of scheduling external truck appointments is not only to control the workload inside the terminal and the costs resulting from the excessive waiting times of trucks but also, to reduce the truck turnaround time. Methods: A binary programming model was proposed to minimize the waiting time cost, demurrage cost, and container delivery cost. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed to compare various scenarios in terms of cost and to study to what extent the workload level is affected. The mathematical model was solved using Gurobi© 8.1.0 software. Results: 30 instances found in the literature were solved and evaluated in terms of the objective function value (i.e., cost) and truck turnaround time before and after controlling the workload inside the container terminal using the new proposed constraint. Conclusions: The obtained results showed a better distribution of the terminal workload, as well as a lower truck turnaround time that reduces the total cost

Scheduling External Trucks Appointments in Container Terminals to Minimize Cost and Truck Turnaround Times

Background: Scheduling the arrival of external trucks in container terminals is a critical operational decision that faces both terminal managers and trucking companies. This issue is crucial for both stakeholders since the random arrival of trucks causes congestion in the terminals and extended delays for the trucks. The objective of scheduling external truck appointments is not only to control the workload inside the terminal and the costs resulting from the excessive waiting times of trucks but also, to reduce the truck turnaround time. Methods: A binary programming model was proposed to minimize the waiting time cost, demurrage cost, and container delivery cost. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed to compare various scenarios in terms of cost and to study to what extent the workload level is affected. The mathematical model was solved using Gurobi© 8.1.0 software. Results: 30 instances found in the literature were solved and evaluated in terms of the objective function value (i.e., cost) and truck turnaround time before and after controlling the workload inside the container terminal using the new proposed constraint. Conclusions: The obtained results showed a better distribution of the terminal workload, as well as a lower truck turnaround time that reduces the total cost

Flight Scheduling in the Airspace

This paper addresses an important problem in the aircraft traffic management caused by the rapid growth of air traffic. The air route traffic control center has to deal with different plans of airlines in which they specify a requested entry time of their aircraft to the airspace. Each flight has to be assigned to a track and a level in order to ensure the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety standards. When two flights are assigned to the same track and level, a minimum separation time has to be ensured. If this condition could not be satisfied, one of the flight will be delayed. This solution is undesirable for many reasons such as missing the connecting flight, decrease in the passengers' satisfaction, etc. The problem of track-level scheduling can be defined as follows. Given a set of flights, each flight has to be assigned to one track and one level. To ensure the separation time between two flights assigned to the same track and level, it is possible to delay the requested departure time of a flight. The objective is to minimize the overall flight delay. To deal with this problem, we propose a mixed integer programming formulation to find a flight plan that minimizes the objective function, while ensuring the FAA safety standards. In particular, this model considers an aircraft-dependent separation time: the separation time depends on the type of the aircraft assigned to the same track and level. However, some problems are too large to be solved in a reasonable time with the proposed model using a commercial solver. In this study, we developed a scatter search (SS) to deal with larger instances. SS is an evolutionary heuristic and the feature to be a problem-independent structure. This metaheuristic has been efficiently applied to a variety of optimization problems. Initially, SS starts with a set of solutions (reference set) that is constantly updated through two procedures (solution generation and combination) in the aim to produce high-quality solutions. In order to assess the quality of the exact method and the scatter search, we carried out an experimental study on a set of instances that are generated from a real case data. This includes small (80 to 120 flights), medium (200 to 220 flights), and large (400 to 420 flights) instances. The mathematical model has been solved using CPLEX 12.6 and the scatter search has been coded using C language under Microsoft Visual Studio v12 environment. The tests were conducted under a Windows 7 machine with an Intel Core i7 and 8 GB of RAM. The model was tested on each instance with 1 hour time limit. The results show that no instances have been solved to optimality. For small instances, the model and the scatter search provide comparable results; however, for medium and large instances, scatter search gives the best results.qscienc