THE EFFECT OF STUDENTS-AS-CUSTOMERS CONCEPT ON THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES

In the field of education, particularly in higher education, marketization refers to higher education institutions using marketing practices in their policy and academic service, and mainly by regarding students as customers. Several factors have shifted the perspectives toward the students-as-customers approach. The main causes are the increased competition, decreased government funding, and the increased cost of education. However, adopting the concept of students as customers resulted in a misconception of the relationship between universities and students and many reviews perceive it as degrading for the educational standards. The aim of this paper is to clarify the issue of whether students should be regarded as customers by explaining the higher education quality standards as perceived by all parties pertaining to the educational path and examines the students’ performance and satisfactions at all levels

Palestinian National Interest: The Hamas Vision

The aim of this paper is to explore the vision of Hamas on Palestinian national interest. It focusses on the vision of Hamas foreign policy to appreciate its strategic strengths for Palestine’s liberation as a country under occupation by the Zionist regime. Data were collected through face-to-face interview with five key persons in Hamas Government, secondary data were collected from books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and other relevant resources. The analysis was done through descriptive-analytical method. The findings revealed that Hamas’ vision on Palestine’s national interests was based on the interests of the Palestinians, which cantered on their fundamental rights and the right to claim their land that has been occupied by the Zionist. Keywords: Palestine, national interest, Hama

Palestine’s Foreign Policy under Hamas: Principles and Practices

This paper examines Palestine’s foreign policy under Hamas’s Government (2006-2013). The aim is to explore the major principles underpinning the formulation of its foreign policy. Data were collected through face-to-face interview with five key persons in Hamas, secondary data were collected from books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and other relevant resources. The analysis was done through descriptive-analytical method. The findings revealed that Hamas foreign policies were formulated based on six agenda, namely: Islamic ethics, strategic vision, supporting of the resistance, protection of the national interests, non-interference, and independency of decision. Resistance has remained the only means of struggle against the occupation. These principles would be critically measured and contextually analyzed to see the implications towards the protection of Palestinians and the Hamas interests. Keywords: Palestine, Hamas, foreign policy, occupatio

Palestine’s foreign policy under Hamas: principles and practices

This paper examines Palestine’s foreign policy under Hamas’s Government (2006-2013). The aim is to explore the major principles underpinning the formulation of its foreign policy. Data were collected through face-to-face interview with five key persons in Hamas, secondary data were collected from books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and other relevant resources. The analysis was done through descriptive-analytical method. The findings revealed that Hamas foreign policies were formulated based on six agenda, namely: Islamic ethics, strategic vision, supporting of the resistance, protection of the national interests, non-interference, and independency of decision. Resistance has remained the only means of struggle against the occupation. These principles would be critically measured and contextually analyzed to see the implications towards the protection of Palestinians and the Hamas interests

Studying Effect of Fe Doping on the Structural Properties and Infrared Spectroscopy of Tin Oxide powders by Solid State Reaction Method

Fe doped tin oxide transparent conducting powder were prepared by solid state reaction method. Structural properties of the samples were investigated as a function of various Fe-doping levels (x=0.00-0.01-0.03-0.05-0.06). The results of x-ray diffraction have shown that the samples are polycrystalline structure in tetragonal phase with preferential orientations along the (110) for all samples The relative intensities, distance between crystalline planes (d), crystallite size (D), dislocation density (ẟ) and lattice parameters (a), (c) were determined. Infrared Spectroscopy have been studied by Infrared Spectrometer Device. Keywords: powder, Iron doped Tin Oxide, solid state reaction, Structural properties, Infrared Spectroscopy. DOI: 10.7176/CMR/11-4-01 Publication date: April 30th 201

The Impact of Board Composition on Corporate Dividends Pay-Out: "An Empirical Examination of Industrial Companies Listed in Amman Stock Exchange"

This study investigates the impact of board composition on corporate dividends pay-out of a sample of 30 Jordanian industrial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period (2007-2017). The study examine the  impact of a certain variables that represent board composition (Board size , Independent (non-executive ) director , duality of chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman position , Director nationality , Institutional investors ) .Panel-Data analysis was used to test the empirical model in the current study using a fixed affect model and Random effect model. Relevant data were collected from the (ASE) website and from the annual reports of the sampled companies.The result of the study revealed that there is a negative significant effect between Institutional investors, audit firm and dividend per share (DPS) at the 1% level. Moreover, there is a negative significant effect between Independent director and DPS at the 5% level.  In contrast, board of director size and firm profitability positively affect the DPS at the 5% level. Furthermore, Duality of CEO and chairman position, director nationality, firm size and financial leverage were found to have no effect on DPS at the 5% level. Keywords: Board Composition, Corporate Governance, Pay-out, ASE DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-27-16 Publication date:September 30th 201

AutoNav: Evaluation and Automatization of Web Navigation Policies

Undesired navigation in browsers powers a significant class of attacks on web applications. In a move to mitigate risks associated with undesired navigation, the security community has proposed a standard that gives control to web pages to restrict navigation. The standard draft introduces a new navigate-to directive of the Content Security Policy (CSP). The directive is currently being implemented by mainstream browsers. This paper is a first evaluation of navigate-to, focusing on security, performance, and automatization of navigation policies. We present new vulnerabilities introduced by the directive into the web ecosystem, opening up for attacks such as probing to detect if users are logged in to other websites or have active shopping carts, bypassing third-party cookie blocking, exfiltrating secrets, as well as leaking browsing history. Unfortunately, the directive triggers vulnerabilities even in websites that do not use the directive in their policies. We identify both specification- and implementation-level vulnerabilities and propose countermeasures to mitigate both. To aid developers in configuring navigation policies, we develop and implement AutoNav1, an automated black-box mechanism to infer navigation policies. AutoNav leverages the benefits of origin-wide policies in order to improve security without degrading performance. We evaluate the viability of navigate-to and AutoNav by an empirical study on Alexa\u27s top 10,000 websites

Over-expression of pumpkin GA-oxidases in Arabidopsis thaliana

Gibberellins (GAs) form a complex family of diterpenoid compounds, some of which are potent endogenous regulators of plant growth and development. Pumpkin seeds contain GA-oxidases with unique catalytic properties resulting in GAs of unknown function for plant development. In order to understand their potential to achieve changes in GA levels and their role for plant development, we produced transgenic Arabidopsis expressing sense or antisense copies of pumpkin genes encoding GA-oxidases; CmGA7ox, CmGA3ox1, and CmGA2ox1 as well as sense copies of CmGA20ox1. Arabidopsis plants were transformed with the pumpkin genes downstream of a strong constitutive promoter cassette (E12-35S-Omega). The expression levels of pumpkin GA-oxidases were determined by competitive RT-PCR. Over-expression of CmGA7ox in Arabidopsis resulted in seedlings with elongated roots, taller plants that flower earlier and developed more siliques in long day. Similarly, over-expression of CmGA3ox1 resulted in elongated phenotypes and an increase in bioactive GA4, indicating that both enzymes catalyse limiting steps in the GA biosynthesis of Arabidopsis. In contrast, over-expression of CmGA20ox1 in Arabidopsis resulted in shorter hypocotyls and internodes, less siliques and flowering was delayed with reduced GA4 levels and increased levels of the inactive GA17 and GA25. Severe dwarfed plants were obtained by over-expressing CmGA2ox1 in Arabidopsis and associated with a decrease in the levels of bioactive GA4 and an increase inactive product GA34 in comparison to control plants. The phenotype of plants expressing antisense copies did not change compared to the wild type plants. Modifying GA-biosynthesis using this approach may be useful for controlling plant development in agricultural and horticultural important species.Gibberelline (GAs) bilden eine komplexe Familie von Diterpenverbindungen, von denen einige wirkungsvolle endogene Regulatoren des Wachstums und der Entwicklung von Pflanzen darstellen. Kürbissamen enthalten GA-Oxidasen mit einzigartigen katalytischen Eigenschaften, die zu Gibberellinen führen mit oft nicht bekannten Funktionen für die pflanzliche Entwicklung. Um ihren Einfluss auf eine Veränderung der GA Gehalte und ihre Rolle für die pflanzliche Entwicklung besser zu verstehen, haben wir transgene Arabidopsis Pflanzen hergestellt, die sense oder antisense Kopien von Kürbis GA-Oxidase kodierenden Genen exprimieren; die CmGA7ox, CmGA3ox1, und die CmGA2ox1, sowie sense Kopien von der CmGA20ox1. Die Arabidopsis Pflanzen wurden transformiert mit Kürbis Genen downstream einer starken konstitutiven Promotor Kassette (E12-35S-Omega). Die Expressionslevel der Kürbis GA-Oxidasen wurde mit Hilfe der kompetitiven RT-PCR bestimmt. Die Überexpression des CmGA7ox in Arabidopsis resultiere in Keimlingen mit verlängerten Wurzeln, in größere Pflanzen, die früher blühen, und mehr Schoten im Langtag bilden und die erhöhte GA Gehalte aufwiesen im Vergleich zu Wildtyp Pflanzen. Ähnlich bewirkte die Überexpression von CmGA3ox1 erhöhtes Wachstum und einen erhöhten bioaktiven GA4 Gehalt. Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die von beiden Enzyme (CmGA7ox und CmGA3ox1) katalysierten Schritte limitierend in der GA-Biosynthese von Arabidopsis sind. Im Gegensatz dazu resultierte Überexpression von CmGA20ox1 in Pflanzen mit kürzeren Hypokotylen und Internodien, weniger Schoten und einer verzögerten Blütenbildung bei verringerten GA4 Gehalten und erhöhten Gehalten an inaktiven GA17 und GA25. Starkes Zwergwachstum wurde durch die Überexpression von CmGA2ox1 erzielt. Im Vergleich zu Kontrollpflanzen wurde bei diesen Pflanzen eine Abnahme von bioaktivem GA4 und eine Zunahme des Abbauproduktes GA34 festgestellt. Die Phänotypen von Pflanzen, die antisense Kopien exprimieren, veränderten sich nicht im Vergleich zu den Kontrollpflanzen. Die Veränderung der GA-Biosynthese durch die vorgestellten Strategien könnte nutzbringend zur Kontrolle der pflanzlichen Entwicklung bei landwirtschaftlichen und gärtnerisch bedeutsamen Spezies eingesetzt werden

دراسة أثر عدد الأسهم المتداولة في عائد مؤشر سوق دمشق للأوراق المالية باستخدام التكامل المشترك

نظراً لأن الاستثمار في الأوراق المالية هو استثمار ذو عائد ومخاطرة في الآن نفسه، فإن المستثمر يهتم بتحديد عائد الاستثمار المتوقع في مشروع ما أو ورقة مالية معينة لاتخاذ القرار الاستثماري الأمثل. إن هذا العائد يرتبط  بعوامل كثيرة تؤثر على مقداره أو على تحقيقه، هذه العوامل منها ما يرتبط بالاقتصاد ككل ومنها ما يرتبط بالشركة أو المشروع الاستثماري بعينه. وبما أن حجم التداول ممثلاً بعدد الأسهم المتداولة هو مؤشر هام لسيولة السوق ومؤشر عن أداء الشركة، حيث يمكن أخذه بعين الاعتبار عند اتخاذ القرار الاستثماري، لذلك سنقوم بدراسة هذا المتغير ومعرفة مدى تأثيره على عوائد الأسهم في سوق دمشق للأوراق المالية. يهدف هذا البحث إلى دراسة أثر حجم التداول ممثلاً بعدد الأسهم المتداولة في عائد مؤشر سوق دمشق للأوراق المالية باستخدام اختبار التكامل المشترك بالاعتماد على برنامج E-views 9 وذلك عن الفترة من 2010 ولغاية 2018، كما يهدف إلى معرفة فيما إذا كان هناك علاقة توازنية طويلة الأجل بين المتغيرين. وقد توصل البحث إلى  وجود تذبذب في قيم عائد مؤشر سوق دمشق للأوراق المالية وقيم حجم التداول ممثلاً بعدد الأسهم المتداولة خلال سنوات الدراسة، وأن حجم التداول ممثلاً بعدد الأسهم المتداولة وعائد المؤشر يتصفان بخاصية التكامل المشترك، بالإضافة إلى وجود علاقة توازنية بين المتغيربن على المدى الطويل

Prevalence and Configuration of the Second Mesiobuccal Canal in the Permanent Maxillary First Molar in Jordanian Population Sample

Introduction: Missing a root canal during endodontic treatment implicates the persistence of microbial infection within the root canal system. This study aims to evaluate the incidence and morphology of the second mesiobuccal canal in the maxillary first molars in the Jordanian population. Methods and Materials: Consecutive cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans taken at Jordan University Hospital were assessed in this retrospective study. A total of 200 scans that were examined, 111 were included in this study. The scans that were included had to have a full view of the maxilla with at least one permanent maxillary first molar. The following data were collected: the presence of a second mesiobuccal canal, the configuration of the mesiobuccal canals, the status of the apical area and the mesiobuccal inter-orifice distance, if applicable. The prevalence and morphology of the second mesiobuccal canal was determined and its association with biological sex and right or left sidedness was measured using the Chi-Square test. Results: The prevalence of the second mesiobuccal canal in our sample of the Jordanian population was 87%, with the most common canal configuration being Vertucci type II. The average inter-orifice distance between first and second mesiobuccal canals was 1.9 ± 0.4 mm. Conclusion: This retrospective study is the first in Jordan to document the prevalence of the second mesiobuccal canal using CBCT, and it shows that the vast majority of teeth have a second mesiobuccal canal. The proper location and negotiation of this canal is of dire importance for endodontic therapy.&nbsp