How Omani teachers perceive the process of integrating 21st century competencies and skills into the EFL curriculum: A step forward

The international demands towards incorporating 21st century competencies and skills in any educational system are growing rapidly and the Omani educational system is no exception. This is due to the challenges imposed by the explosion in knowledge and technology and the rapid changes in the economy and the labour market. Therefore, the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman is undertaking a number of reforms towards the inclusion of 21st century competencies and skills in the educational system, both implicitly and explicitly. These competencies and skills include creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication skills, and information, media and technology skills. As a result, significant reforms to education were introduced in order to cope with the future economic vision of the country (Ministry of Education, 2012). Therefore, innovations in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, course content, teaching methods and assessment in Oman were geared towards the integration of 21st century competencies and skills. As teachers are considered “Agents of Change” (Fullan, 1999, Drew, Priestley & Michael, 2016), the current study examines Omani EFL teachers’ experiences of the integration process. The investigation was informed by the interpretive paradigm. It deployed an explanatory sequential mixed-method design. An EFL teachers' questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were used for gathering quantitative and qualitative data. The findings revealed that some teachers perceive positively the integration of the skills into the EFL curriculum; however, they are dissatisfied with their exclusion from the process as a whole. Furthermore, teachers emphasised the mismatch between curriculum and assessment, and this is considered one of the challenges they faced during implementation. Other challenges teachers face, that impede a successful implementation of the relevant skills, were highlighted; such as time, the textbooks and the students' levels of competence in English. Consequently, the respondents provided some suggestions to reinforce practice and policy of the appropriate inclusion and implementation of the competencies. Finally, some implications and recommendations were outlined towards the end of the study

Using a new programme (THERCOM) to predict thermal comfort as a base to design energy efficient buildings

A strong relationship relates the thermal comfort and the consumption of energy, especially in the hot arid climate where the installation of HVAC systems is unavoidable. In fact, it has been reported that the HVAC systems are responsible for consuming huge amounts of the total energy used by the buildings that can globally reach up to 40% of the total primary energy requirement. The future estimations indicate that the energy consumption is likely to continue growing in the developed economies to exceed that of the developed countries in 2020. Under these situations, it seems that the shift towards more energy efficient buildings is not an option. Because part of any successful environmental design is to understand the potentials of the site, the proposed programme (THERCOM) assists in weighing the indoor and outdoor thermal comfort in different climates in order to provide better understanding of the site environment as well as testing the thermal comfort chances of the initial concepts

Behavior Analysis and Modeling of Stakeholders in Integrated Water Resource Management with a Focus on Irrigated Agriculture

The scarcity of freshwater resources in the Sultanate of Oman, makes it essential that both surface and groundwater resources are carefully managed. Introducing new water demand management tools is important, especially for the coastal agricultural areas (e. g. Al Batinah coastal region) which are affected by sea water intrusion. Based on a social survey performed during this work, the existing situation generates conflicts between different stakeholders (SHs) which have different interests regarding water availability, sustainable aquifer management, and profitable agricultural production. The current aim is to evaluate the implementation potential of several management interventions and their combinations by analysing opinions and responses of the relevant stakeholders in the region. Influencing the behavior and drivers affecting farmers’ decision-making manner, can be a valuable tool to improve water demand management. The work also introduces the use of a participatory process within the frame of an integrated water resources management (IWRM) to support decision makers in taking better informed decisions. Data were collected by questionnaires from different groups of stakeholders. These data were analysed statistically for each group separately as well as relations amongst groups by using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software package. Differences were examined between opinions of farmers and decision makers (DM’s) regarding potential interventions. Farmers’ frequency curves showed differences in opinions in some interventions, while differences in opinions were not so high within the group of DM’s. Therefore, Cross Tabulation and Discriminant Analysis (DA) were performed to identify the drivers influencing farmers’ opinions regarding the intervention measures. As an advanced step, a Bayesian Networks (BNs) approach is used for mapping stakeholders’ behaviors and to show the strength of a relationship between dependent and predictor variables. By using BNs it is possible to analyse future scenarios for implementation and acceptance of interventions

Investigating the behaviour of ASHRAE, Bedford, and Nicol thermal scales when translated into the Arabic language

With the global spread of thermal comfort studies, thermal scales are translated into different languages to adapt local context in which the studies are applied. However, translating thermal comfort studies does not maintain the scales' behaviour associated with the original English versions. Behaviour differences include irregular categories' width, asymmetry, and deviation of the middle category centre from the centre of the thermal continuum. These differences have a negative influence on the results of thermal comfort studies and their accuracy. Applying the successive categories method, this paper explores the change in ASHRAE, Bedford, and Nicol scales' behaviour when translated into the Arabic language. The translated scales were integrated into questionnaires distributed among female high school students in Muscat, the capital city of Oman, as part of a larger survey that lasted for a whole year. The findings revealed the deviation of the translated scales from the original assumptions of the English versions. This included categories' irregular widths and asymmetry in addition to the deviation of the centre of the middle categories from the centre of the thermal continuum. Besides, it was found that both ASHRAE and Bedford scales covered different ranges on the thermal continuum, which questions their assumed equivalence. Based on these findings, the accuracy of the thermal comfort analysis is negatively affected. Considering the sensitivity of scales' behaviour to the used phrases, further explorations implementing the terms examined in this study are recommended. Abstract With the global spread of thermal comfort studies, thermal scales are translated into different languages to adapt local context in which the studies are applied. However, translating thermal comfort studies does not maintain the scales' behaviour associated with the original English versions. Behaviour differences include irregular categories' width, asymmetry, and deviation of the middle category centre from the centre of the thermal continuum. These differences have a negative influence on the results of thermal comfort studies and their accuracy. Applying the successive categories method, this paper explores the change in ASHRAE, Bedford, and Nicol scales' behaviour when translated into the Arabic language. The translated scales were integrated into questionnaires distributed among female high school students in Muscat, the capital city of Oman, as part of a larger survey that lasted for a whole year. The findings revealed the deviation of the translated scales from the original assumptions of the English versions. This included categories' irregular widths and asymmetry in addition to the deviation of the centre of the middle categories from the centre of the thermal continuum. Besides, it was found that both ASHRAE and Bedford scales covered different ranges on the thermal continuum, which questions their assumed equivalence. Based on these findings, the accuracy of the thermal comfort analysis is negatively affected. Considering the sensitivity of scales' behaviour to the used phrases, further explorations implementing the terms examined in this study are recommended

Using a New Programme to Predict Thermal Comfort as a Base to Design Energy Efficient Buildings

A strong relationship relates the thermal comfort and the consumption of energy, especially in the hot arid climate where the installation of HVAC systems is unavoidable. In fact, it has been reported that the HVAC systems are responsible for consuming huge amounts of the total energy used by the buildings that can globally reach up to 40% of the total primary energy requirement. The future estimations indicate that the energy consumption is likely to continue growing in the developed economies to exceed that of the developed countries in 2020. Under these situations, it seems that the shift towards more energy efficient buildings is not an option. Because part of any successful environmental design is to understand the potentials of the site, the proposed programme (THERCOM) assists in weighing the indoor and outdoor thermal comfort in different climates in order to provide better understanding of the site environment as well as testing the thermal comfort chances of the initial concepts

Antibacterial Activity of Moringa oleifera Plant Extracts in Comparison with Ciprofloxacin Antibiotic Against Staphylococcus aureus

The current drug resistance in human pathogens is a result of the abuse of antibacterial drugs commonly used to treat diseases. Early human civilizations used Moringa oleifera extracts to treat illnesses and infections caused by food-borne bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. In order to calculate the antibacterial effect of Moringa oleifera against Staphylococcus aureus, methanolic extracts from its three parts were prepared. A photochemical analysis of the methanolic leaves, seeds, and roots extracts was performed when the extracts were ready for testing. We used well-diffusion methods to add the three extracts, and the ciprofloxacin antibiotic was used as the standard. From the stock solution, serial dilutions were made in order to calculate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). In the phytochemical screening test, steroids, terpenoids, tannins, phenolic compounds, saponins, and flavonoids were most abundant in leaves extract, followed by seeds then roots extracts. Moringa oleifera seeds have the highest inhibition zone, which is about 10mm, followed by Moringa oleifera roots at 9mm, and Moringa oleifera leaves at 7mm. In comparison to the other two extracts, the MIC of methanolic extract from Moringa oleifera leaves was 250 mm, the highest concentration, with a MIC of 125 mm for roots and 62.50 mm for seeds. Methanolic extracts of Moringa seeds demonstrated antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus in the present study. For further studies, it is suggested a deeper investigation to study the antibacterial agent dosages of these plant parts, which may be used by the pharmaceutical industry

ProfCom: a web tool for profiling the complex functionality of gene groups identified from high-throughput data

ProfCom is a web-based tool for the functional interpretation of a gene list that was identified to be related by experiments. A trait which makes ProfCom a unique tool is an ability to profile enrichments of not only available Gene Ontology (GO) terms but also of ‘complex functions’. A ‘Complex function’ is constructed as Boolean combination of available GO terms. The complex functions inferred by ProfCom are more specific in comparison to single terms and describe more accurately the functional role of genes. ProfCom provides a user friendly dialog-driven web page submission available for several model organisms and supports most available gene identifiers. In addition, the web service interface allows the submission of any kind of annotation data. ProfCom is freely available at http://webclu.bio.wzw.tum.de/profcom/

Barriers to the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among HIV-positive mothers in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review of counselling, socioeconomic and cultural factors

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breast-feeding (EBF) for HIV exposed infants for six months; this is considered best practice for reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the postpartum period. This is a scoping review of the barriers affecting women's decision-making and choice to sustain the practice of EBF in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). An online literature search via PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, WHO and Joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) websites identified research studies and reports that explored socio-economic, cultural and infant feeding counselling-related barriers to EBF among HIV-positive mothers in SSA. A total of 341 relevant articles were identified only 35 (23 qualitative, 3 quantitative and 9 mixed methods) met the inclusion criteria. Findings reveal that key barriers to choice and sustained practice of EBF are healthcare workers’ personal biases, inadequate counselling skills and guideline knowledge, a culture of mixed feeding norms, and maternal lack of decision-making power and fear of vertical transmission. Transmission of HIV programs in countries where major challenges persist should evaluate and address the identified healthcare worker and community-level factors impeding EBF

Machine Learning Applications in Studying Mental Health Among Immigrants and Racial and Ethnic Minorities: A Systematic Review

Background: The use of machine learning (ML) in mental health (MH) research is increasing, especially as new, more complex data types become available to analyze. By systematically examining the published literature, this review aims to uncover potential gaps in the current use of ML to study MH in vulnerable populations of immigrants, refugees, migrants, and racial and ethnic minorities. Methods: In this systematic review, we queried Google Scholar for ML-related terms, MH-related terms, and a population of a focus search term strung together with Boolean operators. Backward reference searching was also conducted. Included peer-reviewed studies reported using a method or application of ML in an MH context and focused on the populations of interest. We did not have date cutoffs. Publications were excluded if they were narrative or did not exclusively focus on a minority population from the respective country. Data including study context, the focus of mental healthcare, sample, data type, type of ML algorithm used, and algorithm performance was extracted from each. Results: Our search strategies resulted in 67,410 listed articles from Google Scholar. Ultimately, 12 were included. All the articles were published within the last 6 years, and half of them studied populations within the US. Most reviewed studies used supervised learning to explain or predict MH outcomes. Some publications used up to 16 models to determine the best predictive power. Almost half of the included publications did not discuss their cross-validation method. Conclusions: The included studies provide proof-of-concept for the potential use of ML algorithms to address MH concerns in these special populations, few as they may be. Our systematic review finds that the clinical application of these models for classifying and predicting MH disorders is still under development

Shigellosis Outbreak in Al Batinah South Governorate, Oman : Case-control study

 Objectives: An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis due to Shigella flexneri occurred in August 2012 in the catchment area of the Wadi Sahtan Health Center in Rustaq, Al Batinah South Governorate, Oman. The aim of this study was to discover possible causes of this outbreak in the villages of Fassa, Rogh and Amk and to measure the risk of exposure among cases and controls. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in September 2012 in Fassa, Rogh and Amk. All households in the three villages were interviewed. Case and control households were compared to determine possible exposure avenues, including place of residence, source of drinking water, hand hygiene levels and practices related to drinking water, food preparation and environmental sanitation. Results: Residing in Fassa (P <0.0001; odds ratio [OR] = 4.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.22–10.63) and average hand hygiene practices (P = 0.008; OR = 13.97, 95% CI = 1.58–123.36) were associated with an increased risk of contracting shigellosis. No significant differences were found with regards to the other exposure avenues. Conclusion: This was the first study conducted in Oman regarding an outbreak of shigellosis in a community setting. The only variables that significantly impacted the risk of acute gastroenteritis were residing in Fassa and average hand hygiene practices. The source of the outbreak could not be identified. However, septic tank sanitation and water and food consumption practices were not satisfactory in the studied villages. These need to be addressed to prevent similar outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis in this region in the future