The degree of Jordanian youth using e-shopping in the light of some demographic variables

This study aimed to determine the degree of Jordanian youth use of e-shopping in light of the variables of gender, place of residence, and economic level, and to achieve the objectives of this study, the electronic shopping scale of Shahzad (2015) was translated and applied to a sample of (700) individuals in the governorates of the region The Jordanian north, consisting of Irbid, Ajloun, Jerash, and Mafraq governorate. The results showed that the degree of Jordanian youth’s use of e-shopping was weak. The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences due to gender, place of residence, and economic level in the responses of respondents to the e-shopping scale

Characterization of Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy Grown GaN Substrates for Future III-Nitride Growth

The aim of this research is to investigate and characterize the quality of commercially obtained gallium nitride (GaN) on sapphire substrates that have been grown using hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). GaN substrates are the best choice for optoelectronic applications because of their physical and electrical properties. Even though HVPE GaN substrates are available at low-cost and create the opportunities for growth and production, these substrates suffer from large macro-scale defects on the surface of the substrate. In this research, four GaN on sapphire substrates were investigated in order to characterize the surface defects and, subsequently, understand their influence on homoepitaxial GaN growth. Two substrates were unintentionally doped (UID) GaN on sapphire, and the other two were semi-insulating (SI) GaN on sapphire which were doped with iron (Fe) in order to compensate the background doping inherent in GaN. Several characterization techniques were performed. Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy were performed to characterize the surface morphology. X-ray diffraction, cathodoluminescence, transmission measurements, and optical transmission electron microscopy were applied to study the bulk structural and optical properties. The investigation of the surface of GaN substrates exposed various defects that are associated with defects in the structure such as dislocations, as well as vacancies and point defects. The UID GaN substrates suffered from hexagonal V-shape pits with pits densities of approximately 107 and 108 cm-2, whereas, the SI GaN substrates exhibited much larger macro-scale pits with areal densities of about 102 cm-2. X-ray diffraction results were deconvoluted in order to characterize the screw and mixed (edge and screw) dislocation densities for the studied substrates. The UID substrates exhibited screw dislocation densities of 107 and 108 cm-2 and mixed dislocation densities of 109 and 1010 cm-2. The SI substrates, however, exhibit generally lower densities of dislocations of 109 and 108 cm-2 for screw and mixed, respectively. Cathodoluminescence measurements demonstrated interesting results for the UID and SI substrates with energies of 4 and 3.5 eV, respectively. The transmission measurements for the UID substrates showed that the bandgap energy was 3.39 eV

Retrofitting of Shear-Deficient Reinforced Concrete T-Girders with Composite-Based Systems

This research examines the viability of using different composite-based systems to upgrade the shear resistance of shear-deficient reinforced concrete T-girders. The research comprised experimental testing and analytical investigation. Test parameters included the retrofitting system; externally-bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (EB-CFRP) laminates with or without a mechanical end anchorage (MA) and embedded through depth glass fiber-reinforced (ETD-GFRP) rebars; amount of internal stirrups; no stirrups, limited amount of stirrups with spacing s1 = 0.6d, higher amount of stirrups with spacing s2 = 0.375d; and initial shear damage prior to retrofitting; no damage, pre-cracking, and pre-failure. The shear strength gain for the non-damaged specimens decreased as the amount of stirrups increased. The EB-CFRP system without MA increased the shear resistance by 17, 19, and 13%, for the specimens without stirrups, with stirrups spacing S1 and S2, respectively. The inclusion of the MA in the EB-CFRP system increased the former shear strength gains to 64, 36, and 32%, respectively. The shear strength gains provided by the ETD-GFRP system were comparable to those provided by the EB-CFRP with MA. The presence of shear damage prior to retrofitting significantly reduced the strengthening effectiveness. For the pre-cracked specimens with the lower amount of stirrups, only 11, 27, 11% shear strength gains were recorded after retrofitting with the EB-CFRP solely, EB-CFRP with MA, and ETD-GFRP systems, respectively. The EB-CFRP system without MA was not successful in restoring the shear resistance of the pre-failed specimens. The EB-CFRP with MA and ETD-GFRP systems fully restored the shear resistance of the pre-failed specimens. The shear resistance of the pre-failed specimens retrofitted by the EB-CFRP with MA was 1.1 to 1.4 times the original shear resistance compared to 1 to 1.1 times for the pre-failed specimens retrofitted with the ETD-GFRP system. In the analytical investigation, the accuracy of five different international guidelines/standards and two recent analytical models published in the literature to predict the contribution of the EB-CFRP system to the shear resistance have been assessed. The validity of a recent analytical approach published in the literature to predict the contribution of the ETD-GFRP system to the shear capacity has been demonstrated

Towards Racing Gamification with Natural Interface for post stroke Rehabilitation

Stroke patient basically suffer from limited movement, they cannot control their balance very well, therefore the therapy that involve repetitive motion, harmonization and stability workout should be applied to them. The invention of Kinect has lead people to applied this device as a tool for recovering patient from stroke because its capability on tracking the skeletal of human body. Racing Game is very popular among the adults, elderly and even kids, the rule it’s quite simple and understandable. The combination between the racing game and natural interface will lead to innovative application which is potential to be used as home therapy for post stroke patient. User will be required to move some parts of their body such as both hand, arm, head and even shoulder. The body tracking is provided by depth camera that can capture and interpret human body gesture recognition to be used as interaction command. The human skeleton will be displayed onto screen to control the car in the game and the result of racing will be synchronized with user excitement which is recorded through Kinect video

Understanding Consumer Behavior in E-shopping: A Case Study of Iraq with an overview of E-shopping in the global and Arab regions

In the age of technology and the spread of the Internet, the diffusion, of e-shopping has increased. The Internet has made the commercial transactions faster and simplest and both the sellers and buyers get benefited by this technology. E- shopping provides a perfect example of the business revolution. Electronic Commerce has made life easier and more innovative of an individual. Consumer Behavior from e shopping differs from the spot market. The paper's goal was to review the consumer behavior in electronic- shopping and analyses the factors which influence customers' behavior in e-shopping at Iraq. The research question in this paper is the way that consumers act during e-shopping. Data was accumulated from the questionnaire survey by using Google Forms. The survey was prepared in the Arabic language. The data were collected in April 2017. A total of 492 respondents participated in the study. The study has shown the majority of Iraqisג are not doing e- shopping with 47%, therefore, it's clear that the tendency of e shopping is not very well known in the Iraqi economy as mostly and whole individuals, usually visit the store before e-shopping. also, It was given an overview of the e-shopping in globally and in the Arab regio

Enhancing Steganography by Image Segmentation and Multi-level Deep Hiding

In this paper, we present Modify Deep Hiding Extraction Algorithm (MDHEA) that is a steganography algorithm with Multi-Level Steganography (MLS) and color image segmentation. Through experimental results, MDHEA shows improvement in the results of previous works by securing encrypted secret data against attacks. We use segmentation to choose the appropriate segment, pass it on the cover image, calculate the value of the change at the pixel of the segment and select the best segment and its location in the cover image based on the least effect. MDHEA applies multi-level steganography to hide the confidential data in color images to ensure the integrity of the hidden data and obtain the largest volume of hidden data without distorting the image of the stego image. To reduce distortion in the cover image due to hiding a large amount of secret data and obtaining a high-quality stego image after hiding the secret data, we implement the Blue Smoothing Algorithm (BSA) to achieve smoothing the largest possible number of pixels in the image

Conformal Meta-learners for Predictive Inference of Individual Treatment Effects

We investigate the problem of machine learning-based (ML) predictive inference on individual treatment effects (ITEs). Previous work has focused primarily on developing ML-based meta-learners that can provide point estimates of the conditional average treatment effect (CATE); these are model-agnostic approaches for combining intermediate nuisance estimates to produce estimates of CATE. In this paper, we develop conformal meta-learners, a general framework for issuing predictive intervals for ITEs by applying the standard conformal prediction (CP) procedure on top of CATE meta-learners. We focus on a broad class of meta-learners based on two-stage pseudo-outcome regression and develop a stochastic ordering framework to study their validity. We show that inference with conformal meta-learners is marginally valid if their (pseudo outcome) conformity scores stochastically dominate oracle conformity scores evaluated on the unobserved ITEs. Additionally, we prove that commonly used CATE meta-learners, such as the doubly-robust learner, satisfy a model- and distribution-free stochastic (or convex) dominance condition, making their conformal inferences valid for practically-relevant levels of target coverage. Whereas existing procedures conduct inference on nuisance parameters (i.e., potential outcomes) via weighted CP, conformal meta-learners enable direct inference on the target parameter (ITE). Numerical experiments show that conformal meta-learners provide valid intervals with competitive efficiency while retaining the favorable point estimation properties of CATE meta-learners

A Nomogram for Valproic Acid and the Effect of Missed Doses

Background. Clinicians are divided on dosing recommendations when a dose is delayed or missed. For a neuropsychiatric agent like valproic acid (VPA), rational dosing recommendations are of particular importance. VPA is subject to therapeutic monitoring using total concentrations. Due to non-linear binding of VPA to plasma proteins, current dose titration schemes for VPA are empirical. The objectives of this research were to 1- study the effect of missed/delayed doses on steady state concentrations of VPA and 2-design a nomogram that can be used for dose titration based on total VPA concentrations. Methods. 1- A simulation study was conducted to test for different poor compliance scenarios. The effect of missed doses was quantified and used to derive dosing recommendations. 2- A clinical study was carried out in healthy volunteers. Nine volunteers were administered 500, 750 and 1000 mg VPA in a dose escalation study. A nomogram was developed using in vitro plasma protein binding data in all volunteers and tested using dose escalation data. Several delayed/missed doses scenarios were tested in order to validate the simulation model. 3- A revised simulation model was developed using combined information from plasma protein binding and pharmacokinetic analysis of clinical study data. Results and Discussion. Simulation study: Dosing recommendations in the case of a missed or delayed dose are both formulation and dose dependent. Results from the clinical study validated the simulation model and the revised simulation model properly incorporated intra and inter individual variabilities. VPA nomogram: A one-site saturable binding model provided an adequate description of the binding of VPA to albumin. A dosing nomogram for VPA was constructed. To avoid the risk of achieving toxic concentrations, the dose should not be increased by more than 2 fold at a time. The nomogram should be used in conjunction with patient history and clinical response. Conclusions. This research provides dosing recommendations to the clinicians to counsel patients taking preparations of VPA in the event of a missed dose. The use and validation of VPA nomogram will foster the rational use of VPA for the treatment of epilepsy and its role in other neuropsychiatric disorders