Covert Ideologies and Sign Manipulation: a Functional Semiotic Analysis of Western vs. Arabic News Coverage of New Zealand 2019 Mosque Carnage

The primary concern of this comparative study is to explore sign manipulation in front page photographs and headlines in both Western and Arabic news reports in a humble attempt to determine how visual and verbal signs are purposefully presented to the target audience. The researchers precisely try to scrutinize and analyze covert ideological biases of such news reports not only as expressed verbally but also visually. This study exclusively hinges on the event of the New Zealand Mosque Massacre which took place during Friday Prayers on 15 March 2019 in Christchurch City, where an Australian terrorist opened fire on innocent Muslim worshippers and brutally killed fifty of them. The heinous crime has left the world in a state of mourning and utter shock. Media coverage of this attack overwhelmed the Western and the Arab newspapers as well as social media worldwide. Unfortunately, the Christchurch massacre has not been headlined as a terrorist attack by several Western news reports unlike Arabic ones. The source of the data in question mainly relies on 10 popular newspapers: five Western newspapers and five Arabic ones: Daily Mirror, The New York Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Sun, Addustour, Al-Jazirah, Al-Anba, Al-Quds Al-Arabi and AL-Sharq, respectively. The data represent a random sample, so the content does not necessarily represent attitudes or perspectives of all Western and Arabic newspapers. Following the Peircean semiotic triadic model, this study tries to unveil basic ideological features and manipulative strategies that clearly depict the Australian terrorist in some Western newspapers. In addition, it bluntly and objectively shows covert racial prejudice against Muslims in western newspapers. The findings show the significance of both verbal and visual signs in news story because they enable the reporters to express their perspectives towards major events such as New Zealand mosque carnage more effectively. As a result, the use of visual images in front page headlines does not merely serve to represent the reality of that horrible event in a visual form; rather, it is an essential tool of persuasion and tampering with the public opinion by means of insinuating some seriously embedded ideologies

Three-dimensional relationship between the degree of bilateral impacted mandibular third molars angulation and the mandibular dental arch parameters: a cross-sectional comparative study

Objective The purpose of this study was to three-dimensionally evaluate the relationship between the degree of bilateral impacted mandibular third molar (IM3M) angulation and the mandibular dental arch parameters in normal skeletal and dental malocclusion patients. Materials and methods In this retrospective cross-sectional comparative study, 120 adult subjects’ cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images were three-dimensionally analyzed. The sample included 120 adults aged 20–30 years, with a gender distribution of 51 male and 69 female participants. The sample was divided into 100 adults with bilateral IM3M (study group) and 20 adults with normal bilateral erupted M3M (control group). The study group was sub-divided into three groups according to the degree of IM3M buccolingual angulation (BL°): group A,  24° off-center of the ridge (N = 30). The study group was also sub-divided into two groups according to IM3M mesiodistal angulation (MD°): group 1 from 10 to 45° (N = 36), group 2 > 45° (N = 64). Comparison within and between groups was performed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. The correlation between IM3M, BL, and MD angulation and the mandibular arch parameter was calculated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results Statistically significant differences (P < 0.001) were found between the IM3M BL° and anterior teeth inclination, arch length (AL), and inter-second molar width (inter 2nd MW) as well as between the IM3M MD° with anterior crowding and the arch length (P < 0.001). A significant positive correlation was found between IM3M BL° and anterior teeth inclination and between IM3M MD° and anterior teeth crowding and inter 2nd MW. A significant negative correlation was observed between IM3M BL° and inter 1st MW and 2nd MW. Conclusion The degree of buccolingual and mesiodistal angulation of the impacted mandibular third molars was related with mandibular dentoalveolar changes. Increased buccolingual angulation is generally associated with increased anterior teeth inclination and decreased 1st and 2nd inter-molar width. The increase in mesiodistal angulations was generally related with increased anterior teeth crowding and 2nd inter-molar width. Clinical relevance Assessment of the relationship between the impacted mandibular third molars and the degree of arch discrepancy, and the position of mandibular incisors in the three planes of space might help in the decision-making process for the extraction of the impacted third molars in adult patients.The authors would like to thank Prof. Feng Yun Zhi, Prof. Shen gao Huang, and Dr. Bushra Sufyan Almaqrami for their consultations and assistance in accomplishing this study.Scopu