Drivers’ Behavior at Signalized Intersections Operating with Flashing Green: Comparative Study

In Jordan, thirty-four signalized intersections out of 105 within Greater Amman Municipality were tested to operate with the flashing green change interval without prior justification or establishing guidelines for such practice. This research attempts to assess the impact of the used practice on driving behavior conducting a comparative study between two sets of signalized intersections. The first set of signalized intersections operates with flashing green and the second set of signalized intersections operates without flashing green. Results showed that average approach speed of vehicles crossing intersections that operate with flashing green change interval is higher than the average approach speed for vehicles crossing intersections which operate without flashing green. The proportion of vehicles crossing intersections during flashing green change interval is significantly higher than the proportion of vehicles crossing the intersections during change interval at intersections that operate without flashing green. While the proportion of vehicles jumps before green on intersections operating with flashing green light is lower than the proportion of vehicles jumps before green on intersections operating without flashing green. Guidelines should be developed to control such application. Future research will expand the sample size to cover wide spectrum of intersections allover Jordan, and will consider the crash history records at each studied intersection. Keywords: Traffic control; flashing green signals; driving behavio

Using currency demand to estimate the Palestine underground economy: An econometric analysis

The existence of an underground economy may hide the official number of unemployed persons, their share in the labour force, and wages. It also gives rise to the economic and social conditions of individuals, household and countries, which are evaluated in a biased way if one relies on the official statistics. In this paper, we use the currency demand model of Tanzi to estimate the underground economy in Palestine over the period: (2008–2017). Toward that end, a group of econometric techniques of time series data was applied. The main empirical results show that the underground economy reached up to 28.6% in 2010 of the GDP with about USD 2676.227 million. The empirical study results also reveal that the explanatory variables listed in the study model suggested by economic theory and previous research have a significant impact on the dependent one, except the variable ratio of governmental wages and salaries to GDP. However, the money received by the government employees does not contribute to the underground economy.In preparation for this paper, I had to take the help of some respected professors in empirical economics, who deserve my deepest gratitude. As the completion of this paper gave me much pleasure, we would like to express my appreciation for all those who have directly and indirectly helped us in preparing this research paper

Influence of plyometric jump training on the physiological changes of male handball players

Running economy and velocity at maximal oxygen uptake are considered the most substantial physiological performance indicators in team sports. plyometric training are important techniques that enhance the neuromuscular functioning in athletes. The aim of the present study is to investigates the change in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and running economy (RE). 16 male participants aged 21 years old. Participants underwent pre- and post-intervention tests including running economy, VO2max within 48 h before and after the training protocol. Statistically significant differences were seen in running economy and VO2max after training (p < .01). The current study suggested that plyometric training for 12 weeks can improve running economy and VO2max

Exploring Students’ Understanding of Traffic Artworks in Jordan

Driving consequences in Jordan are becoming a major concern for all Jordanians despite of their age; occupation; socio-economic status. Education is as important as engineering and enforcement to maintain safety and efficiency on our streets. Unsatisfactory levels of traffic knowledge and safety culture is spreading among Jordanians. The knowledge base among students in Jordan universities and schools is explored in this research when administering a questionnaire to more than one hundred students. The subject of the questionnaire is the contents of eight artworks developed by school kids expressing their understandings of traffic and traffic safety issues. The drawings contained more wrong concepts than correct concepts, and less of the interviewed subjects were able to identify the incorrect concepts compared to those who identified correct concepts. University students were more capable to identify incorrect concepts. The topics and the quality of drawings contribute to the variation in responses among students. No clear trend is detected in that regard. This research is setting the ground for future work to examine the knowledge base of traffic issues among Jordanian. The next step is to examine more artworks with control sets who have been subjected to various orientations prior to examination. Keywords: traffic safety, traffic artworks, traffic safety knowledge, traffic safety awareness, students’ traffic safety

Left Atrium of the Mature Dromedary Camel Heart (Camelus dromedaries): Microanatomy

The current work was carried out on the left atrium of ten healthy mature camels. The specimens were collected and examined histologically after being fixed in 10% Neutral Buffered Formalin. The atrium was processed till paraffin sections obtained and stained. Microscopically, the left atrium is consisted of three major tunics; the internal endocardium, the middle myocardium, and the external epicardium. The endocardium is the inner layer of the atrial wall and consisting of the endothelial layer of simple squamous epithelium that lining the atrium, subendothelial layer of loose connective tissue supporting the endothelium and the subendocardial layer that connecting the endocardium with the myocardium. Myocardium is the middle layer of the atrium, forming the main mass of the atrial wall. It is sandwiched between an outer epicardium, that covers the atrium, and an inner endocardium, that lines the atrial chamber. It is mainly formed from bundles of the contractile cardiac myocytes; myocardiocytes that arranged in strands or branching columns. The left atrium is externally covered with the epicardium that is relatively thin in comparison with the myocardium and consisting of a subepicardial layer of highly vascularized loose connective tissue and the mesothelium of simple squamous epithelium

A New Economic Dispatch for Coupled Transmission and Active Distribution Networks Via Hierarchical Communication Structure

Traditionally, the economic dispatch problem (EDP) of the bulk generators connected to transmission networks (TNs) is solved in a centralized dispatching center (CDC) while modeling distribution networks as passive loads. With the increasing penetration levels of distributed generation, coordinating the economic dispatch between TNs and active distribution networks (ADNs) became vital to maximizing system efficiency. This article proposes a hierarchical communication structure, which requires minimal upgrades to the CDC, for solving the EDP of coupled TNs and ADNs. Based on the minimal data transfer between the CDC and distribution network operators, the problem is formulated and solved while considering the network losses in both TNs and ADNs. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the effect of the ratio of the distribution lines on the economic dispatch solution and the operational cost of the system. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed centralized scheme and highlight the significance of considering the network losses of both TNs and ADNs when solving the EDP. The results show that the proposed framework can achieve savings of up to 17.98% by taking into account the network losses of TNs and ADNs

Print-Media Beyond Academia

Printmaking as an art discipline has been taught in different visual and fine arts academic programs around the world for hundreds of years. Thousands of printmaking students have graduated from different Art schools hoping to continue pursuing and fulfilling their artistic aspiration and passion, however, only handful of those, mostly university-affiliated, manage to do so. Obviously many factors may contribute to that phenomenon, however; the unavailability of printmaking equipment, which exist mainly in the educational institutions, the high cost of printmaking materials and the absences of the promotion and marketing of printmaking art, may be the most conspicuous factors that drive printmaking artists to quit. This research aims to explore new approaches that enable printmaking students to continue working in the real world after leaving the confinement of their educational institution and to investigate different possible solutions that may allow Printmaking Art and Artists to survive outside the Academic institution. Keywords: Print-Media, Printmaking Art, Printmaking Art Education, Experimental Printmaking, Printmaking Co-Ops

The Aesthetic Function of Arabic Calligraphy in Designing Dynamic Brand Identities

Arabic calligraphy can be located in its date on set of external references, starting from submission through religion trying to achieve aesthetic elements abstracted from the location itself. Therefore, the Arabic calligraphy had stated some artistic rules and regulations governing its direction. It remained as it is three centuries before and when the appearance of contemporary technologies and the exchange of artistic and social taste by the factors, which was influence by civilization. The calligraphy has taken new forms where assessors tried to adapt it aiming at achieving the new goals. Calligraphy have entered the work of prevalent logos as an effective element, trying for an attempt to achieve an identity in the logos taken from its Western centrality, and an attempt to invest the artistic power of calligraphy in designing dynamic identities.The aims of this research were formed to assess the use of aesthetic function of Arabic calligraphy in designing dynamic identities. However, now day’s dynamic identities are used in different types of new media platform, and by assessing these aesthetics, artists and designers has to be able to create a dynamic identity with a set of guidelines for the future reference. Keywords: Arabic Calligraphy, Dynamic Identities, Cross- media

A Comparison of Three Different Methods for the Identification of Hysterically Degrading Structures Using BWBN Model

Structural control and health monitoring scheme play key roles not only in enhancing the safety and reliability of infrastructure systems when they are subjected to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, high winds, and sea waves, but it also optimally minimize the life cycle cost and maximize the whole performance through the full life cycle design. In this scheme, system identification is regarded as a major technique to identify system states and related parameter variables, thus preventing degradation of structural or mechanical systems when unexpected disturbances occur. In this paper, three different strategies are proposed to identify general hysteretic behavior of a typical shear structure subjected to external excitations. Different case studies are presented to analyze the dynamic responses of a time varying shear structural system with the early version of Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori (BWBN) hysteresis model. By incorporating a “Gray Box” strategy utilizing an Intelligent Parameter Varying (IPV) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach, a Genetic algorithm (GA), and a Transitional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (TMCMC) based Bayesian Updating framework system identification schemes are developed to identify the hysteretic behavior of the structural system. Hysteresis characteristics, computational accuracy, and algorithm efficiency are further discussed by evaluating the system identification results. Results show that IPV performs superior computational efficiency and system identification accuracy over GA and TMCMC approaches