The correlation between television news credibility and the level of fear of crime

After the police withdrawal in January 2011 from Egypt’ streets, Egyptians tasted another level of fear of crime. Media coverage played a visible role in heightening people’s fear of crime with its intensive and completely uncensored coverage of crime scenes. Nowadays, it has become a common TV News practice to show footage of dead bodies and graphic scenes of violent acts during riots. This study attempted to explore the extent to which scenes of people getting assaulted, kidnapped, tortured, and killed on air cultivates fears inside viewers, specifically youth. The concept resonance occurs when the impact of television amplifies with the real life facts of a specific social group, an example of which is local news broadcasting numerous violent messages related to viewers’ communities which are dissimilar to real crime rates (Morgan & Shanahan, 2010). The results of a sample of 154 undergraduate Egyptian students enrolled at the American University in Cairo showed that the Resonance Hypothesis was observed solely in female students who experienced crime in real life in response to TV newscasts only rather than Talk Shows. These females showed a moderate correlation between TV newscast credibility and the level of fear of crime. The rest of the sample did not show any correlation between TV news credibility and the level of fear of crime

Evaluation of quality of life issues after different management policies for vestibular schwannomas: what are we measuring?

PURPOSE: To compare the different quality of life measures used to report the outcomes of the different forms of management of vestibular schwannomas.METHODS: Literature search and critical evaluation of outcome measures and comparison between different studies.RESULTS: A total number of 6749 patients were included in 31 studies. Eighteen studies used the SF36 forms, 17 - custom questionnaires, 7 - the GBI and 8 used various other questionnaires. The most commonly reported handicaps included hearing loss, facial nerve paralysis, tinnitus, gait and balance disorders, pain and headache, psychological and cognitive problems, loss of taste and lacrimation and facial hypoesthesia.CONCLUSIONS: When evaluating QOL issues in patients with vestibular schwannoma, the type of intervention as well as the pre-interventional status should be considered. More specific comprehensive systems of evaluation should be devised through the cooperation of multiple centers with different management policies and variable patient populations as well

GIS and Cultural Mapping for Better TV Programming and Modelling of Coverage Area of Sudan National Television Service (SNTV)

Better TV programming, this paper assumes, won‟t be possible without careful integration of the broadcasted material (i.e. programmes) to viewer‟s geographical and cultural elements on either of the national, regional or local levels. The objective of this paper is to explain how GIS and spatial modelling methods and procedures are applied in cultural mapping and database building. The explanation is made within the framework of the geography of television and related terms such as broadcasting, narrowcasting, station profile, viewing levels, Furthermore; common TV programming concepts are coupled to GIS spatial procedures and models. Samples from SNTV programmes scheduled and broadcasted in the period 2005-2012 were used as data to analyze, using GIS, the ability of such programmes to represent and to reflect the cultural geography of the nation. In addition, digital cultural maps and spatial database building for the country are considered as necessary for better TV programming and broadcasting policies. The results which include spatial mapping, buffers, spatial statistics and models show that; SNTV needs to consider GIS and cultural mapping in order to improve the understanding of its coverage/geography i.e. the homeland. In addition, the benefit from other programmes is rather minimized by many unconsidered factors such as; language type and level, optimum times in relation to viewers‟ economic activities, size of viewers and the availability of viewing facilities particularly in rural areas. A GIS spatially-based model for programme designing, scheduling and broadcasting considering the “what”, “when” and “where” elements of TV programming is suggested. Finally, as a recommendation, research and monitoring of viewers opinion and expectations through projects and regular surveys are needed for better feedback and programme updates

Phytochemical Screening, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Evaluations of Two Zingiberaceae Plants

The crude ethanolic extract of two commonly zingiberaceae medicinal plants Zingiber officinale (ginger) and Curcuma longa (turmeric) were screened for their phytochemical content which revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins and saponin

Assessment of genotype x environment interaction and stability of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) seed yield under rainfed and supplementary irrigation in central Sudan

ABSTRACT       Sesame knowledge of genotype x environment interaction (GEI) is advantageous in order to have a cultivar that gives consistently high yield in a broad range of environments and to increase the efficiency of breeding programs and selection of the best genotypes. Fifteen genotypes of sesame (Sesamum  indicum L.) were evaluated during 2011 and 2012 rainy seasons, at Wad Medani, Rahad (under supplementary irrigation) and Gedarif (under rainfed), to assess genotype x environment interaction and stability of seed yield. A randomized complete block design with four replicates was used in each location. The analysis of variance procedure revealed highly significant differences among the 15 sesame genotypes for seed yield over the eight environments. The mean squares of environment, genotype and genotype x environment interaction were highly significant for seed yield. Both statistical stability models, i. e. Eberhart and Russell (1966) as well as the Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis, indicated that genotypes Elgezouli, Promo, Um Shagra and Kenana-2 were the most high yielding and stable genotypes and can be recommended for both rainfed and irrigated areas of central Sudan.                من ميزات دراسة التفاعل الوراثي- البيئي في محصول السمسم معرفة افضل الاصناف ذات الانتاجية العالية في مدي واسع من البيئات المختلفة مما يزيد من كفاءة برامج التربية المستعملة وانتخاب افضل الاصناف. تم تقويم 15 سلالة من السمسم في الموسمين الزراعيين 2011 و2012م في ثلاثة مواقع هي مدني، الرهد (ري تكميلي) والقضارف (ري مطري)، وذلك لتقويم التفاعل الوراثي والبيئي وثبات درجة انتاجية بذور السمسم. استخدم تصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بأربع مكررات. اظهرت نتائج تحليل التباين لعدد 15 سلالة من السمسم فروقات معنوية عالية جدا لمعظم الصفات التي درست في كل المواقع والمواسم مع معنوية للتفاعل الوراثي والبيئي لإنتاجية البذور. بناءاً علي نماذج التحليل Eberhart and Russel (1966)              وAdditive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction(AMMI) لتحديد ثبات الاداء معاً وجد ان انتاجية بذور الاصناف الجزولي، برومو، ام شجرة وكنانة-2 ثابتة وعالية في كل المواقع والمواسم. وبناءاً علي ذلك يوصي بزراعة هذه الاصناف في المناطق المطرية والمروية في وسط السودان.                   &nbsp

A Memetic Algorithm with Reinforcement Learning for Sociotechnical Production Scheduling

The following interdisciplinary article presents a memetic algorithm with applying deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for solving practically oriented dual resource constrained flexible job shop scheduling problems (DRC-FJSSP). From research projects in industry, we recognize the need to consider flexible machines, flexible human workers, worker capabilities, setup and processing operations, material arrival times, complex job paths with parallel tasks for bill of material (BOM) manufacturing, sequence-dependent setup times and (partially) automated tasks in human-machine-collaboration. In recent years, there has been extensive research on metaheuristics and DRL techniques but focused on simple scheduling environments. However, there are few approaches combining metaheuristics and DRL to generate schedules more reliably and efficiently. In this paper, we first formulate a DRC-FJSSP to map complex industry requirements beyond traditional job shop models. Then we propose a scheduling framework integrating a discrete event simulation (DES) for schedule evaluation, considering parallel computing and multicriteria optimization. Here, a memetic algorithm is enriched with DRL to improve sequencing and assignment decisions. Through numerical experiments with real-world production data, we confirm that the framework generates feasible schedules efficiently and reliably for a balanced optimization of makespan (MS) and total tardiness (TT). Utilizing DRL instead of random metaheuristic operations leads to better results in fewer algorithm iterations and outperforms traditional approaches in such complex environments.Comment: This article has been accepted by IEEE Access on June 30, 202