Psychometric Properties of an Instrument Developed to Assess Students’ Evaluation of Teaching in Higher Education

Student evaluation of teaching is a global predominant practice in higher education institutions. Therefore, a major university in Jordan developed a questionnaire for students’ use in evaluating their instructors’ teaching effectiveness.  Since student evaluation of teaching is an important process, the present study tried to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Item-total correlations showed acceptable internal consistency. In addition, a two-factor structure of the scale (teaching effectiveness and course attributes) was supported by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis from two independent samples. Convergent validity was supported by a moderate correlation coefficient between course averages of students’ ratings on the first factor and course averages of students’ final grades in each course. Finally, students’ responses on the factor that captures teaching effectiveness were found to have very high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.96). However, this instrument lacks evidences of content validity and convergent validity. Therefore, it is important to be cautious in evaluating faculty members and making promotion decisions that is based solely on the scores obtained using this instrument.

Assessment of Air Pollutants Emissions from a Cement Plant: A Case Study in Jordan

This paper presents predictions of air pollutants (dust, SO2, NOx and CO) emitted from a cement plant that will be constructed in Wadi Alabyad area located about 100 km south of Amman, Jordan. The Gaussian air pollution model is used and the predicted concentrations of the air pollutants are compared with the Jordanian air quality standards (JS 1140/2006). It is found that the month of September represents the worst-case scenario where the atmospheric stability condition is classified as A and the average wind speed is 1.7 m/s. The predicted SO2 hourly and the 24-hour concentrations -when using fuel oil- reached 0.8 ppm and 0.42 ppm, consequently, at a distance of 750 m from the plant, which exceed the standard values of 0.3 ppm and 0.14 pmm, consequently. In case of natural gas as source of energy, the SO2 concentration is predicted to be negligible. The hourly concentration of NOx is 0.32 ppm at a distance of 750 m from the plant exceeding the standard limit of 0.21 ppm. It is found that the maximum TSP 24-hour concentration will be expected to reach 359.61 μg/m3 exceeding the standard value of 260 μg/m3. The TSP, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations exceeded the values set by the standard near the vicinity of the cement plant at a distance closer than 300 m. The proposed mitigation measures should limit the ambient air pollutant concentrations to be in compliance with the standard values

Clinical and computed tomographic evaluation of portland cement pulpotomy in primary molar: A case report

The present case describes the clinical & radiographic outcome of a Portland Cement pulpotomy. The 5 years old girl presenting extensive carious exposure in her mandibular left 2nd deciduous molar and was suffering pain in her left lower jaw only on exposure to cold for last 2 days. She was ultimately diagnosed clinic-radio-graphically as a case of irreversible pulpitis. Coronal pulpotomy procedure was carried out in the responsible tooth and Portland cement (PC) was applied as a medicament after pulpotomy. At the 3 & 6-months follow-up appointments, treated tooth was asymptomatic clinically and radiographic examinations revealed no sign of periradicular pathosis in the pulpotomized teeth. Additionally, the formation of a dentin bridge immediately below the PC in the treated tooth was confirmed by RVG and CBCT

Annual Biomass Production, Chemical Composition and In- sacco Degradability of Different Cultivars of Moringa oleifera

Types of plant cultivars and seasons often affect production and productivity of fodder biomass and nutritional quality to animals. Selection of suitable cultivars and better understanding of year round biomass production are indispensable for improving quality feed supply to animals. Black Seed Moringa (BSM-L) and White Seed Moringa (WSM), the two local cultivars and Black Seed Moringa (BSM-T) cultivar of Thailand origin of Moringa oleifera were cultivated in the fodder research field of the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) during the period of 19 August 2014 to 23 December 2015. An agronomical trial was conducted to determine the biomass yield of the three cultivars in different seasons of a year under common agronomical practices. The effect of the cultivars on the daily relative growth rate (RGR), chemical composition and in-sacco dry matter (DM) degradability were also evaluated. The cultivar response to biomass production performances, chemical composition and nutritional values were analyzed in an ANOVA of a Randomized Block Design (RBD), while the differences in the rate and extent of the DM degradability in-sacco determined using three rumen cannulated bulls were analyzed in an ANOVA of 3x3 Latin Square Design. The annual biomass yield of BSM-L tops (114.5 t/ha fresh; 22.7 t/ha DM) was significantly higher than that of WSM (29.0 t/ha fresh; 5.80 t/ha DM) or BSM-T (83.5 t/ha fresh; 16.0 t/ha DM). No significant difference in chemical composition (224.9, 222.4 & 223.8 g.kg-1 DM of crude protein (CP), respectively, and 450.9, 455.3 & 435.4 g.kg-1 DM of neutral detergent fiber, respectively) or nutritional value (47.4, 46.7 & 45.3% of potential, and 62.8, 64.2 and 63.6% of effective degradability of dry matter) was found for the cultivars. BSM-L had a significantly higher survivability (97.2%), prune number per plant (3.50) and RGR (15.6 mg DM/day) than WSM (25.0%, 2.30 & 4.20 mg DM/day) or BSM-T (55.6%, 3.10 & 10.8 mg DM/day) respectively. The hot and dry, and hot and humid climate having a Heat Index (HI) range of 25o to 35o F and monthly total rainfall of 130 mm to 332 mm were suitable for cultivation of all the Moringa cultivars. It was concluded that considering biomass production and its quality in terms of chemical composition and nutritional values, Black Seed Moringa (Moringa oleifera) may be cultivated as a plant fodder crop for the production of feed for ruminant animals

Clinical and computed tomographic evaluation of portland cement pulpotomy in primary molar: A case report

The present case describes the clinical & radiographic outcome of a Portland Cement pulpotomy. The 5 years old girl presenting extensive carious exposure in her mandibular left 2nd deciduous molar and was suffering pain in her left lower jaw only on exposure to cold for last 2 days. She was ultimately diagnosed clinic-radio-graphically as a case of irreversible pulpitis. Coronal pulpotomy procedure was carried out in the responsible tooth and Portland cement (PC) was applied as a medicament after pulpotomy. At the 3 & 6-months follow-up appointments, treated tooth was asymptomatic clinically and radiographic examinations revealed no sign of periradicular pathosis in the pulpotomized teeth. Additionally, the formation of a dentin bridge immediately below the PC in the treated tooth was confirmed by RVG and CBCT

Effects of brand awareness, religious belief, and brand trust on purchase intentions of halal products among young consumers

Halal brands are gaining popularity among Muslim consumers across the world. This study aims to explore the effect of brand awareness, religious belief, and brand trust on young Muslim consumers’ willingness to purchase halal-branded products. The electronic questionnaires were distributed to participants through Google Forms via a popular social media platform. The survey sample consisted of university students from Bangladesh who identified as Muslims. The paper utilized a purposive sampling technique to select participants for the study, resulting in a total of 517 respondents being included in the sample. Finally, 479 responses were found usable for this study, with a response rate of 92.70%. Among 479, 300 participants were male, while 179 students were female university students. The latest edition of the software SPSS has been employed to examine hypotheses and correlations, with a confidence level of 95%. The results showed a significant impact of brand awareness, religious belief, and brand trust on purchase willingness. Moreover, it indicates that consumers’ brand awareness about halal products (β = 0.392) has a greater effect on their purchase willingness. These findings have the potential to provide valuable insights for halal brands, as they can have a substantial impact on the purchasing choices of young Muslim consumers, particularly regarding their religious and halal concerns

Bayesian Intent Prediction in Object Tracking Using Bridging Distributions.

In several application areas, such as human computer interaction, surveillance and defence, determining the intent of a tracked object enables systems to aid the user/operator and facilitate effective, possibly automated, decision making. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic inference approach that permits the prediction, well in advance, of the intended destination of a tracked object and its future trajectory. Within the framework introduced here, the observed partial track of the object is modeled as being part of a Markov bridge terminating at its destination, since the target path, albeit random, must end at the intended endpoint. This captures the underlying long term dependencies in the trajectory, as dictated by the object intent. By determining the likelihood of the partial track being drawn from a particular constructed bridge, the probability of each of a number of possible destinations is evaluated. These bridges can also be employed to produce refined estimates of the latent system state (e.g., object position, velocity, etc.), predict its future values (up until reaching the designated endpoint) and estimate the time of arrival. This is shown to lead to a low complexity Kalman-filter-based implementation of the inference routine, where any linear Gaussian motion model, including the destination reverting ones, can be applied. Free hand pointing gestures data collected in an instrumented vehicle and synthetic trajectories of a vessel heading toward multiple possible harbors are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.The authors would like to thank Jaguar Land Rover and the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (BTaRoT grant EP/K020153/1) for funding this research

Substrate integrated waveguide cavity backed frequency reconfigurable antenna for cognitive radio applies to internet of things applications

In this article, a new multiband frequency reconfigurable substrate integrated waveguide cavity slot antenna was designed using Computer Simulation Technology software tool for addressing the specific design challenges posed by the internet of things (IoT) based cognitive radio networks. Reconfiguration of frequency bands is achieved using PIN diodes. The antenna resonated at 2.624, 2.664, 2.720, 2.752, 4.304, 4.532, 4.556, 5.236, 5.304, 5.368, 5.332, and 5.392 GHz. The resonant frequency capability and radiation performance are demonstrated by both simulations and measurements. The simulated and measured results were in agreement. The higher efficiency, gain and average bandwidth obtained are 90%, 8.2 dBi and 65 MHz, respectively. The compactness, integrity, reliability, and performance at various operating frequencies make the proposed antenna a good candidate for IoT applications