The West Bank Aquifer and Conventions Regarding Laws of Belligerent Occupation

This Note will provide an introductory analysis of the conventions on belligerent occupation as they apply to the West Bank aquifer. Part I provides a brief analysis of the current situation in the region. Part II provides an overview of the relevant conventions on belligerent occupation and then focuses on how these laws apply to underground water resources in the West Bank. Finally, Part III outlines potential developments for the maintenance of complicity with the developing law of belligerent occupation, taking into account developments in international water law

Enhancing Metacognitive Awareness of College Learners.

By the time young adults reach college environments, they are expected to actively engage with text in order to obtain meaning from text. As Brown and Campione (1990) indicated, the demands of a technologically advanced society require complex forms of literacy (p. 108) and that among other skills, educated individuals must be able to read critically and to clearly articulate in both written and oral language

Bidirectional Recurrent Nets for ECG Signal Compression

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a commonly used tool in biological diagnosis of heart diseases. ECG allows the representation of electrical signals which cause heart muscles to contract and relax. Recently, accurate deep learning methods have been developed to overcome manual diagnosis in terms of time and effort. However, most of current automatic medical diagnosis use long electrocardiogram (ECG) signals to inspect different types of heart arrhythmia. Therefore, ECG signal files tend to require large storage to store and may cause significant overhead when exchanged over a computer network. This raises the need to come up with effective compression methods for ECG signals. In this work, the authors investigate using BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model, which is a bidirectional neural network that was originally designed for natural language. The authors evaluate the model with respect to its compression ratio and information preservation, and measure information preservation in terms of the of the accuracy of a convolutional neural network in classifying the decompressed signal. The results show that the method can achieve up to 83% saving in storage. Also, the classification accuracy of the decompressed signals is around 92.41%. Furthermore, the method enables the user to balance the compression ratio and the required accuracy of the CNN classifiers

Isolation, molecular identification and under lab evaluation of the entomopathogenic fungi M. anisopliae and B. bassiana against the Red Palm Weevil R. ferrugineus in Gaza Strip

Plant diseases generate challenging problems in commercial, agriculture and pose real economic threats to both conventional and organic farming systems. The red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) (RPW) is one of the most destructive pests of palms in the world. Nowadays, control methods revolve around treatments based on chemicals, biotechnological systems using semi-chemicals or the development of the sterile insect technique (hardly sustainable at this time) and biological control. Biological control as the use of natural microorganisms, extracted products from microorganisms or genetically improved to resist or eliminate of pathogens. Our aim was to evaluate the entomopathogenicity of indigenous Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae obtained in Gaza strip against larvae and adults of R. ferrugineus in order to identify indigenous strains potentially suitable for Red Palm Weevil biological control. B. bassiana & M. anisopliae were isolated from larvae and adult dead of RPW from different position of Gaza strip. Morphological analysis of the isolated fungi and molecular identification was determined using PCR technique. Also, the efficiency of the isolated fungi were evaluated under lab conditions and optimized as a biological agent. On the anther hand, the ability of treated RPW male to infect females is examined and calculated using Abbott's formula. Our results showed that the B. bassiana and M. anisopliae exhibited a good biological control agent against larvae and adults of RPW. The pathogenicity of the two most virulent isolates and the toxicity assay on larvae showed a highest mortality percentage nearly to 100

Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among university female students, Gaza, Palestine

The intestinal parasites are still endemic among children, women, and men in Gaza Strip. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of intestinal parasites among young female students of Islamic University of Gaza to report the existence and prevalence of intestinal parasites. A total of 305 stool samples were collected from female students in all faculties and were examined by wet mount and formal ether sedimentation technique. This study showed that the overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was 20.6%. The detected intestinal parasites were as follows: (7.5%), (4.9%), (0.3%), (2.6%), (1.0%), and (3.9%). Science students showed the highest prevalence for parasitic infections (35.3%), and married students (16.7%) had higher prevalence than single students (6.5%). It was concluded that female students also are under risk of gaining parasitic infection in spite of their education. It is recommended that university students should be subjected to regular medical examinations for parasitic infections. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2019 Avicenna Journal of Medicine.

Physicochemical Characteristics of Saudi Arabian Locally Produced Raw and Diluted Honeys and Their Relations to Antimicrobial Activity

The physicochemical characteristics and antibacterial activity of Saudi Arabia honeys were studied for the first time. The levels of free and total acidity, pH, ash and moisture content were in the range 1.6 ±0.17 - 15.1 ±0.1 meq/kg, 2.77 ± 0.06 - 5.37 ±0.04, 1.1 ±0.02 – 1.7 ±0.03 % and < 18.0 %, respectively. Lovibond comparator color scale (P, mm) of samples was ranged from water white (P=0.0-1.3), extra light Amber (P=38.14-46.57), light Amber (P=60.39-75.54), Amber (P=86.72-110.08), dark (P=142.39-348.44) and very dark shade (P= 541.84).  Dark honeys showed excellent inhibitory effects against bacterial growth. Excellent correlation between color of raw and diluted (>10.0%m/v) honey and antimicrobial activity was noticed. Honey species from different floral sources posses’ strong antioxidant and anti bacterial activities and are scavengers of active oxygen species.Â

A Suggested Responding Approach for Teaching Poetry to Junior English Students at the IUG

This dissertation introduces a suggested approach to teaching poetry. It consists of Five chapters. Chapter One involves an introduction for the study in which the researcher writes about present reality of English language teaching in theGazastrip , modern attitudes towards teaching English, poetry teaching in our universities and an alternative technique for teaching poetry. After that, statement of the problem is given. This is followed with the questions of the study, definition of terms and the limitations of the study. Shortcomings comes at the end of the chapter. Chapter two begins with the theoretical framework for the suggested approach; a review of the previous studies follows. The review is divided into two sections: overview of literature usage in language teaching process and Review of using reader response in teaching literary works. Chapter Three is the methodology of the study. In the methodology, the researcher writes about the population and the sample of the study, used tools, and the procedures. The sample of the study is (39) female students who are enrolled to 2006/2007 summer course. Concerning the tools, the researcher uses two tools in this study: a checklist of Content Elements and a checklist of Technical Skills. Finally, this chapter ends with an analysis of the findings of the study which shows that: Overall availability of Content items in learners’ responses is (77.4%) and the percents of their presence vary between (53.58% - 94.78%). Overall availability of technical items in learners’ responses is (59.46%) and the availability rates of grammar, punctuation, and writing skills vary between (76.56%), (52.95%) and (42.56%) respectively. Statistical difference related to some contents items are found between pre and the post experiment in learners' responses. Furthermore, differences are found in the checklist as whole. These differences are in favor of post experiment. However, no statistical differences are found in the others. Statistical differences related to the technical items are found between the pre and the post experiment in grammar, punctuation, writing skills and in the checklist as whole. These differences are in favor of post experiment Chapter Four is devoted to introducing the approach. It consists of three pillar: eclectic use of the theories of criticism, making use of the approaches for teaching literature and using an effective teaching aid or technique which helps achieve the goal of the lesson. In the light of that, the researcher sheds light on some of the theories and approaches from which the suggested approach emerges. In this part, the researcher introduces the assumptions of the theories that intersect with reader response theory and the assumptions of literature approaches. This is followed with the importance of eclectic use of theories and approaches. After that, a delineation of the checklist items is made. Finally, rational behind involving each item in the checklist is made. In chapter five, the researcher applies emerging approach on Cecil Harrison's poem" The War is Never Over". The application of the approach is performed to prove the replicability of the approach. During that application another technique is used. Next, in the light of the study, the researcher introduces recommendations for: learners, teachers, the university system and further studies

Blockchain for next generation services in banking and finance: cost, benefit, risk and opportunity analysis

YesPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to help in providing a better understanding of the application of blockchain technology in the context of the banking and finance sectors. The aim is to outline blockchain’s benefits, opportunities, costs, risks as well as challenges of the technology in the context of banking and finance services Design/methodology/approach – Careful examination of the extant literature, including utilising relevant academic-based research databases has been carried out. It covered reviewing various research contributions published in peer-reviewed journals, academic reports, as well as technical reports to help in identifying related benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks. Findings – The findings reveal that there are limited contributions in utilising blockchain in the banking and finance sectors when compared with other sectors. As such, the study highlighted the relevant perspective of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks within such sectors. Practical implications – This study helps in offering a focal point to banking and financial sector managers and decision-makers for realising the benefits of blockchain technology as well as developing strategies and programmes to overcome the identified challenges. Originality/value – This study highlights the need for a holistic understanding of the various aspects of cost, benefits, risk and opportunities to create blockchain applications that work for banking and finance sectorsNPRP grant # [11S-0117–180325] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation)