Designs of low delay cosine modulated filter banks and subband amplifiers

This paper proposes a design of a low delay cosine modu-lated filter bank and subband amplifier coefficients for digi-tal audio hearing aids denoising applications. The objective of the design is to minimize the delay of the filter bank. Speci-fications on the maximum magnitude of both the real and the imaginary parts of the transfer function distortion and the aliasing distortion of the filter bank are imposed. Also, the constraint on the maximum absolute difference between the desirable magnitude square response and the designed mag-nitude square response of the prototype filter over both the passband and the stopband is considered. The subband am-plifier coefficients are designed based on a least squares training approach. The average mean square errors between the noisy samples and the clean samples is minimized. Com-puter numerical simulation results show that our proposed approach could significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio of digital audio hearing aids

MOOCs in Omani Higher Education Institutions: Use and Popularity

Due to the rapid influence of technology on the teaching-learning process, both instructors and students alike are expected to keep abreast of the perpetual developments in the field of education. The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (Henceforth MOOCs), as one form of e-learning, has made skyrocketing changes in the manner and availability of education provided to mass numbers of learners all the world, including Arab countries. The use of MOOCs in Oman is relatively new, and thus it appears to be unbeknown to a large segment of undergraduate students. The study beforehand, therefore, is meant to explore Omani undergraduate students’ awareness of MOOCs both locally and globally via the use a self-administered questionnaire targeting three main academic institutions in Oman with a total number of 306 participants. In-depth scrutiny of the obtained data evidently shows that unfamiliarity of MOOCs among Omani undergraduate students is significantly high, a fact reflected in the high percentage of those oblivious of its existence (88.89%) as opposed to those (11.11 %) who are familiar with MOOCs. Lack of publicity of these platforms in the Omani academic institutions and the academic community in general, among several other reasons, stand behind such unawareness of these platforms

Educational Games in Elementary Education: Unlocking the Potentials

The advent of technology has made big strides in the development of humans’ life in different spheres. The integration of technology in education has introduced other teaching methods that could improve and emulate the traditional way of teaching. The use of educational games is a by-product of integrating technology into teaching to enhance teaching methods and students’ performance. This study, hence, aims to evaluate the effect of using educational games in teaching mathematics to second-graders in a Palestinian school using a quasi-experimental approach. Thirty male and female second-graders from Al Aqsa Integrated School, Kuala Lumpur, were the targeted sample. The sample was divided into an experimental group and a control group. A selected educational game was used to explain mathematics lessons, namely addition within 99 or 999, to the experimental group. The same content was taught to the students in the control group using the traditional method. Findings showed that teaching mathematics via educational games was significantly effective in improving students’ achievement in the experimental group compared to the achievement of their counterparts taught via the traditional method. These findings provide evidence that educational games could substantially improve primary second-grade students’ skills in mathematics compared to the traditional teaching method

Integration between well logging and seismic reflection techniques for structural analysis and reservoir characterizations, Abu El Gharadig basin, Egypt

AbstractAbu El Gharadig basin is located in the northern part of the Western Desert, Egypt. Geophysical investigation in the form of thirty (3D) seismic lines and well logging data of five wells have been analyzed in the oil field BED-1 that is located in the northwestern part of Abu El Gharadig basin in the Western Desert of Egypt. The reflection sections have been used to shed more light on the tectonic setting of Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous rocks. While the well logging data have been analyzed for delineating the petrophysical characteristics of the two main reservoirs, Bahariya and Kharita Formations. The constructed subsurface geologic cross sections, seismic sections, and the isochronous reflection maps indicate that the area is structurally controlled by tectonic trends affecting the current shape of Abu El Gharadig basin. Different types of faults are well represented in the area, particularly normal one. The analysis of the average and interval velocities versus depth has shown their effect by facies changes and/or fluid content. On the other hand, the derived petrophysical parameters of Bahariya and Kharita Formations vary from well to another and they have been affected by the gas effect and/or the presence of organic matter, complex lithology, clay content of dispersed habitat, and the pore volume

World Wide Epidemiology of Helminths Infection

Helminths (from the Greek Helmins, meaning worm) include three groups of parasitic worm, large multicellular organisms with complex tissues and organs. Helminths do not replicate within the human host except Strongyloides stercoralis. Prevalence is commonly combined with worm burden (intensity of infection), which is commonly measured by the number of eggs per gram (EPGs) of faeces for intestinal helminths and schistosomes. Based on EPGs and their association with morbidity, individuals are classified into categories of light, moderate and heavy infection by the WHO. In the case of soil‐transmitted helminths, the WHO recommends use of both prevalence and intensity of infection to classify communities into transmission categories—category I (high), category II (medium), and category III (low). The neglected status of the helminthiasis should be addressed on community levels and globally all over the world

Effects of oleuropein-rich olive leaf extract on the oxidative stability of refined sunflower oil

The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of oleuropein-rich olive leaf extract (OLE) to improve the quality and oxidative stability of sunflower oil subjected to accelerated thermal oxidation. Oleuropein was the major phenolic compound determined by HPLC-DAD with a content ranging from 20.81 to 32.56 mg·g-1 of dry extract (DE). The evaluation of the in vitro antioxidant capacity of OLE showed good scavenging capacity of the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) (1.01 and 0.96 mmol Trolox equivalents (ET·g-1 DE, respectively). The enrichment of sunflower oil with 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5% OLE (w/v) significantly inhibited thermal-induced peroxidation in a dose-dependent fashion. 0.25% OLE was the most effective concentration and showed a significant reduction in peroxide value and conjugated dienes by 61.4 and 17.4%. These results indicate that OLE can be considered a good natural alternative for extending the shelf-life of polyunsaturated vegetable oils

Construction of a Scale for Emotions Management of the Educational Supervisors in the Sultanate of Oman

This study aimed to construct of a scale for emotions management of the educational supervisors in the Sultanate of Oman. It aimed to find out its psychometric properties in terms of validity, reliability, and performance norms. The sample size consisted of 335 supervisors from the Omani educational governorate. The scale was applied during the first semester of the academic year 2010-2011. The validity was verified by three methods: face validity, factorialvalidity and concurrentvalidity. Since there were no significant differences in the scale averages of males and females, the norms were derived for both males and females combined. Finally, a number of recommendations and suggestions have been introduced

2-Amino-6-(dimethyl­amino)pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile

The title compound, C9H9N5, is slightly twisted from planarity, with a maximum deviation of 0.0285 (13) Å from the pyridine plane for the C atom bearing the amino group. The cyano groups are on different sides of the pyridine plane, with C- and N-atom deviations of 0.072 (3)/0.124 (4) and −0.228 (4)/−0.409 (5) Å from the pyridine plane. In the crystal, N—H⋯N and C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds connect the mol­ecules into zigzag chains running along the c axis