Determining the Intended Meaning of Words in a Religious Text: An Intertextuality-Oriented Approach

The aim of the present study was to show how intertextuality could be a viable approach to determine the intended meaning of words in religious texts such as the Holy Quran. In order to do just this, the researcher selected two Quranic words to be the data of the study. These were al-gibaal (Arabic: ) and al-rawasi (Arabic: يساورلا )1. As for the machinery, a three-level analysis was attempted. At the first level, the denotational and connotational meanings of the two lemmas (dictionary entries) as illustrated in some major Arabic dictionaries are provided. At the second, the meanings of these words were sought in the interpretations of some major Muslim expositors. Finally, some attempts were made to provide alternative explanations by bringing out the local and global intuitions that the words invoke in the Quranic text as a coherent whole. The analysis of data revealed that al-gibaal and al-rawaasi are both not part of the Earth; al-gibaal is different form al-rawaasi in that whereas al-rawaasi is the main part of a mountain digging deep in the earth, al-gibaal is the outside part; al-gibaal serve a different function as compared with that of al-rawaasi; and finally, unlike al-rawaasi, there are three kinds of al-gibaal.

Karakterizacija terenskih izolata virusa zarazne bolesti Fabricijeve burze u Jordanu uporabom molekularnih metoda - kratko priopćenje.

The reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism (RTPCR/ RFLP) and RT-PCR specific primer to detect very virulent (vv) strains of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) were used for identification and characterization of Jordanian field isolates of IBDV that caused severe outbreaks. In this study, 80 bursa of fabricius samples were used from 20 commercial broiler chicken flocks in Jordan with clinical symptoms of IBDV. The RT-PCR/RFLP was conducted on a 743-bp fragment of the VP2 gene with the restriction enzymes BstNI and MboI. The results indicate the existence of IBDV field strains in Jordan. In addition, 60% of IBDV Jordanian isolates had unique RFLP patterns different from those previously published elsewhere. However, 20% of local IBDV strains were positive on using a specific primer for vvIBDV and had a unique RFLP pattern that differed from the Jordanian IBDV isolate and those previously published elsewhere.Lančana reakcija polimerazom uz prethodnu reverznu transkripciju/polimorfizam dužine restrikcijskih fragmenata (RT PCR/RFLP) i RT-PCR specifične početnice za jako virulentne sojeve virusa zarazne bolesti Fabricijeve burze (ZBFB) bile su rabljene za identifikaciju i karakterizaciju jordanskih terenskih izolata toga virusa koji su uzrokovali teški oblik bolesti. Za istraživanje je bilo rabljeno 80 uzoraka tkiva Fabricijeve burze uzetih iz 20 komercijalnih jata tovnih pilića u Jordanu u kojih su ustanovljeni klinički znakovi ZBFB a. RT-PCR/ RFLP proveden je na odsječku gena VP2 od 743-bp s restrikcijskim enzimima BstNI i MboI. Rezultati upućuju na postojanje terenskih sojeva virusa ZBFB-a od kojih je 60% izolata imalo jedinstveni RFLP obrazac različit od onoga već objavljenog drugdje. Ipak, 20% lokalnih sojeva virusa bilo je pozitivno uporabom specifične početnice za jako virulentni virus i imalo je jedinstveni obrazac RFLP različit u jordanskih izolata u odnosu na izolate objavljene drugdje

Closed-loop DBS triggered by real-time movement and tremor decoding based on thalamic LFPs for essential tremor.

High frequency Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) targeting the motor thalamus is an effective therapy for essential tremor (ET). However, since tremor mainly affects periods of voluntary movements and sustained postures in ET, conventional continuous stimulation may deliver unnecessary current to the brain. Here we tried to decode movement states based on local field potentials (LFPs) recorded from motor thalamus and zona incerta in real-time to trigger the switching on and off of DBS in three patients with ET. Patient-specific models were first identified using thalamic LFPs recorded while the patient performed movements that tended to trigger tremor in everyday life. During the real-time test, LFPs were continuously recorded to decode movements and tremor, and the detection triggered stimulation. Results show that voluntary movements can be detected with a mean sensitivity ranging from 76.8% to 88.6% and a false positive rate ranging from 16.0% to 23.1% Postural tremor was detected with similar accuracy. The closed-loop DBS triggered by tremor detection suppressed intention tremor by 90.5% with a false positive rate of 20.3%.Clinical Relevance- This is the first study on closed-loop DBS triggered by real-time movement and tremor decoding based solely on thalamic LFPs. The results suggest that responsive DBS based on movement and tremor detection can be achieved without any requirement for external sensors or additional electrocorticography strips

Closing the Gap between Research Evidence and Clinical Practice: Jordanian Nurses’ Perceived Barriers to Research Utilisation

Background: The nursing profession is a combination of theory and practical skill, and nurses are required to generate and develop knowledge through implementing research into clinical practice. Considerable number of barriers could hind implementing research findings into practice. Barriers to research utilisation are not identified in the Jordanian context. Aims and Objectives: To explore Jordanian nurses’ perception of the barriers to research utilisation in clinical practice. Design: A quantitative descriptive survey design was used. Methods: The sample consisted of 239 Jordanian nurses from one university hospital and three governmental hospitals. Nurses were conveniently recruited. Data was collection using the Barriers to Research utilisation questionnaire. Results: The majority of the participants were males (54%) and 53% of the participants were under the age of 30. The mean total score of barriers to research utilisation (BRU) was high at 2.97 (SD) out of 4 (the highest possible barriers score). The top three barriers were: “research results are not generalizable to their settings”, “lack of authority to change patient care procedures”, and “research articles are not published fast enough”. Conclusions: Barriers to research utilisation are high and were related to all aspects of research utilisation. These barriers need to be eliminated to improve the provided nursing care. To enhance research utilisation, a national-level guidance development system is needed. This will has the sole responsibility is to develop clinical guidelines, which are informed by the research, which practitioners and health services are then responsible for implementing into practice. Hence, hospital policies need to be reformed to address the procedure and activities of keeping the patients care up to date with current advances in healthcare disciplines. Keywords: Research utilisation, barriers, Jordan, Nurses, clinical practic

Occupational Therapy in Health Care

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to determine i

Balance between competing spectral states in subthalamic nucleus is linked to motor impairment in Parkinson's disease

Exaggerated bursts of activity at frequencies in the low beta band are a well-established phenomenon in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of patients with Parkinson's disease. However, such activity is only moderately correlated with motor impairment. Here we test the hypothesis that beta bursts are just one of several dynamic states in the STN local field potential (LFP) in Parkinson's disease, and that together these different states predict motor impairment with high fidelity. LFPs were recorded in 32 patients (64 hemispheres) undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery targeting the STN. Recordings were performed following overnight withdrawal of anti-parkinsonian medication, and after administration of levodopa. LFPs were analysed using Hidden Markov Modelling to identify transient spectral states with frequencies under 40 Hz. Findings in the low beta frequency band were similar to those previously reported; levodopa reduced occurrence rate and duration of low beta states, and the greater the reductions, the greater the improvement in motor impairment. However, additional LFP states were distinguished in the theta, alpha and high beta bands, and these behaved in an opposite manner. They were increased in occurrence rate and duration by levodopa, and the greater the increases, the greater the improvement in motor impairment. In addition, levodopa favoured the transition of low beta states to other spectral states. When all LFP states and corresponding features were considered in a multivariate model it was possible to predict 50% of the variance in patients' hemibody impairment OFF medication, and in the change in hemibody impairment following levodopa. This only improved slightly if signal amplitude or gamma band features were also included in the multivariate model. In addition, it compares with a prediction of only 16% of the variance when using beta bursts alone. We conclude that multiple spectral states in the STN LFP have a bearing on motor impairment, and that levodopa-induced shifts in the balance between these states can predict clinical change with high fidelity. This is important in suggesting that some states might be upregulated to improve parkinsonism and in suggesting how LFP feedback can be made more informative in closed-loop deep brain stimulation systems

Performance of TETRA and GSM\GPRS as a Platform for Broadband Internet and Multimedia Evolution

In this paper, a novel approach for the comparison between TETRA system and other contenders is presented showing the relative potentials, thence applications and possible new services. TETRA Voice plus Data (V+D) and GPRSbased- GSM performance are also compared for defined multimedia transmission to revise the capability of bothsystems to afford multimedia applications to large number of subscribers with the shortest time possible while maintaining the optimal channel utilization. Performance measurements for data transmission illustrate that TETRA exhibits faster time response for connection setup time than the GPRS\GSM applications can provide. Simulation results also confirm that TETRA can support larger number of Mobile Stations (MSs) than the GSM\GPRS for the same time delay period, yet TETRA requires minimal network resources in comparison with GSM\GPRS for the same supported service. Indeed this is important in the present time where the demand on wireless communication is increasing dramatically and this what stimulates the concept of this research. Also, the hypothesis that certain communications systems utilizes spectrum efficiency more effectively than others and the fact that radio spectrum is a scarce recourse have further encourages the start of this research

Noninvasive grading of glioma tumor using magnetic resonance imaging with convolutional neural networks

In recent years, Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) have rapidly emerged as a widespread machine learning technique in a number of applications especially in the area of medical image classification and segmentation. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that uses ConvNet for classifying brain medical images into healthy and unhealthy brain images. The unhealthy images of brain tumors are categorized also into low grades and high grades. In particular, we use the modified version of the Alex Krizhevsky network (AlexNet) deep learning architecture on magnetic resonance images as a potential tumor classification technique. The classification is performed on the whole image where the labels in the training set are at the image level rather than the pixel level. The results showed a reasonable performance in characterizing the brain medical images with an accuracy of 91.16%.Peer reviewe

Assessing TQM implementation in manufacturing firms : a case study from Dubai

This study reports on the development of a tool that can be used by management and industrial practitioners to self-assess Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation and initiatives in their firms. Such a tool can be effectively used by management to obtain a better understanding of their efforts toward TQM implementation and to spot areas to be targeted by managers for improvement to help their organization in its quality mission and to identify the level of training needed. The tool incorporated, interpreted and operationalized the implicit concepts of TQM proposed by TQM gurus; national and international quality awards; and three foundation studies from the TQM literature. The reliability and validity of the tool were assessed using data obtained from studies of 126 manufacturing firms in Dubai - United Arab Emirates. The survey data indicate that manufacturing firms in Dubai moderately adopt the elements of TQM and that there are no significant differences in TQM implementation among these firms. The study also shows clear patterns where firms stress some TQM practices but ignore others. The importance of behavioural practices that are not implemented is highlighted as an important warning to management