Interim Measures in International Commercial Arbitration: A Discourse in Continued Uncertainty

The paper investigates the problem associated with the issue of interim measures in international arbitration, particularly, the power of arbitral tribunals to grant such measures and to enforce them. After an extensive and detailed analysis of various international arbitration rules, conventions and national systems the research finds that there is a great deal of uncertainty and confusion as to the issues underlying interim measures in international arbitration. In addition, national legislations on arbitration need to be clarified and adjusted to international best practices.   One of the main issues which the paper highlights is the limitation on national court’s power to order interim measures. In several cases, it has been recorded that the availability of emergency arbitrator’s provisions under institutional rules may significantly jeopardize the parties’ existing right to seek court-ordered interim measures, which is not in line with what the arbitral institutions had intended upon providing these expediting provisions. Thus, the paper provides suggestions and recommendations towards more certainty in the treatment of interim measures in international arbitration. Keywords : Arbitration, Interim Measures, Uncertaint

Community Engagement and Improved Language Proficiency: The Case of Service-Learning in Higher Education in Oman

It can be argued that as an effective teaching approach, service learning can contribute significantly to improvement of the proficiency of learners of English as a foreign Language. This paper reports on the findings of a quasi- experimental study on the effect of service learning on EFL student-teachers English language proficiency in pre-service teacher education program at Sultan Qaboos University. The findings of the study reveal that the student teachers in the experimental group outperformed those in the contrast group in all language components tested by the TOEFL and the Oral test. These findings clearly indicate an overall improvement in the language performance of the student teachers as a result of the service-learning intervention. Comparison of the experimental group results in both tests between pre and post intervention reveals a significant improvement which can be attributed to the service learning experience

A Survey of the Yemeni Translation Market Needs

لقد تغيرت طرق تطوير البرامج الأكاديمية خلال السنوات السابقة لتصبح متمحورة حول المتعلم، وهذا يعني أن البرامج تبنى على الكفايات التي يجب أن يكتسبها الدارس ويتم التوصل إليها من خلال استطلاع أراء المستفيدين من البرنامج، ويُعد سوق العمل أحد أهم المصادر لهذه الكفايات. ولذلك فقد هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التعرف على كفايات الترجمة المطلوبة لسوق الترجمة في اليمن، حيث قامت الباحثة بتطوير استبانة للكفايات المطلوبة للترجمة بالاستناد على ما كتب حديثا فيه واستقصت آراء 50 مترجما محترفا يعملون في صنعاء. اشتملت الاستبانة على 35 فقرة وصفت كفايات الترجمة لبرامج المرحلة الجامعية. توزعت الفقرات على خمس محاور أساسية وهي: الكفايات اللغوية، وكفايات الترجمة، والكفايات الثقافية، وكفايات وسائل الترجمة والبحث، والكفايات الإستراتيجية بالإضافة إلى القدرات الشخصية للمترجم. أظهرت النتائج أن كفايات الترجمة كانت ذات أهمية كبيرة للمشاركين من المترجمين المحترفين، حيث لم تستثنى أي كفاية، وتحديدا تم اختيار 21 منها كمهمة جدا. الكفايات الحاصلة على أعلى درجات الأهمية ركزت على المهارات الأساسية للمترجم التي لا يمكن للعمل الترجمي أن يتم بدونها وهي الكفايات اللغوية والثقافية والتعرف على المشكلات وحلها واستخدام القواميس والبحث عن المعلومات، وحصلت كفايات الترجمة الشفوية واستخدام تكنولوجيا الترجمة الحديثة على اهتمام أقل والذي قد يعزى إلى الركود الحاصل في السوق الترجمة نظرا لتردي أوضاع البلاد إجمالا.Academic programs have changed to become learner-centered. As such, programs are based on the competences that learners should acquire. One major source for these competences is the market. The aim of this study was to identify the translation competences needed by the Yemeni market. Drawing on recent literature, the researcher developed a questionnaire, and a total number of 50 professional translators – working in Sana’a – filled the questionnaire. It included 35 items distributed to five categories: bilingual competence, cultural competence, translation competence, instrumental competence, and strategic competence, in addition to psycho-physiological components of translators. Results revealed that all translation competences were important and needed by the market; none was marked as unimportant. Specifically, 21 of them were highly important. The highest degrees of importance were for basic skills without which translation tasks can never be done: language competence, bicultural competence, problem solving procedures, and use of dictionaries and information mining. Meanwhile, the focus –though needed – was less on the competences of interpreting and modern translation technologies which can be attributed to the difficult times  Yemen experiences currently that caused recession in the translation market.That was obvious in the lack of conferences and official activities, in additionto the lack of specialists in translation technology

Genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Pahang, Malaysia based on MSP-1 and MSP-2 genes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is still a public health problem in Malaysia especially in the interior parts of Peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia). This is the first study on the genetic diversity and genotype multiplicity of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>in Malaysia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seventy-five <it>P. falciparum </it>isolates were genotyped by using nested-PCR of <it>MSP-1 </it>(block 2) and <it>MSP-2 </it>(block 3).</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>MSP-1 </it>and <it>MSP-2 </it>allelic families were identified in 65 blood samples. RO33 was the predominant <it>MSP-1 </it>allelic family identified in 80.0% (52/65) of the samples while K1 family had the least frequency. Of the <it>MSP-2 </it>allelic families, 3D7 showed higher frequency (76.0%) compared to FC27 (20.0%). The multiplicity of <it>P. falciparum </it>infection (MOI) was 1.37 and 1.20 for <it>MSP-1 </it>and <it>MSP-2</it>, respectively. A total of seven alleles were detected; of which three <it>MSP-1 </it>allelic families (RO33, MAD20 and K1) were monomorphic in terms of size while <it>MSP-2 </it>alleles were polymorphic (two 3D7 and two FC27). Heterozygosity (H_E) was 0.57 and 0.55 for <it>MSP-1 </it>and <it>MSP-2</it>, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study showed that the MOI of <it>P. falciparum </it>is low, reflected the low intensity of malaria transmission in Pahang, Malaysia; RO33 and 3D7 were the most predominant circulating allelic families. The findings showed that <it>P. falciparum </it>has low allelic diversity with a high frequency of alleles. As a result, antimalarial drug efficacy trials based on MSP genotyping should be carefully interpreted.</p

EFL Teachers’ Awareness, Practices and Challenges of Teaching English Communicatively in Oman Post Basic Education Schools

This study investigated the perceived knowledge and actual practice of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) among post basic education teachers in Omani schools, along with the influence of gender and length of teaching experience years on teachers’ practice of this approach. It also explored the different challenges faced by teachers when implementing CLT. A total of 122 EFL Omani teachers took part in this study. The respondents completed the following: (1) a twenty-five item questionnaire concerning CLT principles; and (2) a questionnaire regarding the challenges of CLT. The results revealed that Omani EFL teachers have a high degree of awareness of the principles of CLT. However, they practice this approach at a moderate level, while their gender and length of teaching experiences have little impact on their actual practice of this approach. The findings further indicated that the implementation of CLT in Omani classrooms is hindered by: (1) teachers’ lack of training in CLT; (2) lack of time to prepare communicative activities; (3) students’ low levels of proficiency in English; (4) large class sizes; and (5) difficulties assessing the linguistic aspects of the language. This resulted in the drawing up of a number of recommendations

The Effect of Gender, Experience, and Training on Teachers’ Written Corrective Feedback Practices

This study investigated whether EFL Post-Basic education teachers’ perceptions toward teachers’ practice of written corrective feedback (WCF) varied according to three contextual variables gender, teaching experience, and in-service training on WCF. It also attempted to investigate the challenges teachers encounter when providing WCF. The quantitative data was collected from 156 EFL teachers who were teaching Post-Basic education grades (11-12). The participants were randomly selected from three governorates in Oman: Muscat, Al Batinah South, and Sharqia North. The study showed that the only variable that had an effect on teachers’ perceptions was the number of training workshops/courses received on WCF. It also revealed that teachers perceived the challenge of focusing on all types of errors (content, organisation, and language) simultaneously as the most common difficulty they were experiencing. Some suggested recommendations of the study for the Ministry of Education, EFL teachers, and further studies were finally provided

Indexing strategies of MapReduce for Information Retrieval in Big Data

In Information Retrieval (IR), the efficient strategy of indexing large dataset and terabyte-scale data is still an issue because of information overload as the result of increasing the knowledge, increasing the number of different media, increasing the number of platforms, and increasing the interoperability of platforms. Across multiple processing machines, MapReduce has been suggested as a suitable platform that use for distributing the intensive data operations. In this project, sensei and Per-posting list indexing (Terrier) will be analyze as they are the two efficient MapReduce indexing strategies. The two indexing will be implemented in an existing framework of IR, and an experiment will be performed by using the Hadoop for MapReducing with the same large dataset. In particular, this paper will study the effectiveness of two indexing strategies (Sensei & Terrier), and try to find and verify the better efficient strategy between them. The experiment will measure the performance of retrieving when the size and processing power enlarge. The experiment examines how the indexing strategies scaled and work with large size of dataset and distributed number of machines. The throughput will be measured by using MB/S (Megabyte per Second), and the experiment results analyzing the performance and efficiency of indexing strategies between Sensei & Per-posting list indexing (Terrier)

Nutritional and socio-economic determinants of cognitive function and educational achievement of Aboriginal schoolchildren in rural Malaysia

A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out among Aboriginal schoolchildren aged 7–12 years living in remote areas in Pos Betau, Pahang, Malaysia to investigate the potential determinants influencing the cognitive function and educational achievement of these children. Cognitive function was measured by intelligence quotient (IQ), while examination scores of selected school subjects were used in assessing educational achievement. Blood samples were collected to assess serum Fe status. All children were screened for soil-transmitted helminthes. Demographic and socio-economic data were collected using pre-tested questionnaires. Almost two-thirds (67·6 %) of the subjects had poor IQ and most of them (72·6 %) had insufficient educational achievement. Output of the stepwise multiple regression model showed that poor IQ was significantly associated with low household income which contributed the most to the regression variance (r2 0·059; P = 0·020). Low maternal education was also identified as a significant predictor of low IQ scores (r2 0·042; P = 0·043). With educational achievement, Fe-deficiency anaemia (IDA) was the only variable to show significant association (r2 0·025; P = 0·015). In conclusion, the cognitive function and educational achievement of Aboriginal schoolchildren are poor and influenced by household income, maternal education and IDA. Thus, effective and integrated measures to improve the nutritional and socio-economic status of rural children would have a pronounced positive effect on their education

Determination of Occupational Health and Safety Risks in Solar Energy

Solar energy systems (photovoltaics, solar thermal, solar power) provide significant environmental benefits in comparison to the conventional energy sources, thus contributing to the sustainable development of human activities. However, sometimes, the wide scale deployment faces potential negative health and safety implications. To cope with these problems this paper presents an overview of an occupational health assessment of solar energy. The analysis provides the potential burdens to the workers’ health and safety working in solar energy, which includes hazard identification like toxic materials, general job site safety risks and other less focused risks in solar energy such as psychosocial hazards. Keywords: solar energy, occupational safety, healt