Testing the Limits of Anaphoric Distance in Classical Arabic: a Corpus-Based Study

One of the central aims in research on anaphora is to discover the factors that determine the choice of referential expressions in discourse. Ariel (1988; 2001) offers an Accessibility Scale where referential expressions, including demonstratives, are categorized according to the values of anaphoric (i.e. textual) distance that each of these has in relation to its antecedent. The aim of this paper is to test Ariel’s (1988; 1990; 2001) claim that the choice to use proximal or distal anaphors is mainly determined by anaphoric distance. This claim is investigated in relation to singular demonstratives in a corpus of Classical Arabic (CA) prose texts by using word count to measure anaphoric distance. Results indicate that anaphoric distance cannot be taken as a consistent or reliable determinant of how anaphors are used in CA, and so Ariel’s claim is not supported by the results of this study. This also indicates that the universality of anaphoric distance, as a criterion of accessibility, is defied

The Level of Self-Compassion and the Cognitive Biases among Narcissistic and Non-narcissistic Jordanian University Students

هدفت الدراسة الحالية التعرف إلى مستوى الشفقة بالذات والتحيزات المعرفية لدى طلبة الجامعات الأردنية النرجسيين وغير النرجسيين، وتكونت العينة من (426) طالباً وطالبة من طلبة الجامعات الأردنية. ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة تم إعداد مقاييس لقياس متغيرات الدراسة. وقد أشارت نتائج إلى أن نسبة انتشار اضطراب الشخصية النرجسية لدى طلبة الجامعات الأردنية قد بلغت (47.7%)، كما أشارت النتائج إلى عدم وجود فروق بين طلبة الجامعة النرجسيين وغير النرجسيين في اضطراب الشخصية النرجسية، وأشارت إلى عدم وجود فروق في اضطراب الشخصية النرجسية يعزى للجنس. كما أشارت النتائج أيضاً إلى وجود فروق في مستوى الشفقة بالذات يعزى للطبة غير النرجسيين مقارنةً بالطلبة النرجسيين، كما أشارت النتائج إلى وجود فروق في مستوى التحيزات المعرفية تعزى للطلبة النرجسيين مقارنةً بالطلاب غير النرجسيين.  The current study aims to identify the level of self-compassion and cognitive biases among narcissistic and non-narcissistic Jordanian university students. The sample of the study consisted of (426) male and female students from Jordanian universities. For achieving the objectives of the study, scales were prepared to measure the study variables. The results indicated that the prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder among Jordanian university students reached (47.7%). The results also indicated that there were no variances between narcissistic and non-narcissistic university students in narcissistic personality disorder, and it indicated that there were no variances in narcissistic personality disorder attributable to gender. However, the results also indicated that there were variances in the level of self-compassion attributable to non-narcissistic students compared to narcissistic students. The results also indicated variances in the level of cognitive biases attributable to narcissistic students compared to non-narcissistic students

Identifying the best practice in traditional and electronic banking operations strategies in developing economies. (The case of Jordan). Balancing resources with customer expectations in rapidly developing business environment.

The aim of this study is to identify the best practices in traditional and electronic banking operations strategy in Jordan as a case study of developing economies over the period 1999 to 2008. During this period numerous changes faced banks in Jordan: new banking law was launched, the banks were directed towards complying with the Basel Accord II, and the banks adopted more e-banking channels. Only the practices of all local banks were investigated due to their superior performance. A number of questionnaires were used to collect the data from different individuals in these banks. Further, annual reports were analysed and websites were reviewed. Two data-analysis approaches were used to identify the key strategies of traditional and electronic banking in Jordan: competitive position analysis and cluster analysis. Analysis revealed eight best practices of traditional banking and four best practices of electronic banking were adopted. Best practices are presented as prediction models. These models combine actions with capabilities and performance. The traditional banking predication models are: branches urban accessibility, branches sites accessibility (percentage of sites covered), branches sites accessibility (number of branches sites covered), account transaction time, new credit product flexibility, account customer waiting time, account transaction cost, loan approval costs, and branches layout quality. The e-banking prediction models are: Internet banking transaction time, telephone banking volume flexibility, ATM suburban accessibility, and ATM sites accessibility. This research revealed that; financial performance achieved by e-banking strategy patterns is significantly lower than traditional banking. Also customers satisfaction, retention, and deposit market of e-banking are significantly lower than traditional banking, which indicates that the best operational practices in Jordan are still more traditional oriented despite the significant direction of banks in Jordan toward adopting e-banking channel

Assessment of in silico BAC-based simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker development for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Tomato landraces are less sensitive to environmental stresses and grown mainly under rain fed conditions. They are still grown in small farms due to quality and special demand of consumers. These landraces are valuable sources of genetic traits, and plant breeders can use breeding programs for crop improvement. One of the primary needs of the crop improvement is the estimation of genetic diversity. Development of microsatellite simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from map-referenced bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) clones is a very effective means of targeting markers to marker scarce positions in the genome. This study was aimed at developing a set of functional SSR markers via in silico analysis of publicly available tomato DNA sequences. As a result, 17 SSR markers were developed and tested on one tomato commercial cultivar and eight local landraces. 12 loci (27 alleles) were scored and showed 100% polymorphic patterns. The calculated polymorphism information content (PIC) values for the SSR markers developed ranged from 0.62 to 0.97 (mean 0.89). The SSR motifs CT(26) AT(27) and TTC(6) TTA(4) had the highest PIC value (0.97), while CAA(5)A(8) had the lowest PIC value (0.62). According to tomato expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis, some of these developed SSR markers, such as mono and di-nucleotide are related to some genes. The T(16) motif is related to hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein, which is a family protein from Arabidopsis thaliana. On the other hand, the SSR with tri-nucleotide repeat motif AAC(4)A(11) was related to a putative homologous protein to A7Q2S4 from Vitis vinifera.Keywords: Tomato landraces, in silico simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, DNA markers, genetic diversit

The realization of signal processing methods and their hardware implementation over multi-carrier modulation using FPGA technology. Validation and implementation of multi-carrier modulation on FPGA, and signal processing of the channel estimation techniques and filter bank architectures for DWT using HDL coding for mobile and wireless applications.

First part of this thesis presents the design, validation, and implementation of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmitter and receiver on a Cyclone II FPGA chip using DSP builder and Quartus II high level design tools. The resources in terms of logical elements (LE) including combinational functions and logic registers allocated by the model have been investigated and addressed. The result shows that implementing the basic OFDM transceiver allocates about 14% (equivalent to 6% at transmitter and 8% at receiver) of the available LE resources on an Altera Cyclone II EP2C35F672C6 FPGA chip, largely taken up by the FFT, IFFT and soft decision encoder. Secondly, a new wavelet-based OFDM system based on FDPP-DA based channel estimation is proposed as a reliable ECG Patient Monitoring System, a Personal Wireless telemedicine application. The system performance for different wavelet mothers has been investigated. The effects of AWGN and multipath Rayleigh fading channels have also been studied in the analysis. The performances of FDPP-DA and HDPP-DA-based channel estimations are compared based on both DFT-based OFDM and wavelet-based OFDM systems. The system model was studied using MATLAB software in which the average BER was addressed for randomized data. The main error differences that reflect the quality of the received ECG signals between the reconstructed and original ECG signals are established. Finally a DA-based architecture for 1-D iDWT/DWT based on an OFDM model is implemented for an ECG-PMS wireless telemedicine application. In the portable wireless body transmitter unit at the patient site, a fully Serial-DA-based scheme for iDWT is realized to support higher hardware utilization and lower power consumption; whereas a fully Parallel-DA-based scheme for DWT is applied at the base unit of the hospital site to support a higher throughput. It should be noted that the behavioural level of HDL models of the proposed system was developed and implemented to confirm its correctness in simulation. Then, after the simulation process the design models were synthesised and implemented for the target FPGA to confirm their validation

Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease

Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) technologies have been applied to study brain physiology and, more recently, have been recognized for their therapeutic potential as an adjunctive treatment for various neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electric stimulation (tES) are two of the most studied NIBS modalities in Parkinson’s disease. They are non-systemic and relatively safe. Most therapeutic trials have been conducted to ameliorate motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with overall positive results using various stimulation modalities and methods. Notwithstanding significant results, evidence has not yet been compelling mainly due to small-size studies, lack of standardization of methodologies and other study design limitations. NIBS hold promise for treatment of PD symptoms and PD related complications. Large, well designed clinical trials are needed to corroborate these positive findings and inform its durability and the overall clinical relevance for the treatment of PD

Effect of zero tillage and different weeding methods on grain yield of durum wheat in semi-arid regions

Received: September 28th, 2020 ; Accepted: December 1st, 2020 ; Published: December 10th, 2020 ; Correspondence: [email protected] high grain yield of wheat is limited by the dominance of weeds, particularly wild oat. Therefore, to improve wheat yield under these conditions, a field experiment was carried out in Maru Agricultural Research Station, Jordan during 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 to investigate yield response of two wheat varieties (Triticum durum L.) to different tillage and weeding treatments. The experimental design used was a split-split arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Two-tillage treatments (conventional vs. zero tillage) were applied to the main plot, two wheat varieties to sub-plot, and five weeding methods (hand weeding, broadleaf + narrow leaf herbicide, broadleaf herbicide, narrow leaf herbicide, and controls) as a sub-sub-plot. The variety ‘Umqais’ had higher plant height, biological, grain, and straw yield than the variety ‘Sham’. Hand weeding slightly increased grain yield compared with mixed herbicides (the 2,4-D plus Antelope Clodinatop- propagyl). Furthermore, mixed herbicides presented a higher grain yield than using either single herbicide. The interaction between tillage systems and weeding methods was significant in both years. The highest (P < 0.05) straw yield (5,990 kg ha-1 ) was obtained by hand weeding under conventional tillage in the first season while the highest grain yield (2,005 kg ha-1 ) was obtained by hand weeding under zero tillage in the second season. Under all weed control treatments, the variety ‘Umqais’ had higher biological, grain, and straw yields than the variety ‘Sham’ in the second season indicating that variety ‘Umqais’ performed better under dry conditions. Our results confirmed the superior of zero tillage for increasing the grain yield of the variety ‘Umqais’, and for increasing the biological and straw yields of the variety ‘Sham’ under semi-arid rainfed conditions of Jordan

Identifying the Best Practices in Hotel Green Supply Chain Management Strategy: A Global Study

The aim of this study is to identify the best practices in hotel green supply chain management strategy by analyzing the practices of hotels from several regions. To this end, a comprehensive framework was developed to plug the gap in the literature. This framework was examined by studying a convenient and purposive sample of 47 hotels. Only top rated 4- and 5-star hotels were targeted. Data were collected from the GRI database by retrieving annual sustainability reports over the period 2017–2019. The best practices reported by this study were related to internal green process design, green quality management and internal commitment, green procurement of water/energy, and green customers’ relationship management. This is one of the rare studies that reports best practices at a global level by using a comprehensive framework developed for the purpose.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library

The Effect of Using Team Teaching on Jordanian EFL Eleventh Grade Students' Reading Comprehension and Their Attitudes Towards This Strategy

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using team-teaching strategy on EFL students' reading comprehension. It also aimed to find out whether Team-Teaching strategy can improve EFL students' English language reading comprehension and to investigate the students' attitudes towards the use of team teaching. The study used the quasi-experimental design in one part to examine the effect of team teaching on developing the students' performance in reading comprehension. It also used the descriptive design to describe the students' attitudes. The researchers chose a school purposefully. It was one of the secondary schools in Alkourah Directorate of education. Two eleventh grade classroom sections were chosen to be the sample of the study. They were 48 students. The students of the sections were appointed randomly into two groups; the control group which had 23 students, and the experimental group with 25 students. The developed two instruments in order to achieve the purpose of the study. The instruments were a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire. The results of the study showed that there were statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the two groups (control and experimental) in the post test in favor of the experimental group. The result of the study also showed that there were statistically significant differences at (α=0.05). In the view of what had been reached from the results and conclusions of this study, the researchers recommended to adopt good teacher training programs on team teaching English language skills for all secondary schools in Jorda

Phytochemical Profiling of Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) Genotypes Using GC-MS Analysis

Twenty-four soybean genotypes collected from different regions and origin were evaluated for their quality performance to explore their nutritional and medicinal values. The proximate compositions showed considerable variations among soybean genotypes. The USA genotypes recorded the highest values for protein (43.1 g/100 g), total fat (23.61 g/100 g), phenolic content and flavonoids (1.77 and 2.13 mg/g). Using GC-MS analyses of methanolic extracts, a total of 88 compounds were identified in the genotypes and were classified to: 19 heterocyclic compounds, 13 compounds for ketones and esters, 9 for phenolic compound, 7 compounds for carboxylic acids and sugar moiety, 5 compounds for aldehydes and alcohols, 4 ether compounds, 3 amide, 2 alkanes and one alkene and one fatty acid ester. Indonesian genotypes recorded the highest number of phenolic and the Australian genotype A-1 had the maximum number of esters. Genotypes showed high levels of proximate compositions and pharmaceutical components, offering potential candidates for improving those traits in adapted genotypes through breeding program, as well as serving as a good source of mass production of pharmaceutical and medicinal components either through classical or in vitro production. Furthermore, platform was set for isolating and understanding the characteristics of each compound for it pharmacological properties