Training Program with Positive Psychology Techniques for Underachieving University Students’ Learned Helplessness and Psychological Flow

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a positive thinking training program in reducing learned helplessness and improving the psychological flow of academically underachieving university students. The experimental research involved an 11-member training group, with learned helplessness and psychological flow scales used to assess the participants. Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. The results showed that the training program had a significant positive effect on both learned helplessness and psychological flow immediately after the training. Additionally, the positive effects were sustained a month later during the follow-up period. The study provides valuable insights for stakeholders and researchers

The Buraimi Crisis: The Anglo-American Rivalry in the Arabian Peninsula, 1949-1955

Through the case study of the Buraimi War, this essay aims to dissect the impact of British and American influence on political systems in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly as a result of their post-Second World War rivalry in the region. It is argued that as a result of Great power rivalry and the clash between traditional political concepts and that brought on by Western powers, that the adoption of political institutions of European conception would accelerate. Thus, the modern state system in Arabia was born marked by territorially defined boundaries and increased authoritarianism

Endophytic hyphal compartmentalization is required for successful mycobiont-wheat interaction as revealed by confocal laser microscopy

Non-Peer ReviewedRoot endophytic fungi are seen as promising alternatives to replace chemical fertilizers and pesticides in sustainable and organic agriculture systems. Fungal endophytes structure formations play key roles in symbiotic intracellular association with plant-roots. To compare the morphologies of Ascomycete endophytic fungi in wheat, we analyzed growth morphologies during endophytic development of hyphae within the cortex of living vs dead root cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to characterize fungal cell morphology within lactofuchsin-stained roots. Cell form regularity Ireg and cell growth direction Idir, indexes were used to quantify changes in fungal morphology. Endophyte fungi in living roots had a variable Ireg and Idir values, low colonization abundance and patchy colonization patterns, whereas the same endophyte species in dead (γ-irradiated) roots had consistent form of cells and mostly grew parallel to the root axis. Knot, coil and vesicle structures dominated in living roots, as putative symbiotic functional organs. Finally, an increased hypha septation in living roots might indicate local specialization within endophytic Ascomycota. Our results suggested that the applied method could be expanded to other septate fungal symbionts

Scientists on the Spot:A fraction of wisdom on heart failure

Dr Mahmoud Abdellatif from the Medical University of Graz (Austria), interviews Prof. Carolyn Lam, a Senior Consultant at theNationalHeart Centre Singapore (Singapore). Highlight: In this Onlife interview, Professor Carolyn Lam shares her expertise and major scientific findings on the subject of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Bounds on the Capacity of the Relay Channel with Noncausal State Information at Source

We consider a three-terminal state-dependent relay channel with the channel state available non-causally at only the source. Such a model may be of interest for node cooperation in the framework of cognition, i.e., collaborative signal transmission involving cognitive and non-cognitive radios. We study the capacity of this communication model. One principal problem in this setup is caused by the relay's not knowing the channel state. In the discrete memoryless (DM) case, we establish lower bounds on channel capacity. For the Gaussian case, we derive lower and upper bounds on the channel capacity. The upper bound is strictly better than the cut-set upper bound. We show that one of the developed lower bounds comes close to the upper bound, asymptotically, for certain ranges of rates.Comment: 5 pages, submitted to 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theor

Future Prospects for Macro Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) Technique in North East Iraq

Countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) are considered arid and semi-arid areas that are suffering from water scarcity. They are expected to have more water shortages problem due to climatic change. Iraq is located in the Middle East covering an area of 433,970 square kilometers populated by 31 million inhabitants. One of the solutions suggested to overcome water scarcity is Rain Water Harvesting (RWH). In this study Macro rain-water harvesting technique had been tested for future rainfall data that were predicted by two emission scenarios of climatic change (A2 and B2) for the period 2020-2099 at Sulaimaniyah Governorate north east of Iraq. Future volumes of total runoff that might be harvested for different conditions of maximum, average, and minimum future rainfall seasons under both scenarios (A2 and B2) were calculated. The results indicate that the volumes of average harvested runoff will be reduced when average rainfall seasons are considered due to the effect of climatic change on future rainfall. The reduction reached 10.82 % and 43.0% when scenarios A2 and B2 are considered respectively

AN ADAPTIVE HARMONIC COMPENSATION STRATEGY FOR THREE-PHASE SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTER BASED ON DOUBLE SECOND-ORDER GENERALIZED INTEGRATOR WITH PREFILTER

Abstract. This study presents a straightforward adaptive prefiltering algorithm based on a double second-order generalized integrator with prefilter to solve one of the power quality issues, this algorithm is in charge of the determination of the reference harmonic currents in the control of three-phase shunt active power filter which presents an effective way to enhance the grid current quality. The proposed algorithm is used twice, to extract the harmonic currents produced by the non-linear loads and be an interesting part in the estimation of the frequency and amplitude of the fundamental voltage in various anomalies which can be noticed on the grid voltage. The performance, precision, and robustness of the proposed method are evidenced under balanced, unbalanced, and distorted grid voltage in the simulation and experimental results obtained by the implementation of the shunt active power filter on MATLAB-Simulink environment and the dSPACE 1104 platform respectively.Аннотация. В данной работе представлен простой адаптивный алгоритм предфильтрации, основанный на двойном обобщенном интеграторе с предфильтром второго порядка (DSOGI-WPF) для решения одного из вопросов качества электроэнергии. Данный алгоритм отвечает за определение опорных гармонических токов при контроле трехфазного фильтра шунта активной мощности (SAPF). Предложенный алгоритм используется дважды: для извлечения гармонических токов, создаваемых нелинейными нагрузками, и также является интересной частью оценки частоты и амплитуды основного напряжения при различных аномалиях, которые можно заметить по напряжению сети. Эффективность, точность и надежность предложенного метода подтверждаются при сбалансированном, несбалансированном и искаженном напряжении сети результатами моделирования и экспериментов, полученными при реализации SAPF в среде MATLAB-Simulink и платформе dSPACE 1104, соответственно.