Determining areas of improvement in quranic arabic vocabulary learning mobile applications through analysis of app user reviews

Muslims constitute roughly around one fifth of the world population, the majority of which are not Arabic speakers. This poses a problem for them in their devotional activities such as performing the five obligatory daily prayers and reading the Holy Qur’an because they could not understand what they are reciting or reading. Added to this, Muslim adults who are busy working usually find it hard to find the time to attend Quranic Arabic classes. In order to rectify this problem, some mobile app developers have created apps with the objective of teaching Muslims Quranic Arabic vocabulary items so that they could begin to learn and understand Quranic Arabic. In March 2019, there are about eleven Quranic Arabic vocabulary teaching mobile applications which could be downloaded from Google Play Store. These apps come with differing features and are of varying quality. This exploratory qualitative study aims to analyze the user reviews of these apps in order to determine areas where they can be further improved by the developers. The findings of this research found that generally developers should concentrate on three areas of improvement; their applications’ content, technical capability, and pricing strategy. It is hoped that the findings from this study can be used by Quranic Arabic vocabulary mobile app developers to further improve their apps so that the Muslim public can benefit more from them

Complete Genome Sequence of Avian Paramyxovirus (APMV) Serotype 5 Completes the Analysis of Nine APMV Serotypes and Reveals the Longest APMV Genome

Avian paramyxoviruses (APMV) consist of nine known serotypes. The genomes of representatives of all APMV serotypes except APMV type 5 have recently been fully sequenced. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the APMV-5 prototype strain budgerigar/Kunitachi/74.APMV-5 Kunitachi virus is unusual in that it lacks a virion hemagglutinin and does not grow in the allantoic cavity of embryonated chicken eggs. However, the virus grew in the amniotic cavity of embryonated chicken eggs and in twelve different established cell lines and two primary cell cultures. The genome is 17,262 nucleotides (nt) long, which is the longest among members of genus Avulavirus, and encodes six non-overlapping genes in the order of 3'N-P/V/W-M-F-HN-L-5' with intergenic regions of 4-57 nt. The genome length follows the 'rule of six' and contains a 55-nt leader sequence at the 3'end and a 552 nt trailer sequence at the 5' end. The phosphoprotein (P) gene contains a conserved RNA editing site and is predicted to encode P, V, and W proteins. The cleavage site of the F protein (G-K-R-K-K-R downward arrowF) conforms to the cleavage site motif of the ubiquitous cellular protease furin. Consistent with this, exogenous protease was not required for virus replication in vitro. However, the intracerebral pathogenicity index of APMV-5 strain Kunitachi in one-day-old chicks was found to be zero, indicating that the virus is avirulent for chickens despite the presence of a polybasic F cleavage site.Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences of the APVM-5 genome and proteins versus those of the other APMV serotypes showed that APMV-5 is more closely related to APMV-6 than to the other APMVs. Furthermore, these comparisons provided evidence of extensive genome-wide divergence that supports the classification of the APMVs into nine separate serotypes. The structure of the F cleavage site does not appear to be a reliable indicator of virulence among APMV serotypes 2-9. The availability of sequence information for all known APMV serotypes will facilitate studies in epidemiology and vaccinology

Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being

Isoprene hotspots at the Western Coast of Antarctic Peninsula during MASEC′16

Isoprene (C5H8) plays an important role in the formation of surface ozone (O3) and the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) which contributed to the climate change. This study aims to determine hourly distribution of tropospheric isoprene over the Western Coast of Antarctic Peninsula (WCAP) during the Malaysian Antarctic Scientific Expedition Cruise 2016 (MASEC′16). In-situ measurements of isoprene were taken using a custom-built gas chromatography with photoionization detector, known as iDirac. Biological parameters such as chlorophyll a (chl-a) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were compared to the in-situ isoprene measurements. Significant positive correlation was observed between isoprene and POC concentrations (r2 = 0.67, p < 0.001), but not between isoprene and chl-a. The hotspots of isoprene over maritime Antarctic were then were investigated using NAME dispersion model reanalysis. Measurements showed that isoprene mixing ratio were the highest over region of King George Island, Deception Island and Booth Island with values of ∼5.0, ∼0.9 and ∼5.2 ppb, respectively. Backward trajectory analysis showed that air masses may have lifted the isoprene emitted by marine algae. We believe our findings provide valuable data set of isoprene estimation over the under sampled WCAP

Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate

Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked

System Reliability Assessment of Offshore Pipelines

The title of this thesis, System Reliability Assessment of Offshore Pipelines, portrays the application of probabilistic methods in assessing the reliability of these structures. The main intention of this thesis is to identify, apply and judge the suitability of the probabilistic methods in evaluating the system reliability of offshore pipelines subjected to corrosion. The analysis was first emphasized on interpreting corrosion data as random variables and probabilistic functions, through which uncertainties of the corrosion inspection tool could be taken into account. The reliability of the pipeline was initially studied by treating the structure as an independent unit. The analysis was further elaborated for pipelines arrayed as a series system of units, with the consideration of length effects. A framework for the reliability-based maintenance model was also developed in this thesis, aiming at optimizing the pipeline system operations. Herein, the analysis was mainly focused on improving the practice of releasing corrosion inhibitors into the pipeline. The use of inhibitors is considered to be the most applied maintenance practice among pipeline industries because of its simple mechanism to fight against corrosions. Last but not least, the thesis also looked into interpreting corrosions in space using theories on hydrodynamics.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Modelling of uncertainty on late delivery for construction industry in environmental issues: A preliminary review

The construction industry has many underlying causes and factors of uncertainty that impact on project completion schedule and time management. Uncertainties in design, procurement, operation and environmental issues are the major sources in construction project that should be managed. Most of researchers proposed a modelling and simulation techniques to solve these uncertainties problem nevertheless not for environmental issues. However, the environmental issues were also leading in significant deviations for project schedule as well in time management. The aims of this paper is to develop an initial model of uncertainty modelling to manage the underlying causes and factors that impact in environmental issue (EI) for construction industry (CI). The uncertainty structure is also presented to show the flows of uncertainty process which will be implemented in this case study as well. The simulation modelling and experimental study will base on a real case study and will verify and validate this suggestion. The validated model might be used as guidance to construction planners and managers to plan their project schedule. Further, the decision support system model-based will be developed for enhancement to integrate all uncertainty's sources to become as a powerful system in the direction of managing the uncertainty

Kaedah Fuzzy Delphi: Reka Bentuk Pembangunan Model Pedagogi Terbeza Berasaskan Elemen Proses Pengajaran dalam Mata Pelajaran Tilawah Al-Quran

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan konsensus pakar terhadap keperluan elemen utama dan turutan kedudukan (ranking) keutamaan bagi setiap item dalam reka bentuk pembangunan Model Pedagogi Terbeza berasaskan elemen proses pengajaran bagi mata pelajaran tilawah al-Quran. Dalam kajian ini, kaedah Fuzzy Delphi digunakan dengan menggunakan tujuh skala likert. Kajian ini dijalankan dengan tujuan untuk mereka bentuk Model Pedagogi Terbeza berasaskan elemen proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran dalam mata pelajaran tilawah al-Quran mengikut konsensus pakar. Oleh itu, pengkaji mendapatkan konsensus pakar seramai 16 orang pakar dari pelbagai bidang terutamanya bidang pedagogi dan tilawah al-Quran. Borang soal selidik kajian mengandungi 39 item yang melibatkan lima elemen utama iaitu (i) pengetahuan pedagogi kandungan, (ii) perancangan guru berasaskan Teori Kecerdasan Pelbagai dengan, (iii) keadilan kepada murid, (iv) pelaksanaan kaedah pengajaran dan (v) amalan guru dalam mengubah suai proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan penomboran segi tiga Fuzzy. Kedudukan (ranking) setiap item ditentukan dengan menggunakan Defuzzification Process. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan konsensus pakar terhadap semua item dalam elemen utama. Dapatan menunjukkan kesemua item diterima dan melepasi tiga syarat Fuzzy iaitu nilai threshold (d) tidak melebihi atau sama dengan 0.2, peratus kesepakatan pakar melebihi atau sama dengan 75% dan nilai Defuzzification (alpha cut) melebihi atau sama dengan 0.5. Model Pedagogi Terbeza berasaskan elemen proses pengajaran di harap dapat memberi idea baharu kepada sektor pendidikan khususnya guru Pendidikan Islam dalam mempelbagaikan metodologi pengajaran kepada murid yang pelbagai