Relative pavement performance for dual and wide-based tyre assemblies using a finite element method

There is a need to assess the realistic tire contact pressure created by a tire in contact with a pavement. The contact pressure is a function of tire type, axle loading, and tire inflation pressure (TiP). The research carried out considered dual tire and wide-based tire assemblies across a range of axle loading and TiP. These contact pressures were incorporated into a finite element package (CAPA-3D) and modelled on a simple pavement structure. The strains from this modelling were sorted to produce key strains associated with the mechanisms of surface distress, near surface distress, deep asphalt distress, and the subgrade. The main distress mechanisms were top down cracking, asphalt cracking/rutting, bottom-up fatigue cracking, and subgrade rutting. This gave a method to fairly compare the dual and wide-based tire assemblies with the same axle loading and TiP. The analysis gave interesting results for the different distress mechanisms of the pavement. The wide-based tire gives consistently higher shear strains for all the areas of distress investigated. There is great variation in surface and near surface shear strains due to the different combinations of axle loading and TiP. It is clear that the wide-based tire is a more damaging tire for all combinations of TiP and axle loading. It is also apparent that how these factors interact has a great influence on the damaging potential of a tire

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE WRITING ACTIVITIES IN ACTION PACK 10 TO MEASURE THE DEGREE OF THEIR CONGRUENCE WITH THE GENERAL GRADE OUTCOMES FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE GUIDELINES IN JORDAN

The present study aimed at analyzing the writing activities in Action Pack 10 and measuring the degree of their congruence with the general grade outcomes for the English language guidelines in Jordan. The material of the analysis is the English language textbook for the 10th grade within Action Pack series. The researchers content-analyzed the writing activities in all the units in both parts of the book; they compared the content of these activities with the main five general outcomes for the guidelines of teaching writing in this grade. The results of the study showed that the second and the third outcomes, as listed in the third and fourth sections of the paper, ranked first with a percentage of 24.5%; second ranked the fourth and fifth outcomes with a percentage of 18.3% ; and finally, the first outcome ranked third with a percentage of 14.3%. The researchers presented some inferences that are related to the results of the analysis

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE WRITING ACTIVITIES IN ACTION PACK 10 TO MEASURE THE DEGREE OF THEIR CONGRUENCE WITH THE GENERAL GRADE OUTCOMES FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE GUIDELINES IN JORDAN

The present study aimed at analyzing the writing activities in Action Pack 10 and measuring the degree of their congruence with the general grade outcomes for the English language guidelines in Jordan. The material of the analysis is the English language textbook for the 10th grade within Action Pack series. The researchers content-analyzed the writing activities in all the units in both parts of the book; they compared the content of these activities with the main five general outcomes for the guidelines of teaching writing in this grade. The results of the study showed that the second and the third outcomes, as listed in the third and fourth sections of the paper, ranked first with a percentage of 24.5%; second ranked the fourth and fifth outcomes with a percentage of 18.3% ; and finally, the first outcome ranked third with a percentage of 14.3%. The researchers presented some inferences that are related to the results of the analysis

The Impact of Business- IT Strategic Alignment Enablers on the Quality of Online Banking Services

The aim of this study is to investigate the Impact of Business- IT Strategic Alignment Enablers on the Quality of online banking services in Jordanian Arab bank. The importance of the study stems from the significant role of strategic alignment enablers (Senior executive support for IT, Information technology involved in strategic development, IT understands the business, Business- IT partnership, Well- prioritized IT projects, IT demonstrates leadership) that can develop and enhance the quality of online banking services, in order to keep pace with competition which a globalized world has made more complex. The proposed model provides an appropriate conceptual framework for identifying and verifying the enablers of strategic alignment between business and information technology that can affect on the quality of online banking services. Based on the conceptual framework and previous studies, questionnaire was used to collect data. A simple random sample was chosen from the all managerial levels of the population study. Data were analysed quantitively using statistical package for social sciences(SPSS. 20). As expected, the findings of the research indicate that there is a significant impact of strategic alignment enablers on quality of online banking services in Arab bank- Jordan. Therefore, all banks should be take into account the importance of strategic alignment enablers to enhance the online service quality. Keywords: Strategic Alignment Enablers, Quality of Online Banking Services

The Effect of Cooperative Work in Writing Activities on Developing the Arabic Linguistic Competence of the Tenth Grade Students at Housha Secondary School for Boys in Jordan

This study aimed at investigating the effect of cooperative work in writing activities on developing the Arabic linguistic competence of the 10th grade students at Housha Secondary School for Boys in Mafraq city in Jordan. The purposeful sample included the 15 10th grade students who were pre and post tested in writing. They were asked to do the writing activities in Arabic composition in groups of three in each one through the whole second semester during the academic year 2014/2015. The writing products of the students were corrected and the researcher used descriptive statistics to find out the means and standard deviations for both tests; T-Test was also used to determine the statistical significance. The errors in using the components of the linguistic competence were counted in each test and percentages were calculated for the purpose of comparison. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the writing performance of the participants in the pre and post tests which means that there was a positive effect of cooperative work on developing the Arabic linguistic competence. Moreover, the number of errors related to the linguistic competence decreased in the post test due to the strategy of peer work. The researcher presented some recommendations and implications based on the given results. Keywords: Cooperative work, Writing activities, Linguistic competence, Housha Secondary School for Boys

Investigating the antibacterial properties of mollusks native to the Boston Harbor and Wood Neck Beach: developing a comparative study between Mytilus edulis and Ensis directus

Honorable Mention for 2017. Paper written for course BISC 210. Supporting faculty: Jeff Hughes

Creating Color Image Features Using Local Contrast Method

Digital color images are now one of the most popular data types used in the digital processing environment. Color image recognition plays an important role in many vital applications, which makes the enhancement of image recognition or retrieval system an important issue. Using color image pixels to recognize or retrieve the image, but the issue of the huge color image size that requires accordingly more time and memory space to perform color image recognition and/or retrieval. In the current study, image local contrast was used to create local contrast victor, which was then used as a key to recognize or retrieve the image. The proposed local contrast method was properly implemented and tested. The obtained results proved its efficiency as compared with other methods

The Effect of Group Work and Portfolio in Writing Activities on Developing the Linguistic and Discourse Competences of the EFL Students at Al Al-Bayt University

This study aimed at investigating the effect of group work and portfolio on developing the linguistic and discourse competence of the EFL students at Al-al-Bayt university in Mafraq city in Jordan. The researcher, who is simultaneously an instructor in the department of English language and literature at Al al-Bayt university, conducted her study on the purposeful sample of the obligatory writing 2 course students who are all English major students from 2nd, 3rd, and fourth years. The participants of the study were distributed in the only two writing 2 sections in the first semester of the academic year 2013/2014. They were randomly distributed into two sections, each of 30 male and female EFL students. The experimental group was taught writing the essay through group work and using portfolio whereas the control group was taught writing the essay through the conventional way. At the beginning of the semester, both groups were pre-tested in writing an essay about a chosen topic, and similarly, at the end of the semester, they were post- tested by being asked to write an essay about the same topic of the pre-test. The researcher analyzed and counted the linguistic various errors in their writings in both tests of the two groups; she also quantitatively measured the frequencies of using discourse elements in both tests of both groups. She then calculated the means and standard deviations of both groups' frequencies in order to find any significant differences due to the treatments used. The findings of the study showed that both groups performed better in their discourse competences; on the other hand, both groups showed some progress in some areas of their linguistic competences. According to the interviews with the participants of the experimental group, all students appreciated using portfolio and assured that it improved their linguistic and discourse competences. However, most students valuated group or peer work and their positive impact on their linguistic and discourse competences. Keywords: Portfolio, Group Work, Linguistic Competence, Discourse Competence

The Effect of Using Authentic Videos on English Major Students' Prosodic Competence

This study aims to investigate the effect of using authentic videos on the prosodic competence of foreign language learners. It is hypothesized worldwide that authentic videos have a positive effect on the EFL learners' supra segmental competence. The population of the study included 32 students majoring in English Language at Taibah University in KSA during the academic year 2011/2012. The sample consisted of two sections, a control group and an experimental one. A pretest was administered to both groups to ensure that they were homogeneous. The control group was taught supra segmental aspects of language using a traditional approach while the experimental group was taught authentic videos. About four months later, a posttest was administered. The results of the study showed that there was much progress in the experimental group which significantly outperformed the control group in the different aspects of prosody. These findings confirm the hypothesis which read videos can have a positive effect on the EFL learners' supra segmental competence.  Keywords :Supra segmental competence, authentic videos ,Saudi English major students as  EFL learners, Intonation, Pronunciation, Stress, Pause , Juncture , Rhyme ,  and Prosodic aspects of language

Evaluation of the 10th Grade Computerized Mathematics Curriculum from the Perspective of the Teachers and Educational Supervisors in the Southern Region in Jordan

This study aimed at evaluating the 10th grade computerized mathematics curriculum from the perspective of the teachers and supervisors in the southern region in Jordan. The study population consisted of all the teachers who teach the 10th grade in the southern region, with the total of (309) teachers and (20) supervisors. The sample consisted of (288) teachers and (15) supervisors. A questionnaire of (43) items was prepared, it was verified for validity and reliability. Results showed statistically significant differences (µ = 0.05) between the evaluating estimations of the teachers and supervisors for the computerized mathematics curriculum in favor of the supervisors. Keywords: computerized mathematics curriculum, evaluations, 10th grade, southern region, teacher, supervisor