Investigating English Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Intercultural Communicative Competence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This mixed-method study examines the perceptions of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) by English teachers in the Preparatory Year (PY) program at King Saudi University. Studies that aim to investigate teachers’ perception of ICC and its implementation in a foreign language classroom are relatively scarce. Additionally, the majority of the studies that generally targeted the concept of ICC in a foreign-language learning context were studies that either relied on online blogs, discussion forums, and chat rooms to allow students to communicate cross-culturally, or examined ICC development during sojourns or study abroad periods in the target country. Relatively fewer studies have addressed the concept of ICC in a classroom context. The researcher employed a mixed-method study conducted in two phases to investigate the importance of the 10 ICC objectives adapted from the work of Byram (1997) and Fantini and Tirmizi (2006). The quantitative data were collected during the first phase of the research through a survey aiming to identify patterns and trends of teachers’ perceptions of ICC objectives and their relevance to the curriculum content and classroom activities. The qualitative data were collected during the second phase of the research using focus group discussions and class observations. The main implication of this study for the field of language teaching and learning is that there is a gap between English teachers’ perceptions of ICC objectives and their current practices in the classroom. The fact that ICC objectives are not an explicit part of the current curriculum limits their systematic integration. Additionally, the current study findings call for the introduction of learning strategies that can accelerate the students’ standard academic language learning, one of the ICC objectives that was found to be rather important for the English PY program. The findings also reiterate the need to incorporate other English variations in teacher training sessions. On the other hand, familiarizing students with other English variations will enable them to communicate more effectively and appropriately with the locally expanding Indian and Philippine communities, which would make English learning more relevant for them and more attuned to local demand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Pharmacogenomics In Pharmacy Practice: Current Perspectives.

Pharmacogenomics (i.e., the application of genetic information in predicting an individual's response to drug therapy) plays an increasingly important role in drug development and decision-making regarding precision medicine. This has been shown to reduce the risk of adverse events and improve patient health-care outcomes through targeted therapies and dosing. As the field of pharmacogenomics rapidly evolves, the role of pharmacists in the education, implementation, and research applications of pharmacogenomics is becoming increasingly recognized. This paper aims to provide an overview and current perspectives of pharmacogenomics in contemporary clinical pharmacy practice and to discuss the future directions on advancing pharmacogenomics education, application, and research in pharmacy practice

Effect of Graphene addition on the mechanical and tribological behavior of nanostructured AA2124 /Graphene self-lubricating metal matrix composite

In the current research, the mechanical and tribological behavior, and structural evolution of AA2124-3 and 5-wt.% graphene (G) composites prepared by a combination of ball milling and hot extrusion were investigated. Mixing followed by energy ball milling of the powders was conducted under argon atmosphere. Hot extrusion of the green compacts was carried out at 0.46 and 0.68 of the alloy melting temperature. Properties such as macro and micro-hardness, nanohardness, tensile and lattice strain were characterized. Wear rates, coefficient of friction (COF) were characterized using dry pin-on-disc test under loads of 50, 100N and 150N. Nanoscratch testing were employed to investigate the self-lubricating tribological behavior. X-ray diffraction, optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to determine the influence of the G-content on the crystallite size variation and the lattice strain for the ball milled powders compared to the hot extruded rods. Density measurements and optical microscopy (OM) were employed to investigate the consolidation degree and porosity variation as a function of increasing G- of the G and Al-matrices for the variable conditions. Bulk texture variation was analyzed to evaluate the influence of the extrusion temperature. AA 2124-3 wt.% G composites displayed the highest tensile properties, highest hardness and lowest wear rates and COF, as well as lowest scratch width and depth compared to the 5 wt.%G and the plain alloy. The uniform distribution of the G-particles within the Al-matrices for the 3wt.% containing composites hindered grain coarsening by the induced lattice strain compared to that of 5 wt% G ones. Moreover, addition of 3 wt.% G smeared thin uniform tribofilm on the surfaces of the worn composite rods. The formed layer reduced friction and wear. Increasing the G content up to 5 wt.% resulted in segregation and clustering of the G-particles within the Al-matrices, which caused microplouging and sever plastic deformation wear mechanism and excessive delamination. IV Lower consolidation temperatures of 300oC produced composites with lower wear rates due to the excessive strain hardening effect. Extrusion at 300oC produced a continuous G-encapsulating layer around the Al-matrix compared to an interrupted G-layer for the 450oC extrusions. The G-layer morphology influenced the dominating mechanism of the composite during deformation. Texture analysis of the AA2124-3 wt.%G extruded at low and high temperatures proved that both the Cu-and Shear are the dominating texture components, while increased texture intensities from 1.2-to-1.76 occurred with increasing the extrusion temperature

Pathogenesis of B-cell post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders and HIV-associated B-cell lymphomas

Genetic and epigenetic alterations as well as viruses such as Epstein Barr virus (EBV) contribute towards the development of immunodeficiency lymphoproliferative disorders (IDLDs). We investigated 66, 25 and 58 cases of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs), HIV-B-cell lymphoma (HIV-BCL) and immunocompetent diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (iDLBCL) respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to assess the prevalence of different T-cell subsets, NK cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) in the microenvironment of these disorders. We used in-situ hybridization to assess the EBV status, fluorescent in-situ hybridization to evaluate common lymphoma-associated gene rearrangements and PCR to determine B- and T-cell clonality, the methylation status of DAP-kinase and SHP1 genes and to identify EBV-genotypes. Our results showed that: 1) EBV is frequently seen in IDLDs with type-A being more prevalent in PTLDs, whilst both types are equally prevalent in HIV-BCLs. Among HIV-BCL, cases associated with type-B-EBV had been HIV- positive for a significantly longer duration compared to those with type-A, 2) Characteristic lymphoma-associated gene rearrangements, apart from c-MYC which showed a significant difference among different groups, are very rare among IDLDs, 3) Aberrant hypermethylation of DAP-k and SHP1 genes is a frequent finding in aggressive BCL and is an early event in the pathogenesis of PTLD, 4) B-PTLDs have significantly higher numbers of CD123- and BDCA-2-positive PDCs as compared to other groups and the numbers are higher in early lesions of PTLD than in the more established lesions, 5) Cases of post-transplant DLBCL have significantly higher numbers of different T cell subsets including regulatory T-cells and NK cells than iDLBCL, and finally 6) Monoclonal T-cell populations, which seem to arise mainly from CD8-positive T-cells, occur frequently in B-PTLDs and they co-exist with the monoclonal B-cell population

Contributions to Vehicular Communications Systems and Schemes

La dernière décennie a marqué une grande hausse des applications véhiculaires comme une nouvelle source de revenus et un facteur de distinction dans l'industrie des véhicules. Ces applications véhiculaires sont classées en deux groupes : les applications de sécurité et les applications d'info divertissement. Le premier groupe inclue le changement intelligent de voie, l'avertissement de dangers de routes et la prévention coopérative de collision qui comprend la vidéo sur demande (VoD), la diffusion en direct, la diffusion de météo et de nouvelles et les jeux interactifs. Cependant, Il est à noter que d'une part, les applications véhiculaires d'info divertissement nécessitent une bande passante élevée et une latence relativement faible ; D'autre part, les applications de sécurité requièrent exigent un délai de bout en bout très bas et un canal de communication fiable pour la livraison des messages d'urgence. Pour satisfaire le besoin en applications efficaces, les fabricants de véhicules ainsi que la communauté académique ont introduit plusieurs applications à l’intérieur de véhicule et entre véhicule et véhicule (V2V). Sauf que, l'infrastructure du réseau sans fil n'a pas été conçue pour gérer les applications de véhicules, en raison de la haute mobilité des véhicules, de l'imprévisibilité du comportement des conducteurs et des modèles de trafic dynamiques. La relève est l'un des principaux défis des réseaux de véhicules, car la haute mobilité exige au réseau sans fil de faire la relève en un très court temps. De plus, l'imprévisibilité du comportement du conducteur cause l'échec des protocoles proactifs traditionnels de relève, car la prédiction du prochain routeur peut changer en fonction de la décision du conducteur. Aussi, le réseau de véhicules peut subir une mauvaise qualité de service dans les régions de relève en raison d'obstacles naturels, de véhicules de grande taille ou de mauvaises conditions météorologiques. Cette thèse se concentre sur la relève dans l'environnement des véhicules et son effet sur les applications véhiculaires. Nous proposons des solutions pratiques pour les réseaux actuellement déployés, principalement les réseaux LTE, l'infrastructure véhicule à véhicule (V2V) ainsi que les outils efficaces d’émulateurs de relèves dans les réseaux véhiculaires.----------ABSTRACT: The last decade marked the rise of vehicular applications as a new source of revenue and a key differentiator in the vehicular industry. Vehicular Applications are classified into safety and infotainment applications. The former include smart lane change, road hazard warning, and cooperative collision avoidance; however, the latter include Video on Demand (VoD), live streaming, weather and news broadcast, and interactive games. On one hand, infotainment vehicular applications require high bandwidth and relatively low latency; on the other hand, safety applications requires a very low end to end delay and a reliable communication channel to deliver emergency messages. To satisfy the thirst for practical applications, vehicle manufacturers along with research institutes introduced several in-vehicle and Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) applications. However, the wireless network infrastructure was not designed to handle vehicular applications, due to the high mobility of vehicles, unpredictability of drivers’ behavior, and dynamic traffic patterns. Handoff is one of the main challenges of vehicular networks since the high mobility puts pressure on the wireless network to finish the handoff within a short period. Moreover, the unpredictability of driver behavior causes the traditional proactive handoff protocols to fail, since the prediction of the next router may change based on the driver’s decision. Moreover, the vehicular network may suffer from bad Quality of Service (QoS) in the regions of handoff due to natural obstacles, large vehicles, or weather conditions. This thesis focuses on the handoff on the vehicular environment and its effect on the vehicular applications. We consider practical solutions for the currently deployed networks mainly Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, the Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) infrastructure, and the tools that can be used effectively to emulate handoff on the vehicular networks

The Attitudes of Social Responsibility Students at JUST Towards Voluntary Work and the Challenges They Face

The study aimed to reveal the attitudes of social responsibility students at JUST toward voluntary work and the challenges they face in practicing it. The researcher used a descriptive survey method and a questionnaire as a study tool. The study sample consisted of (400) students. The results of the study indicated that the attitudes of social responsibility students at JUST toward voluntary work and the challenges they face in practicing it was “ high”, and the most important challenges that students face in practicing voluntary work are as follows: the time of volunteering interfered with the time of study, the poor economic level of some student families, the weak contribution of courses to the preparation of student leaders who lead voluntary work. The results also showed that there are statistically significant differences in the responses of the respondents on the attitudes of students of social responsibility attributable to the effect of the gender variable in favor of the female students, and the are no statistically significant differences attributed to the effect of the number of members of the population. Keywords: voluntary work, challenges, student attitudes, Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-5-11 Publication date: February 29th 202

Adaptive E-Learning Based on Learner's Styles

In this paper, a new model for adaptive e-learning based on learner's styles is presented. In the previous work, the dimensions of learner's styles given by Felder-Silverman did not consider some important issues of the learner himself. Here, new learner's parameters such as his social environment, health conditions, psychological and economical states are taken into account. Such parameters greatly affect the ability of student to learn and understand. Therefore, in order to perfectly recognize the ability of the student to be interactive in the leaning environment and accept information, new learner's styles are added to the dimensions of Felder-Silverman learning style model and our previous work [24]. The new proposed model is applied for logic gates and functions used in data encoding and computer networks. Such model presents suitable courses for each student in a dynamic and adaptive manner using existing database and workflow technologies. Furthermore, it is powerful, user friendly and easy to interpret. Moreover, it suggests a learning strategy and appropriate electronic media that match the learner’s preference

Effect of preoperative fluoroscopic guided single shot Erector Spinae Block for posterior lumbar spine surgery: A surgeon and patient prospective

Background: Posterior spinal surgery is considered one of the most painful surgeries. Erector Spinae Block is likely to produce effective pain management as it causes blockade of the dorsal rami .Objective: This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of ESPB in controlling intraoperative and POP and surgical field during lumbar spine fixation.Patients and methods: A total of 70 cases were enrolled, and they were haphazardly divided into two groups; ESPB group which comprised 35 cases who underwent the blockade technique, and the control group which included the remaining 35 cases that underwent surgery without blockade. The primary outcome was POP, while secondary outcomes involved intraoperative bleeding, and surgeon satisfaction.Results: No significant differences were detected among both groups concerning patient demographic features. Operative bed bleeding was significantly decreased in the ESPB group. Also, ESPB group expressed lower pain scores during the initial 6 hours after surgery with no difference detected between both studied groups on subsequent assessment. Surgeon satisfaction was significantly better in the ESPB group.Conclusion: ESPB appears to be safe and efficacious technique not only in decreasing POP, but also in improving operative bed bleeding, and surgeon satisfaction

Privometer: Privacy protection in social networks

The increasing popularity of social networks, such as Facebook and Orkut, has raised several privacy concerns. Traditional ways of safeguarding privacy of personal information by hiding sensitive attributes are no longer adequate. Research shows that probabilistic classification techniques can effectively infer such private information. The disclosed sensitive information of friends, group affiliations and even participation in activities, such as tagging and commenting, are considered background knowledge in this process. In this paper, we present a privacy protection tool, called Privometer, that measures the amount of sensitive information leakage in a user profile and suggests selfsanitization actions to regulate the amount of leakage. In contrast to previous research, where inference techniques use publicly available profile information, we consider an augmented model where a potentially malicious application installed in the user’s friend profiles can access substantially more information. In our model, merely hiding the sensitive information is not sufficient to protect the user privacy. We present an implementation of Privometer in Facebook