Grammatical subjects of Jordanian Arabic: syntactic and discourse functions

This dissertation examines a set of phenomena in Jordanian Arabic (JA) related to the subject and its position, providing an analysis for each within the assumptions of generative grammar, particularly those related to the provocative syntax model (Branigan 2010), and functional grammar (Prince 1999, Owens et. al. 2010, among others). Chapter 2 examines the properties of the preverbal subject and how it is derived. Based on ambiguity tests involving negation and quantifiers, I show that the preverbal DP occupies an A position and is derived by movement. Chapter 3 deals with the embedded lexical subject and the subject clitics that cooccur with it. I argue that the cooccurrence of a subject clitic and a lexical subject is a product of a provocation process. Following Branigan (2010), I propose that the C head in JA is endowed with a provocative feature, which imposes the creation of an external copy of its internal goal projection. The external copy can be identical or non-identical to the original goal projection. I take the non-identical shape of a DP projection to be a pronoun with a deleted NP, in line with the NP-deletion theory (Elbourne 2001 ). Accordingly, when C locates the preverbal lexical subject as a local goal, it creates an external copy of it. This copy merges with C, which derives the 'doubling' of an agreeing clitic and the lexical subject. Since C is provocative, it also has the option to probe for an 'external' copy that is already available. In this case, C probes for the default clitic -uh. I show that probing for the default -uh can be obligatory, as in cases where C cannot reach its internal goal, or optional, where C directly probes for - uh even when with the presence of a 'reachable' internal goal. In this case, we get the 'doubling' of a default clitic and an overt subject. Chapter 4 investigates the variation in overt and null subjects within a functional approach. Specifically, I examine the role of discourse and semantic-pragmatic factors in overt and null subject variation in JA. I show that the favoring of an overt subject is influenced by pragmatic anaphora, antecedent salience in the discourse, and predicate type

The Syntax of Answers to Positive Polar Questions in Jordanian Arabic

Responses to a polar question have recently received much attention in the syntactic literature (e.g., Yaisomanag, 2012 on Thi; Wu, 2016 on Taiwanese, Servidio et al., 2018 on Italian; among others). However, the syntax of yes-no questions in Arabic has been undermined in the literature. The present study provides a syntactic analysis of answers to positive/neutral polar questions in Jordanian Arabic. Jordanian Arabic is particularly relevant here because its system allows for a variety of answer expressions. For example, an answer to a polar question could be in the form of a particle (a: ‘yes’ and laʔ ‘no’) or a finite verb echoing the verb of the question. Following Holmberg (2016), we demonstrate that these expressions are full sentences derived by ellipses. We assume that a yes-no question has an unvalued, free polarity variable [±Pol] that needs to be assigned a value. Deriving the answer would provide a value for this variable. This involves copying the TP of the question and merging an answer particle or an abstract polarity feature (affirmative or negative) in spec-Foc to value the unvalued feature of Pol; then the TP of the answer gets deleted at the PF component under identity with the TP of the question

Frequency Analysis of Annual One Day Maximum Rainfall at Amman Zarqa Basin, Jordan

Water management and design of irrigation and drainage projects are based on extreme values rather than on average values. Annual daily maximum rainfall corresponding to return periods varying from 2 to 100 years is used by design engineers and hydrologists for economic planning, and design of minor and major hydraulic structures. This research aims at performing frequency analysis of annual daily maximum rainfall in Amman-Zarqa Basin (AZB) which is an important basin in Jordan.  Daily rainfall data at 22 stations distributed in Amman-Zarqa Basin with long time series (more than 40 years) were used for this purpose. For each station, the annual 1- day maximum rainfall data were extracted. Daily maximum values have then been statistically analyzed by RAINBOW software using two probability distribution functions, namely: Linear and log normal distributions. The goodness of fit for the selected distributions is tested using the Chi-square and the Kolmogorov–Simrnov tests at three significant levels (?=5%, 10% and 20%). The results of the goodness of fit indicate that the Log normal distribution provides a good fit to the rainfall data in the basin. Frequency analysis is then conducted to extract the magnitude of 1 day annual maximum rainfall corresponding to 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 yr return periods for the 22 stations in AZB. Analysis of rainfall regime would enhance the management of water to prevent floods and droughts as well as an effective design of drainage structures especially in relation to their required hydraulic capacity. Keywords: Amman-Zarqa Basin, Extreme Events, Frequency Analysis, Probability Distribution, RAINBOW Software, Return Perio

Optimal Coordination of Directional Overcurrent Relays Using Hybrid Firefly–Genetic Algorithm

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/The application of directional overcurrent relays (DOCRs) plays an important role in protecting power systems and ensuring their safe, reliable, and efficient operation. However, coordinating DOCRs involves solving a highly constrained and nonlinear optimization problem. The primary objective of optimization is to minimize the total operating time of DOCRs by determining the optimal values for decision variables such as the time multiplier setting (TMS) and plug setting (PS). This article presents an efficient hybrid optimization algorithm that combines the modified firefly algorithm and genetic algorithm to achieve improved solutions. First, this study modifies the firefly algorithm to obtain a global solution by updating the firefly’s brightness and to prevent the distance between the individual fireflies from being too far. Additionally, the randomized movements are controlled to produce a high convergence rate. Second, the optimization problem is solved using the genetic algorithm. Finally, the solution obtained from the modified firefly algorithm is used as the initial population for the genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithms have been tested on the IEEE 3-bus, 8-bus, 9-bus and 15-bus networks. The results indicate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithms in minimizing the total operating time of DOCRs compared with other optimization methods presented in the literature.Peer reviewe

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Emphasis spread: The domain and trigger

This paper investigates the domain and directionality of emphasis spread in Urban Jordanian Arabic. The acoustic coarticulatory effects of emphasis are also probed. Nine native speakers of the dialect were recorded reading tri-syllabic monomorphemic and bimorphemic minimal pairs. The minimal pairs contained the voiceless emphatic fricative/sˁ/and its plain counterpart/s/in word initial and word final contexts. The acoustic correlates of emphasis measured were F1, F2, and F3 in the vowels following (i.e., word-initial) and preceding the emphatic sound (i.e., word-final). The results have roughly corroborated our findings in previous research where we claimed that the morpheme is, though disproportionately, still a confounding factor of emphasis spread. The most interesting contribution of this research is the perplexing behavior of emphasis spreading when crossing over the morpheme boundaries. Whereas the influence of the emphatic sound is evident on the morpheme falling to its left (e.g. prefixes) is evident, its influence on the morpheme falling to its right (i.e. suffixes) is less clear. In other words, one could argue that the boundary between the stem and the suffix is more robust compared to the boundary between the stem and the prefix. Therefore, a line of demarcation, we hypothesize, should be drawn between suffix boundary and prefix boundary

Novel hybrid invasive weed optimization and machine learning approach for fault detection

Fault diagnosis of anomalies in induction motors is essential to ensure industry safety. This paper presents a new hybrid Invasive Weed Optimization and Machine Learning approach for fault diagnosis in an induction motor. The vibration signal provides a lot of information about the motor's operating conditions. Therefore, the vibration signal of the motor was chosen to investigate the fault diagnosis. Two identical 400-V, 50-Hz, 4-pole 0.75 HP induction motors were under healthy, mechanical, and electrical faults tested in a laboratory with different loading. A hybrid model was developed using the vibration signal, the Invasive Weed Optimization algorithm (IWO), and machine learning classifiers. Some statistical features were extracted from the signal using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The invasive weed optimization algorithm (IWO) was utilized to reduce the number of the extracted features and select the most suitable ones. Then, three classification algorithms namely k-Nearest Neighbor neural network (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Random Forest (RF), were trained using k-fold cross-validation and tested to predict the true class. The advantage of combining these techniques is to reduce the training time and increase the average accuracy of the model. The performance of the proposed fault diagnosis model was evaluated by measuring the Specificity, Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1_score. The experimental results prove that the proposed model has achieved more than 99.90% of accuracy. Furthermore, the other evaluation parameters also show the same representation of performance. The hybrid model has proved successfully its robust for diagnosing the faults under different load conditions

Knowledge growth measurement and formulation for enhancing organizational knowledge capital

This paper offers a conceptual framework for those details with the main component features for modeling knowledge growth. It has been contributing to important insights to future studies in the field of knowledge management to design a theoretical and operational model of knowledge growth in enhancing organizations’ knowledge capital. This study approach considers three important issues: such as the categories of knowledge for measurement, the elicitation and measurement of organizational knowledge growth by designing a knowledge growth elicitation and measurement tool (KGEMT), and formulating a model for knowledge growth measurement. The review and analyses show that knowledge growth measurement and elicitation is an active research spanning from the concepts that include the stages of knowledge growth; evolutionary theories that involve continuous organizational learning; knowledge growth elicitation to capture the component features of a knowledge growth process from users formulation of knowledge growth; and formation of knowledge capital

Frequency of Mismatch Repair Protein (MMRP) Deficiency among Young Jordanians Diagnosed with Colorectal Carcinoma (CRC)

Purpose. Microsatellite instability (MSI) caused by mismatch repair protein (MMRP) deficiency is detected in 15% of sporadic colorectal cancers (CRCs). Our aim is to investigate the frequency of MMRP deficiency in young CRC patients, using immunohistochemical analysis. Methods. This study targeted cases of CRC at King Hussein Cancer Center from 2004 until 2012 in patients 45 years of age or younger at the time of diagnosis. Clinicopathological data was obtained from 155 patients’ records. Immunohistochemistry for MLH1, MSH2, PMS2, and MSH6 proteins was performed on paraffin-embedded tissue containing carcinoma. Results. The median age of patient at diagnosis was 38 years. A total of 29 (19%) cases showed deficient MMRP(dMMRP)expression. Loss of expression of PMS2 was seen in 17 cases, 12 cases of which showed loss of MLH1 expression. Loss of expression of MSH6 was seen in 10 cases, 9 of which showed loss of MSH2 expression. One case (3.4%) showed loss of all four MMR proteins, and another case (3.4%) showed loss of PMS2/MLH1 and MSH6. There was a significant association between abnormal MMR protein expression and tumor location proximal to splenic flexure (p value 0.000), pathologic features suggestive of microsatellite instability (p value 0.000), P53 negativity (p value 0.000), and stage (p value 0.02). Patients with dMMRP CRC appeared to have a significantly better overall survival compared to patients with proficient MMRP(pMMRP)(p value 0.02). Loss of MSH2/MSH6 was significantly associated with positive family history of cancer (p value = 0.020). Conclusions. The prevalence of dMMRP tumors in this age group appears to be similar to international literature. dMMRP tumors tends to be associated with earlier stages and better outcomes compared to pMMRP cases. dMMRP can serve as a biomarker for better prognosis. These results are of value in directing the clinical management of young patients with CRC

A New Iterative Approach for Designing Passive Harmonic Filters for Variable Frequency Drives

The extensive usage of variable frequency drives (VFDs) in industrial applications has caused significant concern regarding the quality of power in electrical distribution systems. VFDs are nonlinear loads that cause harmonic voltages across system impedance by injecting harmonic currents into the power system. The performance of other sensitive loads in the system may be harmed as a result of this harmonic distortion. This study presents a new method for designing and specifying low-voltage harmonic filters for 6-pulse VFDs. An electrical distribution system feeding a group of variable frequency drives was analyzed using the proposed methodology. MATLAB software was used to conduct this study. The minimum value of the filter’s reactive power and its specifications were determined using an iterative technique. To validate the proposed methodology, two case studies are presented. The results demonstrate that the method is effective