Modern South Arabian: Conducting Field work in Dhofar, Mahrah and Eastern Saudi Arabia

In this paper, we discuss conducting community-based fieldwork with speakers of the Modern South Arabian languages (MSAL) in southern Oman, eastern Yemen and eastern Saudi Arabia for a Leverhulme-funded project: The Documentation and Ethnolinguistic Analysis of Modern South Arabian. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the languages, their varying degrees of language endangerment, and the traditional lifestyle of their speakers. In section 2 we discuss the decline and erosion of the languages, and the rationale this provides not only for documenting the languages, but also for closely involving native speakers and community members in the data collection, transcription, translation, analysis, and dissemination. This vital community participation is considered in section 3, which also includes a description of the equipment we used, the software packages and the orthography devised for the project. We describe the collection of audio, audio-visual and photographic material, file identification and metadata, identifying speakers, obtaining ethical consent, training community participants, analysing and archiving the data, and the project website. Section 4 discusses language revitalisation and the joint dissemination of research

Epenthesis and vowel intrusion in Central Dhofari Mehri

The paper discusses epenthesis and vowel intrusion in the Central Dhofari variety of Mehri, one of six endangered Modern South Arabian languages indigenous to southern Arabia. Mehri is spoken by members of the Mahrah tribe in southern Oman, eastern Yemen, parts of southern and eastern Saudi Arabia and in communities in parts of the Gulf and East Africa. The estimated number of Mehri speakers is between 100,000–180,000. Following Hall (2006), this study distinguishes between two types of inserted vowels: epenthetic vowels, which repair illicit syllable structures, and intrusive vowels, which transition between consonants. The paper examines how the properties of epenthetic and intrusive vowels as proposed by Hall relate to Mehri

MINI FACTORY

The project focuses on designing and operating a mini factory using standard and customized Festo components. The project shows the integration of various components to create a flexible manufacturing system. The goal of this project is to build a small factory that can make customized products. The current product to be manufactured is a box containing a ring and a keychain with the Abu Dhabi Polytechnic logo. The mini factory consists of processing, handling, and pick-and-place stations. The purpose of the project is to improve and confirm students’ skills in the field of industrial automation and Industry 4.0 via the simulation and implementation of the production process, therefore, the project contributes to learning how products are designed and manufactured. The organizational goals of the project are lab equipment development, customization and upgrade for support of the mechatronics program and to build a demonstration solution for exhibitions and fairs with the feature to give visitors customized products with the organization logo which leads to the organization's promotion and recognition

Analysis of the Origin of Emiratis as Inferred from a Family Study Based on HLA-A, -C, -B, -DRB1, and -DQB1 Genes

In this study, we investigated HLA class I and class II allele and haplotype frequencies in Emiratis and compared them to those of Asian, Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan African populations. Methods: Two-hundred unrelated Emirati parents of patients selected for bone marrow transplantation were genotyped for HLA class I (A, B, C) and class II (DRB1, DQB1) genes using reverse sequence specific oligonucleotide bead-based multiplexing. HLA haplotypes were assigned with certainty by segregation (pedigree) analysis, and haplotype frequencies were obtained by direct counting. HLA class I and class II frequencies in Emiratis were compared to data from other populations using standard genetic distances (SGD), Neighbor-Joining (NJ) phylogenetic dendrograms, and correspondence analysis. Results: The studied HLA loci were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. We identified 17 HLA-A, 28 HLA-B, 14 HLA-C, 13 HLA-DRB1, and 5 HLA-DQB1 alleles, of which HLA-A*02 (22.2%), -B*51 (19.5%), -C*07 (20.0%), -DRB1*03 (22.2%), and -DQB1*02 (32.8%) were the most frequent allele lineages. DRB1*03~DQB1*02 (21.2%), DRB1*16~DQB1*05 (17.3%), B*35~C*04 (11.7%), B*08~DRB1*03 (9.7%), A*02~B*51 (7.5%), and A*26~C*07~B*08~DRB1*03~DQB1*02 (4.2%) were the most frequent two- and five-locus HLA haplotypes. Correspondence analysis and dendrograms showed that Emiratis were clustered with the Arabian Peninsula populations (Saudis, Omanis and Kuwaitis), West Mediterranean populations (North Africans, Iberians) and Pakistanis, but were distant from East Mediterranean (Turks, Albanians, Greek), Levantine (Syrians, Palestinians, Lebanese), Iranian, Iraqi Kurdish, and Sub-Saharan populations. Conclusions: Emiratis were closely related to Arabian Peninsula populations, West Mediterranean populations and Pakistanis. However, the contribution of East Mediterranean, Levantine Arab, Iranian, and Sub-Saharan populations to the Emiratis' gene pool appears to be minor.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors in the UAE. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), grant R01AI128775 (SJM). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the NIAID, NIH, and United States government.Scopu

Təghamk Āfyət: A course in Mehri of Dhofar

This book is the first coursebook to deal with the Modern South Arabian language, Mehri. Focussing on Mehri as spoken in Central Dhofar, Oman, the work results from several years’ close collaboration with four native speakers of Mehri. The book is multimodal, supported by a large number of audio and audio-visual texts from the Mehri archive housed at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. It comprises twenty lessons and a glossary of all terms occurring in the lessons. Dialogues within the lessons focus as far as possible on aspects of the traditional culture of the Mahrah, thus introducing the student not only to the language, but also to issues of cultural importance

Toward the development of a sustainable project portfolio selection framework for IT projects

This research aims to develop a sustainable project portfolio selection (PPS) framework for the selection of IT projects. In this regard, after introducing the research aims, objectives and research questions, this paper presents the need of such a framework and summarises state of the art literature review on existing PPS frameworks. This has been done to carefully evaluate the current research state in this area. Based on these findings, this paper further discusses the methodological plan for the achievements of all defined research objectives. Moreover, it presents our recent progress towards formulating a project portfolio selection frameworks evaluation methodology to evaluate existing PPS frameworks and to aid in achieving the overall objectives of this research. This PPS evaluation methodology also includes the suggested ranking of the PPS frameworks evolution criteria defined by the project portfolio experts in Abu Dhabi Police, which is selected case study organisation in this research. Finally the paper is concluded with the intended future research direction

Ekonomi Pembangunan Islam

pembangunan ekonomi terutama terkait kemiskinan, kesenjangan ekonomi, dan pengangguran terjadi di banyak negara di berbagai belahan dunia, baik di negara dengan penduduknya mayoritas Muslim maupun non-Muslim. Hal tersebut menjadi fakta yang menunjukkan bahwa agama Islam identik dengan kemiskinan dan keterbelakangan. Padahal kemiskinan dan keterbelakangan juga terjadi di berbagai negara yang sebagian besar penduduknya beragama non-Islam seperti di berbagai negara Amerika Latin, Eropa dan Afrika, di Filipina, Vietnam, Kamboja, Thailand, Timor Leste, India, China dan negara lainny

Analysis of the Origin of Emiratis as Inferred from a Family Study Based on <i>HLA-A</i>, <i>-C</i>, <i>-B</i>, -<i>DRB1</i>, and <i>-DQB1</i> Genes

In this study, we investigated HLA class I and class II allele and haplotype frequencies in Emiratis and compared them to those of Asian, Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan African populations. Methods: Two-hundred unrelated Emirati parents of patients selected for bone marrow transplantation were genotyped for HLA class I (A, B, C) and class II (DRB1, DQB1) genes using reverse sequence specific oligonucleotide bead-based multiplexing. HLA haplotypes were assigned with certainty by segregation (pedigree) analysis, and haplotype frequencies were obtained by direct counting. HLA class I and class II frequencies in Emiratis were compared to data from other populations using standard genetic distances (SGD), Neighbor-Joining (NJ) phylogenetic dendrograms, and correspondence analysis. Results: The studied HLA loci were in Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium. We identified 17 HLA-A, 28 HLA-B, 14 HLA-C, 13 HLA-DRB1, and 5 HLA-DQB1 alleles, of which HLA-A*02 (22.2%), -B*51 (19.5%), -C*07 (20.0%), -DRB1*03 (22.2%), and -DQB1*02 (32.8%) were the most frequent allele lineages. DRB1*03~DQB1*02 (21.2%), DRB1*16~DQB1*05 (17.3%), B*35~C*04 (11.7%), B*08~DRB1*03 (9.7%), A*02~B*51 (7.5%), and A*26~C*07~B*08~DRB1*03~DQB1*02 (4.2%) were the most frequent two- and five-locus HLA haplotypes. Correspondence analysis and dendrograms showed that Emiratis were clustered with the Arabian Peninsula populations (Saudis, Omanis and Kuwaitis), West Mediterranean populations (North Africans, Iberians) and Pakistanis, but were distant from East Mediterranean (Turks, Albanians, Greek), Levantine (Syrians, Palestinians, Lebanese), Iranian, Iraqi Kurdish, and Sub-Saharan populations. Conclusions: Emiratis were closely related to Arabian Peninsula populations, West Mediterranean populations and Pakistanis. However, the contribution of East Mediterranean, Levantine Arab, Iranian, and Sub-Saharan populations to the Emiratis’ gene pool appears to be minor