KURDISH STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING AT A UNIVERSITY IN KURDISTAN REGION IRAQ

This is a small scale piece of research that has been conducted to investigate about the Kurdish students’ perceptions of CLT in Kurdistan. The samples involved in this study were 40 Kurdish undergraduate students; 6 out of these 40s were interviewed via skype. The participants were chosen based on their knowledge regarding CLT. These students have been taught the CLT principles for one year and for almost three years they have been taught through CLT. This study was collected by a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data through using a set of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This was done in order to find the answer to three research questions which are: (1) what are students’ attitudes toward CLT? (2) Do students think that authentic materials should be used by teachers in English classes? (3) What are the challenges that Kurdish students face when they are taught through CLT method? The findings of the study revealed that students have a positive attitude regarding the use of CLT, as it contributed much to the real world language. Moreover, the results showed that the students are in favour of the use of the authentic materials because they are more interesting than other materials. However, some challenges might face the teachers and the students while implementing CLT in Kurdistan context, such as: lack of authentic materials, lack of teachers’ knowledge, grammarbased exams and students’ proficiency level. Therefore, the findings also revealed that these difficulties can be tackled and by that this approach will work more properly in Kurdistan

Exploring reflective practice among university English teachers in Yemen: A case study

Reflection is an important teaching tool for teachers in higher education. By reflecting on the teaching performance, teachers can make sense of reflection for professional development and meaningful teaching and learning. Given that beliefs and practices are important components of reflective practice, more in-depth understanding of how teachers engage in reflection needs to be explored. Previous studies mainly focused on teacher‟s beliefs about reflection. However, little is known about how reflection is currently practiced among the university English teachers in Yemen. This study explores how reflection is practiced at one private university in Yemen by employing a qualitative case study method to gain insights into the phenomenon. Data were collected through a multipronged research approach including semi-structured interviews, semistructured classroom observations, journal entry and focus group discussions. Five teachers with ten-years of teaching experience were purposively selected as the key informants. Six to ten students taught by every informant took part in the focus group discussions. Data were analyzed using a coding scheme. The findings indicate that the teachers engaged in various levels, types and patterns of reflection. The multifaceted elements of reflection revealed that teachers‟ reflection was caused by two types of factors namely enabling and constraining factors. The study demonstrates that teachers need to constantly engage in formal, regular and collaborative reflection with students, colleagues, and administrators for professional development. The study provides several implications. Theoretically, the study leads to a critical awareness of the different layers of reflection. Practically, it gives teachers, administrators and decision-makers in-depth information about effective reflective practice, in particular, its process and relevance to teacher education. Methodologically, other studies can employ a similar approach to understand any complex phenomena related to teaching and learning. Further research studies are required to explore the roles of university administrators and policy makers in promoting effective reflection

Structural geology of South Hadhramaut area Yemen Republic

The northern margin of the Gulf of Aden has a long history of extension from the Cambrian to the present. The dominant structures are related to Oligo-Miocene rifting in the early stages of development of the Gulf of Aden and they overprint Palaeozoic and Mesozoic structures. An area of 170 km by 50 km was mapped at scale of 1:50,000. Landsat images of the whole area, at 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 and air photographs of part of the area were used as base maps. The resulting maps are the first detailed geological maps to be made for this area and are a major outcome of this research. Precambrian basement which was affected by the oldest stage of extension is overlain by a sedimentary cover sequence from upper Cretaceous through the Tertiary in age. The lower part of this sequence represents the Mesozoic post-rift succession deposited after the second period of extension recorded in this margin. Oligo-Miocene extension has resulted in a highly dissected rift shoulder in which the horizontal cover sequence at an elevation of 1500m to 2500m on the plateau is brought down in a series of tilted fault blocks to sea level at the Gulf coast. The massive, nodular Palaeocene limestone of the Umm er Radhuma Formation forms steep inaccessible fault scarps throughout the area. The faults vary in size from major ones which have strike lengths in excess of 50 km and throws over 1000 m to those that are too small to be recorded on the maps. By measuring the geometry of bedding in the rollover anticlines in the hanging walls of selected faults, the trajectories of the faults at depths were computed. These show that the major faults extend steeply down into metamorphic basement. Major faults with kilometric throws must lie off-shore or, less likely, are buried beneath the syn- and post-rift sediments of the coastal plain

Schultz and Modified Schultz Polynomials for Edge – Identification Chain and Ring – for Square Graphs

في البيان المتصل G، دالة المسافة بين أي رأسين من رؤوس البيان  هي أقصر مسافة بينهما، كما تعرف درجة الرأس  والتي يرمز لها بـ  بأنها عدد الحافات الواقعة عليه. متعددة حدود شوالتز وشوالتز المعدلة تعرف كالاتي:   على التوالي، حيث أن المجموع يؤخذ لكل الازواج غير المرتبة من الرؤوس المختلفة في  وأن  هي المسافة بين الرأسين   و  في . في هذا البحث استطعنا الحصول على صيغ عامة لكل من متعددة حدود شوالتز وشوالتز المعدلة ودليليهما ومعدلهما لتطابق الحافة لسلسلة وحلقة للبيانات المربعة.  In a connected graph , the distance function between each pair of two vertices from a set vertex  is the shortest distance between them and the vertex degree  denoted by  is the number of edges which are incident to the vertex  The Schultz and modified Schultz polynomials of  are have defined as:  respectively, where the summations are taken over all unordered pairs of distinct vertices in  and  is the distance between  and  in  The general forms of Schultz and modified Schultz polynomials shall be found and indices of the edge – identification chain and ring – square graphs in the present work

Full-Smart Intermittent Water Supply Monitoring, Managing, and Distributing System Based on IoT

Water supply scarcity has become a serious problem for many countries and cities, especially in the last few years when there has been less rain in many areas. So, managing, monitoring, and distributing the water supply and consumption of the people has become an urgent task for many local and national governments. Monitoring how the water is used by the population in different regions helps a lot in the more efficient management of the water supply, thus helping in solving the water scarcity problem. The proposed system includes continuous water level monitoring of wells and storage reservoirs in the city, as well as continuous monitoring of the daily water consumption needs of each household in each neighborhood based on a group of criteria such as the number of residents, the area of green space, and the temperature of the air. This is followed by a fair amount of water being automatically distributed at regular periods to each consumer based on the estimated total amount of water. This is done through smart water meters, remote actuation of valves, and remote water pumps based on IoT devices, which are all under the supervision of a web-based system. Moreover, an application has been developed for use by consumers so that they can monitor their water consumption, be informed about the next water distribution time and the amount of predicted water, check the water meter status, check the air in water pipes, and water bill inquiry and payment

A Study of the Factors Affecting Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention

Unemployment is an issue in most of the countries, both developing and developed. Students spend their available life, money, and efforts in education for getting a good job. However, when they finish their education, they spend much time looking for a job and sometimes stay unemployed. It is believed that one of the best solutions for this problem is to start a privet business. Thus, this study embarked to study the factors that affect UTHM students’ entrepreneur intention. It followed the quantitative method and collected the data via online and hard questionnaires. The data then was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0. Four main variables were studied in this research namely, attitude, perceived behavior control, need for achievement, and family background. The findings of this study showed that all the variables were correlated with entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, the study also showed that all factors have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention, except for the family background which was found to have no significant impact

Determination of Na, K and Fe in Lactuca Sativa by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric and Flame Photometric Techniques

Determination of mineral composition of the selected vegetable lactuca sativa which is commonly used as food.  Macroelement Sodium (Na), Potassium (K) and Iron (Fe) were analyzed using AAS and Flame-photometric techniques the microelement including Fe is found to be )7.03 ppm(; The results of macroelements obtained having values Na (9.61 ppm) and K (32.67 ppm); The results indicated that this vegetable has the potential to provide essential nutrients to the human beings and it is found to be a good source of Fe, Na and K. The present method is accurate, the average recovery of Na, K and Fe were 100 %, 100.6 % and 105.8, respectively and precise the RSD is 2% for Na, K and Fe respectively.

Reproductive Biology of Arabian Pandora, Pagellus Affinis (Boulenger, 1888) from Hadhramout Coast, Gulf of Aden

Two hundreds and fifty eight fish of P. affinis samples were randomly collected from Hadhramout coast, Gulf of Aden during period of March 2012 until April 2013. Generally, the best growth performance of P. affinis was occurred from May to September related to available nourishment, upwelled bottom nutrient. Length-weight relationship was 2.83 appeared the isometric growth during whole year. Sex ratio was revealed 1:1, males to females in whole year. The gonado somatic index values were above 3%, showing that spawning could be placed in June to September in a year at length 20.2 cm to 22.8 cm, with a peak of activity spawning in September. The highest percentage of absolute fecundity was 35% in June followed by 25% in both August and July, whereas the lowest percentage was 15% in September. Also, the condition factor gives the impression the sexual maturity from July to November at 19 cm to at 21.1 cm in length

Design of cyclic prefix characteristic-based OFDM system for WiMAX technology

Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) offers the wireless connectivity using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is a proficient wireless technology that capacities high-speed data transmission facilities. The existing WiMAX techniques have the problem of increase in inter-symbol interference (ISI) and bit error rate (BER) at reduced power spectrum that degrades the performance of WiMAX system due to high data rate transmission. The utilization of different adaptive modulation techniques seen as a potential solution to reduce the ISI and BER for high data rate transmission. In this paper, OFDM is adapted using advanced modulation technique for WiMAX system. The technique proposes the cyclic prefix (CP) is utilized that include supplementary bits at the stage of the transmitter. The proposed technique offers minimization of ISI and improvement in BER. It is defined that performance of the existing CP system is equated with the designed single cyclic prefix (SCP) and double cyclic prefix (DCP) and non-cyclic prefix (NCP). BER, probability of error, and power spectral density are utilized to analyse the performance of the designed system. The OFDM based SCP and DCP and NCP for WiMAX are demonstrated for modulation techniques such as; QPSK, BPSK, and QAM. It is determined that BPSK has the smallest BER when compared to QPSK, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM modulations. It is also demonstrated that QPSK is also very competent, however, it has a higher BER as compared to BPSK modulation. It is also observed that 16-QAM and 64-QAM are less efficient in terms of BER compared to QPSK and BPKS modulations. 64-QAM offers the high data rates, and due to high SNR ratio. The designed system is tested for under AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel, and effect power spectral density of signal to noise ratio on OFDM for rayleigh fading channel are demonstrated for SCP and DCP and NCP. It is determined that the OFDM transmitter with proposed DCP for random signals is efficiently reducing the BER and ISI for WiMAX system

Pars plana vitrectomy for tractional diabetic macular edema with or without internal limiting membrane peeling

Background: The effectiveness of internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling in the surgical treatment of tractional diabetic macular edema (DME), although widely examined, remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in the management of tractional DME and to highlight any benefits of additional ILM peeling. Methods: This was an open-label, prospective, comparative, and interventional study that enrolled 50 eyes with tractional DME that underwent PPV and allocated each to one of two groups: group A consisted of 25 eyes that had no ILM peeling and group B consisted of 25 eyes that underwent ILM peeling. Postoperative assessments of best-corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA) in the logarithm of minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) notation and central macular thickness (CMT) were performed at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively. Results: At baseline, the two groups were comparable in terms of sex ratios, phakic status, insulin use, coexistence of hypertension, and mean (standard deviation [SD]) age, BCDVA, CMT, duration of diabetes mellitus, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. In group A, the mean (SD) BCDVA improved significantly from 0.89 (0.12) logMAR preoperatively to 0.64 (0.24) logMAR (P < 0.001), and the mean (SD) CMT declined significantly from 471.28 (80.83) micrometer to 228.20 (26.45) micrometer (P < 0.001), at the 6-month postoperative assessment. Likewise, in group B, the mean (SD) BCDVA improved significantly from 0.83 (0.10) logMAR preoperatively to 0.58 (0.24) logMAR (P < 0.001), and the mean (SD) CMT decreased significantly from 496.84 (89.82) micrometer to 226.20 (18.04) micrometer (P < 0.001), after 6 months. There were no significant differences between groups A and B in the changes in BCDVA (Delta BCDVA) or CMT (Delta CMT) at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively with respect to the baseline values (all P > 0.05). Postoperative complications were comparable between the two groups. A significant negative correlation was detected between the preoperative HbA1c level and BCDVA improvement in all participants (r = - 0.82; P < 0.001). Conclusions: PPV is an effective treatment for tractional DME. Additional ILM peeling was not significantly associated with functional and anatomical benefits over a short period. Long-term glycemic control plays a role in vision gain after vitrectomy in patients with diabetes. Further long-term studies are required to verify our findings