19 research outputs found
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
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Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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