To help ensure the ethical conduct of research, many have recommended educational efforts in research ethics to investigators and members of research ethics committees (RECs). One type of education activity involves multi-day workshops in research ethics. To be effective, such workshops should contain the appropriate content and teaching techniques geared towards the learning styles of the targeted audiences. To ensure consistency in content and quality, we describe the development of a curriculum guide, core competencies and associated learning objectives and activities (...) to help educators organize research ethics workshops in their respective institutions. The curriculum guide is divided into modular units to enable planners to develop workshops of different lengths and choose content materials that match the needs, abilities, and prior experiences of the target audiences. The content material in the curriculum guide is relevant for audiences in the Middle East, because individuals from the Middle East who participated in a Certificate Program in research ethics selected and developed the training materials (e.g., articles, powerpoint slides, case studies, protocols). Also, many of the activities incorporate active-learning methods, consisting of group work activities analyzing case studies and reviewing protocols. The development of such a workshop training curriculum guide represents a sustainable educational resource to enhance research ethics capacity in the Middle East. (shrink)

Integral to the discipline of anthropology are both science and holism. The application of Optimality Theory to two partial kin terminologies narrows analysis to descriptive value, fragments phenomena, and constrains data selection, which precludes significant knowledge. Embedded in this critique is a call to move analysis from fragment to whole and from descriptive features to deeper levels of knowledge underlying kin terms, thereby leading to a cognitive path for holistic understanding of human phenomena.

Using Shahzad Bashir’s open-access publication A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures as a baseline, this symposium debates whether and how intellectual history can be done otherwise. Mohamed ‘Arafa follows Bashir’s invitation to explore the potential of open-ended historiographies when he thinks about the viability of a flexible method to interpret Sharī ʿ a. Nader El-Bizri interrogates whether the assemblage of personal experiential accounts offered by Bashir can be framed within the discourse of intellectual history at all. Nauman (...) Faizi reads Bashir’s approach as a radical attempt to open up hermeneutical possibilities. Lena Salaymeh suggests that modern aesthetics can contribute to neo-colonial distortions of the Islamic tradition, rather than offering alternatives to positivist historiography. Bashir proposes in his response that academics adopt generosity as an analytical gesture in their academic writing, a generosity that would enable different ways of being human in the world. (shrink)

La teoría problemática del filósofo belga Michel Meyer abrió un nuevo horizonte filosófico y argumentativo para librar al pensamiento humano del dominio de la tendencia proposicional. Una tendencia que impuso un patrón sistemático, a lo largo de la historia del pensamiento humano, con una referencia lógica basada en los principios de no contradicción, de identidad y de tercero excluido. Este artículo se centrará en las aportaciones de la teoría llamada “de la problematologie” para liberar a la interpretación de la tiranía (...) proposicional que reduce la pluralidad de las respuestas a una dicotomía proposicional A o -A. (shrink)

Background: Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home. Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given (...) year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can strike at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Objectives: The main goal of this expert system is to get the appropriate diagnosis of disease and the correct treatment and give the appropriate method of treatment through several tips that concern the disease and how to treat it and we will see it through the application on the expert system. Methods: in this paper the design of the proposed Expert System which was produced to help Psychologist in diagnosing depression disease through its symptoms such as: a loss of energy, a change in appetite, sleeping more or less, anxiety, reduced concentration, indecisiveness, restlessness, feelings of worthlessness, guilt or hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm or suicide. The proposed expert system presents an overview about depression disease is given, the cause of diseases is outlined and the treatment of disease whenever possible is given out. SL5 Object Expert System language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The proposed depression disease diagnosis expert system was evaluated by psychologist students and they were satisfied with its performance. Conclusions: The Proposed expert system is very useful for psychologist, patients with depression and newly graduated psychologist. (shrink)

The term takyīf fiqhī stands for one crucial concept in Islamic jurisprudence and refers to one of the important steps in the process of formulating fatwā. It basically revolves around the categorization of particular issues under the appropriate rules and precedents established in Islamic juristic thought. The present article attempts to examine the concept of takyīf fiqhī in a comprehensive manner in terms of its meaning, authority, types, importance, and governing criteria as can be gleaned from the works of Sharī‘ah (...) scholars. This is then followed by an exploration of its application to modern contracts, taking as a case study the Central Provident Fund Nomination in Singapore. The article concludes with the view that the Central Provident Fund Nomination, in terms of its essential characteristics and objective, resembles the Islamic will contract as discussed in books of Islamic Jurisprudence. (shrink)

Writings on al-Shāṭibī have focused on his views on maṣlaḥah and Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah. His approach to the interpretation of the Qurʾān and the implications of such an approach have only rarely been heeded. This study addresses this aspect of al-Shāṭibī’s work. It essentially asserts that in restructuring Islamic legal theory around the idea of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, al-Shāṭibī brought jurists and Qurʾān commentators closer to one another. It further argues that his contribution went beyond the interest of jurists centred on legal (...) reasoning by holding a comprehensive hermeneutical view of the Qurʾān informed by belief in the thematic unity of its sūrahs and verses. Taking such unity as the cornerstone of a sound understanding of the Qurʾān capable of grasping its eternal values and universal principles, he developed a methodology that has inspired a few eminent contemporary Muslim scholars who have developed what has come to be known as thematic interpretation of the Qurʾān. This article discusses al-Shāṭibī’s hermeneutics of the Qurʾān by delineating his epistemic and methodological propositions. Thus, the author aims to show the existence of semantic unity and epistemic interconnectedness among different disciplines in Islamic scholarship. (shrink)

This work intends to apprehend and emphasize the contribution of image-processing techniques and computer vision in the treatment of clay-based material known in Meknes region. One of the various characteristics used to describe clay in a qualitative manner is porosity, as it is considered one of the properties that with “kill or cure” effectiveness. For this purpose, we use scanning electron microscopy images, as they are considered the most powerful tool for characterising the quality of the microscopic pore structure of (...) porous materials. We present various existing methods of segmentation, as we are interested only in pore regions. The results show good matching between physical estimation and Voronoi diagram-based porosity estimation. (shrink)

Background The nursing profession requires ethical and legal regulations to guide nurses’ performance. Ethical climate plays a part in shaping nurses’ ethical practice. Therefore, ethico-legal aspects and ethical climate contribute to improving nurses’ ethical practice and competencies with reducing medical errors in hospital settings. Objective This study examined the effect of ethico-legal aspects and ethical climate on managing safe patient care and medical errors among nurses. Materials and methods A cross-sectional correlational study was carried out on 548 nurses. Data were (...) collected through self-administered questionnaires about nurses’ knowledge in both ethical and legal aspects, ethical practice, competencies, ethical climate and experience with medical error. Results The main sources of nurses’ knowledge of ethical and legal aspects were undergraduate lectures, job experience and colleagues. Nurses’ knowledge in both ethical and legal aspects, nurses’ ethical practice and competencies were insufficient. Nurses fairly perceived their ethical climate. Also, nurses experienced medical errors about 22.6% in their units. Nurses’ knowledge of ethical and legal aspects, as well as the ethical climate were positive predictors of inadequate nurses’ ethical practice and competencies. Additionally, nurses’ knowledge in both ethical and legal aspects, ethical climate and practice had a negative influence on the occurrence of medical errors. Conclusion Enhancing nurses’ knowledge in both ethical and legal aspects as well as ethical climate could significantly influence improving nurses’ ethical practice, competencies and reducing medical errors in the study units. Therefore, planning for enhancing the nurses’ ethico-legal learning and ethical climate seems to be mandatory. (shrink)

Background The wide proliferation of Covid-19 has impacted billions of people all over the world. This catastrophic pandemic outbreak and ostracism at work have posed challenges for all healthcare professionals, especially for nurses, and have led to a significant increase in the workload, several physical and mental problems, and a change in behavior that is more negative and counterproductive. Therefore, leadership behaviors that are moral in nature serve as a trigger and lessen the adverse workplace effects on nurses’ conduct. Aim (...) this research is directed to explore the impact of post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism on nurses’ counterproductive behavior and examine the role of moral leadership as a mediating factor in post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism and nurses’ counterproductive behavior. Ethical consideration Ethical review and approval Was received from Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. Methods A cross-sectional and correlation study was implemented in all units of medical, surgical, critical and intensive care units by using three tools; moral leadership questionnaire, Workplace Ostracism Instrument (WOS), and Counterproductive Work Behaviors Questionnaire (CWBs). A convenient sample of 340 from 699 bedside nurses was granted. Results This study revealed that nurses’ perceived moderate mean percent (55.49 ± 3.46) of overall workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior (74.69 ± 6.15). However, they perceived a low mean percentage of moral leadership. There was a significant positive correlation between workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Otherwise, a significant negative correlation was found between moral leadership, workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Also, this study proved the mediating effect of moral leadership in decreasing workplace ostracism by 79.3% and counterproductive behavior by 36.7%. Conclusion Hospital administrators need to be aware of the significance of moral leadership and apply integrity in the clinical setting to reduce the drawback of isolation on nurses' conduct and increase value for the organization as a whole and nurses in particular. (shrink)

Background Workplace silence behavior is a social collective phenomenon. It refers to nurses choosing to withhold their ideas, opinions and concerns about critical issues in their workplace. Workplace silence behavior poses a threat to organizational ethics and success. It also has adverse effects on the performance of nurses in health organizations. Underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors could be related to individual, social and organizational attributes in health care settings. Objectives The study aimed to develop a new Egyptian validation scale (...) for measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behavior and identify consequences of workplace silence behavior on nurses. Methods A cross-sectional correlational study was implemented using questionnaires on workplace silence behavior, nursing motives and nurses' consequences, collected from 332 nurses working in critical and toxicology care settings of Alexandria Main University Hospital. Results Egyptian scale was shown to be a good fit model of exploratory (36 nursing motives emerged in six dimensions with total variance of 73.3%) and confirmatory factor analysis tests (X2 = 1381.47, NNFI =0. 90, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.057). It also had high reliability tests with coefficient of alpha (0.85), Pearson (0.75) and Kendall coefficient of 0.72. High level of workplace silence behaviors showed a negative association with organizational dis-identification, fair citizenship behavior, and fair nurses' performance and declined reporting of patient adverse events. It also appeared to be in a positive association with higher levels of cynicism. Conclusion The Egyptian scale was proved to be reliable and valid for measuring the underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors in the hospital workplace. Measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behaviors will help nurse managers to reduce negative outcomes of workplace silence behaviors and improve organizational outcomes. (shrink)

Background: Arthritis is very common but is not well understood. Actually, “arthritis” is not a single disease; it is an informal way of referring to joint pain or joint disease. There are more than 100 different types of arthritis and related conditions. People of all ages, sexes and races can and do have arthritis, and it is the leading cause of disability in America. More than 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some type of arthritis. It is most common (...) among women and occurs more frequently as people get older. Common arthritis joint symptoms include swelling, pain, stiffness and decreased range of motion. Symptoms may come and go. They can be mild, moderate or severe. They may stay about the same for years, but may progress or get worse over time. Severe arthritis can result in chronic pain, inability to do daily activities and make it difficult to walk or climb stairs. Arthritis can cause permanent joint changes. These changes may be visible, such as knobby finger joints, but often the damage can only be seen on X-ray. Some types of arthritis also affect the heart, eyes, lungs, kidneys and skin as well as the joints. Objectives: The main goal of this expert system is to get the appropriate diagnosis of disease and the correct treatment and give the appropriate method of treatment through several tips that concern the disease and how to treat it and we will see it through the application on the expert system. Methods: in this paper the design of the proposed Expert System which was produced to help Orthopedist in diagnosing Arthritis disease through its symptoms such as: pain on pressure in a joint , Inflammation indicated by joint swelling, Stiffness especially in the morning , Loss of flexibility of joint, Limited, joint movement, Deformity of the joints , Weight loss and fatigue , Non-specific fever and Crepitus. The proposed expert system presents an overview about Arthritis disease is given, the cause of diseases is outlined and the treatment of disease whenever possible is given out. SL5 Object Expert System language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The proposed Arthritis disease diagnosis expert system was evaluated by Orthopedics students and they were satisfied with its performance. Conclusions: The Proposed expert system is very useful for Orthopedist, patients with arthritis and newly graduated Orthopedics students. (shrink)

Members of research ethics committees (RECs) face a number of ethical challenges when reviewing genomic research. These include issues regarding the content and type of consent, the return of individual research results, mechanisms of sharing specimens and health data, and appropriate community engagement efforts. This article presents the findings from a survey that sought to investigate the opinions and attitudes of REC members from four Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, and Jordan) toward these (...) ethical issues. Our findings suggest that efforts are required to better familiarize REC members with the requirements for ethical biobank research. Additionally, we recommend that further research is undertaken with REC members regarding the main items that should be present in the Material Transfer Agreements /Data Transfer Agreements in their corresponding countries and the type of consent that should be used in genomic research. (shrink)

In 2022, the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) submitted a proposal to host the 17th edition of the World Congress of Bioethics. After announcing that the CILE‐WISH proposal was the winning bid, concerns were raised by bioethicists based in Europe and the USA. To address these concerns, the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) developed a dedicated FAQ section, in coordination with the host institutions, for the first time in IAB (...) history. One‐to‐one communication ensued and individual responses were shared with these colleagues. As a continuation of this conversation, we (CILE Acting Director, WISH Research Fellow and Head of Content, and WISH CEO) address the concerns raised in the Letter‐to‐the‐Editor of Bioethics by Graaf et al. As we support the call to revisit some contentious issues within the global community of bioethicists, we maintain that this should be based on meticulously discussed, informed, consistent and equitable criteria. We also argue that mutual learning from diverse cultures and moral traditions is the optimal way for our scholarly community to be truly global and to eschew the flaws ensuing from ethnocentric discourses. (shrink)

Research has shown high levels of housing precarity among government-assisted refugees connected to difficult housing markets, limited social benefits, and other social and structural barriers to positive settlement. The COVID-19 pandemic has likely exacerbated this precarity. Research to date demonstrates the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for refugees and low-income households, including both health-related issues and economic challenges, that may exacerbate their ability to obtain affordable, suitable housing. In this context, we examined Syrian government-assisted refugees’ experiences during the pandemic, (...) asking: how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Syrian refugees’ experiences of housing stability. To examine this issue, we interviewed 38 families in Calgary, London, and Fredericton. Using a qualitative descriptive methodology for analysis and interpretation, we found the liminality of settling as a GAR has been compounded by isolation, further economic loss, and new anxieties during the pandemic. Ultimately, for many participants, the pandemic has thwarted their housing stability goals and decreased their likelihood of improving their housing conditions. Based on our findings, we discuss potential policy and practice relevant solutions to the challenges faced by refugees in Canada during the pandemic and likely beyond. (shrink)

Topic of quantum chaos has begun to draw increasing attention in recent years. So, to ensure the security of digital image, an image encryption algorithm based on combining a hyperchaotic system and quantum 3D logistic map is proposed. This algorithm is applied in four stages. Initially, the key generator builds upon the foundation of mean for any row or column of the edges of the plain image. Its output value is used to yield initial conditions and parameters of the proposed (...) image encryption scheme. Next, it diffuses the plain image by the random sequences generated by 3D hyperchaotic system, and the diffusion process is realized by implementing XOR operation. Then, the diffused image and chaotic sequences are produced by the 3D quantum chaotic logistic map, expressed as a quantum superposition state using density matrix which is a representation of the state of a quantum system, and finally the resulting quantum image is then confused and diffused simultaneously by a unitary matrix generated by logistic chaos using XNOR operation to obtain the final cipher image. Because of the dependence on the plain image, the algorithm can frustrate the chosen-plaintext and known-plaintext attacks. Simulation results and theoretical analysis verify that the presented scheme has high safety performance, a good encryption effect, and a large key space. The method can effectively resist exhaustive, statistical, and differential attacks. Moreover, the encryption time of the proposed method is satisfactory, and the method can be efficiently used in practice for the secure transmission of image information. (shrink)

Host defense mechanisms are categorized into different strategies, namely, avoidance, resistance and tolerance. Resistance encompasses mechanisms that directly kill the pathogen while tolerance is mainly concerned with alleviating the harsh consequences of the infection regardless of the pathogen burden. Resistance is well‐known strategy in immunology while tolerance is relatively new. Studies addressed tolerance mainly using mouse models revealing a wide range of interesting tolerance mechanisms. Herein, we aim to emphasize on the interspecies comparative approaches to explore potential new mechanisms of (...) disease tolerance. We will discuss mechanisms of tolerance with focus on those that were revealed using comparative study designs of mammals followed by summarizing the reasons for adopting comparative approaches on disease tolerance studies. Disease tolerance is a relatively new concept in immunology, we believe combining comparative studies with model organism study designs will enhance our understanding to tolerance and unveil new mechanisms of tolerance. (shrink)

This study focuses on discussing the choices of lessee in Jordan legislation because of a Defense Order in Curfew to face Corona Virus Disease 2019 and the impact of Corona virus disease 2019 on the lessor obligation. The study finds out that the lessee has two options: to cancel the contract regarding force majeure or refuge to court and to reduce the fare amount regarding exceptional circumstances. The study also recommended issuing a Defense Order specifying the exact percentage to be (...) reduced. In the absence of a Defense Order, the study of a friendly agreement should be recommended between the lessor and the tenant on the reduced percentage. (shrink)

Background: Although research has established that the work environment significantly shapes nurses’ ethical behavior, it’s less clear whether decent work could influence ethical ideologies of nurses. Aim: To investigate the decent work conditions and ethical ideologies of nurses, and to analyze whether decent work influences their ethical ideologies. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional survey was conducted among 203 nurses working in three tertiary governmental hospitals across two cities in Egypt. We utilized the Scale of Decent Work, which consists of 15 items (...) distributed across five dimensions, to assess the level of decent work conditions. Additionally, the Ethics Position Questionnaire, containing 20 items divided into two categories—idealism and relativism—was used to evaluate the ethical ideologies of nurses. Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were applied to analyze the data. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval from the ethics committee, institutional permission, and informed consent from the participants were obtained for data collection. Results: The findings indicated that the levels of decent work conditions were moderate, while the ethical ideologies of nurses were relatively high. Stepwise multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the idealism of nurses was significantly predicted by two dimensions of decent work—organizational values, and hours allowing for free time and rest—along with the overall decent work score. Meanwhile, the relativism of nurses was significantly predicted by the presence of physically and interpersonally safe working conditions. Conclusions: Nurses experiencing decent work conditions characterized by high organizational values and adequate hours for free time and rest are more inclined to adopt idealistic ethical ideology. Meanwhile, those experiencing physically and interpersonally safe working conditions tend to embrace relativistic ethical ideology. Implications for clinical practice: Identifying the relationship between decent work conditions and the ethical ideologies of nurses can assist hospital administrators in fostering work conditions that promote appropriate ethical ideologies among nurses. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to the control problem of a nonlinear dynamical system obtained by a truncation of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations with periodic boundary conditions and with a sinusoidal external force along the x-direction. This special case of the 2D N-S equations is known as the 2D Kolmogorov flow. Firstly, the dynamics of the 2D Kolmogorov flow which is represented by a nonlinear dynamical system of seven ordinary differential equations of a laminar steady state flow regime and a periodic (...) flow regime are analyzed; numerical simulations are given to illustrate the analysis. Secondly, an adaptive controller is designed for the system of seven ODEs representing the approximation of the dynamics of the 2D Kolmogorov flow to control its dynamics either to a steady-state regime or to a periodic regime; the value of the Reynolds number is determined using an update law. Then, a static sliding mode controller and a dynamic sliding mode controller are designed for the system of seven ODEs representing the approximation of the dynamics of the 2D Kolmogorov flow to control its dynamics either to a steady-state regime or to a periodic regime. Numerical simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed three control schemes. The simulation results clearly show that the proposed controllers work well. (shrink)

This paper presents the nonlinear dynamic analysis of energy-based models arisen from the applied systems characterized by the energy transport in the presence of fractional order derivative and time delay. The studied model is the fractional version of Bianca-Ferrara-Dalgaard-Strulik model of economy which is viewed as a transport network for energy in which the law of motion of capital occurs. By considering the time delay as bifurcation parameter, a proof to investigate the existence of Hopf bifurcation and the phase lock (...) solutions using the Poincare-Linstedt and the harmonic balance methods is given. At definite values of time delay, period-doubling bifurcations followed up by the consequences of chaotic states are detected. Simulation results assure that the BFDS model can generate new chaotic attractors beyond half order derivatives through the effect of the time delay on that system. In accordance with the literatures related to the problem of chaos, the concluded results confirm the proposed theorem by El-Borhamy in which the time delay possesses the ability to change the dynamic state of nonlinear systems from regular to chaotic within the fractional order derivative domain. (shrink)

Background: Cultivating internal whistleblowing among nurses is of paramount importance to nurse leaders. Yet, the literature on how nurse leaders can foster this phenomenon among nurses is limited. Additionally, the underlying mechanisms linking leadership behaviors to internal whistleblowing intentions remain underexplored. Aim: This study aimed to examine how ethical leadership is linked to internal whistleblowing intentions among nurses through the mediating effect of psychological safety. Research design: A multicenter cross-sectional research design was used for this study. Participants and research context: (...) This study involved 201 nurses working in three tertiary governmental hospitals across three cities in Egypt. Data were collected between October and December 2023, using an introductory information form, the Ethical Leadership Scale, the Psychological Safety Scale, and the Internal Whistleblowing Intentions Scale. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate study hypotheses. Ethical consideration: Research Ethics Committee of Faculty of Nursing, Port Said University, Egypt approved the study (reference number: NUR (6/8/2023)(28)), and each participant signed the informed consent form before participation in the study. Results: Ethical leadership was positively linked to nurses’ psychological safety and internal whistleblowing intentions. Psychological safety mediated the link between ethical leadership and nurses’ internal whistleblowing intentions. Conclusion: Our study suggests that nurse leaders can foster nurses’ intentions to blow the whistle internally by adopting ethical leadership behaviors and enhancing psychological safety among nurses. (shrink)

The mitochondrion is known as the “powerhouse” of eukaryotic cells since it is the main site of adenosine 5′‐triphosphate (ATP) production. Using a temperature‐sensitive fluorescent probe, it has recently been suggested that the stray free energy, not captured into ATP, is potentially sufficient to sustain mitochondrial temperatures higher than the cellular environment, possibly reaching up to 50 °C. By 50 °C, some DNA and mitochondrial proteins may reach their melting temperatures; how then do these biomolecules maintain their structure and function? (...) Further, the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accelerates with temperature, implying higher oxidative stresses in the mitochondrion than generally appreciated. Herein, it is proposed that mitochondrial heat shock proteins (particularly Hsp70), in addition to their roles in protein transport and folding, protect mitochondrial proteins and DNA from thermal and ROS damage. Other thermoprotectant mechanisms are also discussed. (shrink)

This research aims at exploring the status of integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher management education in the Arab region. The universities in the Arab region have lately emphasized internationalization in their educational policies, aiming at improving their regional and global presence, as a major part of their national reforms. Such transformations will never take hold if education systems are not reformed to foster citizenship, ethics, and social responsibility. Therefore, the study adopted qualitative content analysis of the top (...) 40 business schools that are ranked based on the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings in the Arab Region in 2016, as well as schools acting as signatories of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). To analyze the integration of ESD at all educational levels, the relevant literature commonly emphasized upon the adoption of Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Sustainability (ECSRS). Hence, the content analysis involved critical identification of pre-selected keywords under the ECSRS theme throughout the sampled universities’ online content and “Sharing Information on Progress” reports, in light of institutional, curricular, and instrumental levels, expanding the work of Setó-Pamies and Papaoikomomou (2016). The results revealed that ECSRS is outlined in the sampled universities’ strategies mainly through their mission statements. ECSRS is incorporated to a great extent in the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the form of obligatory and elective courses. Yet, student extracurricular activities did not receive equivalent devotion. As for ECSRS research, over half of sampled universities had dedicated research centers mainly focusing on environmental sustainability, in addition to issuing sporadic publications on various ECSRS topics. Integrating ECSRS in university outreach is still considered marginalized. (shrink)

Autophagy functions in both selective and non‐selective ways to maintain cellular homeostasis. Endoplasmic reticulum autophagy (ER‐phagy) is a subclass of autophagy responsible for the degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum through selective encapsulation into autophagosomes. ER‐phagy occurs both under physiological conditions and in response to stress cues, and plays a crucial role in maintaining the homeostatic control of the organelle. Although specific receptors that target parts of the ER membrane, as well as, internal proteins for lysosomal degradation have been identified, the (...) molecular regulation of ER‐phagy has been elusive. Recent work has uncovered novel regulators of ER‐phagy that involve post‐translational modifications of ER‐resident proteins and functional cross‐talk with other cellular processes. Herein, we discuss how morphology affects the function of the peripheral ER, and how ER‐phagy modulates the turnover of this organelle. We also address how ER‐phagy is regulated at the molecular level, considering implications relevant to human diseases. (shrink)

Little is known about how ambiguity attitudes change when consequences are flipped from gains to losses, particularly in the context of natural sources. Focusing on two such sources of uncertainty - the voter participation rates in the 2019 European elections in France and the UK - we report econometric estimations that jointly capture parametric specifications of attitudes and beliefs in the gain and loss domains. For checking purposes, we also compute indexes of ambiguity attitudes proposed by Baillon et al. (2018). (...) According to our data, attitudes in the loss domain can be inferred from those in the gain domain. Our findings show no significant differences in attitudes between the two natural sources. Furthermore, we observe no differences in beliefs for both sources, regardless of the outcome sign. Our method, which focuses on matching probabilities, offers an efficient approach for investigating ambiguity attitudes and beliefs for natural sources of uncertainty across gains and losses, particularly beneficial in field studies where data collection capabilities may be limited. (shrink)

Water quality control helps in the estimation of water bodies and detects the span of pollutants and their effect on the neighboring environment. This is why the water quality of the northern part of Lake Manzala has been studied here from January to March, 2016. This study aims to model and create a program for linear and nonlinear regression of the water elements in Lake Manzala to assess and predict the water quality. Water samples have been extracted from various depths, (...) and physio-chemical properties and heavy metal concentrations have been evaluated. This study has proposed a new algorithm for predicting water quality called “Algorithm of Estimation Regression Model”. On the contrary, in renewable energy applications, statistical modeling and forecasting the solar radiation remains a significant issue with detect to reinforce power management. A new proposed method for forecasting the average Monthly Global Solar Energy in Queensland, Australia, is called, Converting Data Set into Markov Model. It was used to obtain Markov transition probability matrices for three and six states of the solar energy. The proposed forecasting method yielded accurate results with minimal error. (shrink)

Toxic workplace environments, especially those involving gaslighting, are known to contribute to stress and excessive work habits, such as workaholism, which may hinder a nurse's agility—an essential skill in adapting to fast‐paced healthcare environments. However, the interplay between workplace gaslighting, workaholism, and agility in nursing remains underexplored. This study aims to investigate the relationship between workplace gaslighting, workaholism, and agility among nurses, focusing on how gaslighting moderates this relationship. This study is a multicenter cross‐sectional that was conducted among 594 full‐time (...) nurses from three major hospitals in Egypt. Data were collected using the Gaslighting at Work Questionnaire, Workforce Agility Scale, and Bergen Work Addiction Scale. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to test the study hypotheses. Results revealed that nurses reported moderate levels of workaholism, workplace gaslighting, and agility. Significant negative correlations were found between agility and both workplace gaslighting and workaholism. Gaslighting negatively moderated the relationship between workaholism and agility, exacerbating the impact of workaholism on nurses' ability to remain agile. The findings indicate that toxic workplace behaviors, such as gaslighting and workaholism, undermine nurses' agility. Regulatory safeguards are necessary to protect nurses from such environments, ensuring both their well‐being and the quality of healthcare services. These findings call for the development of national standards and policies to address workplace mental health and ensure accountability in healthcare settings. (shrink)

It aimed to identify the strategic creativity in Islamic banks in Palestine between reality and implementation. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach. A questionnaire was designed as a tool for the study. The study community consisted of all employees in Islamic banks from the top and middle management and the study has been applied to the Palestinian Islamic bank and the Arab Islamic Bank. The comprehensive inventory method was used, given the small size of the study sample, as questionnaires (...) were distributed to (175) employees, and a number of (5) categories were chosen from each branch of the bank(general manager, deputy general manager, director Branch, department head, department manager). (164) questionnaires have been used Recovered with a recovery rate of (93.71%). The study showed a number of results, the most important of which is the availability of dimensions of strategic innovation at a high level in Islamic banks in Palestine with a relative weight of (82.22%). In addition, that there are no differences between the averages estimates about the reality of the study variables in Islamic banks due to (gender, age group, educational qualification, number of years of service, job title). The study also presented a set of recommendations, including that the bank should provide the environment and the appropriate climate for employees to invest their intellectual energy, urge them to strategic creativity, and deal fairly with all creative ideas regardless of their source. (shrink)

The current research aims at improving the skills of producing digital stories using the tools of generative artificial intelligence Chat GPT and Google Bard, which are necessary for female student teachers’ specialization: Kindergarten. The current research has used the descriptive approach and the experimental approach with a quasi-experimental design through a design based on one group and comparing the differences between the pre and post-evaluation. The study sample was randomly selected from female students teachers specializing in kindergarten, and their number (...) reached (25) students. A list of producing digital stories standards was prepared and controlled, and a graded performance rating scale was prepared to evaluate the skills of producing digital stories among female student teachers specializing in kindergarten. The results indicate the effectiveness of using the generative AI tools in improving digital stories production skills according to the criteria that were built in the current research. (shrink)

BackgroundIn Morocco, medical research ethics training was integrated into the medical curriculum during the 2015 reform. In the same year, a law on medical research ethics was enacted to protect individuals participating in medical research. These improvements, whether in the reform or in the enactment of the law, could positively impact the knowledge of these researchers and, consequently, their attitudes and practices regarding medical research ethics. The main objective of this work is to assess Moroccan physicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (...) at the beginning of their careers (interns and residents) in medical research ethics.Patients and methodsThis is a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in 2021 among Moroccan physicians. Three scores were created and validated to assess physicians’ level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding research ethics. A descriptive analysis was carried out, followed by a univariate analysis and a multivariate analysis using multivariate binary logistic regression to study the factors associated with the different calculated scores.ResultsA total of 924 physicians were included in the study, with an average age of 27.8 ± 2.2 years. 40.7% had a high medical research ethics knowledge score, and 68.8% had good attitudes. These two scores were positively associated with age and were statistically higher in residents and in physicians who had received training in medical research ethics during their medical curriculum. Only 29,9% of physicians who had participated in research studies had adequate practices with medical research ethics. This score was statistically higher in residents and in physicians who had heard about research ethics.ConclusionA genuine introduction to ethics in the medical curriculum is essential to enhance researchers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. This, in turn, can lead to an increase in both the quantity and quality of research conducted in Morocco. (shrink)

This study explores how positive control levers (belief systems and interactive control systems) affect organisational resilience, focusing on the role of open innovation as a mediator. Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to business managers and analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The sample comprised 349 Moroccan industrial companies. The results demonstrate that positive control levers significantly impact open innovation and organisational resilience. Additionally, open innovation acts as a mediator, indirectly influencing the relationship between (...) positive control levers and organisational resilience. This study contributes to the limited empirical research on management control systems by highlighting the importance of positive control tools and open innovation in developing sustainable organisational resilience. (shrink)

The Mediterranean region is facing major challenges for soil conservation and sustainable agriculture. Conservation agriculture (CA), including reduced soil disturbance, can help conserve soils and improve soil fertility, but its adoption in the Mediterranean region is limited. Examining farmers’ perceptions of soil and underlying sociocultural factors can help shed light on adoption of soil management practices. In this paper, we conducted a survey with 590 farmers across Morocco, Spain and Tunisia to explore concepts that are cognitively associated with soil and (...) perceptions of tillage. We also evaluated differences in perceptions of innovation, community, adaptive capacity, and responsibility for soil. We found that farmers’ cognitive associations with soil show awareness of soil as a living resource, go beyond agriculture and livelihoods to reveal cultural ties, and link to multiple levels of human needs. Beliefs about the benefits of tillage for water availability and yield persist among the surveyed farmers. We found that openness towards innovation, perceived adaptive capacity and responsibility for soil were associated with minimum tillage, whereas community integration was not. Education, age and farm lifestyle were also associated with differences in these perceptions. CA promotion in the Mediterranean should emphasize the multiple values of soil, should demonstrate how sufficient yields may be achieved alongside resilience to drought, and be tailored to differing levels of environmental awareness and economic needs across north and south. (shrink)

Decision trees learning is one of the most practical classification methods in machine learning, which is used for approximating discrete-valued target functions. However, they may overfit the training data, which limits their ability to generalize to unseen instances. In this study, we investigated the use of instance reduction techniques to smooth the decision boundaries before training the decision trees. Noise filters such as ENN, RENN, and ALLKNN remove noisy instances while DROP3 and DROP5 may remove genuine instances. Extensive empirical experiments (...) were conducted on 13 benchmark datasets from UCI machine learning repository with and without intentionally introduced noise. Empirical results show that eliminating border instances improves the classification accuracy of decision trees and reduces the tree size, which reduces the training and classification times. In datasets without intentionally added noise, applying noise filters without the use of the built-in Reduced Error Pruning gave the best classification accuracy. ENN, RENN, and ALLKNN outperformed decision trees learning without pruning in 9, 9, and 8 out of 13 datasets, respectively. The datasets reduced using ENN and RENN without built-in pruning were more effective when noise was intentionally introduced in different ratios. (shrink)

Este trabajo aborda la pregunta por la política en aquello que damos en llamar el tiempo actual. Como vía heurística, se convocan ciertos aspectos del andamiaje teórico de Étienne Balibar; en particular se problematiza la categoría de ciudadanía que este filósofo francés reivindica, desajustándola de la tradición liberal-capitalista -que la limita a una concepción jurídico-moral- y restituyéndole su poder instituyente sin dejar de considerar las relaciones -siempre aporéticas- que ésta mantiene con la figura del Estado. Se focaliza en la relación (...) entre ciudadanía y ciudad (la pólis) en tanto los modos de habitar las ciudades -y las disputas que se generan en torno a ellos- se constituyen en un problema político que implica la discusión respecto de los «derechos de ciudad», de las formas de intervención y de las exclusiones ciudadanas. Esta preocupación se sustenta en la premisa de que, si bien históricamente la ciudad ha sido el locus por excelencia del ejercicio de la política, el espacio urbano encarna de modo paradigmático la conflictividad social del mundo contemporáneo. Como hipótesis se propone que la vigencia conceptual de la categoría de ciudadanía requiere además considerarla en su dimensión sensible dado que los modos en que los ciudadanos habitan una ciudad remiten a una configuración que enlaza maneras de ver, sentir y pensar. Las formas estético-políticas (Rancière) que presenta el espacio de la ciudad se incardinan a los procesos de subjetivación política y a las posibilidades y dificultades de construcción del ser-en-común. En tal sentido, si bien las escenas actuales de predominio neoliberal evidencian una dirección desdemocratizadora y antiigualitaria, la condición politizable de la forma urbana contempla la posibilidad de emergencia de intervenciones ciudadanas insurgentes que disputen la desigual distribución de tiempos y espacios. (shrink)

Population-based genomics studies have proven successful in identifying genetic variants associated with diseases. High-quality biospecimens linked with informative health data from diverse segments of the population have made such research possible. However, the success of biobank research depends on the willingness of the public to participate in this type of research. We aimed to explore the factors associated with the willingness of the public to participate in biobank research from four low- and middle-income countries in the Arab region (Egypt, Jordan, (...) Morocco, and Sudan). We used a previously validated questionnaire to assess several constructs that included the public’s perceptions, attitudes, and willingness to participate in biobank research. We recruited 967 participants. More than half did not have prior awareness of biobanks. Participants’ willingness to donate biospecimens and health data was less than 10%. Our results also showed that participants harbored concerns with trust, privacy, and with data-sharing involving international researchers. Predictors of willingness to participate in biobank research included no previous involvement in research and positive attitudes toward biobanks. Finally, our study showed several differences between the four countries regarding several of the investigated constructs. We conclude there should be additional efforts to raise public awareness and enhance perceptions of the public in biobanking research to enhance trust. We further recommend qualitative research to explore the underlying factors that contribute to the public’s concerns with international data sharing that would enhance global health. (shrink)