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Se esboza una interpretación de Helena en la Ilíada atendiendo a la cuestión que hace de ella la figura escindida y desarraigada capaz de reflejar asuntos pertenecientes al telón de fondo del poema. La razón del desarraigo aparece en el canto tercero como la terrible experiencia de la belleza, es decir, como la inevitabilidad del poder de Afrodita. Por qué éros nombra el desarraigo inherente al reconocimiento de la belleza se aclara a través de ciertos fragmentos de Safo y otras (...) alusiones al corpus griego. (shrink)

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An interpretation of the closing of the Iliad is outlined from what according to certain analyses of Hölderlin we can call the “ideal” path characteristic of the figure of Achilles. The rupture of that “ideal” through the “catastrophe” of the poem articulates a return to that “naiv” that at the end of the Iliad is linked with the imperative to assume the pain and to keep the difference between the spheres of the man and of the god, something that we (...) clarify by means of an analysis of the Isthmian VIII of Pindar and the reading of certain fragments of Hölderlin. (shrink)

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A partir de las experiencias vitales del Colectivo Les Pites se pueden observar una serie de estructuras y dinámicas normativas dentro del baile tradicional asturiano derivadas del sistema cisheteropatriarcal en el que se inscribe. Existe un discurso de normatividad de género imbricado en esta manifestación cultural a lo largo de su historia, comenzando con referencias en la obra de Jovellanos (siglo XVIII). Este discurso hegemónico continua durante la época franquista con Coros y Danzas de la Sección Femenina y el uso (...) del folclore al servicio de la transmisión ideológica del Régimen. Con el paso a la democracia, este discurso normativo adquiere otras formas de mantenerse imbuido en el baile tradicional, evidenciando la fragilidad de la cultura de la Transición que más tarde será cuestionada a partir del año 2008. La necesidad de encontrar nuevos caminos y posibilidades, además del hecho de reconocer la agencia de las personas y la disidencia inherentemente ligada a la norma, conduce a Les Pites a ofrecer una serie de adaptaciones metodológicas en sus talleres de baile tradicuir para poder utilizar el baile tradicional asturiano como un vehículo de comunicación e interacción que forme parte de los diversos espacios colectivos de ocio propios de la actual sociedad asturiana. (shrink)

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Este trabajo revisa a través de las historias de las mujeres de distintos espacios originarios de Guatemala, las formas de resistencia de los pobladores, practicadas durante el conflicto armado y discute las vicisitudes del proceso lento y difícil que atravesaron hasta la Firma de la Paz que se sucedió en 1996. Parte del proceso quedó registrado a través de testimonios de mujeres que se recogieron en libros y revistas. El trayecto de vida y de destino de las mujeres a partir (...) de ese momento histórico es tan complejo y tan poco conocido, que se ha hecho necesario revisar las distintas participaciones individuales y colectivas de mujeres organizadas durante el periodo de la postguerra, ya que sin esos insumos no se hubiese alcanzado a consolidar la paz. Puesto que había que tejerla con sabiduría, resistencia, persistenciay resiliencia, en lugar de construirla. Solo a través del trabajo arduo de las mujeres en todos los procesos, lograron restablecer el equilibrio que habían perdido al menos dos generaciones de personas de los pueblos, durante el conflicto armado interno, la desmovilización y el retorno a un territorio que se presentaba hostil y agreste, al momentode firmarse la paz. (shrink)

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Se esboza una interpretación de Helena en la Ilíada atendiendo a la cuestión que hace de ella la figura escindida y desarraigada capaz de reflejar asuntos pertenecientes al telón de fondo del poema. La razón del desarraigo aparece en el canto tercero como la terrible experiencia de la belleza, es decir, como la inevitabilidad del poder de Afrodita. Por qué éros nombra el desarraigo inherente al reconocimiento de la belleza se aclara a través de ciertos fragmentos de Safo y otras (...) alusiones al corpus griego. (shrink)

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El retorno de Odiseo no solo implica que el misterio del bosque ya ha empezado a aclararse; que monstruos y gigantes han sido dominados y vencidos; que la bruja ya se ha desembrujado y se ha tomado la medida al elemento sin medida que es el mar; más fundamental incluso es el hecho de que la Odisea identifique su retorno con el proyecto de apertura interna de la casa, así como con la génesis de dos esferas secundarias o derivadas: la (...) esfera de la representación «artística» y la esfera del «pensamiento», la «mente» o la «interioridad». La visión de la Odisea da vueltas en torno a la cuestión de en qué sentido todos los hallazgos, toda la frescura y la capacidad inventiva del personaje terriblemente sabio no solo son a la vez, e inseparablemente, crímenes y transgresiones; también son pérdidas irreparables y definitivas. Quizá la Odisea no tenga ese «final feliz» que se supone a veces; quizá el viaje o camino de Odiseo es en el fondo un viaje o camino sin retorno. (shrink)

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Aida Míguez Barciela explora la literatura evocando a la vez problemas fundamentales en la historia de la filosofía: los límites de la razón en la interpretación de Swift, la relación del capital y la moral en las novelas de Balzac y Defoe, la cuestión de la libertad del individuo en las lecturas de Kafka y Henry James, así como el problema del arte y la vida en Thomas Mann y Yourcenar. Con un estilo personal y al margen tanto de (...) los trabajos puramente académicos como de la crítica literaria más convencional, "Cuando los pájaros cantan en griego" incluye también ensayos sobre Virginia Woolf y Jane Austen, Melville y Mishima, Tolstói y los poemas homéricos, así como sobre otros autores que solemos considerar «clásicos». (shrink)

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This paper explores the way in which America—a cultural space produced by the world's largest media corporations and not the political entity called the United States— constructs, both discursively and spatially, zones of violence and zones of safety, contributing in the process to the maintenance and acclamation of political/symbolic global order. Through “thick descriptions” of three zones—EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World in Florida, as the ultimate safe zone; a day of media coverage of the Kosovo intervention in 1999, the (...) epitomy of a constructed zone of violence; and a reinterpretation of debates over media violence in the United States as the way of policing the zones of safety and zones of violence—the paper argues that zoning was the principal practice with which the self-content narrative of global economic success confronted the onslaught of alleged cultural violence in the 1990s. Zoning, to use Giorgio Agamben's analysis, is the forceful localization of an ever-expanding suspension of legal order; the practice that obfuscates the increasing frequency with which sovereign power encounters—and obliterates—bare life with impunity. Construction of boundaries between zones of safety and zones of violence is, therefore, more than performance of security—it is the way to affirm global order in face of its absence. (shrink)

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This article introduces a simple and effective new algorithm for image encryption using a chaotic system which is based on the magic squares. This novel 3D chaotic system is invoked to generate a random key to encrypt any color image. A number of chaotic keys equal to the size of the image are generated by this chaotic system and arranged into a matrix then divided into non-overlapped submatrices. The image to be encrypted is also divided into sub-images, and each sub-image (...) is multiplied by a magic matrix to produce another set of matrices. The XOR operation is then used on the resultant two sets of matrices to produce the encrypted image. The strength of the encryption method is tested in two folds. The first fold is the security analysis which includes key space analysis and sensitivity analysis. In the second fold, statistical analysis was performed, which includes the correlation coefficients, information entropy, the histogram, and analysis of differential attacks. Finally, the time of encryption and decryption was computed and show very good results. (shrink)

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OBJECTIVES: To study the opinions of nationals (Emiratis) and doctors practising in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with regard to informing terminally ill patients. DESIGN: Structured questionnaires administered during January 1995. SETTING: The UAE, a federation of small, rich, developing Arabian Gulf states. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience samples of 100 Emiratis (minimum age 15 years) and of 50 doctors practising in government hospitals and clinics. RESULTS: Doctors emerged as consistently less in favour of informing than the Emiratis were, whether the patient was (...) described as almost certain to die during the next six months or as having a 50% chance of surviving, and even when it was specified that the patient was requesting information. In the latter situation, a third of doctors maintained that the patient should not be told. Increasing survival odds reduced the number of doctors selecting to inform; but it had no significant impact on Emiratis' choices. When Emiratis were asked whether they would personally want to be informed if they had only a short time to live, less than half responded in the way they had done to the in principle question. CONCLUSIONS: The doctors' responses are of concern because of the lack of reference to ethical principles or dilemmas, the disregard of patients' wishes and dependency on survival odds. The heterogeneity of Emiratis' responses calls into question the usefulness of invoking norms to explain inter-society differences. In the current study, people's in principle choices did not provide a useful guide to how they said they would personally wish to be treated. (shrink)

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The current study tries to verify the effectiveness of a training program in increasing Crowdfunding awareness. The sample was (50) students in CIS, who were purposively selected and distributed equally into a treatment and control group. The researchers designed the study tools (a training program to increase Crowdfunding awareness). The study findings revealed the existence of statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups in favor of the former. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between the pre and the (...) post measures of the treatment group in favor of the post measures. Furthermore the current study is unique by the virtue of its nature, scope and way of implied investigation, as it is the first study for Crowdfunding training program in Arabic world. (shrink)

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In Jordan, research ethics committees exist in most health settings. However, little is known about Jordanian public views regarding the ethics of clinical research. This study aimed to evaluate Jordanian public understanding and attitudes about ethics in clinical research. A questionnaire was used to collect information that included demographics, public knowledge, and attitudes towards ethics in clinical research. It was administered via face-to-face interviews in two major cities in Jordan from 1st June to 15th August 2017. Of the 2315 respondents, (...) 2.33% were found to have poor knowledge, 22.16% had fair knowledge, and 75.51% had good knowledge of ethics in clinical research. Furthermore, 75.81% of respondents had positive attitudes towards ethics in research. However, only 45.23% reported that they trust clinical researchers in Jordan. Even though a large majority of respondents were aware of key features of research ethics, efforts are needed to address negative perceptions and knowledge deficits. (shrink)

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This study aims to identify challenges related to the quality of legal terms translated from Arabic to English in laws pertaining to children in five countries in the Middle East and North Africa region: Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. The terms describe children’s behaviors that are considered legally and socially unacceptable and adult behaviors that violate laws meant to protect children’s rights in both domestic and foreign contexts. Using a blend of analytical and descriptive methodologies, (...) along with comparative legal research tools and critical discourse analysis, an analytical model called CCFND was developed. This model identifies three primary standards for evaluating translation quality, each with specific criteria for consistency, coherence, and general notes cover features, non-detrimental errors, and detrimental errors. The analysis of 72 legal terms revealed that the translation quality was high, with an equivalence rate of 93.29% for the standard of consistency, a slightly higher rate of 97.92% for the standard of coherence, and a standard equivalence rate along with eight features, one non-detrimental error, and seven detrimental errors. These findings indicate that using various strategies, the translations effectively gained high quality in rendering the terms from Arabic to English. It is suggested that the King Salman Global Academy for the Arabic Language should develop a bilingual contextual dictionary of effective legal translation strategies for terms and phrases related to children in both national and international laws. (shrink)

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Abstract: Networking is one of the most important areas currently used for data transfer and enterprise management. It also includes the security aspect that enables us to protect our network to prevent hackers from accessing the organization's data. In this paper, we would like to learn what the network is and how it works. And what are the basics of the network since its emergence and know the mechanism of action components. After reading this paper - even if you do (...) not have a general background on networking - you will be able to manage your own network and be able to distribute and control your ip. (shrink)

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This study examined the relationship between urban culture and street vending. Prior research on this topic is limited and inconclusive. Therefore, we have proposed an integrated model to test the positive effect of urban culture on street vending using multiple mediations of consumption patterns, resistance, and microfinance. We tested a sample of 425 responses that reflect the public opinion in Baghdad, Iraq. These responses were collected between September and November 2018. A partial least squares–based structural equation modeling is employed to (...) test the validity of measurement models and the significance of the entire structural model, predictive power, and mediation analysis. We found that resistance mediates the effect of urban culture on street vending; low-income consumption and resistance sequentially mediate the effect of urban culture on street vending, while resistance mediates the effect of a lack of microfinance on street vending. The direct impact of culture on street vending is not significant, and a lack of microfinance positively influences the pervasiveness of trading on streets. This study contributes to the extant literature as it proposed and tested a novel and comprehensive model to analyze the relationship between urban culture and street vending, simultaneously examining the effects of culture, consumption, resistance, and microfinance on street vending. (shrink)

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This article presents a Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony for uncapacitated examination timetabling. The ABC algorithm is a recent metaheuristic population-based algorithm that belongs to the Swarm Intelligence technique. Examination timetabling is a hard combinatorial optimization problem of assigning examinations to timeslots based on the given hard and soft constraints. The proposed hybridization comes in two phases: the first phase hybridized a simple local search technique as a local refinement process within the employed bee operator of the original ABC, while the (...) second phase involves the replacement of the scout bee operator with the random consideration concept of harmony search algorithm. The former is to empower the exploitation capability of ABC, whereas the latter is used to control the diversity of the solution search space. The HABC is evaluated using a benchmark dataset defined by Carter, including 12 problem instances. The results show that the HABC is better than exiting ABC techniques and competes well with other techniques from the literature. (shrink)

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The objective of this study is to review the performance of business students in ethics assessments and suggest enhancements to the ethics curriculum. Data triangulation method was used to gather the data. First, data was gathered from ethics assessments that tested the performance of students. Then a faculty focus group discussion was held to gather their thoughts on the future of the ethics education. Incorporating these thoughts, 389 students were surveyed to understand their perspectives on the future of ethics education. (...) The results show that the faculty members believe the student performance needs improvement. In addition, the faculty and the students make detailed recommendations to enhance the ethics curriculum at the introductory and advanced levels. Their recommendations include that code of conduct should be a part of ethics education, and faculty members with work experience related to ethical dilemmas should deliver the ethics education. Both groups opined on the possibility of teaching ethics in a stand-alone course versus imbedding it in select courses. The details of the findings and implications are discussed. (shrink)

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We study the existence of weak solutions for the coupled system of functional integral equations of Urysohn-Stieltjes type in the reflexive Banach spaceE. As an application, the coupled system of Hammerstien-Stieltjes functional integral equations is also studied.

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As international trade and business opportunities grow globally, insight into trading partners’ strategies is essential. One of the major strategies that impact trading partners’ relationships is negotiation strategy employed by each partner. These strategies assume even greater importance when these strategies have ethical content. This study examines the effects of marketing executives’ preferred ethical ideologies, opportunism and Machiavellianism on their perceived appropriateness of unethical negotiation tactics. Utilizing a sample of 995 marketing executives from six countries, cluster analysis and multivariate analysis (...) of variance revealed two types of marketing negotiators: principled and corrupt negotiators. Corrupt negotiators tend to be more Machiavellian, more relativist, more opportunistic and less idealistic than their principled counterparts. Principled negotiators tend to perceive unethical negotiation tactics less favorably than their corrupt counterparts. Implications of these results for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed. (shrink)

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The research aims to identify the organizational excellence in Palestinian universities of Gaza Strip, from the perspective of senior management. The questionnaires were distributed the top senior management in the Palestinian universities, and the study population was (344) employees in senior management in Palestinian universities. A stratified random sample were selected from of employees in the Palestinian universities consist of (182) employees at return rate of (69.2%). SPSS program for analyzing and processing the data was used. The study reached the (...) following results: the senior management agrees largely on the importance of the axis of "Leadership Excellence" and "Excellence service sectors". The senior management agrees moderately about the importance of the axis of the “Knowledge excellence". The study showed that there is a weakness in the employment of scientific research to serve the community, there is weakness in the follow-up of the universities management for the performance of their graduates in the institutions in which they work. Senior management agrees on the importance of the "Organizational Excellence" moderately. The recommendations of study includes: the need to develop principles and fair criteria for the selection of the best candidates for the university and university leaders based on specialization, competence, experience, skills, integrity and not on the basis of favoritism. (shrink)

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The research aims to design a proposed model of learning organizations as an entry point to achieve organizational excellence in the Palestinian universities of Gaza Strip. A random sample of workers were selected from the Palestinian universities consist of (286) employees at recovery rate of (70.3%). The study concluded with a set of results the most important of which: there is a statistically significant relationship between the components of learning organizations and achieving organizational excellence in the Palestinian universities of Gaza (...) Strip from the standpoint of the faculty members. One of the main recommendations of the study: establish the concept of learning organization in leaders and staff of the university through the establishment of specialized courses, and workshops. Turning the status of the university into a learning organization as a strategic objective and the performance of managers are measurement accordingly. Organize visits of the leaders of the university a to the top organizations in this field and to take advantage of their experience and encourage deans and heads of departments to involve their employees in the information on global trends and trends in learning organization through regular meetings. (shrink)

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Diabetes is a major public health issue that affects the nations of our time to a large extent and is described as a non-communicable epidemic. Diabetes mellitus is a common disease where there is too much sugar (glucose) floating around in your blood. This occurs because either the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin or the cells in body have become resistant to insulin. The concentration in this paper is on diagnosis diabetes by designing a proposed expert system. The main goal (...) of this expert system is to get the appropriate diagnosing of the illness, dealing with it quickly, and tips for permanent treatment whenever possible is given out. SL5 object expert system language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. (shrink)

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Background The number of coauthors in the medical literature has increased over the past 50 years as authorship continues to have important academic, social and financial implications.Aim and method The study aim was to determine the prevalence of honorary authorship in biomedical publications and identify the factors that lead to its existence. An email with a survey link was sent anonymously to 9283 corresponding authors of PubMed articles published within 1 year of contact.Results A completed survey was obtained from 1246 (...) corresponding authors, a response rate of 15.75%. One-third admitted that they had added authors who did not deserve authorship credit. Origin of the study from Europe and Asia , study type as case report/case series and increasing number of coauthors were found to be the associated factors on multivariate analysis. Journal impact factor was also found to be associated with honorary authorship for those who self-reported honorary authorship and 5.60 for those who did not report unjust authorship, p=0.05). In retrospect, 75% of the authors indicated that they would remove unjustified names from the authorship list. Reasons for adding honorary authors were complimentary , to avoid conflict at work , to facilitate article acceptance , and other .Conclusions Honorary authorship is relatively common in biomedical publications. Researchers should comply with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ criteria for authorship. (shrink)

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Positive Psychology Interventions as an Opportunity in Arab Countries to Promoting Well-being AbstractIn this perspective paper, we emphasize the importance of further research on culturally-sensitive positive psychology interventions in the Arab region. We argue that these interventions are needed in the region because they not only reduce mental health problems but also promote well-being and flourishing. To achieve this, we shed light on the cultural elements of the Arab region and how the concept of well-being differs from that of Western (...) culture. We review the research conducted in Arabia, briefly evaluate the quality of this research and list some adapted measurements. We furthermore propose guidelines and recommendations for future evidence-based positive psychology interventions research to align with the national culture in various sectors and community samples that contribute to the development of well-being in the Arab world.Introduction Extensive research on Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) - defined as activities focus on promoting positive feelings, thoughts, or behaviour (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009) - has shown their effectiveness in well-being and mental illness (e.g., Chakhssi et al., 2018; Hendriks et al., 2020). A recent review of 347 studies showed that PPIs have a significant effect on promoting quality of life and well-being and reducing anxiety and depression (Carr et al., 2020). However, the issue is that most of these studies (82%) remain narrow in focus only on Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic (WEIRD) countries (Hendriks et al., 2019). Therefore, they may not be effective for other countries such as the Arab countries where there are various cultural differences. This highlights the key role that culture can play in enhancing PPIs engagement, acceptability, and eventually, effectiveness (Hendriks & Graafsma, 2019). Recently, the field of PP in the Arab region has begun to grow (Basurrah et al., 2021; Rao et al., 2015). However, studies conducted in these countries are scant and of poor methodological quality. We have found humble quantity and quality of empirical studies. Yet, Arab countries, home to 5% of the world’s population, have a burden of mental health problems above global levels (GBD 2015 Eastern Mediterranean Region Mental Health Collaborators, 2018). Prevalent stigma, war and conflict were some of the contributors (Maalouf et al., 2019). Thus, to properly address this cultural stigma against mental health problems, PPIs could provide an additional role alongside traditional psychology approaches (e.g., Cognitive Behavioural therapy - CBT). Further, in light of the political conditions that some Arab countries are going through and the negative effects that they cause, it has become necessary to use the method of prevention that is the focus of PP and not only of treatment as a strategy for applications and practice. It has been noted that the mental health care system in the Arab region focuses highly on illnesses treatment and neglects the significant role that PP plays in enhancing human potential and well-being. We - here in Arabia –are becoming more influenced by many global issues particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on mental health and well-being (e. g. prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the pandemic (Salari et al., 2020). In response, Waters et al. (2021) have recently presented how positive psychological factors can play a significant role in buffering mental illness, enhancing mental health throughout the pandemic, and building positive processes and capacities that can help to promote future mental health.Here in this perspective paper, we highlight the cultural aspects of Arab countries. Specifically, we present previous PPIs research conducted in Arabia and briefly evaluate the quality of this research. Importantly, we discuss the need of developing an indigenous and culturally sensitive PP among the Arab region (Lambert et al., 2015).Arab Culture “Arab World,” which comprises 5% of the world’s population, refers to the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Despite the increasing pace and progress of different businesses in many Arab countries, individual communities are still limited in certain prominent economic places. Arab people rather gather in collective communities. They generally share the same Arabic Islamic culture, speak the same language, and descend from the same Arab families when going back in history no matter what nationality they have nowadays. Yet, very many changes came to communities before borders were drawn between countries and after. For instance, geography, topography, demography, and socio-economic status affect peoples’ nature of jobs and lifestyles. For example, Arabs in the east, west, or the middle have similar tongues; however, almost every Arab country has its accent. Therefore, people need to go back to the formal Arabic language ‘Fus-ha’ or learn more about different Arabic dialects when communicating cross-countries. According to Hofstede’s model (2011) based on the individualism-collectivism dimension, the Arab countries (Eastern society) have been classified as a collectivist culture, where their identity and decisions are influenced by social systems. In contrast, the United States (Western society) has been classified as an individualist culture focusing on individual decisions. Although there are degrees of individualism among Arabs in certain countries, they still share collective common characteristics. Here, we explore the meaning of collectivistic conceptions of the self, emotions, values, and religion in Arab countries and how they differ from those in individual Western cultures. The Self Since the field of PP focuses on the development of self, it is vital to recognize that self-concept varies across cultures. Individualism generally emphasises the self-directed and autonomous individual (Realo et al., 2002). People in individualist countries focus primarily on their personal characteristics (e.g., motives, abilities) to build their self-concept. On the other hand, collectivism refers to several social structures that highly value the groups to which people belong, such as family and tribe (Realo, 2003). People in collectivist countries such as the Arab countries focus primarily on their relationships with others to build their self-concept (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Hence, research from Arab countries should focus on the core elements of collectivism when implementing PPIs to make a significant, meaningful impact. For example, people from a collective culture may experience a greater enhancement in well-being when practising interventions that are more prosocial and group-oriented such as compassion, performing acts of kindness, writing a gratitude letter, and using character strengths in everyday context including social context, compared with self-oriented interventions such as identifying character strengths. Emotions, value, and Religion Research shows that Western culture emphasises the goal of maximizing positive emotions, while Eastern culture emphasises embracing and balancing positive and negative emotions (Leu et al., 2011). To illustrate, culture plays an important role in influencing perceptions of happiness. People in individualist countries value happiness highly. In contrast, people from the collective countries value low arousal positive emotions (Leu et al., 2011) and exhibit a fear of happiness (Joshanloo & Weijers, 2014; Joshanloo, 2013). Hence, the influence of positive emotions plays a limited role in the mental health of Eastern society. Speaking of Value, for an Arab, the family is the centre of honour and the most important social unit. This loyalty has an impact on every part of an Arab’s life. Arabs honour their families and highly value their friendships. Therefore, future research could shed more light on group-oriented interventions (e.g., kindness) that focus more on the relationship with family, friends, and community. When it comes to religion, Arab society has a rich culture in values and believes that place a high emphasis on spirituality. Religion is the most important and distinctive aspect of Arab culture. Arab countries vary in terms of religion, with Islam being the predominant religion in most of them. Well-being (Hedonic and Eudaimonic) It is necessary here to clarify what is meant by hedonic and eudaimonic definitions of well-being. While the term ‘Hedonic’ is based on the pursuit of maximum levels of pleasure (feeling good), the term ‘Eudaimonic’, on the other hand, is based on meaning and the development of virtues (functioning well; Keyes & Annas, 2009). Research indicates that cultures are not equally supportive of hedonic and eudaimonic aspects (Joshanloo & Jarden, 2016). In comparison to collectivism, hedonism appears to be more congruent with individualism (Joshanloo, 2014). Pleasure and positive emotions are considered a way to pursue happiness in Western culture, while this method is not highly favoured in Eastern cultures (Lee et al., 2013); Because they consider suffering and negative emotions as contributing factors to spiritual development. Therefore, the eastern perspective is more in line with a eudaimonistic view which emphasises virtues, meaning, and feeling of belongingness. However, although we believe that both approaches can be found to a certain level in both cultures, the differences suggest that there are different routes to happiness. Positive Psychology in the Arab region Positive psychology - "the scientific study of what makes life most worth living" (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) - is one of the newest branches of psychology. It focuses on three main pillars: (1) positive subjective experiences (such as happiness and love); (2) positive individual characters (such as gratitude and compassion); and (3) positive institutions (for the application of positive principles within institutions and organizations; Seligman & Csikszentmiha lyi, 2000). Some of the main topics of interest in positive psychology include character strengths, gratitude, hope, happiness, mindfulness, optimism, positive thinking, and resilience. Within the applications of this science, various domains of well-being (such as happiness, engagement, positive emotions, and meaning) can be enhanced by practising positive psychology interventions (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Interestingly, these interventions have also produced benefits beyond well-being, such as reduced mental health issues (Chakhssi et al., 2018; Hendriks et al., 2020).Nowadays, PP is increasingly noticed in the Arab world (Lambert & Pasha-Zaidi, 2019; Rao et al., 2015). In recent years, there has been a great effort to explore the PP field across Arab countries. Several initiatives have emerged aimed at promoting well-being and flourishing. For example, the Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology published its first volume in 2015. On the International Day of Happiness in 2017, United Arab Emirates University launched its Emirates Center for Happiness Research. Meanwhile, Effat University in Saudi Arabia started the first Positive Psychology and Well-being Research Lab, the first symposium, and the first PP course. In 2019, Louise Lambert and Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi published the first regional text entitled “Positive Psychology in the Middle East/North Africa.” There are other efforts spent in the region as well; such as the work conducted in Egypt. Ibrahim Younus established the Arab Association for Positive Psychology https://www.psycholearn.com/en/associative.php which provides several courses on PP and also published a book entitled “The Power of Positive Psychology” (Younus, 2017). Despite this development, nothing can compare to the quantity and even quality of research in other countries. In light of our observations, the few PP studies may be attributed to the lack of awareness of the constructive approach and prevention compared to problem-solving. An Arab dentist once said: “people do not come to me until they are badly in pain.” In any case, many studies have taken place in Arab countries in the last decade, more of which are descriptive and less of which experimental. For example, Abdel-Khalek (2010) found positive correlations between quality of life, subjective well-being, and religiosity among students in Kuwait. Abdel-Khalek (2016) developed “the Arabic Scale of Religiosity,” which significantly correlated with PP variables among students in Algeria, Kuwait, and Egypt. Recently, empirical studies on PPIs have arisen in Arab-Islamic countries. More attention has been focused on promoting well-being and alleviating the high burden of mental health problems in the region (GBD 2015 Eastern Mediterranean Region Mental Health Collaborators, 2018). For instance, several studies examined the effectiveness of mindfulness among university students (e.g., Al-Ghalib & Slim, 2018; Awad, 2019; Thomas et al., 2016), parents of children with autism (Rayan & Ahmed, 2016) and addicted adults (Al-Rashidi, 2018). Such an intervention has positive effects. Participants who practised mindfulness reported reduction in stress and depression as well as improvement in well-being and resilience. Moreover, the results of a recent pilot study found positive impacts on enhancing emotional regulations and reducing stress among Arab teachers (Berkovich-Ohana et al., 2020). Some studies have also begun to examine various interventions targeting character strengths (Basurrah et al., 2020; Chérif et al., 2020), self-compassion (Elaiwah, 2017), positive thinking (Mohammed et al., 2014; Hadad, 2014), and hope (Zaki, 2016). Interestingly, a new finding considering the fear of happiness among people from collective countries has been examined. Lambert et al. (2019) provided evidence that a 14-week PPIs programme has an impact on reducing the fear and fragility of happiness beliefs among university students in the United Arab Emirates.Since Arab countries place great emphasis on spirituality, several authors have considered the aspect of religion when implementing PPIs. For instance, an empirical study by Al-Seheel and Noor (2016) found that expressing gratitude towards God “Allah” increases the happiness of the Muslim more than the usual gratitude intervention. Additionally, Al-Ghalib and Salim (2018) examined a religiously sensitive mindfulness-training programme with university students and found a positive effect on life satisfaction and a slight reduction in stress, depression, and anxiety. Hence, the role of religion is vital to make the interventions more relevant to Arab culture where people can connect Islamic philosophy with PP theories and practices. These studies reviewed here provide further support for the need for culturally sensitive interventions among the Arab population. More recently, the first systematic review of PPIs in Arab countries was conducted by Basurrah et al. (2021; the protocol has been published in BMJ Open and the final manuscript has been submitted for publication). Reviewing a total of 39 studies, the most commonly studied interventions were mindfulness, positive thinking, and resilience. Only a handful of studies examined gratitude, character strengths, forgiveness, self-compassion, savouring, or finding flow. Further analysis revealed that most studies from Arab countries have several methodological limitations. This included a lack of protocol guidelines, few well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs), blinding issues, small sample sizes, lack of active control groups, and lack of research into certain populations (e.g., teachers, employees, and people in distress in refugee camps). Discussion PP was founded on an individualistic framework (Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008). To ensure that PPIs are culturally meaningful, this paper includes some cultural elements of the Arab region that should be considered to serve the needs of the Arab population. In the Arab world, some people may believe that PP is solely about happiness and being positive. If so, it is important to educate the public about the findings of rigorous studies evaluating PPIs such as gratitude, hope or flow on health, well-being and performance. To explain the value and effectiveness of these evidence-based approaches, examples might include studies linking gratitude with benefits for people with heart disease (Cousin et al., 2021), or how PPIs can promote quality of life in cancer patients (Casellas-Grau et al., 2014). There is some evidence about PPIs being effective in improving well-being in the Arab region, but research in this region is still in its infancy and little information is available regarding PPIs and the experience of Arabs participating in such interventions. Hence, there is still much more to investigate in this regard. Future research should empirically examine the effectiveness of various unstudied interventions such as savouring, gratitude, self-compassion, character strengths or finding flow. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is required to provide an in-depth understanding of Arabs’ experience and impressions of PPIs and how and why they work. This may provide useful information to inform the appropriate design of PPIs to suit Arab culture and needs. Furthermore, while some research on PPIs has been carried out in the region, most of these studies have been of poor quality that suffered from small sample sizes, confounding factors, and a high degree of bias. To overcome these issues, future research should improve research quality, including protocol guidelines and well-designed RCTs. In particular, research should include randomization, allocation, blinding, power analysis to determine adequate sample size, active control groups to reduce bias, and follow-up periods of at least 12 months.Among the most popular resources that future PP practitioners may refer to are the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and the International Positive Education Network (IPEN). Also, we recommend the Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology and the first regional book (Lambert & Pasha-Zaidi, 2019). To develop and/or adapt a multi-component PPIs, we would recommend referring to Character Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), the theory of well-being (PERMA Model: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment; Seligman, 2011), and the Five Ways to Well-being: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give (Aked et al., 2008). Finally, single-component PPIs are based on theories like Broaden-And-Build (Fredrickson, 2004), Hope (Snyder et al., 2002), and Self-Determination (Deci & Ryan, 2012) can be also considered. Two other concepts that would be usefully applied are ‘Savouring’ (Bryant & Veroff, 2007) and Phillip Zimbardo’s Time Perspective (Stolarski et al., 2015). For instance, savouring has a positive temporal orientation to reminiscing the good memories from the past, enjoying the hedonic present moments, and willing proactively to make a better future. Now, what is even maybe more interesting for Muslims is “Transcendent Future” where all intentions, words and actions are devoted to that life after death. In addition, there is a model already prepared for the clinical purpose called Positive Psychotherapy (PPT). Tayyab Rashid and Martin Seligman published a PPT manual for clinicians in 2018. And for cross-cultural applications, including Muslim Arab culture, Rashid and Al-Haj Baddar (2019) have written a paper presenting PPT and its efficacy. PPT overview in detail shows sessions, themes, skills, practice, and cultural considerations where a mixture of PPIs based on PERMA, Strengths, and other PP concepts can be found. Regarding PP measurements, it is highly recommended to generate indigenous tools based on cultural backgrounds reviewed here in the article. An example of this is a tool for measuring Muslim well-being by including domains beyond what is found in Western literature. So far, in the Arab region, several attempts have been made to adapt PP tools. For example, Marei Salama-Younes (2018) validated the Arabic versions of different measures of well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life scale, the subjective vitality scale). Other validated scales as well include the self-compassion scale (Alabdulaziz et al., 2020), and the passion scale (Salama-Younes & Hashim, 2018). Conclusion This paper has discussed the cultural aspects of Arab countries and the need of developing culturally sensitive PPIs. The past decade has seen an increase in mental health problems in the Arab region. Stigma and lack of awareness have been always there. Among the issues are also wars, conflicts, and displacement in many Arab countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine (Hassan et al., 2016). These indicate an urgent need to prevent mental illness and promote well-being. Indeed, we highlighted the importance of integrating culture with PPIs, following the guidelines for the cultural adaptation of PPIs (Hendriks & Graafsma, 2019) and the ethical guidelines for PP practice (Jarden et al., 2020). Another significant contribution of this paper is to highlight the importance of improving the quality of research conducted in Arab countries. In brief, this paper has several practical implications. It is an open invitation for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike to be more exposed to PP; as well as to better conceptualising and adapting interventions and measurement tools to the local culture in different sectors to maximize their effectiveness. And as we consider it as an invitation for us too, here we are starting a PPIs practice guide in Arabic language and for Arab practitioners. The insights gained from this paper may be useful for placing well-being on top of priorities for achieving individual, organizational, and optimal national functioning in different sectors. There is also a need to change the stigma or negative beliefs about seeking health for psychological support, which is an issue for countries in the Middle East (Baess, 2018). (shrink)

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With the mobility and ease of connection, wireless sensor networks have played a significant role in communication over the last few years, making them a significant data carrier across networks. Additional security, lower latency, and dependable standards and communication capability are required for future-generation systems such as millimeter-wave LANs, broadband wireless access schemes, and 5G/6G networks, among other things. Effectual congestion control is regarded as of the essential aspects of 5G/6G technology. It permits operators to run many network illustrations on (...) a single organization while maintaining higher service quality. A sophisticated decision-making system for arriving network traffic is necessary to confirm load balancing, limit network slice letdown, and supply alternative slices in slice letdown or congestion. Because of the massive amount of data being generated, artificial intelligence and machine learning play a vital role in reconfiguring and improving a 5G/6G wireless network. In this research work, a hybrid deep learning method is being applied to forecast optimal congestion improvement in the wireless sensors of 5G/6G IoT networks. This proposed model is applied to a training dataset to govern the congestion in a 5G/6G network. The proposed approach provided promising results, with 0.933 accuracy, and 0.067 miss rate. (shrink)

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When the Matrix trilogy was published in the mid-1980s, it introduced to mass culture a number of post-human tropes about the conscious machines that have haunted our collective imaginaries ever since. This volume explores the social representations and significance of technological developments - especially AI and human enhancement - that have started to transform our human agency. It uses these developments to revisit theories of the human mind and its essential characteristics: a first person perspective, concerns and reflexivity. It looks (...) at how the smart machines are used as agents of change in the basic institutions and organisations that hold contemporary societies together: for example in the family and the household, in commercial corporations, in health institutions, or in the military. Its main purpose it to enrich the ongoing public discussion of the social and political implications of the smart machines by looking at the extent to which they further digitalize and bureaucratize the world, in particular by asking whether they are used to develop techno-totalitarian societies that corrode normativity and solidarity. talize and bureaucratize the world, in particular by asking whether they are used to develop techno-totalitarian societies that corrode normativity and solidarity. (shrink)

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The study aims to identify the efficiency of the university education performance from the perspective of postgraduate and undergraduate students in international and Palestinian universities. The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose and the questionnaire was used as a main tool for data collection. The study community consists of: post graduate students, (23850) graduate students and (146355) undergraduate students. The sample of the study was 378 graduate students and 383 undergraduate students. The random stratified sample was used. The (...) Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was also used for data analysis. The study reached a number of results, the most important of which are: The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of postgraduate and undergraduate students was high. And that there are significant differences between the average views of the sample of the study on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University and to the benefit of international universities. The study concluded many recommendations, the most important of which is the necessity of continuing to develop e-learning strategies that affect the efficiency of educational performance and research commensurate with the university's position in the local and international community, which puts it on the best classification between local and international universities through e-learning. (shrink)

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