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Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two associations at genome-wide significance identified and replicated at PRSS1-PRSS2 and X-linked CLDN2 through a two-stage genome-wide study. The PRSS1 variant likely affects disease susceptibility by altering expression of the primary trypsinogen gene. The CLDN2 risk allele is (...) associated with atypical localization of claudin-2 in pancreatic acinar cells. The homozygous CLDN2 genotype confers the greatest risk, and its alleles interact with alcohol consumption to amplify risk. These results could partially explain the high frequency of alcohol-related pancreatitis in men. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

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The aim of this study was to identify the obstacles facing the application of knowledge management and its impact on performance at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorei from the point of view of employees and to detect the differences between the average views of the study sample on the subject of the study according to some variables such as (gender, nature of work, Education Level, specialization, years of experience). The study followed the descriptive analytical method and the questionnaire as a tool for (...) study. It was distributed to 74 employees. After the questionnaire was distributed, the data was collected and coded and entered into the computer and processed statistically using the SPSS program. The study found that the percentage of approval of the obstacles to the application of knowledge management at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorei differed between few and large, and the relative weight of the axis was complete (68.2). The degree of awareness of the workers of the reality of performance excellence at the University of Palestine Technical-Kadoorei was between medium and very large. There is an impact of the constraints of the application of knowledge management on performance excellence at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorei. In light of the results of the previous study, the researchers recommended that the importance of knowledge management should be taken into account in order to raise the university's reputation and reputation at home and abroad and improve its services to students and the local community. And to promote the exchange of experiences and knowledge with local, regional and international universities in order to enhance the knowledge and preserve it and provide modern and sophisticated scientific techniques and use them in administrative and academic work at the university. (shrink)

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Organizations are increasingly finding it challenging to balance economic and environmental performance particularly those that face competitive, regulatory and community pressure. With the increasing pressures for environmental sustainability, this calls for the new formulation of strategies by the manufacturers in order to minimize their products and services negative impact on the environment. Hence, Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) continues to be an important research agenda among the researchers. In Palestine, green issues are new and still developing. Constant study is needed (...) to fully understand and update information regarding this area. Objective: The aim of this paper is to explore the views and level of acceptance of GHRM practices among manufacturing firms in Palestine. Results: Through the use of e-mail survey, 121 responses were obtained to generate the results of the study. The result showed GHRM practices have been practiced to somewhat to a greater extent a firms in Palestine. Findings can be extended to study on the issues in further. Academicians and practitioners can apply this result to their research and business strategies on how to improve sustainable performance and to effectively implement GHRM practices. (shrink)

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Starting from the controversies surrounding Bourdieu's political involvement, this article investigates the form of ethico-political involvement consistent with Bourdieu's notion of reflexivity. The argument begins by drawing the ethico-political dimensions of Bourdieu's methodology, especially his notions of socio-analysis and reflexivity. These latter emerge as the counterparts of Bourdieu's politics of the field, grounding the `conversion of the gaze' required for political action and presenting possibilities for social agents to comprehend, accept and even re-create their selves. Applying a `dispositional reading' to (...) some of Bourdieu's texts, the article proposes a new interpretation of the tense relation between Bourdieu's biography and writings, consistent with the ethico-political reading of socio-analysis and reflexivity. Bourdieu's texts can be read as an example of a socio-analysis, a rhetorical strategy devised to enlist individuals into the painful exercise of rewriting their social biographies. (shrink)

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This study presented the policy of functional integration of the product planning team as a strategy for the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Palestine. The study population consists of all the workers in companies operating in the field of medicine in Palestine, which are (5) companies producing in the West Bank only for pharmaceuticals used by these companies, which are (296) employees, and was used a simple random sample to choose the sample and size (87) employees of the study (...) population, and to achieve the objectives of the study (87) questionnaires were distributed. The descriptive analytical method was used, and SPSS was used to answer and discuss the study's questions. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the effectiveness of the policy of product development and the competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies in Palestine (West Bank), where the policy of product development efficiency accounts for 56.6% of the total change in the competitiveness of companies. The product quality component was most influential at all levels of product development effectiveness policy, followed by product identification, product cost reduction, packaging and product deletion. The weakest areas of strategic direction in pharmaceutical companies in Palestine (West Bank) are 67%. The weakest aspects of job integration are: non-regular meetings of representatives of different positions to participate in any project related to product development, to achieve spatial convergence of members of the product planning policy team in offices, laboratories and workplaces. (shrink)

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Information Technology is a new tool in education that continually changes and offers new opportunities for teaching and learning. In general, the effects of IT are complex and depend upon people’s decisions about development and use. This study investigates the ethical issues in education in terms of Information Systems students’ attitudes at Saudi universities towards digital piracy. The differences in the ethical decision-making process, ethical awareness, and intention to perform questionable acts is examined. The authors tested for differences in attitudes (...) toward eighteen different questionable actions by using three different factors. The measures of awareness capture the extent to which respondents felt that a particular action was unethical according to each of several ethical criteria. This work explored information technology ethics in several ways. The work analyzed whether information technology use is viewed by individuals as an ethical topic and demographic differences were explored. Significant differences were found in many cases between demographic groups based on ethical issues. These findings can be used to target and address ethical issues and enforcement in information systems curriculum. (shrink)

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Through a reading of the Syrian Marxist Yasin al-Hafiz’s (1930–1978) autobiographical preface, the essay investigates the changing coordinates of political critique in the Arab world in the aftermath of the defeat of 1967. The autobiography, as the essay argues, draws the contours of the figure of an ‘internal exile’, an exile from history into time, which characterizes the experience of a generation of disillusioned radicals. After presenting the interplay of history and time in al-Hafiz’s text, the essay reflects on the (...) historiographical sensibility needed for a revisiting of this past, a revisiting called for by the present disillusionment from the Arab revolutions. A tragic posture provides a different take on this past, the essay concludes, one that requires coming to terms with the notion of inheritance. (shrink)

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In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka and colleagues discovered how to reprogram terminally differentiated somatic cells to a pluripotent stem cell state. The resulting induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) made a paradigm shift in the field, further nailing down the disproval of the long‐held dogma that differentiation is unidirectional. The prospect of using iPSCs for patient‐specific cell‐based therapies has been enticing. This promise, however, has been questioned in the last two years as several studies demonstrated intrinsic epigenetic and genomic anomalies in these (...) cells. Here, we not only review the recent critical studies addressing the genome integrity during the reprogramming process, but speculate about the underlying mechanisms that could create de novo genome damage in iPSCs. Finally, we discuss how much an elevated mutation load really matters considering the safety of future therapies with cells heavily cultured in vitro. (shrink)

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Using a sample of 15,174 firms from 24 countries included in the 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey, we investigate the impact of disclosure standards and auditing infrastructure on the bribery of public officials to secure government contracts. We find that firms are less likely to grant gift to secure a government contract in countries having more extensive financial reporting requirements and countries where audit firms face a higher litigation and sanction risk. Findings also show that firms are less likely to (...) bribe bureaucrats in case financial statements are reviewed by an external audit firm. Our results are economically significant and are robust to several sensitivity analyses. These findings support certain policies that are currently being implemented or discussed to mitigate bribery within the public sector across the globe. (shrink)

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Diabetes is one of the most common diseases worldwide where a cure is not found for it yet. Annually it cost a lot of money to care for people with diabetes. Thus the most important issue is the prediction to be very accurate and to use a reliable method for that. One of these methods is using artificial intelligence systems and in particular is the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). So in this paper, we used artificial neural networks to (...) predict whether a person is diabetic or not. The criterion was to minimize the error function in neural network training using a neural network model. After training the ANN model, the average error function of the neural network was equal to 0.01 and the accuracy of the prediction of whether a person is diabetics or not was 87.3%. (shrink)

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Numinous Fields has its roots in a phenomenological understanding of perception. It seeks to understand what, beyond the mere sensory data they provide, landscape, nature, and art, both separately and jointly, may mean when we experience them. It focuses on actual or potential experiences of the numinous, or sacred, that such encounters may give rise to. This volume is multi-disciplinary in scope. It examines perceptions of place, space, nature, and art as well as perceptions of place, space, and nature in (...) art. It includes chapters written by art curators, and historians and scholars in the fields of landscape, architecture, cultural geography, religious studies, philosophy, and art. Its chapters examine ideas, objects, and practices from the ancient time of Aboriginal Australians' Dreaming through to the present. The volume is also multi-cultural in scope and includes chapters focussed on manifestations of the sacred in indigenous culture, in cultures influenced by each of the world's major religions, and in the secular, contemporary world. Contributors:Samer Akkach, James Bennett, Veronica della Dora, Alasdair Forbes, Virginia Hooker, Philip Jones, Russell Kelty, Muchammadun,Tracey Lock, Ellen Philpott-Teo, John Powell, Rebekah Pryor, Wendy Shaw. (shrink)

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The Brethren of Purity, the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa 'il Ikhwan al-Safa'. Its fifty-two epistles offer synoptic accounts of the classical sciences and philosophies of the age; divided into four classificatory parts, it treats themes in mathematics, logic, natural philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, and theology, in addition to didactic fables. Epistles 43-45 are (...) some of the richest and most diverse in the corpus of the Brethren of Purity. This volume includes anecdotes and visions of paradise, Qur'anic quotations and interfaith references, as well as Platonic motifs. The prevailing theme of the immortality of the soul is considered in detail, along with the necessity of co-operation in this world in order for the soul to be able to break free of it. (shrink)

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The Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity), the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity based in Basra and Baghdad, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa 'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity). This compendium contains fifty-two epistles offering synoptic accounts of the classical sciences and philosophies of the age; divided into four classificatory parts, it treats themes in mathematics, (...) logic, natural philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, and theology, in addition to didactic fables.Epistles 43-45 succeed the extended description of religions and creeds that opens the final section of the corpus, on the theological sciences. Epistle 43 explains briefly the need for purifying one's soul by performing virtuous acts, after which one can follow the 'straight path' to God. The extremely diverse Epistle 44 is no dry exercise in abstruse theology; rather, it is characterized by the most delightful anecdotes, designed to inform the reader of a deeper truth, that of the hereafter following the soul's separation from the body at death. Alongside references to many of the Prophets encountered in the Qur'an, this Epistle shows a familiarity with other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. Epistle 45 focuses on companionship and friendship, resonating strongly with the word 'Brethren' by which the authors distinguish themselves. The volume overall is united in its underlying themes of the immortality of the soul and the profound need for mutual cooperation, informed in parts by the general Neoplatonism of the entire corpus, as well as by Aristotelian and Platonic motifs. (shrink)

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The concept of sovereignty and laicism still being instrumented into different projection to that’s which have been conceived and used for through the french revolution and the old regime. This article is not to discuss that, but to delight how another concept deduced from it becomes antagonistic with it in the French context. Laicity referred to the French V constitution, or the act of 1905, it’s not what it appear, and mostly known in the french literature, this article is to (...) reject all that, and go toward an etymological construction of the concept into the french politics since XV century. Then to examination who and how the old regime, and the XIX century have been involved with the religious beliefs then to answer the questions: does the revolution have been laic or atheist? The answer is useful to go forward the examination of the french act of the separation of the State from the churches of 1905, and to determine if that act has been laic or atheist. The questions of how the idea of laicism has been reversed into the interwar period thus to the 1958 constitution to be developed in a further work, but the conclusion proposed here is the evidence of constitutional inter-contradiction and reversed usage of the concept which is being instrumented today further then a constitutional idolatry, but a constitutional nihilism. (shrink)

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_Beyond the Story: Ethical Readings of Qurʾānic Narratives_ explores various interpretations of Qurʾānic narratives, their moral implications, and their influence across disciplines like law, theology, mysticism, and art. _ما وراء الحكاية: دراسات أخلاقية في القصة القرآنية_، كتاب يستكشف تأويلات فتيَّةً للقصص القرآني ومقتضياتها الأخلاقية وتأثيرها في حقول وفنون علمية مختلفة كالفقه والكلام والتصوف والفن والأخلاقيات التطبيقية.

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Background: Concerns have been expressed regarding the adequacy of ethics review systems in developing countries. Limited data are available regarding the structural and functional status of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in the Middle East. The purpose of this study was to survey the existing RECs in Egypt to better understand their functioning status, perceived resource needs, and challenges. Methods: We distributed a self-administered survey tool to Egyptian RECs to collect information on the following domains: general characteristics of the REC, membership (...) composition, ethics training, workload, process of ethics review, perceived challenges to effective functioning, and financial and material resources. We used basic descriptive statistics to evaluate the quantitative data. Results: We obtained responses from 67% (12/18) of the identified RECs. Most RECs (10/12) have standard operating procedures and many (7/12) have established policies to manage conflicts of interests. The average membership was 10.3 with a range from 7-19. The predominant member type was physicians (69.5% of all of the REC members) with little lay representation (13.7%). Most RECs met at least once/month and the average number of protocols reviewed per meeting was 3.8 with a range from 1-10. Almost three-quarters of the members from all of the 12 RECs indicated they received some formal training in ethics. Regarding resources, roughly half of the RECs have dedicated capital equipment (e.g., meeting room, computers, office furniture, etc); none of the RECs have a formal operating budget. Perceived challenges included the absence of national research ethics guidelines and national standards for RECs and lack of ongoing training of its members in research ethics. Conclusion: Our study documents several areas of strengths and areas for improvements in the operations of Egyptian RECs. Regarding strengths, many of the existing RECs meet frequently, have a majority of members with prior training in research ethics, and have written policies. Regarding areas for improvements, many RECs should strive for a more diverse membership and should receive more financial resources and administrative support personnel. We recommend that RECs include more individuals from the community and develop a continuing educational program for its members. Institutional officials should be aware of the resource capacity needs of their RECs. (shrink)

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While Stephen Davies argues that a debate on cross-cultural aesthetics is possible if we adopt an attitude of mutual respect and forbearance, his fellow symposiasts shed light upon different aspects which merit a closer scrutiny in such a dialogue.Samer Akkach warns that an inclusivistic embrace of difference runs the risk of collapsing the very difference one sought to understand. Julie Nagam underscores that local knowledge carriers and/or the medium should be involved in such a cross-cultural exploration. Enrico Fongaro (...) searches for a way of experiencing cross-cultural art such that it can lead to a transformative experience Relatedly, Meilin Chinn uses the analogy of friendship to explore the edifying dimension of experiencing an art form. Lastly, John Powell studies whether Dickie’s Institutional Theory can be meaningfully used to identify works of art in Western and non-Western traditions. (shrink)

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The mortality salience (MS) hypothesis postulates that anxiety elicited by mortality awareness leads people to develop negative emotions toward those who hold values inconsistent with their worldview faith. We explored this hypothesis in a sample of 76 Israeli combat soldiers, who were asked to reflect on either their mortality or dental pain. Subsequently, participants reported their motivation to help a father in need who was either an Arab (outgroup) or a Jewish Israeli (ingroup), as well as their perceptions of threat (...) by Arab Israelis. Regression analysis indicated that mortality reminders intensified soldiers’ perception of threat by the outgroup, leading to an increased desire to assist a Jewish-Israeli father, and a decreased motivation to help an Arab-Israeli one. The findings demonstrate the pronounced effects of MS on soldiers involved in frequent combat actions in terms of evoking negative emotions leading to reluctance to help unarmed civilian outgroup members. Recommendations for soldiers’ pre-deployment psychoeducation sessions are provided. (shrink)

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En el siglo X, y en la zona de Siria e Iraq, el número de poetas canónicos que dedicaron panegíricos (madīḥ) a miembros no destacados de la sociedad experimentó un incremento sin precedentes. A lo largo de los últimos treinta años, especialistas en este campo han formulado diversas teorías sobre los himnos de alabanza dedicados a la realeza y a los gobernantes, pero ¿qué llevó a personas corrientes, sin ninguna aspiración de llegar a gobernar, a pagar grandes cantidades de dinero (...) por himnos de alabanza en su honor? Este artículo plantea la aparición de un nuevo tipo de sociabilidad y un nuevo patronazgo en el siglo X. Ambos elementos habrían permitido a miembros de las categorías sociales inferiores formar alianzas y tener influencia a la hora de dar forma a los ideales del gobierno, el liderazgo y la propia hombría. El artículo presenta, a modo de ejemplos, poemas dirigidos a personas corrientes que adquirieron gloria e influencia gracias al apoyo artístico de al-Mutanabbī (m. 965). El primer poema le devuelve la dignidad pública a un soldado de diecinueve años cuyo rostro había quedado desfigurado en combate; en el segundo, el poeta glorifica y defiende a un funcionario del gobierno con inclinaciones sufíes poco conocidas; en el tercero, el poeta limpia el nombre de cierto pseudo-musulmán que era cristiano en privado. A partir de la teoría de la “esfera pública” de J. Habermas, el artículo describe el modo en el que estos poemas ilustran cómo miembros comunes de la sociedad adquirieron influencia en la esfera pública de participación y usaron los medios a su alcance para conservar esa influencia. (shrink)

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A basic function of cognition is to detect regularities in sensory input to facilitate the prediction and recognition of future events. It has been proposed that these implicit expectations arise from an internal predictive coding model, based on knowledge acquired through processes such as statistical learning, but it is unclear how different types of statistical information affect listeners’ memory for auditory stimuli. We used a combination of behavioral and computational methods to investigate memory for non-linguistic auditory sequences. Participants repeatedly heard (...) tone sequences varying systematically in their information-theoretic properties. Expectedness ratings of tones were collected during three listening sessions, and a recognition memory test was given after each session. Information-theoretic measures of sequential predictability significantly influenced listeners’ expectedness ratings, and variations in these properties had a significant impact on memory performance. Predictable sequences yielded increasingly better memory performance with increasing exposure. Computational simulations using a probabilistic model of auditory expectation suggest that listeners dynamically formed a new, and increasingly accurate, implicit cognitive model of the information-theoretic structure of the sequences throughout the experimental session. (shrink)

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The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by Al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān b. Muḥammad. Edited by Avraham Hakim. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 90. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Pp. xi + 22 + 175. $129, €94.

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Educational technology, particularly Learning Management Systems (LMS), has seen significant growth in recent years. As LMS platforms have evolved rapidly, managing them effectively has become crucial for the success of online courses. Many institutions and organizations now focus on developing LMS solutions as part of their e-learning strategies. LMS platforms are used in various educational contexts, including campus-based, distance, classroom, online, traditional, modern, and massive open online courses. They integrate numerous technological tools to support and enhance each stage of the (...) learning process. In this context, user satisfaction is often discussed as a critical measure of LMS success. This study examines the primary factors influencing user satisfaction and the overall impact of LMS usage. It examines how these factors relate to student satisfaction and assesses LMS effectiveness. Data was gathered using a questionnaire based on previous research. The findings reveal that all identified factors positively impact student satisfaction, suggesting that greater user satisfaction leads to improved benefits for students. (shrink)

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The study aimed to identify the knowledge management processes and their role in achieving competitive advantage at Al-Quds Open University. The study was based on the descriptive analytical method, and the study population consists of academic and administrative staff in each of the branches of Al-Quds Open University in (Tulkarm, Nablus and Jenin). The researchers selected a sample of the study population by the intentional non-probability method, the size of (70) employees. A questionnaire was prepared and supervised by a number (...) of specialists in order to obtain the results of the study. The study concluded that there is a positive direct relationship, that is, the higher the degree of application of knowledge management processes, the greater the degree of competitive advantage. Knowledge Technology came first with a score of 80.02% on all items. Competitive advantage came second with 81.74%. In the third place came "knowledge generation" where the total score on all paragraphs in this area (78.24%). In the fourth place, "knowledge transfer" (77.21%). "Developing and storing knowledge" came in fifth place (77.13%). "Acquisition of knowledge" came in sixth place (76.45%). Knowledge Organization ranked seventh (74.26%). The study recommended that the university should enable the employees to benefit from the experiences and expertise available to help generate knowledge. The University encourages the creation of knowledge through the system of incentives and open the way for creators to apply their creations and spread and invest in excellence and creativity. The university should design work performance levels based on the integration of knowledge and organize it according to policies that support freedom of research. The need for Palestinian universities to adopt a knowledge management approach. The need to adopt a system of incentives that rewards cognitive efforts, and give workers enough freedom to enable them to apply their knowledge. (shrink)

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Our research investigates how the inclusion of a company on an independent ethics index affects its attractiveness to institutional investors. Using a sample of 864 U.S. firms over the 2010–2018 period, we find that institutional investors significantly increase their holdings in companies in the quarter that they are included on the ethics index and maintain larger holdings in the four quarters following the inclusion on the Ethisphere list relative to pre-inclusion period, with dedicated institutional investors being more swayed to invest (...) than transient investors. This paper adds to the emerging literature on intermediate signaling by showing that a firm's inclusion on an ethics index reduces information asymmetry with institutional investors. Our evidence suggests that public companies should effectively, rather than ceremonially, adopt sound governance structures and invest in socially responsible activities, as these actions can increase their likelihood of being included on ethics indices. By doing so, these firms send credible signals about their ethical compass, granting them access to valuable institutional investments. (shrink)

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Dynamic resilience is a novel concept that aims to quantify how individuals are coping while operating in dynamic and complex task environments. A recently developed dynamic resilience measure, derived through autoregressive modeling, offers an avenue toward dynamic resilience classification that may yield valuable information about working personnel for industries such as defense and elite sport. However, this measure classifies dynamic resilience based upon in-task performance rather than self-regulating cognitive structures; thereby, lacking any supported self-regulating cognitive links to the dynamic resilience (...) framework. Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) parameters are potential physiological measures that may offer an opportunity to link self-regulating cognitive structures to dynamic resilience given their supported connection to the self-regulation of stress. This study examines if dynamic resilience classifications reveal significant differences in vagal reactivity between higher, moderate and lower dynamic resilience groups, as participants engage in a dynamic, decision-making task. An amended Three Rs paradigm was implemented that examined vagal reactivity across six concurrent vmHRV reactivity segments consisting of lower and higher task load. Overall, the results supported significant differences between higher and moderate dynamic resilience groups' vagal reactivity but rejected significant differences between the lower dynamic resilience group. Additionally, differences in vagal reactivity across vmHRV reactivity segments within an amended Three Rs paradigm were partially supported. Together, these findings offer support toward linking dynamic resilience to temporal self-regulating cognitive structures that play a role in mediating physiological adaptations during task engagement. (shrink)

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The value relevance of corporate social responsibility performance disclosures for financial markets participants remains uncertain despite advances in the literature and the recent proliferation of CSR disclosures around the world. Using an experimental approach involving MBA students at universities in the United States and Lebanon, we study the value relevance of CSR disclosures by testing whether they affect participants’ personal portfolio management investment decisions. We also examine whether the degree to which the CSR disclosures affect these decisions is influenced by (...) corporate governance quality. To examine these issues, we examine the effect of environmental performance on investment decisions in Experiment 1, and the effect of labor performance on investment decisions in Experiment 2. Results from both experiments show that investment decisions are affected by CSR performance. Analysis shows that governance strength exerts a marginal effect on the investment decision only when CSR performance is strong. Lebanese participants appear to be more sensitive to weak performance than U.S. participants. Overall, our findings extend the CSR disclosures literature by documenting the value relevance of CSR performance for financial markets participants’ decision making. These findings also extend the governance literature by documenting that consistent with attribution theory, the effects of governance quality are contingent upon the information and decision context, and that efforts to decontextualize governance may be counterproductive. (shrink)

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The study aimed to identify E- Learning strategies and their relation to the efficiency of research performance in foreign and Palestinian universities (University of Ottawa, Munster, Suez Canal, Al-Azhar, Islamic, Al-Aqsa). The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose, and relying on the questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The study society is from the senior management, where the number of senior management in the universities in question is 206. The random stratified sample was selected and (SPSS) (...) was used for statistical data analysis. The study found a significant relationship between E- Learning strategies and the efficiency of research performance in universities. It also reached the participation of senior management in the research that develops the university performance in the Palestinian universities. The senior management indicated that they do not care to follow the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. While the senior management in foreign universities indicated that they are interested in following up the policies of implementing the development of scientific research. The study also showed that senior management in Palestinian universities does not care about providing the appropriate budget for E- Learning. The study recommended that the senior management of Palestinian universities should provide an E- Learning budget and encourage employees to continue using E- Learning strategies. The administration in the Palestinian universities should adopt and support outstanding research, and the need to encourage interest in the implementation of policies for the development of scientific research. (shrink)

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BackgroundWe assessed potential consent bias in a cohort of > 40,000 adult patients asked by mail after hospitalization to consent to the use of past, present and future clinical and biological data in an ongoing ‘general consent’ program at a large tertiary hospital in Switzerland.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, all adult patients hospitalized between April 2019 and March 2020 were invited to participate to the general consent program. Demographic and clinical characteristics were extracted from patients’ electronic health records (EHR). Data (...) of those who provided written consent (signatories) and non-responders were compared and analyzed with R studio.ResultsOf 44,819 patients approached, 10,299 (23%) signed the form. Signatories were older (median age 54 [IQR 38–72] vs. 44 years [IQR 32–60], p<.0001), more comorbid (2614/10,299 [25.4%] vs. 4912/28,676 [17.1%] with Charlson comorbidity index ≤ 4, p<.0001), and more often of Swiss nationality (6592/10,299 [64%] vs. 13,813/28,676 [48.2%], p<.0001).ConclusionsOur results suggest that actively seeking consent creates a bias and compromises the external validity of data obtained via ‘general consent’ programs. Other options, such as opt-out consent procedures, should be further assessed. (shrink)

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The speeches delivered by Former U.S. President Donald Trump during his last presidential campaign (2015–2016) included hateful remarks against Muslims and immigrants. This study explored strategies of hate speech used in Trump’s political discourse against out-groups. The data consisted of a corpus of Trump’s speeches and interviews. Our analysis was based on Whillock’s [ 48 ] criteria of hate speech and Erjavec and Kovačič’s [ 13 ] strategies of hate speech. The results revealed that Trump employed re-articulation of meaning and (...) renaming by attributing any problem to immigrants and Muslims to express hatred against them, using direct hatred words. His overt use of hate speech strategies stemmed from his legitimate power and social authority as a successful businessman in his field. (shrink)

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Background Informed consent is one of the key principles of conducting research involving humans. When research participants give consent, they perform an act in which they utter, write or otherwise provide an authorisation to somebody to do something. This paper proposes a new understanding of the informed consent as a compositional act. This conceptualisation departs from a modular conceptualisation of informed consent procedures. Methods This paper is a conceptual analysis that explores what consent is and what it does or does (...) not do. It presents a framework that explores the basic elements of consent and breaks it down into its component parts. It analyses the consent act by first identifying its basic elements, namely: a) data subjects or legal representative that provides the authorisation of consent; b) a specific thing that is being consented to; and c) specific agent(s) to whom the consent is given. Results This paper presents a framework that explores the basic elements of consent and breaks it down into its component parts. It goes beyond only providing choices to potential research participants; it explains the rationale of those choices or consenting acts that are taking place when speaking or writing an authorisation to do something to somebody. Conclusions We argue that by clearly differentiating the goals, the procedures of implementation, and what is being done or undone when one consent, one can better face the challenges of contemporary data-intensive biomedical research, particularly regarding the retention and use of data. Conceptualising consent as a compositional act enhances more efficient communication and accountability and, therefore, could enable more trustworthy acts of consent in biomedical science. (shrink)

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Medical research must involve the participation of human subjects. Knowledge of patients' perspectives and concerns with their involvement in research would enhance recruitment efforts, improve the informed consent process, and enhance the overall trust between patients and investigators. Several studies have examined the views of patients from Western countries. There is limited empirical research involving the perspectives of individuals from developing countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of Egyptian individuals toward medical research. Such information would (...) help clarify the type and extent of concerns regarding research participation of individuals from cultural, economic, and political backgrounds that differ from those in developed countries. (shrink)

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Bu çalışmanın konusu Mahmut Samar tarafından kaleme alınan Akitlerde Şart Hürriyeti başlıklı kitabın değerlendirilmesidir. Bu amaçla muhteva, içerik tertibi, dil, üslup, konuların ele alınış biçimi, getirilen eleştiriler ve kaynaklar dikkate alınarak kitap çok yönlü bir tahlile tabi tutulmuştur. Aynı zamanda kitabın eksik yönlerine işaret edilerek sonraki baskılarda dikkate alınması ümidiyle bazı öneriler getirilmiştir.

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Ten years after the popular uprising that became a brutal war, Syrian and Syrian-Palestinian authors are engaged in the struggle to craft a historical consciousness that can acknowledge and mourn for their recent revolutionary past without reifying it. As they write in and of material, political, and social ruin, their works echo collective traumas in regional memory: the Palestinian nakba, the rise of Syria’s Assad regime, Lebanon’s civil war, the 2003 occupation of Iraq, and more. The ruin appears cruelly recursive, (...) yet it is arrested in the corpus of works discussed in this article: poetry by Firas Sulaiman and Osama Esber; prose by Yassin al-Haj Saleh,Samer Yazbek, and Ra’id Wahsh; and documentary film by the Abounaddara Collective. Drawing on Arabic poetic modernism and regional politics, I argue that ruin imagery—ranging from war’s rubble to ancient artefacts—carries distinctive structures of temporal anticipation in Syrian literary and cultural memory. The writers and filmmakers discussed deploy formal and thematic means of stasis and repetition, displacement and accumulation, to summon these temporal structures—only to refuse, interrupt, and reroute them. I argue that such poetic engineerings of the images of ruin assert the singularity of the Syrian present within broader collective memories of ruin. As such, they raise a historicizing challenge to the current academic dominance of reading ruin imagery, notably from the Middle East, through an imperial lens. (shrink)

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