Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have ushered in a transformative phase in artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike conventional AI, LLMs excel in facilitating fluid human–computer d...

What happens when a patient-interfacing conversational artificial intelligence system (CAI)—AI that combines natural language understanding, processing, and machine-learning models to autonomously...

The current study investigated correlations among gifted students’ academic performance; emotional, social, analytical, creative, and practical intelligence; and their implicit theories of intelligence. Furthermore, it studied the effect of gender and grade on these variables. The participants included 174 gifted fifth and sixth grade students, comprising 53.4% male and 46.6% female. The following analytical, creative, and practical intelligence tests were administered: Aurora Battery, the emotional intelligence scale, the implicit theories of intelligence scale, and an assessment scale of students’ performances. The (...) results revealed significant correlations among academic performance, kinds of intelligence, and implicit theories of intelligence. There were no significant differences between the male and female students in these measures. There were, however, significant differences between the fifth and sixth grade students, with the sixth-grade students showing higher levels of all kinds of intelligence, except emotional intelligence. Moreover, the results indicated that the intelligence measures were non-significantly affected by either gender or gender–grade interaction. Overall, our results showed that most types of intelligence are related to giftedness, and that there were no gender differences among gifted students on measures of intelligence. (shrink)

The truth of every human being is the end his life with death, and this leads to leaving assets and funds for those after him and can lead to hate between the heirs, it has made a point of Islamic law on all aspects of life, including the subject of the inheritance of the deceased. The main problem is how to get the knowledge of the basics of inheritance. This paper reviews work done in the use of expert system software (...) to calculate inheritance in Islam. A proposed expert system was designed and developed using CLIPS language to calculate the inheritance in Islam. (shrink)

Cet article présente, dans une première partie, les fondements éthiques de la gestion de crise qui s’apparentent au pragmatisme et à l’écologie humaniste et s’appliquent dans une approche systémique axée sur l’apprentissage et le dialogue. Dans une deuxième partie, il discute de quelques questions éthiques dans le domaine de la sécurité civile en s’appuyant principalement sur les observations empiriques de l’auteur au Québec. Dans le cadre de sa mission en tant que boursier du Programme canadien de bourses de la Francophonie, (...) l’auteur termine par un examen des défis culturels relatifs à son aspiration d’établir une éthique et une culture de gestion de crise dans son pays, l’Égypte. (shrink)

An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a computer system that offers an instant, adapted instruction and customized feedback to students without human teacher interference. Reciting "Tajweed" the Holy Quran in the appropriate way is very important for all Muslims and is obligatory in Islamic devotions such as prayers. In this paper, the researchers introduce an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Reciting "Tajweed". Our "Tajweed" tutoring system is limited to "Tafkhim and Tarqiq in TAJWEED" the Holy Quran, Rewaya: Hafs from ‘Aasem. (...) The system was evaluated by reciting teachers and students, and the results were auspicious. (shrink)

The summativists generally analyze group belief in terms of belief of the majority. The non-summativists counterargue that it is possible for a group to believe that p even if “none” of its members believes that p. In doing so, they usually appeal to hypothetical cases in which groups are “structured” groups like committees, research groups, governments, as opposed to “collective” groups like Finns, America, Catholic Church. In this paper, I raise the objection that non-summativist cases involve summativism. While most contemporary (...) objections to non-summativism tend to be rejectionists, i.e., showing that non-summativist cases involve group acceptance rather than group belief, my objection is newfangled in that it grants non-summativist cases group belief but shows that group belief in such cases is majority belief. (shrink)

The question of whether females tend to act more ethically or risk-averse compared to males is an interesting ethical puzzle. Using a large sample of US firms over the 1992–2014 period, we investigate the effect that the gender of a chief executive officer has on earnings management using classification shifting. We find that the pre-Sarbanes–Oxley Act period was characterized by high levels of classification shifting by both female and male CEOs, but the magnitude of such practices is, surprisingly, significantly higher (...) in firms with female CEOs than in those with male CEOs. By contrast, our results suggest that following the passage of the punitive SOX Act, classification shifting by female CEOs declined significantly, whilst it remained pervasive in firms with male CEOs. This suggests that the observable differences in financial reporting behavior between male and female CEOs seem to be because female CEOs are more risk-averse, but not necessarily more ethically sensitive than their male counterparts are. The central tenets of our findings remain unchanged after several additional checks, including controlling for alternative earnings management techniques, corporate governance mechanisms, CEO and chief financial officer characteristics and propensity score-matching. (shrink)

Buildings energy consumption is growing gradually and put away around 40% of total energy use. Predicting heating and cooling loads of a building in the initial phase of the design to find out optimal solutions amongst different designs is very important, as ell as in the operating phase after the building has been finished for efficient energy. In this study, an artificial neural network model was designed and developed for predicting heating and cooling loads of a building based on a (...) dataset for building energy performance. The main factors for input variables are: relative compactness, roof area, overall height, surface area, glazing are a, wall area, glazing area distribution of a building, orientation, and the output variables: heating and cooling loads of the building. The dataset used for training are the data published in the literature for various 768 residential buildings. The model was trained and validated, most important factors affecting heating load and cooling load are identified, and the accuracy for the validation was 99.60%. (shrink)

Let T and T1 be tournaments with n elements, E a basis for T, E′ a basis for T′, and k ≥ 3 an integer. The dual of T is the tournament T” of basis E defined by T = T for all x, y ε E. A hemimorphism from T onto T′ is an isomorphism from T onto T” or onto T. A k-hemimorphism from T onto T′ is a bijection f from E to E′ such that for any (...) subset X of E of order k the restrictions T/X and T1/f are hemimorphic. The set of hemimorphisms of T onto itself has group structure, this group is called the group of hemimorphisms of T. In this work, we study the restrictions to n – 2 elements of a tournament with n elements. In particular, we prove: Let k ≥ 3 be an integer, T a tournament with n elements, where n ≥ k + 5. Then the following statements are equivalent: All restrictions of T to subsets with n – 2 elements are k-hemimorphic. All restrictions of T to subsets with n – 2 elements are 3-hemimorphic. All restrictions of T to subsets with n – 2 elements are hemimorphic. All restrictions of T to subsets with n – 2 elements are isomorphic, Either T is a strict total order, or the group of hemimorphisms of T is 2-homogeneous. (shrink)

Undeniably, the greatest way for a Moslem to be closer to Allah, is recitation of Holy-Quran approves with the method conveyed from Messenger of Allah Mohammed from the feature of speech points of letters and the intrinsic and fleeting characteristics of the letters, So, there is a persistent need to teach all Moslems the science of Tajweed Al-Quran. ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System) is computer software that supplies direct and tailored training or response to students without human teacher interfering. The main (...) target of ITS is smoothing the learning process using the wide-ranging facilities of computer. The proposed system will be implemented using the ITSB Authoring tool. In this thesis, the researcher presents an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Reciting Al-Quran "Tajweed" with Rewaya: Hafs from ‘Aasem by the way of Shatebiyyah. It was a novel idea that the researcher combined the science of Tajweed Al-Quran and the science of artificial intelligence in his thesis. The researcher arranged the material into chapters, lessons, examples then, added all these to the proposed system. He also added questions, right answers and the level of difficulty for each lesson. He prepared an exam for each chapter and a final exam to test the knowledge of the learner in the whole material. The system was evaluated by teachers and students in reciting science and the outcome of the assessment was encouraging and promising. (shrink)

The article studies the impact of Fintech on entrepreneurship in Arabic region by using Crowdfunding platforms as the field of study. The article focuses on Arabic Crowdfunding platforms. The population of (12) platforms consist of: individuals, entrepreneurs, investors, employees at Crowdfunding platforms. Descriptive and quantitative approach used in this article, and a questionnaire used as a tool to collect primary data. The results indicate an impact for Fintech on entrepreneurship in general and obvious obstacles to use it widely in Arabic (...) region cause of legislations or e-payments. The article recommended more awareness for innovative products and services such as Fintech, Crowdfunding and adopting the culture of e-business models. Also the article promoting the process of developing regulations that organize e-business models, especially Fintech and Crowdfunding, the use of modern communication technology to serve the development of society, more interest to innovation and creativity as a key factor for entrepreneurial success. (shrink)

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)

This paper deals with the problematic aspect of the reconstruction of binary relations: it includes all the questions raising the possibility or impossibility to determine a structure by gathering given substructures. It is the continuation of three studies: the first made by G. Lopez [9] in 1972 about the determination of a binary relation through the types of isomorphism of its restrictions, the second made by K. B. Reid and C. Thomassen [15] in 1976 about the strongly self-complementary tournaments , (...) the third made by C. Thomassen [16] in 1989 about the cycle space of a tournament. In the second section, we use the notion of class of difference to extend a study made in [16] to binary relations. Then, in the third section, we improve the result of this last study in the case of the tournaments. After noticing that the result of [15] inferred itself naturally from the approach developed in [9], we extend, in the fourth section, the study made in [15] to binary relations. (shrink)

One of the important issues in mobile robots is finding the position of robots in space. This is normally achieved by using a sensor to locate the position of the robot. However, relying on more than one sensor and then using multisenor data fusion algorithms tends to be more reliable than just using a reading from a single sensor. If these sensors provide inconsistent data, catastrophic fusion may occur, and thus the estimated position of the robot obtained will be less (...) accurate than if an individual sensor is used. This article uses an approach that relies on combining modified Bayesian fusion algorithm with Kalman filtering to estimate the position of a mobile robot. Two case studies are presented to prove the efficiency of the proposed approach in estimating the position of a mobile robot. Both scenarios show that combining fusion with filtering provides an accurate estimate of the location of the robot by handling the problem of uncertainty and inconsistency of the data provided by the sensors. (shrink)

Biocidal agents such as formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde are able to inactivate several coronaviruses including SARS‐CoV‐2. In this article, an insight into one mechanism for the inactivation of these viruses by those two agents is presented, based on analysis of previous observations during electron microscopic examination of several members of the orthocoronavirinae subfamily, including the new virus SARS‐CoV‐2. This inactivation is proposed to occur through Schiff base reaction‐induced conformational changes in the spike glycoprotein leading to its disruption or breakage, which can (...) prevent binding of the virus to cellular receptors. Also, a new prophylactic and therapeutic measure against SARS‐CoV‐2 using acetoacetate is proposed, suggesting that it could similarly break the viral spike through Schiff base reaction with lysines of the spike protein. This measure needs to be confirmed experimentally before consideration. In addition, a new line of research is proposed to help find a broad‐spectrum antivirus against several members of this subfamily. (shrink)

Abstract: Potatoes are edible tubers, available worldwide and all year long. They are relatively cheap to grow, rich in nutrients, and they can make a delicious treat. The humble potato has fallen in popularity in recent years, due to the interest in low-carb foods. However, the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals it provides can help ward off disease and benefit human health. They are an important staple food in many countries around the world. There are an estimated 200 varieties of (...) potatoes, which can be classified into a number of categories based on the cooked texture and ingredient functionality. Using a public dataset of 2400 images of potatoes, we trained a deep convolutional neural network to identify 4 types (Red, Red Washed, Sweet, and White).The trained model achieved an accuracy of 99.5% of test set, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach. (shrink)

Taouk, Youssef; Ghosn, Margaret; Steel, Anthony; Butcher, Jude The Maronite Church, situated in the See of Antioch, had its origins in Syria, soon followed by its expansion to Lebanon. The Maronite Synod (2003-2006) distinguished aspects of the Maronite Catholic Church as: firstly, an Antiochene Syriac Church, with a special liturgical heritage; secondly, a Chalcedonian Church; thirdly, a Patriarchal Church with an ascetic and a monastic aspect; fourthly, a Church in full union with the Apostolic Roman See; fifthly, a Church (...) incarnated in her Lebanese and Eastern environment, and the Countries of Expansion. (shrink)

This study explores gratitude as a multidimensional and work-specific construct. Utilizing a sample of 625 employees from a variety of positions in a medium-sized school district in the United States, we developed and evaluated a new measure, namely the Work Gratitude Scale, which encompasses recognized conative, cognitive, affective, and social aspects of gratitude. A systematic, six-phased approach through structural equation modeling was used to explore and confirm the factorial structure, internal consistency, measurement invariance, concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity of the (...) WGS. The results supported a 10-item measure with three dimensions: “grateful appraisals”, “gratitude toward others”, and “intentional attitude of gratitude”. Thereafter, first-order, second-order, and bifactor confirmatory models were estimated and compared. Work gratitude was found to be best described by a second-order construct with three underlying first-order dimensions. Measurement invariance was supported in relation to gender. Concurrent validity was supported in relation to two existing dispositional gratitude scales, namely the Gratitude Questionnaire and the Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Scale. Convergent validity was supported in relation to the Core Self-Evaluations Scale and the Psychological Capital Questionnaire. Discriminant validity was supported in relation to various demographic factors such as age, gender, occupation, and tenure. The findings support the WGS as a multidimensional measure that can be used in practice to measure overall work-related gratitude and to track the effectiveness of gratitude-related workplace interventions. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the concept of sunna, and its great theoretical and historical complexity. The term “sunna” seems nowadays to be a label for the whole set of behaviors adopted by believers, from simple details of dress or diet to the most elaborate of ritual and cultural attitudes. The daily lifestyle of the prophet is invoked so as to imitate the way he washed, how he lay down to sleep, or “sat at table”, not to mention his ritual gestures (...) during prayer, what he preferred to eat after breaking fasts, his slightest movements over the nights and days of pilgrimage. The author intends to show on the contrary, through an unprecedented study, that the Islamic society of a very large city, that of 10th century Baghdad, was for a considerable period of time completely disengaged from such obsessive scrupulousness of religious observance. It gives large evidence of this phenomenon, and tries to outline the historical reasons how the sunna eventually evolved into a rule defining the coercive power of the Islamic faith. (shrink)

PurposeThis study is justified by the economic importance of information on greenhouse gases, as well as the interest in the question of governance structure after the adoption of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. The problem is also explained by the lack of research that has investigated the relationship between the best governance structure that contributes to achieving sustainability goals, including climate actions (SDG13) and clean energy adoption (SDG7) as part of the 2030 Agenda.Design/methodology/approachThe level of disclosure is measured on (...) the basis of the carbon disclosure score calculated by the carbon disclosure project (CDP). The study sample consists of 387 US companies that voluntarily participated in the CDP survey from 2011 to 2018. The authors use panel data analysis based on multiple regression models.FindingsThe results confirm the influential role of board size, director independence, the presence of women on the board and the presence of an environmental committee on carbon disclosure. In terms of carbon disclosure, the results suggest that a better governance structure is likely to reduce carbon emissions and improve carbon performance practices. Similarly, the analyses show a different representation of the role of corporate governance in high-carbon sectors compared to low-carbon sectors.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations. First, the sample is only interested in US companies that responded to the CDP questionnaire during the period 2011–2018. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to countries with different governance structures. Second, the data from this study on carbon disclosure, specifically focuses on CDP reporting to determine the carbon disclosure score. In this sense, the findings on information disclosed do not necessarily address disclosures through other media, such as a company’s website or a press release.Originality/valueSustainability and commitment to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are more likely to exist in companies that have good governance and, in particular, a better board. The research is inspired by the SDGs. The study aims to examine the relationship between carbon disclosure and corporate governance in the context of SDGs. Indeed, this research work contributes to achieving sustainability goals, including climate actions (SDG13) and clean energy adoption (SDG7). (shrink)

The construction industry is usually characterized as a fragmented system of multiple-organizational entities in which members from different technical backgrounds and moral values join together to develop a particular business or project. The greatest challenge in the construction process for the achievement of a successful practice is the development of an outstanding reputation, which is built on identifying and applying an ethical framework. This framework should reflect a common ethical ground for myriad people involved in this process to survive and (...) compete ethically in today’s turbulent construction market. This study establishes a framework for ethical judgment of behavior and actions conducted in the construction process. The framework was primarily developed based on the essential attributes of business management identified in the literature review and subsequently incorporates additional attributes identified to prevent breaches in the construction industry and common ethical values related to professional engineering. The proposed judgment framework is based primarily on the ethical dimension of professional responsibility. The Ethical Judgment Framework consists of descriptive approaches involving technical, professional, administrative, and miscellaneous terms. The framework provides the basis for judging actions as either ethical or unethical. Furthermore, the framework can be implemented as a form of preventive ethics, which would help avoid ethical dilemmas and moral allegations. The framework can be considered a decision-making model to guide actions and improve the ethical reasoning process that would help individuals think through possible implications and consequences of ethical dilemmas in the construction industry. (shrink)

Prior research suggests that the presence of high-quality auditors constrains accrual-based earnings management, but it inadvertently leads to higher real activities manipulation. We investigate whether such trade-off exists between accrual-based and real earnings management activities in the presence of female or male auditors. We use a sample of UK firms for the period 2009 to 2016 and find that firms audited by female auditors do not resort to a higher-level real activities manipulation when their ability to engage in accruals management (...) is constrained. Overall, our results suggest that the benefits of hiring female auditors are overwhelmingly higher than the costs they might bring to the client firms. (shrink)

Resumo Uma das reivindicações centrais dos movimentos políticos islâmicos é cumprir ou impor a sharī'a . Mas a visão que esses movimentos têm destoa da maneira como os sistemas jurídicos muçulmanos funcionaram historicamente. A própria definição de sharī'a , sua relação com o poder político, e sua aplicação num processo que leva a uma decisão jurídica, foram simplificados durante o processo de codificação dos séculos XIX e XX, e os movimentos islamistas são herdeiros dessa concepção "ocidentalizada" de sharī'a. Frequentemente traduzido (...) com "lei religiosa" ou "direito islâmico" o termo sharī'a não corresponde ao conceito ocidental de "lei" nem tampouco engloba todo o campo do direito dos povos muçulmanos. Paralelamente à sharī'a , também há o qānūn (o direito do soberano), e as regras derivadas do costume ( 'urf , adalat ). O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a formação da dualidade entre sharī'a e qānūn no direito muçulmano até a codificação da sharī'a no século XX e a dissolução dessa dualidade nas ideologias islamistas contemporâneas. Palavras-chave: sharī'a; islamismo; direito muçulmano. One of the main claims of contemporary Islamic political movements is to implement the sharia. But the view of the sharia held by those movements diverges from the Muslim judicial systems as they actually functioned throughout history. The very definition of sharia, its relation with the political power, and its implementation in specific cases, were simplified during the process of codification that took place between the 19 th and 20 th centuries, and contemporary Islamic movements inherited this "westernized" conception of sharia. Though often translated as "Islamic law", the term does not correspond exactly to the Western concept of "law", and neither does it comprise the whole field of law among Muslim peoples. Parallel to the sharia, there is also the qānūn (the law of the ruler), and the rules derived from costume ( 'urf, adalat ). This article intends to analyze the formation of the duality between sharia and qānūn in Islamic law until the codification of the sharia in the 20 th century, and the dissolution of this duality in contemporary Islamist ideologies. Keywords: sharia; Islamism; Islamic law. (shrink)

Ethics issues in the areas of science, technology and medicine have emerged during the last few decades. Many countries have responded by establishing ethics committees at the national level. Identification of National Ethics Committees (NECs) in the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region and the extent of their functions and capacity would be helpful in developing capacity building programs that address the needs of these committees. Accordingly, we conducted a survey to determine the characteristics of existing NECs in the EM region.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the critical success factors and investigate the benefits that might be gained once implementing Electronic Customer Relationship Management at HEI from employee perspective. The study conducted at Al Quds Open University in Palestine and data collected from (300) employee through a questionnaire which consist of four variables. A number of statistical tools were intended for hypotheses testing and data analysis, including Spearman correlation coefficient for Validity, reliability correlation using Cronbach’s alpha, and Frequency (...) and Descriptive analysis. The overall findings of the current study show that all the features were important for staff and it was critical success factors, at the same time, websites were providing all the features discussed by the theory whereas staff showed their willingness to use those features if provided. It is also discovered that implementing Electronic Customer Relationship Management can cause staff retention, were provided efficiently and needed to be improved. Research limitations: The survey findings were based on QOU employee in Palestine, UAE and KSA branches not included in the study. (shrink)

Study of the visual, material, and textual sources of elements shaping images of women in the Latin East provides a context for investigating how communicative strategies applied in the representation of women articulate and interact across artistic, social, historical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. To what extent do these phenomena conform to gender norms? The case studies underlying this analysis come from present-day Lebanon as they relate to preserved twelfth- and thirteenth-century female depictions found in wall paintings from Mar Sharbel the (...) Elder in Maad, Saydet el-Rih in Enfeh, and the National Museum of Beirut. These depictions situate these women dynamically in the region’s cultural and artistic landscape, as well as in the social fabric of their time. (shrink)