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This research explores the ways in which Information Technology (IT) teachers experience the use of online communities of practice (CoP) in teaching a computer course called Computer Skills 2 (WRCO2). This course is the second of two computer skills courses in the Work Readiness Program (WRP) running at a Higher Education Institution in the Middle East (HEIME). This course focuses on the use of prior foundational knowledge acquired in the first course to develop understanding and proficiency in the use and application of computer skills and concepts. A phenomenological approach has been chosen to help understand and explore the qualitatively different ways in which particular teachers experience the use of online CoP as a social and collaborative learning system. Two specific questions were considered: (1) "How did teachers experience the use of online CoP in teaching the computer skills 2 classes?" (2) "What benefits, if any, have been derived from using online CoP in teaching this course?" Data collection in this study was conducted using a digitally recorded unstructured interview, which allowed the participants to voice their experiences. As a theoretical framework, the basic elements: domain, community and practice were considered (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). The data explicitation process (as defined and used by (Giorgi, 2009)) resulted in the identification of a number of themes. Similar themes were then grouped together to form four central themes representing the essence of the original ones. The central themes were: (1) to promote student collaboration; (2) to redefine the teacher's role; (3) to encourage student engagement; and (4) to manage the teachers' increased workload. This was followed by a discussion of the benefits and challenges arising from using online CoP in teaching the course, as well as the description of the limitations within this study.

Drawing on original data on father involvement from a study of 1,684 respondents in 10 Middle Eastern countries, this article explores the intersection of father involvement with gender, geography (Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] vs. non-GCC), and generations, with educational attainment. To examine these relationships, we conducted a series of ANOVAs and regressions, supplemented with qualitative interview data. Overall, we find that fathers are perceived to be more encouraging of their daughters' education than their sons', that fathers from the GCC are perceived as less involved in their children's education, and that younger fathers are perceived to be more involved in their children's education than older ones. We also find that children who perceived their fathers as encouraging and good providers are associated with higher educational attainment. However, this article underscores the need for further research on the nature and impact of father involvement on education in the Middle East.

Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 incident, higher education institutions have faced different challenges in their teaching-learning activities. Particularly conducting assessments remotely during COVID-19 has posed extraordinary challenges for higher education institutions owing to lack of preparation superimposed with the inherent problems of remote assessment. In the current study, the challenges of remote assessment during COVID-19 incident in higher education institutions were investigated taking Middle East College as a case study. For the study, questionnaires were prepared and data from 50 faculties were collected and analyzed. The study focused on the challenges of remote assessment in general and academic dishonesty in particular. The main challenges identified in remote assessment were academic dishonesty, infrastructure, coverage of learning outcomes, and commitment of students to submit assessments. To minimize academic dishonesty, preparing different questions to each student was found to be the best approach. Online presentation was also found to be good option to control academic integrity violations. Combining various assessment methods, for instance report submission with online presentation, helps to minimize academic dishonesty since the examiner would have a chance to confirm whether the submitted work is the work of the student.

In the mid-2000s, large numbers of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East sought to reach Europe to escape persecution, war, and famine. Images of children, women, and men in inhumane conditions attempting to reach the mainland began to circulate worldwide. This phenomenon culminated in 2015 with the worst immigration crisis in Europe since the end of World War II. In this study, Vasco d'Agnese draws on Hannah Arendt's work to demonstrate that refugees, in embarking on their often excruciating journeys, represent the paradigm of acting, natality, and a "new beginning," features that, for Arendt, characterize the human experience. Starting from this premise, d'Agnese presents two refugee stories and attempts to foreground their intrinsically educational nature with two aims. The first is that engaging with these stories may help transform the traditional view of refugees as vulnerable, suffering, and needy, and instead promote a view that acknowledges refugees' actions, their agency, and that does justice to the strength, determination, and resiliency they demonstrate in taking the actions they do. The second aim is to show how the renewal of natality represented by such stories serves as a foundation for a different engagement with education. If, as Arendt argues, education is first and foremost about preserving natality, the renewal of natality seen in these refugee stories is one of the best educational examples we may find. In refugee stories, the natality of education is, in a profound sense, actualized.

In this study, we proposed a multilevel explanatory Rasch model for examining measurement invariance of international food-insecurity measures on the Food Insecurity Experience (FIE) Scale from different countries. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization developed the FIE Scale to quantitatively measure the severity of food insecurity. We discussed the advantages of using a multilevel explanatory Rasch model to detect DIF when data are nested. Our results indicated the presence of differential item functioning for gender on the pooled (global) FIE Scale. Several person-level explanatory variables (educational attainment and socioeconomic status) also explained a significant amount of the variation in food-insecurity measures. Furthermore, separate analyses were conducted for six geographic regions of the world, showing gender-related DIF, as well as the impact of person-level explanatory variables across the geographic regions.

I brought together two strands of literature, one investigating the moderate but persistent underachievement of girls in mathematics in most countries, and the other examining the role of self-efficacy and other self-beliefs in predicting behaviour and achievement. I implemented detailed decompositions of the gender mathematics gap, both at the mean and for low and high performing students, for a large and diverse group of countries. I found considerable heterogeneity and different cross-country patterns in decomposition components and the contribution of self-beliefs. In OECD-Europe and more affluent East Asian countries, most or all of the gap is explained by gender differences in self-beliefs, especially self-efficacy; on the other hand, in Latin America and the Middle East, most of the gap remains unexplained. I also investigated the cross-country relationship between the gender mathematics gap and gender equity and found that a clearly negative association can be established after controlling for cross-country heterogeneity in gender differences in mathematics self-beliefs, which correlate with gender equality.

This article is an attempt to create new ways for students to appreciate the complexities and diversity of the Middle East's foodways and thus of their people and societies. It takes a broad view of the region that is historically inclusive, stretching from Morocco and al-Andalus (Spain) in the west to Iran in the east and from modern-day Turkey in the north to Yemen in the south. Food--its components, production, preparation, and consumption--can be a way to explore the geography, history, and even the politics of the Middle East. A set of six themes or suggested directions for teachers to explore with students are presented. Some of the explorations and dishes described will work better with younger or older students, although all can be adapted. This is a unit that explores food, and it includes references to specific dishes and recipes for students to make. Given the diverse range of what is and is not allowed in different schools and districts, a single approach will not work in all circumstances. The current necessity of online education may actually open possibilities for students to explore cooking some of these dishes themselves at home and sharing the results with their families in the first instance and with their classes via video on YouTube, images on Instagram, classroom cookbooks with images and cultural information incorporated along with recipes.

Objective: Education abroad can be perceived as riskier for student health/safety than domestic study, but little data exists to test this assumption. We investigated one facet of student safety by comparing college student mortality rates occurring during educational programs abroad with rates occurring on U.S. campuses. Methods: Two insurers provided information about the duration of education abroad experiences for 1,342,405 individuals insured over seven calendar years and details of repatriation of remains claims during that period. Mortality rates for students abroad were calculated and compared with existing data from students on U.S. campuses. Results: Students are less likely to die during study abroad experiences than on U.S. campuses. This is driven by reduced likelihood of death among male students studying abroad. Conclusions: Results can guide staff and student training and policies by providing professionals involved in study abroad with objective information about the relative risk of overseas study and causes of death.

The study aimed to investigate the retention of acquired argumentation and NOS conceptions among grade 10 students three months after the treatment. Thirty-six grade 10 students in two intact sections, randomly assigned into the Treatment and Comparison groups, participated in the study. The participants engaged in a treatment that lasted for four months and involved two units. Participants in both groups were involved in explicit argumentation instruction. However, participants in the Treatment group received the additional explicit NOS instruction. To assess the learning and retention of participants' argumentation skills and NOS conceptions, all participants responded to two open-ended questionnaires three times during the study (pre-, post-, and delayed post-test) followed by individual semi-structured interviews. Results showed that participants of the Comparison group, who engaged in explicit argumentation instruction only, mostly did not retain their argumentation skills, three months after the treatment. While participants of the treatment group, who engaged in explicit argumentation and explicit NOS instruction, mostly retained their argumentation skills and NOS conceptions after a three-month period following the treatment. These findings were discussed in terms of the following premises: prolonged contact with the content, distributed multiple experiences, meaningful cognitive connections, and NOS as a metacognitive tool.

We examine how organizational actors use global legal, humanitarian, and development discourses in their work supporting educational services for refugees to better understand how the transfer of ideas and norms emanating within global organizations affects educational programming for refugees. We ask: (1) To what extent do organizations reference global legal, humanitarian, and development documents in their work? And, (2) How do linkages with United Nations (UN) organizations (namely UNHCR, UNESCO, and UNICEF) influence organizations' usage of global documents? We find that different organizations draw on global discourses depending on their level of embeddedness in global society and that diverse types of relationships with UN agencies--financial and normative--mediate the extent to which they reference global policy documents.

Students who are newcomers to the United States -- as English Learners (ELs) -- face barriers to learning, and their academic success often lags behind their native-English-speaking peers. Notably, there is paucity in the literature about Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) high school student newcomers' academic challenges as ELs and the practices that schools implement to address the unique issues that refugee students face. The researchers employed qualitative methods to explore teachers' perspectives of MENA newcomers' challenges from Restorative and non-Restorative ethea of care and socio-emotional learning. Twenty-two teachers (N = 22) were interviewed using the focus groups method at two Restorative ethos high schools and two non-Restorative ethos high schools to understand the differences in leadership and practices targeted towards newcomers. Our results suggest that MENA students' challenges were enhanced by non-Restorative organizational structural and leadership deficits, and the lack of communication and cultural awareness within the same school in addition to other ecological system challenges.

Refugees face significant challenges in accessing higher education. It is clear that new and diverse solutions are needed that both understand and address the contextual barriers to higher education access for refugees. In keeping with new approaches in the wider humanitarian community, which recognize the role communities can play in creating new education solutions, our organization sought to employ participatory design methods in the development of a new program to support access to higher education for refugees in the Middle East (mainly in Jordan and Lebanon). This note provides insights into the implementation of the participatory process and details the impact the participatory approach had on the design of our programs. Finally, we highlight the need for gender-balanced recruitment strategies through our reflection on the impact the design of the participatory process had on those participating.

The study attempts to determine whether or not Facebook is an environment suiting the Community of Inquiry Framework by investigating the cognitive, social, and teaching presence perceptions of students in Facebook groups and to examine the impact of group size on the CoI model. Additionally, whether or not these three types of presences predicted academic success and motivation were investigated. The data were analyzed through logistic regression analysis, independent samples t-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The study was conducted in a blended course, where Facebook was utilized for online discussions. The study revealed that the relation between cognitive, social, and teaching presences was significant and at a high-level. The high correlation determined among the social, cognitive, and teaching presence perceptions of students in learning communities created on Facebook leads to the consideration that Facebook is a suitable online environment for the COI framework. It is understandable, that all presence perceptions are higher in smaller groups when group impacts are investigated. Other conclusions derived from the study are that academic success was only predicted by cognitive presence and motivation was predicted by both cognitive and teaching presences.

To contribute to social studies' and history teachers' bank of resources, the book list presented in this article was compiled by the Education Outreach Program (EOP) of the National Arab American Women Association (NAAWA). These books provide an alternative voice and a more colorful picture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with the narratives ranging from simple stories to more complex ones. This list of books provides a good collection of high quality, unbiased, and non-stereotypical portrayals of Arabs. It is also a collection that brings the native voices of the MENA region to elementary readers. In an environment where the voices of indigenous populations are too-often silenced, this collection adds to the messages of justice, peace, and equity towards Arabs, Muslims, and other marginalized groups in the United States and beyond.

As Dane Peters witnesses the struggles of Middle Eastern countries dealing with violence inflicted by radical groups like the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS, he asks himself, How can this be happening? How can anyone justify this heartless, inhumane treatment? Is this behavior learned in certain cultures? Perhaps, he considers, for some people it is in the name of a religious/cultural belief, and, for others (e.g., drug cartels), the object is not to cooperate with a higher authority--or the issue is greed, or mental illness. Additionally, Peters recalls the recent tragedies in San Bernardino, CA; Orlando, FL; Dallas, TX; and Nice, France. For the month of June 2016 alone, Wikipedia lists 218 terrorist incidents worldwide, including bombings, executions, shootings, and attacks. As he thought about these issues, he reflected on his 40 years of teaching and working with children. In a child's early years, personalities, behaviors, desires, and actions form that have long-term effects as that child grows. Peters believes that adults can make indelible impressions on children, affecting them through what they say, teach, and model. If adults can have a positive influence, he thinks children will then model these behaviors for the next generation and beyond, in a continuous cycle.

Despite the fact that autism is on the rise, there is paucity in the literature examining the treatment of autism in the Middle East and specifically the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The current review investigates the past, present, and future status of interventions for autism based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the six countries of the GCC, namely the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The aims of this paper were to provide a brief overview of autism and ABA clinical services and educational opportunities and to investigate the relevant research published from each of the six states of the GCC.

This study explores how local managers, in practicing Human Resource management (HRM), may pursue their own interests that are out of line with the agendas of headquarters in multinational companies (MNCs). It is widely acknowledged that informal networks have an impact on HRM practices in emerging markets. While these networks are often regarded as beneficial for organizations in compensating for institutional shortfalls, they may also lead to corruption, nepotism, or other ethical transgressions. Indigenous scholarship on informal networks in emerging markets has highlighted how their impact occurs through a dynamic process; powerful placeholders deploy informal networks to entrench existing power and authority relations when managing people. Qualitative data were gathered through 43 in‐depth interviews and documentary evidence from MNCs operating in Jordan. MNCs are subject to both home and host country effects; we highlight how, in practicing HRM, country of domicile managers deploy the cultural scripts of wasta informal network to secure and enhance their own relative authority. HRM practices are repurposed by actors who secure and consolidate their power through wasta. They dispense patronage to insiders and marginalize outsiders; the latter includes not only more vulnerable local employees but also expatriates. This phenomenon becomes particularly evident during the performance appraisal process, which may serve as a basis for the differential treatment and rewards of employees. Consequently, this further dilutes the capacity of MNCs to implement—as adverse to espousing—centrally decided approaches to HRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research proposes an empirical framework to help firms understand to what degree the transaction-specific Net Promoter Scores (NPS) spill over and affect customer spending across multiple product categories under the same parent brand. The proposed framework is applied to novel individual-level, cross-sectional, and time-series NPS ratings matched with transaction details from a leading lifestyle conglomerate in the Middle East. Findings provide strong support for the presence of the NPS spillover in brand extensions and show that the spillover is moderated by customer learning both within and across categories. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global support and standardization of regulation for biosimilars approval owes much of its legacy to the World Health Organization (WHO), since the first guidance by the organization on the matter was released in 2009. Since then, and with over a decade of research, the 2022 revision provides opportunities for time and financial savings to pharmaceutical manufacturers aiming to prove similarity of a potential biosimilar product to some reference product, particularly by clarifying that the use of a non-local reference product as a comparator in certain studies is permissible. This declaration has important implications, particularly in the emerging biological markets of the Middle East and North Africa region, where WHO guidelines have been integral to the regulatory framework of over a dozen countries for more than a decade. This article aims to review the impact of this revision on these countries and relevant policies on non-local comparator usage. Since 2022, this revision has been adopted only in Egypt. Many North African countries are yet to adopt a first draft of the formalized guidance. This analysis revealed that, although many of these countries reference the WHO guidelines, hesitation remains in terms of sourcing comparator products outside the US or European countries. This likely translates to slow regional development and cooperation of functioning, sustainable biosimilars markets. Future studies will be necessary to evaluate the continued development of guidance within these countries and changes in comparator sourcing norms as more time is allowed for their policies to mature and adapt to new standards.

Occidental Mythology begins with an anthropological description of the development of religions from the East and Middle East and how they evolved into or influenced Occidental religious traditions. Campbell describes how early polytheistic goddess religions were replaced in pre-history by patriarchal monotheism. His argument is that many episodes in the Bible make sense if they are understood as a record of a dim memory of the Neolithic goddess worship replaced by patriarchic monotheism. Additional Keywords Joseph Campbell, FOR MY TASTES THE RE-RELEASEO EOITION of Occidental Mythology by Joseph Campbell is a satisfying contribution as the third volume of his series The Masks of God (first published 1964). [...]

The Abraham accords signed in Washington in September 2020, a series of joint normalization statements between Israel the UAE and Bahrain followed by Morocco in December 2020, were a game changer in the Middle East. Those Accords provide the pathway to the end of the Arab Israeli conflict and a future of peace, tolerance and opportunity in the Middle East and around the world. Those accords proved that there is a new way for negotiations in the Middle East. One could have been surprised that the EU was not engaged in the Accords when signed. The fact that Europeans believe in the two-state solution as the only solution and the fact that the American President Donald Trump was behind the Accords made Europe skeptical to the Accords. But reality made the difference: The war in Ukraine brought its challenges and Iran's interference in the conflict (supplying drones to Russian's army) provoked a real concern in Europe. The Iranian nuclear program seemed again a threat to the west and not only to Israel and Gulf countries. conflict management played a role. This paper depicts how Europe went from skepticism to engagement concerning the Abraham Accords. Geo-political interests were clear: geopolitical realignment, a great potential for Africa and energy and food supply potential in connection to those Accords. Furthermore, cooperation as well as development in foreign affairs played a role in Europeans' choice. Keywords: Abraham Accords, Israeli-Arab conflict, cooperation, international relations, Introduction Geopolitics is an essential factor in international affairs. Hence in order to understand our study one cannot detach it from regional changes occurring in the region. And that is [...]

The Iranian decision not to immediately retaliate against Israel for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, 2024, in part reflects a concerted effort by regional, Chinese, Russian, and Western diplomats to convince Iran that de-escalation and diplomacy was the wiser course. It also reflects recognition by the new administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian--whose inauguration preceded the Haniyeh killing by only a few hours--that such a military retaliation would likely provoke a massive Israeli response backed by the U.S. and other Western allies that would doom Iran's chances of re-engaging with the West and relieving onerous economic sanctions. A wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border does not appear to have changed this calculus for Iran, which is confronting severe domestic economic problems and a growing gap between the regime and society. Still, any progress in improving U.S.-Iran relations will have to await the results of U.S. presidential elections. Keywords: U.S.-Iran Relations, Gaza War, Ismail Haniyeh, Masoud Pezeshkian, In choosing to assassinate Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have several motivations: to kill a senior figure in [...]

This article examines the various institutions of the Universite Saint-Joseph (U.S.J.) in Beirut, the works of its scholars, and their contributions to the knowledge of the Orient in the Christian East. The research question is the following: Were these prestigious institutions all 'cultural symbols' of the knowledge of the Orient in the Christian East at the time? In order to answer the question, we particularly refer to the Oriental Library (La Bibliotheque Orientale); the creation of the Oriental Faculty; its publications, including the faculty's organ entitled Les Melanges de la Faculte Orientale (Melanges of the Eastern Faculty); the Catholic Printing Press, the journals Al-Machriq and Al-Bashir; and various other publications. Indeed, these institutions expanded the knowledge of the Orient to the students of the Universite Saint-Joseph. This study is part of the scientific debate dealing with cultural, political history in the region. Key Words: St Joseph's University in Beirut [Universite Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (U.S.J.)], Institutions, Places of Knowledge of the Orient, The Christian East., If one asks how 'cultural symbols' fit into issues of imperialism, cultural relations, the spread of knowledge, and entangled intellectual relations between the Levant and Europe, one must see the [...]

The Gulf states are transit states because migrants constitute a majority of their populations. The politics of labor control is central to the organization of these states and to the predominance of their political and capitalist classes. The contradiction of Gulf labor politics lies in the autocratic nature of rule based on nonmarket forms of labor control and the continuous demand of the market for a willing labor force., 'When I was coming here [Abu Dhabi], I was asked ten types of questions [by Indian emigration officials] and when non-Muslims went through immigration, they... just stamped [the passports] and [...]

The lived realities of Judean landholders during the exilic and postexilic periods, as these realities are documented in Akkadian and Aramaic extrabiblical sources, should inform the interpretation of Isa 60:21. The verse promises permanent possession of the land by assuring success against legal challenges. The Judeans' status as tenants on land governed and held by dominant foreign powers gives this verse particular significance. Apart from allaying general concerns attendant upon landholding, the verse may allude to the problem of transgenerational land inheritance. Most broadly, the verse offers permanent possession as a response to the reality of tenancy., Records in cuneiform Akkadian from Babylonia and in alphabetic Aramaic from Egypt document the lives of two communities of Judean exiles during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. (1) Recent [...]

Just before dawn on August 2, 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein deployed units of the Republic Guard Forces Command across the Kuwaiti border in a brutally swift assault that quickly [...]

Purpose: To develop age-specific reference intervals for physical performance test outcomes relevant to male youth Middle Eastern football players. Methods: We analyzed mixed-longitudinal data (observations range: 1751–1943 assessments) from a sample of 441 male youth outfield football players (chronological age range: 11.7–18.4 y) as part of the Qatar Football Association and Aspire Academy development program over 14 competitive seasons. Semiparametric generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape estimated age-specific reference centiles for 10-m sprinting, 40-m sprinting, countermovement jump height, and maximal aerobic speed variables. Results: The estimated reference intervals indicated that the distribution of the physical performance test scores increased monotonically and nonlinearly with advancing chronological age for sprinting and countermovement jump outcome measures, reaching a plateau after 16 years common to each of these performance variables. The maximal aerobic speed median score increased substantially until ∼14.5 years, with the nonlinear trend flattening off toward relatively older chronological ages. Conclusions: We developed age-related reference intervals for physical performance test outcomes relevant to youth Qatari football players. Country-wide age-specific reference intervals can assist in the longitudinal tracking of the individual players' progress over time against benchmark values derived from the reference population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first faunal analysis of the ants (Formicidae) of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Bahrain), an island nation in the Arabian Gulf. We document a total of 35 ant species based on published, unpublished and new specimen records, including 26 presumed native species and nine non-native tramp species. The native fauna was predominantly of Palaearctic origin, with a few Afrotropical species. A new species of the genus Lepisiota Santschi, 1926, L. bahrainensissp. n., is described and illustrated based on the worker caste. Habitat suitability modelling of the ant fauna of Bahrain was generated using a total of 157 recorded points against the panel of 19 bioclimatic factors. We used Maxent software to generate the final map which indicates a significantly high and excellent habitat suitability of species on the northern part of the country and high suitability on the eastern coasts. Our results show that the mean temperature of the driest season is the most effective parameter in modelling the distribution, and we present interpretations of the very low habitat suitability in the extremely arid desert in the southern regions of the main island. Finally, we present ecological and biological remarks and distribution maps for each species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I bring together scholarship from feminist international relations and comparative gender politics to investigate how and why Jordan has implemented its policy addressing domestic violence, the 2008 Family Protection Law. Through a qualitative case study, I find that implementation is partial. Aspects of the policy that elevate Jordan's status in the international arena and sustain domestic male privilege are implemented. Attempts at implementing aspects of the policy that grant greater autonomy to women are met with intense opposition, which is justified on the basis of preserving state stability. Taken together, this article demonstrates how international pressure and national security (i.e., state-centric) practices combine with domestic conservatism to produce unintended consequences: ineffective violence against women policies that are minimally implemented. The analysis adds nuance to both the feminist international relations and comparative gender politics literatures by demonstrating how domestic gender policymaking processes are influenced by national and international security politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common, highly contagious pathogen and a leading cause of serious illness among infants and older adults. While existing scientific evidence has predominantly focused on the epidemiology and disease burden of RSV in infants, data in older adults remain limited in some countries, including those in Southeast Asia (SEA) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Here, we outline the key challenges for understanding the burden of RSV in older adults in SEA and the MENA region and we propose opportunities for improving understanding and eventually reducing the impact of RSV. Main Findings and Conclusions: A key challenge identified by the expert group, particularly in older adults, is a lack of awareness (among healthcare professionals, policy makers, and the public) of RSV burden and the associated risks for severe outcomes. This is often confounded by the complexities of underdiagnosis, surveillance limitations, and comorbidities. To address these issues, we suggest medical education initiatives for physicians in SEA and the MENA region to better understand the need to protect older adults from RSV, and encourage more widespread routine testing to better understand the burden of RSV. We also recommend surveillance studies in these regions to provide comprehensive and accurate epidemiological data on RSV in older adults. Finally, in the absence of current surveillance data in these regions, we propose extrapolating existing global data and local pediatric data to inform the likely burden of RSV in older adults. A graphical abstract is available with this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of Arab governmental restrictions on journalists’ use of ChatGPT, a leading Generative AI chatbot. Through interviews with 30 journalists from Syria, Libya, Jordan, and Egypt, the research reveals how journalists utilize ChatGPT and face severe censorship. These journalists perceive such censorship as violating their constitutional rights. The findings suggest that current digital legislation enables governments to exert greater control over information dissemination, undermining media independence. The study concludes that government actions to block ChatGPT access constitute a form of indirect or “soft” censorship within existing legal frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the main factors that helped facilitate the transformation of Kuwait from an Emirate ‘Emarah’ (a non‐state) to an internationally recognised state during the rule of Sheikh Abdullah Al‐Salem from 1950 to 1965. It identifies the soft power actions and public relations communication strategies that facilitated the transformation of Kuwait from Sheikhdom to statehood. Sheikh Al‐Salem's strategies set the foundations for Kuwait to become recognised and respected in international affairs, not only in the Middle East but also globally. Data were collected and reviewed from the academic literature, from public records, legal documents, letters, press releases and newspaper and magazine articles as well as songs and TV interviews. The evidence shows that Sheikh Al‐Salem's use of soft power actions and public relations techniques were influential in facilitating the formation of the new state and made Kuwait an important player in the international arena while maintaining Arab nationalism and Islamic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]