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The steep decline in the price of wind turbines and solar photovoltaics provides a possibility to decarbonize electricity deeply and affordably. This study uses the HOMER Pro energy modeling tool to model an optimized grid-connected renewable energy system for a community in southern Alberta, Canada. The study’s goal is to identify the best renewable energy technology combinations that can provide electricity at the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and has lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to the electricity produced by traditional fossil fuel. Gleichen is a small town in southern Alberta that is close to numerous commercial wind and solar projects given the region’s high quality renewable resources. “Tri-brid” systems consisting of wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) are considered and compared based on electricity prices, net present cost, and greenhouse gas emissions savings. This tri-brid system is connected to the grid to sell excess generated electricity or buy electricity when there is less or no availability of solar and wind energy. The tri-brid energy system has an estimated LCOE of 0.0705 CAD/kWh, which is competitive with the price of electricity generated by natural gas and coal, which is 0.127 CAD/kWh.

IntroductionCervical cancer is a highly prevalent disease among women worldwide. However, the advent of a vaccine against HPV, the main cause of the disease, has prevented its spread. The acceptability of the HPV vaccine to different sectors of the Saudi community has yet to be clarified. Since parents and teachers are major influencers in the decision-making process of vaccination for HPV, this study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of teachers and parents toward cervical cancer, HPV, and the HPV vaccine, and unraveled the factors that would influence recommending the vaccine.MethodsA cross sectional study was done among 927 individuals (373 teachers and 356 parents). A newly developed validated questionnaire was used to collect data on knowledge, attitude, and factors influencing cervical cancer, HPV, HPV vaccine. The relationship between different factors with knowledge and attitude were assessed using univariate and multivariate analysis.ResultsOf the study participants, 94% were females, with a median (Interquartile range) age of 38(31–44) years, 12.2% were teachers, 38.7% were parents and 49.1% were parents and teachers. The majority (78.5%) were married, and 75.6% had at least one child. Among those with children, 88.6% had at least one girl, and among those with girls, 72.2% had at least one girl aged between 10 and 18 years. The total median (IQR) knowledge score was 9 [(−5)–(−26)] and the total median (IQR) attitude score was 49 (43–56). The knowledge score significantly increased by receiving postgraduate education, working in the health or education sectors, if a person knew someone diagnosed with cervical cancer, having girls in the age group of 10–18 years, reading about medical issues or having previously heard about the HPV vaccine. The attitude score significantly increased by high knowledge score and decreased if the person has previously diagnosed with cervical cancer.ConclusionPhysician’s recommendation and the amount of information on the HPV vaccine, opinions about vaccines in general, and government decrees are the main factors influencing decision on HPV vaccine Uptake. This study emphasizes the role of healthcare providers, awareness of cervical cancer, HPV and its vaccine, and social status, in favoring vaccine uptake in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: : The persistent inflammatory skin condition psoriasis disorder poses a significant health burden globally. This review explores recent advancements in treating psoriasis by harnessing the therapeutic potential of flavonoids, naturally occurring substances having anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Methods: The following keywords were used to search the online databases: Flavonoid, psoriasis, traditional applications, Chinese herb; Scopus, web of science, and PubMed. Consequently, this review set out to compile a synopsis of the documented phytochemistry and recent advancement of the selected plant species. Results: : Specifically, flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol have demonstrated promising results in mitigating psoriatic symptoms by targeting key molecular pathways. In conjunction with these advancements, a novel drug delivery system has been introduced to optimize flavonoid efficacy. This innovative approach employs nanocarrier systems, such as solid lipid nanoparticles (SLnp) and liposomes, to enhance the bioavailability and stability of flavonoids. By ensuring controlled release and targeted delivery, these systems address the challenges of poor solubility and maximize the therapeutic impact on psoriatic lesions. This dual strategy, integrating flavonoid-based treatment advancements with an innovative drug delivery system, presents a comprehensive and promising avenue for improving psoriasis management. Discussion: : Future research and clinical validation are crucial to establishing the safety and efficacy of this integrated approach, potentially reshaping the landscape of psoriasis therapeutics.

Indonesia possesses a wealth of cultural assets, encompassing a wide range of traditions and Islamic heritage, which presents a significant opportunity for the development of tourism. This investigation delves into the Wali-Songo pilgrimage, a revered practice centered around nine influential saints who played a crucial role in propagating Islam throughout Java during the 15th and 16th centuries. Combining elements of worship and tourism, this pilgrimage attracts a diverse array of visitors, both local and international. The objective of this research is to examine the growth of Islamic tourism in Indonesia, with a specific focus on the Wali-Songo tradition, by mapping out tourist destinations and evaluating their potential. The findings underscore a burgeoning interest in Islamic tourism, highlighting the necessity for enhanced management and amenities at these sites. The results show that Islamic tourism potential continues to grow and attract Indonesian and society abroad. The increase in visits to this site and improved management and facilities for pilgrims, including information related to Wali-Songo, will further introduce how the saints preached and spread Islam in the archipelago.

الأهداف: هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التحقق من الخصائص السيكومترية للصورة السعودية لمقياس وكسلر لذكاء الأطفال لمرحلة ما قبل المدرسة والمرحلة الابتدائية الدنيا. المنهجية: تم استخدام المنهج الوصفي لتحقيق أهداف الدراسة، تكوّن مجتمع الدراسة من جميع الأطفال في منطقة جدة التعليمية من عمر 4 – 7.3 سنوات. وقد تكونت عينة الدراسة من (788) مفحوصاً للأعوام 2018-2022 و تم اختيارهم بالطريقة العشوائية الطبقية. وتم استخدام مقياس وكسلر لذكاء الأطفال لمرحلة ما قبل المدرسة النسخة الثالثة الذي تكون من (11) اختباراً فرعياً (5 أدائي – 6 لفظي). النتائج: تم التوصل إلى دلالات عن صدق البناء للمقياس من خلال أسلوب التحليل العاملي التوكيدي والاستكشافي. أما نتائج الصدق التمييزي فبينت وجود فروق دالة إحصائياً بين الأطفال العاديين، وفئات التربية الخاصة ولصالح العاديين، وتبعاً للفئة العمرية ولصالح العمر الأكبر، كما تم التحقق من الصدق التلازمي حيث بلغ معامل الارتباط بين مقياس وكسلر بينيه للذكاء الصورة السعودية (0.81)، ومقياس رسم الرّجل الصورة السعودية (0.71)، كما توفرت دلالات عن ثبات المقياس بطريقة التجزئة النصفية والإعادة وبطريقة الاتساق الداخلي. كما تم اشتقاق المعايير الأولية للمقياس بتحويل الدرجة الخام إلى درجة موزونة ونسبة ذكاء انحرافية متوسطها 100 وانحرافها 15. الخلاصة: استخدام مقياس وكسلر في تقييم الأطفال لمرحلة ما قبل المدرسة والمرحلة الابتدائية الدنيا.

This paper presents a novel reduced-order modeling approach for efficient modeling and dynamic stability analysis of a utility-scale hybrid grid-tied system comprising a photovoltaic (PV) array, wind turbine (WT), battery energy storage system (BESS) and the associated power electronic converters and control systems. Utilizing the singular perturbation analysis, the time-domain nonlinear model (TDNLM) of the grid-tied hybrid PV-WT-BESS system is linearized to construct the linearized state-space full-order model (LSSFOM). Categorizing the dynamics of the LSSFOM into fast and slow states based on their weighted dynamics utilizing the participation factor analysis and the residue-based method, the model is further reduced to the linearized state-space reduced-order model (LSSROM), focusing on dominant slow-dynamic states that characterize the overall system dynamics. The LSSROM is employed to investigate dc and ac dynamic interactions under various operational conditions, including all PV, WT, and BESS operating regions and grid stiffness conditions. The proposed reduction approach reduces the computational burden with simplicity and efficiency, facilitating the development of reliable reduced-order models capturing the essential features of the original detailed full-order model with a high degree of acceptable accuracy for dynamic and stability analyses across diverse operating conditions while ensuring versatility. Detailed offline and real-time simulation results validate the analytical results, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed approach across different operational scenarios.

In the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs), this study accentuates the role of the tourism and hospitality sector in promoting sustainability. The primary purpose is to unravel the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and energy-specific sustainable behavior of employees (ESBE), with particular emphasis on the mediating roles of green intrinsic motivation and personal environmental norms. Utilizing a three-wave data collection approach, we secured 325 valid responses from sector employees at various levels (manager-non managers) and applied Structural Equation Modeling through the SMART-PLS tool to assess the hypothesized relationships. The findings highlight a pronounced interconnection between CSR, ESBE, and the designated mediating variables. These results not only augment the academic literature by illustrating the psychological underpinnings bridging CSR to ESBE, but also equip the tourism and hospitality industry with actionable insights. Through informed CSR initiatives aligned with employee values, the sector can galvanize sustainable behaviors and create business models that resonate with the aspirations of the UN-SDGs, pointing the way to a more sustainable industry.

Software Defined Network (SDN) has alleviated traditional network limitations but faces a significant challenge due to the risk of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against an SDN controller, with current detection methods lacking evaluation on unrealistic SDN datasets and standard DDoS attacks (i.e., high-rate DDoS attack). Therefore, a realistic dataset called HLD-DDoSDN is introduced, encompassing prevalent DDoS attacks specifically aimed at an SDN controller, such as User Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). This SDN dataset also incorporates diverse levels of traffic fluctuations, representing different traffic variation rates (i.e., high and low rates) in DDoS attacks. It is qualitatively compared to existing SDN datasets and quantitatively evaluated across all eight scenarios to ensure its superiority. Furthermore, it fulfils the requirements of a benchmark dataset in terms of size, variety of attacks and scenarios, with significant features that highly contribute to detecting realistic SDN attacks. The features of HLD-DDoSDN are evaluated using a Deep Multilayer Perception (D-MLP) based detection approach. Experimental findings indicate that the employed features exhibit high performance in the detection accuracy, recall, and precision of detecting high and low-rate DDoS flooding attacks.

This study was carried out to investigate the antimicrobial efficacy of methanolic extracts from six medicinal plants including Amomum subulatum (Badi Elaichi), Cinnamomum cassia (sweet wood), Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Murray red gum), Lagenaria siceraria (Bottle gourd/Lauki), Mentha spicata (Spearmint) and Zingiber officinale (Ginger/Adrak) against Vibrio cholerae. Different dilutions (15 mg/ml, 12.5 mg/ml, 10 mg/ml, 7.5 mg/ml, and 5mg/ml) of these extracts were prepared and tested against said strains. Considerable antimicrobial activity was noted in the extracts from all tested plants, with various spectrums of activity. Mentha spicata showed antimicrobial activity against three clinically isolated Vibrio cholera O1 (AMBL1), V. cholera O139 (AMBL2), and V. cholera Wild type (AMBL3). Quantitatively, Mentha spicata exhibited a 3.6 mm zone against the AMBL1 strain, Zingiber officinale (3.1 mm) against the AMBL3 strain, Cinnamomum cassia (2.9 mm) against the AMBL3 strain, and Eucalyptus camaldulensis (2.9 mm) against AMBL2 strain at the concentration of 15mg/ml. Methanolic extract of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bacteriostatic concentration (MBC) value of Mentha spicata was found to be 1.5 mg/ml against AMBL3 strain, followed by the extracts of Cinnamomum cassia against AMBL2 and AMBL1 strain, and extracts of Lagenaria siceraria against AMBL2. The extracts of Cinnamomum cassia expressed MIC 1.75 and 2.3 mg/ml, and MBC 1.79 and 2.4 mg/ml against AMBL2 and AMBL1 respectively, while extracts of Lagenaria siceraria were efficient against the AMBL2 strain of Vibrio cholerae with MIC and MBC value of 2.1 mg/ml. There was a significant linear correlation between the efficacy of extracts against vibrio spp. and the site of their sampling. Topographically, the higher the altitude of the collection site of the plant, the lower the efficacy. Antimicrobial efficacy was correlated with geo-environmental location and exposure of tested plants. The geographic correlation of samples to the efficacy against vibrio strain is the first of its kind and provides a baseline to extend the trials for other notorious agents like Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a communicable pathogen of this region.

AbstractThe occlusal surface of a tooth is affected by the development of biofilm in pits and fissures as bacteria and food particles accumulate in its complex structure. In this study, miswak fibers containing cellulose and antimicrobial extract were incorporated in commercial pit and fissure sealants. The miswak powder was characterized by different analytical techniques. The powder was mixed in different ratios (0–5%) into a pit and fissure sealant to result in five sealants (Groups 0–5), and their mechanical properties i.e. flexural strength, compressive strength, and Vickers hardness were evaluated. The sealants were also evaluated against streptococcus mutans oral pathogenic bacteria. SEM analysis confirmed irregular shape and micron-size particles of miswak powder. The infrared spectral analysis and X-ray differential peaks showed characteristic peaks related to miswak fibers. The particle appearance increased in prepared pits and fissure sealants with higher loading of miswak powder in SEM analysis. The flexural strength, compressive strength, and Vickers hardness values were obtained in the range of 148–221 (±16.6: p-value < 0.001) MPa, 43.1–50.3 MPa (±1.7: p-value

Railway transportation is widely recognized as an environment-friendly and sustainable means for conveying freight and passengers over long distances. This article investigates the effectiveness of utilizing scrap tire rubber granules and geosynthetics to enhance track performance in response to the growing demands for railway transport and the consequent escalation of train-induced loading. A multi-faceted methodology, incorporating experimental, numerical, and analytical techniques, is employed to examine the efficacy of these sustainable approaches. Results from three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) analyses conducted on slab tracks for high-speed railways reveal that the addition of a resilient layer, comprising scrap tire rubber granules, reduces vertical stress within the track substructure. Laboratory investigations on an innovative composite material consisting of soil, scrap rubber granules, and polyurethane demonstrate its potential to enhance track performance. Findings from two-dimensional (2D) FE analyses conducted on pile-supported railway embankments highlight an enhanced transfer of load to the pile head following the installation of a geogrid layer at the embankment base. Finally, the results from the analytical approach indicate a reduction in track settlement and a decrease in the track geometry degradation rate on reinforcing the ballast layer with 3D cellular geoinclusion. The novelty of this study lies in the comprehensive assessment of the innovative composite material under drained and cyclic loading conditions, the investigation of the influence of train loading on geosynthetic tension and the load transfer mechanism in railway embankments, and the development of an innovative computational methodology capable of assessing the effectiveness of 3D cellular inclusions in improving the ballasted railway track performance. The findings from this article underscore the effectiveness of these sustainable approaches in mitigating the challenges posed by increased loads on railway tracks, providing valuable insights for the ongoing efforts to optimize railway transportation infrastructure.

An Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of smart devices that enable data collection and exchange. RPL is a protocol specifically designed for IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) to bring the concept of IoT into reality. As a result, RPL has become a standard routing protocol for connecting IPv6 to IoT networks. However, like any other network protocol, RPL is vulnerable to various attacks, including sinkhole attacks, which can disrupt network operations. Sinkhole attacks exploit vulnerabilities in RPL by manipulating routing preferences by disseminating falsified data, leading to an abnormal increase in traffic directed toward the attacker’s node. This paper introduces the Passive Rule-based Approach (PRBA) to detect sinkhole nodes in RPL-based IoT networks. The PRBA approach relies on three proposed behavioral indicators: (I) Bi-Directional behavior, (II) Bi-Directional Frequently behavior, and (III) Power Consumption behavior. The proposed PRBA approach was implemented and evaluated using the COOJA simulator and compared with state-of-the-art approaches. Simulation results demonstrate that the PRBA approach achieves a detection accuracy rate ranging from 90% to 100%, with a false-positive rate ranging from 0% to 0.2%. Additionally, due to its carefully designed deployment strategy, the proposed approach satisfies the power consumption requirements of constrained nodes without causing an increase in power consumption.

Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is expected to be the de facto messaging IoT standard. Therefore, MQTT must achieve efficient security. Nevertheless, the most significant drawback of the MQTT is its lack of protection mechanisms. Meanwhile, the existing approaches have added processing overhead to the devices and are still vulnerable to various attacks. Therefore, this research work presented an integrated scheme known as the Robust Security Scheme (RSS) to protect the MQTT against any exploitations that might result in sophisticated cyberattacks. The proposed RSS employs two cryptosystems: 1) a dynamic variant of the Advanced Encryption Standard (D-AES); and 2) Key-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (KP-ABE). RSS introduces a new design architecture of the symmetric AES algorithm to encrypt the MQTT payload called D-AES. Additionally, the second part of the proposed hybrid cryptosystem is KP-ABE, which is utilized to cipher the private key of the proposed D-AES to avoid the computation overhead of bilinear maps. The performance of the proposed RSS is measured in terms of processing time and traffic overhead. Additionally, the security aspects are evaluated in terms of balance, avalanche effect, and hamming distance and compared to the existing works in a testbed environment. Results revealed that the proposed D-AES is more promising with improvements than the standard AES algorithm. The proposed scheme achieves polymorphism while maintaining interoperability. RSS exhibited improvements over the standard AES algorithm by 8.75%, 10.45%, and 6.81% in terms of balance, avalanche effect, and hamming distance, respectively.

Background and aimsThe recent monkeypox (Mpox) outbreak confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the importance of evaluating the knowledge and attitude of medical students toward emerging diseases, given their potential roles as healthcare professionals and sources of public information during outbreaks. This study aimed to assess medical students’ knowledge and attitude about Mpox and to identify factors affecting their level of knowledge and attitude in low-income and high-income countries.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 11,919 medical students from 27 countries. A newly-developed validated questionnaire was used to collect data on knowledge (14 items), attitude (12 items), and baseline criteria. The relationship between a range of factors with knowledge and attitude was studied using univariate and multivariate analyses.Results46% of the study participants were males; 10.7% were in their sixth year; 54.6% knew about smallpox; 84% received the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine; and 12.5% had training on Mpox. 55.3% had good knowledge of Mpox and 51.7% had a positive attitude towards it. Medical students in their third, fifth, or sixth year high- income countries who obtained information on Mpox from friends, research articles, social media and scientific websites were positive predictors for good knowledge. Conversely, being male or coming from high-income countries showed a negative relation with good knowledge about Mpox. Additionally, a positive attitude was directly influenced by residing in urban areas, being in the fifth year of medical education, having knowledge about smallpox and a history of receiving the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. Receiving information about Mpox from social media or scientific websites and possessing good knowledge about Mpox were also predictors of a positive attitude. On the other hand, being male, employed, or receiving a training program about Mpox were inversely predicting positive attitude about Mpox.ConclusionThere were differences in knowledge and attitude towards Mpox between medical students in low and high-income countries, emphasizing the need for incorporating epidemiology of re-emerging diseases like Mpox into the medical curriculum to improve disease prevention and control.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep problems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic commonly affected general populations. Data on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep quality in Saudi Arabia are scarce. Thus, the aim of our study was to evaluate sleep quality and assess the psychological burden of the pandemic in COVID-19 patients and the general population. METHODS: This was a multicenter, observational, cross-sectional survey. Participants with COVID-19 were recruited from different health-care centers in the western region during the lockdown period from May 13, 2020 to September 2, 2020. All participants completed a validated online survey. The control group comprised individuals from the general public who responded to the online survey through social media. Demographic data, COVID-19 status, and history of chronic diseases were collected. Sleep quality, depression, and insomnia were assessed using validated questionnaires. Results: In total, 1091 participants were surveyed and 643 (58.9%) were positive for COVID-19. Poor sleep quality was reported in 66.1% of COVID-19 patients (mean score ± standard deviation [SD] 6.9 ± 4.0) and 72.8% of controls (mean score ± SD 7.6 ± 4.3). Insomnia affected 50.5% of COVID-19 patients (mean score ± SD 6.5 ± 5.5) and 58.5% of controls (mean score ± SD 7.6 ± 5.5). Depression was diagnosed in 39.5% of COVID-19 patients (mean score ± SD 4.7 ± 4.6) and 70.1% of controls (mean score ± SD 8.9 ± 6.7). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on mental health and sleep quality in both COVID-19 patients and the general population but more pronounced in the general population.

There are many problems that procedural algorithms can solve efficiently. However, these algorithms are sometimes too slow to abide by the time available for performing the solution; other times, it is impossible to get a solution using procedural algorithms. A heuristic method is a practical approach that can reach an approximation of an efficient solution where the optimum is not guaranteed. Heuristic techniques are applied in many real-world problems, including crowd management; using heuristic-based models helped to comprehend crowd behavior better and increase simulation reliability. This paper reviews many heuristic-related articles to gather the aspects of the topic in one place and clear the fuzziness to make it easy to comprehend. The paper covers some of the previous works with similar approaches and presents state-of-the-art heuristic solutions for real-world problems. These techniques are discussed under three classifications: simple heuristics, meta-heuristics, and hyper-heuristics. Most importantly, the paper explores the heuristic role in crowd field problems concluding that heuristics are primarily applied in modeling when it comes to the Crowd field. It investigates different heuristics for crowd management. The main intent of this review is to establish a comprehensive understanding of heuristics-related operations in the crowd management field. Moreover, it aims to support other researchers’ future work and fill research gaps by highlighting the absence of crowd problems from heuristics literature and the limitations of each heuristics approach.

This study aims to analyze the implementation and constraints that affect the application of Islamic inheritance law among Muslims. This research is a qualitative research, using the methods of descriptive approach, sociology, normative theology and historical. Research shows that the implementation of Islamic inheritance law is more dominantly done in the family due to various factors. The special portion provided for the heirs is owned by the parents and is in absolute control. The application of the law for the division of property is always done by distributing it to the heirs by family without looking at the provisions of God's law. Problems in the application of Islamic inheritance law include the thickness of customary law and the low understanding of Islamic inheritance law (Ilmu Faraidh). Here the da'wah to teach the Science of Faraidh and various sciences of jurisprudence that began to understand the science of Faraidh became a must done by the community. And there is a need for systematic strengthening of da'wah so that knowledge is understood in a kaffah manner so that the application of maqashid syariah becomes more comprehensive.

This article explores the contribution of modern Muslim revivalism to Muslims’ political decolonization, and the paradoxical role the West plays in that process. On the one hand, revivalism rejects the founding principles of liberal political theory, and on the other hand, it readily adopts the salient structures and mechanisms of the modern polity with a view to Islamize them, all the while insisting on the Muslims’ need to de-Westernize. Toward revealing the hitherto neglected dimensions of revivalism, my analysis adopts an unconventional route by subjecting revivalism to a semiotic analysis in conversation with the archetypal theories of Mircea Eliade and Carl G. Jung. The analysis unveils the universal psychological structures of revival, and their specific Muslim symbolization. I conclude (a) that depth psychology makes modern Muslim revival inevitable, which will only grow stronger and gain wider appeal while the Muslims continue to suffer decline; (b) that among the different forms of Muslim revival, revivalism ventures the farthest in decolonizing Muslim political imagination; (c) that the revivalist imagination makes their espoused caliphate imperative for the purpose of ritual participation in Islam’s sacred origins; and (d) that a critical reconstruction and evolution of revivalism holds out the promise of a greater contribution to Muslim decolonization. For my analysis, I largely turn to the Pakistani political theologian Israr Ahmad (d. 2010), whose ideas have been disseminated widely across the Muslim world, yet who has not received the requisite academic scrutiny. Moreover, intra-revivalist critique of revivalism has been a neglected aspect in the study of revival, and its careful scrutiny should become a topic of investigation in its own right. In that regard, Ahmad offers a most important critique of earlier revival efforts and their entanglement with certain aspects of coloniality.

Cancer is a progressive disease of multi-factorial origin that has risen worldwide, probably due to changes in lifestyle, food intake, and environmental changes as some of the reasons. Skin cancer can be classified into melanomas from melanocytes and nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) from the epidermally-derived cell. Together it constitutes about 95% of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) are creditworthy of 99% of NMSC due to the limited accessibility of conventional formulations in skin cancer cells of having multiple obstacles in treatment reply to this therapeutic regime. Despite this, it often encounters erratic bioavailability and absorption to the target. Nanoparticles developed through nanotechnology platforms could be the better topical skin cancer therapy option. To improve the topical delivery, the nano-sized delivery system is appropriate as it fuses with the cutaneous layer and fluidized membrane; thus, the deeper penetration of therapeutics could be possible to reach the target spot. This review briefly outlooks the various nanoparticle preparations, i.e., liposomes, niosomes, ethosomes, transferosomes, transethosomes, nanoemulsions, and nanoparticles technologies tested into skin cancer and impede their progress tend to concentrate in the skin layers. Nanocarriers have proved that they can considerably boost medication bioavailability, lowering the frequency of dosage and reducing the toxicity associated with high doses of the medication.

Developing a safe and effective preventive for HIV-1 remains the hope for controlling the global AIDS epidemic. Recently, mRNA vaccines have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional vaccine approaches, primarily due to their rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture. Despite the advantages of mRNA vaccines, challenges remain, especially due to the adverse effects of the delivery vehicle and low delivery efficiency. As a result, Luna Labs is developing a short carbon nanotube-based delivery platform (NanoVac) that can co-deliver mRNA and HIV-1 glycoproteins to the immune system efficiently with negligible toxicity. Surface chemistries of NanoVac were optimized to guide antigen/mRNA loading density and presentation. Multiple formulations were engineered for compatibility with both intramuscular and intranasal administration. NanoVac candidates demonstrated immunogenicity in rabbits and generated human-derived humoral and cellular responses in humanized mice (HIS). Briefly, 33% of the HIV-1–infected HIS mice vaccinated with NanoVac–mRNA was cleared of virus infection by 8–weeks post-infection. Finally, NanoVac stabilized the loaded mRNA against degradation under refrigeration for at least three months, reducing the cold chain burden for vaccine deployment.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a revolutionary innovation in network technology with many desirable features, including flexibility and manageability. Despite those advantages, SDN is vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS), which constitutes a significant threat due to its impact on the SDN network. Despite many security approaches to detect DDoS attacks, it remains an open research challenge. Therefore, this study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to systematically investigate and critically analyze the existing DDoS attack approaches based on machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), or hybrid approaches published between 2014 and 2022. We followed a predefined SLR protocol in two stages on eight online databases to comprehensively cover relevant studies. The two stages involve automatic and manual searching, resulting in 70 studies being identified as definitive primary studies. The trend indicates that the number of studies on SDN DDoS attacks has increased dramatically in the last few years. The analysis showed that the existing detection approaches primarily utilize ensemble, hybrid, and single ML-DL. Private synthetic datasets, followed by unrealistic datasets, are the most frequently used to evaluate those approaches. In addition, the review argues that the limited literature studies demand additional focus on resolving the remaining challenges and open issues stated in this SLR.

Single-stage utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems are usually interfaced with the host grid via a centralized voltage-source converter (VSC). Recently, and due to their reliability, the dc-link film capacitors are favored over electrolytic types in grid-connected applications. However, the capacitance per unit volume of film capacitors is significantly smaller than electrolytic capacitors. The overall system stability might be compromised by the reduction of the dc-link capacitance, particularly in PV systems that have a dynamic resistance that varies with operating conditions. Using a detailed small-signal model of the grid-connected PV system, it is shown in this paper that the reduction of the dc-link capacitance interferes with the dynamic resistance of the PV array, which eventually leads to instabilities. The minimum dc-link capacitance that preserves the overall system stability is determined. A simple and effective active compensator is developed to mitigate the instabilities with the reduced dc-link capacitance. Detailed time-domain simulations are presented to validate the analytical results and show the proposed compensator’s effectiveness in preserving the system stability.

This article describes the concept of Islamic education, in which case the emphasis is on the implementation of Islamic religious education. The implementation of Islamic religious education itself is an effort to instill the values ​​of Islamic aqeedah to every student as an effort to create a generation of Muslims who can and are able to live and believe in every truth in the teachings of Islam itself. This article uses a literature review method with content analysis design. Students are willing to practice the values ​​of Islamic teachings at any time, whenever, and wherever the teachings of Islam want to be conveyed are the problems of Islamic education should not be taken for granted so that Islamic education can compete and become educational goals that are achieved. The application of Islamic education in the industrial revolution 4.0 era is very important in developing the quality of children's potential, both in mastering science and technology as well as in terms of character, attitude and appreciation, and practice of religious teachings.

The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence on whether work from home or residential emissions reduces office emissions. Based on existing research the study supports that there are short-term effects on office emissions, i.e., carbon emissions do not outshine the long-term effects. The shift from offices to working from home due to COVID-19 regulations meant more people operating from home as maintaining their position in the market was crucial. The potential research area is to understand how this would affect energy usage and carbon emissions. This study has used a before and after mixed approach to collect data from 301 working-from-home employees and 348 top managers who are responsible for monitoring the employees in a work from home setting. Convenience sampling helped collect responses in a timely manner as offices were not allowing visitors and collecting data in person was difficult, so online surveys were conducted. Work from home reduced usage of office equipment, transportation, pollution, etc. The air quality improved considerably but our findings show that the low emissions were only short-lived. This was not a long-term scenario as organizations kept practicing their operations even at home and the emissions stayed in the environment. Future suggestions and implications are also provided. The results give new insights to researchers in the field of sustainability and the environment.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a unique network architecture isolating the network control plane from the data plane, offering programmable elastic features that allow network operators to monitor their networks and efficiently manage them. However, the new technology is security deficient. A DDoS attack is one of the common attacks that threaten SDN controllers, leading to the degradation or even collapse of the entire SDN network. Entropy-based approaches and their variants are considered the most efficient approaches to detecting DDoS attacks on SDN controllers. Therefore, this work analyzes the feasibility and impacts of an entropy-based DDoS attack detection approach for detecting low-rate and high-rate DDoS attacks against the controller, measured in terms of detection rate (DR) and false-positive rate (FPR), triggered by a single or multiple host attacks targeting a single or multiple victims. Eight simulation scenarios, representing low and high DDoS attack traffic rates on the controller, have been used to evaluate an entropy-based DDoS attack detection approach. The experimental results reveal that the entropy-based approach enhances the average DR for detecting high-rate DDoS attack traffic compared with low-rate DDoS attack traffic by 6.25%, 20.26%, 6.74%, and 8.81%. In addition, it reduces the average FPRs for detecting a high DDoS attack traffic rate compared with a low DDoS attack traffic rate by 67.68%, 77.54%, 66.94%, and 64.81.

ABSTRACT HIV-1 replicates in cells that express a wide array of innate immune sensors and may do so simultaneously with other pathogens. How a coexisting innate immune stimulus influences the outcome of HIV-1 sensing, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that the activation of a second signaling pathway enables a cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-dependent type I interferon (IFN-I) response to HIV-1 infection. We used RNA sequencing to determine that HIV-1 alone induced few or no signs of an IFN-I response in THP-1 cells. In contrast, when supplemented with suboptimal levels of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), HIV-1 infection triggered the production of elevated levels of IFN-I and significant upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes. LPS-mediated enhancement of IFN-I production upon HIV-1 infection, which was observed in primary macrophages, was lost by blocking reverse transcription and with a hyperstable capsid, pointing to viral DNA being an essential immunostimulatory molecule. LPS also synergistically enhanced IFN-I production by cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP), a second messenger of cGAS. These observations suggest that the DNA sensor cGAS is responsible for a type I IFN response to HIV-1 in concert with LPS receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Small amounts of a TLR2 agonist also cooperate with HIV-1 to induce type I IFN production. These results demonstrate how subtle immunomodulatory activity renders HIV-1 capable of eliciting an IFN-I response through positive cross talk between cGAS and TLR sensing pathways. IMPORTANCE Innate immune activation is a hallmark of HIV-1 pathogenesis. Thus, it is critical to understand how HIV-1 infection elicits innate immune responses. In this work, we show that HIV-1 infection of macrophages leads to a robust type I interferon (IFN) production only when a second signaling event is initiated by a coexisting immunostimulatory molecule. Our results show that HIV-1 infection alone is not sufficient for triggering a strong IFN response. We find that bacterial membrane components, which are recognized by endosomal innate sensors, enable production of elevated levels of IFNs and significant upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes upon HIV-1 infection. This IFN response is dependent on viral DNA synthesis and prevented by a stable capsid, pointing to an essential role for a DNA sensing molecule. These observations provide new insights into how different innate immune recognition pathways synergize during HIV-1 infection and determine the outcome of innate responses.

يهدف تطهير الأجهزة التعويضية الإكريلية إلى الحفاظ على البيئة الفموية سليمة، مما يقي من الإمراضيات الفطرية وغيرها، حيث أن الصحة الفموية مرتبطة بنظافة الأجهزة التعويضية. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى مقارنة تأثير كل من محلول هيبوكلوريت الصوديوم 0.5% ومحلول كلورهكسدين غلوكونات 0.12%، والتي تغمر بها الأجهزة التعويضية، على تغير الوزن (زيادةً أو نقصاناً أي امتصاصاً أو انحلالاً) لعينات من الراتنج الإكريلي المصلب بالطريقة التقليدية، وذلك بالمقارنة مع الماء المقطر، لمدة ستة أشهر. تضمنت عينة الدراسة 30 عينة مستطيلة (4-2) سم من الإكريل الحراري التماثر ، سماكة 3مم. أظهرت نتائج التحليل الإحصائي أن اختلاف محلول النقع، سواء كان محلول كلورهكسيدين غلوكونات 0.12% أو محلول هيبوكلوريت الصوديوم 0.5% لا يختلف تأثيره على وزن مادة الإكريل حراري التماثر مقارنة مع الماء المقطر(الوسط الشاهد). ضمن حدود هذه الدراسة نستنتج أنه لا فرق في استخدام أحد محلولي التطهير كلورهكسيدين غلوكونات 0.12% أو محلول هيبوكلوريت الصوديوم 0.5%، على وزن الإكريل الحراري الذي تصنع منه قواعد الأجهزة المتحركة.

The increasing incidence of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks has made software-defined networking (SDN) more vulnerable to the depletion of controller resources. DDoS attacks prevent the SDN controller from processing all incoming data efficiently, potentially disrupting a network or denying legitimate users access to network services. Thus, the protection of the SDN controller is crucial, especially from the ones that exploit the SDN characteristics. In this paper, the authors propose an efficient detection approach for low- and high-rate DDoS attacks on the controller with a high detection rate and a low false positive rate by adapting a dynamic threshold algorithm rather than a static one and proposing a new rule-based detection mechanism. In addition, the proposed approach was evaluated using eight simulation scenarios representing all potential attacks against the SDN controller in terms of attack traffic rates (low or high), sources (either single or multiple hosts), and targets (single or multiple victims). The experiment results show that the proposed approach is more effective than the existing approaches based on attack detection and false positive rates.

Abstract: Numerous researches conducted research on learners’ motivation in learning English. In this research, researcher only studied intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. This study aimed to describe students’ motivation in learning English at two state senior high schools; SMAN 1 Gambut and SMAN 1 Martapura in South Kalimantan. The research design used was correlational research design. There were 129 eleventh graders as research participants in this study. The researcher used a questionnaire and a writing test as instruments to collect data. The finding of the study showed a strong, significant, and positive correlation between motivation in learning English and writing ability. Abstrak: Sejumlah penelitian telah dilakukan untuk memahami motivasi siswa mempelajari bahasa Inggris. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti hanya mempelajari motivasi intrinsik dan motivasi ekstrinsik. Motivasi intrinsik datang dari siswa, sedangkan motivasi ekstrinsik datang dari luar siswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan menggambarkan motivasi siswa mempelajari bahasa Inggris di dua SMA; SMAN 1 Gambut dan SMAN 1 Martapura di Kalimantan Selatan. Desain penelitian yang digunakan adalah desain penelitian korelasional. Terdapat 129 siswa kelas sebelas sebagai peserta penelitian dalam studi ini. Peneliti menggunakan angket dan tes menulis untuk mengumpulkan data. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan korelasi kuat, positif, dan signifikan antara motivasi mempelajari bahasa Inggris dan kemampuan menulis.

In 2020, the World Health Organization has characterized COVID-19, a disease caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as a pandemic. Although a few vaccines and drugs have been approved to, respectively, prevent or treat the disease, several clinical trials are still ongoing to test new vaccines or drugs to mitigate the burden of the pandemic. Few studies have shown the role of host genetics in disease prognosis and drug response highlighting the importance of diverse participation in COVID-19 clinical trials. The goal of this study is to assess public attitudes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan toward participating in COVID-19 clinical trials and to identify the factors that may influence their attitude. An online questionnaire was developed and distributed among the target group through social media platforms. The number of responses was 1,576. Three quarters (74.9%) of participants heard about clinical trials before, 57.6% of them had a positive attitude toward participation in COVID-19 clinical trials. The conduct of clinical trials in accordance with the scientific, research, and ethical guidelines was a strong predictor of willingness to participate in clinical trials. Other positive factors also included protection of family from COVID-19 and contributing to the return to normal community life as well as receiving additional healthcare benefit was the fourth significant predictor. On the other hand, the thought that clinical trials can have a negative impact on the health of participants strongly predicted the unwillingness of individuals to participate in such trials. This was followed by having limited information about the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 and the lack of trust in physicians and hospitals. In general, Arab citizens are accepting the concept and have a positive attitude toward COVID-19 clinical trials. Increasing awareness of COVID-19 and clinical trials, enforcing the concept of altruism, and placing clear policies in conducting clinical trials are needed to increase participation in clinical trials among Arabs.

Abstract: This paper aims to find out the correlation between metacognitive awareness and grammar achievement. It employs the correlational design and involves 87 first- semester undergraduate students of English Department. The result reveals that there is a significant positive correlation between students’ level of metacognitive awareness and their grammar achievement. It is also found that evaluation is the most dominant positive predictor in predicting students’ grammar achievement. Abstrak: Artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui korelasi antara metacognitive awareness dan grammar achievement. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode korelasi dan melibatkan 87 mahasiswa semester satu program S1 dari Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa ada korelasi yang signifikan dan positif antara metacognitive awareness dan grammar achievement. Selain itu, evaluation diketahui sebagai prediktor yang paling dominan dan positif dalam memrediksi grammar achievement mahasiswa.

The design of existing machine-learning-based DoS detection systems in software-defined networking (SDN) suffers from two major problems. First, the proper time window for conducting network traffic analysis is unknown and has proven challenging to determine. Second, it is unable to detect unknown types of DoS saturation attacks. An unknown saturation attack is an attack that is not represented in the training data. In this paper, we evaluate three supervised classifiers for detecting a family of DDoS flooding attacks (UDP, TCP-SYN, IP-Spoofing, TCP-SARFU, and ICMP) and their combinations using different time windows. This work represents an extension of the runner-up best-paper award entitled ‘Detecting Saturation Attacks in SDN via Machine Learning’ published in the 2019 4th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Security (ICCCS). The results in this paper show that the trained supervised models fail in detecting unknown saturation attacks, and their overall detection performance decreases when the time window of the network traffic increases. Moreover, we investigate the performance of four semi-supervised classifiers in detecting unknown flooding attacks. The results indicate that semi-supervised classifiers outperform the supervised classifiers in the detection of unknown flooding attacks. Furthermore, to further increase the possibility of detecting the known and unknown flooding attacks, we propose an enhanced hybrid approach that combines two supervised and semi-supervised classifiers. The results demonstrate that the hybrid approach has outperformed individually supervised or semi-supervised classifiers in detecting the known and unknown flooding DoS attacks in SDN.

Anthocyanins are a class of water-soluble flavonoids widely present in fruits and vegetables responsible for the red flesh formation of peach fruit. Previously, several genes of the MYB family have been reported as transcriptional regulators of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway of structural genes in plants. In this study, through comparative transcriptome analysis of the white and red flesh peach cultivars of Harrow Blood and Asama Hakuto, a predicted transcription factor of the R2R3MYB family, PpMYB39, was identified to be associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis in peach fruit. In red-fleshed peach cultivars, the maximum amount of anthocyanin accumulated 95 days after full bloom (DAFB), at full maturity near ripening. Our results showed that, at this stage, PpMYB39 had the highest expression level among the 13 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) found in both red- and white-fleshed fruits, as well as a high correlation with total anthocyanin content throughout fruit development. Moreover, the expression analysis of the structural genes of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway in peach fruit revealed that Prunus persica Dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (PpDFR) was co-expressed and up-regulated with PpMYB39 at 95 DAFB, suggesting its possible role as a transcriptional activator of MYB39. This was further confirmed by a yeast one-hybrid assay and a dual luciferase reporter assay. Our results will be helpful in the breeding of peach cultivars and the identification and significance of color in peaches and related fruit species, in addition to providing an understanding of color formation in peach fruit for future research.

Abstract: Engaging in research can benefit students in several ways. However, higher learning institutions have been challenged to engage students in research experiences. The present study is conducted to discover what undergraduate students experience in the research process, and how they accomplish their tasks during the process. Narrative research is used for this study to understand present real-life experiences. The study revealed that students experience different conditions and apply various techniques in the research process. Besides, when they encountered the same or similar challenges, they were prone to accomplish their tasks with the same attempt. Key words: research experience, students’ task accomplishment, narrative inquiry Abstrak: Terlibat dalam penelitian dapat bermanfaat bagi mahasiswa dalam berbagai cara. Namun, lembaga pendidikan tinggi tertantang untuk melibatkan siswa dalam pengalaman penelitian. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menemukan apa yang dialami mahasiswa sarjana dalam proses penelitian, dan bagaimana mereka menyelesaikan tugas-tugas mereka selama proses tersebut. Penelitian naratif digunakan dalam penelitian ini untuk memahami pengalaman kehidupan nyata saat ini. Studi ini mengungkapkan bahwa mahasiswa mengalami kondisi yang berbeda dan menerapkan berbagai teknik dalam proses penelitian. Selain itu, ketika mereka menghadapi tantangan yang sama atau serupa, mereka cenderung menyelesaikan tugas-tugas mereka dengan usaha yang sama. Kata kunci: pengalaman meneliti, penyelesaian tugas mahasiswa, investigasi naratif

Introduction: Intradural spinal hematoma, which refers to subdural and/or subarachnoid hematomas, represent a small percentage of spinal hematoma cases, with both hematomas together being only 19.8% of all spinal hematomas. Taken individually, a traumatic cervical spine subdural hematoma is a rare presentation by itself with only 11 cases reported in literature so far. Presentation of case: A 31 years old male presented to the ER with trauma to his neck after fall from height. ASIA (American Spinal Injury Association) impairment scale showed a grade A injury with no sensory or motor function preserved in the sacral segment S4-S5, upper paraparesis and lower paraplegia. Computed Tomography scan showed fracture of C6 vertebrae. Cervical spine T1 and T2 MRI showed intradural hematoma extending from C6 to craniocervical junction. Cervical traction and corpectomy were done. Discussion: Traumatic Cervical spine intradural hematoma is a rare entity. Unlike spinal subarachnoid hematoma, spinal subdural hematomas pathophysiology is still unclear. Spinal MRI is the best imaging modality to reach the diagnosis. First line management is surgical evacuation of hematoma, but conservative management is a valid option in certain cases. Conclusion: Knowing the risk factors that increase the chance of Intradural extramedullary spinal hematomas and clinically distinguishing those who need to be managed surgically or conservatively is an important step in managing Intradural extramedullary spinal hematomas cases.

Abstract: Competent teachers contribute to the students’ achievement significantly. Therefore, the government established a teacher professional development program with various activities. The program aims to improve their teaching skills, professional knowledge, and teaching effectiveness. However, many teachers have low competency even after joining the teacher professional development program. The low teacher competency score can be seen from the result of the teacher competency test. This research uses a quantitative design to investigate factors that contribute to the teachers’ competence. The results show factors that contribute to the low teachers’ competence are not doing classroom action research and writing article, rarely attending seminars or workshop, never being a speaker at seminars, low frequency of maintaining their English skill, not understanding the rights, mechanism, implementation of teacher competency test, not understandingng the objective of teacher competency test as a condition job promotion, and the unreadiness of the teacher in taking the examination. Abstrak: Guru yang kompeten berkontribusi terhadap prestasi siswa secara signifikan. Oleh karena itu, pemerintah membentuk program pengembangan profesional guru dengan berbagai kegiatan. Program ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan keterampilan mengajar, pengetahuan profesional, dan efektivitas pengajaran mereka. Namun, banyak guru memiliki kompetensi rendah bahkan setelah mengikuti program pengembangan profesional guru. Skor kompetensi guru yang rendah dapat dilihat dari hasil tes kompetensi guru. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain kuantitatif untuk menyelidiki faktor-faktor yang berkontribusi terhadap kompetensi guru. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan faktor-faktor yang berkontribusi terhadap rendahnya kompetensi guru adalah tidak terbiasa melakukan penelitian tindakan kelas dan menulis artikel, jarang menghadiri seminar atau lokakarya, tidak pernah menjadi pembicara di seminar, rendahnya frekuensi guru dalam mempertahankan keterampilan bahasa Inggris mereka, tidak memahami hak, mekanisme, pelaksanaan tes kompetensi guru, tidak memahami tujuan tes kompetensi guru sebagai syarat promosi pekerjaan, dan ketidaksiapan guru dalam mengikuti ujian.

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى تعرّف اتجاهات معلمي العلوم والرياضيات والحاسوب نحو استخدام المنحى الجذعي في منحى تدريس موضوعات العلوم والتَّقَنِيّة والهندسة والرياضيات في منطقة الرياض التعليميّة، تكوّن مجتمع الدراسة من جميع معلمي الرياضيات والعلوم والحاسوب والذين يدرسون وفق المنحى الجذعي (STEM) بمنطقة الرياض التعليميّة للعام الدراسي 2018\2019. حيث تكونت عينتها من (38) معلم من معلمي مدارس التعلم الذكي الأهلية في منطقة الرياض التعليميّة، والذين تم اختيارهم بطريقة قصدية، حيث تم استخدام أداة الدراسة والتي تكونت من (32) فقرة بصورتها النهائية، وتم التحقق من صدق الأداة حيث تراوحت معاملات الارتباط ما بين (0.60-0.85) والدرجة الكلية ، كما بلغ ثبات الأداة (0.85). حيث أظهرت نتائج الدراسة أن الاتجاه بشكل العام إجابي نحو استخدام المنحى الجذعي في التدريس (STEM) حيث بلغ المتوسط العام(3.49). كما أظهرت النتائج عدم وجود فروق دالة احصائيًا تبعًا لمتغير الجنس (ت= 0.82)عند مستوى دلالة α =0.05. كما أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق دالة احصائيًا تبعًا لمتغير المادة الدراسية(ف=22.02) عند مستوى دلالة α =0.05 ولصالح مادة الرياضيات والعلوم، حيث أوصت الدراسة تبني منحى (STEM) في التدريس، والعمل على إقرار منهج خاص لتعليم منحى ستيم في المستقبل القريب وإدراجه في الخطة القادمة لمراحل التعليم العام الثلاثة، وتوفير الإمكانيات المادية والظروف المناسبة في البيئات التعليميّة لتطبيق هذا النوع من التعلم.

Abstract: This study examined whether high proficient students who are trained with the treatment of the combination of peer and self-directed feedback (PSF) have better writing ability than the high proficient students who are not trained with this treatment. Employing a quasi-experimental research, this study involved two groups of 28 students given a writing test. The results pointed out that the students who were trained with the combination of PSF had better writing ability than the students who were not trained with the combination of PSF. Teachers are suggested to provide the combination of PSF to high proficient students. Further investigation involving moderate and low proficiency levels is suggested. Key Words: peer and self-directed feeedback, writing ability, English proficiency Abstrak: Penelitian ini menguji apakah mahasiswa yang dilatih dengan perlakuan kombinasi umpan balik dari teman sebaya dan diri sendiri (PSF) memiliki kemampuan menulis yang lebih baik daripada mahasiswa yang tidak dilatih dengan perlakuan kombinasi umpan balik dari teman sebaya dan diri sendiri. Dengan desain kuasi eksperimental, penelitian ini melibatkan dua kelompok dengan 28 mahasiswa yang diberi tes menulis. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa yang dilatih dengan kombinasi PSF memiliki kemampuan yang lebih baik daripada mahasiswa yang tidak dilatih dengan kombinasi PSF. Guru disarankan memberikan perlakuan ini pada siswa yang mahir berbahasa Inggris. Penelitian lanjutan melibatkan kemahiran bahasa Inggris sedang dan tinggi pun disarankan. Kata kunci: umpan balik teman sebaya dan diri sendiri, kemampuan menulis, mahir berbahasa Inggris

Evaluation in an action or process to decide value of something. The curriculum is a subsystem in education cannot be separated from the dynamics process in the society. The curriculum therefore, should be organized to prepare learners in facing the future obstacles. This article discusses the importance of curriculum evaluation in some aspects and giving the construction of understanding for all parties involved in education that the curriculum evaluation becomes reference frame of Islamic education as it is very important in the globalization era, such aspects as curriculum evaluation, and curriculum development, types of evaluation strategies, curriculum evaluation models. Therefore, this curriculum evaluation can be used as a measurement or be used as a fundamental reference by institutions, especially Islamic education.

The authors report a case of 85-year-old male undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), whose intraoperative transesophageal echocardiogram was concerning for ascending aortic dissection. Further imaging, however, delineated this to be an aortic valve tendon and the TAVR was accomplished successfully. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.)

Based on the needs analysis stage, it is found that the existing speaking materials do not employ character building aspects as demanded by the curriculum.Therefore, new speaking materials that incorporate character building aspects need to be developed. Research and Development (R&D) by Borg and Gall (1983)was used in this research involving the needs analysis, material development, expert validation, try-out, and final product.Five units with various tasks and activities which include both individual and group activities were developed containing the topics ofFriendship, Speak Up, Making Telephone Call,Share Your Story, and Indonesian Folktales. The researchers adopted the task-based and project-based learning principles. Particular aspects of character building were chosen based on the activities to be done by the students so that the students will be aware that they learnmoral values during the lesson. To help the English teachersthis materials provides teacher’s guide so that the teacher knows what s/he should do to teach character building aspects. After being validated by two education experts and tried out, the product is considered appropriate and acceptable to be taught to eight graders at SMPN 3 Batu.

Abstract: Plagiarism is associated with a form of research misconducts that falsify another’s concepts, opinions, or words and recognize it as private property without giving proper citation of the original source. This article is a part of a larger study on English undergraduate students’ attitude toward pla-giarism which emphasize on the main reasons that might appear for doing plagiarism. This study was conducted at universities in Malang. The data comes from English undergraduate students’ question-naires. The result shows that the students present their confusion in determining their attitude toward plagiarism. This confusion were at least associated with two main reasons; external and internal factors. Further, recommendations for universities are provided. Key Words: plagiarism reason, undergraduate students, reasons, universities in Malang Abstrak: Plagiarisme merupakan salah satu bentuk pelanggaran dalam pemalsuan ide atau kata-kata seseorang yang selanjutnya diklaim sebagai hasil karya pribadi tanpa memberikan pengakuan sebagai sumber asli. Artikel ini merupakan penjabaran dari penelitian utama, yaitu sikap mahasiswa jurusan bahasa Inggris terhadap tindakan plagiarism. Penelitian ini berfokus pada alasan utama yang mungkin muncul ketika mahasiswa melakukan plagiarism. Penelitian dilakukan di beberapa universitas di Malang. Data didapatkan dari angket mahasiswa. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa mengalami kebingungan dalam menentukan sikap mereka terhadap kasus plagiarism. Kebingungan ini dikaitkan dengan dua alasan utama, faktor eksternal dan internal. Selanjutkan, peneliti memberikan rekomendasi untuk univer-sitas. Kata kunci: alasan plagiarisme, mahasiswa sarjana, universitas di malang

The paper describes synthesis and structural characterization of the whole series of two closely related lanthanide coordinated chromium or aluminum hexamolybdates (Anderson-Evans cluster) including twelve new members hitherto unreported: [Ln(H2O)7{X(OH)6Mo6O18}]·4H2O and [Ln(H2O)7{X(OH)6Mo6O18}Ln(H2O)7]{X(OH)6Mo6O18}·16H2O where X = Al or Cr and Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, and Y. Crystal structures of all the solids were established by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The two series are dictated by a different aggregation of the same set of molecular species: Lighter lanthanides favor coordination interaction between lanthanide ions and molybdate cluster forming 1D chains (Series I) while the heavier lanthanides result in the stacking of a cation, a pair of lanthanide hydrates coordinating to the cluster, and an anion, the discrete cluster is further stabilized through a large number of water molecules (Series II). Crystallization with Er3+ and Tm3+ ions results in a concomitant mixture of Series I and II. Photoluminescence of single crystals of all the chromium molybdates was dominated by a ruby-like emission including those which contain optically active ions Pr, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, and Tm. In contrast, aluminum analogs showed photoluminescence corresponding to characteristic lanthanide emissions. Our results strongly suggest a possible energy transfer from f levels of lanthanide ions to d levels of chromium (III) causing the quenching of lanthanide emission when coordinated with chromium molybdates. Intensity measurements showed that the emission from chromium molybdates are almost two orders of magnitude lower than naturally occurring ruby with broader line widths at room temperature.

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of mind mapping as a strategy in generating ideas before writing on the EFL students’ idea development in argumentative writing as perceived from their gender differences and learning styles. By conducting an experimental investigation at university level in Indonesia, two existing TOEFL classes at the State Islamic Studies (STAIN) in Kediri were selected by a lottery to group 1: using linear notes (N=41), and group 2: using mind mapping (N=41). For analyzing the data, Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were utilized by using students’ TOEFL score as the covariate variable. The result findings indicated that there is no significant difference on the students’ idea developments in writing between the control and the experimental groups. These result also revealed that there is no significant difference on the students’ idea development in writing between gender differences, and among the students’ learning styles. Furthermore, there is no significant interaction between treatment and gender differences, and there is no significant interaction between treatment and learning styles.