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In the present study, we examined whether students' academic success in courses devoted to Arabic and Islamic culture changed when the familiar face-to-face delivery format (before the COVID-19 pandemic) was discarded in favor of an online synchronous delivery format (during the pandemic). The final class grades of students enrolled in one of four courses in a sequence devoted to Arabic culture and religion were compared while holding constant the variable instructor. The ability of early performance indicators to predict final class grades was also examined to assess whether there were differences between instructional deliveries. Superior performance and lower failure rates were observed.

Academic entitlement (AE) is the expectation of academic success without the recognition, exercised through thought and action, of personal responsibility for attaining that success. In the present exploratory study, we examined the extent to which AE is present in female college students enrolled in Arabic culture and religious courses at a Middle Eastern university with a secular curriculum. The study also examined whether AE accounted for poor course performance. Arabic culture and religious courses promote inner modesty. Such courses, however, exist in a society with contradictory values, with Islam and tribal traditions promoting modesty and unity while capitalistic forces promote immodesty and competition through unfettered marketing and consumption. Although evidence of AE was minimal, overall less endorsement of AE emerged as students moved from earlier to later courses, gaining academic experience. Specific aspects of AE were found to be related to lower course performance. The procedure of this study and its findings can serve as a roadmap to implement proactive interventions for students enrolled in such courses.

Prediction allows learners to adjust behavior toward the future by exploiting information pertaining to the present and the past. Through a field study, we examined whether poor performing students are truly unaware of not knowing their deficiencies as the illusion of knowing (IoK) phenomenon implies. College students' ability to predict their final test performance was surveyed as a function of experience (before and after the test), performance level, and self-efficacy. In this study, high performers' prospective and retrospective predictions were more accurate and confident than those of poor performers. Although poor performers overestimated their grades (as predicted by IoK), they were less confident in their predictions. Furthermore, both their prediction accuracy and confidence benefited from the experience of taking the test. These findings, coupled with the lower self-efficacy of poor performers, suggest that prediction errors involving inflated estimations reflect the wishful thinking exhibited by students who are aware of their lack of competence but may have little confidence in their abilities.

In a society transitioning from a social order largely defined by strict adherence to religious doctrine to one opening up to the forces of a global economy, knowledge of the sources of norms of "proper conduct" (religious rules, cultural traditions or both) is particularly important in determining conformity to or dismissal of such norms. This study surveys young females' knowledge of the sources of norms that pertain to gender roles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) under the assumption that formal education plays a key role in knowledge transmission. It asks whether college students enrolled in Islamic Studies can identify the religious or cultural sources of statements that refer to such norms. In this study, accuracy did not differ between sources. However, confidence was higher for cultural sources. As the curriculum moved from a focus on society matters to one that covered a broader array of topics, including communication theory and Middle East history, sources became more difficult to identify. Individual differences in self-efficacy did not predict participants' source knowledge, but confidence in their answers.

E-learning systems have become widely recognized tools for university learning over the world, identifying the factors affecting students' satisfaction has always been a major interest both in academia and in practice. Thus, this study aims to develop a research model extending from the Delone and Mclean information system success model in order to investigate the effects of quality and organizational factors on students' satisfaction of e-learning system quality. The data collected from 250 university students at King Faisal University and were examined using the structural equation modeling technique as a means of validating the research model. The results of the data analysis revealed that a strong relationship between organizational factors (top management support and change management) with e-learning system quality, which has never be known before. In addition, the results show that quality factors (course content quality, system quality and service quality) have a positive and significant effect on students' satisfaction of e-learning system quality. Therefore, educational institutions seeking to achieve greater benefits from e-learning systems should pay considerable attention to the quality factors and organizational factors during the design and implementation process of their systems, because of the important role of these factors in enhancing e-learning system quality and e-learning service quality.

Although mobile learning systems offer several benefits for students, academic staff and universities, from easily access and learning anywhere and anytime, the use and acceptance of this new technology in Jordan still very low. However, acceptance of mobile learning by students is crucial to the success of mobile learning. The factors that affect the use and user acceptance of mobile learning are still controversial. Thus, this study mainly proposes an integrated model, with the aim of identifying the most influential factors that may encourage or impede students and universities in Jordan in moving towards acceptance and adoption of mobile learning applications. The proposed model was evaluated empirically with 1200 students from both two groups of universities that already used the mobile learning technology and non-adopters universities in Jordan. The model aims to examine the impact of 11 factors on the adoption of mobile learning applications that were categorised based on four fundamental constructs are: (i) technological factors (security, privacy, compatibility, relative advantage and trust), (ii) organizational factors (resistance to change and technology readiness), (iii) cultural factors and (iv) quality factors (quality of system, quality of content and quality of service). The key findings include: (1) resistance to change, security and privacy concerns still limit mobile learning acceptance and adoption in Jordanian universities; (2) some factors like compatibility, technology readiness, and culture were found to have a negative effect on the intention to use of the mobile learning; (3) five factors (relative advantage, trust, quality of system, quality of content and quality of service) were found to have a positive effect on the intention to use of the mobile learning; and (4) our research also found that the effect of these factors differed in universities that already used the mobile learning and non-adopters. Finally, it is expected that the findings of this research can assist university decision makers, mobile learning application providers and the research community in introducing better strategies for encouraging adoption and acceptance of this technology.

Imaging tests are commonly used as an initial or early investigation for patients presenting with suspected acute gastrointestinal bleeding (AGIB). However, controversy remains regarding which of two frequently used modalities, computed tomography angiography (CTA) or technetium-99m labelled red blood cell scintigraphy (RBCS), is most accurate. This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to compare the accuracy of CTA and RBCS for the detection and localization of AGIB. Five electronic databases were searched with additional manual searching of reference lists of relevant publications identified during the search. Two reviewers independently performed screening, data extraction and methodological assessments. Where appropriate, the bivariate model was used for meta-analysis of sensitivities and specificities for the detection of bleeding and Freeman-Tukey double-arcsine transformation used for meta-analysis of proportions of correctly localized bleeding sites. Forty-four unique primary studies were included: twenty-two investigating CTA, seventeen investigating RBCS and five investigating both modalities. Meta-analysis produced similar pooled sensitivities; 0.83 (95% CI 0.74-0.90) and 0.84 (0.68-0.92) for CTA and RBCS respectively. Pooled specificity for CTA was higher than RBCS; 0.90 (0.72-0.97) and 0.84 (0.71-0.91) respectively. However, differences were not statistically significant. CTA was superior to RBCS in correctly localizing bleeding; pooled proportions of 1.00 (0.98-1.00) and 0.90 (0.83-0.96) respectively (statistically significant difference, P < 0.001). There is no evidence that CTA and RBCS have different diagnostic performance with respect to the detection of AGIB. However, CTA is superior to RBCS in terms of correctly localising the bleeding site, supporting usage of CTA over RBCS as the first line imaging investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Exploit the feasibility of using Proton Arc therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. • Investigate the benefit of reducing the possibility of radiation-induced liver diseases. • Explore the feasibility of reducing LET d in adjacent organs at risks. To investigate the potential clinical benefits and dose-averaged Linear Energy Transfer (LET d) sparing, utilizing proton arc plan for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients in comparison with Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT). Ten HCC patients have been retrospectively selected. Two planning groups were created: Proton Arc plans using Monaco ver. 6 and the clinical IMPT plan. Both planning groups used the same robustness parameters. The prescription dose is 67.5 Gy (RBE) in 15 fractions of the Clinical Target Volume (CTV). Robustness evaluations were performed to ensure dose coverage. Normal Tissue Complicated Probability (NTCP) model was utilized to predict the possibility of Radiation-Induced Liver Disease (RILD) and evaluate the potential benefit of proton arc therapy. LET d calculation and evaluation were performed as well. Proton arc plan has shown better dosimetric improvements of most Organ-At-Risks (OARs). More specifically, the liver mean dose has been significantly reduced from 14.7 GyE to 10.62 GyE compared to the IMPT plan. The predicted possibility of RILD has also been significantly reduced for cases with a large and deep liver target where healthy liver tissue sparing is a challenge. Additionally, proton arc therapy could increase the average LET d in the target and reduce LET d in adjacent OARs. The potential clinical benefit of utilizing proton arc therapy HCC varies depending on the patient-specific geometry. With more freedom, proton arc therapy can offer a better dosimetric plan quality in the challenge cases, which might not be feasible using the current IMPT technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary purpose of this study is to review and analyse the literature related to e-learning, which is linked to previous studies. Specifically, studies that used the TAM model to examine the effect of eleven external factors, such as website content quality, website design quality, website technical quality, website access speed, usability, e-learning system functionality, e-learning system reliability, facilitating conditions, top management support, student awareness and academic staff awareness on the use of an e-learning system in King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study offer valuable guidelines for practitioners, researchers and educators about the most important factors that enhance the use of e-learning systems in universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the present study was to determine whether the probability of correct and illusory recall of word lists varies with participants' frequency of memorization and recitation practice. The ancillary goal was to determine whether the concurrent presentation of Arabic words and English translations would influence correct and illusory recall rates relative to monolingual presentation. The words in each list were selected to gravitate around a theme word, which was never presented. In this procedure, recall of the theme word was considered prima facie evidence of an illusory memory. Participants were Arabic-English bilingual speakers from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). No effects of bilingual presentation on correct and illusory recall were observed in Experiment 1, which relied on lists developed in the United States for monolingual English speakers, and in Experiment 3, which relied on culturally appropriate lists. However, bilingual presentation reduced generic semantic intrusions in Experiment 1. Participants' illusory recall rates were lower than those of published norms gathered from Englishspeaking monolingual participants. In Experiment 1, generic semantic intrusions declined as the breadth of participants' recitation practice increased. No other significant correlations were found between memory indices and performance or sentiment measures of rote rehearsal. The implications of the finding that a didactic and religious practice taught to KSA students from an early age has little impact on the retention of verbal information are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]