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Evaluating sustainable housing locations : comparing the use of network to euclidean proximity in the scoring process
No full textPedestrians tend to walk using the street network rather than walking on unpaved and undeveloped land. They usually follow straight line segments of the street network and the total path length following the street network is called the network distance. The estimation of the network distance depends on the characteristics of the network in terms of sidewalks and barriers.
Network distance has been recently introduced by researchers to replace the Euclidean distance in estimating proximity to services in land use models and in finding the suitable locations for sustainable housing projects. Despite the different research efforts and models that use network distance instead of Euclidean, Most suitability models are still using the Euclidean distance for estimating proximity to services such as transit, groceries and public schools.
This paper will compare the proximity scores to services obtained by network distance to the scores based on Euclidean distance. The study will show that there is a significant difference between the scores obtained by network distance and the scores obtained by Euclidean distance. The study will also show that the scores will be lower if the network distance is used. The study will also will take existing housing sites In Ramallah District- Palestine to show that using network distance is a better estimation especially for places that have connectivity issues such as cul-de-sacs. The study will point out the impacts of such difference on sustainable housing and derive recommendations for policy makers and housing organization
Whale optimization approaches for wrapper feature selection
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Novel Whale Optimization approaches are proposed for feature Selection.
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Crossover and mutation are used to enhance the exploitation property in WOA algorithm.
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Tournament selection is used to enhance the exploration in WOA algorithm.
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A superior performance of the proposed approaches is proved in the experiments.Classification accuracy highly dependents on the nature of the features in a dataset which may contain irrelevant or redundant data. The main aim of feature selection is to eliminate these types of features to enhance the classification accuracy. The wrapper feature selection model works on the feature set to reduce the number of features and improve the classification accuracy simultaneously. In this work, a new wrapper feature selection approach is proposed based on Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA). WOA is a newly proposed algorithm that has not been systematically applied to feature selection problems yet. Two binary variants of the WOA algorithm are proposed to search the optimal feature subsets for classification purposes. In the first one, we aim to study the influence of using the Tournament and Roulette Wheel selection mechanisms instead of using a random operator in the searching process. In the second approach, crossover and mutation operators are used to enhance the exploitation of the WOA algorithm. The proposed methods are tested on standard benchmark datasets and then compared to three algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), the Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO), and five standard filter feature selection methods. The paper also considers an extensive study of the parameter setting for the proposed technique. The results show the efficiency of the proposed approaches in searching for the optimal feature subsets
The rise and fall of academic community psychology in Palestine and the way forward
No full textIn this article, I examine the inception of a decolonised community psychology programme in the
Palestinian colonial context and its subsequent decline and setback. I describe the background to
the Palestinian colonial condition, and the theoretical inspiration for the programme by the shortlived
experience of grassroots organising during the first Palestinian Intifada is illustrated. Specific
pedagogical and research activities, marked by the influence of the Latin American liberation
psychology model, are presented and discussed. These include a focus on praxis, dialogical education,
conscientisation and community participatory action research. I consider the influence of the South
African experience on the programme principally in reference to Steve Biko’s notion of Black
Consciousness, which translated to Palestinian collective-national identity, as well as relevance in
psychological knowledge. In the concluding section, I appraise the setback of the programme in light
of administrative and epistemological debates with related disciplines that shifted from psychologicalindividualistic
reductionism to social-cultural reductionism. I conclude with the assertion that unless
framed within the context of the broader anti-colonial national liberation movement, a decolonised
community psychology has minimal chances to survive and thriv
Concept model for the second life cycle of vehicles in Palestine
Get PDFOld road vehicles in Palestine like most of other countries are inefficient in terms of fuel consumption, unequipped with proper
modern passenger safety means and produce high levels of exhaust toxic emissions. One important aspect that needs attention is
when these vehicles fail to meet licensing regulations and become a real problem, especially in Occupied Palestine that has a
special circumstances and limited resources, hence there is no specific national policy to recycle them. This case is also
applicable on badly damaged vehicles by accidents. This paper will present a concept for the second life cycle of vehicle by
reusing, remanufacturing, recycling its parts. The model will investigate the vehicle parts by creating data-base system of
possible recycling parts. Good condition parts will be available for the second hand use; other parts will be sold as scrap metals.
The economic, environmental and social impact of the proposed model will be discussed at the end of the paper.CODE-Tempus project “Career Oriented Curricula Development for
Road Vehicle Maintenance”. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission
الألفاظ الخاصة بطرق العلاج و أدواته في الطب الشعبي الفلسطيني : دراسة إثنوغرافية و تأصيلية
No full textتســتعرض هــذا الورقــة بعــض المصطلحــات الشــعبية المســتخدمة �في اللهجــة العاميــة للاإشــارة إلى الاألفــاظ الخاصــة بطــرق وأدوات العــلاج ث ي، الــذي مارســه كبــار الســن مــن النســاء والرجــال، بهــدف مســاعدة المــر�ف عــى الشــفاء �في بعــض المجتمعــات الريفيــة � الطــ�بي الشــع�بي البــ . والهــدف مــن ١948 تلــك الاألفــاظ مــن قــرى شــمال �ث ق الخليــل، وكانــت مســتخدمة �في الفــرتة الواقعــة مــا قبــل ُالفلســطينية. وقــد جمعــت هــذه الدراســة الموجــزة هــو التعــرف عــى الخلفيــة الحضاريــة الاإثنوغرافيــة لتلــك الاألفــاظ مــن حيــث تحديــد العوامــل الــ�تي فرضــت تلــك التســميات، ثــم تحديــد الاأصــول المعجميــة والطبقــات اللغويــة لتلــك الاألفــاظ
Urban Expansion Effects on Landscape Pattern: The case of Ramallah Area
No full textUrbanization is a worldwide phenomenon particularly in the developing countries. Urban
expansion and changes along with its effect on the natural landscape and environmental
consequences have been investigated. The study used a number of time sequence aerial
photos analysis and urban landscape index model for the period 1993-2016.In addition,
GIS and RS were applied for interpreting the results that are related to various factors in
natural landscape change.
The study showed that urbanization rate of Ramallah area is about 607o and is much more
in comparison to other cities of the West Bank, which is mainly driven by uncontrolled
urban expansion process due to increasing internal migration since 1993 and up today.
Urban expansion has brought serious loses of agricultural and natural vegetation cover that
affected adversely on the natural landscape, in addition to variety of urban related
environmental issues such as air and water pollution. Results also indicated a reduction in
the forest area by about 3.5Vo, a reduction of 57Vo in the uncultivated land, and a reduction
22Vo in olives groves. Such reduction in land use attributes has been accompanied by an
increase of about 557o in urban areas. In addition, the Landscape Expansion Index (LEI)
has changed from in-filling to edge-expansion in the first stage of urbanization process,
then stafted to be an out-lying expansion landscape pattern in a later stage which is
indicating high landscape change.
Major urban expansion areas occulred in ghe north-west direction of the study area where
most of land use was classified as green area. In addition, the continuous urban expansion
has a profound effect on the green areas, in addition to environmental, economic and social
implications
Context specific teacher training
No full textIn order for teacher training and trainer training programmes to have both immediate and long lasting impact they need to be clearly situated in the context in which they are delivered. It is advisable that the JIJOE (Jet-in Jet-out expert) paradigm is avoided (Alderson and Scott 1992). This is where specialists from outside are flown in to offer advice about classroom practice, despite having minimal knowledge about the local teaching and teacher training context, the beliefs of learners, teachers and supervisors, or the wash back effect from the examination system in place. Though teachers may pay lip service to what is introduced by such trainers in the short-term, JIJOE centered approaches may ultimately lead to what Holliday (1992) has referred to as ‘tissue rejection’. ‘Despite advances in curriculum design procedures, there is often failure within ELT projects to produce innovation which is in the long term meaningful and acceptable to the host institution. In other words, ‘tissue rejection’ takes place: the innovation is sooner or later rejected because it does not fit.’ The CiSELT trainer training programme in 2015 was conducted by Salam Affouneh, a Palestinian trainer and Nick Bilbrough a British trainer. We aimed to develop a framework within which the teacher training course could be personalised by the local trainers. It was important that the Palestinian teacher trainers we were working with, and who would be delivering the CiSELT course later
on to teachers, stayed true to the core components of the course but, at the same time, were empowered to adapt it where possible to the local context, thereby simultaneously emphasizing to their
own participants the importance of context specific teaching