631 research outputs found
አላሁ፡መስሊ፡አለሙሀመድ፡ያለመሁዳ፡ሳቡኝ፡ካንቱ፡ዘንዳ
No full textThe entire manuscript is available for download as a single PDF file. Higher-resolution images may be available upon request. For technical assistance, please contact [email protected]. Fieldwork Team: Gabeyehu Adugna (Principal Investigator), Rachel Dwyer (Principle Investigator) Ahmed Tayib (Local Project Manager), Muhammed Jawad (Boston Facilitator). Technical Team: Prof. Fallou Ngom (Project Director and the Former Director of African Studies Center), Eleni Castro (Technical Lead, BU Libraries), and Ethan Key (Intern, BU Libraries). The fieldwork team would like to thank the following individuals and institutions who provided vital assistance in facilitation and consultation during fieldwork: Dr.Endris Mohammed, Professor, Addis Ababa University Linguistics Department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Hussein Kassim Mohammedsani, PhD candidate. Addis Ababa University Linguistics Department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Council, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Additional thanks to to the staff of the Rahnile Hotel in Bahir Dar.
This collection of Amharic Ajami manuscripts are copied as part of the African Studies Center's African Ajami Library.
Access Condition and Copyright: These materials are subject to copyright. All rights reserved to the author. For use, distribution or reproduction contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).
Materials in this web edition may be cited as: Adugna, G., Dwyer,R., Ngom, F., and Castro, E. (2021). African Ajami Library: Amharic Ajami Manuscripts. Boston: Boston University Libraries: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/39804. For Inquiries: Please Contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).Provenance / Custodial history: This manuscript is owned by Ahmed Tayib of Debre Tabor, Ethiopia. Ahmed Tayib is the son of the author. This is an original work written by Mohammed Hassan Zite in 1965 EC (1972 CE/AD). The author had studied in several regions of Ethiopia, including the Dana mosque, in Tigray, and in Yajju areas. He was a teacher in Bahir Dar, and now, in his nineties, lives in the Begemder region. Handwritten manuscript on ledger lined paper using black ink (marker?) for the rasm and i'jam, but including blue ink (ball point pen?) for the harakat (vowel diacritics). The title uses a character for "ñ" which is a "ي" with an additional dot. Photographed in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.This manzuma expresses the longing (ናፍቆት, nafqot) to be with Allah. It uses some words and phrases in the Amharic language that relate especially to the Gondar region.The contents of this collection were developed with support of the Title VI National Resource Center grant # P015A180164 from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government
Implications of the Improvement of Teaching Quality for Professional Development (PD) of Academics at the Colleges of Applied Sciences (CASs) in the Sultanate of Oman
No full textThe Oman Accreditation Council (OAC), which is called later the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA), designed a higher education institution (HEI) Quality Assurance (QA) framework for Omani public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), starting with a quality audit process in 2008. The Colleges of Applied Sciences (CASs), as a public HEI, are required to ensure the quality of all services and activities to meet particular national standards (specified in the framework) in order to gain a HEI and programme certificate. In line with a quality audit scope, the quality of the fields of PD and related teaching quality should be ensured and enhanced by the promotion and contribution of the former field to the maintenance and improvement of the latter one.
The chief purpose of this study was to identify the uptake and implications of the growing requirement to improve teaching quality and the PD of academics at the CASs in the Sultanate of Oman especially in the context of the application of the QA framework. The study focused on examining the academics’ participation in professional development programmes (PDPs) and current perceptions of PD with respect to the improvement of teaching quality improvement at these colleges. The current study also dealt with a reorganization and prioritization of academics’ PD needs, barriers to effective PD, and factors to enhance PD of academics regarding teaching quality improvement in the colleges.
Based on the purpose and research objectives, the current study adopted both positivist (quantitative) and interpretive (qualitative) research paradigms. Because the study perused quantitative and qualitative data regarding certain variables, it chose a mixed-research design. The researcher designed survey questionnaire to collect quantitative data and a semi-structured interview and a focus group discussion to probe and interpret quantitative findings. After fulfillment of the validity and reliability measurements, a self-completion questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample of academics (170) over the six CASs. A total of 150 questionnaires (out of 170) were completed and returned and the response-rate reached 88.2%. The quantitative data was analyzed by appropriate analysis using the Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS), while the qualitative data was analyzed by appropriate qualitative analysis.
The findings of the study showed that the level of academics’ participation in PDPs to improve teaching quality in the last two years in the CASs seems to be unsatisfactorily low. The current perceptions of the PD situations in the colleges, relating to teaching quality improvement, signified a shortage in the number of available PDPs and/or a discouragement of academics’ participation in these programmes in the last two years. The study also revealed all the 22 PD needs of academics regarding the improvement of teaching quality are significantly demanded by participants; the higher rated needs focused on a development of ‘student centred’ skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Furthermore, the study illustrated that the highest significant perceived barriers to effective PD in the CASs, as related to teaching quality improvement, focus on a lack of a clear institutional PD policy and a lack of appropriately systematic PD plans. The study also revealed all 10 perceived factors to enhance PD regarding teaching quality improvement are very important. The most significant factors represented and stressed particular problematic issues (the high rated barriers) and a reduction of a heavy workload to enhance academics’ participation in PD regarding the improvement of teaching quality.
Conclusions drawn from the discussion of the findings of study include a lack of a clear PD policy at national and institutional levels and absence of a particular authority/unit concerning PD issues in Omani HEIs. The two problematic issues resulted in a lack of systematic and realistic PD plans in the CASs, involving a lack of academics’ involvement in PD plans, a misconnection of academics’ PD needs to PD, inappropriate facilities and resources allocation, and inappropriate evaluation processes of PD. In addition, the conclusions also include that PD of academics regarding the improvement of teaching quality in the colleges requires more attention and focus to manage particular significant issues perceived by participants as both barriers and potential facilitators relating to PD of academics.
Based on identified conclusions, particular implications for policy and practice to enhance PD to improve teaching quality were set at three levels: governmental, institutional, and individual. Moreover, achievements of the current study according to the research questions were identified and contributions of the study to the fields of PD, teaching quality, and the context of QA and quality audit in HE were addressed. Based on the findings and conclusions, particular directions and recommended issues were suggested to be studied by further research to benefit the enhancement of PD and related teaching quality improvement
ሰላም አሌኩሙ በድሩ ምታመሙ
No full textThe entire manuscript is available for download as a single PDF file. Higher-resolution images may be available upon request. For technical assistance, please contact [email protected]. Fieldwork Team: Gabeyehu Adugna (Principal Investigator), Rachel Dwyer (Principle Investigator) Ahmed Tayib (Local Project Manager), Muhammed Jawad (Boston Facilitator). Technical Team: Prof. Fallou Ngom (Project Director and the Former Director of African Studies Center), Eleni Castro (Technical Lead, BU Libraries), and Ethan Key (Intern, BU Libraries). The fieldwork team would like to thank the following individuals and institutions who provided vital assistance in facilitation and consultation during fieldwork: Dr.Endris Mohammed, Professor, Addis Ababa University Linguistics Department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Hussein Kassim Mohammedsani, PhD candidate. Addis Ababa University Linguistics Department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Council, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Additional thanks to to the staff of the Rahnile Hotel in Bahir Dar.
This collection of Amharic Ajami are copied as part of the African Studies Center’s African Ajami Library.
Access Condition and Copyright: These materials are subject to copyright. All rights reserved to the author. For use, distribution or reproduction contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).
Materials in this web edition should be cited as: Adugna, G., Dwyer,R., Ngom, F., and Castro, E. (2021). African Ajami Library: Amharic Ajami Manuscripts. Boston: Boston University Libraries: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/39804. For Inquiries: Please Contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).Provenance / Custodial history: This manuscript is owned by Ahmed Tayib of Debre Tabor, Ethiopia. Ahmed Tayib is the son of the author. The manuscript is handwritten in a dayplanner on the pages for June 28-June 13, 2011. The manuscript ends part way through the final page. Unrelated text on the bottom half of the page has been covered. The creation date is approximate. Photographed in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.The manuscript is a eulogy for the Prophet Muhammad. It describes love for the Prophet, and longing for him, written the way a lover describes his love, and especially before they venture on the Hajj.The contents of this collection were developed with support of the Title VI National Resource Center grant # P015A180164 from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government
Parental perceptions of school quality: factors influencing African-American parents' satisfaction with the quality and operation of Clara Mohammed schools, 2005
No full textBrown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), brought great hopes to African-American parents that their vision for getting quality education for their children would be realized through equal access, resources, and outcomes in public schools. After 50 years of educational reforms to bring parity to traditionally underserved children, almost all of the data indicate that, on the average, public schools do not serve African- American students well. Possible evidence of the public school failure phenomena is the achievement gap between African-American and other students. The most striking response to this gross underachievement is the establishment of independent schools by African-Americans. The Clara Mohammed Schools (CMS) are independent Islamic schools established by African-American Muslims. This quantitative research used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the survey data collected from 204 parent respondents who chose CMS for their children during the 2004-2005 school year. The statistical procedures included Pearson Correlation, Frequency, Factor Analysis, and Multiple Regression. The Reliability test indicated that all ten of the survey components were reliable and constructed of similar measure. Pearson Correlation tested CMS factors and parent demographic variables. Those variables included: religion, school climate, culturally infused curriculum, academic excellence, identity (African-American), community and parent involvement, character and leadership development, affordable tuition, teacher quality, satisfaction with the quality and operation of CMS, and the parents' religion, marital status, ethnicity, gender, age range, K-12 school-type attended, income, and highest education level attained. Seven of the 10 null hypotheses were rejected indicating that parents were overall satisfied with the quality and operation of the CMS they had chosen. Multiple Regression was used to test the design model where satisfaction with the quality and operation of CMS is the dependent variable and all other variables were treated as independent variables to determine which independent variable are predictors of importance and satisfaction with the quality and operation of CMS. Character and leadership development and highest education level tend to explain satisfaction with the quality and operation of Clara Mohammed Schools significantly
Simulation of clogging in thin tubes concentation, electric and pH effects in a 1D precipitation pulse system - by Rabih Mohammed Makki
No full textThesis (M.S.)--American University of Beirut, Dept. of Chemistry, 2006.;"Advisor: Dr. Rabih Sultan, Professor, Chemistry--Member of Committee: Dr. Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Rahman, Professor, Geology--Member of Committee: Dr. Mazen Al-Ghoul, Associate Professor,Bibliography: leaves 85-90.The author studied the dynamics of a precipitate deposition pulse in a thin, lon g tube connecting two reservoir sinks of co-precipitates. The chosen co-precipit ate ions are calcium ions (Ca2+) and carbonate ions thus provoking the depositi on of the sp
An integrated plot-level dataset of forest structure, traits, and soil carbon from the Bangladesh Sundarbans
No full textThe dataset is comprised of seven interrelated comma-separated values (CSV) files. The plot_unique_code serves as a primary key to link data across most files.
1. species_list.csv
Description: Provides a comprehensive taxonomic and ecological reference for all plant species identified during the field surveys.
Key Columns:
scientific_name_full: Full scientific name with author citation.
ncbl_id: NCBI Taxonomy ID for standardized referencing.
family: Plant family.
growth_form: The life form of the species (e.g., Tree, Shrub).
status: Ecological status (e.g., mangrove associate).
IUCN: The IUCN Red List conservation status.
2. plot_info.csv
Description: Contains general metadata and environmental characteristics for each of the 62 sampling plots.
Key Columns:
plot_unique_code: Unique identifier for each plot.
elevation: Plot elevation in meters (m).
canopy_cover_per: Canopy cover percentage (%).
Tiger Footprint: Categorical data on the observation of tiger footprints.
Drainage: Description of the soil drainage condition.
Disturbance: Description of observed disturbance indicators.
3. sundarban_plot_data.csv
Description: Contains the core tree inventory data for all individual woody stems with a Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) of ≥5 cm.
Key Columns:
tree_id: Unique identifier for each tree within a plot.
scientific_name: Species scientific name.
DBH_cm: Diameter at breast height in centimeters (cm).
Height_m: Total tree height in meters (m).
X_position, Y_position: Cartesian coordinates of the tree's position within the plot.
4. subplot_regeneration.csv
Description: Provides data on seedling and sapling regeneration from nested subplots within each main plot.
Key Columns:
subplot_unique_code: Unique identifier for each regeneration subplot.
regen_count: Total number of individual seedlings/saplings of a given species.
collar_dia_mm: Stem collar diameter in millimeters (mm).
height_cm: Regeneration stem height in centimeters (cm).
5. IVI_results.csv
Description: Contains pre-calculated species importance values derived from the tree inventory data, summarizing community structure.
Key Columns:
rel_density: Relative density (%).
rel_freq: Relative frequency (%).
rel_dom: Relative dominance (%, based on basal area).
IVI: The calculated Importance Value Index (sum of the three relative metrics).
6. trait_species.csv
Description: Compiles measurements for a suite of functional traits for the species identified across the plots.
Key Columns:
SLA_cm2/g: Specific Leaf Area (cm2g−1).
LDMC_g/kg: Leaf Dry Matter Content (g kg-1).
leaf_carbon_g/cm2: Leaf carbon content (gcm−2).
leaf_nitrogen_mg_N_per_g_dryleafmass: Leaf nitrogen content (mgNg−1).
leaf_stomatal_density_persqmm: Stomatal density (no.mm−2).
leaf_guard_cell_length_umeter: Guard cell length (µm).
WD_gm/cm3: Wood Density (gcm−3).
7. soil_sundarban.csv
Description: Provides depth-resolved soil physical and chemical properties from five depth intervals (0–10, 11–20, 21–30, 31–50, and 51–100 cm).
Key Columns:
MC_L1(%) to MC_L5(%): Soil Moisture Content (%) for each layer.
BD_...: Bulk Density (gcm−3).
pH_L1 to pH_L5: Soil pH for each layer.
C%_L1 to C%_L5: Soil Organic Carbon (%) for each layer.
N%_L1 to N%_L5: Total Nitrogen (%) for each layer.
EC L1(mS/cm) to EC L5(mS/cm): Electrical Conductivity (mScm−1) for each layer.
Clay%, Silt%, Sand%: Particle-size fractions
The ketogenic diet is an effective adjuvant to radiation therapy for the treatment of malignant glioma.
No full textINTRODUCTION: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that alters metabolism by increasing the level of ketone bodies in the blood. KetoCal® (KC) is a nutritionally complete, commercially available 4:1 (fat:carbohydrate+protein) ketogenic formula that is an effective non-pharmacologic treatment for the management of refractory pediatric epilepsy. Diet-induced ketosis causes changes to brain homeostasis that have potential for the treatment of other neurological diseases such as malignant gliomas. METHODS: We used an intracranial bioluminescent mouse model of malignant glioma. Following implantation animals were maintained on standard diet (SD) or KC. The mice received 2×4 Gy of whole brain radiation and tumor growth was followed by in vivo imaging. RESULTS: Animals fed KC had elevated levels of β-hydroxybutyrate (p = 0.0173) and an increased median survival of approximately 5 days relative to animals maintained on SD. KC plus radiation treatment were more than additive, and in 9 of 11 irradiated animals maintained on KC the bioluminescent signal from the tumor cells diminished below the level of detection (p<0.0001). Animals were switched to SD 101 days after implantation and no signs of tumor recurrence were seen for over 200 days. CONCLUSIONS: KC significantly enhances the anti-tumor effect of radiation. This suggests that cellular metabolic alterations induced through KC may be useful as an adjuvant to the current standard of care for the treatment of human malignant gliomas
Iron/vanadium co-doped tungsten oxide nanostructures anchored on graphitic carbon nitride sheets (FeV-WO3@g-C3N4) as a cost-effective novel electrode material for advanced supercapacitor applications
No full textIn this work, we studied the effect of iron (Fe) and vanadium (V) co-doping (Fe/V), and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) on the performance of tungsten oxide (WO3) based electrodes for supercapacitor applications. The lone pair of electrons on nitrogen can improve the surface polarity of the g-C3N4 electrode material, which may results in multiple binding sites on the surface of electrode for interaction with electrolyte ions. As electrolyte ions interact with g-C3N4, they quickly become entangled with FeV-WO3 nanostructures, and the contact between the electrolyte and the working electrode is strengthened. Herein, FeV-WO3@g-C3N4 is fabricated by a wet chemical approach along with pure WO3 and FeV-WO3. All of the prepared samples i.e., WO3, FeV-WO3, and FeV-WO3@g-C3N4 were characterized by XRD, FTIR, EDS, FESEM, XPS, Raman, and BET techniques. Electrochemical performance is evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanic charge/discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It is concluded from electrochemical studies that FeV-WO3@g-C3N4 exhibits the highest electrochemical performance with specific capacitance of 1033.68 F g−1 at scan rate 5 mV s−1 in the potential window range from −0.8 to 0.25 V, that is greater than that for WO3 (422.76 F g−1) and FeV-WO3 (669.76 F g−1). FeV-WO3@g-C3N4 has the highest discharge time (867 s) that shows it has greater storage capacity, and its coulombic efficiency is 96.7%, which is greater than that for WO3 (80.1%) and FeV-WO3 (92.1%), respectively. Furthermore, excellent stability up to 2000 cycles is observed in FeV-WO3@g-C3N4. It is revealed from EIS measurements that equivalent series resistance and charge transfer values calculated for FeV-WO3@g-C3N4 are 1.82 Ω and 0.65 Ω, respectively.This article is published as Parveen, Sajida, Eric W. Cochran, Sonia Zulfiqar, Mohammed A. Amin, Muhammad Farooq Warsi, and Khadija Chaudhary. "Iron/vanadium co-doped tungsten oxide nanostructures anchored on graphitic carbon nitride sheets (FeV-WO 3@ gC 3 N 4) as a cost-effective novel electrode material for advanced supercapacitor applications." RSC advances 13, no. 38 (2023): 26822-26838. doi:10.1039/D3RA04108E. © 2023 The Author(s). Posted with permission. This Open Access Article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported Licence
The ketogenic diet reverses gene expression patterns and reduces reactive oxygen species levels when used as an adjuvant therapy for glioma
No full textAbstract Background Malignant brain tumors affect people of all ages and are the second leading cause of cancer deaths in children. While current treatments are effective and improve survival, there remains a substantial need for more efficacious therapeutic modalities. The ketogenic diet (KD) - a high-fat, low-carbohydrate treatment for medically refractory epilepsy - has been suggested as an alternative strategy to inhibit tumor growth by altering intrinsic metabolism, especially by inducing glycopenia. Methods Here, we examined the effects of an experimental KD on a mouse model of glioma, and compared patterns of gene expression in tumors vs. normal brain from animals fed either a KD or a standard diet. Results Animals received intracranial injections of bioluminescent GL261-luc cells and tumor growth was followed in vivo. KD treatment significantly reduced the rate of tumor growth and prolonged survival. Further, the KD reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in tumor cells. Gene expression profiling demonstrated that the KD induces an overall reversion to expression patterns seen in non-tumor specimens. Notably, genes involved in modulating ROS levels and oxidative stress were altered, including those encoding cyclooxygenase 2, glutathione peroxidases 3 and 7, and periredoxin 4. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that the KD improves survivability in our mouse model of glioma, and suggests that the mechanisms accounting for this protective effect likely involve complex alterations in cellular metabolism beyond simply a reduction in glucose.</p
Near-capacity wireless transceivers and cooperative communications in the MIMO era: evolution of standards, waveform design, and future perspectives
No full textClassic Shannon theory suggests that the achievable channel capacity increases logarithmically with the transmit power. By contrast, the MIMO capacity increases linearly with the number of transmit antennas, provided that the number of receive antennas is equal to the number of transmit antennas. With the further proviso that the total transmit power is increased proportionately to the number of transmit antennas, a linear capacity increase is achieved upon increasing the transmit power, which justifies the spectacular success of MIMOs. Hence we may argue that MIMO-aided transceivers and their cooperation-assisted distributed or virtual MIMO counterparts constitute power-efficient solutions. In a nutshell, since the conception of GSM in excess of three orders of magnitude bit-rate improvements were achieved in three decades, which corresponds to about a factor ten for each decade, because GSM had a data rate of 9.6 Kb/s, while HSDPA is capable of communicating at 13.7 Mb/s. However, the possible transmit power reductions remained more limited, even when using the most advanced multistage iterative detectors, since the required received signal power has not been reduced by as much as 30 dB. This plausible observation motivates the further research of advanced cooperation-aided wireless MIMO transceivers, as detailed in this treatis
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