Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemics has spread rapidly around the world, sending millions of people into quarantine and lockdown. Based on that, the management of higher educational institutions had to use Internet technology in teaching as the only option to continue all the academic activities across all higher education institution worldwide. This paper aims to investigate how engineering students are coping with the e-learning methods adopted by Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan during the pandemic. A total of 470 have participated in this study from the faculty of engineering and technology at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan. From the findings of the survey, it was clear that students are satisfied with the online teaching and learning instituted by Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, despite few identified challenges.

Background: Mass chemical exposure emergencies are infrequent but can cause injury, illness, or loss of life for large numbers of victims. These emergencies can stretch and challenge the available resources of healthcare systems within the community. Political unrest in the Middle East, including chemical terrorist attacks against civilians in Syria and increasing chemical industry accidents, have highlighted the lack of hospital preparedness for chemical incidents in the region. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a course designed to empower frontline healthcare providers involved in mass casualty incidents with the basic knowledge and essential operational skills for mass chemical exposure incidents in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used to develop a blended learning, simulation enhanced, competency-based course for major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers. The course was designed by experts from different disciplines (disaster medicine, poisoning / toxicology, and Hazard Material Threat - HAZMAT team) in four stages. The course was piloted over five days at the Officers Club of the Ministry of Interior (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). The 41 participants were from different government health discipline sectors in the country. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess learner knowledge while debriefing sessions after the decontamination triage session and simulation-enhanced exercises were used for team performance assessment. Results: The overall knowledge scores were significantly higher in the post-test (69.47%) than the pre-test (46.3%). All four knowledge domains also had significant differences between pre- and post-test results. There were no differences in the pre and post-test scores for healthcare providers from the different health disciplines. A one-year post-event survey demonstrated that participants were satisfied with their knowledge retention. Interestingly, 38.3% had the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice in relation to mass chemical exposure incidents. Conclusion: Delivering a foundation level competency-based blended learning course with enhanced simulation training in major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers may improve their knowledge and skills in response to such incidents. This in turn can improve the level of national preparedness and staff availability and make a crucial difference in reducing the health impacts among victims.

In this study, the artificial neural network (ANN) models and multiple linear regression techniques were used to estimate the relation between the concentration of total coliform, E. coli and Pseudomonas in the wastewater and the input variables. Two techniques were used to achieve this...

High operating temperatures, particularly under conditions of high solar irradiation have adverse effects on the performance of the photovoltaic (PV) panels. The efficiency of electricity generation decreases with an increase in operating temperature, and therefore, minimizing the operating...

Skin stretch has been widely utilized as a tactile display in different haptic applications. However, there has been little research focusing on skin stretch as a modality on the palm of the hand. In this study, a two dimensional tactor apparatus was designed and built to investigate the effects of stimulation speeds, shapes and intensities of skin stretch display on the palm. The tactor moved across the palm at different speeds to create stimulation shapes on the skin. Subjects reported the intensity of perceived stimuli and predicted speed rate of the tactor and stimulation shape and size. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in the intensity of perceived tactile displays between different stimulation shapes and sizes. The results also showed the sizes and intensity of the stimulus grow larger with slower tactor speeds.