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Digital tools have been used to document cultural heritage with high-quality imaging and metadata. However, some of the historical assets are totally or partially unlabeled and some are physically damaged, which decreases their attractiveness and induces loss of value. This paper introduces a new framework that aims at tackling the cultural data enrichment challenge using machine learning.

This framework focuses on the automatic annotation and metadata completion through new deep learning classification and annotation methods. It also addresses issues related to physically damaged heritage objects through a new image reconstruction approach based on supervised and unsupervised learning.

The authors evaluate approaches on a data set of cultural objects collected from various cultural institutions around the world. For annotation and classification part of this study, the authors proposed and implemented a hierarchical multimodal classifier that improves the quality of annotation and increases the accuracy of the model, thanks to the introduction of multitask multimodal learning. Regarding cultural data visual reconstruction, the proposed clustering-based method, which combines supervised and unsupervised learning is found to yield better quality completion than existing inpainting frameworks.

This research work is original in sense that it proposes new approaches for the cultural data enrichment, and to the authors’ knowledge, none of the existing enrichment approaches focus on providing an integrated framework based on machine learning to solve current challenges in cultural heritage. These challenges, which are identified by the authors are related to metadata annotation and visual reconstruction.

This research aims to explore childhood construction in the Afghan refugee community living in Pakistan. Young Afghan people aged 12–18 who were working on the streets participated in the generation of data for this study in 2019. Ethnographic research approaches with semi-structured in-depth interviews and field observations were used to obtain real insights. Young Afghan refugees have been a constant phenomenon on the streets for decades in the twin cities of Pakistan – Rawalpindi and Islamabad – where this research was conducted and are involved in different street-based casual activities. The findings show that young people face discrimination and exclusion from the mainstream of society due to their undefined citizenship status and poverty. Parents see their children as dependents and as assets for their old age, and children and young people need to work to support their families who live in poverty. In fulfilling their filial responsibilities, young people sacrifice their schooling and have limited opportunities to learn new skills. It is concluded that the government and other international institutions with responsibility for setting policies and creating programs for young Afghan refugees need to understand the dynamics of the families in which the young people live and how these families inculcate them with their generational values.

Competition among seaports is rapidly increasing due to various factors such as the global recession, resurgence of COVID-19, tight environmental regulations of IMO, sharp rise in ocean freight charges, increasing global uncertainties and growth in ship sizes. It is essential to have precise knowledge of shipping companies' port selection factors to secure the competitive advantage of seaports. This study aims to empirically analyze recent changes in the importance of port selection factors.

By employing a longitudinal study, this study conducted the t-test analysis. The first survey was conducted from January 2005 to April 2005. Then, the second survey was conducted in May 2021.

First, the importance of port facilities (berth length and the number of berths, shed and terminal areas, possession of adequate equipment and maximum berth size) increased significantly. Second, while ship and cargo safety were the critical port service factors in previous studies, speed, flexibility and reliability for handling cargo and berthing schedule were found to be crucial in this study. Third, the importance of ship arrival/departure frequency, route diversity and ship arrival/departure information systems increased when shipping companies selected the port.

This study has academic significance in that it reveals the changing importance of port selection factors in the 2020s and has taken the form of a longitudinal study on the importance of port selection factors from 2005 to 2021, moving beyond the cross-sectional approach. This study can provide valuable insights into and implications for port policymakers and managers when developing and formulating port policies and strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential application of electron beam melting, as a layered manufacturing process, to fabricate dental coping of metal‐ceramic crown restoration using Ti6Al4V powder.

This experiment was conducted in two steps: shrinkage study to determine scale up factor for shrinkage compensation and parameter selection study, based on thickness, hardness, and surface roughness, to select process parameter of electron beam melting.

A promising result of fabricating metal coping of Ti6Al4V via electron beam melting was shown. Ti6Al4V coping was successfully fabricated, with an average thickness of 0.52 mm required for dental coping. Total average hardness of 333.35 HV that is comparable to casted Ti6Al4V with considerably high roughness of RSm of 382 μm.

The paper presents a novel application of electron beam melting to fabricate metal coping for metal‐ceramic crown restoration.

This chapter aims to discuss the challenges facing these countries building productive capacity for development. This chapter makes use of data published by international organizations as indicators for measuring the state of development in the Arab region. Several indicators are presented to compare Arab countries with other world regions. The use of data identifies some of the gaps that countries in the Arab region need to close to strengthen capacity building for development and fostering economic growth. The findings from the data presented reveal that the productive structure in most Arab countries remains weak to generate production linkages and provide incentives for investment in nonenergy sectors. The failure of the export-led growth model to diversify output and promote development in energy producing countries has increased the dependence of these countries on global trade. Fluctuations in commodity prices and uncertainty about global demand for energy have influenced the ability of the state to construct strategies for rapid transformation. Except for the energy sector, the productivity of nonoil sectors remains low reflecting inadequate incentives and ineffective entrepreneurial capabilities. The study examines the challenges for building productive capacity in the Arab world. It illustrates the failure of the led-export model and its inability to prompted economic diversification, especially in the Gulf countries. The study contributes to the literature on capacity building in the Arab world so that to encourage researchers and students of development conducting studies concerning the main development challenges facing these countries.

The aim of this paper is to proposes a simple and unified method for generating the aliasing pattern of two‐ and three‐level fractional factorial designs be they regular or non‐regular. The paper also demonstrates how the aliasing patterns obtained using the postulated method can be used to render the main measures of aliasing severity.

The proposed method is based on viewing the fractional factorial designs geometrically. It entails regarding the columns of any design as vectors. On the premise that any two vectors are orthogonal if they are at right angle and bearing in mind that aliasing is a form of departure from orthogonality, the proposed method determines the degree of aliasing between any two columns by assessing the extent to which the angle between them differs from 90°.

Three examples were used to illustrate how the proposed method can be applied and to validate its results. The first dealt with a regular two‐level L₈ 2⁵⁻² design whereas the second concerned a non‐regular two‐level L₁₂ design used to study five‐factors, and the third example is based on a non‐regular L₁₈ design employed to examine three‐factors at three‐levels. For each of these, the aliasing pattern generated using the proposed method matches the one obtained using the conventional methods.

A recent empirical study of how experimental design is applied in certain Manufacturing Engineering journals revealed that aliasing is rarely investigated. One possible reason for this is the difficulty associated with comprehending the conventional methods of dealing with aliasing particularly in the cases where non‐regular two‐ and three‐level orthogonal arrays are used. The proposal of a simple and unified method for dealing with aliasing should encourage the researchers and practitioners to assess aliasing when performing their experiments.

Education plays a key role in socio-economic development and globalization has increased the numbers of students wanting to study abroad. Attracting international students is therefore an important objective for universities as international students open up opportunities to bring economic, cultural and academic benefits to both the universities themselves and to the countries in which they are located. This study therefore aimed to assess student satisfaction with a Jordanian university using the dimensions of quality contained within the established SERVQUAL model.

To achieve these goals, quantitative data was collected from international students attending one university located in Jordan via a questionnaire survey, using a randomized sample. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the construct validity, and correlations between student satisfaction and the different dimensions of quality were tested.

Consistent with other studies, the findings demonstrated that the five dimensions of service quality, i.e. tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, and the university of study, have a strong relationship with student satisfaction. However, there was no statistically significant correlation between country satisfaction and the tangibility and assurance sub-dimensions of quality.

Practical implications – The findings of this study are of interest and practical benefit to university leaders in developing their quality and student acquisition strategies.

This study makes a useful contribution to the growing body of evidence of service quality in higher education set within the context of a developing country.