Objective: To review and identify the major drivers for COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Methods: A scoping review of studies of COVID-19 vaccine perceptions and barriers to using the COVID-19 vaccines. Two search engines, including PubMed and Google Scholar, were purposefully searched. Results: Eight studies from different countries were reviewed to categorize factors influencing people's acceptance of COVID-19 according to the Health Belief Model (HBM). Perceived susceptibility, and severity of the disease (COVID-19), in addition to perceived benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and "cues to action", can enhance vaccination acceptance. In contrast, perceived barriers to the COVID-19 vaccine can increase people's hesitancy to be vaccinated. Conclusions: The HBM domains are successful in the prediction of human behaviors toward preventive measures, including vaccination. In general, high perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and minimum barriers should always be maintained to keep the vaccination rate high. Reducing the hesitancy to get the vaccine can be achieved by increasing awareness campaigns about the vaccine's efficacy in preventing infection.
This paper proposes a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the fine-tuning meta-heuristic algorithm (FTMA) for solving global optimization problems. In this algorithm, the solutions are fine-tuned using the fundamental steps in meta-heuristic optimization, namely, exploration, exploitation, and randomization, in such a way that if one step improves the solution, then it is unnecessary to execute the remaining steps. The performance of the proposed FTMA has been compared with that of five other optimization algorithms over ten benchmark test functions. Nine of them are well-known and already exist in the literature, while the tenth one is proposed by the authors and introduced in this article. One test trial was shown t
... Show MoreThis research has discussed the origins of ESP, addressed key notions about ESP and examined issues in ESP syllabus design. The content of the paper was determined by a need identified based on my experience as an ESL instructor designing and delivering the content-based language program - Language Preparation for the Cadets and Employment in the Iraqi College of Police . These issues, where possible, have been supported by current and pertinent academic literature. It is my sincerest hope that these observations will lend insight into the challenges facing the ESL instructor acting as ESP syllabus developer.
The purpose of this paper is to solve the stochastic demand for the unbalanced transport problem using heuristic algorithms to obtain the optimum solution, by minimizing the costs of transporting the gasoline product for the Oil Products Distribution Company of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. The most important conclusions that were reached are the results prove the possibility of solving the random transportation problem when the demand is uncertain by the stochastic programming model. The most obvious finding to emerge from this work is that the genetic algorithm was able to address the problems of unbalanced transport, And the possibility of applying the model approved by the oil products distribution company in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to m
... Show MoreThe conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co
... Show MoreIt takes a lot of time to classify the banana slices by sweetness level using traditional methods. By assessing the quality of fruits more focus is placed on its sweetness as well as the color since they affect the taste. The reason for sorting banana slices by their sweetness is to estimate the ripeness of bananas using the sweetness and color values of the slices. This classifying system assists in establishing the degree of ripeness of bananas needed for processing and consumption. The purpose of this article is to compare the efficiency of the SVM-linear, SVM-polynomial, and LDA classification of the sweetness of banana slices by their LRV level. The result of the experiment showed that the highest accuracy of 96.66% was achieved by the
... Show MoreThis study aims to preparation a standards code for sustainability requirements to contribute in a better understanding to the concept of sustainability assessment systems in the dimensions of Iraqi projects in general and in the high-rise building. Iraq is one of the developing countries that faced significant challenges in sustainability aspects environmental, economic and social, it became necessary to develop an effective sustainability building assessment system in respect of the local context in Iraq. This study presented a proposal for a system of assessing the sustainability requirements of Iraqi high rise buildings (ISHTAR), which has been developed through several integrated
