Preferred Language
Articles
/
jcolang-12
Numbness of the Mind Paradigm in Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake and Iraq’s After the Quake
...Show More Authors

Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the quake. Literally, Iraq may never have witnessed a real earthquake, but one can say its metaphorical meaning has a great implication upon the lives of its people. The reference to Iraq after the quake in this paper would focus on the aftermath of the 2003 War such as: the feeling of disconnection among people, disinclination in life, feelings of deprivation and depreciation, and the corruption of leaders and politicians. Likewise, though Murakami’s short stories chosen in this paper do not deal with the actual earthquake, its implications can be felt as we read the stories. His characters witness a sense of disconnectedness and the feeling of being unappreciated even when they do the hardest and most dangerous jobs.

    Two of Murakami’s short stories “UFO in Kushiro” and “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” are tackled to show the paradigm and comparison between the lives of these characters (that are actually a reflection of Japanese lives in mid 1990s) and the restricted depressing life of the Iraqis in the postwar era of the 2003 War. Both have experienced fragmentation, despair and lack of self-worth due to the reasons that are explained in this paper. The Iraqis however, may have experienced a deeper suffering where one can say they have reached a state of the numbness or enslavement of the mind and feelings. The paper also highlights that animosity should be dissipated from the hearts of people specifically in politicians and top leaders. Though it is a complicated world, man should conceive that the prosperity of mankind rests in his own hands. Cherishing the diversity of cultures and understanding each other’s moral principles are the means to diminish evil in order to reach the desired bliss.

View Publication Preview PDF
Quick Preview PDF
Publication Date
Sat Aug 01 2020
Journal Name
Periodicals Of Engineering And Natural Sciences
A comparison of some forecasting models to forecast the number of old people in Iraqi retirement homes
...Show More Authors

Statistical methods of forecasting have applied with the intention of constructing a model to predict the number of the old aged people in retirement homes in Iraq. They were based on the monthly data of old aged people in Baghdad and the governorates except for the Kurdistan region from 2016 to 2019. Using BoxJenkins methodology, the stationarity of the series was examined. The appropriate model order was determined, the parameters were estimated, the significance was tested, adequacy of the model was checked, and then the best model of prediction was used. The best model for forecasting according to criteria of (Normalized BIC, MAPE, RMSE) is ARIMA (0, 1, 2)

Publication Date
Thu Mar 29 2018
Journal Name
Construction Research Congress 2018
Consideration of Worker Safety in the Design Process: A Statistical-Based Approach Using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
...Show More Authors

View Publication
Scopus (2)
Crossref (3)
Scopus Crossref
Publication Date
Thu Aug 13 2020
Journal Name
Periodicals Of Engineering And Natural Sciences
A comparison of some forecasting models to forecast the number of old people in Iraqi retirement homes
...Show More Authors

Statistical methods of forecasting have applied with the intention of constructing a model to predict the number of the old aged people in retirement homes in Iraq. They were based on the monthly data of old aged people in Baghdad and the governorates except for the Kurdistan region from 2016 to 2019. Using Box-Jenkins methodology, the stationarity of the series was examined. The appropriate model order was determined, the parameters were estimated, the significance was tested, adequacy of the model was checked, and then the best model of prediction was used. The best model for forecasting according to criteria of (Normalized BIC, MAPE, RMSE) is ARIMA (0, 1, 2).

Scopus (1)
Scopus
Publication Date
Sun Jan 01 2017
Journal Name
Pertanika Journal Of Science & Technology
Modified Kohonen network algorithm for selection of the initial centres of Gustafson-Kessel algorithm in credit scoring
...Show More Authors

Credit risk assessment has become an important topic in financial risk administration. Fuzzy clustering analysis has been applied in credit scoring. Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithm has been utilised to cluster creditworthy customers as against non-creditworthy ones. A good clustering analysis implemented by good Initial Centres of clusters should be selected. To overcome this problem of Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithm, we proposed a modified version of Kohonen Network (KN) algorithm to select the initial centres. Utilising similar degree between points to get similarity density, and then by means of maximum density points selecting; the modified Kohonen Network method generate clustering initial centres to get more reasonable clustering res

... Show More
Scopus (9)
Scopus
Publication Date
Fri Dec 23 2022
Journal Name
Innovative Infrastructure Solutions
Experimental modeling of a single pile in liquefiable soil under the effect of coupled static-dynamic loads
...Show More Authors

In this work, a single pile is physically modeled and embedded in an upper liquefiable loose sand layer overlying a non-liquefiable dense layer. A laminar soil container is adopted to simulate the coupled static-dynamic loading pile response during earthquake motions: Ali Algharbi, Halabjah, El-Centro, and Kobe earthquakes. During seismic events with combined loading, the rotation along the pile, the lateral and vertical displacements at the pile head as well as the pore pressure ratio in loose sandy soil were assessed. According to the experimental findings, combined loading that ranged from 50 to 100% of axial load would alter the pile reaction by reducing the pile head peak ground acceleration, rotation of the pile, and lateral displacem

... Show More
Scopus (3)
Crossref (3)
Scopus Clarivate Crossref
Publication Date
Mon Feb 18 2019
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Physics
Studying the spectral properties of thin films of rhodamine (6G) dyes doped polymer (PMMA) dissolved in chloroform
...Show More Authors

              In the present work, poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) doped with Rhodamine 6G was prepared. The spectral properties (absorption and fluorescence) of the films were studied at different concentrations (1x10-5, 2x10-5, 5x10-5, 7x10-5, and 1x10-4mol/l). The investigated samples were made in the form of thin films. This was achieved by dissolving a certain weight of PMMA in a fixed volume of chloroform, composite films was with thickness (25.8μm) at room temperature. The achieved results were pointed out that absorption and fluorescence spectra have taken a wide spectral rang so when increased the concentratio

... Show More
View Publication Preview PDF
Crossref
Publication Date
Tue Jun 30 2015
Journal Name
Al-kindy College Medical Journal
Aneurysmal bone cyst of the lateral end of clavicle in a twelfth year old girl Case study
...Show More Authors

Introduction: An aneurysmal bone cyst are enigmatic lesionof unknown cause and presentation and are difficult todistinguish from other lesions, it is a benign, but expansibletumor like lesion that generally occurs in the long bones. Ananeurysmal bone cyst arising from the flat bone like clavicleis rare .Case presentation: We report a 12-year-old girl child with ananeurysmal bone cyst of the lateral third of left clavicletreated with enblock resection. The pathologic findingsconfirmed the diagnosis of aneurysmal bone cyst. Thepatient has been followed up for one year with no evidenceof recurrence .Conclusion: En bloc resection can be curative and provide good results for this rare type of clavicle tumour.

View Publication Preview PDF
Publication Date
Thu Jun 30 2016
Journal Name
Al-kindy College Medical Journal
Power Versus Conventional Color Doppler Sonographic Diagnosis Of Acute Cholecystitis: Comparison In The Depiction Of Mural Flow
...Show More Authors

Background: Gray-scale sonography is generally
considered as a first-line diagnostic tool for patient with
suspected acute cholecystitis. It is suggested by gallstones,
Murphy's sign, thickening of the gallbladder wall and bile
sludging, but the specificity of these sonographic findings
are not as high as their sensitivity. Blood flow of the
gallbladder wall is increased in acute inflammation.
Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of
power Doppler sonography and compared with conventional
color Doppler and gray-scale sonography in diagnosing
patients with acute cholecystitis.
Type of the study: This was a cross sectional study.
Patients and methods: The study was conducted t

... Show More
View Publication Preview PDF
Publication Date
Thu Apr 18 2019
Journal Name
Al-kindy College Medical Journal
Evaluation of Risk Management among Managers of the Primary Health Care Centers in Baghdad City: Comparative Study
...Show More Authors

Background: Several risk managem-ent standards had been developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards.

Objective: The study aimed at evaluating risk management among managers of model and ordinary primary health care centers in Baghdad City and comparing the risk management among these centers.

Methods: A descriptive comparative des

... Show More
View Publication Preview PDF
Crossref
Publication Date
Tue Jun 20 2023
Journal Name
Bulletin Of The Iraq Natural History Museum
REVISION OF THE GENUS XYLOCOPA LATREILLE, 1802 (HYMENOPTERA, APIDAE) WITH A NEW RECORD OF SPECIES IN IRAQ
...Show More Authors

In this study, the genus Xylocopa Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was revised. There were 4 species registered in our investigations: X. hottentotta Smith, 1854; X. olivieri Lepeletier, 1841; X. pubescens Spinola, 1838 and X. valga Gerstäcker, 1872, the first species was described as being found for the first time for the insect fauna of Iraq, which were obtained from Solanum melogena L. flowers. Key to the species was constructed and supported by figures of the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features, illustrated and compared with other species, which are recorded in the current survey.

View Publication
Scopus (1)
Scopus Crossref