The concept of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) has been promoted by several international organizations. However, there are no FBDG for the countries in the Arab region. As the Arab Gulf countries share similar a socioeconomic and nutrition situation, an attempt was made to develop FBDG for these countries. This paper summarizes the steps taken to develope such guidelines by the Arab Cente...

Since the 1950s, Arab countries have made progress in some health related aspects such as: infant mortality, life expectancy, and access to health care. Infectious diseases and nutritional disorders have decreased in prevalence because of significant advances in immunization and the overall improvement in hygiene. Arab scholars working in the field of biomedical sciences are giving more attenti...

Arab growth has been both unsustainable in the long run as well as characterized by high short run volatility, especially in the period affected by the massive oil price shocks since 1985. This paper seeks to explain these two devastating features of the region’s growth. Our analysis corroborates the view, most notably articulated in the work of Dani Rodrik, that this phenomenon is not just a f...

Syria’s support of Iran in the Gulf War needs explanation, surprising as it has both Arabs and non-Arabs. That Syrian policy is not self-explanatory can be attributed to pre-existing expectations about inter-Arab relations, whereby Arab states would stand by each other whenever challenged by foreign powers, even if those powers happened to be Islamic states. Demonstrating Arab solidarity become...

 In this study the quality of Omani and United Arab Emirates bottled water brands which are sold in Oman were assessed by comparing the chemical composition indicated on manufacturer’s label with local and international bottled water standards. Results indicated that all the bottled water brands are complying with local and international standards. According to piper diagram, t...

While diabetes prevalence and cardiovascular risk factors have been increasing among Arab populations worldwide, few studies of Arab Americans have been conducted because of the difficulty in recruiting Arab American participants. Cultural sensitivity and social awareness of different immigrant groups could ensure successful recruitment and retention in clinical studies. While the primary objec...

Lexicon-based approaches have been widely used for opinion retrieval due to their simplicity. However, no previous work has focused on the domain-dependency problem in opinion lexicon construction. This paper proposes simple feedback-style learning for query-specific opinion lexicon using the set of top-retrieved documents in response to a query. The proposed learning starts from the initial do...

The overall total population of the Arab nations in the world is estimated to be approximately 315 million (estimates; World Almanac, 2004). Arab populations encompass a vast geographical region that extends from Iraq in the east to Morocco in the west. They occupy the whole of Mesopotamia, Middle East, Arabian Gulf, North Africa, as well as some parts of East and West Africa. Arab populations ...

Obesity has become a major public health problem in the Arab countries, creating a health and economic burden on these countries' government services. There is an urgent need to develop a strategy for prevention and control of obesity. The third Arab Conference on Obesity and Physical Activity was held in Bahrain in January 2010, and proposed the Strategy to Combat Obesity and Promote Physical ...

ditor’s Introduction: The Arab Human Development Report (ahdr) has had a noteworthy career. Within the Arab world, it has stimulated debate and controversy. In Europe and the United States, since its publication almost every discussion about development, democratization, and reform in Arab countries has made reference to the ahdr’s findings. Furthermore, outside reform initiatives, such as thos...