The aim of this study was to establish the cutoff points in the Combined Index of Fibromyalgia Severity (ICAF) questionnaire which allow classification of patients by severity and to evaluate its application in the clinical practice. The cutoff points were calculated using the area under the ROC curve in two cohorts of patients. Three visits, basal, fourth month and 15th month, were considered. The external criterion for grading severity was the number of drugs consumed by the patient. Sequential changes were calculated and compared. Correlations with drug consumption and comparisons of severity between patients with different types of coping were also calculated. Correlation between the number of drugs and the ICAF total score was significant. Three cutoff points were established: absence of Fibromyalgia (FM), <34; mild, 34–41; moderate, 41–50 and severe, >50, with the following distribution of severity: absence in 0.4 %, mild in 18.7 %, moderate in 32.5 % and severe in 48.4 % of the patients. There were significant differences between groups. The treatment under daily clinical conditions showed a significant improvement of the patients which was maintained at the end of follow-up. There was a 17 % reduction in the severe category. The patients with more passive coping factor showed highest punctuations in the remaining scores and were more prevalent in the severe category. The patients with a predominance of the emotional factor showed a better response at the end of follow-up. The established cutoff points allow the classification of FM patients by severity, to know the prognostic and to predict the response to the treatment. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome with multiple clinical manifestations from various organs and systems and not only a clinical picture of chronic pain. Therefore, a proper evaluation of FM must include not only pain but its most prevalent clinical manifestations, as has recently been recognized with the new diagnostic criteria based on clinical symptoms .The evaluation of the severity in FM patients is still difficult since there is no gold standard outcome measure with which to compare the clinical manifestations of this syndrome. Nowadays, multiple questionnaires and other instruments are being used to measure the severity of each FM symptom .The Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ)  was deveRecently, we have developed and validated the Combined Index of Fibromyalgia Severity  , 6, a neThe present study has been designed to establish the cutoff points in the total score of ICAF questionnaire based on the hypothesis that the number of drugs for treating FM patients may be used as a criterion of severity. Subsequently, the calculated cutoff points were applied in a cohort of FM patients under daily clinical practice conditions to determine the degree of disability, the best treatment options and the evolution of the patients.In this work, two cohorts of patients were studied.In order to determine the cutoff points, we used the original cohort of patients from the ICAF study . This coThe newly established cutoff points were finally evaluated in a second cohort of patients consisting of 246 FM consecutive patients (F: 233 and M: 13) with a mean age of 48.5 ± 9.8 years. All these patients were attended in a specialized clinic under daily clinical practice conditions. The ICAF questionnaire was used for evaluating these patients in consecutive visits, at the beginning of treatment (V1), at fourth month (V2) and at 15th month (V3) of follow-up.Briefly, the ICAF is a self-administered questionnaire composed of 59 items about the most common clinical manifestations of FM , emotional factor  and physical factor , while there were no significant effects in the active coping factor  or the passive coping factor . The significant improvement obtained at V2 is also maintained at V3 15 months later of V1. Means and multiple comparisons are shown in Table At visit V2, the treatment under daily clinical practice conditions showed a significant improvement of the patients Table . The ANOThe favorable effect of the treatment throughout time produced an evolution of the severity with an increase in the less severe categories, as show in Table χ2 (3) = 70.30, p < 0.001)  Table .Table 5Sχ2 (3) = 9.36, p = 0.025)  used in this questionnaire. Also in the development of the ICAF, external criteria such as labor status, presence of trigger points and six-minute walk test were employed for the validation of the punctuation distribution [The ICAF is a self-administered questionnaire designed for the evaluation of multidimensional aspects of FM patients . As prevribution .In the current work, an additional criterion has been considered: measuring global severity by the number of consumed drugs since it better reflects the overall situation of the patient compared with the severity based on pain intensity.It is known that in addition to generalized pain in FM there exist other relevant clinical manifestations such as sleep disorders, fatigue, depression, or anxiety. For this reason, it is very common that patients with FM consume other drugs acting over NS for treating all those clinical manifestations, in addition to analgesics and NSAID to alleviate pain.In this work, we have started with the hypothesis that the higher the severity of the disease, the higher number of drugs consumed by the patient. This fact has been previously confirmed by Sánchez et al.  who demoIn our cohort of patients, distribution of severity after applying ICAF calculated cutoff points was 14, 35 and 50 % for mild, moderate and severe forms, respectively, whereas distribution of the severity following the FIQ cutoff points yielded 3, 18 and 79 %, respectively. As it can be seen, the distribution is more normal using the ICAF cutoff points with a lesser number of severe forms and a higher frequency of mild ones. In the original work by Bennett et al. [Our results confirm the initial working hypothesis and the calculated cutoff points allow the classification of patients in a more practical way than other existing questionnaires. Classification of the disease in terms of severity also allows to establish an overall prognosis. In this work, 77 % of patients classified as mild still remained with the same degree of severity, whereas 50 % still continued to be classified as severe 1 year later.To classify patients by severity also has several implications in the field of therapeutic decisions and economic costs of resource utilization. For those patients classified as severe, it seems logical to intensify treatment specially by using other therapeutic approaches such as physical exercise programs as well as psychological therapeutic modalities. Incorporating psychoeducational resources in primary care may improve therapeutic response and reduce the probability of impairment in these patients .The ICAF questionnaire also provides interesting information through the different factors in which it is composed. The emotional factor provides the most factorial component with respect to the total score and patients with higher punctuation in the emotional factor also have a higher total score, as it is shown in this work. However, these patients also have a good response to the treatment and they would be the better candidates for drug treatment, especially antidepressants.A high punctuation in the physical factor is associated with a long-term poorer response, as it is shown in our results. In this group are included those patients with higher degrees of fatigue, closer to chronic fatigue syndrome, and it is known that these patients have a poor response to pharmacological treatments, especially to antidepressants . In thisAlthough both coping factors only add a small percentage to the ICAF total score, the evaluation of coping strategies is very useful . Indeed,In comparison with other FM global outcome indexes, the ICAF shows some strengths and some disadvantages. As a clear strength, it is remarkable that the ICAF has been confronted with external criteria not coming from the patient self-report, in contrast with other tools and questionnaires such as CODI , CRSFS  or FiRSTIt is difficult to cover all principal clinical aspects of FM with a short questionnaire. Indeed, the ICAF contains 59 items, while CODI has 26 , CRSFS hOutcomes measures in FM still remain controversial. Recently, the OMERACT has elaborated a report based on experts’ opinion about the most important outcome measures that must be evaluated in patients with FM . HoweverIn recent clinical trials with drugs for treating FM, the most common outcome measure is pain . HoweverThe strong point of this study is that results about classification of severity obtained in a multicentric cohort of patients with FM have been well reproduced in a different cohort of patients in daily clinical practice showing the same useful information.The principal limitation of this study lies in that the ICAF has not been proven in clinical trials and has not been compared with other tools. However, if ICAF has shown to be sensible to the changes that occur in daily practice conditions—both in short and in longer periods of time—the response will probably be similar under clinical trial conditions.In addition, in this study, we have not established a comparison with an untreated control group, and for this reason, it is not possible to determine whether changes observed throughout time are due to the treatment itself.In conclusion, the ICAF has shown to be an excellent outcome measure, which allows the classification of FM patients by severity in a very practical way, to determine the prognostic of the disease and to predict the response to the treatment through its different component factors. These are all important issues which impact positively on usual clinical practice with FM patients, and provide invaluable information which is now difficult and time consuming to obtain.


A qualitative method using focus group discussions (FGDs) was applied in this study to identify people’s perceptions on newspaper reporting pertaining to the Southern Separatist Movement (SSM) by different Yemeni newspapers. This paper also looked into the attitudes towards the movement and the popularity of the issue of Yemeni unification. Five FGD groups with a total of 30 participants discussed the subject and some other aspects related to it. The findings of the focu19 groups showed that the southern crisis and SSM had shaken the people’s trust on the current form of the unity. The discussion with the groups revealed that media in general and the selected four papers from various political persuasions have no credibility and objectivity, but these papers are trying to instill democratic values which is consistent with their ideology, which have a serious impact on the value of liberal democracy. The participants assured that reporting on the southern cause and the SSM indicated the absence of professional journalism in the media and the political discourse in general. The Yemeni Unity established on 22 May 1990 was based on an agreement and acceptance between the leadership of the two parts of Yemen, Yemen Arab Republic and People's Republic of Yemen to be united into “The Republic of Yemen” with the extension of sovereignty all over the new country. Three years later a conflict began to occur between the partners of the unity which led to the 1994 civil war when the leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party Ali Salem Al-bidh officially declared the first call for secession. The victory of the northern forces in the south had left the southerners with grievances and deteriorating situations.Al HarakAl-Janubbiy  that is known in Yemen as In late 2009 the SSM openly called for secession and reinstating the former independent south Yemeni state due to the irresponsible actions by the government in responding to the protests and the unexpected boost gained by some influential figures that used to be the allies of the former regime in Sana’a. The southern cause in Yemen is considered the key issue discussed at length in the National Dialogue Conference (NDC). NDC was held after the Yemeni uprising in 2011, which was attended by all social and political players backed by the Gulf Cooperation Council. This national event in Yemen resulted in dividing Yemen into multi-regions and formed the Federal Republic of Yemen.Al-Harak Al-Enfasli Al-Janubbiy (in Arabic) is a term given to a popular movement active in the South of Yemen since 2007. This movement started when former southern military officials and other civil employees forced into early retirement demanded for better pensions. The government responded with oppressive methods such as pursuing, arresting and bribing the leaders of the South. Due to the implementation of these methods, the movement accelerated to an armed struggle pushing for secession from the north. In 2010, the SSM was shown to have the support of 70 % of the southern population and it is expected to further increase .South of Yemen Movement, also known as the Southern Separatist Movement (SSM) or According to Horton  The SoutIn the beginning the media did not pay attention to the movement and the southern crisis due to two reasons. First the former regime denied it and promoted that these groups protest to increase their pensions. Second the absence of a single leadership for the Southern Movement weakened the stance of the movement inside and outside Yemen. When the tension escalated throughout the south sparking the fears of another civil war, the media outlets started to heavily cover the events in the south, which resulted in banning of some newspapers and the arrests of journalists in 2009.The primary point is that the public media have located the movement and the unification of the country at the core of their discourse. More spaces of media coverage were given in radio and TV channels as well as the print and Internet press. The narrative heavily promoted and emphasized on unity as the only source of strength, dignity and independence Abduh, . FurtherAbduh  examinedIn critical times such as during crises or conflicts, the media are expected to play key roles in portraying true events in order to reflect the reality of the narratives. In doing so, the main purpose is to influence people’s minds in terms of either shaping or changing the public opinion and attitudes toward certain issues. That is because the media are the main sources of information for the public to know what is happening, however the question of the efficiency and professionalism of the media on reporting keeps the door open for more debates.What perception do people have about the SSM and the popularity of the Yemeni Unification?What do people think of the coverage of the SSM by the different newspapers?This aim of this study is to identify people’s perceptions on media coverage of the SSM, as well as their perceptions on the movement and the popularity of the idea of Yemeni Unification. Using a thematic analysis, this study asked the following questions:The findings of this study were able to provide useful information about the SSM, the efficiency of the Yemeni media and other related aspects objectively from the Yemeni people’s point of view. There is a lack of public opinion studies on the efficiency of the media from different political parties, or how the media operate in Yemen. Therefore, this study is considered to be significant in providing recommendations on how the Yemeni media should operate during the time of crises particularly the partisan media in order to contribute to ethical media reporting and politics.In this paper, we believe that the thematic analysis offers an accessible and theoretically-flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. Braun and Clarke  discusseQualitative research in social sciences refers to textual data generated from in-depth interviews and focus groups which are often transcribed precisely from audio recordings and participant observation notes. And, in the vast majority of cases, thematic analyses, rather than word-based approaches, are used for that because it is still most useful in capturing the complexities of meaning within a textual data set and it is also the most commonly used method of analysis in qualitative research , two partisan newspapers that represented the two strongest opposition parties Islah Party (Al-Sahwah) and the Yemeni Socialist Party (Al-Thawri), and one independent newspaper (Akhbar Al-Youm). These newspapers were accessible in their archives and the researchers were also able to easily acquire hard copies for the purpose of this study.To examine people’s perceptions on the coverage of the SSM by the Yemeni newspapers, four different newspapers were selected purposively to serve the objectives of the study. The newspapers were: one official newspaper which represented the government . The ruling party was blamed in escalating the situation in the south, the former president Saleh was criticized in the way he addressed the southern leaders, his denial of the southern cause and the threats in his speeches in a news item entitled “Yemen is fine and what is happening in the south is just a storm in a teacup” .It was ascertained that the conflict and responsibility frames dominated most of the articles if not all by the four newspapers. The southern movement and their leaders were severely criticized in calling for secession and spreading violence and hatred among the Yemeni brothers. For example, the leaders of the southern movement were described as “traitors” and “seditious figures” that will never succeed in splitting Yemen . In regards to this, another writer of an opinion piece mentioned that the regime failed to recognize the demands and grievances, and the feelings of injustice felt by the southern people.Many articles also criticized the way the government chose methods that were utilized to silence the south either by violence or other means. For instance, a writer of an opinion piece described the regime as having dry mind when the regime announced that the capital city would be transferred to the south (Aden) in order to silence the southern movement .The partisan newspapers severely criticized the presidential speech, for example, a writer of an opinion piece article attacked Saleh by saying that he had used inappropriate words to describe the southern movement as actions by secessionists and traitors. The writer questioned Saleh by asking, “How can you accuse the south of being separatists while the fact is, there is no legitimacy of the unity after it had been violated by the regime in 1994?” He added that the persons who should be blamed are from the ruling party and its patronage system that regarded the south as valuable stolen goods or that a piece of land must be returned to its origin in the North  is applied in this research. This technique is used for raising views and opinions of respondents on certain issues, for example, political issues Kumar . The focFive groups were conducted in Yemen for this study; each group consisted of six participants, a total number of 30 respondents from Sana’a University. The rational of the focus group discussion method was explained to the respondents; more specifically the objectives of the study were clarified during the introduction sessions.The focus groups were conducted in Arabic and lasted approximately three hours .“The Southern issue reveals the marginalization, identity issue, violation of peoples’ rights, neglecting the legal partnership of the Southerners according to unity’s deal” (G2N10).“The fifteen participants from the south answered between “agree “and “strongly agree” while the responses of the other fifteen participants from the north are distributed among the categories. The participants were generally responsive when asked to provide a brief definition or description of the southern crisis or issue as an entry to the discussion, and to know their own personal frames about the topic under consideration before they were exposed to randomly selected articles from the four newspapers. Some of the participants had a consensus that the southern crisis is a matter of several issues such as rights, identity and justice, which were taken from the South after Yemeni civil war. These are some of the representative responses:Focus group participants were asked to determine the priority level of the southern cause since the country was facing other crises at the same time, Table You may see the consequences of this crisis on social fabric…it has produced hatred, discrimination and regionalism among the brothers to a degree that innocent people from the north were killed in the south due to the wrong priming either from the media or the leaders of the Southern Movement”.“Most of the focus group participants from both the south and the north positively responded that the southern crisis is a high priority issue when they were asked “Do you think the southern crisis is high priority among the other crises facing the country? For example, respondent G5N15 said in a sad tone:Houthi rebellion and the existence of al-Qaeda on Yemeni soil, besides the economic, health and education problems which should receive more attention.Generally, many participants from the south and the north in the focus groups believed that this crisis must be classified as the most important and of high priority since it threatened the unification of the country and affected the harmony of the Yemeni social fabric. However, there were three participants who stated that, the southern crisis is not considered a priority crisis since the country is facing other pressing crises such as the Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy. One of the northern participants G1N1 stated that he did not get his information from the above sources but from the YSP as he politically affiliates with that party. Other participants G2N9 and G2N12 said they did not know what the southern crisis was until the Yemeni uprising in 2011 erupted and interacted with the activists of the Southern Movement in change square in Sana’a where all anti-government protesters gathered. The respondent G1N5 said that the way the media presented the southern crisis; more specifically the official media led him to seek other trusted sources of information. While several participants G3S1, G3S2, G3S3, G4S11, G5S15, G3S6 and G3S5 from the south said that they received their information from the independent newspaper Al-Ayyam which was banned in 2009.The media as well as interactions with the southern people were the sources of information that most of the focus group participants attained their information about the southern crisis and “I think the media play some part in these causes. The misreporting and biased coverage of the media in the south have incited against anything north, while the official media did neglect the crisis when it first started. But when the pressure reached a higher level by the movement, they started describing the southern people as traitors and targeting the National Unity”.When the participants were asked, “What are the causes of the southern crisis?” many related their opinions with more details, such as stating the fact that the main cause was the political, economic and social marginalization of the south and the absence of equity between the north and the south. Specific answers claimed that the causes were the oppression over the south; the issues of the military officials who were forced into early retirement and the civil workers who were dismissed from their jobs without respecting their rights. In addition, other causes include exploiting the economic resources of the south and looting the lands by some elites of the previous regime after the civil war in 1994. The respondent G1N4 affirmed by saying:All of the focus group participants from the south and some from the north responded positively when asked “Do you believe in the legitimacy of the southern issue and the Southern Movement” Table .Table 6LThe legitimacy of social movements has been debated in several researches. How the movements gain their legitimacy is argued to be based on the sources of the legitimacy. Lis  concludeBased on the aforementioned presentation, the focus group participants were asked to express their opinions about the legitimacy of the SSM based on the goals and the outcomes of the movement. The participants were also asked about the legitimacy of the characteristics of the Southern Movement’s leaders.“Since the southern issue and Al- Harak Al-Janubbyi demand separation after a long time of being patient…waiting and addressing the grievances and condemning the wrong policies over the partner of the unity’s agreement… as everyone in the south believes that we have rights… we asked for equality at the first stage by using civilized means… but no one had listened, so we tried other means to mobilize and to make our voices heard …either we have been heard or not … the southerners represent legitimate independent country…therefore from this point I can tell you that both the issue and the movement are legitimate as long as they represent us ‘southern people”.G4S11 said:Responses to the question “What is your attitude towards the southern issue?” are listed in the Table Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy?” are listed in the Table Answers to the question on “What is your attitude towards the SSM/ Half of the focus group participants chose ‘Favor’ when asked about their attitude towards the southern issue. The participants were more likely to have consensus that the southern issue is all about the unjust treatment to the south after the 1994 Yemeni civil war, and the grievances which could have been solved fairly without cracking down the peaceful movement. When the participants were asked about their attitudes towards the Southern Movement, 46.7 % were neutral, 30 % favored and 20 % unfavorable.Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy when they were asked, “who brought the southern crisis/ issue to the surface and what is actually the Southern Movement?”, some participants stated that the Southern Movement/Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy brought the southern issue after the civil war; therefore it is the mouthpiece of the southerners.During the discussion some of the participants provided more information about the Southern Movement /“The Harak Al-Janubbiy consists of the southern people… injecting the Southern Movement with some of the armed people does not mean that the whole Harak is bad… Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy is a component of the southern people who have the right to express and restore our land and identity… The unity has destroyed and marginalized the leadership of the south that resulted in the disagreement among the leaders of the Southern Movement… we are not going to lose hope that the south is able to generate new leadership and rebuild civil institutions in case we restore our country”.The respondent G3S2 said“I do not support either the southern issue or the Southern Movement…the problems that the southerners argue about are also here in the north…oppression, lands are taken and grievances… if every group in Yemen follows what the Southern Movement has done, we can say “goodbye” to our country… besides some of the southern politicians intentionally incite against everything northern… the killing crimes committed in cold blood on innocent northern people living in the South proved the reality”In the focus groups there were some participants who were totally against the southern issue and the Southern Movement, for example the respondent G1N6 confidently said:About 53.3 % of the participants agreed that the southern issue has affected negatively on the popularity of the Yemeni national unity when they were asked, “Do you think the SSM has affected the popularity of the Yemeni Unification? Table .Table 9IWhen the participants were asked “Do you think the SSM has affected the popularity of the Yemeni Unification, about 53.3 % participants agreed that the southern issue has affected negatively the popularity of the Yemeni national unity while 30 % “strongly agree”.“What could be worse than killing citizens by their identity…? How do you expect a unity to last in this atmosphere? The southern issue affected negatively on the way the new generation think about the unity which is associated with regional discrimination, spreading hatred between the southerners and northerners…definitely if there is voting on the unity now, it is not likely to reach 30 %”.A few participants agreed with what respondent G4S7 said, when he stated:The southern issue is the light for us ‘southerners’ …Yes; we should thank the Southern Movement in revealing the truth about the unity to the southerners … Since the 80s “we” the South had fought and struggled for the unity and now we are fighting to restore our independent country… we have taught our children that their rights have been taken by the north and that they should fight for it…the civil war in 1994 had murdered the Yemeni national unity and I can predict that more than 86 % of the unity is declining in the south…besides the northerners now are not welcomed in the South”.“In more challenging and aggressive manner, the respondent G3S1 said:When the participants were asked if they believe in the importance of the Yemeni unity, 76.7 % reported that it is important while 20 % think that the unity is not important and 3.3 % could not decide. Table Surprisingly, 76.7 % of the focus group participants agreed on the importance of the Yemeni unity when asked “Do you think the Yemeni unity is important?”, while 20 % said it is not important. Those undecided or neutral is 3.3 %. It is known that the northern society is more religious and tribal and the unity has gained its value from these thoughts. The unexpected notion was that out of six who said the unity is not important, three participants were from the north. G1N1, G2N10 and G2N11 argued that unity is not a religious obligation or among the pillars of Islam”. For example G1N1 said “There is no need for the unity after the 1994 civil war”.“I do believe in the unity as a concept but I do not believe in the importance of Yemeni unity …in fact the Yemeni people before the unity were one nation in two different countries, but now two nations in one country…the Yemeni unity has changed the valuable meaning of the concept unity to “unity is a red line” and “unity or death”Another respondent G2N10 assured by saying:Table Most of the focus group participants strongly agree that the southern crisis is considered a real threat to the security and stability of Yemen in particular and the region in general. Here are some of the common responses,The issue is a threat to the stability of the country …it is obvious from what we can see in the daily events in the South…you cannot even walk in the street in peace especially in the governorates where the government’s control is weak… some groups have utilized the conflict between the government and the Southern Movement to implement their agendas, especially the various gangs, al-Qaeda militants or other groups”.“G5S14 said:“The crimes of Mala’ah and Habeel Jaber were targeted in cold blood, the northerners have brought sadness and terrifying memories to what happened in 1986 when people were murdered by their ID, what could be more of a threat than this!!”A few participants mentioned that the crimes that were committed by the Southern Movement are proof that the issue threatens public peace. G1N6 said:Al-Thawrah scored (16.7 %), none of the above (13.3 %), Al-Thawri (6.7 %), and Akhbar Al-Youm (3.3 %).Table “We “southerners” dislike Al-Sahwah newspaper and Islah Party… we do not read the Islamic newspaper due to its attitudes towards the southerners. G5S14 mentioned “Al-Zandani a member of Islah Party issued a fatwa- a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority-during the civil war in 1994 to destroy and kill the southerners because they are “infidels” …we were treated like chickens!”G4S9 The unity was rejected from the north especially from the Islamists wing such as Al-Zandani who issued fatwa to reject the unity with “communists” … we have been labeled as “disbelievers”. I live in Sana’a but am still this ‘Adeni’ girl with no Adabb –immoral-… I do not need to read that in their newspapers either”.G4S9 claimed and supported by G4S11 when she said, “To meet one of the objectives of this study which is identifying people’s perceptions on the coverage of the SSM and whether the participants do read these newspapers on daily basis or not, the researchers make sure that the participants give their opinion based on actual reading. Therefore during the applicable sessions the participants were asked to randomly select articles from the four newspapers and read for about 30 min followed by discussion. Some of the participants’ opinions are mentioned as follows:Al-Harak?Table Al-Harak. Here are some of the responses, G1N2 said:“None of these newspapers have affected my personal frames about the issue or Al- Harak…all we know that these papers are the mouthpieces of the owners, either opposition parties or the regime… that means they have to disseminate their political agenda and ideologies towards the issues based on their interests”.Surprisingly, all participants of the focus groups expressed that there is no credibility and objectivity in reporting the southern crisis and “None of these newspapers framed the southern issue or the Southern Movement neutrally; these papers have no transparency, credibility and objectivity… I think that is impossible”.Almost all the participants pointed at the credibility and objectivity of reporting the southern issue and movement by the newspapers. For instance, G5N11 said: ”.Other participants said that these newspapers are the representatives of their owners and ideologies, G2N8 said “I have read the articles from the four papers and I think these papers have reported the issue from the microscope of the owners. We all know that these papers are the mouthpieces of the regime and opposition parties, so when they report any issue, that would be based on their ideologies and political interests“Al-Thawrah the official paper never reported the southern issue and the daily events in the South … instead by using improper language described the Southern Movement /Al-Harak as traitors, mercenaries and outlaw groups … devoted more articles about the national unity as a holy figure, its achievements… and the red line should not be crossed… besides sending warning messages or threats to use force upon whoever tried to abuse the unity…Yemen will be another Somalia… it is like enforcing the unity”.The participants expressed more by giving examples. G2N8 further explained:“Al-Sahwah is the voice of the biggest opposition party Islah … before 2009 used to report the issue in a way to provoke the regime because it was their conflict season with the ruling party… and after 2009 their political attitude towards the southern issue changed because of its disagreement with YSP… And I do not think these papers have any influence on the public perceptions… simply because they are not trusted ones, no accuracy or balance in reporting”G3S6 stated:“Unfortunately, these newspapers have proved that there is professional journalism in Yemen”.G5N13 agreed with G5S13 when the latter said Responses to the question “What do you think of the acceptance of the slogans “Unity or death” “Secession or deaths” are listed in Table “The use of the slogan “the unity or death” appears many times in the newspapers. It is like “Do not ever think of separation otherwise death would be your fate… It is sort of reminder for what happened in 1994”.About 86.7 % of the focus groups responded “unacceptable” when asked “Do you accept the slogans “unity or death, separation or death?”. G4S10 said “Wa Allah” -I Swear to God”- even if we would lose every single drop of our blood for unity…no separation will take place”. Another respondent from the South said “Well, if the northerners insist in using this slogan “Unity or death”, we “southerners” do not mind dying for separation” (G5S15).For those who accepted the use of the slogans, the respondent G1N6 challenged by saying Table About 73.3 % of the focus groups participants chose ‘oppose’ in solving the southern issue when asked, “What is your attitude towards separation?”Many participants mentioned that the unification is not the problem. Here are some of what have been stated.“What I have seen in the south …the majority of the south does not support the separation especially these days in Aden… and I am sure even if there is self-determination the unity will last”.G1N3 emphasized that “The southerners have the right to secede, because we had given up our independent county, sovereignty and flag… since the unity did not work out as we hoped, so we have the right to secede according to the unity’s conditions which were changed after the civil war”.About 28.7 % of the focus group participants ‘favored’ the separation. For instance, the respondent G3S2 said:Table “It is the time for Yemenis to decide their future by themselves neither the GPC nor the YSP or other groups… we are not going to repeat the same mistake in 1990 for not voting for the unity project … but since the southern issue is strongly disputable… giving the right to the Yemeni people for self-determination will be the right solution and everyone should be responsible for their choice”. G2N12 said: “I think of self-determination as either we go for the unity or separation, but it will be the right decision because it is all about the peoples’ acceptance”.Most of the participants ‘favored’ the right for self-determination when asked “What do you think of the right for self-determination?” For example, G1N4 said:Al-Harak. The movement was formed in 2007 and threatens the Yemeni unity by openly calling for secession. Although these groups were not representative of all segments of the Yemeni society, opinions obtained provide information on what people think of reporting the Southern Separatist Movement crisis and the Yemeni unity by different Yemeni print media. In addition, for more understanding these groups highlighted other related aspects to the topic in hand during the discussion. The information obtained from the focus groups has shown that the SSM crisis represents the key issue, and real threat for Yemenis to address since the pro-independent sentiment is on the rise. According to the participants the newspapers did not reflect what was happening on the ground. Day (The focus groups that were conducted presented an opportunity to know people’s perceptions and feelings on the southern crisis “which is mostly addressed as the southern cause” and generated the so called und. Day  stated tAl-Harak. The other factor that makes Al-Harak inconceivable is the use of regionalism and hatred as weapons, which were translated in the actions of some of the Harak’s elements in killing and attacking the northerners living in the South.Dahmas  stated tAl-Ayyam. They mentioned that somehow they read them to see how the political parties tend to get their political message across the public on issues more specifically toward the southern crisis. The participants provided identical reasons for not trusting these newspapers in regards to the southern crisis and the way of reporting the Southern Movement/Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy. Participants stated that these newspapers have no credibility and objectivity. They further said that there is an obvious lack of professionalism in the treatment of the content of the newspapers. According to them, the newspapers did not provide news analysis or investigative reports. Instead, they only reflected the opinions of the leadership of the political parties.Participants in focus groups have stated that they do read the four newspapers but not as trusted sources compared with the trusted papers such as Overall, these focus groups expressed that there is a cultural gap between the southerners and northerners; unfortunately, the media increase it by their biasness in presenting the southerners and their cause. One of the participants in full rage mentioned that the “These newspapers that I have read during the applicable session have shown their hideousness and lack of journalistic professionalism… and no wonder there is no future for journalism in Yemen”. In this respect, Al-Danani  found inAl-Thawrah newspaper as the mouthpiece of the regime. They said on the one hand; the newspaper denied the existence of the southern issue although the violent events reached its peak in the South. In this regard, a number of news items were repeating the statements of the former president, “Yemen is fine and there is no fear on the unification” and “What is happening in the South is just a storm in a teacup”. Besides, news items addressed the Southern Movement with offensive words such as “bunch of mercenaries, traitors, evil people, terrorists etc.” On the other hand, the regime directed a presidential committee to investigate the issue of lands in the South as well as forming popular committees for protecting the national unity since the attitudes of political powers started to favor the Southern Movement due to the disagreement with the regime.The findings of the focus groups indicate that the partisanship and the ownership of the media shape the news on the southern crisis without objectivity in searching for the facts of this political conflict. Participants proved during the session by analyzing some news items that different newspapers wrote the story about the southern crisis based on the political orientation of the paper, which derived from its ideology. For instance, some pointed at the contradiction in Al-Thawri, the mouthpiece of the YSP and the expected promoter of the southern cause sounded very weak in their coverage. According to the participants, Al-Thawri reported the issue like any other ordinary daily events. They opined that the newspaper toned down reporting due to the internal fragmentation among the members of the YSP as most of them joined the Southern Movement and formed the radical wing, which demands secession.The participants mentioned, surprisingly, that the coverage of the southern issue by Al-Harak or criticized the national unity, and the same situation was found among the southerners for anyone who criticized Al-Harak or did not support the southern issue. That certain behavior during the northerners’ sessions can be explained from a religious aspect since calling for separation and contempt for the unity is against what Allah orders. The behavior of the southerners to each other can be understood as some of the participants were strong supporters or in other words affiliated to Al-Harak Al-Janubbiy and they were from the cities which started the eruption, and they also come from different fractions of Al-Harak which obviously could not reach any single agreement.The study unexpectedly found disagreement among the northerners themselves and the southerners in regards to the southern crisis and the national unity. During the sessions with the northerners there were even some who were aggressive toward anyone who favors or supports In conclusion, the discussion with the groups revealed that media in general and the selected papers from various political persuasions are trying to instill democratic values which is consistent with their ideology, and which presents a serious impact on the value of liberal democracy. Another point worthy of mention is the absence of professional journalism in the media political discourse in general and the Yemeni partisan press in particular. That is manifested through the altercations among these newspapers, which in a way created feelings of hatred for the party and its press and cadres among the members of the society. The lack of objectivity and credibility has led the public to distrust and avoid these newspapers, and shift to information either from the trusted independent, Arab or international presses.Therefore, this study suggests that for the future of Yemeni journalism, it is necessary to free the press from partisanship and ownership restrictions that limit its freedom, which guarantee practicing journalism without the influence of political parties or powers in order to show the progress of democracy in media messages. In addition, there is further need to conduct research that pay more attention to the areas of conflict and resolve issues for the good of all the Yemenis of all political affiliations.


Based on certain assumptions for the expectation value of a product of the quantum fluctuating metric at two points, the gravitational and scalar field Lagrangians are evaluated. Assuming a vanishing expectation value of the first-order terms of the metric, the calculations are performed with an accuracy of second order. It is shown that such quantum corrections give rise to modified gravity. The problem of quantizing gravity has been debated frequently during the past decades. In doing so, it was established that the quantization of Einstein’s general relativity inevitably results in fundamental problems, such as the perturbative nonrenormalizability , 2. ThisOne possibility is to reject the perturbative quantization, as is done, for example, within the framework of loop-space nonperturbative quantum gravity . On the Working within this approach, we here consider the situation where a quantum metric can be decomposed into a sum of an averaged  metric Universe .For the quantum gravitating physical system considered here, with the decomposition of the metric into classical and quantum parts, the expectation value of the quantum part can be taken to be zero or nonzero, based on certain physical motivations. In the present paper we take it to be zero. This is in contrast to our previous work , where tAccording to Heisenberg’s nonperturbative quantization technique, the classical fields appearing in the corresponding field equations are replaced by operators of these fields. For general relativity, one then has the operator Einstein equationsMathematical tools for solving the operator Eq.  are unknEvidently Eqs. –5) cann cann5) cHere we use the following strategy for approximate solving Eqs. –5): we : we 5):  in Ref. .In accordance with the quantization procedure, a metric in quantum gravity is an operator In Ref.  we have  of Ref.  and the The Green’s function Taking into account the symmetry properties noted above, one can see that there exist the following possibilities for choosing the tensor The proportionality coefficient in the expressions  and 10)10) shoulThe expectation value Analogously to  and 10)10), we aFor each quantum state Thus, we assume that the quantum correlation between fluctuations of the metric at two points can be approximately described asFor our approximate nonperturbative calculations, we insert the decomposition  into theWe start from the classical Einstein–Hilbert LagrangianLet us now perform similar calculations for the matter Lagrangian, using the decomposition given by Eqs.  and 7)..7). For ing Eqs.  and replmentclasspt{minima., Refs. ).In the present paper we have considered the case of a quantum gravitating system when the metric can be decomposed into classical and quantum parts. For such a system, we have calculated the gravitational and matter Lagrangians with an accuracy up to the second variation of the metric. In doing so, we have decomposed the operator of the metric into a sum of its expectation value ..EinsteinThe proposed model, which takes into account the quantum fluctuations of the metric, provides us with the following scheme for the explanation of the present acceleration of the Universe: the quantum metric Note that the proposed procedure of quantizing the metric may be considered as being related to quantum gravity like the phenomenological Ginzburg–Landau model of superconductivity is related to the microscopical Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory: the proportionality coefficient


The recently developed perturbation iteration method is applied to boundary layer type singular problems for the first time. As a preliminary work on the topic, the simplest algorithm of PIA is employed in the calculations. Linear and nonlinear problems are solved to outline the basic ideas of the new solution technique. The inner and outer solutions are determined with the iteration algorithm and matched to construct a composite expansion valid within all parts of the domain. The solutions are contrasted with the available exact or numerical solutions. It is shown that the perturbation–iteration algorithm can be effectively used for solving boundary layer type problems. The small parameter assumption is one of the most characteristic limitations of the perturbation methods. For nonlinear problems, this corresponds to a weakly nonlinear system. In recent decades, efforts have been intensified to overcome the limitation of the perturbation methods and to produce uniform solutions for large perturbation parameters.n,m), n representing the number of correction terms in the perturbation expansion and m representing the highest order of derivatives in the Taylor series expansions. Although PIA corresponds to the well-known Newton–Raphson algorithm, many different algorithms non-existent in the literature can be constructed with different selections of the numbers n and m with n ≤ m , n representing the number of correction terms in the perturbation expansion and m representing the order of highest derivatives in the Taylor series expansion. The simplest algorithm is the PIA with one correction term in the perturbation expansion and first order derivatives in the Taylor series expansion. For consistency and solvable iteration equations, n should be equal or less than m (n ≤ m). As n or m increases, the convergence became faster but the algebraic complexity of the equations may end up with analytically unsolvable equations. In the previous work on differential equations, solutions are presented for PIA, PIA, PIA and PIA algorithms. In this pioneering and preliminary work on boundary layers, only the PIA algorithms are applied to boundary layer type problems. Linear and nonlinear problems are treated with the PIA method and solutions are contrasted with the available exact or numerical solutions of the original problem. For PIA, since the order of equations to be solved is less than the number of boundary conditions, the outer and inner solutions must be found by separate iterations and matched together similar to the method of matched asymptotic expansions.In the previous work, the systematic way of constructing perturbation–iteration algorithms are named as PIA the equations as well as the boundary conditions and boundaries should remain invariant under the transformations especially for nonlinear problems (Bluman and Kumei y = y(x) and ε is the perturbation parameter. Note that a parameter such as ε may not exist at all in the original equation. In that case, the parameter should carefully be inserted into the appropriate part of the equation. The role of the perturbation parameter is to simplify the resulting iteration equations which cannot be solved otherwise. If the parameter is artificially introduced, it can be taken as 1 at the end. Only one correction term is taken in the perturbation expansionε = 0. It is readily observed that the above equation is a variable coefficient non-homogenous linear second order differential equation with respect to the unknown y0, first y1. The iteration procedure is repeated using  algorithm is derived for second order differential equations. In accordance, only one correction term in the perturbation expansion and Taylor expansions up to first order derivatives are taken in constructing the iteration procedure. Consider a general second order differential equation,entclass1pt{minima,1 algorientclass1pt{minimaentclass1pt{minimaTwo linear second order constant coefficient problems, one homogenous and the other non-homogenous are treated using the PIA algorithm.Consider the singular perturbation problemx ≈ 0. Therefore, the outer solution is not expected to satisfy the condition at x = 0. Substituting  = 0, an iteration process can be constructed. Starting from a very simple guessx = 0 and therefore is not expected to satisfy the boundary condition at the right hand side. The equations solved are second order while the conditions are less than the required value of 2. The undetermined coefficients will be determined by the matching conditions.To summarize, the distinguished limit is Equation  takes thentclass1pt{minimaξx nowThe inner and outer solutions should smoothly combine in the overlapping region which requires solutions to be matched. Employing the Van Dyke’s  matchingxxx kept fixed and not negligibly small, For the right hand side of the equation in the matching, the inner expansion is represented in terms of the outer variable Equating , the conx = 0 (inside the boundary layer) and the outer solution is valid outside the boundary layer. A solution which is valid throughout the domain is desirable and one can construct a composite solution valid within all the domain of interestThe inner solution is valid in the neighborhood of To construct the composite expansion, one simply adds the inner and outer solutions and subtracts the common overlapping part which is counted twice from the solution. Substituting , 30) an an30) anConsider the non-homogenous linear boundary value problemx ≈ 0. Therefore, the outer solution is not expected to satisfy the condition at x = 0. Substituting  terms, solution  in which there is only one correction term in the perturbation expansion and at most first order derivatives in the Taylor series expansions is considered. For PIA, due to the reduction of differential order of the iterated equations, an outer and an inner expansion must be found independently via the appropriate iteration procedures. The solutions are then matched with each other to construct a composite expansion valid throughout the whole domain. Singular linear and nonlinear problems are treated with the method and results are compared with the available analytical or numerical solutions. It is shown that the method can be effectively applied to singular problems producing admissible analytical approximate solutions.