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Assessing quality of management practices in Palestinian hospitals
No full textThis paper aims to provide an assessment of the quality of management practices and implementation in hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Criteria.
The results show that the performance of non-governmental organizations and private hospitals was superior with respect to all other administrative types. A closer look at the results show that all hospitals exhibit areas of concern such as human resource focus, information and analysis, as well as performance results.
Strip, this research promotes critical management practices aimed at improving quality of management
practices and their subsequent implementation in the surveyed hospitals.
This paper presents a fresh perspective on the quality management issues in Palestinian hospitals to practitioners, administrators and academics using the MBNQA Criteria. Also, it serves as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals
Managerial training and development in telecommunication organizations in Palestine
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and extent of management development
and training in Palestinian telecommunication organizations using a basic trichotomous (three-stage)
model: needs assessment, training development, and evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaires supported by semi-structured interviews
was conducted to capture and corroborate the issues raised by middle and senior managers. Subsequently,
the valid data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and was tabulated for the
purpose of interpretation and comparison with the findings available from literature.
Findings – Despite the systematic approach to training and development, the findings revealed
inadequacy deriving from heavy emphasis on conventional methods throughout the three stages
particularly the formal in-house training; the current system does not offer a holistic approach to meet
the challenging needs for management development.
Research limitations/implications – The study adopts an exploratory in depth empirical
investigation in Palestinian telecommunication organizations, it provides insight into management
training and development in the private sector in Palestine. It has profound theoretical and practical
implications for the increased effectiveness of management in the region and beyond.
Practical implications – The use of trichotomous approach explores the entire process, rather
than implementation alone, thus the findings will have practical implications for the researcher
and practitioners to design, implement, and systematically appraise the effectiveness of training
development initiatives.
Originality/value – This paper offers both professionals and academics a fresh perspective on training
and development in Palestinian telecommunication organizations; it highlights the importance of such
activity, and stresses on the need for the design of programmes that can adequately incorporate
the individual and corporate needs for development
Distributed data management in sensor networks using miniDB / miniSQL
No full textRecent research in the domain of sensor networks demonstrated the strong need for network-centric data preprocessing in order to maximize the lifetime of typical sensor networks. This includes the feasibility to store and to retrieve data close to the origin of the measurements. We have build a database oriented approach to sensor networks that is primarily focusing on minimizing the communication overhead. In particular, an API, named miniDB, allows to store and retrieve named data in sensor nodes and an associated communication protocol, named miniSQL, can be used to identify available data and to retrieve them from any point in the network. SQL-like expressions can
be used for simplified access to the data, either addressing single nodes or tables, or even the entire network. In conclusion, the system represents all necessary base functions for distributed
data management operations in a network-centric manne
نحو إعداد سياسة وطنية للإسكان في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة
No full textعرضت الورقة الأدبيات المتاحة حول قطاع الإسكان الفلسطيني، واستعرضت تجارب بعض الدول العربية وبعض الدول المتقدمة التي عملت على تنفيذ سياسات إسكان فعالة للاستفادة منها في استخلاص العبر. كما راجعت بشكل نقدي الجهود الرسمية التي بذلت لإعداد السياسة الوطنية للإسكان في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة التي تولت تنسيقها وزارة الأشغال العامة والإسكان الفلسطينية وبمشاركة جميع المؤسسات والأطراف ذات العلاقة، بما في ذلك المساهمة التي أعدها موئل الأمم المتحدة للسكان أيضا. وعرضت الدراسة نتائج وتوصيات الأبحاث التي أعدها معهد أبحاث السياسات الاقتصادية الفلسطيني - ماس حول مختلف أبعاد قطاع الإسكان الفلسطيني خلال العامين 2014 و2015 .كما تضمنت الدراسة فصلا حول منظومة تمويل الإسكان في الأراضي المحتلة، والوقوف على النواقص القانونية والمؤسسية التي ما زالت تكبل تطورها، مما يفقد أية سياسة إسكان وطنية من أداتها الرئيسية لتوفير السكن الميسر لشرائح الدخل المتدني المستهدفة. وخرجت الدراسة بالعديد من التوصيات لإعداد سياسة إسكان فعال
Discharge prediction in flow measurement flumes with different downstream transition slopes
No full textExperimental testing of 9 different rectangular compound cross-section flow measurement flumes with different downstream slopes was conducted to yield the coefficient of discharge and the approach velocity coefficient. The aim of the experimental research was the determination of stage–discharge relationship in compound cross-section flow measurement flumes with different downstream slopes. One empirical predictive model for each of the coefficient of discharge and the approach velocity coefficient for the 9 cross-sections have been derived using one dimensionless parameter for the coefficient of discharge and another one dimensionless parameter for the approach velocity coefficient as the single independent variable. This approach is preferred as it allows the estimation of discharge by only mea-suring the water depth at the head measurement section. All obtained predictive models statistics have indicated the high reliability of the derived models in estimating discharge in an open channel
flume of a rectangular compound cross-section using the predicted coefficients
Very long chain ceramides interfere with C16-ceramide-induced channel formation : a plausible mechanism for regulating the initiation of intrinsic apoptosis
No full textMitochondria mediate both cell survival and death. The intrinsic apoptotic pathway is initiated by the permeabilization
of the mitochondrial outer membrane to pro-apoptotic inter-membrane space (IMS) proteins.
Many pathways cause the egress of IMS proteins. Of particular interest is the ability of ceramide to selfassemble
into dynamic water-filled channels. The formation of ceramide channels is regulated extensively by
Bcl-2 family proteins and dihydroceramide. Here, we show that the chain length of biologically active ceramides
serves as an important regulatory factor. Ceramides are synthesized by a family of six mammalian ceramide
synthases (CerS) each of which produces a subset of ceramides that differ in their fatty acyl chain length. Various
ceramides permeabilize mitochondria differentially. Interestingly, the presence of very long chain ceramides reduces
the potency of C16-mediated mitochondrial permeabilization indicating that the intercalation of the lipids
in the dynamic channel has a destabilizing effect, reminiscent of dihydroceramide inhibition of ceramide channel
formation (Stiban et al., 2006). Moreover, mitochondria isolated from cells overexpressing the ceramide synthase
responsible for the production of C16-ceramide (CerS5) are permeabilized faster upon the exogenous addition of
C16-ceramide whereas they are resistant to permeabilization with added C24-ceramide. On the other hand mitochondria
isolated from CerS2-overexpressing cells show the opposite pattern, indicating that the product of
CerS2 inhibits C16-channel formation ex vivo and vice versa. This interplay between different ceramide metabolic
enzymes and their products adds a new dimension to the complexity of mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis, and
emphasizes its role as a key regulatory step that commits cells to life or deat
