77 research outputs found
The relationship between academic library usage and perceived personal performance in Kuwait
No full textAcademic libraries around the world often have to justify high maintenance costs. High maintenance costs of university libraries are often justified by the belief that regular use of an academic library improves the grades of students. However, this is a difficult statement to support, therefore demonstrating the link between library use and student outcomes is critical to ensuring that library investment continues.\ud
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Questionnaires and interviews were conducted and the findings were analysed to derive users’ perceptions. The findings revealed interesting results regarding how users make use of the library and how users feel the library improves their personal performance. Overall, the perception of all three groups of the academic libraries within Kuwait is positive, however many users are dissatisfied with some academic library services. Students answered positively regarding their grades and use of the academic library. Academics and administrators were generally positive and offered an experienced insight into the quality of the library. This study offers the first perception based results in Kuwait. The inclusion of administrators’ perceptions is also novel in terms of the Gulf States. A refined model was designed based on the overall findings within the study. This model can be applied to any academic library, regardless of size or collection type.\ud
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Based on findings, the researcher recommends taking the following points into consideration in order to improve library services and facilities for all users. Improvements could be made in the structure of library training courses and academic libraries should be providing flexible spaces for individuals and group study as well as social activities
The relationship between academic library usage and educational performance in Kuwait
No full textUniversity libraries play an important role in contributing to student and faculty members’ academic achievement. This study examines perceptions of university library usage to consider factors that influence achievement of students, academics and administrators. A thorough review of relevant literature examined approaches to determining user satisfaction of students and faculty, and factors that influence library usage. It highlighted the value of usage on educational performance. It enabled development of a theoretical framework leading to the Factors of Academic Library Usage (FALU) model, which was developed to investigate the effect of usage factors. FALU was tested in Kuwait university libraries. The study used validated questionnaires from 792 students, 143 academics and 121 administrators to measure five library factors. Interviews were conducted across the three University libraries. The findings are useful in measuring the correlation between the current academic library usage and educational performance
Technology And Innovation In Infection Control: Advancements And Future Directions
No full textBadr Fanikh Alrashdi,1 Ibraheem Musa Alrasheedi,2 Afnan Ahmad Abdullah Alhabardi,3 Abdullah Nabbaa Alrashdi,4 Mohammed Awadh Alharbi,5 Abdulrahman Yosef Alharbi,6 Abdullah Fahad Alharbi,7 Bandar Musa Aaish Alrashidi,8 Khaled Moteb Sunedh Alrasheedi,9 Essa Rasheed Mayyan Alresheedi,10 Ashwag Shaleh Alossaimi,11 Nawal Mohammed Saleh Almobaraki,12 Abeer Ali Abdullah Albishi,13 Manal Yahya Sayed,14 Ebtsam Mudhhi Al- Anazi15THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV
Technology And Innovation In Infection Control: Advancements And Future Directions
No full textBadr Fanikh Alrashdi,1 Ibraheem Musa Alrasheedi,2 Afnan Ahmad Abdullah Alhabardi,3 Abdullah Nabbaa Alrashdi,4 Mohammed Awadh Alharbi,5 Abdulrahman Yosef Alharbi,6 Abdullah Fahad Alharbi,7 Bandar Musa Aaish Alrashidi,8 Khaled Moteb Sunedh Alrasheedi,9 Essa Rasheed Mayyan Alresheedi,10 Ashwag Shaleh Alossaimi,11 Nawal Mohammed Saleh Almobaraki,12 Abeer Ali Abdullah Albishi,13 Manal Yahya Sayed,14 Ebtsam Mudhhi Al- Anazi15THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV
Thermal ecology and activity of the sand fish lizard, scincus mitranus (Scincidae) in Central Arabia
No full textAuthors: Al-Johany Awadh M.& Al-Sadoon, Mohamed K. From Department of Zoology,
Author: Al-Farraj Saud A., From Department of Biology
Riyadh, Teachers' College, King Saud University, P.O. Box 4341,
Riyadh 11491. Saudi ArabiaThermal ecology and activity of Scincus mitranus was investigated during winter and summer seasons. Emergence and basking behavior and seasonal activity were studied and analyzed. The lizard was active throughout the year except during cold spells of winter. However, it was found that during winter, daily activity was unimodal, which contrasted with the bimodal pattern during summer. Selected body temperature, critical minimum and maximum were studied and determined in the laboratory
Compositional and interfacial optimization for enhancement of perovskite solar cells performance
No full textNon-renewable sources are responsible for most of the overall greenhouse gas emissions, the development of sustainable energy sources is of prime importance to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. Among renewable sources, solar energy is one of the most abundant forms of energy available. Perovskite photovoltaics has emerged as one of the promising candidates for harvesting solar energy. However, these perovskite solar cells suffer from instability which is primarily due to the bulk and interface defects. In this thesis, we focus on the passivation of the bulk and interface defects to enable high-performance and stable devices. At the beginning of the thesis, we engineered the composition of mixed-cation and mixed-halide perovskite films by judicious incorporation of guanidinium iodide to suppress the parasitic charge carrier recombination, which enabled the fabrication of >20% efficient and operationally stable PSCs yielding reproducible photovoltage as high as 1.20 V. Thereafter, in our next project, we develop a facile strategy to reduce the level of electronic defects present at the interface between the perovskite film and the hole transport layer by treating the perovskite surface with different types of ammonium salts, namely ethylammonium, imidazolium, and guanidinium iodide. We find that this treatment boosts the power conversion efficiency from 20.5% for the control to 22.3%, 22.1%, and 21.0% for the devices treated with ethylammonium, imidazolium, and guanidinium iodide, respectively. Best performing devices showed a loss in efficiency of only 5% under full sunlight intensity with maximum power tracking for 550 h. We employed 2D-solid-state NMR (1H-1H correlation) spectroscopy to unravel the atomic-level mechanism of this passivation effect. Following that, we applied a facile and very effective method that employs methylammonium triiodide (MAI3) for bulk passivation together with interface passivation developed in the second project for holistic defect mitigation in perovskite solar cells. As a result, the champion device shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.46% with a high fill factor (FF) of over 80%. Furthermore, these devices exhibit enhanced operational stability, with the best device retaining ~ 90% of its initial PCE under 1 Sun illumination with maximum power point tracking for 350 h. Finally, in our last project, we reconfigured the design of the alkylammonium halide salts to create a holistic bulk and interface engineering. We show that dimethylammonium head along with octyl chain and iodide counter anion works best in the bulk whereas dimethylammonium head along with octyl chain and fluoride counter anion works best at the interface. With a synergistic combination of both bulk and surface passivation, we achieved a high PCE of 24.91% along with exceptional long-term operational stability. In summary, in this thesis we employed different strategies based on organic ammonium salts to engineer the bulk and interface of the PSCs. We did an in-depth investigation of the optoelectronic properties, local structure, and molecular interactions with a combination of characterization at different length and time scales. Our results show that it is imperative to passivate both bulk and interface defects for obtaining high efficiency and stable solar cells. From our work, one can take inspiration from the design and analysis of new materials for the passivation of the PSCs.LP
Review of theory of human resources development training (learning) participation
No full textStudies on training (learning) participation in human resources development program in the organizations are very sparse despites its importance in human resources development activities.This article tends to focus attention on identifying the factors influencing the training participation in human resources development intervention.This topic is very important in human resources development research because of the increasing concerns on e-learning drop-out rate, HRD measurement and evaluation. A comprehensive review of literature is presented to identify research gap in participation and completion of HRD – related intervention program. A conceptual framework of HRD training participation is proposed to describe the pattern, factors, structure and the interrelationship between the variables.Finally, the usefulness and applicability of the theory is discussed. In addition, the implication for future research will be discussed in detail
The role of FGF growth factors in the development of chemotherapy drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells.
No full textOvarian cancer is the most gynecological cancer, it has a 5-year mortality rate greater
than 70%. When ovarian cancer patients undergo chemotherapy their gene expression
changes. This project is studying a particular group of genes called Fibroblast Growth
Factors (FGFs), which have been found to be very important in cancer. The hypothesis
predicted that significant changes in the expression of FGF proteins are associated with
the development of drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Previous work developed three
resistant cell lines from the A2780 ovarian cancer cell line (A2780CBN, A2780DXL,
A2780CBNDXL), In the previous studies, microarray analysis was performed to find
changes in gene expression in the three cell lines. We have been able to confirm some of
the changes that indicated a possible role for FGF gene expression changes in drug
resistance. However, we could only confirm a change in protein expression for one of the
FGF factors, FGF23, which was altered in A2780CBN and A2780CBNDXL resistant cell
lines
Competitive strategies and barriers to achieving competitive advantage : a study of two Saudi Arabian industries.
No full textThis study focuses on how organisations achieve and sustain competitive
advantage and the possible barriers to this advantage. It first deals with a
theoretical framework by examining related literature on developing a better
understanding of competitive advantage and generic strategies, as well as the
important aspects that may affect a firm's achievement and the sustainability of
its competitive advantage. This study extends the strategic management
literature on competitive advantage and generic strategies mainly based on
Porter's (1980, 1985) work. In particular, instead of the two generic strategies
(differentiation and cost leadership) put forward by Porter, four competitive
strategies are developed. These are (1) price leadership, (2) low cost
differentiation, (3) imitation and (4) differentiation.
Barriers to competitive advantage are conceptionalised in terms of
"strategic coherence" model, which has three aspects. Competitive strategies
require internal consistency referred to as 'competitive coherence'. In addition,
'organisational coherence' needs to be built, involving the structure of internal
and external elements affecting an organisation's ability to achieve its
competitive advantage. The creation of this structure is not automatic. The
difficulties increase with growing dynamism and complexity of the environment
in which an organisation is operating. While competitive and organisational
coherence might exist accidentally, the third aspect developed in this study is
called 'cognitive coherence'. The lack of coherence in one or more of these
aspects is a barrier to a firm achieving and sustaining its competitive advantage.
Secondly, this study reports empirical evidence on the validity of the theoretical
framework. This study takes the case of two different industries (petrochemical
and food) in Saudi Arabia.
Results indicate that all four competitive strategies are possible and
statistically defined. In addition, high-performing firms, in both industries, have
more strategic coherence than lower performing firms. The results suggest that
high-performing firms are able not only to achieve their competitive advantage
but also to sustain it over time. Moreover, in each industry, firms with different
competitive strategies have different barriers to achieving their competitive
advantage. These results are consistent with those found in the existing
literature, lending support to the view that western strategy models seem to be
applicable to developing countries such as Saudi Arabia
The Predictive Factors of Acne Scarring and Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation: A Retrospective Cohort Study
No full textAwadh Alamri,1– 3 Dhaii Alzahrani,1,2 Ghadi Alharbi,1,2 Rami Jan,1,2 Lulu Abdullah Alsubaie,1,2 Amjad Alghamdi,1,2 Amal H Abualola,1,2 Abdulhadi Jfri1– 3 1College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 2King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Dermatology, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Rami Jan, College of Medicine – Jeddah, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O.Box.9515, Jeddah, 21423, Saudi Arabia, Email [email protected]: Acne vulgaris, a prevalent dermatological condition, often results in long-term complications such as scarring and hyperpigmentation. While extensive research has focused on treatment modalities, there is a notable gap in understanding the factors contributing to the development of acne scarring and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH).Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the factors contributing to the development of acne scarring and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH).Patients and Methods: This retrospective cohort study, conducted at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, analyzed data from patients with acne vulgaris between 2016 and 2023 using the hospital’s health information system, BESTCare. Statistical analysis was performed using RStudio (R version 4.3.1). We constructed a multivariable, multinomial logistic regression model to assess the independent predictors of four acne complication groups; no scarring/PIH, scarring alone, PIH alone, and acne scarring with PIH.Results: Among 417 analyzed participants, 95 participants had acne scarring (22.8%), 93 participants had PIH alone (22.3%), and 151 participants had both acne scarring with PIH (36.2%), and only 78 participants did not develop scarring or PIH (18.7%). Isotretinoin use and papules acne were associated with increased risk of acne complications. While adapalene gel was protective against acne scarring only.Conclusion: This retrospective study sheds light on factors influencing acne scarring and PIH among Acne Vulgaris patients. Our findings provide valuable insights for tailoring interventions and advancing our understanding of acne vulgaris complications in the future.Keywords: acne vulgaris, acne scarring, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, predictive factors, retrospective cohort stud
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