238 research outputs found
Semantic Web Technologies for Digital Libraries: From Libraries to Social Semantic Digital Libraries (SSDL), Over Semantic Digital Libraries (SDL)
No full textDigital libraries have been an important source of information throughout the history of mankind. It has been present in our societies in different forms. Notably, traditional libraries have found their on the desktops of internet users. They have taken the shape of semantic digital libraries, which are accessible at any time, and accordingly provide a more meaningful search. This paper further discusses social semantic digital libraries that also incorporate the social and collaborative aspect
Strategic planning: a practice perspective on strategic initiatives an applied study on Saudi telecommunication companies
No full textThis research focuses on the link between strategic planning activities, and the development and implementation of strategic initiatives. It explores the activities and practitioners involved in the development and implementation of strategic initiatives during strategic planning. The theoretical lens applied in this research is activity theory (Blackler, 1993; Engestrom, 1987; Jarzabkowski, 2003), which is proposed to help explore the strategic planning process over time (Vygotsky, 1978; Jarzabkowski, 2003, Jarzabkowski & Balogun, 2009), in addition to the exploration of the internal dynamics of organisational continuity and change (Jarzabkowski, 2003). In order to achieve the research aim, a qualitative positivist paradigm (Burrell & Morgan, 1979; Easterby-Smith et al., 1991, Nutt, 1989, 2004) and multiple case study methods (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003) were employed to guide the entire research process. Multiple data collection methods were employed, namely observations, interviews, and document analysis in three Saudi telecommunications companies over a period of more than 2 years. Eisenhardt (1989), Miles & Huberman, (1994), and Yin’s (2003) methods were employed for analysing the qualitative data. The outcomes highlighted the activities of the strategic planning process in general, and then on those specific activities that influence the development and implementation of strategic initiatives in the three cases. Subsequently, within and cross-case analysis explored further, the three stages of the development and implementation of strategic initiatives, i.e. of initiation, development, and implementation. The outcomes also explained how these specific activities influence the development and implementation of strategic initiatives, in terms of the sequences of activities, and the contradictions that have been found between their components. The study also provided solid evidence on the practitioners involved in the strategic planning process and on their role during the three stages, and on the tools used during these stages of strategic initiatives.This study makes several potential contributions including analysing strategic planning activities through the use of the activity theory model, understanding the influence of the strategic planning activities on developing and implementing strategic initiatives, and extending understanding in relation to the strategic planning process in the context of the Saudi telecommunications industry. This understanding is significant in the business environment due to the limited amount of existing research of the strategic planning process from a practice perspective and in the Saudi environment in particular
sj-pdf-1-tui-10.1179173X221075581 – Supplemental Material for Effects of Abstinence Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancies of Tobacco Smoking on the Desire to Quit Among Saudi Women: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis
No full textSupplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-tui-10.1179173X221075581 for Effects of Abstinence Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancies of Tobacco Smoking on the Desire to Quit Among Saudi Women: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis by Abdullah M Alanazi, Shahad F Almutairi, Alanoud A Alsarami, Fay J Alanazi, Lama H Alqahtani, Tareq F Alotaibi, Saleh S Algarni, Sarah S Monshi and Taha T Ismaeil in tobacco use insights</p
Corrigendum to ‘Long acting anti-infection constructs on titanium [Journal of Controlled Release 326 (2020) 91–105]’ (Journal of Controlled Release (2020) 326 (91–105), (S0168365920303473), (10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.06.013))
No full textThe authors regret that the affiliation for the author Hadil Faris Alotaibi was incorrect in the published paper stating they were associated with both a and c. The correct affiliation is c Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy college, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. DOI of original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.06.01
Optimizing the planning of building renovation projects
No full textSubmission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2023-12-01The student, Mansour Alotaibi, accepted the attached license on 2021-11-25 at 23:05.The student, Mansour Alotaibi, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2021-11-25 at 23:14.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2021-11-30 at 09:03.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17271 on 2022-04-29 at 16:10:01Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-29T21:58:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemAuthor requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemLimitedA large number of the buildings in the United States are aging and in urgent need of renovation to improve their operational, economic, social, and environmental performance. To address this, building renovation projects in the United States have been increasing in recent years. A significant volume of this building renovation work focuses on leased buildings and hotel properties as they represent a substantial percentage of all existing buildings. This type of building renovation projects presents planners with significant challenges because they need to consider and minimize the disruptive impact of renovation activities on building operations and revenues during the planned work.
The main goal of this study is to present the development of novel models for optimizing the planning of building renovation projects that are capable of analyzing and minimizing the disruptive impact of renovation activities on the revenues of leased buildings and hotels. To achieve this goal, the research objectives of this study are to develop: (1) a novel model for optimizing the planning of leased building renovation projects that enables building owners to minimize total renovation cost including rental income losses; (2) an innovative model for optimizing the planning of renovation work in leased buildings that enables contractors working under Integrated Project Delivery method to maximize their reward sharing while minimizing total renovation cost; and (3) a novel model for optimizing the planning of hotel renovation projects that enables hotel owners to maximize their revenues during renovation work while minimizing project cost. The performance of the developed models was analyzed using real-life case studies. The results of this analysis illustrated the novel and unique capabilities of the developed models to (i) generate feasible renovation plans that fully comply with all practical constraints including the availability dates of leased units and hotel floors, (ii) quantify and minimize revenue losses of leased buildings and hotels during renovation work, (iii) reduce total renovation cost, and (iv) maximize net profits of both owners and contractors
Reforming Jointly Owned Property in Line with Saudi Vision 2030: Socio- legal Lessons Learned from English Commonhold and South African Sectional Title
No full textThis thesis critically examines how Saudi Arabia’s Jointly owned property law and practises can be reformed to support Saudi’s 2030 housing development plan, which aims to increase home ownership in the country. Due to space restrictions and overcrowding in densely populated areas, jointly owned property is key to realising this objective. However, this thesis outlines several challenges, including inadequate legal awareness about JOP, disputes and enforcement issues, currently impede this aim, leading to an increasing demand for reforms.
To address these challenges and propose appropriate reforms, this thesis adopts a comparative socio-legal methodology that brings insights from comparative doctrinal analysis into conversation with those insights gained from interviews with owners/lawyers conducted in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and England. Employing grounded theory for data analysis, themes emerged from the data, highlighting commonalities of best practices across the jurisdictions and also the need for a locally tailored governance framework due to different cultural norms. The analysis highlights gaps in the regulatory framework itself as well as enforcement and awareness for Saudi owners and tenants. To further examine the challenges for local unit owners and tenants, the thesis adopts Saudi-specific case studies. The case studies also highlight the impact of all reform proposals put forward throughout the thesis
Generalized multiscale finite element methods for the reduced model of darcy flow in fractured porous media
No full textIn this work, we combine the generalized multiscale finite element method (GMsFEM) with a reduced model based on the discrete fracture model (DFM) to resolve the difficulties of simulating flow in fractured porous media while efficiently and accurately reducing the computational complexity resulting from resolving the fine scale effects of the fractures. The geometrical structure of the fractures is discretely resolved within the model using the DFM. The advantage of using GMsFEM is to represent the fracture effects on a coarse grid via multiscale basis functions constructed using local spectral problems. Solving local problems leads to consideration and usage of small scale information in each coarse grid. Besides, the multiscale basis functions, generated following GMsFEM framework, are parameter independent and constructed once in what we call offline stage. These basis functions can be re-used for solving the problem for any input parameter when it is needed. Combining GMsFEM and DFM has been introduced in other works assuming continuous pressure across the fractures interface. This continuity is obtained when the fractures are much more permeable than that in the matrix domain. In this work, we consider a general case for the permeability in both fracture and matrix domain using the reduced model presented in Martin et al. (2005). The proposed reduction technique has significant impact on enabling engineers and scientist to efficiently, accurately and inexpensively solve the large and complex system resulted from modeling flow in fractured porous mediaThe first author Manal Alotaibi would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Department of Mathematics at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) under Start-up Research Grant number . The work of Huangxin Chen was supported by the NSF of China (Grant No. 12122115, 11771363)The work of Shuyu Sun was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) through the grants BAS/1/1351-01, URF/1/4074-01, and URF/1/3769-0
A Biophysically-based Skin Reflectance Model for Face Analysis.
No full textHuman faces are the most distinctive feature of human appearance. Humans are extremely perceptive to recognise people and ingest the biophysical and emotional state of people. This thesis presents research aimed to use a biophysical, spectral skin colouration model to constrain the skin colours of the human face suitable for appearance face modelling tasks. More specifically, we use two free histological parameters: the melanin and haemoglobin to describe the characteristics of skin spectral reflectance. We start by focusing on developing a biophysical spectral reflectance skin model of light interaction with skin that is suitable for face analysis tasks. The model is able to represent a wide variety of skin colour types and biophysical phenomena. The model is sufficiently simple to allow skin parameters to be estimated from the image of a face as well as efficient so that it is suitable for statistical modelling and deep learning neural networks. The parameters of this model define biophysical properties of the face. Next, we propose a hybrid of biophysical skin colouration model and statistical modelling. We present methods for fitting the skin model to data captured in a lightstage and then build our hybrid model on a sample of such registered data. Then, we demonstrate a novel approach that combines a dichromatic reflectance model and our biophysical skin model to decompose multispectral human face images into its intrinsic properties: the biophysical layers: the melanin and haemoglobin, the diffuse shading and specular reflection. We show that constraining the albedo colour with our biophysical reflectance model gives a high-quality intrinsic face images estimation. In our final contribution, we take advantage of deep learning and propose a deep convolutional neural network that learns to decompose a single uncontrolled face image into biophysical parameter maps, diffuse and specular shading maps. Furthermore, we estimate the spectral power distribution of the illuminant and the spectral sensitivity of the camera
Intronic elements in the Na+/I-symporter gene (NIS) interact with retinoic acid receptors and mediate initiation of transcription
No full textActivity of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) in lactating breast is essential for iodide (I-) accumulation in milk. Significant NIS upregulation was also reported in breast cancer, indicating a potential use of radioiodide treatment. All-trans-retinoic acid (tRA) is a potent ligand that enhances NIS expression in a subset of breast cancer cell lines and in experimental breast cancer models. Indirect tRA stimulation of NIS in breast cancer cells is very well documented; however, direct upregulation by tRA-activated nuclear receptors has not been identified yet. Aiming to uncover cis-acting elements directly regulating NIS expression, we screened evolutionary-conserved non-coding genomic sequences for responsiveness to tRA in MCF-7. Here, we report that a potent enhancer in the first intron of NIS mediates direct regulation by tRA-stimulated nuclear receptors. In vitro as well as in vivo DNA-protein interaction assays revealed direct association between retinoic acid receptor-α (RARα) and retinoid-X-receptor (RXR) with this enhancer. Moreover, using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) we uncovered early events of NIS transcription in response to tRA, which require the interaction of several novel intronic tRA responsive elements. These findings indicate a complex interplay between nuclear receptors, RNA Pol-II and multiple intronic RAREs in NIS gene, and they establish a novel mechanistic model for tRA-induced gene transcription. © The Author(s) 2010. Published by Oxford University Press
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