An Investigation of Quality of Urban Life: A Case Study of Quba Municipality, Medina City, Saudi Arabia

The term quality of urban life (QoUL) usually refers to the well-being of people and the quality of the environment in which they live. Over the past three decades, there has been an increasing interest in the study and an investigation of QoUL, which has attracted the attention of researchers in several fields, such as geography, psychology, economics, politics and sociology. In general, outputs of QoUL investigation can be used to diagnose previous policy strategies and to design future planning policies. The investigation of QoUL provides a basis of data that helps identify issues concerning the urban environment, causes of dissatisfaction, people’s priorities in their daily lives, as well as monitoring and assessment of the efficiency of policies and strategies related to QoUL. Despite the large body of QoUL literature, there is still no agreed definition, or agreement over the way in which QoUL is investigated. However, there is wide consensus that QoUL has both subjective and objective dimensions. Although QoUL has been of interest in many disciplines around the world during the past three decades, it is relatively unexplored in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the QoUL in the city of Medina, the case of Quba Municipality. To this end, this research uses different conceptual approaches, namely functionalist and postmodernity approaches, in order to provide an overarching understanding of the QoUL characteristics in the study area. Such understanding involves identifying the most influential aspects of the physical, economic, social and cultural domains, and exploring the impact of these aspects on QoUL in the study area. In so doing, this thesis tries to address some key challenges related to the current approaches to QoUL and provides a research framework of investigation that may lead to rethinking about QoUL

The Impact of Operational Risk Management on the Financial Development and Economic Growth: A Case Study of Saudi SME Companies

Project finance is a strong driver of economic growth in low income countries where transaction costs are particularly high. One of the main obstacles covering huge associations today is reviewing and commanding the risks that are generated from the risk operations. Through the representation of a business procedure a lot of oddities, that is, aberrations from the normal succession of occurrences might happen. To warrant that a procedure is still able to carry through its organizational targets, procedure entrants must be able to expose, analyze and prosperously resolve such unusual conditions as they occur. This paper intends to measure the operational risk management effects on the financial development and growth in the Saudi SME companies. Online survey was distributed among 150 employees from different SME companies in Saudi Arabia. The result showed that operational risk management effects have positive effects of the financial development and growth in the Saudi SME companies. Keywords: Operational risk, risk management, financial development, economic growt

The Impact of Interest Rate on Profit among the United Arab Emirates UAE Small and Medium Companies

Interest rate has long been reported by different classical and neo-classical economists. Interest rate but has been recognized as one of the factors that verify the economy savings level. Although many economical cases of inconsistent findings indicate that interest rate has a positive relationship with savings. This papers intends to highlight the prior research that conducted to demonstrate the impact of the interest rate on the profit differ by various variables. A qualitative method was used in this study to indicate the interest rate impact level on the UAE small and medium companies profit. A questionnaire was administrated among 20 users from different medium companies in UAE. The result revealed that interest rate was highly effects on the companies profit in UAE. Keywords: Interest rate, profit, SME, business management, organizational behavio

Clinical Management in Diagnosis and Treatment of the Iron Deficiency Anemia in Adults: Systemic Review

This study aimed at exploring with a systematic review the clinical management in diagnosis and treatment of the iron deficiency anemia in adults, as the iron deficiency is the most frequent cause of anemia worldwide. And it impairs quality of life, increases asthenia and can lead to clinical worsening of patients. In addition, iron deficiency has a complex mechanism whose pathologic pathway is recently becoming better understood. This review summarizes the current knowledge regarding diagnostic algorithms for iron deficiency anemia. The majority of aetiologies occur in the digestive tract, and justify morphological examination of the gut. First line investigations are upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and colonoscopy, and when negative, the small bowel should be explored; newer tools such as video capsule endoscopy have also been developed. The treatment of iron deficiency is aetiological if possible and iron supplementation whether in oral or in parenteral form.

Risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury in population with elevated body mass index

Aim Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is among the most common orthopaedic injuries. The elevated body mass index (BMI) can contribute to non-contact ACL injury. This study aims to assess the risk of ACL injury among elevated BMI population people (BMI ≥25 Kg\m2). Methods This is a cross sectional study that was conducted in a tertiary care centre in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A total of 302 patients, who had an ACL reconstruction surgery in a ten-year-period (January 2008 to December 2018) were included. Results Sport related injury is significantly higher among the overweight and obese groups (p=0.002). Moreover, the combined ACL tear was higher among the overweight and obese groups (p=0.001). In univariate regression analysis for the selected baseline characteristics, it was found that individuals with higher BMI have chance to develop combined (ACL) injury 2 times higher when compared to those with isolated ACL injury (p=0.003). Also, the ACL type, mode of injury, types of injury and type of sports were statistically significant in univariate regression analysis. However, only the mode of injury was statistically significant after controlling the confounding factors. Other selected variables like type of sport, type of injury and ACL type were not significant. Conclusion Elevated BMI was associated with a higher risk of developing combined ACL tear as well as reinjured individuals

Epidemiology of congenital heart disease among pediatric patients in Northwest, Saudi Arabia

BackgroundCongenital heart defect (CHD) is considered one of the commonest major birth defects, causing children’s morbidity and mortality.AimsTo define the frequency and epidemiology of congenital heart disease among children in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.Methods This was a retrospective observational study based on the medical hearts. The study population consisted of pediatric patients with confirmed CHD, who were referred to the pediatric cardiology clinic at the King Salman Armed Forces Hospital, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia between January 2015 and June 2019. Of patients with CHD, those with patent ducts arteriosus (PDA) and persistent foramen oval spontaneously resolved during the first four weeks of life were excluded.Results A total of 1,647 pediatric patients were referred to the pediatric cardiology clinic. Of these, 851 were confirmed to have CHD. The diagnosis was made most frequently during the neonatal period. The following three were most frequently observed (in the order of): Ventricular septal defect (VSD: 42 per cent), atrial septal defect (ASD: 32.6 per cent), PDA (16.2 per cent). Down syndrome (DS) was the most frequent underlying condition. Approximately two-thirds of cases were managed conservatively.ConclusionWe demonstrated the characteristics of children’s CHD in this referral center. The data may be important to further make health-policy-making in this area

Adherence to antidiabetic medication during the month of Ramadan among diabetes mellitus patients in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Ramadan may lead to reduced adherence to antidiabetic medications among Saudi diabetes patients due to fasting, changes in daily routine, social and cultural influences, health risks, and inadequate awareness. This study aimed to assess the Saudi population adherence to the diabetes management medication in Ramadan. Methodology: A convenience sampling method was used to recruit participants for the study. Participants were sourced from social media platforms, diabetes mellitus patient groups, and healthcare providers groups. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), a tool, was used to assess medication compliance. Results: A total of 384 individuals were included in this study, 20.3% were from Riyadh, 52.3% were males, 35% aged 31-50 years, and 64.1% had type 2 diabetes mellitus of participants. Age between 31-50 years was negatively associated with compliance (β = -1.06, p = 0.002), while age between 51-65 years is positively associated ((β= 1.00, p = 0.003). Being male was negatively associated with compliance (β= -0.72, p = 0.001). Different fasting behaviors like non-fasting one day or more (β = -2.92, p < 0.001) and fasting all month (β = -2.90, p < 0.001), significantly affect compliance scores with negative associations indicating lower compliance during fasting periods. Various HbA1c levels were significant predictors of compliance. Higher HbA1c levels were associated with increased compliance. Conclusions: The study reveals that age, gender, fasting behaviors and HbA1c levels significantly impact medication compliance among patients with diabetes mellitus during Ramadan

Market failures and costs of intermediation cause obstacles to the delivery of transactions: A critical discussion on the impact of information asymmetries and conflicts of interest on contractual relationships

To understand economic growth, this paper looks at transaction costs and how they affect how much money people make. It shows transaction costs, market failure, and economic underdevelopment. Many people think that the problems with development are because markets can't do their job of allocating resources. Some people don't believe that the market doesn't work and blame the government instead. If you look at the people who say that market failure is the root of economic backwardness, very few, if any, look at transaction costs and how they are linked to market failure. People who read this paper want to connect development economics with transaction cost theory and new institutional analysis