Rainfall-Induced Debris Flows Case History Along Al-Hada Descent Highway West of Saudi Arabia

Al-Hada descent lies at the western region of Saudi Arabia at elevation of about 2000m, characterized by sharp cliff. Al-Hada descent road was constructed with an elevation difference of 1500m between the highest and lowest heights along the road. The road alignment is intersected by 8 very steep gullies of almost 60 to 80 degrees. The gullies contain large quantity of mud, old levees and large rock blocks. Al-Hada descent road hit two weeks ago with heavy rainfall last about 2 hours. The rainstorm initiates 11 debris flows on steep gullies, and caused them to travel rapidly down along the gully channel. Once the flow reaches a less confined area at the retaining wall, it partially destroy the gabions above it, and edges of the retaining walls across the gullies and overflow them, as they received more rolling, sliding and bouncing rocks from higher steep elevations. The moving debris flows spread out, loose speed and deposited beyond the highway opposite side. Temporary solution is made by removing almost 100.000m3, of the debris flow in one gully and scaling the remaining debris body to an angle of more than 35°. A permanent solution for this case history is under intensive study

The role of culture in implementing management contracts within the hotel industry in Oman

Cultural difference is a primary factor both supporting and obstructing business cooperation. For example, international strategic alliances (ISAs) are affected by national cultures. The impacts of national cultures on ISAs in a diverse range of countries have been comprehensively explored and investigated. However, similar studies in Arab cultural contexts and emerging economies are comparatively rare, and the existing studies tend to be somewhat overgeneralised or performed by non-indigenous researchers, inviting criticism from researchers. Several types of alliances are affected by national culture. Most studies have concentrated on the area of equity multinational alliances, leaving the role played by culture in non-equity contractual alliances (such as licensing, franchising, partnership contracts and management contracts) under researched. It has been suggested that national cultural differences have stronger impacts on non-equity alliances; therefore, it is important to study non-equity alliances in the context of emerging economies in relation to the impacts of cultural differences. This thesis focuses on a type of non-equity alliance known as a management contract (MC) within the hotel industry in Oman, where the majority of five- and four-star hotels are managed by Western hotel general managers (WHGMs) and local midline managers (LMMs) under MCs. This thesis aims to investigate the influence of cultural differences on planning, control and HRM-related issues in implementing MCs within the hotel industry in Oman. A qualitative approach to investigation, data collection and analysis was adopted and a research protocol employing semi-structured interviews was developed. Data collection involved interviewing 26 Omani and Western managers who were selected through judgemental and snowball sampling. Manual and NVivo analyses were used in equal measure to analyse data. The coding stage of the raw data began with a manual method, followed by in-depth axial coding and interpretation of different themes, implemented through NVivo 11. The findings of this thesis contribute to the body of knowledge in several ways. First, determinants of selecting MCs as a form of collaboration in the hotel industry in Oman in preference to other types of alliances are unexplored. The following determinants are highlighted as reasons for selecting an MC alliance for collaboration in the hotel industry: using national resources without the burden of ownership; cooperative specialties; the ability to access new markets; control over management; access to skills to solve problems; performance efficiencies; local partner specialty of national rules and regulations; the ability to keep in touch with marketing schemes and new technologies; better learning outcomes; chances for greater internalisation; innovation of product and more options for local investments. Specifying these determinants for MC alliances has contributed to this research area, which is currently dominated by investigating equity alliances rather than non-equity contractual alliances. Second, the findings uncover the main cultural differences between WHGMs and LMMs with respect to daily operational planning activities in MC hotels. The findings suggest that the aims and budgets of MC hotels are influenced by cultural differences among management and staff. Performance goals are particularly affected. Cultural differences appear to influence levels of trust among WHGMs regarding the ability of LMMs to arrange, implement and achieve major performance goals in a timely manner. The findings reveal that factors linked to cultural differences, such as views of time, level of dependency on relations and commitment levels, affect the timely achievement of performance goals and the levels of trust between WHGMs and LMMs. These findings validate the cultural differences between WHGMs and LMMs based on dimensions of cultural values: synchronised versus sequenced, universalism versus particularism, masculine versus feminine and individualism versus collectivism. Moreover, cultural differences between WHGMs and LMMs influence the allocation of budgets to different expenditures and the attainment of agreement regarding extra expenditure. The findings reveal that WHGMs demand a budget plan be followed exactly without alteration, whereas LMMs expect that budget allocation will be changed in accordance with staff needs. This finding concurs with the cultural differences between Western and Arab suggested by the universalism versus particularism cultural dimension. It was observed that studies into the impact of culture on budget in an Arab context are rare, thus these findings provide in-depth qualitative descriptions regarding culture-related inter-management differences. Third, the findings uncover the possible differences between WHGMs and LMMs with respect to control-related issues such as competitor assessment, market assessment and dealing with consumers' responses. Cultural differences between WHGMs and LMMs, based on external versus internal, assertive versus dominant and masculine versus feminine, create different ways of assessing the market and different levels of flexibility towards necessary changes in the market. WHGMs demand that any changes with respect to the market be supported by rational reasons, whereas this is viewed as unnecessary by LMMs who believe that, because they are local, they know the local market better. These findings have contributed to the body of knowledge by investigating the impacts of cultural differences on market assessment as a substantial factor in controlling operational activities of MC hotels. Further, competitor assessment is found to be influenced by cultural differences, which create different levels of transparency in information disclosure and different levels of confidentiality in doing the assessment. The variations between WHGMs and LMMs in competitor assessment are due to cultural differences regarding the importance of personal relations, the importance placed on collective goals and the different views held regarding privacy and confidentiality between nations. These findings have contributed to the body of knowledge by linking the impacts of cultural differences on transparency level, confidentiality and control-related issues such as competitor assessment in a non-equity alliance implementation. Moreover, the findings reveal that cultural similarities between the manager and the consumer, the criteria used in assessing consumer feedback and the method of receiving complaints from consumers are crucial issues affected by cultural differences. The current findings make a significant contribution to the study of consumer response assessment and the impacts of cultural differences within an Arab cultural context, which has been hitherto neglected. Finally, the findings reveal that HRM-related issues such as selection and recruitment, training and staff loyalty are affected by cultural differences between WHGMs and LMMs in MC hotels. LMMs appear to consider the social and cultural pressures faced by local staff a valid reason to show empathy when interviewing them for jobs. In contrary, WHGMs viewed this as unnecessary involvement of personal lives in business. This finding validates the cultural differences between Arab and Western suggested by the specific versus diffuse cultures and the concept of the 'welfare society'. Linking the impacts of cultural differences to specific HRM-related issues is another significant contribution of this thesis. In conclusion, many studies have been conducted on the impacts of national cultural differences on the formation and performance of ISAs; however, investigation into the differential effects of these differences on various aspects of ISA operations - particularly non-equity ISAs - has been limited. Investigating this topic in an emerging economy and in an Arab cultural context thus contributes to this research area. In addition, using a precise cultural context such as the Omani culture works to address previous criticisms in the literature regarding the over-generalisation and indigenisation of Arab-context cultural studies. On the practical side, the present thesis has proposed programs to address the cultural challenges associated with operating multinational MCs in the hotel sector in Oman. These suggestions can inform policy makers, public agencies and partners in international hotel chains, helping them to address the challenges facing multicultural management teams in th

A pilot evaluation of the practicality of the surrey virtual rehabilitation system: Perspectives from end-users

The Surrey Virtual Rehabilitation System (SVRS) was developed for clinical use in physiotherapy for children with cerebral palsy (CP). The overall aim of this work was to evaluate the practicality of the SVRS for three simple lower extremity exercises. Two children with CP, two clinical engineering trainees and a physiotherapist performed the tests whilst parents and a paediatric physiotherapist observed the exercise sessions. The feedback collected during an open-discussion and the descriptive analysis of responses to 15 closed-ended questions suggest that the participants were satisfied with the practicality of the SVRS. Outcome measures derived from data collected during the sessions indicate that the SVRS may provide clinically relevant feedback on the performance of patients for themselves and their treating clinicians. In conclusion, the SVRS appears practical for rehabilitation purposes and is worthy of further evaluation and development. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Evaluation of quality assurance instruments in higher education institutions: A case of Oman

The use of a variety of instruments for quality assurance, management, and enhancement in higher education is well recognized. This article investigated the instruClose Panelments used by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Oman to measure, control, and manage the quality of their services in alignment with the standards set by Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA). Quality Assurance Managers (QAMs) from five HEIs were interviewed to identify the instruments used by them to fulfil the requirements of each standard and the way they make use of the data gathered by using these instruments. Findings from the study reveal that questionnaires and meetings are the most common instruments used by these institutions to measure, control and assure the efficacy of their current quality activities. In addition, HEIs use summary statistics to analyse data and then present them in meetings or through reports. On the other hand, it was found that substantial efforts are made to collect data but the efficient usage of data is missing. The QAMs reported a lack of awareness among the staff on the importance of collecting data since the staff members believe that these data are collected for documentation purposes only. This study emphasizes the importance of using the data gathered from different instruments in decision making and enhancing the quality of HEIs

Uji Efektivitas Mimba (Azadirachta Indica a. Juss) Dan Pemberian Nitrogen Terhadap Pelindian Nitrogen Dan Pertumbuhan Tanaman Jagung Manis (Zea Mays Saccharata Sturt) Pada Tanah Gambut

This research aims to find out the effectiveness of Neem and the application of Nitrogen to nitrogen leaching and sweet corn growth on peat soil. This research has been conducted in gauze house of Technical Implementation Unit (TIU) experimental station and analysis of leachate water has been conducted in Laboratory of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau, Pekanbaru. The research was held from October 2014 until January 2015. This research is factorial experiment and prepared in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) that consisted of 2 factors, which are nitrogen (N) application which is without nitrogen and with nitrogen 3,75g/column, and the second factor is Neem (M), which is without neem, 0,37g/column, 0,56g/column, 0,75g/column. The data that were obtained from research results were analyze statistically by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result of ANOVA further were tested using Duncan's multiple range test 5% significant level. The results of this research show that the application of neem until 0,75g/column dosage is not effective in decreasing nitrogen leaching on peat soil. The application of nitrogen on peat soil increases ammonium on leachate water on fourth week, but not on second and sixth week, while, on nitrat of leachate is significantly different compare to without application of nitrogen. The application of neem until 0,75g/column dosage and nitrogen 3,75g/column does not increase the growth of plant