Towards an intelligent Holy City: assessing the current training needs for the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah

The Hajj represents the fifth pillar of Islam, and more than three million pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia every year to fulfil this obligation. Managing the Hajj effectively and ensuring the safety of the pilgrims is a complex process that requires highly specialised skills and expertise. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (MHU) is responsible for Hajj planning. It is constantly striving to improve the services provided to pilgrims, notably by enhancing its crowd management capabilities. According to its Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia intends to increase its capacity to accommodate a larger number of Hajj pilgrims to increase income from non-oil products. As a result, the MHU is seeking to develop its employees' knowledge and skills and raise their capabilities in the field of technology and management of large crowds. Therefore, this research aims to assess the current training needs in the MHU, identify current challenges, skills and knowledge gaps, and develop a training needs analysis (TNA) framework to support the strategic development of up-skilling of employees. A mixed approach of using literature review, questionaries, and interviews is utilised with qualitative and quantitative analysis methods to achieve these aims. The use of more than one method of collecting data was implemented to achieve data triangulation. The qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis, and the quantitative data were analysed using statistical analysis. The findings showed a lack of understanding of TNA, lack of support from top management, poor communication, lack of technical skills, and a lack of professional expertise. The results also recognised some unique barriers to the adoption of TNA, including undesirable attitudes toward TNA; a lack of enforcement (putting into practice) towards training in general; no systematic attempts to address the most significant performance problems, and a lack of strategic planning in the conduct of training. However, all these challenges can be reduced by effectively implementing the suggested TNA framework and the recommendations of this research work. This study's original contribution is developing a comprehensive understanding of adopting training needs analysis (TNA) in the MHU in Saudi Arabia, one of the first practical studies about TNA in the MHU. Therefore, the study's findings will reinforce the current literature about TNA associated barriers in organisations and fill the gap in knowledge relating to the strategic development of training at MHU in particular; and in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in general

Electrochemical Synthesis of o-anisidine - o-aminophenol ?Copolymers

Electroactive conducting copolymers of o-anisidine and o-aminophenol molecules were pre-?pared in ?aqueous solution by electrode ?potential cycling. Copolymerization was carried out at ?constant feed ?concentration of o-anisidine (30 mM) and different feed concentration of o-?aminophenol on a ?gold ?electrode. Three different feed concentrations of o-aminophenol were ?used to prepare three different ?copolymers. The ?obtained copolymers were characterized with ?cyclic voltammetry. ?Both homopolymers ?and copolymers were obtained by cycling the potential between -0.20 V and different upper ?potential ?limits.? The copolymers formed with different feed concentrations of o-aminophenol exhibited different ?cyclic ?voltammetric behav?iors. In some cases using different cycling range of polymerization leads ?to ?different cyclic ?voltammetric behaviors of the obtained copolymers.? Keywords: cyclic ?voltammetry?, o-anisidine, o-aminophenol, copolymer

Preparing the path for the efficient simulation of turbulent compressible industrial flows with robust collocated RK-DG solvers

We present an analysis of the performance of some standard and optimized explicitly Runge­ Kutta schemes that are equipped with CFL-based and error-based time step adaptivity when they are coupled with the relaxation procedure to achieve fully-discrete entropy stability for complex compressible flow simulations. We investigate the performance of the temporal integration algorithms by simulating the flow past the NASA juncture flow model using the in-house KAUST SSDC hp-adaptive collocated entropy stable discontinuous Galerkin solver. In addition, we present a preliminary analysis of the performance of the SSDC framework on the Amazon web service cloud computing. The results indicate that SSDC scales well on the most recent and exotic computing architectures available on the Amazon cloud platform. Our findings might help select a more robust and efficient temporal integration algorithm and guide the choice of the EC2 AWS instances that give the best price and wall-clock-time performance to simulate industrially relevant turbulent flow problems

Electrochemical Synthesis, Characterization and Electrochemical behaviour of New Conducting Copolymer of 2-methoxyaniline-co-2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxine-2-carboxylic acid

Electroactive conducting copolymers of 2-methoxyaniline  and ??2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxine-2-carboxylic acid (EDOT carboxylic acid) molecules were prepared in ?non-aqueous solution by electrode potential cycling. Copolymerization was carried out at different feed ?concentrations of the monomers on a gold electrode. Four different feed concentrations were used to prepare ?four different copolymers. The obtained copolymers were characterized with cyclic voltammetry and ?infrared spectroscopy. The prepared hompolymers and copolymers were investigated with in situ ?conductivity measurements. Two transitions were observed in the in situ conductivities of the copolymers. Keywords: in situ conductivity, 2-methoxyaniline, EDOT carboxylic, copolymer

Insomnia in chronic renal patients on dialysis in Saudi Arabia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies have shown that insomnia is a common sleep disorder among patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This study aimed to assess the prevalence of insomnia in Saudi patients with ESRD who are on maintenance dialysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was an observational cross-sectional study carried out over a period of five months in two hemodialysis centers in Saudi Arabia. To assess the prevalence of insomnia, we used the ICSD-2 definition. We also examined the association between insomnia and other sleep disorders, the underlying causes of renal failure, dialysis duration, dialysis shift, and other demographic data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 227 enrolled patients, insomnia was reported by 60.8%. The mean patient age was 55.7 ± 17.2 years; 53.7% were male and 46.3% were female. Insomnia was significantly associated with female gender, afternoon hemodialysis, Restless Legs Syndrome, high risk for obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and excessive daytime sleepiness (<it><b>P-values: </b></it>0.05, 0.01, < 0.0001, < 0.0001, and < 0.0001, respectively). No significant association was found between insomnia and other variables, including BMI, smoking habits, underlying etiology of renal failure, dialysis duration, association with hemoglobin, ferritin, and phosphorus or dialysis adequacy as measured by the Kt/V index.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Insomnia is common in dialysis patients and was significantly associated with other sleep disorders. Greater attention needs to be given to the care of dialysis patients with regard to the diagnosis and management of insomnia and associated sleep disorders.</p

Prevalence of Insomnia and Sleep Patterns among Liver Cirrhosis Patients

Background: Few studies are available regarding the prevalence of sleep disturbance in cirrhotic patients without overt hepatic encephalopathy. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of insomnia in stable liver cirrhosis patients who are attending the outpatient clinics at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh (KAMC-KFNGH). Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolled 200 stable patients with confirmed liver cirrhosis. We used the ICSD-2 definition to assess the prevalence of insomnia. We also collected information about sleep patterns, demographic data, the underlying cause of liver cirrhosis and the severity of liver cirrhosis using Child-Pugh scores (CTP). Results: The mean age was 58.9 (SD ± 12.2) years. Hepatitis C was the most common (60.2%) cause of liver cirrhosis among respondents. The prevalence of insomnia was 42% (84/200). Univarite analysis shows association between coffee intake and the presence of insomnia (56.9% vs. 35.9%, p-value = 0.006). The prevalence of insomnia was higher in hepatitis C (51.7%) compared to hepatitis B (36.8%) and other hepatitis (15%), p-value = 0.001. There was a significant relationship between severity of liver cirrhosis (CTP-A, CTP-C, CTP-B) and prevalence of insomnia: 55%, 36.1% and 32.1% respectively, p-value = 0.009. Insomniac patients were significantly older than non-insomniac (61.6 ± 12.0 vs. 57.0 ± 12.0 years, p = 0.008). Results from the multivariate stepwise analysis showed coffee intake (OR=2.7), hepatitis C (OR = 7.2), CTP-A (OR = 1.9), excessive daytime sleepiness (OR = 5.3) and short sleep duration (OR = 5.7) were the most strongly associated with the presence of insomnia. Conclusion: Our study showed a high prevalence of insomnia in patients with liver cirrhosis

Asthma control factors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the effectiveness of ICS/LABA fixed dose combinations: a dual rapid literature review.

BACKGROUND: Asthma control is influenced by multiple factors. These factors must be considered when appraising asthma interventions and their effectiveness in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates [UAE]). Based on published studies, the most prevalent asthma treatment in these countries are fixed dose combinations (FDC) of inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting beta-agonist (ICS/LABA). This study is a rapid review of the literature on: (a) factors associated with asthma control in the GCC countries and (b) generalisability of ICS/LABA FDC effectiveness studies. METHODS: To review local factors associated with asthma control and, generalisability of published ICS/LABA FDC studies, two rapid reviews were conducted. Review 1 targeted literature pertaining to asthma control factors in GCC countries. Eligible studies were appraised, and clustering methodology used to summarise factors. Review 2 assessed ICS/LABA FDC studies in conditions close to actual clinical practice (i.e. effectiveness studies). Eligibility was determined by reviewing study characteristics. Evaluation of studies focused on randomised controlled trials (RCTs). In both reviews, initial (January 2018) and updated (November 2019) searches were conducted in EMBASE and PubMed databases. Eligible studies were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) checklists. RESULTS: We identified 51 publications reporting factors associated with asthma control. These publications reported studies conducted in Saudi Arabia (35), Qatar (5), Kuwait (5), UAE (3), Oman (1) and multiple countries (2). The most common factors associated with asthma control were: asthma-related education (13 articles), demographics (11articles), comorbidities (11 articles) and environmental exposures (11 articles). Review 2 identified 61 articles reporting ICS/LABA FDC effectiveness studies from countries outside of the GCC. Of these, six RCTs were critically appraised. The adequacy of RCTs in informing clinical practice varied when appraised against previously published criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Asthma-related education was the most recurring factor associated with asthma control in the GCC countries. Moreover, the generalisability of ICS/LABA FDC studies to this region is variable. Hence, asthma patients in the region, particularly those on ICS/LABA FDC, will continue to require physician review and oversight. While our findings provide evidence for local treatment guidelines, further research is required in GCC countries to establish the causal pathways through which asthma-related education influence asthma control for patients on ICS/LABA FDC therapy