Factors that Makes Customers Patronize Islamic Banks in Qatar

Growth in Qatari economy produced new business opportunities. The banking sector which is considered to be one of the vital sectors in Qatar is not exempted from these opportunities. Both Islamic and conventional banking systems are competing aggressively to take advantage of those new opportunities by attracting/retaining customers/depositors. This research aims to support Islamic banks in Qatar in identifying and understanding critical factors that positively/negatively affect customer’s perception toward Islamic banks. 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Islamic bank’s customers. Sharia compliance and family/friends were the most influential factors that were found in this research. Other factors such as quality of services and corporate social responsibility activities had less influence on customers

Diagnosis and management of root resorption by erupting canines using cone-beam computed tomography and fixed palatal appliance: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Resorption of the root of the maxillary incisors during ectopic eruption of the maxillary canines is not an uncommon phenomenon, and must be considered in all patients with seriously diverging eruption of the maxillary canines.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report on the diagnosis and treatment of a 10-year-old Chinese boy with severe crowding and risk of root resorptions caused by impacted canines in the upper arch and reverse overjet. With the aid of cone-beam computed tomography, the upper right canine crown of our patient was positioned in close proximity to the right lateral incisor while the left canine crown was hitting the root apex of the left lateral incisor. To avoid any progress of root resorption, use of an upper fixed palatal appliance with torquing spring to move the root of lateral incisors away from the canines, plus extraction of upper primary first molars, was selected as an interceptive treatment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Careful planning is crucial to avoid any complication through orthodontic treatment and to reduce the treatment time and cost.</p

Effect of moderate sedation regimen (diazepam, meperidine, and hydroxyzine) dosages on patient behavior and outcome of sedation in Pediatric Dentistry: a retrospective study

Purpose: To determine if behavior at consult visit and sedation medication dosages are associated with the success of sedation visits and patient’s behavior using the diazepam, meperidine, and hydroxyzine (DMH) regimen. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted of 324 VCU Pediatric Dentistry Department patients who underwent 404 moderate conscious sedation visits with DMH regimen from April 2017 to June 2022. Sedation visits were graded as “Successful” or “Unsuccessful” and “Good” or “Poor behavior.” The primary variables of interest included Frankl behavior at consult visit and the sedation medication dosages. Logistic regression models were used to determine if these factors were associated with sedation success and overall sedation behavior while adjusting for other patient and sedation characteristics. Results: The regimen yielded mostly successful sedations (89%) and “Good Sedation Behavior” (Frankl 3 and 4) (72%). Lower Frankl scores at consult visits (OR: 2.3, P=0.0140) were associated with increased odds of failure. Increased age (OR: 0.8, P=0.0047) was associated with decreased odds of sedation failure. Meperidine dose demonstrated trends towards significant association with potential for clinical relevance. Conclusion: This study shows that the diazepam, meperidine, and hydroxyzine (DMH) regimen is an effective moderate sedation regimen. Patient selection is a significant factor in the success of the DMH moderate sedation

Optimal Operation of Integrated Microgrids

Microgrids\u27 deployments are increasing and projected to increase even more in future due to the significant advantages that are provided by this technology for end-use customers. However, microgrids can be connected to each other to create integrated microgrids system, which can further promote the anticipated and desired benefits. An integrated operation of microgrids can potentially improve the local power system reliability and resilience, increase the individual microgrids\u27 economic benefits, and promote further utilization of renewable energy resources. Integrating microgrids, to achieve a microgrid network or cluster, is expected be an essential application towards smarter power grids and a key operational feature in emerging modern distribution grids. Consequently, finding the optimal schedule of the integrated microgrids during the grid-connected and islanded operation modes is necessary to achieve the most possible economic and environmental benefits. In this dissertation, the integrated microgrids systems\u27 operation is investigated, researched and studied. The impact of elevating prosumers to provisional microgrids (to form an integrated microgrids system) is discussed and examined, and further independent and integrated microgrid optimal scheduling models are developed and mathematically simulated, to identify its merits and importance in the distribution grid. In addition, the value/quantity of the unused capacities in the microgrids is discussed and investigated, and a communicative optimal scheduling model for integrated microgrids systems is developed and proposed, in which the local power exchange between the integrated microgrids is determined through an iterative exchange of relevant information based on unused capacity and unmet power in the microgrids. Moreover, the microgrids\u27 privacy is taken into consideration by a developed optimal scheduling model based on the Lagrange Relaxation (LR) method, where the optimal scheduling problem is decomposed into individual optimal scheduling problems using the LR to take prevailing privacy issues into account. Furthermore, an optimal scheduling model for integrated microgrids systems in holonic distribution grids is developed, where the proposed model is capable of determining the optimal network topology, i.e., optimal connections among the integrated microgrids, to ensure minimum microgrid-specific and system-wide operation cost as well as maximum reliability of the entire integrated system. It should be mentioned that all proposed models are mathematically formulated using mixed-integer programming, and studied through numerical simulations to show their performance and effectiveness

Impact of Net Metering on Customers Saving

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of net metering on customers engagement. Brief discussions about net metering, its purpose, its challenges and benefits, and the history of net metering in the United States are included within the thesis. The thesis illustrates the net-metering rules, regulations and policies in the United States, and it shows that they are applied in 43 states plus the District of Columbia. Nevertheless, It has clearly seen that they are not similar in all states. The thesis then identifies the impacts of net metering on utilities and solar power owners in particular. Subsequently, a solution has been proposed for net metering challenges, which includes a case study on residential net-metered customers. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that net metering could be a good practice for everyone, and could affect on economic and environmental concerns widely

Transformation to a smart factory using NodeMCU with Blynk platform

Incorporating internet of things (IoT) in industrial systems prompted the development of industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems, which in turn enable the automation of intelligent devices to gather, analyze, and transmit data from industrial systems in real-time. This paper develops a low-cost and smart industrial remote monitoring and control system based on NodeMCU microcontrollers and Blynk server platform. It is deployed to remotely monitor manufacturer's environment and industrial equipment and control them autonomously. Also, it protects the manufacturer's employees from fire catastrophe by warning them using a buzzer and notification. The system comprises two main parts, sensing and actuation. The sensing part consists of three subsystems that measure temperature and humidity, water flow, and flame. The actuation part consists of a water pump, light, and fan. A powerful user interface is developed based on the Blynk platform. The proposed system controls the water pump by sensing water flow autonomously. In addition, based on a fire detected, a protection system is implemented to shut down the electricity from load in case of fire event occurs. Several testing scenarios were carried on to check the response of the system, and the result shows successful implementation of the proposal to handle different situations

Development of 3D convolutional neural network to recognize human activities using moderate computation machine

Human activity recognition (HAR) is recently used in numerous applications including smart homes to monitor human behavior, automate homes according to human activities, entertainment, falling detection, violence detection, and people care. Vision-based recognition is the most powerful method widely used in HAR systems implementation due to its characteristics in recognizing complex human activities. This paper addresses the design of a 3D convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) model that can be used in smart homes to identify several numbers of activities. The model is trained using KTH dataset that contains activities like (walking, running, jogging, handwaving handclapping, boxing). Despite the challenges of this method due to the effectiveness of the lamination, background variation, and human body variety, the proposed model reached an accuracy of 93.33%. The model was implemented, trained and tested using moderate computation machine and the results show that the proposal was successfully capable to recognize human activities with reasonable computations

Load shifting impact on generating adequacy assessment during peak period

The load shifting technique is widely implemented in electrical power generation due to its considerable impact on system reliability. The evaluation of load shifting benefits towards the adequacy of generation systems requires an accurate assessment. If the generation unit’s capacity is insufficient to meet the system load, then assistance is required from alternative sources. Load shifting, as a primary demand-side management technique, is used efficiently in electrical power networks given that the energy clipped/curtailed owing to load curtailment and peak clipping can be recovered during the off-peak period. The reliability of a generic framework for the prospective integration of a load shifting technique, with preventative and corrective actions as alternatives to peaking units, is investigated in this study. The optimal rate of load shifting in terms of expected energy not supplied is also investigated. Results show that preventive load shifting (PLS) can act as peaking units when the total generated capacity is within specific limits. Meanwhile, corrective load shifting can act as a better alternative than PLS and peaking units. To calculate expected energy not supplied, sequential Monte Carlo simulation is utilized. This study is conducted using the IEEE reliability test system