Orbiting Forward (Thoughts On The Nature Of Conflict - Sighs On The Struggles Of Change)

Today’s world is a wide open hyper-connected sphere where human societies worldwide exist in a complex crossroads of historical conditions, ideologies, and power structures. A pool of constant confrontations, minor or major, between the traditional and the progressive, the local and the international, the materialistic and the transcendent, the pragmatic and the idealistic, and countless layers of meaning. For an individual who exists in such an intense moment of history, it seems almost inescapable to be exposed to, affected by, or even involved in a major conflict. A situation that makes individuals always in a critical position where every role they may choose becomes an effective player in the conflict, whether they choose to participate or to retreat. Despite all of the utopian expectations of the last century, this hyper-connected information-flooded reality became a powerful cause of division and polarization. The very systems that have been created to inform and encourage expression evolved to become platforms of mobbing and mobilization. Layering even more and more confusion upon one’s ability to morally judge and participate in the scene. However, there might be a hope of clarity when stepping back and acting as an observer of the scene. Over time, patterns begin to emerge before the eyes of the observer until they eventually form a useful structure for interpretation. The following pages are thoughts on the nature of conflicts from an observer’s lens. An ordinary observer who lives in a time and space that can never be ordinary, as the only constant thing in this world is change

Expectations gap, market skills, and challenges of accounting education in Saudi Arabia

PURPOSE: This study investigates accounting graduates' skills gap and the required market skills from the perception of accounting faculty and professionals in accounting firms in Saudi Arabia. It also explores the challenges accounting programmes and faculty face in due rapid changes.METHODOLOGY: The research uses a combination of methods and data sources.FINDINGS: The findings show a gap between accounting education and the labour market demands. Accounting programs focus on technical skills and less on other general skills. Accounting graduates lack interpersonal, dialogue, and language skills. These employability skills should be integrated into accounting education to narrow the gap. The results show that the accounting graduates' willingness to learn beyond classrooms and university is one of the critical challenges to equip them with the required skills.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study contributed to the understanding of the accounting education. Understanding the graduate skills gap and the challenges will be helpful to professional bodies, university administrators, business school deans, accounting faculty, careers guidance professionals in Saudi Arabia.peer-reviewe

VAT compliance challenges among SMEs : evidence from Saudi Arabia

Purpose: The study addressed Value Added Tax compliance challenges facing small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia and rank these challenges based on their relative impacts. The research addressed four major challenges: the complexity of VAT system design, lack of VAT knowledge of taxpayers, high compliance cost, and multiple fines and audits.Methodology: A survey research design was employed to collect relevant data from SMEs using a self-designed questionnaire, which was sent to 200 enterprises of which 97 was returned.Findings: Results revealed that out of the four challenges, imposing rigorous fines was the most VAT compliance challenge facing SMEs, and compliance cost was the least. The study showed that equipping taxpayers with adequate tax knowledge and proper education reduces compliance costs and fines and increases compliance.Originality/Value: The study contributed to the understanding of the VAT system and possible mediation of challenges that enhance the level of VAT compliance. It is hoped that the forwarded recommendations can be helpful for researchers and policymakers investigating the implications of VAT and the enhancement of compliance.peer-reviewe

Water Saturation Computation from Laboratory 3d Regression

An accurate determination of initial oil in place in the early life of reservoirs or an evaluation of a developed reservoir is required to well estimate the hydrocarbon volumes. Modified Archie's formula (Sw = (a Rw/ fm Rt)1/n) is the basic equation to compute water saturation in clean formation or suitable shaly water saturation model in shaly formation. The accuracy of water saturation value for given reservoir conditions depends on the accuracy of Archie's parameters a, m and n. The terms of Archie's relationship have been subjected to many laboratory investigations and even more speculations. There are many factors affecting porosity exponent, m, saturation exponent, n and tortuosity factor, a. Therefore, it is very difficult to fix Archie's parameters and neglecting reservoir characteristics such as rock wettability, formation water salinity, permeability, porosity and fluids distribution. This paper presents a new technique to determine Archie's parameters a, m and n. The developed technique is based on the concept of three dimensional-regression (3D) plot of water saturation, formation resistivity and porosity. This 3D technique provides simultaneous values of Archie's parameters. Also, the 3D technique overcomes the uncertainty problems due to the separate use of formation resistivity factor-porosity and water saturation equations to get a, m and n parameters. Two field examples are given to show the applicability of the 3D technique in comparison with three other techniques: - common values of Archie's parameters, - conventional technique and - Core Archie-Parameter Estimation (CAPE) technique. The comparison among the four techniques has shown that 3D technique provides an accurate and physically meaningful way to get Archie's parameters a, m and n for given core samples. Water saturation profiles, using Archie's parameters obtained from the four techniques, have been obtained for the studied section in the wells. These profiles have shown a significant difference in water saturation values. This difference could be mainly attributed to the uncertainty level for Archie's parameters from each technique. The effect of saturation exponent on the accuracy of water saturation computation was tested using Archie's parameters derived from conventional technique and 3D technique in the two wells

Short-term postoperative outcomes following robotic versus laparoscopic ileal pouch-anal anastomosis are equivalent.

Minimally invasive approaches have become the standard of care for ileal pouch-anal anastomoses (IPAA). There are few reports comparing outcomes following a laparoscopic versus robotic approach. Our aim was to determine if there were any differences in the 30-day postoperative outcomes following IPAA performed laparoscopically versus robotically. A retrospective chart review of all laparoscopic and robotic IPAA performed between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2018 was carried out. Patients included were adult patients who underwent a proctectomy and IPAA utilizing either a laparoscopic or robotic approach. Data collected included patient demographics, operative variables, and 30-day postoperative outcomes. A total of 132 patients had a minimally invasive IPAA; 58 were performed laparoscopically and 74 robotically. Less than half the patients were female (n = 55; 41.7%) with a median age of 37 years (range 18-68 years). The majority of patients had a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (n = 103; 78.0%) with medically refractory disease (n = 87; 65.9%). A greater proportion of patients in the laparoscopic cohort had a prolonged length of stay (n = 27; 46.6% versus n = 18; 24.3%; p < 0.001) and a two-stage approach (n = 56; 96.6% versus n = 37; 50%; p < 0.001), but there were no differences in the rates between the laparoscopic versus robotic cohorts of superficial surgical site infection (6.9% versus 6.8%; p = 0.99), peripouch abscess (15.5% versus 6.8%; p = 0.11), anastomotic leak (6.9% versus 2.7%; p = 0.21), pelvic abscess (15.5% versus 6.8%; p = 0.11), and pelvic sepsis (15.5% versus 6.8%; p = 0.11), readmission (24.1% versus 17.6%; p = 0.35) or reoperation (6.9% versus 5.4%; p = 0.72). On multivariable analysis, only male sex remained predictive of prolonged length of stay, and a robotic approach trended toward a decreased rate of prolonged length of stay. Laparoscopic and robotic IPAA have equivalent postoperative morbidity underscoring the safety of the continued expansion of the robotic platform for pouch surgery

Permeability Estimation From Well Log Responses

Permeability is one of the most important characteristics of hydrocarbon bearing formations. Formation permeability is often measured in the laboratory from reservoir core samples or evaluated from well test data. However, core analysis and well test data are usually only available from a few wells in a field. On the other hand, almost all wells are logged. This paper presents a non-parametric model to predict reservoir permeability from conventional well log data using an artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN technique is demonstrated by applying it to one of Saudi Arabia’s oil fields. The field is the largest offshore oil field in the world and was deposited in a fluvial dominated deltaic environment. The use of conventional regression methods to predict permeability in this case was not successful. The ANN permeability prediction model was developed using some of the core permeability and well log data from three early development wells. The ANN model was built and trained from the well log data and their corresponding core measurements by using a back propagation neural network (BPNN). The resulting model was blind tested using data which was taken from the modelling process. The results of this study show that the ANN model permeability predictions are consistent with actual core data. It could be concluded that the ANN model is a powerful tool for permeability prediction from well log data

Pathological characteristics of pediatric intracranial pilocytic astrocytomas and their impact on outcome in three geographically distinct regions: A multi-institutional study

Bu çalışma, 26 Şubat-4 Mart 2011 tarihleri arasında San Antonio[ABD]'da düzenlenen 100. Annual Meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology'da bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.United States and Canadian Academy of Patholog

Does IBD Portend Worse Outcomes in Patients with Rectal Cancer? A Case-Matched Analysis.

Patients with IBD are at increased risk for developing colorectal cancer. However, overall survival and disease-free survival for rectal cancer alone in patients with IBD has not been reported. This study aimed to determine overall survival and disease-free survival for patients with rectal cancer in IBD versus non-IBD cohorts. This is a retrospective cohort study. This study was conducted at an IBD referral center. All consecutive adult patients with IBD diagnosed with rectal cancer and at least 1 year of postsurgery follow-up were included and matched in a 1:2 fashion (age, sex, preoperative stage) with patients with rectal cancer who did not have IBD. Five-year overall survival and disease-free survival, 30-day postoperative complication, readmission, reoperation, and mortality rates were measured. Survival rates were calculated using Kaplan-Meier estimates. The association of risk factors and long-term outcomes was assessed using Cox proportion hazard models. A total of 107 study patients with IBD who had rectal cancer were matched to 215 control patients; preoperative stages were as follows: 31% with stage I, 19% with stage II, 40% with stage III, and 10% with stage IV. Differences were observed (IBD vs non-IBD) in neoadjuvant chemotherapy (33.6% vs 52.6%, p = 0.001) and preoperative radiotherapy (35.5% vs 53.5%, p = 0.003). Postoperative complication rates were similar. On surgical pathology, patients with IBD had more lymphovascular invasion (12.9% vs 5.6%, p = 0.04) and positive circumferential resection margins (5.4% vs 0.9%, p = 0.03). On multivariable analysis, the diagnosis of IBD did not significantly impact long-term mortality (HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.53-1.57; p = 0.73) or disease-free survival (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.84-2.21; p = 0.22). This study was limited by its retrospective design and the use of single-center data. Patients have rectal cancer with IBD and without IBD have similar long-term and disease-free survival, despite lower rates of neoadjuvant treatment and higher margin positivity in patients with IBD. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/B271. ¿LA ENFERMEDAD INFLAMATORIA INTESTINAL ACARREA PEORES RESULTADOS EN PACIENTES CON CÁNCER RECTAL? UN ANÁLISIS DE CASOS-COINCIDENTES: Los pacientes con enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal (EII) tienen un mayor riesgo de desarrollar cáncer colorrectal. Sin embargo, no se ha informado la supervivencia general y la supervivencia libre de enfermedad para el cáncer rectal solo en pacientes con EII.Determinar la supervivencia general y la supervivencia libre de enfermedad para pacientes con cáncer rectal en cohortes con EII versus sin EII.Estudio de cohorte retrospectivo.Centro de referencia para enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal.todos los pacientes adultos con EII diagnosticados con cáncer rectal, consecutives, y al menos un año de seguimiento postoperatorio se incluyeron y se emparejaron de manera 1: 2 (edad, sexo, etapa preoperatoria) con pacientes con cáncer rectal sin EII.Se midieron la supervivencia general a cinco años y la supervivencia libre de enfermedad, complicaciones postoperatorias a los 30 días, reingreso, reoperación y tasas de mortalidad.Las tasas de supervivencia se calcularon utilizando estimaciones de Kaplan-Meier. La asociación de factores de riesgo y resultados a largo plazo se evaluó mediante modelos de riesgo de proporción de Cox.Un total de 107 pacientes con EII y cáncer rectal se compararon con 215 pacientes de control; las etapas preoperatorias fueron las siguientes: 31% de Etapa I, 19% de Etapa II, 40% de Etapa III y 10% de Etapa IV. Se observaron diferencias (EII versus no EII) en quimioterapia neoadyuvante (33.6% frente a 52.6%, p = 0.001) y radioterapia preoperatoria (35.5% frente a 53.5%, p = 0.003). Las tasas de complicaciones postoperatorias fueron similares. En la patología quirúrgica, los pacientes con EII tuvieron más invasión linfovascular (12.9% frente a 5.6%, p = 0.04) y márgenes de resección circunferencial positivos (5.4% frente a 0.9%, p = 0.03). En el análisis multivariable, el diagnóstico de EII no tuvo un impacto significativo en la mortalidad a largo plazo (HR 0.91; IC del 95%: 0.53-1.57, p = 0.73) o la supervivencia libre de enfermedad (HR 1.36; IC del 95%: 0.84-2.21, p = 0.22)Diseño retrospectivo, centro único de datos.Los pacientes con EII y sin EII con cáncer rectal tienen una supervivencia similar a largo plazo y libre de enfermedad, a pesar de las tasas más bajas de tratamiento sneoadyuvante y un mayor margen positivo en pacientes con EII. Consulte Video Resumen en http://links.lww.com/DCR/B271