A clustering based matrix for selecting optimal tools and techniques in quality management

The purpose of this research was to explore a systematic pattern for selecting quality tools and techniques in the manufacturing and service industries. This study asked, “What are the best DMAIC tools and techniques concerning circumstances of quality dimensions of products and services?” To answer this question, this research developed innovative, diagnostic matrices by mimicking the contradiction matrix of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). These innovative matrices are intended to help non-expert users to select the best sets of quality tools and techniques for solving different quality problems. By conducting a cluster analysis, the researcher uncovered homogeneous patterns of enough quality case studies, which ultimately provided the basis for selecting optimal groups of quality tools and techniques in different circumstances. Thus, the researcher examined the association and prevalence of different quality tools and techniques (independent variables) and the quality dimensions (dependent variables). The study developed the contradiction matrix for manufacturing, which includes the optimal 17 DMAIC lists of tools and techniques. Also, the study developed the contradiction matrix for service, which ultimately includes the optimal 15 DMAIC lists of tools and techniques. After developing and verifying the developed contradiction matrices, the researcher discussed their strengths and limitations as well as their roles for selecting the appropriate quality tools and techniques in the manufacturing and service industries. The results of this research can be used as a basis for many future investigations in the field of quality management and innovation

Computational and Experimental Study on Innovative Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Blade Designs

This study was made to explore three novel blade geometries with intent to increase power production of a horizontal axes, three blade arrangement wind turbine. This was done by designing the blades using computer aided design (CAD) modeling software, followed by a rigorous testing phase, utilizing a computational fluid dynamics software (CFD). The blades then went into a cycle of iterative design to achieve the best parameters that will positively impact the overall power generation efficiency. These steps were followed by printing the blades utilizing 3D Printing technology, testing them for the power generation, and finally, tabulating these findings to validate the numerical results gathered using CFD software. The blade designs under investigation here are the slotted blade (blade with slot shaped cavity on leading edge extending to lower surface), A blade resembling the tubercles (local inflation or bulges on surface) found on a humpback whale and the winglet blade, which was compared to the baseline traditional straight blade. The slotted, tubercle and straight blade were experimentally investigated, while the winglet blade underwent a CFD study only and compared to the other designs. It was found experimentally that the slotted blade generates 26.1% more power on average than the straight blade, and was found very ideal for low wind vacancies, while the tubercle was found of less effectiveness than the straight, though it possesses superior characteristics in suppressing the resultant noise, which is a common wind turbine problem. The winglet showed very similar in results to the straight blade, where its addition would come very fruitful at higher wind velocities, due to the fact that the inertial forces needed to start the operation is a higher order of magnitude than the straight blade

Free-text keystroke dynamics authentication with a reduced need for training and language independency

This research aims to overcome the drawback of the large amount of training data required for free-text keystroke dynamics authentication. A new key-pairing method, which is based on the keyboard’s key-layout, has been suggested to achieve that. The method extracts several timing features from specific key-pairs. The level of similarity between a user’s profile data and his or her test data is then used to decide whether the test data was provided by the genuine user. The key-pairing technique was developed to use the smallest amount of training data in the best way possible which reduces the requirement for typing long text in the training stage. In addition, non-conventional features were also defined and extracted from the input stream typed by the user in order to understand more of the users typing behaviours. This helps the system to assemble a better idea about the user’s identity from the smallest amount of training data. Non-conventional features compute the average of users performing certain actions when typing a whole piece of text. Results were obtained from the tests conducted on each of the key-pair timing features and the non-conventional features, separately. An FAR of 0.013, 0.0104 and an FRR of 0.384, 0.25 were produced by the timing features and non-conventional features, respectively. Moreover, the fusion of these two feature sets was utilized to enhance the error rates. The feature-level fusion thrived to reduce the error rates to an FAR of 0.00896 and an FRR of 0.215 whilst decision-level fusion succeeded in achieving zero FAR and FRR. In addition, keystroke dynamics research suffers from the fact that almost all text included in the studies is typed in English. Nevertheless, the key-pairing method has the advantage of being language-independent. This allows for it to be applied on text typed in other languages. In this research, the key-pairing method was applied to text in Arabic. The results produced from the test conducted on Arabic text were similar to those produced from English text. This proves the applicability of the key-pairing method on a language other than English even if that language has a completely different alphabet and characteristics. Moreover, experimenting with texts in English and Arabic produced results showing a direct relation between the users’ familiarity with the language and the performance of the authentication system

Free-text keystroke dynamics authentication for Arabic language

This study introduces an approach for user authentication using free-text keystroke dynamics which incorporates text in Arabic language. The Arabic language has completely different characteristics to those of English. The approach followed in this study involves the use of the keyboard's key-layout. The method extracts timing features from specific key-pairs in the typed text. Decision trees were exploited to classify each of the users' data. In parallel for comparison, support vector machines were also used for classification in association with an ant colony optimisation feature selection technique. The results obtained from this study are encouraging as low false accept rates and false reject rates were achieved in the experimentation phase. This signifies that satisfactory overall system performance was achieved by using the typing attributes in the proposed approach, while typing Arabic text

High frequency of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in patients with diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is becoming increasingly prevalent in patients with diabetes mellitus in the Middle East. We examined the relationship of these bacteria and their resistance mechanisms to the diabetic disease status of patients in Saudi Arabia. Susceptibilities of 271 isolates to carbapenems, tigecycline and colistin were determined, followed by detection of carbapenemase genes. A blaVIM gene was detected in ~95 % of isolates; blaOXA-23 and blaOXA-40 genes were also prevalent. Diabetic patients were significantly more likely to carry carbapenem-resistant isolates. Carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii is a serious problem in diabetic patients, and molecular detection of resistance mechanisms in these isolates is required

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

Clonal diversity of Acinetobacter baumannii from diabetic patients in Saudi Arabian hospitals

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CR-AB) represents a major health-care problem causing high rates of morbidity and mortality. This study investigated the clonality of CR-AB isolated from diabetic patients from different regions in Saudi Arabia as well as the relatedness of the β lactamases genes. A total of 64 non-repetitive CR-AB clinical isolates were collected from 16 different regions in Saudi Arabia from intensive care patients. Isolates were identified phenotypically by Vitek 2 compact system and genotypically by amplification of blaOXA-51-like gene. The target sequences were amplified by PCR and the clonal diversity of the isolates was explored by PFGE. Resistance studies revealed that the prevalence of imipenem and meropenem resistance was 92% and 96%, respectively, while the vast majority of the isolates were susceptible to tigecycline and colistin. In addition, blaVIM and blaOXA-23 were the most prevalent genes in the isolates under investigation while ISAba1 was the most dominant insertion sequence. PFGE results showed 13 clusters; clone H was dominant comprising 20 isolates from four hospitals followed by clones C and F comprising 11 isolates each from 3 and 6 hospitals, respectively. Moreover, the current study signified the clonal diversity of CR-AB in Saudi Arabia and showed the ability of some clones to infect patients in many different cities

Preparatory Year Students’ Perception of Pharmacy Profession as a Career Choice: A Cross-Sectional Study

The study attempted to assess preparatory year students’ perception towards pharmacists and the pharmacy profession. This cross-sectional survey was conducted between December 2019 and March 2020. The students were invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire via Google Forms®. In total, 244 students, of which 53.7% were female with the mean age of 19.2 ± 0.65, from 12 universities participated in this study. As per our findings, the majority of the respondents (91.8%) regard pharmacy as a well-respected profession, 82.4% thought pharmacists are important decision-makers, 68.4% disagreed that most pharmacists were unkind, and 60.7% did not agree that pharmacy was a low-status occupation. Meanwhile, 95.5% agreed that pharmacists must have a university degree, 88.6% agreed pharmacists must take responsibility for patients, and 82.8% believed pharmacists had to work too hard. Moreover, 62.3% did not think pharmacy was a low-skill occupation, 54.9% did not agree pharmacists must do unpleasant things, and 45.1% disagreed pharmacists only did what physicians requested of them. Lastly, 48.8% had low confidence in choosing pharmacy as a career. The students’ overall perception toward pharmacists and the pharmacy profession was favorable. However, only one-fourth of the students displayed a tendency to choose pharmacy as a future career

Novel CRISPR/Cas13- based assay for diagnosis of avian infectious bronchitis

Infectious bronchitis is an acute respiratory disease of poultry associated with reduced egg production and heavy economic losses in chicken flocks. Rabid and accurate detection of IB virus (IBV) is essential for controlling and preventing the infection. In this study, we developed a rapid, accurate, and instrument less assay to detect IBV. For the first time, reverse transcription- Recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) coupled with CRISPR/Cas13 (SHERLOCK) was used to rapidly visualize IBV. The novel assay was tested in timing, sensitivity, and specificity. The spike gene (S gene) was used as a target gene for detecting the virus. Three samples were used to optimize the assay; sample form confirmed infected chickens with IB, positive sample (full synthesis of S gene), and negative sample from free IB infected chickens. The results show that the Sherlock-based Cas13 platform is a highly specificity and sensitivity assay for detecting infectious bronchitis virus. The assay detected ten copies per µL of the input RNA. No false positives or cross-reactions were seen when bovine coronavirus (BCV) was used instead of IBV in the tested sample. Readout of the results needs just fifty minutes, including RNA extraction. Furthermore, No instrument was used, and amplification of the virus's nucleic acid was performed at room temperature. Sherlock-based Cas13 should clinically use for rapid diagnosis of infectious bronchitis in chickens. However, further studies and experiments are needed to perform the assay at the sample base without extraction of RNA