Examination of the IT Projects Failure Within the Public Sector: State of Qatar

Information technology (IT) project management is a crucial issue for organizations today due to the time, resources, and high budgets. This paper examines the causes of IT projects failure within the public sector in State of Qatar. The paper investigates the primary reasons causing IT projects to fail, delayed, and goes over budget. The paper attempts to determine what causes management fail to foresee project failure. This is achieved by surveying government branches and government owned Oil & Gas companies in an attempt to outline the primary reasons causing IT projects to fail. Analysis of the surveyed sample shows that lack of communications, constant change in projects requirements, lack of clarity in projects scope, lack of individual skills in project management, are the leading factors causing IT projects to fail in the Qatari public sector

The core of pomegranate (Punica granatum) seed kernel meal effects of growth parameters of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of pomegranate (Punica granatum) seed kernel meal (pskm) as a supplement in the diet of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), The experiment was carried out in growth in a period of 90 days since the 12/11/2014 until the 12/03/2015 in Abzi Eksir Koesar complex , situated in south east of Tehran. 600 fingerlings with average weight of 6.74 gram and average length of 5.50 centimeter were divided to five treatments, The control group was without any pskm, and the other groups with added 1, 2, 3 and 4 percent pskm Respectively. For greater certainty each treatments had three replicates. Result indicated that pskm caused highest increased growth parameters in treatment 3 with 3 percent pskm, with other treatments and groups. growth parameters including weight with maximum of 47.74 gram, length were 15.03 centimeter, weight gain with maximum of 41.15 gram, length increase with the maximum of 9.71 centimeter, Weight gain percentage with maximum amount of 572.1, specific growth rate with 0.45 and specific length rate with 0.1 mm. All growth parameters with the best value was seen in treatments 3. This result is due to the presence of high levels of appetite stimulants such as polyphenols of pskm (p<0.05). Result also indicated that the level of pskm in treatment 4, did not cause enough different with the control group, mainly because of higher amount of tannin in their diet

A Comparative Study on Critical Thinking Skills of Bachelor and Master's Degree Students in Critical Care Nursing

Background: Promoting critical thinking skills is an essential outcome of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. Objectives: The current study aims at comparing critical thinking skills of bachelor students of nursing (BSc) and master’s students of critical care nursing (MSc) in the academic year 2014 - 2015. Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 79 BSc students of nursing and 44 MSc students of critical care nursing in 3 universities of medical sciences including Semnan, Tehran, and Kashan. The California critical thinking test, form B, was used for data collection. Analysis of variance Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: Themeanscores of BS and MSc nursing students were 11.14�3.01 and 10.05�3.33, respectively, which were not significantly different. The mean scores of students in Semnan, Tehran, and Kashan universities of medical sciences were 9.84 � 3.13, 9.66 � 3.32, and 11.79 � 2.92, respectively, and the total mean score was 10.46 � 3.24. The scores of critical thinking domains showed that students in Kashan University gained higher scores in interference, and deductive and inductive reasoning domains compared with the students in other universities. Conclusions: The level of critical thinking in BSc students was higher. The overall level of critical thinking skills was low in nursing students. It is suggested that appropriate and effective methods should be employed to create and improve critical thinking in nursing education

Evaluation of expression ratio of HOXB13:IL17BR in patients with breast cancer by qRT-PCR method using SYBR Green dye

Background and aims: Studies have shown that a HOXB13:IL17BR expression ratio index predicts clinical outcome in ER-positive, lymph node-negative breast cancer patients that treated with adjuvant tamoxifen. All of these experiments were conducted with qReal Time RT-PCR using TaqMan probes. The aim of this study was to determine the ratio using SYBR Green I qReal Time RT-PCR. Methods: In this case- control study, expression levels of HOXB13:IL17BR was measured in 40 paired formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded primary breast tumor specimens. After extracting RNA from the tissues, cDNA synthesis and amplification with the polymerase chain reaction to obtain the optimum annealing temperature, the expression levels was measured by SYBR Green I qReal Time RT-PCR. To determine and normalize the expression levels, BestKeeper software was used to obtain the BestKeeper Index using the geometric mean of expression levels of housekeeping genes. Comparison of mean expression of genes between tumoral and non-tumoral tissues was performed by t-test and association between patient grouping (high/low risk) and time for disease free survival was assessed by Fisher`s Exact test. Results: HOXB13:IL17BR expression value did not show significant difference between tumoral and non-tumoral tissues. The results showed that there was a direct and significant association between patient grouping (based on HOXB13:IL17BR ratio) and disease free survival status. Conclusion: Results in the current study showed that in spite of using SYBR Green dye (instead of TaqMan probes), there is still a significant correlation between HOXB13:IL17BR ratio and disease free survival status

A Comparative Study on Critical Thinking Skills of Bachelor and Master�s Degree Students in Critical Care Nursing

Background: Promoting critical thinking skills is an essential outcome of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. Objectives: The current study aims at comparing critical thinking skills of bachelor students of nursing (BSc) and master’s students of critical care nursing (MSc) in the academic year 2014 - 2015. Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 79 BSc students of nursing and 44 MSc students of critical care nursing in 3 universities of medical sciences including Semnan, Tehran, and Kashan. The California critical thinking test, form B, was used for data collection. Analysis of variance Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: Themeanscores of BS and MSc nursing students were 11.14�3.01 and 10.05�3.33, respectively, which were not significantly different. The mean scores of students in Semnan, Tehran, and Kashan universities of medical sciences were 9.84 � 3.13, 9.66 � 3.32, and 11.79 � 2.92, respectively, and the total mean score was 10.46 � 3.24. The scores of critical thinking domains showed that students in Kashan University gained higher scores in interference, and deductive and inductive reasoning domains compared with the students in other universities. Conclusions: The level of critical thinking in BSc students was higher. The overall level of critical thinking skills was low in nursing students. It is suggested that appropriate and effective methods should be employed to create and improve critical thinking in nursing education

Development of a framework to evaluate service-oriented architecture governance using COBIT approach

Nowadays organizations require an effective governance framework for their service-oriented architecture (SOA) in order to enable them to use a framework to evaluate their current state governance and determine the governance requirements, and then to offer a suitable model for their governance. Various frameworks have been developed to evaluate the SOA governance. In this paper, a brief introduction to the internal control framework COBIT is described, and it is used to show how to develop a framework to evaluate the SOA governance within an organization. The SOA and information technology expert surveys are carried out to evaluate the proposed framework. The results of this survey verify the proposed framework

Controlled Drug Delivery Systems by functionalized silica-based nanoparticles.

Abstract Introduction: : Mesoporous silica are solid materials that show the potential for a variety of controlled drug delivery applications because of some unique properties including porous, high surface area(900M2/g), pore volumes(0.9CM3/g), regular pore size with uniform distribution (2-10nm), chemical and thermal stability and biocompatibility and biodegradation. In this case, MCM-41 has the ability of loading more drug because pf larger pores. This amount of drug has increased by functionalizing the surface despite of decreasing the surface area. Methods and Results: The Methods section should provide enough information to in this study after providing MCM-41 and functionalizing it with amino propyl,the procedure of soaking and eliminating (evaporating) the solvent were used for loading drug. For insuring of the loading drug and determination of loading ratio we used infrared spectroscopy (indirect) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) and BET way.Finally, the studies about drug release from system have been done in an environment simulated gastric and intestine fluid PH. In this article, Diclofenac sodium and Piroxicam as the sample and MCM-41 and functionalized MCM-41 as the carrier were used. Conclusions: the drugs were released faster than the formulation that were produced from the eliminating procedure because drugs were more on surface. In this study, the effect of functionalizing the surface on drug release was not significant

Foliar nutrient resorption patterns of four functional plants along a precipitation gradient on the Tibetan Changtang Plateau

Nutrient resorption from senesced leaves as a nutrient conservation strategy is important for plants to adapt to nutrient deficiency, particularly in alpine and arid environment. However, the leaf nutrient resorption patterns of different functional plants across environmental gradient remain unclear. In this study, we conducted a transect survey of 12 communities to address foliar nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) resorption strategies of four functional groups along an eastward increasing precipitation gradient in northern Tibetan Changtang Plateau. Soil nutrient availability, leaf nutrient concentration, and N:P ratio in green leaves ([N:P]g) were linearly correlated with precipitation. Nitrogen resorption efficiency decreased, whereas phosphorus resorption efficiency except for sedge increased with increasing precipitation, indicating a greater nutrient conservation in nutrient-poor environment. The surveyed alpine plants except for legume had obviously higher N and P resorption efficiencies than the world mean levels. Legumes had higher N concentrations in green and senesced leaves, but lowest resorption efficiency than nonlegumes. Sedge species had much lower P concentration in senesced leaves but highest P resorption efficiency, suggesting highly competitive P conservation. Leaf nutrient resorption efficiencies of N and P were largely controlled by soil and plant nutrient, and indirectly regulated by precipitation. Nutrient resorption efficiencies were more determined by soil nutrient availability, while resorption proficiencies were more controlled by leaf nutrient and N:P of green leaves. Overall, our results suggest strong internal nutrient cycling through foliar nutrient resorption in the alpine nutrient-poor ecosystems on the Plateau. The patterns of soil nutrient availability and resorption also imply a transit from more N limitation in the west to a more P limitation in the east Changtang. Our findings offer insights into understanding nutrient conservation strategy in the precipitation and its derived soil nutrient availability gradient

The effect of resveratrol on the expression of MDR1 gene in leukemic lymphoblast's of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients

Background: Chemotherapy plays a very important role in the treatment of leukemia but the resistance properties of the lymphoblasts limit the effect of chemotherapy. One of the main mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy is the increased expression of MDR1 gene. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of resveratrol on the expression of MDR1 gene in leukemic lymphoblast of new cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients in vitro. Methods: Separation of lymphoblasts of 5 new case ALL patients from peripheral blood was performed by ficoll density gradient centrifugation. Lymphoblasts were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium. Lymphoblasts were treated with 50μmol/L resveratrol for 48 h. Total RNA was extracted with guanidine isothiocyanate. RNA was converted to cDNA. Real time PCR was used to detect mRNA expression of MDR1. Results: The results of gene detection showed that the expression of MDR1 did not change significantly in the patients however, in one patient expression of MDR1 increased upon treatment with resveratrol. Conclusion: The results of this study did not support resveratrol as a compound to reverse multidrug resistance in leukemic lymphoblasts

Evaluation of Self-Assessed State of Health and Vitamin D Knowledge in Emirati and International Female Students in United Arab Emirates (UAE)

© Copyright © 2020 Abboud, Rizk, Papandreou, Hijazi, Al Emadi and Waszak. Introduction: Globally, vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies, affecting nearly half the world’s population. The objective of this survey was to assess and compare the knowledge about vitamin D and the perceived state of health in Emirati and international tourist female students in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that took place in universities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This survey consisted of 17 multiple choice questions and was adapted from a study recently conducted in Poland. The first part of the survey assessed levels of supplementation, diet and UV exposure. Another section evaluated the participants’ self-assessed state of health in terms of vitamin D testing, symptoms related to vitamin D deficiency and general welbeing. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS statistics for windows version 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, United States). Statistical significance was set at P \u3c 0.05. Results: 105 respondents were Emiratis and 65 were international students. The average age was 21, with an average BMI 23.3 kg/m2. Almost one-third of each group reported using Vitamin D supplements once weekly. The vast majority of both groups reported rarely getting tanned. Almost all participants in both groups reported regular consumption of Vitamin D rich foods. In both groups, more than half reported consuming milk and cheese regularly and up to one-third reported consuming fish in a regular manner. Although more than half of the students rated their health as good; more than two-thirds reported experiencing muscle pain; only half reported having their blood Vitamin D levels measured once; half reported experiencing problems with concentration and more than three-quarters reported experiencing bad mood in the past month. The prevalence of these symptoms was almost similar across different categories of vitamin D supplementation, tanning habits, dietary intake, or nationality. No statistically significant differences were noted between the Emirati and International tourist students regarding any of the studied variables. Conclusion: Notably, more Emirati students were aware of the association between vitamin D and osteoporosis than International tourist students (40% vs. 21.9%, respectively; p \u3c 0.05). On the other hand, both groups had lower knowledge about the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and depression, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hypertension, and the optimal vitamin D level; however, no statistically significant differences were noted regarding this knowledge of Emiratis and international students