WIND POWER BUSINESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Energy is an essential feature that enables the social-economic development and economic growth for any nation, which explains why renewable energy, like wind power, became an increasingly significant part of many countries‟ strategies to achieve reductions in greenhouse emissions. In addition, it is a major factor to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. However, threats of global warming, acid rain, and nuclear accidents have shown the need to transform existing global energy into focus, especially with the growing demand for energy. For several decades, nations have made plans to reduce their economies‟ dependency on fossil fuels by substituting them with alternative energy resources such as renewable energy sources in order to sustain their economic growth. On the one hand, the Middle East and North Africa are rich in oil and natural gas, but the fact that oil and natural gas reserves are unevenly distributed, divides the regions‟ countries to major oil exporters and others as importers. On the other hand, the increasing population in those regions put an extra demand on the power sector, which has been growing rapidly. All the previous challenges encouraged a number of governments in the region to think about alternative power resources and to start developing a national plan for renewable energy. The aim of this study is to identify the status of wind power productivity and development issues in the Middle East and North Africa and its futuristic development scope. The analysis process will investigate deeply the wind resources, the policy environment of renewable energy, existing wind farms, markets development, wind power industry and the futuristic plans.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Impacts of change management on risk and cost management of a construction projects

Construction projects are always problematic and difficult to manage in certain stages. Management in construction industry has been characterized as being weak, insufficient, nebulous, backward and slow to react against changing conditions. This study aims to identify risk and cost managed in the change management of the construction projects. Quantitative study is organized and questionnaire as an instrument is used to collect the information from the construction experts in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Random sampling techniques is used to collect the data, 105 questionnaires are distributed and 90 ones are returned. The correlation analysis shows significant relationship between cost, risk and change management. The reliability test indicates satisfactory result to continue the questionnaire where Cronbach coefficient alpha value exceeds the level of 0.70. The study finds that design changes, client and contractor related changes are mostly occurred in change management of construction projects. Tendering on the basis of an incomplete design, which then changes during the course of the construction has been found as the key reason of the changes. Through a paper based exercise, site memorandums (SM), quoted rates (QR), variation orders (VO) and monthly payment certificates (MPC) are the activities managed by the engineers. Proper planning is the most leading change management in the risk management. Implementation of risk man-agement was found the applied risk management in practice to hindrances. Since this is very vast debated subject, the study has recommended further investigation to include consultant firms for better understanding of the design changes leading to the cost and risk associated

Evaluation of the willingness for cadaveric donation in Greece: A population-based study

Despite the importance of body donation for medical education and the advancement of medical science, cadaveric donation remains suboptimal worldwide. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the willingness of body donation in Greece and determine the characteristics of donors. This cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted from January to June 2011. A specially designed questionnaire was distributed to 1, 700 individuals who were randomly selected from five major Greek cities. It was found that higher educational levels (P = 0.002), annual family income below 30, 000 Euros (P = 0.001), guaranteed employment status (P = 0.02), and the presence of comorbid conditions (P = 0.004) seemed to affect potential donors' willingness for cadaveric donation. Those with strong religious beliefs were found to be unwilling to donate their bodies to medical science. Interestingly, the majority of participants who believed that hospitalized patients are deceived or are used for harmful experiments were willing to become whole body donors (P = 0.043). In Greece, the rate of body donation to medical science remains low, and most Greek citizens are not willing to become body donors. Efforts to encourage discussions about whole body donation should be implemented in order to improve current low levels of donation. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists

The role of car tyres in the ecology of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Ghana

Aedes aegypti is an important vector of arboviral diseases including dengue and yellow fever. Despite the wide distribution of this mosquito species, there are limited data on the ecology of Ae. aegypti in Ghana. In this study, we report on the oviposition preference and the larval life tables of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes in Accra, Ghana. The oviposition preference of the mosquitoes to three habitat types (car tyres, drums and bowls) was measured by setting up ovitraps. We recorded the presence and abundance of larvae every 3 days. Two-hour-old Ae. aegypti larvae were introduced and raised in three habitat types to undertake larval life tables. The number of surviving larvae at each developmental stage was recorded daily until they emerged as adults. Car tyres showed a higher abundance of Ae. aegypti larvae (52.3%) than drums (32.5%) and bowls (15.1%) (ANOVA, F(2,159) = 18.79, P < 0.001). The mean development time of Ae. aegypti larvae was significantly lower in car tyres (7 ± 1 days) compared to that of bowls (9 ± 0.0 days) and drums (12.6 ± 1.5 days) (P = 0.024). The differences in pupation rates and emergence rates were not significant across the habitat types; however, the highest pupation rate was observed in bowls (0.92 ± 0.17) and the emergence rate was highest in tyres (0.84 ± 0.10). The proportion of first-instar larvae that survived to emergence was significantly higher in car tyres (0.84 ± 0.10) compared to that of bowls (0.72 ± 0.20) and drums (0.62 ± 0.20) (P = 0.009). No mortalities were observed after 9 days in car tyres, 10 days in bowls and 15 days in drums. The results confirm that discarded car tyres were the preferred habitat choice for the oviposition of gravid female Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and provide the best habitat conditions for larval development and survival. These findings are necessary for understanding the ecology of Ae. aegypti to develop appropriate strategies for their control in Ghana

Attitudes of Australian chiropractic students toward whole body donation a cross-sectional study /

Cadavers play an important role in anatomy education. In Australia, bodies for anatomy education are acquired only through donations. To gain insight into educational dynamics in an anatomy laboratory as well as to facilitate body donation programs and thanksgiving ceremonies, it is important to understand students’ attitudes toward body donation. In this cross-sectional study, the attitudes of Macquarie University’s first, second, and fifth year chiropractic students toward body donation were investigated. Macquarie University chiropractic students have a four semester long anatomy program, which includes cadaver-based instruction on prosected specimens. A questionnaire was used to record respondents’ demographics and attitudes toward body donation: personal, by a relative, and by a stranger. It was found that ethnicity and religion affect attitudes toward body donation, with Australian students being more willing to donate a stranger’s body and atheists and agnostics being more willing to donate in general. Furthermore, willingness to donate one’s own or a family member’s body decreases as year of study increases, suggesting a possible negative impact of exposure to cadavers in the anatomy laboratory. This was only true, however, after controlling for age. Thus, the impact of viewing and handling prosected specimens, which is the norm in anatomy classes in Australia, may not be as strong as dissecting cadavers. It is suggested that anatomists and educators prepare students for cadaver based instruction as well as exhibit sensitivity to cultural differences in how students approach working with cadavers, when informing different communities about body donation programs and in devising thanksgiving ceremonies