AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRACTICE AND MEASURES OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER BEHAVIOUR, ROLE OF CONSULTANTS, CLIENTS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP IN ABU DHABI NATIONAL OIL COMPANY (ADNOC)

The study is aimed to identify the role of different factors affecting knowledge transfer behaviour between at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which is UAE National Oil Company. Extending the existing work on knowledge transfer, the researcher has incorporated the source, recipients, and process-related factors to examine knowledge transfer behaviour among consultants and clients. The moderating role of the learning management system was also analyzed. The study follows a quantitative approach to test the hypothesized relationships and the sample consists of 446 employees from ADNOC Company. Findings of the study suggest that there is a significant direct impact of independent recipient-oriented factors of absorptive capacity and motivation to learn, on the knowledge transfer behaviour. Moreover, it presents evidence to support indirect impact including partial mediation of arduousness of the relationship between the impact of recipients’ motivation to learn and knowledge transfer behaviour, full mediation of arduousness of the relationship between the impact of sources’ credibility and knowledge transfer behaviour and a significant moderation impact of learning management system on the relationship between recipients’ absorptive capacity, in context of this study. Apart from the above-mentioned findings, the study also presents contextual non-findings. These non-findings include an insignificant but negative impact of sources’ credibility on the knowledge transfer behaviour and an insignificant impact on the recipients’ retentive capacity on the organizational knowledge transfer behaviour, in terms of direct impact. The study has also presented an indirect impact on the non-finding of insignificant moderating impact. This non-finding was in terms of insignificant moderation of LMS on the relationship between recipients’ retentive capacity and organizational knowledge transfer behaviour

The discipline of public employees in the United Arab Emirates : a comparison between the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (G.C.C.)

PhD ThesisPrior to independence, there were no clear regulations regarding the discipline of "publics office available in the United Arab Emirates and other countries of the Gulf Co-Operation Council. However, the postindependence era has witnessed great developments in political, economic, social and legal fields. Particular attention was accorded to public office as new laws regulating public office were promulgated in which the duties and rights of public servants were defined and a certain disciplinary system evolved. Against this background, the researcher examines the current disciplinary system in the United Arab Emirates with the purpose of pinpointing its deficiencies and limitations and proposing means for rectifying the same, as this would lead to a higher level of performance in the public service. The present thesis, which falls into eight chapters, begins by reviewing the developments that have taken place in the country in various fields. It then examines the Islamic perspective of the public service and reviews the early beginnings of its evolution. The study then discusses the duties and responsibilities of the public servant as per the current Public Service Law. It further deals with the various aspects of disciplinary accountability including disciplinary bodies, penalties and proceedings with special reference to the said law. This theoretical xix background is followed by an investigation of the actual implementation of the said law in particular those provisions pertaining to disciplinary accountability. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of 305 public servants of the United Arab Emirates. Personal interviews were also conducted by the researcher with a number of high-ranking government officials. The results of the questionnaire and interviews are then analyzed. Some recommendations and suggestions aimed at improving the U. A. E. Civil Service regulations and practices especially in the disciplinary domain are made in the final chapter

Principals’ Instructional Leadership Practices and Their Relationship to Teachers’ Instructional Practices in Sharjah Schools.

Instructional leadership has become one of the most widely researched topics. This type of leadership has been connected to teacher growth and development, teacher job satisfaction, student achievement, and improving school climate in general. This study focuses on instructional leadership in schools of Sharjah Education Zone. Specifically, the study aims to describe the principal instructional leadership practices, to identify the most and least important teachers’ instructional practices, and to investigate whether there is a relationship between the principals’ instructional practices and teachers’ teaching practices. This study is quantitative in nature and therefore a questionnaire was used to collect data from teachers in 24 schools in Sharjah. The sample was 111 male and 269 female teachers with a total of 380 teachers. The study found that principals in Sharjah schools practice certain tasks of instructional leadership more than others. For example, they care more for framing the school goals, providing incentives for learning, and evaluating instruction than maintaining high visibility, protecting instructional time, and providing incentives for teachers. With regards to teachers’ instructional practices, it was found that teachers focus on certain practices more than others. They provide attention to students working in groups, stating the lesson goals, checking students’ exercise books than, for example, asking students to write essays to demonstrate their creative ideas, giving them projects that last for some time, and holding debates in the classrooms. Finally, the study found a positive relationship between principals’ instructional leadership practices and teachers’ teaching practices. In other words, when the principal attends to certain leadership practices, the teacher gives more attention to certain instructional practices. This relationship was stronger in areas of monitoring students’ progress, providing incentives for teachers and protecting teachers’ instructional time

Material Selection for a Composite Hip Joint

The use of biomaterials in orthopedic surgery has been successfully acceptable in the current medical practice. Total hip joint replacement (THR) is one of the most popular and successful operations in orthopedics. Total hip replacement (THR) has been using metal prosthesis for many years. However, the use of metal implants has two major disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that the stiffness of the metallic prosthesis is relatively high compared to the surrounding, load carrying bone. The elastic moduli of titanium and cobalt-chromium alloy are 110 and 210 GPa, respectively. Whereas the elastic modulus of cortical bone ranges from 15 to 25 GPa. This mismatch between the bone and the stiffness of the implant will cause the degradation of the bone-implant interface, which will lead eventually to loosening and prosthesis fracture. The second disadvantage of metallic prosthesis is the release of harmful metal ions, which may cause hypersensitivity to the patient. To overcome the stiffness problem and other related metal implants complications, recent advances in design and manufacturing technologies proposed the use of composite materials as an alternative to the metallic implants. The use of composite materials in orthopedic surgery offers a variety of new implant designs. Outstanding mechanical properties; radiolucency, biocompatibility and low weight are the major advantages compared with metals in clinical use today. Composite materials are known as low stiffness materials with mechanical properties close to the properties of bone. The strength and stiffness of composite materials can be varied easily when compared to metals. For example, the strength varies from 70 MPa to 1900 MPa and stiffness varies from 1.0 GPa to 170 GPa. Such tailorability in strength and stiffness could provide a state of stress in the femur closer to physiological level. Thus, it will eliminate the problems of bone-prosthesis loosening and prosthesis fracture. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the performance of woven composites for a hip prosthesis made from hybrid materials. For such a purpose, field investigation was conducted locally to establish a realistic ground for the total hip replacement procedures in the U.A.E. This field investigation revealed that the THR cases performed in the U.A.E. are exponentially increasing every year. This increase in the THR cases requires an immediate solution for the problem. For the purpose of this design, two types of fibers were used to manufacture the specimens. The first type of fiber is the E-glass fiber. The second type of the fiber is the hybrid carbon-aramid fiber reinforced vinyl ester resin. Two types of processing techniques were used to manufacture specimens. The techniques were hot press molding and vacuum infusion. The specimens were then divided into three groups and each group contains eight specimens. Some specimens were kept immersed in a physiological solution for eight weeks, while others were used as virgin specimens. The evaluation process included mechanical test, weight gain calculation for the glass fiber and the scanning-electron microscopy (SEM) study. In this study, we found that immersion in the physiological solution caused reduction in strength and modulus of the composite materials manufactured by vacuum infusion technique. On the other hand, weight reduction did not occur for the glass fiber manufactured by hot press molding. This is due to the lack of adequate resin available in the fiber-matrix interface. Scanning-electron microscopy (SEM) study examined and showed the fractures\u27 surfaces occurred to the specimen. Fatigue tests performed on conditioned specimens have shown that the main failure mechanism can be attributed to the poor interface between the fiber and the matrix

PRINCIPALS\u27 INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO TEACHERS\u27 INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES IN SHARJAH SCHOOLS

Instructional leadership has become one of the most widely researched topics. This type of leadership has been connected to teacher growth and development, teacher job satisfaction, student achievement, and improving school climate in general. This study focuses on instructional leadership in schools of Sharjah Education Zone. Specifically, the study aims to describe the principal instructional leadership practices, to identify the most and least important teachers\u27 instructional practices, and to investigate whether there is a relationship between the principals\u27 instructional practices and teachers\u27 teaching practices. This study is quantitative in nature and therefore a questionnaire was used to collect data from teachers in 24 schools in Sharjah. The sample was 111 male and 269 female teachers with a total of 380 teachers. The study found that principals in Sharjah schools practice certain tasks of instructional leadership more than others. For example, they care more for framing the school goals, providing incentives for learning, and evaluating instruction than maintaining high visibility, protecting instructional time, and providing incentives for teachers. With regard to teachers\u27 instructional practices, it was found that teachers focus on certain practices more than others. They provide attention to students working in groups, stating the lesson goals, checking students\u27 exercise books than, for example, asking students to write essays to demonstrate their creative ideas, giving them projects that last for some time, and holding debates in the classrooms. Finally, the study found a positive relationship between principals\u27 instructional leadership practices and teachers\u27 teaching practices. In other words, when the principal attends to certain leadership practices, the teacher gives more attention to certain instructional practices. This relationship was stronger in areas of monitoring vii students\u27 progress, providing incentives for teachers and protecting teachers\u27 instructional tim

Transient And Distributed Algorithms To Improve Islanding Detection Capability Of Inverter Based Distributed Generation

Recently, a lot of research work has been dedicated toward enhancing performance, reliability and integrity of distributed energy resources that are integrated into distribution networks. The problem of islanding detection and islanding prevention (i.e. anti-islanding) has stimulated a lot of research due to its role in severely compromising the safety of working personnel and resulting in equipment damages. Various Islanding Detection Methods (IDMs) have been developed within the last ten years in anticipation of the tremendous increase in the penetration of Distributed Generation (DG) in distribution system. This work proposes new IDMs that rely on transient and distributed behaviors to improve integrity and performance of DGs while maintaining multi-DG islanding detection capability. In this thesis, the following questions have been addressed: How to utilize the transient behavior arising from an islanding condition to improve detectability and robust performance of IDMs in a distributive manner? How to reduce the negative stability impact of the well-known Sandia Frequency Shift (SFS) IDM while maintaining its islanding detection capability? How to incorporate the perturbations provided by each of DGs in such a way that the negative interference of different IDMs is minimized without the need of any type of communication among the different DGs? It is shown that the proposed techniques are local, scalable and robust against different loading conditions and topology changes. Also, the proposed techniques can successfully distinguish an islanding condition from other disturbances that may occur in power system networks. This work improves the efficiency, reliability and safety of integrated DGs, which presents a necessary advance toward making electric power grids a smart grid