The role of cross-cultural B2B relationship marketing: an investigation of Saudi Telecom Company (STC)

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyWith the increasing expansion of companies into the global markets, Relationship Marketing (RM) has become more significant than ever, drawing to it the interest of scholars and the attention of practitioners. One aspect of the subject, which this research addresses, is the need to understand the nature and importance of relationships across cultures, since such understanding is critical to organizational expansion. The focus of this research is B2B relationship marketing, with cross-cultural marketing as a major component of analysis. Building on and extending relevant cross-cultural theories, this research investigates B2B relationship marketing in a Middle-Eastern telecom company, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), a company that is well placed for providing fertile illustrations of the mechanism of B2B relationship marketing. It is, furthermore, a key company in Saudi Arabia with hundreds of partners worldwide, and its economic importance to the country is second only to SABIC, the state-owned national oil company. Adopting a case study research strategy, the research explores how a growing organization absorbs cultural awareness into its B2B relationships. Data are garnered by interviewing 35 STC managers, 29 STC Small Medium Enterprise SME business partners, and three of STC’s Major Enterprise partners, as well as accessing and analysing secondary data from the company. The findings to date suggest that as the company grows it needs to develop B2B cross-cultural awareness at local and global level. This research extends cross-cultural models which have been developed in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context such as cross-cultural marketing theories proposed by Hall and Hofstede to understand cross-cultural theory in a B2B context. By exploring the role of culture in B2B relationships in the telecom industry in the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, in light of a case study conducted on a specific and major company, STC and its global partners, and by investigating and assessing how it conducts its B2B relationships, this research aspires to extend the understanding of cultural awareness in B2B relationship and thereby to make a useful contribution to scholarship

Re-Scaling of Energy in the Stringy Charged Black Hole Solutions using Approximate Symmetries

This paper is devoted to study the energy problem in general relativity using approximate Lie symmetry methods for differential equations. We evaluate second-order approximate symmetries of the geodesic equations for the stringy charged black hole solutions. It is concluded that energy must be re-scaled by some factor in the second-order approximation.Comment: 18 pages, accepted for publication in Canadian J. Physic

Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis of core gene of hepatitis C virus from Pakistani population

In Pakistan, more than 10 million people are living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) with high morbidity and mortality. The aims of the present study are to report HCV core gene sequences from Pakistani population and perform their sequence comparison/phylogenetic analysis. The core gene of HCV has been cloned from six different patients and sequences submitted at the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Nucleotides and deduced amino acid sequence comparison of six isolates was performed with each other and with two HCV genotype 3a type examples reported from Japan. Phylogenetic tree of HCV core sequences was constructed using CLC software. Nucleotides sequence comparison showed that our sequences have 94 to 96% homology with NZL1 strain and 90 to 93%homology with HCV-K3A/650 strain. Deduced amino acid sequence comparison showed that our sequences have 92 to 98% homology with NZL1 strain and 88 to 94% homology with HCV-K3A/650 strain.Phylogenetic analysis suggests that our sequences are clustered with sequences reported from Japan. This is the first phylogenetic analysis of HCV core gene from Pakistani population. Our sequences and sequences from Japan are grouped into same cluster in the phylogenetic tree. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that our isolates have high homology with Japanese isolates

The Effect of Power factor Improvement on Switching Transients: A Case of FUMMAN Agricultural Products Industry Plc.

Industrial loads are mostly inductive and hence operate at low power factor. Several methods including the installation of capacitor banks are available for improving power factor in order to reduce the kilovolt ampere (kVA) demand of the load and power loss from the power supply system. However, literatures have shown that improvement of power factor has effect on switching transients which is dangerous for industrial loads and operating personnel. In this work, we investigated the effect of improving the power factor of a power system beyond 0.8 (lagging) on switching transient levels using FUMMAN industry power network as a case study. A power factor measuring tool was modelled using the mathematical relation between power factor, reactive power and active power. The modelled equations were simulated Matlab/Simulink software (Version 7.9.0.529 ‘R2009b’). The characteristics of the system under study namely root mean square (r.m.s) voltage, peak steady state voltage, peak transient voltage and kVA demand were measured during the simulation with and without parallel connection of capacitor bank across the system. The result from the analysis showed that FUMMAN industry power network was operating at a lagging power factor of 0.8 with r.m.s voltage of 412.1 V, peak steady state voltage of 582.8 V, peak transient voltage of 701.9 V and kVA demand of 1878 kVA without the capacitor bank. However, when a capacitor bank was connected across the system and the power factor increased from 0.8 (lagging) to 0.9098 (lagging), optimised performance of the system was obtained with a capacitor bank size of 440 kVar. At lagging power factor of 0.9098, the kVA demand of the system was 1650 kVA, r.m.s voltage was 415.5 V and peak transient voltage was 749.5 V. The analysis therefore showed that increasing power factor beyond 0.8 (lagging) using capacitor banks though improves the r.m.s voltage and reduces the power loss but invariably leads to increase in switching transients which is undesired for optimised system performance

PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED EXTRACT ON CISPLATIN INDUCED NEPHROTOXICITY IN RATS

Objective: The main objective of this study is to investigate the antioxidant and nephroprotective efficacy of moringa oleifera seed extract (MOSE) against cisplatin which induced acute renal injury. Methods: Forty male Wister rats were equally segregated into 4 groups (10 rats per group): group I (0.5 ml of sterile saline orally), group II (200 mg MOSE/kg b. wt orally for 10 consecutive days), group III (7.5 mg cisplatin/kg b. wt/intraperitonially as a single dose on the 5th day of the experiment) and group IV (200 mg moringa oleifera seed extract (MOSE)/kg orally for 10 d followed by 7.5 mg cisplatin/kg body weight/intraperitonially once as a single dose on the 5th day of the experiment. Serum biochemical analysis of renal biomarkers (urea, uric acid, and creatinine), oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde [MDA]), a crucial antioxidant enzyme (catalase) and the expression of renal activity interleukin (IL)-6, (IL)-10 and Tumer necrotic factor (TNF-α) mRNA were determined. Histopathological examination of renal tissue was done. Results: Cisplatin induced renal damage, increased renal biomarkers (urea, creatinine and uric acid)(375.87±1.65, 5.238±0.25, 4.47±0.25). Tissue concentrations of malondialdehyde, IL-6 and TNF-α.(387.56±0.97, 2.188±0.20, 3.06±0.27)compared to control group(140.58±1.25,0.938±0.017, 1.24±0.17), (163.99±1.34, 1.008±0.05, 0.982±0.026) Moreover, cisplatin induced significantly down-regulation of anti-inflammatory (IL-10) and catalase (0.780±0.47, 1.62±0.06) compared to control one (1.010±0.02, 3.12±0.11),. The histopathological examination showed renal tissue damage and degeneration of tubules in the cortical portion in cisplatin group. However, interestingly concurrent adminsteration of the MOSE with cisplatin can alleviated the renal damage, oxidative stress and renal toxicity caused by cisplatin. Conclusion: These results suggest that the antioxidant and the anti-inflammatory effects of MOSE alleviate the cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity

Molecular Analysis of CMV Genes Variation in Pregnant Woman

In these papers were studied molecular for both, molecular detection of human Cytomegalovirus (hCMV) and genotyping based of gB and gN genes in pregnant women suffered from previous abortion by means of Immunoglobulin M and G of Cytomegalovirus antibodies and nested polymerase chain reaction for universal detection of beta herpers viruses for amplification in envelope glycoproteins of Cytomegalovirus of  ̴ 800 bp DNA segament encoding for glycoprotein B (gB) gene and glycoprotein N (gN) gene were investigated in 30 pregnant women in Al-Batool Maternity hospital, Wasit provence, Iraq, whom suffered from previous abortion during from October 2014 to October 2015. Showing through it thirty women had increased titers of IgM and IgG types of Cytomegalovirus antibodies. This work includes a molecular study for both, molecular detection of HCMV and for genotyping based of gB and gN genes. Nested PCR technique was adopted as described previously for universal detection of beta herpes viruses for amplification of ~800bpDNA segment encoding for  glycoprotein B(gB) gene (UL55) was carried out. To determine the genetic polymorphisms in envelope glycoproteins of CMV, glycoprotein B (gB) gene, and glycoprotein N (gN) gene, have been amplified. Thus, we conclude homology of gN sequence.  gN-based  genotyping study reveals three types of gN1, gN3, gN4 genotypes. This study showed that gN 1 genotype are more frequent genotype in patient sample followed by gN4 type, and one case with gN3 genotype. Keywords:- hCMV, glycoprotein B (gB) gene, glycoprotein N (gN) gene, Nested PCR techniqu

Wettability of Al2O3 by Aluminum and Al-Mg Alloys

The wettablity at a liquid of pure-Al or Al-Mg alloys/ Al2O3 interface wasevaluated by the sessile drop method at 700oC and with a vacuum pressure of10-4Pa. The value of contact angle varies (decreases) with time of contact withAl2O3 substrate. The reduction in θ of the Al-Mg alloy was proportional to thereduction in surface tension γlv of Al, and to reactions that took place at the Alalloy/Al2O3 interface

Prostate – Specific Antigen (Psa) as a Screening Tool for Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (Bph) and Prostate Cancer (Pca) in Sulaimani Province

The current study was applied to evaluate the significance of serum Prostate- Specific Antigen (PSA) as a screening tool for the PCa and the role of percent free - to- total PSA ratio in the discriminating between BPH and PCa. Prostatic biopsies and blood were collected from (62) patients aged between (50-89) years. Eleven healthy men with negative digital rectal examination, (median age, 60.6yr) were enrolled in this study as a control group. The common diseases encountered were BPH (59.7%), BPH with prostatitis (19%), adenocarcinoma (17.7%), and transitional cell carcinoma (3.2%). 54% of BPH cases had tPSA level 10, while 15.3% of malignant cases had tPSA level 10. The statistical analysis showed a significant difference between (BPH and PCa); (PCa and control cases) and  (prostatitis and control) in regard to tPSA. Regarding to % cPSA the entire case of PCa showed levels >60% aligned with only 75%, 27%, 16% in prostatitis, control and BPH groups successively. The mean comparison showed statistically significant differences between the PCa patients and control cases and between prostatitis and control cases, while no significant differences between BPH and control group. Regarding to % FPSA, 53.8 % of PCa cases showed ≤15, along with 16.6 % of prostatitis showed ≤15, while no cases of both BPH and control revealed FPSA ≤15. Comparison of the means showed a statistically large difference between the (PCa and BPH), (PCa and control) and (prostatitis and control) cases. While no significant differences between (BPH and control) cases. In conclusion, combinational use of tPSA with other molecular forms of PSA especially proportion of FPSA provide higher diagnostic and differentiative accuracy than the tPSA alone

Unidentified transitions in one-photon intrashell dynamics in Rydberg atoms

One-photon intrashell transitions in strongly driven Li (n = 25) atoms are studied experimentally. Thedegeneracy of the n shell is lifted by orthogonal dc electric and magnetic fields, which also define the eccentricity of the initial coherent elliptic state. The transitions are driven by a radio frequency pulse linearly polarized parallel to the major axis of the ellipse. A small dc electric field component parallel to the magnetic field splits the one-photon resonance into two, and transitions in between are studied by state-selective field ionization. Unexpected lines in the ionization spectra relating to unknown transitions are found and discussed.Fil: Preclíková, J.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Waheed, A.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Fregenal, Daniel Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Frette, Ø.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Hamre, B.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Hjertaker, B.T.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Horsdal, E.. University Aarhus; DinamarcaFil: Pilskog, I.. University of Bergen; NoruegaFil: Førre, M.. University of Bergen; Norueg