Omega and eta meson production in p+p reactions at E_{kin} = 3.5 GeV

We report on the exclusive production of omega and eta mesons in p+p reactions at 3.5 GeV beam kinetic energy. Production cross sections, angular distributions and Dalitz plots of both mesons were determined. Moreover, the relative contribution of the N(1535) resonance in eta production at this energy was evaluated. We conclude that eta mesons produced via N(1535) exihibit an isotropic angular distribution, whereas those produced directly show a strong anisotropic distribition. omega mesons show a slightly anisotropic angular distribition.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Krak\'ow, Poland, 10 - 15 June 201

Unified Octonionic Representation of the 10-13 Dimensional Clifford Algebra

We give a one dimensional octonionic representation of the different Clifford algebra Cliff(5,5)\sim Cliff(9,1), Cliff(6,6)\sim Cliff(10,2) and lastly Cliff(7,6)\sim Cliff(10,3) which can be given by (8x8) real matrices taking into account some suitable manipulation rules.Comment: RevTex file, 19 pages, to be published in Int. J. of Mod. Phys.

International Evidence on Cost, Revenue, and Profit Efficiency of Conventional and Islamic Banks

Bank efficiency is important in achieving the competitive edge for survival in a globalised banking industry. Conventional and Islamic banks operate on different principles in maximizing the wealth of their shareholders and are subjected to the competitive regulatory environment. Minimising cost and maximising revenues and profits to ensure survival are the two aims of all banks. These aims ensure the efficiency of financial sector and contribute to the overall economic growth. An important issue that needs to be addressed is the differences in the level of efficiency of these banks. In spite of the overwhelming empirical evidence on the efficiency of conventional banks, to date, there is no comprehensive evidence on the comparative cost, revenue, and profit efficiency of conventional and Islamic banks. This study fills this gap by analysing and comparing the efficiencies of Islamic and conventional banks in 21 countries during the period 1990-2005 The cost, revenue, and profit efficiency of Islamic banks and conventional banks are analyzed based on size, age, and region. The average and over-time efficiency for these banks are analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Financial Ratios. Overall cost and profit efficiencies are ascertained using the Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA). The findings suggest that there are no significant differences between the overall efficiency results of conventional and Islamic banks irrespective of the method of analysis. Based on the documented evidence on efficiency of conventional banks, these findings imply that the banking transactions compliant with the Shari'ah are not an impediment to efficiency of Islamic banks. However, there is a substantial avenue to fhther improve the cost, revenue and profit efficiencies in both the banking systems. The DEA based findings show no significance difference in average efficiency scores between big and small banks and between new and old banks in both the banking streams. However, geographical location explains the significant differences in revenue and profit efficiency. Further, the results show that, on average, banks are better in utilising their resources than in generating revenues and profits. In general, more inefficiency comes from the revenue side and banks in both banking streams need to further improve their revenue efficiency. The evidence, based on SFA, suggests no significant differences between the cost and profit efficiency scores between conventional and Islamic banks based on size, age, and region. Similar evidence is observed from the Financial Ratios analysis.Overall, the results on the efficiency of conventional and Islamic banks are consistent with the documented literature. The robustness of the results has been tested based on single-&untry analysis and dso a group of seIe&ted countries representing relatively less-developed and more-developed countries. Except for minor differences the results of these tests are consistent with the overall results, further substantiating the fact that there are no significant differences in cost, revenue and profit efficiency of conventional and Islamic banks

The Intervention of the Court for Assistance in Obtaining Evidence and Temporary and Precautionary Measures during the Course of the Arbitral Proceedings: A Comparative Analysis between the Palestinian and Jordanian Law.

The role of the judiciary in supporting arbitration panels is a necessity required by the nature of functions performed by arbitration systems in the community, as well as the requirements of protecting the interests of arbitration parties. Due to the importance of this role, this study examines the supporting role of courts in securing evidence and taking temporary and provisional actions; matters which are outside the scope and authority of the arbitration panels. The study conducted a comparative analysis of the Palestinian and Jordanian laws to compare legislative organization of this role, and clarify legal gaps which may face a competent court in its supporting role to an arbitration panel. The study tried to evaluate the two legislative tracks adopted by Palestinian and Jordanian lawmakers in regulating the limits of court intervention in supporting arbitration panels in performing their functions, on the basis that arbitration is not an alternative for the judiciary, but rather a special means in dispute settlement which involves the assistance of the judiciary. It concluded that effective arbitration requires close cooperation between the competent court and the arbitration panel, but one which must be characterized by precision and good discretion, so that judicial authorities will neither overwhelm the authority of arbitrators, nor trespass the spirit or text of the la

OSU-AGRANI Bank Rural Deposit Mobilization Experiment

Three models of incentive mechanisms to mobilize rural bank deposits were experimented with between February 1, 1986 and April 30, 1986 in three branches in each of two regions in Bangladesh. One model, the Tangible Incentive Model, was designed to test tangible incentives given to depositors, in addition to the normal interest income, for opening a new account or adding to an existing account and maintaining in those accounts an additional deposit of Tk. 500 or more for at least 90 days. Prize bonds valued at one percent of the eligible deposit balance were given to the depositors. Another model, the Marketing Model, was designed to test the impact of cash incentives paid to two specially appointed Field Assistants in the branch for marketing of bank deposits. The Field Assistants were paid Tk. 150 per month for incidental expenses, and an incentive bonus of one percent of eligible deposits mobilized of Tk. 1000 or more, and 10 or more accounts opened or reactivated. The third model, Employee Incentive Model, was designed to test additional financial incentives given to existing branch staff beyond the benefits currently provided. The branch staff, except the Manager, received the same incentive bonus and at the same rate as the Field Assistants in the Marketing Model. Over 800 new accounts were opened or dormant accounts reactivated in the six branches through the experiment. Total deposits of Tk. 1.4 billion were mobilized by these accounts. These deposits ranged from one percent to over eight percent of the branch's existing deposit base. The increase in number of accounts ranged from over one-half of one percent to almost thirteen percent of the branch's existing number of accounts. The Tangible Incentive Model produced the most cost effective result in generating new deposits and deposit accounts at the lowest cost per taka or per account mobilized. This model clearly shows that rural deposits can be mobilized by direct incentives. The overall implication of the experiment is that banks can mobilize rural deposits if serious efforts are made to reach this objective with appropriate incentive schemes

Dynamic Modeling of Packaged Air Conditioner with Micro-Channel Heat Exchanger Condenser

Microchannel Heat Exchangers (MCHX) are used in Air Conditioning systems (AC) as an efficient type of Heat Exchangers (HX) because they have compact size, as well as low refrigerant charge. However, using MCHX as condensers can be associated with some problems, including evaporatorcondenser transient charge balance issues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of using MCHX as a condenser in a packaged air conditioner with a finandtube heat exchanger as an evaporator. The methodology was dynamically modeling the packaged air conditioner in Modelica, considering varying pass configurations of MCHX with several refrigerant charges. The results showed that the pressure in the highpressure side of the refrigerant cycle increases as the number of tubes in the inletpass of the MCHX decreases. In addition, if the difference in the number of tubes among the inletpass and the outletpass is large, the pressure increases regardless of which pass has the highest number of tubes. Moreover, the pressure can increase after a while at the beginning of an oncycle due to the slow response of Thermostatic Expansion Valve (TXV) caused by the thermal inertia of the sensing bulb. We defined a mass ratio as mass of refrigerant in the evaporator to the mass in the condenser. A decrease in the mass ratio for a given total charge corresponds to the refrigerant accumulating in the condenser, increasing pressure in the condenser

Relationship between Human Resource Management Practices and Perceived Performance of Employees in Jordanian Hospitals

The relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance is an important topic in the organizational sciences, but little research examining this relationship in hospital settings has been conducted. This study aims to quantify the effects of HRM practices on employee performance in 5 hospitals in Jordan. A descriptive survey design was used, wherein data was collected from all the staff of each hospital using questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation and regression analyses. The results demonstrate that HRM practices have an impact on performance, that Jordanian hospitals do not have effective HRM practices, and that compensation has the greatest impact on increasing an employee’s level of performance. Keywords: Jordanian Hospitals, human resource management practices, hospital performance

Image retrieval based on swarm intelligence

To keep pace with the development of modern technology in this information technology era, and the immense image databases, whether personal or commercial, are increasing, is requiring the management of these databases to strong and accurate systems to retrieve images with high efficiency. Because of the swarm intelligence algorithms are great importance in solving difficult problems and obtaining the best solutions. Here in this research, a proposed system is designed to retrieve color images based on swarm intelligence algorithms. Where the algorithm of the ant colony optimization (ACOM) and the intelligent water drop (IWDM) was used to improve the system's work by conducting the clustering process in these two methods on the features extracted by annular color moment method (ACM) to obtain clustered data, the amount of similarity between them and the query image, is calculated to retrieve images from the database, efficiently and in a short time. In addition, improving the work of these two methods by hybridizing them with fuzzy method, fuzzy gath geva clustering algorithm (FGCA) and obtaining two new high efficiency hybrid algorithms fuzzy ant colony optimization method (FACOM) and fuzzy intelligent water drop method (FIWDM) by retrieving images whose performance values are calculated by calculating the values of precision, recall and the f-measure. It proved its efficiency by comparing it with fuzzy method, FGCA and by methods of swarm intelligence without hybridization, and its work was excellent

Effect of Inlet Duct Design on Fan Performance of Indoor Air Handling Units with Pull-Through Fan Configuration (ASHRAE RP-1743)

During testing indoor air handling units, ASHRAE Standard 37 requires installing an inlet duct that might increase the length of the testing setup to exceed the capability of some testing facilities. ASHRAE Research Project 1743 (ASHRAE RP1743) addresses this issue by evaluating the effect of inlet duct design on fan performance of indoor air handling units. The findings of the study will allow identifying alternative, shorter, inlet duct configurations maintaining the fan performance as of that obtained with ASHRAE Standard 37 inlet duct. The test matrix of the project includes various indoor units differing in motor type, such as Constant Torque Motor (CTM) and Electronically Commutated Motor (ECM), and fan configurations, such as pullthrough and pushthrough configuration. This paper focuses on the findings of testing two pullthroughfanconfiguration units, one of which with a CTM fan and the other with an ECM fan. In addition, other effects, such as atmospheric pressure and hysteresis in approaching external static pressure (ESP), were investigated to study their impacts on the repeatability of equipment testing. The results of the CTMfan unit showed that the proposed alternative inlet duct configurations can maintain the fan performance within the suggested tolerances, which are 5% in power and 2.5% in air volumetric flowrate relative to the ASHRAE Standard 37 inlet duct. This allows a reduction in the inlet duct stacklength from 38% to 74% compared to ASHRAE Standard 37 inlet duct configuration. Noticeable performance hysteresis was observed at low air flowrate and ESP, while atmospheric pressure had no effect on fan performance. For the ECMfan unit, the fan performance was maintained during testing the proposed alternative inlet duct configurations within the suggested tolerance, with a noticeable decrease in power during testing the reduced alternative inlet duct configuration. The reduction in the stack length as compared to the standard inlet duct configuration was 40%, 72%, 74% for the inlet box, 4inch inlet duct, and reduced alternative configuration, respectively. In contrast to the results of the CTMfan unit, the hysteresis effect on the ECMfan unit was found to be insignificant, while atmospheric pressure effect was significant. As the atmospheric pressure increased, air volumetric flowrate and fan’s power decreased

Potential psychosocial influences on gender differences in physical activity among Qatari adolescents: a first insight through descriptive observation

Adolescents in Qatar have some of the highest levels of inactivity and gender inequality in physical activity (PA) among all adolescents in the world. Contextual psychosocial influences remain unknown to date. The current study is a secondary analysis of 1,157 Qatari students (13 to 20 years of age) who completed a national cross-sectional survey. Males reported significantly higher daily PA than females (p < 0.0001) and increasing daily PA with personal importance for PA (p = 0.0140). However, compared to females, significantly higher proportion of daily active males were in the lowest level of self-efficacy (p = 0.0096), body shape satisfaction (p = 0.0003), likeness of body in pictures (p = 0.0011), and highest levels of psychological distress (p = 0.0313). Our results support positive association between adverse psychosocial constructs and daily PA in both genders; poor psychosocial profile was more pronounced among adolescent males. Future strategies aiming to increase PA should take into consideration these differences