Requirements to activate administrative technology in strategic planning in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman

The study aimed to identify the reality of requirements for activating administrative technology in the strategic planning in Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman from the point of view of its employees, and to reveal the degree of difference in their employment in strategic planning in light of the gender variable, job title, and workplace. The study also sought to identify requirements for activating administrative technology in strategic planning, and the descriptive method has been relied upon through designing a questionnaire consisting 33 phrases, distributed in four areas: diagnosing the current situation (strategic analysis), formulating the strategy, implementing the strategy, and following up and evaluation. The study sample consisted of 112 employees in the Ministry of Education, and the results of the study showed that the reality of activating administrative technology in strategic planning in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman came with an average degree of activation in the tool as a whole and its four fields according to the responses of the members of the study sample. There are also no statistically significant differences at the level of 0.05 between the averages of responses of the study sample to the reality of activating of administrative technology in the strategic planning of the Ministry of Education in the four fields, and the tool as whole is attributed to the variable of the workplace. There are differences of statistical function attributable to the gender variable in strategy formulation that are for the benefit of males and the tool as a whole, and to the job title variable for the general manager and his assistants in the tool as a whole, and all areas except the follow-up and evaluation area in which the indication has come to benefit of a general manager and his assistants, and a department head. The study presented several suggested measures for the most important requirements for activating administrative technology in strategic planning in the Ministry of Education in Sultanate of Oman

High PD-1/PD-L1 Checkpoint Interaction Infers Tumor Selection and Therapeutic Sensitivity to Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Treatment

Many cancers are termed immunoevasive due to expression of immunomodulatory ligands. Programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and cluster of differentiation 80/86 (CD80/86) interact with their receptors, programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), respectively, on tumor-infiltrating leukocytes eliciting immunosuppression. Immunotherapies aimed at blocking these interactions are revolutionizing cancer treatments, albeit in an inadequately described patient subset. To address the issue of patient stratification for immune checkpoint intervention, we quantitatively imaged PD-1/PD-L1 interactions in tumor samples from patients, employing an assay that readily detects these intercellular protein-protein interactions in the less than or equal to 10 nm range. These analyses across multiple patient cohorts demonstrated the intercancer, interpatient, and intratumoral heterogeneity of interacting immune checkpoints. The PD-1/PD-L1 interaction was not correlated with clinical PD-L1 expression scores in malignant melanoma. Crucially, among anti-PD-1-treated patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, those with lower PD-1/PD-L1 interaction had significantly worsened survival. It is surmised that within tumors selecting for an elevated level of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction, there is a greater dependence on this pathway for immune evasion and hence, they exhibit more impressive patient response to intervention. SIGNIFICANCE: Quantitation of immune checkpoint interaction by direct imaging demonstrates that immunotherapy-treated patients with metastatic NSCLC with a low extent of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction show significantly worse outcome.This work was supported, in part, by Department of Education, Basque Government- IT1270-19, Elkartek grant (BG18), and the Spanish Ministry grant (MINECO) PROJECTS of EXCELLENCE (BFU2015-65625-P). P.J. Parker was supported by a core grant to the Francis Crick Institute, from Cancer Research UK (FC001130), the UK Medical Research Council (FC001130), and the Wellcome Trust (FC001130).Peer reviewe

The obstacles of employing administrative technology in strategic planning from the point of view of the administrative leaderships in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman

     هدفت الدراسة إلى تعرف على معوقات توظيف التكنولوجيا الإدارية في التخطيط الاستراتيجي، من وجهة نظر القيادات الإدارية بوزارة التربية والتعليم في سلطنة عمان، بالإضافة إلى وضع إجراءات مقترحة للتغلب على معوقات توظيف أبعاد التكنولوجيا الإدارية في التخطيط الاستراتيجي بالوزارة. ولقد تألفت العينة من 40 فردًا من القيادات الإدارية حسب المسمى الوظيفي، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى أن ارتفاع التكاليف المالية لتبني تقنيات، وبرمجيات حديثة، من المعوّقات التي حصلت على المرتبة الأولى، لتوظيف أبعاد التكنولوجيا الإدارية في التخطيط الاستراتيجي، كما توجد معوقات أخرى تعيق توظيفها. وفيما يتعلق بالإجراءات المقترحة للتغلب على معوقات توظيف أبعاد التكنولوجيا الإدارية في التخطيط الاستراتيجي، اتفق أفراد عينة الدراسة على أن أبرزها يتوافق مع الأبعاد الثلاثة للتكنولوجيا الإدارية: وهي بناء قاعدة بيانات متطورة ومحدثة للتخطيط الاستراتيجي مما يسهل من تداول المعلومات، القيام بدورات تدريبية مستمرة تتعلق بالتكنولوجيا الإدارية الحديثة، ودعم مشاركة المنفذين للخطة الاستراتيجية، وتحملهم مسؤولية النتائج المترتبة عليها. وعلى ضوء الدراسة الميدانية والاطلاع على الأدب النظري وجهود السلطنة، تم وضع توصيات خاصة مرتبطة بالأبعاد الثلاثة للتكنولوجيا الإدارية، وتوصيات عامة للتغلب على معوقات توظيف أبعاد التكنولوجيا الإدارية في التخطيط الاستراتيجي بوزارة التربية والتعليم في سلطنة عمان.      The study aimed to identify obstacles of employing administrative technology in strategic planning from the point of view of the administrative leaderships in the Ministry of Education, in the Sultanate of Oman. It also targeted to develop proposed procedures to overcome the obstacles of employing administrative technology in strategic planning. The study sample consisted of 40 individuals from administrative leaderships according to their job titles. The study pointed out that the high financial costs of adopting modern technologies and softwares are the first obstacles to employ the dimensions of administrative technology in strategic planning, in addition to the existence of other obstacles that hamper their employment. In order to overcome these obstacles, the study sample members agreed that the most important three dimensions are the following: building an advanced and updated database for strategic planning to facilitate circulation of information, conducting ongoing training courses related to modern administrative technology, and supporting the participation of the implementers of the strategic plan, as well as bearing the responsibility of the consequences. In the light of the field study findings, theoretical literature and the efforts of the Sultanate of Oman, special recommendations were developed related to the three administrative of technology and general recommendations were developed to overcome the obstacles of employing the dimensions of administrative technology in the strategic planning of the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman