Metacognitive skills, perfectionism, and academic self-efficacy As predicators of achievement goal orientations among Sample of graduate students in Education College

This study aimed toinvestigate the possibility of predicting achievement goal orientations from metacognitive skills, perfectionism, and academic self-efficacy among graduate students. The study sample consisted of 182 graduate students from the College of Education at King Saud University. In this study, four types of scales were used, namely the 2x2 Achievement Goal Orientation Scale developed by Elliot andMcGregor (2001) the Metacognitive Skills Scale developed by Al-Watban (2006), the Adaptive and Maladaptive Scale developed byFrostetet. al (1993) and the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Wood and Locke (1987). The results of the study revealed that there were significant impacts of metacognitive skills, perfectionism, and academic self-efficacy on achievement goal orientations, and metacognitive skills, adaptive perfectionism, and academic self-efficacy were good predicators of mastery-approach goal orientation. In addition, there was a good possibility of predicting performance-avoidance goal orientation from both maladaptive perfectionism and academic self-efficacy. The results also showed that two types of perfectionism can be a good predicator of mastery-avoidance, and maladaptive one can predict performance-approach goal orientations

The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on Organizational Performance:A Case Study for Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)

Strategic human resource management is the proactive management of people. It requires thinking ahead, and planning ways for a company to better meet the needs of its employees, and for the employees to better meet the needs of the company. This can affect the way things are done at a business site, improving everything from hiring practices and employee training programs to assessment techniques and discipline.This study  is descriptive  based on the collection and analysis of results of studies, reports, periodicals and books related to the topic of study in order to investigate the relationships between strategic human resource management (SHRM) on organizational performance ,case study of  Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).The Purpose of this Study is to demonstrate the meaning of strategic human resource, the meaning of organizational performance ,advanced studies related to the topic of study , the relationship between strategic human resource management on organizational performance Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and How (SABIC) company enhance organizational performance through its HR strategy. The researcher has adapt four possible types of measurement for organizational performance in SABIC 1) Human Resource outcomes (turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction), 2) organizational outcomes (productivity, quality, service), 3) financial accounting outcomes (ROA, profitability), and 4) capital market outcomes, (stock price, growth, returns). Based on descriptive study, the researcher has analyzed SABIC performance. The finding of this study that (SABIC) has overall good performance due to Strategic human resource management .However continuo improvement is required specially decline in oil prices in the last quarter of 2014 and global financial crisis.In the conclusion of this study, the researcher has mentioned to 10 important points in SABIC performance . Keywords: strategic human resource management , organizational performanc

An Evaluation of Faculty Members Opinions toward Organizational Development Strategy (ODS) in Alignment with Saudi Arabia Vision 2030: An applied Study on Saudi Private Universities

-    Vision 2030 is the starting point in all sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Vision 2030 aims to have at least five Saudi universities among the top 200 universities in international rankings which required Organizational Development in education sector and all other sectors. Organizational Development (OD) is a practice to help organizations build the capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness that will contribute for achieving Vision 2030. -     The purpose of this study is to evaluate faculty members’ opinions toward organizational development strategy at their universities in alignment with Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 applied study on Saudi Private Universities. -    The target population of this research is all faculty members at colleges of business and colleges of law at Saudi private universities within the academic year (2017- 2018) in order to investigate their opinions toward organizational development strategy at their universities in alignment with Saudi Arabia Vision 2030. The study tool is a Two-part questionnaire designed by (Nidal Jamil Ahmad 2016), The first part consists of Five questions containing demographic information, The Second part consist of 20 questions related to OD strategy categorized into five dimension (Diagnosis – Design – Deployment – Evaluation – Enhancement). All the items were measured using five-point Likert scale, five points for “Strongly agree”, four points for “Agree”, three points for “Neutral”, two points for “Disagree”, and one point for “Strongly disagree”. -    The researcher designed and distributed 200 questionnaire forms and excluded 14 forms due to the lack of information which means overall sample is 186 faculty members. The data for the study was collected during (2017-2018). The data collected were edited, coded and processed with the Statistical Package for Science Solutions (SPSS), and discussed in narrative style for clarity and better understanding. -      Based on SPSS result shown in table (7), Pearson correlation is significant at the (0.05) for OD strategy (Diagnosis – Design – Deployment – Evaluation – Enhancement). -      Based on SPSS result shown in table (8), Cronbach’s alpha determines the internal consistency or average correlation of items in a survey instrument to gauge its reliability, table (8) alpha coefficient greater than the minimum acceptable 60%. -      The finding indicated that (Q1& Q2) scored (4.52) and (4.49) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities strongly agree about Dean of college has fully awareness of OD strategy and the organizational development strategy relies on realistic data. -      The finding indicated that (Q4) scored (2.34) faculty members at Saudi Private Universities did not agree on organizational development strategy identifies the priorities for critical problem. -      The results also indicated that total mean of question number (Q3& Q5) scored (2.83) and (3.37) which reflect neutral answer of (The OD strategy analyses previous failures - The OD strategy analyses strengths and weaknesses). -      The finding indicated that (Q6& Q8) scored (4.27) and (4.24) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities strongly agree about the organizational development strategy uses internal structural interventions (job design, division of labor and hierarchy, arrangements of equipment and people etc) and the organizational development strategy aims to change faculty members behavior. The finding also indicated that (Q9) scored (3.91) faculty members at Saudi Private Universities agree on organizational development OD is guided by specific organizational policies. -       The results also indicated that total mean of question number (Q7) scored (2.67) which reflect neutral answer of (The organizational development strategy is implemented according to specific timetables). -      The finding indicated that (Q10& Q13) scored (3.74) and (3.67) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities agree about the Organizational development strategy is disseminated throughout the university and it working through self-managed teams. -      The finding indicated that (Q11& Q12) scored (2.94) and (2.83) which reflect which reflect neutral answer of (The organizational development strategy is discussed by all stakeholder inside the university & The OD strategy is implemented through Empowerment). -      The finding indicated that (Q14& Q16) scored (2.20) and (2.25) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities did not agree about the effectiveness of an organizational development strategy is measured by specific criteria and the OD strategy considered the feedback from faculty members. The finding indicated that (Q15) scored (2.80) which neutral answer of (The OD performance gap is determined by comparing the actual results with the standards). -      The finding indicated that (Q17& Q18) scored (2.15) and (2.14) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities did not agree about the OD strategy reinforce creative behaviors and the OD strategy activates depend on brainstorming sessions. The finding indicated that (Q19& Q20) scored (4.17) and (4.04) which reflect that faculty members at Saudi Private Universities agree about the organizational development strategy contributes to build university culture and the OD strategy enable to overcome deficiencies in the overall performance. Finally: The overall performance at Saudi Private Universities toward organizational development strategy dimensions is good however there are still area form continuous improvement in order to achieve Saudi Vision 2030. Keywords: Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 - Organizational Development strategy (Diagnosis – Design – Deployment – Evaluation – Enhancement)

Correlation between flexural strength and denture base acrylic thickness overlaying implant stud attachments

Objectives. To investigate the effect of acrylic resin thickness and the stud attachment housings on the maximum breaking load, flexural strength and flexural modulus of denture base acrylic resins overlying implant overdenture attachments.;Methods. Fifty-two rectangular specimens were fabricated from high impact denture acrylic resin (Lucitone 199). Forty specimens contain 2.00 mm height Locator attachment titanium denture caps with black processing males, 12 specimens did not include the denture cap. All specimens were fabricated according to ANSI/ADA SPECIFICATION NO. 12-2002 for testing denture base resin with constant measurements of 64 mm in length, 10 mm in width, and variable testing thickness. The specimens were divided into four testing groups according to different thickness of 3, 4, 5, and 6 mm. Each group had 10 specimens with denture cap and 3 specimens without denture cap. Specimens were subjected to 3-point-bending flexural test till fracture using the Instron Universal testing machine. After data collection, mean values and standard deviations were calculated and a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the effect of denture base thickness, on the flexural strength and modulus of the control and Locator testing specimens.;Results. The data collected showed a positive effect with the use of Locators caps in test specimens on the flexural modulus and maximum displacement. Results showed a positive relationship between maximum load, maximum displacement at break and acrylic thickness. There was no significant effect of different acrylic thicknesses on the flexural strength or flexural modulus.;Conclusions. Evaluation of the available interarch distance, proper diagnosis, and treatment planning is of critical importance to minimize prosthesis complications and failure. Implant-retained overdentures utilizing a low profile stud attachment (Locators by Zest) is a recommended treatment option for patients with compromised interarch space. Implant stud attachment components integrated in denture resin has a positive effect on the flexural modulus. The stiffness of the denture resin increased when Locator caps were contained in the specimens compared to specimens with no caps. There was a positive effect of acrylic thickness on the maximum load at break and maximum displacement. Increase acrylic thickness will lead to higher maximum load and decreased incidence of overdenture fractures

Siblings, asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema: a worldwide perspective from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood.

BACKGROUND: Associations of larger families with lower prevalences of hay fever, eczema and objective markers of allergic sensitization have been found fairly consistently in affluent countries, but little is known about these relationships in less affluent countries. METHODS: Questionnaire data for 210,200 children aged 6-7 years from 31 countries, and 337,226 children aged 13-14 years from 52 countries, were collected by Phase Three of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Associations of disease symptoms and labels of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema were analysed by numbers of total, older and younger siblings, using mixed (multi-level) logistic regression models to adjust for individual covariates and at the centre level for region, language and national affluence. RESULTS: In both age groups, inverse trends (P < 0.0001) were observed for reported 'hay fever ever' and 'eczema ever' with increasing numbers of total siblings, and more specifically older siblings. These inverse associations were significantly (P < 0.005) stronger in more affluent countries. In contrast, symptoms of severe asthma and severe eczema were positively associated (P < 0.0001) with total sibship size in both age groups. These associations with disease severity were largely independent of position within the sibship and national GNI per capita. CONCLUSIONS: These global findings on sibship size and childhood asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema suggest at least two distinct trends. Inverse associations with older siblings (observations which prompted the 'hygiene hypothesis' for allergic disease) are mainly a phenomenon of more affluent countries, whereas greater severity of symptoms in larger families is globally more widespread

Shear Strengthening of Self-Compacting Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams With External Bonded Layers

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a stable and highly flowable concrete. In this study, a new shear strengthening technique for reinforced self-compacting concrete (RSCC) deep beams was suggested and compared with some traditional techniques. An experimental test program consists of sixteen specimens of RSCC deep beams strengthened by different materials such as steel, glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP and CFRP) was executed. Externally bonded layers (EBL) and near surface mounted reinforcement (NSMR) were used as two different techniques. The effects of the new technique which depends on using intertwined roving NSM GFRP rods saturated with epoxy were compared with the other models. The new technique for shear strengthening increases the load capacity from 36% to 55% depending on the anchorage length of GFRP rods. Two dimensional nonlinear isoperimetric degenerated layered finite elements (FE) analysis was used to represent the SCC, reinforcement and strengthening layers of the tested models. The analytical results have been very close to the experimental results.  

Optimizing the joint transmit and receive MMSE design using mode selection

International audienceTo approach the potential multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) capacity while optimizing the system bit-error rate (BER) performance, the joint transmit and receive minimum mean squared error (joint Tx/Rx MMSE) design has been proposed. It is the optimal linear scheme for spatial multiplexing MIMO systems, assuming a fixed number of spatial streams p as well as fixed modulation and coding across these spatial streams. However, the number of spatial streams has been arbitrarily chosen and fixed, which may lead to an inefficient power allocation strategy and a poor BER performance. In this paper, we relax the constraint of fixed number of streams p and optimize this value for the current channel realization, under the constraints of fixed average total transmit power P/sub T/ and fixed rate R, what we refer to as mode selection . Based on the observation of the existence of a dominant optimal number of streams value for the considered Rayleigh flat-fading MIMO channel model, we further propose an "average" mode selection that avoids the per-channel adaptation through using the latter dominant value for all channel realizations. Finally, we exhibit the significant BER improvement provided by our mode selection over the conventional joint Tx/Rx MMSE design. Such significant improvement is due to the better exploitation of the MIMO spatial diversity and the more efficient power allocation enabled by our mode selection

A FIXED POINT APPROACH TO STABILITY OF A CUBIC FUNCTIONAL EQUATION IN 2-BANACH SPACES

In this paper, we prove a new type of stability and hyperstability results forthe following cubic functional equationf (2x + y) + f (2x - y) = 2f (x + y) + 2f (x - y) + 12f(x)in 2-Banach spaces using fixed point approach

Microstructure and corrosion behaviour of NiTiCo shape memory alloys under various aging conditions

In this study the microstructure evolution and corrosion resistance of NiTiCo and Co-free NiTi shape memory alloys (smart alloys) were investigated under various aging conditions. Cobalt NiTi alloy contains 4 at% in addition to 52 at% Nickel and 44 at% Titanium, while in Co- free alloy Titanium content increased to 48 at%. Optical and scanning electron microscopes were used to investigate the microstructure evolution of NiTi alloys. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements were used to study the corrosion behavior of the tested alloys in 1.0 M HCl solution at 25 °C. The results show that martensite phase, B19’, is predominant phase in the aged microstructures of the investigated alloys. Moreover, there is an intermetallic compound phase, Ti2Ni, that precipitated in various densities and sizes in microstructures depending on the aging heat treatment conditions. Polarization measurements show that the corrosion rate of the NiTi alloys increases as the aging temperature increase. Also, potentiodynamic polarization shows that the addition of 4% of cobalt as alloying element decreases the corrosion rate