Project Management Performance Drivers

The practice of project management has gained enormous importance over the past several years in various business industries. “In industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, software, and aerospace, projects drive business” (Wheatley). This gain of importance can be attributed to the magnitude of the impact project performance results in terms of time, cost, and scope have over the project performing entity. “On the basis of data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the US Department of Commerce, they estimated in 2001 that the US public and private sectors combined spend some $2.3trn on projects every year, an amount equivalent to a quarter of America’s GDP” (Wheatley). The Project Management Performance Drivers research was conducted to demonstrate how project performance in terms of time, cost, and scope is dependent on applying generally recognized good project management practices. The research was based on a survey filled by project management professionals and regression analysis was used to elicit the relationship between good project management practice and project performance. The research revealed that a direct linear relationship seems to exist. The attained result demonstrates the importance of applying generally recognized good project management practices when managing projects

Investigation of Consumer Intention toward Online Shopping During Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aims to explore the factors affecting the consumer intention toward online shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic, by examining 8 factors, the Perceived Lack of Alternatives, Perceived External Pressure, and Perceived Controlled Behavior on consumer Intention, and Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Risk and Subjective Norm on consumer intention with a mediating effect of consumer Attitude. Online questionnaire had been built to evaluate all variables in the conceptual model, and snowball sampling technique had been applied. A total of 817 participants has responded to the questionnaire, all from Jordan with a mix of different educational backgrounds, ages, gender, marital status and financial income. Confirmatory factor analysis, multi-regression and path analysis was run using AMOS 26.0, and frequencies statistics has been done using SPSS 26.0. This study data analysis revealed that Perceived Lack of Alternatives and Perceived External Pressure has no significant impact on consumer intention, whereas Perceived controlled behavior found to have a significant influence on consumer intention. The results also revealed that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Risk and Subjective Norm has significant influence on consumer intention with a mediating effect of consumer Attitude. Understanding consumer behavior during Covid-19 could reveal insights for customers’ intention toward online shopping after the pandemic. This research has developed an integrated model to show the factors that determine the customers’ intention for online shopping. These factors can help the retailers to adopt the new norm of life after the Covid-19 pandemic and allocate investments to transform their traditional business models and switch to online shopping platforms

Post-operative antibiotics for cutaneous abscess after incision and drainage: Variations in clinical practice

Background. Acute cutaneous abscess is a common surgical condition that mostly requires incision and drainage. Despite this, there is no standardized national or international guidance on post-operative antibiotics prescription. Traditionally, antibiotics are not indicated unless complications and/or risk factors such as immunocompromisation, diabetes or cellulitis exist. We aimed to study the local practice for post-operative antibiotics prescription for cutaneous abscesses in a UK university teaching hospital. Methods. Retrospective data collection for emergency general surgical admissions for a period of 6 months was carried out. All patients with cutaneous abscesses were included in this analysis. Scrotal, breast and limb abscesses were excluded. Patients’ demographics, co-morbidities and complications, including local (cellulitis, necrosis) and systemic (e.g sepsis), were studied. Approval for access to patient data was granted by the local clinical governance department prior to the commencement of this study. Computations were performed using IBM SPSS version 26. Chi square (X 2), Pearson correlation (r), one or two samples t-test (one or two tailed) were applied. Results. A total of 148 patients were included. The mean age was 40 years (55 % males). The most common site of abscess was perianal (27.7 %), followed by pilonidal (20.3 %) and axilla (16.9 %). A total of 107 (73 %) were managed surgically with incision and drainage, and of these 92 (86 %) were managed within 24 h. Altogether, 83 (76 %) were prescribed post-operative antibiotics, while only 25 (23 %) had indications. The most used post-operative empirical antibiotics was co-amoxiclav (59 %). There was a significant relationship between ‘abscess site’ × ‘antibiotics’ [X 2 (36)=54.8, P=0.023]. A total of 103 patients’ average duration of post-operative antibiotics was 7.2 (sd 2.9) days. Ten patients subject to readmission spent an average of 8.4 (sd 3.8) days on antibiotics. Conclusions. There were variations in clinical practice regarding post-operative antibiotic prescription for cutaneous abscesses. Research is required in the future in cooperation with microbiologists to develop a standardized evidence-based treatment protocol for the management of such a common surgical condition

Association of the Genomic Profile of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma with Tumor Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes in an International Multicenter Study

Purpose: The prognostic importance of RET and RAS mutations and their relationship to clinicopathologic parameters and outcomes in medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) need to be clarified. Experimental Design: A multicenter retrospective cohort study was performed utilizing data from 290 patients with MTC. The molecular profile was determined and associations were examined with clinicopathologic data and outcomes. Results: RET germ line mutations were detected in 40 patients (16.3%). Somatic RET and RAS mutations occurred in 135 (46.9%) and 57 (19.8%) patients, respectively. RETM918T was the most common somatic RET mutation (n = 75). RET somatic mutations were associated with male sex, larger tumor size, advanced American Joint Committee Cancer (AJCC) stage, vascular invasion, and high International Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Grading System (IMTCGS) grade. When compared with other RET somatic mutations, RETM918T was associated with younger age, AJCC (eighth edition) IV, vascular invasion, extrathyroidal extension, and positive margins. RET somatic or germ line mutations were significantly associated with reduced distant metastasis-free survival on univariate analysis, but there were no significant independent associations on multivariable analysis, after adjusting for tumor grade and stage. There were no significant differences in outcomes between RET somatic and RET germ line mutations, or between RETM918T and other RET mutations. Other recurrent molecular alterations included TP53 (4.2%), ARID2 (2.9%), SETD2 (2.9%), KMT2A (2.9%), and KMT2C (2.9%). Among them, TP53 mutations were associated with decreased overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS), independently of tumor grade and AJCC stage. Conclusions: RET somatic mutations were associated with high-grade, aggressive primary tumor characteristics, and decreased distant metastatic-free survival but this relationship was not significant after accounting for tumor grade and disease stage. RETM918T was associated with aggressive primary tumors but was not independently associated with clinical outcomes. TP53 mutation may represent an adverse molecular event associated with decreased OS and DSS in MTC, but its prognostic value needs to be confirmed in future studies

HESEB The Helmholtz state of the art Soft X Ray Undulator beamline at SESAME

SESAME and a consortium of five Helmholtz Centers are designing and installing a state of the art soft X Ray undulator beamline at the SESAME light source in Amman, Jordan. Funding is provided by the Helmholtz Association over a four year project cycle that started in January 2019. This is an interim report covering the first 36 months of the project where the construction and installation has been almost completed and commissioning and characterization of the beamline is about to start. Additionally, seminars, workshops, and a training program are part of the project aimed at establishing a broad user communit

Anti-ENA antibody profile in hepatitis C patients undergoing hemodialysis

Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is increasing all over the world, especially among hemodialysis patients. HCV is one of the major autoantibody inducing viruses, where anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-smooth muscle antibodies (ASMA), anti-liver kidney microsome antibodies (LKM-1), and rheumatoid factor (RF) have been related to HCV. Few studies have investigated the presence of anti-extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) antibodies in chronic liver diseases, especially in chronic hepatitis C cases, but none investigated its immunostimulation role in hemodialysis units. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of HCV among chronic kidney disease- Stage 5 (CKD5) patients undergoing hemodialysis and the prevalence of ENA antibodies among them. Sera of 134 patients with chronic kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis, were screened for HCV antibodies and ENA antibodies profile, using ELISA and Immunoblot technique. 41 HCV-positive blood bank donors were used as controls. Sixty-four (47.7%) of 134 patients undergoing hemodialysis were infected with HCV. Thirty-three (51.6%) of 64 patients with HCV infection undergoing hemodialysis had anti-ENA antibodies: 9 (27.3%) showed anti-SSA antibodies and 22 (66.7%) had anti-SSB antibodies. The prevalence of anti-ENA antibodies was significantly higher in the patients with HCV infection, undergoing hemodialysis, compared with both control groups (hepatitis C-positive blood bank donors and hepatitis C-negative patients undergoing hemodialysis). Seventeen of 33 HCV antibodies-positive males undergoing hemodialysis had anti-ENA antibodies, compared with 16 of 31 females, indicating no sex related difference. This study emphasizes the high prevalence of HCV infection in our hemodialysis patients, comparable to that of other Middle Eastern countries, but higher than Western ones. A strong association was observed between anti-HCV positivity and hemodialysis duration, as well as anti-ENA antibody profile. However, these antibodies were gender independent

Electronic Learning Platforms and Their Impact on Education Quality at Faculties of Tourism and Hospitality during Corona Pandemic

To effectively educate educations students, online platforms are crucial. Unfortunately, they might not be well- represented in universities. The goals of the study are determined in this light. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the use of e-Learning has affected the quality of education in Jordans tourism and hospitality colleges during the recent Corona virus pandemic. Before doing regression analysis, a survey was sent out to faculty and employees at tourism and hospitality schools. Using SPSS version 22, researchers analyzed responses made on a 37-point Likert scale. An evaluation procedure was performed on it. The initial belief that ELPs are more effective and acceptable reduces the drive to keep taking them. According to linear regression analysis, investments in training, incentives, and assistive technology have a favorable and statistically significant effect on the quality of education provided by tourism and hospitality programs at the university level. Future research should compare results before and after COVID, as suggested by our findings