Impact of Intellectual Capital on Realizing University Goals in a Sample of Jordanian Universities

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the direct impact of four components of  intellectual capital  (leadership and strategy, human capital, structural capital, and  relational capital) on realizing university goals(academic goals, maintaining and developing staff, improving community relationships, achieving the university’s plans and programs, and attracting the new students) in a sample of three Jordanian universities: University of Jordan (the oldest and largest Jordanian University founded 1962), Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan ( a private university founded in 1993) and  Middle East University( a private university founded in 2005). To measures  the impact of  its components  on realizing university goals, a set of hypotheses were developed, questionnaire was built and evaluated by reference group, and data from a sample of  university staff to test these hypotheses. Intellectual capital has a significant effect on university performance in meeting its goals. Furthermore, leadership, human and relational capital have in general a significant effect on realizing majority of university goals, and  more than structural capital. Keywords?Intellectual capital, university leadership human, structural, relational capital, university goals

The Impact of the Key Dimensions of Entrepreneurship on Opportunities for the Success of New Ventures in the Greater Amman Municipality

This research attempted to shed light on the effects of entrepreneurship dimensions on small businesses. The research aimed to study the impact of key dimensions of entrepreneurship on opportunities of venture survival and growth. The independent variables selected for this study are related to the five dimensions of entrepreneurship—characteristics of entrepreneur, entrepreneurship support policy, general environment, entrepreneurship activities, and information and electronic entrepreneurship—and their effect on survival and growth opportunities of small projects (the dependent variables). The research results and analysis revealed no significant impact on growth opportunities for small businesses. There is significant support for policy enhancing the general environment and chances for business survival and growth. There was no impact from information and electronic entrepreneurship on survival and growth chances. Finally, the authors present several recommendations including inviting Jordanian companies and governmental institutions and organizations to adopt  entrepreneurship concepts and practices, bringing more attention to entrepreneurship concepts as well as providing  technical and financial assistance to new entrepreneurs, issuing an annual  report on the entrepreneurial activities and projects, and  encouraging studies and research on the entrepreneurship in Jordan. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, leadership, entrepreneurial dimension properties, and chances of survival

Moderate deviations for particle filtering

Consider the state space model (X_t,Y_t), where (X_t) is a Markov chain, and (Y_t) are the observations. In order to solve the so-called filtering problem, one has to compute L(X_t|Y_1,...,Y_t), the law of X_t given the observations (Y_1,...,Y_t). The particle filtering method gives an approximation of the law L(X_t|Y_1,...,Y_t) by an empirical measure \frac{1}{n}\sum_1^n\delta_{x_{i,t}}. In this paper we establish the moderate deviation principle for the empirical mean \frac{1}{n}\sum_1^n\psi(x_{i,t}) (centered and properly rescaled) when the number of particles grows to infinity, enhancing the central limit theorem. Several extensions and examples are also studied.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051604000000657 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Comparative Study of Different Methods to Determine the Role of Reactive Oxygen Species Induced by Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) followed by an increase in oxidative stress is associated with cellular responses to nanoparticle induced cell damages. Finding the best method for assessing intracellular ROS production is the key step in the detection of oxidative stress induced injury. This study evaluates and compares four different methods for the measurement of intracellular ROS generation using fluorogenic probe, 2´,7´-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA). Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was utilised as a positive control to assess the reactivity of the probe. Spherically shaped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles with an average particle size of 85.7 nm were used to determine the diverse roles of ROS in nanotoxicity in Hs888Lu and U937 cell lines. The results showed that different methods exhibit different patterns of ROS measurement. In conclusion this study found that the time point at which the DCFH-DA is added to the reaction, the incubation time and the oxidative species that is responsible for the oxidation of DCFH, have impact on the intracellular ROS measurement

The development and construction of a versatile vibrating-sample magnetometer

A versatile and sensitive magnetometer has been developed and constructed. The design was based on the concept of a vibrating sample magnetometer originally suggested by S. Foner. A novel pick-up coil arrangement has been installed which minimises noise arising from mechanical vibrations of the magnet assembly or lateral movements of the sample. [Continues.

Experimental Evaluation of Thermal Performance of Solar Assisted Air Conditioning System under Iraq Climate

In Iraq most of the small buildings deployed a conventional air conditioning technology which typically uses electrically driven compressor systems which exhibits several clear disadvantages such as high energy consumption, high electricity peak loads demand. Because of the high energy cost, the decrease of fossil fuel resources, the utilization of low level renewable energy sources such as solar energy in refrigeration systems has become a way to address these problems. So a thermal performance of air conditioning system combined with a solar collector is investigated experimentally. The hybrid air conditioner consists of a semi hermetic compressor, water cooled shell and tube condenser, thermal expansion valve and coil and tank evaporator. Different experimental tests were conducted by varying the controlling parameters to investigate their effects on the thermal performance of the solar assisted air-conditioning .The parameters are cooling water flow rate, evaporator water temperature, ambient temperature, refrigerant mass flow rate, storage tank water temperature, and solar radiation intensity under meteorological condition of Baghdad in summer 2015. Results showed that the compressor power consumption was decreased from 1.2 kW at collector heat gain 0.543 kW and solar radiation 572 W/m2 to 0.9 kW at heat gain 0.831 kW and solar radiation 725 W/m2, this leads to increase in COP from 2.493 to 2.725. A comparison between the present experimental work and the other works showed a similar behavior. Result shows an average energy saving of power consumption is about between 23% and 32%. Keywords: solar assisted air conditioning system, solar collector, thermal performance

Debonding Phenomenon of the Sioux Quartzite

Among many factors affecting the quality of an asphaltic pavement, the bonding between the materials is one of the most important. These materials are aggregate and asphalt cement or emulsions, and each has certain physio-chemical characteristics. For example, natural aggregates and quartzites reveal sharp differences in appearances and texture. But besides their physical differences, they also have electrolytes which have opposite electric charges. However, because. asphalt cement and emulsion are both products of petroleum, when mixed with solvents they will vary in both physical and chemical behaviors. When hydrophilic aggregates such as quartzite and sandstone, both of which have negative electric charges, are used in the presence of asphalt cement, which also carries negative electric charges, it eventually leads to the breaking of the adhesive bond between the aggregate surface and the asphalt cement, a phenomenon known as “stripping” or “debonding”. However, if the surface electric charges of the aggregate could be altered, then theoretically it should reduce or eliminate the stripping of asphalt cement mixes containing quartzite. With this idea in mind, this research goes into details of the treatment of aggregates and/or emulsions with anti-stripping agents. Comparative studies were performed both in the laboratory and in the field. Ten test sections, each with duplicate strips of each treatment, were constructed on a major arterial. These sections were applied as treatments in the seal coat design. The purpose for building these samples were to examine the performance of the aggregates under traffic and to monitor the skid resistance periodically. One of the findings of this study was that quartzite, when used in asphaltic pavement, can resist traffic better than natural aggregates. Furthermore, a moisture-susceptibility test was developed in the laboratory to study the stripping potential of the samples utilizing antistripping agents at the presence of water, the conclusion was that adding quartzite to cationic emulsion resulted in the most optimal mix

THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF CLOSED WET COOLING TOWER

Thermal performance of closed wet cooling tower has been investigated experimentally and theoretically in this work. The theoretical model based on heat and mass transfer equations and heat and mass transfer balance equations which are established for steady state case. A new small indirect cooling tower was used for conducting experiments. The cooling capacity of cooling tower is 1 kW for an inlet water temperature of 38oC, a water mass velocity 2.3 kg/m2.s and an air wet bulb temperature of 26oC. This study investigates the relationship between saturation efficiency, cooling capacity and coefficient of performance of closed wet cooling tower versus different operating parameters such wet-bulb temperature, variable air-spray water flow ratio and cooling water inlet temperature. Results indicate that the capacity and saturation efficiency was found close to the related experimental results. Good agreement was obtained between the theoretical results and experimental measurements for the performance of small cooling tower

Energy and Exergy Analysis of Dual Channel Solar Air Collector with Perforating “V” Corrugated Absorber Plate

In This paper, an experimental study was carried out on a dual channel with perforating “V” corrugated absorber plate of solar air collector which the air flows both in upper channel and lower channel of the absorber plate for increasing heat transfer coefficient and improving thermal performance. The results of experimental procedures for dual channel with perforating “V” corrugated absorber plate of solar collector were compared with the flat plate dual channel of solar collector. Experimental calculations had been performed under Baghdad (33.34° North latitude, 44.4° East longitude) climatic conditions at different values of mass flow rates 0.021 kg/s, 0.027 kg/s and 0.032 kg/s. The results showed that the dual channel with perforating “V” corrugated absorber plate of solar collector is found to perform more efficiently than the flat plate dual channel of solar collector with increased 39% in thermal efficiency. Then, it showed that the efficiency increases with increasing mass flow rates. Also, it showed that the heat removal factor of the dual channel with perforating “V” corrugated absorber plate of solar collector is 36% more than the flat plate dual channel of solar collector. At the last part of the study, the exergy relations were derived for both collectors. The results of this part showed that the flat plate dual channel of solar collector is having largest irreversibility (exergy loss) and the dual channel with perforating “V” corrugated absorber plate of solar collector is having a greatest exergetic efficiency. Keywords:Solar air collector; Dual channel; Double flow; Exergy analysis; perforating “V” corrugated; Heat removal facto

Evaluation of water use in a rice double cropping system in Malaysia

Irrigated rice all over Asia has been criticized for inefficient water use, but very little information is available to quantify its performance. The quantification or assessment of the inefficiency will give the farmers, managers or schemes and policy makers to come up with remedial measures. In this work, the Besut rice irrigation scheme, located in the Terengganu State of Malaysia was characterized, and its water use (WU) efficiency assessed. The daily rainfall for 48 years and river flows for 45 years were analyzed to identify water excess or shortage throughout the rice-growing season. During the November-January period, 45% of the total annual rains fall. The irrigation water supply could be reduced in the main season (November-April) because of higher rainfall occurrence. Low monthly river flows of 10.5 m3/s and 10.9 m3/s were observed for the Besut barrage and 2.3 m3/s and 2.4 m3/s for the Angga barrage in the months of July and August respectively, characterizing the driest months. The off-season (May-October) crop suffered from water problems during vegetative and reproductive stages because of water shortage in the river. The relative water supply values have been classified into five categories based on results on the indices on irrigation performance. The average water productivity was 0.31 kg/m3 and 0.25 kg/m3 during the main season and off-season respectively. Two WU indices, water productivity (WPI) and adequacy (AI), ranked the performance of the blocks and identified those having problems in water allocation and utilization. These indices revealed that the blocks using more water performed poorly in terms of water productivity. These indices could be used to rectify uneven distribution of water in the scheme