Management control systems in a transition context : case studies from the Libyan industrial sector

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The Design of an Oncology Knowledge Base from an Online Health Forum

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Knowledge base completion is an important task that allows scientists to reason over knowledge bases and discover new facts. In this thesis, a patient-centric knowledge base is designed and constructed using medical entities and relations extracted from the health forum r/cancer. The knowledge base stores information in binary relation triplets. It is enhanced with an is-a relation that is able to represent the hierarchical relationship between different medical entities. An enhanced Neural Tensor Network that utilizes the frequency of occurrence of relation triplets in the dataset is then developed to infer new facts from the enhanced knowledge base. The results show that when the enhanced inference model uses the enhanced knowledge base, a higher accuracy (73.2 %) and recall@10 (35.4%) are obtained. In addition, this thesis describes a methodology for knowledge base and associated inference model design that can be applied to other chronic diseases

The perceptions, attitudes and health seeking behaviour of nursing students at a university in the Western Cape regarding influenza

Magister Curationis - McurAccording to Brown (2010), influenza kills and hospitalises thousands of people every year, about thirty-five thousand and two hundred thousand respectively. Some studies have shown that one of the major reasons that people do not take part in preventative behaviour concerning influenza would be some misconceptions and lack of knowledge. The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions and attitudes of nursing students at a University in the Western Cape about influenza and their prevention and health seeking behaviour against influenza infection. This topic is important as nursing students are a part of the population group that is frequently exposed to influenza, either at their institutions of learning or in the hospitals and clinics, where they come into contact with patients in their roles as health care workers. A comprehensive review of the literature around perceptions and attitudes and health seeking behaviours regarding influenza was undertaken and considered by the researcher. Most of the literature reviewed came from Western countries as not much research has been done in Africa on the topic. From the literature reviewed, the researcher decided to use the Health Belief Model as a conceptual framework for this study as it has proven to be relatively effective in previous studies of this nature as well as in predicting people's health seeking behaviours

Compressed air energy storage for large-scale renewable energy systems for a case study of Egyptian grid

All across the world, attention is turning to renewable energies to serve at least as a partial substitute to fossil fuels in the global energy mix, braking the latter’s depletion and providing a greener solution for a more sustainable future. However, the intermittent nature of most renewable energy sources, wind and solar in particular, raises major concerns over the integration of these technologies, on a large scale, to grid systems. This thesis focuses on large-scale renewable energy storage systems, primarily compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems, which are particularly well suited for renewable energy applications. CAES can play a major role in shaping the future of renewable energy systems for not only can it bring load levelling to the system, but it can also add substantial value by providing ancillary services to the grid. The main focus of this research is adiabatic CAES which endeavours to minimize the use of natural gas by using recuperators and thermal energy storage systems, where the heat from the air during the compression stages is absorbed by a heat transfer fluid, stored, and then supplied back during the expansion process. This project aimed to explore the potential of CAES systems as an energy storage technology for large-scale grid integrated renewable energy system. A computer model was developed to size the different components in the CAES system and also to predict the operational performance of the CAES system for different conditions using MATLAB programming. The thermal energy storage of an adiabatic CAES system was optimized using CFD analysis and experimental testing of the thermal energy storage system was carried out to validate the models. Also, an economic study was performed to assess the feasibility of the CAES system based on a case study of the Egyptian grid. The dynamic simulation of a novel configuration of an adiabatic CAES system showed that the system can achieve improved performance compared to existing CAES plants, while the economic study showed that CAES can improve the economics of a wind farm, at least by the standards of our chosen case study locatio

Engaging with omnichannel brands: the role of consumer empowerment

Purpose This study aims to integrate brand and retailer levels variables to examine the direct and indirect relationships between omnichannel retailing and consumer engagement. Design/methodology/approach Survey data are collected from a sample consumers of different omnichannel retailing brands operating in the skin care industry. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is utilized. Findings The study finds brand channels\u27 integrated interactions (process and content consistency) to increase consumer brand engagement. Findings show retailer consumer empowerment to intensify the impact of omnichannel retailing on consumer engagement. Results also show brand channels\u27 integrated interactions to increase consumer brand familiarity, which mediates the effect of omnichannel retailing on consumer engagement. Originality/value This study suggests that integrating brand- and retailer-level variables is vital to understand the effect of omnichannel retailing on consumer engagement. The study concludes that for successful omnichannel strategy, collaboration between brands and retailers is imperative

Promatranje prirodne i pokusne infekcije ovaca i koza virulentnim terenskim sojem Capripoxvirusa visokog afiniteta za koze.

A virulent field Capripoxvirus with high affinity to goats was isolated for the first time in Saudi Arabia from a natural disease involving a mixed herd of local breeds of sheep and goats. Observations on both the natural disease and the experimental studies indicated its host preference to goats. The results were discussed in relation to concerns regarding the use of the current Romanian strain of sheeppox vaccine in the country. The epidemiology of Capripoxvirus infection in Saudi Arabia was discussed.Virulentni terenski soj Capripoxvirusa s visokim afinitetom za koze izdvojen je prvi put u Saudijskoj Arabiji iz prirodno oboljelih mješovitih stada lokalnih pasmina ovaca i koza. Promatranje prirodno i pokusno izazvane bolesti pokazalo je da su koze prirodni domaćin te da ovce nisu oboljevale. Rezultati su razmatrani u odnosu na vakcinaciju protiv ovčjih boginja rumunjskim vakcinalnim sojem. Razmatrana je epidemiologija infekcije Capripoxvirusom u Saudijskoj Arabiji

Long-Term Aerosol Trends and Variability over Central Saudi Arabia Using Optical Characteristics from Solar Village AERONET Measurements

Natural and anthropogenic aerosols over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) play a major role in affecting the regional radiation budget. The long-term variability of these aerosols’ physical and optical parameters, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (α), were measured at a location near central KSA using the Solar Village (SV) AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) station during the period December 1999–January 2013. The AERONET measurements show an overall increase in AOD on an annual basis. This upward trend is mainly attributed to a prolonged increase in the monthly/seasonal mean AOD during March–June and during August– September. In contrast, lower AOD values were observed during November–December. This can be attributed to a low frequency of dust outbreaks and higher precipitation rates. An overall, weak declining trend in α was observed, except during the summer. The spring and summer seasons experienced a pronounced increase in the number of coarse particles (~2 µm) during April 2006– January 2013 as compared to December 1999–March 2006, suggesting an increase in natural aerosol loadings. Using the HYSPLIT model, it was found that the March 2009 dust storm contributed to the mixing of long-transported dust with anthropogenic local emissions near the SV. The results suggest that extensive industrial activity contributed to the increase of anthropogenic emissions over KSA during the period April 2006–January 2013

Modeling of Tsunami Generation and Propagation by a Spreading Seismic Faulting in two Orthogonal Directions in Linearized Shallow-Water Wave Theory

The process of tsunami evolution during its generation in search for possible amplification mechanisms resulting from spreading of the sea floor uplift in the x-and y-direction is investigated under the effect of rupture velocities, uplift length and width and rise times. This study shows that focusing and amplification of tsunami amplitudes can occur in an arbitrary direction, determined by the velocities of spreading. Tsunami waveforms within the frame of the linearized shallow water theory for constant water depth are analyzed analytically by transform methods (Laplace in time and Fourier in space) for the spreading source model. We analyzed the normalized peak amplitude as a function of the propagated uplift length, width and the average depth of the ocean along the generation path. The amplification of tsunami amplitudes builds up progressively as time increases during the generation process due to wave focusing while the maximum wave amplitude decreases with time during the propagation process due to the geometric spreading and also due to dispersion. The normalized peak amplitudes were smaller when the slip-fault spreads in two orthogonal directions than the numerical values for one dimensional solution because of the interaction of the velocities. The maximum amplitude amplification is proportion to the propagation length and the width of the source model and inversely proportional with the water depth