Changing society: pioneering women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.

The research examines the role of institutions influencing Saudi female entrepreneurs, and how they became enabled to be social agents and institutional entrepreneurs in a very traditional, family-orientated society - albeit facing pressures to change. In acknowledging the uniqueness of the social-cultural context in Saudi Arabia, this study adopts a qualitative design. Specifically, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were implemented to gather primary qualitative data. The data draw on 31 interviews with female entrepreneurs residing in Jeddah, capturing the practical experiences of these entrepreneurs, and their engagement with the informal and formal institutions of their immediate societal surroundings. The analysis relies on the constant-comparative method (Anderson and Jack 2015) to illicit the meanings and implications taken from context, and also how this informs the day-to-day activities of the entrepreneur (Anderson et al. 2012). This study has found that existing institutions both constrain and enable Saudi women's entrepreneurship. In particular, the obligations and responsibility of Arab families are turned into an advantage, in the form of a patient resource base or networks of knowledge development. We saw too how pioneering efforts, in conjunction with other change, have begun to modestly alter the opportunity structure in Saudi Arabia, with the entrepreneur acting as an agent of change. Saudi women's entrepreneurship is thus best characterised as a recursive process between these entrepreneurs and the social system, which is an essential resource for - and product of - situated actions. This research makes a modest contribution to the long-running discussions on women's entrepreneurship in the context of the Arab world. The findings cannot suggest that it is going to be easy or smooth for future women entrepreneurs; traditions continue and there are also vested patriarchal interests. Nonetheless, increasing numbers of Saudi women are involved in growing their businesses. These pioneers have changed society; a modest, but progressive change for the better. This study has several implications. First, the produced empirical findings have highlighted certain areas for further improvement of female entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, which goes in keeping with Saudi Vision 2030 and the expected role of women in the social and economic development of Saudi Arabia. Second, this study has contributed to the existing body of knowledge and understanding of what institutional barriers and challenges Saudi female entrepreneurs face and how they could be overcome at a national level

Investigating the oil effect on the politicking in the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état

The strategic situation of Iran has always drawn the attention of foreign powers including England, Russia and America and these powers have always attempted to utilize this situation for reaching their own interests in the Middle East. Discovery of large oil reserves in Iran intensified the competition of foreign powers. This research seeks to respond the question of how foreign powers intervened with the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état. In the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état, the Americans and English having after made sure that they could not seize the Iranian oil through political channels, they decide to launch a Coup d'état. With the victory of the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état and subversion of the Dr. Mosadegh's government, the United States and Britain consolidated their own dominate in Iran via returning Mohamad Reza Shah and the oil reserves were once again made available to foreign powers. This research via applying comparative-descriptive methodology is based on documents and evidence. Findings of the research and examination of the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état demonstrate that the significance of oil and energy and fear of the spread of the Oil National Movement to other oil producing countries and compromise of oil resources as well resulted in intervention by cross regional foreign powers like England, America with respect to the 19th August, 1953 Coup d'état

Echocardiographic analysis of a murine model with a mutation in the Nav1.5 channel gene Scn5a

Cardiomyopathy is defined as a disorder of heart muscle in terms of structure, function or both. It can be defined as dilated, hypertrophic, arrhythmogenic, restrictive or infiltrative all of which contribute significantly to cardiovascular disease burden. The difference in their presentation, prognosis and treatment is dictated by their underlying pathophysiology and changes on a cellular level which manifests itself on cardiovascular imaging using various modalities. Echocardiography is a very useful and convenient tool for heart imaging. Linking cellular changes to phenotype in real time, echocardiographic imaging is a great clinical need which can potentially unlock the understanding and treatment of complex disease processes. Mutations in the cardiac sodium channel Nav1.5 can lead to long QT syndrome, familial AF, Brugada syndrome or cardiomyopathy. In our experiments, a new murine knock-in model M1875T+/- SCN5A was investigated. This causes a gain of function defect in the Nav1.5 channel leading to altered ion transport across the myocyte membrane. This work is primarily based on the echocardiographic assessment of gross cardiac structure and function of this model. This work also describes methods of histological analysis to be applied in mutant (M1875T+/-) mice. The Visualsonics Vevo 2100 echo system was used to perform echocardiography in 79 mice from both the SV129 and FVB genetic strain background variants. TThe gross differences in wall thickness and chamber dimensions were analysed for the complete cohort. This did not show any difference between young adults of the two groups. However, mature mice (≥25 up to 40 weeks) with the mutation showed significantly larger LV dimensions and volumes during systole and diatole when compared to the wild-type (M1875T+/+) littermates. Analysis of the left atrium and right ventricle revealed no significant differences between the two groups. Some phenotypic changes of the heart are known to manifest with time and therefore the M1875T+/- gene mutation may be associated with the development of cardiomyopathy in older mice. This makes a strong case to further study the effect of this gene mutation in a larger and older sample population

Effects of Brain Gym Exercises and Filial Play Therapy on Emotion Management Skills of Students with Specific Learning Disorder

Background: Students with learning disabilities experience cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social problems. The present study aimed to investigate the role of brain gym exercises and filial play therapy on students with specific learning disorders (SLD) emotion management skills.Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted through a pretest-posttest–follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population included all students with SLD and their mothers in Tehran, Iran within 2020-2021 period. The convenience sampling method was employed to select 45 students with SLD, who were then randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The participants in the first experimental group received brain gym exercises, whereas those in the second experimental group attended a filial play therapy intervention. The participants in the control group received no intervention. The Children’s Emotional Management Scale (CEMS) was used to collect data. The ANCOVA was then adopted for data analysis.Results: The mean±SD of the post-test scores of inhibition, dysregulation, and coping in the brain gym exercises group were 21.73±2.84, 20.00±2.82, and 23.13±3.37, respectively. Moreover, the mean±SD of the post-test scores of inhibition, dysregulation, and coping in the filial play therapy group were 20.53±3.44, 21.53±2.10, and 22.80±3.74, respectively, which were significantly different from the control groups. The results showed that both brain gym exercises and filial play therapy were effective in improving emotion management skills (i.e., inhibition, dysregulation, and coping) in students with SLD (P<0.001). Furthermore, these two interventions had no significant differences regarding their effects on emotion management skills.Conclusions: It can be concluded that brain gym exercises and filial play therapy help improve emotion management skills in students with SLD

Solving Time-Cost Tradeoff Problem with Resource Constraint Using Fuzzy Mathematical Model

Scheduling considered being one of the most fundamental and essential bases of the project management. Several methods are used for project scheduling such as CPM, PERT and GERT. Since too many uncertainties are involved in methods for estimating the duration and cost of activities, these methods lack the capability of modeling practical projects. Although schedules can be developed for construction projects at early stage, there is always a possibility for unexpected material or technical shortages during construction stage. The objective of this research is to build a fuzzy mathematical model including time cost tradeoff and resource constraints analysis to be applied concurrently. The proposed model has been formulated using fuzzy theory combining CPM computations, time-cost trade off analysis and resource constraint. MATLAB software has been adopted to perform ranking process, for each case, that facilitates obtaining the optimum solution. This research infers that it is possible to perform time-cost trade off analysis with resource restriction simultaneously, which ensures achieving scheduling optimum solution reducing the effort and the time when performing these techniques in succession using traditional methods