The relevance of specific csfs for stakeholders during ERP implementation: an empirical study from Oman

The success of ERP systems implementation is affected by the extent to which stakeholders have been prepared for the project activities and its outcomes. Stakeholders’ preparation needs change as the ERP implementation lifecycle progresses and varies across stakeholder groups. Therefore a dynamic model is needed for such preparation. However such a model needs to reflect the relevance of different CSFs to different stakeholder groups at different stages of the ERP implementation life-cycle. This study examines empirical evidence from a survey conducted in Omani organisations to determine what these individual CSFs are and how they are distributed across the ERP implementation life-cycle for different stakeholder groups. The CSFs included in the survey were derived from a structured review of literature. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents representing different ERP stakeholders groups, all respondents had both experience and knowledge of ERP implementations. The survey data are analysed and the distribution of relevant CSFs across the ERP lifecycle for the different stakeholder groups are presente

Medical Tourism Abroad : A new challenge to Oman’s health system - Al Dakhilya region experience

Objectives: This study aimed to understand why people seek medical advice abroad given the trouble and expense this entails. The types of medical problems for which treatment abroad was sought, preferred destinations and satisfaction with the treatment were explored. A secondary aim was to give feedback to stakeholders in the health care system on how to handle this issue and meet the needs of the community. Methods: 45 patients who had recently travelled abroad for treatment were asked to complete a questionnaire or were interviewed by telephone. Results: 40 questionnaires were received. 68% of the respondents were male. Orthopaedic diseases were the most common conditions leading patients to seek treatment abroad. Thailand was the most popular destination followed by India (50% and 30% respectively). 85% of respondents went abroad for treatment only, 10% for treatment and tourism and 2.5% were healthy, but travelled abroad for a checkup. Interestingly, 15% of the participants went abroad without first seeking medical care locally. Out of those initially treated in Oman, 38.2% had no specific diagnosis and 38.2% had received treatment, but it was not effective. 73% of respondents obtained information on treatment abroad from a friend. The Internet and medical tourism offices were the least used sources of information. 15% of the patients experienced complications after their treatment abroad. Conclusion: Various facts about medical treatment abroad need to be disseminated to the public. This will necessitate greater effort in public health promotion and education. 

Harmonics Temporal Profile in High-Voltage Networks: Case Study

This chapter presents a case study about harmonics measurements in high-voltage networks. Measurements were conducted at two locations in the main interconnected system (MIS) of Oman. Voltage and current THDs were recorded for a period of 1 week. The power quality analyzer was set to record required data for a period of 1 week, and the observation period for each recorded value is 10 minutes. At the first location, the grid station (132/33) is feeding industrial as well as other customers. The second grid station (220/132/33 kV) is dedicated to large industrial customers including arc furnaces and rolling mills. The power quality analyzer was installed at the 132 kV side of power transformers at both locations. Recorded data are analyzed, and temporal harmonics profiles are studied. A clear temporal variation of harmonics similar to that of aggregate load and local voltage profiles was observed at the grid station feeding mixed residential and industrial loads. However, this correlation between system load and harmonics profile diminishes at the grid station dedicated for heavy industrial loads

Adherence to Medications among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Three Districts of Al Dakhliyah Governorate, Oman : A cross-sectional pilot study

Objectives: This pilot study aimed to assess the medication adherence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in three wilayats(districts) of the Al Dakhliyah governorate, Oman, and to identify the probable reasons for medication non-adherence. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based pilot survey was conducted among T2DM Omani patients between February and June 2012 to assess their medication adherence and the relationship between their socio-demographic characteristics and adherence levels. Results: A total of 158 patients participated in the survey. The majority of the participants were unemployed or were housewives (66.5%). Forgetfulness was the most frequent reason for medication non-adherence (36.4%). Participants demonstrated an excellent level of adherence to their medicines (median total score = 3). No significant difference in median total adherence scores was observed based on the evaluated parameters. Conclusion: The medication adherence of T2DM patients in the area under study was good. A larger study in a wider population is warranted to obtain a more representative picture of this important factor which contributes to public health

Development of a selective fluorimetric technique for rapid trace determination of zinc using 3-hydroxyflavone

AbstractA sensitive and a selective spectrofluorimetric method have been developed for the rapid determination of trace levels of zinc. The method is based on complex formation between zinc and 3-hydroxyflavone (3HF), which displays an intense emission signal around 478nm. The analytical performance of the method was examined by considering the factors that affect the complex formation such as pH, mole ratio of the metal and solvent type. The optimum conditions for the complex formation were metal to ligand stoichiometric ratio of 1:1 at pH 7.5 with 0.1M Tris buffer. Under these conditions the detection limit attained was 1.5ppb. The method was appropriately validated and yielded relative standard deviations of less than 2% (n=5), which was considered acceptable. It was successfully applied to the trace determination of zinc in drinking water, hair shampoo and pharmaceutical samples

Evaluating the Educational Administration Master Program in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University from the Graduates' and their Employers' Perspectives

This study aimed to evaluate the master program of educational administration offered by the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University. Two questionnaires were used to achieve the study objectives during the academic year 2012/2013. The first one was applied to 24 graduates from the program. It included the following themes: vision, mission, goals of the program, courses and their contents, students’ assessment, efficiency of material resources in support of the program, graduates’ competencies, and the efficiency of faculty members. The second tool was applied to a sample of 21 supervisors and included the following themes: the efficiency of the graduates at work place, relationship between the institutions where the graduates work the department of educational foundations and administration in the college of education. The results indicated that the theme of graduates’ efficiency got high degree from the graduates’ perspective themselves. However, participation in the formulation of the vision, mission and objectives of the program was low. The relationship with the department had earned a medium level, but all questionnaires’ items got low level from the perspective of employers. In light of the results, a set of recommendations were proposed to develop the program and the relationship with employers

Bio-Oil Upgrading by Catalytic Cracking Over Different Solid Catalysts

Fossil fuel crises along with global environmental issues, due to combustion of fossil fuel, lead to focus on biomass derived fuels. Bio-oil nowadays is seriously considered to be one of the favorable, renewable and alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuel and has become a significant energy carrier for transportation, industrial and commercial applications. In this study, bio-oil was upgraded by catalytic cracking in a fixed bed reactor in the presence of three different catalysts HY, H-mordenite and HZSM-5.All of the experimental runs were carried out at 500 °C, 0.3MPa and 15:1 oil to catalyst ratio. Catalysts characterization revealed that HZSM-5 with uniform pore and TPD analysis shows the presence of large number of acidic sites as compared to HY and H-mordenite. HZSM-5 proved its effectiveness in terms of deoxygenation and converting oxygenating compounds to hydrocarbons. The amount of hydrocarbons formed was 16.27 wt % OLP for HZSM-5, 15.16 wt% for HY and 14.954 wt % for H-mordenite. HZSM-5 possessed a strong acidity, uniform pore size and high activities which tended to permit the transformation of the oxygenated compounds present in the bio-oil to hydrocarbons. The upgraded bio-oil obtained posses improved physiochemical properties such pH which was increased from 2.21 to 3.56 while density was decreased upto 0.82 kg/m3. The calorific value also increased upto 31.65 kJ/kg. The improved bio-oil by HZSM-5 catalyst can be considered as a potential for to be used as direct fuel

The association of Human Leukocyte Antigens Complex with Type 1 Diabetes in Omanis

Background: Identifying the human leukocyte antigens (HLA) high risk alleles, genotypes and haplotypes in different populations is beneficial for understanding their roles in type 1 diabetes (T1D) pathogenesis and intervention practices. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify T1D associated HLA gene alleles in the Omani population. Methods: Our case-control study included 73 diabetic seropositive children (mean age 9.08±3.27 years) and 110 healthy controls. HLA–A, -B, -C, -DRB1, and -DQB1 genes were genotyped using sequence specific primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR). Results: Two HLA class I alleles (B*08, B*58) and three class II alleles (DQB1*02, DRB1*03 and DRB1*04) were associated with T1D susceptibility, while one class I (B*51) and three class II (DQB1*05, DQB1*06, and DRB1*16) alleles were associated with T1D protection. HLA- DRB1*03 and DQB1*02 alleles showed the strongest risk association among all alleles. Six DRB1 residues (E9, S11, S13, Y30, V70 and K71) were significantly associated with T1D susceptibility. Heterozygous genotypes, HLA-DRB1*03/*04 and DQB1*02/*03 were significantly associated with T1D susceptibility (P=4.29E-07, OR=63.2 and P=0.02, OR=3.6, respectively). Furthermore, we detected a significant combined action of DRB1*03-DQB1*02 haplotype in T1D risk (P=1.76E-05, OR=15), and DRB1*16-DQB1*05 haplotype in protection (P=3.12E-2, OR=0.48). Conclusion: Known HLA class II gene alleles are associated with T1D in Omani children

Beyond Environmental Kuznets Curve and Policy Implications to Promote Sustainable Development in Mediterranean

In acknowledgment of the devastating consequences of environmental deterioration, the Mediterranean members are committed to adopt the 2015 treaty action plans of the Paris Climate Agreement (COP21) as carbon dioxide emission (CO2) are on the rise in the Mediterranean region, which seems to be a serious challenge to our world's environment. To this end, our study examined the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on environmental degradation for the Mediterranean members for the period between 1995 to 2016. However, variables such as, financial development, economic growth, renewable energy and fossil fuel were further examined by the use cross-sectional-Panel pooled Auto Regressive Distributed Lag methodology, Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test was used for causality analysis. The co-integration results from Westerlund (2007) shows a long-run equilibrium relationship between highlighted variables. The empirical result revealed a negative relation between FDI and CO2 indicating pollutant Hallo Hypothesis (PHH). Moreover, income and its square show an inverted U-Shaped curve indicating environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Both financial development and renewable energy indicated an adverse association with CO2 emission whereas fossil fuel had a positive relationship with emissions. However, there was a feedback causality among income and carbon emission as well as financial development and carbon emission. Furthermore, we observe that FDI and carbon emission, renewable energy and carbon emission, as well as fossil fuel and carbon emission were found to have one-way causal relationship. Overall, the study suggests some policy prescriptions including the implementation of conservation initiatives and the establishment of clean energy regulation and strategies for the investigated bloc. © 2021 The Authors.The work of H. Haes Alhelou was supported in part by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the SFI Strategic Partnership Programme Grant Number SFI/15/SPP/E3125 and additional funding provided by the UCD Energy Institute. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Science Foundation Ireland

Decarbonize Russia — A Best–Worst Method Approach for Assessing the Renewable Energy Potentials, Opportunities and Challenges

Russia is known to be a country with enormous energy resources both renewables and non-renewables. Much of the country's effort towards energy generation has been on the development of the non-renewables over the years. This study examined the opportunities and challenges in Russia's Renewable energy (RE) sector. By coupling both interviews and literature reviews, a total of 8 main opportunities and 7 key challenges were identified and discussed. The Best–Worst-Method was used to assign weights to the various factors using inputs of 30 experienced experts in Russia's RE sector. According to the obtained results, the most significant opportunity that the country would have to take advantage of is the opportunity to export RE outside the shores of the country, it recorded 27.7 percent. This is followed by the country's target for the RE sector which scored 18%, hydrogen production and need to meet local energy requirements followed with 12% each. The greatest challenge which also serve as a hindrance to the development of RE in the country is the low attention given to clean technologies from government, it recorded a weight of 31.4%. This is followed by unequal playing field, and strict local content requirements which recorded 17.9% and 13.5%, respectively. The study ended with some strategic recommendations to authorities for the development of the sector. © 2021 The Authors