Ti-based functional nanoarchitectures for enhanced drug eluting stents

Ischemic events associated with coronary heart diseases (CHD) are the leading cause of death worldwide for both genders. They are directly associated with restricted blood flow caused by accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque in vessel’s lumen. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), including stent deployment, is currently considered as the dominant procedure for mechanically recovering myocardial perfusion to avoid lethal ischemic events. As vascular prosthesis, coronary stents suffer from two major and common complications; thrombosis and restenosis. Thrombosis is linked with insufficient migration of endothelial cells (EC) and proliferation at site of tissue injury. Restenosis is caused by unwanted proliferation of underlying vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). With drug eluting stents (DES) as a strategy to mitigate aforementioned complications, it only results in reducing VSMC proliferation. However, it directly causes poor endothlialization through undifferentiated inhibition of endothelial cells as well. This can result in high risk of late thrombosis, leading to death. Different strategies are being investigated to reach optimum duration and conditions for endothelium healing as a critical aspect of enhancement for drug eluting stents. In this thesis, a nanoarchitectured system is proposed as surface enhancement for drug eluting stents. Highly oriented nanotubes were vertically grown on the surface of a biocompatible Ti-based alloys, as potential material for self-expandable stents. The fabricated nanoarchitectured system is self-grown from the potential stent substrate. This material is also proposed to enhance endothelial proliferation while acting as drug reservoir to hinder VSMC proliferation. Two morphologies were prepared to investigate the effect of structure homogeneity on the intended application. They were characterized for morphological investigation using Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Nanoindentation technique was used to study the mechanical properties of the fabricated material. Cytotoxicity and proliferation studies were done and compared for the two fabricated nanoarchitectures versus smooth untextured samples using in-vitro cultured endothelial cells. Finally, drug loading capacity was investigated practically and supported by computational study of release profile using COMSOL® Multiphysics software

Lean Implementation in Jordanian Pharmaceutical Industry: The Case of Hikma Company

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect of lean practices on productivity at process industries; the case of Hikma Pharmaceutical Company.  A quantitative approach based on survey questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact of lean tools on productivity. The paper showed that visual management, 5S, and work standards had a significant impact on productivity, whereas, waste reduction did not have a significant effect. Keywords: Lean practices, productivity, pharmaceutical industry

Using E-Learning Platform for Enhancing Teaching and Learning in the Field of Social Work at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

This chapter explores the issue of e-learning as a helpful method in higher education institutes and universities in general, and specifically, in the field of social work education. It is based on a study carried out at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and presents knowledge and attitudes of students towards reliance on the e-learning platforms, such as Moodle, as a helpful educational tool. It highlights that Moodle as an e-learning platform enhances communication between teachers and students, and among students themselves. The chapter presents the findings about the usefulness of Moodle, as an e-learning platform as well as challenges of social work students face during using e-learning platform in their learning. Finally, it offers recommendations to deal with the challenges and highlights implication of the study beyond social work education

Private Practice Social Work in the Arab World: Sultanate of Oman as a Model

This chapter aims to discuss the reality of the private practice social work profession in the Arab world from both research and practice perspectives. Furthermore, it identifies the most significant obstacles to the spread of its agencies. Additionally, this chapter discusses several fundamental concepts in this field, such as private practice, private practice agencies, and private practitioners. By referring to scientific research undertaken in the Arab world and, in particular, Oman society, a systematic scientific approach is significant to private practice and its themes. Finally, the author will wrap up the chapter by discussing the findings of one of his studies that identified the obstacles to the spread of private practice

Full-duplex MU-MIMO systems under the effects of non-ideal transceivers: performance analysis and power allocation optimization

Modern Technologies, particularly connectivity, increasingly support many facets of everyday life. The next generation of wireless communication systems aims to provide new advanced services and support new demands. These services are required to serve a massive number of devices and achieve higher spectral and energy efficiency, ultra-low latency, and reliable communication. The research community around the globe is still working on finding novel technologies to meet these requirements. Full duplex (FD) communications have been recognized as one of the promising wireless transmission candidates and gamechangers for the future of wireless communication and networking technologies, thanks to their ability to greatly improve spectral efficiency (SE) and dramatically enhance energy efficiency (EE). In this thesis, first, the influence of hardware impairment (HWI) on singleinput single-output (SISO) FD access point (AP) is studied. More precisely, the SE and EE when the system’s terminals have impaired transceivers are analyzed. Optimization problem for EE maximization is formulated to fulfill quality of service (QoS) and power budget constraints. An algorithm to solve the optimization problem by using the fractional programming theory and Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions technique is proposed. [...

Lean Implementation in Jordanian Pharmaceutical Industry: The Case of Hikma Company

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect of lean practices on productivity at process industries; the case of Hikma Pharmaceutical Company.  A quantitative approach based on survey questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact of lean tools on productivity. The paper showed that visual management, 5S, and work standards had a significant impact on productivity, whereas, waste reduction did not have a significant effect. Keywords: Lean practices, productivity, pharmaceutical industry. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-10-08 Publication date:May 31st 202

A Proposed Social Work Generalist Practice Perspective Approach to Developing Mechanisms for Raising Women’s Awareness of Voluntary Work

This research attempted to access a future vision of generalist practice of social work for developing mechanisms to develop women’s awareness of voluntary work. This research came in four sections. The first section included the problem of research, aims, and methodology. The second dealt with the concept of generalist practice of social work, as well as dealing with the theoretical framework of generalist practice and its professional operations. The third section dealt with many concepts such as: voluntary work, awareness, as well as the concept of women’s awareness of voluntary work. It also displays the current conditions and their effects on voluntary work such as: globalization, Arab Spring as a chance to change, and the limited participation of women in voluntary work. Finally the paper concluded by presenting of women’s participation in some fields of voluntary work. The research followed the descriptive methodology, which relies on Documentary Approach, and depended on the content analysis method of some of the previous scientific studies. Finally, the fourth section presented a future vision of generalist practice of social work for developing mechanisms to develop women’s awareness of voluntary work

A Study of Packet Scheduling Schemes for VoIP and Best Effort Traffic in LTE Networks

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) provides all services over Internet Protocol (IP) since it is an all IP network. To use available radio resources in an effective utilization, Packet Scheduling (PS) should be considered to enhance the Quality of Service (QoS) of Real Time (RT) and Non-Real Time (NRT) traffic. In this thesis, the PS of both RT and NRT traffic is studied in LTE networks. Apriority packet scheduling algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm has the ability to schedule the mixed traffic, RT and NRT, simultaneously. The objective of the algorithm is to maximize the Best Effort (BE) throughput while achieves the satisfaction QoS requirements of RT throughput. According to the obtained results of the thesis, the traffic should be differentiated and the services should be prioritized, when applying delay sensitive services. A system simulation is performed to support the study for mixed services approaches with Voice over IP (VoIP) and a second BE service such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The performance of the proposed algorithm and the impact of the different factors on the overall system performance have been tested. The work is done at Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and Physical Layer (PHY). Finally, a good results are achieved that guarantee a good end to end performance for both voice and data services

Using Information and Communication Technology and Developing the Creative Abilities of Social Work Students

The research problem is to identify the impact of using information and communication technology (ICT) on developing the creative abilities of social work students. The research employed a descriptive-analytical approach in which a sample of social work students was surveyed. Field data was collected using a scale developed by the researchers to measure the impact of students’ use of ICT on developing their creative abilities. After establishing the validity and reliability of the scale, data collection began in December 2022 when an electronic link was sent to all social work students via the official university mail. After processing the data using SPSS, the results were extracted, and a final research report was written. The results confirmed the students’ high readiness to use ICT, while their reliance on ICT improved their academic and personal performance. In addition, the research results confirmed that students’ use of ICT effectively influenced the development of their creative abilities. As a result, the study recommends that universities should focus on adequately training students and faculty members in the use of various types of ICT and encourage them to use them