Investigating the Role of Critical Success Factors in Achieving the Success of Agile Projects in the Gaza Strip

Achieving project success is a critical element of project management, and identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) that contribute to it is imperative. Agile project management has gained significant attention due to its flexibility, adaptability, and iterative approach, but achieving project success in agile projects remains a challenge. In order to identify the CSFs that have a significant impact on project outcomes, this study examines the role of CSFs in achieving project success in agile projects. A structured online questionnaire was used to collect data from 109 project managers and team members working on agile projects, which was then analyzed using various statistical methods. According to the study\u27s findings, seven factors significantly influence the success of projects: scope and cost management, leadership, agile analytics techniques, customer involvement, teamwork, planning and scheduling, and effective communication, which account for 71.9% of the total variance explained by the CSFs components. The analysis of Pearson correlation coefficients between CSFs and agile project outcomes indicates a positive correlation between each CSF and the four project outcomes (timeliness, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction). The regression analysis includes two significant predictors: scope and cost management, and planning and scheduling, explaining 67.7% of the variation in project outcomes. The findings provide valuable insights for project managers in the Gaza Strip to enhance project success with agile methods by focusing on CSFs

Relaxation of writhe and twist of a bi-helical magnetic field

In the past few years suggestions have emerged that the solar magnetic field might have a bi-helical component with oppositely polarized magnetic fields at large and small scales, and that the shedding of such fields may be crucial for the operation of the dynamo. It is shown that, if a bi-helical field is shed into the solar wind, positive and negative contributions of the magnetic helicity spectrum tend to mix and decay. Even in the absence of turbulence, mixing and decay can occur on a time scale faster than the resistive one provided the two signs of magnetic helicity originate from a single tube. In the presence of turbulence, positively and negatively polarized contributions mix rapidly in such a way that the ratio of magnetic helicity to magnetic energy is largest both at the largest scale and in the dissipation range. In absolute units the small scale excess of helical fields is however negligible.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Astron. Astrophy

Exploring the Relationship between Green IT Awareness and Adoption: A Case Study of IT Students in the Gaza Strip

Green computing, also known as GIT, has emerged as a crucial field in response to environmental concerns. This study focuses on assessing the level of GIT awareness and adoption among IT students at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, as well as examining the relationship between GIT awareness and adoption. Data was collected through an online questionnaire completed by 273 participants. The questionnaire covered various aspects of GIT awareness, including understanding, environmental awareness, and e-waste awareness. The collected data was analyzed using statistical techniques such as principal component analysis, mean, and standard deviation. The results indicated that students possessed a satisfactory level of understanding of GIT concepts and the reasons for its adoption. Furthermore, the findings highlighted the significant impact of GIT awareness factors, including GIT understanding, environmental awareness, and e-waste awareness, on GIT adoption. However, it was observed that students did not consistently adhere to GIT guidelines, particularly in terms of frequent internet access and extended computer usage. Interestingly, no significant relationship was found between GIT adoption and students' academic standing. These findings provide valuable insights into the current state of GIT awareness and adoption among IT students and underscore the need for further efforts to promote sustainable computing practices

Impact of sulphur contamination on the performance of mixed ionic-electronic conducting membranes for oxygen separation and hydrogen production

PhD ThesisMixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) membranes are a promising technology for oxygen separation but they are not commercialised yet due to sealing issue and sensitivity to impurities in feedstock. In this study, La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3- (LSCF6428) was successfully sealed for long-term operation of 963 h using a gold-glass-ceramic sealant. The membrane was then tested for air separation in presence of hydrogen sulphide for 100 h and results showed that the impurity caused a drop in oxygen flux to zero within few hours. The flux could not be fully restored after hydrogen sulphide removal and only 6 to 35% was recovered. It was proposed that hydrogen sulphide was adsorbed on the membrane in the form of sulphur and it occupied oxygen vacancies. With time, strontium segregates toward sulphur to form irreversible layer of strontium sulphate. To restore the damaged surface, the membrane was treated by 1% (mol) of hydrogen for 20 h and the recovery improved from 6 to 12%. It was discovered that the poisoning mechanism is a function of oxygen partial pressure and change of partial pressure from 0.21 to 0.01 bar resulted in 90% recovery and this can be used as a strategy to reduce the damage. The next step was to test the membrane for hydrogen production using 1% (mol) of methane and results showed that methane conversion was steady at 33% for 350 h. Methane oxidation was also carried in presence of hydrogen sulphide but it resulted in drop of conversion to 8%. However, the conversion was slowly regenerating with time and it reached a constant value of 15%. This recovery was interpreted by the reaction of methane with hydrogen sulphide or methane decomposition and the membrane acted as a catalyst for these reactions. After hydrogen sulphide removal from the feed, the conversion kept on decreasing and this was linked to the change of membrane properties and therefore the membrane could not provide the sites for methane-oxygen reaction. For better stability under hydrogen sulphide, the membrane was modified by adding a powder of LSCF6428 material over the dense membrane. This dual layer membrane was stable for air separation under hydrogen for 33 h and the flux was only reduced by 5%

Study On Traditional Medicine-modern Drug Interaction And Its Molecular Mechanism Elucidation In Rat Liver

Traditional medicines have been used for thousands of years in maintaining health as an alternative to or in conjunction with modem medicines. Ubatan tradisional telah digunakan beribu-ribu tahun untuk penjagaan kesihatan sebagai alternatif atau bersama-sama dengan ubat-ubatan moden

AUC: Nonparametric Estimators and Their Smoothness

Nonparametric estimation of a statistic, in general, and of the error rate of a classification rule, in particular, from just one available dataset through resampling is well mathematically founded in the literature using several versions of bootstrap and influence function. This article first provides a concise review of this literature to establish the theoretical framework that we use to construct, in a single coherent framework, nonparametric estimators of the AUC (a two-sample statistic) other than the error rate (a one-sample statistic). In addition, the smoothness of some of these estimators is well investigated and explained. Our experiments show that the behavior of the designed AUC estimators confirms the findings of the literature for the behavior of error rate estimators in many aspects including: the weak correlation between the bootstrap-based estimators and the true conditional AUC; and the comparable accuracy of the different versions of the bootstrap estimators in terms of the RMS with little superiority of the .632+ bootstrap estimator

Statistical properties of maximum likelihood estimates for accelerated lifetime data under the Weibull model

Pipe rehabilitation liners are often installed in host pipes that lie below the water table. As such, they are subjected to external hydrostatic pressure. The external pressure leads to early deformation in the liners, which could ultimately lead to its failing or buckling before its expected service lifetime is achieved. Experiments involving long term buckling behavior of liners are typically accelerated lifetime testing procedures. In an accelerated testing procedure a liner is subjected to a constant external hydrostatic pressure and observed until it fails or for a certain time, t whichever occurs first. Liners that do not fail at time t are deemed censored observations. While a constant pressure is convenient to use in experimental situations, in reality pressure fluctuates under soil conditions over time depending on the water table. In this study, constant and variable pressures using the Weibull model for time till buckling under different sample sizes and different levels of censoring were investigated. Data were generated through computer simulation and estimates of parameters in the Weibull model were obtained using the Maximum Likelihood and Newton-Raphson methods. It was concluded that the maximum likelihood estimates under fixed or variable pressure, and for different sample sizes with different levels of censoring, are unbiased. However, the estimates for sample sizes as large as 100 are not normally distributed, especially when the parameter value being estimated is small. It was seen that the lack of normality was manifested in lack of agreement between the observed variance-covariance matrix and the theoretical variance-covariance matrix. These results cast doubt on the use of normal theory for inference concerning certain parameters

On The Smoothness of Cross-Validation-Based Estimators Of Classifier Performance

Many versions of cross-validation (CV) exist in the literature; and each version though has different variants. All are used interchangeably by many practitioners; yet, without explanation to the connection or difference among them. This article has three contributions. First, it starts by mathematical formalization of these different versions and variants that estimate the error rate and the Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) of a classification rule, to show the connection and difference among them. Second, we prove some of their properties and prove that many variants are either redundant or "not smooth". Hence, we suggest to abandon all redundant versions and variants and only keep the leave-one-out, the $K$-fold, and the repeated $K$-fold. We show that the latter is the only among the three versions that is "smooth" and hence looks mathematically like estimating the mean performance of the classification rules. However, empirically, for the known phenomenon of "weak correlation", which we explain mathematically and experimentally, it estimates both conditional and mean performance almost with the same accuracy. Third, we conclude the article with suggesting two research points that may answer the remaining question of whether we can come up with a finalist among the three estimators: (1) a comparative study, that is much more comprehensive than those available in literature and conclude no overall winner, is needed to consider a wide range of distributions, datasets, and classifiers including complex ones obtained via the recent deep learning approach. (2) we sketch the path of deriving a rigorous method for estimating the variance of the only "smooth" version, repeated $K$-fold CV, rather than those ad-hoc methods available in the literature that ignore the covariance structure among the folds of CV.Comment: The paper is currently under review in Pattern Recognition Letters (PRL