Proposed Mechanisms for Enhancing Social Capital Management in Arab Universities

The paper develops proposed mechanisms to enhance social capital management in Arab universities. The descriptive approach is used to achieve the research objectives. The research sample consists of 611 faculty members from Arab universities randomly selected to answer the questionnaire on the reality of social capital in Arab universities. The research instrument consists of two questionnaires consisting of 48 items to measure social capital management mechanisms in Arab universities. The findings indicate that the degree of reality of social capital in Arab universities is medium with a mean of (3.47). The results also show that their approval regarding the suggested proposals is high, with a mean score of (4.87). Given the previous findings, the research recommends that the university should establish stable partnership networks with national and international universities in common areas, strengthen horizontal organization to empower faculties and scientific departments, have a common vision to generate a collective agreement among all beneficiaries to develop university work, consolidating teamwork skills and values, and provide contacts who carry important information for the professional life of faculty members

Proposed Vision for Enhancing Psychological Capital Management as a Gateway to Achieving Competitive Advantage in Arab Universities

This paper develops proposed vision for enhancing psychological capital management as a gateway to achieving competitive advantage in Arab universities. The descriptive approach and prospective analysis approach are used to achieve the research objectives. The questionnaire is used as a research instrument. The research sample consists of (513) faculty members randomly selected and 199 experts selected using the stratified purposeful sampling method. The findings indicate that the overall mean of the reality of availability of psychological capital is (3.49) with a medium degree for all dimensions, as the highest dimension is resilience with (3.56) while the lowest dimension is hope with (3.43). The results also show there is a consensus among experts on the mechanisms for enhancing the management of psychological capital in Arab universities, as all dimensions achieve a high degree, as follows: hope (4.94), self-efficacy (4.87), self-resilience (4.86), and optimism (4.85). Given these results, the research develops a vision to enhance the management of psychological capital in Arab universities as a gateway to achieving competitive advantage including its objectives, starting points, elements, implementation requirements, implementation stages, those responsible for implementing the proposed vision, and obstacles to its implementation and methods to overcome

A Proposed Vision of the Transformation of the Arab Universities into Smart Digital Universities

This research develops a proposed vision to transform Arab universities into smart digital universities. The descriptive research approach is used to achieve the research objectives. The research sample consists of 450 faculty members and 75 educational experts randomly selected by stratified random method. The questionnaire is adopted as a research instrument. The findings indicate that a proposed vision can be developed to transform Arab universities into smart digital universities by addressing several themes; the philosophical premises of the proposed vision, the features of the proposed vision “smart university administration, smart people, smart university environment, and knowledge network”, determining the requirements necessary to implement the proposed vision, setting the appropriate foundations for the proposed implementation and success in Arab universities, and demonstrating the potential challenges and threats that may stand in the way of implementing the proposed vision and methods to overcome them

Immunohistochemical expression of substance P in breast cancer and its association with prognostic parameters and Ki-67 index.

BackgroundThe neuropeptide substance P is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in cancer. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the expression level of substance P in different breast cancer molecular subtypes and identify its association with clinicopathological parameters of patients and with Ki-67 index.MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for a total of 164 paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue samples [42 Her2/neu-enriched, 40 luminal A, 42 luminal B (triple-positive) and 40 triple negative subtypes]. The tissue microarray slides containing specimens were used to determine the expression of substance p and Ki-67 by immunohistochemical staining.ResultsThe mean age of the cohort was 51.35 years. Twenty two percent of cases had low substance P expression levels (TS ≤ 5), while 78% had high expression levels (TS > 5). A significant association was found between SP expression level and breast cancer molecular subtype (p = 0.002), TNM stage (p = 0.034), pN stage (p = 0.013), axillary lymph node metastasis (p = 0.004), ER and PR statuses (pConclusionSP is overexpressed in most of the analyzed tissues and has a negative prognostic value in the breast cancer patients. Besides substance P is a potential therapeutic target in breast cancer

Gender considerations in optimizing usability design of hand-tool by testing hand stress using sEMG signal analysis

To design comfortable and efficient hand tools, an objective measurement such as using surface electromyography (sEMG) is required, where the ergonomic design tries to find the most optimal and most fit design of hand-tool that doesn't cause stress on the hand muscles. The hand tool design optimization will be demonstrated in this study on designing shampoo bottles, where the design of bottle and its compatibility with the slippery watery area, in addition to the aesthetic considerations are important issues that must be taking by the manufacturers concerned with such industries. Six different designs of shampoo bottles, as outcomes of industrial design graduation project in the department of Industrial design at our university, were used in this study. The new designs, together with other traditionally bottle designs, were evaluated in simulated shampoo pouring task in the laboratory. Several important parameters extracted from the sEMG signal in both temporal domain and frequency domain provide useful information about the tested designs. Twenty healthy university students (10 males and 10 females; mean age of 21 ± 2 years) were included in this study. Each subject was asked to handle the bottle and simulate the shampoo pouring activity in gentle and delicate manner using the grasp pattern that is found most comfort for him/her. Muscular behavior during bottle holding and shampoo pouring tasks show that male and female have different preferences in dealing with different bottle design, where male have less hand stress with designs that achieve the best fit of their full hand, while female have less hand stress with designs that achieve the best fit of their fingertips, and therefore, the end-user gender must be considered in designs of such industries. Keywords: Surface electromyography, Ergonomic design, Hand-tools, Hand stress, Mean frequency, Euclidean distance, Root mean square, Gender consideration

Basal Cell Carcinoma Pathology Requests and Reports Are Lacking Important Information

Introduction. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common cancer affecting humans. Luckily it has negligible risk for metastasis; however it can be locally destructive to surrounding tissue. The diagnosis of this tumor relies on clinical and dermoscopic features; however confirmation requires biopsy and histologic examination. Based on clinical and pathologic findings, BCC is classified as low or high risk subtype. The clinician requesting pathology examination for BCC should provide the pathologist with detailed information including patient details, relevant clinical and medical history, site and type of the biopsy, and whether this is a primary or recurrent lesion. The pathologist on the other hand should write an adequate report containing a minimum of core set of parameters including type of BCC, depth of invasion, presence of lymphovascular or perineural invasion, and the excision margins. Objectives. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether requests by clinicians and pathology reports of BCC are adequate. Methods. This is a retrospective analysis done at the dermatology department, faculty of medicine at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. Reports for the period from January 2003 to December 2017 were retrieved and analyzed for data completeness. Results. Most clinical request forms of BCC provided by clinicians are inadequate and lack important relevant information especially in regard to lesion history, patient medical history, and whether BCC is a primary or a recurrent one. Pathology reports for BCC cases also have significant deficiency especially in describing the histologic subtype, depth of invasion, and presence of lymphovascular and perineural invasion. However, the tumor excision margins are adequately described in almost all reports. Conclusions. The study shows that clinicians do not provide adequate clinical information when submitting a request for histopathologic examination of BCC. Similarly, pathologists write incomplete reports that lack important pathologic features. Having pre-set forms (electronic proforma) can help overcome missing information