The successful implementation of e-government transformation: A case study in Oman

The aim of this paper is to investigate, and to discuss the key critical factors that facilitate the successful implementation of E-government projects. The nature of this research is mainly qualitative. This investigation uses a single case study and data was mainly collected by means of semi-structured interviews and organisational documents from the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman. The research findings suggest that there are three paradigms which each include a set of factors that impacts the success of E-government success namely, organisational paradigm, technology paradigm and end-users paradigm. The authors believe that, this paper demonstrates an added value to the current literature on transformation of E-government and to E-government projects success, within the wider context of E-government implementation projects. Also the research will benefit organisations in the public sector, as it has identified main key success factors in E-government transformations and implementations

Dental and Anaesthetic Challenges in a Patient with Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa

Epidermolysis bullosa is a group of rare genetic disorders characterised by skin and mucous membrane fragility and systemic manifestations of variable severity. We report a case of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa in an 18-year-old male patient who presented to the Department of Oral Health at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman, in 2015 with recurrent dental pain and infections. Due to the poor dental status of the patient and anticipated operative difficulties due to microstomia and limited mouth opening, the patient underwent full dental clearance under general anaesthesia. This article discusses the dental and anaesthetic challenges encountered during the management of this patient and provides a brief literature review

Emergency medicine in Oman: current status and future challenges

The Sultanate of Oman has a relatively young national health care system that could demonstrate its high performance at an international level. Emergency medicine as a specialty has developed rapidly in the country over the last decade. This has involved the parallel development of local emergency residency training, prehospital emergency care, and emergency nursing programs. This article reviews the progress of emergency care practice in this country from a general primary care system toward becoming an established specialty in hospital, prehospital, and private emergency care settings. It also describes aspects of undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuous emergency medicine education in the country. Further, a glimpse into academic emergency medicine and emergency nursing is provided. Since it describes a developing specialty, the article also attempts to address briefly major future challenges and their importance to the future development of the specialty in Oman

Performance Analysis of a Multiple Micro-Jet Impingements Cooling Model

The present study investigates the thermal performance of a multiple micro-jet impingements model for electronics cooling. The fluid flow and heat transport characteristics were investigated for steady incompressible laminar flow by solving three-dimensional (3D) Navier-Stokes equations. Several parallel and staggered micro-jet configurations (ie. inline 2 Å~ 2, 3 Å~ 3 and 4 Å~ 4 jets, and staggered five-jet and 13-jet arrays with the jet diameter to the channel height ratios from 0.25–0.5) were analyzed at various flow rates for the maximum temperature rise, pressure drop, heat-transfer coefficient, thermal resistance, and pumping power characteristics. The parametric investigation was carried out based on the number of jets and the jet diameters at various mass flow rates and jet Reynolds numbers. Temperature uniformity and coefficient of performance were evaluated to find out the trade-off among the various designs investigated in the present study. The maximum temperature rise and the pressure drop decreased with an increase in the number of jets except in the case of staggered five-jet array. A higher temperature uniformity was observed at higher flow rates with a decrease in the coefficient of performance. The performance parameters, such as thermal resistance and pumping power, showed a conflicting nature with respect to design variables (viz. jet diameter to stand-off ratio and interjet spacing or number of jets) at various Reynolds numbers within the laminar regime

Mesoscale and Nutrient Conditions Associated with the Massive 2008 Cochlodinium polykrikoides Bloom in the Sea of Oman/Arabian Gulf

Cochlodinium polykrikoides formed large blooms in the coastal waters of Oman from October 2008 through mid-January 2009, and satellite images from Aqua-MODIS and region-wide reports suggest that this bloom was found throughout the Arabian Gulf and Sea of Oman for more than 10 months. The unusual occurrence of this species appears to have supplanted the more regularly occurring bloom species, Noctiluca scintillans, in 2008–2009. For the first 2 weeks of the coastal Omani bloom, C. polykrikoides abundance was near monospecific proportions, with cell densities ranging from 4.6 × 103 to 9 × 106 cells L−1 and very high levels of chlorophyll a (78.0 μg L−1) were also recorded. The regional progression of the bloom likely began with stronger than normal upwelling along the Iranian and northern Omani coasts during the southwest monsoon in late summer, followed by discharge of unusually warm coastal plume water along the coast of Oman with the reversal of monsoonal winds in late October. The occurrence and persistence of high densities of C. polykrikoides in Oman coastal water were also significantly influenced by an elevated nutrient load and warmer than normal temperatures. Concentrations of nutrients, especially NH4 +, urea, PO4 3−, and organic nitrogen and phosphorus, were manyfold higher than observed in the year prior or since. These findings suggest that mesoscale features were important in bloom dynamics more regionally, but locally the bloom was sustained by nutrient enrichment supplemented by its mixotrophic capabilities

Clinical Spectrum of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia in Children : A study of 74 cases

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the spectrum of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) in children in Oman. Methods: This retrospective study was carried out between January 1994 and August 2011 on children with delayed development, gait disorders and motor handicaps, with signs of symmetrical pyramidal tract involvement. A detailed perinatal and family history, including the age of onset of symptoms, was recorded. The children were labelled as having either the pure or complicated form of HSP based on the established diagnostic criteria. In families with more than one affected child, parents and all other siblings were also examined. Results: Within the study, 74 children from 31 families were diagnosed with HSP. Parental consanguinity was seen in 91% of cases, with 44 children (59.4%) experiencing onset of the disease under one year of age. Complicated HSP was the most common type, seen in 81.1%. Speech involvement, mental retardation, and epilepsy were the most common associated abnormalities. Nonspecific white matter changes and corpus callosum abnormalities were noted in 24.3% of cases on magnetic resonance imaging. Conclusion: The study described clinical features of 74 children with HSP. Autosomal recessive complicated HSP was seen in 81.1% of cases.

Seasonal variability of size-classes of phytoplankton biomass in a sub-tropical embayment, Muscat, Sea of Oman

The contribution of three different cell size classes of picoplankton: 0.74-2 μm, nanoplankton:2–20 μm and microplankton:>20 μm of the phytoplankton population and their relationship to environmental conditions were studied over two annual cycles at one station in Bandar Khyran Bay, Sea of Oman, from May 2006 to August 2008. Nanoplankton was the most important class contributing 54.4% to total Chl a (range 6-82%). Its seasonal highest concentrations was during the cold periods when temperature ranged from 28-29°C in fall and near 24°C in winter when the supply of nutrients was sufficient to sustain their growth. Picoplankton had the second level of the contribution, comprising 23.5% (range 4-74%) of the total Chl a, and their concentration was generally constant (0.04-.06 μg l–1) throughout the study period. The drop of picoplankton population coincided with an increase in the microplankton and nanoplankton populations indicating a high grazing pressure exerted on the picoplankton population. Microplankton size-class occupied the third level of the contribution comprising 22.2% (range 3-65%). Their general concentration was below 0.1 μg l^-1 and only dominant when temperatures were lowest and nitrate, nitrite, silicate and phosphate concentrations were the highest. The temporal variability observed was associated with changes in the nanaoplankton indicating that in some cases, it is the small fraction of phytoplankton that drives changes in abundances and productivity

Loss of UGP2 in brain leads to a severe epileptic encephalopathy, emphasizing that bi-allelic isoform-specific start-loss mutations of essential genes can cause genetic diseases.

Developmental and/or epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs) are a group of devastating genetic disorders, resulting in early-onset, therapy-resistant seizures and developmental delay. Here we report on 22 individuals from 15 families presenting with a severe form of intractable epilepsy, severe developmental delay, progressive microcephaly, visual disturbance and similar minor dysmorphisms. Whole exome sequencing identified a recurrent, homozygous variant (chr2:64083454A > G) in the essential UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGP2) gene in all probands. This rare variant results in a tolerable Met12Val missense change of the longer UGP2 protein isoform but causes a disruption of the start codon of the shorter isoform, which is predominant in brain. We show that the absence of the shorter isoform leads to a reduction of functional UGP2 enzyme in neural stem cells, leading to altered glycogen metabolism, upregulated unfolded protein response and premature neuronal differentiation, as modeled during pluripotent stem cell differentiation in vitro. In contrast, the complete lack of all UGP2 isoforms leads to differentiation defects in multiple lineages in human cells. Reduced expression of Ugp2a/Ugp2b in vivo in zebrafish mimics visual disturbance and mutant animals show a behavioral phenotype. Our study identifies a recurrent start codon mutation in UGP2 as a cause of a novel autosomal recessive DEE syndrome. Importantly, it also shows that isoform-specific start-loss mutations causing expression loss of a tissue-relevant isoform of an essential protein can cause a genetic disease, even when an organism-wide protein absence is incompatible with life. We provide additional examples where a similar disease mechanism applies

STUDI LITERATUR: PENERAPAN MEDIA GEOGEBRA PADA MATERI SISTEM PERSAMAAN LINEAR TIGA VARIABEL KEPADA SISWA TINGKAT SMA

This study aims to review the literature on the application of GeoGebra media in SPLTV learning at the high school level. This literature study will analyze the effectiveness of using GeoGebra in improving students' understanding of concepts, problem-solving skills, and students' interest in learning SPLTV materials. In addition, this research will also identify the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of GeoGebra in the mathematics learning process. The data collection method used is literature search using relevant keywords (e.g., GeoGebra, SPLTV, mathematics learning, concept understanding). The research method applied to this study is a qualitative descriptive method with a literature study approach that aims to describe the findings of various journal articles reviewed. The results of the research based on the summary results of several articles above, it can be concluded that the application of GeoGebra to the material of the Three-Variable Linear Equation System has a positive impact on high school students. Innovations in teaching methods through learning media and the use of technology such as GeoGebra not only improve students' understanding and problem-solving skills, but also strengthen their mathematical communication skills.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji literatur mengenai penerapan media GeoGebra dalam pembelajaran SPLTV di tingkat SMA. Studi literatur ini akan menganalisis efektivitas penggunaan GeoGebra dalam meningkatkan pemahaman konsep, keterampilan pemecahan masalah, dan minat belajar siswa terhadap materi SPLTV. Selain itu, penelitian ini juga akan mengidentifikasi tantangan dan peluang yang terkait dengan integrasi GeoGebra dalam proses pembelajaran matematika. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah pencarian literatur menggunakan kata kunci yang relevan (misalnya, GeoGebra, SPLTV, pembelajaran matematika, pemahaman konsep). Metode penelitian yang diterapkan pada penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi literatur yang bertujuan menggambarkan hasil temuan dari berbagai artikel jurnal yang ditinjau. Hasil penelitian berdasarkan hasil rangkuman dari beberapa artikel di atas maka dapat disimpulkan bahwasanya penerapan GeoGebra pada materi Sistem Persamaan Linier Tiga Variabel berdampak positif kepada siswa SMA. Inovasi dalam metode pengajaran melalui media pembelajaran dan pemanfaatan teknologi seperti GeoGebra tidak hanya meningkatkan pemahaman dan keterampilan pemecahan masalah siswa, tetapi juga memperkuat kemapuan komunikasi matematis mereka