Globalisation and rapid environmental change have created many challenges for public and private organisations across Iraq as a developing country, particularly in the higher education sector. This includes, for example, decreases in government funding; increased demand for higher education; a need for economic transformation, and related competitiveness of organizations. Such challenges require exceptional leaders and strategic planning in order to take action to improve. In Iraq, the higher education sector is still one of the main foundations in progressing the knowledge economy. Studies into leadership style, strategic planning processes, and the importance of leadership and organisational culture to an organisation’s success have been used to assist both public and private Iraqi colleges in responding to the challenges they face. Although, some studies have examined the interaction between leadership and strategic planning, and leadership and organisational success, there has been no empirical study that has investigated how these three variables interact together. Thus, this study aimed, firstly, to identify the current leadership styles and strategic planning processes in the colleges and the challenges they faced, and to gain an understanding from the perspective of the senior leaders themselves as to how they might best respond to the current situation. Secondly, based on the participants’ experiences, knowledge and perceptions, the study aimed to identify implications for both practice and policy to help improve the colleges’ outcomes. The study involved a mixed-methods approach and was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, the researcher gathered quantitative data by administering a survey package to 129 leaders (deans, associate deans, and heads of departments) across both public and private colleges in the capital city of Baghdad. During the second stage, the researcher gathered qualitative data to more deeply explore the survey results by conducting individual interviews with a sub-sample of 21 leaders from both college types (ten public and 11 private). In the data analyses stages, both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied to compiling tables and charts, and to test hypotheses, by employing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Microsoft Excel, and NVivo. The results of study showed that both transformational and transactional leadership styles played a varied and vital role in the colleges’ strategic planning processes, and in turn their success. The fact that private colleges were ‘for profit’ and public colleges were ‘not for profit’, as well as their contrasting funding models, highlighted key differences between the two college types’ leadership and general modus operandi. While it was found that both transformative leadership and transactional leadership styles were necessary to address the challenges colleges faced in the Iraqi educational context, the impetus for change extended far beyond the need for professional development of leaders. The embracing of information communication technologies, and reliable Internet was seen as necessary in all aspects of the colleges’ work and provision for teaching and learning, and students’ success. This applied to both college types along with the need for closer adherence to government regulations and more focused government coordination of colleges’ administrative functions. Furthermore, implications for making successful improvements to practice also identified the need to manage the challenge of sociocultural influences on the appointments and promotions of leaders. It was concluded that a greater emphasis on teamwork and provision of incentives for staff, along with a ‘boost’ to pedagogy and practice, which could be provided through the adoption of information communication technologies and appropriate professional development strategies, would enhance the colleges’ ranks and the status of their qualifications. Also, theoretically, the study offers a value-add to leadership, strategic planning process, and organisational success literature in the form of a conceptual model that links these variables in the context of Iraqi higher education sector.
The annual performance of a hybrid system of a flat plate photovoltaic thermal system and a solar thermal collector (PVT/ST) is numerically analyzed from the energy, exergy, and environmental (CO2 reduction) viewpoints. This system can produce electricity and thermal power simultaneously, with higher thermal power and exergy compared to conventional photovoltaic thermal systems. For this purpose, a 3D transient numerical model is developed for investigating the system's performance in four main steps: (1) investigating the effects of the mass flow rate of the working fluid (20 to 50 kg/h) on the temperature behavior and thermodynamic performance of the system, (2) studying the impacts of using glass covers on the different parts of the s
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Background: Beta thalassemia is a typically autosomal recessive form of severe anemia which is caused by an imbalance of two types of protein (alpha and beta) subunits of hemoglobin. Oxidative stress imbalance is the equilibrium between pro-oxidant\antioxidant statuses in cellular system, which results in damaging the cells. Antioxidant is a chemical that delays the start or slows the rate of lipid oxidation reaction and it play a very important role in the body defense system against reactive oxygen species. The aims of this study were to recorded the oro-facial manifestations in beta thalassemic patients and assess the oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde in serum and salivs and their role in the pathogenesis of beta thalassemia and ev
... Show MoreTwo field experiments were conducted at two different texture sites. The first site of the fields of AlMed-hateya Agriculture Division / Babil Governorate. The second site of the fields of Al-Nouriah Research Station / Ministry of Agriculture, the factors of the study in the two sites included several factors. The first factor includes two irrigation systems: sprinkler irrigation and surface irrigation. The second factor is the method of cultivation which includes the method of cultivation with basin and furrowing. The third factor is the type of the cultivated crop which includes a local variety (Fajr 3) and a hybrid variety (Drakma). The actual water consumption for the sprinkler irrigation system reached (587.13 and 637.62) mm season-1 f
... Show MoreThis work aimed to use conventional PCR to identify Salmonella spp. that were isolated from diarrheal children and healthy and diarrheic dogs based on four virulence genes, hilA, stn, spvR, and marT. Sixteen Salmonella isolates including: 9 isolated from children's diarrhea from three species (S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, S. Typhi) and seven isolated from dogs including (S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, S. Muenchen), were identified primarily by several methods. The PCR products of the 16S rRNA gene were sequenced and examined using BLAST analysis to find differences and similarities between these Iraqi isolates and already-known global strains in order to construct the phylogenetic tree of S.
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A total number of 68 water samples was revealed 20 isolates being Staphylococcus aureus. Irrigation water isolates represented 25% of isolates while wastewater 75%. all isolates were identified by morphological, microscopial, biochemical tests and VITEK®2 Compact. Bacterial isolates were subjected to 16 antibiotics, all irrigation water and wastewater isolates were resistant to penicillin while they were fully sensitive to Ciprofloxcin. Irrigation water isolates showed relatively greater multi-drug resistance than wastewater, wherein irrigation water isolates showed 100% multi-drug resistance while wastewater isolates showed 73.3% multi-drug resistance, indicating the ability of S. aureus MDR to move from one site to another, which means t
... Show MoreABSTRACT Background: Dental caries is a most common social and intractable infectious disease in human. Saliva is critical for preserving and maintaining oral health and salivary elements had many effects on caries experience. Aim of study: This study was conducted to assess dental caries severity by age and gender and their relation to salivary zinc and copper among a group of adults aged (19-22) years. Materials and methods: After examination eighty persons aged 19-22 years of both gender. Caries severity was documented according to DMFS index. Stimulated salivary samples were collected and chemically analyzed under standardized condition to detect salivary elements zinc and copper. Concentrations of Zinc and copper were measured by using
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A field experiment was carried out during the spring season 2019 and 2020 to obtain a fast, uniform, and high field emergence ratio of maize seeds under a wide range of environmental conditions. Randomize complete block design in the split-plot arrangement was used with three replications. The first factor in the main plots was cultivars (5018, Baghdad3 and Sumer). The second factor in the sub-plots was seeds soaking with ascorbic and citric acids (100 mg L−1) each and humic (1 ml L−1) in addition to control treatment (seeds soaking with distilled water only). Results showed the superiority of soaking with humic acid significantly, as means of characteristics of field emergence in both seasons, respectively, were as follows: Last day of
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A case-control study was performed to examine age, gender, and ABO blood groups in 1014 Iraqi hospitalized cases with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 901 blood donors (control group). The infection was molecularly diagnosed by detecting coronavirus RNA in nasal swabs of patients.
Mean age was significantly elevated in cases compared to controls (48.2 ± 13.8
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Simple and sensitive batch and Flow-injection spectrophotometric methods for the determination of Procaine HCl in pure form and in injections were proposed. These methods were based on a diazotization reaction of procaine HCl with sodium nitrite and hydrochloric acid to form diazonium salt, which is coupled with chromatropic acid in alkaline medium to form an intense pink water-soluble dye that is stable and has a maximum absorption at 508 nm. A graphs of absorbance versus concentration show that Beer’s law is obeyed over the concentration range of 1-40 and 5-400 µg.ml-1 of Procaine HCl, with detection limits of 0.874 and 3.75 µg.ml-1 of Procaine HCl for batch and FIA methods respectively. The FIA average sample throughput was 70 h-1. A
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