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.
An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection and quantitation of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against vero- cytotoxine (VT) producing Escherichia coli serogroup O157:H7 was produced. E. coli O157: H7 lipopolysaccharide was extracted from locally isolated strains by using hot phenol- water method, followed by partial purification using gel filtration chromatography by sepharose- 4B. The purity of the lipopolysaccharide was checked by measuring the protein and nucleic acid content and then used as antigen. Four isolates of vero- cytotoxin producing E. coli serogroup O157:H7 was obtained by culturing 350 stool samples from children suffering from bloody diarrhea. These isolates were identified on bacteriological, s
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The past decades have witnessed a development in the concept of corporate governance and the transformation of a concept that is limited to large companies listed in capital markets in major economies to an issue that concerns all business activities in the public and private sectors in both large and small countries. The aim of this research is to propose a guide to the mechanisms and rules of governance in the municipal institutions that contributes to the activation of the internal control system to reduce the fraud and manipulation of this activity. Institutions. The research was based on the hypothesis that the implementation of the principles and rules of governance in municipal institutions lead to the contribution of the activati
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Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a considerable problem aecting the health of people each year. It is caused by various Gram-positive (G+ve) and Gram-negative (G-ve) pathogens. It is an important illness in the world aecting all age groups across their life span. Objectives: To identify the most common aerobic bacteria that cause UTIs and their antibiotic susceptibility and antimicrobial activity of plant extracts of the males' patients. Materials and methods: The study involved 35 midstream urine samples from the male students (University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq) with suspicious symptoms of UTI, during the period from January-March 2018. Each urine sample was cultured rst on Mannitol Salt Agar and MacConkey agar plates to dierentiate
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Abstract: Background: Drug toxicity and chemotherapeutic side effects negatively impact the quality of life of breast cancer patients. Objectives: to evaluate the efficacy of pharmaceutical Interventions (PI) on quality of life (QOL)Among chemotherapy intake breast cancer women. Method: A pre-post interventional study was carried out at the chemotherapy ward of Alhabobi Hospital in Alnasiriyah City. Eligible patients received comprehensive pharmaceutical care and a self-compiled Breast Cancer Patients Medication Knowledge Guide pamphlet. Each patient received two sessions, the first at baseline and the second after 7, 14, or 21 days depending on the next taking dose of chemotherapy. Each session lasted for approximately 15-30 minutes. Par
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Introduction The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) is being developed to enhance the localisation of radiopharmaceutical uptake in targeted tissues during surgical procedures such as sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy. Purpose To assess the capability of the HGC, a lymph-node-contrast (LNC) phantom was constructed for an evaluative study simulating medical scenarios of varying radioactivity concentration and SLN size. Materials and methods The phantom was constructed using two methyl methacrylate PMMA plates (8 mm thick). The SLNs were simulated by drilling circular wells of diameters ranging between 10 mm and 2.5 mm (16 wells in total) in one plate. These simulated SLNs were placed underneath scattering material with thicknesses ranging between 5 mm
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This study aims to characterize traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) neurophysiologically using an intramuscular fine-wire electromyography (EMG) electrode pair. EMG data were collected from an agonist-antagonist pair of tail muscles of Macaca fasicularis, pre- and post-lesion, and for a treatment and control group. The EMG signals were decomposed into multi-resolution subsets using wavelet transforms (WT), then the relative power (RP) was calculated for each individual reconstructed EMG sub-band. Linear mixed models were developed to test three hypotheses: (i) asymmetrical volitional activity of left and right side tail muscles (ii) the effect of the experimental TSCI on the frequency content of the EMG signal, (iii) and the effect
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The adsorption of copper ions onto produced activated carbon from banana peels (with particle size 250 µm) in a single component system with applying magnetic field has been studied using fixed bed adsorber. The fixed bed breakthrough curves for the copper ions were investigated. The adsorption capacity for Cu (II) was investigated. It was found that 1) the exposure distance (E.D) and strength of magnetic field (B), affected the degree of adsorption; and 2) experiments showed that removal of Cu ions and accumulative adsorption capacity of adsorbent increase as the exposure distance and strength of magnetic field increase.
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