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.
Porosity and permeability are the most difficult properties to determine in subsurface reservoir characterization. The difficulty of estimating them arising from the fact that porosity and permeability may vary significantly over the reservoir volume, and can only be sampled at well location. Secondly, the porosity values are commonly evaluated from the well log data, which are usually available from most wells in the reservoir, but permeability values, which are generally determined from core analysis, are not usually available. The aim of this study is: First, to develop correlations between the core and the well log data which can be used to estimate permeability in uncored wells, these correlations enable to estimate reservoir permeabil
... Show MoreIn this paper, we study, in details the derivation of the variational formulation corresponding to functional with deviating arguments corresponding to movable boundaries. Natural or transversility conditions are also derived, as well as, the Eulers equation. Example has been taken to explain how to apply natural boundary conditions to find extremal of this functional.
Background: Recurrent aphthous ulcer is a chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa. Substance P has activity in the inflammatory response. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) as immune-modulators regulates the immune response and has anti-inflammatory, pro-inflammatory effects. Pistacia lentiscus (mastic) of Anacardiaceae family have pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and used in treatment of wound and repair. The aim of this study is to find the safety and efficacy of a new product mastic orabase; experimentally and clinically. Methods: This research studied two parts: first; experimentally for assessment of mastic orabase effects on rabbit dermal irritation, efficacy of mastic orabase on the indu
... Show MoreAbstract: In this research, nanofibers have been prepared by using an electrospinning method. Three types of polymer (PVA, VC, PMMA) have been used with different concentration. The applied voltage and the gap length were changed. It was observed that VC is the best polymer than the other types of polymers.
Widely present in the environment, arsenic trioxide has been identified as a genotoxic substance that poses a serious risk to public health. The genotoxic potential of arsenic at low allowable dosage levels is assessed in this study. Four groups of twelve adult rats each were created from the 48 total. Animals in Group I were used as controls Chromosome abnormalities found in bone marrow cells were used to assess the mutagenic potential of arsenic. Hematological parameters were also assessed. At 60 and 90 days, the percentage of microsomal degranulation in the hepatic fraction increased and the amounts of RNA and proteins considerably reduced (P < 0.01) in all three dosages given. was employed in order to assess hematological par
... Show MoreIn our work present, the application of strong-Lensing observations for some gravitational lenses have been adopted to study the geometry of the universe and to explain the physics and the size of the quasars. The first procedure was to study the geometrical of the Lensing system to determine the relation between the redshift of the gravitational observations with its distances. The second procedure was to compare between the angular diameter distances "DA" calculated from the Euclidean case with that from the Freedman models, then evaluating the diameter of the system lens. The results concluded that the phenomena are restricted to the ratio of distance between lens and source with the diameter of the lens noticing.
Organic permeable‐base transistors (OPBTs) show potential for high‐speed, flexible electronics. Scaling laws of OPBTs are discussed and it is shown that OPBT performance can be increased by reducing their effective device area. Comparing the performance of optimized OPBTs with state‐of‐the‐art organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs), it is shown that OPBTs have a higher potential for an increased transit frequency. Not only do OPBTs reach higher transconductance values without the need for sophisticated structuring techniques, but they are also less sensitive to parasitic contact resistances. With the help of a 2D numerical model, the reduced contact resistances of OPBTs are explained by a homogeneous injection of current acros
... Show MoreThe fetal heart rate (FHR) signal processing based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN),Fuzzy Logic (FL) and frequency domain Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT) were analysis in order to perform automatic analysis using personal computers. Cardiotocography (CTG) is a primary biophysical method of fetal monitoring. The assessment of the printed CTG traces was based on the visual analysis of patterns that describing the variability of fetal heart rate signal. Fetal heart rate data of pregnant women with pregnancy between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation were studied. The first stage in the system was to convert the cardiotocograghy (CTG) tracing in to digital series so that the system can be analyzed ,while the second stage ,the FHR time series was t
... Show MoreStudied the optical properties of the membranes CdS thin containing different ratios of ions cadmium to sulfur attended models manner spraying chemical gases on the rules of the glass temperature preparation (350c) were calculated energy gap allowed direct these membranes as observed decrease in the value of the energy gap at reducing the proportion ofsulfur ions as absorption coefficient was calculated