United Arab Emirates University

About: United Arab Emirates University is a education organization based out in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Diabetes mellitus. The organization has 6227 authors who have published 14170 publications receiving 321143 citations. The organization is also known as: University of the United Arab Emirates & UAEU.

Different Effects of Antihypertensive Therapies Based on Losartan or Atenolol on Ultrasound and Biochemical Markers of Myocardial Fibrosis Results of a Randomized Trial

Abstract: Background— In hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), myocardial texture is altered by a disproportionate increase in fibrosis, but there is insufficient clinical evidence whether antihypertensive therapy or individual agents can induce regression of myocardial fibrosis. Methods and Results— We compared the effects of an angiotensin II receptor antagonist with a β-blocker on myocardial collagen volume (assessed by echoreflectivity and serum collagen markers) in 219 hypertensive patients with echocardiographically documented LVH. Patients were allocated randomly to receive losartan 50 to 100 mg/d (n=111) or atenolol 50 to 100 mg/d (n=99) with or without hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 to 25 mg/d for 36 weeks. Echoreflectivity analysis was conducted on ultrasound tracings of the midapex septum with specifically designed and validated software. A color histogram of reflecting echoes was obtained, and its spread (broadband [BB], previously shown to correlate directly with collagen volume fraction on endomy...

Unemployment in the Gulf: Time to Update the“Social Contract”

Abstract: © 2010, The Author Journal Compilation © 2010, Middle East Policy Council The growing level of national unemployment in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries remains one of the region’s key domestic policy challenges. This is clear, even if one does not share the hyperbolic depiction of it as an “impending time bomb” that could culminate in “armed insurrection.” In order to provide adequate (and productive) employment opportunities for all nationals, not only is a major overhaul of educational systems required; there also needs to be a renewed focus on policies designed to facilitate economic diversification that generates the sorts of jobs nationals consider appropriate. Moreover, the region’s ruling elites need to modify and then recommunicate their respective social contracts (“ruling bargains”). These, in many senses, lie at the heart of the issue. For it is the way in which oil wealth has been historically distributed that has led to a situation in which nationals choose to remain unemployed until they obtain a government job. It is the primary transmission mechanism of the social contract — the provision of well-remunerated publicsector jobs — that, albeit unwittingly, has caused GCC labor markets to become so highly segmented. The concomitant laissez faire approach to the private-sector labor market has further exacerbated distortions. From the 1960s onward, an influx of expatriate workers, while pivotal to the impressive and rapid transformation of the region’s infrastructure, accepted wages at levels far below those being offered to nationals in the public sector. There is, it seems now, a growing realization within the region that public-sector bureaucracies have reached the saturation point. They can no longer act as employer of first and last resort. It is therefore likely that, in the coming period, both perceptions of entitlement and the manner in which hydrocarbon wealth is distributed will need to be reconsidered, regardless of the predicted rebound in oil prices (see Chart 1). For Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia, where per capita oil revenues are much lower, the imperative to address this issue is considerably greater (see Table 1). Nevertheless, many citizens, especially those who operate local businesses, have a vested interest in the status quo. Unemployment in the GUlf: time to Update the “Social contract”

Dying trajectories in heart failure

Abstract: Objectives: To explore dying trajectories in heart failure. Design: Prospective, longitudinal study. Setting: Sixteen GP surgeries in four demographically contrasting areas of the UK. Participants: A total of 27 heart failure patients, >60 years of age, who completed questionnaires for at least five time-points before death. Main outcome measures: Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Physical Limitation Scale. Results: No ‘typical’ dying trajectory could be identified, and only a minority of patients conformed to the theoretical trajectory of dying in heart failure. Conclusions: This study provides the first prospective data regarding physical decline prior to death in heart failure. Findings challenge current efforts to plan and deliver palliative care services on the basis of the theoretical heart failure dying trajectory.

The Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence Framework

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the causal relationships in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Education Performance Excellence Criteria.Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 220 respondents from 15 United Arab Emirates (UAE) universities and colleges, results of regression analysis and confirmatory structural equation modeling show that all of the hypothesized causal relationships in the Baldrige model are statistically significant.Findings – A comprehensive “measurement model” grounded in the Baldrige Performance Excellence in Education Criteria for the 33 items of measurement is developed, tested, and found to be valid and reliable. Leadership is identified as a driver for all components in the Baldrige System, including measurement, analysis and knowledge management, strategic planning, faculty and staff focus and process management. All Baldrige components (categories) are significantly linked with organizational outcomes as represented by the two...

Precambrian to Jurassic Rocks of Arabian Gulf and Adjacent Areas: Their Facies, Depositional Setting, and Hydrocarbon Habitat

Abstract: The first sediments to onlap the metamorphosed Precambrian Arabian shield were Infracambrian (Proterozoic) to Middle Cambrian carbonates, clastics, and evaporites. The oldest Arabian reservoir rocks occur in the Precambrian to lower Paleozoic Ara Salt of the Huqf Group, which forms the Birba field of Oman. The Middle Cambrian sequence was followed by Late Cambrian through Early Permian marine sandstones and continental to littoral siltstones and variegated shales. The first commercial oil discovered in the Arabian Gulf region occurs in fluvial sands of the Ordovician to Permian Haima and Haushi Groups of the Marmul field in south Oman. These strata are also productive in other fields and are sealed by unconformable contact with the Al Khlata Formation or beneath shale of he Albian Nahr Umr Formation. The deeply buried kerogen sediments of the Huqf Group to the southeast are believed to be the source rocks for these fields of south Oman. The Late Permian to Triassic deposits of the Arabian Peninsula are mainly widespread carbonates and evaporites that were deposited during a period of relative tectonic stability. Their deposition on an epeiric shelf was punctuated by a series of transgressions and regressions. Significant gas reserves have been proven in deep wells in the Arabian Gulf. These wells penetrate large deep structures in the Permian Khuff shelf carbonates. These carbonates have developed secondary porosity and lie beneath interbedded shale and dolomites of the Sudair or Suwei Formation. The source of gas in the Khuff is unknown but could lie in more deeply buried formations. The large deep structures of the Khuff are considered to be among the most attractive for gas potential in the region today. The stable-shelf depositional environment established during the Permian and Triassic continued through the Mesozoic. Jurassic rock units of the Arabian Gulf formed a sedimentary megacycle of epeiric shelf carbonates. These include relatively deep-water mudstones and wackestones to shallow-water grainstones and packstones with the greatest facies variations occurring in the post-Dhruma to Arab "D" rocks. Some of the best and most extensive reservoirs of the area occur in the primary and secondary porosity of the Upper Jurassic Arab Formation, and in the Middle Jurassic Araej and Dhruma Formations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. The sources for hydrocarbons in these Jurassic sediments are thought to be in the Dhruma and lower Hanifa Formation (Diyab equivalent) of the gulf area n general. The Jubailah is a source in Qatar and some of the offshore gulf. The most common seals are the argillaceous carbonate at the top of the Dhruma and the Hith anhydrite, the latter also marking the termination of Jurassic deposition across the Arabian platform. The Upper Jurassic "cycles" of marine limestones and anhydrites of the Arab and Hith Formations accumulated in response to changes of sea level caused either by regional epeirogenic movements or by eustasy.