Vol. 32 Issue 1

Ali Abdul Majeed Alsururi
This study is additional knowledge for the production of wheat, as more a food crop consumption and less productive in Yemen and with the aim of increasing production of it to access or approach the self-sufficiency, Where the study aimed to test the efficiency of technological changes on the level of wheat farms in the region of North Highlands in the Republic of Yemen over a period of fifteen years (1996 to 2010) using North Highlands region panel data. Results from the stochastic production frontier analysis indicate that all inputs included in the model were positively significant; the average annual rate of technological change for wheat was 5% at decreasing rate, while average technical efficiency of wheat has slightly increased from 73.7% to 74.1% over this period due to improved performance of farms as well as socio-economic factors as farm size, family size, Age, education, fragmentation and time. Age, fragmentation and time are factors negatively influencing technical efficiency while the relationship with farm size, family size and education are positive. Under the current production techniques and the use of agricultural inputs, there is a possibility to increase wheat production by 26%. Policy recommendations include consolidation of land and strengthening of agricultural research, extension services, improved seeds and supporting institutions for agricultural production.

Eiman Tamah Al-Shammari
This paper applies an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess the Behavioral Intention (BI) of Kuwaiti consumers to shop online. Reliability analysis was performed to validate the research model and to analyze the research data. Regression analysis was also used to assess the direct effect of variables such as Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) on (BI). Results showed that (PEOU) has a positive direct effect on Kuwaiti consumer’s (PU) of online shopping, and (PEOU) and (PU) significantly predicted the (BI) of Kuwaiti consumers to shop online. Other factors that were significant determinants of (BI) included Customer Satisfaction (CS), Perceived Online Risk (POR), and age.

Adnan Jameel Salama
The morphometrics and maturity indices of the spiny lobster Panulirus penicillatus found in Al Wajh waters of the Red Sea were studied from June to November 2010. The collection totally included 112 animals composed of 37% males and 63% females registering a male: female sex ratio of 1:1.7. The data also indicated higher size range with males. Analysis of total population indicated that highest number of animals (n=14) were in the smaller size range of 49 to 54 mm followed by 55 to 60 mm size class (n=13). Results also indicated that male-female ratio varied between sampling months. The percentage of females carrying eggs was highest in June (65%) and showed a declining phase touching 50% in September. In October, the value again climbed to 57% but followed by steeper drop to 25% of females in November. The CL/TL (Carapace length/Total length) ratio ranged from 0.33 to 0.50 and the significant correlation coefficient observed between CL and TL in both male and female.

Amine Nehari Talet, 2Samer Alhawari and Louay Karadsheh
A Project manager may execute an appropriate action if a risk assessment identifies a dwindling project. Risk identification focused on recognizing the events which might cause a negative impact on the project outcomes. The paper intended to study how Jordanian Telecommunication companies apply knowledge process to support risk identification and how they cope with and how they promote. The existing empirical study was based upon a sample of (130) respondents composed and drawn randomly from the three Jordanian Telecommunication Companies. The findings show that Jordanian Telecommunication Companies were likely to have a clear vision in how Knowledge Management (KM) processes and impact to achieve Risk Identification (RI) to contribute in Information Technology (IT) project success. They will certainly help both researchers to get a better understanding about the knowledge processes on Risk identification, several recommendations were made and certain directions for future research were highlighted.

Abdulaziz Abdullah Al-Qarawi, Elsied Fathi Abdullah, Thbit Safer Al-Shahrani and Mashail N Alzain
The present study was conducted to evaluate the allelopathic potential of two invasive plants namely Rhazya stricta and Artemisia monosperma on the growth of Zea mays (agricultural plant) and Lasiurus scindicus (range plant) inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The results indicated that the leaf aqueous extract (10%; 30%; 50%, w/v) of both R. stricta and A. monosperma caused gradual allelopathic effects on plant height, shoot dry weight, root dry weight and structural colonization of AM fungi of both the agricultural and range plants. However, the higher concentration of plant extract (50%, w/v) caused stimulatory effect in plant growth parameters and structural colonization of AM fungi. Also, the root exudates of the invasive plants have reported similar allelopathic impact against the morphological characters of both R. stricta and A. monosperma and their structural colonization of AM fungi. The mycorrhizal spore count, most probable number of propagules and inoculums potential in the soil of the invasive plants were less as compared with control.

Layla Hazeem
The halotolerant species Dunaliella salina is known to contain valuable products such as glycerol, β- carotene and unsaturated fatty acids. The commercial cultivation of Dunaliella for the production of β-carotene is now very successful in many areas of the world. A successful attempt to isolate and cultivate this species from a hypersaline lagoon located in the Southern part of Bahrain has been made in 2009. Growth rate and chlorophyll a and b concentrations were measured under controlled conditions. Mass production of D. salina for commercial reasons can be greatly implemented in Bahrain.

Mohamed Waseem, Mohamed Tahir, Hafiz Faiq Bakhat, Imran Khan and Mohamed Shehzad
Two year field experiment was conducted to check the influence of different Nitrogen sources on the tasseling, silking, maturity and grain yield of hybrid maize (Zea mays L.) at the Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, during the year 2008-09. Treatments included two hybrids: (H1) (Pioneer-30Y87) and (H2) (Pioneer-31R88) with six Nitrogen sources each, which included at the rate of (S0): control (0) kg Nitrogen ha-1, (S1) : chemical source (urea) 250 kg Nitrogen ha-1, (S2): poultry manure (PM) 9.6 t ha-1, (S3): farm yard manure (FYM) 17.8 t ha-1 , (S4): press mud of sugarcane (PMS) 8.5 t ha-1 and (S5): compost (C) 10.0 t ha-1. Finding concluded that effect of Nitrogen sources on both maize hybrid was found to be non significant for number of days to tasseling and number of days to silking during 2008 while number of days to maturity and grain yield was significant. In 2009 number of days for tasseling was found significant and number of days to silking, maturity and grain yield was not significant. Significant Nitrogen sources influenced were observed for tasseling, silking, maturity and grain yield during both years 2008-09. Maximum number of days was recorded in chemical source (urea) 250 kg Nitrogen ha-1 for tasseling, silking, maturity and grain yield in 2009 as compared to other Nitrogen sources and minimum number of days to tasseling, silking, maturity and grain yield was found in control (0) kg Nitrogen ha-1 .

Radwan Al-Farawati
A comparative study of various types of lipids in a coral Pocillopora damicornis and a sponge Acanthella carteri was carried out. Samples were collected from the Obhur Creek of the Jeddah coast. The lipids were separated by column chromatography on silica and the individual class of lipids was estimated using standard procedures of spectroscopy. It was observed that phospholipids were the dominant in both the organisms (approximately 50% of the total lipids) followed by sterol lipids (9.50 mg g‑1 in sponge and 2.70 mg g‑1 in the coral. Triglycerides were found to be more in the sponge compared to coral (6.85 mg g-1 and 1.90 mg g-1, respectively). However glycolipids were higher in coral (1.30 mg g‑1) compared to the sponge (0.45 mg g-1). The total lipids in the sponge were found to be higher compared to the coral.

Goran Rakocevic, Marija Jovic, Marko Jovic and Veljko Milutinovic
As with any new technology with a potentially wide impact, securing that the benefits are fully utilized and the take-up is facilitated requires effort from several disciplines. However, the skills for interdisciplinary cooperation and communication are often times lacking. This paper summarizes the findings of a trial course, which was created as an attempt to alleviate this issue. The course is focused around the use of Wireless Sensor Networks, a relative recent technology, in a set of medical applications, as well as an accompanying business models to make such products commercially viable. The course was designed to be given to students from three groups of majors: computer engineering, medicine, and business. The results show that after the proposed collaborative multidisciplinary course, the results of joint team efforts of the students increased, as well the individual level knowledge.

Thamer Salim Ali
The in-fauna community inhabiting the surface sediments in the Bahrain waters during 2007-2008 was investigated to describe the spatial and temporal variations between and within Northern and Southern areas. Using a 0.05 m2 van veen grab, samples were collected from 12 sampling stations: 6 stations at each Northern and Southern waters. The samples were collected during Summer and Winter to compare the in-fauna species composition on seasonal basis at each area. In situ water analysis (temperature, salinity, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen and depth) and the sediment grain size analysis were carried out at same stations of in faunal samples in order to identify potential environmental key factors causing temporal and spatial variations of in-fauna assemblage. Based on species composition, in-fauna community patterns were identified and evaluated by multivariate analysis Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) using PRIMER V6. A total of 5075 specimens represented by 186 taxon were collected during the study period. Generally, the infauna abundance and number of species in the Northern area was higher than the Southern area and seasonally the samples collected in Summer were relatively more abundant than those collected in Winter. The BIOENV results revealed that the water depth and turbidity are the most influential parameters causing spatial variations of in-fauna community within Northern and Southern areas. On temporal basis, temperature found to be the factor determining major part of the temporal variations within stations associated with Southern area, however turbidity was the influential parameter of temporal variations for stations within the Northern area. On the other hand, the salinity found to be the influential factor affecting the majority of spatial variation between Northern and Southern in-fauna species composition. The present study provides a database on part of marine biodiversity representing a background on benthic community in Bahrain that can be used as a biological indicator to evaluate potential environmental impacts pertaining to developmental projects particularly dredging and reclamation works in coastal and offshore regions.