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The world has entered an era of an unprecedented technological revolution. Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have generated new professions while de-skilling or re-skilling many others. Higher education institutions (HEIs) face the challenge of keeping pace with technological advancement- both in their efforts to prepare students for success in their future careers, as well as in protecting graduates from potential occupational disruptions caused by AI. However, HEIs' traditional business education model is incompatible with the changing nature of the job market. This DBA thesis examines business graduate employability (GE) in light of the emergent role of AI in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It investigates how HEIs respond to the changing demands of employability stakeholders in the AI era, adopting a more holistic and multi-relational approach to the interaction between employability mechanisms, structures, and stakeholders in the complex GE ecosystem. The study applies stakeholder theory as a theoretical lens to explore the GE phenomena. The research is conducted from a critical realist paradigm, employing a qualitative approach via in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted with a sample 40 participants comprised of educators, graduates, and employers. The data analysis employed Gioia inductive logic approach to interpretive grounded theory, developing concepts, establishing interrelationships, and building an inductive theoretical model from the data. The study findings indicate that HE response to the digital era in the UAE remains nascent; HEI must rethink the dynamics of the uncertain external environment and its limited internal resources. Furthermore, HEIs should focus on developing a future-oriented and proactive approach to navigating the changing role of HE in the age of AI. This work ultimately proposes a GE ecosystem model developed from the research findings and grounded in stakeholder theory. This model, founded on a more comprehensive understanding of GE, is not only more sustainable - allowing HE to adapt to the stakeholders emerging demands - but adds new employability insights in the context of non-western countries such as the UAE.

The present study aimed to examine the attitudes of general education teachers toward teaching students with learning disabilities in regular education classrooms in Ha'il, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study was based on a sample of general education teachers in elementary schools and analyzed their attitudes in relation to their age, length of experience, and level of education. Results showed positive attitudes among teachers towards inclusion, with more advanced degrees and less teaching experience correlating with slightly more positive attitudes. Recommendations for practice and future research include enhancing teacher training, encouraging collaboration, and exploring factors affecting teachers' attitudes. Limitations such as small sample size and cross-sectional design were acknowledged, guiding future research to improve the quality of research on general education teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Two decades ago, it was difficult to imagine a machine that can auto-detect patterns in images. The state-of-the-art studies have advanced shape recognition, which explores the representation of each modality. However, it remains a challenge for machines to learn shape representations accurately. One way to describe the topology of a shape is to use feature representations. Discriminative features have attracted attention because of their potential in recognising patterns with more accuracy at rapid execution speeds. In this thesis, we first introduce a novel method for in-air arbitrary shape recognition. Particularly, we propose a subset of graph spectral features, which are invariant to rotation, flip, and mirror changes, to classify different shape categories. A new dataset is also introduced for in-air hand-drawn that includes samples of shapes and numbers. This method has resulted in the highest performance with accuracies of 99.56% and 99.44%, for numbers and shapes, respectively, outperforming the existing methods for different datasets. The second contribution involves the development of an adaptive graph connectivity method based on the local details. Such graphs are created to fit the topology of the targeted shapes. A set of spectral graph features are then extracted to capture the local details, improving the state-of-the-art performance by 2% and 9% for two 2D datasets, and 2% and 6% for two 3D datasets. The third contribution focuses on simplifying the shapes by further exploring the local details. A spectral partitioning is applied to understand the geometric structure of each part. This is followed by extracting the spectral features to identify the shapes. The empirical evaluation shows that partitioning of the shapes provides deep geometric details that have demonstrated increasing accuracy levels in different datasets by 1.02%, 5.09%, 2.1%, and 7.89%.

Epigenetic regulators are commonly mutated in cancer. Activating mutations and overexpression of EZH2 occur in lymphoma and other malignancies, while loss-of-function mutations are found in myeloid malignancies. This thesis is a study of this apparent contradiction, examining the importance of cellular context for Ezh2 loss during the evolution of a single malignancy, Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). This work demonstrates diametrically opposite functions for Ezh2 at early and late stages during the evolution of leukemias generated by disparate AML-associated fusion-oncogenes. Ezh2 functions as an oncogene that may be therapeutically targeted during disease maintenance. In contrast, Ezh2 behaves as a tumour suppressor gene during AML induction. Integrated genomic analysis demonstrates that largely different expression programmes are de-repressed during disease induction and maintenance following Ezh2 loss. Studying disease induction, Ezh2 represses a subset of bivalent promoters that resolve towards gene activation upon Ezh2 loss, inducing a feto-oncogene programme including genes like Plag1, whose overexpression phenocopies Ezh2 loss to accelerate AML induction in mouse models. This data highlights the importance of cellular context and phase of disease evolution for Ezh2 function. Moreover, the work herein identifies EZH2 as a potential target in AML, whilst providing reassurance of the safety of this therapeutic strategy.

The aim of this thesis is to solve two problems: the. trajectory tracking and navigation, for controlling the motion of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). Such vehicles are usually used in industry for assisting automated production process or delivery services to improve and enhance the quality and efficiency. With regard to the trajectory tracking problem, the main task is to design a new method that is capable of minimising trajectory-tracking errors in UGV. To achieve this, a comprehensive mathematical model needs to be established that contains kinematic and dynamic characteristics beside actuators. In addition, different trajectories need to be generated and applied individually as a reference input, i.e. continuous gradient trajectories such as linear, circular and lemniscuses or a non-continuous gradient trajectory such as a square trajectory. The design method is based on a novel fractional order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) control strategy, which is proposed to control the movement of UGV to track given trajectories. Two FOPID controllers are required in this design. The first FOPID is constructed in order to control the orientation of UGV. The second FOPID controller is to control the speed of UGV. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to obtain the optimal parameters for both controllers. The significance of the proposed method is that an observable improvement has been achieved in terms of minimising trajectory-tracking errors and reducing control efforts, especially in continuous gradient trajectories. The stability of the proposed controllers is investigated based upon Nyquist stability criterion. Moreover, the robustness of the controllers is examined in the presence of disturbances to demonstrate the effectiveness of the controllers under certain harsh conditions. The influence from external disturbances has been represented by square pulses and sinusoidal waves. The drawback of this method, however, a highly trajectory tracking error is observed in non-continuous gradient trajectories due to the sharpness of the rotation at the corners of a square trajectory. To overcome this drawback, a new controller, abbreviated as (NN-FOPID), has been proposed based on a combination of neural networks and the FOPID. The purpose is to minimise the trajectory tracking error of non-continuous trajectories, in particular. The Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm is used to train the NN-FOPID controller. The neural networks' cognitive capacities have made the system adaptable to respond effectively to the variants in trajectories. The obtained results by using NN-FOPID have shown a significant improvement of reducing errors of trajectory tracking and increasing control efforts over the results by FOPID. The other task is to solve the navigation problem of UGV in static and dynamic environments. This can be conducted by firstly constructing workspace environments that contain multiple dynamic and static obstacles. The dynamic obstructing obstacles can move in different velocities. The static obstacles can be randomly positioned in the workspace and all obstacles are allowed to have different sizes and shapes. Secondly, a UGV can be placed in any initial posture on the condition that it has to reach a given destination within the boundaries of the workspace. Thirdly, a method based on fuzzy inference systems (FIS) is proposed to control the motion of the UGV. The design of FIS is based on fuzzification, inference engine and defuzzification processes. The navigation task is divided into obstacle avoidance and target reaching tasks. Consequently, two individual FIS controllers are required to drive the actuators of the UGV, one is to avoid obstacles and the other is to reach a target. Both FIS controllers are combined through a switching mechanism to select the obstacle avoidance FIS controller if there is an obstacle, otherwise choosing reaching target FIS. The simulation results have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed design in terms of obtaining optimal paths with shortest elapsed time. Similarly, a new method is proposed based on an adaptive neurofuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to guide the UGV in unstructured environments. This method combines the advantages of adaptive leaning and inference fuzzy system. The simulation results have demonstrated adequate achievements in terms of obtaining shortest and feasible paths whilst avoiding static obstructing obstacles and hence reaching the specified targets speedily. Finally, a UGV is constructed to investigate the overall performance of the proposed FIS controllers practically. The architecture of the UGV consists of three ultrasonic sensors, a magnetic compass and two quadratic decoders that they are interfaced with an Arduino microcontroller to read the sensory information. The Arduino, who acts as a slave microcontroller is serially connected with a master Raspberry Pi microcontroller. Raspberry Pi and Arduino communicate with each other based on a proposed hierarchical algorithm. Three case studies are introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness and the validation of the proposed FIS controllers and the UGV's platform in real-time.

In this work, a robust two-dimensional model is constructed to simulate river erosion and deposition of cohesive and non-cohesive sediment. The numerical model is constructed based on the shallow water equations with sediment-flow interactions that incorporates a sediment transport model including, significantly, the evolution of the bed profile. The governing equations are solved explicitly using finite volume method using a Godunov type approximate Riemann solver. A spatially first order accurate and numerically robust Harten-Lax-van Leer (HLL) solver is utilised to calculate the fluxes at cell faces. A Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) type criterion governs temporal stability of the solver. The sediment transport component of the model consists of two different elements: the first, HMD-NC, is constructed to simulate flow over a movable bed with non-cohesive materials; and the second, HMD-C, is constructed to simulate the flow over a movable bed of cohesive materials. The models are tested and validated against experimental and theoretical works from published literature. The results show good agreement with the measurements, demonstrating that the models are both capable of predicting the spatial and temporal changes of the flow and bed change effectively. In a case study is used to demonstrate the cohesive model, HMD-C, which shows the impact of employing different formulations for erosion rates of the channel bed in which significant differences are seen in resulting solutions. An intensive investigation of the model parameters on the numerical result is presented. It is found that the model is particularly sensitive to certain parameters such as erodibility, Manning’s roughness, and the critical shear stress for erosion. While others such as critical shear stress for deposition, bed porosity, and the settling velocity show very low influence on the erosion.

Two phase alpha/beta titanium alloys are used in a wide variety of applications such as aerospace, biomedical, gas turbine engine, sport and energy. These alloys have high specific strength and specific modulus as compared to magnesium and aluminium alloys as well as excellent corrosion resistance. The Ti-6Al-4V (α+β) alloy is the most widely used and the best known of all the Ti alloys. Although there are a number of observations in the literature reporting the mechanical responses of these two phase alloys, there exists very little understanding of the mechanisms of the individual phases and the alpha/beta interface’s role in strengthening. Additionally, it has often been reported in the literature that ‘smaller is stronger’ for different metals due to the presence of a size effect. There is no real understanding of the mechanism of the size effect in the alpha-beta titanium and HCP and its dependence on orientation. Single alpha, beta and alpha-beta colony micro-pillars have been manufactured from a polycrystalline commercial Ti-6Al-4V sample using Focused Ion Beam (FIB). Alpha/beta pillar contained two alpha lamellae separated by a thin fillet of beta phase. A nano-indenter was then used to conduct uniaxial micro-compression tests on Ti alloy single crystals, using a diamond flat tip as a compression platen. By controlling the crystal orientation along the micro-pillar using Electron Back Scattering Diffraction (EBSD) different slip systems have been selectively activated. The advantage of the micro-compression method over conventional mechanical testing techniques is the ability to localize a single crystal volume which is characterisable after deformation. This study makes a contribution to knowledge in several key areas, including an understanding of the mechanical response of different crystals at micro/submicro-scale, the effect of phase interfaces on deformation, and an understanding of the strengthening mechanism in two-phase Ti alloys, the orientation size effect in HCP metals and the CRSSs for each phase in Ti-6Al-4V. Therefore, in order to evaluate the behaviour of these alloys for future applications, it is imperative that the microstructural features and characteristics be quantified and examined on a small scale. The results showed that the beta phase in between alpha lamellae caused strengthening deformation. When the surface normal is parallel to the [0001] of the single alpha crystal, the material deforms with difficulty in the [0001] direction of the single alpha phase. The mechanical responses of the alpha, beta, and alpha/beta crystals not only depended on the size of the pillars, but also on the crystallographic orientation, the initial dislocation density and the relationship between the two phases in the case of α/β crystals. Extensive electron microscopy investigation revealed that the anisotropy in basal and prismatic slip systems can be directly correlated with the transmission of dislocations across the single crystal, the beta laths, and the accumulation of residual dislocation content near the interfaces and in the single beta phase. This information is essential in order to better model mechanical deformation in these materials. In addition, dislocation analysis indicated that the deformation of individual grains conformed to the Schmid factor (SF) analysis where slip primarily occurs on those slip systems where the resolved shear stress (SF) values are highest. The results presented in this thesis bring to light several concerns for designing with titanium alloys and identify a number of phenomena of strong scientific interest. They will allow for the development of realistic models for the mechanical behaviour and provide a comprehensive analysis that can contribute to the theoretical development of the design and enhancement of the titanium allows. Moreover, the role of crystallography in plastic deformation provides a novel insight into the nature of the orientation size effect in HCP. This work points towards the need for further investigations into the higher and lower temperature deformation behaviour of Ti-64 to fully understand the phenomena identified within this study.

The expression of CCR7 was evaluated in different cancer cell lines by using flow cytometry, western blot, Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. We showed for the selected cell lines that the expression is maintained in cells grown as spheroids, and xenoplanted in mice. Furthermore, we showed the expression of CCR7 correlates with stage of the disease in patient derived head and neck cancer tissue. We also showed that expression of CCR7 in cancer cell lines correlates with migratory aptitude towards CCL21 in a scratch assay, Boyden chamber assay and spheroid invasion assay. We then showed that the expression of CCR7 is elevated under serum starvation and under hypoxia in cancer cell lines grown as monolayers and as spheroids; and that there is a correlation between hypoxia and CCR7 expression in spheroids, xenografted cells and clinical cancer tissue. However, we found that in cell line OSC-19, the increase in the expression of CCR7 did not correlate to increased migration. Our investigations following this observation showed that whilst hypoxia increases the expression of CCR7, it concurrently causes a decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) which strongly abrogates migratory aptitude in OSC-19, resulting in an overall loss of migration in OSC-19 cells. In addition, we characterised OSC-19 as a suitable model to evaluate small molecule CCR7 antagonists using a number of different assays. In particular, we showed that ICT13069 antagonised response of this cell line across a number of drivers of malignancy such as migration, invasion in 2D and 3D models.

It has become undeniable that English is the global academic lingua franca to the extent that it is mostly used synonymously with globalisation at the tertiary level. This is partly due to its implementation as a medium of instruction (EMI) in an increasing number of the world’s universities. In view of this, it has become important for both language and content teachers in such contexts not only to know English, but also about English. With such a kind of knowledge, those teachers can respond to the international reality of English in their worksites. A number of studies have investigated the global role(s) of English in different university contexts and disciplines (see Dafouz et al., 2013) and how this entails certain critical issues related to its definition, varieties and ownership in international universities (see Jenkins, 2014). However, there is still value in researching English roles in different content units within the same international university to understand the context as a whole. In light of that, the present study focuses on investigating language and content teachers’ beliefs on Englishisation in their international higher education institution (IHEI). It aims to understand university English language teachers’ beliefs with regard to English varieties in academia, content lecturers’ beliefs in the areas of Engineering, Natural sciences, Social sciences and Humanities, their teaching and assessment practices with regard to the diversified uses of English enacted by these teachers (language and content) and the relationship between teachers’ overtly expressed beliefs and their teaching and assessment practices. For this end, a qualitative research approach has been implemented for this study with the use of semi-structured interviews and classroom observations as research tools. Both Qualitative content analysis (QCA) and discourse analysis (DA) were found methods of choice to approach the data set via the use of NVivo 10 software package. The findings of this study are expected to complement other studies on English in IHEIs where it reveals how irrelevant for teachers in the studied academic setting to demonstrate their native-like proficiency in English. That is, all what is required from the members in such an environment is to master the rules and norms of their own academic disciplines, as cultural models, regardless of their lingua-cultural backgrounds.

This research investigates the seismic responses of lightweight acceleration-sensitive non-structural components (NSCs) integrated on irregular multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) structures designed on different ground types. Dynamic nonlinear finite element analyses of the primary-secondary systems were conducted to provide insight into the seismic response of the NSCs and to evaluate the accuracy of Eurocode 8 (EC8) predictions when the NSCs are attached to the flexible sides along the heights of the primary structures (P-structures). Various sets of natural and artificial earthquake records consisting of 70 accelerograms were utilised. The effects of the plan and vertical mass irregularities were investigated. The NSCs were modelled as vertical cantilevers fixed at their bases with masses on the free ends and varying lengths so as to match the frequencies of the P-structures. A full dynamic interaction is considered between the NSCs and P-structures. The results suggest that the recommendation of the EC8 underestimates the NSCs’ accelerations at the flexible sides of irregular RC P-structures when the NSCs’ periods match those of the P-structures. Consequently, a modification on the existing EC8 design equation is made for the calculation of the maximum acceleration amplification factors of the NSCs taking into account the effects of both the torsion and the maximum seismic capacity of the P-structure.

Incorporation of conductive carbon fillers into polymer matrices can improve electrical,thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting composites. In this work, three differentconductive carbon fillers were used; i.e. graphite, graphite nanoplatelets (GNP) and asreceivedmultiwall carbon nanotubes (A-MWCNT). In addition, A-MWCNT were modifiedusing mixed acids and named as T-MWCNT. These four fillers were incorporated into poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) to prepare four types of PET/carbon micro- and nanocomposites. These composites were prepared by melt compounding using a Haake Minilabextruder equipped with a co-rotating twin screws. The extruded samples were compressionmoulded to films of 1 mm thickness and were subsequently quenched to obtain lowcrystallinity samples. The extruded samples were also injection moulded to obtain dumbbellshaped specimens. The electrical, morphological, thermal and mechanical properties of thesecomposites were studied and characterized as a function of carbon filler types and contentsusing a wide range of analytical and testing techniques: namely; impedance spectroscopy,DSC, TGA, SEM, TEM, FTIR, DMTA and tensile testing. The results demonstrated that theaddition of graphite, GNP and A-MWCNT produced electrically conductive composites andthat the conductivities were found to be dependent on several factors; including filler type,filler content and processing conditions. The PET/A-MWCNT nanocomposites showed anexcellent electrical conductivity (~ 0.2 S/m at 2 wt. % A-MWCNT) with a low percolationthreshold (Fc ~ 0.33 wt. %). In contrast, PET/T-MWCNT nanocomposites displayed similarelectrical conductivity to that of pure PET and no percolation threshold was observed in thiscase (until 2 wt. % of CNT), this was attributed to the acid treatment which disrupted theinherent electrical conductivity of the CNT and also reduced their aspect ratio. However, TMWCNTshowed better dispersion and distribution into the PET matrix as well as reducedCNT-CNT interactions and therefore do not as readily form network structures. This resultedin better mechanical properties in comparison to the PET/A-MWCNT nanocomposites. Interms of processing, increasing screw speed during mixing was found to enhance theelectrical conductivities of PET/carbon nanocomposites (GNP and A-MWCNT), but onlyabove the percolation thresholds values, by ~ 2 – 3 orders of magnitude. However, nosignificant change was observed in the electrical conductivities of PET/graphitemicrocomposites. All the carbon fillers, with different dimensions, were found to act asnucleating agents for the PET matrix and hence accelerated crystallization and increased thedegree of crystallinity. CNT were found to accelerate the crystallization at lower loadingscompared to GNP and graphite. In addition, it was found that quenched PET and compositesamples were not fully crystallized after processing and therefore (cold) crystallized duringthe first heating cycle in both DSC and DMTA, as indicated by crystallisation peaks duringthe DSC first-heat and a rise in storage moduli above Tg during the DMTA first heat. Ingeneral, TGA showed that carbon fillers improved the resistance to thermal and thermooxidativedegradation under both air and nitrogen atmospheres. However, a reduction inthermal stability was observed for the composites containing T-MWCNT in air. The carbonfillers increased the storage and tensile moduli of the composites compared to pure PET.However; tensile strength and elongation at break were reduced except for compositecontaining T-MWCNT which showed no significant change at lower loadings. The tensile23moduli of nanocomposites were predicted using Halpin-Tsai models, which showed goodagreement at low loadings of A-MWCNT (≤ 0.2 wt. %) and GNP (≤ 2 wt. %). However,poor agreement was observed at higher loadings of fillers where the composites displayedreduced reinforcement efficiency. This correlates with results from SEM, which showedagglomeration, poorer distribution, debonding and rolling up of fillers in the PET matrix athigher loadings.

This thesis contains a selection of Author's publications describing developments in testing and monitoring of structural materials and their applications for assessing the durability in different environmental conditions. In compiling this volume the Author has given emphasis to four general research themes, viz. (i) Innovative in situ tests and sensor systems; (ii) Assessment of the durability enhancing materials and technologies; (iii) Investigation ot materials for manufacturing sustainable structures; and (iv) Specifi6ation and design of concretes for durability and expected service life. The work reported in this thesis was carried out during the Author's employment at Queen's University Belfast since his PhD graduation in July 1991 at the same University. The basic philosophy of his research that formed the backbone of publications included in this thesis was conceived and developed during his PhD project, as indicated in the first publication included in the thesis. All other publications deal with research carried out since then by the author either as a sole investigator or as a conjoint investigator, with the support of his research students and/or research assistants. The work was funded (with grant income in excess of £10.7 million) by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Department of Environment, Technology Strategy Board, Invest Northern Ireland, European Commission, the Carbon Trust, the Australian Research Council and various regional, national and international industries. Although there have been many technology transfer and dissemination activities to facilitate appropriate research impact of all the projects, the Author would highlight that all the four research themes considered in this thesis are still relevant for further research in the field of durable and sustainable structures.

Finding the genes that underlie variation in production and developmental traits has important economic applications. Incubation behaviour represents a loss of production in conventional breeds of chicken adapted to local conditions and was what motivated this thesis. The Mendelian traits of comb type, crest, Silkie and normal feathers, feathered leg, fibromelanosis, comb colour, skin and shank colour, feather colour and patterns are of interest because of the insight they give to genes and development and were also investigated in the thesis. We used White Leghorn and Silkie lines of chicken to detect the genetic loci controlling incubation behaviour and Mendelian traits using linkage based analysis in an F2 cross. The evidence for QTL affecting incubation status over the whole period on chromosome 5 was strong (P<0.05). After the addition of 218 new informative SNP markers across the genome including chromosome 5 the 95% confidence interval spanned a region around 45 cM having previously been 95 cM. Three other suggestive QTL for incubation status were found after the addition of SNP markers on chromosome 1, 18, 19, E22C19W28 at 70, 0, 1 and 13cM respectively. The mode of action of the incubation status QTL indicates that the White Leghorn allele was either promoting incubation behaviour or that heterozygotes have performance that exceeds the homozygotes except the QTL on chromosome 1 where the Silkie allele is promoting incubation behaviour as might be expected. A highly significant QTL (P<0.01) for early incubation behaviour (25-30 weeks) was found on chromosome 8 at 18 cM. This QTL has an additive effect with the possession of a Silkie allele increasing the likelihood of incubation behaviour. Other suggestive QTL for early incubation behaviour were found on chromosome 26 and 1 at 0 and 66cM respectively. For Mendelian traits, genome wide significant (P<0.01) genetic loci for comb type, crest type and feather type was found on chromosome 7 at 77cM, linkage group E22C19W28 at 7cM and on chromosome 3 at 169cM respectively. Significant genetic loci (P<0.01) for leg colour and skin colour were found on chromosome 20 at 56cM and 60cM respectively. In the present study, loci for all feather patterns were found on E22C19W28 even after removing animals carrying the dominant white alleles, suggesting dominant white or another allele at the locus was still influential. Comb type and incubation behaviour were investigated at the gene level. Thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) is believed to be involved in the process of domestication and was found at the peak position of the most significant QTL on chromosome 5 for incubation behaviour. Functional exploration of Wnt genes as a candidate gene for comb type was investigated by in-situ hybridization in Silkie and White Leghorn embryos. The Wnt6 gene showed expression in the region of the presumptive comb development of embryos. In conclusion, for the first time genetic loci that explain maternal behaviour have been described. The coincidence of the incubation behaviour locus on chromosome 5 with the site of the strongest selective sweep in poultry, the TSHR, and the coincidence of QTL on chromosome 1 and 8 with thyroid hormone activity it would appear that the thyrotrophic axis may be critical to the loss of incubation behaviour and improved reproductive performance with domestication. Further analysis of these loci should be able to produce markers that can reduce the propensity for birds to incubate. Comb type marker might allow introgression of this trait to prevent comb damage in commercial hens.

Most literatures on international law have been observed to neglect or give scanty attention to the contribution of Islamic law towards the development of modern international law, particularly the principles relating to the diplomatic immunity and privileges. It has often been maintained, especially by some Western commentators that there is no modicum of materiality between Islamic siyar and the rules of conventional international law; as such, Islamic law has nothing to offer the international legal system. The current spades of global terrorism which are allegedly perpetrated in the name of Islam against diplomatic institutions have further widened this perceived incongruity between the two legal regimes. This study therefore critiques and also evaluates the exactitude of the contention that the sources of the two legal regimes are incompatible. This study equally examines the compatibility in the diplomatic principles between Islamic diplomatic law and international diplomatic law. It also contends that the attacks on diplomats and diplomatic facilities are antithetical to the classical principles of jihaad and Islamic diplomatic law. It further argues that the need to harmonise the two legal systems and have a thorough cross-cultural understanding amongst nations generally with a view to enhancing unfettered diplomatic cooperation should be of paramount priority.

Pharmaceutical drugs are often hailed as the poster child for the proposition that patents foster accelerated rates of innovation. This sentiment stems, in large part, from the significantly high research and development (R&D) costs endemic to the pharmaceutical sector. I argue that if the role of the patent regime is one of fostering higher amounts of investment in the R&D process, it is better served by a direct investment protection regime, where the protection does not depend upon whether or not the underlying idea behind the drug is 'new' and 'inventive', the two central tenets of patent law. Rather, any drug that successfully makes it past the regulatory filter ought to be entitled to protection, since its discovery and development entail significant investment and risk. Owing to the inadequacy of the current patent regime in appropriately protecting intensive pharmaceutical R&D investments from free-riders, I propose a comprehensive investment protection regime that protects all the investment costs incurred during the drug discovery and development process. Though similar to existing data protection regimes in some respects, it differs in others. Firstly, it enables a recovery of all R&D costs, and not only costs associated with clinical trials. Secondly, unlike patents and data exclusivity which offer uniform periods of protection, it rewards investments in a proportionate manner, wherein drug originators are entitled to protection against free-riders only until such time as they recoup their specific investments and earn a rate of return on investment that is dependent on the health value of the drug. Given that a pure market exclusivity based investment protection regime is likely to foster excessive pricing and subject the market to the dictates of a single firm, I advocate a compensatory liability model based on a novel cost sharing methodology, where follow-on entrants are free to manufacture the drug, but must pay a reasonable amount of compensation to the originator.

Multi Voltage Design(MVD) has been successfully applied in contemporary processors as a technique to reduce energy consumption. This work is aimed at finding a generalised delay testing method for MVD. There has been little work to date on testing such systems, but testing the smallest number of operating voltages reduces testing costs. In the initial stage, the impact of varying supply voltage on different types of physical defects is analysed. Simulation results indicate that it is neces- sary to conduct test at more than one operating voltage and the lowest operating voltage does not necessarily give the best fault coverage. The second part of this work is related to the issues in the testing of level shifters in a MVD environment. The testing of level shifters was analysed to determine if high test coverage can be achieved at a single supply voltage. Resistive opens and shorts were considered and it was shown that, for testing purposes, consideration of purely digital fault effects is sufficient. Multiple faults were also considered. In all cases, it can be concluded that a single supply voltage is sufficient to test the level shifters. To further enhance the quality of test, we have proposed fault modelling and simulations using VHDL-AMS. Our simulation results show that the model derived using simplified VHDL-AMS gives acceptable results and significantly reduces the fault simulations time.

Social Development Office (SDO) is a governmental non-profit organization in the State of Kuwait. SDO offers psychological services aiming to overcome the psychological disorders resulting from the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait (1990-91). SDO's operational strategy asserted that the execution of work depends on a manager with leadership skills (Manager-Leader), not a manager who will only administer(Manager-Administrator). This study aimed to investigate the SDO managers'performance as perceived by the SDO employees from the leadership perspective. The objective of the study is twofold : firstly to identify the dimensions of leadership behaviour, and secondly to examine the types of leadership demonstrated by SDO managers. The study used a specially designed scale which was tested for validity and reliability. The scale was administered on a randomly selected sample (N=120),consisting of SDO employees. The scale measured eight dimensions of leadership behaviour which are : organization of the working structure; understanding working details; promoting employees' efficiency; achieving co-operation and teamwork spirit; decision-making; responsibility towards work and subordinates; boosting the morale, and social sensitivity. The scale also measured ten types of leadership which are : focused leadership; communication leadership; trust leadership; respectful leadership; risk leadership; bottom-line leadership; empowered leadership; long-term leadership; organizational leadership, and cultural leadership. The study showed that SDO employees evaluated their managers positively with a percentage of 65 regarding the leadership behaviour as a whole. On the level of each dimension separately, SDO employees' evaluation of the managers performance ranged between 54.3-76.5%. SDO managers got a relatively low mean score on items of responsibility (54.3%); organizing work structure (57.3%); increasing work efficiency(57.3%); decision-making (62.5%); co-operation and team-work spirit (64%);understanding work details (70%), boosting the morale (68%) and social sensitivity(76.5%). Regarding the types of leadership demonstrated by SDO managers according to the SDO employees, the study showed that the Communication Leadership is the most common type which was demonstrated by the SDO managers. 81% of the interviewees responses confirmed this aspect. In fact this high percentage agrees with the high positive percentage of interviewee responses on several items of the questionnaire which demonstrate the interaction of managers with workers. Regarding Focused Leadership, this was demonstrated by SDO managers according to 76% of the interviewees. 65% of the SDO employees asserted that their managers demonstrated the Bottom-Line Leadership; Respectful Leadership (61%); Long-Term Leadership (57%); Organizational Leadership (56%); Trust Leadership (42.5%);Cultural Leadership (41%); Risk Leadership (40%), and Empowered Leadership(35%). It is clear that the Empowered Leadership is the least type of leadership demonstrated by the SDO managers according to the SDO employees. The study discussed the significance of these results in relation to the SDO managers performance from the perspective of the effective leadership criteria in organizations in general and the Kuwaiti context in particular. The results suggest that for SDO to become a more effective institution, the management has to organize advanced training courses for their managers to gain leadership skills, knowledge and attitudes which will be beneficial to both, the management and the employees.

Despite the increasing complexity of pre-hospital care systems, the outcome from cardiac arrest (CA) remains extremely poor. The major objective of this thesis was to explore the ways in which outcome could be improved within a defined Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in the UK. The four studies were designed to investigate certain structures and processes of care involved in achieving a successful outcome. The first study provides a detailed descriptive account of the incidence, processes of care and outcomes for adults suffering a pre-hospital CA in a defined EMS system with a predominant single tiered ALS response. Results are compared with other relevant work. In the second study, I evaluated the resource implications of additional single paramedic units with a priority dispatch system and their impact on the short term outcome of pre-hospital CA. Prioritised response and introduction of single paramedic units had no significant impact on the number of lives saved from pre-hospital CA. Significantly increased NHS costs were incurred per life year gained. The third study was a double blind placebo controlled trial using empirical intravenous magnesium sulphate as a therapeutic intervention. My hypothesis was that given early in the resuscitation phase for patients in refractory or recurring VF, outcome could be significantly improved. However, the results showed no significant improvement in outcome. Finally, I designed and carried out a study to develop consensus opinion on future design characteristics of EMS systems in the UK using senior expert staff from Ambulance Trusts in the UK. Consensus confirmed the need for multi-tiered systems, fully implemented priority dispatch and increasing use of 'first responders'. Opinion was significantly different from the present EMS model recommended by the Department of Health. This work has shown that despite a number of strategies to improve the outcome of pre-hospital CA in the Leicestershire EMS, no significant improvement could be produced. A more radical re-configuration of system design is suggested by experts in the field of EMS which could have a more significant impact on outcome. The thesis has also provided robust data which can be used locally in Leicestershire as well as providing avenues for future research.

The end of the First World War in 1918 signalled the downfall of the old order in the Middle East by the virtual death of the Ottoman Empire, with its ancient social, economic and political system. The consolidation of Britain's strategic, economic and political position in that region was bound to affect Kurdistan's political future, given its determination to re-construct a new regional order. Indeed, by virtue of its control over most of the former Ottoman territories, Britain was able to play a leading part in the formation process of the modern Middle East, which witnessed the emergence of the so-called national states in Mesopotamia and Palestine. The main objective of this thesis is to understand Britain's role in the re-partitioning of Kurdistan between Mesopotamia, Syria and Turkey by examining the evolution of its Kurdish policy and the various factors that re-shaped it. Three major conclusions can be derived from the evolution of Britain's position on the Kurdish question. The first conclusion is the supremacy of strategic considerations over economic ones as the principal driving force behind Britain's policy towards Kurdistan's future. The second conclusion is that certain British officials on the ground played an important part in influencing the future of Kurdistan after the war. Between 1918 and 1920, Colonel Wilson, in his capacity as the Civil Commissioner, and Major Noel, in his capacity as the most important British expert on Kurdish affairs, played a crucial part not only in colouring London's views on the Kurdish question, but also in influencing the direction of political developments in Southern Kurdistan. In the following period, 1921-1923, Percy Cox, the new High Commissioner, played a crucial part in Southern Kurdistan's incorporation into Iraq. Lastly, examination of British policy reveals that in none of its historical phases were Britain's strategic interests compatible with the nationalist aspirations of the Kurds, unlike those of the Zionist and Sharifian nationalist movements. There was always a clear contradiction between the requirements of a successful British policy towards Turkey and Persia, and the political objectives of the Kurdish nationalist movement.

A comprehensive investigation of the strength distribution of unsupported single fibres (in air) and supported single fibres (embedded in epoxy-resin) in the context of the weak-link theory was conducted. Strength measurements of impregnated bundles were also carried out in order to compare the strength data with the unsupported and supported fibres. The entire experimental work was performed under similar experimental conditions, where a long length of a single fibre, or a bundle of fibres, was cut from the same spool of fibre (Celion fibre) into four specimens of 5, 12, 30 and 75mm gauge lengths respectively, thus ensuring a consistent base for the comparison. All the data produced were characterised using the Weibull model and other statistical tests, such as the non-parametric test, which can test the weak-link property without recourse to Weibull statistics. Unsupported single fibres were found to deviate strongly from the Weibull model and the weak-link behaviour. This was due to the diameter variation found along the lengths of the tested specimens, which violated the implicit assumption in the Weibull model and the weak-link property that specimens should be similar in all respect except length. Another carbon fibre (XAS) was used to compare the Celion fibre data in relation to its behaviour to the Weibull model. The XAS fibre, however, was found to comply well to the Weibull model and the weak-link property, this was due to the mean diameter being uniform across the four gauge lengths. The Celion fibre was shown to have an increasingly strong dependence of strength on the fibre diameter as the gauge length decreases. This was due to the different effect that diameter produced on the four gauge lengths. The overall behaviour of the Celion fibre data was found to be complex due to the presence of two effects: firstly, the presence of two classes of failure flaws which may be represented by surface and volume flaws, and secondly, within the volume flaw mode itself there was a strong diameter dependence. The use of epoxy-resin to support the fibres provided a means to separate these two classes of flaws and to understand the complex behaviour of the unsupported fibres. There was an apparent diameter uniformity found in the supported fibres, and the weak-link property was restored by the use of the resin. The use of the resin has also increased the strength of the fibres. Failure of the fibres was found to be affected by length only, which explained the compliance of the data to the Weibull model. It was found that surface flaws were eliminated in all the gauge lengths allowing volume flaws to dominate the fibre's failure. Impregnated bundles were found to have similar mean diameters across the set of gauge lengths. The weak-link property was found to be present and the data were found to comply with the Weibull model. The strength of the impregnated bundles were found to be much stronger than even that of the supported single fibres. In fact their values for the four lengths were found to be relatively uniform suggesting that impregnated bundles must fail through the interaction of a group of fibres rather than an isolated first fibre failure.

Data mining is concerned with detecting patterns of data in raw datasets, which are then used to unearth knowledge that might not have been discovered using conventional querying or statistical methods. This discovered knowledge has been used to empower decision makers in countless applications spanning across many multi-disciplinary areas including business, education, astronomy, security and Information Retrieval to name a few. Many applications generate massive amounts of data continuously and at an increasing rate. This is the case for user activity over social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This flow of data has been termed, appropriately, a "Data Stream," and it introduced a set of new challenges to discover its evolving patterns using data mining techniques. Data stream clustering is concerned with detecting evolving patterns in a data stream using only the similarities between the data points as they arrive without the use of any external information (i.e. unsupervised learning). In this dissertation, we propose a complete and generic framework to simultaneously "mine," "track" and "validate" clusters in a big data stream (Stream-Dashboard). The proposed framework consists of three main components: an online data stream clustering algorithm, a component for tracking and validation of pattern behavior using regression analysis, and a component that uses the behavioral information about the detected patterns to improve the quality of the clustering algorithm. As a first component, we propose RINO-Streams, an online clustering algorithm that incrementally updates the clustering model using robust statistics and incremental optimization. The second component is a methodology that we call TRACER, which continuously performs a set of statistical tests using "regression analysis" to track the evolution of the detected clusters, their characteristics and quality metrics. For the last component, we propose a method to build some "behavioral" profiles for the clustering model over time, that can be used to improve the performance of the online clustering algorithm, such as adapting the initial values of the input parameters. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed framework were validated using extensive experiments, and its use was demonstrated on a challenging real word application, specifically unsupervised mining of evolving cluster stories in one pass from the Twitter social media streams. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Due to a high demand for robotic manipulation, many research groups and companies have designed robotic hands to showcase these cutting-edge marvels of mechatronics. However, most of these developments have an inclination towards the prosthetics or biomedical usage, such as rehabilitation. The development of high-dexterity humanoid robotic hands is also crucial for the advancement of automation industries, ranging from electronics to aerospace. In this research, a novel design of a robotic humanoid hand is presented, with fully actuated fingers and high dexterity design to meet the requirements of an industrial assembly environment. One of the key features of the design is its ability to actuate each finger phalange independently, which allows it to perform various grasps poses that are currently difficult or underactuated in the traditional tendon-driven robotic hands. To carry this out, a state-of-the-art lead screw actuation system is developed for each phalange. The robotic hand also includes fingers’ abduction/adduction for power grasps of larger objects, wrist radial-ulnar deviation and wrist flexion/extension, which totally constitutes 18 Degrees of Freedom (DoF) for the whole hand. The developed humanoid robotic hand will be useful in industrial automation and autonomous teleoperation due to its unique functions and economical design.

Leadership is searching for strategies to assist geo-based communities, cities, large and small towns, and neighborhoods in achieving independent and more decentralized, sustainable environmental practices. By employing a paradigm that encourages peer-to-peer fund raising and rewards participants by actively encouraging more civic engagement, the F3rn platform responds to this demand and helps to build a stronger local circular economy. The F3rn Defi Platform has made it possible to create a global ecosystem for recycling plastic waste. This ecosystem uses Algorand blockchain technology to provide unbanked people with access to financial services, job opportunities for the extremely poor through financial incentives, a sovereign digital ID, and transparency for tracking every link in the value chain of plastic recycling.

Tourism has emerged in recent decades as one of the most impactful and consistent growth industries for nearly all parts of the globe, ranking as the world’s third-largest export category. However, global-scale tourism trends and statistics are summations of regional- and country-specific instances people traveling outbound, across an international border from their country of residence or citizenship, for tourism purposes. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most important tourist-generating markets and the largest in the Middle East. Approximately 75 percent of Saudi citizens annually engage in an international vacation. This study is an analysis of Saudi Arabian international-outbound tourism, 2002-2015. The research focuses on two aspects of Saudi tourism - growth of outbound tourism and destination trends. Collective understanding of the characteristics of these outbound tourists is typically performed by connecting destination choice with socioeconomic and demographic variables, when those data are known. Owing largely to higher disposable incomes and liberal vacation time, Saudi Arabia has vibrant outbound tourism activity. Data collected by the Department of Tourism and Information Research (MAS) within the Saudi Commission of Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) on ages, incomes, education levels, and employment statuses of the country’s outbound tourism population for the year 2015 provides a unique means to assess, via discriminant analysis, if certain characteristics are common to destination choice. The study finds that the growth of Saudi international tourism is largely a result of both push factors within the nation and Saudi wealth. Saudi outbound choice is largely influenced by those places that are Arabic speaking/Muslim nations, as well as economic/politically stable destinations. In general, most Saudis seek a cosmopolitan vacation venue where indulgence in an upscale experience in an Arabic, more liberal Muslim nation, is the destination of choice. Trending data indicate emerging new western destinations for Saudi international tourists. But capturing the US 20 billion annual expenditure on outbound tourism may be elusive given Saudi preferences to vacation in culturally familiar places. The results offer some insight into a demographic understanding of Saudi outbound tourists and their destination choices and provide an opportunity to identify motivations of travel that exist beyond the data. The results also challenge that the reliance on country groupings by other organizations and the arbitrariness of demographic data categories that could potentially skew or compromise the actual motivations and understandings of outbound travelers.

In traditional networks, switches and routers are very expensive, complex, and inflexible because forwarding and handling of packets are in the same device. However, Software Defined Networking (SDN) makes networks design more flexible, cheaper, and programmable because it separates the control plane from the data plane. SDN gives administrators of networks more flexibility to handle the whole network by using one device which is the controller. Unfortunately, SDN faces a lot of security problems that may severely affect the network operations if not properly addressed.Threat vectors may target main components of SDN such as the control plane, the data plane, and/or the application. Threats may also target the communication among these components. Among the threats that can cause significant damages include attacks on the control plane and communication between the controller and other networks components by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the controller or communication protocols.Controllers of SDN and their communications may be subjected to different types of attacks. DDoS attacks on the SDN controller can bring the network down. In this thesis, we have studied various form of DDoS attacks against the controller of SDN. We conducted a comparative study of a set of methods for detecting DDoS attacks on the SDN controller and identifying compromised switch interfaces. These methods are sequential probability ratio test (SPRT), count-based detection (CD), percentage-based detection (PD), and entropy-based detection (ED). We implemented the detection methods and evaluated the performance of the methods using publicly available DARPA datasets. Finally, we found that SPRT is the only one that has the highest accuracy and F score and detect almost all DDoS attacks without producing false positive and false negative.

This study investigated how native speakers (NS) and advanced non-native speakers (NNS) of Arabic use connectives to signal semantic relations in expository and argumentative writing. This exploratory, descriptive study analyzed 100 expository texts and 100 argumentative texts, divided equally between the NS and NNS groups. Connectives were examined in terms of (1) their functions and the type of discourse relations they signaled in the clause-, sentence-, and paragraph-initial positions, and (2) the similarities and differences between the NS and NNS groups in terms of connectives use. The study adopted Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann & Thompson, 1988) to follow a semantic-functional approach to the analysis of discourse relations and connectives. The study identified 2,964 connectives that were not confined to the grammatical category of ḥurūf ‘particles,’ and signaled fifteen types of relations, the most frequent among which were conjunction, reason, and contrast. On average, NSs and NNSs produced comparable number of connectives per 100 words. At the clause and sentence levels, connectives organized main ideas and details within narrations, descriptions and argumentations. At the paragraph level, connectives mostly occurred in the NNS argumentative data, signaling a shift between larger text units. Salient similarities between the NSs and NNSs include the awareness of the polysemy of connectives, the diversity of connectives per text, the role of the zero (i.e., no) connective to transition between main ideas within a paragraph, and the association between connectives and repetition at the morphological, word, and structural parallelism. Major differences were that, as a group, the NS participants drew connectives from a wider repertoire, produced less choppy clause and sentence transitions, and exhibited structural and pragmatic control over morphological and complex structural parallelism. The NNS group showed clear evidence of experimentation, especially when addressing the argumentative task. Findings from this study invite a re-examination of the Arabic NS and MSA constructs. The study proposes a semantic-functional model for teaching Arabic connectives, applied within a reading-to-writing approach.

It becomes especially evident during the rebellion how cities represent physical and symbolic terrain for socio-political reform. Protesters redraw the urban geography to challenge the current spatial configurations of control by selecting meeting points, tracing protest paths, and choosing occupation sites. This research calls the changes in the space-object relationship and its role in developing the production of contested spaces, within the context of demonstration. It aims at building a chain of theoretical and empirical evidence to inform the theory with empirical data that highlight and explains the modification in the theoretical model of the experiential production of space, within the public setting in Beirut. This research analysis multi entities of the routine and eventual features that contribute to the explanation of the spatial-temporal production of public space in Beirut Central District. Combined protest event and user's experience methods established a systematic narrative that is correlated to the spatiotemporal identity of the practices, along with the citizens' perception of the space and events. The methodology utilised a collection of scattered resources, developed an equation and grid system that allocated the crowd on an equally divided time-lapse using GIS. The research produced a visual narrative of the spatial allocation, population, and densities of the occupiers' crowd of the defined protest events. The analysis of the distinguished crowd's layouts shows a high probability of correlation between the dynamics of the crowd and arousing the sense of being threatened - translated into violent actions. By reflecting on other examples of the Beiruti story of contesting public spaces, the research concluded that the collective perception of spatial dominance has changed. The crowd's preferences of focusing on dominating connections rather than area indicated that, on eventual phases of producing public spaces in Beirut, the potential domination of the social objects contributed stronger to the production of the unoccupied space.

A network of wireless sensor nodes that are connected to a centralized base station is presented to conduct a study on reliability of data collection and transmission in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with focus on data loss and data duplication. Software applications for specific sensor nodes called Sun SPOTs are presented, and programming techniques, for example packet transmitting time delay and data checking for loss and duplication, are implemented in these software applications to improve the functionality of the network. Acceleration data on a vibration plate are collected at sampling frequency of 100 Hz to validate the operation of the network. Additionally, the wireless sensor network is optimized to enhance the synchronization of data collection from different nodes. The result of this research shows that the reliability of the network is related to data sampling frequency, synchronization of the wireless data traffic, wireless sensor node signal strength, and wireless data routing protocols. The indoor tests on signal strength show the limitation of -70 dBm and higher for optimum data collection without data or packet loss.

Data mining is concerned with detecting patterns of data in raw datasets, which are then used to unearth knowledge that might not have been discovered using conventional querying or statistical methods. This discovered knowledge has been used to empower decision makers in countless applications spanning across many multi-disciplinary areas including business, education, astronomy, security and Information Retrieval to name a few. Many applications generate massive amounts of data continuously and at an increasing rate. This is the case for user activity over social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This flow of data has been termed, appropriately, a Data Stream, and it introduced a set of new challenges to discover its evolving patterns using data mining techniques. Data stream clustering is concerned with detecting evolving patterns in a data stream using only the similarities between the data points as they arrive without the use of any external information (i.e. unsupervised learning). In this dissertation, we propose a complete and generic framework to simultaneously mine, track and validate clusters in a big data stream (Stream-Dashboard). The proposed framework consists of three main components: an online data stream clustering algorithm, a component for tracking and validation of pattern behavior using regression analysis, and a component that uses the behavioral information about the detected patterns to improve the quality of the clustering algorithm. As a first component, we propose RINO-Streams, an online clustering algorithm that incrementally updates the clustering model using robust statistics and incremental optimization. The second component is a methodology that we call TRACER, which continuously performs a set of statistical tests using regression analysis to track the evolution of the detected clusters, their characteristics and quality metrics. For the last component, we propose a method to build some behavioral profiles for the clustering model over time, that can be used to improve the performance of the online clustering algorithm, such as adapting the initial values of the input parameters. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed framework were validated using extensive experiments, and its use was demonstrated on a challenging real word application, specifically unsupervised mining of evolving cluster stories in one pass from the Twitter social media streams.

Domestic violence can happen to anyone, but women and children in most cases of abuse are the victims. Despite considerable scholarship on domestic violence, Saudi Arabia remains an anomaly in terms of the Kingdom's approach to domestic violence from both a social and legal perspective. In 2013 a new law was introduced in Saudi Arabia that outlawed all forms of domestic violence. Also, in 2000 the Kingdom ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) with a general reservation on the basis that precedence is given to Islamic law in the situation of conflict between CEDAW's provisions and those of Islamic law. This research has taken the challenge of assessing the effectiveness of the 2013 Saudi domestic violence law; and investigates the compatibility of the new law with the rights mentioned in CEDAW and its complementary instruments. Through using a qualitative research approach based on textual legal analysis and conducting interviews with those involved in both the prevention and treatment of domestic violence, this thesis aims at offering an insight as to how the renaissance in outlawing domestic abuse works in practice. The thesis employs an interpretive approach aimed at understanding and reconciling Saudi domestic violence law and International Human Rights Law. The outcomes of the research reveal deficiencies in the legal text of the new Saudi Law; And highlight the performance of the Ministry of labour. The thesis suggests that the differences between International Human Rights Law and Islamic law view with regard to combatting domestic violence are minimal, although there is some conceptual divergence regarding women's rights. Finally, this thesis contends that there is an urgent need to reform the provisions of the Saudi domestic violence law; and a need to provide an additional legal framework that bridges the gender inequality gap and challenges gender discrimination in Saudi Arabia.

Online organizations are always in search for innovative marketing strategies to better satisfy their current website users and lure new ones. Thus, recently, many organizations have started to retain all transactions taking place on their website, and tried to utilize this information to better understand and satisfy their users. However, due to the huge amount of transaction data, traditional methods are neither possible nor cost-effective. Hence, the use of effective and automated methods to handle these transactions became imperative. Web Usage Mining is the process of applying data mining techniques on web log data (transactions) to extract the most interesting usage patterns. The usage patterns are stored as profiles (a set of URLs) that can be used in higher-level applications, e.g. a recommendation system, to meet the company's business goals. A lot of research has been conducted on Web Usage Mining, however, little has been done to handle the dynamic nature of web content, the spontaneous changing behavior of users, and the need for scalability in the face of large amounts of data. This thesis proposes a framework that helps capture the changing nature of user behavior on a website. The framework is designed to be applied periodically on incoming web transactions, with new usage data that is similar to older profiles used to update these old profiles, and distinct transactions subjected to a new pattern discovery process. The result of this framework is a set of evolving profiles that represent the usage behavior at any given period of time. These profiles can later be used in higher-level applications, for instance to predict the evolving user's interest as part of an intelligent web personalization framework.

Chiroptical effects of linear and nonlinear nature are investigated by employing a variety of spectroscopic methods, such as linear and nonlinear circular dichroism, optical rotation, vibrational Raman scattering, infrared absorption and Vibrational Circular Dichroism. (2+1) Resonance Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization Circular Dichroism (REMPICD) is a direct demonstration of the nonlinear chiroptical effects of a sample of R-(+)-3-methylcyclopentanone. Solvent effects on circular dichroism is studied for 35 common solvents, which is significantly attributed to the solute- solvent electrostatic and Van der waals interactions for CD and ORD of R3MCP. Hartree-Fock and Density Function Theoretical calculations of R3MCP CD and ORD in solvation are also employed to support the experimental findings. Enantiomers (R, S) of chiral molecules are known to exhibit optical activity effects which are equal in magnitude and opposite in sign. For some carbonyl molecules (possessing the C=O) the equatorial and axial conformers also exhibit CD and ORD of opposite sign but not necessarily the same absolute magnitude. Studies of the temperature variation of the CD and Raman spectra are shown to be a useful technique to study the conformer’s populations and energy difference. IR absorption and Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) of carvone, and limonene, are also studied as an example of molecules having different conformers. IR and VCD Density Function theory (DFT) calculations of the vibrational levels are compared with experimental results in order to establish the dominate (lowest energy) conformer.

The thesis will explore consumer protection in respect of the abuse of halal food law in Malaysia. It will argue that the protection of halal food consumers is not sufficient to protect consumers in Malaysia. It will identify potential halal food-law infringements in the areas of certifications, false labelling, adulteration of halal food, improper slaughtering practices, questionable hygiene, and misrepresentation of halal. This thesis will investigate the current legal framework of halal food by identifying the potential violation of law, and consequently, will explore possible remedies and legal protection in cases where there is halal food abuse in Malaysia. This thesis will also consider the issue of private remedies for consumers who suffer as a result of food abuses and will explore compensation as a remedy for the nuisance caused. In addition, it will explore the adequacy of administrative measures to address halal food issues in Malaysia and identify whether these measures are capable of preventing legal abuses and holding traders to account. The competent authorities who enforce halal standards face problems and difficulties in providing a sufficient level of policing. This thesis will explore the criminal remedies provided by Malaysian law to deal with halal food abuse. While the problems in Malaysia and the United Kingdom may be similar, there are differences in how both countries deal with halal food issues. This thesis seeks to identify practices and solutions provided by English law which may be implemented in Malaysia to offer increased or more effective protection and to prevent halal food infringement. This thesis will suggest that the law in Malaysia requires modification in order to improve consumer protection. It will indicate a need for effective implementation of legal and enforcement measures in Malaysia. Any consequences of the lack of resources will also be identified. The thesis will conclude by providing recommendations on the implementation of a set of rules and compliance measures that will effectively contribute towards improving consumer protection vis-à-vis halal food in Malaysia.

The problem of concrete durability in marine environments remains a major challenge for the construction industry. Chlorides and sulphates from sea water attack both the steel reinforcing bars and the concrete binder respectively. Chloride attack leads to steel corrosion, while sulphate attack leads to the formation of expansive ettringite. These challenges, combined with pressures to reduce CO2 emissions associated with conventional Portland cement production, have encouraged the increasing use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Ground granulated blast-furnace slag is one of the most widely used SCMs, since it offers the potential for the greatest replacement in cement clinker. However, the effects of chemical composition, temperature, slag loading, curing and exposure conditions, concerning changes to microstructure, mechanical strength and durability performance of slag-blended cements are yet to be fully understood. This situation is worsened in marine environments, by the limited information on the combined attack of concrete by chloride and sulphate. This is important, since these ions co-exist in real marine conditions. The present study combines different experimental techniques to investigate the above stated effects on hydration, microstructure, mechanical and transport properties, including chloride binding, to provide improved understanding to the existing literature. The relationships between hydration, microstructure and durability performance have been highlighted, along with chloride binding. Two slags of different chemical compositions (CaO/SiO2 ratios = 1.05 and 0.94), designated as slags 1 and 2, were each blended with CEM I 52.5R at 30 and 70 wt.% replacements to produce 4 blends. Paste and mortar samples were prepared at a constant w/b ratio of 0.5. Reference samples were prepared at w/c of 0.5 using CEM I 42.5R. The pastes were characterised for chemical and microstructural properties, while mortars were used for investigating mechanical and transport properties. Tests were performed under parallel temperatures of 20 and 38°C to reflect temperate and warm tropical climates. The samples were exposed to combined sodium chloride and sulphate, after curing in water for 7 or 28 days. Hydration kinetics were investigated in paste systems using isothermal conduction calorimetry. Crystalline hydration products and phase assemblages were followed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), complemented with simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), to confirm and quantify the phases formed, including chemically bound water. The degrees of slag and clinker hydration were quantified using scanning electron microscope (SEM), coupled with energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis. SEM-EDX spot analysis was also used to characterise poorly crystalline, calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H). Microstructural development was followed using SEM backscattered electron (BSE) image analysis. This was also used to quantify the paste porosity, which was then complemented with mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). Mechanical properties of mortar samples were investigated using compressive and flexural strengths. Transport properties were investigated using water sorptivity and gas permeability in mortar samples. Chloride penetration profiles and non-steady state diffusivity were investigated in mortar prisms, including free chloride penetration depths, using colorimetric approach. Also, chloride and sulphate penetration profiles were investigated in polished paste samples, using SEM-EDX spot analysis. This included analysis of atomic ratios to identify the phases binding chloride and sulphate, and their intermixing with the C-S-H. Chloride binding with and without the presence of sulphate, were investigated in paste samples. Length and mass change due to sulphate attack were investigated in mortar prisms and cubes respectively. Samples were exposed in combined chloride-sulphate solution by submersion or repeated wetting/drying cycles, for a period of 664 days. The results show a positive influence of elevated temperature for the slag blends, leading to a refined microstructure, improved early age strengths and improved resistance to the transport of fluids, including chloride and sulphate. The presence of the combined salt solution led to increased flexural strength. Transport properties were improved during early stages of exposure to salt solution but worsened over longer periods. The developed multiple regression models reasonably predicted changes in mechanical and transport properties, considering the effects of temperature and slag loading. Length change and mass change reduced significantly at elevated temperature. Also, chloride binding was improved at elevated temperature but decreased in the presence of sulphate. The main phases binding chloride include Friedel’s salt, Kuzel’s salt and C-S-H, while sulphate was bound in ettringite, AFm and C-S-H. Generally, within the period of this study, there was a synergy between chloride and sulphate, as sulphate expansion was reduced, while chloride diffusivity was also reduced at the same time. The greatly improved durability properties of the slag blends at 38°C is significant for their application in warm climates.