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This paper investigates the potential of dense multi-image 3D photogrammetric reconstruction of destroyed cultural heritage monuments by employing public domain imagery for heritage site visitors. This work focuses on the digital reconstruction of the Temple of Bel, one of the heritage monuments in Palmyra, Syria, which was demolished in the summer of 2015 due to armed conflict. This temple is believed to be one of the most significant religious structures of the first century AD in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with its unique design and condition before destruction actions. The process is carried out using solely one source of images; the freely available visitors' images collected from the social media platforms and web search engines. This paper presents a digital 3D reconstruction workflow for the collected images using an advanced photogrammetry pipeline and dense image matching software. The virtually reconstructed outputs will be managed and implemented efficiently in Unity3D to create an entire 3D virtual interactive environment for the deconstructed temple to be visualised and experienced using the new Oculus Quest VR headset. The virtual Palmyra's visitor will be offered an enhanced walk-through off-site interactive, immersive experience compared to the real-world one, which is non-existing and unobtainable at the site in the current time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waqf development in Malaysia benefits the economy and society, mostly in terms of facilities, education, investment, and others. Due to the massive development of the waqf industry, digitalization is deemed as a facilitative instrument in the operation of waqf. With the usage of digital platforms, the collection of waqf funds becomes more efficient and widely dispersed among Muslims. In this context, blockchain has become a new phenomenon, functioning as a ground-breaking innovation connected to bitcoin. The core idea behind a blockchain is that its users can access the ledger independently of a third party. Additionally, the blockchain counts all network nodes equally, taking human and computer communication into account without any special treatment or discrimination. Without realizing it, several waqf institutions have already applied this approach using their own platform. Therefore, this study aims to systematically review the potential application of blockchain in waqf institutions by referring to previous applications in other countries in the Middle East and Asia such as Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Methodology wise, this paper employs the Systematic Literature Review which consists of the processes of identification in evaluation of the data from September 2022 until October 2022 by using related keywords to study. Secondly, is screening process which entails the process of choosing articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study screened all the 49 selected articles by choosing the criteria for articles selection which is done automatically based on the sorting function available in the database. Thirdly, eligibility which the authors manually monitored the retrieved articles to ensure all the remaining articles (after the screening process) are in line with the criteria. Lastly, the quality appraisal which to ensure that the substance of the articles was of high quality. The findings are important for waqf institutions to realize the potential benefit of blockchain in improving the efficiency of waqf operations towards attaining sustainable socio-economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consensus exists on the importance of heritage for ensuring sustainable futures, due to its impact on political aspects, ethical reflection and local economic development. Nowadays, using technology has become crucial in the construction industry, including heritage conservation. This paper aims to compare a selected sample of digital platforms, gathering data in support of heritage documentation, both for heritage and archeological sites. Despite the huge potential of digital technologies for contributing to heritage conservation, still there is a need for more clarity on what should be used to achieve different goals and what is the best approach under various circumstances. A team of five experts on digital technologies applied to different types of heritage worked collaboratively to gather the case studies in this paper and to analyse them comparatively. Jordan is a Middle East and North Africa country chosen as unit of analysis, because of the huge potential of digital technologies for heritage documentation. The findings from the comparative case review offers a reflection on what should best adopted for achieving different goals. Differences of approaches were revealed between the characteristics of heritage site and those of archaeological sites in Jordan's conservation history. The findings called for a prioritization of using digital technology in both heritage and archeological sites. The discussion on digital platforms currently available in Jordan allows for highlighting strengths and limitations of different approaches and methodologies, thus drawing lessons for addressing the strategic choice of the most appropriate digital solution under different circumstances and in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Conflict, fragility and political violence, that are taking place in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have devastating effects on health. Digital health technologies can contribute to enhancing the quality, accessibility and availability of health care services in fragile and conflict-affected states of the MENA region. To inform future research, investments and policy processes, this scoping review aims to map out the evidence on digital health in fragile states in the MENA region. Method: We conducted a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines. We conducted descriptive analysis of the general characteristics of the included papers and thematic analysis of the key findings of included studies categorized by targeted primary users of different digital health intervention. Results: Out of the 10,724 articles identified, we included 93 studies. The included studies mainly focused on digital health interventions targeting healthcare providers, clients and data services, while few studies focused on health systems or organizations managers. Most of the included studies were observational studies (49%). We identified no systematic reviews. Most of the studies were conducted in Lebanon (32%) followed by Afghanistan (13%) and Palestine (12%). The first authors were mainly affiliated with institutions from countries outside the MENA region (57%), mainly United Kingdom and United States. Digital health interventions provided a platform for training, supervision, and consultation for health care providers, continuing education for medical students, and disease self-management. The review also highlighted some implementation considerations for the adoption of digital health such as computer literacy, weak technological infrastructure, and privacy concerns. Conclusion: This review showed that digital health technologies can provide promising solutions in addressing health needs in fragile and conflict-affected states. However, rigorous evaluation of digital technologies in fragile settings and humanitarian crises are needed to inform their design and deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to advances in technology, foreign countries and their diplomats have resorted to social media to reach a wider and more global audience. Israel, like many others, has taken advantage of the digital world to improve its image in the Middle East. In fact, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs started a special department for digital diplomacy, which manages dozens of digital pages in multiple languages. This paper investigates the strategies that Israel has employed in its digital diplomacy in recent years to improve its image with its Arab neighbors by analyzing approximately 600 posts published on the Israeli Facebook page “Israel Speaks Arabic.” Results of the analysis reveal that the page employs many propaganda strategies to attract Arabs and earn their recognition and acceptance of Israel, such as positing digital publications in frameworks related to conflict, responsibility, and morality in a way that shows Israel as a rational, democratic, peace-loving state that cooperates with its Arab neighbors. “Israel Speaks Arabic” also employs persuasive means that address passion and desires using religion and the humanization of the occupation and its army. Other strategies include the manipulation of terminology, repetition, the amplification of events, and the employment of eminent Arabic voices against the Palestinians that serve Israel’s narrative at the expense of the Palestinian one. The article rests on framing theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are carriers of the economic development on local, regional, and national level. With high levels of flexibility, agility and adaptability, small and medium enterprises have the ability to transform and embrace new emerging technologies and opportunities. In the Industry 4.0 world, characterized by the intensive development and integration of digital solutions into all levels of operations, SMEs are among early adopters of such solutions. The purpose of the paper is to examine how small and medium enterprises in the Middle East are increasing their competitiveness, using innovative digital and e-business solutions as key transformative tools. Within the research, a systematic review of support ecosystem for development of the sector in the Middle East has been performed. Based on the systematic review and literature findings, the 5I framework, consisting of internationalization, innovation, integration, implementation, and intensifying, has been suggested as the model for transformative development of small and medium enterprises. In the future research, it is possible to examine how fast-growing economies that create supportive environment for the development of small and medium enterprises, simultaneously recognizing digital and ebusiness solutions as important pillar of increasing competitiveness and innovativeness, might benefit from successful implementation of 5I framework for successful global transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regions of East Asia, as well as South Asia and the Middle East are rich in cultural heritage of grottoes where a large number of Buddhist niches exist. Three-dimensional (3D) semantic modelling enriches 3D geometric models with an understanding of the historical and cultural value of cultural heritage, facilitating interoperability and analysis beyond mere visualization. 3D models with semantic information act as essential digital infrastructure for heritage management, knowledge dissemination and simulation analysis in cultural heritage. However, due to the lack of standardized data model for the grotto domain, it is difficult to exchange information, share knowledge and the advancement of spatial analysis and simulation. In order to fill the above-mentioned gap, this study develops a data model for niches as a CityGML Application Domain Extension (ADE) based on the CityGML 3.0 standard. In this ADE, niche components and their attributes are defined on two semantic levels, i.e., niche structural component and niche component member. A famous niche in China belonging to the World Heritage was selected as a case study to demonstrate the integration of geometries, semantics and attributes, illustrating that the extended ADE module complies with the CityGML 3.0 standard. This study provides novel insights into the 3D semantic modelling of niches as well as expands the applications scope of CityGML standard within the cultural heritage sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify the key factors that can contribute to making digital government more inclusive. This study developed a research model based on integrating the theory of e-government adoption and innovation resistance theory. The empirical testing was carried out in Saudi Arabia, which is widely considered one of the most progressive nations in the Middle East in terms of digital government transformation. In total, 412 people participated in this study. This study used structural equation modeling to validate the integrated model. Based on this study's findings, this study identified the primary factors that can help make digital governments more inclusive. The most crucial elements are perceived compatibility, perceived awareness, availability of resources, perceived information quality, perceived trust, perceived functional benefits, and perceived service response. The results of this research inform government officials and policymakers in their move toward the goal of inclusive and easily accessible digital government services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining a high quality of conversation between doctors and patients is essential in telehealth services, where efficient and competent communication is important to promote patient health. Assessing the quality of medical conversations is often handled based on a human auditory-perceptual evaluation. Typically, trained experts are needed for such tasks, as they follow systematic evaluation criteria. However, the daily rapid increase of consultations makes the evaluation process inefficient and impractical. This paper investigates the automation of the quality assessment process of patient–doctor voice-based conversations in a telehealth service using a deep-learning-based classification model. For this, the data consist of audio recordings obtained from Altibbi. Altibbi is a digital health platform that provides telemedicine and telehealth services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The objective is to assist Altibbi's operations team in the evaluation of the provided consultations in an automated manner. The proposed model is developed using three sets of features: features extracted from the signal level, the transcript level, and the signal and transcript levels. At the signal level, various statistical and spectral information is calculated to characterize the spectral envelope of the speech recordings. At the transcript level, a pre-trained embedding model is utilized to encompass the semantic and contextual features of the textual information. Additionally, the hybrid of the signal and transcript levels is explored and analyzed. The designed classification model relies on stacked layers of deep neural networks and convolutional neural networks. Evaluation results show that the model achieved a higher level of precision when compared with the manual evaluation approach followed by Altibbi's operations team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advances the thesis that three decades of investments by national and international funders, combined with those of scholars, technologists, librarians, archivists, and their institutions, have resulted in a digital infrastructure in the humanities that is now capable of supporting end-to-end research workflows. The article refers to key developments in the epigraphy and paleography of the premodern period. It draws primarily on work in classical studies but also highlights related work in the adjacent disciplines of Egyptology, ancient Near East studies, and medieval studies. The argument makes a case that much has been achieved but it does not declare "mission accomplished." The capabilities of the infrastructure remain unevenly distributed within and across disciplines, institutions, and regions. Moreover, the components, including the links between steps in the workflow, are generally far from user-friendly and seamless in operation. Because further refinements and additional capacities are still much needed, the article concludes with a discussion of key priorities for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to understand the journalism practice enacted by Moroccan Urban Electronic Newspapers' (UENs) journalists and news media practitioners. This study, therefore, takes representative UENs' reporters, journalism intellectuals, and the editorial managers' perspectives on the contribution of these platforms to explore the transformative era of electronic journalism in Morocco. The participants' views regard that the digital era has widened the creation and multiplication of UENs, which has interestingly celebrated freedom of content circulation and audience outreach but engendered chaos through sinking and diluting. Hence, this has led several journalists to demand structural state intervention. As a result, journalism scholars and practitioners warn against deteriorating journalism conditions facilitated to increase practitioners" call for rigid and paternalistic supervision of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is an important support for national economic development, and energy security directly affects national security, sustainable development, and social stability. The Middle East has the largest energy reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East and is a big energy country with very rich resources. With the reduction of fossil fuels and the increasingly prominent problem of climate change, the sustainable supply of energy while reducing environmental pollution and economic costs in the process of energy use is a problem facing the world today. In order to fully absorb clean energy, improve energy efficiency, and reduce fuel costs and environmental costs, we studied the impact of BIM digital information technology on the economic optimization of integrated energy systems. The integrated energy system has the characteristics of multienergy input and multienergy output. In terms of energy output, the system uses the principle of energy cascade utilization to recover and utilize the waste heat generated by the traditional generator set and then collects it through absorption. Compared with the traditional single-stage utilization of energy, the integrated energy system uses various forms of power, for example, power, heating, cooling, and natural gas, to achieve economic optimization by improving the comprehensive energy utilization efficiency through multienergy complementation. Through the investigation and comparison of the optimal dispatching operation cost, energy use cost, pollutant treatment cost, and equipment maintenance cost of 3 enterprises, the results show that the comprehensive energy system using BIM digital information technology can reduce the energy use cost by 8.7%. Moreover, the cost of pollutant treatment and the cost of equipment maintenance have been reduced to a certain extent, which has a certain optimization effect on the economy of comprehensive energy of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arab uprisings of 2011 led to a reassessment of comparative politics research on authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab region made its way from area studies into mainstream comparative politics, and research foci have shifted towards civil-military relations and repression. Ten years later, we observe higher levels of repression across the region, reflecting a diversity of repressive trends. Advocating comprehensive research on this variation, we review recent literature that tackles various dimensions of repression in Arab autocracies. In addition to disaggregating forms and targets of repression, we call for its justifications, agents and transnational dimensions to be considered next to the implications of digital technologies of coercion. We also reflect on how repression affects the possibility of doing research and how we can investigate the proposed dimensions of repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]