Abū ‘Abdullāh Muḥammad b. ‘Umar al-Wāqidī’s Historiography of the Prophet Muhammad’s Military Expeditions (A Critical Study of the Methododology with Special Focus on al-Wāqidī’s Kitāb al-Maghāzī)

Within the very specialist realm of Islamic history, the name of al-Wāqidī retains a somewhat unique place. Praised and respected by many, but also criticised by his fellow historians, al-Wāqidī is without doubt a polarising scholar of the military expeditions of the Prophet Muhammed. His most famous and the only fully preserved work, ‘Kitāb al-Maghāzi’, continues to divide opinion as it has done for many centuries." This thesis argues that the doubts and scepticism directed at al-Waqidi’s works as a reliable historical source have to be reviewed and reassessed. The thesis claims that the strength of his work rely less on its authenticity in establishing what happened in the past and is far more intriguing as part of a genre that can be called Islamic historiography. Thus, the focus here is on the methods and style adopted by al-Waqidi while also claiming that other contemporary histories are as problematic as his. The method of the thesis is first to explore the literature and debates about Islamic historiography and highlight the need to look at the historiographical method and less on the historical content. The conclusion is that textual interpretation of the works of al-Waqidi highlights his importance, underrated by other scholars.The thesis demonstrates the ‘authenticity’ and ‘reliability’ of al-Waqidi’s Kitab al-maghazi by locating these in al-Waqidi’s historical method, which can be summarized as follows: collection of facts, dates, duration, biography, tradition (whatever this may mean), isnad, authoritative scholarly sources, eyewitness accounts; narrating ‘history’ around, let us say, the tropes of history as ‘revelation’ and ‘salvation’, which are cultural determined; and ‘agency’ of the author, al-Waqidi, that allows him to transcend the ‘conditions’ in which he lived, demonstrated by his representation of warriors and diplomats and women, by his equal reliance on faith and reason, and his strategies of ‘forgetting’ the pre-Islamic past. As such this is a solid reading of al-Waqidi’s text based on informed understanding of the narrative techniques of 9th/10th-century Arabic-Islamic ‘history’.

High Data Rate Coherent Optical OFDM System for Long-Haul Transmission

The growth in internet traffic has driven the increase in demand for bandwidth and high data rates. Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is considered as a promising technology to satisfy the increased demand for bandwidth in broadband services. Optical OFDM received a great attention after proposing it as a modulation technique for the long-haul transmission in both direct and coherent detection. However, Coherent Optical OFDM (CO-OFDM) is the next generation technology for the optical communications, since it integrates the advantages of both coherent systems and OFDM systems. It has the ability to overcome many optical fiber restrictions such as chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization mode dispersion (PMD). Moreover, Integrating the Coherent Optical OFDM with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) systems will provide the transmission system with a high bandwidth, a significant data rates, and a high spectral efficiency without increasing the cost or the complexity of the system. WDM systems help to enhance the capacity and the data rate of the system by sending multiple wavelengths over a single fiber. This research focuses on the implementation and performance analysis of high data rate coherent optical OFDM for long-haul transmission. The study starts with a single user and extends to the implanting of the WDM system. OptiSystem-12 simulation tool is fully used to design and implement the system. The system utilizes to carry range of data rates start from 10 Gbps to 1 Tbps, 4-QAM (2 bits-per-symbol) is used a modulation type for the OFDM signal, Optical I/Q modulation is employed at the transmitter and coherent detection is employed at the receiver. The performance of the system is studied and analyzed system in terms of Bit-Error-Rate (BER), the effect of the transmission distance on the Optical-Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (OSNR), and the relation of BER and OSNR with regard to the transmission distance

Types of Bullying and Its Causes for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Full-Inclusion Programs: Teachers ‘And Parents’ Opinion

Students with developmental disabilities are exposed to high rates of bullying compared to typical people and individuals with autism are exposed to even higher rates [7]. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to investigate the types and causes of bullying experienced by students with autism in full-inclusive programs in three cities in Saudi Arabia (Tabuk, Aljof, and Arar). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 parents and educators who met the inclusion criteria. The interviews were analyzed using the Dedoose program, leading to the identification of seven themes. The participants reported instances of verbal bullying, including offensive language and threats. Physical bullying, such as hitting, stealing, and property damage, was also mentioned. Additionally, some children experienced sexual bullying through verbal, gestural, or electronic cues. Cyberbullying, including exclusion and the dissemination of videos and images, was found to affect children with autism. Social bullying, characterized by exclusion, isolation, and disgust, was also reported. This study found that bullying is related to disability and lack of awareness. It is important to note that the study focused on three cities in the northern region of Saudi Arabia, and future research may consider other regions to encompass demographic and cultural diversity. The study highlights the need for increased awareness among peers, parents, and teachers regarding bullying, with recommendations for preventive measures and support strategies

The Tailoring Of National Guidelines For Upper Extremity Post-Stroke Rehabilitation: A Concept In Use.

Background: In Saudi Arabia, national evidence-based clinical guidelines (NCG) were created based for healthcare interventions. However, clinicians appear to be slow to incorporate the evidence into practice. As a result, there exists a time-gap between the gathering and presentation of evidence for best practice and the use of that evidence by clinicians. It becomes, therefore, imperative to investigate the gap between the research evidence and clinical practice. The knowledge to action (KTA) framework is available to facilitate the implementation of research evidence. This framework incorporates the theory of tailoring, a concept that is intended to create a fit between the evidence for the intervention and its use by the clinician. Unfortunately, the process of tailoring stills awaits clear guidelines on how it should be implemented. Consequently, this study presents hitherto unknown strategies for using novel methods, which reflect the particular role of the KTA framework in tailoring recommendations. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the UK National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke as a clinical tool for tailoring evidence around upper extremity (UE) rehabilitation after a stroke. Methods: This study used a mixed methods (consensus approach), which includes a survey (n = 26) and nominal group meeting (NGM) with physiotherapists (n=15). Result: The first part of this study (survey) showed that 59 items (recommendations) from the UK National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke around UE post-stroke rehabilitation were accepted as consensus. Of these fifty-nine items, only 5 were rated as “no consensus.” In addition, of all the items that had been included, not a single one was rejected. The results led to three groups of recommendations based on the agreed median scores. These are as follow: lack of agreement (no consensus), highest consensus with tightest range of scores, or lowest consensus with widest range of scores. The second part of this study (NGM) explores four themes, which appeared to significantly influence the concept of “tailoring” and the participants’ ways of thinking. Conclusion: This study illustrates the role of tailoring in bridging the time-gap between the evidence and its implementation in the clinical setting. The study also provides more clarification about the role of tailoring and outlines the steps required to effectively investigate it

Heart disease during pregnancy in the KSA: A suggested plan

AbstractObjectivesCongenital heart disease in pregnancy is a leading cause of maternal death in developed countries while rheumatic fever is the commonest cause of valvular disease in pregnancy in developing countries. Improvement in neonatal and paediatric cardiac surgery has increased the incidence of congenital heart disease in pregnancy worldwide. Published data regarding heart disease in pregnancy (HDP) in KSA are scant and relatively old. This study examines the current status of HDP in KSA and describes the rationale and design of the suggested plan for HDP in KSA, i.e., the Registry Of Saudi Heart Disease And Pregnancy (ROSHDAP).MethodsA systematic search was conducted through the ProQuest MEDLINE® database using the keyword phrase “cardiovascular disease in pregnancy”. An extensive literature review about heart disease in pregnancywas performed.ResultsThere are only 4 available Saudi studies of HDP. The ROSHDAP study is expected to establish a foundation for Saudi research in this field and will create an extensive database that will enrich knowledge about HDP. All Saudi women with HDP who wish to participate are eligible for enrolment in the registry. Five phases are planned for the registry, and data will be collected prospectively, confidentially, and electronically. The data will be transmitted from participating centres to a central coordinating office for data management and analysis.ConclusionThe ROSHDAP study suggested in this article will provide contemporary data on HDP in KSA that will promote research and encourage evidence-based medical care of pregnant women with heart disease

Examining the Impact of Learning Management Systems in Computer Programming Courses

The development of software and communication technologies in education has led the majority of universities worldwide to integrate the functions of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) into their learning environments. LMSs offers several features that encourage their use by universities and other educational institutions, such as unlimited access to course content, easy tracking of learners’ progress and performance, and reduced costs in terms of both money and time. Most existing LMS studies have been focused on experienced LMS users who are familiar with its functions, with little consideration given to new users. Furthermore, although previous researchers have identified various means of enhancing the effectiveness of LMS use, no consensus has yet been reached on which of these features most successfully improve the learning outcomes of new learners enrolled in programming courses. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the usability of particular LMS features and their impact on learning outcomes for freshman students enrolled in programming courses. Through the Virtual Programming Lab (VPL) and discussion forums, particular LMS features have been considered. For this study, a quantitative quasi-experimental design was employed, including experimental and control groups of new students enrolled in an introductory programming course that involved different LMS features. These features have been considered in the place of treatment in this experiment, in which the level of difference between participants in the two groups was compared. This study involved two main dependent variables: LMS features’ usability and learning achievement. For the first dependent variable, LMS usability, the participants completed a survey, based on the components of Shackel’s usability model (1991), to evaluate the effectiveness of the LMS features’ usability. Four constructs underpin this model: effectiveness, learnability, flexibility, a¬¬nd attitude. For the second dependent variable, learning achievement, the final grade was used to measure the impact of these two LMS features on learning achievement between the two groups. The results revealed significance differences related to LMS features’ usability and learning achievement between the experimental group and the control group. Participants in the experimental group reported greater LMS usability than did those in the control group, and overall course scores indicated improved learning performance in members of the experimental group who applied the VPL and discussion forms features of programming courses

The Relationship between Perceived Social Support and Adherence to Treatment Regimens among Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: A Scoping Review

Context: End-stage renal disease is characterized by a progressive and permanent impairment of the kidney's functions. Hemodialysis is the most common treatment. Patient adherence to strictly prescribed regimens is critical to treatment success. Social support is a critical factor in many chronic diseases, including ESRD.Aim: This review aimed to identify the extent of current evidence regarding the adherence to treatment regimens and its associated factors among hemodialysis patients, as well as the relationship between perceived social support and adherence to treatment regimens among these patients. Methods: A scoping review was completed using four databases included MEDLINE, CINHALE, ProQuest, and PubMed, for related articles between 2010 to mid-2021. After extensive review, 22 studies were found eligible according to applied inclusion and exclusion criteria.Results: Variances in patients' adherence levels range from 23% to 98%. When researchers examined the relationship between sociodemographic, psychological, and clinical characteristics with adherence, different or non-significant associations appeared between various factors and adherence. Social support frequently showed either a positive or no significant correlation with adherence. Conclusion: This study's findings may help nurses boost the factors related to social support that contribute to successful functioning and consequent improvement in patient adherence

Exploring Encrypted Keyboards to Defeat Client-Side Scanning in End-to-End Encryption Systems

End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) aims to make all messages impossible to read by anyone except you and your intended recipient(s). Many well-known and widely used Instant-Messaging (IM) applications (such as Signal, WhatsApp, and Apple's iMessage) claim to provide E2EE. However, a recent technique called client-side scanning (CSS) makes these E2EE claims grandiose and hollow promises. The CSS is a technology that scans all sending and receiving messages from one end to the other. Some in industry and government now advocate this CSS technology to combat the growth of malicious child pornography, terrorism, and other illicit communication. Even though combating the spread of illegal and morally objectionable content is a laudable effort, it may open further backdoors that impact the user's privacy and security. Therefore, it is not E2EE when there are censorship mechanisms and backdoors in end-to-end encrypted applications. In this paper, we introduce an encrypted keyboard that functions as a system keyboard, enabling users to employ it across all applications on their phones when entering data. By utilizing this encrypted keyboard, users can locally encrypt and decrypt messages, effectively bypassing the CSS system. We first design and implement our encrypted keyboard as a custom keyboard application, and then we evaluate the effectiveness and security of our encrypted keyboard. Our study results show that our encrypted keyboard can successfully encrypt and decrypt all sending and receiving messages through IM applications, and therefore, it can successfully defeat the CSS technology in end-to-end encrypted systems. We also show that our encrypted keyboard can be used to add another layer of E2EE functionality on top of the existing E2EE functionality implemented by many end-to-end encrypted applications.Comment: 24 pages, 20 figures. Published in the 25th Annual International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology (ICISC), November/December 202

VOICE-ZEUS: Impersonating Zoom's E2EE-Protected Static Media and Textual Communications via Simple Voice Manipulations

The authentication ceremony plays a crucial role in verifying the identities of users before exchanging messages in end-to-end encryption (E2EE) applications, thus preventing impersonation and man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. Once authenticated, the subsequent communications in E2EE apps benefit from the protection provided by the authentication ceremony. However, the current implementation of the authentication ceremony in the Zoom application introduces a potential vulnerability that can make it highly susceptible to impersonation attacks. The existence of this vulnerability may undermine the integrity of E2EE, posing a potential security risk when E2EE becomes a mandatory feature in the Zoom application. In this paper, we examine and evaluate this vulnerability in two attack scenarios, one where the attacker is a malicious participant and another where the attacker is a malicious Zoom server with control over Zoom's server infrastructure and cloud providers. Our study aims to comprehensively examine the Zoom authentication ceremony, with a specific focus on the potential for impersonation attacks in static media and textual communications. We simulate a new session injection attack on Zoom E2EE meetings to evaluate the system's susceptibility to simple voice manipulations. Our simulation experiments show that Zoom's authentication ceremony is vulnerable to a simple voice manipulation, called a VOICE-ZEUS attack, by malicious participants and the malicious Zoom server. In this VOICE-ZEUS attack, an attacker creates a fingerprint in a victim's voice by reordering previously recorded digits spoken by the victim. We show how an attacker can record and reorder snippets of digits to generate a new security code that compromises a future Zoom meeting. We conclude that stronger security measures are necessary during the group authentication ceremony in Zoom to prevent impersonation attacks.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Extended Boundary Element Method approach for Direct and Accurate Evaluation of Stress Intensity Factors

This thesis introduces an alternative method to evaluate Stress Intensity Factors (SIFs) in computational fracture mechanics directly, using the Extended Dual Boundary Element Method (XBEM) for 2D problems. A novel auxiliary equation introduced which enforces displacement continuity at the crack tip to yield a square system. Additionally, the enrichment method has been extended to 3D, so that the J-integral with XBEM and a direct technique are used to evaluate SIFs. This includes a complete description of the formulation of enrichment functions, a substitution of the enriched form of displacement into boundary integral equations, treatment of singular integrals, assembly of system matrices and the introduction of auxiliary equations to solve the system directly. The enrichment approach utilizes the Williams expansions to enrich crack surface elements for accurate evaluation of stress intensity factors. Similar to other enrichment methods, the new approach can yield accurate results on coarse discretisations, and the enrichment increases the 2D problem size by only two degrees of freedom per crack tip. In the case of 3D, the number of the new degrees of freedom depends on the desired number of crack front points where SIFs need to be evaluated. The auxiliary equations required to yield a square system are derived by enforcing continuity of displacement at the crack front. The enrichment approach provides the values of singular coefficients KI, KII and KIII directly in the solution vector; without any need for postprocessing such as the J-integral. Numerical examples are used to compare the accuracy of these directly computed SIFs to the J-integral processing of both conventional and XBEM approximations