Western Arabo-Islamophobia: where and when will it end?

Islam has been under intensive ongoing crusade for centuries. It has been made into what might be called the cause of all the problems and ills that afflict the world. Every Westerner with a political axe to grind is being given centre stage to pontificate on Islam. Western political leaders have also adopted an apocalyptic discourse to ratchet up their rhetoric so as to talk in God’s name of the holy struggle against evil: Islam. Attacks have, therefore, been carried out against Arabs and Muslims in the West for the one and only simple fact that they are Arabs and Muslims. Islam, in Western eyes, is thus an invalid religion that must be rooted out from the soul of the world. This paper will be seeking to rebut these allegations and claims, prove that the West’s blindness to the truth has led it to perceive Islam as incompatible with the principles, prerequisites, and civil ethics of the Western world, and with the world at large. and provide evidence that it was under the sky of Islam that the human mind had most fully flourished and developed some of its choicest gifts, had most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and had found solutions for some of them which deserved the attention even of those who studied Plato and Kant. Ultimately, it will be illustrating that it is time to come out of the narrow shell of misrepresentation, hostile and oriental stereotype, parochialism and communalism, religious rancour, and politics, and illuminate the track of humanity by holding high the lamp of wisdom, by giving form and shape to the great and noble dreams that were cherished by the immortal prophets and philosophers of the past so that the whole world might declare that the light has come from the East and saved the West from doom and destruction

Validation of the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) in the population of Saudi preschoolers

The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) is a multi-dimensional questionnaire filled out by parents to determine the characteristics of eating behaviour of their children and, consequently, children’s propensity to become obese. It assesses eating habits that contribute to childhood obesity. It has been successfully validated mainly in countries of Western-type eating habits, but not in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else in the Middle East, where obesity has become a significant health problem. In the current study, the CEBQ factor structure and reliability were assessed in a sample of Saudi preschoolers aged 2-6 years. In addition, the associations between children's BMI z-scores, eating behaviours and parental weight were examined. Parents of 200 Saudi preschool children (100 boys and 100 girls) completed the Arabic version of the CEBQ. BMI of children and parents, and parental educational levels were collected. The BMI of every child was calculated and converted to BMI z-score. Factor analyses on all the CEBQ items were performed and the differences between genders and age groups were examined. Correlations between children's BMI z-scores and eating behaviours were analysed using linear regression, controlling for age, gender, parental educational levels and parental weight. The factor analysis revealed an eight-factor solution similar to the theoretical factor structure, with good internal reliability and acceptable correlations between subscales. Boys scored slightly higher than girls on food responsiveness, whereas no difference between age groups was found. Significant and positive associations between BMI z-scores and “food approach” subscales, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food and emotional overeating were found, while “food avoidant” subscales, satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating, had significant inverse relationships with BMI z-scores. Maternal BMI had strong positive associations with BMI z-scores and food responsiveness, whereas paternal BMI had no effect on BMI z-scores or eating behaviours of children. The current data suggest that the CEBQ is a valid psychometric tool that can be reliably used to assess eating behaviour characteristics in Saudi preschool children. The results derived from this study can be useful in understanding the aetiology of overweight and obesity in pre-school children in regard to their eating behaviours

The Political Thought of the Late H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founder of the United Arab Emirates (1966 - 2004)

This thesis highlights the political thought of H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a man who made decisive contributions to the history of the twentieth century, and the various reflections of this political thought on the UAE, its people and the international community at large. In this regard, it explores and analyzes a multifaceted political thought that took its form in political practice in the establishment of the Federation, the management of crises and in the building of a prosperous enduring nation. Evaluating the factors that influenced the formation of the doctrinal matrix of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, this thesis traces the background from within which Sheikh Zayed’s leadership skills evolved and developed. From his early years onwards, Sheikh Zayed made a firm commitment to undertake the considerable task of building a fully fledged state out of a divided tribal background, improve the lives of citizens, and carve a place for the UAE in the international arena. This research project illustrates the implications and dimensions of Sheikh Zayed's political thinking process exemplified in his discursive statements and actions. It documents and analyzes the career achievements of Sheikh Zayed, a statesman acknowledged by contemporary and future generations to have had significant impact on the political direction and overall development of the UAE. This impact also demonstrates the potential of his contribution to the field of political thought. One of this study’s primary conclusions is that the accomplishments of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan during his rule have resulted primarily from his development of an integrated doctrine of governance that reflected his humanistic outlook. In this regard, at both the domestic and international levels, Sheikh Zayed’s political decisions and acts were undertaken with reference to this outlook

Chaos Theory and DNA Computation Based Data Encryption System for E-Healthcare Monitoring System

The body area sensor network consists of small motes, such devices are considerably energy constrained, limited computation capabilities, and small size of memory such that most advanced encryption scheme cannot be implemented in this type of sensor network. An encryption algorithm must be designed to be a tradeoff between simple computation and powerful encryption scheme. Our proposed algorithm consists of combination of two approaches DNA computation and chaos theory to improve the one-time pad encryption technique. In this work a small amount of memory capacity is required since acquiring samples were encrypted individually in real time. The proposed algorithm appears to be very secure. In this paper, we will explain briefly the design of the proposed algorithm and show its efficiency through encryption tests. Also the effect of some sample loss due to collision occurs in the communication has been studied. The algorithm has been simulated using MATLAB and tested practically using shimmer sensor network platform. Keywords: chaos theory, DNA computation, Body area sensor network

Training needs analysis: an empirical study of the Abu Dhabi police

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityTraining Needs Analysis (TNA) is often considered the most important step among the stages in the training cycle and, therefore, should precede any training intervention. However, in spite of the importance of TNA, the literature contains little empirical work on the topic. This study investigates the current practice of TNA within the Abu Dhabi Police (ADP), in order to identify the different barriers to its effective implementation, and to develop a suitable framework that can not only be applied to the Abu Dhabi Police, but also has wide applicability to other public sector organisations. Four areas are examined, these being: current practices of TNA, training decisions, effectiveness of TNA, and the barriers to its implementation. The study adopts a phenomenological approach, using inductive qualitative data in the main. The research population is categorised into three groups: a) policy-makers, top management, and academics, b) trainers, and c) trainees. In total, 51 individuals from the ADP are interviewed. The results show that TNA in the ADP is generally conducted formally on a regular basis. To a certain extent, all the methods are in use by the ADP in identifying its training needs, and the overall perceptions of the respondents regarding TNA practices are high. However, the study has identified some barriers to the implementation of effective TNA practices in the ADP. It is to be noted here that lack of expertise of the trainers; nepotism, kinship and personal relations between the supervisors and the employees, disrupt the training selection process in the ADP. Based on the findings this study has suggested some recommendations. This study hopes to contribute to, and extend, the body of knowledge on TNA by developing a novel, holistic conceptual framework, which provides general guidelines for TNA practitioners in the public sector of the UAE to ensure the successful and effective implementation of TNA. Additionally, it will contribute to the body of knowledge of TNA in the Middle East generally, and TNA in the Middle Eastern public sector, being the first exploratory empirical study conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as far as the author believes.H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the UAE, and the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters (ADPGHQ

Performance Investigation of Grid Connected Photovoltaic System Modelling Based on MATLAB Simulation

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are normally modeled by employing accurate equations dealing with a behavior the PV system. This model has Characteristic of PV array cells, which are influenced by both irradiation and temperature variations. Grid-connected PV system is considered as electricity generated solar cell system which is connected to the grid utilities. This paper characterizes an exhibiting and simulating of PV system that executed with MATLAB /Simulink. The impact of solar irradiances as well as ambient temperature performances of PV models is investigated and noted that a lower temperature provides maximum power higher so that the open circuit voltage is larger. Furthermore, if the temperature is low, then a considerably short circuit current is low too

ESTABLISHING BLOCKCHAIN-RELATED SECURITY CONTROLS

Blockchain technology is a secure and relatively new technology of distributed digital ledgers which is based on interlinked blocks of transactions. There is a rapid growth in the adoption of the blockchain technology in different solutions and applications and within different industries throughout the world, such as but not limited to, finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate and government. Blockchain technology has great benefits such as decentralization, transparency, immutability and automation. Like any other emerging technology, the blockchain technology has also several risks and threats associated with its expected benefits which in turns could have a negative impact on individuals, entities and/or countries. This is mainly due to the absence of a solid governance foundation for managing and mitigating such risks and the shortage of published standards to govern the blockchain technology along with its associated applications. In line with the “Dubai blockchain Strategy 2020” and “Emirates blockchain Strategy 2021” initiatives, this thesis aims to achieve the following: first, preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and information assets in relevance to blockchain applications and solutions implementation across entities, and second, mitigation and reduction of related information security risks and threats; through the establishment of new information security controls specifically related to the blockchain technology which have not been covered in International and National Information Security Standards which are ISO 27001:2013 Standard and UAE Information Assurance Standards by the Signals Intelligence Agency (formerly known as the National Electronic Security Authority). Finally, Risk Assessment and Risk Treatment have been performed on five blockchain use cases; to determine their involved risks with respective to security controls appropriately. The assessment/analysis results showed that the proposed security controls can mitigate relevant information security risks on the blockchain solutions and applications and consequently protect the information and information assets from unauthorized disclosure, modification, and destruction