Cybersecurity maturity assessment framework for higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabia government has proposed different frameworks such as the CITC’s Cybersecurity Regulatory Framework (CRF) and the NCA’s Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) to ensure data and infrastructure security in all IT-based systems. However, these frameworks lack a practical, published mechanism that continuously assesses the organizations’ security level, especially in HEI (Higher Education Institutions) systems. This paper proposes a Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment Framework (SCMAF) for HEIs in Saudi Arabia. SCMAF is a comprehensive, customized security maturity assessment framework for Saudi organizations aligned with local and international security standards. The framework can be used as a self-assessment method to establish the security level and highlight the weaknesses and mitigation plans that need to be implemented. SCMAF is a mapping and codification model for all regulations that the Saudi organizations must comply with. The framework uses different levels of maturity against which the security performance of each organization can be measured. SCMAF is implemented as a lightweight assessment tool that could be provided online through a web-based service or offline by downloading the tool to ensure the organizations’ data privacy. Organizations that apply this framework can assess the security level of their systems, conduct a gap analysis and create a mitigation plan. The assessment results are communicated to the organization using visual score charts per security requirement per level attached with an evaluation report

Pharmacogenetics and the print media:what is the public told?

Background: Pharmacogenetics is a rapidly growing field that aims to identify the genes that influence drug response. This science can be used as a powerful tool to tailor drug treatment to the genetic makeup of individuals. The present study explores the coverage of the topic of pharmacogenetics and its potential benefit in personalised medicine by the UK newsprint media. Methods: The LexisNexis database was used to identify and retrieve full text articles from the 10 highest circulation national daily newspapers and their Sunday equivalents in the UK. Content analysis of newspaper articles which referenced pharmacogenetic testing was carried out. A second researcher coded a random sample (21%) of newspaper articles to establish the inter-rater reliability of coding. Results: Of the 256 articles captured by the search terms, 96 articles (with pharmacogenetics as a major component) met the study inclusion criteria. The majority of articles over-stated the benefits of pharmacogenetic testing while paying less attention to the associated risks. Overall beneficial effects were mentioned 5.3 times more frequently than risks (p < 0.001). The most common illnesses for which pharmacogenetically based personalised medicine was discussed were cancer, cardiovascular disease and CNS diseases. Only 13% of newspaper articles that cited a specific scientific study mentioned this link in the article. There was a positive correlation between the size of the article and both the number of benefits and risks stated (P < 0.01). Conclusion: More comprehensive coverage of the area of personalised medicine within the print media is needed to inform public debate on the inclusion of pharmacogentic testing in routine practice

Fertility, mortality, milk output, and body thermoregulation of growing Hy-Plus rabbits fed on diets supplemented with multi-enzymes preparation

Feed cost represents about 60–70 % of rabbit keeping costs; therefore, maximizing utilization of nutrients is essential for the profitability and sustainability of rabbit production. Consequently, it has become very necessary to look for locally available, cheap, and nutritionally safe feed additives that would help to cut down production costs and improve production efficiency. Since the European Union banned most of the antibiotic growth promoters in animal nutrition due to cross and multiple resistances, much research has been conducted to explore the use of multi-enzymes as effective substitutes.The aim of this study was to evaluate the fertility status, milk output, mortality, and body thermoregulation of rabbit does as affected by different levels of multi-enzyme extracts (EZ) in their diets. A total of 120 Hy-Plus rabbit does were divided into four comparable experimental groups (n = 30 does per group). Animals of each group were divided in six pens (five animals per pen), and each pen was used as an experimental unit. The first group was kept untreated and fed a commercial diet alone without enzyme extracts (EZ0), while the other groups were fed the same diet but supplemented with 1 (EZ1), 3 (EZ3), and 5 (EZ5) kg/ton of enzyme extracts, respectively. Feeding EZ additive increased (P < 0.05) conception and kindling rates, litter size and weight at birth, and litter size and bunny weight at weaning, with decreasing (P < 0.05) abortion rate. Moreover, total milk yield increased (P < 0.05) with increasing level of enzyme supplementation. Pre-weaning mortality decreased (P < 0.05) with EZ inclusion. Signs of vitality (rectal temperature, skin temperature, earlobe temperature, respiration rate, and pulse rate) were improved with EZ inclusion. For all results, 5 kg EZ/ton of feed was more effective than 1 and 3 kg EZ/ton feed. It can be concluded that supplementation of EZ in rabbit diet decreased mortality rate and enhanced fertility status and milk output

An Efficient Localization and Avoidance Method of Jammers in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Jamming is a terrifying attack that could harm 802.11p-based vehicular communications by occupying the communication channels by overwhelming the network with jamming packets, especially for self-driving cars, as it is essential to send/receive messages without any interruptions to control the vehicles remotely. In wireless vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), the attacker’s mission is more accessible due to the network’s open nature, way of communication, and lack of security measures. Most of the existing studies have focused on jamming detection approaches. However, few of them have addressed the jammer localization challenge. Moreover, even in these limited studies, the solutions’ assumptions, the proposed countermeasures, and their complexity were also missing. Therefore, this paper introduces a new approach to detecting, localizing, and avoiding jamming attacks in VANETs with high efficiency in terms of accuracy, implementation and complexity. The proposed approach uses the signal strength of the jammer for estimating only the distance between jammer and receiver, while then a less complex algorithm is proposed for localizing the jammer and then redirecting the vehicles away from the roads the attacker is using. This approach was simulated using real-life maps and specialized network environments. Additionally, the performance of the new approach was evaluated using different metrics. These evaluation metrics include (1) the estimated position of the jammer, (2) the handling of the jammer by announcing its location to normal vehicles (3) the avoidance of the jammed routes by increasing their weight, which forces the cars to reroute and evade the jamming area. The high localization accuracy, measured by the Euclidean distance, and the successful communication of the attacker’s position and its avoidance have highly increased the packet delivery ratio (PDR) and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). This was noticed significantly before and after avoiding the jamming area when for example, the PDR increased from 0% to 100% before and after bypassing the jammer’s routes

An Efficient Localization and Avoidance Method of Jammers in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Jamming is a terrifying attack that could harm 802.11p-based vehicular communications by occupying the communication channels by overwhelming the network with jamming packets, especially for self-driving cars, as it is essential to send/receive messages without any interruptions to control the vehicles remotely. In wireless vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), the attacker’s mission is more accessible due to the network’s open nature, way of communication, and lack of security measures. Most of the existing studies have focused on jamming detection approaches. However, few of them have addressed the jammer localization challenge. Moreover, even in these limited studies, the solutions’ assumptions, the proposed countermeasures, and their complexity were also missing. Therefore, this paper introduces a new approach to detecting, localizing, and avoiding jamming attacks in VANETs with high efficiency in terms of accuracy, implementation and complexity. The proposed approach uses the signal strength of the jammer for estimating only the distance between jammer and receiver, while then a less complex algorithm is proposed for localizing the jammer and then redirecting the vehicles away from the roads the attacker is using. This approach was simulated using real-life maps and specialized network environments. Additionally, the performance of the new approach was evaluated using different metrics. These evaluation metrics include (1) the estimated position of the jammer, (2) the handling of the jammer by announcing its location to normal vehicles (3) the avoidance of the jammed routes by increasing their weight, which forces the cars to reroute and evade the jamming area. The high localization accuracy, measured by the Euclidean distance, and the successful communication of the attacker’s position and its avoidance have highly increased the packet delivery ratio (PDR) and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). This was noticed significantly before and after avoiding the jamming area when for example, the PDR increased from 0% to 100% before and after bypassing the jammer’s routes

Impact of CO2 concentration and ambient conditions on microalgal growth and nutrient removal from wastewater by a photobioreactor

The increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration and the release of nutrients from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are environmental issues linked to several impacts on ecosystems. Numerous technologies have been employed to resolves these issues, nonetheless, the cost and sustainability are still a concern. Recently, the use of microalgae appears as a cost-effective and sustainable solution because they can effectively uptake CO2 and nutrients resulting in biomass production that can be processed into valuable products. In this study single (Spirulina platensis (SP.PL) and mixed indigenous microalgae (MIMA) strains were employed, over a 20-month period, for simultaneous removal of CO2 from flue gases and nutrient from wastewater under ambient conditions of solar irradiation and temperature. The study was performed at a pilot scale photo-bioreactor and the effect of feed CO2 gas concentration in the range (2.5–20%) on microalgae growth and biomass production, carbon dioxide bio-fixation rate, and the removal of nutrients and organic matters from wastewater was assessed. The MIMA culture performed significantly better than the monoculture, especially with respect to growth and CO2 bio-fixation, during the mild season; against this, the performance was comparable during the hot season. Optimum performance was observed at 10% CO2 feed gas concentration, though MIMA was more temperature and CO2 concentration sensitive. MIMA also provided greater removal of COD and nutrients (~83% and >99%) than SP.PL under all conditions studied. The high biomass productivities and carbon bio-fixation rates (0.796–0.950 gdw·L−1·d−1 and 0.542–1.075 gC·L−1·d−1 contribute to the economic sustainability of microalgae as CO2 removal process. Consideration of operational energy revealed that there is a significant energy benefit from cooling to sustain the highest productivities on the basis of operating energy alone, particularly if the indigenous culture is used

Recent advances in the solar thermochemical splitting of carbon dioxide into synthetic fuels

Recent years have seen a sharp rise in CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, which has contributed to the issue of global warming. In response to this several technologies have been developed to convert CO2 into fuel. It is discovered that the employment of a solar-driven thermochemical process (S-DTCP) that transforms CO2 into fuels can increase the efficiency of the production of sustainable fuels. The process involves the reduction of metal oxide (MO) and oxidizing it with CO2 in a two-step process using concentrated solar power (CSP) at higher and lower temperatures, respectively. This study summarizes current advancements in CO2 conversion methods based on MO thermochemical cycles (ThCy), including their operating parameters, types of cycles, and working principles. It was revealed that the efficiency of the solar conversion of CO2 to fuel is not only influenced by the composition of the MO, but also by its morphology as well as the available surface area for solid/gas reactions and the diffusion length. The conversion mechanism is governed by surface reaction, which is influenced by these two parameters (diffusion length and specific surface area). Solar energy contributes to the reduction and oxidation steps by promoting reaction kinetics and heat and mass transport in the material. The information on recent advances in metal oxide-based carbon dioxide conversion into fuels will be beneficial to both the industrial and academic sectors of the economy.Scopu

Renewal Under Modern Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) (Sami Hmoud as a sample)

The Almighty Allah had completed his religion, made the Islamic law for us that it includes principles and general rules which are suitable for application all time and place; it is the achieved happiness of mankind in all time. It is wide enough for each incident; the life is in permanent development and continuous, it means that its issues remain renewed; this is the statement of Allah Judgment, and discovering it in all these developments, so that the Islamic law remains the ruling of the acts of slaves of Allah. There is no doubt that people need someone who renews for them everything related to the affairs of their daily lives and treats their general problems from the jurisprudential side that is compatible with their daily lives. Therefore, there must be a number of jurists to be well-versed in Islamic jurisprudence, to go deeply into understanding Islamic religion texts and goals of Islam to able how inference provisions of Islamic Shari'ah which correspond to the developments of daily lives in order to keep up with the times and its developments, it is urgent in most areas of life and it is more urgent in the field of Islamic financial transactions or what is known as the Islamic economy as the development and renewal  of the global financial and business market requires a group of renewed person s under Islamic financial jurisprudence to keep up with the rapid developments in this field, one of the famous renewed person s is  Dr. Sami Hmoud. Keywords: Islamic Jurisprudence,Fiqh DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/46-04 Publication date: November 30th 201

A technoeconomic assessment of microalgal culture technology implementation for combined wastewater treatment and CO2 mitigation in the Arabian Gulf

A technoeconomic assessment (TEA) has been conducted of the feasibility of large-scale application of microalgal culture technology (MCT) to the combined mitigation of CO2 emissions from flue gases and nutrient discharges from wastewater in the Arabian Gulf. The assessment has incorporated the selection of the algal species and MCT technologies, the extent of nutrient removal, and the biomass/biofuel production rate. The cost benefit of the abatement of pollutants (in the form of CO2 and nutrient discharges) was included by assigning appropriate credits to these contributions. The overall economic viability was quantified as the break-even selling price (BESP) of the generated biocrude, taken to be the price at which the product must sell to cover the operating expenditure (OPEX). Based on available information and optimal operational conditions, the BESP was calculated as being $0.544 per kg biomass, equating to$0.9 L−1 for the extracted biocrude, the credited items contributing ˜14% of this figure. The BESP was found to be most sensitive to the algal growth rate μ, the BESP changing by ±24% in response to a ±20% change in μ. Whilst the terms of reference of the study are limited to OPEX contributors, the potential for sustainability associated with the innately reliably high levels of natural light in the Gulf region appear to provide auspicious circumstances for large-scale implementation of MCT. For emerging economies with a comparable climate but without a mineral oil-based economy a greater financial benefit from the proposed scheme would arise

Treatment technologies for cooling water blowdown: A critical review

Cooling water blowdown (CWBD) generated from different industries and district cooling facilities contains high concentrations of various chemicals (e.g., scale and corrosion inhibitors) and pollutants. These contaminants in CWBD streams deem them unsuitable for discharge into surface water and some wastewater treatment plants. The pollutants present in CWBD, their sources, and the corresponding impacts on the ecosystem are discussed. The international and regional (Gulf states) policies and regulations related to contaminated water discharge standards into water bodies are examined. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the existing and emerging water treatment technologies for the treatment of CWBD. The study presents a comparison between the membrane (membrane distillation (MD), reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), and vibratory shear enhanced membrane process (VSEP)) and nonmembrane-based (electrocoagulation (EC), ballasted sand flocculation (BSF), and electrodialysis (ED)) technologies on the basis of performance, cost, and limitations, along with other factors. Results from the literature revealed that EC and VSEP technologies generate high treatment performance (EC~99.54% reduction in terms of silica ions) compared to other processes (membrane UF with reduction of 65% of colloidal silica). However, the high energy demand of these processes (EC~0.18-3.05 kWh/m3 and VSEP~2.1 kWh/m3) limit their large-scale applications unless connected with renewable sources of energy.Funding: This research is funded by Ministry of Municipality and Environment in Qatar, Project MME contract no. P2020/1.Scopu