Perspectives of Female Special and General Education Teachers Regarding their Collaboration in Primary Mainstream School in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract This study examines the collaboration between general and special education teachers in mainstream schools in Riyadh from their perspective. The purpose of the current research is to explore how mainstream primary school teachers (both general and special education) construct their experiences of collaboration with students who have learning difficulties (LD) in the mainstream curriculum setting. To achieve the aims of this study, a mixed methods approach was used (questionnaires and interviews) to collect data regarding both special education and general education teachers’ perceptions of collaboration in mainstream primary schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results showed that teachers are collaborating at a low level. In the interview phase, participants described their perceptions and the factors promoting examples of effective collaboration, and the barriers that might negatively affect collaboration. The findings from this research revealed that collaboration in some schools in Riyadh is inhibited by various factors including lack of time due to teachers’ work overload; overcrowded classrooms; lack of awareness regarding the significance of collaboration; the absence of pre- and in-service training programs and workshops in the area of inclusive education; general education teachers’ negative attitudes and lack of interest to working with students with learning difficulties; and lack of management support from schools’ principles. Key concepts from the findings based on the research questions and previous literature which include teachers’ perceptions of collaboration, involving further discussion personal beliefs and actual experiences of collaboration were discussed. Personal beliefs and actual experiences are discussed as key concepts based on the implicit and explicit findings from both research phases. This study offered implications and recommendations for several stakeholders, including teachers, school administration, policymakers and researchers. For example, clear policy guidance for the roles of both general and special education teachers in collaboration could highlight its importance in mainstream schools. Considering these implications and recommendations would allow stakeholders to design initiatives, tools and actions based on what teachers believe and experience to assist in the development of collaboration between general education and special education teachers in mainstream schools in Saudi Arabia

Optimal fault-tolerant flight control for aircraft with actuation impairments

Current trends towards greater complexity and automation are leaving modern technological systems increasingly vulnerable to faults. Without proper action, a minor error may lead to devastating consequences. In flight control, where the controllability and dynamic stability of the aircraft primarily rely on the control surfaces and engine thrust, faults in these effectors result in a higher extent of risk for these aspects. Moreover, the operation of automatic flight control would be suddenly disturbed. To address this problem, different methodologies of designing optimal flight controllers are presented in this thesis. For multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the feedback optimal control is a prominent technique that solves a multi-objective cost function, which includes, for instance, tracking requirements and control energy minimisation. The first proposed method is based on a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control law augmented with a fault-compensation scheme. This fault-tolerant system handles the situation in an adaptive way by solving the optimisation cost function and considering fault information, while assuming an effective fault detection system is available. The developed scheme was tested in a six-degrees-of-freedom nonlinear environment to validate the linear-based controller. Results showed that this fault tolerant control (FTC) strategy managed to handle high magnitudes of the actuator’s loss of effciency faults. Although the rise time of aircraft response became slower, overshoot and settling errors were minimised, and the stability of the aircraft was maintained. Another FTC approach has been developed utilising the features of controller robustness against the system parametric uncertainties, without the need for reconfiguration or adaptation. Two types of control laws were established under this scheme, the H∞ and µ-synthesis controllers. Both were tested in a nonlinear environment for three points in the flight envelope: ascending, cruising, and descending. The H∞ controller maintained the requirements in the intact case; while in fault, it yielded non-robust high-frequency control surface deflections. The µ-synthesis, on the other hand, managed to handle the constraints of the system and accommodate faults reaching 30% loss of effciency in actuation. The final approach is based on the control allocation technique. It considers the tracking requirements and the constraints of the actuators in the design process. To accommodate lock-in-place faults, a new control effort redistribution scheme was proposed using the fuzzy logic technique, assuming faults are provided by a fault detection system. The results of simulation testing on a Boeing 747 multi-effector model showed that the system managed to handle these faults and maintain good tracking and stability performance, with some acceptable degradation in particular fault scenarios. The limitations of the controller to handle a high degree of faults were also presented

Resolving insurance disputes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: a critical assessment of the Insurance Dispute Committee

In many countries, when policyholders or consumers are denied coverage by insurers in an arbitrary manner, it may be difficult for the policyholders to successfully challenge the adverse coverage determinations. They may challenge insurers in court (litigation) or via means outside of the courtroom (alternative dispute resolution options: arbitration, negotiation, mediation). In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the Cooperative Insurance Companies Control Law (CICCL) and its Implementing Regulations provide for the creation of an administrative tribunal called the Insurance Dispute Committee (IDC). All insurance disputes must be submitted to this tribunal. This study seeks to determine whether this is the best option for consumers in the KSA. In order to achieve this aim, the IDC is analysed at three levels: doctrinal, practical, and empirical. The doctrinal analysis reveals that the provisions of the CICCL regarding panel decision-making are ambiguous. Also, the discretion enjoyed by IDC adjudicators is too broad, and in practice, they seldom appeal to Shariah principles or provisions of the legislation. The system is therefore unpredictable, given that cases are decided on an ad hoc basis. The practical inquiry provides different findings to the doctrinal analysis. The practical inquiry affirms the position that the IDC prioritises the interests of the parties and yields a very high level of satisfaction with outcomes. The disconnect between the results of the doctrinal analysis and the findings of the practical inquiry is explained by capturing the perceptions of a sample of IDC adjudicators. The empirical study reveals that IDC adjudicators have a unique conception of what constitutes a well-reasoned decision. However, the explanations in their decisions satisfy Saudi parties, specifically consumers. Thus, unlike the doctrinal analysis, the findings of the practical and empirical inquiries provide support to the Saudi legislator’s decision to compel parties to submit disputes to the IDC

How Artificial Intelligence Can Protect Financial Institutions From Malware Attacks

The objective of this study is to examine the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the security posture of financial institutions against malware attacks. The study identifies the current trends of malware attacks in the banking sector, assesses the various forms of malware and their impact on financial institutions, and analyzes the relevant security features of AI. The findings suggest that financial institutions must implement robust cybersecurity measures to protect against various forms of malware attacks, including ransomware attacks, phishing attacks, mobile malware attacks, APTs, and insider threats. The study recommends that financial institutions invest in AI-based security systems to improve security features and automate security tasks. To ensure the reliability and security of AI systems, it is essential to incorporate relevant security features such as explain ability, privacy, anomaly detection, intrusion detection, and data validation. The study highlights the importance of incorporating explainable AI (XAI) to enable users to understand the reasoning behind the AI's decisions and actions, identify potential security threats and vulnerabilities in the AI system, and ensure that the system operates ethically and transparently. The study also recommends incorporating privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) into AI systems to protect user data from unauthorized access and use. Finally, the study recommends incorporating robust security measures such as anomaly detection and intrusion detection to protect against adversarial attacks and data validation and integrity checks to protect against data poisoning attacks. Overall, this study provides insights for decision-makers in implementing effective cybersecurity strategies to protect financial institutions from malware attacks

Medical dental practitioners assessments of electronic dental record in primary health care in Kuwait

BACKGROUND: The adopting of electronic patient records can improve healthcare quality and efficiency, including in dentistry. Doctors understanding are important for the successful implementation of such systems into routine use. AIM OF THE STUDY: The study objective was to assess the dentists prospective about electronic dental records. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For this cross-sectional national survey, 300 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to dentists working at randomly selected primary-health centers in the five healthcare regions of Kuwait during November (2016) and March (2017). We received 247 completed questionnaires (82% response rate). This study collected sociodemographic data and responses on Likert scales to 44 statements on the benefits, features and functionality of electronic records, accessing and sharing, as well as obstacles preventing their use and practitioners' resistance. RESULTS: Participants responded very positively, particularly on issues such as the storage of radiographic images (85% agreed) and records (89%), sharing patient records with other dentists (96%), and the potential for improving medical histories (98%). The main obstacles to uptake identified were software/hardware issues (57%) and the need for technical training (55%) and maintenance (65%). There was some regional variation in positive responses. CONCLUSIONS: Kuwaiti medical dental practitioners recognize the need for electronic patient records to optimize the quality of patient care. They generally have positive attitudes towards electronic records, and most agree that accessing and sharing them with other healthcare providers is useful. They identified several obstacles to uptake, such as the need for technical support and training. Our findings indicate a context supportive of the widespread adoption of electronic dental records in Kuwait

Optimising Wound Closure Following a Fasciotomy: A narrative review

Compartment syndrome is a surgical emergency that could be resolved by a fasciotomy. However, performing substantial skin incisions may lead to life-threatening complications. This narrative review aimed to present the available methods of wound closure and preferential factors for using each technique. Viable and noninfected wounds were most often treated by gradual approximation techniques, such as the simple or modified shoelace technique, the prepositioned intracutaneous suture or several commercially-available mechanical devices. In addition, applying negative pressure therapy was found to be feasible, particularly when combined with approximation techniques. Skin grafting was reserved for severely-dehiscent wounds while other non-invasive approaches were considered for other subsets of patients with inadvisable surgical interventions. Treatment decision should be made in view of the patient’s condition, ease of application, availability of resources, cost of treatment and aesthetic outcomes.Keywords: Compartment Syndrome; Fasciotomy; Wound Closure Techniques; Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy

Gated Recurrent Units for Blockage Mitigation in mmWave Wireless

Millimeter-Wave (mmWave) communication is susceptible to blockages, which can significantly reduce the signal strength at the receiver. Mitigating the negative impacts of blockages is a key requirement to ensure reliable and high throughput mmWave communication links. Previous research on blockage mitigation has introduced several model and protocol based blockage mitigation solutions that focus on one technique at a time, such as handoff to a different base station or beam adaptation to the same base station. In this paper, we address the overarching problem: what blockage mitigation method should be employed? and what is the optimal sub-selection within that method? To address the problem, we developed a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) model that is trained using periodically exchanged messages in mmWave systems. We gathered extensive amount of simulation data from a commercially available mmWave simulator, show that the proposed method does not incur any additional communication overhead, and that it achieves outstanding results in selecting the optimal blockage mitigation method with an accuracy higher than 93%. We also show that the proposed method significantly increases the amount of transferred data compared to several other blockage mitigation policies

A Radio Determination of the Time of the New Moon

The detection of the New Moon at sunset is of importance to communities based on the lunar calendar. This is traditionally undertaken with visual observations. We propose a radio method which allows a higher visibility of the Moon relative to the Sun and consequently gives us the ability to detect the Moon much closer to the Sun than is the case of visual observation. We first compare the relative brightness of the Moon and Sun over a range of possible frequencies and find the range 5--100\,GHz to be suitable. The next consideration is the atmospheric absorption/emission due to water vapour and oxygen as a function of frequency. This is particularly important since the relevant observations are near the horizon. We show that a frequency of $\sim 10$ GHz is optimal for this programme. We have designed and constructed a telescope with a FWHM resolution of 0$^\circ{}\!\!$.6 and low sidelobes to demonstrate the potential of this approach. At the time of the 21 May 2012 New Moon the Sun/Moon brightness temperature ratio was $72.7 \pm 2.2$ in agreement with predictions from the literature when combined with the observed sunspot numbers for the day. The Moon would have been readily detectable at $\sim 2^{\circ}$ from the Sun. Our observations at 16\,hr\,36\,min UT indicated that the Moon would have been at closest approach to the Sun 16\,hr\,25\,min earlier; this was the annular solar eclipse of 00\,hr\,00\,min\,UT on 21 May 2012.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Protection of The Marine Environment Under International Law and Kuwaiti Criminal Law

The marine environment has unique characteristics that distinguish it from other elements of nature. Since seas and oceans cover more than two-thirds of the earth, they play a vital role in achieving biological and climatic balance on the planet. The marine environment also plays an important role in human life, since it has plenty of nutritious and industrial resources that directly affect human welfare. It also contains huge amounts of oil and natural gas, which has played a role in the economic prosperity of the world. Moreover, seas are considered a source of freshwater through resorting to desalination of seawater in countries that suffer from a shortage of freshwater resources. In addition, the marine environment is considered an important source of food for human beings and other living organisms. Kuwait\u27s interest in protecting the marine environment started earlier than that of other Gulf States. In 1964, Kuwait enacted a law preventing pollution of navigable waters by oil. This law is deemed the first law to protect the marine environment from the negative effect arising from the activities of exploration, extraction, and exportation of oil, which began to increase in the 1950s. Moreover, Kuwait\u27s efforts aimed to protect the environment were not limited to the issuance of environmental laws at the national level. In fact, Kuwait played a leading role at the regional level of marine environmental conservation, as well. In the 1960s, Kuwait urged and encouraged the states overlooking the Arabian Gulf to ratify a regional convention aimed at cooperating in the protection of the marine environment of the Arabian Gulf (later called The Kuwait Convention of 1978). The Kuwait Convention (1978) reflected awareness of the importance of co-operation and co-ordination of action on a regional basis with the aim to protect the marine environment of the region for the benefit of all concerned of its members. This convention was considered the first regional convention on the protection of the marine environment in the Middle East. It contained many important provisions for the protection of the marine environment applicable until now. Kuwait did not only execute the convention, but it continued its efforts to establish a regional organization consisting of the Kuwait convention members. The main duty of the organization is to ensure the valid execution of the provisions of the Kuwait Convention. This organization is located in the State of Kuwait and is named The Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME). Since 1979, and despite the political problems and wars that occurred among the members of the organization, ROPME succeeded in overcoming these obstacles. This success is attributed to the fact that the ROPME has focused its efforts on urging its members to work on combating environmental pollution, protecting the marine environment of the Arabian Gulf, and avoiding discussion of the political issues

Application of global and regional myocardial deformation using cardiovascular magnetic resonance: an assessment of feature tracking in vivo and using numerical simulation

PhDCardiovascular diseases are responsible for approximately a third of all death worldwide, with hypertension being a major risk factor for many of those. Hypertension can lead to left ventricle hypertrophy and diastolic and systolic dysfunction. Myocardial deformation parameters have been shown to have high sensitivity at the early stage of contractile dysfunction. They can be derived from myocardial tagging, considered to be the goldstandard method, or from routinely acquired cine images using feature tracking (FT) techniques. This work aimed to validate FT as a post processing technique. Three FT software packages were used to measure strain parameters in healthy subjects and hypertensive patients in order to assess agreement. Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility was also investigated. The CVI42 software was found to have the best reproducibility. Good agreement across the three software packages and both groups was also observed for circumferential strain calculated from mid-ventricle short axis and longitudinal strain parameters. CVI42 was also compared to the reference tagging analysis by applying both techniques to a healthy and hypertensive patient cohort. Although tagging could discriminate between the two populations (longitudinal strain), no statistically significant differences were found by CVI42. The final validation step was to generate simulation models mimicking simplified cardiac views to compare the experimental results against a true gold-standard for which strain values are known. Two commercial FT software packages were used to analyze the simulated cine images with increasing complexity levels. Both showed inaccurate tracking and high errors compared to analytical values. This indicated that more realistic and complex numerical models should be investigated. Although FT is a relatively new and promising technique, the results demonstrated that it still requires going through standardization to better understand inter-vendor variability.Government of Saudi Arabia