Displacement, Belonging and Identity in Susan Muaddi Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile

The purpose of this paper is to explore how home – as a concept and a physical space—is depicted in Arab American Susan Muaddi Darraj’s novel The Inheritance of Exile (2007). I argue that the novel, set in the American city of Philadelphia, depicts the concept home as a site of contesting and conflicting ideas as issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class and generational differences among other dynamics intersect with attempts by different characters to define and re-define home. At the same time, the physical space of home becomes a site where these ideas are expressed and heatedly debated. As the characters unfold their stories, home becomes a character in the space of their narratives. By depicting various episodes from the lives of immigrant Palestinian women and their American (ized) daughters, the concept of home emerges as complex, multilayered and elusive. As characters trade homes, move into new neighborhoods and think they have left behind a legacy of exile, displacement, marginalization and exclusion still tint their daily experiences. For instance, Hanan, the daughter of a second generation Arab American man and an immigrant Palestinian woman, discovers the futility of her incessant attempts to assert her Americanness by staking a claim on the city in which she was born and raised up. Although she marries an American man of Irish descent and lives with him in a town house which she prefers to her parents’ row house, people around her, including her in-laws, insist on calling her “ethnic”. In short, Hanan realizes that exile is an inevitable and inescapable fate as Edward Said reminds us in his essay “Reflections on Exile”. True to the title of the novel, the narratives the characters recount affirm that home is an oxymoron that encapsulates experiences and memories of rootedness, dispersal, fulfillment and anguish

Winners and Losers: Morocco’s Market Liberalization and Contemporary Cultural Representations

This paper investigates how Moroccan novelist Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) and Secret Son (2009) demonstrate that Morocco’s adoption of IMF and World Bank economic policies has had devastating repercussions on the nation’s low income populations due to the downsizing of the state’s expenditures on vital sectors such as education, health and transportation. Lalami creates a fictional space through which she comments on the outcomes of market liberalization and privatization in Morocco and illustrates how the country’s socioeconomic problems, including religious extremism, are caused by a combination of external and internal forces that intertwine with the nation’s march towards modernization and integration into global economy. Through a close reading of Lalami’s works, we show how corrupt Moroccan officials and their unscrupulous elite business allies take advantage of the prevalent discourse of ‘war on terror’ to attain personal gains, justify their flawed economic policies, silence opposing voices, and crush the nation’s poor

Utilization of Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste in the Manufacture of Prefabricated Wall Claddings to Achieve Sustainability

The climate of Egypt is characterized by high temperatures. Clay bricks, the most common type of building bricks in Egypt, are one of the main reasons for increasing the heat gain of buildings. The absence of suitable environmental alternatives for clay bricks calls for an attempt to find and evaluate effective alternatives.This research aims to manufacture wall claddings that meet the environmental requirements and thermal comfort needs of buildings in Egypt through recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW). Multiple proposals featuring different mixtures of cement, sand, water and CDW (crushed concrete and crushed bricks) were tested to determine the most suitable mixture in terms of thermal insulation. After comparing the results of each proposal, the best performing samples were further tested and applied to clay bricks to assess their performance and effectiveness in achieving thermal comfort. These tests yielded promising results, as the best performing wall claddings succeeded in reducing heat gain by up to 86%. Results revealed that the application of CDW wall claddings could significantly reduce the energy consumed for cooling and air conditioning. Furthermore, wall claddings have a relative environmental advantage over clay bricks commonly used in residential buildings in Egypt as they represent a safe way to dispose of construction and demolition waste that is normally disposed of in harmful ways with a negative impact on the environment. The researchers recommend examining different materials and alternatives that can be manufactured from construction and demolition waste, as the available capabilities remain numerous and not sufficiently researched

Utilization of Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste in the Manufacture of Prefabricated Wall Claddings to Achieve Sustainability

The climate of Egypt is characterized by high temperatures. Clay bricks, the most common type of building bricks in Egypt, are one of the main reasons for increasing the heat gain of buildings. The absence of suitable environmental alternatives for clay bricks calls for an attempt to find and evaluate effective alternatives.This research aims to manufacture wall claddings that meet the environmental requirements and thermal comfort needs of buildings in Egypt through recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW). Multiple proposals featuring different mixtures of cement, sand, water and CDW (crushed concrete and crushed bricks) were tested to determine the most suitable mixture in terms of thermal insulation. After comparing the results of each proposal, the best performing samples were further tested and applied to clay bricks to assess their performance and effectiveness in achieving thermal comfort. These tests yielded promising results, as the best performing wall claddings succeeded in reducing heat gain by up to 86%. Results revealed that the application of CDW wall claddings could significantly reduce the energy consumed for cooling and air conditioning. Furthermore, wall claddings have a relative environmental advantage over clay bricks commonly used in residential buildings in Egypt as they represent a safe way to dispose of construction and demolition waste that is normally disposed of in harmful ways with a negative impact on the environment. The researchers recommend examining different materials and alternatives that can be manufactured from construction and demolition waste, as the available capabilities remain numerous and not sufficiently researched

The knowledge and practice of workers toward occupational hazards: Case study from United Arab Emirates

© 2017, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. All rights reserved. The focus of this investigation is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of workers on occupational health and safety issues in the industrial town of Mussafah, United Arab Emirates. A combination of personnel interviews in conjunction with t-test and logistic regressions were used to assess the KAP of the workers. Around 98% of the survey results indicate that the computed p-value of the responses is greater than the significance level alpha = 0.05, hence the null hypothesis H0 of the test of normality cannot be rejected. The risk to reject the null hypothesis H0 while it is true ranges 77.86% to 99%. The study revealed that there is an overall low awareness of health and safety issues among the studied sample. This therefore makes the workers generally more susceptible to accidents. Results have also shown that 48% of the managers were aware of the hazards taking place at their facilities, and 42.6% of them knew the possible harmful effects from their industrial processes. In terms of the health considerations of the visited sites, 55% of the workers were unaware about it and 48% of them rarely used their given protective equipment. The present study indicates the education level and years of experience did not impact the practices. The results have shown the need for training programs to build the capacity of workers in the field of health and safety

Bioremediation of diuron in soil environment: influence of cyanobacterial mat

Diuron is a herbicide widely used in the Middle East; its field application creates many environmental problems. This study investigated the bioremediation of Diuron in soil environment by Cyanobacterial mats collected from Gaza Wadi. Various concentrations of Diuron were injected in water saturated soil samples pre-treated with Cyanobacterial mat for several periods. Percent growth of Jews mallow as a test plant was taken as indicator of biodegradation of Diuron. Results showed that Diuron was degraded in soil and degradation was more pronounced when Diuron was incubated with Cyanobacterial in the irrigation water. Larger applied rate of Cyanobacterial mat did not affect the biodegradation of Diuron. These encouraging results suggest that application of Cyanobacterial mat could be a suitable method to remediate soil pollution

Frequency response based system identification and controller tuning

A detailed simulation based analysis of different frequency response and transfer function identification techniques are performed and critically studied. Standard closed loop and open loop recursive least squares system identification techniques are studied along with methods based on Laguerre filter, frequency sampling filter and bandpass filter. Based on this critical study, the bandpass filter approach is shown to have relatively more advantages than disadvantages over the other techniques of system identification. Methods for PID controller tuning using finite and discrete set of frequency response points are developed for SISO systems and extended to MIMO systems. The controller tuning methods are supported with simulations and experiments on a temperature control system and a distillation column. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that these methods are practical and capable of being used in industrial process control

Space, Transformation and Identity in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love

This paper examines the representation of urban spaces in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) and Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love (1999). In particular, it investigates how colonialism - as a cultural activity - produces traces of its hegemony and how these traces transform and fashion the colonial and post-colonial urban spaces in the two novels. Through examining how A Passage to India and The Map of Love present the utilization of space, this paper explores the ways colonialist superpowers have left traces of their presences which are marked in all of the spaces they subjugate and dominate. Interestingly, space and its concomitant socio-political divisions/hierarchies are viewed, by and large, through the responses/perspectives of the women characters in both novels represented by Forster’s Ms Quested and Mrs Moore and Soueif’s Lady Anna Winterbourne. The paper will also show how employing Edward Soja’s term of Thirdspace can illuminate the significance of the courtroom episode that each novel presents

The Effectiveness of the EPER Program and Its Relationship to Job Satisfaction among Teachers of UNRWA Schools / Jordan Field

The study aimed to identify the effectiveness of the EPER program and in sight of the job satisfaction of teachers in the schools of the UNRWA/ Jordan Field. The study population consisted of (4049) male and female teachers, a sample of (533) teachers were selected in the region (North Amman, South Amman, Irbid, Zarqa). The researchers followed the descriptive correlative approach. A questionnaire was developed consisting of (38) items to measure the effectiveness of the EPER program, distributed over four areas, and (25) items for the job satisfaction tool. The results of the study showed that the effectiveness of the electronic performance evaluation program (EPER) in UNRWA schools in the Jordan region was moderate, and the results revealed that the level of job satisfaction among teachers in UNRWA schools in the Jordan Field was high. The study recommended a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: the need to review the organization\u27s policy on the rules and procedures for promotion, and the need to improve wages to raise the level of job satisfactio