The Mine-action Process in Iraqi Kurdistan

The Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency has been working to clear Kurdistan of landmines and unexploded ordnance that were placed by the former Iraqi government over the past 40 years and the Iranian Army during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980–1988. The Agency is overcoming many challenges and has cleared a vast number of minefields so the land can be handed back to the owners. Casualties from explosive remnants of war are extremely high but a new mine-risk-education program will inform people who live in dangerous areas how to minimize the threat of explosive remnants of war

Kurdistan’s Erbil Mine Action Center

The Erbil Mine Action Center (EMAC) of the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency increases mine risk education efforts in the spring to reduce high casualty rates during this season. EMAC also conducts landmine clearance in Iraqi Kurdistan

Performance study of an underlay cognitive radio network in the presence of co-channel interference

PhD ThesisMassive innovation in all aspects of the wireless communication network has been witnessed over the last few decades. The demand for data throughput is continuously growing, as such, the current regulations for allocating frequency spectrum are not able to respond to this exponential growth. Cognitive radio (CR), has been proposed as a solution to this problem. One of the possible scenarios of the implementation of CR is underlay cognitive radio. In this thesis the performance of an underlay cognitive radio network (UCRN) in the presence of the co-channel interference (CCI) is assessed. Firstly, the impact of CCI on the dual-hop cooperative UCRN is investigated over Rayleigh fading channels. In order to do this, the exact outage probability (OP), average error probability (AEP) and the ergodic capacity (EC) are studied. In addition, simple and asymptotic expressions for the OP and AEP are derived. Furthermore, the optimal power allocation is investigated to enhance the network performance. Moreover, the performance of a multi-user scenario is studied by considering the opportunistic SNR-based selection technique. Secondly, the effect of both primary network interference and CCI on the dual-hop UCRN over Rayleigh fading channels are studied. The equivalent signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for this network scenario is obtained by considering multi-antenna schemes at all receiver nodes. The different signal combinations at the receiver nodes are investigated and compared, such as selection combining (SC) and maximum ratio combining (MRC) techniques. Then, the equivalent probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the network’s equivalent SINR are derived and discussed. Furthermore, expressions for the exact OP, AEP, and EC are derived and reviewed. In addition, asymptotic OP expressions are obtained for different case scenarios to gain an insight into the network parameters. Thirdly, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) UCRN is investigated under the influence of primary transmitter interference and CCI over Rayleigh fading channels. The transmit antenna selection and maximum ratio combining (TAS/MRC) techniques are considered for examining the performance of the secondary network. At first the equivalent SINR for the system is derived, then the exact and approximate expressions for the OP are derived and discussed. Fourthly, considering Nakagami-m fading channels, the performance of the UCRN is thoroughly studied with the consideration of the impact of primary network interference and CCI. The equivalent SINR for the secondary system is derived. Then, the system equivalent PDF and CDF are derived and discussed. Furthermore, the OP and AEP performances are investigated. Finally, for the cases mentioned above, numerical examples in conjunction with MatLab Monte Carlo simulations are provided to validate the derived results. The results show that CCI is one of the factors that severely reduces the UCRN performance. This can be more observable when the CCI power increases linearly with the transmission power of the secondary transmitter nodes. Furthermore, it was found that in a multi-user scenario the opportunistic SNR-based selection technique consideration can improve the performance of the network. Moreover, adaptive power allocation is found to give better results than equal power allocation. In addition, cooperative communication can be considered to be an effective way to combat the impact of transmission power limitation of the secondary network and interference power constraint. The multi-antenna schemes are another important consideration for enhancing the overall performance. In fact, despite the interference from the CCI and primary user sources, the multi-antennas scheme does not lose its advantage in the UCRN performance improvementHigher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED). I am also grateful to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, Kurdistan Regional Government-Iraq

A template-based graph transformation system for the PROV data model

As data provenance becomes a significant metadata in validating the origin of information and asserting its quality, it is crucial to hide the sensitive information of provenance data to enable trustworthiness prior to sharing provenance in open environments such as the Web. In this paper, a graph rewriting system is constructed from the PROV data model to hide restricted provenance information while preserving the integrity and connectivity of the provenance graph. The system is formally established as a template-based framework and formalised using category theory concepts, such as functors, diagrams, and natural transformation

The level of offenses against archaeological and heritage resources, one year after implementation of the new Palestinian antiquities law

This article analyzes the cases related to offenses against cultural heritage property registered by the public prosecution courts throughout the West Bank, focusing on those registered during the first year after the new antiquities law took effect. The article presents some information on the global phenomenon of antiquities looting and the trafficking in antiquities; among others

Factors affecting customer loyalty in Islamic banking sector of Hargeisa, Somalia

According to Central Bank of Somaliland report, the number of Islamic commercial bank offices reduced from 203 offices in 2018 to 182 offices in 2019. This phenomenon is due to lack of customer’s confident towards services provided by Islamic banks. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting customer loyalty in Islamic banking sector in Hargeisa, Somalia. There are two Islamic banks operating in Hargeisa City namely Salam Bank and Premier Bank. Four factors have been identified affecting the customer loyalty that is customer expectation, customer trust, service encounter and service experience. Primary data was utilized to conduct this study. The study was carried out survey which involved 250 respondents for both Islamic banks. The SPSS software was utilized in this study for both descriptive and inferential statistics. Based on the multiple regression analysis, the study found that service experience, service encounter and customer trust are the most affecting variables in customer loyalty in Islamic banks of Hargeisa City. Thus, the present study provides additional empirical evidence to improve the body of knowledge especially in Islamic banking system in Somalia