Violent Urbanization and Homogenization of Space and Place

This paper aims at understanding the dynamics of sectarian violence in the city of Beirut, by looking at the early phase of violence in the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), and the process of dividing Beirut into various sectarian enclaves controlled by the warring militias. The paper aims to show the way in which political actors used sectarian violence as a mechanism of social, political, and territorial control. As a point of departure, the paper views the city not only as a backdrop for conflict and violence, but also as an actual target. The objectives of the paper are threefold. First, it shows how sectarian violence was not random but was, rather, a product of a lengthy process that involved calculation and some levels of planning. It includes defining one’s …/urbanization, cities, urban conflict, Lebanon

The informal adaptive mechanisms among Syrian Refugees and marginalised host communities in Lebanon

This paper was presented at a workshop on ‘The Long-term Challenges of Forced Migration: Local and Regional Perspectives from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq’ organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in June 2016. It was published as part of a collected papers volume available in English and Arabic

Particle Yields and Ratios within Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Statistics

In characterizing the yields and ratios various of well identified particles in the ALICE experiment, we utilize extensive {\it additive} thermal approaches, to which various missing states of the hadron resonances are taken into consideration, as well. Despite some non-equilibrium conditions that are slightly driving this statistical approach away from equilibrium, the approaches are and remain additive and extensive. Besides van der Waals repulsive interactions (assuming that the gas constituents are no longer point-like, i.e. finite-volume corrections taken into consideration), finite pion chemical potentials as well as perturbations to the light and strange quark occupation factors are taken into account. When confronting our calculations to the ALICE measurements, we conclude that the proposed conditions for various aspects deriving the system out of equilibrium notably improve the reproduction of the experimental results, i.e. improving the statistical fits, especially the finite pion chemical potential. This points out to the great role that the non-equilibrium pion production would play, and the contributions that the hadron resonance missing states come up with, even when the principles of statistical extensivity and additivity aren't violated. These results seem to propose revising the conclusions propagated by most of the field, that the produced particles quickly reach a state of local equilibrium leading to a collective expansion often described by fluid dynamics. This situation seems not remaining restrictively valid, at very large collision energies.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitted to EP

Extensive/nonextensive statistics for pTp_T distributions of various charged particles produced in p+p and A+A collisions in a wide range of energies

We present a systematic study for the statistical fits of the transverse momentum distributions of charged pions, Kaons and protons produced at energies ranging between 7.7 and 2670 GeV to the extensive Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) and the nonextensive statistics (Tsallis as a special type and the generic axiomatic nonextensive approach). We also present a comprehensive review on various experimental parametrizations proposed to fit the transverse momentum distributions of these produced particles. The inconsistency that the BG approach is to be utilized in characterizing the chemical freezeout, while the Tsallis approach in determining the kinetic freezeout is elaborated. The resulting energy dependence of the different fit parameters largely varies with the particle species and the degree of (non)extensivity. This manifests that the Tsallis nonextensive approach seems to work well for p+p rather than for A+A collisions. Drawing a complete picture of the utilization of Tsallis statistics in modeling the transverse momentum distributions of several charged particle produced at a wide range of energies and accordingly either disprove or though confirm the relevant works are main advantages of this review. We propose analytical expressions for the dependence of the fit parameters obtained on the size of the colliding system, the energy, as well as the types of the statistical approach applied. We conclude that the statistical dependence of the various fit parameters, especially between Boltzmann and Tsallis approaches could be understood that the statistical analysis ad hoc is biased to the corresponding degree of extensivity (Boltzmann) or nonextensivity (Tsallis). Alternatively, the empirical parameterizations, the other models, and the generic (non)extensive approach seem to relax this biasness.Comment: 42 pages, 17 figures, IX tables, submitted to JSTA

Innovation in Multi-stakeholder Engagemnet

This paper is concerned with the multitude of interleaving issues which emerge in engaging multiple stakeholders in decision making. Whilst recognizing the intrinsic values of group work (including shared views, wide option selection, public spirited focus, legitimacy of decisions and improved intellectual content) and keeping in mind the numerous issues which confuse and obscure clear findings from group work (including multiple roles of participants, bias due to domination and distortion emerging from uneven group inputs) this paper uses an innovative theory and methodology, the triple task, to propose a new framework for organizing multi-stakeholders consultations. The Triple Task methodology was applied to test the new framework on multi-stakeholders in the context of education in Abu Dhabi, where various small groups are tasked and assessed using the methodology. The results indicate that moving participants from heterogeneous to homogenous groups results in these groups becoming more focused in their outcomes with a greater clarity in the thinking of group members