Investigating Solutions for Peak Electrical Demand in Central Region, Saudi Arabia

This thesis studies the electrical power challenges of the Central Region, Saudi Arabia. This includes a look into the geography of Saudi Arabia, to assess the lack of traditional power sources such as coal and hydroelectric. Next, a comprehensive look into the nature of demand in Riyadh, which include the demand types, and comprehensive data about the peak demand and the times associated with it. A problem of very high peak demand that is unique to the region is identified. Then, a study into current electric generation methods to meet this demand, and the associated technologies and fuel costs. This thesis then goes on into discussing the current implemented solutions to reduce peak demand by the Saudi Electricity Company, and then a further discussion about possible further improvements to the system, which includes a study of renewable energy resources, which includes solar and wind. These proposed solutions were evaluated for cost and return on investment, with a particular interest into the price of crude oil

Irony-Its Discourse Structure in the Novel

In this paper I have tried to explain how the discourse structure of irony - of the most complex, vocal and meaningful linguistic and literary devices – can best be revealed in the prose fiction which can an Essay, a short story or a Novel .To me, it appears that the meaningful use of irony for the purposes of communication can best be taught with the help of a novel. Both irony and the novel use the same discourse structure and, hence, they help each other in communicating the several layers of meanings which hide, in themselves, the linguistic and literary beauty of irony and the novel. Irony can best be communicated through the events and conditions of the fictional world and construed from the description itself. It requires the help of both – What happens and how it is described. And both are the basic of the novel. So a lesson in irony can best be given with the help of a novel. For my purposes, I will take the help of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice

Zero Algorithms for Avoiding Crosstalk in Optical Multistage Interconnection Network

Multistage Interconnection Networks (MINs) are popular in switching and communication applications. It had been used in telecommunication and parallel computing systems for many years. The broadband switching networks are built from 2 x 2 electro-optical switches such as Lithium Niobate switches. Each switch has two active inputs and outputs. Optical signals, carried on either inputs are coupled to either outputs by applying an appropriate voltage to the switch. One of the problems associated with these electro-optical switches is the crosstalk problem, which is caused by undesired coupling between signals carried in two waveguides. This thesis propose an efficient solution to avoid crosstalk, which is routing of traffic through an N x N optical network to avoid coupling two signals within each switching element. Under the constraint of avoiding crosstalk, the research interest is to realize a permutation that will use the minimum number of passes (to route the input request to output without crosstalk). This routing problem is an NP-hard problem. Many heuristic algorithms have been proposed and designed to perform the routing such as the sequential algorithm, the sequential down algorithm, the degree-ascending algorithm, the degree-descending algorithm, the Simulated Annealing algorithm and the Ant Colony algorithm. The Zero algorithms are the new algorithms that have been proposed in this thesis. In Zero algorithms, there are three types of algorithms namely; The Zero X, Zero Y and zeroXY algorithms. The experiments conducted have proven that the proposed algorithms are effective and efficient. They are based on routing algorithms to minimize the number of passes to route all the inputs to outputs without crosstalk. In addition, these algorithms when implemented with partial ZeroX and ZeroY algorithms would yield the same results as the other heuristic algorithms, but over performing them when the execution time is considered. Zero algorithms have been tested with many cases and the results are compared to the results of the other established algorithms. The performance analysis showed the advantages of the Zero algorithms over the other algorithms in terms of average number of passes and execution time

Islamic Branding

The market of halal food and Islamic finance sector which have increased dramatically in the past decade and many other Islamic products and services including cosmetics, real estate, hotels, fashion and insurance, (Alserhan, 2010a), have amplified the role of Islamic brand at present. Fatema et al. (2013) stated that Islamic marketing is aimed at Muslim consumers who are significantly different from the average consumer and that it utilizes specific recourses, skills, and tools that are directly relating and attractive to this particular segment. Therefore, with the presence of Muslim customers, this market segment can be targeted, reached and to a certain extent, predicted by marketers. The demographic changes and purchasing power of Muslim consumers and the success of Muslim businessmen have begun to make Islamic marketing an intellectually and managerially attractive area. As a result, the use of Islamic brands as marketing strategies has intensified in academic circles within the past few years, both inside and outside the Islamic world (Alserhan, 2010). This claim was further supported by Wilson and Liu (2011), stating that the phenomenon of Islamic branding as a new and independent discipline has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners

A new algorithm for routing and scheduling in optical omega network

Multistage interconnection networks (MIN) are popular in switching and communication applications. However, OMINs introduce crosstalk which results from coupling two signals within one Switching Element (SE). Under the constraint of avoiding crosstalk, what we will discuss in is how to realize a permutation that requires the minimum number of passes. In this paper, we are interested in a network called Omega Network, which has shuffle-exchange connection pattern. We propose a new algorithm called the ZeroY algorithm (ZeroY) to avoid crosstalk and route the traffic in an OM IN more efficiently. The results of the ZeroY algorithm are analyzed and compared with those of other algorithms (except the GA) in an Omega network. The ZeroY algorithm outperforms all the other algorithms in terms of the running time that are required for one permutation

Development of superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fibre membrances from Malaysian koalin for efficient carbon dioxide capture in membrance contactor

This study initiated the development of clean technology in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture using ceramic membrane inspired by gas–liquid contacting system. The main objective in this study is to prepare inexpensive, high performance and superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fibre membranes for effective CO2 separation. Malaysian kaolin was used as the primary material for the membrane preparation. A range of additives were used in this work including alumina of different particle sizes. The hollow fibre membranes were prepared via phase inversion-based extrusion and sintering techniques, followed by grafting with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS). The effect of the addition of alumina to the pure kaolin with monosized or multisized particles on the ceramic membrane gas permeation, mechanical strength, pore size, porosity, tortuosity, morphology, and contact angle were investigated. By varying the overall loadings and particles sizes of alumina addition, different morphologies of the membrane were obtained due to alumina with multiparticle sizes exerts a thermodynamic destabilisation effect within the kaolin, accelerating the onset of demixing rate between solvent and nonsolvent, thus reducing the time during bath immersion. All fabricated kaolin-alumina membranes with multisized particles possessed higher porosity, gas permeability, mechanical strength, than the membranes prepared from pure kaolin. Finger-like structure was obtained when the suspension containing multisized particles instead of of monosized particles due to the different particles promoted the exchange between the solvent and non-solvent. In addition, the small particles moved faster to the surface during phase inversion process than those of large, resulting, multisized particle in shorter inversion time, hence, fast precipitation. The superhydrophobic membrane was obtained when kaolin with or without alumina were used as membrane materials, since kaolin surface possessed a large number of O-H groups which can easily reacting with FAS during the grafting process. The successful grafting with FAS was evidenced by the increase in contact angle from nearly equal to zero degree before grafting to 140 degrees after the grafting process. The kaolin-alumina membrane was subsequently applied in membrane contactor for CO2 absorption. The CO2 absorption flux as high as 0.18 mol m-2 s-1 was achieved at the liquid flow rate of 100 ml min-1 which was far above the fluxes of some commercial and in-house made polymeric and ceramic membranes. In conclusion, the modified kaolin-alumina hollow fibre membrane with the superhydrophobic surface, high permeability, and absorption flux is suitable for CO2 post-combustion capture, due to its outstanding chemical and thermal stabilities

Development of superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fibre membranes from Malaysian kaolin for efficient carbon dioxide capture in membrane contactor

This study initiated the development of clean technology in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture using ceramic membrane inspired by gas–liquid contacting system. The main objective in this study is to prepare inexpensive, high performance and superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fibre membranes for effective CO2 separation. Malaysian kaolin was used as the primary material for the membrane preparation. A range of additives were used in this work including alumina of different particle sizes. The hollow fibre membranes were prepared via phase inversion-based extrusion and sintering techniques, followed by grafting with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS). The effect of the addition of alumina to the pure kaolin with monosized or multisized particles on the ceramic membrane gas permeation, mechanical strength, pore size, porosity, tortuosity, morphology, and contact angle were investigated. By varying the overall loadings and particles sizes of alumina addition, different morphologies of the membrane were obtained due to alumina with multiparticle sizes exerts a thermodynamic destabilisation effect within the kaolin, accelerating the onset of demixing rate between solvent and nonsolvent, thus reducing the time during bath immersion. All fabricated kaolin-alumina membranes with multisized particles possessed higher porosity, gas permeability, mechanical strength, than the membranes prepared from pure kaolin. Finger-like structure was obtained when the suspension containing multisized particles instead of of monosized particles due to the different particles promoted the exchange between the solvent and non-solvent. In addition, the small particles moved faster to the surface during phase inversion process than those of large, resulting, multisized particle in shorter inversion time, hence, fast precipitation. The superhydrophobic membrane was obtained when kaolin with or without alumina were used as membrane materials, since kaolin surface possessed a large number of O-H groups which can easily reacting with FAS during the grafting process. The successful grafting with FAS was evidenced by the increase in contact angle from nearly equal to zero degree before grafting to 140 degrees after the grafting process. The kaolin-alumina membrane was subsequently applied in membrane contactor for CO2 absorption. The CO2 absorption flux as high as 0.18 mol m-2 s-1 was achieved at the liquid flow rate of 100 ml min-1 which was far above the fluxes of some commercial and in-house made polymeric and ceramic membranes. In conclusion, the modified kaolin-alumina hollow fibre membrane with the superhydrophobic surface, high permeability, and absorption flux is suitable for CO2 post-combustion capture, due to its outstanding chemical and thermal stabilities

Crow search algorithm with time varying flight length strategies for feature selection

Feature Selection (FS) is an efficient technique use to get rid of irrelevant, redundant and noisy attributes in high dimensional datasets while increasing the efficacy of machine learning classification. The CSA is a modest and efficient metaheuristic algorithm which has been used to overcome several FS issues. The flight length (fl) parameter in CSA governs crows\u27 search ability. In CSA, fl is set to a fixed value. As a result, the CSA is plagued by the problem of being hoodwinked in local minimum. This article suggests a remedy to this issue by bringing five new concepts of time dependent fl in CSA for feature selection methods including linearly decreasing flight length, sigmoid decreasing flight length, chaotic decreasing flight length, simulated annealing decreasing flight length, and logarithm decreasing flight length. The proposed approaches\u27 performance is assessed using 13 standard UCI datasets. The simulation result portrays that the suggested feature selection approaches overtake the original CSA, with the chaotic-CSA approach beating the original CSA and the other four proposed approaches for the FS task

Aesthetic Dimensions of Abstractionism in Contemporary Architecture

عني البحث الحالي بدراسة (الأبعاد الجمالية للنزعة التجريدية في العمارة المعاصرة), احتوى البحث على أربعة فصول خصص الفصل الأول لبيان مشكلة البحث وأهميته والحاجة إليه، وتحدد مشكلة البحث. في الإجابة عن التساؤلات الاتية: ماهي المعالجات الجمالية التي اتخذتها النزعة التشكيلية التجريدية في العمارة المعاصرة ؟ هل هناك أختلاف و تقارب في المعالجات الجمالية النزعة التجريدية في العمارة والفن ؟ الابعاد الجمالية للنزعة التجريدية في العمارة المعاصرة؟. كما تضمن الفصل هدف البحث وهو :تعرف الأبعاد الجمالية للنزعة التجريدية في العمارة المعاصرة وتخاذ اوسكار نيماز نموذج. وقد اقتصرت حدود البحث على الفترة الزمنية (1970-2003)، أما مكانياً تمثلت بالنماذج المعمارية المنجزة على ارض الواقع والمنفذة في ألبرازيل. أما الفصل الثاني: فقد تضمن الإطار النظري وقد احتوى مبحثين: عُني المبحث الأول، بدراسة الأبعاد الجمالية فلسفيا والعلاقة بين الفن والعمارة وفكرتها الفلسفية التجريدية. من خلال استعراض رئي هيغل والفكر التجريدي فيما تناول المبحث الثاني التجريد في العمارة المعاصرة. اما الفصل الثالث: فقد اشتمل على إجراءات البحث المتضمنة :    مجتمع البحث، عينة البحث، منهج البحث وأداة البحث والوسائل الاحصائية المستخدمة وتحليل العينة والبالغة (4) انموذجاً. اما الفصل الرابع فقد احتوى على النتائج والاستنتاجات علاوة على التوصيات  ,وقد توصلت الباحثة الى نتائج اساسية نذكر منها:- 1-   ظهرت الأبعاد الجمالية للنزعة التجريدية في العمارة المعاصرة فن عمارة الحداثة عبر اعتماد الاختزال الشكلي واللوني. 2-   حقق اللعب الحر بالشكل والخامة والتنفيذ في تقنية الواجهات المعمارية بعدا جماليا في تشكل واجهات عمارة الحداثة كما في نماذج العينة. 3-   غرائبية الفكرة التصميمية والنمط المتخيل في عرض التشكل المعماري اكسب عمارة المعاصرة بعدا جماليا. The current research concerned me with a study (the aesthetic dimensions of abstractionism in contemporary architecture). The research contains four chapters. The first chapter is devoted to explaining the research problem, its importance and the need for it, and defining the research problem.  In answering the following questions: What are the aesthetic treatments taken by the abstract plasticist trend in contemporary architecture?  Is there a difference and convergence in the aesthetic treatments of abstractionism in architecture and art?  The aesthetic dimensions of the abstract tendency in contemporary architecture? .  The chapter also included the aim of the research, which is: Know the aesthetic dimensions of abstractionism in contemporary architecture and take Oscar Niemas as a model.  The research limits were limited to the time period (1970-2003), as for spatially the architectural models completed on the ground and implemented in Brazil.  As for the second chapter: it included the theoretical framework and it contained two topics: The first topic was concerned with the study of the aesthetic dimensions in philosophy and the relationship between art and architecture and its philosophical abstract idea.  Through a review of Hegel's vision and abstract thought, the second topic deals with abstraction in contemporary architecture.  As for the third chapter: it includes the research procedures that include:  The research community, the research sample, the research methodology, the research tool, the statistical means used and the sample analysis (4) as a model.  As for the fourth chapter, it contained findings and conclusions in addition to recommendations. The researcher reached basic conclusions, including: - 1- The aesthetic dimensions of the abstract tendency appeared in contemporary architecture, the art of modern architecture through the adoption of formal and chromatic reduction. 2- Free play of form, material and execution in the technique of architectural façades achieved an aesthetic dimension in the formation of facades of modernity architecture as in the specimen models. 3-The exoticism of the design idea and the imagined pattern in the presentation of the architectural conformation has gained contemporary architecture an aesthetic dimension

A study of nanoparticles as a drug carrier on the wall of Stenosed Arteries

The influences of nanoparticles as drug carriers on the walls of stenosed arteries are presented. In this study, three nanoparticles namely Fe3O4 , TiO2 and Cu were used. It is observed that the addition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles tends to reduce the resistance impedance of blood temperature in bell shaped stenosed arteries. The blood temperature increases slightly in the streamwise direction before the throat region. Thereafter, the blood temperature increases at a higher rate and reaches its maximum value at the stenosis throat. It is found that the temperature distribution is heavily dependent on parameters such as periodic body acceleration and Prandtl number