Search results for: Abu Dhabi

Authors: A. Alseiari, P. Farrell

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Maintenance has evolved into an imperative function, and contributes significantly to efficient and effective equipment performance. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is an ideal approach to support the development and implementation of operation performance improvement. It systematically aims to understand the function of equipment, the service quality relationship with equipment and the probable critical equipment failure conditions. Implementation of TPM programmes need strategic planning and there has been little research applied in this area within Middle-East power plants. In the power sector of Abu Dhabi, technologically and strategically, the power industry is extremely important, and it thus needs effective and efficient equipment management support. The aim of this paper is to investigate barriers to successful TPM implementation in the Abu Dhabi power industry. The study has been conducted in the context of a leading power company in the UAE. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 employees, including maintenance and operation staff, and senior managers. The findings of this research identified seven key barriers, thus: managerial; organisational; cultural; financial; educational; communications; and auditing. With respect to the understanding of these barriers and obstacles in TPM implementation, the findings can contribute towards improved equipment operations and maintenance in power organisations.

Keywords: Abu Dhabi Power Industry, TPM implementation, key barriers, organisational culture, critical success factors

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Authors: Oualid Walid Ben Ali

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Big Data has become one of the buzzwords today. The recent explosion of digital data has led the organization, either private or public, to a new era towards a more efficient decision making. At some point, business decided to use that concept in order to learn what make their clients tick with phrases like ‘sales funnel’ analysis, ‘actionable insights’, and ‘positive business impact’. So, it stands to reason that Big Data was viewed through green (read: money) colored lenses. Somewhere along the line, however someone realized that collecting and processing data doesn’t have to be for business purpose only, but also could be used for other purposes to assist law enforcement or to improve policing or in road safety. This paper presents briefly, how Big Data have been used in the fields of policing order to improve the decision making process in the daily operation of the police. As example, we present a big-data driven system which is sued to accurately dispatch the patrol cars in a geographic environment. The system is also used to allocate, in real-time, the nearest patrol car to the location of an incident. This system has been implemented and applied in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Keywords: big data, big data analytics, patrol car allocation, dispatching, GIS, intelligent, Abu Dhabi, police, UAE

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Authors: Abdullah Kaya, Muammer Koc

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A levelized cost analysis of solar energy powered seawater desalination in The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is conducted to show that clean and renewable desalination is economically viable. The Emirate heavily relies on seawater desalination for its freshwater needs due to limited freshwater resources available. This trend is expected to increase further due to growing population and economic activity, rapid decline in limited freshwater reserves, and aggravating effects of climate change. Seawater desalination in Abu Dhabi is currently done through thermal desalination technologies such as multi-stage flash (MSF) and multi-effect distillation (MED) which are coupled with thermal power plants known as co-generation. Our analysis indicates that these thermal desalination methods are inefficient regarding energy consumption and harmful to the environment due to CO₂ emissions and other dangerous byproducts. Therefore, utilization of clean and renewable desalination options has become a must for The Emirate for the transition to a sustainable future. The rapid decline in the cost of solar PV system for energy production and RO technology for desalination makes the combination of these two an ideal option for a future of sustainable desalination in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. A Levelized cost analysis for water produced by solar PV + RO system indicates that Abu Dhabi is well positioned to utilize this technological combination for cheap and clean desalination for the coming years. It has been shown that cap-ex cost of solar PV powered RO system has potential to go as low as to 101 million US $ (1111 $/m³) at best case considering the recent technological developments. The levelized cost of water (LCW) values fluctuate between 0.34 $/m³ for the baseline case and 0.27 $/m³ for the best case. Even the highly conservative case yields LCW cheaper than 100% from all thermal desalination methods currently employed in the Emirate. Exponential cost decreases in both solar PV and RO sectors along with increasing economic scale globally signal the fact that a cheap and clean desalination can be achieved by the combination of these technologies.

Keywords: solar PV, RO desalination, sustainable desalination, levelized cost of analysis, Emirate of Abu Dhabi

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Authors: Jongwan Eun, Sam Helwany, Lakshyana K. C.

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is significantly dependent on desalinated water and groundwater resource, which is expensive and highly energy intensive. Despite the scarce water resource, stagnates only 54% of the recycled water was reused in 2012, and due to the lack of infrastructure to reuse the recycled water, the portion is expected to decrease with growing water usage. In this study, an “Oasis” complex comprised of Sustainable Farming Compartments (SFC) was proposed for reusing treated wastewater. The wastewater is used to decrease the ambient temperature of the SFC via an evaporative cooler. The SFC prototype was designed, built, and tested in an environmentally controlled laboratory and field site to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the SFC subjected to various climatic conditions in Abu Dhabi. Based on the experimental results, the temperature drop achieved in the SFC in the laboratory and field site were5 ̊C from 22 ̊C and 7- 15 ̊C (from 33-45 ̊C to average 28 ̊C at relative humidity < 50%), respectively. An energy simulation using TRNSYS was performed to extend and validate the results obtained from the experiment. The results from the energy simulation and experiments show statistically close agreement. The total power consumption of the SFC system was approximately three and a half times lower than that of an electrical air conditioner. Therefore, by using treated wastewater, the SFC has a promising prospect to solve Abu Dhabi’s ecological concern related to desertification and wind erosion.

Keywords: ecological farming system, energy simulation, evaporative cooling system, temperature, treated waste water, temperature

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Authors: Shatha Ghareeb, Rawaa Al-Jumeily, Thar Baker

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In Abu Dhabi, there are many different education curriculums where sector of private schools and quality assurance is supervising many private schools in Abu Dhabi for many nationalities. As there are many different education curriculums in Abu Dhabi to meet expats’ needs, there are different requirements for registration and success. In addition, there are different age groups for starting education in each curriculum. In fact, each curriculum has a different number of years, assessment techniques, reassessment rules, and exam boards. Currently, students that transfer curriculums are not being placed in the right year group due to different start and end dates of each academic year and their date of birth for each year group is different for each curriculum and as a result, we find students that are either younger or older for that year group which therefore creates gaps in their learning and performance. In addition, there is not a way of storing student data throughout their academic journey so that schools can track the student learning process. In this paper, we propose to develop a computational framework applicable in multicultural countries such as UAE in which multi-education systems are implemented. The ultimate goal is to use cloud and fog computing technology integrated with Artificial Intelligence techniques of Machine Learning to aid in a smooth transition when assigning students to their year groups, and provide leveling and differentiation information of students who relocate from a particular education curriculum to another, whilst also having the ability to store and access student data from anywhere throughout their academic journey.

Keywords: admissions, algorithms, cloud computing, differentiation, fog computing, levelling, machine learning

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Authors: David Ming Liu, Benjamin Hirsch, Bashir Aden

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Syndromic surveillance is to detect or predict disease outbreaks through the analysis of medical sources of data. Using social media data like tweets to do syndromic surveillance becomes more and more popular with the aid of open platform to collect data and the advantage of microblogging text and mobile geographic location features. In this paper, a Syndromic Surveillance Framework is presented with machine learning kernel using tweets data analytics. Influenza and the three cities Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai of United Arabic Emirates are used as the test disease and trial areas. Hospital cases data provided by the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) are used for the correlation purpose. In our model, Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) engine is adapted to do supervised learning classification and N-Fold cross validation confusion matrix are given as the simulation results with overall system recall 85.595% performance achieved.

Keywords: Syndromic surveillance, Tweets, Machine Learning, data mining, Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), Influenza

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Authors: Nunna Venkata Prasad, Maryam Amoke Folarin, Muhammad Ali Shaukat Sham

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A quantitative investigation was conducted to explore the communication apprehension among undergraduate students of Abu Dhabi University. Communication apprehension (CA) is an individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons. All individuals experience some level of communication apprehension. A total of 100 participants selected through a stratified sampling method, which includes 50 males and 50 females participated in the study. The research was conducted by distributing the personal report of communication apprehension questionnaire, randomly amongst these students. Results were affirmative with previous researches conducted. Demographics, age, or college year did not make any significant differences amongst the undergraduate students. More students were found to have high CA with public speaking rather than other scenarios. And lesser students were found to have high CA level with one-on-one conversations although a significant number of them still tested to have high CA with interpersonal communications.

Keywords: communication apprehension, interpersonal communication, oral communication, public speaking

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Authors: Raheleh Farzanmanesh, Christopher J. Weston

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Mangroves are forest ecosystems located in the inter-tidal regions of tropical and subtropical coastlines that provide many valuable economic and ecological benefits for millions of people, such as preventing coastal erosion, providing breeding, and feeding grounds, improving water quality, and supporting the well-being of local communities. In addition, mangroves capture and store high amounts of carbon in biomass and soils that play an important role in combating climate change. The decline in mangrove area has prompted government and private sector interest in mangrove conservation and restoration projects to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals, from reducing poverty to improving life on land. Mangrove aboveground biomass plays an essential role in the global carbon cycle, climate change mitigation and adaptation by reducing CO2 emissions. However, little information is available about the effectiveness of mangrove sustainable management on mangrove change area and aboveground biomass (AGB). Here, we proposed a method for mapping, modeling, and assessing mangrove area and AGB in two Global Environment Facility (GEF) blue forests projects based on Sentinel-2 Level 1C imagery during their conservation lifetime. The SVR regression model was used to estimate AGB in Tahiry Honko project in Madagascar and the Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon Demonstration Project (Abu Dhabi Emirates. The results showed that mangrove forests and AGB declined in the Tahiry Honko project, while in the Abu Dhabi project increased after the conservation initiative was established. The results provide important information on the impact of mangrove conservation activities and contribute to the development of remote sensing applications for mapping and assessing mangrove forests in blue carbon initiatives.

Keywords: blue carbon, mangrove forest, REDD+, aboveground biomass, Sentinel-2

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Authors: Hanan M. Taleb

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Energy consumption associated with buildings has a significant impact on the environment. To that end, and as a transaction between the inside and outside and between the building and urban space, the building skin plays an especially important role. It provides protection from the elements; demarcates private property and creates privacy. More importantly, it controls the admission of solar radiation. Therefore, designing the building skin sustainably will help to achieve optimal performance in terms of both energy consumption and thermal comfort. Unfortunately, with accelerating construction expansion, many recent buildings do not pay attention to the importance of the envelope design. This piece of research will highlight the importance of this part of the creation of buildings by providing evidence of a significant reduction in energy consumption if the envelopes are redesigned. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to enhance the performance of the hospital envelope in order to achieve sustainable performance. A hospital building sited in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has been chosen to act as a case study. A detailed analysis of the annual energy performance of the case study will be performed with the use of a computerised simulation; this is in order to explore their energy performance shortcomings. The energy consumption of the base case will then be compared with that resulting from the new proposed building skin. The results will inform architects and designers of the savings potential from various strategies.

Keywords: ASHREA, building skin, building envelopes, hospitals, Abu Dhabi, UAE, IES software

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Authors: Iyasu Eibedingil

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The construction industry is one of the major factors responsible for causing a negative impact on the environment. It has the largest share in the use of natural resources including land use, material extraction, and greenhouse gases emissions. For this reason, it is imperative to reduce its environmental impact through the construction of sustainable buildings with less impact. These days, it is possible to measure the environmental impact by using different tools such as the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Given this premise, this study explored the environmental impact of two types of roofing systems through comparative life cycle assessment approach. The tiles were analyzed to select the most environmentally friendly roofing system for the villa at Khalifa City A, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. These products are available in various forms; however, in this study concrete roof tiles and clay roof tiles were considered. The results showed that concrete roof tiles have lower environmental impact. In all scenarios considered, manufacturing the roof tiles locally, using recovered fuels for firing clay tiles, and using renewable energy (electricity from PV plant) showed that the concrete roof tiles were found to be excellent in terms of its embodied carbon, embodied the energy and various other environmental performance indicators.

Keywords: clay roof tile, concrete roof tile, life cycle assessment, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Ranjbar, Mahdi Bagheri, B. Shivaraj

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This study attempts to investigate the relationship between stock market of Iran and GCC countries stock exchanges. Eight markets were included: the stock market of Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman. Daily country market indices were collected from January 2005 to December 2010. The potential time-varying behaviors of long-run stock market relationship among selected markets are tested applying correlation test, Augmented Dick Fuller test (ADF), Bilateral and Multilateral Cointegration (Johansen), and the Granger Causality test. The findings suggest that stock market of Iran is negatively correlated with most of the selected markets in the whole duration. But contemporaneous correlations among the eight selected markets are increased positively in period of financial crises. Bilateral Cointegration between selected markets suggests that there is no integration between Tehran stock exchange and other selected markets. Among other markets, except the stock market of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a one pair, are not cointegrated in whole, but in duration of financial crises integration between selected markets are increased. Finally, investigation of the casual relationship among eight financial markets suggests there are unidirectional and bidirectional causal relationship among some of stock market indices.

Keywords: financial crises, Middle East, stock market integration, Granger Causality test, ARDL test

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Authors: Maryam Al Mheiri, Khaled Al Awadi

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Urban population is continuously increasing worldwide and the speed at which cities urbanize creates major challenges, particularly in terms of creating sustainable urban environments. Rapid urbanization often leads to negative environmental impacts and changes in the urban microclimates. Moreover, when rapid urbanization is paired with limited landscape elements, the effects on human health due to the increased pollution, and thermal comfort due to Urban Heat Island effects are increased. Urban Heat Island (UHI) describes the increase of urban temperatures in urban areas in comparison to its rural surroundings, and, as we discuss in this paper, it impacts on pedestrian comfort, reducing the number of walking trips and public space use. It is thus very necessary to investigate the quality of outdoor built environments in order to improve the quality of life incites. The main objective of this paper is to address the morphology of Emirati neighborhoods, setting a quantitative baseline by which to assess and compare spatial characteristics and microclimate performance of existing typologies in Abu Dhabi. This morphological mapping and analysis will help to understand the built landscape of Emirati neighborhoods in this city, whose form has changed and evolved across different periods. This will eventually help to model the use of different design strategies, such as landscaping, to mitigate UHI effects and enhance outdoor urban comfort. Further, the impact of different native plants types and native species in reducing UHI effects and enhancing outdoor urban comfort, allowing for the assessment of the impact of increasing landscaped areas in these neighborhoods. This study uses ENVI-met, an analytical, three-dimensional, high-resolution microclimate modeling software. This micro-scale urban climate model will be used to evaluate existing conditions and generate scenarios in different residential areas, with different vegetation surfaces and landscaping, and examine their impact on surface temperatures during summer and autumn. In parallel to these simulations, field measurement will be included to calibrate the Envi-met model. This research therefore takes an experimental approach, using simulation software, and a case study strategy for the evaluation of a sample of residential neighborhoods. A comparison of the results of these scenarios constitute a first step towards making recommendations about what constitutes sustainable landscapes for Abu Dhabi neighborhoods.

Keywords: landscape, microclimate, native plants, sustainable neighborhoods, thermal comfort, urban heat island

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Authors: Julie Connelly, Tanvi Toprani, Xin Xie, Dhinoth Kumar Bangarusamy, Kris C. Gunsalus

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The overuse of antibiotics worldwide has contributed to the development of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacterial strains. There is an increasing urgency to discover antibiotics to combat MDR pathogens. The microbiome of the Arabian Gulf is a largely unexplored and potentially rich source of novel bioactive compounds. Microbes that inhabit the Abu Dhabi coastal regions adapt to extreme environments with high salinity, hot temperatures, large temperature fluctuations, and acute exposure to solar energy. The microbes native to this region may produce unique metabolites with therapeutic potential as antibiotics and antifungals. We have isolated 200 pure bacterial strains from mangrove sediments, cyanobacterial mats, and coral reefs of the Abu Dhabi region. In this project, we aim to screen the marine bacterial strains to identify antibiotics, in particular undocumented compounds that show activity against existing antibiotic-resistant strains. We have acquired the ESKAPE pathogen panel, which consists of six antibiotic-resistant gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial pathogens that collectively cause most clinical infections. Our initial efforts of the primary screen using colony-picking co-culture assay have identified several candidate marine strains producing potential antibiotic compounds. We will next apply different assays, including disk-diffusion and broth turbidity growth assay, to confirm the results. This will be followed by bioactivity-guided purification and characterization of target compounds from the scaled-up volume of candidate strains, including SPE fraction, HPLC fraction, LC-MS, and NMR. For antimicrobial compounds with unknown structures, our final goal is to investigate their mode of action by identifying the molecular target.

Keywords: marine bacteria, natural products, drug discovery, ESKAPE panel

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Authors: Martina Dickson, Hanadi Kadbey, Melissa Mcminn

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Research has shown that anxiety and trepidation towards learning about science is prevalent among elementary school teachers in Western countries. It has also been shown repeatedly that pre-service and in-service teachers who show signs of anxiety towards science are; a) less likely to teach it at all, where they have some autonomy over this, b) less likely to teach it effectively c) ultimately that their students have lower attainment scores in science. It is therefore critically important to gauge pre-service teachers’ science anxiety levels early on whilst there are still possibilities to overturn some of the reasons behind these fears and avert these serious issues occurring later on. This study takes place in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) in the context of training local elementary school teachers. In the U.A.E., where Emirati teachers are already in the vast minority and attrition rates are high, it is important to offer as much support to pre-service teachers as possible. If pre-service teachers are graduating with high levels of science anxiety unabated, according to the research there is a very real concern that as generalist primary school teachers, their science teaching will be far from optimal. The aims of this research study were to ascertain the science anxiety levels of pre-service elementary teachers and to identify particular areas of their science anxiety, if appropriate. We surveyed 200 Emirati pre-service teachers and found that levels of science anxiety were directly related to their perceptions of performance in science exams, laboratory experiments and inquiry approaches to science learning. Whilst some studies have shown that science anxiety can decrease as students gain confidence in science knowledge by studying courses, we did not see this effect in our study. This is based upon a theoretical framework which holds that in some cases, science anxiety is related to lack of exposure to, or insecurity with science content itself which in some cases is alleviated by the students’ covering of material and greater confidence in the subject. Exploring this variable allowed us to explore whether students educated in schools influenced by the educational reform in Abu Dhabi have differing science anxiety levels from those who were educated prior to the reforms. We discuss the possible implications of these findings to the future teaching of science in Abu Dhabi public schools.

Keywords: pre-service teachers, science anxiety, United Arab Emirates, educational reform

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Authors: Ashraf Ibrahim Awad

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It is important to formulate suitable learning environments ca-pable to be customized according to value perceptions of the university. In this paper, light is shed on the concepts of integration between knowledge management (KM), and e-learning (EL) in the higher education sector of the economy in Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE). A discussion on and how KM and EL can be integrated and leveraged for effective education and training is presented. The results are derived from the literature and interviews with 16 of the academics in eight universities in the Emirate. The conclusion is that KM and EL have much to offer each other, but this is not yet reflected at the implementation level, and their boundaries are not always clear. Interviews have shown that both concepts perceived to be closely related and, responsibilities for these initiatives are practiced by different departments or units.

Keywords: knowledge management, e-learning, learning integration, universities, UAE

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Authors: Nabeeha Hassan Abdel Jalil, Robert Barigye, Hamda Al Alawi, Afra Al Dhaheri, Fatma Graiban Al Muhairi, Maryam Al Khateri, Nouf Al Alalawi, Susan Olet, Khaja Mohteshamuddin, Ahmad Al Aiyan, Mohamed Elfatih Hamad

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A serological survey was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of Brucella spp, Coxiella burnetii, Chlamydophila abortus, and Toxoplasma gondii in sheep and goat herds in the UAE. A total of 915 blood samples [n= 222, [sheep]; n= 215, [goats]) were collected from livestock farms in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK). An additional 478 samples (n= 244, [sheep]; n= 234, (goats]) were collected from the Al Ain livestock central market and tested by indirect ELISA for pathogen-specific antibodies with the Brucella antibodies being further corroborated by the Rose-Bengal agglutination test. Seropositivity for the four pathogens is variably documented in sheep and goats from the study area. Respectively, the overall livestock farm prevalence rates for Brucella spp, C. burnetii, C. abortus, and T. gondii were 2.7%, 27.9%, 8.1%, and 16.7% for sheep, and 0.0%, 31.6%, 9.3%, and 5.1% for goats. Additionally, the seroprevalence rates Brucella spp, C. burnetii, C. abortus, and T. gondii in samples from the livestock market were 7.4%, 21.7%, 16.4%, and 7.0% for sheep, and 0.9%, 32.5%, 19.2%, and 11.1% for goats respectively. Overall, sheep had 12.59 more chances than goats of testing seropositive for Brucella spp (OR, 12.59 [95% CI 2.96-53.6]) but less likely to be positive for C. burnetii-antibodies (OR, 0.73 [95% CI 0.54-0.97]). Notably, the differences in the seroprevalence rates of C. abortus and T. gondii in sheep and goats were not statistically significant (p > 0.0500). The present data indicate that all the four study pathogens are present in sheep and goat populations in the UAE where coxiellosis is apparently the most seroprevalent followed by chlamydophilosis, toxoplasmosis, and brucellosis. While sheep from the livestock market were more likely than those from farms to be Brucella-seropositive than those, the overall exposure risk of C. burnetii appears to be greater for goats than sheep. As more animals from the livestock market were more likely to be seropositive to Chlamydophila spp, it is possible that under the UAE animal production conditions, at least, coxiellosis and chlamydophilosis are more likely to increase the culling rate of domesticated small ruminants than toxoplasmosis and brucellosis. While anecdotal reports have previously insinuated that brucellosis may be a significant animal health risk in the UAE, the present data suggest C. burnetii, C. abortus and T. gondii to be more significant pathogens of sheep and goats in the country. Despite this possibility, the extent to which these pathogens may nationally be contributing to reproductive failure in sheep and goat herds is not known and needs to be investigated. Potentially, these agents may also carry a potentially zoonotic risk that needs to be investigated in risk groups like farm workers, and slaughter house personnel. An ongoing study is evaluating the seroprevalence of bovine coxiellosis in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the data thereof will further elucidate on the broader epidemiological dynamics of the disease in the national herd.

Keywords: Brucella spp, Chlamydophila abortus, goat, sheep, Toxoplasma gondii, UAE

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Authors: Sherine Farouk, Fauzia Jabeen

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The purpose of this study is to examine the role played by ethical climate and CSR on organizational performance in public sector organizations. In particular, the research will shed light on the link between formalized ethical procedures and employee responses including corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance among public sector employees. Data was collected from 425 employees working in public sector organizations in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates. Structural Equation Modeling will be used to test the proposed hypotheses. The paper contributes to the literature by being one of the first to study CSR and ethical climate within a Middle Eastern context, and will offer important implications for theory and practice.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, ethical climate, organizational performance, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Sawsan Eissa, Momen Gharib, Omnia Kabbany

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A flushing numerical study has been performed for intended artificial islands on the Persian Gulf coast in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The island masterplan was tested for flushing using the DELFT 3D hydrodynamic model, and it was found that its residence time exceeds the acceptable PIANC flushing Criteria. Therefore, a number of mitigation measures were applied and tested one by one using the flushing model. Namely, changing the location of the entrance opening, dredging, removing part of the mangrove existing in the near vicinity to create a channel, removing the mangrove altogether, using culverts of different numbers and locations, and pumping at selected points. The pumping option gave the best solution, but it was disregarded due to high capital and running costs. Therefore, it opted for a combination of other solutions, including removing mangroves, introducing culverts, and adjusting island boundaries and types of protection.

Keywords: hydrodynamics, flushing, delft 3d, Persian Gulf, artificial islands.

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Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, Mona Yacoub

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This study depends on tracking children style through what they have drawn after being introduced to 16 visual content through National Geographic Abu Dhabi Channel programs and the study of the changing features in their drawings before applying the visual act with them. The researchers used Goodenough-Harris Test to analyse children drawings and to extract the features which changed in their drawing before and after the visual content. The results showed a positive change especially in the shapes of animals and their properties. Children become more aware of animals’ shapes. The study sample was 220 kindergarten children divided into 130 girls and 90 boys at the Orman Experimental Language School in Dokki, Giza, Egypt. The study results showed an improvement in children drawing with 85% than they were before watching videos.

Keywords: National Geographic, children drawing, kindergarten, Goodenough-Harris Test

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Authors: Bakr Ali Al-Gamrh, Ku Nor Izah B. Ku Ismail

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We investigate the relationship between corporate governance, leverage, risk, and firm performance. We use a firm level panel that spans the period 2008 to 2012 of all listed firms on Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange and Dubai Financial Market. After constructing an index of corporate governance strength, we find a negative effect of corporate governance on firm performance. We, however, discover that corporate governance strength indirectly improves the negative influence of leverage on firm performance in normal times. On the contrary, the results completely reversed when there is a black swan event. Corporate governance strength plays a significantly negative role in moderating the relationship between leverage and firm performance during the financial crisis. We also reveal that corporate governance strength increases firms’ risk and deteriorates performance during crisis. Results provide evidence that corporate governance indirectly plays a completely different role in different time periods.

Keywords: corporate governance, firm performance, risk, leverage, the UAE

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Authors: Abdulla Al Hmoudi

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The impacts and costs of natural disasters on people, properties and the environment is often severe when they occur on a large scale or when not prepared for. Factors such as impacts of climate change, urban growth, poor planning to mention a few, have continued to significantly increase the frequencies and aggravate the impacts of natural hazards across the world; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inclusive. The lack of deployment of an early warning system, low risk and hazard knowledge and impact of natural hazard experienced in some communities in the UAE have emphasised the need for more effective early warning systems. This paper focuses on the collaborative approach taken to instituting and implementing an early warning system. Using mixed methods 888 people completed the questionnaire and eight people were interviewed in Abu Dhabi. The results indicate that the collaborative approach to early warning system is UAE is needed, but lacks essential principles of the early warning system and currently underutilised. It is recommended that the collaborative early warning system is applied at every stage of the early warning system with the specific responsibility of each stakeholder and actor.

Keywords: community, early warning system, emergency management, UAE

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Authors: Rima Shishakly, Mervyn Misajon

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Education is similar to other businesses and industries. Achieving data integrity is essential in order to attain a significant supporting for all the stakeholders in the educational sector. Efficient data collect, flow, processing, storing and retrieving are vital in order to deliver successful solutions to the different stakeholders. Ministry of Education (MOE) in United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted ‘Education 2020’ a series of five-year plans designed to introduce advanced education management information systems. As part of this program, in 2010 MOE implemented Student Information Systems (SIS) to manage and monitor the students’ data and information flow between MOE and international private schools in UAE. This paper is going to discuss data integrity concerns between MOE, and private schools. The paper will clarify the data integrity issues and will indicate the challenges that face private schools in UAE.

Keywords: education management information systems (EMIS), student information system (SIS), United Arab Emirates (UAE), ministry of education (MOE), (KHDA) the knowledge and human development authority, Abu Dhabi educational counsel (ADEC)

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Authors: Peter Oyelere, Fernando Zanella

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Corporate governance is one of the most discussed and researched issues in recent times in countries around the world, with different countries developing and adopting different governance structures, models and mechanisms. While the Codes of corporate governance have been weaved into the regulatory fabrics of most countries, it is equally critically important that their mechanisms, procedures and practices be transparent, and be transparently communicated to all stakeholders. The Internet can be a very useful and cost-effective tool for the timely and voluntary communication of corporate governance matters to stakeholders. The current paper details the results of an investigation on the extent of which companies listed in the UAE are using the Internet for communicating corporate governance issues, matters and procedures. We surveyed the websites of companies listed on the two UAE Stock Exchanges – the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) – to find out their level and nature of usage of the Internet for corporate governance disclosures. Regulatory and policy implications of the results of our investigation, as well as other areas for further studies, are also presented in the paper.

Keywords: corporate governance, internet financial reporting, regulation, transparency, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Khalid Soussi

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Implementing innovative teaching and learning methods is of pivotal importance for student motivation and teaching quality. At the center of such quality are teaching competencies. The present paper investigates three teachers’ core competencies related to their innovative teaching performance: educational/pedagogical competency, teaching competency, and social competency. The paper also attempts to describe the influence of social factors on innovation in higher education. Many recent studies highlight the technological competency as an independent one, but it is believed in this study that the latter makes part of the pedagogical competency. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to measure teachers’ judgements of core competencies role in innovative teaching performance. The study also attempted to demarcate the social variables that may affect innovative teaching in higher education. The findings indicate that teachers’ educational competency and teaching competency were generally confirmed to be either important or very important for innovation in teaching performance. Regarding social competency, the study also shows that satisfaction from job, daily working hours, amount of workload, flexibility in the functioning and the quality of students are the main factors that have a large effect on teachers’ innovative teaching performance.

Keywords: higher education, innovative teaching, teaching competencies, teaching performance

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Authors: Karam Al-Assaf, Israa Al Khaffaf, Ryan Al Tayeb, Ayman Alzaatreh

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A significant, manageable hazard to public health, happiness, and the achievement of sustainable development is air pollution. Outdoor air pollution has increased globally over the previous years, exposing billions of people worldwide to hazardous air. With UAE being no different, there are a variety of pollution-related problems that need to be addressed. Therefore, to gain insights from the government and decision makers, this study aims to analyze the annual trends of the five major air pollutants (NO2, SO2, O3, CO, and PM10) across five emirates in the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Ras AL Khaimah) from 2013 to 2020. The results of the analysis revealed that air pollutants NO2, SO2, and PM10 were significantly different across the years and states. Moreover, it was found that the levels of NO2 are significantly different in Dubai across the years. Moreover, the levels of SO2 are significantly different in Sharjah across the years. Furthermore, it was found that PM10 was significantly different in Ajman across the years. Moreover, the analysis of the significant difference in the pollutants in the three areas (Downtown, Residential, Industrial) revealed that there is no significant difference in the pollutant levels across the years in the three different areas. This tool has shown its effectiveness in monitoring pollutant trends, providing valuable data for government investigations and control measures across the UAE. Additionally, it serves as a valuable resource for decision-makers to develop and implement policies aimed at improving pollutant levels.

Keywords: air pollution, air pollutant, repeated measures, MANOVA, UAE

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Authors: Ian M. Grey, Bryan Roche, Anna Dillon, Justin Thomas, Sarah Cassidy, Dylan Colbert, Ian Stewart

Abstract:

This paper presents findings from a study conducted in two schools in Abu Dhabi. The hypothesis is that teaching young children to derive various relations between stimuli leads to increases in full-scale IQ scores of typically developing children. In the experimental group, sixteen 6-7-year-old children were exposed over six weeks to an intensive training intervention designed specifically for their age group. This training intervention, presented on a tablet, aimed to improve their understanding of the relations Same, Opposite, Different, contextual control over the concept of Sameness and Difference, and purely arbitrary derived relational responding for Sameness and Difference. In the control group, sixteen 6-7-year-old children interacted with KIBO robotics over six weeks. KIBO purports to improve cognitive skills through engagement with STEAM activities. Increases in full-scale IQ were recorded for most children in the experimental group, while no increases in full-scale IQ were recorded for the control group. These findings support the hypothesis that relational skills underlie many aspects of general cognitive ability.

Keywords: early childhood, derived relational responding, intelligence, relational frame theory, relational skills

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Authors: Firas Mohamad Al-Sabek

Abstract:

The Purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates. It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM. A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM. The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company. Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM. Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company. If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so. The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid. Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM. While if no quality measures are present within the team, the project will suffer a commercial failure. Based on literature, more factors can be examined and added to the model. In addition, more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results. Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantment.

Keywords: construction project, total quality management, management commitment, cost, theoretical framework

Procedia PDF Downloads 389

Authors: A. Bouabid, B. Bielenberg, S. Ainane, N. Pasha

Abstract:

In this paper, a team of faculty members of the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE representing six different courses across General Engineering (ENGR), Communication (COMM), and Design (STPS) worked together to establish a clear developmental progression of learning outcomes and performance indicators for targeted knowledge, areas of competency, and skills for the first three semesters of the Bachelor of Sciences in Engineering curriculum. The sequences of courses studied in this project were ENGR/COMM, COMM/STPS, and ENGR/STPS. For each course’s nine areas of knowledge, competency, and skills, the research team reviewed the existing learning outcomes and related performance indicators with a focus on identifying linkages across disciplines as well as within the courses of a discipline. The team reviewed existing performance indicators for developmental progression from semester to semester for same discipline related courses (vertical alignment) and for different discipline courses within the same semester (horizontal alignment). The results of this work have led to recommendations for modifications of the initial indicators when incoherence was identified, and/or for new indicators based on best practices (identified through literature searches) when gaps were identified. It also led to recommendations for modifications of the level of emphasis within each course to ensure developmental progression. The exercise has led to a revised Sequence Performance Indicator Mapping for the knowledge, skills, and competencies across the six core courses.

Keywords: curriculum alignment, horizontal and vertical progression, performance indicators, skill level

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: Jennifer Bradley

Abstract:

With opportunities to live and work abroad on the rise, effective preparation and support for international employees needs to be addressed within the work-site. International employees must build new habits, routines and social networks in an unfamiliar culture. Culture shock typically occurs within the first year and can affect both physical and psychological health. Employers have the opportunity to support staff through the adaptation process and foster healthy habits and routines. Cross-cultural training that includes a combination of instructional teaching, cultural experiences, and practice, is shown to increase the international employee adaptation process. However, little evidence demonstrates that organizations provide all of these aspects for international employees. The occupational therapy practitioner (OTP) offers a unique perspective focusing on the employee transactional relationship and engagement of meaningful occupations to enhance and enable participation in roles, habits and routines within new cultural contexts. This paper examines one such program developed and implemented by an OTP at the New England Center for Children, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The effectiveness of the program was assessed via participant feedback and concluded that an international employee support program that focuses on a variety of meaningful experiences and knowledge can empower employees to navigate healthy practices, develop habits and routines, and foster positive inter-cultural relationships in the organization and community.

Keywords: occupational therapy practitioner, cross cultural training, international employee health, international employee support

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Authors: Serin Darwish, Hakim Saibi, Amir Gabr

Abstract:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is situated within an arid zone where the climate is arid and the recharge of the groundwater is very low. Groundwater is the primary source of water in the United Arab Emirates. However, rapid expansion, population growth, agriculture, and industrial activities have negatively affected these limited water resources. The shortage of water resources has become a serious concern due to the over-pumping of groundwater to meet demand. In addition to the deficit of groundwater, the UAE has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world. In this study, a combination of time-lapse measurements of microgravity and depth to groundwater level in selected wells in Al Ain city was used to estimate the variations in groundwater storage. Al-Ain is the second largest city in Abu Dhabi Emirates and the third largest city in the UAE. The groundwater in this region has been overexploited. Relative gravity measurements were acquired using the Scintrex CG-6 Autograv. This latest generation gravimeter from Scintrex Ltd provides fast, precise gravity measurements and automated corrections for temperature, tide, instrument tilt and rejection of data noise. The CG-6 gravimeter has a resolution of 0.1μGal. The purpose of this study is to measure the groundwater storage changes in the shallow aquifers based on the application of microgravity method. The gravity method is a nondestructive technique that allows collection of data at almost any location over the aquifer. Preliminary results indicate a possible relationship between microgravity and water levels, but more work needs to be done to confirm this. The results will help to develop the relationship between monthly microgravity changes with hydrological and hydrogeological changes of shallow phreatic. The study will be useful in water management considerations and additional future investigations.

Keywords: Al-Ain, arid region, groundwater, microgravity

Procedia PDF Downloads 115