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Exploring Academic Dishonesty in the Middle East: A Qualitative Analysis of Students' Perceptions
No full textMost previous studies of academic dishonesty have been conducted in North America and Europe, and have focused on the contextual, institutional, and individual factors that influence students' propensity to cheat. While such studies offer useful background and structure to this endemic problem, this study aimed to gain deeper insights into student perceptions of academic dishonesty in a multi-cultural context. Our study sample was sourced from a large private university based in the United Arab Emirates, in which there is a culturally diverse mix of national and international students (Arab and non-Arab). From our data, while a number of student perceptions were similar to those reported in other studies, several new socio-cultural themes emerged. In particular, Arab students perceived: peer student obligations; patriarchal pressure; shame avoidance; and a Fahlawi mind-set, as being influential on their academic dishonesty attitudes and behaviours
Smart Houses: Why Choose a Smart House?
No full textA poster submitted in ENG 207 taught by Dr. Philip McCarthy for the Spring 2019 semester.[Discusses the reasons for choose a smart home: energy expenditure, disaster management, home management, and cost efficiency.
Graphene-based drug delivery systems
No full textDrug delivery is one of the prominent biomedical applications of graphene nanomaterials in the current scenario. The rapid growth in the graphene-based drug delivery systems showed the potential of this nanomaterial in the future health-care industry. The unique mono atomic planar structure and associated properties such as large surface area, chemical and mechanical stabilities, superb electrical conductivity, and good biocompatibility enabled the utility of these nanomaterials in medical applications. Advances in novel graphene-based nanotherapeutics, in preclinical investigations, show promise in using these cutting-edge therapeutic systems from bench to bedside in the near future. In this chapter, we have briefly discussed the recent advances in graphene-based drug delivery systems, in addition to the current status, future prospects, and challenges of these nanovehicles
Commissioning and Optimization of an Auger reactor for Pyrolysis of Date Palm Waste
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Chemical Engineering by Muhammad Nauman Ahmad Khan entitled, “Commissioning and Optimization of an Auger reactor for Pyrolysis of Date Palm Waste”, submitted in December 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Yassir Taha Makkawi. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).College of EngineeringDepartment of Chemical EngineeringMaster of Science in Chemical Engineering (MSChE
Women, work and management in the Middle East
No full textThe role and position of women in the Middle East continues to be the subject of much interest in discussion in the public arena and despite questions about their under-representation in work and management, their experiences remain under-researched and under-represented in the academic literature (Metcalfe et al., 2009; Kemp et al., 2013; Kemp and Madsen, 2014; Varma and Russell, 2016). In the past decade, the Middle East region has witnessed significant economic, demographic, generational, socio-cultural and political shifts that have had implications for women’s experiences of/at work and highlight the tensions in the role and agency of women as agents of transformational change. Instances such as the 2010 “Arab Spring” revolution saw significant political and economic turmoil resulting from efforts pushing for democratisation and equality (Moghadam, 2014; Bastian et al., 2018). For example, discussing the online activism of Arab feminists during the citizen revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Newsom and Lengel (2012) outline the different uses women made of online social media to support social change, and their particular role in empowering themselves and others in order to challenge hegemonic and patriarchal norms and political oppression (p. 33). However, women’s own positions regarding existing socio-political structures have been fragmented and despite some women’s support for the revolution as a way of dissenting against the patriarchy, there is still support (from both men and women) of traditional views that result in societal segregated roles (Abdalla, 2015b). In the context of the strength of the role of religion and cultural norms in shaping the gender social order, and how their relationship governs women’s lives and work in the Middle East (Moghadam, 2003), these efforts set a different tone for the global understanding of the narratives of dissent from women in the Arab world
Performance Analysis of An Earth Water Heat Exchanger in Sharjah
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Mechanical Engineering by Hanin Atwany entitled, “Performance Analysis of An Earth Water Heat Exchanger in Sharjah”, submitted in November 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Mohammad Omar Hamdan and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Bassam Abu-Nabah. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).The growing global demand for energy is amplifying the need for the development of sustainable and energy efficient systems. In the Arabian Gulf, cooling load represents about 70% of the overall energy consumed during the peak summer season. While geothermal cooling has been identified as an effective method for reducing the cooling load, the utilization of Earth Water Heat Exchanges (EWHE) has not been given much attention in the Gulf region. The inadequate research and data available on EWHE technology has hindered its adoption for practical use during structural development and building construction in the United Arab Emirates. In order to bridge this gap, this study demonstrates a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the EWHE through evaluating three critical factors: soil properties, vertical ground temperature distribution, and the EWHE design parameters. The properties of soil are being evaluated through lab testing of soil samples. Vertical ground temperature distribution data is collected from two boreholes located in different locations over the course of seven months. A setup mimicking the performance of an EWHE has been built to collect real time data over several planned test runs. Based on the findings of the current experiments and data, a three-dimensional numerical simulation model has been developed using ANSYS Fluent Release 19.1 to investigate the performance of a horizontal EWHE. The experimental study verified the presence of a geothermal cooling potential in the United Arab Emirates. At a flow rate of 0.15 kg/s and water inlet temperature of 340 K, water outlet temperature was lower by 30 K. The numerical analysis indicated the possibility of further enhancing the rate of heat exchanged through imbedding the heat exchanger in a backfill material of higher soil thermal conductivity. Soil properties and temperature data collected, present a valuable input for future geothermal research in the region.College of EngineeringDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringMaster of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME
Optimal Allocation of Distributed Generation in Distribution Systems
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Electrical Engineering by Hamza Mohammad Abu-Baker entitled, “Optimal Allocation of Distributed Generation in Distribution Systems”, submitted in July 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Mostafa Shaaban and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Ahmed Osman. Soft and hard copy available.The integration of distributed generation (DG) to the power grid has increased in recent years due to their techno-economic benefits for utilities and consumers. The downside of these DG units is that they introduce several challenges to the utilities. One of the critical challenges faced by the utilities from such units is their effect on the protection system settings, location, and coordination. For designing the protection system, fault analysis is carried on the system without considering any DG units. Once the DG units are installed, all previous settings must be updated, since the addition of these units affects the pickup current settings of the protection relays, coordination between the primary and the secondary relays, and even the direction of the fault current. Failing to consider the DG effect on the protection system may lead to serious equipment damage or system failure costing the utility a huge financial setback. Moreover, DG units have many economic and technical effects that must be taken into consideration such as power loss, voltage profile, and thermal overloading. This work proposes a new method for DG allocation in the distribution system through genetic algorithm. The main objective of this work is to optimally allocate DG units to minimize the overall operating costs of the system while taking into consideration its intermittency and the protection system aspects. Simulation results have been developed on a typical distribution system. The optimally allocated DG units resulted in a reduction by 10 % in the overall system costs while upgrading the protection system to withstand the new configuration over the planning horizon.College of EngineeringDepartment of Electrical EngineeringMaster of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE
Solution of Fractional Differential Equations: Transform and Iterative Methods Approach
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Mathematics by Razan Abdul Satar Alchikh entitled, “Solution of Fractional Differential Equations: Variational Iteration Approachs”, submitted in December 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Suheil Khoury. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).Fractional calculus is a novel and highly active area of research in the literature as it has a wide spectrum of applications in the physical sciences and engineering. In this thesis, we study the numerical solution of fractional differential equations subject to initial or boundary conditions. We employ two iterative methods for the solution of such equations. First, we implement a Laplace decomposition method (LDM) which is a combination of two methods: Laplace transform and a decomposition scheme. The nonlinear term is decomposed and a recursive algorithm is composed for the determination of the proposed infinite series solution. Second, we present another iterative technique that is based on the incorporation of Green’s functions into well-established fixed-point iterations, including Krasnoselskii-Mann’s and Picard’s schemes. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy and applicability of the proposed methods, and then, to compare them with other schemes. In addition, we present graphs to understand the behavior of the numerical solutions. A patching strategy, based on domain decomposition, is suggested to overcome a deficiency of the LDM. Fractional differential equations are widely investigated by several researchers.College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of Mathematics and StatisticsMaster of Science in Mathematics (MSMTH
Transformer Differential Protection using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Electrical Engineering by Abdulla Eyad Lutfi entitled, “Transformer Differential Protection using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks”, submitted in December 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Ahmed Osman and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Usman Tariq. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).College of EngineeringDepartment of Electrical EngineeringMaster of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE
Automatic detection of data manipulation in power systems
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Mechatronics Engineering by Leen Al Halabi entitled, “Automatic detection of data manipulation in power systems”, submitted in April 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Shayok Mukhopadhyay and thesis co-advisor Dr. Ahmad Osman. Soft and hard copy available.Securing and protecting a power grid system is critical because a power grid transmits and distributes power to millions of people across a country. One of the significant topics in this field is having a real time model that monitors and controls power system grids. A robust monitoring system can be built based on State Estimation (SE) techniques especially when dealing with non-linear structures such as power systems. In order to have a secured power network, the data acquired by the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems has to be reliable and consistent. This is achieved by enforcing false data detection methods where a malicious interference can be detected. Such methods can differentiate between rubbish data and an intrusion attacking the network. Neural Networks (NNs) are considered one of the widely used techniques in detecting false data injections. This work develops a strategy for automatic detection of data manipulation in a power system network. The main contribution is to introduce a Neural Network (NN) based system that can detect any data manipulation whether bypassed by the state estimators or not. The model is capable of detecting the intrusion with a minimum of three random meters in a grid being manipulated. This provides power system operators the ability to take the required decision before a large-scale attack can occur.College of EngineeringMultidisciplinary ProgramsMaster of Science in Mechatronics Engineering (MSMTR