United Arab Emirates University
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POTENTIALS OF INFORMAL HOUSEHOLD-PRACTICED URBAN FARMING AS A CONTRIBUTOR TO SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE IN EMIRATI NEIGHBOURHOODS
Get PDFThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) has integrated local agendas aimed at achieving urban sustainability and resilience, particularly in alignment with UAE Vision 2030. However, official initiatives in this domain often lack genuine community participation—a critical pillar for the success of sustainable urban development. Meanwhile, urban farming has garnered increasing recognition both globally and locally as a significant contributor to urban sustainability and resilience. In the UAE, official focus has largely centered on professional vertical farming, demonstrated through various high-profile projects. In contrast, informal, household-based urban farming is actively practiced within semi-public, semi-private, and private spaces across many Emirati public housing neighbourhoods. Despite their prevalence, these grassroots practices have not been sufficiently examined for their potential to serve as participatory processes that support urban sustainability and resilience at the neighbourhood level.This research aims to bridge this gap through in-depth investigations into these informal residents-led processes and their outcomes in representative case studies of public housing neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain Cities. To undertake these investigations, the research addressed the following key questions: First, What are the concepts and objectives of urban farming? Second, How is informal household farming being practiced in the open spaces in the selected neighborhoods? Third, How does the practiced informal urban farming affect food production, climate change, and resilience? Fourth, what are the households’ opinions on collective participation in community urban farms in public spaces? And lastly, how do the key stakeholders perceive this informal urban agriculture process in terms of its integration, challenges, and potential for wider application.To address these questions, the research adopted the Case Study method, focusing on two representative neighborhoods witnessing intensive urban farming activities—Al Falah neighbourhood in Abu Dhabi City and Al Daher neighbourhood in Al Ain City, both in the UAE. The research employed mixed qualitative and quantitative investigation tools, including a comprehensive literature review, field observations, Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and analysis, and semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of residents and stakeholders.The research findings have revealed the aspects of the informal urban farming process as led by the residents themselves, as well as the significant impacts that this informal process has had on multiple levels, including environmental sustainability, local food production, community engagement, and environmental resilience. The research has shown that Emirati residents are eager to engage in collective urban farming activities besides their ‘individual’ urban farming practices. Meanwhile, the interviewed key stakeholders have emphasized the importance of integrating urban agriculture into the current urban planning policies and regulations.Based on these insights, the research proposes recommendations to legalize and recognize these informal, household-managed urban farming within Emirati urban development frameworks. The research further advocates for expanding these initiatives by encouraging community participation, supported by local authorities and relevant stakeholders acting as facilitators
COLLECTION OF SELF-RESEARCH PAPERS ANALYZING THE ENHANCEMENT OF UAE-CHINA COOPERATION THROUGH PUBLIC POLICY LENSES
Get PDFAs a research combination, this thesis is concerned with how UAE public policy can align with China’s overseas interests to deepen the current strategic partnership, focusing on the bilateral business cooperation including diplomacy, free zone trading, and corporate governance in energy sectors. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze whether this relationship can be maintained or upgraded to an all-weather strategic partnership amidst global challenges. Multiple research models are used to investigate specific public policies and their implementation, including historical analysis, policy dynamic framework, socio-legal research, and network governance examination. The results of this thesis indicate that aligning UAE public policy with China’s overseas interests has sufficient potential to deepen the current strategic partnership in the areas of diplomacy, free zone trading, and corporate governance in energy sectors, based on the achievement of policy outputs. This thesis provides a special research scope for public study based on the examination of overseas public interests, stakeholder engagement and international cooperation from a historical perspective, and offers multiple suggestions with governance instruments to navigate specific research areas and enhance current policy achievements. It also fills the gap with its unique value as a multidimensional analysis of UAE-China cooperation through public policy lenses, focusing on China’s overseas investment interests and international relationship development from a jurisprudential perspective
AN ACCURATE NUMERICAL METHOD FOR IMPULSIVELY STARTED FLOW PAST AN ELLIPTICAL CYLINDER IN NANOFLUIDIC MEDIUM
Get PDFThis thesis presents a numerical study of flow induced by an infinitely long heated circular or elliptical cylinder in a uniform stream 0 of a viscous, incompressible nanofluid. The study is based on solving the full conservation equations of mass, momentum, and heat. The methodology includes the mathematical formulation of the problem, which suits the initial development of the flow and the large time numerical simulations. For the numerical technique, high-order compact (HOC) scheme is developed for circular and elliptical geometries. The numerical scheme is verified by applying it to the cases of uniform flow past a stationary elliptical cylinder; the validation includes grid independence studies and comparisons with existing numerical results.For circular cylinder, the effects of different nanoparticles namely ₂₃, ₃, ₂, at various concentrations, with a fixed Reynolds number of = 200, showed that ₂₃ nanoparticles are the most efficient for improving heat transfer, while ₃ and ₂ provide more moderate improvements, with ₂ being less effective due to its higher viscosity and reduced flow disturbances. The time evolution of Nusselt number and temperature variations with ₂ nanoparticles leading to more noticeable thermal oscillations comparative to ₂₃ and ₃, showing more stable heat transfer characteristics. For a circular cylinder, nanoparticle concentration altered the flow structure but had minimal effect on vortex shedding frequency, while impacting flow stability and turbulence.For an elliptical cylinder, higher nanoparticle concentrations improve convective heat transfer and the Nusselt number, with increased fluctuations indicating enhanced efficiency. ₂₃ nanoparticles are the most effective, while ₃ offers moderate improvement, and ₂ provides the weakest enhancement due to its higher density and reduced flow disturbances. The analysis of both 00 and 900 orientations show that 900 cylinder orientation enhances turbulence, causing greater Nusselt number fluctuations and dynamic heat transfer, while the 00 orientation leads to more stable flow and uniform heat transfer. Lower aspect ratios increase turbulence and Nusselt number fluctuations, while higher aspect ratios promote stable heat transfer. Optimizing aspect ratio and nanoparticle concentration is key to maximizing heat transfer efficiency in nanofluid systems
The effects of geometric shape and power-law index on the thermal activity and dynamic behavior of a complex fluid
Get PDFThe paper presents numerical results for non-Newtonian fluid confined horizontally between two rings. The outer ring has a circular shape, low temperature and rotates at a constant and uniform speed, while the inner ring has different shapes (circular, square and triangular), is constant and has a high temperature. This study aims to determine the method and the amount of heat transfer between the rings and under the influence of these factors: the rheological coefficient of the fluid, known as the power-law index, thermal buoyancy intensity, the rotation speed of the outer ring and the geometric shape of the inner ring. The experiment was performed numerically using the digital simulator ANSYS CFX. The results showed that the square shape of the ring reduced thermal activity compared to the circular shape. Furthermore, the effect of the power-law index on the fluid behavior is the same for all the shapes studied
INVESTIGATION OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR SWING-UP MANEUVER OF A DOUBLE INVERTED PENDULUM ON ROTATING LINK
Get PDFThis thesis is concerned with investigation of the swing-up control problem of underactuated mechanical systems namely the double rotary inverted pendulum using the optimal control theory. The research aims to develop a robust controller to achieve the swing-up and stabilization of the pendulum in the upright unstable equilibrium position while regulating the angular displacement of the rotating arm and the two pendulum angles. The performance of the designed controller was evaluated through numerical simulations in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted and the challenges that researchers face in the control of underactuated mechanical systems were discussed and identified. Kinematic and kinetic analysis were then performed to derive the equations of motion of the system, which were represented in a standard input-output form suitable for controller design. A swing-up control scheme was then developed and employed in the form of a feedforward controller derived from solving a two-point boundary value optimization problem across the pendulum equilibrium points for a fixed swing-up time. The feedforward controller was then paired with a time-varying feedback controller based on a linear-quadratic regulator method in which the double rotary inverted pendulum system tracks the pre-calculated desired trajectories for the angular displacements and velocities for all pendulum joints. This was achieved through linearizing the equations of motion around the entirety of the input and output desired trajectories yielding the time-varying feedback gains which were used in the gain scheduling. The simulation results obtained in MATLAB/Simulink were shown to be indicative of the capability of the designed controller to perform a successful swing-up and stabilizing maneuver for the double rotary inverted pendulum, while exhibiting excellent trajectory tracking and disturbance rejection during the swing-up and steady state phases respectively. The simulation study also showed that the methods adopted in this research produced results that are matching results of attempts presented in the literature for swinging up double inverted pendulum systems such as the double inverted pendulum on a cart. This was attributed to the accurate modelling of the system and the successful implementation of the feedforward control and the optimization of the feedback control gain scheduling. In addition, a virtual model of the system was constructed in MATLAB/Simscape to validate the controller performance in a semi-empirical environment where the link parameters and mechanical properties were inherited from the three-dimensional model directly without approximation. The results obtained from the virtual model validation showed good agreement with the results obtained from numerical simulations but with slightly higher torque values as measured at the rotating arm’s joint. The work presented in this thesis not only served to verify the controller’s effectiveness in achieving the complex swing-up maneuver but also provided valuable insights into potential challenges to be addressed in order to bridge between theory, simulations, and real-world implementations. With limited number of experimental validations performed for this system, a prototype of an experimental setup is currently under development at the United Arab Emirates University, which is planned to be used as a future continuation of the current work to experimentally validate the results presented here
THE TRANSFORMATION OF JUVENILE PUNISHMENT AND REFORM POLICIES IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Get PDFThis research addresses the topic of juvenile criminal responsibility in light of UAE Federal Law No. (6) of 2022, which was enacted to reorganize the rules for dealing with juvenile delinquents and those at risk of delinquency in accordance with societal changes and international standards. The study focused on analyzing the legal foundations of the concept of juvenile criminal responsibility, comparing the new legislation with the previous Law No. (9) of 1976, and highlighting the development in the age of responsibility, which has been raised to 12 years, along with the resulting legal and legislative implications. The research also examined the classification of legal measures adopted by the legislator concerning juveniles, which are divided into three main categories: judicial, disciplinary, and administrative. It clarified the new roles of supporting entities, particularly child protection specialists, who have become an essential part of the investigation, trial, and enforcement phases. Furthermore, the study addressed the challenges of aligning UAE law with international standards, as well as the extent to which the new law is consistent with the provisions of Islamic Sharia. It highlighted the strengths of the new legislation, in addition to identifying potential gaps that require further attention and rectification
A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF BALANCING, GEOMETRIC TRANSFORMATION, GENERATIVE NETWORKS AUGMENTATION, AND ROI TECHNIQUES IN EYE DISEASES CLASSIFICATION
Get PDFAutomatic detection of ocular diseases helps medical professionals efficiently identify eye disorders, reduce diagnostic errors, and accelerate diagnoses to prevent blindness. Deep learning has been successfully utilized in various fields, including medical image classification. However, in spite of these advancements, challenges remain in ocular disease classification. /= / \u3eThe objective of this work is to address these challenges using data processing, data augmentation in combination with Region of Interest (ROI) techniques. Medical datasets often suffer from scarcity, imbalance, and low-quality images, leading to inaccurate classification. To mitigate these issues, we utilize the ODIR dataset, which contains 7,000 labelled training images for both left and right eyes, and propose a data augmentation method using a Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) algorithm. This method aims to augment and balance the fundus images across eight different categories of ocular diseases, including normal fundus images. The generated images were then used to train transfer learning models, with 3,000 generated images per category. The data was split into 80% (2,400) for training, 10% (300) for testing, and 10% (300) for validation. Using only generated images, the testing accuracy of a transfer learning model Inception V3 – after training for 25 epochs, improved significantly to about 95% for eight eye disease categories. We further trained the filtered and separated ocular disease images using an unsupervised model – StyleGAN – for 160 to 260 iterations. A portion of the 2,400 generated images was then used to train transfer learning models to avoid overfitting and enhance accuracy. Additionally, we applied ROI and post-processing techniques to enhance the images. Using only real images for the binary glaucoma test resulted in an improvement of approximately 10% compared to unmodified images which achieved only 72% testing accuracy. /= / \u3eWe have demonstrated that augmenting medical datasets with GANs, combined with the use of appropriate ROI techniques tailored to the characteristics of two categories of eye diseases, significantly improves classification accuracy. /= / \u3eThis comprehensive study includes numerous experiments using ocular disease images, ranging from imbalanced, unmodified, non-augmented data to balanced, augmented, and edited data. The study employs multi-approach methods with a standard vi benchmark, using only real, unadjusted images as testing data, and hence highlighting the challenges and uniqueness of this work
BRIDGING BORDERS: EXPLORING PLACE ATTACHMENT AS SPATIAL LIVED EXPERIENCES OF EXPATRIATE COMMUNITIES IN DUBAI, UAE
Get PDFDubai, a global city where expatriate communities make up the majority of the population, offers a unique context to explore how urban environments are both shaped by and shaping people’s experiences. With rapid growth of migration and deep cultural diversity, the city exemplifies how top-down planning and bottom-up lived experiences interact to influence how individuals form emotional and spatial connections to place. This dissertation investigates the concept of place attachment through the lens of spatial behavior, lived experience, and inherited practices, with a focus on expatriate communities in Dubai. It asks: How do expatriate communities in Dubai experience and express place attachment through their everyday spatial practices? The study frames place attachment as a process of “bridging borders,” where individuals negotiate between their place of origin and their place of residence, forming emotional, cultural, and spatial continuities that transcend geographical boundaries and challenge traditional notion of belonging. This inquiry unfolds across two intertwined scales. On one hand, it explores the individual and communal spatial experiences of place attachment through everyday practices, such as walking, eating, worshipping, and gathering. On the other hand, it connects these intimate experiences to larger urban and migration dynamics, situating them within the structural forces of citymaking, migration and policy. In doing so, it reveals the complex interplay between formal systems (e.g., urban planning, zoning, and regulation) and informal lived realities (e.g., daily routines, cultural rituals, and community ties) that co-produce the experience of place in a highly transient city. Adopting a phenomenological qualitative approach, the study draws on the lived and inherited experiences of expatriates in Dubai, examining how social and symbolic space, such as food venues, religious sites, and personal gathering spaces, become everyday anchors. These sites not only ground individuals emotionally but also serve as platforms for recreating fragments of cultural identity and heritage from their places of origin, while also enabling new spatial engagement with the city. The findings highlight that place attachment in Dubai is shaped by the intersection of planned urban form and unplanned human experience. The coexistence of these layers transforms Dubai into a site of negotiation, adaptation, and meaning-making. Importantly, the study challenges
the idea that place attachment is tied only to permanence or long-term residence. Instead, it argues that emotional depth and cultural memory can flourish even in transient, hyper-planned environments, given the right social and spatial conditions. This research contributes to wider academic discussions in urban planning, migration studies, and social sustainability, calling for more focus on the lived, informal, and emotional dimensions of urban life, especially in cities shaped by migration, diversity, and impermanence. Ultimately, it offers a nuanced understanding of how expatriate communities form meaningful, lasting connections to places they may never formally call their own
مستقبل التدخل القضائي في مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي: رؤية جديدة في ضوء نصوص الدستور المصري الصادر سنة 2014م (دراسة تحليلية استشرافية)
Get PDFAbstract
The shift toward reformative goal of punishment has played a prominent role in expanding the circle of judicial intervention during the enforcement phase, to insure that the imposed penalty fulfills its role in reforming the person subjected to it. Before the establishment of this reform objective, there was no room for talking about an influential role of the judiciary in the stage of penal enforcement. The serious discussion of this role did not begin until the reformative goal of punishment was established.
The phase of penal enforcement, was a completely forgotten stage for the Egyptian constitutional legislator, and did not cross their mind during the decades preceding the revolution of January 25, 2011.
The post-January 2011 revolution constitutions - especially the current one - focused on the penal enforcement phase from three angles. Firstly, determining the corrective objective of penal enforcement. Secondly, imposition of judicial supervision over prisons. And thirdly, referral to the legislation regarding regulating the provisions for the rehabilitation and reform of prisoners.
The provisions of the Egyptian constitution issued in 2014 gave broad powers to the legislator, to assign a significant role to the judiciary in the phase of penal enforcement, and to adopt a large number of modern punitive alternatives decided by contemporary legislation, enabling the judiciary to exercise all its powers in replacing traditional freedom-depriving penalties with modern punitive measures and alternatives, during the penal enforcement phase, and to implement tangible structural changes during the penal enforcement phase in a non-traditional way, to ensure the reform of the convicted individual, and to utilize the penal enforcement stage to eliminate the criminal tendencies within the individual, so that they may return to society as a healthy, productive member.
مخلص البحث
كان للتحول إلى الهدف الإصلاحي للعقوبة، دور بارز في توسيع دائرة التدخل القضائي في مرحلة تنفيذها؛ للتحقق من أنّ العقوبة المحكوم بها تؤدي دورها في إصلاح الخاضع لها. وقبل استقرار هذا الهدف الإصلاحي لم يكن هناك مجال للحديث عن دور مؤثر للقضاء في مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي، ولم يبدأ الحديث الجادّ عن هذا الدور إلا بعد أن استقر الهدف الإصلاحي للعقوبة.
ومرحلة التنفيذ العقابي كانت مرحلة منسية تمامًا بالنسبة للمشرّع الدستوري المصري، ولم تدر بخلده طوال عشرات السنين السابقة على قيام ثورة الخامس والعشرين من يناير سنة 2011م.
واهتمت دساتير ما بعد ثورة يناير 2011م ـــ خاصة الدستور الحالي ـــ بمرحلة التنفيذ العقابي من ثلاث زوايا، أولها: تقرير الهدف الإصلاحي للتنفيذ العقابي، وثانيها: فرض الإشراف القضائي على السجون، وثالثها: الإحالة إلى القانون في شأن تنظيم أحكام إعادة تأهيل السجناء وإصلاحهم.
والنصوص التي أتى بها الدستور المصري الصادر سنة 2014م، أعطت صلاحيات متسعة للمشرّع لإسناد دور كبير للقضاء في مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي، وتقرير ترسانة من البدائل العقابية الحديثة التي تقرّرها التشريعات المعاصرة، على أن يباشر القضاء كافة سلطاته في استبدال التدابير والبدائل العقابية الحديثة بالعقوبات السالبة للحرية التقليدية خلال مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي، وإجراء تغييرات هيكلية ملموسة في مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي بشكل غير تقليدي؛ من أجل كفالة إصلاح المحكوم عليه، واستغلال مرحلة التنفيذ العقابي في القضاء على عوامل الإجرام الكامنة في نفسه؛ كي يعود إلى المجتمع عضوًا سويًا
RESILIENCE ORIENTED DYNAMIC BAYESIAN NETWORK FOR TIME DEPENDENT POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM DURING HURRICANES
Get PDFIn this dissertation, the overhead line failure due to extreme winds was investigated. The objective of the overhead line failure analysis was to evaluate the failure probability of line due to hurricane. The standard IEEE 33 bus test system was utilized to analyze the impact of hurricane wind speed intensity at distinct time and location on the grid. The test system was divided into four regions based on the number of buses and hurricane category (according to Saffire Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale). Regions 1, 2, and 3 cover 8 buses while region 4 covers 9 buses. Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 were affected by a hurricane category of 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The Dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) based failure model was developed using Genie software for asynchronous hurricane scenarios to determine the line failure of overhead lines. The developed model was validated using fragility curve Monte Carlo simulation based (FC-MCS-SCENRED) model. A service restoration model was formulated with the aim of maximizing restored loads and minimizing the power losses using DG integration and system reconfiguration. Three different cases depicting minor, major and worst-case scenarios were investigated. Case 1 (Faulted lines: 18, 21) representing minor scenario corresponds to region 2 affected by category 3 hurricane at time instant t = 0 while case 2 (Faulted lines: 5, 6, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 33) representing major scenario corresponds to region 2 affected by category 3 hurricane at time instant t = 1, and case 3 (Faulted lines: 1, 2, 3, 4, 18, 22, 23, 24) representing worst-case scenario (blackout) corresponds to region 1 affected by category 4 hurricane at time instant t = 0. Using system reconfiguration and optimal DG placement, the percentage load restored for every case and scenario was computed. Finally, three resilience indicators 1, 2, and 3 were used to quantify the resilience of the restoration model outcomes. The findings of the overhead line failure model and the service restoration model were used to calculate resilience metrics. While 2 and 3 were derived from the resilience trapezoid framework—evaluating recovery efficiency and phased performance, 1 provides a complementary perspective by quantifying cumulative losses across all nodes. Together, these metrics holistically assess resilience in terms of severity (1), restoration success (2), and phased adaptability (3). The integration of DG and reconfiguration restored the load from 90.3% to 100% for Case 1 (t = 0). For Case 2 (t = 1) reconfiguration and DG placement restored the load from 34.994% to 80.35% and 100% respectively. For Case 3 (t = 0) reconfiguration was insufficient in restoring the load while DG placement restored the load from 0% to 100%. Thus, the DBN based overhead line failure analysis together with reconfiguration and optimal DG placement-based service restoration resulted in improved load recovery and power losses