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The behaviour of curved beams may be simulated via the use of straight elements with constant offset. The theoretical basis for this approach is developed and numerical examples demonstrating the effectiveness of the offset elements are presented.

In a previous note, curved arch elements were simulated by attaching rigid offsets to nodes of straight elements. The procedure was physically motivated. Here the offsets method is derived by shell theory and is seen to lie in the context of standard assumed‐displacement field finite‐element theory. Application to shells of revolution is provided.

The conflict between Iran and Iraq is not new; it dates from long before September 1980. In fact, the origins of the current war can be traced to the battle of Qadisiyah in Southern Iraq in 637 A.D., a battle in which the Arab armies of General Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas decisively defeated the Persian army. In victory, the Arab armies extended Islam east of the Zagros Mountains to Iran. In defeat, the Persian Empire began a steady decline that lasted until the sixteenth century. However, since the beginning of that century, Persia has occupied Iraq three times: 1508–1514, 1529–1543, and 1623–1638. Boundary disputes, specifically over the Shatt al‐Arab Waterway, and old enmities caused the wars. In 1735, belligerent Iranian naval forces entered the Shatt al‐Arab but subsequently withdrew. Twenty years later, Iranians occupied the city of Sulimaniah and threatened to occupy the neighboring countries of Bahrain and Kuwait. In 1847, Iran dominated the eastern bank of the Shatt al‐Arab and occupied Mohamarah in Iraq.

Najib Mahfuz is the first Arab‐language author to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Born in 1911 the son of a middle‐class Jamaliyah merchant, he became the most popular novelist in Egypt and the Arab countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficiency and productivity performance of zakat funds managed by Directorates of Religious Affairs and Endowments (DRAE) in Algeria.

In this study, the authors employ data envelopment analysis and measure Malmquist Productivity Index for DRAE’s input and output data spanning from 2003 to 2013.

The authors find that total factor productivity has increased sharply for all zakat funds, mainly due to a technical rather than efficiency change. Further decomposition of the efficiency change into its pure technical and scale efficiency components suggests that the pure efficiency is a more important source of efficiency change than the scale efficiency component, meaning that zakat funds rely on technical aspects to gain efficiency.

The findings of this study are expected to contribute considerably to the existing knowledge on the operating performance of zakat funds in Algeria.