Search results

A soil information system was developed to manage soil survey data and to ensure that soil information is readily available to support land use planning and development. The Soil Information System combined spatial information management of a Geographical Information System (GIS) with the textural information management of a relational database management system. The GIS is capable of manipulating and displaying area and point data with the logical framework of a database to store data for interpretation. The main objective of this paper was to demonstrate one of the approaches to utilize and interpret data from the soil information system for identifying soil suitable for irrigated agriculture. The design and implementation of the soil information system are discussed, and an example of system output, such as mapping soils suitable for irrigated agricultural, is presented in this paper. For mapping these areas, a criterion was defined to select potential areas for irrigated agriculture. The criterion was applied to each of the soil property classes and subclasses to determine the most limiting rating for each soil. The rating was applied to map units and was allocated by the geographic soil map units in the GIS to produce a suitability map for irrigated agricultural areas in Kuwait. The soil information for the State of Kuwait provided information in a digitized format that can be further extended to interpret other land uses.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the various consequences of climate change on the biodiversity of Kuwait. Many world organizations have established strategic plans for climate change, such as The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which is adopted in 2002 by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The paper utlizes a wide range of research projects completed at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), which provide information leading to the degradding effects and risks of climate change on the biodiversity and ecosystem services of Kuwait.

The biodiversity of Kuwait is under severe stress due to natural and anthropogenic factors. The region is also threatened physically and biologically by the global warming phenomena. More severe and harsh climatic conditions will cause increase in formation of sand dunes, sand encroachment, and extreme dust storms. In 2008, Kuwait has the worst ever reported summer since 1991 with increase in intensity and frequency of dust storms. Drought will cause more water demand for local consumption and irrigation. The seawater temperature increase would affect the spawning period of fish and shrimp and would cause migration of fish to other more suitable areas. This would cause severe impact on the fish industry in Kuwait and the region. Losses in plant cover will be due to sand encroachment or erratic rainfall periods causing runoff and flooding.

The work is based on various projects at the KISR and by some journal publications that relate to climate change impact on biodivesity. More research work is needed to test the long‐term impact of climate change on bidivesity of Kuwait.

There is a need to develop a strategic plan for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Kuwait. Specific elements of the plan would include: research for identification of vulnerable species, collecting field population data, conducting modeling research to inform conservation programs; monitoring key species; ex situ conservation using living collection and ensuring representation in conservation collection; in situ conservation and increase in protected areas; education and public awareness programs; networking; and sharing knowledge.

The issue of female economic empowerment in the Middle East and the North Africa region (MENA) has attracted significant attention; however, its potential in the tourism sector has not been fully explored. This study aims to identify the steps involved in conceptualizing, designing, and conducting a customized tourism training program to economically empower women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Grounded in stakeholder theory and using a triangulation method of data analysis, the study is an outcome of mixed-method research. The data were collected through focus group interviews, personal interviews and a survey involving women stakeholders from public and private sectors.

The study revealed that the desired components for tourist guide training among Emirati women include career paths, ways to seek support from family, entrepreneurial and leadership skills development, and destination knowledge.

The study provides theoretical and practical implications for a systematic training approach undertaken by a destination management organization (DMO) in liaison with other stakeholders. The study recommends a series of phases to scientifically design and conduct tourism training in order to empower women.

This paper aimed to study the optimal way to implement and subsequently manage the new metropolitan lines in the Kuwait city as well as to justify them from a social and economic-financial viability standpoint and the most important aspects of transport infrastructure projects viability. The implementation of new modes of transport in an urban environment requires the study of several factors that allow their incorporation on the transport system in the most efficient method. These factors include reviewing the organization of the transport system. The concept of transport system organization, financing models and common trends was defined. Finally, the Public Transport Authority was created to define global objectives and establish specific policies to achieve them was suggested.

After the analysis of the “status quo” of transport systems organization, the financing and management schemes, both infrastructure projects and the provision of rail service were analysed. The characteristics of the PPP scheme (Public–Private Participation) contract, advantages and disadvantages, its structure, and the definition and share of risk (matrix of risk, rights and obligations of the parties) as a key element of the PPP contracts were defined. From this point onwards, the legal framework in force in Kuwait was analysed, particularly the administrative and commercial regulations applying to this project and the authors verified that the economic-financial viability analysis suggested before can be established under this framework.

For the viability of these alternatives, the authors developed a simulation economic-financial model that reflects Financial Statements for the “Society Vehicle Project” and are considered some minimum thresholds of profitability, both from the viewpoint of the partners sponsoring the project as from the standpoint of lenders, which make attractive participation of private initiative. Finally, there was a short socio-economic analysis to justify the project implementation from a social standpoint. It analyses and quantifies the reduction of operating expenses of other modes of transport, travelling times, accident rates, environmental pollution etc. All these factors affect the quality of life of the population of Kuwait and are the main reason to carry out this project. Several recommendations were raised that aimed at preparing the projects, bidding and selection of private partner and the articulation and implementation of projects.

This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge through setting the framework for metro projects in arid regions with the hottest temperature on Earth such as Kuwait where such projects are missing completely. This work will be very helpful to governments and municipalities in taking investment decisions. It sets the strategy for utilizing the best of decision-making theory, identifying the reliability advantages and finding the larger economic effects. This work identified, through the analysis of alternative management options generally used in underground and rail projects in different parts of the world, the most convenient alternative in developing countries. It also clearly showed, through the analysis carried out on governmental contributions, how to obtain economic viability for such types of projects. Finally, it helped drawing a roadmap for preparing the projects, bidding and selection of private partner and the articulation and implementation of projects in Kuwait and Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC).

The paper aims to examine the association of green human resource management (GHRM) with organisational sustainability (OS) through the mediating function of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment (OCBE) in Palestinian health-care organisations.

The paper applied a quantitative method in which data are collected from a survey with 88 human resources and quality managers who work in Palestinian health-care organisations. Furthermore, the structural equation modelling method of partial least squares was used for the data analysis.

The results demonstrated that GHRM practices positively influenced CSR and OCBE, which eventually influenced OS. Notably, this study offers empirical insights into how to improve OS through CSR, OCBE and GHRM approaches.

This paper presents the implications for achieving the health care sector’s long-term sustainability by linking strategic environmental goals of human resources management practices with practices of social responsibility and organisational citizenship behaviour, which ensures employee participation in formulating policies and strategies for the organization.

Reviews UK hotel sector performance during 1995 with reference to prevailing economic conditions and political prospects. Considers the likely impact of changes in employment policy and European directives, general trends in the UK and reviews the hotel market in London and the English regions, Scotland and Wales.

The purpose of this study is to propose a new method for the end-to-end classification of steel surface defects.

This study proposes an AM-AoN-SNN algorithm, which combines an attention mechanism (AM) with an All-optical Neuron-based spiking neural network (AoN-SNN). The AM enhances network learning and extracts defective features, while the AoN-SNN predicts both the labels of the defects and the final labels of the images. Compared to the conventional Leaky-Integrated and Fire SNN, the AoN-SNN has improved the activation of neurons.

The experimental findings on Northeast University (NEU)-CLS demonstrate that the proposed neural network detection approach outperforms other methods. Furthermore, the network’s effectiveness was tested, and the results indicate that the proposed method can achieve high detection accuracy and strong anti-interference capabilities while maintaining a basic structure.

This study introduces a novel approach to classifying steel surface defects using a combination of a shallow AoN-SNN and a hybrid AM with different network architectures. The proposed method is the first study of SNN networks applied to this task.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the nature of the flow field, temperature distribution and heat and mass transfer in a triangular solar collector enclosure with a corrugated bottom wall in the unsteady condition numerically.

Non-linear governing partial differential equations (i.e. mass, momentum, energy and concentration equations) are transformed into a system of integral equations by applying the Galerkin weighted residual method. The integration involved in each of these terms is performed using Gauss’ quadrature method. The resulting non-linear algebraic equations are modified by the imposition of boundary conditions. Finally, Newton’s method is used to modify non-linear equations into the linear algebraic equations.

Both the buoyancy ratio and thermal Rayleigh number play an important role in controlling the mode of heat transfer and mass transfer.

Calculations are performed for various thermal Rayleigh numbers, buoyancy ratios and time periods. For each specific condition, streamline contours, isotherm contours and iso-concentration contours are obtained, and the variation in the overall Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is identified for different parameter combinations.