SACM - New Zealand
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9662
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Item Restricted Analyzing the Spread of COVID-19 Misinformation on Twitter: Patterns, Impact, and Countermeasures(Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Abokhanjar, Hissah; Li, Weihua; Wang, XiaodanTwitter, as a significant information hub during the pandemic, has facilitated the rapid spread of accurate updates and false narratives, contributing to the ‘infodemic.’ This study investigates the most common types of COVID-19 misinformation spread on Twitter and examines their impact on public perception and behavior. By analyzing a substantial dataset of COVID-19-related tweets, the research identifies recurring misinformation themes, including erroneous claims about the virus’s origin, prevention strategies, treatments, and vaccine efficacy. Prominent misinformation types include theories falsely attributing the virus’s origin to human engineering or intentional release, unproven prevention methods like natural remedies, and misleading treatment options, such as the promotion of unapproved drugs. Additionally, vaccine-related misinformation, including baseless claims about vaccine safety, side effects, and hidden agendas, contributed significantly to public skepticism and hesitancy. The study explores how these misinformation narratives influenced public attitudes and behaviors, revealing that exposure led to increased vaccine hesitancy, reduced compliance with public health guidelines, and the widespread acceptance of conspiracy theories. These effects complicated public health efforts and deepened social and political divisions, further impeding effective pandemic management. The findings highlight the urgent need for strategies to counter misinformation and promote accurate public health information, especially during global crises. Public health authorities, social media platforms, and educators must collaborate to enhance information literacy, improve content moderation, and develop targeted interventions. These efforts are crucial to mitigating the spread and impact of misinformation, thereby safeguarding public health and trust in scientific expertise.11 0Item Restricted Privacy Regulation of Cellular Network Data: A Comparative Study with Recommendations for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(University of Waikato, 2023) Aldubayyan, Ahmed; Rumbles, Associate Wayne; Liao, Leo ZOne of the primary economic objectives of multinational technology corporations is to amass a significant amount of personal data, potentially leading to significant infringements of individuals' privacy rights. The advent of the technology revolution has resulted in a swift evolution of privacy laws in numerous jurisdictions. This can be attributed to the enhanced capacity of governmental and commercial entities to monitor and accumulate extensive data, as well as the economic objectives of global technology corporations to amass copious amounts of personal information. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has yet to implement legal provisions that ensure the privacy rights of its citizens and has also not introduced any legislation that safeguards the confidentiality rights of its citizens. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently contemplating the possibility of implementing a privacy legislation that considers not only its own distinct national culture, but also the role of privacy within the cultures of the surrounding region, as well as on a global scale. Annually, a vast number of international tourists travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has established a comprehensive plan and outlook aimed at luring multinational corporations across diverse sectors. Due to the aforementioned circumstances, it is imperative for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to establish a robust legislative framework that can effectively protect personal data. It is noteworthy that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia operates under the governance of Sharia Law and Islamic Jurisprudence, which serve to safeguard the entitlement to confidentiality and privacy of personal data. The preservation of privacy and confidentiality of personal information is a significant concern for the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and they handle these issues with great sensitivity. In contemporary times, characterised by technological advancements and rapid global and economic development, it is imperative to institute legislation that protects the data and information infrastructure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to the personal privacy of its populace. The thesis delves into the significance of privacy and examines the measures taken by various jurisdictions to safeguard the personal information of their residents. Additionally, it explores the potential lessons that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can draw from these examples.3 0Item Restricted Compliments and Compliment Responses in Saudi Arabia: A Socio-Pragmatic Study(The University of Auckland, 2024) Alqarawi, Nahlah Abdulaziz; Buckingham, LouisaThis thesis presents a sociopragmatic study of complimenting (C) and compliment responding (CR) in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabic complimenting reflects both universal linguistic features and culture-specific norms. The study aimed to comprehensively examine Saudi Arabic C and CR performance in an authentic context. This study addresses gaps in understanding the sociopragmatic aspects of C/CRs in Saudi Arabia, as prior research has focused on other languages. Unlike previous studies on complimenting and responding in Saudi Arabic that utilized elicitation methods, this study utilizes a corpus of naturally occurring data from 88 hours of audio recordings in informal social events, which serve to maintain and reinforce social ties across familial, tribal, and friendship networks. These events involved participants socializing in recurrent casual encounters and celebratory occasions. This study employed a qualitative approach with descriptive statistics. Thematic analysis was used to identify and categorize the C and CR strategies. The frequency of each identified C and CR strategy was calculated to determine their distributions across the corpus. This approach helped develop Saudi-centred taxonomies that reflect complimenting sociocultural norms. The analysis revealed that physical appearance and personal attributes were the most frequent compliment topics. Explicit compliment strategies predominated over implicit ones. Acceptance with deflection was a prevalent Saudi response strategy. Speaker attributes like gender and dialect (Riyadh and Qassim) impacted strategy choices. Islamic references were commonly featured in mitigation with Cs and appreciation tokens with CRs. The findings from this study contribute to greater awareness of how social values and politeness considerations are shaped by the Islamic faith which governs C/CR sociopragmatic conventions. The findings can help facilitate appropriate compliment and response exchanges between Saudi native speakers and non-native speakers and contribute to the development of educational materials to teach Arabic language learners.15 0Item Restricted Investigating the Influence of Knowledge and Attitudes on AI Practices in English Language Teaching: A Mixed-Methods Study of New Zealand Secondary School ESOL Teachers(Victoria University of Wellington, 2024) Khalil, Daya; Siyanova-Chanturia, AnnaThe rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has transformed the teaching landscape, offering new opportunities but also posing challenges for teachers (Rahman et al., 2024; Karataş et al., 2024; Kartal & Yeşilyurt, 2024). Previous studies, such as those by Zhang et al. (2023) and Wang et al. (2023), have highlighted the potential benefits of AI for streamlining teaching practices and enhancing instructional efficiency. However, the effective use of AI depends on teachers’ knowledge and attitudes, which shape how they adopt and implement AI tools (Chiu et al., 2024; Kim & Kwon, 2023). Despite the increasing focus on AI in research, no empirical evidence to date has directly investigated how secondary school English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers’ knowledge and attitudes influence their AI practices in New Zealand. This study aims to fill that gap by exploring these relationships. This mixed-methods study involved survey data from 35 secondary school ESOL teachers and semi-structured interviews with four participants. Quantitative results showed that 68.6% of teachers reported low use of AI in English language teaching (ELT), while 31.4% demonstrated moderate use. Knowledge levels varied, with 40% having low knowledge and only 17.1% possessing advanced knowledge. Attitudes were mixed, with 22.9% showing positive attitudes and 25.7% expressing negative attitudes. Regression analysis revealed that attitudes (β = 0.560) were a stronger predictor of practices than knowledge (β = 0.379). Qualitative themes highlighted cautious exploration, the perceived need for robust verification methods of AI content, and the influence of both confidence and familiarity on AI use. Teachers with positive attitudes were more inclined to integrate AI meaningfully, while those with limited knowledge or negative attitudes restricted their use to simpler applications. These results emphasize the need for professional development that strengthens both technical knowledge and critical perspectives, supporting responsible and effective AI integration in ELT.15 0Item Restricted Earnings Quality Using the Long-Run Equilibrium Relation Between Income and Cash Flows(Victoria University of Wellington, 2024-07-07) Alghamdi, Feras; Roger, WillettIn this study, we provide evidence confirming the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between comprehensive income and cash flows and that short-run deviations from the long-run equilibrium are regularly corrected. Therefore, we introduce an alternative approach to evaluating the quality of earnings, according to which, the quality of earnings is a function of the magnitudes of these short-run deviations and the speed with which they are corrected. We also develop an earnings quality measure, the Income Quality Index (IQI), to serve that purpose. Finally, we illustrate the application and advantages of this approach to earnings quality.26 0Item Restricted The English Language Needs of Applied Medical Sciences Students in a Saudi Arabian College- A Needs Analysis Study(The University of Auckland, 2024) Hausawi, Nada Mohammed; Basturkmen, HelenIn Saudi Arabia, many students are currently enrolled in undergraduate programs in Applied Medical Sciences studies, and these programs require students to complete written assignments in English, which they struggle with. Information about students' English language writing needs in these programs has been limited. This study adopted a genre-based approach to needs analysis to investigate students' English writing needs and challenges in three Medical Sciences disciplines– Anaesthesia Technology, Neuroscience Technology, and Respiratory Care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Applied Medical Sciences faculty members (N=7) and students (N=17). The study found that the students needed to write five genres - patient documentation reports, posters, essays, graduation projects, and case studies. Patient documentation reports were found to be the most important genre. The study found that the students faced multiple writing challenges, including limited knowledge of the genres, limited vocabulary and lack of academic literacy skills. The dissertation makes suggestions for ways English for Academic Purposes writing support can be developed to address the English writing needs of students in this context.21 0Item Restricted Evolving and Co-Evolving Meta-Level Reasoning Strategies for Multi-Agent Collaboration(Massey University, 2024) Alshehri, Mona Abdulrahman M; Reyes, Napoleon; Barczak, AndreThis research presents a novel hybrid evolutionary algorithm for generating meta-level reasoning strategies through computational graphs to solve multi-agent planning and collaboration problems in dynamic environments using only a sparse training set. We enhanced Genetic Network Programming (GNP) by reducing its reliance on randomness, using conflict extractions and optimal search in computational mechanisms to explore nodes more systematically. We incorporated three algorithms into the GNP core. Firstly, we used private conflict kernels to extract conflict-generating structures from graph solutions, which enhances selection, crossover, and mutation operations. Secondly, we enhanced the GNP algorithm by incorporating optimal search and merged Conflict Directed A* with GNP to reduce the search branching factor. We call our novel algorithm Conflict-Directed A* with Genetic Network Programming (CDA*-GNP), which identifies the most effective combination of processing nodes within the graph solution. Additionally, we investigated the use of a chromosome structure with multiple subprograms of varying sizes that the algorithm automatically adjusts. Thirdly, we applied Conflict-Directed A* to a genetically co-evolving heterogeneous cooperative system. A set of agents with diversified computational node composition is evolved to identify the best collection of team members and to efficiently prevent conflicting members from being in the same team. Also, we incorporated methods to enhance the population diversity in each proposed algorithm. We tested the proposed algorithms using four cooperative multi-agent testbeds, including the prey and predator problem and the original tile world problem. More complex multi-agent and multi-task benchmarking testbeds were also introduced for further evaluation. As compared to existing variants of GNP, experimental results show that our algorithm has smoother and more stable fitness improvements across generations. Using the popular tile world problem as a benchmarking testbed, CDA*-GNP achieved better performance results than the best existing variant of GNP for solving the problem. Our algorithm returned 100% accuracy on the test set compared to only 83% reported in the literature. Moreover, CDA*-GNP is 78% faster in terms of the average number of generations and 74% faster in terms of the average number of fitness evaluations. In general, our findings suggest that a hybrid algorithm that balances the utilization of Genetic Network Programming and Optimal strategies leads to the evolution of high-quality solutions faster.26 0Item Restricted Translating Instagram Poetry into Arabic: A Case Study of Rupi Kaur(Saudi Digital Library, 2023) Alghamdi, Noha; Sonsogni, Marco; Hill, SallyThis thesis is a case study in literary translation studies. It consists of a creative component comprising 70% of it, which is an anthology of contemporary English Instagram poetry translated into Arabic, and a critical component comprising 30%, which is a commentary outlining the linguistic, literary, and cultural aspects promoting my translation choices. Born in Punjab, India in 1992 to Indian parents, Rupi Kaur emigrated with her family as a child to Canada where she became a leading Instagram poet, illustrator, and stage performer. Kaur has received little academic attention to date and has remained undertranslated in Arabic. Instagram poetry is both very widely accessible and culturally specific. Literary translators and academics have demonstrated how deeply intertwined language, multimodality, poetry, and culture are. Translating Kaur's poetry equivalently is a complex task, both culturally and linguistically. Therefore, this thesis seeks to study the challenges of translating contemporary poetry in a multimodal context and provides both translators and scholars with a discussion of negotiating verbal and non-verbal meanings across languages and cultures. By providing an annotated translation of Milk and Honey, The Sun and her Flowers, and HomeBody in Arabic, accompanied by a critical commentary, I endeavor to show how, despite all the restrictions imposed by the field of multimodality and literary translation, as well as the difficulties of poetry translation, a translator can still produce a well thought-out and reliable translation that conveys the literary cultural and visual aspects of poetry, and more specifically of this young best-seller contemporary Instagram poet. This project makes three significant contributions. First, I introduced a new phenomenon of literature writing in the social media era. Second, I offer a case study of Rupi Kaur and her literary contributions in the field of poetry writing. Finally, I make a twenty-first century author’s words available in Arabic with a scholarly apparatus for the first time. This thesis consists of three main parts alongside the introduction. The first part is contextualizing Kaur, her books, and some other popular Instagram poets (instapoets). In the second, there is a review of literature about poetry translation and multimodality theories. The third part includes the translations themselves as well as annotations followed by an analysis of Zina's translation of Milk and Honey into Arabic58 0Item Restricted Investigating the formation of three-dimensional symmetry broken quasicrystals(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-10-10) Alfaifi, Lamis; Subramanian, PriyaPeriodic crystals form ordered arrangements of atoms or molecules with rotational and transla- tional symmetry, while quasicrystals (QCs) lack translational symmetries. QCs can be quasiperiodic in all three dimensions with icosahedral symmetry. Recently, quasicrystals have also been observed in soft matter systems, where the first observation of soft matter quasicrystals was of two-dimensional dodecagonal quasicrystals that were columnar along the third direction. Analysis of soft matter crystallization employs numerical simulation and numerical continuations methods. These methods are highly sensitive to chosen initial conditions. Reliable initial guesses are usually created based on symmetry considerations. This implies that patterns with full symmetry are preferentially investigated. In this thesis, we consider different reduced symmetry subspaces of icosahedral symmetry quasicrystals and thereby expand the repertoire of potential solutions that can be explored in order to obtain parameter ranges where the related solutions in the partial differential equation (PDE) model are stable. The investigation involves modelling the pattern formation of three-dimensional soft matter quasicrystals using a PDE model that describes pattern formation at two lengthscales. We implemented linear stability and weakly nonlinear analysis. From the weakly nonlinear analysis, we derived the amplitude equation for different patterns. During weakly non-linear analysis, we chose different symmetry subgroups, which can be divided into simple and complex patterns. In the case of simple patterns, we have only one amplitude equation to solve for thier equilibria, which we can solve analytically. In the case of complex patterns where we have more than one amplitude equation to solve for its equilibria, homotopy continuation is used to solve polynomial equations of the corresponding complex pattern amplitude equations. In order to see if the solutions of the amplitude equation of each pattern have corresponding solutions for the PDE model, we use these solutions as the initial condition of the numerical simulation. Therefore, we are able to see if icosahedral symmetry has broken symmetry subgroups and identify the stable solutions of each pattern.9 0Item Restricted Job Satisfaction of Women Teachers in Saudi Private Schools: Examining Perceptions, Challenges and Teachers turnover(The University of Waikato, 2023) Alsubaie, Hana; Spiller, Chellie; Dyer, SuzetteThis research is the first study thus far to investigate factors influencing the job satisfaction/dissatisfaction of women teachers in Saudi private schools, and the factors that prompt them to consider leaving or remaining in their jobs. As part of Saudi ‘Vision 2030’, the government is striving to improve the quality of its educational system. Teacher satisfaction is an integral part of these efforts as satisfied teachers are more committed, stay longer, and are better instructors. Using a qualitative approach, this study was underpinned by Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in exploring women teachers’ experiences in Saudi private schools. The results from interviewing 16 women teachers illustrated the limited applicability of Herzberg’s two-factor model and Maslow's hierarchy of needs to explicate the job satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the study participants. The applicability of Herzberg's theory was only insofar as the findings indicated that extrinsic and intrinsic factors influenced teachers’ level of job satisfaction. However, contrary to Herzberg's linking extrinsic factors specifically to dissatisfaction and intrinsic factors to satisfaction, the findings showed that factors affecting women teachers’ job satisfaction were a mix of extrinsic and intrinsic factors, with the extrinsic factors playing a more dominant role. Similarly, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was not entirely applicable due to contextual issues which made the women’s experiences vary from Maslow's position that people seek higher-level needs after attaining lower-level needs. Furthermore, the study highlighted that teacher job satisfaction is very complex and goes beyond the work environment-based rational explanations. The findings showed that factors that prompted the women teachers to consider leaving or remaining in their jobs had less to do with satisfaction or dissatisfaction but more to do with social norms and the job market, which made staying at home a non-viable option. Remaining on the job, therefore, was a strategy to gain experience that would facilitate access to better public-school jobs or might result from the religious rationalisation of the teaching role. This investigation indicated that strategies to improve the job satisfaction of women teachers should focus beyond intrinsic factors such as opportunities for growth and participation in decisions affecting their work. Instead, strategies should include extrinsic factors such as pay and job security. In addition, the study indicated a need for more interventions by the Ministry of Education in private schools sector, such as: improving the governance of private schools, especially in terms of monitoring mechanisms; the need for private schools to revisit their conditions of service in view of the participating women’s experiences; and the need to decentralise decision-making in private schools to give teachers more responsibility and autonomy over their work. Also, employment policies in private schools should be clear and aligned with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour’s requirements to improve general working conditions.67 0