SACM - Australia
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9648
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Item Restricted Educators and Mothers Developing Leaderships Skills in Kindergarten-Aged Children Through a Planned Play-Based Program: A Qualitative Case Study From Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) AlHumadi, Khlood Sultan; Powell, Jeff RLeadership skills are integral to children’s holistic development and can be nurtured from an early age through play and adult guidance. While Western research highlights the role of play and adult involvement in fostering children’s leadership skills, there is limited research on promoting these skills in kindergarten-aged children in Saudi Arabia. This gap is notable despite the recent emphasis on developing leadership skills in children through the Saudi curriculum under Vision 2030. Addressing this gap, this study investigated how educators and mothers can promote leadership in kindergarten-aged children (5–6 years), using a play-based program developed in consultation with them, within a selected Saudi Arabian kindergarten and home settings. The collaboratively developed program focused on building specific leadership skills—such as communication, and perseverance—through structured, play-based activities. Its design followed a skills-based perspective and drew on Vygotsky’s (1978) theoretical notions and research-informed strategies aligned with the Saudi context to ensure cultural relevance and developmental appropriateness. Specifically, the study aimed to explore educators’ and mothers’ perceptions and practices regarding children’s leadership skills development. This study draws on Vygotsky’s (1978) theoretical notions of the roles of adults and of play in children’s learning and development, providing a developmental frame for considering children’s leadership. The study also captured their reflections on the implementation of the play-based leadership program in Saudi Arabian kindergarten and homes. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected during the COVID-19 period from a purposive sample of two educators and 10 mothers of 10 children (fathers could not participate for cultural reasons). Initially, data were gathered to understand educators’ and mothers’ perceptions and guidance of children’s leadership skills development through semistructured interviews and observations. Identifying a need to support educators’ and mothers’ vi knowledge and guidance of children’s leadership skills through play, two workshops were conducted to collaboratively develop a play-based leadership skills program. Following the program’s implementation, data on educators’ and mothers’ guidance of children’s leadership skills, as well as their reflections on the program, were gathered through semi-structured interviews and observations. Interview data were thematically analysed to explore educators’ and mothers’ perceptions of leadership and their reflections on the program. Both interview and observational data were subjected to framework analysis to examine guidance practices and observed leadership skills in children. The findings revealed varied perceptions of leadership among educators and mothers before they adopted the play-based leadership development program. Educators defined leadership primarily in terms of the leader’s influence, essential traits such as self-confidence and communication, and interaction styles that encourage collaboration. Mothers also echoed these views but placed greater emphasis on control and authority within family and social settings. Both groups agreed leadership extends to early childhood, blending innate traits and learned skills, although some mothers viewed it as solely innate. While most considered ages 2–6 a critical period, opinions varied on the ages at which children can begin to develop leadership skills. Further, while educators and mothers implicitly promoted children’s leadership skills by encouraging responsibility and fostering independent choices, they were not explicitly or actively developing these skills at home or in kindergarten, and particularly not doing so through play. Instead, educators predominantly focused on teaching curricular subjects and relied on general teaching strategies. Barriers limiting educators’ opportunities to support leadership development through play included the impact of COVID-19, restrictive curriculum design, inconsistent support from mothers, and inadequate training programs. vii However, educators and mothers intentionally began to promote leadership skills like decision-making, teamwork, and initiative through play after implementing the play-based program developed for this study and guided by the researcher over 7 weeks. Fitting into the kindergarten schedule and COVID-era feasibility constraints, there was only a seven-week period to scaffold and support participants’ understanding of leadership skills development across kindergarten and home settings. During this time, educators and mothers engaged intensively in practicing leadership-promoting activities—fostering greater facilitation confidence, strengthening their collaboration, and equipping them with strategies to continue guiding children’s leadership skills development after the program. This period is thus deemed sufficient. Educators integrated a broader set of leadership skills, such as problem-solving, conflict resolution, teamwork, initiative, and empathy, into daily lessons through guided play. Mothers also fostered a wider range of leadership skills, such as perseverance, problem-solving, conflict resolution, teamwork, initiative, and empathy, by combining free and guided play at home. Both groups emphasised the program’s broader benefits, reporting a new understanding of leadership and an appreciation for the role of play in developing children’s leadership skills. They recognised the importance of collaboration between kindergartens and home to sustain this development. Educators noted that fostering leadership skills increased children’s enthusiasm for learning, while mothers observed improved family dynamics, particularly strengthening the mother-child bond. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as limited time and interaction, both educators and mothers expressed a commitment to continuing these approaches to nurture leadership skills utilising play in the future. This study highlights the role of play and adult guidance in children’s leadership development, offering valuable insights into the adoption of play-based approaches in Saudi Arabian kindergartens and homes. It underscores the importance of understanding viii stakeholders’ initial perceptions and practices to tailor educational interventions effectively for educators and parents. The study recommends explicitly integrating play-based leadership into the kindergarten curriculum, providing leadership training programs for educators, and offering resources to support mothers in facilitating home-based leadership activities. Limitations of the study included cultural constraints, time restrictions, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should broaden the demographic scope, extend the timeframe to assess long-term benefits, and refine the focus on specific play-based strategies to enhance the development of leadership skills in young children.6 0Item Restricted Newsworthiness in Arabic News Discourse: A Corpus-Assisted Discursive News Values Analysis(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Asiri, Hashim Ali; Adam, Smith; Annabelle, LukinThis thesis examines the construction of newsworthiness in Arabic-language news discourse, focusing on its application to coverage of the 2017 Qatar/Gulf crisis. It employs the Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) framework, traditionally developed in Western contexts, and adapts it to Arabic news reporting. The research investigates three Arabic news outlets: Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, and the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), selected for their potential to provide distinct and contrasting perspectives on the crisis. The study addresses two key research questions: (1) How does the DNVA framework adapt to Arabic contexts, particularly given cultural influences on news values? (2) What lexical and discursive patterns reveal differences in the portrayal of the crisis across these outlets? To explore these questions, the research adopts a mixed-methods approach. A corpus of news articles was created, and a subset was qualitatively analyzed using DNVA. This analysis is complemented by quantitative corpus methods, including assessments of word frequencies, and collocations, to reveal each outlet’s distinctive lexical choices in constructing newsworthiness. The findings confirm the adaptability of DNVA to Arabic news discourse while uncovering notable differences. A previously unrecognized news value, Religious Resonance, emerges as uniquely meaningful in Arabic news values construction, highlighting the role of religious themes in constructing newsworthiness. Additionally, while existing news values such as Eliteness and Negativity remain relevant, their prioritization reflects cultural and contextual distinctions compared to Western media. Importantly, these news values do not necessarily align with the broader ideological stances of each outlet but rather operate as discursive constructions that can be foregrounded or backgrounded differently across the news outlets. This thesis makes several contributions. Methodologically, it pioneers the application of the DNVA framework to full news articles rather than focusing solely on headlines and leads, offering a more comprehensive analysis of news discourse. Theoretically, it extends the cross-cultural applicability of DNVA, providing a foundation for further exploration in non-Western contexts. Practically, it equips future researchers with a template for analyzing Arabic and other culturally distinct media. By highlighting how cultural, linguistic, and digital elements shape news narratives, the study enriches the field of news discourse analysis and invites deeper inquiry into the construction of newsworthiness across global media contexts.5 0Item Restricted Radiotherapy Treatment Planning for Lung Tumors: A study of the impact of lung density and dose calculation algorithms(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alotaibi, Rayyanah; Oborn, BradThis study examines the intricacies of radiotherapy treatment planning for lung cancer, emphasizing phantom models and a specific patient case. This study emphasizes the significance of precise dose calculation in heterogeneous lung tissue, elucidating the impacts of tumor size, density variation, and dose distribution on treatment accuracy. The methodology outlines the evaluation of radiation treatment plans through the use of advanced software applications, namely RayStation for planning and MATLAB for quantitative data analysis. This research assessed the effectiveness and precision of the Collapsed Cone (CC) and Monte Carlo (MC) dosage calculation algorithms to ascertain their appropriateness for clinical use. Phantom experiments were performed to investigate the impact of different beam energies, field widths, and tissue densities on the precision of dosage distribution. A VMAT plan was developed and recalibrated utilizing both algorithms to evaluate their clinical outcomes regarding target coverage and organ-at-risk (OAR) preservation. The results indicated that both the CC and MC algorithms attained satisfactory clinical accuracy. The MC approach yielded more accurate dose estimations in different lung regions, whereas the CC algorithm demonstrated quicker computation and reliable performance, making it appropriate for routine application. The quantitative dose-volume histogram (DVH) analysis validated these discrepancies and elucidated the strengths and limitations of each methodology. The study concludes that integrating phantom-based evaluation with actual patient data effectively enhances the understanding of algorithm performance in lung radiation. The findings enhance treatment precision and provide direction for future research aimed at optimizing radiation dose estimation in heterogeneous lung cases.18 0Item Restricted Obligations of parties in e-commerce under Saudi Arabian and Islamic law:(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alhammad, Ahmed; Brand, Vivienne; Esmaeili, HosseinThis thesis examines parties' obligations in e-commerce transactions under contemporary Saudi Arabian regulations and under Islamic law as an integral component of the Saudi Arabian constitutional system. It analyses the compatibility of traditional Islamic law principles, which are enforceable in Saudi Arabia, with modern e-commerce provisions. The thesis comprises six chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction, while Chapter Two delves into the principles of e-commerce, examining the integration of Saudi law into these principles. Chapter Three investigates obligation theory, its origins, sources, the stand of Saudi law, and the accommodation of Islamic law within this framework. Chapter Four addresses the obligations of e-service providers (merchants) in e-commerce under Saudi and Islamic law, including disclosure, delivery, warranty, consumer privacy, and the right of recourse. Chapter Five examines consumer obligations: payment; taking delivery; and consumer obligations when exercising their rights in e-commerce. Chapter Six concludes. The conclusion is that Islamic law is highly compatible with these issues. However, particular areas may exhibit variations, necessitating the application of Islamic principles in specific ways. For instance, alternative means of applying Islamic principles, such as Almaslahat Almursala, which prioritises public interest, can be employed. Additionally, Saudi law is essentially harmonious with Islamic law, although some instances may not align with all four schools of Islamic law. The thesis recommends that the current Saudi Arabian legislation governing parties' obligations in e-commerce is deficient and insufficient. Consequently, it should be replaced by a comprehensive consumer protection law that safeguards consumer interests and incorporates general principles of traditional Islamic law to facilitate its implementation.8 0Item Restricted The Environmental Impact of Dams in Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Almalki, Raid; Khaki, Mehdi; Patricia, Saco; Rodriguez, JoseUnderstanding vegetation cover dynamics and their relationship with environmental variables is critical for maintaining ecosystem functionality, particularly in arid regions like Saudi Arabia. Dams play a vital role in water resource management, capturing runoff for domestic and agricultural use. However, their construction and operation can lead to significant environmental impacts, both upstream and downstream. Downstream regions are most affected by these impacts, spanning biological, hydrological, chemical, and geophysical domains. Although dams provide water, recharge groundwater, and increase agricultural productivity, they can also aggravate environmental degradation, particularly in arid or semi-arid areas, where water availability changes, natural flow regimes are reduced, and soil salinization is increased. Recent scientific interest has focused on the environmental consequences of dams, yet existing studies often rely on ground-based measurements without integrating advanced technologies like remote sensing and land hydrology models. This limitation hinders a comprehensive assessment of dam impacts on downstream vegetation and associated environmental factors. Key variables such as Land Surface Temperature (LST), soil moisture, soil salinity, precipitation, temperature, stream runoff, and groundwater levels remain underexplored in their relationship to vegetation dynamics. While some studies have employed basic statistical methods like linear regression and principal component analysis (PCA) to explore the dam’s impacts on such variables, there is a pressing need for more advanced analytical approaches to better evaluate these complex relationships. Furthermore, research on ephemeral streams in arid regions is scarce, despite their critical role in understanding downstream environmental impacts. This study fills these gaps by combining remote sensing technology with outputs of land hydrology models to provide an integrated assessment of downstream environmental effects of dam development in arid countries, with Saudi Arabia as the main case study. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of various environmental factors on downstream vegetation, with a focus on ephemeral streams. Advanced methodologies—including satellite remote sensing, reanalyzed hydrological data, and machine learning techniques—are used to monitor changes before and after dam construction. Analytical software includes supervised vegetation classification, moderated mediation analysis for direct and indirect effects, PCA and Two-Step Clustering for investigating environmental groupings, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) for identifying spatiotemporal changes, and Vector Autoregression (VAR) modeling for quantifying time-lagged vegetation response to hydroclimatic variables. A space-for-time substitution approach is also applied to generalize findings across different spatial and temporal contexts. By integrating these advanced techniques, this study establishes a comprehensive framework for assessing dam-induced environmental impacts on downstream ecosystems in arid regions. These results provide important guidance for decision-makers and those overseeing environmental management, supporting sustainable development and effective water resource management in dam-affected regions.14 0Item Restricted Operation and Control of Prosumers to Provide Flexibility and Capacity Firming(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aldaadi, Mohsen; Verbic, GregorThe global energy transition—driven by decarbonization targets, coal retirements, and widespread deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs)—is transforming passive electricity consumers into active prosumers equipped with rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems and home batteries. While prosumers enhance grid flexibility, they also present challenges for system operators tasked with balancing reliability, efficiency, and economic objectives. This thesis proposes an integrated bilevel modeling framework—a two-level optimization that links system-wide decisions (upper level) with prosumer responses (lower level)—to coordinate prosumer flexibility within realistic policy and market contexts, encompassing tariff design, operational assessment, and capacity firming. Validated using a simplified 2025 Australian National Electricity Market model, the framework demonstrates how prosumer virtual power plants can reshape load profiles, enhance system dispatchability, and offer cost-effective decentralized firming solutions. Initially, the thesis introduces a bilevel tariff optimization framework that co-designs dynamic import and export tariffs. Anticipating prosumer responses through equilibrium modeling, the developed approach explicitly captures asymmetric price incentives inherent in emerging net billing policy structures—where exports are credited below the retail import rate. A decomposition-based column-and-constraint generation algorithm efficiently addresses the computational complexities of the resulting mixed-integer bilevel problem. Simulations demonstrate that dynamically optimized, asymmetric tariffs effectively smooth net load profiles, reduce simultaneous PV exports, and align prosumer actions with system-wide operational goals. Subsequently, the thesis evaluates system-level operational impacts of these net billing tariffs through an advanced bilevel production cost model (PCM). Unlike conventional PCMs that assume centralized control or symmetric tariffs, this model explicitly incorporates autonomous prosumer behavior driven by policy-constrained incentives for self-consumption. Employing an exact linearization technique based on the primal-dual counterpart and Karush–Kuhn–Tucker optimality conditions, the model quantifies how policy-driven prosumer responses impact grid flexibility, highlighting the reduction in system flexibility under strict net billing scenarios as battery capacities scale relative to PV. The final stage extends the operational assessment to examine prosumer batteries' potential contributions to capacity firming within the bilevel PCM. This part of the thesis introduces explicit firming constraints into the upper-level market model, allowing system operators to harness surplus residential battery capacity after self-consumption needs are met. Results demonstrate that aggregated prosumer batteries significantly reduce reliance on conventional gas generation and utility-scale storage, offering a cost-effective, distributed firming resource. Economic analysis further illustrates diminishing marginal returns from prosumer participation, emphasizing the importance of tailored incentive schemes to sustain prosumer engagement. Together, these contributions form a comprehensive analytical framework linking decentralized prosumer decision-making with centralized system operations and regulatory design. The developed models provide actionable insights and practical tools for policymakers and system planners managing the complexity of future grids with high DER penetration, supporting a smoother and economically viable transition towards decarbonized and resilient electricity systems.4 0Item Restricted Procalcitonin-Guided Antibiotic Discontinuation in ICU Sepsis: Effects on Duration and Mortality – A Systematic Review(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Albalawi, Faisal Mohammed; Denney-Wilsson, ElizabethBackground: Sepsis remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs), where early empirical antibiotic therapy is essential for survival. However, prolonged antibiotic exposure contributes to antimicrobial resistance and high mortality. Procalcitonin (PCT) has emerged as a promising biomarker to guide antibiotic discontinuation and optimise antimicrobial stewardship in ICU patients with sepsis. This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of PCT-guided antibiotic discontinuation in reducing antibiotic duration and its impact on mortality outcomes among adult ICU patients with sepsis. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on three databases: PubMed, Medline via Ovid, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) between March and April 2025. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in English within the past 10 years were included if they evaluated PCT-guided antibiotic discontinuation in adult ICU patients with sepsis and reported outcomes on antibiotic duration and mortality. The methodological quality of the included studies was appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (2018). Results: Eight RCTs comprising 6,043 adult ICU patients met the inclusion criteria. Six studies demonstrated statistically significant reductions in antibiotic duration in the PCT-guided groups, particularly those incorporating daily PCT testing and clear discontinuation thresholds. Two large multicentre RCTs reported significant reductions in short-term mortality, while others found non-inferior outcomes. One study focusing on cancer ICU patients reported increased mortality, highlighting the need for caution in immunocompromised populations. Conclusion: PCT-guided antibiotic discontinuation appears to be an effective and generally safe strategy for reducing antibiotic exposure in ICU sepsis patients. However, mortality benefits remain inconsistent may be influenced by patient risk profiles and adherence to PCT protocols. Further large-scale .trials with standardised PCT algorithms are warranted8 0Item Restricted Leveraging Intermediate Training for Effective Fine-Tuning in Few-Labels Text Classification(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alsuhaibani, Abdullah Mohammed; Xu, Guandong; Wang, Xianzhi; Razzak, ImranCollecting and classifying large-scale datasets typically requires extensive human annotation, making the process both time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, managing the vast amount of textual data from diverse sources, such as social media platforms, demands efficient architectures for scalable text classification. The introduction of the Transformer architecture in 2017 revolutionized natural language processing by establishing the paradigm of pre-trained models, such as BERT, which are initially trained on large corpora and adapted to downstream tasks through Fine-Tuning. This thesis addresses the core problem of fine-tuning pre-trained language models under limited label conditions. Specifically, it highlights three key challenges. Performance degradation with few labels, class imbalance in short text, and limited effectiveness of clustering-based methods in merging semantically meaningful groups. While prior solutions, such as few-shot and semi-supervised learning, attempt to mitigate these issues, they often rely on large datasets or complex architectures. This thesis aims to leverage Intermediate Training to enhance the fine-tuning of language models for downstream tasks under limited label scenarios for text classification. To address these limitations, we propose a novel model that employs dual clustering algorithms to enhance fine-tuning performance under limited-label conditions, using a small portion of unlabeled data for correction. We further introduce a two-stage framework to address class imbalance in few-label short text classification by leveraging contrastive learning as an indicator with generated representations. Finally, we present an intermediate training framework that preserves cluster quality while reducing cluster quantity, thereby achieving better alignment with the true class distributions of the datasets. The empirical results and findings presented in this thesis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed frameworks, which achieve better performance compared to both baseline and state-of-the-art models, with an accuracy improvement of at least 5.3%.7 0Item Restricted The Influence of Digital Technology Engagement on Academic Performance in Undergraduate Students in Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alruthaya, Ali Saleh; Khan, ShahadatThis thesis examines the influence of digital technology on student engagement and academic performance among undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia. Recognising the importance of digital transformation in education, this research addresses significant gaps in understanding how digital technologies affect educational outcomes broadly within Saudi higher education institutions. Employing a positivist paradigm and a quantitative research approach, this study utilises the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework. It evaluates the impact of seven key constructs, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, habit, and learning value, on student engagement and subsequently assesses the direct relationship between student engagement and academic performance. Data was collected via questionnaires from a diverse sample of 527 undergraduate students across six Saudi public universities, and subsequently analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, social influence, facilitating conditions, and learning value significantly enhance student engagement, which positively influences academic performance. Theoretically, this research extends the UTAUT2 model by incorporating academic performance as a critical outcome variable, offering original and nuanced insights specific to the Saudi educational context. Practically, the results provide valuable guidance for educators and policymakers aiming to utilise digital technologies effectively to boost student engagement and academic achievement. This study acknowledges limitations, including its cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported data, which may limit external validity. However, the originality and value of this research lie in its pioneering application of the UTAUT2 framework within the unique socio-cultural and educational landscape of Saudi Arabia. This research provides foundational insights to inform strategic and operational educational reforms in Saudi Arabia and other similar regional contexts.21 0Item Restricted Investigating the Relationship Between Transit-Oriented Development and Housing Preferences of Saudis: Riyadh as a Case Study(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alshehri, Abdullah Ghurm M; Hoon, Han; Hazel, EasthopeThis study investigates the relationship between Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and housing preferences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, examining how socio-cultural norms influence housing preferences near metro stations. The research addresses critical knowledge gaps regarding community perceptions of TOD, housing preferences near metro stations, and socio-cultural impacts on these preferences in Saudi Arabia's first major TOD implementation. A mixed-methods approach combined expert interviews in Dubai and Riyadh with a survey of 355 Riyadh residents across 28 locations. This methodology enabled analysis of housing preferences, socio-cultural influences, and TOD acceptance before metro operations commenced in December 2024. The findings reveal demographic factors significantly influence TOD acceptance, with younger residents, singles, and smaller families showing greater openness to high-density living. Traditional preferences for villa-type housing remain strong among older residents and larger families. Economic constraints frequently override cultural preferences, pushing residents toward apartment living despite cultural inclinations toward villas. Socio-cultural analysis identified evolving attitudes toward privacy and shared spaces, particularly among women, with 47.8% expressing willingness to use mixed-gender elevators. Religious facilities and family-oriented amenities ranked as highest priorities. Despite cultural preferences for larger homes, 65.0% of respondents would accept smaller units near metro stations if prices remained affordable. This research makes three key contributions: examining resident preferences before TOD implementation, documenting how demographic factors influence housing preferences, and revealing the ways socio-cultural norms affect TOD acceptance. The findings can inform culturally sensitive urban planning approaches that balance density requirements with traditional values, applicable to Riyadh and similar cities seeking to implement TOD while respecting cultural contexts.16 0