SACM - United States of America
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9668
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Item Restricted Saudi Early Childhood Teacher Educators’ and Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives of Early Field Experiences(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alodwani, Amani; Sophia, HanThis qualitative descriptive study explores how teacher educators perceive the integration of field experiences within the curriculum and their perspectives on the preservice early childhood education (ECE) teachers they supervise. It also examines preservice teachers’ views regarding their field experiences and how these experiences contribute to their professional preparation. The Ministry of Education (MOE) emphasizes that teacher preparation programs should provide extended field experiences that connect theoretical coursework with practical application. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Saudi teacher educators and four preservice teachers from Kingdom University. Thematic analysis using inductive coding was employed to identify recurring themes and differences between the two groups. Findings revealed that both groups recognized the importance of field experiences but differed in how they interpreted and applied them. Teacher educators highlighted challenges related to supervision and assessment, while preservice emphasized time conflicts and the value of hands-on learning. The results underscore the need for culturally grounded and collaborative supervision practices that effectively bridge theory and practice. These insights contribute to enhancing the design and implementation of field experiences in Saudi early childhood education, thereby promoting professional growth and culturally responsive teaching.13 0Item Restricted Income Tax Disputes and Their Resolution in Saudi Arabia: A Legal Analysis under the 2023 Rules of Procedure for the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Committees(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alrehaili, Omar Khalid; Hanna, ChristopherAs Saudi Arabia’s tax system evolves under Vision 2030, the resolution of income tax disputes has become a critical area for ensuring fairness, efficiency, and public trust. This dissertation analyzes the resolution of income tax disputes in Saudi Arabia under the 2023 Rules of Procedure for the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Committees. It examines the historical development of Saudi tax law, the nature and causes of income tax disputes, and the legal rights and obligations of both taxpayers and the tax authority. Using a doctrinal legal approach, supported by comparative analysis with the United States and Egypt, the study evaluates the administrative and judicial mechanisms for objection and appeal. The findings indicate that the 2023 reforms have improved procedural clarity, timeliness, and access to tax justice, but they also reveal significant gaps, including the absence of a specialized higher tax court and limited codified safeguards for taxpayers. In response, the dissertation proposes a reform model incorporating comparative best practices to enhance procedural justice, legal certainty, and voluntary compliance in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. These recommendations aim to strengthen the fairness, efficiency, and credibility of Saudi Arabia’s tax dispute resolution system.11 0Item Restricted ENHANCING ALFALFA PERSISTENCE IN RANGELANDS: EVALUATING MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF MEDICAGO SATIVA SUBSP. FALCATA GERMPLASM(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) ALOMAIR, ABDULALLAH MOHAMMED; Xu, LanRangelands cover nearly half of the Earth’s surface, representing about 54% (79 million km2), and occur in different types and climates worldwide. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a major component in rangelands and covers about (320 thousand km2), representing about 0.4% of total global rangeland area. As a critical perennial legume crop, alfalfa can improve soil health by fixing approximately 336 kg/ha/year of nitrogen and sequestering up to 614 kg/ha/year of carbon, while enhancing livestock production due to its high content level of vitamins, magnesium, minerals, fiber, and protein. However, environmental stresses such as drought, freezing, and grazing limit alfalfa stand establishment and persistence in arid and semiarid rangelands. Therefore, the development of new alfalfa cultivars to enhance stand persistence is greatly needed. The overall objective of this study was to determine how to enhance alfalfa stand persistence in the arid and semiarid rangelands. More particularly, we aimed to determine how above and below ground morphological traits of thirteen yellow-flowered alfalfa (Medicago falcata) populations and one commercial cultivar (Final Answer, Medicago sativa) served as a control contribute to improving alfalfa persistence in arid and semiarid rangelands. The study focused on: 1) the ability of root segments to regenerate adventitious shoots in a greenhouse, 2) crown morphological traits associated with vegetative reproduction, and 3) the survival, growth and biomass production of plants derived from root segments under field conditions. In addition, the study measured and evaluated stem morphological traits of root-derived plants to understand how aboveground structure related to forage production and long-term stand persistence. This study was conducted in two phases: the first phase was conducted twice in the greenhouse at South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, in 2021 and repeated in 2022, followed by a field study conducted at the South Dakota State Field Station in Aurora in 2024 and repeated in 2025. We found that Final Answer, PI 452460, and PI 634106 did not have the capacity to resprout from root segments, unlike other populations that were able to do so. PI 634133, PI 538984, PI 631704, and PI 634114 demonstrated outstanding performance for enhancing alfalfa persistence, exhibiting high average percentage root segments sprouting (53%, 27%, 28%, and 37%, respectively) and along with biomass production (2.66, 2.84, 2.75, and 2.35 tons/ha) under field conditions. We also found an exponential increase in alfalfa biomass, accompanied by prostrate-to-bowl-shaped plants that were slightly shorter, as indicated by a positive linear regression with canopy cover. These PIs also exhibited high crown bud and stem densities, which are desirable for vegetative reproduction potential and persistence. This study contributes to developing a novel trait that can enhance alfalfa persistence. Furthermore, the study underscores the importance of field testing to identify additional populations within the NPGCC that exhibit the valuable trait of contributing to persistent forage in the working landscape by maintaining and regenerating stands with strong root sprouting capacity. This information can be valuable for ensuring benefits to farmers, ranchers, and land managers.16 0Item Restricted SAUDI UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES LEARNING NURSING IN ENGLISH AS A NON-NATIVE LANGUAGE(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Altukhays, Abdulaziz; Patterson, BarbaraNursing students for whom English is a non-native language often face substantial academic and clinical challenges when instruction is delivered in English, particularly when their proficiency is limited. Difficulties include comprehending nursing concepts, succeeding in examinations, communicating with faculty, patients, and healthcare providers, and documenting patient care in clinical settings where English predominates. These barriers can threaten academic success, increase attrition, and compromise readiness for safe practice. In Saudi Arabia, where all nursing programs are taught in English, such challenges are particularly pronounced given the discontinuity between Arabic-medium pre-university education and English-medium nursing education. The purposes of this study were to explore and describe the experiences and learning needs of Saudi undergraduate nursing students learning nursing in English as a non-native language. A qualitative descriptive design grounded in naturalistic inquiry guided the research, which sought to capture participants’ experiences in their own words within their authentic educational context. Participants were recruited through purposive snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom® with 12 native Arabic-speaking Saudi undergraduate nursing students enrolled in eight public nursing programs across Saudi Arabia, representing various academic years. Data were analyzed using a content analysis, generating 654 codes organized into five categories and 12 subcategories. Findings revealed that participants faced multifaceted challenges related to comprehension, examinations, communication, time management, and psychological well-being. Despite these difficulties, students demonstrated adaptability through translation, independent learning, and support from peers, faculty and academic programs. Over time, sustained exposure to English in academic and clinical settings led to progressive improvements in proficiency, confidence, communication, and performance. Participants emphasized the need for stronger English preparation before and during university study, nursing-specific curricula tailored to linguistic needs, bilingual instructional supports, equitable assessment practices, accessible resources, smaller class sizes, and increased opportunities for language practice. The implications of these findings are substantial for nursing education, research, and practice in Saudi Arabia and globally. They highlight the urgent need to integrate language development within nursing curricula to enhance comprehension, communication, and academic success. Strengthening English preparation and linguistic scaffolding can promote equity, improve outcomes, reduce attrition, and enhance readiness for licensure and clinical practice. The study findings advance nursing science by emphasizing language proficiency as a developmental process requiring sustained scaffolding, multimodal pedagogy, and bilingual strategies to support progression from conversational to academic and professional fluency. For practice, English proficiency emerges as a cornerstone of patient safety, documentation accuracy, and interprofessional collaboration, while bilingual competence remains essential in caring Arabic-speaking patients. Ultimately, the findings reframe English language proficiency as a professional competency and institutional responsibility, an essential investment in nursing education and workforce preparedness, and the long-term sustainability of global nursing and healthcare quality.7 0Item Restricted An Investigation and Case Analysis of the Legal Protections for Children in Armed Conflict under International Law(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) ALDHAFERI, ABDULLAH HAIF; Jacobus, LauraThis dissertation investigates the international law governing the application and enforcement of children’s rights in international and non-international armed conflicts, with a focus on the role of international institutions in safeguarding the rights and protections provided to children under existing aspects of international humanitarian, human rights, and criminal law.1 The dissertation assesses the claim that while international law made significant advances in protecting children's rights, particularly in the sphere of international human rights law, it has been significantly less effective at ensuring equivalent protections in the arena of international humanitarian law. 2 The non-uniform interpretation and ineffective enforcement of international rules applicable to children in armed conflicts have, it is argued, created a legal vacuum for bad faith actors to exploit children for military purposes, or to target children as potential combatants.3 These abuses of international law have too often been perpetrated with impunity or, at the very least, in the absence of effective legal remedies and sanctions for parties involved in such activities.7 0Item Restricted The Effects of an Acute Dose of a Betalain-Rich Supplement on Repeated Sprint Cycling Performance and Recovery(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Sulaimani, Khalid Mohammed; Vitti, StevenBackground: Betalains are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant pigments occurring naturally in beetroot and prickly pear and have physiological effects that imply potential as ergogenic supplements through decreased oxidative stress, enhanced vascular function, and accelerated recovery after hard exercise. The majority of studies, though, have utilized chronic supplementation or endurance exercise, leaving few insights into the acute action of a betalain-rich concentrate (BRC) in high-speed sprint performance and neuromuscular recovery. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish whether an acute dose of a BRC could enhance performance and recovery during repeated sprint cycling. Methods: Seven Drexel University participants (3 males, 4 females) performed two experimental conditions BRC and placebo (PLA) in a randomized, double-blind, crossover design incorporating a seven-day washout period. Participants consumed a single 100 mg dosage of BRC or PLA two hours prior to exercise. Participants completed a repeated sprint exercise (RSE), consisting of three 30 s Wingate sprints followed by countermovement jump (CMJ) measurements performed pre-exercise, immediately post-exercise, and five minutes after recovery. Results: Descriptive statistics indicated slightly greater sprint power and CMJ performance in the BRC condition than with PLA. Repeated measures ANOVA established significant within-subject exercise effects: peak power (PP) reduced incrementally over sprints (p < 0.001, η² = 0.801), and CMJ height fell significantly after exercise and partially recovered after five minutes (p < 0.001, η² = 0.761). No significant interactions or treatment effects were found. Conclusion: Acute BRC supplementation failed to improve repeated sprint performance and short-term neuromuscular recovery in recreationally active individuals. These results indicate that BRC may not produce immediate ergogenic effects, with effects more likely being a result of chronic administration, greater dosages, or in elite athletic groups. The principal limitations of this study are the small sample size, the acute dose regimen, and the brief recovery period analyzed. Future studies ought to include larger samples, extended supplementation durations, and incremental dose methodologies to define the role of betalains in sports nutrition and recovery science. Keywords: Red beetroot, supplementation, sprint cycling, neuromuscular recovery, ergogenic aids16 0Item Restricted TRANSLATION, IDEOLOGY, AND THE MAKING OF MEANING: ARAB WOMEN'S LITERATURE IN ENGLISH(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Arrabai, Mustafa Muhammad; Cotter, SeanThis dissertation examines ideological translation issues that arise in English translations of selected Arab literary works: Woman at Point Zero (El Saadawi, 1975), Women of Sand and Myrrh (Hanan al-Shaykh, 1989), Girls of Riyadh (Raja Alsanea, 2007), Celestial Bodies (Jokha Alharthi, 2010), The Dove’s Necklace (Raja Alem, 2011), All That I Want to Forget (Al-Essa, 2013). This project attempts to answer the questions: how and under what conditions do translation decisions utilized in the corpus reconfigure a source text’s meaning? Do such translations shift target readers’ attributions, sympathies, and cultural inferences? And how do patronage-driven, target culture poetics and feminist ideology mediate these effects across the selected translations? This dissertation focuses on themes of clothing, status, and freedom because they tend to be the most discussed themes in such activist texts. This dissertation employs a mixed-method approach that combines linguistic analysis with cultural analysis, drawing on André Lefevere’s concept of translation as re-writing. This method begins with linguistic analysis, taking into consideration the receiving system’s ideology, poetics, and readers’ expectations, and then situates the findings within the broader cultural meanings of both source and target cultures. Ultimately, the cross-textual analysis of the selected corpus revealed that the translation choices resulted in three main consequences. The first is a pattern of invoking and enforcing clothing-related stereotypical images. This tendency is mostly implemented by heavy cultural clarification/explicitation whenever a piece of clothing is mentioned in one of the source texts. The second major finding is a pattern of (over)victimization of female characters, whether through shifting the plot, changes of perspective, or even undermining tiny moments of victory. The third finding pertains to the second finding, which exploits the scene of violence or oppression to foreground and, at times, shift the plot around to invoke and enforce male oppression. The final major finding is the absolutizing of the concept of freedom. This pattern stems from a Western understanding of the concept of freedom as an undivided whole, thus undermining the partial freedoms promoted and celebrated in the source texts. This dissertation also found that all the key findings stated above were made possible through three main translation procedures: excessive clarification of cultural clothing-related terms and moments, intensification of critical words and phrases and moments of tension, and major alterations, whether through additions, omissions, or direct changes in perspective.13 0Item Restricted Operation and Control of Triple Active Bridge DC-DC Converter for Remote DC Microgrids(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aljumah, Osamah; Bhattacharya, SubhashishIn recent years, DC microgrids (MGs) have emerged as a practical solution for providing power to remote areas that lack access to the utility grid. These systems rely on the effective integration of renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, with energy storage systems (ESS) to ensure a continuous power supply. The performance of the MG is heavily reliant on the power electronic converters that interface these components. This work focuses on the modeling and control of a DC MG that utilizes the Triple Active Bridge (TAB) converter. The TAB is a multi-port topology that can integrate and manage power flow between a PV source, an ESS, and the DC bus through a single, isolated conversion stage. In grid-connected systems, a grid-tie converter typically regulates the DC bus voltage. However, because the remote microgrids in this work operate in islanded mode without external grid support, the TAB converter must autonomously regulate its own output voltage to ensure stability. To achieve this autonomous regulation, a cascaded control architecture is implemented as a baseline. The primary objective of this control is to maintain a stable DC bus while maximizing the energy harvested from the PV array. Therefore, the control is structured to operate the PV port in Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) mode, while the ESS is tasked with dynamically compensating for power mismatches to regulate the DC bus voltage. A fundamental challenge in this system is the inherent cross-coupling between the ports of the TAB converter. To address this, this work details the derivation of the converter's average and small-signal models, which provide the basis for control analysis. A decoupling matrix, derived from these models, is implemented to enable independent control of the PV and ESS port currents. A significant operational challenge in an islanded MG occurs when the ESS reaches its state-of-charge (SOC) limits and can no longer absorb excess power. This condition can lead to DC bus overvoltage if the PV system continues to operate at its MPP. To solve this, a supervisory coordination control strategy is proposed. This controller monitors the system's status and, upon detection of a full ESS, seamlessly transitions the PV from MPP mode to a non-MPP mod. In this mode, the PV system curtails its output to balance the power and maintain the stability of the DC bus. The performance of this coordination strategy and the mode transition are confirmed through hardware experiments. Furthermore, the intermittent nature of solar irradiance causes rapid PV power fluctuations that induce transient voltage deviations on the DC bus, which conventional feedback loops cannot fully suppress. To address this, a proactive feedforward control method is investigated. After showing that a simple constant-gain feedforward is insufficient for systems with unequal controller dynamics, the primary contribution of this work is presented: the complete analytical derivation of a dynamic feedforward gain. The derived gain's action is adjusted based on the different response characteristics of the PV and ESS current controllers allowing for more effective disturbance cancellation. The effectiveness of this method in reducing voltage transients is validated through simulations using The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) solar data and extensive hardware experiments. Finally, to address the need for higher power capacity and enhanced reliability beyond what a single converter can offer, a scalable architecture based on parallel-connected TAB converters is presented. This modular architecture consists of multiple TAB units connected to a common DC bus, which provides redundancy and allows the system's capacity to be expanded. A higher-order model for the complete parallel system is developed, and a centralized control strategy is implemented to ensure both the regulation of the common DC bus voltage and proportional current sharing among the parallel modules. The performance of this scalable architecture is validated on a hardware prototype.20 0Item Restricted The Relationship Between Forgiveness and Religiosity in Counseling in the Saudi Population(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alqahtani, Salman; Balkin, RichardForgiveness is an important psychological process associated with religiosity, with both having been shown to support mental health and promote personal growth. Forgiveness remains understudied in Arab and Islamic societies, specifically in Saudi Arabia, where religiosity is an important cultural value. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between forgiveness and religiosity among Saudi college students in a faith-oriented and collectivistic society. Data were collected from 106 Saudi college students using the Arabic variation of the Forgiveness and Reconciliation Inventory (A-FRI) and the Arabic Inventory of Religiosity (AIR). Results showed a statistically significant but modest relationship between religiosity and forgiveness, indicating that religious engagement may contribute to forgiveness tendencies while only partially explaining these processes. The results indicate that forgiveness is a complex construct shaped by influences beyond mere religiosity. This study emphasizes the significance of counseling approaches that are informed by cultural and spiritual contexts, especially in relation to forgiveness issues. This study provided preliminary insights into the relationship between forgiveness and religiosity in Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the significance of culturally and spiritually sensitive counseling and the need for further investigations to enhance understanding and practical application.20 0Item Restricted THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORGIVENESS AND RELIGIOSITY IN COUNSELING IN THE SAUDI POPULATION(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alqahtani, Salman; Balkin, RichardForgiveness is an important psychological process associated with religiosity, with both having been shown to support mental health and promote personal growth. Forgiveness remains understudied in Arab and Islamic societies, specifically in Saudi Arabia, where religiosity is an important cultural value. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between forgiveness and religiosity among Saudi college students in a faith-oriented and collectivistic society. Data were collected from 106 Saudi college students using the Arabic variation of the Forgiveness and Reconciliation Inventory (A-FRI) and the Arabic Inventory of Religiosity (AIR). Results showed a statistically significant but modest relationship between religiosity and forgiveness, indicating that religious engagement may contribute to forgiveness tendencies while only partially explaining these processes. The results indicate that forgiveness is a complex construct shaped by influences beyond mere religiosity. This study emphasizes the significance of counseling approaches that are informed by cultural and spiritual contexts, especially in relation to forgiveness issues. This study provided preliminary insights into the relationship between forgiveness and religiosity in Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the significance of culturally and spiritually sensitive counseling and the need for further investigations to enhance understanding and practical application.6 0