SACM - United Kingdom
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9667
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Item Restricted Numerical and Analytical Study of a Novel Hybrid Earth to Air Heat Exchanger with an Integrated Thermo-Electric Coolers for Arid Climates(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Yousof, Mohammad O; Kevin, Hughes; Ouzzane, MohamedAbstract Sustainable cooling solutions in hot, arid climates are essential to reduce high energy consumption. Earth to Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) offers a promising passive cooling strategy, however, its standalone performance is often insufficient to meet thermal comfort requirements. This thesis proposes and investigates a novel hybrid cooling system that integrates the EAHE with a Thermoelectric Cooler (TEC) to enhance cooling capacity, aiming to use the pre-cooled air from the EAHE to improve the TEC’s efficiency. To investigate this system, a comprehensive, transient numerical model was developed in FORTRAN. The model is based on a Finite Volume Method (FVM) for spatial discretization, an implicit Backward scheme for temporal discretization, and a Newton-Raphson method to solve the resulting coupled, non-linear equations. The model’s computational efficiency was optimized through a non-uniform mesh, and its credibility was established through grid and time-step independence studies and validation of the EAHE component against published experimental data. Initial analysis of the EAHE-TEC Case Base (CB) demonstrates a significant, short-term boost in cooling performance. However, this analysis also revealed a critical performance flaw under continuous operation, which was that the rejected heat by the TEC led to rapid thermal saturation of the surrounding soil, “Heat Trap”. This saturation quickly diminished the system’s cooling power, eventually causing it to perform worse than a standalone EAHE. By building on this finding, the system was enhanced by modifying its configuration and operational schedule, which led to substantial cooling capacity, though for a shorter duration. This thesis therefore provides a numerical tool for modelling, with its EAHE component validated, and an enhanced operational strategy for operating the hybrid EAHE-TEC system to improve cooling performance during peak thermal loads in arid climates, such as Saudi Arabia.4 0Item Restricted PAPR Reduction In Uplink SCMA(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alabdullatif, Abdullah Abdulrahman; Pei, Xiao; Qu, LuoSparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) is a promising non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique for 5G and beyond which offers massive connectivity and improved spectral efficiency. However, when deployed with OFDM, uplink SCMA signals suffer from a high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), which reduces power amplifier efficiency and limits practical implementation. Addressing this issue is therefore critical for the energy-efficient deployment of SCMA in future wireless networks. The work in dissertation investigates PAPR reduction methods used for OFDM systems and adapts it into SCMA systems. The study starts with a baseline approach using the constellation permutation method of SCMA codebooks by showing that carefully designed permutation patterns can provide measurable reductions in PAPR across different FFT sizes. Two established multicarrier reduction techniques are then integrated with permutation: Tone Reservation (TR) and Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS). Simulation results demonstrate that TR reduces PAPR significantly in the non-permuted baseline. However, it delivers small additional gain when combined with the permutation method. In contrast, PTS provides meaningful higher reductions rates of up to 2 dB compared to permutation method alone, in particular when FFT sizes are larger, highlighting its suitability as a complementary technique. The main contributions this dissertation has done include: (i) proving the efficiency of permutation as a low-complexity PAPR reduction method for SCMA. (ii) recognising that TR works well with SCMA on its own but offers limited benefit when combined with permutation and (iii) validating PTS as a powerful extension that consistently enhances performance. These achievements provide new insights into how codebook-level and signal-level methods interact, paving the way for future research on hybrid strategies, adaptive phase optimization, and hardware implementation in next-generation uplink SCMA systems.8 0Item Restricted HOW DO CHARITIES USE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS IN THEIR OPERATIONS(Saudi Digital Library, 2024) Alshamrani, Rudaynah Saad Ali; Arun, KumarThis dissertation explores how charities in England employ various types of management control systems (MCS) in their operations, addressing a notable gap in the literature which has traditionally focused on the private sector. Drawing on conceptual frameworks such as Simons’ Levers of Control and Tucker’s control formality continuum, the study adopts a holistic view of MCS as integrated ‘packages’ comprising both formal and informal controls. Through qualitative analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews with charity workers and volunteers across 10 organisations, the research reveals that charities use formal diagnostic controls not only to satisfy funder accountability requirements but also to monitor internal performance and identify strategic opportunities. Informal controls, such as interpersonal communication and impact storytelling, play a complementary role, particularly among volunteers who prefer less structured environments. The findings challenge prior assumptions of decoupling between formal controls and daily operations, suggesting instead a dynamic interplay between control types. The study concludes by recommending further research into the differentiated use of MCS by volunteers versus paid staff, and the potential influence of institutional pressures on control adoption.5 0Item Restricted Individual Written Action Research Project Report On Enhancing Hybrid Work Strategies to Improve Collaboration and Performance in the Financial Services Industry(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aljulayyil, Abdulaziz; Colin, MangThis study focuses on the possibility of optimising the strategies of hybrid working in relation to improving cooperation and productivity in the financial services industry. After widespread adoption of hybrid working arrangements following the COVID-19 pandemic, financial institutions still face some of the issues that are related to disjointed communication, reduced visibility, unequal inclusion, and weakened team cohesion. The research was based on the interpretivist philosophy, inductive reasoning and a mono-method of qualitative research based on archival research. Secondary sources that included academic publications, industry reports, and regulatory publications that were published in 2020-25 were analysed thematically to identify trends, challenges, and future opportunities in relation to hybrid work systems. The empirical evidence indicates that, as much as hybrid work practices create greater autonomy, flexibility, and personal productivity, they also create significant obstacles to the collective performance, cross-functional coordination, and organisational control. Remote and junior staff are disproportionately affected by proximity bias, disparate digital practices, and limited informal learning. In this regard, the study found that hybrid work can only achieve high efficacy when supported with well-designed communication procedures, performance management based on outcomes, inclusive leadership behaviour, and deliberate culture-building efforts. The dissertation provides a set of suggestions, including a Hybrid Collaboration Operating System (HCOS), outcome-based hybrid performance scorecards, digital-first cultural rituals and a hybrid learning and mentorship hub. These propositions provide a pragmatic approach towards greater collaboration, equity strengthening, and general better performance in hybrid financial services environments.9 0Item Restricted Young Saudi Women’s Perceptions and Experiences of Cyberbullying on Twitter(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aljadani, Yosra; Matthew, Hart; Grace, Sykes; Michael, DunningThis study investigates how young Saudi women understand, experience and respond to cyberbullying on Twitter, within the intersecting structures of gender, religion and culture in a conservative society undergoing rapid social transformation. While cyberbullying against women has received increasing scholarly attention globally, limited research has explored how it manifests, is understood and navigated by women in Saudi Arabia. To address this gap, the study adopts a feminist qualitative approach grounded in poststructuralist and intersectional feminism. In support of this key feminist framework, I borrow concepts from Bourdieu’s sociology, particularly habitus and symbolic violence, to enrich the sociocultural analysis without positioning them as a primary theoretical lens. Data were generated through telephone-based semi-structured interviews with 30 young Saudi women who are Twitter users. The scroll-back method was integrated during interviews, enabling participants to select and reflect on specific tweets—whether directed at them or others as a participatory tool that centers women’s voices and interpretive agency. Findings reveal that participants conceptualise cyberbullying not merely as an instance of harm, but as part of a broader system of gendered control that governs women’s digital visibility and regulates behavior through mechanisms of moral and discipline. Women reported being targeted for their appearance, speech, opinions on gender roles and perceived challenges to cultural or religious norms. The impacts ranged from anxiety, self-censorship and digital withdrawal to social isolation. However, participants also demonstrated forms of contextual agency by managing digital interactions, negotiating cultural expectations and building solidarity with other women online. These responses reflect subtle, locally embedded strategies of resistance that challenge dominant frames without necessarily relying on overt or Western-liberal expressions of empowerment. Through its feminist design and culturally grounded methodology, the study provides an in-depth and context-sensitive understanding of cyberbullying against Saudi women on Twitter.3 0Item Restricted Subscription Video-on-Demand in Everyday Life: A Qualitative Exploration of Saudi Audiences’ Interpretive Repertoires.(University of East Anglia, 2025) Alhumaidhi, Khalid Abdullah; Rimmer, MarkThis study explores how younger Saudi audiences use global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) in everyday life, focusing on how platforms and their content are negotiated within a complex, conservative cultural context. While there are growing international calls for audience-centred research into SVOD viewing practices, this gap is particularly evident in Saudi Arabia, where rapid sociocultural change and legal reforms have facilitated the rise of global streaming platforms offering content often censored in local media. This study aims to understand how younger Saudi audiences engage with SVOD platforms and how they construct and negotiate meanings from such practices. The research focused on Saudi audiences aged between 25 and 35 years old from diverse demographic backgrounds in the city of Riyadh. Grounded in an interpretive qualitative paradigm informed by scholarship on everyday life and reception studies, this thesis emphasises audiences’ viewing practices and meaning-making as culturally rooted and contextually situated. Data were collected through participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. Interpretive repertoires were used as the primary analytical tool to identify patterns in how participants talked about their engagement with, made sense of, and navigated their relationship with platforms. Findings revealed that audiences selectively appropriated platforms and their content, navigating these through both pleasures and tensions. Topics such as women’s independence, empowerment, sexual content, and LGBT representation – often underrepresented in Saudi and Arab media – emerged as complex sites of discourse. Participants selectively embraced elements they perceived as beneficial to their personal lives or to broader social progress, while affirming core cultural values in opposition to those they viewed as detrimental. The study contributes to multiple fields of scholarship by offering a contextually grounded, audience-centred perspective on SVOD engagement in the Global South, providing insights for researchers and policymakers concerned with cultural negotiation, audience agency, and everyday SVOD use.10 0Item Restricted The Use of Speech Acts in Social Media Interaction Among Female Learners of Arabic as an Additional Language(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Albawardi, Safia Abdullah; Dovchin, Sender; Oliver, RhondaPragmatics refers to knowledge about the cultural and social norms of a language and the context of communication. Due to their limited pragmatic competence, second language learner students often struggle to use context-appropriate language, including speech acts (e.g., requests, refusals, and apologies). This is the case for students studying in Saudi Arabia who have Arabic as an additional language (AAL). Therefore, this study focuses on speech acts and specifically requests, as they are among the most frequently used and also the most challenging for AAL students—when used inappropriately, they may cause discomfort or threaten the addressee’s face. Currently, there is a gap in the literature with no existing research examining the use of speech acts by female AAL students. This study explores requests in written, naturalistic interactions on social media by analysing WhatsApp messages sent by female university students to their lecturers at a large university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In particular, this research aims to investigate how AAL learners and non-Arab (NA) university students at the bachelor’s and master’s levels use direct and indirect requests, as well as how they modify them. It also aims to compare their use with that of Saudi Arabian (SA) university students. The study additionally examines whether these differences are related to language proficiency or length of residence in Saudi society. A total of 129 student participants and 27 lecturers contributed to the study. Data were collected using mixed methods, including a demographic questionnaire, WhatsApp messages, and semi-structured interviews. In total, 10,882 WhatsApp messages were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentages) and inferential statistics (chi-square and Fisher’s exact test) were applied. The qualitative analysis employed transtextual analytics and thematic analysis to examine the WhatsApp messages and interviews. The results showed that AAL students preferred direct requests, as did NA students, but to a lesser extent, while SA students were the least likely to use this strategy. Conversely, SA students preferred conventionally indirect requests more than the other groups. In terms of modifications, SA students used them most frequently, followed by NA students, and then AAL students, with external modifications being the most common type overall. The qualitative analysis revealed that AAL students’ requests were generally short and characterised by simple grammatical structures, whereas NA students’ requests were longer and grammatically more complex, resembling those of SA students. In addition, NA students used emojis, colloquial expressions, and some transliterated English terms, pragmatically aligning their messages more closely with SA students. Across all groups, the most common modifications were titles, small talk, justifications, and religious supplications. These findings have the potential to contribute to the teaching of AAL by helping curriculum developers design materials that enable learners to distinguish between polite and impolite forms. In doing so, learners can avoid pragmatic errors.5 0Item Restricted The Evolution of the Middle East Security Complex: Threat Perception and the Viability of a New Security Alliance(Saudi Digital Library, 2023) Alomair, Haifa Omair; Ardovini, LuciaThe geopolitical importance of the Middle East is intensifying with the economic and strategic opportunities unraveling in the wake of the current political landscape. Existing tensions escalate due to multifaceted inter-state conflicts and power disparities, posing a barrier to regional peace. Symptomatic of an insecure regional complex, the political landscape of the contemporary Middle East prompts the necessity for a new security alliance. This dissertation investigates the viability of a security alliance emerging in the Middle East between essential security complexes in the Gulf and Levant, mainly led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Israel, to deal with the existing and emerging threats in the region. Leveraging the regional security complex theory (RSCT), this research unravels the interconnected security threats while considering the region's distinct extended historical and political contexts. An in-depth analysis was conducted using a qualitative approach combining key state objectives and policy document review to identify the preconditions and prevailing systemic patterns necessitating the formation of the alliance through the perception of threat. The study concludes that an RSCT-informed security alliance can offer stability, strengthen inter-state relations, and introduce a potent platform for resolution negotiations. Additionally, it explores how such an alliance can shape national security policies, driving a systemic change in the region's security dynamics.5 0Item Restricted Structural and Architectural Synthesis of a Multi-Storey Hybrid Steel System with a CFS-Framed Islamic Dome(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alotaibi, Omar Fares; Hajirasouliha, Iman; Benzo, Pier GiovanniBackground: Contemporary architecture, particularly in rapidly developing urban centres, increasingly pursues geometrically complex and culturally significant forms. This ambition presents a considerable challenge for structural engineers, as conventional monolithic systems can be inefficient for realizing non-rectilinear designs. This thesis addresses the specific research problem of designing a novel hybrid structural system that integrates a robust Hot-Rolled Steel (HRS) ground floor with a lightweight Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) superstructure, crowned by a geometrically intricate, CFS-framed Islamic dome, for the highwind context of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: The research was conducted using a quantitative, simulation-based approach. A high-fidelity, three-dimensional finite element model of the hybrid building was developed in the advanced analysis software, SAP2000. The structural system was optimized through an iterative design process, where an initial unfeasible design was systematically refined to resolve performance issues. The final, optimized model was subjected to a comprehensive suite of load combinations and was rigorously verified against the strength (Ultimate Limit State) and serviceability (Serviceability Limit State) requirements of the relevant Eurocode standards, including the application of the Effective Width Method for CFS member design. Key Results: The analysis confirmed that the final optimized design is structurally viable and performs efficiently under all specified load conditions. The members of the HRS ground floor and the CFS superstructure successfully satisfied all ULS criteria, with the highest recorded utilization ratios being approximately 0.94 and 0.91, respectively, indicating a safe but not overly conservative design. Critically, the initial challenge of excessive deflection was resolved; the maximum observed vertical deflection under SLS combinations was approximately 8.7 mm, which is well within the allowable Eurocode limit of 14.0 mm (L/250). Conclusion: This thesis successfully demonstrates that the proposed hybrid structural system is a robust, efficient, and viable solution. The research validates a clear design methodology for integrating heavy and lightweight steel systems to resolve complex structural and architectural challenges. The findings confirm that the strategic synthesis of modern materials and advanced analytical methods can enable the realization of ambitious, culturally significant architectural forms, providing a valuable precedent for future hybrid construction projects.17 0Item Restricted Evaluating the Effectiveness of the UK Legal Framework in Combating Money Laundering.(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alaridhi, Mohammed; IainThe UK AML regime meets FATF, UNCAC, and UNTOC requirements, but its effectiveness—key to our research—is disputed. Enforcement is selective, intelligence underutilised, and burdens uneven. The UK has formal compliance but insufficient actual performance compared to EU reforms and FATF follow-ups99, raising questions about whether legislative aim matches the research question of real effectiveness.3 0