SACM - United Kingdom
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9667
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Item Restricted ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF A RESEARCH-LED COMPUTER SCIENCE FRAMEWORK FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA(UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, 2024-02) Alharbi, Noha Abdulkhalig; Cutts, QuintinPrimary teachers around the world are being asked to teach computational thinking with little or no prior knowledge and limited support. This dissertation starts with analysing the challenges primary teachers face when teaching a subject new to them, identifying a lack of content and pedagogical content knowledge as a critical hurdle among many. Related situations in other subject areas are identified, where a new perspective on those subject areas has become central, and their approaches explored: the introduction of inquiry science and a more problem-based focus for mathematics both made use of a high-level framework that helped teachers to connect the top-level outcomes with low-level classroom materials provided to them. Computer science education is considered as a tool to develop computational thinking skills among learners, and there are worldwide efforts to implement it at the K-12 education level. However, being a relatively new subject, the teachers face similar challenges as the Mathematics and Science teachers mentioned above. Therefore, drawing on the mathematics/science experience, and on existing frameworks and research findings in CS, a Research-Led Computer Science Framework (RLCSF) that has three major components is presented. These components include the problem domain, computing domain, and problem-solving process, and computational thinking is presented as a modelling activity. The effectiveness of the framework was evaluated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). To ensure that KSA is an appropriate evaluation context, data was collected from 114 teachers using the METRECC survey tool. This survey work provided detailed insight into the state of the intended and enacted curriculum at the K-12 level in KSA and the challenges the teachers face while teaching CS. The survey reports that the teachers in KSA have a limited understanding of computational thinking and problem-solving, and hence KSA is an appropriate context. For the evaluation, a Professional Development Program (PDP) was developed for teachers in which a teacher training guide was created, and a Professional Development Course (PDC) was conducted to educate the teachers about the way the RLCSF works and can solve the Content Knowledge (CK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) issues. As part of the PDP, other teacher training sessions were conducted during teaching. The researcher not only trained the teachers but also recorded their use of the framework and feedback using mixed-method approaches such as focus group studies, interviews and learners evaluation. To ensure the effectiveness of the results, another training session and interview were conducted with the teachers. The researcher involved one of the experienced group teachers, who is a non-CS background teacher from KSA, in the process of training and presentation. The objective is to investigate if the RLCSF can be transferred by a teacher who can teach the training processes and has recently experienced the framework. The second training guide is text-based, along with a video presentation explaining the examples given in the text guide. The teacher continued to assist teachers during their teaching. In the first semester, the CS teachers were able to use the materials more effectively than the non-CS teachers, but in the second semester, non-CS teachers were also at the same level. Teachers were able to start creating lessons using the material and framework. The results also reflect that the performance of learners from the experimental group was better than that of the control group learners. In the end, the non-CS teachers developed an understanding of why and how to develop computational thinking. The CS teachers had earlier focused only on teaching tools, but they developed an understanding of the importance of computational thinking. The teachers understand that modelling is a critical process in problem-solving. The results are promising and show that teachers are better able to understand different examples in the given curriculum and are able to deliver the contents more effectively.15 0Item Restricted A Simulation Framework for Evaluating the Performance of Blockchain-based IoT Ecosystems(Newcastle University, 2024-09-05) Albshri, Adel; Solaiman, EllisRecently, it has been appealing to integrate Blockchain with IoT in several domains, such as healthcare and smart cities. This integration facilitates the decentralized processing of IoT data, enhancing cybersecurity by ensuring data integrity, preventing tampering, and strengthening privacy through decentralized trust mechanisms and resilient security measures. These features create a secure and reliable environment, mitigating potential cyber threats while ensuring non-repudiation and higher availability. However, Blockchain performance is questionable when handling massive data sets generated by complex and heterogeneous IoT applications. Thus, whether the Blockchain performance meets expectations will significantly influence the overall viability of integration. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the feasibility of integrating IoT and Blockchain and examine the technology readiness level before the production stage. This thesis addresses this matter by extensively investigating approaches to the performance evaluation of Blockchain-based IoT solutions. Firstly, it systematically reviews existing Blockchain simulators and identifies their strengths and limitations. Secondly, due to the lack of existing blockchain simulators specifically tailored for IoT, this thesis contributes a novel blockchain-based IoT simulator which enables investigation of blockchain performance based on adaptable design configuration choices of IoT infrastructure. The simulator benefits from lessons learnt about the strengths and limitations of existing works and considers various design requirements and views collected through questioners and focus groups of domain experts. Third, the thesis recognises the shortcomings of blockchain simulators, such as support for smart contracts. Therefore, it contributes a middleware that leverages IoT simulators to benchmark real blockchain platforms' performance, namely Hyperledger Fabric. It resolves challenges related to integrating distinctive environments: simulated IoT models with real Blockchain ecosystems. Lastly, this thesis employs Machine Learning (ML) techniques for predicting blockchain performance based on predetermined configurations. Contrariwise, it also utilises ML techniques to recommend the optimal configurations for achieving the desired level of blockchain performance.57 0Item Restricted Visualising of cyber crime data by Communication Structured Acyclic Nets(Newcastle University, 2024-09-02) Alahmadi, Mohammed Saud; Koutny, MaciejCommunication Structured Acyclic Nets (CSA-nets) are a Petri net-based formalism used to represent the behaviour of Complex Evolving Systems (CES). CSA-nets, comprising sets of acyclic nets, are suitable tools for modelling and visualising the behaviour of event-based systems. Each subsystem is represented using a separate acyclic net, linked to others through a set of buffer places depicting their interactions. However, CSA-nets suffer from challenges especially in analysing and visualising CESs that have a large number of subsystems resulting from alternative and concurrent execution scenarios. Moreover, CSA-nets currently lack the capability to represent multiple or coloured tokens, thereby limiting their ability to represent several similar processes simultaneously. This thesis introduces extensions for CSA-nets to capture compactly the relationships between interacting systems’ components represented by sets of acyclic nets. Specifically, it introduces a way of folding buffer places to address the issue of a large number of buffer places. Then it introduces a new class of CSA-nets, called Parameterised Communication Structured Acyclic Nets (PCSA-nets), using multi-coloured tokens and allowing places to accept multiple tokens distinguished by parameters. The thesis also aims at improving the visualisation of csa-nets by rearranging their component acyclic nets to minimise the number of crossing arcs by taking inspiration from the main ideas behind three well-known sorting algorithms (bubble sort, insertion sort, and selection sort). Furthermore, this thesis presents a novel approach that combines TCP protocol anomaly detection with visual analysis through CSA-nets. The strategy provides a clear visualisation of cyber attack behaviours, leading a deeper understanding of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) patterns and their underlying causes. A new concept of Timed-Coloured Communication Structured Acyclic Nets (TCCSA-nets) is introduced, which allows elaboration of the system’s performance and emphasising the system’s operations in real-time. This approach allows for the classification of messages as abnormal if their duration exceeds a predetermined time limit.39 0Item Restricted Beyond Bonds: Unlocking Sukuk's Potential in Hedge Fund Portfolios Amidst Market Volatility, an ARCH and GARCH Models Analysis(King's College London, 2023-09-14) Ajaj, Mohammed; Papailias, FotisThe global financial ecosystem, which is fraught with economic uncertainty and turbulent bear markets, drives hedge funds to seek for alternative investment opportunities that promise stability and substantial returns. In this context, the potential of Sukuk, an Islamic alternative to conventional Bonds, is examined in comparison to Bonds, particularly during bear markets. Despite abundant research on Sukuk and conventional Bonds, a quantitative comparison analysis, particularly one focusing on GCC Sukuk, remains relatively unexplored. This work fills this need by modelling the financial time series of these instruments using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) and its generalized counterparts (GARCH & EGARCH). Preliminary findings indicate that Sukuk, due to their asset-backed nature, demonstrate exceptional resilience during economic downturns. Because of their low market sensitivity, Sukuk have the ability to diversify hedge fund portfolios, according to the CAPM model research. In addition, the GARCH and EGARCH models revealed a divergence in volatility patterns between Sukuk and Bonds between 2020 and 2023, emphasizing Sukuk's resilience to negative shocks. To summarize, while Sukuk looks to offer various advantages over conventional Bonds, particularly in bear markets, financial practitioners are recommended to take a balanced approach, always re-evaluating their investment strategies in the ever-changing finance landscape.10 0Item Restricted Modelling & Simulation the Performance of User Behaviour in Serious Contexts(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-09-27) Alkoradees, Ali Fayez; Thomas, Nigel; Harrison, Michael; Colquhoun, JohnReal-time experiments on healthcare procedural improvement can be infeasible due to the domain’s criticality and sensitivity. For instance, high morbidity rates and escalated patient treatment duration can, in some circumstances, be associated with medical resources exhaustion. Thus, formal methods can be an answer to lower the effects of experimentation within these healthcare domains as such an approach may be effective in deriving new insights and proposing further recommendations to the investigated domain. Specifically, performance modelling formalisms provide a rich theoretical foundation for dynamic systems, which are affected by an extensive collection of interventions, and supported by the existing formalisms toolsets. Hence, investigating healthcare system contexts involves several complex challenges. These challenges range from data collection methods and data analysis formalisms to optimising medical outcomes. This optimisation is beneficial to behaviour analysts and medical administrators. The current thesis contributes to addressing these challenges in many different ways: (i) By presenting an improved web-based version of a sketch simulation that collects the clinician behaviour during massive bleeding scenarios. This unconventional data collection method is proposed to minimise the need to observe the interventions in person where such treatment of these medical cases are performed; (ii) The modelling of two medical scenarios using different modelling formalisms for analysis and evaluation purposes, these modelling formalisms are Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA), Collective Adaptive Resource-sharing Markovian Agents (CARMA), and Stochastic Petri nets (SPN); (iii) A proposed tool to enhance the log analysis process. Doing so required the implementation of a trace-driven simulation tool. The tool simulates a clinical behaviour that has been recorded using a sketch simulation version. (iv) Proposing different suggestions to improve medical outcomes and to effectively reduce the cost of health resources.5 0