Search Results (9)

In Italy, the migratory phenomenon has also had an impact on the school system, becoming an interesting potential field for intercultural and inter-religious encounters. As regards, for instance, the presence of pupils and students and their families of Islamic faith, very frequently, emphasis is placed almost exclusively on specific issues and requests, such as exemption from the teaching of the Catholic religion or specific diet. On the other hand, we rarely discuss how the presence of diverse faiths can create a unique opportunity for mutual knowledge to spread and promote the “culture of encounter”. In fact, engagement with religious others is an unavoidable duty, both pedagogical and civic. Therefore, starting from an analysis of pedagogical-educational aspects of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, the aim of this article is to outline a rethinking of the concept of intercultural/inter-religious dialogue, above all as a pedagogical challenge and a preventive measure against extremism, within the broad framework of inclusive citizenship. Full article

Al Ain, near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is characterized by hot desert climate with high temperatures, aridity, and almost no rain. Several truncated earthen walls were discovered at the historic house of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa, a component of the World Heritage Cultural Sites. These remains are preserved in situ, outdoors, protected in glass showcases for public display. As this situation is not documented in the literature, the local Authority has requested to study the showcase environment to optimize conservation. The solar radiation and the projected shades have been modeled over one year; the temperature and humidity inside and outside the showcases, as well as the moisture content, have been measured to assess the potential preservation risks. The paper presents the results, i.e., the direct solar radiation generates extreme conditions of greenhouse effect with extremely high temperatures and forces evaporation from the remains. During the night, the excess moisture condenses on the inner surface of the glass panes, forming large drops that affect viewing and are dangerous for conservation. The repetition of evaporation–condensation cycles accumulates soluble salts on the remains. The paper discusses mitigation strategies (e.g., shading, ventilation, and cooling, to reduce the greenhouse effect) to improve conservation and fruition. Full article

Global environmental concerns have prompted organizations to adopt green human resource management practices that will eventually lead to green innovations. Given that understanding, this study aims to converge multidimensional research published on green human resource management (GHRM) and green innovation. In addition, it seeks to discuss the topic’s research trends in the context of what, how, when, where, and by whom. The data were retrieved from the Scopus database (until March 2023), and VOSviewer was used to investigate the research trends. A total of 312 documents were extracted from the Scopus database, and 46 published articles were finalized using the PRISMA flow approach. The results indicate that there has been an upward trend in terms of published articles on the topic, and the highest number of articles (15) were published in the current year, 2023. The co-occurrence results indicate that GHRM is strongly associated with environmental performance and green innovation. The journals Environmental Science and Pollution Research and Sustainability (Switzerland) stand out in this domain. The Abu Dhabi University of United Arab Emirates is the most cited institution, whereas Saudi Arabia has the highest co-authorship at the country level. Furthermore, this study summarizes the major developments in this research domain and suggests research gaps and possible future directions. Full article

This paper investigates the impact of 19 announcements pertaining to the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on equities listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX). Using a well-established event study methodology over the period 2015 to 2018, a sector-wise assessment of the value constructiveness or destructiveness of these announcements is conducted. In addition, an estimation of sector-wise changes in systematic risk following these announcements is provided. Significant sectoral differences in abnormal returns are observed with industries such as insurance and retail showing higher sensitivity. Certain announcements are identified as exerting more impact than others. The results document the outcome of the implementation of VAT and provide guidance to other countries in the Gulf region that plan to introduce VAT. Full article

Food resources are limited in arid countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE); the salinity of the groundwater, together with a lack of natural fresh water sources and arable land, force the country to import most of its food. However, seaweed could play an important role in providing a locally available food resource, as it does not require fresh water and arable land to grow. The traditional use of several seaweed species as food sources has been documented in Asia and the Americas, where their nutritional composition has been well reported. Although the UAE’s aquatic environment is quite harsh due to high water salinity (over 40 g/L) and high surface water temperatures (over 35 °C), its native seaweed species could play a role as a food source in this arid region, thereby bolstering the country’s level of food security. To evaluate its potential in this context, fresh samples of the native Ulva intestinalis seaweed were collected in the shallow waters of Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE. These samples were calculated to contain 34.38 ± 0.24 kcal, with a biomass composition of 5.185 ± 0.04% carbohydrate, 3.32 ± 0.14% protein, and 0.04 ± 0.01% fat (by dry matter). Of all the minerals present in the biomass, potassium had the highest concentration (7947 ± 319.5 ppm), followed by magnesium (3075.9 ± 1357 ppm) and sodium (756.3 ± 478 ppm). The water-soluble vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, and C were below the detection limit in the samples. The rich concentration of essential minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron and zinc in Ulva intestinalis makes it a promising novel food source. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental study to examine the feasibility of using seaweed that is native to the UAE as a nutritional and sustainable food source in order to address the challenge of food security currently being faced by the country. Full article

Effective safety management is a key aspect of managing construction projects. Current safety management practices are heavily document-oriented that rely on historical data to identify potential hazards at a construction job site. Such document-bound safety practices are prone to interpretative and communication errors in multilingual construction environments, such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Applications of Building Information Models (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) are claimed to improve hazards identification and communication in comparison to 2-D static drawings by simulating job-site conditions and safety implications and thus can interactively educate the job-site crew to enhance their understanding of the on-site conditions and safety requirements. This paper presents findings of a case study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of 4-Dimensional (4-D) BIM and VR in simulating job-site safety instructions for a multilingual construction crew at a project in the UAE. 4-D BIM-enabled VR simulations, in lieu of the Abu Dhabi Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHAD) code of practice, were developed and tested through risk assessment and safety training exercises for the job-site crew. The results showed a significant improvement in the job-site crew’s ability to recognize a hazard, understand safety protocols, and incorporate proactive risk response in mitigating the hazards. This study concludes that 4-D BIM-enabled VR visualization can improve information flow and knowledge exchange in a multilingual environment where jobsite crew do not speak a common language and cannot understand written safety instructions, manuals, and documents in any common language due to linguistic diversity. The findings of this study are useful in communicating safety instructions, and safety training, in the UAE, as well as in international projects. Full article

This paper investigates how natural resource conditions impact the physical development of cities and how, once built, the urban spatial structure leads to different patterns of resource use. The point of departure for this research is the common “resource urbanisms” assumption that cities are directly affected by the availability and costs of natural resources, and that in turn, different urbanisms result in substantial differences in resource use and consequent impact on the environment. Considering extreme and divergent, higher-income urban models of Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Singapore, the paper focusses on two resources, land and energy, and the case of building cooling and transport energy demand. The research uses a mixed methods approach which includes qualitative methods such as expert interviews, analysis of planning documents and historic planning decisions, alongside quantitative methods such as remote sensing, GIS and data analysis and energy modelling. The paper suggests that land availability is a major driver of urban form while energy prices may play a secondary role. It also finds that urban form-induced energy efficiencies for transport and cooling energy diverge in the four cities by a factor of five and two, respectively. Full article

Embedded in a critically adapted version of Jürgen Habermas’ postsecular approach, this article analyzes empirically and evaluates normatively the role of religion in the Middle East. Integrating and adapting William Connolly’s understanding of political change as power politics of becoming, the argument is that an authoritarian pluralism is evolving that, in contrast to secular nationalism and Political Islam, can be called postsecular insofar as it attempts to integrate more strata of the population into the public discourse, regardless of their religious creed but based on interreligious plurality. The Document on Human Fraternity, signed 2019 in Abu Dhabi, is a prime example of that postsecular trend embedded in power politics. The article concludes that the turmoil of the Arab Spring did not pave the way for democracy but for authoritarian and partisan versions of a postsecular public that try to accommodate the plurality of the Middle East. Full article

This paper documents a water:energy greenhouse gas (GHG) metric methodology for a decentralized non-potable water system that was developed as part of a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (DEng) research project by the first author. The project identified the need to investigate the challenges in changing the use of potable water to recycled water for landscape irrigation (LI) and for water features (WFs) at a medical facility case study (MFCS) in Abu Dhabi (AD) (the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The drivers for the research project were based on the need for AD to decrease desalinated potable water as well as reduce the environmental impact and operational costs associated with the processing and use of desalinated water. Thus, the aim of the research discussed and presented in this paper was to measure the impact of using recycled and onsite non-potable water sources at the MFCS to alleviate the use of desalinated potable water and reduce associated energy consumption, operational costs, and GHG emissions (latterly in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO_2e), for LI and WFs. The analysis of three case scenarios at the MFCS compared different approaches to alleviate energy use, costs, and GHG impacts for the use of recycled water in LI and WFs against a baseline. The findings led to a proposed sustainable water conservation and reuse (SWC) strategy, which helped save 50% desalinated potable water for LI use by soil improvement, building water system audits, and alternate non-potable water reuse. The recommendations for this paper are to develop a SWC strategy forming the basis for a water protocol by the competent authority for regional medical facilities including an assessment methodology for building decentralized non-potable water systems to measure their energy, GHG emissions and financial impact. Full article