Arabian Peninsula and Middle East, 1654 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Carte des trois Arabies : tirée en partie de l'Arabe de Nubie, en partie de diuers autres autheurs, par le S. N. Sanson d'Abbeville Geographe ordinaire du Roy ; J. Somer sculp. It was published by Chez Pierre Mariette in 1654. Scale [ca. 1:7,500,000]. Map in French and Latin. Covers the Arabian Peninsula. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the World Miller Cylindrical projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, territorial boundaries, shoreline features, and more. Relief shown pictorially. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University project: Islamic Heritage Project. Maps selected for the project represent a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes. The Islamic Heritage Project consists of over 100,000 digitized pages from Harvard's collections of Islamic manuscripts and published materials. Supported by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and developed in association with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University.

Arabian Peninsula, ca. 1747-1767 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Carte de la coste d'Arabie, Mer Rouge et Golfe de Perse : tir�e de la Carte de l'Oc�an Oriental publi�e en 1740 par Ordre de Mgr le Comte de Maurepas augment�e sur des remarques particuli�res et dress�e sur des observations astronomiques = Kaart van de Kust van Arabi�, de Roode-Zee en de Gulf van Persi� Gemaakt na de Fransse-Kaart van den Ooster-Ocean uitgegeven A. 1740 op Bevel van den Hre Grave de Maurepas Vermeederd op byzondere Aanmerkingen, en geschikt volgens Sterrekundige-Waarnemingen, J. V. Schley. It was published by Pierre de Hondt between 1747 and 1767. Scale [ca. 1:14,000,000]. Covers the Arabian Peninsula. Map in French and Dutch. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the World Gall Stereographic projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, shoreline features, and more. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University project: Islamic Heritage Project. Maps selected for the project represent a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes. The Islamic Heritage Project consists of over 100,000 digitized pages from Harvard's collections of Islamic manuscripts and published materials. Supported by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and developed in association with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University.

Ottoman Empire, ca. 1790 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Empire de la Porte ottomane en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique avec les pays qui lui sont tributaires, dressé par les Frères Lotter. It was published by Frères Lotter ca. 1790. Scale [ca. 1:9,000,000]. Covers the Ottoman Empire. Map in French. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to a modified 'Europe Lambert Conformal Conic' projection with a central meridian of 38 degrees East projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, territorial and provincial boundaries, shoreline features, and more. Relief shown pictorially. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University project: Islamic Heritage Project. Maps selected for the project represent a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes. The Islamic Heritage Project consists of over 100,000 digitized pages from Harvard's collections of Islamic manuscripts and published materials. Supported by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and developed in association with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University.

Is the "Dubai model" a new paradigm for growth and investment strategies for oil-based economies? Case study: Eurasia. ACES Working Papers No. 8, 2008

The first part of the paper addresses the theoretical background of economic growth and competitive advantage models. Although there is a whole set of research on a relationship between foreign direct investments and economic growth, little has been said on foreign direct investments and national competitive advantage with respect to economic growth of oil and gas abundant countries of Middle East and Central Asia. The second part of our paper introduces the framework of the so-called "Dubai Model" in detail and outlines the key components necessary to develop sustainable comparative advantage for the oil-rich economies. The third part proceeds with the methodology employed to measure the success of the "Dubai Model" in the UAE and in application to other regions. The last part brings the results and investigates the degree to which other oil and gas countries in the region (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran) have adopted the so-called "Dubai Model". It also examines if the Dubai Model is being employed in the Eurasian (Central Asian) oil and gas regions of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The objective is to gauge if the Eurasian economies are employing the traditional growth strategies of oil-rich non-OECD countries in managing their natural resources or are they adopting the newer non-traditional model of economic growth, such as the "Dubai Model."

Does ICT promote democracy and economic freedom in Middle East?

This study investigates the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) expansion on economic and social freedom in the Middle East (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and United Arab Emirates) for the period of 1996 to 2005. This study is unique as it analyzes the effect of institutional resistance (governments’ restrictions) on ICT development, economic freedom and democracy. The results show that institutional resistance poses a significant negative effect on ICT development and democracy. Results also show that ICT expansion in Middle East has not only been effective in bridging the Digital Divide, but that it had a positive impact on promoting civil liberties and economic freedom in a region that is vulnerable to political, social, and global conflicts.

The impact of information and communication technology (ICT), education and regulation on economic freedom in Islamic Middle Eastern countries

Our study investigated the impact of ICT expansion on economic freedom in the Middle East (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen). Our empirical analysis used archival data from 1995 to 2005; it showed that ICT expansion in the Middle East has been effective both in bridging the digital divide and also in promoting economic freedom in a region that was vulnerable to political, social, and global conflict. However, differences between countries, such as the educational attainment of their citizens and institutional resistance to technology acceptance, both enhanced and restricted the relationship between ICT and economic freedom.

Evaluating productive efficiency:comparative study of commercial banks in Gulf countries

Financial institutes are an integral part of any modern economy. In the 1970s and 1980s, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries made significant progress in financial deepening and in building a modern financial infrastructure. This study aims to evaluate the performance (efficiency) of financial institutes (banking sector) in GCC countries. Since, the selected variables include negative data for some banks and positive for others, and the available evaluation methods are not helpful in this case, so we developed a Semi Oriented Radial Model to perform this evaluation. Furthermore, since the SORM evaluation result provides a limited information for any decision maker (bankers, investors, etc...), we proposed a second stage analysis using classification and regression (C&R) method to get further results combining SORM results with other environmental data (Financial, economical and political) to set rules for the efficient banks, hence, the results will be useful for bankers in order to improve their bank performance and to the investors, maximize their returns. Mainly there are two approaches to evaluate the performance of Decision Making Units (DMUs), under each of them there are different methods with different assumptions. Parametric approach is based on the econometric regression theory and nonparametric approach is based on a mathematical linear programming theory. Under the nonparametric approaches, there are two methods: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH). While there are three methods under the parametric approach: Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA); Thick Frontier Analysis (TFA) and Distribution-Free Analysis (DFA). The result shows that DEA and SFA are the most applicable methods in banking sector, but DEA is seem to be most popular between researchers. However DEA as SFA still facing many challenges, one of these challenges is how to deal with negative data, since it requires the assumption that all the input and output values are non-negative, while in many applications negative outputs could appear e.g. losses in contrast with profit. Although there are few developed Models under DEA to deal with negative data but we believe that each of them has it is own limitations, therefore we developed a Semi-Oriented-Radial-Model (SORM) that could handle the negativity issue in DEA. The application result using SORM shows that the overall performance of GCC banking is relatively high (85.6%). Although, the efficiency score is fluctuated over the study period (1998-2007) due to the second Gulf War and to the international financial crisis, but still higher than the efficiency score of their counterpart in other countries. Banks operating in Saudi Arabia seem to be the highest efficient banks followed by UAE, Omani and Bahraini banks, while banks operating in Qatar and Kuwait seem to be the lowest efficient banks; this is because these two countries are the most affected country in the second Gulf War. Also, the result shows that there is no statistical relationship between the operating style (Islamic or Conventional) and bank efficiency. Even though there is no statistical differences due to the operational style, but Islamic bank seem to be more efficient than the Conventional bank, since on average their efficiency score is 86.33% compare to 85.38% for Conventional banks. Furthermore, the Islamic banks seem to be more affected by the political crisis (second Gulf War), whereas Conventional banks seem to be more affected by the financial crisis.

Corporate governance disclosure in the Gulf countries

Corporate governance disclosure is important for countries aiming to attract international investors and reduce companies’ cost of capital. The relationship between corporate governance disclosure (CGD) and its determinants is the main objective of the current research. Accordingly, the research aimed to: (i) assess CGD level in the Gulf countries; (ii) investigate the impact of ownership structure (proportion of institutional, governmental, managerial and family ownership) on CGD; (iii) explore the effect of board characteristics (proportion of independent board members, proportion of family members on board, CEO/chairman duality and board size) on CGD; (iv) examine the relationship between diversity (proportion of foreign and female members on a board and in the senior management team) and CGD; and (v) test the association between firm characteristics (company size, age, liquidity, profitability, leverage, industry and auditor types) and CGD. Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) were selected for the study since they share similar characteristics and represent a relatively homogeneous category in the Middle East and North African region. A CGD index of 232 items was developed and divided into six categories: ownership structure and investor rights; financial transparency and information disclosure; information on auditors; board and senior management structure and process; board committees; and finally corporate behaviour and responsibility. Annual reports available for listed non-financial companies of the Gulf countries were 270 for the year 2009. The maximum CGD level was 63%, whereas the minimum was 5%, with an average disclosure level of 32%. Several regression models were conducted to enhance the robustness of the results and conclusions of the study. The results indicated that five variables had a significant positive relationship with CGD: proportion of independent members on a board, proportion of foreign members on a board, proportion of foreign members in the senior management team, auditor type and profitability. The research contributes to the literature on corporate governance voluntary disclosure in developing countries. Practical contributions consist of several recommendations to policy makers, regulators, and professional institutions in the Gulf countries.

A Framework to Capture and Share Knowledge Using Storytelling and Video Sharing in Global Product Development

In global engineering enterprises, information and knowledge sharing are critical factors that can determine a project’s success. This statement is widely acknowledged in published literature. However, according to some academics, tacit knowledge is derived from a person’s lifetime of experience, practice, perception and learning, which makes it hard to capture and document in order to be shared. This project investigates if social media tools can be used to improve and enable tacit knowledge sharing within a global engineering enterprise. This paper first provides a brief background of the subject area, followed by an explanation of the industrial investigation, from which the proposed knowledge framework to improve tacit knowledge sharing is presented. This project’s main focus is on the improvement of collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst product development engineers in order to improve the whole product development cycle.

Rebranding Al-Jazeera Children's Channel: The Qatarization Factor

Qatar's rulers established Al-Jazeera Children's Channel in 2005 to nurture Arab and Islamic traditions and values; the channel sought to differentiate itself by ensuring that material would conform to what its management considered to be culturally appropriate guidelines for content. However, having been set up as a child-centred, non-commercial, fully-funded enterprise that aspired to source most of its content within the Arabic-speaking region, its priorities shifted in 2011-13 towards maximizing commercial revenues through foreign imports. In light of the shift, this chapter explores the complex interweaving of commercial and political considerations behind production and commissioning processes. The channel's branding and re-branding shows how a children’s television project can be adopted to reinforce a country’s claim to regional cultural leadership, while being packaged in such a way as to depoliticize that country’s institutions and composition by rooting national identity in a combination of commercial interests and notions of traditional culture.

Fútbol y redes sociales. Análisis de la gestión de Relaciones Públicas 2.0 por los clubes de fútbol

Las relaciones públicas se configuran como una actividad esencial en la gestión de la comunicación con los públicos de los clubes de fútbol ya que son muy activos y su grado de reactividad es alto. Con este texto se analiza el papel que desempeñan las redes sociales en los clubes de fútbol que poseen mayor número de ingresos. Para ello, se desarrolla una metodología que estudia qué presencia tienen en las redes sociales, el número de seguidores, qué grado de interacción se produce entre clubes y públicos y los contenidos y las temáticas de los textos de las redes sociales. Los resultados muestran un público activo pero con intervenciones relacionadas con los resultados futbolísticos y una gestión comunicativa unidireccional por parte de los clubes.

Análise experimental do comportamento à flexão e ligação entre painéis de lajes tipo bubbledeck

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Ambiental, 2016.