Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 1985. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-152).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 1985. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-152).

Although the history of South Arabia in the fifth and sixth centuries has not been studied to any great extent, the events of this period were of marked importance in the history of South Arabia in particular and of Central Arabia in general. Within this period we find the enlargement of the South Arabian kings' title, and the extension of their sovereignty over the highland of West and Central Arabia; the Abyssinian invasion of South Arabia and the semi-independent government of Abraha and his sons; and, finally, the abolition of South Arabian independence after the Persian invasion. South Arabia lost its position as the leading power in the Arabian peninsula said became a vassal province of the Persian empire. Moreover, the decline of Kinda and its migration to South Arabia created instability in Central Arabia, and indeed most of ayyām al-'arab [Days of the Arab] which we know, belongs to the period after the decline of Kinda, the vassal of South Arabia. The aim of the present work is to study this period of the history of South Arabia from the time of Abū Karib As'sad, who had the title "King of sb'/wdrydn/wḥḍrmwt/wymnt/w'rb/ṭwd/wthmt." 1. Chapter I deals with the relations of South and Central Arabia before the reign of Abū Karib As'sad; the extension of South Arabia towards the north; the eventual conquest of Kinda; the expedition of Sharafddin's Inscription towards the land of Tanūkh and Persia, at the time of Shammar Yuhar'ish; and finally the counter-attack of Shapur II, King of Persia and Imru'l-Kais. 2. Chapter II treats of the reign of Abū Karib As'sad; the enlarged title, ''rb, twd and thmt; Abū Karib in Central Arabia; the legends of Abū Karib's invasion of Irak and Central Asia, the siege of Madina, and finally his worshipping at the Ka'ba in Mecca. 3. Chapter III deals with the traditional kings after Abū Karib who have been mentioned in the inscriptions, with special reference to Hassan's expedition against Diadis, 'Abd Kulal in Arab tradition, and Ma'dikarib Ya'fur in Central Arabia. 4. Chapter IV covers the reign of the famous king Yūsuf 'As'ar, his origin, and the massacre of the Christians in South Arabia. 5. Chapter V is concerned with the Abyssinian invasion of South Arabia, the battlefield, the period of the puppet king Sumyafa Ashwa, and his end at the hand of the famous King Abraha. 6. Chapter VI deals with the most significant achievements of Abrah; the events of CIH 541; the events of Ry 506; the expedition of Ry 506 and its relation to the expedition of the elephant; the reign of Abraha's sons, Yaksūm and Masrūk; and finally the end of the Abyssinian domination of South Arabia.

Riyadh City, the capital of Saudi Arabia, presents an interesting context of problems in its urbanisation process, which started pronouncedly during the 1970s. The main factor that prompted urbanisation was the discovery and production of crude oil accompanied with the strong political desire for urbanisation and modernisation. This has enabled the country to embark on profound national development in all aspects of life. The fast growth in population and urban land expansion led to several challenges to the urbanisation process and to urban land policy. These started to occur as a result of high land demand and the absence of measures able to control urban land expansion. Surprisingly, land urban expansion exceeded the increase in urban population which itself was uncontrolled. Similarly, the increase in urban land use also generated empty urban lands scattered randomly in Riyadh City. Thus, the main thrust of this thesis is to investigate the nature of the urbanisation process and the role of urban land policy with emphasis on the impact of urban land expansion in Riyadh City, despite the policies that aimed at controlling and directing urban growth. The main objective of the study has been to provide a broad perspective on the urbanisation process in Riyadh City and examine five proposed hypotheses associated with the urbanisation problem. Other objectives were to understand the concept that most likely reflects the real nature of the urbanisation process from social and governmental perspectives, and to illustrate the concepts that govern urban land expansion with particular emphasis on how the residents perceive urban land expansion in view of services and infrastructure of their City. Following these objectives, the study has adopted a combined approach involving firstly acquiring the necessary background for the literature, which helped to set up the study. A total of 781 (or 78.1%) respondents to questionnaire in four groups: Land authority, Estate agents, Landowners and Residents indicated general agreement between land authority and residents, which was likely to disagree with perceptions of landowners and Estate agents on the majority of the 33 statements of the questionnaire. Results of the statistical analysis indicated that the proposed hypotheses were most likely to be rejected because of disagreement on urban land policies and their mechanism for the development and control urbanisation process. Results also indicated that urbanisation growth in Riyadh City was not organised, and land development not regulated and implemented by the municipality under control measures. The existing urbanisation problems can be attributed to the constitution, system of granting land, land ownership, view of people towards land and urbanisation in general make it difficult to apply measures to control urban land expansion. Other problems such as ineffective management, coordination on planning between the municipality and other organisations, inconsistency between urban land policy and lack of coordination between authorities in distributing land have greatly contributed to the urbanisation problem in Riyadh City. Thus, unless there is co-operation between people and authorities on one hand, and involvement of people in their city development on the other, the problem of urban land growth is perhaps a bigger challenge to comprehend in the future.

The service industry worldwide continues to face unprecedented challenges in decision-making and in managing the operations involved in delivering products at low cost and ever-faster delivery speeds. These pressures exert an even greater impact upon small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in this industry who, influenced by globalisation, have to respond by handling the dynamic complexity within their operational supply chain. Many larger firms have implemented Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) and end-to-end integrated real-time information systems (RTI) that provide the information and the mechanisms needed to support flexibility and prompt decision-making. The recent emergence of new technologies such as multi-agent systems (MAS) provides enhanced capability to address complexity and decision-making with greater ease of use at a reduced cost. Whilst the application of Lean and Six Sigma are supported by significant published research, the application of integrated LSS and MAS in food distribution, especially in SMEs, is not. This study seeks to provide research to address this shortcoming for SMEs within the food distribution sector within Saudi Arabia, how this integrated approach can offer considerable performance improvement in SMEs and provide a base for further contributions in this field. This research undertook an empirical case study in Saudi Arabia to test the application of LSS in a food distribution SME. This approach demonstrated a significant improvement in the Six Sigma for late delivery. A single-stage MAS application extended this improvement, demonstrating that there is value in its application. The study conducted a survey of 39 firms in this sector to gain an insight into their current practices and challenges. The findings indicated there was a lack of Lean and Six Sigma principles adopted and that a lack of use of interconnected real-time systems to support decision-making and complex operational SCs. These findings identified the opportunity to design a conceptual framework with a stepped approach that integrated LSS with MAS, which was then developed on a Java-Assisted DEvelopment Framework (JADE) platform and tested using real-world data in an SME empirical case study. The results of the sequence of applications and the final simulations proved that this integrated Lean multi-agent system (LMAS) solution offered such substantial improvements in quality, time and costs that the SME considered that those factors justified making its implementation a priority.

No description available.

No description available.

Application of Health Informatics (HI) is becoming more pervasive in the Saudi Arabian health organisations (SAHOs) with the aim of exploiting its potential for better healthcare delivery. Yet, to date, the management of HI has not been fully digested in the Saudi health environment. Therefore, adoption of imported models has become a common practice for managing HI. Consequently, most implemented systems fall short of meeting objectives or tackling key existing issues. The aim of the study is to develop a model for HI management that not only deals with key prevailing issues but also should be compatible with the Saudi Arabian health environment. The research contends that the key to success in exploiting the potential of HI is the use of appropriate local models that fully integrate with the Saudi Arabian health environment. The research design was mainly guided by pragmatic philosophy which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research. It was inductive in nature and used a field research methodology to accomplish the research objectives. Empirical data was collected via questionnaires and interviews in the collaborating health organisations. Literature review, data analyses of the questionnaires and interviews yielded the initial framework for the Health Informatics Management Model (HIMM). A first round evaluation of the HIMM was conducted yielding a revised version. Later, data was also gathered from participants in a second round of evaluating the HIMM. The second round was to reassess the compatibility of HIMM with the Saudi Arabian health organisations, and to update the model in order to match the current application of HI in these organisations. The analysis of the data gleaned from the second stage evaluation yielded a revised (and final) HIMM, contemplated by participants. Based on the above empirical data, the research study introduces the HIMM, the first holistic and systematic HI framework that should enable the Saudi health providers and managers to better comprehend the multi-faceted perspectives that form the HI management paradigm, and guide them in its management. It can allow them to decide how best to manage HI projects in a way that ensures an optimum use of HI resources for effective and efficient delivery of healthcare and services. This work is of considerable utility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, where HI management and its application are regarded as an area of high priority.

This thesis is an attempt to put together the history of Al-Hijaz, and to present a description of the political situation during the period from the year 1520 through the year 1632. The period starts three years after the submission of Sharif Barakat II of Mecca to the new Islamic power, the Ottomans. And it concludes with the restoration of order in Mecca in 1632. In deciding to select this topic, I was inspired by the lack of a complete history of the Holy Lands during the period, the importance of the period, and the fact that most authors who dealt with the area, during or after the period, took sides either with the Ottomans or the Ashrafs of Mecca. In looking for sources, I was unfortunate because I could not find any Ottoman Farman of the period, but I think the other sources, primary and secondary, helped me a lot, and without hesitation I could recommend some of them to any interested student of the area or the period.