The Intersection of Citizenship Status,STEM Education,and Expected Labor Market Participation in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Citizenship status influences the impact of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education on the youth labor market participation in the Arabian Gulf. This research examines the relationship between citizenship status, STEM education, and expected labor market participation in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and examines the intervening effects of information and communication technology (ICT) based instruction, specifically. The 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides both labor market expectations and STEM education data from all participating GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Results suggest that ICT‐enhanced STEM education differently influences the human capital development of Gulf national and expatriate youth. For example, GCC nationals do not emphasize STEM education as an avenue for employment, while expatriate youth do. In particular, as Gulf national youths' parents' education level increases, students are less likely to think they need to do well in science to get the job they want. This is indicative of a broader trend in the Gulf nations to rely more on non‐education‐related factors such as family influence or connections for social, economic, and political mobility. In contrast, results also suggest that while STEM education contributes to potential private sector labor market participation among Gulf national youth, expatriate youth are more likely to expect to need or use STEM in the labor market.     

Characterization of Ductility and Inelastic Displacement Demand in Base-Isolated Structures Considering Cyclic Degradation

New designed or retrofitted structures with the use of isolation system may exhibit nonlinear deformations during strong ground motions. Inelastic displacement ratio of base-isolated structures is studied in this paper by employing two degree of freedom model taking into account inelastic behavior of isolators and superstructure. Parametric study is conducted to evaluate influence of isolator and superstructure properties on inelastic displacement ratio according to two sets of near-fault and far-fault ground motions. Accuracy of proposed equations in the literature to evaluate inelastic displacement ratio are studied, as well. Furthermore, cyclic degradation effects are investigated by considering stiffness and strength degradation and pinching in hysteresis model of superstructure. Eventually, inelastic responses of isolated structures with two types of isolators (lead rubber bearing and friction pendulum bearing) are compared.     

Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wādī Ḍebayʿān,northern Qatar

Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid‐Holocene sea levels at Wādī ?ebay?ān, north‐western Qatar (Al‐Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al‐Naimi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 excavations at Wādī ?ebay?ān revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al‐Naimi & Tetlow 2013).     

Exploring the Use of Computer Vision Metrics for Spatial Pattern Comparison

Detection of changes in spatial processes has long been of interest to quantitative geographers seeking to test models, validate theories, and anticipate change. Given the current “data-rich” environment of today, it may be time to reconsider the methodological approaches used for quantifying change in spatial processes. New tools emerging from computer vision research may hold particular potential to make significant advances in quantifying changes in spatial processes. In this article, two comparative indices from computer vision, the structural similarity (SSIM) index, and the complex wavelet structural similarity (CWSSIM) index were examined for their utility in the comparison of real and simulated spatial data sets. Gaussian Markov random fields were simulated and compared with both metrics. A case study into comparison of snow water equivalent spatial patterns over northern Canada was used to explore the properties of these indices on real-world data. CWSSIM was found to be less sensitive than SSIM to changing window dimension. The CWSSIM appears to have significant potential in characterizing change and/or similarity; distinguishing between map pairs that possess subtle structural differences. Further research is required to explore the utility of these approaches for empirical comparison cases of different forms of landscape change and in comparison to human judgments of spatial pattern differences.     

Reconstruction of past backyard skating seasons in the Original Six NHL cities from citizen science data

This study conducted linear and change-point analyses of historical trends since 1942 in the length and number of days suitable for skating on backyard rinks in the “Original Six” National Hockey League cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York, and Toronto. Analysis is based on the relationship between ambient air temperatures and the probability of skating, using thresholds identified through the RinkWatch citizen science project. In all cities, coefficient estimates suggest the number of high-probability skating days per winter is declining, with easternmost cities displaying notable declines and growing inter-annual variability in skating days in recent decades. Linear analysis shows a statistically significant decline in Toronto, with a step-change emerging in 1980, after which there is on average one-third fewer skating days compared with preceding decades. The outdoor skating season trends towards later start dates in Boston, Montreal, New York, and Toronto. Future monitoring of outdoor rinks provides an opportunity for engaging the public in identification of winter warming trends that might otherwise be imperceptible, and for raising awareness of the impacts of climate change.     

Secular Islam

ABSTRACT

While he appears to have been a relentless critic of secularism as a liberal ideal, the celebrated Indian poet and philosopher Mohammad Iqbal might also be considered among its more important non-European theorists. Globally one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century, Iqbal started publishing in its first decade, reaching the height of his power and popularity during the inter-war period until he died in Lahore in 1938. He studied philosophy as well as Arabic and Persian thought in Lahore, Cambridge, and Munich, and drew extensively upon European as much as Asian thinkers. I will argue here that Iqbal followed an important tradition of pre-modern philosophy by thinking about the relationship between politics and theology in esoteric terms.     

The First Herders at the Cape of Good Hope

It is generally accepted that the earliest livestock and pottery were brought to the southern tip of Africa by Khoi-speaking herders from northern Botswana around 2000 years ago. The archaeological remains of that age, however, show no sign of such a migration. Rather, some evidence points to the arrival of the Khoi in the southwestern Cape toward the end of the first millennium AD. The earliest livestock and pottery, it is argued, probably reached the Cape of Good Hope some 2000 years ago by a process of diffusion. The implications of this model for the current debates on the transition from hunting to herding in southern Africa are discussed.     

Forming and Shaping Pottery Boundaries in Contemporary South-Eastern Botswana

In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological ‘cultures’ and their attribution to the antecedents of contemporary ethnic groups has been a common practice for a long time. Ethnoarchaeological studies from other parts of Africa and beyond have shown that the matter is complex and that stylistic and technological boundaries in ceramic distributions can reflect different kinds of social boundaries under different circumstances. To expand on these findings and make them locally relevant, a large-scale ethnoarchaeological study of 41 potters in south-eastern Botswana aims for a better understanding of ceramic technological style and boundary relations. Here, we present and explain only the results concerning the boundaries in the forming and shaping stage of ceramic vessel manufacture. We conclude that learning networks explain the visible boundaries in the technological style of forming and shaping pots in south-eastern Botswana today; language and ethnic affiliation do not. Boundaries in the other stages in the operational sequence of pottery manufacture, such as clay sourcing and preparation, vessel surface treatment and decoration, firing and finishing, will be presented in a series of further publications.