Gasoline is a petroleum-derived liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in internal combustion engines (ICE), particularly spark ignition Otto Engine. Gasoline is a blend of hydrocarbons with some contaminants, including sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and certain metals. The four major constituent groups of gasoline are olefins, aromatics, paraffins, and napthenes. Octane number (ON) is measure of the ignition quality or flammability of gasoline. The ONs are Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number (MON). RON is measured relative to a mixture of isooctane and n-heptane. Antiknock Index (AKI) is a measure of a fuel's ability to resist engine knock or octane quality. The AKI is an arithmetic average of RON and MON. The ON decreases with an increase chain length in the hydrocarbon molecule. The ONs increase with carbon chain branching. Another way of increasing the ON is used gasoline octane boosters as additives, such as tetraethyl lead (TEL), methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), and ferrocene. Aromatic alcohols, ethanol, and methanol also increase the ON of gasoline. The advantage to adding oxygenates, such as MTBE, methanol, and ethanol, to gasoline is that they cause very little pollution when they burn and are cleaner fuels.

Thousands of people have lost their lives in stampedes and other crowd related disasters in recent years. Most of these fatalities seem to have been caused by poor control and management of crowds, which is discussed in this article. An efficient and effective crowd management system must also have a plan to deal with the ongoing threat of terrorism and outbreak of various kinds of communicable diseases. In this article, we present a framework of a Crowd Control and Health Management System specially designed to prevent and manage stampedes and other disasters. The system has two subsystems; one for dealing with the management of stampedes and other disasters and the other with healthcare management. As part of the proposed system, an algorithm for an early detection of stampedes, with proof and simulation of implementation, is provided. As part of the healthcare management subsystem, we integrate several mobile applications and develop four of them dealing with relief issues, blood donations, complaints and alerts, and utilizing mobile phones as a sensor device. Our system makes use of various kinds of wireless, mobile, and other technologies and tools including Fog Computing, Smart Phones, Smart Digital Street, IP-Cameras, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Voice Alarm, Light Alarm, and Global Positioning System (GPS). We compare merits and effectiveness of RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), as well as those of Cloud and Fog with a view of using them as part of the proposed framework. We also discuss applications of our systems in real-life cases of Hajj, an annual pilgrimage of millions of people to Mecca, and Kumbh Mela, a periodic gathering of tens of millions of people in India, both of which have accounted for the majority of fatalities in stampedes and other disasters.

No abstract

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has been going on for over sixteen months. During this period, we have witnessed a colossal loss of life, property, business, and a degradation of social life. Several different variants or strains of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, have been found in different parts of the world. This pandemic has so far infected more than one hundred and thirty five million people, which has caused significant damage to the education sector. The majority of students around the world have lost access to face-to-face classes. While dealing with the crisis, some higher education institutions are still finding it difficult to adapt to alternative ways of imparting education. Many of them are using learning management systems and other online technologies and tools to facilitate online learning. The aim of this manuscript is to propose a cost-effective hybrid teaching model (CeHTM) for the King Abdulaziz University. The proposed model is designed after analyzing two anonymous online feedback surveys in which nearly four thousand students and more than four hundred instructors have participated. The CeHTM is novel as it is the first framework of its kind for imparting education during pandemic. Given the uniformity of educational system in Saudi Arabian universities, the proposed model can be used by other Saudi Arabian institutions, and adapted elsewhere, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Adoption and implementation of e-services and e-Government in many organisations of the developing countries continues to be in silos, resulting in duplication of processes within the same divisions and sometimes in the constituent departments. In fact, some of the enterprises in developing countries either have no electronic processing at all or typically carry it out in a highly unorganized and unplanned manner, depriving themselves of the BPR benefits. As a consequence, governments and corporations not only end up using more resources but are also tainted as inefficient and outdated. However, there are some organisations which are successfully transforming their processing with the power of BPR. An example of such organisation is the Makkah (Mecca) municipality which is responsible for granting various kinds of licenses for the purposes of carrying out construction, running shops, provision of professional services, investment, health safety and street digging for various utility lines, to list a few. The licenses for dozens of these and other services are issued by several branches of the Makkah municipality. Based on the design of authors, a reengineered centralized system has been implemented by a number of services in Makkah municipality, whereas other services are still using the legacy systems. The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the new system and its benefits to the Makkah municipality’s eLicencing services. The models presented in this paper can be applied in cases of other similar organizations, not only in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia but across the entire Middle East in particular, and the developing countries in general