German Jordanian University

This paper focuses on the connection between social capital and neighbourhood security as it relates to the Jordan society. It aims to investigate the role of social networks, trust, participating in social activities, and common norms in improving how their residents perceive safety and stability in the neighbourhoods they live in. The research design followed a descriptive-analytical approach that employed a structured questionnaire to a sample population of Emirati residents in order to estimate the levels of social capital and perceived neighbourhood security. The results show that there is a high correlation between social capital and neighbourhood security, which proves that the greater the social interactions, mutual trust, and community sense, the higher the safety and social cohesion levels. The informal social relations, engagement in community activities, and collaboration among the neighbours were identified to contribute a relatively high role in enhancing neighbourhood security. It also shows that there are differences in the perception of security depending on the chosen social and demographic factors. The study brings out the significance of enhancing the social capital as one of the mechanisms that can facilitate the neighbourhood safety and social stability in modern Emirati society. It highlights the necessity of the policy and community-driven programs that promote social engagement, developing trust, and shared responsibility. This study adds to the existing sociological knowledge about the social capital and can be useful to policymakers and city planners working on the improvement of the life of communities and sustainable social development in the Jordan by illuminating the social aspects of neighbourhood security.

During the project of excavation and restoration of Qasr al-Hallabat, directed by the author, a unique Umayyad stone-carved wellhead (Latin, puteal) was retrieved from the cistern of the main court of the Qasr, broken into pieces. Its relevance is due not only to its uniqueness, being the only Umayyad period wellhead preserved from Bilād al-Shām, but also to the singular architectural decoration carved on its walls, which helps us, on the one hand, to delve into the variegated sources that contributed to the formative period of Islamic architecture and visual culture, offering new and outstanding conclusions. On the other hand, it allows us to understand the subsequent evolution of the decorative elements and patterns applied to Medieval Islamic wellheads, thus filling an evolutionary gap in the chrono-typological sequence between Late Antique and Early Medieval wellheads, an issue that will be analysed in a separate paper. In this paper, we will focus on the analysis of the artefact itself, on the sources of its applied decoration, and the hydraulic water collection system to which it belongs, thus providing a comprehensive technical, historical, and artistic context to it.

ABSTRACT This study investigates a granular flow model on an inclined plane characterized by a constant friction coefficient to describe gravity‐driven debris avalanches. We derive diverse sets of group‐invariant solutions by employing both classical and nonclassical symmetries of the Lie group. Among these, solutions to 1 and 2 rarefaction waves corresponding to the Riemann problem are highlighted. The significance of nonclassical symmetries is explicitly demonstrated in our analysis. Essential conservation laws are derived using the multiplier method and the system's nonlinear self‐adjointness. Additionally, we discuss the obtained solutions in the context of the evolution of weak discontinuity waves, and we derive new non‐group invariant solutions using the method of conservation laws.

SAC (Sn-Ag-Cu) solder joints are frequently exposed to thermal cycling, leading to microstructural evolutions that accelerate thermal fatigue. During thermal cycling, the coarsening of Ag<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub>Sn precipitates and recrystallization occur, impacting the reliability and microstructure of solder joints. To enhance the high-temperature performance of lead-free alloys, dopants such as Bismuth (Bi), Antimony (Sb), and Indium (In) have been proposed by leveraging the solid solution and dispersion-strengthening mechanisms. However, limited studies have investigated the impact of varying paste volumes of third-generation alloys on thermal cycling reliability and the resulting microstructural evolution. This study examines the thermal cycling reliability of three CABGA208 components mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) using three different paste alloys, namely SAC305, SAC-Bi, and SAC-Bi-Sb, while maintaining fixed 18-mil SAC305 solder balls. Three paste volumes were printed to achieve paste-to-sphere-volume ratios of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5. The PCB was plated with Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG) and Organic Solderability Preservative (OSP) surface finishes. Thermal cycling tests were conducted between -40 °C and +125 °C, with a dwell time of 15 minutes and a ramp rate of 10°C/min. Weibull analysis revealed that doped alloys outperformed SAC305, with SAC-Bi exhibiting the highest reliability. A higher paste-to-sphere volume ratio generally improved reliability, except for SAC-Bi-Sb, where larger voids formed at higher paste volumes. The ENIG surface finish provided better performance than OSP, likely due to the beneficial effect of the Ni layer. Microstructural analysis showed that higher paste volume in SAC-Bi and SAC-Bi-Sb significantly reduced Ag<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub>Sn coarsening. Additionally, increased paste volume resulted in a thinner intermetallic compound (IMC) layer and less evolution.

The archaeological terraces of Petra (southern Jordan) have long been recognized for their role in agriculture and flood mitigation. Despite the dominance of fine-grained sediments behind many terrace walls, these systems exhibit high infiltration capacity and remarkable resistance to erosion. This study investigates the hydrological behavior of terrace-trapped sediments through detailed soil texture, aggregate stability, salinity, and chemical analyses across eight representative sites in and around Petra. Grain-size distributions derived from dry and wet sieving, supplemented by laser diffraction, reveal that dry sieving substantially overestimates sand content due to aggregation of fine particles into unstable peds. Wet analyses demonstrate that many terrace soils are clay- or sandy-clay-dominated yet remain highly permeable. Chemical indicators (nitrate, phosphate, potassium, pH, and salinity) further suggest that terracing enhances downward water movement and salt leaching irrespective of clay content. The nature of the terrace settings and their sediment structure (especially the coarse-grained framework) exerts a stronger control on hydrological functioning than texture alone. The results have direct implications for understanding ancient land management in Petra and for informing sustainable terracing practices in modern arid and semi-arid landscapes, as they are effective both in harvesting water and reducing sediment mobilization.

We introduce AHA–SCA, a compact hybrid optimiser that alternates the wave-based exploration of the Sine–Cosine Algorithm (SCA) with the exploitation skills of the Artificial Hummingbird Algorithm (AHA) within a single population. Even iterations perform SCA moves with a linearly decaying sinusoidal amplitude to explore widely around the current best solution, while odd iterations invoke guided and territorial hummingbird flights using axial, diagonal, and omnidirectional patterns to intensify the search in promising regions. This simple interleaving yields an explicit and tunable balance between exploration and exploitation and incurs negligible overhead beyond evaluating candidate solutions. The proposed approach is evaluated on the CEC2014, CEC2017, and CEC2022 benchmark suites and on several constrained engineering design problems, including welded beam, pressure vessel, tension/compression spring, speed reducer, and cantilever beam designs. Across these diverse tasks, AHA–SCA demonstrates competitive or superior performance relative to stand-alone SCA, AHA, and a broad panel of recent metaheuristics, delivering faster early-phase convergence and robust final solutions. Statistical analyses using non-parametric tests confirm that improvements are significant on many functions, and the method respects problem constraints without parameter tuning. The results suggest that alternating wave-driven exploration with hummingbird-inspired refinement is a promising general strategy for continuous engineering optimisation.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the relationships between environmental leadership (EL), eco-design (ED) and the environmental, social and economic sustainability pillars in the food manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a mixed-method approach, combining interviews and a survey. Data were gathered from 141 managers of Palestinian food manufacturing firms. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings The authors found that EL has a positive impact on sustainable organisational performance (SOP) and ED. ED impacts the environmental and economic performance, but does not impact social performance (SP). The findings confirm the mediating effects of ED in achieving financial and environmental goals. By contrast, the role of ED as a mediator in the relationship between EL and SP is not significant, indicating that ED practices in the Palestinian food industry remain in the early stages of development. Research limitations/implications This paper advances our understanding of green leadership and practices in developing countries, especially in the food manufacturing sector. The study’s limitation—its usage of a specific geographic location (the West Bank region)—may affect how widely the results may be applied. Originality/value This study provides new insights into sustainable practices in developing countries, as the literature indicates that no previous studies have examined the relationships between EL, ED and SOP in Palestine. This study applies the natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory and the stakeholder theory to provide a deeper understanding of how ED influences the relationship between EL and SOP.