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Optimizing UX for High-Load Retail and E-commerce Platforms

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When a Black Friday promo melts down a major retailer’s site, users do not see “increased RPS” or “degraded upstream latency” — they see a dead React app, an unresponsive checkout button, and a spinning loader that never resolves. Target’s infamous Black Friday outages, Macy’s holiday crashes, even Amazon’s Prime Day hiccups have all shown the same thing: it takes only a few broken flows under load to make users abandon their carts and switch to a competitor in a new tab. What Actually Breaks Under Load Under the hood, today’s retail platforms are single-page or hybrid applications built with … Continue reading →

Beyond Reverse Osmosis: How Hybrid MED+RO Systems and Green Energy are Securing Algeria’s Water Future

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Abstract Algeria’s pure reverse osmosis (RO) desalination systems face serious vulnerabilities: increasing turbidity events and frequent membrane replacements threaten operational stability, resulting in 1,680 hours of downtime annually across active plants. As the Mediterranean warms 20% faster than the global average, water security requires urgent innovation. This article proposes a hybrid MED+RO technology (1/3 thermal + 2/3 membrane) to ensure operational resilience. If RO shuts down, MED continues independently at 33% capacity, guaranteeing minimum supply. Although hybrid systems require a 28% higher capital investment, break-even is reached in year 16 due to reduced membrane replacement costs. Optimized pre-treatment with ultrafiltration … Continue reading →

Sustainable Management of Desalination Brine: Best Practices, Pilot Studies, and Innovations

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The management of brine generated by desalination plants has become one of the key determinants of the environmental and economic sustainability of this technology, which is now strategic for global water security. The production of desalinated water has increased significantly over the past two decades, particularly in arid regions of the Middle East, North Africa, Australia, and certain coastal areas of Europe and North America. This growth has inevitably been accompanied by a proportional increase in brine volumes. Globally, desalination facilities are estimated to produce more than 140 million cubic meters of brine per day, exceeding the volume of freshwater … Continue reading →

Biomass Potential of Date Palm Wastes

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Date palm is one of the principal agricultural products in the arid and semi-arid region of the world, especially Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. There are more than 120 million date palm trees worldwide yielding several million tons of dates per year, apart from secondary products including palm midribs, leaves, stems, fronds and coir. The Arab world has more than 84 million date palm trees with the majority in Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. Egypt is the world’s largest date producer with annual production of 1.47 million tons of dates in … Continue reading →

Ramadan: A Time to Respond to the Earth’s State of Emergency

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This week marks the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan, a month which has been identified as a time to gain taqwa – God-consciousness. This month invites Muslims to attain nearness to Allah (SWT). يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ ١٨٣ O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may attain taqwa, Qu’ran, 2:183 However, Ramadan is more than the individual forms of worship. Ramadan embodies a sense of community. A time of gathering in the mosque; of sharing … Continue reading →

Everything You Need to Know About Recycling of Plastics

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Disposal of plastic waste has emerged as an important environmental challenge in the Middle East where plastics make up as much as one-tenth of the solid waste stream. In affluent GCC nations, plastic waste composition in municipal solid waste is around 12 – 16 percent. Plastic waste in the region is continuously increasing due to increasing use of plastics in daily life. The Middle East is responsible for about 8 percent of the global plastic production.   Plastic waste is a source of greenhouse gas emissions and ecological damage. Majority of the items found on beaches across the region contain … Continue reading →

Energy Answers for the Middle East

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The economy of Middle East is practically synonymous with crude oil for the average Western observer, but what most people aren’t aware of is the Middle East hasn’t been doing so well out of its crude oil reserves in recent years. So much so, that it may be the first time in history that we can justifiably declare an imminent state of Peak Oil in these regions. It is an understandably bold statement, and one that will come as a surprise to many… especially those who have been blindsided by the more general, global statistics. Besides a slight dip over … Continue reading →

Data Centers, AI and the Water–Energy Nexus: Toward Sustainable Digital Infrastructure in the MENA Region

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Abstract The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperscale data centers is reshaping global electricity demand while intensifying water dependency. This article analyzes the structural energy transition associated with AI-driven computational scaling, examines the implications for the water–energy nexus, and discusses technological and governance pathways for sustainable digital infrastructure. Particular attention is given to water-stressed regions such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where digital expansion must align with hydric constraints and renewable energy strategies. Digital Acceleration and Structural Energy Transition The global digital ecosystem is undergoing an unprecedented transformation driven by artificial intelligence, hyperscale cloud computing, … Continue reading →

How Urban Planners Can Contribute to Social Cohesion in Cities?

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While most of the implemented programmes that promote social cohesion are based on people’s ideology, perceptions, and social behaviours, the impact of the physical built environment, that hosts people’s lives and their social interactions, remains less tackled. In the context of urban planning, to what extent do our cities affect the advancement of social cohesion of communities? And could elusive and complex social concepts – like social cohesion – be tackled in a practical spatial planning approach that yields concrete actions? The fostering of social cohesion gained intensive focus in the literature of urban planning and sustainable development studies, especially … Continue reading →

بصمة خضراء… حكاية الكربون ١/٤

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الكربون – العنصر الذي بنى الحياة. الكربون هو أحد العناصر الأساسية في الطبيعة، ورمز لحياةٍ معقّدة تربط بين الإنسان، والمادة، والمناخ. يُرمز له كيميائيًا بالحرف «C» ويُعدّ العنصر الرابع من حيث الوفرة في الكون بعد الهيدروجين، والهيليوم، والأوكسجين. عنصر بسيط في شكله الذرّي، لكنه حاضر في كل ما نلمسه تقريبًا: في أجسادنا، وفي غذائنا، وفي الهواء الذي نتنفسه، وحتى في الصخور التي نظنّها جامدة وصامتة. لسنوات طويلة، عاش الكربون في توازنٍ طبيعي هادئ، ينتقل بين السماء، والأرض، والمحيطات، والكائنات الحية دون ضجيج أو أزمة. لكن المشكلة لم تبدأ من الكربون نفسه، بل من علاقتنا به. حين تحوّل من عنصرٍ طبيعي … Continue reading →

Islamic and Sustainability: Perspectives

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The 21st century is characterized by a number of global environmental challenges that shaped and defined the discourse and agenda of the West with respect to the developing world, specifically the Islamic world. Islam provides new sustainability perspectives for discovering and explaining the root causes for the current environmental, economic and social crises as manifested in climate change, HIV, poverty and human security. For example, the Islamic perspective on climate change is that the root cause of this global issue is the absence or lack of human stewardship and is an indication of market failures. Pitfalls of the Western Model … Continue reading →

The First Competitive Advantage in Real Estate is Property Research

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Why Property Research Comes Before Speed, Capital, or Negotiation In addition, most investors aim to maintain their advantage in real estate either on speed, capital or negotiation skills. Although such factors do matter, they are rarely what distinguishes consistent winners from the rest. The real benefit shows itself much earlier in the process. The first competitive advantage in real estate is property research, defining where investors deploy capital (and how they assess commercial opportunities), and whether to act decisively or with trepidation. Many investors take the first steps to build this foundation by learning data sources and insights through resources … Continue reading →