Background The number of coauthors in the medical literature has increased over the past 50 years as authorship continues to have important academic, social and financial implications.Aim and method The study aim was to determine the prevalence of honorary authorship in biomedical publications and identify the factors that lead to its existence. An email with a survey link was sent anonymously to 9283 corresponding authors of PubMed articles published within 1 year of contact.Results A completed survey was obtained from 1246 (...) corresponding authors, a response rate of 15.75%. One-third admitted that they had added authors who did not deserve authorship credit. Origin of the study from Europe and Asia , study type as case report/case series and increasing number of coauthors were found to be the associated factors on multivariate analysis. Journal impact factor was also found to be associated with honorary authorship for those who self-reported honorary authorship and 5.60 for those who did not report unjust authorship, p=0.05). In retrospect, 75% of the authors indicated that they would remove unjustified names from the authorship list. Reasons for adding honorary authors were complimentary , to avoid conflict at work , to facilitate article acceptance , and other .Conclusions Honorary authorship is relatively common in biomedical publications. Researchers should comply with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ criteria for authorship. (shrink)

In this paper an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was used to help cars dealers recognize the many characteristics of cars, including manufacturers, their location and classification of cars according to several categories including: Buying, Maint, Doors, Persons, Lug_boot, Safety, and Overall. ANN was used in forecasting car acceptability. The results showed that ANN model was able to predict the car acceptability with 99.12 %. The factor of Safety has the most influence on car acceptability evaluation. Comparative study method is (...) suitable for the evaluation of car acceptability forecasting, can also be extended to all other areas. (shrink)

The study aims at shedding light on plagues and epidemics that hit Egypt during the Mameluke period through describing the plague disease and the plagues and epidemics that hit Egypt and the social and economic impact on the Egyptian society. The study is based on some historical sources that are contemporary of the Mameluke period, especially the book "Al-Suluk li-marifatiduwal Al-muluk" by Al- Maqrizi and we reach the following conclusions through this research:- Plagues are bacterial and lethal epidemics that spread (...) fast, and have the symptoms of high temperature nausea, and severe fatigue. Most plagues that hit Egypt during the Mameluke era were very severe, and that what is usually referred to as the Great plague or Black Death, where the patient dies within one week of having the disease.- The plagues had harsh social effects on the population, where it caused the death of individuals, and damaged hundreds of Egyptian villages and cities, The conditions of the society almost came a halt, and were an impetus for the people to bind in social solidarity, and the true repentance to Allah the almighty, and the increase of worship and alms hoping that Allah the almighty will shield the people from this disease. - The plagues and epidemics led to disorder and disruption of the economic conditions of the society, where most land was left without farming and most trades and crafts were disrupted and earnings hit lows in the markets and trade was in recession in commerce and trade in general. (shrink)

This study dealt with one of the most important legal subjects in private international law that relates to the topic of law applicable to electronic signature and is problematic by the lack of clear and explicit texts to determine the law required on the topic The main objective of the study was to reflect the legal regulation in private international law of such a problem, as well as to address some practical and applicable problems relating to the topic of the (...) study, including the legal nature of an electronic signature, When preparing this study, the researcher relied on the inductive approach by extracting legal texts on the subject of the letter in accordance with Jordanian legislation. in addition to the analytical approach where the researcher analysed and described the legislative and doctrinal positions and international conventions associated with the subject matter of the letter, The prescriptive approach, through a statement of the legal nature of the electronic signature. The researcher produced a series of results, the most important of which was the absence of clear and explicit texts specifying the law applicable to the electronic signature. This result was reflected in the recommendations of this letter, which were the most important recommendation to the Jordanian legislature that legal rules should be drawn up to determine the law applicable to the subject matter of the study. (shrink)

Purpose - The study aimed at identifying the impact of using cooperative learning in acquiring some elements of physical fitness of the students at the Hashemite University. The experimental design was used. The sample consisted of (32) students enrolled in academic programs of the faculty of Physical Education at the Hashemite University during the first semester of the university academic year 2022/2023. The sample was randomly select. Methodology - The sample was divided into two equal groups control group (n=16) and (...) experimental group (n=16). After applying the tests on the elements of the method (flexibility, agility, medical ball throws, and 50-meter running). The reliability coefficient was calculated using Chronbach Alpha (0.92). The means, standard deviations, and T-test were calculated to determine the differences between the groups. Findings - The results showed an effect of cooperative learning on improving physical fitness, and statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group. The researchers recommended applying cooperative learning while teaching the physical education. (shrink)

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic model for developing business organizations’ roadmap toward achieving their goals. While several organizations utilize the Business Model Canvas to establish and operate their businesses well, the utilization of BMC seems to be limited in the local market of Saudi Arabia, especially when businesses utilize electronic business channels. This paper aims to explore the status of the utilization of BMC among Saudi SMEs, as a critical sector. The paper highlights the awareness and practice of (...) BMC’s nine factors before and during the operation of e-commerce stores by Saudi SMEs. Then, it aims to explore the significance of practicing those factors in increasing the satisfaction level of running businesses. In this paper, a quantitative survey was distributed conveniently to 200 SMEs in the two largest Saudi cities, which are Riyadh and Jeddah, resulting in 63 valid participations from different industries. After operating e-commerce stores, most SMEs gained more knowledge of five BMC factors: key partners, value propositions, customer relationships, customer segments, and cost structures. Meanwhile, they found some issues in the other four factors: key activities, key resources, channels, and revenue streams. The proposed method exposes the variety of results and indicates a lack of understanding of BMC by the examined e-commerce SME samples, as they depend on traditional methods of identifying the elements of each of the BMC factors. (shrink)

The Coronavirus pandemic has been ongoing for almost two years now. Not only did it surprise the whole world in the initial stages of its occurrence, but also the world left it in shock. Therefore, the instant solution strategies included complete lockdowns in order to prevent the spread of such a disease. However, as the lockdowns lasted longer, it generated negative psychological effects on people globally. This being the case, collective endeavors and efforts were performed, in the hope of achieving (...) a concrete solution in order to overcome the bad repercussions that seemed visible on societal levels, which of course, included religious aspects; and in some cases resulted in social separation as well as a dramatic rise in suicide rates. On the one hand, this caused a retraction from the religion and religiously oriented rituals, but on the other hand, it also made people turn more to religion as it provided a psychological relief from the heavy burdens of the pandemic. These psychological conditions had theological resonances that made already complicated issues even more complex. Among them, the nature of God’s actions and the human position in this matter can be given as examples. This article is an attempt to place and define the issue of the pandemics and plagues from the perspective of Islamic theology, in particular, to shed light on three main points. The first is the problem of pains and aches, and how it was mentioned in theological literaturey and discussed by Islamic theologians (Mutakallimūn), as the issue of pandemics and plagues indisputably fall under this matter. The second point tackles the problem of whether “such calamities as pandemics and plagues come from God's Decree, or not?”. The last point focuses on the issue of fatalism and tries to show whether the de facto acceptance that pandemics are from God’s Decree would require the servant to stop taking measures in response to them. To answer the questions at stake, this paper will focus on four different perspectives of the Mu’tazila, Ash‛arī s, Māturīdis, and Ahl al-Hadīth, by using a selective methodology and focusing on their prominent and pioneering theologians (Mutakallimūn) of these schools. (shrink)

Fatimid history is considered one of the main periods of Islamic history in Egypt, so we cannot talk about the cultural metropolis of Egypt, the city of Cairo, without mentioning its founder, Jawhar al-Siqilli, the leader of the Fatimid Caliph al-Muizz Li-Din Allah al-Fatimid. The same is true of the Al-Azhar Mosque, which since its establishment until now has gained international fame in the Islamic world, throughout the historical stages, in addition to many of the Fatimid monuments scattered in Old (...) Cairo such as mosques, schools and alleys, all of this appears when talking about Egypt in general and Islamic Egyptin particular. The Fatimids sought to seize the Egyptian country a lot, as two military campaigns from North Africa to Egypt were launched, each of them failed. Then, the third campaign succeeded, led by Jawhar al-Siqilli, after the Fatimid Caliph al-Muizz prepared the equipment this time and arranged the army well, and had previously sent missionaries to this geography through the city of Alexandria and others, to herald the demise of the Ikhshidid state and the coming of the savior from this injustice and economic stagnation under which Egypt has fallen. He took several measures to try to declare Fatimid control over the Egyptian country. A delegation of the Egyptians sought to obtain a covenant from the Fatimid leader Jawhar al-Siqilli, to reassure them and remove their fears, especially with regard to their beliefs and religious matters. Indeed, the Fatimid leader issued this covenant, which included many things to reassure the Egyptians, among them that the Companions of the prophet are the most honorable people contrary to the famous Shiite belief- and that each will leave his belief, but it was not long before this covenant until many things were sealed. Our research here focuses on these matters.The research is divided into three main ponits: the first is the sectarian history of Egypt before the Fatimid occupation, and the second is the attempts to impose the Shiite sect on the Egyptians. The last point is the resistance or what hinders this imposition, and it is this last part that limited these influences to the Fatimid monuments such as buildings, mosques and schools. (shrink)

Lex Mercatoria play a crucial role in resolving disputes arising from international trade contracts before arbitration bodies, thus establishing them as an independent legal system capable of regulating international commercial relations. This legal characteristic imposes a certain obligation on various arbitration bodies to apply them to the disputes brought before them, either based on the parties' intentions or based on the legal force inherent in those customs. Consequently, this research examines the extent of recognition of the binding force of commercial (...) customs before arbitration bodies, and based on that, it elucidates the authority of these bodies in applying them to international trade disputes. It is evident that these customs, due to their flexibility derived from the nature of commercial transactions and the customary practices of traders resorting to them, have become today an independent legal system that imposes itself on arbitration bodies even if the parties did not choose to apply those customs. This paper recommends the Jordanian legislator to explicitly adopt the application of these commercial customs in the Jordanian Arbitration Law texts, following the example of national and international comparative legislation. (shrink)

With the development of wireless technology, two basic wireless network models that are commonly used, known as infrastructure and wireless ad hoc networks, have been developed. In the literature, it has been observed that channel contention is one of the main reasons for packet drop in WANETs. To handle this problem, this paper presents a routing protocol named CCBR. CCBR tries to determine a least contended path between the endpoints to increase packet delivery ratio and to reduce packet delay and (...) normalized routing overhead. Moreover, throughout the active data section, each intermediate node computes its channel contention value. If an intermediate node detects an increase in channel contention, it notifies the source node. Then the source node determines another least contended route for transmission. The advantages of CCBR are verified in our NS2-based performance study, and the results show that CCBR outperforms ad hoc on-demand distance vector in terms of packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and routing overhead by 4% to 9%. (shrink)

Farabi’s utopia (al-madīnat al-fāḍila), literally meaning «the excellent state», consists of five levels. On the first level stands the philosopher (fīlsūf) or the prophet (nabī). The second level includes poets (shuʿarā), music composers (mulaḥḥinūn), writers (kuttāb) and the likes of them. Farabi strongly believes in the power of imagination (khīyāl) and that most people are under the influence of their imaginative faculty (al-quwwat al-mutakhayyila). This notion has an important outcome which influences his view on religion (milla), prophet, and their relation (...) with the public (jumhūr): Images, in his view, are the most powerful means of influencing the public. Regarding this principle, it could be concluded that there is a shared function between the poet and the prophet. In other words, Farabi’s prophet performs, in part, a poetic task. (shrink)

The Sufi saints, in their texts, successfully ingrained Love as the destination of spiritual path, to accomplish the Divine. The objective of this study was to focus on the cult of Sufism, in general, and on the Sufi poetry of Fakhr al-Din ʿIrāqī, in particular as reflected in his anthology, Kitāb al-lamaʿāt. Adopting a historical approach, the study analyzed the evolution of Sufi poetry since the beginning, and examined the poetry of ʿIrāqī in the context of Islamic mysticism. This qualitative (...) study adopted an exploratory content analysis method and documentation research to examine the Sufi philosophy as reflected in the sampled poetry of ʿIrāqī. For the realization of this goal, a research was conducted on the available published resources. The documentation survey helped discover the truth of ʿIrāqī ’s poetry in the context of Spiritual love. It was discovered that ʿIrāqī ’s philosophy of Love was based on metaphysical transcendentalism, where spiritual attainment was achieved through formlessness mirrored in the form of Beauty as the manifestation of Love. (shrink)

The history of Hejaz especially in one century before Islam was affected by Quraysh tribe. All political, social and economical changes were under the control of Quraysh leaders. Qsy Ibn Kalab was the most influential leader of this tribe during history. His unique courageous deeds have change Quraysh from some dispersed tribes to a unified effective tribe. Among such acts of this leader was foundation of "Dar-Al-Nodveh" which was very significant. Dar-Al-Nodveh guaranteed the success of all acts performed in Quraysh (...) and other tribes. Leaders of Quraysh organized their important deeds within the framework of the making opportunities resulted in expansion of this city due to decisions made by elites of the city and consequently Mecca was turned into the biggest business republic of Arabestan. Even they leaded a part of commercial market of the world. They could keep that safe and dispelled all probable dangers. The question is that the idea for formation of this government city, "Dar-Al-Nodveh", is that how came to the mind of Qsy Ibn Kalab and how much was the influence of Dar-Al-Nodveh in Mecca and how did it gave identity to the city? It seems that the international conditions of that time and personality of Qsy Ibn Kalab had very significant influence on the future of the city of Mecca. His corrective actions did much in turning Mecca to a prominent city in peninsula. The present article aimed to study general formation process of this government city with emphasis on the role of Qsy Ibn Kalab. (shrink)

Anders als die griechische und die römische Kunst hat die frühchristliche nur wenige Gesamtdarstellungen erhalten. Im deutschsprachigen Bereich ist hier die bereits 1958 erschienene „Frühchristliche Kunst“ von W.F. Volbach zu nennen oder den von B. Brenk herausgegebenen Band „Spätantike und frühes Christentum“, der 1977 veröffentlicht wurde und auch mehr als zwanzig Jahre nach seinem Erscheinen seinen Wert als Nachschlagewerk und einführende Literatur behalten hat. Von den Einführungen in die christliche Archäologie ist die Arbeit von P. Testini, Archeologia cristiana, 1980 in (...) zweiter Auflage erschienen und mit nur kleinen Abbildungen ausgestattet worden; das Werk von F.W. Deichmann, Archeologia cristiana, wurde erst in seiner italienischen Übersetzung, die 1993 in Rom publiziert wurde, mit Fotos und Plänen versehen. Der zu besprechende Band von Maria Antonietta Crippa und Mahmoud Zibawi ist in seiner Zielsetzung eher mit dem von Volbach zu vergleichen, der auf Anmerkungen verzichtet und mit großformatigen Fotos brilliert. Er richtet sich somit eher an ein breiteres, kulturell interessiertes und vorgebildetes Publikum, dem diese faszinierende Epoche in ihrer Breite und dem Glanz ihrer Denkmäler nahegebracht wird. Die Beschränkung auf wenige Anmerkungen ist bei dem Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung legitim, denn der Fachkollege kann einschlägige und neuere Literatur leicht selbst auffinden. Eine Bibliographie findet sich auf den S. 481–486, wobei deutschsprachige Literatur eher schwach vertreten ist – ein Umstand, den man nicht den beiden Autoren anlasten wird, sondern der eine allgemein verbreitete Erscheinung ist und Stoff zum Nachdenken geben sollte. (shrink)

The article is dedicated to the interpretation of the problem of motion by Mahmud Shabistari – one of the prominent medieval Persian Sufi thinkers. The main source for the study was his philosophical treatise “Haqq al-Yaqin fi Ma’rifat Rabb al-’Alamin”. The article includes the first translation into a European language (Russian) of a chapter from this treatise – “On the Manifestation of Movement and the Renewal of Manifesta­tions”. Ancient authors also dealt with the problem of motion comprehension. The inves­tigation of (...) the way Shabistari solves this problem is particularly interesting because, striving for the affirmation of strict monotheism, he proposed a monistic model of the uni­verse where only the One First Principle exists. He considered the existence of everything else as an illusion. However, such a statement makes any change impossible, and conse­quently movement as well. Meanwhile, Shabistari, on the contrary, states the constant circular motion of the First Principle with itself as the center. It generates its numerous virtual images in non-being, that move constantly around the One. These images include everything – from the Universal Reason to the individual human being. Shabistari con­structs a system of virtual images motion based on a fractal principle: the circle around the point of the One represents the motion trajectory of the first creature – the Universal Reason. Each point of this circle is the Universal Reason’s manifestation at each individ­ual moment in the form of one of the forty existence levels. In its turn, each level of exis­tence becomes also a center of the circular motion of its virtual copies – individual things. (shrink)

For over a century reconstructions of Alexandria have all, without exception, been based on the plan drawn by Mahmoud al-Falaki in around 1866. We are not concerned to give an exegesis of the many amendments and additions made to this plan since its publication, but to appraise in the light of new evidence the validity of the road network which he proposed. The recent discovery of several cartographie documents contemporary with Falaki's work makes possible a new interpretation of the (...) indications recorded in his report and to single out, in its reconstruction, the parts deriving from the excavations from the parts based on assumption. (shrink)

The absence of Islam from recent scholarship on Hegel's account of world religions is puzzling. In the first part of the article, we argue that Hegel's neglect of Islam in his systematic account of religious phenomena is not accidental and that he did not think of Islam as a determinate religion. Its size and believers aside, we suggest that it is not possible to assign any determinacy to Islam as a world-historical phenomenon under Hegel's rubric, because such determinacy that applies (...) to other religions would be in conflict with what Hegel takes to be Islam's emphasis on the negative moment of truth, its revolutionary tendencies, and its lack of any novel conceptual content as a response to Christianity. In the second part of the article, we point out how one could respond to Hegel's characterization of Islam when it is mentioned in relation to other religious traditions. First, we argue that Hegel overemphasizes the significance of Islam qua religion in explaining the history of Muslim peoples. More than that, Hegel does not see that the history of Islamic philosophy and science can be characterized by sublation and that it can be integrated into conceptual developments in the West on these terms. However, our critique of Hegel's Eurocentrism does not remain at this level, for in the third part of the article we argue for the significance of considering the response of Muslim philosophers to Hegel. In particular, we look at the responses by Mohammed al-Khosht and Mahmoud Haider, respectively. We conclude that Hegel's exclusion of Islam from any involvement in the history of the Concept indicates an undialectical commitment on his part and that to this extent being Hegelian today requires that we rectify this oversight. (shrink)

Exposing Fake Logic by Avi Sion is a collection of essays written after publication of his book A Fortiori Logic, in which he critically responds to derivative work by other authors who claim to know better. This is more than just polemics; but allows further clarifications of a fortiori logic and of general logic. This collection includes essays on: a fortiori argument (in general and in Judaism); Luis Duarte D’Almeida; Mahmoud Zeraatpishe; Michael Avraham (et al.); an anonymous reviewer of (...) BDD (a Bar Ilan University journal); and self-publishing. (shrink)

This eighth volume of Collected Papers includes 75 papers comprising 973 pages on (theoretic and applied) neutrosophics, written between 2010-2022 by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 102 co-authors (alphabetically ordered) from 24 countries: Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Abduallah Gamal, Firoz Ahmad, Ahmad Yusuf Adhami, Ahmed B. Al-Nafee, Ali Hassan, Mumtaz Ali, Akbar Rezaei, Assia Bakali, Ayoub Bahnasse, Azeddine Elhassouny, Durga Banerjee, Romualdas Bausys, Mircea Boșcoianu, Traian Alexandru Buda, Bui Cong Cuong, Emilia Calefariu, Ahmet Çevik, Chang Su Kim, Victor (...) Christianto, Dae Wan Kim, Daud Ahmad, Arindam Dey, Partha Pratim Dey, Mamouni Dhar, H. A. Elagamy, Ahmed K. Essa, Sudipta Gayen, Bibhas C. Giri, Daniela Gîfu, Noel Batista Hernández, Hojjatollah Farahani, Huda E. Khalid, Irfan Deli, Saeid Jafari, Tèmítópé Gbóláhàn Jaíyéolá, Sripati Jha, Sudan Jha, Ilanthenral Kandasamy, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, Darjan Karabašević, M. Karthika, Kawther F. Alhasan, Giruta Kazakeviciute-Januskeviciene, Qaisar Khan, Kishore Kumar P K, Prem Kumar Singh, Ranjan Kumar, Maikel Leyva-Vázquez, Mahmoud Ismail, Tahir Mahmood, Hafsa Masood Malik, Mohammad Abobala, Mai Mohamed, Gunasekaran Manogaran, Seema Mehra, Kalyan Mondal, Mohamed Talea, Mullai Murugappan, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Aslam Malik, Muhammad Khalid Mahmood, Nivetha Martin, Durga Nagarajan, Nguyen Van Dinh, Nguyen Xuan Thao, Lewis Nkenyereya, Jagan M. Obbineni, M. Parimala, S. K. Patro, Peide Liu, Pham Hong Phong, Surapati Pramanik, Gyanendra Prasad Joshi, Quek Shio Gai, R. Radha, A.A. Salama, S. Satham Hussain, Mehmet Șahin, Said Broumi, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Selvaraj Ganesan, Shahbaz Ali, Shouzhen Zeng, Manjeet Singh, A. Stanis Arul Mary, Dragiša Stanujkić, Yusuf Șubaș, Rui-Pu Tan, Mirela Teodorescu, Selçuk Topal, Zenonas Turskis, Vakkas Uluçay, Norberto Valcárcel Izquierdo, V. Venkateswara Rao, Volkan Duran, Ying Li, Young Bae Jun, Wadei F. Al-Omeri, Jian-qiang Wang, Lihshing Leigh Wang, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas. (shrink)

In this volume, I delve into a wide spectrum of topics, spanning mathematics, physics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and social dynamics. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to neutrosophy and its extensions, including refined and quadripartitioned neutrosophic sets, neutrosophic determinants, and their applications in decision-making, evolutionary biology, and algebraic structures. The plithogenic approach, with its focus on multi-valued, multi-attributed frameworks, is also examined through concepts such as plithogenic derivatives and constants. Additionally, this volume explores the Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) and (...) its implications for sensor fusion and probability assessment. The rank preservation, Bayesian masses, and decision fusion rules is considered, shedding light on critical aspects of belief representation and reasoning under uncertainty. Beyond mathematics and theoretical physics, I reflect on broader philosophical and societal questions: the spectrum of moral and social dynamics, the nature of free will, and the implications of population growth. The philosophical underpinnings of paradoxism, indeterminacy, and the evolving nature of logic are also explored. Technological advancements, including neutrosophic control in robotics and the impact of digital proliferation on learning and cognition, form another key theme of this volume. As artificial intelligence and automation continue to shape our world, I examine their implications through a neutrosophic and plithogenic lens. This book is not meant to provide definitive answers but rather to serve as a repository of ideas, questions, and intellectual provocations. I invite you, the reader, to engage, challenge, and expand upon these concepts, using them as a foundation for further inquiry and innovation. Exchanging ideas with Mayada Abualhomos, R. Alagar, Y. AlHasan, Mai Mousa Mahmoud Alhejoj, Abdallah Al-Husban, Norah Mousa Alrayes, G. Albert Asirvatham, Mahmut Baydaș, Octavian Blaga, Said Broumi, Victor Christianto, Jean Dezert, Dan Florin Lazăr, Feng Liu, Mohammad Hamidi, Ion Marinică, Nivetha Martin, Sagvan Y. Musa, Mutaz Mohamed Abbas Ali, Antonios Paraskevas, Amani Shatarah, Takaaki Fujita, Michael Voskoglou (alphabetically ordered). (shrink)

Omnicide: Mania, Fatality and Future-in-Delirium (2019) finds Iranian-American philosopher and comparative literature theorist Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh carving the figure of the diffracted neo-Bedouin wanderer, whose mania we tail through the book’s haunted pages. The book’s namesake, “omnicide,” refers to the complete and total erasure of the Earth--the term has most recently been generally applied in ecological contexts, most markedly in regards to the Anthropocene and futurology. However, it is the explicitly poetic and literary intersection between mania and the grotesque that (...) Mohaghegh inches us towards, lifting omnicide from its proscriptive use in the Western philosophical/sociological tradition and goading it towards an unfamiliar cryptic terrain. Surveying ten contemporary Middle Eastern poets and fiction writers, including Sadeq Hedayat (Iran), Réda Bensmaia (Algeria), Samuel Adonis (Syria), Joyce Mansour (Egypt), Forugh Farrokhzad (Iran), Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya), Ahmad Shamlu (Iran), Ghada Samman (Lebanon), Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine) and Hassim Blasim (Iraq), Mohaghegh parses curious stanzas and plucks spectral paragraphs from myriad texts so as to navigate the largely occluded and excised narratives of the contemporary Middle Eastern philosophical-literary canon. Not only does Mohaghegh acuminate the multifaceted question of mania and its variegated networks, chambers, byways and sunken burrows--so as to juxtapose two different world literatures (East and West)--but Mohaghegh also illuminates this oeuvre to affront the Western psychoanalytic treatment of mania as an exclusionary vessel. Thus, despite Mohaghegh avoiding any explicit references to Western philosophers and scientists, both the codified dictum of the medical decree and the hyper-genealogical superlative tradition of Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault and their contemporaries rankle Omnicide’s annals. (shrink)

This paper recovers an important, century-old debate regarding the methodological and metaphysical foundations of dimensional analysis. Consideration of Richard Tolman's failed attempt to install the principle of similitude---the relativity of size---as the founding principle of dimensional analysis both clarifies the method of dimensional analysis and articulates two metaphysical positions regarding quantity dimensions. Tolman's position is quantity dimension fundamentalism. This is a commitment to dimensional realism and a set of fundamental dimensions which ground all further dimensions. The opposing position, developed primarily (...) by Bridgman, is quantity dimension conventionalism. Conventionalism is an anti-realism regarding dimensional structure, holding our non-representational dimensional systems have basic quantity dimensions fixed only by convention. This metaphysical dispute was left somewhat unsettled. It is shown here that both of these positions face serious problems: fundamentalists are committed to surplus dimensional structure; conventionalists cannot account for empirical constraints on our dimensional systems nor the empirical success of dimensional analysis. It is shown that an alternative position is available which saves what is right in both: quantity dimension functionalism. (shrink)

Abstract: Tomatoes are part of the major crops in food security. Tomatoes are plants grown in temperate and hot regions of South American origin from Peru, and then spread to most countries of the world. Tomatoes contain a lot of vitamin C and mineral salts, and are recommended for people with constipation, diabetes and patients with heart and body diseases. Studies and scientific studies have proven the importance of eating tomato juice in reducing the activity of platelets in diabetics, which (...) helps in protecting them from developing deadly blood clots. A tomato classification approach is presented with a data set containing approximately 5,266 images with 7 species belonging to tomatoes. The Neural Network Algorithms (CNN), a deep learning technique applied widely in image recognition, is used for this task. (shrink)

In many areas, technology has facilitated many things, diagnosing diseases, regulating traffic and teaching students in schools rely on Intelligent systems to name a few. At present, traditional classroom-based education is no longer the most appropriate in schools. From here, the idea of intelligent e-learning for students to increase their culture and keep them updated in life began. E-learning has become an ideal solution, relying on artificial intelligence, which has a footprint in this through the development of systems based on (...) education without a teacher taking into account the individual differences of students. This study describes intelligent tutoring system for teaching the Data Manipulation Language (DML) Commands Using SQLite to non IT students to overcome the difficulties they face. The System was built as education system by using the researcher own authoring tool that based on mobile and web App. The basic idea of this system is a systematic introduction into the concept of Database and its DML query. The system presents the topic of DML Commands, help student to execute what they are learn from the system content using the practical part of the system and administers automatically adapted at run time to the student’s individual growth. The system was assessed by a group of teachers and students and the outcome showed as 91% from the database specialists, 94% from Diploma students group and 89% from the secondary school students group. (shrink)

In this paper a symmetry argument against quantity absolutism is amended. Rather than arguing against the fundamentality of intrinsic quantities on the basis of transformations of basic quantities, a class of symmetries defined by the Π-theorem is used. This theorem is a fundamental result of dimensional analysis and shows that all unit-invariant equations which adequately represent physical systems can be put into the form of a function of dimensionless quantities. Quantity transformations that leave those dimensionless quantities invariant are empirical and (...) dynamical symmetries. The proposed symmetries of the original argument fail to be both dynamical and empirical symmetries and are open to counterexamples. The amendment of the original argument requires consideration of the relationships between quantity dimensions. The discussion raises a pertinent issue: what is the modal status of the constants of nature which figure in the laws? Two positions, constant necessitism and constant contingentism, are introduced and their relationships to absolutism and comparativism undergo preliminary investigation. It is argued that the absolutist can only reject the amended symmetry argument by accepting constant necessitism. I argue that the truth of an epistemically open empirical hypothesis would make the acceptance of constant necessitism costly: together they entail that the facts are nomically necessary. (shrink)

Tatiana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa was an important physicist, mathematician, and educator in 20th century Europe. While some of her work has recently undergone reevaluation, little has been said regarding her groundbreaking work on dimensional analysis. This, in part, reflects an unfortunate dismissal of her interventions in such foundational debates by her contemporaries. In spite of this, her work on the generalized theory of homogeneous equations provides a mathematically sound foundation for dimensional analysis and has found some appreciation and development. It remains to (...) provide a historical account of Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa's use of the theory of homogeneous functions to ground (and limit) dimensional analysis. We take as a central focus Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa's contributions to a debate on the foundations of dimensional analysis started by physicist Richard Tolman in 1914. I go on to suggest an interpretation of the more thoroughgoing intervention Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa makes in 1926 based on this earlier context, especially her limited rehabilitation of a "theory of similitude" in contradistinction to dimensional analysis. It is shown that Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa has made foundational contributions to the mathematical foundations and methodology of dimensional analysis, our conception of the relation between constants and laws, and our understanding of the quantitative nature of physics, which remain of value. (shrink)

Ubuntu has been defined as a moral quality of human beings, as a philosophy or an ethic, as African humanism, and as a worldview. This paper explores these definitions as conceptual tools for understanding the cultural, educational, and philosophical landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. Key to this understanding is the Althusserian concept of state apparatus. Louis Althusser divides the state apparatus into two forces: the repressive state apparatus (RSA); and the ideological state apparatus (ISA). RSAs curtail the working classes, predominately (...) through direct violence or the threat of violence, whereas ISAs function primarily by ideology, including forms of organised religion, the education system, family units, legal systems, trade unions, political parties, and media. This paper discusses the link between increasing inequality in post-apartheid South Africa and education, with specific reference to Althusser’s ISAs and the abuse of Ubuntu as a subterfuge for socio-economic inequality. (shrink)

Given the evolution of the public health (PH) and the changes from the phenomenon of globalization, this area has encountered new ethical challenges. In order to find a coherent approach to address ethical issues in PH policy, this study aimed to identify the evolution of public health ethics (PHE) frameworks and the main moral values and norms in PH practice and policy. According to the research questions, a systematic search of the literature, in English, with no time limit was performed (...) using the main keywords in databases Web of Science (ISI) and PubMed. Finally, the full text of 56 papers was analyzed. Most of the frameworks have common underpinning assumptions and beliefs, and the need to balance PH moral obligation to prevent harm and health promotion with respect for individual autonomy has been specified. As such, a clear shift from liberal values in biomedical ethics is seen toward the community’s collective values in PHE. The main moral norms in PH practice and policy included protecting the population against harm and improving PH benefits, utility and evidenced-based effectiveness, distributive justice and fairness, respect for all, privacy and confidentiality, solidarity, social responsibility, community empowerment and participation, transparency, accountability and trust. Systematic review of PHE frameworks indicates utilization of the aforementioned moral norms through an practical framework as an ethical guide for action in the PH policy. The validity of this process requires a systematic approach including procedural conditions. (shrink)

Physicist Percy Bridgman has been taken by Heather Douglas to be an exemplar defender of an untenable value-free ideal for science. This picture is complicated by a detailed study of Bridgman's philosophical views of the relation between science and society. The normative autonomy of science, a version of the value-free ideal, is defended. This restriction on the provenance of permissible values in science is given a basis in Bridgman's broader philosophical commitments, most importantly, his view that science is primarily an (...) individual commitment to a set of epistemic norms and values. Considerations of external moral or social values are not, on this view, intrinsic to scientific practice, though they have a broader pragmatic significance. What Bridgman takes as the proper relation between science and society is shown through analysis of his many writings on the topic and consideration of his rarely remarked upon involvement in the most problematic example of "Big Science" of his day: the atomic bomb. A reevaluation of Bridgman's views provides a unique characterization of what is at stake in the values in science debate: the normative autonomy of science. (shrink)

I argue that dimensional analysis provides an answer to a skeptical challenge to the theory of model mediated measurement. The problem arises when considering the task of calibrating a novel measurement procedure, with greater range, to the results of a prior measurement procedure. The skeptical worry is that the agreement of the novel and prior measurement procedures in their shared range may only be apparent due to the emergence of systematic error in the exclusive range of the novel measurement procedure. (...) Alternatively: what if the two measurement procedures are not in fact measuring the same quantity? The theory of model mediated measurement can only say that we _assume_ that there is a common quantity. In contrast, I show that the satisfaction of dimensional homogeneity across the metrological extension is independent evidence for the so-called assumption. This is illustrated by the use of dimensional analysis in high pressure experiments. This results in an extension of the theory of model mediated measurement, in which a common quantity in metrological extension is no longer assumed, but hypothesized. (shrink)

A supplement to "Metaphysics and Convention in Dimensional Analysis, 1914-1917" in HOPOS. Includes a transcription of the correspondence along with an editorial introduction and expository notes.

Ibadiyya is one of the earliest Islamic sects and one of the few to have survived to the present day. The Ibadiyya sect is still active in many places, including Tanzania, the Sultanate of Oman, and North Africa. Despite all of this information, fewer studies on Ibadis exist than on other extant and non-member sects. An Islamic group known as the Ibadiyya first appeared following the so-called “great acts of sedition” (büyük fitne) in the first century AH. This group initially (...) supported the Kharijites, but over time, it gradually shifted away from them in terms of politics and mindset. Even though the Kharijites were exterminated from the historical scene at an early age, the Ibadis have survived until the present. However, according to many researchers, the Ibadis still exist as a branch of the Kharijites. In this study, the theological thoughts of North African Ibadis are discussed. Since the Ibadis and Kharijites generally held different ideological and political perspectives. And the North African Ibadis in particular are distinguished from the Kharijites as well as from the general Ibadis by their differences. And it is essential to understand the underlying and guiding thinking behind these differences in order to understand their essence. (shrink)

Norms provide a valuable mechanism for establishing coherent cooperative behaviour in decentralised systems in which there is no central authority. One of the most influential formulations of norm emergence was proposed by Axelrod :1095–1111, 1986). This paper provides an empirical analysis of aspects of Axelrod’s approach, by exploring some of the key assumptions made in previous evaluations of the model. We explore the dynamics of norm emergence and the occurrence of norm collapse when applying the model over extended durations. It (...) is this phenomenon of norm collapse that can motivate the emergence of a central authority to enforce laws and so preserve the norms, rather than relying on individuals to punish defection. Our findings identify characteristics that significantly influence norm establishment using Axelrod’s formulation, but are likely to be of importance for norm establishment more generally. Moreover, Axelrod’s model suffers from significant limitations in assuming that private strategies of individuals are available to others, and that agents are omniscient in being aware of all norm violations and punishments. Because this is an unreasonable expectation, the approach does not lend itself to modelling real-world systems such as online networks or electronic markets. In response, the paper proposes alternatives to Axelrod’s model, by replacing the evolutionary approach, enabling agents to learn, and by restricting the metapunishment of agents to cases where the original defection is observed, in order to be able to apply the model to real-world domains. This work can also help explain the formation of a “social contract” to legitimate enforcement by a central authority. (shrink)

One of the main arguments intended to show that content externalism undermines the privileged access thesis is the ‘slow switching argument’, originally proposed by Boghossian. In this argument, it is supposed that a subject is unknowingly switched back and forth between Earth and Twin Earth: then it is claimed that, given externalism, when the subject is on Earth thinking that water is wet, he cannot know the content of his thought a priori, for he cannot, by mere reflection, rule out (...) the relevant alternative hypothesis that he is on Twin Earth thinking that twater is wet. One of the controversies surrounding this argument stems from the fact that it is not clear which epistemological principle underlies it. Here, I examine two suggestions made in the literature as to what that underlying principle might be. I argue that neither of these suggested principles is plausible, and thus that the slow switching argument never gets off the ground. (shrink)

In the past decade, the use of the Chapter XI has soared to the detriment of many creditors, workers, and consumers. A good number of cases were not based on imminent insolvency, but on firms attempts to avoid litigation claims against them, to terminate labor or other contractual obligations, or to gain new financing.These filings for Chapter XI highlight the use of bank-ruptcy as a strategic option used by management in running a viable organization. This usage is even advised by (...) some academics and management consultants. (shrink)

This essay was published in the September 2023 edition of Griffith Observer. It is an examination of the curious friendship between writer Aldous Huxley and astronomer Edwin Hubble and its philosophical basis: empiricism. I hope that by consideration of these two thinker''s lives and work light may be shed on each of their ideas and on the 20th century conceptions of empiricism more broadly.

In this paper, I take up the question of “how fast does time flow?” This question is usually asked as a rejoinder to the view that time is irreducibly tensed, which is motivated by the fact that we experience the passage of time. I consider what the meaning of this question could be and provide a defence of the view that the passage of time is meaningless (due to its rate of passage being dimensionless), undercutting the motivation for a tensed (...) view of time. (shrink)

In this paper I present and evaluate van Inwagen’s famous Consequence Argument, as presented in An Essay on Free Will. The grounds for the incompatibility of freewill and determinism, as argued by van Inwagen, is dependent on our actions being logical consequences of events outside of our control. Particularly, his arguments depend upon, in one guise or another, the transference of the modal property of not being possibly rendered false through the logical consequence relation, i.e. the β-principle. I argue that, (...) due to the symmetric nature of determinism, van Inwagen is exposed to what I call “reversibility arguments” in the literature. Such arguments reverse the β-principle and start from our apparent control over our own actions to our control over the initial conditions. Since van Inwagen does not endorse a particular theory of laws or logical consequence, he is open to such counterarguments. The plausibility of such reversibility arguments depends on what would be called a Wittgensteinian conception of logical consequence. In the _Remarks on the Foundation of Mathematics_, one of Wittgenstein’s main concerns is the normativity of logical inference i.e. proof. Such concerns with normativity and rule-following are generally a feature of his later philosophy. In the _Remarks_ Wittgenstein resists a conception of logical deduction which places the source of normativity outside of human practice. (shrink)

The question of the meaning of life is one of the fundamental issues that humanity was asking since the beginning of its creation. Among various approaches to addressing the issue of meaning of existence, one of the primary methods is the philosophical approach. Meanwhile, Islamic philosophy, when confronted with the question of the meaning of life, establishes its foundation upon the understanding of human capacities and capabilities. It asserts that the answer to the question of the origin of life can (...) only be achieved through recognizing human nature, which with its faculty of intellect, tends to discover truth and the meaning of life. Islamic philosophy does not view human life as separate from the system of the universe. Instead, it seeks to find the meaning of lifewithin this framework and a specific context. The significance, value, and credibility of human life are based on its interpretation of the universe and its connection to the ultimate purpose. Therefore, meaningfulness is contingent upon the humans' relationship with the ultimate purpose of the universe. In this article, I examine the perspective of Islamic philosophy on the meaning of life based on its definition of the human being and the universe. (shrink)

I provide an account of the physical appropriate to the task of the physicalist while remaining faithful to the usage of “physical” natural to physicists. Physicalism is the thesis that everything in the world is physical, or reducible to the physical. I presuppose that some version of this position is a live epistemic possibility. The physicalist is confronted with Hempel’s dilemma: that physicalism is either false or contentless. The proposed account of the physical avoids both horns and generalizes a recent (...) proposal by Vicente (2011). My account defines physicalism as the thesis that there are no objects that cannot be described by physical quantities. A dimensional account of physical quantities is given: quantities are determined by measurement procedures. (shrink)

This article exploits the synergy of critical discourse studies and Corpus Linguistics to study the pervasive representation of Islam and Muslims in an approximate 670,000-word corpus of US news media stories published between 2001 and 2015. Following collocation and concordance analysis of the most frequent topics or categories which revolve around the representation of Islam and Muslims in US news stories, the Discourse-Historical Approach to critical discourse analysis was adopted to investigate how the discursive strategies of nomination and predication are (...) used in US news media stories. The findings indicated that, in general, Islam and Muslims are associated with violence, religious radicalism, and Islamic extremist militants. Finally, the article discusses the discursive themes resulting from the analysis of personal pronouns as well as the educational implications of the findings for social studies and multicultural education. (shrink)

Consistency of choice is a fundamental and recurring theme in decision theory, social choice theory, behavioral economics, and psychological sciences. The purpose of this paper is to study the consistency of choice independent of the particular decision model at hand. Consistency is viewed as an inherently logical concept that is fundamentally void of connotation and is thus disentangled from traditional rationality or consistency conditions imposed on decision models. The proposed formalization of consistency takes two forms: internal consistency, which refers to (...) the property that a choice model does not generate contradictory statements; and semantic consistency, which refers to the idea that a theory’s predictions are valid with respect to some observed data. In addressing semantic consistency, the relationship between theory and data is analyzed in terms of so-called duality mappings, which allow a passage between the two universes in a way that consistency is preserved. The formalization of consistency concepts relies on adapting the revealed preference theory to the context-dependent setting. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the proposed framework and how it relates to classical revealed preference theory and other formalizations of the relationship between the theory and reality of choice. (shrink)

Despite the increasingly diversified discourses in international commercial arbitration, this device of socio-legal regulation remains a relatively under-theorized subject. In particular, far too little attention has been paid to analyzing international commercial arbitration through critical approaches such as Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). TWAIL is broadly understood as a methodological reorientation in international law by highlighting the historical links between the foundations of this field of law and the history of capitalism and imperialism as well as the colonial (...) and Eurocentric legacies in the structure and operation of the current international legal regime. With this in mind, two fronts in international commercial arbitration invite a reexamination through a TWAIL perspective and by drawing on the concept of hegemony. One front is the transnational account of arbitration, and the other one is the epistemic community of arbitration. By examining these two notions through a narrative of hegemony of Western legal traditions, we posit that any effective attempt at redefining or reforming arbitral governance structure towards sustaining diversity requires a deeper understanding of historical and current world power structures and creating a vision for the prospect of dehegemonization. (shrink)