Taking the idea of waste as an in-use phenomenon, we developed amatrix to explain four categories of waste which result from users’ failure touse a resource properly. These categories were illustrated by examples built onpractical food waste measurements, surveys, theses formatting requirementsand newspaper reports. We have categorized different facets of waste from abusiness perspective; thus, contributed to have improved waste managementpractices. We also showed that parsimony was also a wasteful behaviour.Parsimony was shown to be a waste by its effects on (...) others’ need of fulfilmentand other-worldly consequences for the miser. (shrink)

Ethnicity and International Law presents an historical account of the impact of ethnicity on the making of international law. The development of international law since the nineteenth century is characterised by the inherent tension between the liberal and conservative traditions of dealing with what might be termed the 'problem' of ethnicity. The present-day hesitancy of liberal international law to engage with ethnicity in ethnic conflicts and ethnic minorities has its roots in these conflicting philosophical traditions. In international legal studies, both (...) the relevance of ethnicity, and the traditions of understanding it, lie in this fact. (shrink)

Articles; chiefly on Islamic ethics and conveying non Muslims for Islam.

On logic from an Islamic perspective, with analysis of Ibn Taymiyah's views on logic.

Study on the importance of Islamic ethics, custom and practices in view of Islamic teachings.

Collection of articles on history and philosophy of various religions by noted Islamic scholar.

On the teachings of Prophet Muḥammad, d. 632 with reference to humanity.

On the Qurʼānic teaching for ideal society; contributed articles presented at a seminar.

Study on conduct of life of Muslim women and women in Islamic perspective.

Sermons, chiefly on the conduct of life for Islamic scholars and students.

This paper explores the intersection between three processes associated with globalisation. First, the rise of emerging economies like China, Brazil and India, the so-called ‘Rising Powers’, and their potential to define the contours of globalisation, global production arrangements and global governance in the twenty-first century. Second, the importance of corporate social responsibility goals in the shaping of global trade rules and industrial practices. Third, the significance of small firm clusters as critical sites of industrial competitiveness. Some of the most significant (...) examples of successful, innovative and internationally competitive small firm clusters from the developing world are located in the ‘Rising Powers’ and cluster promotion is a core element of national industrial policy in some of these countries. There is also evidence of engagement by clustered actors with corporate social responsibility goals around labour and environmental impacts. While these three processes have been separately studied there has been no attempt to explore their intersections. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of secondary data, and a detailed reading of the literature, on CSR and clusters in Brazil, China and India. It assesses the evidence on small firm clusters in the Rising Power economies and considers how these Rising Power clusters engage with CSR goals pertaining to labour, social and environmental standards. It argues for a greater focus on the formal and informal institutional context, termed the ‘social contract’, in explaining divergent experiences and practices observed across these countries. This raises important questions for future academic and policy research on clusters, CSR and the Rising Powers. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda to explore the local and global consequences of the relationship between Rising Power clusters and international labour and environmental standards. (shrink)

A recent concern in the debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries relates to the tension between demands for CSR compliance found in many global value chains (GVCs) and the search for locally appropriate responses to these pressures. In this context, an emerging and relatively understudied area of interest relates to small firm industrial clusters. Local clusters offer the potential for local joint action, and thus a basis for improving local compliance on CSR through collective monitoring and local (...) governance. This article explores the interrelationship between global governance, exercised through GVC ties, and local governance, via cluster institutions, in ensuring compliance with CSR pressures. It undertakes a comparative analysis of two leading export-oriented football manufacturing clusters in South Asia that have both faced common challenges on child labour. The article shows that both forms vertical and horizontal governance have played a part in shaping the response of the two clusters on child labour. Moreover, these two distinct forms of governance have also led to quite differentiated outcomes in terms of forms of work organization and child labour monitoring. This raises broader questions on how global CSR demands can locally be better embedded and the conditions under which football stitchers labour in these new work forms. (shrink)

BackgroundInnovations in technology have contributed to rapid changes in the way that modern biomedical research is carried out. Researchers are increasingly required to endorse adaptive and flexible approaches to accommodate these innovations and comply with ethical, legal and regulatory requirements. This paper explores how Dynamic Consent may provide solutions to address challenges encountered when researchers invite individuals to participate in research and follow them up over time in a continuously changing environment.MethodsAn interdisciplinary workshop jointly organised by the University of Oxford (...) and the COST Action CHIP ME gathered clinicians, researchers, ethicists, lawyers, research participants and patient representatives to discuss experiences of using Dynamic Consent, and how such use may facilitate the conduct of specific research tasks. The data collected during the workshop were analysed using a content analysis approach.ResultsDynamic Consent can provide practical, sustainable and future-proof solutions to challenges related to participant recruitment, the attainment of informed consent, participant retention and consent management, and may bring economic efficiencies.ConclusionsDynamic Consent offers opportunities for ongoing communication between researchers and research participants that can positively impact research. Dynamic Consent supports inter-sector, cross-border approaches and large scale data-sharing. Whilst it is relatively easy to set up and maintain, its implementation will require that researchers re-consider their relationship with research participants and adopt new procedures. (shrink)

Includes an introd. of 49 p. by S. G. Abbas.

Nūr Muḥammad is one of the teachings in Sufism that studies the beginning of the creation of the universe. The Sufis discussed Nūr Muḥammad through God's tajallī (manifestation), and they believed that only Insan Kamil (Perfect Humans) possessed the perfection of His tajallī. This Sufi theory can be comprehended through the dhawqi approach. This research will deal with Nūr Muḥammad's theory of Sufism through the perspective of Tijaniyah Tarekat. The data for this study was obtained through library research utilizing a (...) documentary technique. The collected data will be analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. This study finds that the Tijaniyah Tarekat is a Sufism institution that bases its teachings and practices on the concept of Nūr Muḥammad in the form of ṣalawāt al-fātiḥ and ṣalawāt jawharah al-kamāl. This Tarekat's elucidation of Nūr Muḥammad is also built on and consistent with the explication of authoritative Sufis in Islam's intellectual and spiritual tradition. (shrink)

Advancements in science and technology have not only brought hope to humankind to produce disease-free offspring, but also offer possibilities to genetically enhance the next generation’s traits and capacities. Human genetic enhancement, however, raises complex ethical questions, such as to what extent should it be allowed? It has been a great challenge for humankind to develop robust ethical guidelines for human genetic enhancement that address both public concerns and needs. We believe that research about public concerns is necessary prior to (...) developing such guidelines, yet the issues have not been thoroughly investigated in many countries, including Malaysia. Since the novel often functions as a medium for the public to express their concerns, this paper explores ethical concerns about human genetic enhancement expressed in four Malay science fiction novels namely Klon, Leksikon Ledang, Transgenesis Bisikan Rimba and Transgenik Sifar. Religion has a strong influence on the worldview of the Malays therefore some concerns such as playing God are obviously religious. Association of the negative image of scientists as well as the private research companies with the research on human genetic enhancement reflects the authors’ concerns about the main motivations for conducting such research and the extent to which such research will benefit society. (shrink)

This study examines the mediating role of firm reputation in the relationship between corporate digital responsibility (CDR) and financial performance in an emerging market, Ethiopia. An online cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 126 agricultural, manufacturing, and service firms. The study used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the hypothesized relationship. Our findings reveal that the impact of CDR on financial performance is indirect only as firm reputation plays a full, complementary mediation role in the (...) CDR—financial performance nexus. This implies that firms could leverage CDR as a competitive “inducing” strategy to enhance their firm reputation, which, in turn, can boost their financial prospects. Our study significantly contributes to the business ethics and digital economy literature by offering a pioneering empirical validation of the CDR phenomenon in an emerging context, thus extending the signaling and stakeholder theories to digitalization and reputation management domains. The findings offer managers fresh insight into the potential impact of a CDR strategy on firm reputation and financial performance, showing that firms can leverage CDR as a loss prevention strategy to gain a competitive advantage. Policymakers are therefore urged to promote soft-law regimes and policies on CDR to motivate companies to leverage it as a competitive tool. (shrink)

نسبی‌انگاری اخلاقی یکی از مکاتب کهن فرااخلاقی است که به وجود ویژگی‌های اخلاقی، و صدق و توجیه احکام اخلاقی می‌پردازد. با این حال، بخشی از بحث‌های مربوط به نسبی‌انگاری متوجّه معناشناسی جملات نسبی است. نظریات نسبی‌انگارانۀ سنّتی زمینه‌گرا هستند، به این معنا که احکام اخلاقی را دارای عنصری می‌دانند که به نحوی ارجاع به گوینده دارد. این دیدگاه نسبی‌انگاری را با چالش‌هایی مواجه می‌کند، از جمله این‌که اختلاف نظر که یکی از اسباب عمدۀ گرایش به نسبی‌انگاری است، به سوء تفاهم (...) فروکاسته می‌شود. برخی نسبی‌انگاران اخیراً تلاش کرده‌اند تا نظریاتی ارائه دهند که با ثابت دانستن محتوای احکام، دچار مشکلات زمینه‌گرایی سنتی نباشد. یکی از این تلاش‌ها، نظریۀ نسبی‌انگاریِ دربارۀ خود (de se relativism) اندی ایگن است. ایگن با ترکیب نظریۀ دیوید لویس درباب محتوای باور، نظریۀ رابرت استالنیکر درباب اظهار، و نظریۀ استعدادی دیوید لویس درباب ارزش، بر آن است که نظریه‌ای نسبی‌انگارانه دربارۀ ارزش ارائه کند که با طبیعی‌انگاری، درونی‌انگاری احکام اخلاقی، و شناختی‌انگاری سازگار باشد، و از اشکالات دیگری که خودِ او بر زمینه‌گرایی وارد می‌کند مبرّا باشد. در این مقاله نظریۀ ایگن بررسی می‌شود و نشان داده می‌شود که نظریۀ او نه‌تنها از اشکالات وارد بر زمینه‌گرایی رها نیست، بلکه به دلیل پذیرش نظریۀ لویس در باب محتوای باور بار بیشتری بر دوش دارد که آن را نسبت به دیگر نظریات نسبی‌انگارانه مرجوح می‌سازد. -/- . (shrink)

The research aimed to produce an appropriate product, namely a cooperative learning model in the rituals of Hajj, to realize an independent Hajj congregation in terms of knowledge, understanding, attitudes, and skills, to specify the level of validity, realism, effectiveness, and attractiveness and so that the problems above can be resolved immediately resolved. This research uses the Research and Development (R&D) approach to achieve the aforementioned objectives. In general, the research and development model is the Four D model. This model (...) consists of four stages of development, i.e., define, design, develop, and develop. The results of the preliminary study / pre-field survey show that in terms of teaching performance of Hajj rituals, it appears that the learning services provided by the instructor/instructor have not been able to accommodate and appreciate the differences in ability (attitude) of Hajj pilgrims. The results of the model development trial show that "(1) it is necessary to improve the teaching performance of the Hajj ritual guide / instructor, (2) the development of the model requires specific teaching performance of Hajj rituals from the supervisor / instructor, and does not want excessive facilities and facilities. (3) there is an increase in the learning activities of Hajj pilgrims in all small groups (high, medium and low), (4) the realization of the optimization of the achievement of learning outcomes for Hajj rituals for Hajj pilgrims, both in the high, medium, and low groups. (shrink)

The notion of 'natural kinds' has been central to contemporary discussions of metaphysics and philosophy of science. Although explicitly articulated by nineteenth-century philosophers like Mill, Whewell and Venn, it has a much older history dating back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent years, essentialism has been the dominant account of natural kinds among philosophers, but the essentialist view has encountered resistance, especially among naturalist metaphysicians and philosophers of science. Informed by detailed examination of classification in the natural and social sciences, (...) this book argues against essentialism and for a naturalist account of natural kinds. By looking at case studies drawn from diverse scientific disciplines, from fluid mechanics to virology and polymer science to psychiatry, the author argues that natural kinds are nodes in causal networks. On the basis of this account, he maintains that there can be natural kinds in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences. (shrink)

Driven by the rural revitalisation strategy, the construction of ‘beautiful countryside’ has been actively pursued across various regions. However, rural brands still face challenges such as single development models, serious homogenisation,and insufficient market competitiveness. In response to these challenges, this study examines the fruit industry in Fengxian District, Shanghai, exploring how visual identity design can enhance brand uniqueness and market competitiveness, thereby promoting regional economic development.The study begins with an in-depth analysis of the current state of the fruit industry in (...) Fengxian District. Despite having rich agricultural resources and a superior ecological environment, Fengxian's fruit brands struggle to stand out in the highly competitive market, particularly against the brands from Chongming County and neighboring regions like Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Through literature review, field research, interviews, and questionnaires, this study comprehensively assesses the status and challenges of Fengxian's fruit brands, delving into their brand resources, environment, and cultural advantages to provide a scientific foundation for visual identity design.Based on these insights, the study proposes a visual identity design strategy for Fengxian fruit brands, aiming to create a unique and recognisable brand image by clarifying brand positioning and integrating regional culture and ecological strengths. The strategy seeks to visually convey the high quality and uniqueness of Fengxian fruits, enhancing consumer identification and loyalty to the brand. The results indicate that a well-planned visual identity design significantly enhances the market competitiveness of Fengxian fruit brands and provides a scientific basis for policy formulation, thereby promoting the sustainable development of the fruit industry in Fengxian District. This study not only offers practical strategies for enhancing Fengxian fruit brands but also serves as a reference model for rural Fruit branding nationwide, contributing to the broader goal of rural revitalisation. (shrink)

This research aims to identify the investor’s decision-making styles and their impact on entrepreneurial opportunities through the mediation role of entrepreneurial intention and moderation effect of social capital in the healthcare sector of Pakistan. This study applied a structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses on a sample of 400 healthcare investors. Our findings reveal that the conditional indirect relationship of entrepreneurial intention through social capital was significant on opportunity creation and an insignificant influence on opportunity discovery from decision-making styles. (...) This study provides implications for policymakers to enhance entrepreneurial opportunity creation by providing robust social environment investors and encouraging them to create business ventures in the healthcare sector. (shrink)

Handwritten text recognition is considered as the most challenging task for the research community due to slight change in different characters’ shape in handwritten documents. The unavailability of a standard dataset makes it vaguer in nature for the researchers to work on. To address these problems, this paper presents an optical character recognition system for the recognition of offline Pashto characters. The problem of the unavailability of a standard handwritten Pashto characters database is addressed by developing a medium-sized database of (...) offline Pashto characters. This database consists of 11352 character images. Enriched feature extraction techniques of histogram of oriented gradients and zoning-based density features are used for feature extraction of carved Pashto characters. K-nearest neighbors is considered as a classification tool for the proposed algorithm based on the proposed feature sets. A resultant accuracy of 80.34% is calculated for the histogram of oriented gradients, while for zoning-based density features, 76.42% is achieved using 10-fold cross validation. (shrink)

Bound-constrained optimization has wide applications in science and engineering. In the last two decades, various evolutionary algorithms were developed under the umbrella of evolutionary computation for solving various bound-constrained benchmark functions and various real-world problems. In general, the developed evolutionary algorithms belong to nature-inspired algorithms and swarm intelligence paradigms. Differential evolutionary algorithm is one of the most popular and well-known EAs and has secured top ranks in most of the EA competitions in the special session of the IEEE Congress on (...) Evolutionary Computation. In this paper, a customized differential evolutionary algorithm is suggested and applied on twenty-nine large-scale bound-constrained benchmark functions. The suggested C-DE algorithm has obtained promising numerical results in its 51 independent runs of simulations. Most of the 2013 IEEE-CEC benchmark functions are tackled efficiently in terms of proximity and diversity. (shrink)

Essays on linguistics in Malaysia; festschrift in honor of Asmah Haji Omar, a doctor in linguistics at Universiti Malaya.

In this study, we first introduce polygonal cylinder and torus using Cartesian products and topologically identifications and then find their Wiener and hyper-Wiener indices using a quick, interesting technique of counting. Our suggested mathematical structures could be of potential interests in representation of computer networks and enhancing lattice hardware security.

This research probes the influence of the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on the tourism development behavior of local residents. By applying social exchange theory, this study examines the impact of the community dimension on tourism development behavior through overall attitude. In addition, this study also examines the use of social media as a moderator in the relationship between overall attitude and tourism development. A survey tool has been used to obtain data from the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Hypotheses were (...) examined using the structural equation method on 417 survey responses. The findings indicated community satisfaction and an overall positive attitude to the effects of development, although a negative attitude regarding concerns about community resources. Overall, attitude has a significant impact on tourism development behavior. Additionally, the use of social media strengthens the relationship between overall attitude and behavior that favors tourism development. (shrink)

In this book we define some new notions of soft neutrosophic algebraic structures over neutrosophic algebraic structures. We define some different soft neutrosophic algebraic structures but the main motivation is two-fold. Firstly the classes of soft neutrosophic group ring and soft neutrosophic semigroup ring defined in this book is basically the generalization of two classes of rings: neutrosophic group rings and neutrosophic semigroup rings. These soft neutrosophic group rings and soft neutrosophic semigroup rings are defined over neutrosophic group rings and (...) neutrosophic semigroup rings respectively. This is basically the collection of parameterized subneutrosophic group ring and subneutrosophic semigroup ring of a neutrosophic group ring and neutrosophic semigroup ring respectively. These soft neutrosophic algebraic structures are even bigger than the corresponding classical algebraic structures. It is interesting to see that it wider the area of research for the researcher of algebraic structures. (shrink)

With the advancement of scientific collaboration in the 20th century, researchers started collaborating in many research areas. Researchers and scientists no longer remain solitary individuals; instead, they collaborate to advance fundamental understandings of research topics. Various bibliometric methods are used to quantify the scientific collaboration among researchers and scientific communities. Among these different bibliometric methods, the co-authorship method is one of the most verifiable methods to quantify or analyze scientific collaboration. In this research, the initial study has been conducted to (...) analyze interdisciplinary research activities in the computer science domain. The ACM has classified the computer science fields. We selected the Journal of Universal Computer Science for experimentation purposes. The J.UCS is the first Journal of Computer Science that addresses a complete ACM topic. Using J.UCS data, the co-authorship network of the researcher up to the 2nd level was developed. Then the co-authorship network was analyzed to find interdisciplinary among scientific communities. Additionally, the results are also visualized to comprehend the interdisciplinary among the ACM categories. A whole working web-based system has been developed, and a forced directed graph technique has been implemented to understand IDR trends in ACM categories. Finally, the IDR values between the categories are computed to quantify the collaboration trends among the ACM categories. It was found that “Artificial Intelligence” and “Information Storage and Retrieval”, “Natural Language Processing and Information Storage and Retrieval”, and “Human-Computer Interface” and “Database Applications” were found the most overlapping areas by acquiring an IDR score of 0.879, 0.711, and 0.663, respectively. (shrink)

This study was aimed at examining the impacts of the Sharing economy on the individual and community Quality of Life and wellbeing by looking at their associated influencing factors using Village Savings and Loans Associations as a model of sharing economy in Malawi. An online community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from November 2020 through January 2021. In the survey, 402 Village Savings and Loans Associations members from the Mzuzu City area participated, recruited using snowball and respondent-driven sampling techniques. The (...) sample size was computed using a single population proportion using the Yamane formula. Descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression model techniques were also employed. Additionally, we used the Chi-Square test, two-way ANOVA, and Ordinal regression model to determine statistical associations between socioeconomic data and QOL and wellbeing variables with a 5% level of significance. On the aspect of community wellbeing, the findings of our study indicated that income provided members with options to live a better QOL and wellbeing within the community by either facilitating payment for better education, eating healthier foods, acquiring assets, etc. Further, the absence of discrimination provided a platform for voice, inclusion, and social trust, enhancing freedom of expression. We also found that education facilitated better earnings and knowledge of public health-related issues. As for the contribution to the sharing economy, our study has emphasized the role played by trust in enhancing sharing economy. We recommend and encourage people to join these VSLAs so as to improve their QOL and wellbeing. However, there is a need to replicate the study on a larger scale to validate our study findings for effective policy formulation and implementation geared to improving the overall quality of people’s lives. Based on these findings, we further recommend that authorities reinstate programs like National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2016–2020 and Savings and Loan Groups Best Practice Guidelines 2016–2017 that could further enhance the future of VSLAs, which are vital for QOL and community wellbeing of the people in developing countries like Malawi. (shrink)

A positive leadership style can promote work engagement. Using social exchange theory, this study examines the impact of employee leadership styles on work engagement. In addition, the link also considered the mitigating role of trust in leaders. Preliminary data were collected from the educational and non-educational staff of the Business Management Sciences and Education Department at different universities. We collected responses from 242 employees from selected universities using the purposive sampling technique. We tested the proposed hypothesis using linear regression. Research (...) has shown that there is a positive link between employee leadership and work engagement. When trust in leaders as facilitators was introduced, the relationship between leadership and work engagement was relaxed to increase trust in leaders. Practical and theoretical contributions to the study were provided with recommendations for further study. (shrink)