Patients’ perception with regards to their use in medical teaching is an under-researched area in Pakistan. The objective of this qualitative, pilot study was to determine the perspectives of hospital admitted patients on their being used in the medical education of students in a private medical institution. An attempt to understand the dynamics of interactions between patients, students and doctors was also made and to see how this affected the doctor-patient relationship. A qualitative study with in-depth interviews was conducted in (...) a private medical college of Islamabad, Pakistan with a total of 20 adult patients. The focus was on their experiences with bedside teaching. This pilot study reveals interesting findings about patient-physician interactions in Pakistan. Patients had a traditionally passive role in medical education putting more onuses on the doctor to impart knowledge to the medical students. Patients comforted themselves in the knowledge that they were following Allah’s command when they were involved in the teaching of medical students. The apparent altruism of Pakistani patients in this study was influenced mainly by religious reasons, following the commandments of Allah to help develop future healers for humanity. The culture evident in the medical college where this study was conducted is reflective of the social power ladders that pervade Pakistani society. The positions of doctors and medical teachers in Pakistani society are hardly challenged to debate. Little attention has been paid to the values that influence the cultural and social frameworks within which Pakistani medical teachers, medical students and the patients function. (shrink)

This study focuses on determining the number of children considered ideal by Pakistani husbands and identifying the factors associated with this, with a special emphasis on family type. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among married males residing in four areas of Khairpur district. An equal number of study participants were selected systematically from each field site to achieve the required sample size of 500. Interviews were conducted by trained fieldworkers using a structured questionnaire to obtain information on background socioeconomic characteristics, (...) family structure and reproductive health knowledge and practices, in particular family planning. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess the hypothesis that family type has an independent association with husbands opinions regarding ideal number of children can help strengthen population control efforts in Pakistan. (shrink)

Social media particularly Facebook has become a popular platform amongst medical professionals for both social and professional interactions. However, given the nature of such platforms, their use raises ethical concerns including violation of patient privacy and blurring of classical professional and patient-physician relationship boundaries. In order to investigate the pattern of Facebook usage among medical professionals in Pakistan, a mixed method study was conducted at five medical institutions in three different cities including Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. 806 participants, including 87 (...) faculty members, 239 trainees and 350 medical students, responded to the quantitative survey. Results were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. For the qualitative arm, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted among [End Page 272] different groups, and analysed to draw out common themes. Results show that 44% of respondents found professional utility for Facebook. 36% of respondents had never changed their privacy settings and 44% indicated lack of confidence in current privacy settings of the medium. Respondents had posted identifiable patient content and non-identifiable patient content, with students and trainees posting such content more frequently than faculty. (shrink)

This seventh volume of Collected Papers includes 70 papers comprising 974 pages on (theoretic and applied) neutrosophics, written between 2013-2021 by the author alone or in collaboration with the following 122 co-authors from 22 countries: Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Abdel-Nasser Hussian, C. Alexander, Mumtaz Ali, Yaman Akbulut, Amir Abdullah, Amira S. Ashour, Assia Bakali, Kousik Bhattacharya, Kainat Bibi, R. N. Boyd, Ümit Budak, Lulu Cai, Cenap Özel, Chang Su Kim, Victor Christianto, Chunlai Du, Chunxin Bo, Rituparna Chutia, Cu Nguyen Giap, Dao The (...) Son, Vinayak Devvrat, Arindam Dey, Partha Pratim Dey, Fahad Alsharari, Feng Yongfei, S. Ganesan, Shivam Ghildiyal, Bibhas C. Giri, Masooma Raza Hashmi, Ahmed Refaat Hawas, Hoang Viet Long, Le Hoang Son, Hongbo Wang, Hongnian Yu, Mihaiela Iliescu, Saeid Jafari, Temitope Gbolahan Jaiyeola, Naeem Jan, R. Jeevitha, Jun Ye, Anup Khan, Madad Khan, Salma Khan, Ilanthenral Kandasamy, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, Darjan Karabašević, Kifayat Ullah, Kishore Kumar P.K., Sujit Kumar De, Prasun Kumar Nayak, Malayalan Lathamaheswari, Luong Thi Hong Lan, Anam Luqman, Luu Quoc Dat, Tahir Mahmood, Hafsa M. Malik, Nivetha Martin, Mai Mohamed, Parimala Mani, Mingcong Deng, Mohammed A. Al Shumrani, Mohammad Hamidi, Mohamed Talea, Kalyan Mondal, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Gulistan, Farshid Mofidnakhaei, Muhammad Shoaib, Muhammad Riaz, Karthika Muthusamy, Nabeela Ishfaq, Deivanayagampillai Nagarajan, Sumera Naz, Nguyen Dinh Hoa, Nguyen Tho Thong, Nguyen Xuan Thao, Noor ul Amin, Dragan Pamučar, Gabrijela Popović, S. Krishna Prabha, Surapati Pramanik, Priya R, Qiaoyan Li, Yaser Saber, Said Broumi, Saima Anis, Saleem Abdullah, Ganeshsree Selvachandran, Abdulkadir Sengür, Seyed Ahmad Edalatpanah, Shahbaz Ali, Shahzaib Ashraf, Shouzhen Zeng, Shio Gai Quek, Shuangwu Zhu, Shumaiza, Sidra Sayed, Sohail Iqbal, Songtao Shao, Sundas Shahzadi, Dragiša Stanujkić, Željko Stević, Udhayakumar Ramalingam, Zunaira Rashid, Hossein Rashmanlou, Rajkumar Verma, Luige Vlădăreanu, Victor Vlădăreanu, Desmond Jun Yi Tey, Selçuk Topal, Naveed Yaqoob, Yanhui Guo, Yee Fei Gan, Yingcang Ma, Young Bae Jun, Yuping Lai, Hafiz Abdul Wahab, Wei Yang, Xiaohong Zhang, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Lemnaouar Zedam. (shrink)

The coastal zone of Bangladesh is endowed with dynamic ‘Terrestrial’ and ‘Coastal and Marine ecosystem’. The zone confronts with declined environmental quality owing to unethical anthropogenic interventions. Few studies regarding ethical attitudes of local communities to conserve the coast were conducted earlier. Two objectives, such as (i) heavy metal concentration, and (ii) physio-chemical quality of sample soil and water were selected to reveal the environmental state of study area. Five heavy metals like- Cadmium, Copper, Iron, Lead, and Zinc; and four (...) physio-chemical parameters such as, the pH, Electrical Conductivity, Temperature, and Turbidity of sample soil and water were measured. The average concentration of Pb in soil is 10 times higher than world average (0.03 mg/g), while Cd concentration in soil is two times more than world average (0.11 mg/L). The concentration of Fe at Inani beach water is 1.54 mg/g more than world average (3.4 mg/g). The physio-chemical parameters are within standard range. Unethical discharge of toxic effluents from shrimp hatcheries, and municipal garbage are main sources of pollution, which ensue into environmental degradations. Concentration of five heavy metals and Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) in sample mollusk shells exhibit biodiversity deterioration. The mollusk shells from Inani beach contains 0.04 mg/L Cd,0.08 mg/L Cu, 0.42 mg/L Fe, 0.38 mg/L Pb, and 0.07 mg/L Zn. The CaCO3 content in mollusk shells at Inani beach is 49.5%, which indicates the degradation of the mollusks, as shells normally are made with 95% - 97% Calcium Carbonate. Hence, the Department of Environment (DOE), Bangladesh (GoB) declared the area as an ‘Ecologically Critical Area’ (ECA). The concerned stakeholders, like- CPP volunteers and officials, Forest Division, Fisheries Research Institute, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Union Chairman and Journalists of Cox’s Bazar recommended insertion of moral values among local stakeholders through trainings, motivational lectures, demonstrations and dramas, as well as, incorporation of lessons about consequences of unethical activities upon geo-environment into text books. Though least practice has been found regarding moral values during survey, the present research advocates in developing ‘Knowledge pool’ about coastal environment, creating awareness, and developing moral ethics among the local, regional and national stakeholders. (shrink)

The debate in acknowledging street harassment as an existing social problem renders research necessary on the topic. Street harassment is said to occur when it takes place in a public setting and is initiated by a stranger. Through this correlation research, we aimed to establish the relationship between experiencing street harassment and fear of victimization. A positive correlation between the experience of street harassment and fear of victimization was hypothesized and a positive correlation between street harassment and negative reaction to (...) harassment was also hypothesized. Additionally, the most recurring type of public harassing behaviors was identified as well. Two self report questionnaires were administered; A gender based harassment scale assessing the frequency of 8 harassing behaviors which ranged on a likert scale from 0 to 4 and a modified version of The Fear of Crime survey measuring fear of victimization. These questionnaires were administered to a sample of 250 females recruited via convenient sampling technique that had experienced street harassment previously. Percentages, mode and Pearson’s Product correlation were used to statistically analyze data. Results showed a significant, weak positive correlation between street harassment and fear of victimization and a moderate positive correlation between experiencing street harassment and negative reaction towards harassment. The most frequent harassing behavior was being stared in a manner that made the victims uncomfortable with 98% of participants experiencing it, followed by 83.5% of the participants experiencing non-verbal sounds. Through this research, we were able to conclude street harassment does have negative implications for women. (shrink)

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of servant leadership on teachers of moral education degree programs in Pakistan. By utilizing social learning, we propose that servant leadership and perceived coworker support can reduce the knowledge hiding by enhancing the sense of organization-based psychological ownership. The findings of time-lagged and multi-source data indicate that servant leadership has a negative relationship with knowledge hiding. Our results also indicate that psychological ownership mediates the effects of servant leadership on knowledge (...) hiding. Moreover, a higher level of perceived coworker support enhances the sense of psychological ownership which helps to reduce knowledge hiding. This research extends strong support for the proposition that servant leaders who adopt an employee-centered management approach, stressing personal integrity and care for employees significantly affect employee attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, this study suggests that managers should demonstrate care toward their subordinates which helps them to reduce negative behaviors. (shrink)

Hardy is the last of the Victorian and one of the most popular novelists of England. He, being an author of unique endowments, was not much esteemed in his life time. Hardy became the victim of stereotypical criticism and was badly ostracized by the ecclesiastical circles and the critics of his time as they merely focused on the depressing features of his fiction. This paper intends to reveal certain aspects of his work which remained neglected for a long time. The (...) present study is designed to focus on those characteristics of his work which win the title of a modern novelist for him. Hardy was quite conscious of the shifting environment around him at the vogue of industrialization that left profound marks on his meditative temperament. His depiction of the 19th century scenario is dominated with clash and collision between innovation and tradition. His art deals with twofold aspects of modernity exposing the sanguine and gloomy consequences of modernity. Owing to such an approach of the writer he is regarded as a social realist and one of the earliest of the modern novelists. Hardy poignantly observes the pathetic condition of the labourers, on one hand, and the modern mechanical advancements, one the other, which were of little benefit for the common man in society. The current study is designed to focus upon his approach to the modern developments in the broad context of social and political changes. Hardy is a modern novelist as he concentrates on the current issues such as gender, class, social and psychological disorders, etc. He is a supporter of class and female liberation. (shrink)

The regression model is generally utilized in several fields of study because of its applications. Regression is an extremely incredible approach; it builds up a connection between dependent and independent variables. We have addressed a powerful computational model by utilizing dengue information joined with fuzzy multiple linear regression. Information is accumulated on dengue fever through the survey. This paper is centered on the comparison of the crisp method with fuzzy multiple linear regression, and then, the utilization of a fuzzy multiple (...) regression method is explained after the comparison. We have used multiple regression and then converted the said technique into three fuzzy cases. The effectiveness of the fuzzy multiple regression model is measured by numerical computation and comparison of both techniques. 2020 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 30C45; 30C50; 30C80; Secondary 11B65, 47B38. (shrink)

Excessive use of social media is a developing concern in the twenty-first century. This issue needs to be addressed before it has any more significant consequences than what we are currently experiencing. As a preventive technique, advertisements and awareness-raising campaigns about the detrimental impact of digital technologies are used. The application of novel mathematical techniques and terminologies in this field of study will have significant potential to enhance healthy living by preventing certain ailments. This is the most compelling justification for (...) conducting a new study with the most up-to-date techniques at our disposal. This study investigates clear and concise transmission in order to generate a deterministic mathematical model of social media addiction S M A using the fractal-fractional derivative operator. Also, the analysis of the S M A model in terms of the invariant domain, the existence of a positive invariant solution, and equilibria assumptions are stated in a detailed manner. Besides that, the basic reproduction number ℝ 0 < 1 is computed, demonstrating that the proposed methodology is more efficacious. The Atangana-Baleanu FF differential operators are recently defined in FF differential operators that are applied to characterize the S M A model’s mathematical algorithm. We investigated the numerical behaviour of the S M A in three ways: changing the fractional-order α as well as the fractal-dimension ℘ ; changing α while keeping ℘ constant; and changing ℘ while keeping α constant. Our examined visualizations and simulation studies using MATLAB for the numerical modelling of the aforementioned system showed that the novel developed Atangana-Baleanu FF differential operators produce remarkable results when compared to the classical frame. (shrink)

In this article, we investigated a deterministic model of pneumonia-meningitis coinfection. Employing the Atangana–Baleanu fractional derivative operator in the Caputo framework, we analyze a seven-component approach based on ordinary differential equations. Furthermore, the invariant domain, disease-free as well as endemic equilibria, and the validity of the model’s potential results are all investigated. According to controller design evaluation and modelling, the modulation technique devised is effective in diminishing the proportion of incidences in various compartments. A fundamental reproducing value is generated by (...) exploiting the next generation matrix to assess the properties of the equilibrium. The system’s reliability is further evaluated. Sensitivity analysis is used to classify the impact of each component on the spread or prevention of illness. Using simulation studies, the impacts of providing therapy have been determined. Additionally, modelling the appropriate configuration demonstrated that lowering the fractional order from 1 necessitates a rapid initiation of the specified control technique at the largest intensity achievable and retaining it for the bulk of the pandemic’s duration. (shrink)

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

This book reflects upon the political philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal, a towering intellectual figure in South Asian history, revered by many for his poetry and his thought. He lived in India in the twilight years of the British Empire and, apart from a short but significant period studying in the West, he remained in Punjab until his death in 1938. The book studies Iqbal's critique of nationalist ideology and his attempts to chart a path for the development of (...) the 'nation' by liberating it from the centralizing and homogenizing tendencies of the modern state structure. Iqbal frequently clashed with his contemporaries over his view of nationalism as 'the greatest enemy of Islam'. He constructed his own particular interpretation of Islam - forged through an interaction with Muslim thinkers and Western intellectual traditions - that was ahead of its time, and since his death both modernists and Islamists have continued to champion his legacy. (shrink)

_The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam_ is Muhammad Iqbal's major philosophic work: a series of profound reflections on the perennial conflict among science, religion, and philosophy, culminating in new visions of the unity of human knowledge, of the human spirit, and of God. Iqbal's thought contributed significantly to the establishment of Pakistan, to the religious and political ideals of the Iranian Revolution, and to the survival of Muslim identity in parts of the former USSR. It now serves (...) as new bridge between East and West and between Islam and the other Religions of the Book. With a new Introduction by Javed Majeed, this edition of _The Reconstruction_ opens the teachings of Iqbal to the modern, Western reader. It will be essential reading for all those interested in Islamic intellectual history, the renewal of Islam in the modern world, and political theory of Islam's relationship to the West. (shrink)

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930) is Muhammad Iqbal's major philosophic work: a series of profound reflections on the perennial conflict among science, religion, and philosophy, culminating in new visions of the unity of human knowledge, of the human spirit, and of God. Iqbal's thought contributed significantly to the establishment of Pakistan, to the religious and political ideals of the Iranian Revolution, and to the survival of Muslim identity in parts of the former USSR. It now (...) serves as new bridge between East and West and between Islam and the other Religions of the Book. With a new Introduction by Javed Majeed, this edition of The Reconstruction opens the teachings of Iqbal to the modern, Western reader. It will be essential reading for all those interested in Islamic intellectual history, the renewal of Islam in the modern world, and political theory of Islam's relationship to the West. (shrink)

Young adult literature has been studied to understand how authors represent characters who denotes their version of experiencing mental disability or social distress. Thus the following thematic analysis of young adult novels points a question, that whether portrayal of mental disability/social distress is empowering or not. Certainly, mental disabilities seem to be different in novels: in their attempts to represent mental disability/social distress as a real experience, they’re sometimes also attached to popular conceptions of protagonist’s love-affair. Hence, to focus on (...) novels representing mental disability/social distress; themes are hypothesized to explore the identity of the protagonist, society’s influence on protagonist and whether novel romanticize or represents realistic portrayal of disability/distress. Six novels have been selected-One memory of Flora Banks, Everything-Everything, All the Bright Places, 13 Reasons Why, When we Collided and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. These novels calls attention towards how society aggravates disability and shun those who don’t meet certain expectations to be mentally healthy. Literature is a powerful social force and conversation starter about disability/distress awareness to address and deal with challenges. Thus it’s important to recognize that it plays a key role in the empowerment and appreciation for disability which has been the center of this analysis. (shrink)

China, a lofty nation of 5000 years of uninterrupted civilization, world’s second largest economy, a nation of huge land mass and vibrant 1.3 billion populations with permanent seat in United Nation’s Security Council is steadfast on the road of peaceful development. Despite foreign aggressions, humiliations and occupations, Chinese nation never demonstrated revengeful attitude and instead adopted a submissive and non- confrontational approach to buy time for national cohesion, economic and infrastructure development and making the country stronger. The consistent and rapid (...) industrialization has enabled China to maintain over 9% growth rate which brought rich dividends for China and is now termed as economic super power and world’s manufacturing industry. This all can be attributed to consistent pragmatic foreign policy and unique blend of relevant to all and friend of all with mutual accommodation and peaceful coexistence. Pakistan and China are termed as Iron Brothers, therefore, Pakistan can accrue many dividends from rising status of China. This research article critically examines evolution of China’s foreign policy and draws relevance for Pakistan with suggested course of actions to make more dynamic and pragmatic foreign policy. The views and analysis expressed in this article are author’s own. (shrink)

Present study compared disturbed eating attitudes among male and female university students. For which it as postulated that female university students would have more disturbed eating attitudes as compare to male students. For that reason 200 males and 200 female university students from various universities of Karachi were incorporated in the study. Their age ranged from 19 to 25. Participants after verbal and written covenantfrom the heads of their institution were asked to fill the respondents’ profile form to gather the (...) participant’s demographic information, followed by Eating Attitude Test which was used to know ones disturbed eating ways. For statistical evaluation t-test was applied, which specified that male university students experience more disturbed eating attitudes compare to female learners. This clears that distressed eating attempts are not limited to females, but is now affecting males as well. Thus to avert its budding prevalence, teaching institutions should supervise its amassed risks in their students and stimulate them to healthy lines of eating. (shrink)

Digital Health Technologies (DHTs) are currently the subject of much debate both in terms of their technological frontiers as well as their ethical, legal and societal implications (ELSI). Regulation of such technologies as medical devices currently lacks behind their level of adoption. Digital Twins are the next evolution step of such DHTs and provide an opportunity to anticipate and act on ELSI before adoption again leaps before the necessary review. This paper introduces the concept and use cases of digital twins (...) in medicine, then frames the debate through the lens of related technologies, machine learning and personalized medicine, and maps ethical challenges stemming from those. Finally, we lay out how digital twins may change and challenge the future practice of medicine. (shrink)

This paper is a study of the intersection between aviation and diplomacy in the semi-autonomous Indian state of Jodhpur in the final decades of British colonial rule in India. Jodhpur's Maharaja Umaid Singh established a major international aerodrome, patronized one of India's first flying clubs and collaborated with British authorities to make aviation laws for the Indian states. He would also serve in the Royal Air Force during the war and placed Jodhpur state's aviation resources at the disposal of the (...) king-emperor. This paper argues that Jodhpur was able to leverage its aviation resources to wield substantial influence both within and beyond the British Empire through both war and peace. An analysis of Jodhpur's engagement with aviation diplomacy is also revealing of some of the limitations as well as possibilities for the deployment of science diplomacy frameworks, especially in non-Western contexts. (shrink)

Book Name MUHAMMAD: A PROPHET FOR OUR TIME Review written by Mr Kashif Iqbal.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and contingency theories of leadership, this study aims to investigate how sustainable leadership influences employees' wellbeing through employee resilience and to examine the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the “sustainable leadership-employees' wellbeing” relationship. Data were collected from 593 employees and 373 supervisors adopting two-wave design among small and medium-sized enterprises in China. The authors used structural equation modeling to empirically test the hypothesized model in this study. The research shows that SL is (...) significantly related to the employees' WB in SMEs. Regarding mediating effect, SL also indirectly influences employees' WB through ER. Moreover, the impact of SL on employees' WB becomes more prominent in the presence of lower ET. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior study is available about the integrated relationship of SL, ER, ET, and employee WB. (shrink)

Traditionally, mainstream psychology mostly presented religion in a negative light. However, recent years have witnessed a growing realization that religion has a substantial role to play in improving physical and mental health. Given the importance of religion, the American Psychological Association has division 36 “Psychology of religion.” But the perspective of mainstream psychology does not acknowledge the spiritual nature of human beings and their connection to God. Islamic psychology is one of the religion-based perspectives which acknowledges it. This perspective has (...) also attracted the attention of Western psychologists. Three different trends have been identified in this area: the Islamic filter approach, the comparison approach, and the Islamic psychology approach. However, despite more than 40 years of work, there is a considerable lack of progress in the development of this paradigm. The present article discussed the emergence and challenges in the development of this new perspective. Moreover, we suggest that the research paradigms of Western social and behavioral sciences are useful for developing Islamic psychology. (shrink)

The incident of 1971 is a historical concern. Both wings of Pakistan were united at the time of the creation of Pakistan but some policies that were adopted after the creation of Pakistan were inadequate to resolve the growing differences between the both wings. Writers are divided regarding the causes of the Fall of Dhaka. Indian involvement has been highlighted frequently and it is also said that East Bengal was on the distance of 1000 km from West Pakistan. Apart from (...) these causes, this study will highlight a new perspective regarding the separation of East Bengal. From 1947 to 1971 the central governments of Pakistan took some measure regarding formulating policies and the policies were not sufficient to bring people of the both wings closer. Thus, the major policies and their consequences would be analysed in this paper. Further, this research would be a new one in a sense that there would be a general description of the policies from both wings. (shrink)

A personalized recommender system is broadly accepted as a helpful tool to handle the information overload issue while recommending a related piece of information. This work proposes a hybrid personalized recommender system based on affinity propagation, namely, APHPRS. Affinity propagation is a semisupervised machine learning algorithm used to cluster items based on similarities among them. In our approach, we first calculate the cluster quality and density and then combine their outputs to generate a new ranking score among clusters for the (...) personalized recommendation. In the first phase, user preferences are collected and normalized as items rating matrix. This generated matrix is then clustered offline using affinity propagation and kept in a database for future recommendations. In the second phase, online recommendations are generated by applying the offline model. Negative Euclidian similarity and the quality of clusters are used together to select the best clusters for recommendations. The proposed APHPRS system alleviates problems such as sparsity and cold-start problems. The use of affinity propagation and the hybrid recommendation technique used in the proposed approach helps in improving results against sparsity. Experiments reveal that the proposed APHPRS performs better than most of the existing recommender systems. (shrink)

In today’s postmodern world with the latest and top notch internet technologies in the market, if it has become easy and accessible for everyone to communicate with others sitting at the other corner of the world, it has also given rise to the cybercrimes including cyber terro rism which has not only provided grave threats to the whole world but also posed a question of whether with the manipulation of cyber space, cyber terrorists can damage or destroy the physical infrastructure (...) of its target. Owing to easy access to everyone and strong damage done as compared to traditional terrorism, today terrorists are relying on cyber terrorism as well. The Islamic State has emerged as one of the brutal and violent terrorist organization s which hired cyber experts and manipulated cyber space to the extent that today they are most active and professional cyber users’ terrorist organization of the world. The main focus of the paper is to highlight the basic definition of cyber terrorism, how often it is different from traditional terrorism, use of cyber terrorism, how cyber terrorism can be manipulated through various latest tools and techniques and how Islamic State is using cyber space to spread its message. (shrink)

_This study examines the proposition that exports cause growth in gross domestic product GDP in the economy of Pakistan from 1973 to 2022. The study intends to analyze the export promotion strategy that was adopted by Pakistan's economy in the 1990s. Cointegration test reveals there is a long-run relationship between these two variables. However, causality is proved in both short and long-run from GDP to exports. The Trade openness and export growth both are prolonged association but in case of Pakistan (...) persistent depreciation of PKR could not achieve desired level of export earning which implies that J-Curve theory does not exist in Pakistan. This implies that growth in the domestic production base is vital to expansion in exports. The government or policymakers should give importance to and incentivize various production sectors of an economy so that they can contribute to the expansion of export markets._. (shrink)

BackgroundValue-driven career attitude is considered a dimension of a protean career attitude. Individuals with this attitude seek out personally meaningful experiences and set their own psychological career success standards. This study investigates the association between value-driven career attitude and job performance. It looks at how organizational citizenship behavior affects the relationship between value-driven career attitudes and job performance.MethodsA self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from 400 random employees of SMEs in Pakistan during the early pandemic. We chose Cochran’s formula (...) to determine the appropriate sample size, and PLS-SEM was used to analyze the model. P-O fit and self-determination theory is the theoretical lenses used in this study. The underpinning theories to this study enable the researchers to establish a link between VDCA, OCB, and job performance.ResultsBy analyzing a sample of 400 employees from active enterprises, we discover that VDCA contributes to an improvement in job performance. Furthermore, OCB plays an intervening effect in the relationship between VDCA and job performance. Thus, the study provided evidence for the underpinning models of P-O fit and self-determination theory.ConclusionThis study adds to the body of knowledge by investigating the connections between VDCA, OCB, and job performance in SMEs. The existing literature sheds scant light on these linkages, leaving a gap that this study will address. The current study expands on other themes to provide an in-depth analysis of many under-explored PCA outcomes, which may open up new avenues for future researchers to broaden and strengthen PCA with other constructs. (shrink)

The Glyde mural in the University of Alberta’s Rutherford Library is a testament to the history of Alberta as it was understood by white society in the 1950s. A contemporary viewer described the painting as depicting “the civilizing influences in the early life of the Province.” The prominent historical heroes in the mural represent the main institutions that were involved in this process of ‘civilizing the savages'. An artefact of modern colonial racism, it has overshadowed the threshold of the library’s (...) South reading room since 1951. This article brings the ideas of several historical theorists to bear on the impact and implications of the historical memory invoked by the mural. (shrink)

The article focused on the study of religious moderation based on values of moderation in three Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) in Southeast Sulawesi, namely Pesantren al-Muhajirin Darussalam Konawe, Pesantren Ummu Sabri Kendari, and Pesantren Darul Mukhlisin Kendari. Therefore, a qualitative approach was used with a case study design -the techniques of collecting data used in interviews, participatory observations, field notes, and documentation. Data analysis in this article was done using interactive data analysis by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana. This study found (...) that the construction of religious moderation in the pesantren emerged from the basis of religious textual-scriptural combined with the performance of rationality (reason). This combination emerges to a dialogical pattern of harmony between the text and the context to color the behavior and social actions of the community. Precisely this attitude of religious moderation can prevent residents of Islamic boarding schools from behaving radically both in attitude and thought, so the outputs of pesantren can accept all forms of differences in religion and respect the beliefs believed by others in the community. This attitude of religious moderation in the pesantren also emerges in religious behavior that is tolerant and respectful of differences in society. (shrink)

Muhammad Arsyad Al-Banjari who lived from 1710 to 1812 in Borneo, Indonesia, applied a model of integrating uses of the Banjarese tradition into Islamic Jurisprudence based on a dialectical constitution of qiyās, the legal argumentation theory for parallel reasoning and analogy, he learned from the Shāfi‘ī-school of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh). Our paper focuses in the model of integration proposed and practiced by Al-Banjari, a rational debate grounded on a dynamic view on legal systems. We will illustrate the method with the (...) help of two different kinds of qiyās deployed by Al-Banjari in order to argue for the rejection of some traditional Banjarese offering-rituals for avoiding disease or calamities (manyanggar and mambuang pasilih), and for the acceptance of the use of consuming the traditional drink called lahang made of the juice of sugar-palm. As our dialogical reconstruction shows, the development of the debates, particularly the first one, is quite sophisticated, with a Banjarese opponent that does not surrender easily to the rejection of his use of those rituals. (shrink)

In early modern Europe, blue textile dye was principally obtained from two dye plants, woad and indigo. Of these two dye sources, woad was native in the temperate climes of Europe, while tropical indigo became widely available only after Europe established commercial oceanic trade routes with India and the Americas. Indigo soon became a highly valued import, undermining woad production by unsettling traditional patterns of wealth circulation. Well-established woad producers took powerful steps to protect their industry, but in spite of (...) their efforts, it ultimately succumbed in the face of indigo imports. In this paper, I examine the ways in which the long lasting conflict between the dyestuffs woad and indigo in early modern Europe evokes the tensions between imported and home-grown commodities. (shrink)

Automatic incident detection plays a vital role among all the safety-critical applications under the parasol of Intelligent Transportation Systems to provide timely information to passengers and other stakeholders in smart cities. Moreover, accurate classification of these incidents with respect to type and severity assists the Traffic Incident Management Systems and stakeholders in devising better plans for incident site management and avoiding secondary incidents. Most of the AID systems presented in the literature are incident type-specific, i.e., either they are designed for (...) the detection of accident or congestion. While traveling along the road, one may come across different types of traffic incidents, such as accidents, congestion, and reckless driving. This necessitates that the AID system detects and classifies not only all the popular traffic incident types, but severity as well that is associated with these incidents. Therefore, this study aims to propose an efficient incident detection and classification framework for smart cities, by incorporating the efficacy of model stacking, to classify the incidents with respect to their types and severity levels. The experimental results showed that the proposed E-IDC framework achieved performance gains of 5%–56% in terms of incident severity classification and 1%–14% in terms of incident type classification when applied with different classifiers. We have also applied the Wilcoxon test to benchmark the performance of our proposed framework that reflects the significance of our approach over existing individual incident predictors in terms of severity and type classification. Moreover, it has been observed that the proposed E-IDC framework outperforms the existing ensemble technique, such as XGBoost used for the classification of incidents. (shrink)

We propose a new hybrid data mining method for predicting protein-protein interactions combining Likelihood-Ratio with rule induction algorithms. In essence, the new method consists of using a rule induction algorithm to discover rules representing partitions of the data, and then the discovered rules are interpreted as “bins” which are used to compute likelihood ratios. This new method is applied to the prediction of protein-protein interactions in the Saccharomyces Cerevisiae genome, using predictive genomic features in an integrated scheme. The results show (...) that the new hybrid method outperforms a pure likelihood ratio based approach. (shrink)

Research studies have identified various different mechanisms in the effects of nature engagement on well-being and mental health. However, rarely are multiple pathways examined in the same study and little use has been made of first-hand, experiential accounts through interviews. Therefore, a semi-structured interview was conducted with seven female students who identified the role of nature engagement in their well-being and mental health. After applying thematic analysis, 11 themes were extracted from the data set, which were: “enjoying the different sensory (...) input,” “calm nature facilitates a calm mood,” “enhancing decision making and forming action plans,” “enhancing efficiency and productivity,” “alleviating pressure from society's expectations regarding education,” “formation of community relations,” “nature puts things into perspective,” “liking the contrast from the urban environment,” “feel freedom,” “coping mechanism,” and “anxious if prevented or restricted.” The results indicate complementary mechanisms for how nature-related activities benefit mental health and well-being that may occupy different levels of experience within a hierarchical framework informed by perceptual control theory. (shrink)

This essay analyzes a silent short film portraying an urban canoeist. The film suggests that it is possible to make conscious choices about one’s means of conveyance through the city. Using a critical theoretical framework to unpack the implications of the film, this paper argues for the need to imagine unconventional modes of transportation and examine the power structures of automotive hegemony.