Saudi Arabia has had remarkable progress in reducing maternal and neonatal mortality over the past decades. While various challenges persist, such as unequal access to healthcare, a history of pre-existing maternal conditions, and neonatal complications, this review will focus on critical determinants of maternal and neonatal outcomes in Saudi Arabia, including government-driven efforts through Vision 2030 towards enhancing health care infrastructure and policies. The focus has been on antenatal care, neonatal intensive care units, and maternal mortality audit issues, enhancing outcomes. (...) Recommendations are the adoption of standardized risk assessment tools and health disparities abatement between the Saudi population and non-Saudi populations. Future strategies encompass holistic approaches: education, infrastructure improvements, and policy frameworks, aiming to achieve international standards. (shrink)

This paper provides a critical review of economic outcome metrics used in healthcare value assessment, emphasizing the evolving landscape of resource allocation, patient-centered approaches, and standardization efforts. With healthcare costs rising globally, the efficient allocation of limited resources is essential. Metrics like Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratios (ICERs), and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) are central to guiding funding decisions, influencing insurance coverage, and shaping treatment prioritization. Emerging trends, such as the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) (...) and big data, are enhancing the precision of these assessments, while patient-centered metrics underscore the importance of patient satisfaction and quality of life. Additionally, there is a growing push for the standardization of these metrics to create consistent frameworks across diverse health systems. This paper explores case studies, practical applications, and future directions to provide insights into how healthcare systems can adopt more effective, globally aligned economic assessments. (shrink)

Depuis l’Antiquité, l’Ame du monde constitue une figure majestueuse des courants philosophiques et spirituels. Après Platon qui, dans le Timée, décrit le monde comme possèdant une âme qui a pour principale fonction de justifier les mouvements réguliers des corps célestes, puis les stoïciens, qui identifieront l’Ame du monde à la divinité elle-même, ce fut au tour des néoplatoniciens, des alchimistes de la Renaissance, des philosophes romantiques et des métaphysiciens de l’Orient d’attribuer à l’Ame une fonction essentielle dans l’ordonnancement du cosmos (...) et des êtres. Retrouver aujourd’hui le sens et les chemins de l’Ame du monde apparaît, aux yeux de toute une lignée de poètes, de visionnaires, d’artistes, de scientifiques, de philosophes, comme une exigence spirituelle, une nécessité morale, un impératif de survie. (shrink)

This study employs a descriptive-analytical method to emphasize the genuineness and importance of peaceful coexistence values among religions and cultures in Islamic civilization. It specifically focuses on the interaction with others, living together, acknowledging, respecting, and collaborating with them in different aspects of shared humanity. This research examines the language of extremism by studying and analyzing it, seeing it as the primary obstacle to the principles of civic coexistence and tolerance. The research findings indicate that the key factor that sets (...) apart the principles of peaceful coexistence among individuals, irrespective of their religious and racial backgrounds, and that necessitates the acceptance of others in Islamic ideology, is the perception of such acceptance as legitimate obligations. An individual is recognized as a Muslim only when they openly acknowledge their adherence to the Islamic faith. Through the analysis of holy writings and the Prophet's biography, the researcher concludes that any radical and divisive rhetoric that promotes the rejection of peaceful coexistence cannot be regarded as Islamic speech, and does not accurately reflect Islam and Muslims. Instead, it is an extreme rhetoric that only represents its advocates, a rhetoric that Islam disavows, just as it disavows other forms of hate speech. The research urges the official religious authorities in Arab and Islamic countries to take on the legitimate, ethical, and scientific duty of freeing religious matters from ideological manipulation and restoring the correct approach to interpreting religious texts, while avoiding extremist ideological exploitation. This proposal advocates for the promotion of harmony, resolution of misunderstandings, fostering love and unity, prevention of excommunication, defamation, and conflict. It suggests the establishment of educational programs focused on promoting peace and coexistence values, as well as encouraging research in the field of tolerance education and acceptance of others. The objective is to cultivate an intellectual atmosphere in our universities that prioritizes wisdom, reason, logic, and evidence over emotional slogans. This will result in universities producing graduates who possess values of tolerance and coexistence, equipped to challenge and dismantle hateful and extremist ideologies by exposing their flaws and removing the religious facade from their harmful ideas. (shrink)

Hospital administrators play an essential role in the implementation of Antibiotic Stewardship Programs, which is instrumental in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. The foundation and sustenance of such programs has been made possible through leadership; this is through interdisciplinary collaboration that is done with policy formulation and stewardship inclusion into the institutional systems. Indeed, it is immense strength where ID physicians and clinical pharmacists with special training proactively involve themselves in the program. Beyond that, the accreditation standards that incorporate ASPs (...) really enhance compliance and institutional commitment. Obstacles to movement include an absence of resources, unwilling prescriber, and other competing health conditions for priority. To achieve such success, the hospital administrators must ensure adequate staffing, proper utilization of advanced technologies, and instillation of accountability through focused education and participation. Besides the reduction of resistance, ASPs contribute to such improvements in patient outcomes, efficient consumption of resources, and significant reductions in costs. As this narrative review indicates, leadership at the hospital level plays an important role in augmenting antibiotic stewardship. Addressing major barriers, along with strategic implementation, means that administrators may play an important role in further maximizing effectiveness while truly adding to the world-wide effort against antimicrobial resistance. (shrink)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) presents a significant problem that necessitates a greater understanding of its underlying molecular complexity in order to improve diagnostics and therapies. Recent studies have shed light on the critical role that mitochondrial dysfunction plays in the development and course of HCC. Once thought to be primarily involved in the synthesis of cellular energy, mitochondria are now known to be key participants in the regulation of a variety of cellular functions that go beyond bioenergetics. The purpose of this (...) review is to elucidate the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of mitochondrial dysfunction in HCC by synthesising ideas from conventional and contemporary scientific literature. Within diagnostics, the discovery of mitochondrial biomarkers such as mutations in mitochondrial DNA and abnormalities in respiratory chain complex activities provides a state-of-the-art viewpoint for the timely identification and accurate description of HCC. In addition, non-invasive imaging methods that focus on mitochondrial function offer prospective means of improving clinical diagnostic accuracy. Moving on to treatment, a growing area of study investigates how mitochondria-targeted therapies might be used to treat HCC. Novel substances and repurposed medications with the potential to induce selective apoptosis in cancer cells, reduce oxidative stress, and restore mitochondrial homeostasis are highly promising. In the fight against hepatocellular carcinoma, an understanding of the complex interactions between mitochondrial dysfunction and HCC opens new diagnostic opportunities and paves the way for individualised treatment plans. (shrink)

Contemporary Moroccan Thought offers a new and broad coverage of the intellectual dynamics and scholarly output of what is presented here as the Rabat School since the 1950s. Geographically situated at the western edge of the classical Arab-Islamic world, Moroccan scholarship has made a belated yet vigorous comeback on the modern Arab intellectual scene, attracting wider reception beyond the Arabic-speaking world, through influential contributions in philosophical, theological, social and cultural studies. This volume sets a new standard in the study of (...) Moroccan, North African, and Middle Eastern societies, and will undoubtedly remain an important scholarly reference for generations to come. (shrink)

This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to one of the most significant Arab thinkers of the late 20th century and the early 21st century: the Moroccan philosopher and social theorist Mohammed Abed al-Jabri. With his intellectual and political engagement, al-Jabri has influenced the development of a modern reading of the Islamic tradition in the broad Arab-Islamic world and has been, in recent years, subject to an increasing interest among Muslims and non-Muslim scholars, social activists and lay men. The (...) contributors to this volume read al-Jabri with reference to prominent past Arab-Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Khaldun, as well as contemporary Arab philosophers, like Hassan Hanafi, Abdellah Laroui, George Tarabishi, Taha Abderrahmane; they engage with various aspects of his intellectual project, and trace his influence in non-Arab-Islamic lands, like Indonesia, as well. His analysis of Arab thought since the 1970s as a harbinger analysis of the ongoing “Arab Spring uprising” remains relevant for today's political challenges in the region. (shrink)

Papers presented by three scholars from Asia, Africa and Europe, at a seminar held at the Hague Academy of International Law, Netherlands.

This volume examines whether the Arab Uprisings introduce a replica of the European Enlightenment or rather stimulate an Arab/Islamic Awakening with its own cultural specificity and political philosophy. By placing Immanuel Kant in Tahrir Square, Cairo, this book adopts a comparative analysis of two enlightenment projects: one Arab, still under construction, with possible progression toward modernity or regression toward neo-authoritarianism, and one European, shaped by the past two centuries.

The process of making ethical judgments is much more complex than studying only personal moral philosophy variables (idealism and relativism). The renewed interest in epistemic values (virtue and vice epistemology) in contemporary philosophy has shown significant relevance to understanding ethical behavior and such values may be better predictors than studying only idealism and relativism. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine employees’ personal moral philosophies, optimism, epistemic values, and various organizational unethical practices as compared to their managers. We (...) used Rawwas’ items of epistemology in this study. The sample consisted of 262 managers and employees. The results revealed that managers were more sensitive to organizational unethical practices, scored less on epistemic vices, less on absolutism, and more on exceptionalism than employees were. However, there was no difference between managers and employees related to moderate and minor unethical organizational practices, situationism, subjectivism, optimism, and epistemic virtues. We provided discussion of the results and implications. (shrink)

: The thesis put forth in this study is that, while coitus interruptus was known to the early Muslims, it was not practiced for reasons that were primarily theological. For ʿazl is in obvious conflict with the rule that prevailed until the third/ninth century, that of enjoining the believer to marry and procreate without trying to curb one’s fertility. A careful examination of the oldest traditions on the subject leads us to conclude that only about the end of the first/seventh (...) century some religious authorities spoke in favor of resorting to this contraceptive method, in a limited context – the relationship between a master and his slave girl. And it is probably during the same period that the controversy over coitus interruptus arose. This is why it is anachronistic to see traditions in favor of coitus interruptus as testimony on how long this type of birth control has been practiced in the Islamic world. In addition to relying on textual criticism, the study uses prosopographical information to show that the first Muslims often had many children with concubines. Some Muslim authorities encouraged believers to resort to coitus interruptus, not in order engage in «birth control» but because of the negative reputation of slave girls. To avoid having children with them was to avoid having «illegitimate» children – who were considered evil – and especially to avoid increasing their number so as not to hasten the end of the world. Later, when the rule that believers must marry and produce offspring ceased to be a dogma, allowing for celibacy to be an option, albeit for a tiny minority, coitus interruptus came to be permitted as a means of limiting births, but only if the purpose was religious in nature. Birth control for strictly economic reasons continued to be strictly forbidden. (shrink)

Normativity is assessed as we evaluate and compare the environmental reporting practices of a sample of French and Canadian companies through the lens of institutional legitimacy. More specifically, we examine how French and Canadian firms changed their reporting practices in reaction to the promulgation of laws and regulations in their respective countries, i.e., the NER and Grenelle II Acts in France, and National Instrument 51-102 and CSA Staff Notice NR 51-333, issued by the Canadian Securities Administrators. The firms’ voluntary disclosures (...) according to GRI guidelines are also investigated. Substantive legitimacy theory is used to explore the level of substantive disclosures provided by Canadian and French firms. The findings reveal that the French parliamentary regime is more successful than the Canadian stock exchange regulation in triggering environmental reporting, and that the GRI combined with local regimes prompts environmental disclosures. Notwithstanding the improvements in environmental reporting under all three regimes, a very low level of substantive disclosure is noted in both countries. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to better understand how sustainability rating agencies, through discourse, promote an “ideology of numbers” that ultimately aims to establish a regime of normalization governing social and environmental performance. Drawing on Thompson’s (Ideology and modern culture: Critical social theory in the era of mass communication, 1990 ) modes of operation of ideology, we examine the extent to which, and how, the ideology of numbers is reflected on websites and public documents published by a range (...) of sustainability rating agencies. Our analysis indicates that the ideology of numbers promotes a relatively narrow vision of corporate social and environmental responsibility. That is, it establishes some areas of visibility while leaving in the shadow certain aspects of the ways in which companies fulfill, or fail to meet, their social and environmental responsibilities. The ideology of numbers also exerts power by identifying those companies that are deemed to be worthy of inclusion, or not, in a supposedly socially responsible corporate elite. (shrink)

We show that the U.S. anti-discriminatory laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity identities) spur innovation, which ultimately leads to higher firm performance. We use the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index of 398 U.S. firms between 2011 and 2014, and find a significantly positive relationship between CEI and firm innovation. We also find that an interacting effect of CEI and firm innovation leads to higher firm performance. We use our understanding of Rawls’ Theory (...) of Justice and stakeholder theory to show that firms with workplace diversity policies are likely to be more innovative and perform better than those without such policies. Our results are robust to endogeneity, reverse causality and simultaneity issues. Our results will trigger debate in similar markets around the globe on the economic benefits of LGBT workplace diversity policies for firms. (shrink)

In this paper, we study the relationship between Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Using an extensive dataset from 23 countries consisting of 6800 firm-year observations, we provide strong evidence that EPU increases firms’ CO 2 emissions. Our main inference is robust when using alternative measures of CO 2 emissions and EPU, alternative econometric specifications and samples, and several approaches to control for possible endogeneity. In a set of additional analyses, we first show that a (...) board’s characteristics (i.e., board gender diversity and board independence) significantly moderate the studied relationship. Second, cross-country characteristics (i.e., government effectiveness, control of corruption, and democracy) seem important in the relationship between EPU and CO 2 emissions. Our findings significantly contribute to the debate on firms’ ethical responsibility in managing climate change and CO 2 emissions. (shrink)

In today’s ‘networked’ public sphere, arguers are faced with countless controversies roaming out there. Knowing what is at stake at any point in time, and keeping under control the contribution one’s arguments make to the different interrelated issues requires careful craft Keeping in touch with Pragma-Dialectics. In honor of Frans H. van Eemeren. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2011). In this paper, I explore the difficulty of determining what is at stake at any moment of the argumentative situation and explore the challenge (...) that that creates for examining the strategic shape of arguments. I argue that a meaningful examination of networked argumentative encounters requires that the boundaries of an encounter remain ‘fluid. In dealing with the fluid boundaries, I suggest to identify “argumentative associates” and “standing standpoints”. (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)

In this paper, we designed and developed an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Photoshop. We designed the lessons, examples, and questions in a way to teach and evaluate student understanding of the material. Through the feedback provided by this tool, you can assess the student's understanding of the material, where there is a minimum overshoot questions stages, and if the student does not pass the level of questions he is asked to return the lesson and read it again. Eventually this (...) administration is a special teacher for the students and can continue with him until he fully understands the lesson without weariness or boredom, regardless of the level of student. (shrink)

Recently, due to the rapid progress of computer technology, researchers develop an effective computer program to enhance the achievement of the student in learning process, which is Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). Science is important because it influences most aspects of everyday life, including food, energy, medicine, leisure activities and more. So learning science subject at school is very useful, but the students face some problem in learning it. So we designed an ITS system to help them understand this subject easily (...) and smoothly by analyzing it and explaining it in a systematic way. In this paper, we describe the design of an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching science for grade seven to help students know the 7 characteristics for living things smoothly. The system provides all topics of living things and generates some questions for each topic and the students should answer these questions correctly to move to the next level. In the result of an evaluation of the ITS, students like the system and they said that it is very useful for them and for their studies. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a domain-specific, open access, reference ontology (ROMAIN) for the maintenance management domain. We use a hybrid approach, based on a top-down alignment to an open sourc...

Mohammed Arkoun is one of the Muslim world's foremost thinkers. His efforts to liberate Islamic history from dogmatic constructs have led him to a radical review of traditional history. Drawing on a combination of pertinent disciplines ? history, sociology, psychology and anthropology ? his approach subjects every system of belief and non-belief, every tradition of exegesis, theology and jurisprudence to a critique aimed at liberating reason from the grip of dogmatic postulates. By treating Islam as a religion as well (...) as a time-honoured tradition of thought, Arkoun's work aims at overcoming the limitations of descriptive, narrative and chronological modes in history by recommending that the entire development of Islamic thought ? from Quranic to present-day fundamentalist discourses ? be subjected to a critical analysis guided by these categories. The expected outcome of such a strategy is an emancipated political reason working hand in hand with a truly creative imagination for a radical re-construction of mind and society in the contemporary Muslim world. (shrink)

Los procesos migratorios suponen repensar las relaciones, tránsitos y vivencias de las comunidades receptoras. En este sentido, el análisis de los escenarios de convivencia urbana implica redescubrir las historias viejas y nuevas de la inmigración, de la construcción del barrio, de la conformación de sus actores colectivos y de los espacios urbanos comunes. En el análisis de los escenarios de convivencia más conflictivos, encontramos giros discursivos que buscan responsabilizar a la inmigración reciente de problemáticas estructurales que se viven como irremediables. (...) Otros discursos, tendientes a la indiferencia respecto a la convivencia, muestran un potencial conflicto que vuelve inestables estas posturas. El escenario de convivencia social parece construirse desde acciones que buscan la implicación e interrelación entre los actores, desde el conocimiento y reconocimiento de las diferencias y con acento en los derechos comunes. (shrink)

Mit diesem Band wendet sich der Philosoph Mohamed Turki gegen die Behauptung, dass geisteswissenschaftliche Debatten in der arabisch-islamischen Welt ausschliesslich vom Diskurs des Glaubens beherrscht werden. In fundierter und zugleich überblickender Manier wird zunächst der historische Wandel von Bestimmungen des Rationalitätsbegriffs nachgezeichnet und verständlich gemacht, um anschliessend einzelne Diskurse der Gegenwart darzustellen. Deutlich wird dabei das Ineinandergreifen von Konzepten wie Glaube, Vernunft, Offenbarung und Interkulturalität, aber auch Konfliktlinien innerhalb der Diskussion. Die beziehungsreichen Aufsätze des Bandes vereinen Themen wie Pluralität, Toleranz, (...) Frieden und Menschenrechte aus dem Blickwinkel des arabisch-islamischen Denkens und verdeutlichen, dass eine Verbindung zum klassischen Kanon der abendländischen Geistestradition immer schon bestand und keinesfalls dazu im Widerspruch steht"-- Back cover. (shrink)

This thesis focuses on the use of intelligent tutoring system for education and training of students specialized in electricity in the field of technical and vocational education. The use of modern systems in training and education will have a great positive impact in improving the level of students receiving training and education; this will improve the level of the local economy by producing students of professionals who are able to engage in society efficiently, especially for those who have specialized in (...) electricity. It is known that students in electrical specialties face many problems because of time and cost. Learning and training is not as easy as you imagine, so intelligence is how to overcome these limitations effectively. Motivating the Intelligent Tutorial System (ITS) for this type of training. This system consists of a student model, which in turn will contain lessons, exercises and examples that will be used by the student in addition to the user interface model which makes the teacher to be able to manage lessons, examples, and questions and make changes to the system. Expert System (ES) model representing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) here has been used to determine the level of the student and gives him the results, directions and levels. The program was implemented and was used by trainees to show the extent of its impact. The students expressed their surprise and admiration in this way of education as the system used focuses on individual education which can be used at any time and without restrictions. After this experience, the dedicated (ITS) system needs to be developed in several ways such as to be used on mobile systems and web systems in addition to linking some of the specialized programs in the field of electricity. (shrink)

We continue the analysis of foundations of positive model theory as introduced by Ben Yaacov and Poizat. The objects of this analysis are $h$-inductive theories and their models, especially the “positively” existentially closed ones. We analyze topological properties of spaces of types, introduce forms of quantifier elimination, and characterize minimal completions of arbitrary $h$-inductive theories. The main technical tools consist of various forms of amalgamations in special classes of structures.

Using a sample of 21,030 US firm-year observations that represents more than 3000 individual firms over the 1998–2012 period, we investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and investment efficiency. We provide strong and robust evidence that high CSR involvement decreases investment inefficiency and consequently increases investment efficiency. This result is consistent with our expectations that high CSR firms enjoy low information asymmetry and high stakeholder solidarity (stakeholder theory). Moreover, our findings suggest that CSR components that are directly related (...) to firms’ primary stakeholders (e.g. employee relations, product characteristics, environment, and diversity) are more relevant in reducing investment inefficiency compared with those related to secondary stakeholders (e.g. human rights and community involvement). Finally, additional results show that the effect of CSR on investment efficiency is more pronounced during the subprime crisis. Taken together, our results highlight the important role that CSR plays in shaping firms’ investment behaviour and efficiency. (shrink)

Academic institutions aim at achieving the highest standards of education and learning. Consequently, they prohibit academic corruption such as cheating or plagiarism. This article examines how international accreditation and quality assurance standards embody academic integrity as a main factor in deciding whether an academic institution should be accredited, and what ranking should an academic institution acquire in a competitive contest for educational excellence. Academic integrity is broadly defined to include, in addition to cheating and plagiarism, compliance with standards of human (...) rights, labor rights, corporate social responsibility, ant-corruption measures, environmental protection, social media usage, protection of underage students, anti-radicalization and extremism, avoidance of conflict of interest, faculty professionalism, students codes of conduct and human experimentation. Academic institutions should adopt policies that are designed to address these diverse standards and accommodate diversity and enhance access to education for all without discrimination. Academic institutions should also strictly require the highest standards in teaching and research. This article will discuss the different policies, laws, rules and regulations adopted by Qatar University as a model for incorporating academic integrity, which may be of interest to the international higher education community. This article will ask two main questions; are accrediting institutions asking the right questions to find out whether an academic institution strictly adheres to a policy of academic integrity, and whether policies adopted by academic institutions, Qatar University as a model, are adequate to address various violations of academic integrity. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly creeping into the work sphere, thereby gradually questioning and/or disturbing the long-established moral concepts and norms communities have been using to define what makes work good. Each community, and Muslims make no exception in this regard, has to revisit their moral world to provide well-thought frameworks that can engage with the challenging ethical questions raised by the new phenomenon of AI-mediated work. For a systematic analysis of the broad topic of AI-mediated work ethics from (...) an Islamic perspective, this article focuses on presenting an accessible overview of the “moral world” of work in the Islamic tradition. Three main components of this moral world were selected due to their relevance to the AI context, namely (1) Work is inherently good for humans, (2) Practising a religiously permitted profession and (c) Maintaining good relations with involved stakeholders. Each of these three components is addressed in a distinct section, followed by a sub-section highlighting the relevance of the respective component to the particular context of AI-mediated work. The article argues that there are no unsurmountable barriers in the Islamic tradition against the adoption of AI technologies in work sphere. However, important precautions should be considered to ensure that embracing AI will not be at the cost of work-related moral values. The article also highlights how important lessons can be learnt from the positive historical experience of automata that thrived in the Islamic civilization. (shrink)

This paper reports the responses of 251 mental health care practitioners to a mail survey examining their views concerning ethical conflicts and practices within their work environments. Besides identifying the sources and types of conflicts they experience, respondents were asked how ethical standards have changed over the last 10 years as well as the factors influencing these changes. Conclusions and implications are outlined and future research needs are described.

. In the wake of the February 1997 announcement that Dolly the sheep had been cloned, Muslim religious scholars together with Muslim scientists held two conferences to discuss cloning from an Islamic perspective. They were organized by two influential Islamic international religioscientific institutions: the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Both institutions comprise a large number of prominent religious scholars and well‐known scientists who participated in the discussions at the conferences. This article gives a comprehensive (...) analysis of these conferences, the relation between science and religion as reflected in the discussions there, and the further influence of these discussions on Muslims living in the West. Modern discussions on Islamic bioethics show that formulating an Islamic perspective on these issues is not the exclusive prerogative of religious scholars. Formulating such perspectives has become a collective process in which scientists play an essential role. Such a collective approach strengthens the religious authority of Muslim scholars and makes it more influential rather than undermining it. (shrink)

This paper seeks to discover whether companies that adopt a stakeholder approach, and thereby demonstrate a wider remit of corporate responsibility, provide inferior returns to those that embrace the shareholder value approach. To classify approaches, mission statements were analysed, the final sample comprising 32 shareholder oriented companies and 48 stakeholder oriented companies. To assess performance both accounting–based and market–based measures were used. A number of moderating variables were taken into account: systematic (beta) risk, gearing (long–term debt to total long–term finance), (...) tax ratios, and firm size. ANOVA and Kruskall–Wallis tests revealed that mission orientation did not affect performance, whether in terms of stock returns or excess returns. Neither were accounting returns on equity different overall, although shareholder oriented companies experienced wider variations in this measure. A number of multiple regressions were also performed. However, the mission dummy was not found to be a significant variable. (shrink)

The evolution of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is the result of the amount of research in the field of education and artificial intelligence in recent years. English is the third most common languages in the world and also is the internationally dominant in the telecommunications, science and trade, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomatic language as most of the areas of work now taught in English. Therefore, the demand for learning English has increased. In this paper, we describe the design of (...) an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching English language grammar to help students learn English grammar easily and smoothly. The system provides all topics of English grammar and generates a series of questions automatically for each topic for the students to solve. The system adapts with all the individual differences of students and begins gradually with students from easier to harder level. The intelligent tutoring system was given to a group of students of all age groups to try it and to see the impact of the system on students. The results showed a good satisfaction of the students toward the system. (shrink)

The study aims to identify the reality of management of electronic documents and electronic archiving retirement in the Palestinian Pension Agency -analytical study, as well as to recognize the reality of the current document management system in the Palestinian Pension Agency. The study found the following results: that the reality of the current system for the management of documents in the agency is weak and suffers from many jams. Employee in the agency understand the importance and benefits of the management (...) of electronic documents system, where the application of electronic document management system provide important features and benefits most of which reduce the loss of documents between departments, illustrates the flow path, the speed, accuracy, transparency, and reduce the proportion of damage and destruction of files. Furthermore, the electronic documents system cost will be less than the cost of the current system and it will reduce the tasks assigned for the staff. The existence of a clear adoption of the agency for the policies and procedures established for the application of electronic documents management system. There are weak plans for training and developing of staff in the agency to raise their efficiency. The study found a set of recommendations, including: increased interest and awareness of the need to implement policies, mechanisms, and procedures to ensure the success of electronic document management system through benefiting from the experiences of other organizations and the private sector. The agency need to increase and develop its services for retirees in order to encourage the private sector, universities, and institutions to join the agency, and open the way for all segments of society in Gaza and West Bank and enhance its competitiveness between international social security institutions. The need to focus its attention on developing and publishing appropriate clear plans and specific goals about management of electronic documents and the agency should be committed to apply them. The need to focus on the establishment of a public management of archiving in the structure dealing with all technical operations and having competent and qualified employees in the field of electronic document management. The need to focus on the Palestinian National Archives and the follow-up with the international standards by the International Council Archives (ICA). (shrink)

Lifeworlds of Islam shows that Islam has typically operated not in the form of standard dogmas, but more often as a compass for practical individual orientations or lifeworlds. Mohammed Bamyeh develops a sociology of Islam that maps out how Muslims have employed the faith to foster global networks, public philosophies, and engaged civic lives both historically and in the present.