Khalafzai, Rida Usman Obesity is the bane of modern times. Its ever-rising incidence and the frequent lack of success of conventional weight loss methods, has lead to the evolution of surgical weight loss techniques. Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) is one such procedure aimed at assisting in the loss of weight in obese individuals for whom traditional methods have failed.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman; Hameed, Imran Obstetric fistula is the most devastating complication of parturition. The impact of this ailment extends beyond physical morbidity, with immense social repercussions for the women who suffer from it.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman In this era, health has been redefined. The emphasis has shifted from the individual-focussed bio-medical model to a preventative model of collective health. This model of public health often challenges the concept of individual autonomy, the basis of human rights, in the name of the greater good. This article explores the relationship between public health and human rights, and the need for a public health ethic based on the principles of human rights.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman Female genital mutilation (FGM) is thought to be a custom practiced for the subjugation of women. The significance of FGM for practicing communities, however, is much more profound. The best hope of eradicating this practice lies in the recognition and comprehension of its cultural and social meanings.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman The legalization of egg donation for medical research has resulted in the use of assisted reproductive techniques for the creation of embryos for research. This carries significant risks for the women undergoing these procedures and has brought humankind to a major ethical and moral crossroads.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman The prevalence of eating disorders is increasing. This article provides an overview of these disorders and explores the biological and social conditions that influence their development.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman There is currently much debate about the medical and ethical issues related to male circumcision. This article explores this controversial subject in the light of current research.

Gottfried Keller’s reservations about the church and religion, which remarkably did not stand in the way of his installation as a national writer or at least were partly overlooked in the course of a self-congratulatory reception, can be studied in the prime example of the famous novella interlude of Meretlein, as it is found in both versions of Green Henry. The investigation of the interlude here is based on the various media and sources which shaped the novel character. The conglomerate (...) in which they come together in this character is unraveled by recourse to the earlier and earliest literature on Keller. (shrink)

La thèse de cet ouvrage est que 1'art est une expression de la subjectivité, non seulement de la subjectivité relative, déjà psychologisée et mêlée au monde, mais tout autant et primordialement, de la subjectivité humaine absolue ...

Le concept de pandémonisme apparaît dans les Recherches sur la liberté humaine de Schelling en rapport avec l’émanatisme. Que l’être soit entièrement mauvais est une thèse que le philosophe ne saurait admettre. Mais il réserve une place essentielle à la puissance qui voudrait convertir au mal la totalité, Dieu compris. Cette étude examine la notion de Dieu inversé à l’horizon du pandémonisme afin d’en tirer toutes les conséquences.

The poetic image results from the effort undertaken by affectivity to express itself in a language that is not originally its very own, but that holds the advantage of being communicable not only at the level of representation, but at the level of feeling as well. The image is not considered, therefore, to be a synthesis of true and false. In the process of creation, the affect is the material principle of the image as an ideal unity of syntheses. It (...) is implied here that poetic writing is not about a content of internal aiming, previously possessed by consciousness, that is made to correspond with an element of the world, even­tually represented by means of sensible intuition. In order to illustrate this, the author interprets a poem by Nadia Tueni, showing that it is essentially about its own production. (shrink)

Sudies on Buddhist philosophy and Vedanta philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya.

Following the Gaza events of 2023/24, this study examines how Palestinians understand mass death and mass destruction, exploring how can such a humanitarian catastrophe be framed within a coherent narrative. The focus is on the concept of sacrifice, analysed through a theoretical framework that distinguishes between meaningful sacrifices and absurd, meaningless deaths that categorises the victims as homo-sacer. Hence, this study aims to investigate the language and literature of the Palestinian people that regards to the 2023/24 Gaza events, and the (...) way it re-conceptualises the mass death and destruction and its victims, between the concepts of sacrifice and homo-sacer. A sample of 120 literary and creative texts from the cultural magazine ‘Fusha for Palestinian Culture,’,Footnote1 was examined using the methodology of thematic analysis. Four primary themes emerged from the texts: the active documentation, the speed and intensity of death and destruction, the form of death, namely handling of bodies and burial rituals, and lastly the implementation of myths from various traditions, including the duality of mythologising and demythologising Gaza and its inhabitants. I conclude that these four themes were elemental in the rhetoric process of sanctification of the mass and random death and destruction. (shrink)

A critical edition of "Tahdhīb Al-Akhlāq", a treatise ascribed to the Jacobite theologian, logician, and translator in Abbasid period, Yahya ibn Adi.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman A summary of Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, the book edited by Melinda Tankard Reist on the issue of early sexualisation of girls.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman This article explores race as a social construct, discrimination based on race, and its impact on health.

Khalafzai, Rida Usman Harms of alcohol consumption are not limited to the consumer. For women, it poses a significant threat to their unborn child. This article discusses one type of alcohol-related harm to the fetus: the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

To determine the effectiveness of current ethical teaching and to suggest ways to reform the current ethical curriculum in light of students’ perspectives and experiences. Students of Dow Medical College were selected for this cross-sectional study conducted between the year 2020 till 2023. The sample size was 387, calculated by OpenEpi. A questionnaire consisting of 17 close-ended questions was used to collect data from participants selected via stratified random sampling. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part included the (...) demographics. While the second contained 15 questions designed to assess the participants’ current teaching of ethics and effective ways to further improve it. The data obtained were analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics 26. Out of the 376 students who gave consent, the majority of the respondents (64.6%) encountered situations where they felt that their current teaching of ethics was insufficient and (54%) believed that the current teaching of ethics could be improved and made further effective. Practical sessions, PBLs (problem-based learning), case analysis, and ward visits were some of the ways the participants believed could help improve the teaching of medical ethics. Most students (92.8%) agreed that external factors like burnout and excessive workload have an impact on medical professionals’ ethical practices. In light of our study, a refined curriculum with a focus on ethical teaching must be established, with input from students to ensure that the medical students have the necessary expertise to manage an ethical dilemma. (shrink)

Fake news detection involves predicting the likelihood that a particular news article is intentionally deceptive. Arabic FND started to receive more attention in the last decade, and many detection approaches demonstrated some ability to detect fake news on multiple datasets. However, most existing approaches do not consider recent advances in natural language processing, i.e., the use of neural networks and transformers. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative study of neural network and transformer-based language models used for Arabic FND. We examine (...) the use of neural networks and transformer-based language models for Arabic FND and show their performance compared to each other. We also conduct an extensive analysis of the possible reasons for the difference in performance results obtained by different approaches. The results demonstrate that transformer-based models outperform the neural network-based solutions, which led to an increase in the F1 score from 0.83 to 0.95, and it boosted the accuracy by 16% compared to the best in neural network-based solutions. Finally, we highlight the main gaps in Arabic FND research and suggest future research directions. (shrink)

This article focuses on the relevance of religious traditions of self-restraint, particularly Sabbath and Nyepi, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. From an economic perspective, the pandemic interrupts a lifestyle marked by an unceasing process of production and consumption that affects almost all aspects of life. Such a lifestyle, known as ‘productivism’, has been confronted with ‘anti-productivism’ promoted by groups of Marxism-inspired intellectuals and activists. Employing the method of public theology, this study reveals that religious traditions of self-restraint prepare (...) humanity to anticipate interruptions of regularity, such as a pandemic, in a way that is critical of productivism yet distinct from anti-productivism. From a spiritual perspective, the pandemic and religious traditions of self-restraint should be perceived as synergistic appeals to a balanced lifestyle that is socially, economically, and ecologically harmonious. (shrink)

Some clerics (ulama) in the Islamic world are of the view that practical politics is closely related to Islam, which regulates how an order of state is run. This view historically departs from Islamic constitutional jurisprudence texts that justify political Islam. Likewise, some Islamic boarding schools’ (pesantren) clerics, better known as kyai in Indonesia, are of the view that practical politics is not only a world affair but also an activity based on the application of Islamic legal principles in achieving (...) public welfare. This study aims to determine the academic basis of pesantren ulama in making decisions to be active in practical politics in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach through interviews, the results of this study indicate that the political decisions of pesantren ulama are strictly based on the perspective of political Islam and fiqh principles that justify the involvement of ulama in politics. Furthermore, the conclusion leads to three perspectives in political motivations for pesantren’s ulama: to gain power, to preach Islamic values, and to demonstrate the existence of ulama in modern state administration.Contribution: The contribution of the study is to describe the permissibility of politics as an alternative to preaching and to show the existence and ability of ulama in state administration. (shrink)

After the problems of epistemology, the most fundamental problem of Islamic philosophy is that of causality. Causality has been studied from various perspectives. This paper endeavors first to analyze the issues of causality in Islamic philosophy and then to critique them. A sketch is provided of the history of the development of theories of causality in Islamic philosophy, with particular attention to how religious considerations came to determine the shape of the philosophical theories that were accepted. It is suggested that (...) outstanding philosophical and theological problems that have plagued the tradition of Islamic philosophy require a new approach to the issue of causality. (shrink)

The ethnic-Chinese business is often characterised by a central role of the family both in the structure of the firm and in its corporate culture. This has political, social as well as cultural reasons. The centrality of the family in business has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it enables a fast, efficient and flexible process of decision-making. On the other hand, it often contradicts modern business professionalism. The younger generation of ethnic-Chinese business actors tend to preserve crucial (...) elements of such family-centred characteristics. Yet, globalisation drives them to transform their business style, lessening its dependence on family resources and adopting more-modern professional ideas. Changes in current political situation, religious-cultural trend, demography and education contribute to making possible the transformation. (shrink)

First we try to show that Henry’s philosophy of art meets Schelling’s ambition of exposing art as an organon of a philosophy of pathetic subjectivity (against the theory of imitation or reproduction). In this regard, Balzac’s novels serve as an illustration showing art to be the model of nature and not the other way round. Then Balzac’s main novel dealing with artistic creation, the Unknown Masterpiece, is interpreted using Henry’s grid, as an anticipation of Kandinsky’s abstraction.

This research focused on one of the messages in the Lord’s Prayer, particularly Matthew 6:12 about prayer for forgiveness and forgiveness to others in order to suggest a concept revision for the sake of a rather normative modern Arabic audience. In the Smith-Van Dyck version, asking God for forgiveness serves as the basis for forgiving sinners by using the present and future form of the verb نغفر كما (as we will forgive). This translation is in contrast to 1881 Jesuit Arabic (...) Bible, which used the past tense غفرنا كما and أعفينا فقد (as we have forgiven) as written in the Greek Bible as ὀφειλήματα ‘debts’ by referring to the debt metaphor. This study examined the Arabic translation of Matthew 6:12 in the perspective of Nida and Taber’s semantic adjustments. In light of the research findings, it was clear that the semantic adjustment and grammatical adjustment in the translation did not run on the grammatical structure of the Arabic language. The translation into Arabic also did not comply with the original source of the text, but it was accentuated by the interpretation of ‘debts’ into ‘sins’.Contribution: In conclusion, this fact can be seen from the choice of the word ‘نغفر’ and the use of the future tense (fi’l muḍār’i) as opposed to the source text that uses the past tense (fi’l māḍy). (shrink)

Systemic validity has been criticised based on its supposed inability to account for the validity of so-called extra systemic norms and unconstitutional statutes. The article argues that these crit...

Parmi les grands thèmes qui régissent la Recherche du temps perdu, le mal n’est pas le moindre. Plus qu’un thème, c’est une idée directrice bien qu’elle change de valeur au cours du périple. C’est sur la perversion que le narrateur attachera sa constante attention, ce qui invite à concevoir le mal par-delà la simple détermination du sensible, entreprise pour laquelle le Traité sur la liberté de Schelling sera d’un précieux apport car il conçoit le mal comme une perversion des principes. (...) On suit ici cette ligne dans plusieurs directions en se basant sur la dialectique du bien et du mal. Une place importante est réservée à la proposition spéculative : le Bien est le Mal et à son renversement, le Mal est le Bien. (shrink)

Daily Life and Resistance. Between daring project and tranquility, everyday life chooses the second term, the first threatening the habituality of serene existence. To do this, it deploys a minimal morality and, above all, a structure of resistance. The study is based on Andrei Pleco, Simone de Beauvoir, and Josep Maria Esquirol. Keywords: Daily life – Resistance – minima moralia – cultivating your garden – Availability.

Abstrak: Artikel ini menguraikan penggunaan konsep teologis “Trinitas sosial” oleh empat teolog yang secara khusus menyoroti isu-isu ekonomi. Secara umum para teolog itu menyatakan bahwa teologi ekonomik yang berdasarkan “Trinitas sosial” menolak model ekonomi individualistik yang memertaruhkan komunitas. Mereka memberi gambaran yang berbeda-beda tentang model ekonomi yang layak ditolak itu. Meeks dan Boff melihat praktik ekonomi pasar yang berlaku saat ini maupun praktik ekonomi sosialis yang pernah dijalankan di negara-negara komunis sebagai wujud-wujud dari model ekonomi semacam itu. Novak menolak praktik (...) sosialisme dan memandang kapitalisme yang bersifat demokratik sebagai model ekonomi yang trinitaris. Higginson menilai model ekonomi yang individualistik itu tersirat dalam “etos Protestan”nya Max Weber dan seringkali tercermin dalam cara pengelolaan perusahaan. Saya melanjutkan teologi ekonomik yang berdasarkan Trinitas Sosial itu dengan menjadikan secara spesifik keluarga sebagai wujud konkret komunitas. Saya berpendapat bahwa “Trinitas keluarga” dapat menjadi dasar bagi pengembangan teologi ekonomik yang responsif terhadap konteks ekonomi Indonesia dan Asia pada umumnya, di mana keluarga menjadi bukan hanya model hubungan sosial tetapi juga acuan etis. Kata-kata Kunci: Trinitas sosial, teologi ekonomik, ekonomi kekeluargaan. Abstract: This article explores the use of the theological concept of “social Trinity” by four theologians focusing on economic issues. In general, those theologians suggest that the concept of “social Trinity” implies an economic theology resisting the individualistic economy model, which puts the community at stake. They disagree on which economic system exactly they consider worth rejecting. For Meeks and Boff, that economic model includes both the existing market economy and socialism as had been practiced in the communist countries. Novak rejects the economic system of socialist countries whilst insisting that “democratic capitalism” is consistently Trinitarian. Higginson argues that the individualistic economy is implied in Weber’s “Protestant ethic” and often reflected in the management of corporations. Subscribing to the economic theology based on “social Trinity,” and, at the same time, responding specifically to the characteristics of the Indonesian context, I suggest the family as a concrete form of community. I argue that “familial Trinity” would serve as a foundation for developing an economic theology in response to the situation of Indonesian economy and Asian economy in general, where the family is not only a model of social relations, but also an ethical reference. Keywords: Social Trinity, economic theology, familial economy. (shrink)

The rapid progress and expanding development of machine learning-driven clinical decision support systems (ML_CDSS) have led to calls for involving “humans in the loop” in the design, development,...