_With the growth of the edutainment industry, developing countries in Asia have seen a significant increase in this sector in recent years. Although Pakistan has been a latecomer to this emerging industry, it faces challenges in effective marketing strategies, limiting its appeal to potential customers. The concept of edutainment is still relatively unknown, making it crucial to raise awareness of its potential benefits. Pakistan requires more initiatives to build children's confidence, enhance communication skills, foster cognitive growth, and support overall mental (...) development. This research focuses on Giggle Town, a newly established center in Karachi, Pakistan, and examines its digital marketing strategies to position itself favorably within the competitive entertainment industry. Giggle Town offers a unique learning environment that fosters children's curiosity, creativity, and exploration. However, the study reveals that the center's digital marketing efforts are disproportionately focused on entertainment, overlooking the critical educational components that make it unique. This study assesses the effectiveness of these existing digital marketing strategies and explores alternative approaches to enhance Giggle Town's market positioning and outreach. Through qualitative methods including interviews and observational data, we explored how parents and educators perceive these offerings. The center currently relies heavily on influencer marketing and referrals, lacking a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. The findings propose a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that equally emphasizes both educational and entertainment aspects, thus appealing to parents' desire for meaningful and engaging experiences for their children. This approach not only aims to boost Giggle Town's visibility but also sets a new standard for edutainment marketing._. (shrink)

This study explores the impact of CEO ability on corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure. We take samples from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and use the ordinary least squares as a baseline regression model to check the relationship between CEO ability and corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure. Our findings are robust to different corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure measures and CEO ability. We found a positive association between CEO ability and corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure; thus, firms (...) with a more able CEO are more likely to disclose more corporate environmental sustainability information. Our results also found a significant negative interaction coefficient between CEO ability and CEO career concerns. As the CEO grows older, his/her ability decreases; therefore, corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure reduces. Furthermore, we document that a female CEO strengthens the relationship between CEO ability and corporate environmental sustainability information disclosure. The study results are important for understanding corporate environmental responsibility development and implementation, particularly in China. (shrink)

_Textile sector of Pakistan is one of the great contributors in country’s economy, and also the key contributor in making the environment polluted. Textiles have lengthy and complex supply chains (SC) which have crucial role in sustainability. Energy intensive business processes, excessive use of water and hazardous chemicals, use of synthetic yarns and fibers, make it crucial to implement sustainable practices in SC of textile industries. Pakistani textile sector does not fully adopt the sustainable practices that are being used around (...) the world and it is not immediately clear to what extent the practices used in the local industry benefit the environment. The objective of this study is the analysis of ongoing sustainable practices of Yunus Textile Mills (YTM), impact of those sustainable practices and review of international sustainable practices that can be implemented at YTM. In this research quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used along with Triple Bottom Line Approach of Sustainability. Data gathered through business publication, onsite surveys & interviews. Results obtained from the study shows that sustainable practices used by Yunus textile have positive impact on environment._. (shrink)

Online forums have become the main source of knowledge over the Internet as data are constantly flooded into them. In most cases, a question in a web forum receives several responses, making it impossible for the question poster to obtain the most suitable answer. Thus, an important problem is how to automatically extract the most appropriate and high-quality answers in a thread. Prior studies have used different combinations of both lexical and nonlexical features to retrieve the most relevant answers from (...) discussion forums, and hence, there is no standard/general set of features that could be effectively used for relevant answer/reply post classification. However, this study proposed an answer detection model that is exclusively relying on lexical features and employs a random forest classifier for classification of answers in discussion boards. Experimental results showed that the proposed answer detection model outperformed the baseline technique and other state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms in terms of classification accuracy on benchmark forum datasets. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, particularly quadcopters, have several medical, agriculture, surveillance, and security applications. However, the use of this innovative technology for civilian applications is still very limited in low-income countries due to the high cost, whereas low-cost controllers available in the market are often tuned using the hit and trial approach and are limited for specific applications. This paper addresses this issue and presents a novel proof of concept low-cost quadcopter UAV design approach using a systematic Model-Based Design method for (...) mathematical modeling, simulation, real-time testing, and prototyping. The quadcopter dynamic model is developed, and controllers are designed using Proportional Integral, and Derivative, Pole Placement, and Linear Quadratic Regulator control strategies. The stability of the controllers is also checked using Lyapunov stability analysis. For verification and validation of the design, Software-in-the-Loop, Processor-in-the-Loop, Hardware-in-the-loop testing, and Rapid Control Prototyping have been performed. The V&V methods of the MBD approach showed practically valid results with a stable flight of the quadcopter prototype. The proposed low-cost POC quadcopter design approach can be easily modified to have enhanced features, and quadcopters with different design parameters can be assembled using this approach for a diverse range of applications. (shrink)

Seasonal outbreaks have several different periods that occur primarily during winter in temperate regions, while influenza may occur throughout the year in tropical regions, triggering outbreaks more irregularly. Similarly, dengue occurs in the star of the rainy season in early May and reaches its peak in late June. Dengue and flu brought an impact on various countries in the years 2017–2019 and streaming Twitter data reveals the status of dengue and flu outbreaks in the most affected regions. This research work (...) presents that Social Media Analysis can be used as a detector of the epidemic outbreak and to understand the sentiment of social media users regarding various diseases. Providing awareness about seasonal outbreaks through SMA is an effective approach for researchers and healthcare responders to detect the early outbreaks. The proposed model aims to find the sentiment about the disease in tweets, and the seasonal outbreaks-related tweets are classified into two classes as disease positive and disease negative. This work proposes a machine-learning-based approach to detect dengue and flu outbreaks in social media platform Twitter, using four machine learning algorithms: Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbor, Support Vector Machine, and Decision Tree, with the help of Term Frequency and Inverse Document Frequency. For experimental analysis, two datasets are analyzed individually. The experimental results show that the RF classifier has outperformed the comparison models in terms of improved accuracy, precision, recall, F1-measure, and Receiver Operating Characteristic curve. The proposed work offers favorable performance with total precision, accuracy, recall, and F1-measure ranging from 84% to 88% for conventional machine learning techniques. (shrink)

In this article, we solve nonlinear systems of third order KdV Equations and the systems of coupled Burgers equations in one and two dimensions with the help of two different methods. The suggested techniques in addition with Laplace transform and Atangana–Baleanu fractional derivative operator are implemented to solve four systems. The obtained results by implementing the proposed methods are compared with exact solution. The convergence of the method is successfully presented and mathematically proved. The results we get are compared with (...) exact solution through graphs and tables which confirms the effectiveness of the suggested techniques. In addition, the results obtained by employing the proposed approaches at different fractional orders are compared, confirming that as the value goes from fractional order to integer order, the result gets closer to the exact solution. Moreover, suggested techniques are interesting, easy, and highly accurate which confirm that these methods are suitable methods for solving any partial differential equations or systems of partial differential equations as well. (shrink)

We show in this paper that the AGM postulates are too weak to ensure the rational preservation of conditional beliefs during belief revision, thus permitting improper responses to sequences of observations. We remedy this weakness by proposing four additional postulates, which are sound relative to a qualitative version of probabilistic conditioning. Contrary to the AGM framework, the proposed postulates characterize belief revision as a process which may depend on elements of an epistemic state that are not necessarily captured by a (...) belief set. We also show that a simple modification to the AGM framework can allow belief revision to be a function of epistemic states. We establish a model-based representation theorem which characterizes the proposed postulates and constrains, in turn, the way in which entrenchment orderings may be transformed under iterated belief revision. (shrink)

203 surveys were considered complete and were included in the analysis. Written consent was not used by nearly 40% of the researchers.

Despite the fact that in order to become a liveable space for humankind the world owes many things to the scientific point of view, to fill that space with meaning so that it can be our home, is only possible due to the aesthetic relation which man establishes with life. The meaning which is required so that man could make sense of this space can only be brought into this world through the fictional strength of language. Existence which in itself (...) alone is meaningless, indifferent and neutral can only become a stage where humanity dares to appear, thanks to the attributes that it gains through the act of making sense. By overlooking that point the theoretical approach which is symbolized by the Enlightenment destroys according to Nietzsche the basics of the relation between man and life. Today the scientific and technological Perspective which have become the forces of our culture and civilization have already withdrawn themselves from the question of the meaning of life to the point of ignoring its importance. On the other side, due to its natural mechanism, the advantage which the artistic approach possesses comes from the capacity to transform the reality through fiction. Hence, art is maybe one of the most important accomplishments which contributes to the creation of meaning so that man won't perish against this essential indifference of existence. (shrink)

Several protective cellular mechanisms protect against the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the concomitant oxidative stress. Therefore, any reduction in glucose or fatty acid flux into cells leading to a decrease in the production of reducing equivalents would also lead to a decreased ROS production and protect cells against oxidative stress. In the presence of insulin, FOXO proteins are localized from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and degraded. An increase in cellular glucose uptake will lead to increased production (...) of ROS. This in turn activates the stress‐responsive Jun‐N‐terminal kinase (JNK), which promotes nuclear translocation of FOXO proteins, upregulating some important target genes including stress resistance. Consequently, insulin resistance should result in decreased cellular ROS production. For this reason, insulin resistance could be a physiological mechanism activated at the cellular level in response to conditions stimulating ROS production and leading to the prevention of oxidative stress, and extension of life. Concerning the whole organism, however, IR is a maladaptive process in the long term causing a diabetic state. BioEssays 29:811–818, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Ways of Being Free: Introduction -- War Is Everything's Father: History and Death as Causes of Existential Angst -- Introduction: Causes of Existential Angst -- Change and Changelessness in Midnight's Children -- The Road of Existential Struggle in The Famished Road -- History and the "Nervous Condition" in The English Patient -- Death as a Drive to Meaningful Existence in Midnight's Children -- Becoming Dead-to-the-World in The English Patient -- Ideological Re-appropriation through Death in The Famished Road -- Authenticity -- (...) Authenticity: Introduction -- From Self-Sufficiency to Inoperative Community in The English Patient -- Revolution Revisited in The Famished Road -- From Communalism to the Comic Absurd in Midnight's Children. (shrink)

Recent work has shown that the input-output behavior of some common machine learning classifiers can be captured in symbolic form, allowing one to reason about the behavior of these classifiers using symbolic techniques. This includes explaining decisions, measuring robustness, and proving formal properties of machine learning classifiers by reasoning about the corresponding symbolic classifiers. In this work, we present a theory for unveiling the _reasons_ behind the decisions made by Boolean classifiers and study some of its theoretical and practical implications. (...) At the core of our theory is the notion of a _complete reason,_ which can be viewed as a necessary and sufficient condition for why a decision was made. We show how the complete reason can be used for computing notions such as sufficient reasons (also known as PI-explanations and abductive explanations), how it can be used for determining decision and classifier bias and how it can be used for evaluating counterfactual statements such as “a decision will stick even if...because....” We present a linear-time algorithm for computing the complete reasoning behind a decision, assuming the classifier is represented by a Boolean circuit of appropriate form. We then show how the computed complete reason can be used to answer many queries about a decision in linear or polynomial time. We finally conclude with a case study that illustrates the various notions and techniques we introduced. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In recent years there has been intense debate regarding the level of medical care provided to ‘standard care’ control groups in clinical trials in developing countries, particularly when the research sponsors come from wealthier countries. The debate revolves around the issue of how to define a standard of medical care in a country in which many people are not receiving the best methods of medical care available in other settings. In this paper, we argue that additional dimensions of the (...) standard of care have been hitherto neglected, namely, the structure and efficiency of the national health system. The health system affects locally available medical care in two important ways: first, the system may be structured to provide different levels of care at different sites with referral mechanisms to direct patients to the appropriate level of care. Second, inefficiencies in this system may influence what care is available in a particular locale. As a result of these two factors locally available care cannot be equated with a national ‘standard’. A reasonable approach is to define the national standard of care as the level of care that ought to be delivered under conditions of appropriate and efficient referral in a national system. This standard is the minimum level of care that ought to be provided to a control group. There may be additional moral arguments for higher levels of care in some circumstances. This health system analysis may be helpful to researchers and ethics committees in designing and reviewing research involving standard care control groups in developing country research. (shrink)

From past to present, women's access to social life and their preoccupation with science has been a problematic issue in all societies. Hz. Mohammad gave importance to the woman, who was worthless in the period of ignorance, in a way that it is not possible to come across her husband in the rest of the world, and gave them access to social life, mosques and scientific assemblies. However, since the period of the Companions, women's access to mosques and scientific assemblies (...) was increasingly restricted due to the dominant character of the Arab society and the poor understanding of the Prophet's message by some segments. Since the third century Hijri, the acceptance of women as the cause of strife, the society's view of women, the responsibilities placed on women in the family have further restricted women's access to knowledge and education in fiqh. The effect of Jewish literature, Greek philosophers, and logicians' view of women on Muslim scholars has reinforced this situation. Although women did not fall behind in learning fiqh thanks to their individual efforts and the men who were involved in fiqh in their families, they remained in the background in writing books and scientific studies. Throughout the Hanafi history, Asma bint Esad b. Furât, Kasani's wife Fatima bint Mohammad and İbn al-Saati Muzaffar al-Din Ahmad b. Ali's daughter Fatima al-Saati stands out. (shrink)

خلصت هذه الدراسة إلى دحض الادعاء بوجود فجوة تاريخية في تطور علم الاقتصاد، حيث تمكن الرواد الأوائل من الاقتصاديين المسلمين من وضع العديد من الأسس الفكرية لعلم الاقتصاد. تسلط هذه الدراسة الضوء على الفترة الزمنية التي تم تجاهلها قصداً أو جهلا لتكشف عن الجذور التاريخية لعلم الاقتصاد الإسلامي وتكشف عن الحلقة المفقودة في تطور علم الاقتصاد منذ القرن الهجري الأول إلى القرن الهجري الخامس، حيث سعت هذه الدراسة إلى نقض ادعاء الريادة الغربية لعلم الاقتصاد من خلال ما عرضته من إسهامات (...) للمفكرين المسلمين الذين سبقوا الاقتصاديين الغربيين بعدة قرون. لقد قام الاقتصاديون المسلمون بتدشين عدد من قواعد علم الاقتصاد، واستخدموا أساليب التحليل الاقتصادي في رصد بعض الظواهر الاقتصادية، وقد قاموا بتسليم إنجازاتهم هذه للبشرية من خلال الصروح العلمية في الأندلس. كذلك لا يزعم مُعدُّ هذه الدراسة أنّ العلماء المسلمين تناولوا جميع القضايا الاقتصادية ولا يدعي بانّهم وضعوا قواعد علم الاقتصاد جملة ولم يغفلوا عن شاردة أو واردة، بل يعترف بأنّ علماء المسلمين الاقتصاديين لم يتناولوا كثيرا من القضايا الاقتصادية المحدثة كالائتمان، والمشتقات المالية، والنقود الالكترونية وما شاكل من المستجدات. لكنه يؤكد إسهام العلماء المسلمين في تطوير الفكر الاقتصادي. (shrink)

Refusing consent to organ donation remains unacceptably high, and improving consent rates from family or next-of-kin is an important step to procuring more organs for solid organ transplantation in countries where this approval is sought. We have thus far failed to translate fully our limited understanding of why families refuse permission into successful strategies targeting consent in the setting of deceased organ donation, primarily because our interventions fail to target underlying cognitive obstacles. Novel interventions to overcome these hurdles, incorporating an (...) understanding of cognitive psychology and behavioral change therapy, may be beneficial. One potential intervention is to use the concept of nudge theory, where decision-making is influenced by encouraging positive reinforcement and indirect suggestion. Purposefully nudging families to given consent for organ donation by understanding, and then overcoming, their inherent cognitive biases is novel but also controversial. This article explores the roles of relatives in decisions about organ donation, how nudge theory translates to organ donation and discusses the arguments for and against its application. (shrink)

History in this age needs to record and analyze the events in the light of modern concept of contemporary world. When the historians narrate the brutal condition of Indo-Pak history, they never forget the work and services of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi to transform the society according to the current values. For his services, he is hailed as Mujaddid Alf-I-Thani. The Muslim society had degenerated when Mujaddid Alf-I-Thani appeared on the horizon. A number of Hindu customs and practices had become the (...) part of their creed. The commandments of Shariat and Sunnah were being floated. Moreover, the Mughal emperor Akbar had adopted controversial policies detrimental to the very existence of Muslim society. Mujaddid Alf -Thani made strenuous and constant efforts to turn the tide. When Mujadded-Alf-Thani started his social reform movement, he found that the Muslim society was embracing un-Islamic practices such as widespread belief in Karamat had developed under the influence of Hindu thinking. Moreover, the Islamic teachings had been vitiated by adopting customs and practices of other religions such as inter marriages between Hindus and Muslims and ban on cow slaughter etc. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi never entered into any political conflict directly. He endeavored to restore pure doctrine to Islamic thought and to compel the Muslims to follow Shariat and Sunnah in letter and spirit. He was a social reformer, great Alim, Sufi and Mujaddid. He initiated a process of social change, inspired by Islamic Ideal, in an age, which was becoming secular. This research paper is an attempt to mention the role of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi for saving the society from un-Islamic values and customs in the sub-continent and its impact on society. By utilizing the historical method, this paper aims at analyzing the effect of social reforms of Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi on Muslim society. (shrink)

Given that health systems research involves different aims, approaches, and methodologies as compared to more traditional clinical trials, the ethical issues present in HSR may be unique or particularly nuanced. This article outlines eight pertinent ethical issues that are particularly salient in HSR and argues that the ethical review process should be better tailored to ensure more efficient and appropriate oversight of HSR with adequate human protections, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The eight ethical areas we discuss include the (...) nature of intervention, types of research subjects, units of intervention and observation, informed consent, controls and comparisons, risk assessment, inclusion of vulnerable groups, and benefits of research. HSR involving human participants is necessary to ensure health systems strengthening and quality of care and to guide public policy intelligently. Health systems researchers must carefully define their intent and goals and openly clarify the values that may influence the premises and design of protocols. As new types of population-level research activities become more commonplace, it is critical that institutional review board and research ethics committee review processes evolve to evaluate these research protocols in ways that address the nuanced features of these studies. (shrink)

We address in this paper the problem of counting the models of a propositional theory under incremental changes to its literals. Specifcally, we show that if a propositional theory Δ is in a special form that we call smooth, deterministic, decomposable negation normal form, then for any consistent set of literals S, we can simultaneously count the models of Δ ∪ S and the models of every theory Δ ∪ T where T results from adding, removing or flipping a literal (...) in S. We present two results relating to the time and space complexity of compiling propositional theories into sd-DNNF. First, we show that if a conjunctive normal form has a bounded treewidth, then it can be compiled into an sd-DNNF in time and space which are linear in its size. Second, we show that sd-DNNF is a strictly more space efficient representation than Free Binary Decision Diagrams. Finally, we discuss some applications of the counting results to truth maintenance systems, belief revision, and model-based diagnosis. (shrink)

There are many moral values that the Arab writers have written about either in prose or poetry. This emphasis on morality in classical Arabic literature has also been the subject of many academic studies. The abundance of the literary material in this field has attracted the attention of researchers. One of these is the emphasis on "naturalness" which we have seen in classical Arabic literature. In the Arab society which social ties are very strong the moral values have been summarized (...) with the concept of al-murūah/chivalry over time. In these sources that is including poems, parables and anecdotes about morality allthings on the moral values are brought together. Hereunder the main thing in the moral maturity is the naturality. Criticism of ostensible behaviors has taken place in an important part of these works. For example, ancient perception of morality is a predestination that comes from creation has found its response in Arabic poetry. Many Arab poets have stated that one's innate character will beat and the reason will be defeated. On the other hand, some poets tried to establish a balance between character and wisdom. Accordingly, it has been stated that people are innately inclined to falses but they also have the potential to restrain their innate evil tendencies with the ability of mind given to them. These poets liked to explain this balance through the simile stating he ambitious horse that wants to run at full speed is restrained with a bit. According to this simile the man is like a person on the back of a raging horse with the evil inclinations cultivated in his nature. The soul he carries wants to take him wherever it wishes. However, he has a mind that is like a bridle in return for the soul inside him. On the other hand, when we look at the encyclopedic sources of Arabic proverbs we see that there are proverbs comparing many moral attributes with animals. In Turkish proverbs, cunning is identified with the fox and industriousness with the ant, and in Arabic proverbs a very rich human character-animal pairings stand out. These proverbs are based on the idea that people's character is the product of nature. Because each animal species has appreciated characteristics and these features occur without learning and education. In addition, the issue of the naturalness of morality was also used for the purpose of praise and satire in the classical Arabic poets. The poet makes his reproach or anger towards someone through his character. When describing his lover he states that the beauties that adorn him come from creation. Therefore, it can be said that the emphasises of character/nature/temperament in the poems in which these and similar emotions are aroused, are the motifs that serve the purpose of the poet. Finally Arab writers have offered many recommendations in literary form on issues such as brotherhood, solidarity and cooperation for the healthy continuity of social relations in the Muslim society, and they have included anecdotes and poems within the framework of the subject. The study is mainly based on the descriptive method, however, the way the authors handled the subject is analysed when it is deemed to be appropriate. Considering that there is no specific study in Turkish and Arabic literature within the framework of the present study, it is aimed to investigate the literary material in the subject in question. (shrink)