The release of over 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes (GMM) into uninhabited Malaysian forests in 2010 was a frantic step on the part of the Malaysian government to combat the spread of dengue fever. The field trial was designed to control and reduce the dengue vector by producing offspring that die in the early developmental stage, thus decreasing the local Aedes aegypti population below the dengue transmission threshold. However, the GMM trials were discontinued in Malaysia despite being technologically feasible. The lack (...) of systematic studies in terms of cost-benefit analysis, questionable research efficacy and safety-related concerns might have contributed to the termination of the field trial. Hence, this research aims to evaluate the feasibility of GMM release in Malaysia by using a holistic approach based on an Islamic ethical-legal assessment under the maslahah-mafsadah (benefit-risk) concept. Three main strategies based on the maslahah-mafsadah concept approach have been applied: 1) an evidence-based approach, 2) an impact-based approach and, 3) a priority approach. The analysis concluded that GMM could be categorised as zanniyyah (probable). GMM is a promising alternative for dengue control, but many issues must be addressed before its widespread adoption. (shrink)

This work has aimed to investigate the consumers’ green product purchase attitudes and behavioral intention during COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected through a survey method of 503 consumers in Malaysia. Data were analyzed using the partial least square method. The findings revealed that fear of COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on green product behavioral intention. Green product literacy, green product orientation, and social influence have a significant influence on green product purchase attitudes. The results also indicated that consumers’ green (...) product purchase attitudes mediate the effect of green product literacy, green product orientation, and social influence on behavioral intention. The findings of this work will provide strategically relevant references to green marketers and retail managers in the understanding of consumers’ green product purchase attitudes and green product behavioral intention during the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

Il contributo sostiene che una versione lunga e composita del Viaggio notturno del profeta e della sua ascensione, attribuita a Ibn ‘Abbas attraverso una figura più tarda conosciuta come al-Bakri, è diventata molto popolare e largamente diffusa nel tredicesimo secolo. Qui si propone una traduzione del viaggio celeste di Muhammad a partire da un importante manoscritto inedito di Istanbul copiato nella penisola araba verso la fine del tredicesimo secolo. Questa traduzione si propone come strumento per gli studiosi interessati alla (...) tradizione islamica delle ascensioni celesti e per chi si occupa delle possibile influenze musulmane sull’opera di Dante. Nonostante non si dimostri che Dante avesse avuto accesso diretto a questa fonte nel momento in cui componeva la divina commedia, ci sono prove sufficienti che le versioni di questo racconto fossero diffuse in diverse parti del Mediterraneo, prima e durante la vita di Dante. L’autore fa propria la recente ipotesi interpretativa di Bencheikh che sottolinea il ruolo fondamentale della versione di Bakri del Mi’râj per la composizione dell’ormai noto Libro della Scala, tradotto in latino e lingua francese antico in al-Andalus nella seconda metà del tredicesimo secolo.This article argues that a long and composite version of the narrative of Muhammad's night journey and ascension, one often ascribed to Ibn 'Abbas via a later figure known as al-Bakri, became especially popular and widely distributed in the thirteenth-century CE. It offers a translation of the Tour of Paradise section from a particularly important unpublished Istanbul manuscript preserving this version, copied in the Arabian peninsula near the end of the thirteenth-century. This translation could serve as a resource to scholars who are interested in the history of Islamic ascension narratives, and interested in the question of possible Muslim influences on Dante's Divine Comedy. While the author of this article does not argue that Dante must have been aware of this particular manuscript as he composed his masterwork, he claims that there is enough evidence to suggest that versions of this narrative circulated in different parts of the Mediterranean before and during Dante's lifetime. He supports the earlier conjecture by Bencheikh that the Bakri versions were likely foundational to the composition of the now famous "Book of Muhammad's Ladder" that was translated into Latin and Old French in al-Andalus / Spain in the second half of the thirteenth-century. (shrink)

La tarda antichità fu un periodo di profondi cambiamenti che coinvolse l’Europa, il mediterraneo e il cosiddetto Vicino Oriente, dal IV-V al VII-VIII secolo. Questo paradigma è ormai ampiamente utilizzato negli studi islamici, dagli studi coranici, dove Angelika Neuwirth ha ampiamente scritto sul tema delle basi bibliche della rivelazione coranica come manifestazione dello scritturalismo tardo antico, agli studi storici relativi al Corano e all’Arabia preislamica, come nel libro di Aziz al-Azmeh _The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity_, che riprende il (...) filone di studi instaurato da Julius Wellhausen e Toufic Fahd. Sono pienamente d’accordo con la necessità di inserire l’Islam, la sua nascita e il suo sviluppo storico, religioso e filosofico nel contesto della tarda antichità, ma è necessario sottolineare quali temi hanno fatto dell’Islam una nuova religione rispetto al giudaismo e al cristianesimo. Questo è il tema del presente articolo che si articola nei seguenti momenti: 1) una breve rassegna critica della letteratura sulla tarda antichità; 2) il rapporto tra gli imperi – romano, bizantino e sasanide – della tarda antichità e il trionfo del monoteismo; 3) il concetto di _hanifiyya_. La conclusione è che il messaggio coranico trasmesso da Maometto ha diviso la storia in due parti: prima e dopo la venuta della _verità_. Late Antiquity describes a period of profound transformations that involved Europe, the Mediterranean world and the so-called Near East, from IV-V to VII-VIII centuries. This paradigm has now become widely used in Islamic studies, from Qurʾānic studies, where Angelika Neuwirth has extensively published in the past on the subject of the biblical underpinnings of the Qurʾānic revelation as a manifestation of late antique scripturalism, to historical studies related to the Qurʾān and pre-Islamic Arabia, as in Aziz al-Azmeh’s book _The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity_, which takes up the trend of scholarship established by Julius Wellhausen and Toufic Fahd. I completely agree with the need to put Islam and its historical, religious, philosophical birth and development in the context of the Late Antiquity, but what is at stake is to emphasize which themes made Islam a new religion with respect to Judaism and Christianity. This is the focus of the present paper which deals with: 1) a brief critical survey of the literature on Late Antiquity; 2) the relationship between the empires – Roman, Byzantine and Sasanid – of Late Antiquity and the triumph of monotheism; 3) the concept of _hanifiyya_. The conclusion is that the Qurʾānic message conveyed by Muhammad broke the history into two parts: before and after the coming of _truth_. (shrink)

L’articolo offre un’analisi puntuale dei versi che Dante dedica a Maometto nel ventottesimo canto dell’Inferno, al fine di precisarne le finalità poetiche e ideologiche; il passo viene poi collocato nel contesto costituito dai numerosi riferimenti al profeta dell’Islam presenti nella letteratura italiana duecentesca e primo-trecentesca, qui raccolti, analizzati e organizzati in maniera puntuale. Gli elementi connotativi riconosciuti nell’episodio infernale e in altri riferimenti alla civiltà islamica che si leggono nel capolavoro dantesco, pur nella loro geniale eccezionalità artistica, risultano così coerentemente (...) inseribili in un più vasto e articolato panorama culturale che emerge dalla ricerca, nel quale, all’ostilità per l’Islam inteso come entità religiosa e politica, si affianca la curiosità per il mondo musulmano percepito invece come comunità culturale, rilevabile anche presso fasce inaspettate del pubblico medievale.This paper analyses the episode of Muhammad in Dante’s Inferno, recognizing its poetical and ideological features in order to proceed with its insertion in the survey of references to the prophet detectable in the Italian literature of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries. The study allows to identify the substantial coherence between Dante’s ideological opinions toward Islam and the positions about the same subject expressed in the other works of the vernacular literature of his time, showing a general rejection for religious and political Islam, but also the interest for Islam as cultural entity. (shrink)

Abū al-Ma’ālī Sadr al-Dīn Muhammad b. Ishāq al-Qūnawī nacque probabilmente a Konya nel 605/1209 e morì nel 673/1274. L’influenza che Ibn al-’Arabī esercitò su Qūnawī fu decisiva e lo _shaykh al-akbar_ riservò questa questa particolare formazione esclusivamente a lui, forse proprio perché il compito del suo erede spirituale e interprete era già stato “ previsto”. In questo intervento tracceremo uno dei punti fondamentali del pensiero di Qūnawī, basandoci sulla prima epistola del carteggio che si concentra proprio sulla questione del (...) _rapporto tra conoscenza filosofica e illuminazione divina_, questione che si ritrova nell’opera del nostro sufi e che lo contraddistingue all’interno del pensiero sufi in generale, collocandolo nella scuola ibnarabiana. Abū al-Ma‘ālī Sadr al-Dīn Muhammad b. Ishāq al-Qūnawī was born probably in Konya in 605/1209 and died in 673/1274. The influence that Ibn al-‘Arabī exerted on Qūnawī was decisive and the _shaykh al-akbar_ reserved this intense education and this particular training exclusively for him, perhaps precisely because the task of his spiritual heir and interpreter had already been “foreseen”. In this intervention we will trace one of the fundamental points of Qūnawī’s thought, relying on the first epistle of the correspondence that focuses precisely on the question of the _relationship between philosophical knowledge and divine illumination_, a question that is found throughout the work of our Sufi and that it distinguishes it within Sufi thought in general, placing it within the Ibnarabian school. (shrink)

La pittura islamica e in particolare l’illustrazione dei manoscritti, opere a circolazione limitata e prevalentemente privata, ha avuto una notevole diffusione godendo del patrocinio delle corti. Alcune pitture, soprattutto quelle che illustrano l’Ascensione celeste del profeta Muhammad, ma anche le Storie dei Profeti, pitture datate al XIV e XV secolo, rappresentano l’uno e gli altri col volto scoperto. Solo relativamente tardi, in particolare nel mondo iranico, ma anche presso gli ottomani o i Moghul dell’India, il volto del Profeta diventa (...) una convenzione iconografica. Un versetto coranico afferma che Dio parla all’uomo o per Rivelazione o dietro a un velame. Per questo nell’iconografia della pittura islamica si constata che il Profeta o altri personaggi possono figurare con il volto coperto da un velo. Questo segno di rispetto, col tempo, si trasformerà in parola e il sembiante del Profeta sarà reso calligraficamente. Islamic painting and particularly miniature painting illustrating manuscripts, books restricted to few people and for personal use, had a considerable circulation thanks to the patronage of courts. Some paintings, chiefly those illustrating the heavenly Ascent of the prophet Muhammad, but also Histories of Prophets, paintings dated to the XIV and XV century, show him and the others barefaced. Only fairly later, particularly in the iranian world, but also among Ottomans or the Moghuls of India, the face of the Prophet becomes an iconographic convention. According to a Koranic verse God speaks to man either through Revelation of behind a veil. For this reason in the iconography of islamic painting the Prophet or other people may appear with the face covered by a veil. This sign of respect, in the course of time, changed and the countenance of the Prophet was rendered in words, that is calligraphically. (shrink)

Scopo del saggio è confrontare alcune tra le principali visiones della letteratura occidentale – tra cui la Visio Pauli e la Commedia – e le diverse redazioni della tradizione islamica dell’ascensione celeste e viaggio oltremondano del profeta Muhammad, nel tentativo di stabilire se le affinità, tematiche e strutturali, osservabili tra i due gruppi di testi siano frutto di semplice poligenesi o vadano piuttosto spiegate con rapporti di effettiva intertestualità.Tra le visiones, la tradizione mirajica e la Commedia si instaura dunque (...) un dialogo a tre voci, o di sinfonia, i cui temi principali si arricchiscono e si richiamano a vicenda. Dante, primo comparatista, è in grado di reinventare, armonizzandoli, elementi strutturali e tematici provenienti sia dalle visiones latine che dalla tradizione islamica del Isra’ wa’ l Mi‘râj.The purpose of this essay is to make a confrontation between the main important visiones of the Occidental Literature – also the Visio Pauli and the Dante’s Commedia – anche the various redactions of the Islamic Isra’ wa-l mi’râj. The confrontation is in order to establish if the remarked affinities are just due to polygenesis or rather caused by concrete intertestuality.Between the visiones, the mirajic tradition and the Commedia we are in front of a three voices dialogue: it’s like a symphony, in which the themes enriches themselves and, at least, the arrive to Dante for being harmonized. Dante is the first comparatist. (shrink)

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

This study examined the influence of ethical leadership on knowledge sharing, the mediating role of psychological ownership, and the moderating effect of professional commitment between ethical leadership and knowledge sharing. Data were collected from 307 public listed Pakistani companies’ employees. Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS Version 25 and AMOS version 22. The findings indicate a positive relationship between EL and KS behavior. Additionally, the impact of EL on KS was partially mediated by psychological ownership. Furthermore, professional commitment buffers (...) the link between EL and KS. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of leadership by confirming the role of ethics. The results show that ethical leaders develop employee attitudes that contribute to employee KS behavior. Ethical leaders create and encourage a learning culture to enhance organizational performance. This study adds to the little data on the positive impact of EL on listed company’s employees and addresses the gaps in previous studies on the role of EL in changing environments. In addition, professional commitment as a moderator has not been previously investigated with ethical leadership antecedents. (shrink)

It is obligatory to educate student researchers before they start their work by teaching them about the various types of plagiarism and how to avoid them. It is also vital that research supervisors take into account the sources of data that are explored in their students’ manuscripts. This article tries to draw the reader’s attention to the importance of avoiding all types of plagiarism in their research.

We studied the impact of teachers’ ethical leadership on students’ moral identity and academic citizenship behaviors. Data from 256 student–teacher matching dyads were collected from one of the top 5 Pakistani business schools. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to ensure factorial validity of the measures that were employed, and the hypothesized relationships were tested using structural regression models that utilized structural equation modeling in AMOS with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Based on social learning theory, the results supported the hypothesis that teachers’ (...) ethical leadership had significant direct and indirect positive effects on the students’ academic citizenship behaviors that were directed toward other students and the school. This study contributes to existing literature on ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior by highlighting useful implications of these organization-based constructs in an academic context. (shrink)

Processes of rapid and truncated agrarian change—driven through expanding urbanisation, infrastructure development, extractive industries, and commodity crops—are shaping the livelihood opportunities and aspirations of Indonesia’s rural youth. This study describes the everyday experiences of youth as they navigate the changing character of agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing livelihoods across gender, class, and generation. Drawing on qualitative field research conducted in the Maros District of South Sulawesi, we examine young people’s experiences of agrarian change in a landscape of entangled rural, coastal and (...) increasingly urbanised spaces. We find that young people aspire to secure, modern, and salary-based work, while continuing to seek and sustain intergenerational farming or aquaculture-based livelihoods. Youth take advantage of increased connectivity to diversify their incomes, yet their dependence on mobility also introduces new forms of gendered and class based precarity such as insecure working arrangements, disruption to education and violence (especially for young unskilled women and youth from financially insecure households). Our study highlights the persistent conditions of precarity that many young people encounter in both rural and urban settings, while challenging assumptions that youth are uninterested in rural futures. (shrink)

Using the assumptions of Sternberg Duplex Theory of Hate, the present study reveals the combined effects of similar competitor offer and narcissistic personality on brand equity through the underlying mechanism of brand hate. Specifically, we hypothesize that brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity. Moreover, we propose that similar competitor offer and brand hate relationship are stronger for narcissistic individuals. By employing a multi-wave time-lagged research design, we collected data from a sample of dairy product (...) consumers in Pakistan. The findings of moderated-mediation regression analyses indicate that Brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity; and Narcissistic personality moderates a similar competitor offer and brand hate relationship such that a high similar competitor offer led to greater brand hate when narcissism was high. Furthermore, conditional indirect effects reveal that brand hate mediates the relationship between similar competitor offer and brand equity only with individuals exhibiting narcissistic personality traits. The current study offers great insights to managers that by managing similar competitor offer, they can manage the development of brand hate, which can subsequently effect brand equity. Moreover, by profiling customers on the basis of their personalities, marketing managers can effectively invest only in customers with positive tendencies. The current study is unique in that it highlights new avenues in existing research by extending the nascent domain of brand hate in consumer–brand relationships. (shrink)

The importance of the hidden curriculum is recognised as a practical training ground for the absorption of medical ethics by healthcare professionals. Pakistan’s healthcare sector is hampered by the exclusion of ethics from medical and nursing education curricula and the absence of monitoring of ethical violations in the clinical setting. Nurses have significant knowledge of the hidden curriculum taught during clinical practice, due to long working hours in the clinic and front-line interaction with patients and other practitioners.

Over recent years, the research community has been increasingly using preprint servers to share manuscripts that are not yet peer-reviewed. Even if it enables quick dissemination of research findings, this practice raises several challenges in publication ethics and integrity. In particular, preprints have become an important source of information for stakeholders interested in COVID19 research developments, including traditional media, social media, and policy makers. Despite caveats about their nature, many users can still confuse pre-prints with peer-reviewed manuscripts. If unconfirmed but (...) already widely shared first-draft results later prove wrong or misinterpreted, it can be very difficult to “unlearn” what we thought was true. Complexity further increases if unconfirmed findings have been used to inform guidelines. To help achieve a balance between early access to research findings and its negative consequences, we formulated five recommendations: (a) consensus should be sought on a term clearer than ‘pre-print’, such as ‘Unrefereed manuscript’, “Manuscript awaiting peer review” or ‘’Non-reviewed manuscript”; (b) Caveats about unrefereed manuscripts should be prominent on their first page, and each page should include a red watermark stating ‘Caution—Not Peer Reviewed’; (c) pre-print authors should certify that their manuscript will be submitted to a peer-review journal, and should regularly update the manuscript status; (d) high level consultations should be convened, to formulate clear principles and policies for the publication and dissemination of non-peer reviewed research results; (e) in the longer term, an international initiative to certify servers that comply with good practices could be envisaged. (shrink)

This study investigates the banking industry's resilience in maintaining its performance during a crisis by examining the impact of an income diversification strategy and considering the ownership structure. Moderated Regression Analysis was employed to explore bank performance proxy by Return on Assets (ROA) ratio as the dependent variable. For the Independent variable, we used income diversification and ownership structure. The research sample comes from 83 banks in Indonesia, consisting of 4 state-owned banks, 26 regional government banks, 30 private banks, and (...) 23 foreign banks in the 2020-2021 quarterly. The results indicate that diversification has no significant effect on bank performance during the Covid-19 pandemic at commercial banks in Indonesia but has a positive direction. The ownership structure was a pure moderator that weakened the relationship between income diversification and bank performance. Meanwhile, state-owned banks need to be more creative in exploring non-interest income sources than private and foreign banks. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global economy, including the banking sector in Indonesia. However, the Indonesian banking industry has shown resilience during the pandemic. The Indonesian government has implemented several policies to support the banking sector during the pandemic. (shrink)

In this article, we try to show that Maurice Merleau-Ponty, as the patron saint of the body, offers a phenomenological analysis of the body that is neither psychological nor rational, but existential in nature. Influenced by Heidegger's philosophy, Merleau-Ponty presents an existential analysis of man and his corporeality as the corporeal subject relates to the world. In this article, focusing on concepts such as location, body schema, flesh, absent body, and body perspective, we show that Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological analysis of these (...) existential concepts has important role in understanding of the lived-body. Merleau-Ponty, by criticizing Descartes' body and abandoning his duality of soul and body, turns to the existential union of the two in the form of a bodily subject, showing that human existence can be understood through this bodily. He contrasts this analysis with philosophical analyzes, including Cartesian philosophy, in which he believes that sensory perception and the body as the foundation of human consciousness play an important role in his pre-reflective understanding of himself and the world. (shrink)

The integration of cellular networks and vehicular networks is complex and heterogeneous. Synchronization among vehicles in heterogeneous vehicular clusters plays an important role in effective data sharing and the stability of the cluster. This synchronization depends on the smooth exchange of information between vehicles and remote servers over the Internet. The remote servers predict road traffic patterns by adopting deep learning methods to help drivers on the roads. At the same time, local data processing at the vehicular cluster level may (...) increase the capabilities of remote servers. However, global positioning system signal interruption, especially in the urban environment, plays a big part in the detritions of synchronization among the vehicles that lead to the instability of the cluster. Instability of connections is a major hurdle in developing cost-effective solutions for deriving assistance and route planning applications. To solve this problem, a self-localization scheme within the vehicular cluster is proposed. The proposed self-localization scheme handles GPS signal interruption to the vehicle within the cluster. A unique clustering criterion and a synchronization mechanism for sharing traffic information system data among multiple vehicles are developed. The developed scheme is simulated and compared with existing known approaches. The results show the better performance of our proposed scheme over others. (shrink)

This article has explored the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 -induced decline in consumer durables and mobility on nitrogen dioxide emission in Europe by providing empirical and graphical justifications based on consumer price index and gross domestic product deflator indexes. The empirical estimations show that carbon dioxide and NOx emission along with other greenhouse gases drastically decreased in the wake of COVID-19-induced lockdowns and decrease in the demand of consumer goods in Europe. This means that COVID-19 improved environment in the (...) European region. However, high cost makes COVID-19 an unstable solution to environmental woes where positive impact of COVID-19 on environment achieved in short run cannot be guaranteed in the long run. Besides environment, COVID-19 drastically curtailed economic activities and exposed them to the risk of economic crisis particularly in case of Europe. (shrink)

[1] al-Manṭiq. 1. al-Madkhal. 2. al-Maqūlāt. 3. al-ʻIbārah. 4. al-Qiyās. 5. al-Burhān. 6. al-Jadal. 7. al-Safsaṭah. 8. al-Khaṭābah. 9. al-Shiʻr (4 v.) -- [2] al-Ṭabīʻīyat. 2. al-Samāʼ wa-al-ʻālam. 3. al-Kawn wa-al-fasād. 4. al-Afʻāl wa-al-infiʻālāt. 5. al-Maʻādin wa-al-āthār al-ʻulwīyah. 6. al-Nafs. 7. al-Nabāt -- [3] al-Riyāḍīyāt. [1] Uṣūl al-handasah. 2. al-Ḥisāb. 3. Jawāmiʻ ʻilm al-mūsīqá. [4] al-Ilāhīyāt.

The purpose of the study is to identify how both tourism service provider- and tourist-generated social media communication affect the value co-creation process and how this can affect online customer experience and customer wellbeing. A questionnaire survey was used and 361 valid responses were obtained from Malaysian citizens. The research findings showed that tourism service provider- and tourist- generated social media communication positively influence value co-creation. Similarly, value co-creation positively influences cognitive and affective experiential states and these two states positively (...) influence customer wellbeing. Furthermore, value co-creation partially mediates the relationship between social media communication and online customer experience, whereas, online customer experiences also partially mediate the relationship between value co-creation and customer wellbeing. This study has tried to establish theoretical relationship between some significant variables and the findings would aid both academicians and practitioners in formulating strategies for future. (shrink)

The Need to Understand Factors Influencing Community Participation in Smart City Programs and to Evaluate Their Impact on Urban Progress This study aims to explore the implementation of the Smart City concept in Makassar, focusing on aspects of inclusion, sustainability, and the application of telemedicine technology. The research employs a quantitative methodology, designing a structured questionnaire encompassing variables such as environmental quality, economic vitality, social equity, and technological innovation. Data were collected through various online platforms and analyzed using statistical techniques (...) like correlation analysis and regression modeling. The findings indicate that the majority of participants are males under 30 years old, with backgrounds in farming and entrepreneurship, reflecting high interest in the Smart City concept among this demographic group. These insights are crucial for realizing an inclusive and sustainable Smart City in Makassar and highlight the importance of accessibility and active participation from all community sectors for the success of the Smart City program. (shrink)

In response to the rapidly increasing application and abuse of psychological tests in China, the Psychometrics Division of the Chinese Psychological Society published the 2008 revisions of the Chinese Code of Ethical Use of Psychological Tests. We investigated the implementation status of the code 2½ years after its promulgation. Sample included 284 psychological professionals and psychology graduate students. The average accuracy rate for the appropriate use of psychological tests was 67.1% (range = 25.5?97.5%), with 10 items having accuracy rates below (...) 45%. Participants remained uncertain about the clients' rights to information about the purpose, psychometric properties, and scores of the tests. The most frequent violations involved ?using psychological tests without psychometric information for entertainment purposes? and ?using SCL-90 to measure mental health of normal people.? (shrink)

The existing research aims to seek the herding effects on stock returns at the industry level in Pakistan Stock Exchange. Moreover, the relationship between stock returns and herding has been studied by taking some macroeconomic and fundamental control variables. Herding is actually imitating other’s behaviour. This phenomenon indicates a situation where the investors follow the crowed and ignores their personal information, despite knowing the correctness of their information. Herd behaviour may drive from fundamental factors leading to efficient markets. However, it (...) may not be associated with fundamental information causing unstable prices. The stock price data of PSX listed companies from 1999 to 2017 have been the point of focus. The underlying herding measure was the cross-sectional absolute deviation, proposed by Chang et al.. The significant analysis technique facilitating the current research is pooled mean group /panel autoregressive distributed lag approach. Findings revealed that some sectors are evident for positive effect of herding on stock returns, whereas some others are witnessed for its negative effects on stock returns, in both long run and short run. As far as the control variables are concerned, they demonstrated both significant and insignificant effects on stock returns in different sectors of PSX. The study has important implications for policymakers. (shrink)

This book is a collection of articles on different aspects of university education in China since the late nineteenth century, addressing how far the ideal of modern university education, which has gradually been developed in the West since the age of European Enlightenment, was adopted or transformed by Chinese universities.

This research study investigates the implementation of the Conflict Management Socialization and Mapping of Conflict Prone Areas program by the National Unity and Political Affairs Agency (Bakesbangpol) in Kuningan Regency, Indonesia. Using qualitative methods, including interviews and a literature review, the study examines how Bakesbangpol Kuningan detects and manages potential conflicts to maintain regional stability. Findings reveal that the program effectively utilizes early detection initiatives and community engagement forums such as Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and collaborates with various stakeholders, including (...) local authorities and community organizations. Creating a conflict-prone area map in 2017 is a vital tool for proactive conflict prevention and policy formulation. However, the study identifies areas for enhancement, including further staff training, robust administrative support systems development, and more decisive leadership in program execution. This research highlights the significance of systematic program implementation and collaborative efforts in managing social conflicts and ensuring sustained regional harmony. It contributes to the field by providing insights into effective conflict management strategies at the local level in Indonesia, particularly in diverse and potentially conflict-prone regions like Kuningan. (shrink)

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases that cause high blood sugar. Early diagnosis of such a condition is challenging due to its complex interdependence on various factors. There is a need to develop critical decision support systems to assist medical practitioners in the diagnosis process. This research proposes developing a predictive model that can achieve a high classification accuracy of type 2 diabetes. The study consisted of two fundamental parts. Firstly, the study investigated handling missing data adopting (...) data imputation, namely, median value imputation, K-nearest neighbor imputation, and iterative imputation. Consequently, the study validated the implications of these imputations using various classification algorithms, i.e., linear, tree-based, and ensemble algorithms, to see how each method affected classification accuracy. Secondly, Artificial Neural Network was employed to model the best performing imputed data, balanced with SMOTETomek ensuring each class is represented fairly. This approach provided the best accuracy of 98% on the test data, outperforming accuracies achieved in prior studies using the same dataset. The dataset used in this study is concerned with gender and population. As a prospect, the study recommends adopting a larger population sample without geographic boundaries. Additionally, as the developed Artificial Neural Network model did not undergo any specific hyperparameter tuning, it would be interesting to explore tuning on top of normalized data to optimize accuracy further. (shrink)

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

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

In this paper I offer a unified causal account of natural kinds. Using as a starting point the widely held view that natural kind terms or predicates are projectible, I argue that the ontological bases of their projectibility are the causal properties and relations associated with the natural kinds themselves. Natural kinds are not just concatenations of properties but ordered hierarchies of properties, whose instances are related to one another as causes and effects in recurrent causal processes. The resulting account (...) of natural kinds as clusters of core causal properties that give rise to clusters of derivative properties enables us to distinguish genuine natural kinds from non-natural kinds. For instance, it enables us to say why some of the purely conventional categories derived from the social domain do not correspond to natural kinds, though other social categories may. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2017 Heft: 216 Seiten: 297-316.

Data analytics, machine intelligence, and other cognitive algorithms have been employed in predicting various types of diseases in health care. The revolution of artificial neural networks in the medical discipline emerged for data-driven applications, particularly in the healthcare domain. It ranges from diagnosis of various diseases, medical image processing, decision support system, and disease prediction. The intention of conducting the research is to ascertain the impact of parameters on diabetes data to predict whether a particular patient has a disease or (...) not. This paper develops an improved ANN model trained using an artificial backpropagation scaled conjugate gradient neural network algorithm to predict diabetes effectively. For validating the performance of the proposed model, we conduct a large set of experiments on a Pima Indian Diabetes dataset using accuracy and mean squared error as evaluation metrics. We use different number of neurons in the hidden layer, ranging from 5 to 50, to train the ANN models. The experimental results show that the ABP-SCGNN model, containing 20 neurons, attains 93% accuracy on the validation set, which is higher than using the other ANNs models. This result confirms the model’s effectiveness and efficiency in predicting diabetes disease from the required data attributes. (shrink)

With the growing call for private sector actors to address global challenges, it is necessary to first assess whether regions with the greatest needs are accessing corporate philanthropy. In this paper, we ask whether corporate philanthropy is reaching those with the greatest health-care needs. Drawing on economic geography and corporate homophily, we argue that corporate philanthropy tends to exacerbate health inequality as grants are destined for counties with fewer health problems. We test and find support for this hypothesis using data (...) on health grants made by US corporate foundations and county-level health data. Our results that corporate health grants are less likely to go to counties which have a lower proportion of medical service providers and insured citizens suggest that corporate foundations are unwittingly complicit in worsening the resource gap between small, poor, rural counties and large, wealthy, urban counties. From an ethical perspective, we provide some guidance as to how this may be corrected. (shrink)