This article proposes an analysis of changes implemented during Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration (20032003), which displayed bias against changes and introduced schemes to justify the systems it upheld. Transmutations wrought during Abdullah's tenure may have been neither substantial nor totalizing, but within the conservative paradigm which had long gripped national politics, Abdullah's deviations were significant nevertheless.

The aim of present paper is to introduce the concept of ‘expressive perception’ in Ernst Cassirer’s philosophical mythology. Having Cited Dorothy Emmet’s methodological objection, the author, by recalling Kantian aspect of Cassirer’s thought and referring to the concept of ‘expressive perception’, would make an attempt to reply on his part: according to Cassirer, this level of perceptive experience is the origin of the mythical form of thinking as a whole and, at the same time, is the original and irreducible altogether. (...) Thus, taking ‘mythical thought’ as an independent form of thinking, beside the ‘critical-empirical’ form of thinking, is, for one thing, completely cogent; for another, due to its dependency upon expressive form of perception, mythical thought would never be quite omitted, rather, keep living latently beneath the skin of mental life. In addition, author explains how much Cassirer owes, regarding to the concept of ‘expressive form of perception’, to Max Scheler. Avoiding to elaborate on Scheler’s detailed argument, Cassirer relies strongly on the consequences Scheler draws from his considerations in his work ‘Wesen und Formen der Sympathie’. Restating Scheler’s argument briefly should help in understanding Cassirer’s idea. (shrink)

This article revisits the figure of the ‘third world sweatshop worker’, long iconic of the excesses of the global expansion of flexible accumulation in late twentieth-century capitalism. I am interested in how feminist activists concerned with the uneven impact of neo-liberal policies can engage in progressive political interventions without participating in the ‘culture of global moralism’ that continues to surround conventional representations of third world workers. I situate my analysis in the national space of Bangladesh, where the economy is heavily (...) dependent on the labour of women factory workers in the garment industry and where local feminist understandings of the ‘sweatshop economy’ have not always converged with global feminist/left concerns about the exploitation inherent in the (now not so new) New International Division of Labor. The tensions or disjunctures between ‘global’ and ‘local’ feminist viewpoints animate the concerns of this article. I argue that de-contextualized critiques derived from abstract notions of individual rights, and corresponding calls for change from above — calls on the conscience of the feminist and the consumer, for instance — can entail troubling analytical simplifications. They highlight some relations of power while erasing others, thereby enacting a different kind of violence and at times undermining mobilizations on the ground. I draw attention to the multiple fields of power through which much of the activism across borders continues to be produced and reproduced discursively. This kind of framing fits all too easily into existing cultural scripts about gender and race elsewhere, and produces ethical obligations to ‘save’ women workers. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a non-geometrodynamic quantum Yang–Mills theory of gravity based on the homogeneous Lorentz group within the general framework of the Poincare gauge theories. The obstacles of this treatment are that first, on the one hand, the gauge group that is available for this purpose is non-compact. On the other hand, Yang–Mills theories with non-compact groups are rarely healthy, and only a few instances exist in the literature. Second, it is not clear how the direct observations of (...) space–time waves can be explained when space–time has no dynamics. We show that the theory is unitary and is renormalizable to the one-loop perturbation. Although in our proposal, gravity is not associated with any elementary particle analogous to the graviton, classical helicity-two space–time waves are explained. Five essential exact solutions to the field equations of our proposal are presented as well. We also discuss a few experimental tests that can falsify the presented Yang–Mills theory. (shrink)

Guidelines on ethics and military life for new officers of Malaysian Army.

This volume offers interreligious and interdisciplinary insight into the cinematic-serial and literary narration of evil. Evil is an important motif in literature, film and series. We encounter it in the most diverse forms - be it the Joker from The Dark Knight, Goethe's Mephisto or in the Shiite theatre ritual of the Taʿziya. This volume attempts a closer exploration of what we know as evil, and yet find difficult to comprehend. In addition to Christian and Islamic perspectives, philosophical and mystical (...) considerations are also addressed. Evil, its aesthetic reception and the resulting perspectives on its reality are the focus of the multidisciplinary contributions. With contributions by Prof. Dr. Thomas Jürgasch, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Milad Karimi, Prof. Dr. Walter Lesch, Prof. Dr. Konrad Paul Liessmann, Dr. Maryam Palizban, Iyad Shraim and Prof. Dr. Reinhold Zwick. (shrink)

The paper describes the design of an intelligent tutoring system for teaching Introduction to Computer Science-a compulsory curriculum in Al-Azhar University of Gaza to students who attend the university. The basic idea of this system is a systematic introduction into computer science. The system presents topics with examples. The system is dynamically checks student's individual progress. An initial evaluation study was done to investigate the effect of using the intelligent tutoring system on the performance of students enrolled in computer science (...) curriculum at Al-Azhar University, Gaza. The results showed a positive impact on the evaluators. (shrink)

Temporal logic is of importance in theoretical computer science for its application in formal verification, to state requirements of hardware or software systems. Linear temporal logic is an appropriate logical environment to formalize Yablo’s paradox which is seemingly non-self-referential and basically has a sequential structure. We give a brief review of Yablo’s paradox and its various versions. Formalization of these paradoxes yields some theorems in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) for which we give syntactic proofs using an appropriate axiomatization of LTL.

Human gait is a complex activity that requires high coordination between the central nervous system, the limb, and the musculoskeletal system. More research is needed to understand the latter coordination's complexity in designing better and more effective rehabilitation strategies for gait disorders. Electroencephalogram and functional near-infrared spectroscopy are among the most used technologies for monitoring brain activities due to portability, non-invasiveness, and relatively low cost compared to others. Fusing EEG and fNIRS is a well-known and established methodology proven to enhance (...) brain–computer interface performance in terms of classification accuracy, number of control commands, and response time. Although there has been significant research exploring hybrid BCI involving both EEG and fNIRS for different types of tasks and human activities, human gait remains still underinvestigated. In this article, we aim to shed light on the recent development in the analysis of human gait using a hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI system. The current review has followed guidelines of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-Analyses during the data collection and selection phase. In this review, we put a particular focus on the commonly used signal processing and machine learning algorithms, as well as survey the potential applications of gait analysis. We distill some of the critical findings of this survey as follows. First, hardware specifications and experimental paradigms should be carefully considered because of their direct impact on the quality of gait assessment. Second, since both modalities, EEG and fNIRS, are sensitive to motion artifacts, instrumental, and physiological noises, there is a quest for more robust and sophisticated signal processing algorithms. Third, hybrid temporal and spatial features, obtained by virtue of fusing EEG and fNIRS and associated with cortical activation, can help better identify the correlation between brain activation and gait. In conclusion, hBCI system is not yet much explored for the lower limb due to its complexity compared to the higher limb. Existing BCI systems for gait monitoring tend to only focus on one modality. We foresee a vast potential in adopting hBCI in gait analysis. Imminent technical breakthroughs are expected using hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI for gait to control assistive devices and Monitor neuro-plasticity in neuro-rehabilitation. However, although those hybrid systems perform well in a controlled experimental environment when it comes to adopting them as a certified medical device in real-life clinical applications, there is still a long way to go. (shrink)

Critical study of the works of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, 1877-1938.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Art in Social Studies: Exploring the World and Ourselves with RembrandtIftikhar Ahmad (bio)IntroductionRembrandt’s art lends itself as a fertile resource for teaching and learning social studies. His art not only captures the social studies themes relevant to the Dutch Golden Age, but it also offers a description of human relations transcending temporal and spatial frontiers. Rembrandt is an imaginative storyteller with a keen insight for minute details. His (...) narrative of the culture, society, economy, geography, and contemporary events of seventeenth-century Dutch life is as vivid and perceptive as a historian’s eloquent text. How people lived in community, how the city of Amsterdam functioned, how important religion was to people, how diverse and cosmopolitan the culture was, how interdependent the world was in the seventeenth century, and what the social and civic ideals of the Dutch people were during the Golden Age—Rembrandt’s paintings, etchings, and drawings neatly organize these and other social studies themes into visual messages. More importantly, our appreciation and interpretation of Rembrandt’s work helps us learn about not just Dutch society and culture of four hundred years ago but also about ourselves. The passion, emotions, conflicts, and inspirations of his subjects are essentially human and eternal, arousing empathy in every generation and cross-section of society. In this article I look at Rembrandt’s art for the purpose of teaching and learning social studies in our contemporary interdependent world—a world that is chronologically and geographically distant from the Dutch Golden Age but in many respects shares its enduring values, norms, ideals, pursuits, challenges, and possibilities. To do so, I employ a conceptual lens—the curriculum thematic strands of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)—to examine Rembrandt’s art in order to explore life and make meaning of the story that is being told about the human condition, and to seek out its relevance to ourselves and [End Page 19] our world in the early twenty-first century. Although Rembrandt’s oeuvre is extensive, including the diverse genres of self-portraits, group portraits, drawings, etchings, landscapes, and religious themes, for our limited purpose I have selected only those works that, in my judgment, correspond with the following seven of the ten thematic curriculum strands of the NCSS:CultureTime, Continuity, and ChangePeople, Places, and EnvironmentIndividual Development and IdentityProduction, Distribution, and ConsumptionGlobal ConnectionsCivic Ideals and PracticesThese thematic curriculum strands are derived from the foundational disciplines of the social sciences and humanities such as anthropology, history, geography, sociology, political science, psychology, economics, philosophy, and law, but they are conceptually interrelated.1 For example, culture is a core concept in anthropology but it is also relevant to Time, Continuity, and Change, which is the main concept in the history discipline. Similarly, culture is relevant to the theme of People, Places, and Environment, which is the central focus of geography. More importantly, since social studies is about human experiences, there is a general consensus among the social studies educators that classroom teachers should draw content knowledge not just from the social sciences as mentioned here but from wide sources “to construct curricular experiences enabling students to actively relate new knowledge to existing understanding.”2 That is to say all fields of knowledge that are related to human civilization and that help in developing students’ skills in reflective thinking, decision making, and problem solving are relevant to social studies education. Those fields also include art. Rembrandt’s art is especially relevant because his themes are universal and the social, political, and economic contexts in which he created his work—globalization, individualism, and free enterprise—are more or less similar to our age.It needs to be mentioned that by looking at Rembrandt’s art from the social studies perspective it is not my intention to strip his work of its aesthetic scope and value. On the contrary, by looking at Rembrandt in the social studies classroom I seek to humanize social studies education itself. That [End Page 20] is to say I wish to step back from the conventional view of social studies to feel free from the bonds of traditionalism and discover, describe, analyze... (shrink)

ملخـــص -/- بشارات، أحمد محمد. التفسير الدلالي في إعراب المضارع-الجزم أنموذجًا. رسالة ماجستير في جامعة اليرموك. 2007م. (المشرف: أ.د. فيصل صفا). هدف البحث إلى إعطاء تفسيرات دلالية لظهور إعراب الجزم في تركيبات الجملة الفعلية، وحاول تعليل ارتباط الجزم بفكرة التعليق الشرطي، وتعليل عدم الجزم في بعض التركيبات الشرطية، وحاول أن يقدم تفسيرًا دلاليًا لاختلاف آخر المضارع، وتعليلاً لاختلاف آخر المضارع المنفي (لا/ لن/ لم/ يفعل) مختلف الصورة الإعرابية بالرفع مرة والنصب أخرى والجزم ثالثة. وسعى البحث في ظاهرة الجزم إلى الكشف (...) عن حالة الإعراب في المضارع أهي بالمشابهة للأسماء أم بالأصالة، والكشف عن فكرة الإعراب في المضارع أيقدم إعراب المضارع معنىً نحويًا أم أنه حالة من الإعراب تخرج عن فكرة النحاة القائلة بأن الإعراب فرع المعنى. وقد جاء البحث في مقدمة وتمهيد وبابين وخاتمة، عرضت في المقدمة أهمية البحث في ظاهرة الجزم، وذكرت الدراسات السابقة لهذا البحث، مبينًا أهم نتائجها، ووضحت في المقدمة خطة البحث ومنهجيته. أما الباب الأول فقد جاء في فصلين: الأول عنوانه" الجزم في الدرس النحوي القديم" عرضت فيه لمصطلح الجزم لغةً واصطلاحًا غاية ربط مفهوم المصطلح بفكرة الدلالة في الإنجاز اللغوي، وبحثت في مصطلحات الإعراب الأخرى لغةً واصطلاحًا، وعرضت لفكرة إعراب المضارع علةً ودلالةً، والفصل الثاني وعنوانه" علة إعراب المضارع ودلالته في الدرس النحوي الحديث" بحثت فيه علة تشكل علامة الإعراب أهي بالمعنى أو بالعامل؟ وعرضت فيه لفكرة المحدثين في بحثهم معنى الإعراب في المضارع. أما الباب الثاني، فقد جاء في فصلين: الأول عنوانه" التفسير الدلالي لظاهرة الجزم، وعرضت فيه علة اختلاف آخر المضارع محاولاً ربط الشكل الإعرابي بالدلالة النحوية، وعرضت فيه لمعاني الفعل(الإسناد والزمن والحدث) محاولا ربط علامة آخر المضارع بدلالة الإسناد فيه. والفصل الثاني عنوانه" معنى الجزم في السياقات اللغوية، عرضت فيه لمعنى الجزم في التركيبات اللغوية، وعرضت فيه لفكرة الجزم في صيغ الأمر معللاً حالة الاخر في صيغ الأمر على نحو يربطها بمسألة الإعراب. وقد خضعت الدراسة لمنهج تحليليّ. وخرج البحث ببعض النتائج، نذكر منها: - إن إطلاق المصطلحات الإعرابية يرجع إلى ملحظ صوتيّ حسب، فلا يتوافق معنى المصطلح الإعرابي مع واقع الإنجاز اللغوي. - المضارع معرب بالأصالة لا بالمشابهة؛ ذلك أن المضارع المنصوب والمجزوم لا يقع موقع الأسماء، والموقعية علة في إعراب الفعل. - معاني النحو هي المعاني الوظيفية للسياق، وقول النحاة إنّ المعاني النحوية هي الفاعلية والمفعولية والإضافة قول غير دقيق؛ لأن النعت والحال والوصف والإسناد وغيرها معانٍ نحوية تعتور على السياق. - يرتبط إعراب المضارع بفكرة الإسناد في الفعل، فالرفع للإسناد الواقع، والنصب للإسناد الغائي، والجزم يدل على عدم وقوع الإسناد. -/- الكلمات المفتاحية: الجزم، دلالة الجزم، إعراب الجزم، إعراب المضارع، الإسناد، التعليق الشرطي، الجزم والتعليق الشرطي، الأدوات الجازمة. دلالة الإعراب في المضارع. (shrink)

Aristotle Middle Commentary on the Topics, comparing them, where necessary, to the testimonies collected by Boethius in his De topicis differentiis. In addition we show that the Themistian classification of loci was taken up by Abt al-Badb al-mub al-mu al-Barak thus reveals himself to be closer than Averroes to the testimony of Boethius. This suggests the idea of a double redaction by Themistius of the classification of loci: one, more concentrated, comes from an introduction to the paraphrase of the central (...) books of the Topics, which may have inspired Averroes; the other, more extensive, which will have been part of an original work, and inspired the classifications of Boethius and of Abt al-Badī. (shrink)

In this article, I will offer some remarks on and analysis of the epistemic approach to understanding dialogue and difference of its nature to negotiation. My conceptual deliberations on dialogue have been influenced by two contemporary European philosophers, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Raimund Popper, as well as by the mystical and visionary elaborations of the Persian Islamic thinker, Jalaluddin Rumi of the thirteenth century. I will elaborate on the topics of dialogue and the arts of questioning and listening; dialogue and (...) the issue of language and being; and dialogue and its conduct. I will then address the socio-political conditions necessary for a genuine dialogue; and finally, I will briefly review UNESCO’s raison d'etre and conclude with a discussion of dialogue’s relevance to UNESCO’s mission. (shrink)

This article deals with varieties of epistemological methods in calculating days of lunar calendar, mainly on the beginning date of months. Examining different methods in Indonesian Islamic-scape, it argues that there are three epistemological models which are rooted at Islamic classical epistemologies; the ahl al-hadith, the ahl al-ra‎y, and the intuitive sufi. The ahl al-hadith emphasizes on the empirical rukyatul-hilal, whereas the ahl al-ra’y strongly concerns on the mathematically rational method. The sufi, not so popular in Indonesia but influential in (...) some sufi circles, deploys the intuitive kashf method. In some cases, these three are however intertwined and in contradiction one to another. The article futher argues that different method-in-use is strongly influenced the local spesificties of diverse Indonesian Muslim’s backgrounds, and groupings. (shrink)