With a certain graphic interpretation in mind, we say that a function whose value at every point in its domain is a nonempty set of real numbers is an Abacus. It is shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a logic, called an abacus logic, i.e., a certain set of propositions partially ordered by generalized implication. It is also shown that to every collection C of abaci there corresponds a theory JC in a classical propositional calculus such (...) that the abacus logic determined by C is isomorphic to the poset of JC. Two examples are given. In both examples abacus logic is a lattice in which there happens to be an operation of orthocomplementation. In the first example abacus logic turns out to be the Lindenbaum algebra of JC. In the second example abacus logic is a lattice isomorphic to the ortholattice of subspaces of a Hilbert space. Thus quantum logic can be regarded as an abacus logic. Without suggesting "hidden variables" it is finally shown that the Lindenbaum algebra of the theory in the second example is a subalgebra of the abacus logic B of the kind studied in example 1. It turns out that the "classical observables" associated with B and the "quantum observables" associated with quantum logic are not unrelated. The value of a classical observable contains, in coded form, information about the "uncertainty" of a quantum observable. This information is retrieved by decoding the value of the corresponding classical observable. (shrink)

In much the same way that it is possible to construct a model of hyperbolic geometry in the Euclidean plane, it is possible to model quantum logic within the classical propositional calculus.

L’imprécision des sources orales et écrites, l’éparpillement et la disparité de ces dernières, rendent difficile la connaissance des personnages de l’histoire des sociétés de culture orale. Le récit oral sur Fadhma n’Soumeur, dont la notoriété et l’impact sur la société kabyle sont incontestables, est plus proche de la légende que de l’histoire tandis que l’historiographie coloniale, ignorant les réalités du pays occupé, est marquée par des considérations politiques et passionnelles.

L’imprécision des sources orales et écrites, l’éparpillement et la disparité de ces dernières, rendent difficile la connaissance des personnages de l’histoire des sociétés de culture orale. Le récit oral sur Fadhma n’Soumeur, dont la notoriété et l’impact sur la société kabyle sont incontestables, est plus proche de la légende que de l’histoire tandis que l’historiographie coloniale, ignorant les réalités du pays occupé, est marquée par des considérations politiques et passionnelles.

Background: Arthritis is very common but is not well understood. Actually, “arthritis” is not a single disease; it is an informal way of referring to joint pain or joint disease. There are more than 100 different types of arthritis and related conditions. People of all ages, sexes and races can and do have arthritis, and it is the leading cause of disability in America. More than 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some type of arthritis. It is most common (...) among women and occurs more frequently as people get older. Common arthritis joint symptoms include swelling, pain, stiffness and decreased range of motion. Symptoms may come and go. They can be mild, moderate or severe. They may stay about the same for years, but may progress or get worse over time. Severe arthritis can result in chronic pain, inability to do daily activities and make it difficult to walk or climb stairs. Arthritis can cause permanent joint changes. These changes may be visible, such as knobby finger joints, but often the damage can only be seen on X-ray. Some types of arthritis also affect the heart, eyes, lungs, kidneys and skin as well as the joints. Objectives: The main goal of this expert system is to get the appropriate diagnosis of disease and the correct treatment and give the appropriate method of treatment through several tips that concern the disease and how to treat it and we will see it through the application on the expert system. Methods: in this paper the design of the proposed Expert System which was produced to help Orthopedist in diagnosing Arthritis disease through its symptoms such as: pain on pressure in a joint , Inflammation indicated by joint swelling, Stiffness especially in the morning , Loss of flexibility of joint, Limited, joint movement, Deformity of the joints , Weight loss and fatigue , Non-specific fever and Crepitus. The proposed expert system presents an overview about Arthritis disease is given, the cause of diseases is outlined and the treatment of disease whenever possible is given out. SL5 Object Expert System language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The proposed Arthritis disease diagnosis expert system was evaluated by Orthopedics students and they were satisfied with its performance. Conclusions: The Proposed expert system is very useful for Orthopedist, patients with arthritis and newly graduated Orthopedics students. (shrink)

What is difficult to imagine is also surprising to perceive. This indicates that active visual imagery is an integral part of active visual perception. Erroneous mental transformations provide clues to prior assumptions in visual imagery, just as visual illusions provide clues to perceptual assumptions. Visual imagery and perception share generic assumptions about invariants in images of rigid objects.

للنقود دور هام في حياة الناس والمجتمعات البشرية ، كما أن لها دورا أساسيا ومحوريا في النظام الاقتصادي. ويتعرض الاقتصاد إلى العديد من المشكلات والنكسات التي تترك الأثر البليغ في استقراره وأحواله ، وبالتالي ينعكس ذلك على الوضع الاقتصادي المتقلب على الأوضاع المعيشية ، والتجارية لأفراد المجتمع. وتبرز مشكلة انخفاض قيمة النقود كإحدى هذه المشكلات التي تصيب الاقتصاد ، وهو ما يُطلق عليه " التضخم " حيث تنخفض قيمة النقود مقابل ارتفاع سعر السلع والمواد. يؤثر هذا الانخفاض لقيمة النقود على (...) معاملات الناس وبيعهم بالأجل ، أو الديون التي لهم في ذمم الآخرين فيأتي موعد القرض أو البيع بالأجل وقد تبدلت قيمة النقود من حيث قوتها وقيمتها الحقيقية ، فيكون المدفوع عند حلول الأجل غير مساوٍ أو مكافئ للمدفوع في أول العقد وبداية التعامل. فيقع الغُبنُ الكبير على أحد طرفي العقد دون تقصير أو سبب منه. فهل هناك اعتبار لتبدل قيمة النقود ارتفاعا أو انخفاضا في سداد الديون أو الحقوق المترتبة في الذمة أم لا ؟ تعددت أقوال العلماء في هذه المسألة : فمنهم من قالوا: بوجوب ارجاع المثل ، والبعض الآخر قالوا : برد القيمة ، ومنهم من فرّق بين الاختلاف اليسير والكبير في قيمة النقود ، ومنهم من جعل الخسارة مناصفة بين طرفي العقد. Para, insanların ve insan toplumlarının yaşamlarında önemli bir role sahiptir. Aynı zamanda ekonomik sisteminde temel ve çok önemli bir rolü de mevcuttur. Ekonomi, istikrarı ve koşulları üzerinde finansal bir etki bırakan pek çok sorun ve aksaklıkla karşı karşıyadır ve bu durum, yaşam koşullarındaki dalgalı ekonomik duruma ve toplumdaki bireylerin ticaretine yansımaktadır. Paranın değerinin düşmesi sorunu, ekonomiyi etkileyen bu sorunlardan biri olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. Paranın değerinin düşmesi sorunu, malların ve malzemelerin fiyatındaki artış karşılığında paranın değerinin düştüğü "enflasyon" olarak adlandırılan ekonomiyi etkileyen bu sorunlardan biri olarak ortaya çıkıyor. Paranın değerindeki bu düşüş, insanların işlemlerini ve krediyle satmalarını veya başkalarının borçlarında sahip oldukları borçları etkilediğinden, kredi veya satış zamanı zamanında gelir ve paranın değeri mukavemet ve gerçek değer, böylece sözleşmenin başında ve anlaşmanın başında ödenen zamandaki ödeme eşit veya eşdeğer değildir. Sözleşmenin taraflarından birine temerrüt veya sebep olmaksızın önemli adaletsizlik düşer. Borcun ödenmesinde veya borçtan doğan haklarda paranın değerinin artması veya azalması gibi bir husus var mıdır? Âlimlerin bu konuda çeşitli açıklamaları vardır. Birçok alim aynısı zorunludur derken başka alimler küçük ve büyük farklılıklar arasında farklılık gösterilir görüşü belirtmişlerdir. Ayrıca, paranın değer kaybı akdin iki tarafın arasında bölünmeli gibi görüşler mevcuttur. (shrink)

A personalized recommender system is broadly accepted as a helpful tool to handle the information overload issue while recommending a related piece of information. This work proposes a hybrid personalized recommender system based on affinity propagation, namely, APHPRS. Affinity propagation is a semisupervised machine learning algorithm used to cluster items based on similarities among them. In our approach, we first calculate the cluster quality and density and then combine their outputs to generate a new ranking score among clusters for the (...) personalized recommendation. In the first phase, user preferences are collected and normalized as items rating matrix. This generated matrix is then clustered offline using affinity propagation and kept in a database for future recommendations. In the second phase, online recommendations are generated by applying the offline model. Negative Euclidian similarity and the quality of clusters are used together to select the best clusters for recommendations. The proposed APHPRS system alleviates problems such as sparsity and cold-start problems. The use of affinity propagation and the hybrid recommendation technique used in the proposed approach helps in improving results against sparsity. Experiments reveal that the proposed APHPRS performs better than most of the existing recommender systems. (shrink)

Data mining’s primary clustering method has several uses, including gene analysis. A set of unlabeled data is divided into clusters using data features in a clustering study, which is an unsupervised learning problem. Data in a cluster are more comparable to one another than to those in other groups. However, the number of clusters has a direct impact on how well the K-means algorithm performs. In order to find the best solutions for these real-world optimization issues, it is necessary to (...) use techniques that properly explore the search spaces. In this research, an enhancement of K-means clustering is proposed by applying an equilibrium optimization approach. The suggested approach adjusts the number of clusters while simultaneously choosing the best attributes to find the optimal answer. The findings establish the usefulness of the suggested method in comparison to existing algorithms in terms of intra-cluster distances and Rand index based on five datasets. Through the results shown and a comparison of the proposed method with the rest of the traditional methods, it was found that the proposal is better in terms of the internal dimension of the elements within the same cluster, as well as the Rand index. In conclusion, the suggested technique can be successfully employed for data clustering and can offer significant support. (shrink)

This study investigates the moderating effect of students’ programs on entrepreneurship education aimed at pre-start-up and its effect on the students’ behavior. This study also attempts the level of entrepreneurship education and pre-start-up behavior among students. A survey was carried out among 441 final year students, including 214 students from business programs, and 227 students from non-business programs. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 22 and SmartPLS 3.3.0, to perform descriptive and multi-group analysis, including assessment of measurement invariance of the (...) composite model. The results reveal that all direct relationships were supported. It was also found that student programs do have a moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and pre-start-up behavior. Furthermore, the results discovered that risk control is a crucial component of entrepreneurship education and should be highlighted in the curriculum. This study contributes to the literature by considering student programs as a moderator, a comparatively new factor in the pre-start-up behavior among university students at the tertiary level. Therefore, entrepreneurship education must be properly designed, and the co-curriculum must be properly organized, so that entrepreneurship will be the preferred career choice in the future. (shrink)

Le processus révolutionnaire de 2011 a fourni les conditions nécessaires à l’émergence d’une forme particulière d’activisme ayant pour objet principal le territoire urbain. L’activisme urbain égyptien milite pour l’abandon des instruments de la planification urbaine rationnelle et dénonce les dérives des pratiques gouvernementales et des actions des agences de développement internationales calquées sur celles de l’entreprise privée. En renouant avec les grandes lignes des politiques néolibérales du régime de Moubarak qui ont échoué à résorber la pauvreté urbaine, la politique de (...) grands projets lancée par Sissi remet en question les quelques avancées observées depuis la révolution de 2011 dans le champ de l’urbanisme et de l’aménagement du territoire. (shrink)

This article demonstrates the ‘patterning’ of the ways discourse markers such as okay, right and yeah are used in academic lectures by native speaker lecturers. It presents an analysis of a) what the lecturers thought they would say and b) what they actually say in comparison to what the lecturers actually do say. In other words, it focuses on the differences between expectations of what would be said and speech, that is, what is actually said.The data comprise verbatim lecture transcriptions (...) of four native speaker lecturers of different disciplines, analysed using a discourse analytical approach. The findings and discussions exhibit the reasons for the differences between the ‘anticipated’ and ‘real’ meanings of the use of these discourse markers.They also reflect upon the significance of non-verbal features in determining the actual functions of these markers. In short, this article highlights the reality use of okay, right and yeah as interactive conversational markers in academic lectures. (shrink)

This article shows how Arab students at an Arab college in Israel, majoring in teaching of mathematics, English, and science, rely on metaphor as an important rhetorical tool for the advancement of their ideological positions and for criticism of the policies of the Israeli government, which discriminates against and disenfranchises Arab Israelis. The underlying hypothesis of the article is that the way Arab students in Israel use metaphor in their writing has unique rhetorical aspects that help to sharpen their message (...) in pursuit of the broader goal of emphasizing Arab Israelis’ suffering and changing for the better the Israeli government’s discriminatory patterns of action against them. (shrink)

We introduce new first-order languages for the elementary n-dimensional geometry and elementary n-dimensional affine geometry , based on extending equation image and equation image, respectively, with new function symbols. Here, β stands for the betweenness relation and ≡ for the congruence relation. We show that the associated theories admit effective quantifier elimination.

In the Indian context; contributed articles.

Background: Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home. Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given (...) year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can strike at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Objectives: The main goal of this expert system is to get the appropriate diagnosis of disease and the correct treatment and give the appropriate method of treatment through several tips that concern the disease and how to treat it and we will see it through the application on the expert system. Methods: in this paper the design of the proposed Expert System which was produced to help Psychologist in diagnosing depression disease through its symptoms such as: a loss of energy, a change in appetite, sleeping more or less, anxiety, reduced concentration, indecisiveness, restlessness, feelings of worthlessness, guilt or hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm or suicide. The proposed expert system presents an overview about depression disease is given, the cause of diseases is outlined and the treatment of disease whenever possible is given out. SL5 Object Expert System language was used for designing and implementing the proposed expert system. Results: The proposed depression disease diagnosis expert system was evaluated by psychologist students and they were satisfied with its performance. Conclusions: The Proposed expert system is very useful for psychologist, patients with depression and newly graduated psychologist. (shrink)

Tuberculosis has continued to retain its title as “the captain among these men of death”. This is evident as it is the leading cause of death globally from a single infectious agent. TB as it is fondly called has become a major threat to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDG) and hence require inputs from different research disciplines. This work presents a mathematical model of tuberculosis. A compartmental model of seven classes was used in the model formulation comprising (...) of the susceptible S, vaccinated V, exposed E, undiagnosed infectious I1, diagnosed infectious I2, treated T and recovered R. The stability analysis of the model was established as well as the condition for the model to undergo backward bifurcation. With the existence of backward bifurcation, keeping the basic reproduction number less than unity $$({R_{0}}<1)$$ is no more sufficient to keep TB out of the community. Hence, it is shown by the analysis that vaccination program, diagnosis and treatment helps to control the TB dynamics. In furtherance to that, it is shown that preference should be given to diagnosis over treatment as diagnosis precedes treatment. It is as well shown that at lower vaccination rate (0–20%), TB would still be endemic in the population. As such, high vaccination rate is required to send TB out of the community. (shrink)

Sustainability is concerned with the impact of present actions on the ecosystems, societies, and environments of the future. Such concerns should be reflected in the strategic planning of sustainable corporations. Strategic intentions of this nature are operationalized through the adoption of a long-term focus and a more inclusive set of responsibilities focusing on ethical practices, employees, environment, and customers. A central hypothesis, that we test in this paper is that companies which attend to this set of responsibilities under the term (...) superior sustainable practices, have higher financial performance compared to those that do not engage in such practices. The target population of this study consists of the top 100 sustainable global companies in 2008 which have been selected from a universe of 3,000 firms from the developed countries and emerging markets. We find significant higher mean sales growth, return on assets, profit before taxation, and cash flows from operations in some activity sectors of the sample companies compared to the control companies over the period of 2006–2010. Furthermore, our findings show that the higher financial performance of sustainable companies has increased and been sustained over the sample. Notwithstanding sample limitation, causal evidence reported in this paper suggests that, there is bi-directional relationship between corporate social responsibilities practices and corporate financial performance. (shrink)

The political landscape in Malaysia has been changing since the late 1990s with a gradual rise in resistance from civil society and the opposition parties. Domestic politics have become more contentious recently, particularly evidenced by the advent of a strong civil society and a multi-cultural opposition coalition. Thus, the social capital stimulated by ICTs and CSOs has played a vital role in strengthening and empowering the role of the opposition parties in Malaysia. This study seeks to understand how ICT-driven social (...) capital has facilitated the surge in the opposition movement by situating the political use of social capital in a broader socio-political context. Hence the dramatic political change has been intertwined with the dynamics of social capital and creation of a public sphere accelerated by the rapid growth of ICTs in the country. By analyzing recent voting patterns, this study demonstrates that ICT-driven social capital does have a great impact on the changing political landscape in Malaysia, particularly in shaping voting behavior and political participation of Malay and non-Malay citizens in domestic politics. (shrink)

The twenty-first century has seen an increase in ethical misconduct at the workplace, highlighting the need to stimulate discussion on the role of work ethics. The objective of the current study is to extend the literature on work ethics by examining the role of Islamic work ethic in enhancing the task performance of employees. The current study proposes that psychological capital mediates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and task performance. It is also proposed that ethical leadership might act as (...) a boundary condition that boosts the positive relationship between Islamic work ethic and psychological capital. Data were collected in three-time lags from employees working in the service sector of Pakistan through the questionnaire. The results supported the mediation and moderation hypothesis, confirming that psychological capital mediates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and task performance. Ethical leadership moderates the relationship between Islamic work ethic and psychological capital. The results offer implications for theory and practice. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed. (shrink)

In this research, the -dimensional variable-coefficient Caudrey–Dodd–Gibbon–Kotera–Sawada model used in soliton hypothesis and implemented by operating the Hirota bilinear scheme is studied. A few modern exact analytical outcomes containing interaction between a lump-two kink soliton, interaction between two-lump, the interaction between two-lump soliton, lump-periodic, and lump-three kink outcomes for the -D VC Caudrey–Dodd–Gibbon–Kotera–Sawada equation by Maple Symbolic packages are obtained. By employing Hirota’s bilinear technique, the extended soliton solutions according to bilinear frame equation are received. For this model, the contemplated (...) model can be got by multi-D binary Bell polynomials. In addition, the analytical analysis of the high-order soliton outcomes to present the discipline of outcomes. The effect of the free parameters on the behavior of acquired figures of a few obtained solutions for the nonlinear rational exact cases was also discussed. The above technique could also be employed to get exact solutions for other nonlinear models in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering. (shrink)

The paper investigates the various factors from a socio-cultural perspective that have a bearing on the intercultural couple’s marital satisfaction in Westerner and non-Westerner relationships, and how cultural differences may potentially amplify the difficulties, which non-intercultural couples themselves are already likely to face. These factors include acculturation, language and communication, attitudes toward marriage, individual traits and behaviours, support of the family, societal views, gender roles, managing of the household finances and child rearing. Certain theories are also highlighted in an attempt (...) to explain why these cultural differences have such a profound effect on the marital satisfaction of intercultural couples. (shrink)

Disclosure of health information is a sensitive matter, particularly in the context of serious illness. In conservative societies—those which predominate in the developing world—direct truth disclosure undoubtedly presents an ethical conundrum to the modern physician. The aim of this study is to explore the truth disclosure practices of physicians in Jordan, a developing country. In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 240 physicians were initially selected by stratified random sampling. The sample was drawn from four major hospitals in Amman, Jordan. A closed-ended (...) questionnaire was distributed and completed by self-report. A total of 164 physicians completed the questionnaire. Thirty-seven physicians usually withheld the diagnosis of “serious illness” from patients, while 127 physicians usually divulged the information directly. Among the latter, 108 physicians made exceptions to their disclosure policy. Specialists were more likely to withhold health information. Non-disclosure was primarily motivated by request from the patient’s family. In twenty cases, non-disclosure was undertaken independently. In conclusion, most respondents opt to disclose the truth; however, the vast majority of these respondents make exceptions. Instances of non-disclosure are primarily motivated by sociocultural constructs. (shrink)

Yüksek din öğretimi kurumları diğer alanlar gibi günümüzde üniversite bünyesinde faaliyet göstermektedir. Ülkeler tarihsel, kültürel ve devlet yapıları doğrultusunda kendi kurumlarını kurup geliştirmekle birlikte, dünyadaki benzer diğer kurumların tecrübe ve birikimlerinin öğrenilmesi üniversitelerin gelişimi için önem arzetmektedir. Karşılaştırmalı çalışmaların bu konuda dikkate değer katkıları bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Malezya ve Türkiye'deki yüksek din öğretimi tarih, mevcut durum, hedefler, program yapısı, öğrenci kabulü ve mezun istihdam edilebilirliği gibi 6 farklı tema üzerinden karşılaştırılması hedeflenmektedir. Malezya ve Türkiye, nüfuslarının çoğunluğu Müslüman olmakla birlikte, devlet (...) ve toplum yapısı açısından birbirinden oldukça farklı iki ülkeyi temsil etmektedirler. Nitel, literatür bazlı olan bu çalışma doküman analizine dayanmaktadır. Her iki ülkedeki yüksek din öğretimini anlamak ve ortaya koymak amacıyla resmi belgeler, akademik makaleler ve internet kaynakları kullanılmıştır. Makalenin bulguları şöyledir: Türkiye'de yüksek din öğretiminin gelişimi kesintili olmuştur ve önemli siyasi değişimler yüksek din eğitimini etkilemiş olduğundan din siyaseti ile yakından ilişkilidir. Buna karşılık, Malezya'da yüksek din öğretiminin gelişimi daha istikrarlı olmuştur. Siyasi partilerin din siyaseti ve seçim hesapları Malezya'daki yüksek İslami öğretimini etkilemiş olsa da, bu en azından kurumlarının kapanmalarına veya sayılarının dramatik bir şekilde azaltılmasına yol açmamıştır. Güncele bakıldığında yüksek din öğretimi kurumlarının her iki ülkede de gelişmekte olduğu, ancak Türkiye'de bunun (en azıdan sayısal olarak) Malezya'dan daha hızlı olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Yüksek din öğretiminin amaçlarıyla ilgili olarak, amaçların ve program çıktılarının ulusal bir kurum tarafından belirlendiği Malezya'da Ehl-i Sünnet ve'l-Cemaat ve dinini icra eden öğrencilerin yetiştirilmesine doğrudan atıflar vardır. Türkiye'de tarihsel olarak, ilahiyat fakültelerinin resmi misyonları, kısmen ilahiyatın laik bir üniversitedeki yerini meşrulaştırmak amacıyla modern amaçlara/kavramlara daha çok yer vermekte idi. Ancak son yıllarda açıkça İslami değer ve kavramlara atıflar yapan amaç ve misyonlar belirlenmektedir. Ancak ilahiyat/İslami ilimler fakültelerinin amaçlarını belirleyen ulusal bir kurumun olmaması nedeniyle, resmi misyon ve vizyon ifadeleri düzensiz görünmektedir, ancak akreditasyon süreci daha ortak ve bütünlüklü amaç ve program çıktılarının belirlenmesini sağlayabilir. Türkiye'de yüksek din öğretimi, Malezya’nın aksine, resmi olarak İslam'ın herhangi bir mezhebini benimsememekte olup, bu çoğulculuk ve çeşitliliğin olduğu modern bir toplum için daha uyumlu ve bütünleştirici olma fırsatı sunmaktadır. Malezya'da İslami bilgiyi mesleki bilgiyle bütünleştirmeyi amaçlayan farklı yüksek din öğretimi programları vardır. Bu, çok yönlü ve disiplinler arası programların ve uzmanlıkların oluşturulmasını sağlamıştır. Bu programlardan mezun olanlar ise güvenlikten finansa, yargıdan din hizmetlerine kadar çok farklı mesleklerde çalışabilmektedir. Türkiye’deki yüksek din öğretimi fakülteleri ise sadece tek bir program sunmakta olup, çoklu ve disiplinler arası programlar bulunmamaktadır. İki ülke arasındaki bir diğer önemli fark, öğrenci kabul sürecidir. Malezya'da farklı ortaöğretim sonrası eğitim/sınav sistemleri bulunurken, Türkiye'de merkezi bir üniversite giriş sınavı vardır. Farklı sınav sistemlerine rağmen, Malezya'da öğrencilerin İslami ilimler programlarına kaydolabilmeleri için İslam eğitimi, Arapça ve İngilizce konularında sağlam bir altyapıya sahip olmaları gerekmektedir; Türkiye'de ise üniversite sınavında din eğitimi ile ilgili çok az soru bulunmakta; bu nedenle, yüksek din öğretimi için din eğitimi, Arapça veya İngilizce herhangi bir altyapıya gerek bulunmamaktadır. Bu, din eğitimi geçmişi olmayanlar için bir fırsat olsa da, ilahiyat/İslami ilimler fakültelerinin Kuran okumayı öğretmek gibi en basit işlerden başlaması problemini gündeme getirmektedir. Son olarak, her iki ülkede de yüksek din öğretimi mezunlarının istihdam edilebilirliğinin en acil sorunlardan biri olduğu, ancak bu sorunun Türkiye'de Malezya'dan daha fazla olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. (shrink)

Advance care planning is a voluntary process whereby individual preferences, values and beliefs are used to aid a person in planning for end-of-life care. Currently, there is no local instrument to assess an individual’s awareness and attitude towards advance care planning. This study aimed to develop an Advance Care Planning Questionnaire and to determine its validity and reliability among older people in Malaysia. The Advance Care Planning Questionnaire was developed based on literature review. Face and content validity was verified by (...) an expert panel, and piloted among 15 participants. Our study was conducted from October 2013 to February 2014, at an urban primary care clinic in Malaysia. Included were those aged >50 years, who could understand English. A retest was conducted 2 weeks after the first administration. Participants from the pilot study did not encounter any problems in answering the Advance Care Planning Questionnaire. Hence, no further modifications were made. Flesch reading ease was 71. The final version of the Advance Care Planning Questionnaire consists of 66 items: 30 items were measured on a nominal scale, whilst 36 items were measured on a Likert-like scale; of which we were only able to validate 22 items, as the remaining 14 items were descriptive in nature. A total of 245 eligible participants were approached; of which 230 agreed to participate. Factor analysis on the 22 items measured on a Likert-scale revealed four domains: “feelings regarding advance care planning”, “justifications for advance care planning”, “justifications for not having advance care planning: fate and religion”, and “justifications for not having advance care planning: avoid thinking about death”. The Cronbach’s alpha values for items each domain ranged from 0.637–0.915. In test-retest, kappa values ranged from 0.738–0.947. The final Advance Care Planning Questionnaire consisted of 63 items and 4 domains. It was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess the awareness and attitude of older people in Malaysia towards advance care planning. (shrink)

Service recovery performance is very important for the takaful insurance industry for maintaining and attracting new clients, which in turn serves as a competitive advantage for the survival and continued future of the businesses. If the insurance sector could not maintain SRP, then the competitive advantage of the organizations could be decayed. Therefore, under the theoretical foundation of equity theory and resource-based theory, this research has investigated the link between human resources management practices and SRP directly and indirectly through the (...) employee commitment. By using a convenient sampling technique data was collected from the employees working in the Takaful industry in Pakistan to empirically test the proposed hypotheses and validate the findings. Using cross research design and quantitative research approach. The Structural Equation Modeling had presented the positive relationship between HRM practices and SRP. On the other hand, employee commitment had also mediated this relationship. As employee commitment is significantly mediated among most of the HRMP, this aspect is therefore considered to be a big contribution of the study in the context of Pakistan. Based on these findings, the current study has several important implications the practitioners and readers. (shrink)

A training physician has his first interaction with a pharmaceutical representative during medical school. Medical students are often provided with small gifts such as pens, calendars and books, as well as free lunches as part of drug promotion offers. Ethical impact of these transactions as perceived by young medical students has not been investigated in Pakistan before. This study aimed to assess the association of socio-demographic variables with the attitudes of medical students towards pharmaceutical companies and their incentives.

The 21st century faces one of the most singular challenges of all times. How to react to the obstacles that follow the cycle of the Anthropocene, with all its disastrous and putrid consequences? There are two possible ways: acceptance of the situation or the critical and prophetic reaction, that lies on the ground of hospitality and dialogue. When ethnocentrism, xenophobia and fundamentalism grow, dialogue and acceptance of the other urge with a special meaning. Dialogue and Hospitality are expressions that interact (...) and complement each other. Facing the current situation that is asking for interconnection, we must broaden the fabrics of this reception, including not only human beings, but opening the scope to a wider dimension of all creation. Humankind is related, is linked to a larger web that weaves the universe. Inhabiting the Earth gains a new meaning, to be part of life itself. (shrink)