252 research outputs found
The Reflection of Islamic Culture and Beliefs in the Stories of Dr. Akram Osman
No full textThe sacred religion of Islam encompasses its own distinct principles, laws, and worldview, as presented through the Holy Quran, a divine guide for humanity. This guidance shapes the beliefs, actions, and morals of Muslims according to an Islamic perspective. Islam is a comprehensive and complete religion that addresses all aspects of individual, familial, social, economic, political, and cultural life. It provides everything necessary for human guidance and prosperity, as conveyed to humanity by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the savior of mankind, who is the final prophet, and Islam is the ultimate and final religion. In Islamic societies, the responsibility of promoting and conveying Islamic teachings was not limited to religious scholars alone. Muslim poets and writers also undertake this significant mission, using their literary talents in both poetry and prose to inspire individuals and societies with the values and teachings of this sacred religion. The late Dr. Mohammad Akram Osman, a distinguished author from Afghanistan, made remarkable contributions to storytelling that not only enriched the world of literature but also served as a guide for humanity in learning and understanding Islamic culture and beliefs. This article aims to explore the reflection of Islamic culture and beliefs in the stories of Dr. Mohammad Akram Osman, highlighting his ability to intertwine Islamic teachings with literary expression
Neutralisation state driven single-agent search strategy for solving constraint satisfaction problem / Saajid Akram Ahmed Abuluaih
No full textIn the past seven decades, Constraint Satisfaction (CS) has been extensively studied and remarkably evolved to where the scientific community perceives it as the centre of the intelligent behaviour. Therefore, most of the recent research in the field is devoted to improving the problem solvers that utilize search strategies and techniques. Since Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is an NP-complete problem, brute-force search algorithms such as Backtracking algorithm (BT) are required as the guarantee to find a solution, when there is one. Moreover, since the establishment of the field, AI pioneers and specialists have setup instructions and guidelines on how to solve this type of problems back in the seventies of the last century and have not been changed or improved. For example, the framework of solving CSP imposes a complete permutation of assignments to all remaining variables in order to derive a valid model. The author argues in this study that the problem can be neutralised and it is not necessary to perform brute-force searching all the time if a search strategy could have guided the process to the level where the values of the remaining variables can be determined implicitly, creating what the author calls Solo-Path of assignments in the problem search tree
Clinical characteristics of critically ill patients infected with COVID-19 in rasoul akram hospital in Iran: A single center study
No full textBackground: Knowledge about clinical features of critically ill patients with COVID-19 still lacks adequate information up to now. Objectives: We aimed to describe and compare the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19 in Rasoul Akram Hospital. Methods: In this case series, 70 critically ill patients with COVID-19 admitted in ICU wards of Rasoul Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 29 February to 25 April 2020 were enrolled. Demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory data, and outcomes of the patients were all collected and compared between deceased and recovered patients. Results: Fifty-six cases had died of COVID-19, and 14 patients had fully recovered and discharged. The median age of the patients was 68 years old, ranging from 22 to 91 years, 66 were men, 80 had one or more comorbidities, and hypertension was the most common comorbidities (45 of deceased cases). The most common signs and symptoms at the onset of illness were SPO2 depression (92) and dyspnea (90). Dyspnea was significantly more common in deceased patients (95) than recovered patients (70) (P = 0.048). Most patients had lymphopenia (80). The number of patients who needed mechanical ventilation in the deceased patients was 53 (95), which was significantly more than the recovered patients (10 70%) (P = 0.048). Conclusions: The mortality rate of critically ill patients with COVID-19 is very high, and the patients with dyspnea and required mechanical ventilation are at higher risk for death. © 2020, Author(s)
Akram Khan, Lloyd Newson, and the Challenges of British Multiculturalism
No full textIn a climate riven by national insecurities, anti-immigration movements and competing visions of a post-Brexit future, this paper examines the contentious space multiculturalism has inhabited in 21st-century British choreography. It analyses acclaimed works by Akram Khan and Lloyd Newson to explore starkly differing perspectives on cultural diversity in the UK. Khan’s contribution to the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Abide with Me) emphasised the nation’s post-imperialist and cosmopolitan profile. By contrast, Newson’s contemporaneous work Can We Talk about this? (2011/12) was highly critical of current models of multiculturalism and in particular attitudes towards Islam. This paper compares the two choreographies using a theoretical framework that draws on both political thought and dance analysis, to evaluate their contributions to debates around culture, tolerance and diasporic identities and illustrate the broader entanglement between British dance and contemporary politics.@ 2018, Edinburgh University Press. The attached document is an author produced version of a paper accepted for publication in Dance Research, uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. Once published, we suggest you refer to the final published version (Version of Record) should you wish to cite from it
A comparison of global surgery tariffs and the actual cost of bills at Hazrate Rasoole Akram educational and medical center
No full textBackground: The health service tariff is an appropriate policymaking tool and the financial leverage of the health system control which affects quality, availability, cost, efficiency, equity and accountability of health services. Global surgeries include 91 common cases of general and specialized surgeries in hospitals; fixed tariffs are annually defined for these surgeries, and insurance companies must pay medical centers based on these tariffs. The aim of this study was to examine and compare hospital bills with global surgery tariffs at Hazrate Rasoole Akram Educational and Medical Center in 2017. Methods: This descriptive-Analytic study was conducted retrospectively and compared the global and actual costs of global surgeries performed in the third quarter of the year 2017 at Hazrate Rasoole Akram Educational and Medical Center. Required data on the actual costs of surgeries was collected through the Hospital Information System (HIS) and patients' records. Information on the global costs was obtained from the Annual Circulars of Insurance Council for the studied period about the cost of global surgeries. Linear regression (STATA13 software) was used to investigate the effect of items on tariff and invoice differences; concerning other calculations, EXCEL software was used. Results: The highest frequency of global surgeries was related to ophthalmic surgery which accounted for approximately half of total surgeries performed at Hazrate Rasoole Akram Hospital. The most significant difference between global tariff and invoice was also related to ophthalmic surgery (188709.3 Dollar a year).Overall, the actual hospital bills were much higher than the tariffs approved for global surgeries, and the total difference was 461805.5 Dollar. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between some of the items such as the cost of operating rooms, anesthesia and other services. Conclusions: Referral hospitals which are at the level three of referral networks usually treat more complex patients; this should be taken into account when defining surgery tariffs of these centers. On the other hand, hospitals need to control the costs and reduce the end cost of these surgeries by improving clinical management and cost management. In addition, prospective and case-based payment methods can control health costs. © 2020 The Author(s)
Transformation function tests
No full textEconometric models usually relate a known function of a dependent variable, Y , with some observable covariates X. A misspeci ed transformation function, however, can cause inconsistency. The estimated parameters will be biased and inconsistent. The marginal e ects and the elasticities calculated using these estimated parameters can be far from the truth and any inference based on them will be misleading. The problem of misspeci cation can be resolved simply by estimating the transformation function. There are di erent methods of estimating the model based on the parametric assumptions on the transformation function, or the distribution of the error term, or both. In a completely parametric setup, both the transformation function and the distribution of the error term are known up to a vector of parameters. The Box-Cox transformation is a good example of using parametric transformation functions. It is also possible, however, to estimate the transformation function without parametric assumptions. In this dissertation two Hausman tests for transformation functions are proposed where validity does not depend on distributional assumptions. These tests compare estimators that remain consistent regardless of the transformation function to an estimator whose consistency depends on the transformation function. The properties of these test statistics are studied in nite sample and under di erent designs. The behavior of these test statistics is studied both when the adopted transformation function is correct and when the true transformation function deviates from the hypothesized one. This dissertation applies the semiparametric transformation function test to study reported crimes in the U.S. metropolitan areas. Most studies in this literature adopt a logarithmic transformation of reported crimes. There is no theoretical justi cation for this speci c function. In addition, it is likely that city level crime is misreported (underreported). Therefore, testing is particularly relevant. I show that, although for particular types of crimes the log function is appropriate, the same log function cannot be used for broadly de ned categories of crimes.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Kaveh Akra
Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars In Islam: by Mohammad Akram Nadwi
No full textThe book entitled Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam was written by Mohammad Akram Nadwi, and it was published by Interface Publications Ltd. in 2007. It was the result of a study of more than 15 years to produce 40 volumes of Muslim biographies of the women scholars of hadiths which were written in Arabic, and this book is an early introduction which was written in English. The author has explained in the pre-book as an introduction regarding the purpose of writing this book. It contains ten chapters. Each chapter is equipped with footnotes, and the list of references consists of classical sources (turāth) and Arabic manuscripts arranged alphabetically. Although this book is a preamble to the wider series of books, it was a great effort and has received a very positive response among readers. It is reasonable as compulsory reading material by the academicians and students who are directly involved in the field of Hadith, but it is also not too heavy to be used as general reading for the public who are keen to explore the culture of knowledge practiced by women who are known as al-muḥaddithāt.
Abstrak
Buku yang berjudul Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam aditulis oleh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, dan telah diterbitkan oleh Interface Publications Ltd. pada tahun 2007. Ia adalah hasil kajian selama lebih daripada 15 tahun untuk menghasilkan 40 jilid kamus biografi ulama wanita hadis Nabi yang ditulis dalam bahasa Arab, dan buku ini merupakan pengenalan awal kepada kamus tersebut yang ditulis dalam bahasa Inggeris. Hal ini dijelaskan di dalam pra kata buku sebagai pengenalan kepada tujuan buku ini ditulis. Ia mengandungi sepuluh bab. Dimulai dengan “Pendahuluan” sebelum bab pertama, dan diakhiri dengan “Rujukan” dan “Indeks”. Setiap bab dilengkapi dengan nota kaki, dan senarai rujukannya terdiri daripada sumber klasik (turāth) dan manuskrip Arab yang disusun mengikut abjad. Biarpun buku ini merupakan mukaddimah kepada siri buku yang lebih luas, ia merupakan usaha yang sangat besar dan telah pun mendapat respon yang sangat positif dalam kalangan pembaca. Ia wajar dijadikan bacaan wajib oleh para akademik dan pelajar yang terlibat secara langsung dalam bidang hadis, tetapi ia juga tidak begitu berat untuk dijadikan bacaan umum untuk orang awam yang berminat untuk mendalami budaya ilmu yang telah dipraktikkan oleh para wanita yang bergelar al-muḥaddithāt
Wireless body sensor networks for health-monitoring applications
No full textThis is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in
Physiological Measurement. The publisher is
not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version
derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/29/11/R01
Protection of broad beans in KSA against adverse effects of ambient ozone using ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on growth and yield characteristics
No full textThe ability of higher plants to scavenge the toxic effects of active oxygen seems to be
very important determinant of their tolerance to stresses like ozone (O3). Antioxidants are the first line of defense against free radical damage. They are critical for maintaining optimum health of plant cells. The primary objectives of this investigation were to examine the interactive effects of air quality and vitamin C on some morphological
characteristics of broad beans (Vicia faba L. Var. Baladey) during its whole growth.
These plants were grown first for two weeks in pots at closed chamber of Botany and
Microbiology Dept., Faculty of Science, King Saud University and transported to
industrial city until the time of harvesting. Damaging effects of ambient ozone in presence of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide on growth and productivity of plants were assessed. These plants sprayed with different concentrations of vitamin c (0, 50,100, 200, 300, 400 mg/L) after the 20-days of plantation. High monthly concentrations of ambient O3 have ranged between 89-110 nL L-1. The high concentrations of SO2 and NOx
were ranged between 25-35 nL L-1. Significant differences between soybean plants treated with vitamin c for all measurements were recorded. Effective concentration is 300 mg/L. The total leaf area, plant length, number of damaged leaves, number of seeds and
plant biomass were determined. This study concluded that O3 is only having adverse
effects on some crops in industrial areas of KSA in presence of high levels of SO2 and
NOx. For an evaluation of these results, 300 mg/L concentration of vitamin c may depress
the negative effects of O3 could reach to 31%.Corresponding Author:
Akram A. Ali
Present address: Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box: 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. Email: [email protected]
Surface Modification of Titanium and Polyimide Sheet for Adhesive Bonding
No full textMajor industrial sectors like automotive, aerospace and others are increasingly using polymer composites in their structural parts. Polyimide sheet and adhesives, are high performance polymers. They are widely used in various engineering applications due to their excellent thermal, mechanical and chemical properties and their resistance to radiation and fire. Unfortunately, the surface of polyimide like any other polymer is inert and exhibits poor adhesion properties. It is established that for successful application of polymeric composite materials to form structural parts using adhesive bonding, they need to have special surface properties like hydrophilicity. The surface modification of polymers and metals play a predominant role in enhancing the surface energy for improved adhesion properties. The aerospace industry is giving special attention to surface modification of titanium which could enhance the adhesive bond durability. In general, surface modification of titanium is carried out by chromic acid anodization. In this thesis work, an alternative surface preparation technique of titanium is investigated which could be of the interest for future research. We propose to modify the surface of titanium by plasma ion implantation, This is clean and solvent free technique, which could possibly be of interest to the aerospace industry in terms of adhesive bond strength and durability. It is also noted that in search of the long term durability and efficient service performance in the context of the future generation of aerospace structures, there is an increasing need of metal-polymer composites. Therefore, work of particular relevance to this project has been on the improvement of high performance polymer-titanium composites through high performance adhesive bonding. Several methods may be employed for modifying the surfaces of polymers and metals, which range from wet chemical processes to dry physical processes. Dry processes, like electrical treatment by exposure to plasma have received special attention because of the uniformity of these surface modifications, its precise control and the absence of chemical hazards. It is now well known that the plasma treatment creates physical and chemical changes such as cross linking, degradation, formation of free radicals, oxygen ions functionalisation and etching. A high temperature resistant and thermally stable polyimide adhesive as supplied by Creative materials Inc. was selected. TGA, DSC and FTIR analyses of this high performance polyimide adhesive were performed. After analysis, the polyimide adhesive is used as the standard adhesive for joining and testing materials in this project. There are mainly two types of surface treatments i.e. mechanical treatment and atmospheric pressure plasma treatment, that are combined in the present research. The grit blasting and atmospheric pressure plasma treatment time is optimized to get optimum values of surface roughness and surface energy. When these surfaces with optimum values of surface roughness and surface energy are joined together using the PI adhesive, a remarkable increase in the value of the adhesive bond strength during lap-shear testing is obtained. The bond strength is increased by two and half times compared to the lap-shear test results of untreated surfaces. The characterization of untreated and treated titanium surfaces with XPS, SEM, a surface roughness profiler and a contact angle analyser is performed. The Lap-shear test results suggest that the bond strength increases with an increase in surface energy. The surface roughness profiler results show that the surface energy increases with an increase in surface roughness. FTIR results suggest that the surface energy increases with a decrease in carbon contents and an increase in oxygen contents in the top layers of the titanium surface. The characterisation of the polymer surface after exposure to plasma reveals that the polar component of the surface energy increases due to chain scission and oxidation, leading to generation of polar groups such as C-O, C=O & COO on the polymer surface. Therefore, the total surface energy also increases, leading to enhanced adhesion. AFM analysis of polyimide sheet indicates that there is an increase in surface energy with an increase in surface roughness. In the last part of this research work, the effects of the moisture and high temperature on the adhesive bond strength of the modified surfaces is investigated. At high temperature and relative humidity conditions, moisture ingression in the adhesive bond line takes place at a faster pace than at room temperature. The modified surface adhesive bonds retain their bond strength at high temperature, while heated in dry environment. In case of moisture pre–condition at elevated temperature before lap-shear testing, the bond loses the improved bond strength, possibly due to the attack of polar water molecules on the interface bonds of titanium and polyimide adhesive. The present work aims to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of several aspects of the surface treatment of metals and polymers for adhesive bonding in high temperature applications. Different problems related to the surface treatment and adhesive bonding for high temperature application has been discussed. Efforts are made to evaluate the performance of the adhesive bonds between modified titanium and polyimide at elevated moisture and temperature conditions. The present work has produced some encouraging results to perform further research on surface treatment methods for coating and high temperature adhesive material for different aerospace applications.Precision and Microsystems EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
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