603 research outputs found

    Heterogeneity in behavioural response to pricing policies in the transition from motorcycles to private cars in motorcycle-based societies

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    Pricing instruments are widely seen as an effective tool for reducing the travel demand for private vehicles. In contrast to developed countries, the design of pricing policies in certain developing countries is more challenging, owing to the mixed use of private cars and motorcycles. This study argues for the existence of a transitional group of motorcycle users who will switch to being car users. An investigation of the behavioural responses to a pricing policy from private car users and motorcycle users is implemented in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A propensity score-matching technique is used to identify the transitional group. The results regarding the mode choice models for various pricing policies show similar responses between the transitional motorcycle users and car users. Such characteristics of the transitional group imply that ignorance of travellers' heterogeneity may cause significant bias, especially when modelling pricing policies.This research was financed by the Special Research Fund of Hasselt University. Financial support in data collection: Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) Author contribution: The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study concept and design: Hoang Thuy Linh, Nguyen Hoang Tung, Vu Anh Tuan, Muhammad Adnan, and Tom Bellemans; data preparation, analysis, and interpretation of results: Hoang Thuy Linh; draft manuscript preparation: Hoang Thuy Linh, Nguyen Hoang Tung, and Muhammad Adnan. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript

    Conversion of African Americans to Islam : a sociological analysis of the Nation of Islam and associated groups

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    'Conversion of African Americans to Islam: A Sociological Analysis of the Nation of Islam Associated groups' is an empirical study of the religious experience of people who had/have distinctive features in terms of race, ethnicity and historical experience. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how African Americans' (AAs) conversion experience in general, and the Nation of Islam associated groups' conversion in particular, differ from the studies of recruitment and conversion in the sociology of religion and New Religion Movements (NRMs). More specifically, their recruitment and conversion experiences to Islam diverge from those who converted to mainstream Islam. The study investigates how AAs' historical experience, soci-economic difficulties and the racism they encountered shaped and influenced their religious understanding. Research methods involved participant observations, a survey questionnaire, interviews, conversations, personal communications and correspondence. To collect ethnographic data eleven months field research was conducted mainly in the Chicago area and on two short visits to Detroit, and three years continued communications with Muslim officials and academics in the area. During the field research and afterwards through personal communication 181 survey questionnaire responses were received, and 23 Muslim officials, academics and ordinary Muslims were interviewed through semi-structured, unstructured interviews, conversation and correspondence. The thesis begins with a brief history of Islam and Muslims in general and the African American Muslims (AAMs) in particular. More emphasis is given on the historical development of the Nation of Islam (NOl). Then in Chapter III, discussions of schisms in the history of the NOT are examined from sociological perspectives of social and religious movements. In Chapter IV I aimed to formulate my own perspective to analyse and study the conversion experiences of AAMs to Islam. I used a multivariate approach, considering selectively widely held conversion and recruitment theories in the sociology of the religion. I consider in Chapter V the predisposing conditions for AAMs that influence their decision-making to join in the NOT, for example, political and nationalistic sentiments and socio-economic deprivations. In Chapter VI I have applied different terms to describe their religious experiences, such as conversion, alteration and reversion. I have analysed further their encounters with the NOT, the methods of recruitment they used and their major motives for joining the NOT and converting to Tslam. In the concluding chapters (Chapter VII VTTT) I describe the different responses of AAMS to Islam following the death of Elijah Muhammad. It is found out that the Islamic appeal has polarised. While Farakhan's NOT appeared to continue the tradition and style of the old NOI with the emphasis on nationalistic and socio-economic factors, Tmam W. D. Mohammed's community turned more to the religious and spiritual aspects of Tslam. These different approaches led to a polarisation of the appeal of Tslam to AAMS. This thesis contributes to knowledge in four key areas; the sociology of religion and religious movements, the sociology of social and nationalistic movements, religious and Islamic studies

    Sumbangan dato\u27 Haji Muhammad Nor bin Haji Ibrahim kepada bidang tafsir dan pengajian Al-Qur\u27?n

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    This article discusses the biography of Muhammad Nor and his contributions in the field of Tafsir and Quranic Studies. The books that are discussed are Ramuan Rapi Dari Erti Surah al-Kahfi, Tafsir Pimpinan al-Rahman Kepada Pengertian al-Qur\u27?n and Mustika Hadith. At the same time, the author thoughts towards al-Qadar which was misinterpreted by many people are also discussed

    PARADIGMA MODERASI MUHAMMAD MUTAWALLI AL-SYA’RAWI

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    The focus of this research is to find out more about Muhammad Mutawalli Al-Sya\u27rawi\u27s moderation paradigm in his commentary book, Tafsîr Al-Sya\u27râwî. By presenting Al-Sya\u27rawi\u27s views, understanding, and interpretation of the verses that form the basis of religious moderation directly from his monumental work, Tafsîr Al-Sya\u27râwî, this research uses library research methods. The author collects data and processes the data using descriptive analytical and comparative methods to compare the various opinions foun

    Soil Nutrient Availability, Plant Nutrient Uptake, and Wild Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) Yield in Response to N-Viro Biosolids and Irrigation Applications

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    We compared the impact of surface broadcasted N-Viro biosolids and inorganic fertilizer (16.5% Ammonium sulphate, 34.5% Diammonium phosphate, 4.5% Potash, and 44.5% s and/or clay filler) applications on soil properties and nutrients, leaf nutrient concentration, and the fruit yield of lowbush blueberry under irrigated and nonirrigated conditions during 2008-2009 at Debert, NS, Canada. Application rates of N-Viro biosolids were more than double of inorganic fertilizer applied at a recommended N rate of 32 kg ha−1. The experimental treatments NI: N-Viro with irrigation, FI: inorganic fertilizer with irrigation, N: N-Viro without irrigation, and F: inorganic fertilizer without irrigation (control) were replicated four times under a randomized complete block design. The NI treatment had the highest OM (6.68%) followed by FI (6.32%), N (6.18%), and F (4.43%) treatments during the year 2008. Similar trends were observed during 2009 with the highest soil OM values (5.50%) for NI treatment. Supplemental irrigation resulted in a 21% increase in the ripe fruit yield. Nonsignificant effect of fertilizer treatments on most of the nutrient concentrations in soil and plant leaves, and on ripe fruits yield reflects that the performance of N-Viro was comparable with that of the inorganic fertilizer used in this study

    Annotation of conceptual co-reference and text Mining the Qur'an

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    This research contributes to the area of corpus annotation and text mining by developing novel domain specific language resources. Most practical text mining applications restrict their domain. This research restricts the domain to the Qur'anic Text. In this thesis, a number of pre-processing steps were undertaken and annotation information were added to the Qur'an. The raw Arabic Qur'an was pre-processed into morphological units using the Qur'anic Arabic Corpus (QAC). Qur'anic terms were indexed and converted into a vector space model using techniques in Information Retrieval (IR). In parallel, nearly 24,000 Qur'anic personal pronouns were annotated with information on their referents. These referents are consolidated and organized into a total of over 1,000 ontological concepts. Moreover, a dataset of nearly 8,000 pairs of related Qur'anic verses are compiled from books of scholarly commentary on the Qur'an. This vector space model, the pronoun tagging, the verse relatedness dataset, and the part-of-speech tags available in QAC all together served for a number of Qur'anic text mining applications which were rendered online for public use. Among these applications: lemma concordance, collocation, POS search of the Qur'an, verse similarity measures, concept clouds of a given verse, pronominal anaphora and Qur'anic chapter similarity. Furthermore, machine learning experiments were conducted on automatic detection of verse similarity/relatedness as well as categorization of Qur'anic chapters based on their chronology of revelation. Domain specific linguistic features were investigated to induct learning algorithms. Results show that deep linguistic and world knowledge is needed to reach the human upper bound in certain computational tasks such as detecting text relatedness, question answering and textual entailment. However, many useful queries can be addressed using text mining techniques and layers of annotations made available through this research. The works presented here can be extended to include other similar texts like Hadith (i.e., saying of Prophet Muhammad), or other scriptures like the Gospels

    al-Misbāh fī al-Nahw By Nāsir al-Dīn al-Mutarrizī al-Nahwī (d. 610/1213) A Critical Edition of the Text with the Life History of the Author

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    Nāsir al-Dīn al-Mutarrizī al-Nahwī (d.610/1213) was one of the most renowned figures in the field of Arabic Grammar. He has left an indelible mark on the world of Arabic language and literature. He is also known as the successor of al-Zamakhsharī. He wrote a number of books but his al-Misbāh fī al-Nahw gained prominence at a level that no other book in this field could claim to achieve. For this reason, a great number of commentaries have been written in every age, of which the most famous are al-Daw and Khulāsat al-I‘rāb written by Tāj al-Dīn al-Isfrā’īnī and ‘Abd al- Karīm al-Tūsī (better known as Hājjī Bābā) respectively. Moreover, its translation into other languages also demonstrates its value as a useful book. Although al-Misbāh has been edited on more than one occasion, the published editions do not fulfil the needs and requirements of modern academic research criteria. The basic aim of this thesis is to present this book with a current modern research style so that the students, teachers and ordinary readers of Arabic language and literature may benefit from this work. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the life history of the author and his other works. A brief note of the environment under which he grew up (generally referred to as the ‘Seljuk’ period) is also included in this part. The second part consists of a text edition that deals with the derivation (Takhrīj) of syntactical issues together with the differing opinions of grammarians on syntactical/grammatical issues. This part also proffers the idiomatic English translation of al-Misbāh

    The role of the accused in English and Islamic criminal justice

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    This thesis is a comparative study of the role of the accused in the systems of English and Islamic criminal justice. It seeks to explore the underlying relationship between the individual and the state through an historical, structural and contextual analysis of their rules relating to questioning and of confessions. The analysis of the English system covers the period 1800 to 1984, with particular reference to developments during the nineteenth century when the foundations for the modern English state were established. The analysis of the Islamic system combines traditionally Islamic and modern methods, assessing the "Islamisation" movement in Malaysia through a religico-structural understanding of juristic opinion from the four main schools of Sunnite jurisprudence. The thesis contributes to existing knowledge on a number of levels: first, it questions and revises the "myth" of "progress" that has dominated observations of the history of the English criminal justice system; second, it elucidates the relationship between Islamic law in theory and the law that is applied and proposed in its name in Muslim states; third, it provides an analytical framework for drawing comparisons between the underlying values of the systems of English and Islamic criminal justice. While acknowledging fundamental differences in terms of outlook and articulation, the author concludes there are important similarities expressed through such notions as "suspect" in the English system and "kafir"I"fasiq" in the Islamic. These act as intermediate constitutional categories to whom the state owe less protection. But the author notes also that these similarities are not observed necessarily in the "law" which is implemented or proposed in Muslim states; exact correspondence depends upon the over-arching political structure and the institution of Caliphate. The thesis is divided into six chapters: chapter one sets out the conventional view of the historical development of English criminal procedure and evidence; chapter two subjects that to a critique and chapter three offers a revised thesis. Chapter four, explores methods for interpreting and explaining Islam; chapter five sets out rules relating to confessions and questioning according to the four Sunni schools; chapter six puts them into "context" through an examination of the "Islamisation" process in Malaysia

    Astrology in literature: how the prohibited became permissible in the Arabic poetry of the mediaeval period

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    This thesis is concerned to position the art of astrology within the context of classical Arabic poetry, primarily by investigating and elucidating attitudes to the notion of qadar (fate) and the ideology in which it was embedded. These attitudes were revelatory of the broader world view of the Arabs of those periods, and their shifts from those held in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras tell us a good deal about the importance given to the nature and role of fate and about the various understandings of its influence. The pre-Islamic Arab's notion of qadar was in some ways similar to that of the early Muslims: both emphasised predetermination and the irresistible power of fate. But while the jahilf (Pre-Islamic) Arabs identified fate with the malign power of dahr (Time), the Muslims believed the power of fate lies in the hands of God the Omnipotent, who alone is responsible for the fate of the whole universe. Thus the astrology of the pre-Islamic era was one aspect of divination (kihana) and claimed to be able to reveal in advance an individual's destiny, which could be avoided by taking certain precautions. These precautions, however, were considered effective only in relatively trivial cases; they were useless in the areas of major impact: a person's happiness or misery (shaqiiwa aw sa ada), sustenance (rizq) and one's term (ajal), the three inevitable and irresistible manifestations of fate. In the Islamic period not only these major aspects of life are governed and controlled by the Omnipotent; the destiny of the universe, in even its most minute details, is determined and controlled by God alone. Astrology was considered to be of no value whatsoever, and its practitioners were subject to the death penalty. These two irreconcilable views are evident in early Islamic poetry, which reflected clearly the response of poets, and society, to astrology from the perspective of qadar. When the orthodox caliphate was replaced by dynastic rule the status of astrology was changed dramatically. The idea that the stars, as indicators, play a role in the life of human beings found popowerful supporters in some governors of the Islamic world, who allowed astrology to fulfil a public function regardless of the hostility of the official religion of that society. This social phenomenon generated rich material of a controversial character in the realm of literature. Investigating the factors, motivations and impact of mediaeval political, theological and philosophical attitudes to astrology, in relation to the notions of free will and predestination, is the concern of this study

    Author Correction: Mortality outcomes with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in COVID-19 from an international collaborative meta-analysis of randomized trials.

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    The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Muhammad Shahzad, which was incorrectly given as Muhammad Shehzad. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article
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