Search results for: Muhammad R. Ahmed

Authors: Lal Hussain, Wajid Aziz, Sajjad Ahmed Nadeem, Saeed Arif Shah, Abdul Majid

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Brain electrical activity as reflected in Electroencephalography (EEG) have been analyzed and diagnosed using various techniques. Among them, complexity measure, nonlinearity, disorder, and unpredictability play vital role due to the nonlinear interconnection between functional and anatomical subsystem emerged in brain in healthy state and during various diseases. There are many social and economical issues of alcoholic abuse as memory weakness, decision making, impairments, and concentrations etc. Alcoholism not only defect the brains but also associated with emotional, behavior, and cognitive impairments damaging the white and gray brain matters. A recently developed signal analysis method i.e. Multiscale Permutation Entropy (MPE) is proposed to estimate the complexity of long-range temporal correlation time series EEG of Alcoholic and Control subjects acquired from University of California Machine Learning repository and results are compared with MSE. Using MPE, coarsed grained series is first generated and the PE is computed for each coarsed grained time series against the electrodes O1, O2, C3, C4, F2, F3, F4, F7, F8, Fp1, Fp2, P3, P4, T7, and T8. The results computed against each electrode using MPE gives higher significant values as compared to MSE as well as mean rank differences accordingly. Likewise, ROC and Area under the ROC also gives higher separation against each electrode using MPE in comparison to MSE.

Keywords: electroencephalogram (EEG), multiscale permutation entropy (MPE), multiscale sample entropy (MSE), permutation entropy (PE), mann whitney test (MMT), receiver operator curve (ROC), complexity measure

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Authors: Dilip Depan, Austin Simoneaux, William Chirdon, Ahmed Khattab

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In this study, we present a novel approach to synthesize polymer nanocomposites with nanohybrid shish-kebab architecture (NHSK). For this low-density and high density polyethylene (PE) was crystallized on various carbon nano-fillers using a novel and convenient method to prepare high-yield NHSK. Polymer crystals grew epitaxially on carbon nano-fillers using a solution crystallization method. The mixture of polymer and carbon fillers in xylene was flocculated and precipitated in ethanol to improve the product yield. Carbon nanofillers of varying diameter were also used as a nucleating template for polymer crystallization. The morphology of the prepared nanocomposites was characterized scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to quantify the amount of crystalline polymer. Interestingly, whatever the diameter of the carbon nanofiller is, the lamellae of PE is always perpendicular to the long axis of nanofiller. Surface area analysis was performed using BET. Our results indicated that carbon nanofillers of varying diameter can be used to effectively nucleate the crystallization of polymer. The effect of molecular weight and concentration of the polymer was discussed on the basis of chain mobility and crystallization capability of the polymer matrix. Our work shows a facile, rapid, yet high-yield production method to form polymer nanocomposites to reveal application potential of NHSK architecture.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, polyethylene, nanohybrid shish-kebab, crystallization, morphology

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Authors: Ahmed. A. Hossam Eldin, Karim H. Youssef, Kareem M. AboRas

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Recent current rapid industrial development and energy shortage are essential problems, which face most of the developing countries. Moreover, increased prices of fossil fuel and advanced energy conversion technology lead to the need for renewable energy resources. A study, modelling and simulation of an outdoor micro scale stand alone wind turbine was carried out. For model validation an experimental study was applied. In this research the aim was to clarify effects of real outdoor operating conditions and the instantaneous fluctuations of both wind direction and wind speed on the actual produced power. The results were compared with manufacturer’s data. The experiments were carried out in Borg Al-Arab, Alexandria. This location is on the north Western Coast of Alexandria. The results showed a real max output power for outdoor micro scale wind turbine, which is different from manufacturer’s value. This is due to the fact that the direction of wind speed is not the same as that of the manufacturer’s data. The measured wind speed and direction by the portable metrological weather station anemometer varied with time. The blade tail response could not change the blade direction at the same instant of the wind direction variation. Therefore, designers and users of micro scale wind turbine stand alone system cannot rely on the maker’s name plate data to reach the required power.

Keywords: micro-turbine, wind turbine, inverters, renewable energy, hybrid system

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Authors: Nasir Mehmood, Muhammad Yar Khan, Anam Javeed

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This study aims to scrutinize the dynamics which tend to impact customer’s purchasing intention of Islamic credit card and nexus of product’s knowledge and religiosity with the attitude of potential Islamic credit card’s customer. The theory of reasoned action strengthened the idea that intentions due to its proven predictive power are most likely to instigate intended consumer behavior. Particularly, the study examines the relationships of perceived financial cost (PFC), subjective norms (SN), and attitude (ATT) with the intention to purchase Islamic credit cards. Using a convenience sampling approach, data have been collected from 450 customers of banks located in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A five-point Likert scale self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) through the procedures of principal component and multiple regression analysis. The results suggested that customer’s religiosity and product knowledge are strong indicators of attitude towards buying Islamic credit cards. Likewise, subjective norms, attitude, and perceived financial cost have a significant positive impact on customers’ purchase intent of Islamic bank’s credit cards. This study models a useful path for future researchers to further investigate the underlined phenomenon along with a variety of psychodynamic factors which are still in its infancy, at least in the Pakistani banking sector. The study also provides an insight to the practitioners and Islamic bank managers for directing their efforts toward educating customers regarding the use of Islamic credit cards and other financial products.

Keywords: attitude, Islamic credit card, religiosity, subjective norms

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Authors: Muhammad Bilal Qadir, Danish Umer, Amir Shahzad

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The use of conductive materials in smart and interactive textiles is gaining significant importance for creating value addition, innovation, and functional product development. These products find their potential applications in health monitoring, military, protection, communication, sensing, monitoring, actuation, fashion, and lifestyles. The materials which are most commonly employed in such type of interactive textile include intrinsically conducting polymers, conductive inks, and metallic coating on textile fabrics and inherently conducting metallic fibre yarns. In this study, silver coated polyester filament yarn is explored for the development of multifunctional interactive gloves. The composite yarn was developed by covering the silver coated polyester filament around the polyester spun yarn using hollow spindle technique. The electrical and tensile properties of the yarn were studied. This novel yarn was used to manufacture a smart glove to explore the antibacterial, functional, and interactive properties of the yarn. The change in electrical resistance due to finger movement at different bending positions and antimicrobial properties were studied. This glove was also found useful as an interactive tool to operate the commonly used touch screen devices due to its conductive nature. The yarn can also be used to develop the sensing elements like stretch, strain, and piezoresistive sensors. Such sensor can be effectively used in medical and sports textile for performance monitoring, vital signs monitoring and development of antibacterial textile for healthcare and hygiene.

Keywords: conductive yarn, interactive textiles, piezoresistive sensors, smart gloves

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Authors: Anwar Hussain, Muhammad Iqbal

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The changes in the prices of the agriculture commodities combined with changes in population and agriculture productivity affect farmers’ profitability and standard of living. This study intends to estimate various domestic terms of trade for agriculture sector and also to assess the volatility in the standard of living and profitability of farmers. The terms of trade has been estimated for Pakistan and its provinces using producer prices indices, consumer price indices, input prices indices and quantity indices using the data for the period 1990-91 to 2008-09. The domestic terms of trade of agriculture sector has been improved in terms of both approaches i.e. the ratio of producer prices indices to consumer prices indices and the real per capita income approach. However, the cross province estimates indicated that the terms of trade also improved for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab while Balochistan’s domestic terms of trade deteriorated drastically. In other words the standard of living of the farmers in Pakistan and its provinces except Balochistan improved. Using the input prices, the domestic terms of trade deteriorated for Pakistan as a whole and its provinces as well. This also explores that as a whole the profitability of the farmers reduced during the study period. The farmers pay more prices for inputs as compared to they receive for their produce. This further indicates that the poverty at the gross root level has been increased. Further, summing, the standard of living of the farmers improved but their profitability reduced, which indicates that the farmers do not completely rely on the farm income but also utilize some other sources of income for their livelihood. The study supports to give subsidies on farm inputs so as to improve the profitability of the farmers.

Keywords: agricultural terms of trade, farmers’ profitability, farmers’ standard of living, consumer and producer price indices, quantity indices

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Authors: Damanhur Munardi, Muhammad Hafiz, Dina Nurmalita Sari, Syarifah Ridani Alifa

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Purpose: This research aims to analyze the Benefits, Opportunity, Cost, and Risk aspects of applying the Green Finance concept and to obtain the right Green Finance financing strategy to be implemented within a long-term and short-term strategic framework.Methodology: This research method uses a qualitative-descriptive analysis approach. The analysis technique uses Analytical Network Process (ANP) with a BOCR network structure approach.Findings: The research results show that the most priority long-term strategic alternative based on the long-term BOCR analysis is increasing awareness among the public and industry by 52% and the importance of coordination between related institutions by 50%. Meanwhile, the most priority short-term strategic alternatives are the importance of coordination between related institutions 29%, increasing awareness among the public and industry 28%, the banking industry proactively funding environmentally friendly companies and technology 23%, the existence of Green Finance POS (Standard Operating Procedures) 20%.Implications: This research can be used as a reference for regulators and policymakers in making strategic decisions that can increase green finance financing. The novelty of this research is identifying problems that occur in green finance financing in Aceh province by analyzing opinions from experts in related fields and financial regulators in Aceh to create a strategy that can be implemented to increase green finance financing in Aceh province through BPD in Aceh, namely Bank Aceh.

Keywords: green financing, banking, sharia, islamic

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Authors: Muhammad Imran, Faheem Khadija, Zahoor Hussain, Raheel Anwar, M. Nawaz Khan, M. Raza Salik

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Amongst citrus species, sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) occupies a dominant position in the orange producing countries in the world. Sweet orange is widely consumed both as fresh fruit as well as juice and its global demand is attributed due to higher vitamin C and antioxidants. Fruit quality is most important for the external appearance and marketability of sweet orange fruit, especially for fresh consumption. There are so many factors affecting fruit quality, tree age is the most important one, but remains unexplored so far. The present study, we investigated the role of tree age on fruit quality of different cultivars of sweet oranges. The difference between fruit quality of 5-year young and 15-year old trees was discussed in the current study. In case of fruit weight, maximum fruit weight (238g) was recorded in 15-year old sweet orange cv. Sallustiana cultivar while minimum fruit weight (142g) was recorded in 5-year young tree of Succari sweet orange fruit. The results of the fruit diameter showed that the maximum fruit diameter (77.142mm) was recorded in 15-year old Sallustiana orange but the minimum fruit diameter (66.046mm) was observed in 5-year young tree of sweet orange cv. Succari. The minimum value of rind thickness (4.142mm) was noted in 15-year old tree of cv. Red blood. On the other hand maximum value of rind thickness was observed in 5-year young tree of cv. Sallustiana. The data regarding total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (TA), TSS/TA, juice content, rind, flavedo thickness, pH and fruit diameter have also been discussed.

Keywords: age, cultivars, fruit, quality, sweet orange (Citrus Sinensis L. Osbeck)

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Authors: Abdul Muqsit Abbasi, Ibrahim Chhipa, Asad Anwer, Saad Farooq, Hassan Berry, Sonu Kumar, Sundar Ali, Muhammad Owais Mahmood, Areeb Ur Rehman, Bahram Baloch

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Accurate translation between structurally diverse languages, such as Arabic and English, presents a critical challenge in natural language processing due to significant linguistic and cultural differences. This paper investigates the effectiveness of Facebook’s mBART model, fine-tuned specifically for sequence-tosequence (seq2seq) translation tasks between Arabic and English, and enhanced through advanced refinement techniques. Our approach leverages the Alef Dataset, a meticulously curated parallel corpus spanning various domains to capture the linguistic richness, nuances, and contextual accuracy essential for high-quality translation. We further refine the model’s output using advanced language models such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, which improve fluency, coherence, and correct grammatical errors in translated texts. The fine-tuned model demonstrates substantial improvements, achieving a BLEU score of 38.97, METEOR score of 58.11, and TER score of 56.33, surpassing widely used systems such as Google Translate. These results underscore the potential of mBART, combined with refinement strategies, to bridge the translation gap between Arabic and English, providing a reliable, context-aware machine translation solution that is robust across diverse linguistic contexts.

Keywords: natural language processing, machine translation, fine-tuning, Arabic-English translation, transformer models, seq2seq translation, translation evaluation metrics, cross-linguistic communication

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Authors: Syed Muzyan Shahzad, Liu Jianxin, Asim Shahzad, Muhammad Sharjeel Raza, Sun Ya, Fanidi Meryem

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Electrical resistivity investigation was conducted in vicinity of Tarbela Ghazi, in order to study the subsurface layer with a view of determining the depth to the aquifer and thickness of groundwater potential zones. Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) using Schlumberger array was carried out at 16 VES stations. Well logging data at four tube wells have been used to mark the super saturated zones with great discharge rate. The present paper shows a geoelectrical identification of the lithology and an estimate of the relationship between the resistivity and Dar Zarrouk parameters (transverse unit resistance and longitudinal unit conductance). The VES results revealed both homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the subsurface strata. Aquifer is unconfined to confine in nature, and at few locations though perched aquifer has been identified, groundwater potential zones are developed in unconsolidated deposits layers and more than seven geo-electric layers are observed at some VES locations. Saturated zones thickness ranges from 5 m to 150 m, whereas at few area aquifer is beyond 150 m thick. The average anisotropy, transvers resistance and longitudinal conductance values are 0.86 %, 35750.9821 Ω.m², 0.729 Siemens, respectively. The transverse unit resistance values fluctuate all over the aquifer system, whereas below at particular depth high values are observed, that significantly associated with the high transmissivity zones. The groundwater quality in all analyzed samples is below permissible limit according to World Health Standard (WHO).

Keywords: aquifer, Dar Zarrouk parameters, geoelectric layers, Tarbela Ghazi

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Authors: Ahmad Syauqi

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This paper analyzes the permissibility of demonstrations against a leader's decision, policies, as well as statements against Islamic values from an Islamic point of view. Recorded at the end of 2016, a large demonstration in Jakarta involving many people, mostly from Muslim society against the former Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, was considered a form of harm to the value of harmony and the unity of religious communities in Indonesia. Hence, this paper aims to answer the question that became a tough discussion and a long debate among Indonesian Muslims after an immense demonstration known as the 212 movements, ‘how exactly Islam sees such act of demonstration?’. Is there any particular historical source in Islamic history that mention information related to demonstration? A phenomenological qualitative method was implemented throughout the process of this research to study the perspective of various Muslims scholars by reviewing, and comparing their opinions through the classical source of Islamic history and Hadith literature. One of the main roots of this extensive debate is due to the extremist group, which bans all forms of demonstration, assuming that such acts had come from the West and unknown culture in the Islamic history. In addition, they also claim that all the demonstrators are Bughat. While some other groups, freely declare that demonstration can be done anytime and anywhere, without specific terms and regulations associated. The findings of this research illustrate that the protests which we now know of today, in terms of demonstration had existed since ancient times, even from the time of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This paper reveals that there is a strong evidence that demonstration is justified in Islamic law and has a historical root. This can, therefore, be a proposition of such permissibility. However, there are still a number of things one has to be aware of when it comes to the demonstration, and clearly, not all demonstrations are legal from the Islamic perspective.

Keywords: Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, demonstration, Muslim scholars, protest

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Authors: Ahmed Negm, George Aggidis, Xiandong Ma

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With the diverse nature of urban cities, customer demand patterns, landscape topologies or even seasonal weather trends; managing our water distribution networks (WDNs) has proved a complex task. These unpredictable circumstances manifest as pipe failures, intermittent supply and burst events thus adding to water loss, energy waste and increased carbon emissions. Whilst these events are unavoidable, advanced pressure management has proved an effective tool to control and mitigate them. Henceforth, water utilities have struggled with developing a real-time control method that is resilient when confronting the challenges of water distribution. In this paper we use deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms as a novel pressure control strategy to minimise pressure violations and leakage under both burst and background leakage conditions. Agents based on asynchronous actor critic (A2C) and recurrent proximal policy optimisation (Recurrent PPO) were trained and compared to benchmarked optimisation algorithms (differential evolution, particle swarm optimisation. A2C manages to minimise leakage by 32.48% under burst conditions and 67.17% under background conditions which was the highest performance in the DRL algorithms. A2C and Recurrent PPO performed well in comparison to the benchmarks with higher processing speed and lower computational effort.

Keywords: deep reinforcement learning, pressure management, water distribution networks, leakage management

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Authors: Saima Kalsoom, Sobia Masood, Muhammad Faran

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This study aimed to examine the association between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes of married individuals. Another aim of this study was to test the moderating role of gender work status of married individuals for predicting gender role attitudes from emotional intelligence. A sample of (N = 500) married working men and women (both working & housewives) was approached through purposive convenience sampling technique. The data was collected employing cross-sectional research design. The indigenous versions of the Gender Role Attitudes Scale and perceived Emotional Intelligence Scale were used. The results of alpha coefficients for both the scales and subscales used in this study designated satisfactory evidence for internal consistency and reliability. Assessment of correlation coefficients showed significant positive correlation between gender role attitudes and emotional intelligence, subfactors of emotional intelligence i.e., emotional self-regulation, emotional self-awareness, and interpersonal skills with gender role attitudes. Results of model testing revealed that gender (the effect was significant for women) and work status (the effect was more significant for married working women than married working men and housewives) of the married individuals significantly moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes into the positive direction. Further, it was also found that gender and work status also moderated the relationship between emotional self-regulation (as sub factor of emotional intelligence) and gender role attitudes in a positive direction. In conclusion, this empirical evidence is vital contribution derived from the traditional and collectivistic socio-cultural background of Pakistan.

Keywords: gender role attitudes, emotional intelligence, emotional self-regulation, gender, work status, married working women

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Authors: Laleh Boroumand, Muhammad Shiraz, Abdullah Gani, Rashid Hafeez Khokhar

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Cloud computing being the use of hardware and software that are delivered as a service over a network has its application in the area of health care. Due to the emergency cases reported in most of the medical centers, prompt for an efficient scheme to make health data available with less response time. To this end, we propose a mobile global healthcare village (MGHV) model that combines the components of three deployment model which include country, continent and global health cloud to help in solving the problem mentioned above. In the creation of continent model, two (2) data centers are created of which one is local and the other is global. The local replay the request of residence within the continent, whereas the global replay the requirements of others. With the methods adopted, there is an assurance of the availability of relevant medical data to patients, specialists, and emergency staffs regardless of locations and time. From our intensive experiment using the simulation approach, it was observed that, broker policy scheme with respect to optimized response time, yields a very good performance in terms of reduction in response time. Though, our results are comparable to others when there is an increase in the number of virtual machines (80-640 virtual machines). The proportionality in increase of response time is within 9%. The results gotten from our simulation experiments shows that utilizing MGHV leads to the reduction of health care expenditures and helps in solving the problems of unqualified medical staffs faced by both developed and developing countries.

Keywords: cloud computing (MCC), e-healthcare, availability, response time, service broker policy

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Authors: Ahmed Ait Hou

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The wing leading edge and nose cone of the space shuttle are fabricated from a reinforced carbon/carbon material. This material attains its durability from a diffusion coating of silicon carbide (SiC) and a glass sealant. During re-entry into the atmosphere, this material is subject to an oxidizing high-temperature environment. The use of thermochemical calculations resulting at the HSC CHEMISTRY software and its database allows us to interpret the phenomena of oxidation and chloridation observed on the wing leading edge and nose cone of the space shuttle during its mission in space. First study is the monitoring of the oxidation reaction of SiC. It has been demonstrated that thermal oxidation of the SiC gives the two compounds SiO₂(s) and CO(g). In the extreme conditions of very low oxygen partial pressures and high temperatures, there is a reaction between SiC and SiO₂, leading to SiO(g) and CO(g). We had represented the phase stability diagram of Si-C-O system calculated by the use of the HSC Chemistry at 1300°C. The principal characteristic of this diagram of predominance is the line of SiC + SiO₂ coexistence. Second study is the monitoring of the chloridation reaction of SiC. The other problem encountered in addition to oxidation is the phenomenon of chloridation due to the presence of NaCl. Indeed, after many missions, the leading edge wing surfaces have exhibited small pinholes. We have used the HSC Chemistry database to analyze these various reactions. Our calculations concorde with the phenomena we announced in research work resulting in NASA LEWIS Research center.

Keywords: thermochchemicals calculations, HSC software, oxidation and chloridation, wings in space

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Tayyab Bhatti, Munazza Usmani

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One of nature's most destructive occurrences, floods do immense damage to communities and economic losses. Nigeria country, specifically southern Nigeria, is known for being prone to flooding. Even though periodic flooding occurs in Nigeria frequently, the floods of 2022 were the worst since those in 2012. Flood vulnerability analysis and mapping are still lacking in this region due to the very limited historical hydrological measurements and surveys on the effects of floods, which makes it difficult to develop and put into practice efficient flood protection measures. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are useful approaches to detecting, determining, and estimating the flood extent and its impacts. In this study, NOAA VIIR has been used to extract the flood extent using the flood water fraction data and afterward fused with GIS data for some zonal statistical analysis. The estimated possible flooding areas are validated using satellite imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The goal is to map and studied flood extent, flood hazards, and their effects on the population, schools, and health facilities for each state of Nigeria. The resulting flood hazard maps show areas with high-risk levels clearly and serve as an important reference for planning and implementing future flood mitigation and control strategies. Overall, the study demonstrated the viability of using the chosen GIS and remote sensing approaches to detect possible risk regions to secure local populations and enhance disaster response capabilities during natural disasters.

Keywords: flood hazards, remote sensing, damage assessment, GIS, geospatial analysis

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Authors: Chairussyuhur Arman, Totti Tjiptosumirat, Muhammad Gunawan, Mastur, Joko Priyono, Baiq Tri Ratna Erawati

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The present study was undertaken to synchronize oestrus of bali cattle and artificially inseminated with frozen-thawed sexed-semen. The experiment was carried out at District AI Station. Four pluriparous cows and four nulliparous heifers were used in this study and they were housed in free stall barns. The heifers fed with corn silage supplemented with UMMB, while the cows fed with green fodder. All animals were given 500 mg cloprostenolum i.m. injections PGF2α twice, 11 days apart, to synchronize the occurrence of estrus. Estrus was detected by visual observation twice a day and determined if all cattle accepted mount from other females. All animals were inseminated twice with Bali sexed-semen at 72 and 76 h after observed oestrus. Results suggested that the percentage of calving rate either for pluriparous cows or nulliparous heifers were recorded to be 75 percent. One cow and one heifer did not produce calves because of embryonic lost. Regardless the sex of calves, the mean of birth weight of calves in cows was higher than that of heifers (18.50 ± 2.60 kg vs 13.83 ± 5.20 kg). One female calf from heifer with lower birth weight (8.0 kg) was dead one day after born. In pluriparous group, two cows delivered male calves and the other delivered female calf. Conversely in nulliparous group, two heifers delivered female calves and the other male calf. It is concluded that under the conditions of this preliminary trials, the sex ratio between pluriparous and nulliparous groups was found to be 50:50 (male:female).

Keywords: artificial insemination, bali cattle, calves, sexed sperm

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Authors: Ahmed Khalil

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Increased energy demands around the world have led to the raise in power production which has resulted with more greenhouse gas emissions through fossil sources. These fossil sources and emissions cause deterioration in echo-system. Therefore, renewable energy sources come to the scene as echo-friendly and clean energy sourcing, whereas the electrical devices and energy needs decrease in the timeline. Each of these renewable energy sources contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases and mitigate environmental deterioration. However, there are also some general and source-specific challenges, which influence the choice of the investors. The most prominent general challenge that effects end-users’ comfort and reliability is usually determined as the intermittence which derives from the diversions of source conditions, due to nature dynamics and uncontrolled periodic changes. Research and development professionals strive to mitigate intermittence challenge through material improvement for each renewable source whereas hybrid source mix stand as a solution. This solution prevails well, when single renewable technologies are upgraded further. On the other hand, integration of energy efficient devices and systems, raise the affirmative effect of such solution in means of less energy requirement in sustainability composition or scenario. This paper provides a glimpse on the advantages of composing renewable source mix versus single usage, with contribution of sampled e-efficient systems and devices. Accordingly it demonstrates the extended benefits, through planning and predictive estimation stages of Ahmadi Town Projects in Kuwait.

Keywords: e-efficient systems, hybrid source, intermittence challenge, renewable energy

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Authors: Muhammad Izzam Bin Mohd Khazar, Ruqayyah Binti Mohamad Ali, Nurul Atiqah Binti Yusri

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Value-based intermediation (VBI) has been introduced by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as the next strategic direction and growth driver for Islamic banking institutions. The aim of VBI is to deliver the intended outcome of Shariah through practices, conducts, and offerings that generate positive and sustainable impact to the economy, community and environment which is aligned to Maqasid Shariah in preserving the common interest of society by preventing harm and maximizing benefit. Hence, upon its implementation, VBI will experiment the current Shariah compliance treatment and revolutionise new policies and systems that can meritoriously entrench and convey the objectives of Shariah. However, discussion revolving VBI in the light of Maqasid analysis is still scarce hence further research needs to be undertaken. The idea of implementation of VBI vision into quantifiable Maqasid Shariah measurement is yet to be explored due to the nature of Maqasid that is variable. The contemporary scholars also have different views on the implementation of VBI. This paper aims to discuss on the importance of Maqasid Shariah in the current Islamic finance transactions by providing Shariah index measurement in the application of VBI. This study also intends to explore basic Shariah guidelines and parameters based on the objectives of Shariah; preservation of the five pillars (religion, life, progeny, intellect and wealth) with further elaboration on preservation of wealth under five headings: rawaj (circulation and marketability); wuduh (transparency); hifz (preservation); thabat (durability and tranquillity); and ‘adl (equity and justice). In alignment with these headings, Islamic finance can be innovated for VBI implementation, particularly in Maybank Islamic being a significant leader in the IFI market.

Keywords: Islamic Financial Institutions, Maqasid Index, Maqasid Shariah, sustainability, value-based intermediation

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Authors: M. A. Ahmed, Sidra A. Shaik

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Global and diffuse solar radiation on horizontal surface over seven cities of Sindh namely Karachi, Hyderabad, Chore, Padidan, Nawabshah, Rohri and Jacobabad were carried out using sunshine hour data of the area to assess the feasibility of solar energy utilization at Sindh province. The result obtained shows a variation of direct and diffuse component of solar radiation in summer and winter months in southern Sindh (50% direct and 50% diffuse for Karachi, and Hyderabad) where there is a large variation in direct and diffuse component of solar radiation in summer and winter months in northern region (80% direct and 20% diffuse for Rohri and Jacobabad). In southern Sindh, the contribution of diffuse solar radiation is higher during the monsoon months (July and August). The sky remains clear during September to June. In northern Sindh (Rohri and Jacobabad) the contribution of diffuse solar radiation is low even in monsoon months i,e in July and August. The Kt value for northern Sindh indicates a clear sky. In northern part of the Sindh percentage of diffuse radiation does not exceed more than 20%. The appearance of cloud is rare. From the point of view of power generation, the estimated values indicate that northern part of Sindh has high solar potential while the southern part has low solar potential.

Keywords: global and diffuse solar radiation, solar potential, Province of Sindh, solar radiation studies for power generation

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Authors: Huda Ahmed Al Taisan

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This paper investigates a phonological phenomenon, which exhibits variation ‘alternation’ in terms of the uvular consonants [q] and [ʁ] in Hasawi Arabic. This dialect is spoken in Alahsa city, which is located in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. To the best of our knowledge, no such research has systematically studied this phenomenon in Hasawi Arabic dialect. This paper is significant because it fills the gap in the literature about this alternation phenomenon in this understudied dialect. A large amount of the data is extracted from several interviews the author has conducted with 10 participants, native speakers of the dialect, and complemented by additional forms from social media. The latter method of collecting the data adds to the significance of the research. The analysis of the data is carried out in Harmonic Serialism Optimality Theory (HS-OT), a version of the Optimality Theoretic (OT) framework, which holds that linguistic forms are the outcome of the interaction among violable universal constraints, and in the recent development of OT into a model that accounts for linguistic variation in harmonic derivational steps. This alternation process is assumed to be phonologically unconditioned and in free variation in other varieties of Arabic dialects in the area. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether this phenomenon is in free variation or governed, what governs this alternation between [q] and [ʁ] and whether the alternation is phonological or other linguistic constraints are in action. The results show that the [q] and [ʁ] alternation is not free and it occurs due to different assimilation processes. Positional, segmental sequence and vowel adjacency factors are in action in Hasawi Arabic.

Keywords: harmonic serialism, Hasawi, uvular, variation

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Authors: Rozeena Shaikh, Syed M Shahid, Jamil Ahmad, Qaisar Mansoor, Muhammad Ismail, Abid Azhar

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Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a prevalent non-communicable disease worldwide. In most high-income countries as well as middle-income and low- income countries. DM is among the top causes of deaths. DM may lead to many vascular complications like hypertension, nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, and foot. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) characterized by persistent albuminuria is a leading cause of end stage renal failure (ESRF). Pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy is implicated by the polymorphisms in genes encoding the components of reninangiotensin- aldosteron system (RAAS) which include angiotensinogen (AGT), angiotensin-II receptor and particularly angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene. Method: Study subjects include 110 control, 110 patients with DM without hypertension, 110 patients with DM with hypertension and 110 patients with DN. Blood samples were collected for Biochemical analysis and PCR and sequencing for the specific region of both genes. Results: The frequency of DD genotype and D allele of ACE (I/D) was significantly (p<0.05) high in DM normotensive, DM hypertensive and DN patients when compared to control. The ACE G2350A genotypes and allele frequencies were significantly different (p<0.05) in DM hypertensive patients as compared to control and DN, while no difference was observed between DM normotensive and DN when compared to control. The genotypes and alleles of AGT (M268T) polymorphism were significantly different (p<0.05) in DM normotensive, DM hypertensive and DN when compared to control. Conclusion: The DD genotype and D allele of ACE (I/D), GG genotype and G allele of ACE (G2350A) and the TT genotype and T allele of AGT (M268T) polymorphism have shown a significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies between controls and patients.

Keywords: genetic variations, ACE, AGT, diabetes mellitus, diabetic nephropathy, Pakistan

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Authors: Syed Toqueer Akhter, Muhammad Muzaffar Abbas

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Conflicts in Pakistan are a result of a configuration of factors, which are directly related to the system of the state, the unstable regional setting, and the geo-strategic location of Pakistan at large. This paper examines the impact of regional conflict onto the socio-political sustainability of Pakistan. The magnitude of the spillover from a conflicted region is similar in size of the equivalent increase in domestic conflict. Pakistan has gone at war three times with India; the border with India is named as the tensest borderlines of the world. Disagreements with India and lack of dispute settlement mechanisms have negatively effected the peace in the region, influx of illegal weapons and refugees from Afghanistan as an outcome of 9/11 incidence, have exasperated the criticality of levels of internal conflict in Pakistan. Our empirical findings are based on the data collected on regional conflict levels, regional trade, global trade, comparative defence capabilities of the region in contrast to Pakistan and the government regime (Autocratic, Democratic) over 1972-2007. It has been proposed in this paper that the intent of domestic conflict is associated with the conflict in the region, regional trade, global trade and the government regime of Pakistan. The estimated model (OLS) implies that domestic conflict is effected positively and significantly with long term impact of conflict in the region. Also, if defence capabilities of the region are better than that of Pakistan it effects domestic conflict positively and significantly. Conflict in neighbouring countries are found as a source of domestic conflict in Pakistan, whereas the regional trade as well as type of government regimes in Pakistan lowered the intensity of domestic conflict significantly, while globalized trade imply risk of domestic conflict to be reduced but not significantly.

Keywords: conflict, regional trade, socio-politcal instability

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Authors: Mamoona Rasheed, Salman Iqbal, Muhammad Abdullah

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Organizational capability, in terms of employees’ knowledge is valuable, and difficult to reproduce; and help to build sustainable competitive advantages. Knowledge capability is linked with human resource (HR) practices of an organization. This paper investigates the relationship between HR practices, knowledge management and organization capability. In an organization, employees play key role for the effective organizational performance by sharing their knowledge with management and co-workers that contributes towards organization capability. Pakistan being a developing country has different HR practices and culture. The business opportunities give rise to the discussion about the effect of HR practices on knowledge management and organization capability as innovation performance. An empirical study is conducted through questionnaires form the employees in private banks of Lahore, Pakistan. The data is collected via structured questionnaire with a sample of 120 cases. Data is analyzed using Structure Equation Modeling (SEM), and results are depicted using AMOS software. Results of this study are tabulated, interpreted and crosschecked with other studies. Findings suggest that there is a positive relationship of training & development along with incentives on knowledge management. On the other hand, employee’s participation has insignificant association with knowledge management. In addition, knowledge management has also positive association with organization capability. In line with the previous research, it is suggested that knowledge management is important for improving the organizational capability such as innovation performance and knowledge capacity of firm. Organization capability may improve significantly once specific HR practices are properly established and implemented by HR managers. This Study has key implications for knowledge management and innovation fields theoretically and practically.

Keywords: employee participation, incentives, knowledge management, organization capability, training and development

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Authors: S. S. Adamu, H. S. Muhammad, D. S. Shuaibu

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Poor power quality in electrical power systems can lead to medical equipment at healthcare centres to malfunction and present wrong medical diagnosis. Equipment such as X-rays, computerized axial tomography, etc. can pollute the system due to their high level of harmonics production, which may cause a number of undesirable effects like heating, equipment damages and electromagnetic interferences. The conventional approach of mitigation uses passive inductor/capacitor (LC) filters, which has some drawbacks such as, large sizes, resonance problems and fixed compensation behaviours. The current trends of solutions generally employ active power filters using suitable control algorithms. This work focuses on assessing the level of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) on medical facilities and various ways of mitigation, using radiology unit of an existing hospital as a case study. The measurement of the harmonics is conducted with a power quality analyzer at the point of common coupling (PCC). The levels of measured THD are found to be higher than the IEEE 519-1992 standard limits. The system is then modelled as a harmonic current source using MATLAB/SIMULINK. To mitigate the unwanted harmonic currents a shunt active filter is developed using synchronous detection algorithm to extract the fundamental component of the source currents. Fuzzy logic controller is then developed to control the filter. The THD without the active power filter are validated using the measured values. The THD with the developed filter show that the harmonics are now within the recommended limits.

Keywords: power quality, total harmonics distortion, shunt active filters, fuzzy logic

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Authors: Ahmed Ramadhan Al-Obaidi, Jassim Alhamid

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In this investigation, the flow pattern, characteristics of thermal-hydraulic, and improvement of heat transfer performance are evaluated using a numerical technique in three dimensions corrugated pipe heat exchanger. The modification was made under different corrugated pipe geometrical parameters, including corrugated ring angle (CRA), distance between corrugated ring (DBCR), and corrugated diameter (CD), the range of Re number from 2000 to 12000. The numerical results are validated with available experimental data. The numerical outcomes reveal that there is an important change in flow field behaviour and a significant increase in friction factor and improvement in heat transfer performance owing to the use of the corrugated shape in the heat exchanger pipe as compared to the conventional smooth pipe. Using corrugated pipe with different configurations makes the flow more turbulence, flow separation, boundary layer distribution, flow mixing, and that leads to augmenting the performance of heat transfer. Moreover, the value of pressure drop, and the Nusselt number increases as the corrugated pipe geometrical parameters increase. Furthermore, the corrugation configuration shapes have an important influence on the thermal evaluation performance factor, and the maximum value was more than 1.3. Numerical simulation can be performed to predict the various geometrical configurations effects on fluid flow, thermal performance, and heat transfer enhancement.

Keywords: corrugated ring angle, corrugated diameter, Nusselt number, heat transfer

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Authors: Abeer A. Q. Ahmed, Tracey McKay

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Biomass can provide a sustainable source for the production of high valued chemicals. Under the uncertain availability of fossil resources biomass could be the only available source for chemicals in future. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed into their building blocks (hexsoses and pentoses) which can be converted later to the desired high valued chemicals. A cellulase- and xylanase- producing bacterial strain identified as Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was found to have the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. Cellulase and xylanase activities were evaluated by 3,5-dinitro-salicylic acid (DNS) method using CMC and xylan as substrates. Results showed that P. illinoisensis CX11 have cellulase (2.63± 0.09 mg/ml) and xylanase (3.25 ± 0.2 mg/ml) activities. The ability of P. illinoisensis CX11 to saccharify lignocellulosic materials was tested using wheat straw (WS), wheat bran (WB), saw dust (SD), and corn stover (CS). DNS method was used to determine the amount of reducing sugars that were released from lignocellulosic materials. P. illinoisensis CX11 showed to have the ability to saccharify lignocellulosic materials and producing total reducing sugars as 2.34 ± 0.12, 2.51 ± 0.37, 1.86 ± 0.16, and 3.29 ± 0.20 mg/l from WS, WB, SD, and CS respectively. According to the author's knowledge, current findings are the first to report P. illinoisensis CX11 as a cellulase and xylanase producing species and that it has the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. This study presents P. illinoisensis CX11 that can be good source for cellulase and xylanase enzymes which could be introduced into lignocellulose bioconversion processes to produce high valued chemicals.

Keywords: cellulase, high valued chemicals, lignocellulosic materials, Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11, Xylanase

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Authors: Armanul Hoque Shaon, Md Baizid Mahmud, Askander Nobi, Md. Raju Ahmed, Md. Jiabul Hoque

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In the Internet of Things (IoT), devices are linked to the internet through a wireless network, allowing them to collect and transmit data without the need for a human operator. Agriculture relies heavily on wireless sensors, which are a vital component of the Internet of Things (IoT). This kind of wireless sensor network monitors physical or environmental variables like temperatures, sound, vibration, pressure, or motion without relying on a central location or sink and collaboratively passes its data across the network to be analyzed. As the primary source of plant nutrients, the soil is critical to the agricultural industry's continued growth. We're excited about the prospect of developing an Internet of Things (IoT) solution. To arrange the network, the sink node collects groundwater levels and sends them to the Gateway, which centralizes the data and forwards it to the sensor nodes. The sink node gathers soil moisture data, transmits the mean to the Gateways, and then forwards it to the website for dissemination. The web server is in charge of storing and presenting the moisture in the soil data to the web application's users. Soil characteristics may be collected using a networked method that we developed to improve rice production. Paddy land is running out as the population of our nation grows. The success of this project will be dependent on the appropriate use of the existing land base.

Keywords: IoT based agriculture monitoring, intelligent irrigation, communicating network, rice production

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Authors: Ahmed Raza Khan

Abstract:

Local-strain engineering is an exciting approach to tune the optoelectronic properties of materials and enhance the performance of devices. Two dimensional (2D) materials such as 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are particularly well-suited for this purpose because they have high flexibility and can withstand high deformations before rupture. Wrinkles on thick TMDC layers have been reported to show the interesting photoluminescence enhancement due to bandgap modulation and funneling effect. However, the wrinkles in ultrathin TMDCs have not been investigated, because the wrinkles can easily fall down to form folds in these ultrathin layers of TMDCs. Here, we have achieved both wrinkle and fold nano-structures simultaneously on 1-3L WS₂ using a new fabrication technique. The comparable layer dependent reduction in surface potential is observed for both folded layers and corresponding perfect pack layers due to the dominant interlayer screening effect. The strains produced from the wrinkle nanostructures considerably vary semi conductive junction properties. Thermo-ionic modelling suggests that the strained (1.6%) wrinkles can lower the Schottky barrier height (SBH) by 20%. The photo-generated carriers would further significantly lower the SBH. These results present an important advance towards controlling the optoelectronic properties of atomically thin WS₂ using strain engineering, with important implications for practical device applications.

Keywords: strain engineering, folding, WS₂, Kelvin probe force microscopy, KPFM, surface potential, photo current, layer dependence

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Authors: Ahmed T. Farid, Khaled Z. Soliman

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Due to limited areas and excessive cost of land for projects, backfilling process has become necessary. Also, backfilling will be done to overcome the un-leveling depths or raising levels of site construction, especially near the sea region. Therefore, backfilling soil materials used under the foundation of structures should be investigated regarding its effect on ground motion characteristics, especially at regions subjected to earthquakes. In this research, 60-meter thickness of sandy fill material was used above a fixed 240-meter of natural clayey soil underlying by rock formation to predict the modified ground motion characteristics effect at the foundation level. Comparison between the effect of using three different situations of fill material compaction on the recorded earthquake is studied, i.e. peak ground acceleration, time history, and spectra acceleration values. The three different densities of the compacted fill material used in the study were very loose, medium dense and very dense sand deposits, respectively. Shake computer program was used to perform this study. Strong earthquake records, with Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of 0.35 g, were used in the analysis. It was found that, higher compaction of fill material thickness has a significant effect on eliminating the earthquake ground motion properties at surface layer of fill material, near foundation level. It is recommended to consider the fill material characteristics in the design of foundations subjected to seismic motions. Future studies should be analyzed for different fill and natural soil deposits for different seismic conditions.

Keywords: acceleration, backfill, earthquake, soil, PGA

Procedia PDF Downloads 380