Muslim Women’s Right to Divorce and Gender Equality Issues in Bangladesh: A Proposal for Review of Current Laws

In Bangladesh, sharia law goes hand in hand with the statutory laws of the land. These laws are both conjointly used to regulate and monitor the issues of divorce among Muslims of the country. Orthodox Islamic laws provide husbands with the authority of issuing divorce or talaq to their wives known as Talaq-e-Tawfiz (popularly known as tawfiz) in the kabinnama (the written document of the contract of marriage). Women’s power to exercise the tawfiz, however, depends solely on the will of their husbands. Although Muslim women are capable of repudiating their marriages by the process of khula or mubarat, these are only executable under the free consent of their husbands. Also, the statutory laws of Bangladesh address Muslim women’s right to the dissolution of marriage by the intervention of the court, only under several grounds. The traditional interpretation of sharia law and the statutory laws of the country are both unwilling to establish Muslim women’s absolute right to renounce marriage as with their male counterparts. Current research reveals that this violation of gender equality and women’s rights generates female subordination in society and gives birth to numerous socio-legal complications

“Fecal microbiome in epidemiologic studies” - Letter

We congratulate Sinha et al. on their recent report (1) comparing fecal sample collection methods for epidemiologic studies of the gut microbiome. These data contribute to the increasing body of literature describing robust methodological frameworks for specimen collection and processing (2, 3). However, their claim that fixation of stool using RNAlater® results in “considerable changes to the microbiome diversity” contrasts with previous findings (2, 3), including those from their earlier reports (4, 5). We have previously demonstrated that self-collected stool stabilized with RNAlater® or other fixatives yields high fidelity and reproducibility in compositional profiling of DNA and RNA from shotgun sequence data, compared to immediately-frozen specimens (3). Additionally, fixation offers several distinct advantages crucial for large-scale population-based studies: a straightforward self-collection procedure; sample stabilization without deep-freezing during shipping, receiving, and processing; and versatility for multiple molecular analyses. The authors’ finding that specimens preserved in RNAlater® had poor correlation with immediately frozen specimens (1) could be explained, for example, by improper fixation resulting from an excess of specimen relative to preservative volume (1–2 g:2.5 ml, compared to the manufacturer-recommended ratio of 1 g:5–10 ml; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Waltham, MA)

Intellectual Piracy of Radio and Television Programs

Modern comparative laws the in the current age agreed to recognize the rights of intellectual property, copyright and insurance protection of these rights because it entails the moral rights of an intellectual and creative effort and financial value and radio and visual programs is one of the categories that received special attention in recent legislation including the Jordanian law for the protection of copyright and the most important in this law is the- Author Copyright Protection Act - including acts and multiple workbooks including audiovisual workbooks which known as radio and television programs in terms of inclusion within the respected works as a right of the author and the most important, radio and television programs also received great interest as a result of its quick and sophisticated appearance at the moment and its multiplicity ways of circulation. The emergence of prominent of audio and visual works (radio programs and television) and evolution rapidly role in the events of a type of intellectual development to highlight a number of problems which led delegated to go legal to protect these works, there are difficulties facing the protection of any attack located them and protect those that its output and that can be said about (as bodies radio and television have the right to the author inherent intellectual property rights to their broadcasts and television), and thus it is necessary to stand on the mechanism that dealt national legislation including copyright law audiovisual media or even civil and criminal legislation and know the position of Jordanian legislator and over his handling of the manifestations of abuse and to what extent we can say it has provided legal protection for these works. Keywords:  intellectual Piracy, copyright and insurance protectio

Genotype by environment interaction and stability analyses of grain yield of selected maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes in eastern and central Sudan

In this study, 22 open pollinated maize genotypes introduced from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) plus two local checks (Var113, Hudieba-2) were evaluated over two seasons (2017 and 2018) and four locations, viz. New Halfa, Kassala, Gezira and Elsuki Research Station farms of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) of the Sudan. The objectives of this study were to determine magnitude of G x E interaction and identify high yielding and stable genotypes under different environments. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Combined analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P<0.01) variation among environment, genotype, and genotype by environment interaction (GEI). This is an indication of inconsistency of genotypes in response to changing environment, the high influence of environment on yield performance among the maize genotypes and, also, the significant effect of environments indicated that the testing environments were significantly different from each other in yielding potential expression. AMMI analysis of variance for grain yield showed the environment contribution by (24.06%) of the total yield variation and genotypes explained only (9.84%) of the variation. Also, substantial percentage of G x E interaction sum of squares, explained by G x E (50.41%) followed by IPCAI (19.22%) and IPCA2 (15.52%) of the variation. Based on grain yield potential and statistical stability analyses, i.e. Eberhart and Russel model (1966) as well as the additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis, revealed that, the genotypes TZBR Eld-4-WC1, BR9922-DMRSR,TZBR Comp1-w, TZBR Comp1-Y and TZBR YPOP STRCY were  recommended for the high yielding favourable supplementary irrigation condition (over 3000 kg/ha) of New Halfa, Gezira and Elsuki while the genotypes TZBREld-3C5, TZBREld-4-WC1, HYDERAB, 97502 (RE) and ECA STRIGOFE-153 were recommended for the unfavourable low yielding (less than 1500 kg/ha) rainfed condition of Kassala

Industrial Investment in Ma'an Governorate, Obstacles, Opportunities and Successful Projects

Industrial investment is one of the most important factors that help achieving sustainable economic development. This study aims to explore the obstacles, which constrain industrial investments in Ma'an Governorate (located in south Jordan) and the incentives to promote these investments. It also aims to explore investment projects with successful future opportunities. A survey on government and private departments’ managers, individual entrepreneurs, and professionals in Ma’an Governorate was conducted for data collection. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed. Out of this number, only 186 were returned. The response rate was about 58%. One-sample t-test and descriptive statistics showed that there are obstacles facing industrial investments, on the other side it showed that there are real incentives for industrial investments. The research findings show that the Governorate of Ma'an is eligible to attract various industrial projects, which have opportunities to be highly successful in the future such as glass factories, plastics, marble, clothing, and construction materials industries. This study recommends Jordanian government to improve basic infrastructure, promote private industrial investments and exploit the opportunities in the area through directing industrial investments towards the available resources. It also recommends promoting the governorate of Ma'an through media and highlights the prospects of success in various fields of industrial investment in a positive way. Keywords: Industrial Investment, investment obstacles, investment opportunities, future investment projects, Ma’an Governorate

Visitor Management System Design and Implementation during the Covid-19 Pandemic

In todays computer technology environment, the effect of IT plays a significant part in all real-time systems. Various management systems are in place to help the company organization achieve profit, standards, and future commercial growth. The VMS is important for monitoring how many visitors are there, what the objective of the facility visit will be, and who will be put in the block listed record due to rule violation. This technology also protects the buildings overall security. The goal of this system is to synchronize the organizations business and visitors in order to achieve a wonderful connection among organizations globally. The background was compiled from many papers that discussed similar subjects and were connected to the system. In addition, the limitations and analyses of the present system have been addressed in order to demonstrate the organizations demands for a new system. In part three, we will go through the project planning, covering the feasibility study, Gantt chart, and software methodology in specific stages. Stepping on functional and non- functional requirements of the system, it is covered in the same chapter, as well as the system steps in the implementation part of section four, and finally with clear and direct conclusion and recommendations in section five with future work of the visitor management system, which will be added after the system is implanted in the organization and other related organizations

Postmodern narrative in Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five

This article explores Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) as a postmodern critique of modern literary modes. As a novel recapitulating within itself a postmodern relative perspective of reality, it elucidates one aspect of postmodernism, that of literary experimentation. Vonnegut experiments with the narrator,setting and characters of the novel to provide a fictional critique of the literary exhaustion prevailing in modern literary modes. Experimentation is thus remedial replenishment for such exhaustion through authorial metafictional intrusion into the text. Accordingly, the article uses Patricia Waugh, Gérard Genette and Mikhail Bakhtin’s narrative theory to examine the experimental technique in the novel. What makes the majority of metafictional style unique is not only its presence in the novel, but also its conflated depiction of the American individual’s suffering after the Second World War.For this later style, the self-justifying manner in the novel extrapolates textual dialogic relations to accentuate the author’s critical voice. Such voice originates in the main narrative point of view in the text and is known as focalization

DOES SUPPLIER’S WILLINGNESS TO CUSTOMIZE INFLUENCE THE BUYER’S RETENTION?

Since the last decade, customer retention has become the central topic in the management and marketing decisions in many companies.  A 5% increase in customer retention can lead to 25-95 % increase in profits. A retained customer is the loyal one to the companies due to the attachment and commitment. This loyal customer will, recommend other customers to purchase and repurchase the companies’ products and services. How we can enhance customer retention? This is one of the main challenges for most of professionals, which requires a lot of investigations. Therefore, the antecedents of customer retention required enough attention. This study explores literatures on antecedents of customer retention in Business-to-Business relationship. Based on the thorough literatures done, a theoretical framework is proposed and some possible recommendations are put forward for future researches. Keywords: Customer retention; Supplier’s willingness to customize; Supplier-buye

Variability and inheritance of okra leaf- shape of cotton cv. Sudac-k in different genetic backgrounds

   Okra leaf- shape is an important trait in cotton. Sudac-k is the only cotton variety with okra leaf type in the Sudan. The objectives of the study were to analyze the inheritance of the okra leaf of Sudac-k and its expression in different genetic backgrounds. The experiment was carried out for two seasons (2004/05 and 2005/06) and one off-season in 2006 at Gezira Research Farm of the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), Wad Medani, Sudan. The plant material consisted of Sudac-k and nine different varieties; B-pima, Barakat-90, G.S, Maryoud, Shambat-B, Acala-M, Acala-H, Barac (67) B and Albar (57)12. Eighteen reciprocal F1s were produced between Sudac-k and respective cultivars. In the second season, F2 ҆s, backcrosses and F3 plants were (Sudac-k X Albar (57)12). At maturity, individual plants were visually scored according to the leaf-shape into okra and normal leaf shape. Okra leaf morphology, lobe length, width and angle were measured in fully expanded 5- lobed leaf. It was observed that the okra leaf of Sudac-k had deep sinuses and narrow lobes while in F1 ҆ s, the sinuses were shorter and the lobes were broader. The okra leaf started at seedling stage with three lobes at the 3rd to 4th node and reached a maximum of 5 lobes at node 6 to 8 in Sudac-k, F1 plants and their progenies. Chi-square test for the segregation of leaf type in F2 indicated no significant differences among all F1 ҆ s between Sudac-k and the varieties in the distribution of okra and normal which followed the ratio of 1:2:1. This indicates that the okra leaf trait is conditioned by a single partially dominant gene. Significant differences were observed among the F1 hybrids for the expression of leaf lobing depth, lobe width and angle, indicating the effect of the genetic background on the expression of these parameters. The information will be useful in designing strategy for breeding of cotton varieties with suitable size of okra leaf to maximize its utilization in integrated insect pest management