The principles studied in islamic political thought: revisiting modern political discourse

Islam as the way of life covers all aspects of human life. As political science; mainly the study of politics, state, and government, is part of life, Islam encompasses all these issues of this discipline. Islam rightly mentioned modern thought humanitarianism, universalism, equity, and justice in quranic verse and prophetic ideals more than a thousand years ago. Tawhid, Adalah, Hurriyah, Shura, and Khilafah the core tenets of Islamic Political thought are enshrined into the contemporary discourse of political science. The study is an attempt to quest for the principles of political science as prescribed in the Holy Qur’an (the revelation from Almighty Allah) and the Hadith (the words, actions, and approvals of Prophet Muhammad), the practices and governance system of four rightly guided Caliphs. All these sources state that man is the representative (Caliph) of Allah and his responsibility is to convey the messages of Allah and undertake these into practice. The study explores that in Islam, there is the existence of political principles and practices as studied in contemporary political science. Besides, human beings as a representative of Allah should practice the Islamic political principles to exercise power in a state following Al-Qur’anic guidance and the ideals and practices of Prophet Muhammad (sm.) and the  Caliphs of Khulafa-e-Rashidun as well

Integrating Pro-Environmental Behavior with Transportation Network Modeling: User and System Level Strategies, Implementation, and Evaluation

Personal transport is a leading contributor to fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse (GHG) emissions in the U.S. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that light-duty vehicles (LDV) are responsible for 61\% of all transportation related energy consumption in 2012, which is equivalent to 8.4 million barrels of oil (fossil fuel) per day. The carbon content in fossil fuels is the primary source of GHG emissions that links to the challenge associated with climate change. Evidently, it is high time to develop actionable and innovative strategies to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions from the road transportation networks. This dissertation integrates the broader goal of minimizing energy and emissions into the transportation planning process using novel systems modeling approaches. This research aims to find, investigate, and evaluate strategies that minimize carbon-based fuel consumption and emissions for a transportation network. We propose user and system level strategies that can influence travel decisions and can reinforce pro-environmental attitudes of road users. Further, we develop strategies that system operators can implement to optimize traffic operations with emissions minimization goal. To complete the framework we develop an integrated traffic-emissions (EPA-MOVES) simulation framework that can assess the effectiveness of the strategies with computational efficiency and reasonable accuracy. ^ The dissertation begins with exploring the trade-off between emissions and travel time in context of daily travel decisions and its heterogeneous nature. Data are collected from a web-based survey and the trade-off values indicating the average additional travel minutes a person is willing to consider for reducing a lb. of GHG emissions are estimated from random parameter models. Results indicate that different trade-off values for male and female groups. Further, participants from high-income households are found to have higher trade-off values compared with other groups. Next, we propose personal mobility carbon allowance (PMCA) scheme to reduce emissions from personal travel. PMCA is a market-based scheme that allocates carbon credits to users at no cost based on the emissions reduction goal of the system. Users can spend carbon credits for travel and a market place exists where users can buy or sell credits. This dissertation addresses two primary dimensions: the change in travel behavior of the users and the impact at network level in terms of travel time and emissions when PMCA is implemented. To understand this process, a real-time experimental game tool is developed where players are asked to make travel decisions within the carbon budget set by PMCA and they are allowed to trade carbon credits in a market modeled as a double auction game. Random parameter models are estimated to examine the impact of PMCA on short-term travel decisions. Further, to assess the impact at system level, a multi-class dynamic user equilibrium model is formulated that captures the travel behavior under PMCA scheme. The equivalent variational inequality problem is solved using projection method. Results indicate that PMCA scheme is able to reduce GHG emissions from transportation networks. Individuals with high value of travel time (VOTT) are less sensitive to PMCA scheme in context of work trips. High and medium income users are more likely to have non-work trips with lower carbon cost (higher travel time) to save carbon credits for work trips. ^ Next, we focus on the strategies from the perspectives of system operators in transportation networks. Learning based signal control schemes are developed that can reduce emissions from signalized urban networks. The algorithms are implemented and tested in VISSIM micro simulator. Finally, an integrated emissions-traffic simulator framework is outlined that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies. The integrated framework uses MOVES2010b as the emissions simulator. To estimate the emissions efficiently we propose a hierarchical clustering technique with dynamic time warping similarity measures (HC-DTW) to find the link driving schedules for MOVES2010b. Test results using the data from a five-intersection corridor show that HC-DTW technique can significantly reduce emissions estimation time without compromising the accuracy. The benefits are found to be most significant when the level of congestion variation is high. ^ In addition to finding novel strategies for reducing emissions from transportation networks, this dissertation has broader impacts on behavior based energy policy design and transportation network modeling research. The trade-off values can be a useful indicator to identify which policies are most effective to reinforce pro-environmental travel choices. For instance, the model can estimate the distribution of trade-off between emissions and travel time, and provide insights on the effectiveness of policies for New York City if we are able to collect data to construct a representative sample. The probability of route choice decisions vary across population groups and trip contexts. The probability as a function of travel and demographic attributes can be used as behavior rules for agents in an agent-based traffic simulation. Finally, the dynamic user equilibrium based network model provides a general framework for energy policies such carbon tax, tradable permit, and emissions credits system

Language policy and planning:a comparative study on the implementation of language policy in the Northern Region and the Ashanti Region of Ghana

Abstract. This comparative study looks at the implementation of Ghana’s 2007 language in education policy between two linguistically distinct regions in Ghana, the Northern Region (NR) and the Ashanti Region (AR). The aim of the study was to find the reasons for gaps in the implementation of the policy. Therefore, to achieve this aim, 24 teachers from the two regions responded to a questionnaire on their Ghanaian language training, their Ghanaian language background, and their classroom students’ language composition. From these teachers, four participated in an interview to discuss their language policy implementation strategy and their motivations for the choice. The study found that fewer of the participating teachers in the Northern Region had Ghanaian language training in Dagbani (the approved language of NR) than their counterparts who had Ghanaian language training in Twi (the approved language in the AR). The study also showed that more teachers in AR were literate in Twi than there were teachers in NR who were literate in Dagbani. A further revelation in the study was that there was a greater match between students and teachers in AR than there was in NR. Another finding was that the language policy was not strictly adhered to. The study implied that there is a need for education on the advantages of early grade education in indigenous languages. It also implied that Ghana Education Service consider student-teacher language match when deploying teachers for service. Additionally, teachers view should be considered in the formulation of policies. A future enquiry into understanding the implementation language policy in multilingual classroom from varied perspectives, including that of parents, students, administrators, and the community at large will provide a more holistic outlook of language policies

The contribution of ecological design to green planning approach of a university campus in Malaysia

The concept of ecological design has produced positive results in terms of supporting the achievement of sustainable development in many fields. However, its practice currently faces many challenges due to many influential factors such as the low level of acceptance amongst stakeholders. As such, this research attempts to study the application of ecological design in contributing to the approach of green planning in designing a university campus in Serdang, Selangor. The researcher had made an observation survey of 23 selected buildings within the Universiti Putra Malaysia area, based on a set of pre-determined factors and its sub-factors in determining the level of compliance to ecological design. Generally, the results demonstrated that the level was relatively moderate and many buildings failed to comply with some factors of ecological design. The reason being that the buildings were built more than 10 years ago in which the concept of ecological design was rather new at that time. Some newer buildings corresponded fairly well to some ecological design, such as the elements of indoor environmental quality

Bow-Tie Microstrip Antenna Design

In this paper, the bow-tie microstrip antennas have been designed with two different angles of 40° and 80°. An investigaton on the effect of the angle to the return loss and radiation patterns had been carried out. The impedance matching network with the niicrostrip transmission line feeding was used in this study. Simulation and measurement results for the return loss and radiation patterns were presented

KAJIAN HUKUM TAKLIFI MENURUT PARA IMAM MAZHAB

Penulisan artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pendapat para imam mazhab tentang hukum taklifi .Pembahasan tentang hukum taklifi’ adalah salah satu dari beberapa kajian Ushul Fiqh. Bahkan salah satu tujuan utama dari studi Ushul Fiqh adalah bagaimana menyimpulkan hukum taklifi’ dari sumber-sumbernya dan penerapannya masa kekinian. Metode yang digunakan dalam karya ini adalah mengunakan metode analisis deskriptif dengan mengunakan studi pustaka dari beberapa sumber yang terpecaya. Hasil dari tinjauan pustaka adalah bahwa hukum taklifi adalah hukum-hukum ini yang digunakan oleh seorang mukallaf untuk menjadi tumpuan dalam menjalankan ibadah. Hukum taklifi menurut pengertian kebahasaan adalah hukum pemberian beban sedangkan menurut istilah adalah perintah Allah yang berbentuk pilihan dan tuntutan. Dinamakan hukum taklifi karena perintah ini langsung mengenai perbuatan seorang mukallaf (balig dan berakal sehat). Hukum taklifi menpunyai pembagian-pembagian yaitu,Ijab adalah firman yang menuntut melakukan suatu perbuatan dengan tuntutan pasti, Nadb adalah firman Allah yang menuntut melakukan suatu perbuatan dengan perbuatan yang tidak pasti, tetapi hanya berupa anjuran untuk berbuat, Tahrim adalah firman yang menuntut untuk tidak melakukan sesuatu perbuatan dengan tuntutan yang pasti, karahah adalah firman Allah yang menuntut untuk tidak melakukan suatu perbuatan dengan tuntutan yang tidak pasti, tetapi hanya berupa anjuran untuk tidak berbuat,dan ibahah adalah firman Allah yang memberi kebebasan kepada mukalaf untuk melakukan atau tidak melakukan sesuatu perbuatan. Kata kunci:Taklifi,Nadb,Ibahah,Kaarahah,Tahrim

On the zeros of polynomials and related analytic functions

Let P(z) be a polynomial of degree n with real or complex coefficients. In this paper we obtain a ring shaped region containing all the zeros of P(z). Our result include, as special cases, several known extensions of Enestrom-Kakeya theorem on the zeros of a polynomial. We shall also obtain zero free regions for certain class of analytic functions