Rights of power vs. power of rights : synthesis of Muslim built environments

This research is about two modes of built environment production that coexist in the contemporary Arab Muslim world. It argues that the contemporary (acquired modem-capitalist) mode is based on the concept of power; however, the traditional Islamic (inherited) mode is based on the concept of rights as derived from shari 'a (Islamic legal system). Substantial dissensions exist between the two modes, due to differences in their concepts of power and related mechanisms. This research helps to explain many concepts concerning "the structure of power" in contemporary societies and "the structures of rights" in traditional Muslim societies, and their respective impact on the built environment. This thesis argues that most urban studies dealing with Muslim cities stem from Western concepts delineated by thinkers such as Weber, Marx, and Durkheim. Such concepts shaped the thinking of Orientalists and many Muslim scholars in studying Muslim environments, leading to confused conclusions. They have all ignored the exact meaning of power, its sources and its utilisation as a resource in manipulating the built environment. For example, one of the basic differences between contemporary (acquired) and traditional (inherited) environments is that rights (property and individual rights) in contemporary environments are defined by power holders (the state) in society, i.e. power creates rights. On the other hand, in the Muslim built environment, power is limited by rights, or power is created by rights which is quite static as it is well defined by the Islamic legal system. This simple difference, (power of rights or rights of power) has created two different structures of power gain: one is static (Muslim built environments) and the other is dynamic (contemporary built environments). The static structure (or power of rights) has created diverse environmental solutions, as power can only be utilised when environmental interventions are activated by inhabitants, while the dynamic structure (rights of power), because of its hierarchical nature of domination among parties, has created classes of intervening agents with expandable power and thus subjective solutions. Through comparisons, using case studies (examples), this research examines and comments on the nature of both systems of power to clarify their impact on the built environment. Accordingly, this thesis argues, the coexistence of the two modes, loaded with such substantial dissensions in one system ( contemporary Muslim world), inevitably leads to internal systemic contradictions, and thus to a crisis. Therefore, the crisis that contemporary Muslim built environments are witnessing today is but one aspect of this broader societal and systemic crisis. This thesis investigates the genesis of this crisis in the contemporary built environment by focusing on the imperceptible level of the coexistence of those two modes, and mainly the issue of power: the main components of the crisis

Solar energy farming as a development innovation for vulnerable water basins

In vulnerable water basins, unregulated access to solar energy and groundwater can threaten water security through increased abstractions. Public and development agencies are therefore exploring options to provide farmers with additional income from solar farming while protecting groundwater resources. Solar energy farming is combined with attractive purchase guarantees in order to encourage farmers to efficiently use solar energy on-farm and sell the energy excess. This article evaluates a project from the Azraq Basin in Jordan, and presents similar international experiences, particularly from India. It assesses solar energy farming as an innovation from a water-energy-food nexus perspective

Nutritional Assessment of Hip and Neck of Femur Fractures among Elderly Patients in Qatar

Introduction: Femoral neck fractures is one of the most common traumatic injuries in elderly and increasing continuously worldwide. The study aims to assess malnutrition among elderly admitted with hip and femur fracture in Qatar using different variables before and after surgery. Materials and methods: Cross sectional study of 93 patients (42 males, 51 females) with femur fracture (elderly over 65 years) admitted to Hamad General Hospital HGH for surgery within the study period. Malnutrition assessed using, Anthropometric measurements, Biochemical laboratory values before and after surgery. Food intake measured through tray percentage consumption of lunch tray and Geriatric Nutrition Risk Index (GNRI) calculated from variables collected. Results: Using GNRI 26.44% of patients were malnourished and increased to 46.91% after surgery. All variables decreased with age; females have higher anthropometric values than males, but significant difference only found for MUAMC (p value <0.05). Widowed females and married males have more tendency for femur fracture/malnutrition. Biochemical laboratory values decreased significantly after surgery except lymphocyte count. Laboratory values strongly correlated with each other except lymph count, negative correlation between age and anthropometric measurements positive correlation between BMI and anthropometric measurements. Conclusion: Laboratory values and food consumption were underestimated since blood transfer for some patients were not considered and those who did not eat were not included in calculation. All malnutrition assessment tools consider several variables to assess malnutrition the more variables assessed the better assessment tool. Keywords: Malnutrition, femur fracture, elderly, anthropometric measurements. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/105-04 Publication date: January 31st 202

Stability-indicating method for the determination of Rivaroxaban and its degradation products using LC-MS and TLC

A validated stability indicating thin layer chromatographic (TLC) and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry LC/MS methods were developed to analyse Rivaroxaban and its degradation products. Forced degradation studies under stress conditions were carried out in order to establish its stability profile. Stress conditions recommended by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) including oxidative, photolytic, thermal, acidic, and basic hydrolysis were applied. Rivaroxaban found susceptible to acid and base hydrolytic stress conditions. Degradation products were identified isolated and characterized using LC-MS and TLC. Three major degradation products were detected, separated and determined and two of them were further characterized by NMR spectroscopy and FT-IR

Ontology-based context-aware model for event processing in an IoT environment

The Internet of Things (IoT) is more and more becoming one of the fundamental sources of data. The observations produced by these sources are made accessible with heterogeneous vocabularies, models and data formats. The heterogeneity factor in such an enormous environment complicates the task of sharing and reusing this data in a more intelligent way (other than the purposes it was initially set up for). In this research, we investigate these challenges, considering how we can transform raw sensor data into a more meaningful information. This raw data will be modelled using ontology-based information that is accessible through continuous queries for sensor streaming data.Interoperability among heterogeneous entities is an important issue in an IoT environment. Semantic modelling is a key element to support interoperability. Most of the current ontologies for IoT mainly focus on resources and services information. This research builds upon the current state-of-the-art ontologies to provide contextual information and facilitate sensor data querying. In this research, we present an Ontology to represent an IoT environment, with emphasis on temporal and geospatial context enrichment. Furthermore, the Ontology is used alongside a proposed syntax based on Description Logic to build an Event Processing Model. The aim of this model is to interconnect ontology-based reasoning with event processing. This model enables to perform event processing over high-level ontological concepts.The Ontology was developed using the NeOn methodology, which emphasises on the reuse and modularisation. The Competency Questions techniques was used to develop the requirements of this Ontology. This was later evaluated by domain experts in software engineering and cloud computing. The ontology was evaluated based on its completeness, conciseness, consistency and expandability, over 70% of the domain experts agreed on the core modules, concepts and relationships within the ontology. The resulted Ontology provides a core IoT ontology that could be used for further development within a specific IoT domain. IIThe proposed Ontology-Based Context-Aware model for Event-Processing in an IoT environment “OCEM-IoT”, implements all the time operators used in complex event processing engines. Throughput and latency were used as performance comparison metrics for the syntax evaluation; the results obtained show an improved performance over existing event processing languages