Sources of income for women in Islam

According to some studies, feminizing poverty has now become a usual attitude in Islamic societies with rates exceeding 70%, which completely contradicts with the essence of Sharia that allocates women thirty sources of income in addition to equaling them with men in terms of being financially independent, and to be taken care of in all their circumstances. That is to say, if a woman is wealthy, sharia maintains her money and gives her freedom to spend it the way she desires, and in the Muslim community there is always a breadwinner who is responsible for all her needs, protecting her honor, and providing her with foods, drinks, clothes, and housing to the extent of his ability. In case of the breadwinner’s absence, Allah (SWT) permitted numerous channels through which money can be delivered to her in order to keep her from begging. However, the present observations show a different situation although the Muslim woman is proud; she lives her life to spend, not to beg for aliment. What are those sources? What is their evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah and the doctrines of the jurists? Why do we witness a partial or complete absence of these sources in some societies? As for the obstacles of dealing with these sources, this needs further research

Incidence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of extended-spectrum-β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolated from retail imported mackerel fish

During the past few years, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and other species of Enterobacteriaceae have become a matter of great concern in human and veterinary medicine. Several studies in recent years documented the prevalence and occurrence of ESBLproducing Enterobacteriaceae in food products such as meat, poultry and raw milk; therefore in this pilot study we examined imported raw frozen mackerel fish to determine the incidence of ESBLproducing E. coli from Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. From January to March, 2012, 45 samples were purchased from various supermarkets of this region and examined for the presence of ESBL-producing E. coli using ChromID ESBL agar plates and further confirmed by PCR amplification. Out of 45 mackerel fish samples, 23 (51.1%) were found to be positive for ESBL-producing E. coli and yielded 60 isolates. The higher rate of resistance was found to be with ampicillin (100%), piperacillin (96.7%), cefotaxime (93.3%), ceftriaxone (93.3%), tetracycline (53.3%), nalidixic acid (40%) and trimethoprim (30%). The least rate of resistance was recorded among chloramphenicol (15%), ciprofloxacin (15%), noroxin (11.7%) and nitrofurantoin (5%). All the 60 isolates in this study were found susceptible to amikacin, aztreonam, cefepime, ertapenem, gentamicin and kanamycin. Further characterization by PCR revealed that 49 (82%) out of 60 isolates of ESBL-producing E. coli were confirmed to be blaCTX-M type and were negative for blaTEM and blaSHV genes. This is the first study to demonstrate the occurrence of ESBL-producing E. coli in imported raw frozen mackerel fish in Saudi Arabia and the study result indicates that the mackerel fish might be the possible reservoir of blaCTX-M gene and may contribute to the dissemination and transfer of these β-lactamase genes to humans through food chain. The high rate of occurrence of ESBL-producing E. coli in the mackerel fish indicates that there is an established reservoir of these bacteria in the mackerel fish. Further national wide studies are necessary to assess future trends in imported fish to Saudi Arabia.Key words: Mackerel fish, Escherichia coli, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL), antimicrobial resistance, PCR

Unveiling the genetic basis of Fusarium wilt resistance in chickpea using GWAS analysis and characterization of candidate genes

Introduction: Chickpea is a legume crop that thrives in regions with semi-arid or temperate climates. Its seeds are an excellent source of proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals, especially high-quality proteins. Chickpea cultivation faces several challenges including Fusarium wilt (FW), a major fungal disease that significantly reduces productivity.Methods: In this study, a Genome-wide Association Analysis (GWAS) was conducted to identify multiple genomic loci associated with FW resistance in chickpea. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 180 chickpea genotypes for FW resistance across three distinct locations (Ethiopia, Tunisia, and Lebanon) during the 2-year span from 2015 to 2016. Disease infection measurements were recorded, and the wilt incidence of each genotype was calculated. We employed a set of 11,979 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) markers distributed across the entire chickpea genome for SNP genotyping. Population structure analysis was conducted to determine the genetic structure of the genotypes.Results and Discussion: The population structure unveiled that the analyzed chickpea germplasm could be categorized into four sub-populations. Notably, these sub-populations displayed diverse geographic origins. The GWAS identified 11 SNPs associated with FW resistance, dispersed across the genome. Certain SNPs were consistent across trials, while others were specific to particular environments. Chromosome CA2 harbored five SNP markers, CA5 featured two, and CA4, CA6, CA7, and CA8 each had one representative marker. Four SNPs demonstrated an association with FW resistance, consistently observed across a minimum of three distinct environments. These SNPs included SNP5826041, SNP5825086, SNP11063413, SNP5825195, which located in CaFeSOD, CaS13like, CaNTAQ1, and CaAARS genes, respectively. Further investigations were conducted to gain insights into the functions of these genes and their role in FW resistance. This progress holds promise for reducing the negative impact of the disease on chickpea production

Managerial effectiveness in Saudi Arabia

"Managerial effectiveness" is a critical component of any organization, regardless of its national, cultural, ethnic or linguistic makeup (Drucker, 2001; Lund & Barker, 2007). This study explores the perceptions of "managerial effectiveness" amongst a group of Saudi and western expatriate senior managers working in Saudi Arabia. Twelve expatriate and twelve Saudi managers were interviewed and asked to define what "managerial effectiveness" means for them. The managers were also asked to describe a typical "effective" and "ineffective" manager in the context of working in Saudi Arabia. The managers were then asked to explain the factors which they perceive to influence "effectiveness" in the context of working in Saudi Arabia. This qualitative study aims to build upon the lack of information available about the concept of managerial effectiveness in Saudi Arabia. By further understanding the factors which influence managerial effectiveness, the study can be used to help Saudi and expatriate managers better understand and apply effective managerial concepts in the Saudi context. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed in relation to the managerial effectiveness literature

A hybrid rate control mechanism for forwarding and congestion control in named data network

Named Data Networking (NDN) is an emerging Internet architecture that employs a pull-based, in-path caching, hop-by-hop, and multi-path transport architecture. Therefore, transport algorithms which use conventional paradigms would not work correctly in the NDN environment, since the content source location frequently changes. These changes raise forwarding and congestion control problems, and they directly affect the link utilization, fairness, and stability of the network. This study proposes a Hybrid Rate Control Mechanism (HRCM) to control the forwarding rate and link congestion to enhance network scalability, stability, and fairness performance. HRCM consists of three schemes namely Shaping Deficit Weight Round Robin (SDWRR), Queue-delay Parallel Multipath (QPM), and Explicit Control Agile-based conservative window adaptation (EC-Agile). The SDWRR scheme is scheduling different flows in router interfaces by fairly detecting and notifying the link congestion. The QPM scheme has been designed to forward Interest packets to all available paths that utilize idle bandwidths. The EC-Agile scheme controls forwarding rates by examining each packet received. The proposed HRCM was evaluated by comparing it with two different mechanisms, namely Practical Congestion Control (PCON) and Hop-by-hop Interest Shaping (HIS) through ndnSIM simulation. The findings show that HRCM enhances the forwarding rate and fairness. HRCM outperforms HIS and PCON in terms of throughput by 75%, delay 20%, queue length 55%, link utilization 41%, fairness 20%, and download time 20%. The proposed HRCM contributes to providing an enhanced forwarding rate and fairness in NDN with different types of traffic flow. Thus, the SDWRR, QPM, and EC-Agile schemes can be used in monitoring, controlling, and managing congestion and forwarding for the Internet of the future