The Emergence of New Islamic Economic and Business Moralities

This article aims to explore the sources of the observed transformation in the embeddedness of economic, business, and financial practices of Muslim individuals in comparison to premodern period Muslims. It argues that the predomination of instrumental reasoning in modern times, as opposed to substantive morality in everyday practice, is one of the main reasons behind the transformation of embeddedness of Muslim individuals. Instrumental reasoning, being the dominant methodology, leads to diminished submergence in social relations; that is not limited to interpersonal relationships, but further extended to the core religious acts. How such an emergent economic and business morality is reconciled with the Islamic substantive morality is examined. It is argued that “transformation of exception into norm” is the main method used to reconcile instrumental reasoning with Islamic law in fulfilling religious obligations, at least in terms of fulfilling the form and in complying with the necessities of modern life. This has led to the emergence of new economic and business moralities

Poor sitting posture and a heavy schoolbag as contributors to musculoskeletal pain in children: an ergonomic school education intervention program

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a multidisciplinary, interventional, ergonomic education program designed to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal problems by reducing schoolbag weight and correcting poor sitting posture. Methods: Data were collected twice before and twice following intervention using the Standardized Nordic Body Map Questionnaire, a rapid upper limb assessment for posture evaluation, and schoolbag weight measurement in children aged 8 and 11 years attending two schools within the central region of Malaysia. Results: Students who received the ergonomic intervention reported significant improvements in their sitting posture in a classroom environment and reduction of schoolbag weight as compared with the controls. Conclusion: A single-session, early intervention, group ergonomics education program for children aged 8 and 11 years is appropriate and effective, and should be considered as a strategy to reduce musculoskeletal pain among schoolchildren in this age group

Assessing Stress Variability in Fractured Rock Masses with Frictional Properties and Power Law Fracture Size Distributions

International audienceThe presence of fractures in rock masses plays a major role in its stress state and its variability. Each fracture potentially induces a stress perturbation, which is correlated to its geometrical and mechanical properties. This work aims to understand and quantitatively predict the relationship between fractured systems and the associated stress fluctuations distribution, considering any regional stress conditions. The approach considers the rock mass as an elastic rock matrix into which a population of discrete fractures is embedded—known as a Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modeling approach. We develop relevant indicators and analytical solutions to quantify stress perturbations at the fracture network scale, supported by 3D numerical simulations, using various fracture size distributions. We show that stress fluctuations increase with fracture density and decrease as a function of the so-called stiffness length, a characteristic length that can be defined as the ratio between Young’s modulus of the matrix and fracture stiffness. Based on these considerations we discuss, depending on DFN parameters, which range of fractures should be modeled explicitly to account for major stress perturbations in fractured rock masses

Fuel composition influences on exergetic performance of a standalone internal reforming solid oxide fuel cell

An approach to resolve global warming and fuel resource depletion, is maintaining biofuels like biogas and syngas from biomass gasification in internal reforming solid oxide fuel cells. In this research effects of fuel composition on exergetic performance of standalone SOFC are investigated. Biogas, syngas and pure methane are compared in terms of efficiency and exergy destruction. Results show that pure methane has the highest efficiency in atmospheric and pressurized applications. Syngas efficiency is the least among three cases specially in high pressure conditions due to higher rate of air and compressor work required

Development of rotating supersonic combustion engine with swirling air-fuel injection

Rotating Supersonic Combustion Engine (RSCE) has the benefit of high-frequency operation, high thrust density for future generation engine. However, RSCE that is developed is still at infancy stage which requires further refined study especially in determining best mixing scheme. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop and to test the new mixing scheme of RSCE using swirl injection system. The research also involves the investigation of the RSCE engine using supersonic combustion ignition system with various fuel-air injection configurations on the overall engine performance. This paper discussed about the engine and its ignition development using various configuration of swirl air-fuel injection system to achieve successful operation of rotating supersonic combustion engine