Historical Role of Islamic Waqf in Poverty Reduction in Muslim Society

Since the emergence of known civilisation poverty is a major challenge and in the present era, it is a wide spread world problem specifically afflicting the developing countries and also is a breeding ground for terrorism and conflicts between nations [Shirazi and Khan (2009)]. Poverty problem, with issues, of defining poverty, determining who is poor and where to draw the poverty line has been at the forefront of national and international policy-making forums, and a topic of heated debates among economists and policy makers [Khan (2007)]. Increasing per capita income along with equal distribution of wealth leading to better standard of life (with better facilities and opportunities of: food, health, clothing, housing, drinking water, income and employment, and social and cultural life) is pertinent way to reduce poverty. Islam encourages with stress on working hard and investment for earning the livelihood. For extremely poor who have no means to meet basic needs, no sources to invest, and no opportunity to earn, Islam suggested voluntary and compulsory endowments [Zakat, waqf, sadqa] for catering the needs of different degrees of poor from destitute to less poor, and also causing, circulation of wealth leading to it equal distribution, which is also another way to reduce poverty

Response of Gaussian-modulated guided wave in aluminum: An analytical, numerical, and experimental study

The application of guided-wave ultrasonic testing in structural health monitoring has been widely accepted. Comprehensive experimental works have been performed in the past but their validation with possible analytical and numerical solutions still requires serious efforts. In this paper, behavior and detection of the Gaussian-modulated sinusoidal guided-wave pulse traveling in an aluminum plate are presented. An analytical solution is derived for sensing guided wave at a given distance from the actuator. This solution can predict the primary wave modes separately. Numerical analysis is also carried out in COMSOL® Multiphysics software. An experimental setup comprising piezoelectric transducers is used for the validation. Comparison of experimental results with those obtained from analytical and numerical solutions shows close agreement

Accurate monitoring and fault detection in wind measuring devices through wireless sensor networks

Many wind energy projects report poor performance as low as 60% of the predicted performance. The reason for this is poor resource assessment and the use of new untested technologies and systems in remote locations. Predictions about the potential of an area for wind energy projects (through simulated models) may vary from the actual potential of the area. Hence, introducing accurate site assessment techniques will lead to accurate predictions of energy production from a particular area. We solve this problem by installing a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to periodically analyze the data from anemometers installed in that area. After comparative analysis of the acquired data, the anemometers transmit their readings through a WSN to the sink node for analysis. The sink node uses an iterative algorithm which sequentially detects any faulty anemometer and passes the details of the fault to the central system or main station. We apply the proposed technique in simulation as well as in practical implementation and study its accuracy by comparing the simulation results with experimental results to analyze the variation in the results obtained from both simulation model and implemented model. Simulation results show that the algorithm indicates faulty anemometers with high accuracy and low false alarm rate when as many as 25% of the anemometers become faulty. Experimental analysis shows that anemometers incorporating this solution are better assessed and performance level of implemented projects is increased above 86% of the simulated models

Multi-Person Tracking Based on Faster R-CNN and Deep Appearance Features

Mostly computer vision problems related to crowd analytics are highly dependent upon multi-object tracking (MOT) systems. There are two major steps involved in the design of MOT system: object detection and association. In the first step, desired objects are detected in every frame of video stream. Detection quality directly influences the performance of tracking. The second step involves the correspondence of detected objects in current frame with the previous to obtain their trajectories. High accuracy in object detection system results in less number of missing detection and finally produces less fragmented tracks. Better object association increases the affinity between objects in different frames. This paper presents a novel algorithm for improved object detection followed by enhanced object tracking. Object detection accuracy has been increased by employing deep learning-based Faster region convolutional neural network (Faster R-CNN) algorithm. Object association is carried out by using appearance and improved motion features. Evaluation results show that we have enhanced the performance of current state-of-the-art work by reducing identity switches and fragmentation

Surgical Outcome & Cost Analysis of Single Stage Anterior Decompression and Cage Fixation in Patients with Thoracic and Lumbar Tuberculous Spondylitis: A Single Centre Experience Over Six – Years with Comprehensive Literature Review

Objective:  For Tuberculous spondylitis (TS) the optimal mode of management for extensive tuberculous spondylitis is still a subject of debate. We determined the outcome for single stage anterior decompression and cage fixation for dorso-lumbar TS. Material and Methods:  This prospective study was conducted between 2012 and 2018. Worsening or new onset neurological deficit, increasing deformity, large paraspinal abscess and those not responding to anti-tuberculous drug therapy were included. Patients with severe comorbidities (> ASA class III) and recurrent cases were excluded. Demographics, clinical features, radiological characteristics, intraoperative details, postoperative complications and follow-up condition were recorded. Results:  One patient with mean age of 45.6 ± 14.9 years with 17 (54.8%) males and 14 (45.2%) females. Mean symptoms duration was 71.9 ± 29.4 days. 41.9% had spasticity & 25.8% had sphincter dysfunction on presentation. Half (48%) of patients had a Frankel grade 3 or less bilaterally. Mean length of the procedure was 137.4 ± 19.9 minutes. 19.4% (n = 6) had postoperative pulmonary complications, 16.1% (n = 5) wound infection, 9.7% (n = 3) had worsening of neurologic deficit and one (3.2%) remained static. Graft extrusion and cage subsidence were noted in one (3.2%) patient each. Favorable outcome was observed in 83.9% (n = 26) while 16.1% (n = 5) had unfavorable outcome. Mean out-of-pocket cost was 164677.4 ± 11469.9 rupees (USD: 1187 approx). Conclusion:  Timely spinal decompression with stabilization at the onset of the Pott’s disease in patients who fulfil the criteria as surgical candidates carries a promising outcome

Course Coordination In Academic Sector: An Expert System Foundation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come out from science fiction movies and it is now enabling machines to behave like human experts. Computers have some advantages over human beings because of their immunity toward perturbation factors. These factors include fatigue, stress and diminished attention. This ability makes computers more efficient and reliable in decision making. The real goal of AI is to computerize human intelligence. In this paper we explored “Expert Systems” that is one of the most important branches of AI. In expert systems, we simulate expertise of domain experts in computer systems. Machines can work like doctors, engineers and consultants and can be able to learn and use their judgmental power to conclude the situations. In academia, many subjects are being offering in every degree programs. A course coordinator is an expert who allot related subject to instructors by using some factual and heuristic knowledge. The real task is to simulate the judgment ability that he obtained after many years of experience. We proposed an expert system that will stimulates the intelligence of course coordinator and will make reliable decisions.

Economic Factors Influencing Housing Prices in Pakistan

The aim of this research is to explore the factors influencing housing prices in Pakistan. The author used monthly time series data for the period from 2011 to 2020, which were obtained from different sources: housing prices data from zameen.com, Karachi interbank offered rate (KIBOR) as a proxy for monetary policy, consumer price index as a proxy for inflation, and exchange rate data from the State Bank of Pakistan. Various methods, such as autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), comparative analysis and deductive analysis were employed. Before using the ARDL technique, a proper lag length was selected, which turned out to be 11 months. Various diagnostic tests indicated model stability with no autocorrelation or structural breaks. The author concluded that the KIBOR rate negatively affected housing prices, while inflation and exchange rates affected house prices positively

Genotype-Phenotype Heterogeneity in Haemophilia

Haemophilia was previously regarded as a classical example of Mendelian inheritance, with mutation in only a single gene (F8 or F9) causing the disease phenotype. The disease manifests complete penetrance. Studies, however, revealed the striking genetic and phenotypic heterogeneities of the disease. With further sophistication of clinical and molecular techniques, the disease was also found to have allele heterogeneity, phenotypic plasticity and variation in expressivity. The variations are more pronounced in F9 variants with five distinct phenotypes. All these phenomena advocate a rather complex genotype-phenotype relationship for the disease. A keen insight into the matter may unveil new avenues of therapeutics