Islam and the Norwegian housing market

How do ethical lines in Islam lead to barriers for Muslims in Norway to establish themselves in the housing market/ownership line, and what consequences does this entail?Introduction: The Islamic prohibition on interest-bearing loans has resulted in Muslims in Norway facing difficulties when it comes to homeownership and, in turn, impacts their housing choices (Borchgrevink & Birkvad, 2021; Peace Research Institute, 2021). However, those belonging to the Muslim faith in Norway are only second to the largest group of those adhering to Christianity (Borchgrevink & Birkvad, 2021). Eriksen (2013) noted that while under one-third of the total immigrants to Norway are from countries that are predominantly Muslim, “it is Muslim immigrants who find themselves at the center of the most heated political and social debates” (p. 1). However, the policies in Norway have trended toward equality for immigrants (Eriksen, 2013). According to Qureshi (2020), although Norway has a specific focus on homeownership as being critical to happiness and welfare, Muslim immigrants are much less likely to own their own than are non-immigrants. Therefore, globally and in Norway, Muslims do not realize inclusion in the financial system (Brekke, 2018). Although the immigrants who have been in Norway since the 1970s are not so tightly bound to their religious beliefs, the most recent arriving groups of Muslims have a much stronger attachment to their faith (Brekke, 2018). However, it is certain that Norway’s increase in Islamic immigrants is driving the need for new financial products (Brekke, 2018). Some countries, such as France do offer halal banking for Muslims, however, that is not the case in Norway (Shariabanking.com, 2022). In 2017, a Norwegian bank did begin offering loans that were based on Islamic principles, however, that initiative only involved testing the idea and it never went forward due to receiving negative feedback from customers who were not Muslim and some of the customers quit their relationship with the bank (The Local, 2017; Sputnik International, 2017).M-EUT

Fair and trustworthy: Lock-free enhanced tendermint blockchain algorithm

Blockchain Technology is exclusively used to make online transactions secure by maintaining a distributed and decentralized ledger of records across multiple computers. Tendermint is a general-purpose blockchain engine that is composed of two parts; Tendermint Core and the blockchain application interface. The application interface makes Tendermint suitable for a wide range of applications. In this paper, we analyze and improve Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT), a consensus-based Tendermint blockchain algorithm. In order to avoid negative issues of locks, we first propose a lock-free algorithm for blockchain in which the proposal and voting phases are concurrent whereas the commit phase is sequential. This consideration in the algorithm allows parallelism. Secondly, a new methodology is used to decide the size of the voter set which is a subset of blockchain nodes, further investigating the block sensitivity and trustworthiness of nodes. Thirdly, to fairly select the voter set nodes, we employ the random walk algorithm. Fourthly, we imply the wait-freedom property by using a timeout due to which all blocks are eventually committed or aborted. In addition, we have discussed voting conflicts and consensuses issues that are used as a correctness property, and provide some supportive techniques

An Analytical Study to Explore Iron Stores in a Population of Nowshera Based on Age and Gender Perspective

OBJECTIVES:  To analyze the impact of age and gender on iron stores in a population of the Nowshera region. METHODOLOGY: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical Complex Nowshera from 1st January 2019 to 31st March 2020. All patients were selected by convenience sampling in the Pathology department irrespective of age and gender.   Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze data by the latest SPSS version 25.  RESULTS: Out of the total study population males were 70 (27.1%) and females 188 (77.9%) with median age 30 years.  The median ferritin level was 12.8 ng/ml. Out of total, 142 (55%) of cases were with serum ferritin less than 15ng/ml. A significant (p=0.03) gender based median ferritin level difference was observed with 1.5 times more probability of low iron stores in females as compared to males (OR=1.5). No statistically significant difference in body iron stores exists in different age groups. CONCLUSION:  A significant difference was noted in the iron stores in gender groups and the probability of depleted/low iron stores was higher in female gender as compared to male gender in all age groups in our population.  

Effect of Storage Treatment Upon Germination of Pecan Nuts, Carya Illinoensis (Wang.) K. Koch CV. Western

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