Something More Beautiful: Educational and Epistemic Integrations Beyond Inequities in Muslim-minority Contexts

Islamic schools in Western secular societies are evolving in response to collective concerns over marginalization of Muslim children and communities and to increasing demands for high-quality education in the faith tradition. These schools are at the center of public debate over how they fit within secular societies. This paper aims to take a pedagogic look at the literature in the field of Islamic Education Studies

Growth Characteristics in Children with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital, Karachi

Objective: To determine the growth characteristics in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia visiting tertiary care hospital Karachi. Study Design: Cross-Sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Paediatrics Department, National Institute of Child Health, Karachi Pakistan, from Nov 2018 to May 2019. Methodology: All patients who visited the OPD were included in the study. Growth characteristics like underweight, normal BMI, overweight, obese and short stature were recorded. This information, along with the age of diagnosis, family history of CAH, parental consanguinity, family history of CAH or any abortion or prenatal death, were noted. Results: The mean age of the patients was 7.40±2.34 years. Out of 69 congenital adrenal hyperplasia patients, 41(59.4%) were males, and 28(40.6%) were females. The short suture was noted in 53(76.8%) patients. 19(27.5%) were underweight, 6(8.7%) were normal weight, 10(14.5%) were overweight, and 34(49.3%) patients w ere obese. Conclusion: A significant effect of congenital adrenal hyperplasia was documented in the children

Compositional analysis of dark colored particulates homogeneously emitted with combustion gases (dark plumes) from brick making kilns situated in the area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

In Pakistan raw coal and a little quantity of waste plastics are burnt to sustain high temperature inside brick making kilns. The gaseous emissions of the kilns contain a considerable amount of darkish colored particulates. It is currently believed that the plastic burning produces these particulates. Advanced characterization instruments, such as a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffractometer, surface area analyzer using nitrogen gas adsorption isotherms, and thermogravimetric analyzer, were used to find out the chemistry and physics of the particulates. At a magnification of 30,000x, the SEM picture shows masses that are roughly roundish in shape and their size is in between 0.1 to 0.5 microns. The elements detected in these particles are carbon, oxygen, and sulfur (EDS analysis), or in other words, these elements are a typical composition of raw coal. This elemental analysis suggest that fine coal particles come out with usual combustion gases and these emitted particulates are not plastic combustion product. To strengthen this finding, the sample when calcined discarded a significant amount of sulphur oxides species, as determined in the XRF study by noticing a considerable decrease of sulphur content in the calcined particles, suggesting that the particles are actually a coal. The N2 isotherm graph reveals that the light weight flying coal particles has a very low surface area. Additionally, the XRD and TGA studies supports the conclusion that these dark colored particulate emissions are primarily fine coal particles (cenosphere)

Extended Sliding Mode Control Scheme for a VTOL UAV with Time-Varying Disturbances

The control problem of VTOL UAV is studied in this paper. To manage the complexity of the control problem, the system dynamics are decomposed into two subsystems, i.e. translational dynamics and rotational or attitude dynamics. A robust controller for both dynamics using extended sliding mode control (SMC) is designed to maintain the external disturbance in the closed-loop systems. Also, the chattering problem in conventional SMC is attenuated using the proposed scheme. The idea behind the controller design is to handle the disturbances in the closed loop by dominating the uncertainties. The stability of the whole closed-loop system is proven by presenting rigorous mathematical analysis. Moreover, the performance of the proposed controller is demonstrated by conducting several numerical simulations

Acoustic interrogation and optical visualization of ultrasound contrast agents within microcapsules

The effectiveness of localized drug delivery as a treatment for breast cancer requires sufficiently high therapeutic dose, as well as an ability to image the drug for proper spatial targeting. To balance treatment potential and imaging capabilities, we have begun to design a novel drug reservoir using microcapsules that are large in size (\u3e; 30 μm) but functionalized with microbubbles or ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs). We term these carriers as `Acoustically Sensitive Microcapsules\u27 (ASMs). In previous work, we have demonstrated preparation of ASM carriers and their structural changes under therapeutic ultrasound by imaging static changes. In this paper, we describe a combined optical-acoustic setup coupled with a microfluidic device to trap these carriers for imaging and sonication. Using the setup, continuous wave ultrasound (180 kPa, 2.25 MHz, 3 s) produced an average displacement of 3.5 μm in UCAs near the ASM boundary, and exhibited displacement as high as 90 μm near the center of the microcapsule. Longer exposure time and higher acoustic pressure increased UCA displacement within an ASM. These two parameters can be carefully optimized in the future to cause these UCAs to travel to the membrane boundary to help in the drug elution process

Should Wildlife Trapping Have a Place in a Christian Environmental Ethic?

Animal protectionist groups lobby for the banning of wildlife trapping because of its perceived cruelty and harm to the environment. This paper evaluates those claims and suggests that Christians carefully consider all the data before adopting an anti-trapping stance