Information systems for adaptive shariah compliant financial services: defining adaptation constructs

Asymmetry of information in financial service creates excessive uncertainty termed gharar, which makes a financial transaction invalid (haram) in Islamic Law (Shariah). Information systems customised to shariah compliant financial service (SCFS) can make information flow more symmetric and can in turn reduce gharar. Based on information related to emergent SCFS design stakeholders i.e. financial regulators, bankers and customers make adaptation and migration decisions. However, unique nature of SCFS design requires adaptation (migration) of emergent SCFS in compliance to shariah. We discuss general service and SCFS literatures to define structural constructs of SCFS. We then discuss qiyas, which is the juridical principle of defining emergence for expansion in shariah rulings, and theory of deferred action, which is a design adaptability theory drawing in complexity. The adaptation construct for SCFS designs is defined and discussed in the joint framework of qiyas and theory of deferred action

Delayed Access to Generic Medicine: A Comment on the Hatch-Waxman Act and the Approval Bottleneck

Prescription drug costs can be astronomical. The advent of generic drugs, which sell at substantially lower prices than their brand-name counterparts, can save consumers billions of dollars per year. The Hatch-Waxman Act, which governs the introduction of generic pharmaceuticals into the marketplace, produces an undesired side effect-the approval bottleneck. This Comment examines the approval bottleneck -a potential roadbolock to the generic drug approval process, and comments on attempts to alleviate the problem. This comment suggest that developments in statutes and case law have made leaps in attempting to alleviate the approval bottleneck problem. The Comment evaluate these developments, which include (1) the ability of a subsequent Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filer to trigger the generic exclusivity period of the first ANDA filer; (2) the forfeiture provisions; (3) declaratory judgments and the relaxed declaratory judgment test; and (4) the rulings on covenants not to sue. Despite these attempts, however, the potential harm to consumers resulting from delayed access to generic medicines remain

The display of electronic commerce within virtual environments

In today’s competitive business environment, the majority of companies are expected to be represented on the Internet in the form of an electronic commerce site. In an effort to keep up with current business trends, certain aspects of interface design such as those related to navigation and perception may be overlooked. For instance, the manner in which a visitor to the site might perceive the information displayed or the ease with which they navigate through the site may not be taken into consideration. This paper reports on the evaluation of the electronic commerce sites of three different companies, focusing specifically on the human factors issues such as perception and navigation. Heuristic evaluation, the most popular method for investigating user interface design, is the technique employed to assess each of these sites. In light of the results from the analysis of the evaluation data, virtual environments are suggested as a way of improving the navigation and perception display constraints

The use of IT to increase nutritional awareness in young children

It has been well documented that obesity amongst young children is on the increase. By the age of 5 the levels of obesity is alarming and is much greater than expected in comparison to the national standards. To address this problem an overall health programme is required encompassing healthy eating and physical activity. However, a radical change of this nature has not shown any long-term benefits and can result in a negative attitude from the child. Therefore, more subtle ways of increasing awareness in children about healthy eating were thought to be the key. Since children are spending an increasing amount of their free time playing computer games it was thought that this would be a good way of introducing them to healthy eating. Therefore, a prototype system is developed and tested to identify whether IT can be used to raise nutritional awareness in young children. The results show that the increase is marginal but the system did encourage discussion about the effects of food amongst a group of children aged between 4-5

Study of Parasite Hosts of the Genus Cuscuta and its Traditional Uses in Planpur Taluka, Gujarat, India

Cuscuta is a parasitic plant belonging to family Cuscutaceae. The present paper is an investigation of its various host plant species and its traditional uses in Palanpur Taluka of North Gujarat during 2005-2008. Two species of Cuscuta occur in the Palanpur Taluka. The preservation and documentation of traditional knowledge is a matter of prime importance. This will not only provide recognition of this knowledge but will also help in conservation of such gradually vanishing endangered semi/arid plant species. The present paper provide ethnomedicinal information of 2 species of Cuscuta. For each plant species listed, the botanical name, family, vernacular name, part used, uses/ailments treated, preparations/administrations, use (%) and locality are given

A case study of MMO2's Madic: A framework for creating mobile internet systems

Mobile Internet applications on ubiquitous mobile networks allows real-time, anywhere, anytime connectivity to services. Due to its scalability and potential cost savings, mobile communication is being increasingly applied in the business and consumer communities to create innovative data and voice application, which run over the Internet infrastructure. This paper reports on a case study at an organisation that created an innovative approach to developing mobile applications developed by third party independent developers. A conceptual wireless reference model is presented that was used to define the various system components required to create effective mobile applications