Islamic Feminism & Gender Equality

Islamic feminists are reinterpreting Islamic sources in order to achieve equal rights for women within an Islamic framework. They have challenged traditional interpretations of scripture and received notions of interpretive authority, both in Muslim majority societies as well as in the diasporic Islamic world. With their new interpretations they have contributed to the transformation of the legal, political and social rights of Muslim women. There are, however, also limitations to the feminist interpretations of scripture and their potential to deliver gender equality

Comparison of superficial surgical site infection following use of diathermyand scalpel for making skin incision in inguinal hernioplasty

The method of making surgical incision remains a complex problem. Although controversial, the use of diathermy instead of scalpel for skin incision and underlying tissue dissection is gradually gaining wide acceptance. This is due to the observation that no change in wound complication rate or postoperative pain is reportedwith the use ofDiathermy. However, the fear of excessive scarring and poorwound healing has curtailed itswidespread use for skin incision. The objective of the study is to compare superficial surgical site infection (SSSI) in diathermy and scalpel skin incision in inguinal hernioplasty. Quasi experimental study. Study was conducted at Surgical Unit II, Holy Family Hospital. Rawalpindi from1 Jan. 2008 to 30 September. 2008. Atotal of 80 patients who presented with inguinal hernias were included in the study. Patientswere divided in two groups. Group1: In 40 patients skin incisionwasmadewithDiathermy,Group 2: The other 40 had skin incisionwith scalpel. Themean age of patients in the intervention group (Group 1)was 50 years while in the control group (Group 2) itwas 46 years. 48% patients in Group 1 and 55% in the Group 2 had indirect inguinal hernias. SSSI was noted in 12.5% cases in Group 1 whereas in Group 2 it was 17.5% but this difference was not found to be statistically significant (p value=0.378). The use of diathermy for making skin incisions is as safe as scalpel and there is no significant difference amongst both regardingwound infection. Keywords: Diathermy incision, electrocautery, scalpel skin incision, superficial surgical site infectio

Functional identity of receptors for proteolysis-inducing factor on human and murine skeletal muscle

Background: Cachexia in both mice and humans is associated with tumour production of a sulphated glycoprotein called proteolysis-inducing factor (PIF). In mice PIF binds with high affinity to a surface receptor in skeletal muscle, but little is known about the human receptor. This study compares the human PIF receptor with the murine. Methods: Human PIF was isolated from the G361 melanoma and murine PIF from the MAC16 colon adenocarcinoma. The human PIF receptor was isolated from human skeletal muscle myotubes. Protein synthesis and degradation induced by human and murine PIF was studied in human and murine skeletal muscle myotubes. Results: Both the human and murine PIF receptors showed the same immunoreactivity and Mr 40 000. Both murine and human PIF inhibited total protein synthesis and stimulated protein degradation in human and murine myotubes to about the same extent, and this was attenuated by a rabbit polyclonal antibody to the murine PIF receptor, but not by a non-specific rabbit antibody. Both murine and human PIF increased the activity of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in both human and murine myotubes, as evidenced by an increased 'chymotrypsin-like' enzyme activity, protein expression of the 20S and 19S proteasome subunits, and increased expression of the ubiquitin ligases MuRF1 and MAFbx, and this was also attenuated by the anti-mouse PIF receptor antibody. Conclusions: These results suggest that the murine and human PIF receptors are identical

Thermodynamic Geometry of black hole in the deformed Horava-Lifshitz gravity

We investigate the thermodynamic geometry and phase transition of Kehagias-Sfetsos black hole in the deformed Horava-Lifshitz gravity with coupling constant $\lambda=1$. The phase transition in black hole thermodynamics is thought to be associated with the divergence of the capacities. And the structures of these divergent points are studied. We also find that the thermodynamic curvature produced by the Ruppeiner metric is positive definite for all $r_+ > r_-$ and is divergence at $\eta_2=0$ corresponded to the divergent points of $C_{\Phi}$ and $C_T$. These results suggest that the microstructure of the black hole has an effective repulsive interaction, which is very similar to the ideal gas of fermions. These may shine some light on the microstructure of the black hole.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Perception of People Regarding Selection of Petrol Pump in Karachi

The objective of the study is to get an idea about people’s perception on the choice of petrol pumps in Karachi. To accomplish the purpose, it was hypothesized that (1) Location has a significant impact on the choice of Petrol Service Stations (2) Quality has a significant impact on the choice of Petrol Service Stations (3) Rewards has a significant impact on the choice of Petrol Service Stations. A sample of 200 respondents was randomly selected who filled a self reporting questionnaire. One sample t-test was applied on gathered data to assess the observations. It was revealed that neither quality nor location and reward have an influence on the consumer choice over selection of petrol pump

Analyzing the Factors for Creating Competition among Products

There are so many reasons of competition among products; the purpose of this study was to find different factors on which competition was dependent. Hypotheses were generated to find the impact of factors on competition. A cross-sectional design research study was conducts through a survey form where a total of 260 respondents participated. Result was derived with the help of statistical tool i.e. one sample T-test and mean value was assigned 4. The end result concluded that competition is dependent on all the factors (availability of goods, delivery on time, discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional activities and number of variations) except one factor (product support services). This study to some extend gave a view that product services created no difference for customers to buy but other factors related to cost and quality mattered

Geometrothermodynamics of the Kehagias-Sfetsos Black Hole

The application of information geometric ideas to statistical mechanics using a metric on the space of states, pioneered by Ruppeiner and Weinhold, has proved to be a useful alternative approach to characterizing phase transitions. Some puzzling anomalies become apparent, however, when these methods are applied to the study of black hole thermodynamics. A possible resolution was suggested by Quevedo et al. who emphasized the importance of Legendre invariance in thermodynamic metrics. They found physically consistent results for various black holes when using a Legendre invariant metric, which agreed with a direct determination of the properties of phase transitions from the specific heat. Recently, information geometric methods have been employed by Wei et al. to study the Kehagias-Sfetsos (KS) black hole in Horava-Lifshitz gravity. The formalism suggests that a coupling parameter in this theory plays a role analogous to the charge in Reissner-Nordstrom (RN) black holes or angular momentum in the Kerr black hole and calculation of the specific heat shows a singularity which may be interpreted as a phase transition. When the curvature of the Ruppeiner metric is calculated for such a theory it does not, however, show a singularity at the phase transition point. We show that the curvature of a particular Legendre invariant ("Quevedo") metric for the KS black hole is singular at the phase transition point. We contrast the results for the Ruppeiner, Weinhold and Quevedo metrics and in the latter case investigate the consistency of taking either the entropy or mass as the thermodynamic potential.Comment: v2: some references adde

Analyzing the Factors for Creating Competition among Products

There are so many reasons of competition among products; the purpose of this study was to find different factors on which competition was dependent. Hypotheses were generated to find the impact of factors on competition. A cross-sectional design research study was conducts through a survey form where a total of 260 respondents participated. Result was derived with the help of statistical tool i.e. one sample T-test and mean value was assigned 4. The end result concluded that competition is dependent on all the factors (availability of goods, delivery on time, discounted pricing by suppliers, cost of products, quality of products, promotional activities and number of variations) except one factor (product support services). This study to some extend gave a view that product services created no difference for customers to buy but other factors related to cost and quality mattered

Effects of truck traffic on top-down fatigue cracking performance of flexible pavements using a new mechanics-based analysis framework

The mechanics-based analysis framework predicts top-down fatigue cracking initiation time in asphalt concrete pavements by utilising fracture mechanics and mixture morphology-based property. To reduce the level of complexity involved, traffic data were characterised and incorporated into the framework using the equivalent single axle load (ESAL) approach. There is a concern that this kind of simplistic traffic characterisation might result in erroneous performance predictions and pavement structural designs. This paper integrates axle load spectra and other traffic characterisation parameters into the mechanics-based analysis framework and studies the impact these traffic characterisation parameters have on predicted fatigue cracking performance. The traffic characterisation inputs studied are traffic growth rate, axle load spectra, lateral wheel wander and volume adjustment factors. For this purpose, a traffic integration approach which incorporates Monte Carlo simulation and representative traffic characterisation inputs was developed. The significance of these traffic characterisation parameters was established by evaluating a number of field pavement sections. It is evident from the results that all the traffic characterisation parameters except truck wheel wander have been observed to have significant influence on predicted top-down fatigue cracking performance

The superfluid density in cuprate high-Tc superconductors - a new paradigm

The doping dependence of the superfluid density, r_s, of high-Tc superconductors is usually considered in the context of the Uemura relation, namely Tc proportional to rs, which is generally assumed to apply in the underdoped regime. We show that a modified plot of Tc/Do versus rs, where Do is the maximum d-wave gap at T=0, exhibits universal features that point to an alternative interpretation of the underlying physics. In the underdoped region this plot exhibits the canonical negative curvature expected when a ground-state correlation competes with superconductivity (SC) by opening up a gap in the normal-state DOS. In particular rs is suppressed much faster than Tc/Do or indeed Tc. The pseudogap is found to strongly modify the SC ground state.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted Phys. Rev. Let