Effects of the consumption of halal products on Muslim piety and transcendental wellbeing

While there has been substantial research done on the topic of halal consumption behavior from an economic perspective, there is no research available from a sociological perspective that studies the halal consumption behavior of Muslims who may perhaps conspicuously indulge in halal certified products. This thesis argues that consumers may need to demonstrate their association with their religion to some extent by their consumption choices. And, a product’s Islamic brand image helps consumers to display their Muslim piety in their groups or communities. As in today’s consumer society a halal logo is representative of an Islamic brand and Muslims may prefer a product with halal logo for its religious connotations or values. In the process of halalaisation,commodities transform to non-commodities as they are thereby linked to the religious domain. Our research seeks to examine the effects of the halalisation phenomenon on the person’s Muslim piety and their transcendental wellbeing by using online surveys and in-depth interviews with Australian Muslims with a mixed method approach. The inter-view data was transcribed into electronic format to combine and compare the responses and, analysed for themes that guided the proposed conceptual model which was underpinned by the renowned sociological theories (theory of conspicuous consumption, the rational choice theory of religion and the self-transcendence theory). The conceptual model hypothesized that consumer’s perceived public image of halal products will positively relate to their Muslim piety. And, the consumer’s Muslim piety will strengthen their preference for halal products which may positively correlate with consumer’s transcendental wellbeing. The quantitative data was prepared using the statistical software SPSS. Further, the data analysis was conducted following the two-step approach to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). In this approach, the measurement scales of the constructs in the model were first subjected to Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and then the structure model was assessed to show hypothesized relationships among key constructs by using the statistical software AMOS. The result shows that the pro-posed hypotheses were accepted. That is, consumer’s perceived public image of halal products has a positive influence on the Muslim piety. Besides, the Muslim piety strongly related to their preference for halal products which contributes to consumer’s transcendental wellbeing. Over-all, the empirical evidence suggests that halalised products can be conspicuously consumed and more importantly, contributes towards Muslim piety and transcendental wellbeing. The limitation of the study is that the conceptual model developed to test the relationships between consumer’s perceived public image of halal products and its impact on their Muslim piety and transcendental wellbeing was only tested in a Muslim context with widely accepted scales used to measure all the variables of the model. This limits the findings to Muslims; otherwise the model could be employed to other religions to assess consumer preference for products with religious orientations and consumer’s transcendental wellbeing

Study of Plasma Metanephrine Level As Biochemical Parameter in Pregnant Women with Preeclampsia

Pregnancy- including hypertension(PIH), also known as preeclampsia, is one of the major causes of maternal and fetal death. This study was carried out on 30 pregnant women with preeclampsia and 30 healthy pregnant women as control ranging in age mean ±SD (28.84±3.55) years , BMI (76.80±9.78) Kg/m2 and gestation age(30.82±0.75)week. The aim of this research was studied the plasma Metanephrine level and other biochemical parameters such as Hemoglobin(Hb), serum Protein, S. Albumin, Globulin, Albumin/Globulin ratio (Alb/Glu. ratio), S.Glutamate Pyruvate aminotransferase (GPT), S.Glutamate Oxaloacetate aminotransferase(GOT). The obtained results have been compared with 30 healthy pregnant women as control group. The result showed that there was significant increase in mean value of Hb in group A(pregnant women with preeclampsia) when compared to group B(healthy pregnant women). The present study showed no significant changes was observed in the level of S. Protein, globulin, Alb./Glu. ratio, GPT and GOT as compared to control group. While Albumin showed a significant decrease in group A(pregnant women with preeclampsia) when compared with group B(healthy pregnant women) and significant increase in the levels of metanephrine, metanephrine/protein ratio, metanephrine/Alb ratio in group A (pregnant women with preeclampsia) to group B(healthy pregnant women).The present study conclude that the increase in the levels of metanephrine, metanephrine/protein ratio, metanephrine/Alb ratio in pregnant women with preeclampsia may be used as a marker to evaluate the development of disease. The current study recommend to take more case and measurement metanephrine in plasma and urine

Estimating the economic cost of setting up a nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh government is in the final stage of setting up one nuclear power plant with two units at Rooppur, Ishwardi, each having 1200 MW capacity, to be launched in 2023 to meet the energy shortage urgently. The financial cost of the project is the US $12.65 billion. The primary purpose of this paper is to calculate the economic cost of setting up this plant by using the estimation method developed by Du and Parsons (2009), MIT (2003; 2009; 2018), and Singh et al.  (2018). It has been found that the economic cost is amounted to 9.36 cents/kWh for the capacity of 2400 MW. In contrast, for a similar plant in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, India, the corresponding cost figure is 5.36 cents/kWh for 2000 MW. Even though it seems costlier than India, the study suggests that policymakers should prefer nuclear power, as it is cost-competitive, considering the production cost of other electricity facilities. The main advantage of nuclear power is cost-competitive baseload power generation with zero carbon emission. This nuclear power plant (NPP) project is expected to boost the energy sector of Bangladesh by transforming the country from an energy deficit country into an energy surplus country

Experimental and Theoretical Studies of (E)-N'-1-(4- propylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide as Corrosion Inhibitor of Mild Steel in 1 M HC

The efficiency of a novel Schiff base namely (E)-N'-1-(4-propylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide (PBNH) was investigated as corrosion inhibitor of mild steel (MS) in 1M HCl using weight loss technique at 303 and 313 K. It was established that corrosion rate of mild steel increases with increase in temperature and concentration of HCl. Results showed that PBNH considerably inhibited the corrosion of mild steel in a 1 M HCl solution and inhibition efficiency is about 70% at 4 × 10–4 M PBNH at both temperatures. The inhibi� tion efficiency of PBNH increased with an increase in concentration and temperature. The adsorption model obeys the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the kinetic–thermodynamic model and the value of free energy of adsorption, indicated that the adsorption of PBNH was a spontaneous process and was both an elec� trostatic�adsorption (physisorption) and adsorption on the basis of donor�acceptor interactions (chemisorp�tion). Thermodynamic parameters calculated show the spontaneity and endothermic nature of the process and also reveal the favourable affinity of PBNH towards the mild steel surface. Quantum chemical calcula�tions based on PM3 method was performed on PBNH and calculated parameters gave useful information to explain the interaction between the surface of metal and PBNH

CO2 enrichment and increasing light intensity till a threshold level, enhance growth and water use efficiency of lettuce plants in controlled environment

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and light intensity are the two main environmental drivers known to play important roles in crop growth and yield. In the current study, lettuce seedlings were exposed to four different light intensities [(75, 150, 300 and 600 Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD)] and four different concentrations of CO2 (400, 800, 1200 and 1600 ppm). By increasing light intensity and CO2 concentration growth parameters such as fresh weight, dry weight and leaf area were stepwise increased from 75 to 300 PPFD and from 400 ppm to 1200 ppm CO2 concentration. Maximum fresh weight was observed in 300 PPFD under both 1200 ppm and 1600 ppm CO2 concentrations. Highest dry weight was obtained in plants exposed to 300 and 600 PPFD under both 1200 and 1600 ppm CO2 concentrations. Highest leaf area was detected in 300 PPFD under both 1200 and 1600 ppm CO2 concentrations. Widest stomatal pore aperture was detected in 600 PPFD under 400 ppm and 800 ppm CO2 concentrations. Evapotranspiration increased in a light intensity and CO2 concentration-dependent manner; higher light intensity or higher CO2 concentration, more evapotranspiration. Highest water use efficiency (WUE) was achieved in plants exposed to 300 PPFD under 1200 ppm CO2 concentration. In conclusion, to achieve best growth performance and WUE, lettuce should be produced under 300 PPFD light intensity and 1200 ppm CO2

Evaluation of Functional Outcomes and OCT-Biomarkers after Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant for Postoperative Cystoid Macular Edema in Vitrectomized Eyes

Purpose. To evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone implant (DEX) for the treatment of postoperative cystoid macular edema (PCME) in vitrectomized eyes and to investigate visual and morphological OCT predictive factors. Methods. In this retrospective study, eyes with PCME after vitrectomy were treated with at least one DEX injection and were observed over 12 months. Indications for surgery were epiretinal membrane (ERM) or rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) without macular involvement. Prior treatments, if any, were noted. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central foveal thickness (CFT), and OCT morphology including the presence of intraretinal cysts/fluid or subretinal fluid (IRF/SRF) and ellipsoid zone (EZ) continuity were evaluated. Correlations between OCT measures and visual outcomes were analyzed by the generalized estimating equations procedure. Results. Forty-six eyes with ERM and 15 eyes with RRD were enrolled. The ERM group was more likely to gain BCVA than RRD (odds ratio (OR), 1.168;95% confidence interval (CI), 1.003-1.360;p=0.046). The absence of SRF (OR, 0.860;95% CI, 0.743-0.995;p=0.043) was predictive of worse BCVA, whereas the integrity of EZ (OR, 1.094;95% CI, 0.951-1.257;p=0.209) or naive status (OR, 0.946;95% CI, 0.871-1.137, p=0.853) was not. Eyes with a worse baseline BCVA were more likely to gain >1 line after 12 months (OR, 1.485;95% CI, 1.171-1.884;p=0.001). Conclusion. The efficacy of the treatment of PCME in vitrectomized eyes seems to be affected by baseline BCVA, the absence of SRF, and the indication for surgery. Naive status appears not to play any significant role in the prediction of BCVA. This trial is registered with DRKS00018955

Design, fabrication and operation of a hot electron resonant tunneling transistor

Transistors employing resonant tunneling injection of hot electrons into a thin quantum well base region have been fabricated. The base region in these transistors is formed by a narrow bandgap material like InGaAs so that the first level is a confined one lying below the Fermi level in the contact regions. This results in charge transfer into the bound state in the quantum well thus allowing independent control of the base electrostatic potential. Theoretical calculations showing the importance of various device parameters in the design of a resonant tunneling transistor are presented and preliminary results showing the capability of transistor action in such devices are presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27677/1/0000060.pd