bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Constructing an Axis of Evil
Authors: Marandi Seyed Mohammad , Pirnajmuddin Hossein
Published: April 2020

A major phenomenon in recent decades within Orientalist discourse is the indigenous Orientalism that can be seen in the works of some scholars, writers, and thinkers. These writers are sometimes referred to as “captive minds,” “brown sahibs,” or what Malcolm X would call the “houseNegro.”1 Defined by their intellectual bondage and dependence on the West and, at times, likened to pop psychologists in their writings about the “natives,” their western counterparts believe them because, as native informants, they are seen to be in a position to produce authentic representations of the Oriental psyche. This paper offers a brief study of memoirs written by members of the Iranian diaspora in western countries over the past decade, particularly in the United States. Among these writers are Azar Nafisi, Marjane Satrapi, Roya Hakakian, Afshin Molavi, and Azadeh Moaveni, and others. A few books with thriller-like titles, such as Prisoner of Tehran (Marina Nemat: 2008) or Living in Hell (Ghazal Omid: 2005), will not be studied. In the eyes of many Iranian intellectuals, such writers are often viewed as examples of the Iranian intellectual comprador class or members of the gharbzadeh (a term made current by JalalAle-Ahmad, the Iranian critic and intellectual, that can be rendered in English as westernized, west-struck, or westomaniac), rather than as intellectuals.
A Decade of the World Trade Organization and the Trade Performance of Muslim Countries
Authors: Amin Ruzita Mohd.
Published: April 2020

The World Trade Organization (WTO), established on 1 January 1995 as a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), has played an important role in promoting global free trade. The implementation of its agreements, however, has not been smooth and easy. In fact this has been particularly difficult for developing countries, since they are expected to be on a level playing field with the developed countries. After more than a decade of existence, it is worth looking at the WTO’s impact on developing countries, particularly Muslim countries. This paper focuses mainly on the performance of merchandise trade of Muslim countries after they joined the WTO. I first analyze their participation in world merchandise trade and highlight their trade characteristics in general. This is then followed by a short discussion on the implications of WTO agreements on Muslim countries and some recommendations on how to face this challenge.
An Outline of the Historical Evolution of Qawā‘id Literature in Islamic Law
Authors: Kızılkaya Necmettin
Published: April 2020

The legal rules of each legal system reflect their own nature and primary characteristics in both quantity and quality. Since they comprise the main structure of the system, the study of these rules, therefore, gives an idea about the mechanism of the system as a whole. An investigation of the principles behind these legal rules, which represent dominant features of several rules is a further step and gives an opportunity to understand the common points of the particular cases. These principles have different essences and historical backgrounds in every legal surrounding. The settled principles of Islamic law (al-qawā‘id al-fiqhiyyah) which reflect the general characteristics of rules, were used in legal corpuses from the early ages and developed at a later stage as an independent subgenre in Islamic law. Not only the four Sunni schools of law, but also Shi‘i jurists have made a considerable contribution to the development of the literature in the course of time. In the Muslim world, there are several academic works on the subject such as critical editions, theoretical studies of the genre, and the investigations and applications of certain qawā‘id in legal corpuses. Nevertheless, this significant subject of Islamic law has so far found little attention among the Western academia. This paper, aims to make a small contribution to this significant component of Islamic law. It is concentrating on al-qawā‘id alfiqhiyyah, not al-qawā‘id al-usūliyyah (hermeneutic principles). After dealing with the concept of qawā‘id and its importance in Islamic law, the paper presents a historical overview of the development of qawā‘id literature in four Sunni schools of law. The evolution of the genre is examined in three periods: the formative period second/eighth–fourth/tenth centuries), the self-contained compilation period (fourth/tenth–tenth/sixteenth centuries), and the post-compilation period (tenth/sixteenth– thirteenth/nineteenth centuries).The paper concludes with a list of traditional and modern qawā‘id works.
Reflections on Science at the Interface of the Islamization of Knowledge Debate
Authors: Kirmani M. Zaki
Published: April 2020

The author revisits the forty-year Islamization of knowledge debate in relation to science. He maintains that values and the worldview have an undeniable role in science and its multidimensional growth. He maintains that the role of values in science is no more controversial, and if some people still deny it, it may not be long before they will reverse and reframe their opinion on the relation between science and religion.
Kiai in Madura
Authors: Pribadi Yanwar
Published: April 2020

This article deals with the roles of kiai in Madura as both traditional and modern leaders. I will look at the principal ways in which kiai, who symbolize Islamic leadership, have characterized Islam and politics in Madura by arranging themselves in conflicts and accommodations within Madurese society. In doing so, I will portray two prominent Madurese kiai figures. I maintain that kiai in Madura are the main actors in state-society relations. They have become the social, cultural, economical, and political brokers in Madurese villages. Kiai with their pesantren and the Nahdlatul Ulama`s network have cautiously responded to state power by establishing multifaceted relations with the state; these are relationships that range from distancing themselves from the government to forming mutually beneficial relations with the state when the power of the state is too strong to oppose or when making alliance with the government is seen as a useful choice.
The Position of the Niqab (the Face Veil) in Australia under Australian and Islamic Laws
Authors: Wood Asmi John
Published: April 2020

The Sayed Case in the District Court of Western Australia required the court to decide on the issue of a witness in niqab. The defendant, in this case a Muslim man, said that a prosecution witness wearing niqab created a disadvantage for the defense and wanted her to provide her testimony without a face veil. While this is a narrow characterization of the issue for the court, the case sparked much controversy including calls for the government to regulate forms of Muslim women’s dress as was the case in France and Belgium. At present, while many Muslim women in Australia do not cover either their hair or face, the common law and statute do not prescribe or proscribe any form of dress for Australians. The call by some Muslims, such as in the Sayed Case, for the imposition of limits on Muslim dress, employs the scholarship of foreign Muslims who they support. This paper calls for the rejection of such prescriptive formulations of both Australian law and the local expressions of Islamic law. Others such as Katherine Bullock, an Australia Muslim academic, support women’s choice in the broadest terms ‒ and this paper supports the primary sources of Islam, the traditional Islamic scholarship, and is deeply acculurated in the Australian ethic of personality autonomy and choice for all, including Muslims women. While they are both independent works, both Bullock’s work and the common law as articulated by the judge in the Sayed Case are strongly supportive of allowing women the choice of covering themselves. This paper contends that Australian common law, as confirmed in the Sayed Case, is reflective of a broader Muslim consensus and should be retained as the status quo.
The Islamization of Economies and Knowledge
Authors: Ahmed Habib
Published: April 2020

Using ideas from New Institutional Economics (NIE), this paper examines the Islamization of economies and links it to the Islamization of knowledge. NIE uses a multi-disciplinary approach to explain how economic structures evolve and change over time. These structures are studied at four levels: cultural, institutional, organizational, and transactional. While culture embodies a given society’s body of knowledge, the nature and growth of that knowledge determine the type and evolution of an economy’s institutions, organizations, and transactions. This paper contends that the Islamization of economies failed mainly due to a lack of the Islamic knowledge needed to produce the appropriate institutions and organizations. After examining the status of knowledge in the Muslim world, examples of legal institutions are presented to illustrate how dormant Islamic scholarship led to economic structures that lack an Islamic ethos. Establishing an Islamic economic structure would require reorienting an Islamic society’s culture via the creation of new Islamic knowledge that can build appropriate institutions, organizations, and transactions.
Asad on the Secular
Authors: Rafudeen Auwais
Published: April 2020

This paper examines a South African debate on legislating Muslim marriages in the light of anthropologist Talal Asad’s critique developed in his Formations of the Secular (2003). It probes aspects of the debate under four Asadian themes: (1) the historicity of the secular, secularism, and secularization; (2) the place of power and the new articulations of discourses it creates; (3) the state as the arm of that power; and (4) the interconnections (or dislocations) among law, ethics, and the organic environment (habitus). I argue that Asad illumines the debate in the following ways: (1) by providing a deeper historical and philosophical appreciation of its terms of reference, given that the proposed legislation will be subject to South Africa’s secular Bill of Rights and constitution; (2) by requiring us to examine and interrogate the genealogies of such particular hegemonic discourses as human rights, which some participants appear to present as ahistorical and privileged; and (3) by showing, through the concept of habitus, why this debate needs to go beyond its present piecemeal legal nature and develop an appreciation of the organic linkages among the Shari‘ah, morality, community, and self. Yet inevitable nuances are produced when applying Asad’s ideas to the South African context.
Humanity as Homo Culturus
Authors: Dhaouadi Mahmoud
Published: April 2020

This paper claims that human beings are first of all Homo Culturus and only then Homo Politicus, Homo Sociologus, or Homo Oeconomicus. Human beings are distinguished from all other species by what I call human symbols (HS), namely, language, thought, religion, knowledge/science, myths, laws, and cultural values and norms. As such, they are central to the human identity of individuals, groups, and societies and therefore basic keys for understanding and explaining individual as well as collective behaviors in human societies. The theoretical framework/paradigm of Homo Culturus also helps to explain the phenomenon of the human mind in its various forms: the illiterate mind, the educated mind, and the highly intellectual minds of scientists and scholars such as Ibn Khaldun.
The Authority of the Sunnah According to the Qur’anic Text
Authors: Eldridge Cleaver Ahmad
Published: April 2020

This study analyzes what the Qur’an ascribes to the Sunnah of Muhammad and highlights the existence of indicators within the Qur’anic text as to the Sunnah’s significance, role, and legal authority. Insight into its place and role is researched according to the Qur’an, and answers are sought as to its significance in Islamic law and thought. The answers presented are the ones found in the Qur’anic discourse circulating around Muhammad. The analysis, which examines thirty-five Qur’anic verses that mention Muhammad, is organized according to several themes, among them obedience to God and to Muhammad and the latter’s judicial role.
Is European Islam Experiencing an Ontological Revolution foe an Epistemological Awakening?
Authors: Hashas Mohammed
Published: April 2020

This paper argues that European Islam is experiencing an ontological revolution that revisits epistemological foundations in order to endorse some basic values of modernity.1 In addition to revisiting the classical ontological-epistemological bond that characterizes most Islamic scholarship in the context of multicultural liberal societies, it emphasizes the questions of ethics and spirituality. Such an endeavor is described here as “revisionist-reformist,” revisionist in the sense that it is broadly a continuity of a rationalist trend in Islamic thought, and reformist in the sense that it updates a number of values that have for centuries been narrowed down to revealed/prescribed laws. This reformist tendency allows European Islam to open new pathways outside what could be called “classical dichotomous thought,” which sees only antagonism between reason and faith, or between religion and politics. Religion, ethics, and reason are considered inseparable ontologically and complementary epistemologically; they are not seen as mutually contradictory or antagonistic.
The Muhammadiyah’s Promotion of Moderation
Authors: Baidhawy Zakiyuddin
Published: April 2020

This article examines the role of the Muhammadiyah as the largest civil Islam movement in Indonesia in promoting moderation in the Muslim community. This study focuses on the Muhammadiyah’s efforts to establish its social ideals within the framework of civil society and the ummah. The findings of this study state that the social ideals of the Muhammadiyah to establish “Masyarakat Islam yang Sebenar-benarnya” (the Truly Islamic Society [MIYS]) have been implemented by playing its role in three domains. First, in the political domain the movement has utilized the public sphere and public opinion to democratize the state through collective deliberation and checks and balances on the state and public institutions, enforcing moderation and civility in diversity, and influencing the direction of state policy. Second, in the economic domain, the Muhammadiyah has attempted to build self-reliance, justice, and economic welfare through the development of religious-social philanthropy; to represent itself as the articulator and advocator of the interests of the marginalized people; and to build a healthy business for the social welfare. Third, in the cultural domain, it portrays itself as an intellectual and moral strength to enlighten the nation’s reason and conscience, to build consensus with the pillars of the state, as well as to enforce contestation and alternatives to the state.
Late Ottoman Discourses on Nationalism and Islam and the Contributions of Russia’s Muslims
Authors: Gökçek Mustafa
Published: April 2020

This study focuses on the early twentieth-century nationalist and Islamist discourses in the Ottoman Empire. Particularly after the 1908 coup, Turkish and Arab nationalism spread among the intellectuals. Under the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) party’s leadership, Turkish nationalists received tremendous support to spread their views through associations and publications. Some of them defended the compatibility of Turkish nationalism with Islam. In response, traditional Islamist intellectuals argued that Islam was opposed to nationalism and tribalism and pointed out the potential dangers of pursuing nationalism in a multiethnic society. This article mostly focuses on the nationalist and traditionalist intellectuals. Among the first group was Halim Sabit, a Kazan Tatar who moved to Istanbul from Russia to pursue religious studies at a madrasa. He eventually became heavily involved in nationalist circles and published articles in Sırat-i Mustakım and İslam Mecmuası on how Islam allowed nationalism and how Turkish nationalism could serve Islam. At the same time, he participated in a trip to the Middle East to convince the Arabs of the need for Islamic unity. In contrast to Musa Kazım, Said Nursi, and other intellectuals, Sabit emphasized the unity of Muslim nations within the empire.
The Growing Trend of Homeschooling in the Washington Metropolitan Area Muslim Community
Authors: Seif-Amirhosseini Zahra
Published: April 2020

This research seeks to explain the apparent increase in the number of Muslim families in the Washington metropolitan area who are choosing to homeschool their children. Despite being a proportionally slim percentage of the homeschool population, they have faced some negative attention stemming from concerns about Muslim homeschoolers’ qualifications, expertise, citizenship, and even loyalty to the United States. Our project attempts to ascertain the motives and reasons behind this growing trend by choosing a representative sample of Muslim homeschoolers and conducting in-depth interviews, engaging in participant observation, and sending out questionnaires. We placed our findings within the broader study of homeschooling, both historically and theoretically, so that it would serve as a cross reference as well as a comparison of Muslim and other homeschoolers. Our findings indicate that the main reasons for this increase are very similar to those noted among other faith-based homeschoolers: religion, family values, and a morally based education in a safe environment.
Values and Gender Equality between Islam and the West
Authors: Mrani Moulay Rachid
Published: April 2020

If the development of technology, means of communication, and rapid transportation have made continents closer and made the world a small village, the outcome of the ensuing encounters among cultures and civilizations is far from being a mere success. Within this new reality Muslims, whether they live in majority or minority contexts, face multiple challenges in terms of relating to non-Muslim cultures and traditions. One of these areas is the status of women and gender equality. Ali Mazrui was one of the few Muslim intellectuals to be deeply interested in this issue. His dual belonging, as an African and as a westerner, enable him to understand such issues arising from the economic, political, and ethical contrasts between the West and Islam. This work pays tribute to this exceptional intellectual’s contribution toward the rapprochement between the western and the Islamic value systems, illustrating how he managed to create a “virtual” space for meeting and living together between two worlds that remain different yet dependent upon each other.
Islam's Foundational Equality
Authors: Finn David Raeburn
Published: April 2020

Islam's Foundational Equality

Abstract:

Aysha Hidayatullah argues that (a)  certain Qur'anic verses are incorrigibly male-privileging and (b) those verses are themselves privileged. (c) Hence, egalitarian readings of the Qur'an are unsupported and unsupportable. (d) If, as egalitarians propose, such verses are unjust, then either the Qur'an is not God's word or God is unjust. By contrast, (a) I contend that no evidence suggests Qur'anic verses are incorrigibly male-privileging; further I provide or indicate egalitarian rereadings for relevant contenders; (b)  no Qur'anic evidence in any case warrants the primacy of such verses. (c, d) Finally, since controverting egalitarian readings of the subject verses are available the logical form of Hidayatullah's argument shows merely that if such verses are read to exhibit injustice those readings cannot be God's word. Since the Qur'an is God's word there is no option but to reread them.
Some Reflections on the First Muslim Visitor to Japan
Authors: Morris James Harry
Published: April 2020

This research note explores the biography and visit of the first Muslim visitor to Japan. This figure known as Sādōulǔdīng 撒都魯丁 visited Japan as part of a Mongol envoy in 1275CE, which ultimately ended in his execution in the country. Very little research has been conducted on Sādōulǔdīng, and therefore this note begins by evaluating relevant primary sources in order to assess what information can be garnered about this figure and his visit. Hitherto most scholars have suggested that Sādōulǔdīng was either a Uyghur or an Arab. This note, on the other hand, offers a new hypothesis; namely that there is a high probability that Sādōulǔdīng was of Persian ancestry. In the final part of the note, some thoughts on the significance of his visit to Japan both historically and contemporarily are presented.
Radical Skin, Moderate Masks: De-radicalising the Muslim and Racism in Post-racial Societies
Authors: Iqbal Basit Kareem
Published: April 2020

The tone of this book is set on its first page. As the second plane collided with the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Yassir Morsi whispered to himself: what have we done? (3). The rest of the book responds to this whisper; it deconstructs the utterance as the scene of a colonial interpellation and tracks out the political permutations available within it. Ultimately Morsi’s effort is to de-naturalize (bring into view, render explicit) the powerful, racialized psychodynamics of that moment in which, as he writes, “I knew of a responsible Other.”
Applying Ibn Khaldūn: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (by Syed Farid Alatas)
Authors: Mohamed Yasien
Published: April 2020

The intellectual legacy of Ibn Khaldūn is unique among Muslim historians, and yet he is not fully appreciated in the East. Many Muslim scholars—including Muhammad Abdullah Enan, Muhsin Mahdi, and Mahmoud Dhaoudi—have written about Ibn Khaldūn in English. Their treatment of him was either comparative or historical, but none presented his theory as a valid framework for sociological analysis today as Syed Farid Alatas does in his Applying Ibn Khaldūn.
Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires (by Juan Cole)
Authors: Mitiche Ahmed Zakarya
Published: April 2020

Reference to violence and war often dominates contemporary discussions about the early Muslims. In Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, Juan Cole balances the narrative by centering instead the role of peace and “peace thought”, notions which he argues more aptly characterize the early community. He situates this emergent movement within the geo-politics of the day. As the conflict between two major super-powers became perceived as approaching cataclysmic and apocalyptic proportions, the Prophet’s message juxtaposed the worldly violence of empire with the peace promised in the Quran. Within this vision lay a pursuit of temporal peace, represented by the Prophet’s own political career. Departing from those scholars who either reject the later Muslim historiographical traditionout of hand or adopt it wholesale, Cole insists on centering the Quran as a primary source, while applying a discerning eye towards the hadith and biographical sources that emerge in later centuries (228). Finally, by comparing the writings of the Prophet’s Christian-Byzantine contemporaries to the Quran, the author foreshadows the “violence thought” (i.e. rhetoric that justified or even encouraged aggressive warfare and conquest) that the institutionalization of power in the form of empire will soon demand of succeeding generations of Muslims.
Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional History (bt Mona Hassan)
Authors: Young Alden
Published: April 2020

In her superbly learned book, Mona Hassan sets out to explain the enduring meaning of Muslim lamentations after two of the greatest Muslim caliphates were abolished in 1258 and 1924 CE. 1258 marks the date when the last Abbasid Caliph, al-Musta‘sim, knelt before the Mongol Commander Hulegu outside the walls of Baghdad, shortly before he was executed. Hassan is not here directly concerned with the history of either the Abbasid Caliphate or the Mongol conquest; rather, she seeks to understand what was a novel problem for the Muslim community, namely, the absence of a caliph, which then lasted three and a half years.
Speaking Qurʼan
Authors: Correri Nicole
Published: April 2020

The Speaking Qur’an is Timur R. Yuskaev's first book and emerges from his dissertation work at UNC. Yuskaev’s approach to Islamic studies focuses on lived religion in the American context, at the intersection of hermeneutics of sacred text, memory, and linguistic studies.
A A Question of Presence and Agency: Mosques in the West, North and South
Authors: Gaber Tammy
Published: April 2020

New scholarship, covered by the books in this review essay, include studies of mosques in the UK, Canada, Spain and Australia and demonstrate that the proclamation of presence of the architecture of the mosque works on a number of levels. The exterior façade, of course, functions to symbolize some sort of landmark and identity in a variety of possible architectural languages. However, the interior, is where the differences truly lie between the mosque in constructed in the Muslim world and those constructed outside of the Muslim world. For minority communities, the mosque program necessarily includes facilities for education, recreation, festive gathering and dining in addition to other specific programs such as funeral preparation, food bank collection and so forth.

The contemporary mosque in the non-Muslim world, regardless of how west, north or south it is located, is loaded with much more programmatic demand in addition to the perceived politics of creating presence and identity in a perceived foreign landscape.

To download full review, click on PDF.
Review of Dependability Assessment of Computing System with Software Fault-Injection Tools
Authors: Alazawi Sundos Abdulameer , Al-Salam Mohammed Najim
Published: April 2020

The importance of systems dependability is the main motivation for developing fault injection methods (because fault injection is one of the most important ways to assess system dependability). Dependability assessment automatically generates mathematical models of reliability based on simple representations of the parameters of the functions of the system components, service and logistics functions, subsystem order structures, and critical functions. If necessary, it is also possible to develop a detailed mathematical model for various aspects of the stability system behavior. Package evaluation functions include accurate and approximate solution methods that can be used to quantify the reliability of components, subsystems and operations, maintenance functions, and availability with respect to potential project design. In this research, several fault injection tools and software system dependability assessment are rewired. The general method of dependability assessment for software systems under testing is a fault injection tool. Dependability assessment based on the fault injection tool can be done by inserting the faults into a system and monitoring that system for determining its behavior and response. Practically, experimented fault injection techniques can be grouped into fault injection implementation by hardware, software, simulation, emulation, and hybrid fault injection techniques. This study aims to measure the weakness that affects dependability attributes by presenting a survey on the implementation of software fault injection approaches for three major levels (interface, distributed systems, and operating systems levels) with dependability applications and an overview of the different injection tools.
Liver Hepatitis Diagnosing based on Fuzzy Inference System
Authors: Humadi Aqeel Majeed , Hamoud Alaa Khalaf
Published: April 2020

Hepatitis is considered a liver disease that is difficult to diagnose at an early stage. The number of infected people exceeds two billion, with one million deaths and more than four million infected people registered per year. Therefore, there is a great need for a system to diagnose this disease. Hepatitis is a critical inflammatory liver disease with different causes, including viral infection, alcohol, and the autoimmune system. Several systems were proposed to diagnose and classify this disease, using numerical, rigid, and low level methods such as color histogram, standard deviation, and entropy. In our research, we leveraged these to linguistic, flexible, and high level by applying Fuzzy Logic theory using a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS). In this paper, a model is implemented through many stages where 3D-Discrete Wavelet is applied to remove noise from liver biopsy images. Then the Normalized Mean Color Histogram (NMCH) is extracted as a visual feature, and a FIS is built for diagnosing the class of hepatitis using 45 fuzzy IF-THEN rules. The system is evaluated by calculating precision and accuracy, and the results were both very accurate and interesting. Diagnosis accuracy reaches 96%, with the corresponding approximated time ranging between 0.10 – 0.15 seconds.
Analysis of Indonesia’s Consumer Preferences in Choosing a Co-Working Space
Authors: Sanny Lim , Melita Sabrina , Putri Shintia
Published: April 2020

The consumer’s preference is an important factor in the success of co-working space business. The development of co-working space in Indonesia is predicted to undergo rapid development in businesses. The purpose of this research is to observe and analyze the preferences phenomena toward co-working space users. This research study uses a quantitative approach involving 210 respondents and divided into 2 phases, 96 respondents for the first phase and 120 respondents for the second phase. Then, data processing with the Cochran Q-test method is conducted to analyze the Co-working space attributes which are considered to be valid. From 10 analyzed attributes, there are 3 valid attributes and data processing with the conjoint method is conducted to observe respondents’ preferences towards Co-working space attributes. The result shows that interior has the highest relative importance score, followed by the layout of the space, and then accessibility, while the most preferred combination towards co-working space is modern interior, closed layout, and accessibility with private transportation. Hence, it can be concluded that respondents are more responsive towards the atmosphere/interior attribute.
Design and Analysis of Slotted Block Horn Used For Ultrasonic Power Applications
Authors: Al Sarraf Ziad Shakeeb , Saeed Majid Midhat
Published: April 2020

This research aims to contribute a study of design and simulate the ultrasonic block horn configuration containing two slots in order to satisfy these criteria. The simulation and vibration mode shape characterization for the selected horn profiles are discussed and the analysis is accomplished using ABAQUS commercial software package, whilst the vibration modes are classified using experimental data from 3D Laser Doppler Vibrometer measurements. Modal and harmonic analysis are completed successfully to examine the natural frequency for the tuned horn. It is shown in the block horn design that an optimization of slot position will lead to high enough value of longitudinal mode with large uniformity displacement amplitude and low stress across the face of the horn; this is required in many applications and processes to ensure an adequate power transmit to the working parts sufficiently and effectively.
Effect of Wetting Process with Presence of Matric Suction on Unsaturated Gypseous Sand Soils
Authors: Abdalhusein Mustafa M. , Akhtarpour Ali , Mahmood Mohammed Sh.
Published: April 2020

This paper presents the results of laboratory experiments on the effect of matric suction on the compressibility of unsaturated gypsum sand soil under various types of loading. The soil samples were obtained from Al-Najaf city in Iraq with gypsum contents of 14 %, 22 % and 29 %. A wetting-process tests were conducted in a modified triaxial cell on these soil. This procedure likes when a structure has been constructed and the degree of saturation of a foundation soil is increased (decreasing in matric suction). Four matric suctions were adopted; 100, 60, 30 and zero percentages of initial matric suction under two different mean net stresses; 100 kPa and 200 kPa. The changes in the degree of saturation may be due to rainfall, water table rising and/or leaking of sewage and water pipes. The results from this path revealed that the volumetric strains are increased with decreasing of the matric suction and increasing of the gypsum content.
Building Students’ Hard and Soft Skills through Innovative Teaching Approaches to Mathematics
Authors: Rohaeti Euis Eti
Published: April 2020

The goals of this case study were to (1) analyze the role of innovative mathematics teaching approaches among middle and high school students regarding their hard and soft mathematical skills; (2) to examine students’ perceptions about the mathematical teaching approaches, used by their teachers during class sessions, (3) to analyze aspects of innovation in them. The descriptive case study approach was used to analyze the role of innovative teaching approaches in helping students to develop various mathematical hard and soft skills. A qualitative meta-analysis methodology was applied to ten student theses about mathematics teaching within the Department of Mathematics in the School of Postgraduate studies of IKIP Siliwangi in Cimahi. This paper presents the results based on ten graduate students’ theses research studies, selected purposively from 68 student theses. The selection of articles aimed to include a variety of theses discussing mathematics skills teaching and learning approaches. The results show that, in general, students who were trained with innovative teaching approaches attained higher grades than students taught by conventional teaching methods. It has been established that students’ grades on mathematical hard skills varied after intervention. On the contrary, regarding students mathematical soft skills, some theses reported no difference between students taught using both approaches, while some reported greater differences. Finally, students had good opinions regarding the innovative teaching-learning approaches, used by their teachers.
Fast Simple Flooding Strategy in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Abdulridha Maha Salih , Adday Ghaihab Hassan , Alshawi Imad S.
Published: April 2020

The wide deployment of wireless sensor networks is the primary reason behind the advancement of numerous routing protocols. In this context, sensors need to be remotely conveyed in unattended situations. Further, propels in wireless sensor network innovation have ensured accessibility and minimal effort in terms of sensor hubs with a capacity to sense various physical and natural environment conditions, in addition to wireless communication and data processing. Moreover, wireless sensor networks are rather different from regular and cellular networks, which comprise nodes with restricted bandwidth and energy. However, the most important limitation of wireless sensor networks is their characteristic limited energy resources. Furthermore, there is an imbalance of power consumption in their sensor nodes. Therefore, it is preferable to distribute the amount of energy throughout a wireless sensor network to minimize the maintenance and maximize the overall system performance. To this end, this paper suggests a new strategy in wireless sensor network dissemination and routing protocols referred to as the Fast Simple Flooding Strategy, which focuses on energy efficiency as a crucial design objective for routing protocols used in wireless sensor networks, without the overhead of other design factors, and reduces end-to-end latency. Additionally, this new strategy can be listed under flat approaches; it is simple and very fast in delivering the packet to the sink and does not require additional equipment or complex mathematical operations. It also resolves the major drawbacks of classic flooding and gossiping.
Effect of Ultrasonic Peening on Impact Strength of Low Carbon Steel AISI 1020
Authors: Naje Jenan Mohammed , Dawood Nidaa Hameed , Ghazi Sara Saad
Published: April 2020

This paper explores the effect of ultrasonic peening using various passes on an impact strength of AISI 1020 low carbon steel. Many ASTM E23 impact specimens were prepared from the chosen metal and exposed to multi-pass ultrasonic peening (1,2,3 pass). Microstructure, hardness, residual stresses, and impact tests on ultrasonic peened and not peened samples were performed. Ultrasonic peening contributed to increasing the impact strength, due to the increase in comparative residual stress and hardness. Three passes show improvement in strength by (29.7%), comparative with the base metal.
Strategic Alignment Role in Achieving the Organizational Excellence through Organizational Dexterity
Authors: Aldalimy Mohammed Jabbar Hadi , Al-Sharifi Ali Kahdim Hussein , Bannay Dheyaa Falih
Published: April 2020

The current research aims at revealing the role of strategic alignment through its dimensions (communication, governance, infrastructure, partnership and skills) in achieving organizational excellence through its dimensions (excellence in leadership, excellence in service, excellence in knowledge through organizational ambidexterity). In order to achieve the goal of the research a number of colleges of Karbala University was selected. Thus, the research started from a problem expressed by a number of intellectual and practical questions aimed at answering. By diagnosing the level of its importance and its impact and the possibility of achieving strategic alignment in the colleges surveyed, it has used the research questionnaire and a way to get the data and use the research descriptive and analytical approach, which consists of three standards: strategic alignment, organizational excellence and organizational ambidexterity. It was used to consolidate and strengthen these concepts and focus on teachers; an intentional sample included 80 members of teaching colleges. The data were collected from the main sources of information using the questionnaire form; the data were analyzed using a set of statistical methods by means of software (SPSS V.23). The researchers reached a number of conclusions, the most prominent of which is that strategic alignment represents a set of behaviors and attributes that seek innovation and transformation to find new paths for exploring investment and energies available to them.
Construction Management Performance Enhancement through TQM Concept Based On SWOT Analysis
Authors: Sharqi Saadi Shartooh
Published: April 2020

Total Quality Management (TQM) is considered as one of the crucial issues developing, improving and competing management sectors. Nonetheless, the sector of construction industry is one of the major whose performance can be developed based on TQM philosophy. In the current research, the capability of TQM is examined in the field of construction based on the SWOT analysis in order to propose a powerful strategy that will improve the construction industry. In addition, the present study checks the strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as the opportunities and threats that face construction sector in the labor market. The study uses the literature review approach to obtain an initial overview of TQM requirements focusing on the construction sector and identifying the gaps which include external influences (opportunities and threats) and internal influences (strengths and weaknesses). From the identified 23 SWOT variables, the SWOT matrix was discovered to be based on the SWOT variables (prioritized) that have 4 quadrants which are ST strategy, WT strategy, SO strategy and WO strategy. With these, external and internal influences will be overcome in the construction sector and create a room for making both short and long term strategic plans.
Applications of the Projective Plane in Coding Theory
Authors: Al-Seraji Najm Abdulzahra Makhrib , Jafar Zainab Sadiq
Published: April 2020

The goal of this paper was to study the applications of the projective plane PG (2, q) over a Galois field of order q in the projective linear (n, k, d, q) -code such that the parameters length of code n, the dimension of code k, and the minimum distance d with the error-correcting e according to an incidence matrix have been calculated. Also, this research provides examples and theorems of links between the combinatorial structures and coding theory. The calculations depend on the GAP (groups, algorithms, and programming) system. The method of the research depends on the classification of the points and lines in PG (2, q).
Solving Partial Integro-Differential Equations with Weakly Singular Kernel
Authors: Hussain Amina Kassim
Published: April 2020

Equations with a combination of integrals and derivatives are known as integro-differential equations. They are a combination of science and engineering. Many models are implemented with the help of integro-differential equations. Various techniques are available to solve integro-differential equations. In the present study, the Radial Basis Function and Adomain Decomposition Method-based numerical algorithms are used to solve a linear partial integro-differential equation with weakly singular kernel, which arises from viscoelasticity. In the discretization process, singular integrals were compared with the product trapezoidal method. Implementation of various radial basis functions was carried out. The proposed system was found to be useful and to provide reproducible results.
Compatibility of Enhancement and Segmentation of Digital Image Processing in Medical Applications
Authors: Kelain Mayada Jabbar
Published: April 2020

The proposed work is an attempt to investigate the compatibility of enhancement and segmentation within the digital image processing framework in the medical field. The correction nonuniform illumination enhancement technique and marker-controlled watershed segmentation method were conducted in order to calculate the red blood cells in digital images of blood samples. Twenty-five patients at Medical City Teaching Hospital in Baghdad participated in this study. The attained outcomes of the two mentioned methods were compared with the real results, which were obtained by a digital camera coupled with a high technology microscope. The comparison illustrated large matching between two proposed techniques and real outcomes throughout very short computation time in spite of limited features of the used computer and available MATLAB environment.
Improving the Efficiency of the Regional Road Services – Middle Euphrates Region
Authors: Abid Nada Mohammed
Published: April 2020

Services are one of the important indicators that reflect the welfare of the society and its development. Due to the increase in various means of transport and the increase in internal and external traffic, the provision of basic services for the regional road users has become a necessity that should be studied in a thorough and accurate manner to reach the appropriate mechanism for the spatial allocation of these services. The research problem lies in the lack of interest in the optimal spatial allocation of the public road services because of the overlap between the powers and authority of the municipalities and the directorates of roads and bridges preventing to study the subject comprehensively. In addition, there is a lack of roads in general and regional roads in particular for service stations and passenger vehicle stopping spaces, with standard specifications. Therefore, this research is aimed at identifying the sufficiency of spatial allocation of regional road services and studying the current situation of these services, analyzing the efficiency of these services and finding the shortage. We also set plans and strategies to develop the level of services and invest in a manner that achieves the required sufficiency. Furthermore, some research hypotheses were set: the sufficiency of the spatial allocation of the public road services in the regional roads improves the road level of service by identifying a set of factors that directly affect this sufficiency.
The Arithmetic Coding and Hybrid Discrete Wavelet and Cosine Transform Approaches in Image Compression
Authors: Salman Nassir H. , Rafea S.
Published: April 2020

Image compression is one of the data compression types applied to digital images in order to reduce their high cost for storage and/or transmission. Image compression algorithms may take the benefit of visual sensitivity and statistical properties of image data to deliver superior results in comparison with generic data compression schemes, which are used for other digital data. In the first approach, the input image is divided into blocks, each of which is 16 x 16, 32 x 32, or 64 x 64 pixels. The blocks are converted first into a string; then, encoded by using a lossless and dictionary-based algorithm known as arithmetic coding. The more occurrence of the pixels values is codded in few bits compare with pixel values of less occurrence through the sub intervals between the range 0 and 1. Finally, the stream of compressed tables is reassembled for decompressing (image restoration). The results showed a compression gain of 10-12% and less time consumption when applying this type of coding to each block rather than the entire image. To improve the compression ratio, the second approach was used based on the YCbCr colour model. In this regard, images were decomposed into four sub-bands (low-low, high-low, low-high, and high-high) by using the discrete wavelet transform compression algorithm. Then, the low-low sub-band was transmuted to frequency components (low and high) via discrete wavelet transform. Next, these components were quantized by using scalar quantization and then scanning in a zigzag way. The compression ratio result is 15.1 to 27.5 for magnetic resonance imaging with a different peak signal to noise ratio and mean square error; 25 to 43 for X-ray images; 32 to 46 for computed tomography scan images; and 19 to 36 for magnetic resonance imaging brain images. The second approach showed an improved compression scheme compared to the first approach considering compression ratio, peak signal to noise ratio, and mean square error.
Refuge and Age Structures Impact on the Bifurcation Analysis of an Ecological Model
Authors: Majeed Azhar Abbas
Published: April 2020

In this paper, the conditions of the incidence of the local bifurcation, such as a saddle-node pitchfork bifurcation and transcritical of an ecological system (consistingprey shelter (refuge) and age stages for both populations) considered to study. Lotka-Volterra type of functional response was suggested. Subsequently, the inquiry and analysis are remarked that the transcritical bifurcation transpires close to the equilibrium(symmetry) point , in addition to the incidence of asaddle-node bifurcation at symmetry points and . It should be mentioned that there is no likelihood of the incidence of the pitchfork bifurcation at every single point. In conclusion,s to illustrate the incidence of the local bifurcation of this system, some simulations were used. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of each parameter on the stability of equilibrium points.