Democracy in Islamic political thought

This paper surveys the growth and various phases of and influences on the concept of democracy in the Islamic political thought of the last two centuries. Among the thinkers covered in the survey are Rifa'a Tahtawi (1801-73), Khairuddin at-Tunis (1810-99), Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838-97), Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), Abdurrahman al-Kawakibi (1849-1903), Rashid Rida (1865-1935), Hasan al-Banna (1904-49), Ali Abd Ar-Raziq (1888-1966), Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), Sa'id Hawwa, and Malik Bennabi (1905-73). Reference is made to the influence of Sayyid Mawdudi (1903-79), on the thought of Sayyid Qutb. The paper traces also the bearing of Bennabi's thought on Rachid Ghannouchi and on the Islamic movements of our times

Uporaba strategij odzivanja na pohvale iranskih ucencev anglescine: raziskovanje sogovornikove relativne moci polozaja in spola

This article reports on a study that set out to investigate how Iranian EFL learners respond to compliments in English. The data were collected using a discourse completion task (DCT) consisting of a variety of situations that required the participants, 26 EFL learners (13 males and 13 females) to respond to compliments directed at them. The data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. To this end, the participants’ responses were coded according to a coding scheme adopted from Yu (2004) which identified six compliment response strategies (CRSs). The findings indicated that, regardless of or concerning gender and power (–P and =P), the first three most frequent CR strategies included “Acceptance”, “Combination” and “Amendment”. These findings were then analyzed in light of previous similar studies that revealed that the participants had followed their first cultural norms not only in using the strategies mentioned above but also in employing very infrequently such strategies as “Face Relationship”, “No acknowledgment”, and “Non-acceptance”. As regards the role of gender, a Chi-square test was run which showed that males and females differed significantly in their use of CRSs. Furthermore, males used more CR strategies compared to females. The qualitative analysis of the semantic formulas of the CR strategies also revealed that, by accepting a compliment, Iranian EFL learners sought agreement and consequently relied on positive politeness to foster rapport and solidarity. (DIPF/Orig.

QoE-Based Low-Delay Live Streaming Using Throughput Predictions

Recently, HTTP-based adaptive streaming has become the de facto standard for video streaming over the Internet. It allows clients to dynamically adapt media characteristics to network conditions in order to ensure a high quality of experience, that is, minimize playback interruptions, while maximizing video quality at a reasonable level of quality changes. In the case of live streaming, this task becomes particularly challenging due to the latency constraints. The challenge further increases if a client uses a wireless network, where the throughput is subject to considerable fluctuations. Consequently, live streams often exhibit latencies of up to 30 seconds. In the present work, we introduce an adaptation algorithm for HTTP-based live streaming called LOLYPOP (Low-Latency Prediction-Based Adaptation) that is designed to operate with a transport latency of few seconds. To reach this goal, LOLYPOP leverages TCP throughput predictions on multiple time scales, from 1 to 10 seconds, along with an estimate of the prediction error distribution. In addition to satisfying the latency constraint, the algorithm heuristically maximizes the quality of experience by maximizing the average video quality as a function of the number of skipped segments and quality transitions. In order to select an efficient prediction method, we studied the performance of several time series prediction methods in IEEE 802.11 wireless access networks. We evaluated LOLYPOP under a large set of experimental conditions limiting the transport latency to 3 seconds, against a state-of-the-art adaptation algorithm from the literature, called FESTIVE. We observed that the average video quality is by up to a factor of 3 higher than with FESTIVE. We also observed that LOLYPOP is able to reach a broader region in the quality of experience space, and thus it is better adjustable to the user profile or service provider requirements.Comment: Technical Report TKN-16-001, Telecommunication Networks Group, Technische Universitaet Berlin. This TR updated TR TKN-15-00

Cooperation Through Education: How Southern West Bank, Palestine, Can Be Developed Through Agricultural Engineering

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is an Invited Paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 4 (2002): A. Tamimi. Cooperation Through Education: How Southern West Bank, Palestine, Can Be Developed Through Agricultural Engineering. Vol. IV. September 2002

PENGARUH TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) TERHADAP KINERJA MANAJERIAL (STUDI EMPIRIS PADA SWALAYAN DI BANDA ACEH)

ABSTRAKPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat pengaruh penerapan Total Quality Management (TQM) yang berfokus pada pelanggan dan diproksikan kepada perbaikan berkesinambungan dan benchmarking terhadap kinerja manajerial pada swalayan di Banda Aceh. Sampel yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah masing-masing satu swalayan untuk setiap kecamatan di banda aceh. Dengan total 9 kecamatan di Banda Aceh, maka peneliti mengumpulkan 36 kuesioner yang terdiri dari satu kuesioner karyawan dan tiga kuesioner pelanggan untuk masing-masing swalayan. Teknik pengambilan sampel pada penelitian ini adalah sistematic sampling yaitu pengambilan sampel yang ditentukan oleh peneliti sesuai dengan kebutuhan penelitian. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah statistik deskriptif kuantitatif. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian validitas dan pengujian reliabilitas, kuesioner yang digunakan peneliti valid dan reliabel. Untuk variabel kepuasan pelanggan nilai rata-rata yang didapatkan adalah senilai 4,27. Sedangkan pada pihak pelanggan, hasil yang didapatkan yaitu 4,20. Untuk variabel perbaikan berkesinambungan nilai rata-rata yang didapatkan adalah senilai 4,07. Sedangkan pada pihak pelanggan, hasil yang didapatkan yaitu 4,44. Untuk variabel benchmarking nilai rata-rata yang didapatkan adalah senilai 4,44. Sedangkan pada pihak pelanggan, hasil yang didapatkan yaitu 4,21. Untuk variabel kinerja manajerial nilai rata-rata yang didapatkan adalah senilai 4,38. Sedangkan pada pihak pelanggan, hasil yang didapatkan yaitu 4,24. Meskipun terdapat selisih antara kedua pihak, untuk semua variabel, namun keduanya menunjukkan hasil yang sama dalam satuan skala likert yaitu setuju. Dalam perhitungan skor ideal, untuk semua variabel penelitian dinilai baik untuk meningkatkan kinerja manajerial.Kata Kunci: Total Quality Management (TQM), Kepuasan Pelanggan, Perbaikan Berkesinambungan, Benchmarking, dan Kinerja Manajerial