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In the realm of internal combustion engines, there is a growing utilization of alternative renewable fuels as substitutes for traditional diesel and gasoline. This surge in demand is driven by the imperative to diminish fuel consumption and adhere to stringent regulations concerning engine emissions. Sole reliance on experimental analysis is inadequate to effectively address combustion, performance, and emission issues in engines. Consequently, the integration of engine modelling, grounded in machine learning methodologies and statistical data through the response surface method (RSM), has become increasingly significant for enhanced analytical outcomes. This study aims to explore the contemporary applications of RSM in assessing the feasibility of a wide range of renewable alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Initially, the study outlines the fundamental principles and procedural steps of RSM, offering readers an introduction to this multifaceted statistical technique. Subsequently, the study delves into a comprehensive examination of the recent applications of alternative renewable fuels, focusing on their impact on combustion, performance, and emissions in the domain of internal combustion engines. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the advantages and limitations of employing RSM, and discusses the potential of combining RSM with other modelling techniques to optimise results. The overarching objective is to provide a thorough insight into the role and efficacy of RSM in the evaluation of renewable alternative fuels, thereby contributing to the ongoing discourse in the field of internal combustion engines.

This study aims to determine the legal and financial basis of the Honorary Board of Election Organizers (DKPP) of the Republic of Indonesia in canceling the General Election Commission (KPU) Decree. The type of research used by the author is normative law research using normative case studies in the form of legal behavior products. The results of the study show that the position of the Honorary Council of General Election Organizers (DKPP) of the Republic of Indonesia is in the completion of the General Election. The Duties, Authorities and Obligations of the DKPP are regulated in Article 159 paragraph (1), paragraph (2), and paragraph (3) of Law Number 7 of 2017 which states that the DKPP has the authority to summon Election Organizers who are suspected of violating the code of ethics to provide an explanation and defense.

The use of insects as a biofuel feedstock has received limited research, and little is known about the fuel characteristics of insect biofuel. Fuel properties characterization can guide researchers focused on renewable fuel for the internal combustion engine. Therefore, this investigation focused on the physical-chemical properties modification of Hermetia illucens larvae oil (HILO) and diesel fuel blends, which could highly become an alternative renewable fuel. Five test fuel blends of HILO and diesel fuel were prepared at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% on a volume basis. Fuel properties such as chemical composition, density, viscosity, heating value, cetane number, and flash point of the test fuel blends were analyzed and compared to the diesel fuel. The main physical-chemical properties of HILO-diesel fuel blends were determined following the ASTM standards. Based on the results, the density, viscosity, cetane number, and flash point of the diesel fuel-HILO fuel blends were increased by 11.28%, 740.30%, 16.92%, and 86.67%, respectively, with the addition of HILO, except for the heating value reduced by 13.66%.

Richard Hooper1, Abdullah Adam2, Nadir Kheir31Medical Services Department, 2Pharmacy Department, Medical Services, Qatar Petroleum, Doha, Qatar; 3Qatar University, College of Pharmacy, Doha, QatarObjectives: To characterize prescribing error interventions documented by pharmacists in four pharmacies in a primary health care service in Qatar.Methods: The study was conducted in a primary health care service in the State of Qatar in the period from January to March 2008. Pharmacists in four clinics within the service used online, integrated health care software to document all clinical interventions made. Documented information included: patient’s age and gender, drug therapy details, the intervention’s details, its category, and its outcome. Interventions were categorized according to the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe Classification of drug-related problems (DRP).Results: The number of patients who had their prescriptions intercepted were 589 (0.71% of the total 82,800 prescriptions received). The intercepted prescriptions generated 890 DRP-related interventions (an average of 1.9% DRPs identified across the four clinics). Fifty-four percent of all interventions were classified as drug choice problems, and 42% had safety problems (dose too high, potential significant interaction). The prescriber accepted the intervention in 53% of all interventions, and the treatment was changed accordingly. Interventions as a result of transcription errors, legality and formulary issues were eliminated from this study through the use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE).Conclusions: Documenting and analyzing interventions should be a routine activity in pharmacy practice setting in primary health care services. Educational outreach visits and other strategies can improve prescribing practices and enhance patient safety.Keywords: pharmacists, interventions, prescribing errors

This article conceptualizes everyday processes of carbon embodiment and transplantation in informal settlements across Karachi, Pakistan. The authors explore these grounded carbon trajectories against the state's carbon discourses and policies, highlighting the lacunae in the national (de)carbonization discourse particularly in the housing construction sector. In contrast, they look at grounded, unintended, and ad hoc practices of carbon embodiment and transplantation through the lens of the informal housing construction sector in urban Pakistan, drawing on several representative cases from extended fieldwork in Karachi during 2018-22. They examine how carbon is embodied and 'transplanted' across spatial regions, intergenerational life courses, and the localized imaginaries of urban housing, through the everyday practices of residents (de/re)constructing and living in informal, patch-worked houses. Against the backdrop of Karachi's housing precarity, Abudallah and Macktoom observe peculiar temporal-material patterns that frame everyday carbon management for a large proportion of urban dwellers. They conceptually weave these cases together to speculate on patchwork housing processes, material redistributive practices, and carbon (dis)embodiment for populations lying beyond the state's formal attempts at decarbonization. They posit that understanding, accounting for, and upscaling the existing practices of patching, unpatching, and repatching carbon constitutes a critical lens to understand the smaller-scale yet more proximate and intense relations of carbon in under-documented cities like Karachi., Introduction In today's context of anthropogenic climate change, over 70 percent of cities worldwide have already been, or will soon be, impacted as global temperatures are expected to increase more [...]

This research aims to clarify the impact of monetary reform on retail banking, with the introduction of private crypto-currencies (CCs) and retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Given the exponential increase in private de-centralized CCs, involving stablecoins and non-backed digital assets, total crypto assets have now developed into a USD 1.04 trillion market capitalization. Governments and monetary authorities were initially reticent, but now a number of central banks are developing their own wholesale and retail CBDCs. By conducting library research, document and content analysis involving secondary data, this research confirms, involving central bank admission, that the current centralized monetary system allows commercial banks to lend the vast majority of deposit money into existence. However, the impact of private CCs and introduction of retail CBDCs will eliminate credit creation, thus rendering the commercial banking model obsolete. This will inevitably involve a structural change in the global financial system, with the separation of the public issuance of money and the private issuance of equity finance and investment. Ultimately, retail CBDCs will have to develop into public stablecoins that are pegged to intrinsic value to satisfy the store of value function of money and provide stability as the common denominator for all economic transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This intervention is by a collective of scholars working on various facets of urbanisation in Asia. Focusing on the notion of arrangements/re‐arrangements, it seeks to extend the consideration of urban politics as a matter of surges, a provisional consolidation of intensities, inhabitants and their practices, affiliations and orientations that give rise to continuously mutating forms of sense, care, and collective action. Whereas the work and effects of institutions, with their genealogies, remits, and competencies, are to a large extent specifiable according to their operating norms and the various regulatory frameworks that govern their operations, the dispositions of arrangements – what they do, what they actually bring about – are not readily definable or clear, enacting a form of performative ambiguity. Involving workarounds, collaborations, exchanges, and agreements that exceed the familiar protocols of interaction among households, local authorities, markets, civil institutions, brokers, and service providers, arrangements entail the enactment of caring, provisioning, regulating, mapping, and steering as the purview of more provisional, incessantly mutating forms that fold in bits and pieces of discernible institutions. In this heuristic intervention we seek to further the 'urbanisation' of urban geography itself, in the sense of complexifying both the terrain and the methodological practices brought to bear. It attempts to open a way of speaking about urbanisation processes that exceed binary formulations, countervailing scales, or structural absences to encompass a broader range of processes at work in shaping dispositions that are materialised or simply potentiated. It proceeds from a process of collective composition whose objective is to diversify the working tools of urban analysis rather than simply offering new conceptual formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: For many centuries Islamic coins, such as the dīnār (pl. danānīr), have attracted the attention of historians and chroniclers. The initial appearance of Islamic coinage came as a response to economic requirements prevailing in the Middle East following the Arab invasion. The motivation behind the inception of Islamic coinage was in absolute harmony with the monetary traditions of the Near Eastern economy. Even though, the external features of the coinage might have been influenced by some sociopolitical factors, their intrinsic value was determined by the contemporary economic conditions. During periods 1870-1930 the world monetary system was mainly built on gold. However, with the establishment of Bretton Woods System in 1944, the world was set on the new monetary system involving a fixed exchange rate system. With the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 the price of gold increased to USD 38 per ounce. In April 1974, following the high volatility in monetary markets and oil crisis the price of gold increased 453% and reached USD 172 per ounce. As the U.S. economy increased in power, the IMF diminished the monetary role of gold so that subsequently, gold was viewed as merely a precious metal commodity that was subject to a market value and changes in the price of gold. This article examines the monetary history of gold during Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid and Ottoman Caliphates. In particular, this study focuses on golds’ performance during global financial crisis of 2007-2009 (GFC) and correlation analysis is conducted to measure the strength and direction of a linear relationship between gold and other selected asset classes as well as financial indicators such as real interest rates, inflation rates, silver price, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index, money supply and crude oil prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The suitability of assets-backed money has been the subject of considerable debate, although hampered in part by lack of theoretical and empirical evidence. Therefore, the motivation of this research is to investigate the perceptions of Shari'ah scholars and financial experts on the concepts and salient features of Shari'ah-compliant precious metal backed crypto-currency (PMC). To achieve this, this study adopted a qualitative method using semi-structured interview based on saturation technique. The results from Shari'ah advisors and financial experts indicated that the informants have differences of views on the assets-backed money, but they agreed that it ensures stability of money and adding the cryptocurrency technology is found to be desirable and recommendable. It is also found that PMC would be subjected to financial regulation challenges and using blockchain technology will increase the transparency. The informants agreed that PMC is closer to Maqāsid al-Shari'ah and there is some form of justice and equality compared to the current interest-based financial system. Therefore, the informants recommended the implementation of PMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the utilization of response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the engine performance and exhaust emission parameters of a compression ignition (CI) engine which operate using neat Hermetia illucens larvae oil (HILO) blends of 25, 50, 75, and 100% named as B25, B50, B75, and B100. The engine testing experiments were operated at different engine loads for each fuel blends and at 25 different experimental conditions. The brake power and brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) of HILO-diesel fuel blends were almost similar with diesel fuel while the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was slightly increased. Furthermore, NOx emissions decreased with HILO addition. However CO, CO2, and UHC emissions increased. Optimization of independent variables was achieved via the RSM desirability approach with the aim of maximizing performance and minimizing emissions parameters. Therefore, the engine performance and emissions parameters for various HILO-diesel fuel blends were observed nearly similar to diesel fuel. An engine load of 92.72% and a blend of 6.43% of HILO with 93.57% diesel fuel were observed to be an optimum input point. The finding of this investigation exposed that at optimum input point, the values of the brake power, BMEP, BSFC, BTE, CO, CO2, UHC, and NOx were found to be 3.21 kW, 399.70 kPa, 0.071 mg/J, 27.26, 0.024, 5.30%, 0.62 ppm, and 537.93 ppm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the crypto world, there is a proverbial (and literal) gold rush now occurring. Currently, more than 37 gold‐backed cryptocurrency companies have now emerged. Interestingly, some of them also claim to be Sharīʿah‐compliant. Introducing precious metal‐backed cryptocurrencies is perceived to be an innovation among global payment systems, hampered in part by lack of supporting empirical evidence. Therefore, this research investigates potential users' tendency to adopt a Sharīʿah‐compliant precious metal‐backed cryptocurrency. As such, this study adopts an extended adoption model, which consists of eight factors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) analysis was conducted on data elicited from economic active residents in Klang Valley from questionnaires. Overall, it was found six out of the eight constructs specified to influence the adoption of precious metal‐backed cryptocurrency were statistically significant where 54.5% of the variation in adoption of PMBC can be explained by the structure model provided by this research. It was also found 63.55% of the respondents are willing to adopt precious metal‐backed cryptocurrency in their future transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hermetia illucens larvae oil (HILO) is among biofuel feedstock from insects that has high potential to reduce dependency on petroleum resources. The present paper is motivated by the need to critically examine the effect of HILO mixed with diesel fuel (DF) on combustion, engine performance, and emission characteristics of a single cylinder direct injection (DI) compression ignition (CI) engine. The experiment was performed at a constant speed of 1500 rpm under various engine loads. The results revealed that the in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate (HRR), and the ignition delay (ID) were reduced by an average of 3.32%, 12.89%, and 4.36%, respectively. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and exhaust gas temperature (EGT) increased considerably at all engine loads. The brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was discovered to be lower by 11.47% compared to DF. The finding also shows that carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions increased with the addition of HILO. The nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission reduced by 19.80% compared to DF at all the engine loads. Overall, this study concluded the potential of HILO in CI engine as a promising renewable and environmentally friendly resource for the better earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As crypto-currencies hold dual nature of a medium of exchange (currency) and an investment asset, some questions may arise about the potentiality of including crypto-currencies as liquid investment asset in financial institutions particularly in the banking sector to enhance their liquidity risk management and improve their portfolio diversification investment strategy. The objective of this study therefore is to examine the characteristics of Bitcoin currency based on the requirements of High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) standards of Basel III and compare its volatility structure with other traditional asset classes that are already recommended by Basle III as HQLA. The study utilizes both descriptive and quantitative analysis using the GARCH family models to examine the volatility structures of these assets. The findings show that Bitcoin currency holds the same characteristics of HQLA, however; the risk of legality and recognition is still under consideration by legal authorities around the world and this risk will be eradicated in the future as crypto-currencies derive their legality from their real intrinsic value, multi-economic usefulness and not by law as in the case of fiat money currency. Furthermore, the symmetric volatility structure analysis shows the continuing persistence of volatility and predictability behavior in return series of Bitcoin currency and other-traditional asset classes in the U.S. market. However, Bitcoin’s stability has gradually improved over time. With regard to the asymmetric informative response, Bitcoin returns respond more to negative shock but it has no statistical significance, thus suggesting the lack of leveraging effect in Bitcoin market but this effect was found to be statistically persistent in other traditional asset class markets. In addition, Bitcoin returns show very low correlation with other traditional asset classes. All these imply that Bitcoin is a potential candidate as a hedge and asset diversifier, which is recommended to be included in the HQLA. This study provides some support to recent theoretical work on crypto asset return behaviour and liquidity risk management. The findings provide appropriate information about Bitcoin asset behaviour compared to other traditional asset classes which will enable them to make the right investment decision with regard to hedging, diversification and liquidity risk management. The findings of this study may assist in evaluating the suitability of including crypto assets into HQLA to improve the liquidity requirement standards and ensure that banks have an adequate amount of HQLA specifically during times of financial turmoil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the reputation risk faced by Islamic financial institutions due to financial crime activities. There is an increasing trend in financial crime activities at banking institutions. For Islamic financial institutions that are founded based on Sharīʽah, the usage of Islamic financial instruments for criminal activities undermines the integrity of Islamic financial system itself. It would also tarnish Islamic financial institutions’ reputation that supposed to operate with Islamic principles against any criminal activities. Trust or the public confidence towards the integrity of Islamic financial institutions would also be distracted as being associated with financial crime activities signaling that the Islamic financial institutions' profit is eroded by criminal activities. This has raised concern and questions about the reputation of Islamic financial institutions. A proposed conceptual framework discusses how trust and reputation risk affect the Islamic financial institutions’ performance when the financial crimes happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to analyse the effect of pentanol-diesel fuel blends on thermo-physical properties, combustion characteristics, engine performance, and emissions of a diesel engine. The experimental tests were performed using YANMAR TF120M single-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine. The fuel tests were evaluated using 5 %, 10 %, and 20 % pentanol added onto diesel fuel (DF), denoted as PE5, PE10 and PE20, respectively, to produce pentanol-diesel fuel blends at a constant engine speed of 1800 rpm under various engine loads. Based on the results, thermo-physical properties show that the calorific value, density, and kinematic viscosity were reduced by 8.12 %, 1.2 %, and 12 % for PE20. In addition, at 25 % engine load, the in-cylinder pressure of PE5, PE10, and PE20, were reduced by 1.76 %, 3.43 %, and 6.54 %, respectively, compared to DF. Furthermore, maximum heat release rate of PE5, PE10, and PE20 were reduced by 6.74 %, 7.50 %, and 18.54 %, respectively, compared to DF at 25 % engine load. Moreover, at 25 % engine load, the brake specific fuel consumption of PE5 showed better performance result due to fuel consumptions usage being reduced by 20.83 %. Conversely, brake thermal efficiency increased by 11.2 %, at 25 % engine load for PE5. CO and CO2 emissions decreased by 9.99 % and 3.2 %, respectively, at 100 % engine load of PE20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This concept paper provides a practical, policy solution to deliver affordable public housing. By evaluating price-to-income ratios, it analyzes to what extent housing has become seriously unaffordable in Malaysia. We discuss how the federal government, state governments, state Islamic religious councils (SIRCs) as well as pension and investment institutions can participate, by examining affordable public housing based on an Ottoman long-term lease structure (al-Hikr) and subsequently adopted in the development of waqf land in Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, the Housing Development Board adopted the 99-year leasehold (al-Hikr) concept and now houses over 80% of its citizens into low-cost state-built housing. Accordingly, this study adopts case study, library research, documentary analysis and descriptive statistics relating to housing affordability and construction costs, to provide an Islamic social finance solution by adopting al-Hikr for waqf and state lands in Malaysia, to deliver affordable public housing to the bottom 40% (B40) of households by median income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current practice of the Islamic banks in Malaysia is relying on the market interest rate as the reference benchmark pricing for musyarakah mutanaqisah home financing. It has been a subject of intense debate among scholars, researchers, industry players, and policymakers. While it is not prohibited, Muslim scholars have highly discouraged this practice as it could lead to a possible convergence between the practices of the Islamic banks and the conventional counterparts. Therefore, this study proposes rental yield an alternative reference benchmark pricing mechanism for musyarakah mutanaqisah home financing. The aim of the study is to assess whether rental yield is reflective of the real economic conditions. In achieving its objective, the study tests the relationships between rental yield with the macroeconomic and housing market variables. The study focuses on Malaysia and uses annually data frequency covering the period from 1988 to 2015 using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration test. The study provides evidence that the proposed rental yield has long-run and short-run relationships with macroeconomic and housing market variables. The analysis shows that a short period required for the model to converge to the long-run equilibrium. The findings of this study would provide important insights on the viability of rental yield as an alternative to interest rate in pricing musyarakah mutanaqisah home financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the potentials of SRI sukuk as a source of financing for projects that address community and social issues, thus giving positive impact to the society. Focusing on several cases of SRI sukuk in critical yet not so commercially-attractive for profit-motivated financial institutions to participate in such as education, environment and health sectors, this study highlights the mechanisms and challenges as well as potentials of SRI sukuk as a source of financing for these projects. Since the field of SRI sukuk is still in its infancy stage especially in Islamic finance, this study hopes to contribute towards enriching the literature as well as exploring the potentials for further applications in other areas in the Islamic finance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to investigate the overall investment performance of international maritime assets in order to facilitate Islamic equity finance and investment involving Malaysian Islamic finance institutions, retail and also institutional investors. Shipping is a strong growth industry with about 84% of global trade carried by the international shipping industry. The problem is that Malaysian Islamic financial institutions have essentially no exposure and thus understanding of international shipping. However, shipping is a highly capital intensive industry and currently 75% of ship lending has been conducted by European banks and financed on a conventional basis. This research involves an investment analysis of a full population of historical data over a period of 20 years to evaluate maritime performance by adopting IRR, net yield and standard deviation measures of risk and return. We also develop a correlation matrix for maritime assets and compare returns to other real and financial investments. Our findings reveal that whilst earnings are volatile in comparison to capital market financial products, unlevered, tax-free returns on maritime assets are very attractive. The significance is that Islamic equity finance, rather than debt at the time-value-of-money should enable the development of international shipping in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research re-examines the structured financing involving two waqf real estate development projects in Singapore and the issuance of musharakah bonds in 2001 and 2002. This study seeks to address how and why the financing was structured. Moreover, the research had no influence over the behavioural events surrounding these transactions and that the projects are both contemporary in nature. The methodology involves case study research, including documentary and content analysis of selected materials. In terms of analytical generalization and external validity, we adopt the framework of the Islamic normative theory of profit. The study finds that despite the noble intention of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) to issue musharakah bonds in developing the waqf properties in assessing substance over form, they do not satisfy the conditions relating to a valid contract and lawful income. Accordingly, we recommend an alternative mechanism for the future development of waqf projects, structured on the basis of a real estate investment trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the application of Islamic private equity in order to develop Islamic finance and investment in international shipping. Shipping is a strong growth industry with about 85% of the global trade carried by the international shipping industry. The problem is that shipping is a highly capital intensive industry, and currently 75% of ship lending has been conducted by European banks and financed on a conventional basis. The post-financial crisis, shipowners, ship lenders and shipyards have all been exposed to the impact of over-levered balance sheets and debt finance. Our conceptual framework discusses how Islamic finance and investment institutions can participate at the retail and institutional levels involving private equity. Our study suggests that Islamic private equity should appeal to retail and institutional investors to promote and develop international shipping from Malaysia, in line with government policies on shipping and Islamic finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes prohibited elements in transactions from a shari'ah perspective, since it is obligatory on the individual (fardhu 'ayn) to understand the Islamic law of transactions (fiqh mu'amalat). Islam is not only a religion, but also a complete way of life. Islam has clearly forbidden all business transactions that lead to exploitation and injustice in any form to any of the parties of a contract. Islam requires that all financial and business transactions be based on transparency, accuracy, and disclosure of all material information so that no one party takes advantage of other parties. There is wisdom (hikmah) behind every prohibited transaction and in order to practice business and banking activities that are genuinely shari'ahcompliant, it is important to understand the prohibited elements in Islamic law. Accordingly, prohibited elements such as riba, gharar, qimar, maysir, fraud and coercion are discussed, as well as, the importance of the legality of the subject matter. Sahih, fasid, batil contracts and extrinsic conditions are covered in respect to different schools of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]