Traditionalism and its impact on the administration of justice: the case of the Syariah Court of Singapore

Abstract

This paper examines, by way of case studies, the influence of traditionalism as a style of thought on the administration of Muslim law on divorce in the Syariah Court of Singapore. It focuses on the mode of its operation in the selection, construction and application of the law, and highlights its repercussions on the lives of parties in family breakdowns. The paper also touches upon the effects of traditionalism on the development of a more progressive legal culture and identifies measures that would alleviate the problem.     

A Query Expansion Framework in Image Retrieval Domain Based on Local and Global Analysis

We present an image retrieval framework based on automatic query expansion in a concept feature space by generalizing the vector space model of information retrieval. In this framework, images are represented by vectors of weighted concepts similar to the keyword-based representation used in text retrieval. To generate the concept vocabularies, a statistical model is built by utilizing Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based classification techniques. The images are represented as "bag of concepts" that comprise perceptually and/or semantically distinguishable color and texture patches from local image regions in a multi-dimensional feature space. To explore the correlation between the concepts and overcome the assumption of feature independence in this model, we propose query expansion techniques in the image domain from a new perspective based on both local and global analysis. For the local analysis, the correlations between the concepts based on the co-occurrence pattern, and the metrical constraints based on the neighborhood proximity between the concepts in encoded images, are analyzed by considering local feedback information. We also analyze the concept similarities in the collection as a whole in the form of a similarity thesaurus and propose an efficient query expansion based on the global analysis. The experimental results on a photographic collection of natural scenes and a biomedical database of different imaging modalities demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in terms of precision and recall.     

Back to Basics: A Bilingual Advantage in Infant Visual Habituation

Comparisons of cognitive processing in monolinguals and bilinguals have revealed a bilingual advantage in inhibitory control. Recent studies have demonstrated advantages associated with exposure to two languages in infancy. However, the domain specificity and scope of the infant bilingual advantage in infancy remains unclear. In the present study, 114 monolingual and bilingual infants were compared in a very basic task of information processing—visual habituation—at 6 months of age. Bilingual infants demonstrated greater efficiency in stimulus encoding as well as in improved recognition memory for familiar stimuli as compared to monolinguals. Findings reveal a generalized cognitive advantage in bilingual infants that is broad in scope, early to emerge, and not specific to language.     

Translating Knowledge into Action at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)

Abstract

Purpose: This article explores the impacts of action learning on graduates’ abilities to use interdisciplinary knowledge to solve problems, practice teamwork on the job and become change agents through study in two MSc programmes at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB).

Design/methodology/approach: Electronic questionnaires were sent to students who had graduated from the Agroecology and Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture (MNRSA) MSc programmes between 2000 and 2007.

Findings: Both study programmes encouraged students to become change agents promoting sustainable practices through application of knowledge and methods from natural and social sciences. Agroecology graduates applied a greater range of creative research methods, and improved their capacity for holistic and systems thinking more than MNRSA graduates, while the latter were more skilled in building consensus. Graduates from both programmes increased their abilities to create a positive team environment, bring people together to express their views and take multiple views into consideration when making decisions.

Practical implications: This survey documents how action learning develops students’ skills and knowledge to handle complex social and environmental challenges and become change agents.

Originality/value: In the context of increasing challenges in agroecology and natural resource management the findings on how to translate knowledge into action are important for teaching/learning institutions dealing with education for sustainable development.     

Scandix pecten-veneris L.的植物素、生物学潜力及酶抑制活性研究（英文）

目的:本研究旨在测定Scandix pecten-veneris L.的植物素和评价其生物学潜力。方法:测定S.pecten-veneris提取物中植物素的含量,包括生物碱、黄酮、多酚和单宁。使用2,2-二苯基-1-苦肼基(DPPH)测定抗氧化活性;同时通过铁还原/抗氧化能力(FRAP)测定还原能力;使用琼脂扩散测定法评价对七种细菌和四种真菌菌株的抗微生物活性。同时,对脲酶、磷酸二酯酶-Ⅰ和过氧化氢酶-Ⅱ进行酶抑制研究。结论:沙门氏菌显示出适度的抗自由基活性;羟基自由基的潜能降至初始值的20%左右。S.pectenveneris多种提取物的抗氧化活性与总酚含量呈线性相关。S.pecten-veneris叶对金黄色葡萄球菌表现出最高的抑制活性;对白色念珠菌表现出到最高的抗真菌活性。植物提取物对脲酶的活性最有效;对磷酸二酯酶-Ⅰ和碳酸酐酶-Ⅱ显示出中等活性。结果表明,S.pecten-veneris具有良好的药用潜力,可用于治疗一些特定的疾病。     

Is being gifted always an advantage? Peer relations and self-concept of gifted students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between identified gifted adolescents and adolescents not identified as gifted in terms of social acceptance and self-concept (peer relations, academic, and general). In addition, we aimed to investigate the differences between two groups of students identified according to different identification criteria (i.e. intelligence test and teacher assessment), and whether the relationship between students’ giftedness and the indicators of their social adjustment was moderated by gender. A total of 404 Slovenian elementary school students (191 males; 47%, 213 females; 53%) participated in the study; among them 85 (21%) were identified as gifted. No significant differences were found between gifted and non-gifted students in positive sociometric nominations and social preference; gifted students received less negative nominations and had lower social impact, but were assessed as more socially accepted by their teachers. Gifted students reported higher academic and general but not peer relations self-concept. No differences in social acceptance and self-concept were found between the groups of gifted students identified with regard to different identification criteria. In addition, we found significant interaction effects between gender and giftedness for peer relations self-concept. The results indicate the importance of investigating individual differences among gifted students in future studies.     

A blended learning approach to teach fluid mechanics in engineering

This paper presents a case study on the teaching and learning of fluid mechanics at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), Australia, by applying a blended learning approach (BLA). In the adopted BLA, various flexible learning materials have been made available to the students such as online recorded lectures, online recorded tutorials, hand written tutorial solutions, discussion board and online practice quizzes. The lecture and tutorial class times have been primarily utilised to discuss confusing topics and engage students with practical issues in applying the theories learnt in fluid mechanics. Based on the data of over 734 students over a 4-year period, it has been shown that a BLA has improved the learning experience of the fluid mechanics students in UWS. The overall percentage of student satisfaction in this subject has increased by 18% in the BLA case compared with the traditional one.     

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregiver mental health and the child caregiving environment in a low-resource,rural context

Early child development has been influenced directly and indirectly by the COVID-19 pandemic, and these effects are exacerbated in contexts of poverty. This study estimates effects of the pandemic and subsequent population lockdowns on mental health, caregiving practices, and freedom of movement among female caregivers of children 6–27 months (50% female), in rural Bangladesh. A cohort (N = 517) was assessed before and during the pandemic (May–June, 2019 and July–September, 2020). Caregivers who experienced more food insecurity and financial loss during the pandemic reported larger increases in depressive symptoms (0.26 SD, 95% CI 0.08–0.44; 0.21 SD, 0.04–0.40) compared to less affected caregivers. Stimulating caregiving and freedom of movement results were inconsistent. Increases in depressive symptoms during the pandemic may have consequences for child development.