Human gait is a complex activity that requires high coordination between the central nervous system, the limb, and the musculoskeletal system. More research is needed to understand the latter coordination's complexity in designing better and more effective rehabilitation strategies for gait disorders. Electroencephalogram and functional near-infrared spectroscopy are among the most used technologies for monitoring brain activities due to portability, non-invasiveness, and relatively low cost compared to others. Fusing EEG and fNIRS is a well-known and established methodology proven to enhance (...) brain–computer interface performance in terms of classification accuracy, number of control commands, and response time. Although there has been significant research exploring hybrid BCI involving both EEG and fNIRS for different types of tasks and human activities, human gait remains still underinvestigated. In this article, we aim to shed light on the recent development in the analysis of human gait using a hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI system. The current review has followed guidelines of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-Analyses during the data collection and selection phase. In this review, we put a particular focus on the commonly used signal processing and machine learning algorithms, as well as survey the potential applications of gait analysis. We distill some of the critical findings of this survey as follows. First, hardware specifications and experimental paradigms should be carefully considered because of their direct impact on the quality of gait assessment. Second, since both modalities, EEG and fNIRS, are sensitive to motion artifacts, instrumental, and physiological noises, there is a quest for more robust and sophisticated signal processing algorithms. Third, hybrid temporal and spatial features, obtained by virtue of fusing EEG and fNIRS and associated with cortical activation, can help better identify the correlation between brain activation and gait. In conclusion, hBCI system is not yet much explored for the lower limb due to its complexity compared to the higher limb. Existing BCI systems for gait monitoring tend to only focus on one modality. We foresee a vast potential in adopting hBCI in gait analysis. Imminent technical breakthroughs are expected using hybrid EEG-fNIRS-based BCI for gait to control assistive devices and Monitor neuro-plasticity in neuro-rehabilitation. However, although those hybrid systems perform well in a controlled experimental environment when it comes to adopting them as a certified medical device in real-life clinical applications, there is still a long way to go. (shrink)

This abstract presents a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) framework to control a prosthetic leg, for the rehabilitation of patients suffering from locomotive disorders, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS signals corresponding to walking intention and rest are used to initiate and stop the gait cycle and a nonlinear proportional derivative computed torque controller (PD-CTC) with gravity compensation is used to control torques of hip and knee joints for minimization of position error. The brain signals of walking intention and rest tasks (...) are acquired from primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere for nine subjects. After acquiring brain signals, in order to remove motion artifacts and physiological noises, the performance of six different filters i.e. Kalman, Wiener, Gaussian, hemodynamic response filter (hrf), Band-pass and finite impulse response, is evaluated. Afterwards, six different features are extracted from oxygenated hemoglobin signals and their different combinations were used for classification. The classification performance of five different classifiers i.e. artificial neural network, quadratic discriminant analysis, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Naïve Bayes and support vector machine (SVM) is used. The classification accuracies obtained from SVM using hrf filter are significantly higher (p < 0.005) than the other combinations of classifier and filters. These accuracies are 77.5%, 72.5%, 68.3%, 74.2%, 73.3%, 80.8%, 65%, 76.7%, and 86.7% for all nine subjects. The control commands generated using classifier initiate and stop the gait cycle of the prosthetic leg whose knee and hip torques are controlled using PD-CTC to minimize position error. The proposed scheme can be effectively used for neurofeedback training and rehabilitation of lower limb amputation of paralyzed patients. (shrink)

A passive brain–computer interface based upon functional near-infrared spectroscopy brain signals is used for earlier detection of human drowsiness during driving tasks. This BCI modality acquired hemodynamic signals of 13 healthy subjects from the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain. Drowsiness activity is recorded using a continuous-wave fNIRS system and eight channels over the right DPFC. During the experiment, sleep-deprived subjects drove a vehicle in a driving simulator while their cerebral oxygen regulation state was continuously measured. Vector phase analysis (...) was used as a classifier to detect drowsiness state along with sleep stage-based threshold criteria. Extensive training and testing with various feature sets and classifiers are done to justify the adaptation of threshold criteria for any subject without requiring recalibration. Three statistical features along with six VPA features were used. The average accuracies for the five classifiers are 90.9% for discriminant analysis, 92.5% for support vector machines, 92.3% for nearest neighbors, 92.4% for both decision trees, and ensembles over all subjects’ data. Trajectory slopes of CORE vector magnitude and angle: m and m are the best-performing features, along with ensemble classifier with the highest accuracy of 95.3% and minimum computation time of 40 ms. The statistical significance of the results is validated with a p-value of less than 0.05. The proposed passive BCI scheme demonstrates a promising technique for online drowsiness detection using VPA along with sleep stage classification. (shrink)

A training physician has his first interaction with a pharmaceutical representative during medical school. Medical students are often provided with small gifts such as pens, calendars and books, as well as free lunches as part of drug promotion offers. Ethical impact of these transactions as perceived by young medical students has not been investigated in Pakistan before. This study aimed to assess the association of socio-demographic variables with the attitudes of medical students towards pharmaceutical companies and their incentives.

This study sheds light on strategies for retaining skilled pharmacists in Pakistan's pharmaceutical sector, offering valuable insights for both academia and industry stakeholders by investigating the impact of human resource management practices, including training and development, compensation and rewards, job performance, and job satisfaction, on employee retention. It also examines the moderating role of career growth in this context. Theoretical foundations are grounded in international migration theories and social exchange theory, providing a comprehensive framework for the study. A cross-sectional survey (...) design was used to collect data from 254 pharmacists in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. Findings reveal that training and development, compensation and rewards, job performance, and job satisfaction all have significant direct effects on employee retention. Additionally, career growth acts as a crucial moderator, strengthening the relationship between training and development and job performance, as well as compensation and rewards and job satisfaction in relation to employee retention. Theoretical implications emphasize the importance of tailored training programs, fair compensation practices, and career growth opportunities. Practical recommendations include creating a positive work environment, rewarding high-performing employees, and fostering career development. Future research directions encompass longitudinal studies, the influence of organizational culture and technology, regional variations, and additional factors affecting retention. (shrink)

A modern classic of Universal Sufism that explores the mystical dimensions of music-and the musical dimensions of mysticism. Music, according to Sufi teaching, is really a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe-and that is the secret of its amazing power to move us. The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first teacher to bring the Sufi mystical tradition to the West, was an accomplished musician himself. His lucid exposition of music's divine (...) nature has become a modern classic, beloved not only by those interested in Sufism but by musicians of all kinds. This newly reissued edition includes a foreword by Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Hazrat Inayat Khan's grandson and the current leader of the Inayati Order, the widespread Western Sufi organization that Hazrat Inayat Khan founded. (shrink)

The New Towns Movement began in England and later spread world-wide in response to the increasing concern felt at the deterioration of the quality of life in the large cities under the impact of industrialization. The New Towns, it was felt, would combine the advantages of life in the country with that of life in the city. They would be small communities of between 30.000 and 60.000 inhabitants. Their principal characteristics were to be a balanced economy and a well-defined pattern (...) of industrial, commercial and residential zones. (shrink)

This work is an exposition of Salighed, a concept at the heart of Kierkegaard's thought, and the dialectical starting point for his reflections on what it means to live a genuinely human life. Kierkegaard studies to date appear to have underestimated the importance of the word and the concepts that lie behind it—perhaps because the word appears easily translated into the English forms of "eternal happiness" or "blessedness." This, suggests Khan, does little justice to the concepts behind the word, (...) and does even less justice to the relationships of the concept of Salighed to other concepts crucial to Kierkegaard's thought. Khan's approach to this word/concept study has been greatly augmented by his use of the computer in analyzing word-relatedness, context, and frequency of occurrence, both within individual works and in comparing one work with a context of the Kierkegaard corpus. The volume will, of course, be of interest to students of Kierkegaard. It will also be of interest to those scholars intrigued by the possibilities of using computers in linguistic research and in literary studies. (shrink)

In an attempt to re-envision economics, the paper analyses Robert Heilbroner’s philosophy of economics through the lens of Max Weber’s philosophy of science. Specifically, Heilbroner’s position on vision, ideology and value-freedom is examined by contextualising it within a framework of … More ›.

Iqbāl kī shāʻirī meṉ falsafah-yi ḵẖvudī.

Arsalan Khan offers an ethnography of the normative vision that drives Pakistani Muslim men from diverse social and economic backgrounds to participate in a transnational Islamic piety movement: Tablighi Jamaat. Khan examines how Tablighis constitute the domain of religion in ritual and semiotic practice, how they place an ethical commitment to hierarchy at the heart of religion, and how this, in turn, becomes the basis for restructuring domestic and political life.

The question of the development of aesthetic perception in relation to works of art and phenomena of nature suggests a differentiation between aesthetic education and art education which will be attempted in this study. At the same time the necessary interrelationship between the two will also be analysed.

Quality assurance in higher education is a hot topic with theincreased number of students graduating from postgraduate programmesoffered by the higher education institutions. This qualitative study aimed tolook at the history and the current status of the quality assurance mechanismsin the Maldives; identify its strengths and weaknesses; and make informedrecommendations. Critical event narrative inquiry was used and data werecollected through interviews and analysis of documents. Content analysis ofdata collected revealed that Maldives was one of the very first countries inthe region (...) to establish such a mechanism and it was very similar to that ofAustralia. The most significant finding was that the body mandated to assurehigher education quality and did not have any power or regulatory authority.Therefore, it is important that the authority be an independent body establishedby an act of parliament with the regulatory power. (shrink)

Drawing insight from affective events theory, this study presents a new dimension of perceived organizational politics and job attitudes. The motivation for this study was based on the fact that perceived organizational politics affect job attitudes and that personal resources moderate the direct relationship between perceived organizational politics and job attitudes in the context of the higher-education sector. In this regard, the data was collected through purposive sampling from 310 faculty members from higher-education institutions in Pakistan. To test the relationships (...) among the variables, we employed structural equation modeling via the AMOS software version 24.0. The results indicated that perceived organizational politics were significantly negatively related to job satisfaction. Moreover, perceived organizational politics were non-significantly related to job involvement. Political skill and work ethic weakened the relationship between perceived organizational politics and job satisfaction. We anticipated that these personal resources could mitigate the negative effect of perceived organizational politics and job attitudes. This study also suggests organizations to train their employees to develop essential personal skills. (shrink)

On November 2019, the world commemorated the 30th anniversary of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UNCRC noted that “the press and other media have essential fu...

Mostly consists of works composed in Tibetan, with translations into Mongolian, on the Soyombo script.

Classical commentaries on Jaimini's Mīmāṃsāsūtra presenting the tradition of Bhāṭṭa school.

Within the Ideological Surround Model of the social sciences and religion, so-called “universal” perspectives within the psychology of religion can dialogically clarify and be clarified by the “particular” elements of Muslim commitment. This study developed new scales for operationalizing the experience and behavior of Pakistani Muslims during Ramadan. In a sample of university students, one set of experiential factors apparently facilitated, whereas another interfered with the practices of Ramadan. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations correlated with greater and the Extrinsic (...) Social motivation with lower levels of involvement in Ramadan. Relative to these religious orientation measures, Ramadan experience scales displayed incremental validity by explaining additional variance in Ramadan behavior. Women proved to be more religious than men. At the most general level, these data further supported the dialogic assumptions of the Ideological Surround Model of research in the psychology of religion. (shrink)

Generally toxic employees are under performers, yet some get better salaries and excel at workplace, getting positioned at higher ranks. This research assesses the relationship between the dark triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy) and perceived victimization with a focus on the mediating effect of abusive supervision and the moderating effect of mindfulness. The data were gathered in three waves. Both the structural equation model with partial least square and Process were used to analyze the data. The study findings suggest that (...) abusive supervision plays a mediating role in the association between the dark triad and perceived victimization. However, the results did not support the mediating role of abusive supervision in the association between narcissism and perceived victimization. Moreover, the findings suggest that mindfulness weakens the effect of abusive supervision on perceived victimization. Furthermore, our findings support the mediated-moderation model. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed. (shrink)

In this article I argue that Jürgen Habermas’ notion of morality (moral norms) has more in common with Hegel’s notion of ‘ethical life’ as a ‘ sittlich ’ relation – understood as a socially integrative force – rather than Kant’s supreme principle of personal morality. I show that Habermas and Hegel, each in his own way, make a distinction between morality and ethics. However, I make the case that Habermas’ conception of ‘morality’ incorporates aspects of Hegel’s notion of ‘ethical life’, (...) while Habermas’ conception of ‘ethical’ – referring to individual and group conceptions of the good life – is a remedy to the shortcomings in Hegel’s overly unified ethical life. I offer an alternative reading of Habermas’ principle of morality, which I suggest should be read as his attempt to provide a binding process to set up the norms that ought to condition a modern political community understood as a civil association. (shrink)

Based on the Lotka–Volterra system, a pest-natural enemy model with nonlinear feedback control as well as nonlinear action threshold is introduced. The model characterizes the implementation of comprehensive prevention and control measures when the pest density reaches the nonlinear action threshold level depending on the pest density and its change rate. The mortality rate of the pest is a saturation function that strictly depends on their density while the release of natural enemies is also a nonlinear pulse term depending on (...) the density of real-time natural enemies. The exact impulsive and phase sets are given. The definition and properties of the Poincaré map corresponding to the pulse points on the phase set are provided. We investigate the existence and stability of boundary and interior order-1 periodic solution. The theoretical analysis developed in the present paper combined with nonlinear controlling measures as well as nonlinear action threshold methods and techniques laid the foundation for the establishment and analysis of other state-dependent feedback control models. (shrink)

On Western philosophy from the point of view of Burmese philosophers.

Experiences like pains, pleasures, and emotions have affective phenomenal character: they feel pleasant or unpleasant. Imperativism proposes to explain affective phenomenal character by appeal to imperative content, a kind of intentional content that directs rather than describes. We argue that imperativism is on the right track, but has been developed in the wrong way. There are two varieties of imperativism on the market: first-order and higher-order. We show that neither is successful, and offer in their place a new theory: reflexive (...) imperativism. Our proposal is that an experience P feels pleasant in virtue of being constituted by a Command with reflexive imperative content, while an experience U feels unpleasant in virtue of being constituted by a Command with reflexive imperative content : More of P!Less of U! If you need a slogan: experiences have affective phenomenal character in virtue of commanding us Get more of me! Get less of me! (shrink)

Utilitarians think that what matters in ethics is making the world a better place. In that case, it might seem that we each rationally ought to do our best—perform the actions, out of those open to each of us, with the best expected outcomes. In other words, we should follow act-utilitarian reasons. But often the result of many altruistic agents following such individualistic reasons is worse than the result of them following collectivist ‘team-reasons’. So utilitarians should reject act utilitarianism, and (...) accept a dualist view according to which both individualistic and team reasons are fundamental. In order to align these distinct kinds of reason, utilitarians must focus centrally on questions of political and social reform—as did their historical forebears. (shrink)

Non-naturalist realists are committed to the belief, famously voiced by Parfit, that if there are no non-natural facts then nothing matters. But it is morally objectionable to conditionalise all our moral commitments on the question of whether there are non-natural facts. Non-natural facts are causally inefficacious, and so make no difference to the world of our experience. And to be a realist about such facts is to hold that they are mind-independent. It is compatible with our experiences that there are (...) no non-natural facts, or that they are very different from what we think. As Nagel says, realism makes scepticism intelligible. So the non-naturalist must hold that you might be wrong that your partner matters, even if you are correct about every natural, causal fact about your history and relationship. But to hold that conditional attitude to your partner would be a moral betrayal. So believing non-naturalist realism involves doing something immoral. (shrink)

Aesthetics of art and literature; articles.