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The inception of maqasid as-shari’ah al-Tawhid index of socio-economic development sustainability is presented in its generalized form. This involves a unified relational methodological formalism. The resulting model is that of wellbeing, which in Islamic context is referred to as maslaha. The maslaha function is formalized and applied to the specific case of socio-economic development sustainability. This term signifies the importance that moral and ethical values hold in a substantively participatory context of choices of the good things of life, while avoiding the harmful ones. The meaning is linked to and bears on moral, social and economic development perspectives. Sustainability of development as a participatory process yielding well-being is thereby a relational organic continuation in pervasive complementarities between endogenous and circular causation relations of critical variables under the impact of Tawhid as law inducing the variables by its ontology of unity of knowledge. A specific example of application is taken as the formulation and relational explanation of the Gender Development Index in terms of its various critical variables of wellbeing. Statistical analysis and policy conclusions are carried out.

The introduction underscores investigative issues, relevant questions and objectives, and methodology used, besides analytical breaks, with added reflections on significance, alongside a macrocosmic view of the civilizational order. The investigative agendas and the objectives in tandem encompass an evolving framework of diplomacy worldwide to locate the civilizational pattern of power aspirations, with ramifications for the global order and for a people in a divided destiny as that in post-colonial Pakistan. The focus is then passed on to the present Bangladesh, formerly East Bengal/Pakistan, where Mujib emerged as leader, designed the stage for struggle, charted the course of diplomacy to rescue his people and led them to independence. In doing so he broke the asymmetric wheels of power drive via the symmetrical struggle for liberating Bangladesh and set a unique example of how to circumvent wheels of power asymmetry. The social science tools are used, combining timeline and system-structure frameworks, diplomacy trajectories and strategic analyses, with reflections on peacebuilding — the first of such kind in scholarly analytic portrayals.

The primary efforts of disease and epidemiological research can be divided into two areas: identifying the causal mechanisms and utilizing important variables for risk prediction. The latter is generally perceived as a more obtainable goal due to the vast number of readily available tools and the faster pace of obtaining results. However, the lower barrier of entry in risk prediction means that it is easy to make predictions, yet it is incredibility more difficult to make sound predictions. As an ever-growing amount of data is being generated, developing risk prediction models and turning them into clinically actionable findings is crucial as the next step. However, there are still sizable gaps before risk prediction models can be implemented clinically. While clinicians are eager to embrace new ways to improve patients’ care, they are overwhelmed by a plethora of prediction methods. Thus, the next generation of prediction models will need to shift from making simple predictions towards interpretable, equitable, explainable and ultimately, casual predictions.

This chapter presents a brief overview of the volume and the chapters it includes. Although all the chapters fit into a common theme, there is much diversity of both topics and thinking styles. This introductory chapter gives a sense of that diversity.

TSG-48 examined historical, current, and emerging trends as well as issues and experiences in research with/in/on multicultural environments, across four themes: theoretical perspectives, methodological perspectives, emergent perspectives, and knowledge mobilization perspectives.

This report presents an overview about the themes of the Topic Study Group 57 on the diversity of theories in mathematics education. Main topics, which were addressed, are the networking of theories in theories related to the use of technology, to design research and beyond. The program, format, contributions, discussions and the main results as well as some future implications are presented.

The development of Web applications requires a variety of tasks, some of them involving aesthetic and cognitive aspects. As a consequence, there is a need for appropriate models and methodologies which allow the heterogeneus members of hypermedia projects to effectively communicate and guide them during the development process. In this chapter, we describe some hypermedia models and methodologies proposed for the development of hypermedia applications.

Modern science has been thoroughly influenced by the centuries-old Simplicity Principle, also known as Ockham’s Razor. This principle is usually formulated as “entities must not be multiplied without necessity”. The main problem with this formulation is that the necessity or redundancy of an entity (e.g. a concept, hypothesis, law, rule, an explanatory element) cannot always be compellingly demonstrated. This means that, certainly within an empiristic, positivistic or materialistic worldview, the use of Ockham’s Razor easily tends towards unjustified reductionism. However, ontologically or epistemologically, the Simplicity Principle can no longer be justified. The Simplicity Principle does not provide a sufficient argument to reject “entities” as irrelevant or superfluous. Moreover, a reductionistic conception of science cannot contribute to tackling issues concerning ultimate values, meanings of life, metaphysics, aesthetics, religion and several aspects of practical life, such as counselling, morals, politics and jurisdiction. Therefore, this article proposes an alternative principle that I have called the Chatton–Ockham Strategy, which is an integration of Chatton’s anti-Razor and Ockham’s Razor and deals with the complexity–simplicity polarity.

Although significant progress has been made in developing multidatabase systems that integrate component databases containing crisp data, little has been reported on integrating fuzzy databases in such systems. In this paper, we investigate the problem of integrating fuzzy relational databases in a multidatabase system. We identify new types of conflicts that may occur in schemas and data due to the inclusion of fuzzy relational databases. We propose a methodology that resolves these new types of conflicts in a procedural manner. In addition, the methodology puts the resolution of these new conflicts into the context of the resolution of other types of conflicts. A fuzzy–probabilistic data model is used to facilitate the integration.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are extremely complex information systems, whose implementation is often unsuccessful.We suggest a risk management (RM) methodology supporting the formulation of risk treatment strategies and actions during ERP introduction projects to improve the success rate. In this chapter, first the research context is presented, then the framework and the methodology are illustrated and the main phases of the proposed RM approach are introduced, finally results are discussed.

This chapter presents two topics related to the application of the Mereon Matrix and interpretation of observations:

• A revealing demonstration of how the Mereon Matrix resolves paradox, exposing how difference can be a reflection of perspective, and
• A methodology for application, the Mereon Matrix used as a template for information modelling within a knowledge domain.

Presented as an inclusive model, readers are shown how well-known modelling techniques may be applied to support the application efforts. Included is the usage of strategic (S), tactical (T) and operational (O) elements that are related to planning and action, as employed in military decision-making and a quality management approach to an organisation.

Microarray experimentation has been widely used for screening and high throughput discovery of mechanisms underlying biological systems. However, there are many factors that need to be taken into account for an effective microarray experimental design. Such factors are the abundance of starting material (RNA), number of replicates or experimental cost. The present work proposes rational strategies for microarray experimental design, with the scope to minimize signal variance and improve precision, with the minimum amount of technical replicates needed, thus alleviating the burden of biological material collection and the cost of the experiment. In this sense, alternative microarray design strategies are tested (direct comparisons, all paired comparisons, indirect comparisons through the implementation of various loop strategies), targeting to minimize the wet lab experimental effort needed, for the more precise interpretation of the biological question investigated. In this work we propose a methodological approach for the computational implementation of comparisons between different microarray experimental samples which are not co-hybridized together. Moreover, this approach is tested in-silico, on a showcase of a simple "loop" experimental design, including 3 biological triplicates. The proposed methodological approach introduces a robust method for calculating and comparing gene expression profiles between sets of microarray experiments by using the minimum number of experiments on one hand and getting robust results on the other. Further extension of this work could form a rational operational computational framework for the design of microarray or more general high-throughput biological experiments.