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This paper critically analyses how Islamization of Knowledge (IOK), Radical Reform (RR), and Maqasid Methodology (MM), three distinct Islamic intellectual projects, attempted to develop discourses of Islamic epistemology in facing contemporary developments of natural and social sciences. Mainly, the paper focuses on similarities, differences, and potential contributions of all three projects respectively. Initially, this paper observes that IOK, RR, and MM have solid agreements among themselves in defining the core crisis of the modern Islamic intellectual tradition, as well as in highlighting the importance of inclusion of Islamic primary sources and its normative guidance in the process of reorienting modern knowledge. Equally, each of those projects presents itself as a new reflection of Islamic primary texts considering current intellectual challenges. Nevertheless, this paper further finds that all three projects have deep disagreements among themselves in terms of defining the scope of epistemic authority of revelation, reason, and spirituality and thereby offer three different visions of Islamic epistemic schema in facing modern knowledge. Finally, this paper reflects how these differences could potentially impact visions of an alternative education system from an Islamic worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focused on quantifying hazardous heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni, and Zn) in soil-rice systems near the Buriganga River in Bangladesh to assess their impact on human health and the environment. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Zn in soil exceeded FAO/WHO acceptable limits, and the metal pollution index (MPI) indicated that all soil samples collected from the rice fields were severely polluted (MPI˃30) than water and rice grain samples. According to the sum of pollution index (SPI) by studied metals, rice grains collected from Kamrangirchor (29.36), Dhakauddan (28.75), and Bosila (18.08) were severely polluted. Mean Bio-concentration factors (BCFs) and Transfer factors (TFgrain/soil) in rice grains were in the following order: Cd (6.034) > Zn (1.752) > Pb (0.697) ˃ Ni (0.666) > Cr (0.135) > As (0.037), and Cd (1.150) > Zn (0.421) > Ni (0.112) ˃ Pb (0.072) > Cr (0.015) > As (0.034) respectively indicating higher accumulation of Cd in rice grain than others toxic heavy metal. The potential ecological risk index (RI) showed that except for water in Kamrangirchar and Keraniganj rice fields, all other rice fields soil and water samples did not pose severe ecological pollution (RI˂110) by different toxic heavy metals. Health risk assessment showed that rice grains are unsafe for human consumption as the carcinogenic health risk (CHR˃10-3) and non-carcinogenic health risk (HI ˃1) quotients seem more than the safe level in all samples collected from rice fields surrounding the Buriganga River. Findings show that heavy metal concentrations are high in rice fields near the Buriganga River, endangering the environment and consumer health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power generation without environmental impairment is a challenging task for humankind. Presently pyrolysis process using various catalysts is among the finest technologies for generating alternate energy. This research aims to explore the pyrolysis of discarded bus/truck tires with zeolite ZSM-5. A fixed-bed reactor was employed to pyrolyse scrap tires at a temperature range of 300–580°C. Furthermore, it investigates the temperature and catalyst-to-tire ratio impact on the evolved oils' generation and composition. Density, kinematic viscosity, and gross calorific value of the obtained oil, are analysed. CT ratio has increased the gas generation but decreases oil production. Elemental analysis of pyrolytic liquid oil revealed carbon percentage increment and decrement of sulphur percentage when CT ratio was increased. FT-IR showed data revealed the strong presence of aromatic compounds and other valuable hydrocarbons in the upgraded pyrolytic oils. The pyrolytic oil showed provided a high calorific value of 40.38 MJ/kg, comparable to conventional diesel oil of 42 MJ/kg. GC-MS analysis identified a higher amount of o-xylene, toluene, naphthalene, and d-limonene in derived oil when the CT ratio of the process was increased from 0.1 to 0.25, denoting the capability of the evolved oil as an alternative energy source and value-added chemical substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A potent Cr (VI) resistant bacterial strain DHS-12(7) was isolated from tannery waste landfill site and identified as Bacillus sp. based on pheno- and genotypic methods. The maximum tolerable concentration (MTC) of Cr (VI) was found as 1000 and 250 ppm in nutrient-rich and minimal salt medium, respectively while significant variation of MTC and Cr (VI) reduction efficiency was observed in the solid and liquid medium. The complete reduction of 10 and 25 ppm Cr (VI) was recorded within 18 h and 24 h., respectively in the minimal salt medium and the reduction trend of the strain was bacterial growth-associated. The detection of almost invariable total Cr concentration and the presence of NADH-dependent chromate reductase activity in the cell-free extract, indicated the extracellular Cr (VI) reduction rather than intracellular uptake. Furthermore, chromate reductase (ChrR) gene was amplified, sequenced and the translated amino acid sequence of the ChrR gene showed a high degree of homology with chromate reductase of different organisms. Conclusively, the findings of the present study highlight that Bacillus sp. strain DHS-12(7) can be a potent bioremediation agent for detoxification of Cr (VI) from the contaminated environmental sites for ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jute (Corchorus sp.) is consumed as a leafy vegetable in many parts of the world. There is little information on nutritional composition of cultivated jute species and their wild relatives. To determine nutritional components of jute leaf, 3 C. capsularis L., germplasm, 'Merha red', 'Merha green', 'Birol red', a C. olitorius L., 'Accession-3840ʹ, and 'BJRI deshi pat shak-1ʹ and 'BINA pat shak-1ʹ were examined, with the latter 2 as controls. In most cases, the four wild species contained more vitamins and minerals, and had more surviving plants per unit area, compared with controls. The highest percent protein and ash, highest leaf area, and most leaves per plant, were in the controls. The desired biochemical properties with high heritability and genetic advance can likely be transmitted from wild germplasm to cultivated C. capsularis species through crossing, but evaluation in other agro-climatic regions is needed to determine the efficacy of wild germplasm as donor parent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics are emerging environmental pollutants that have gained tremendous scientific interest in recent years. These micropollutants are omnipresent both in the terrestrial and aquatic environments posing a deleterious threat to the ecosystem and biodiversity. So, it is important to develop a deep understanding of the environmental fate and potential adverse impacts of microplastics on the aquatic and terrestrial environments. By critically reviewing the previously published scientific literature, the present synthesis briefly outlines the characteristics, occurrence and potential toxic effects of microplastics on terrestrial and aquatic biota. The article also focuses on some innovative approaches for sustainable remediation of macroplastics as well as microplastics. Since the concept of microplastics pollution has yet in its infancy in Bangladesh, this synthesis provides an overview of the current scenario of microplastics pollution and some future research recommendations in the context of Bangladesh which might be helpful to the novice researchers of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of mode choice behavior is an important step in accurately predicting future travel demand. Despite having somewhat unique travel needs and challenges, there is a lack of knowledge in understanding the mode use behavior of university student population. The existing studies on university populations relied on a relatively smaller sample in investigating the behavior. Therefore, using world's largest university student's travel database, this study examines the factors affecting the mode choice behavior of a diverse university student population with student samples from four universities and their seven campuses located across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada. Additionally, stratifying this diverse population using their attitudinal responses towards numerous travel modes, this study also estimates three additional mode choice models to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of how students in different markets, with different latent attitudes towards transportation, vary in terms of sustainable mode choice. A cluster analysis based on fourteen attitudinal responses, was conducted to stratify the sample whereas the popular multinomial logit approach was used to estimate the mode choice models. This study finds transit pass and bike ownership as important determinants that govern sustainable mode choice among the students in the region. The findings of this study could facilitate the sustainability offices at the four universities in making an informed policy decision in shifting the mode use behavior of students towards sustainable modes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The primary objective of this study was to ascertain, through analysis of accessibility and development potential, which activity centres should be prioritised to support decentralisation of jobs, encourage better integration of transport and land use and ultimately aid the evaluation of a more compact, consolidation and connected city. In doing so, this study evaluated and compared the existing accessibility of different geographic units across the city, including the 34 activity centres identified by the Government of Australia, by the two most frequently use transport modes, namely – public transport and car. The analysis of this study has two parts. Firstly, an isochrone-based measure of accessibility was used for an accessibility modelling across the Perth Metropolitan Area in Western Australia. Secondly, using six node-place based indicators, this paper also endeavoured to prioritise the geographic units that are already better served by public transport, as indicated by the accessibility analysis. Multi-criteria weighed scoring method was applied to calculate a score out of 100 for each of the geographic units. The results of this analysis could help to identify activity centre(s) and other areas in Perth, if any, with higher potentials of being a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) supportive activity centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrobiodiversity is important not only for environmental stability but it also supplements the local livelihood. The level of dependency of the locals on agrobiodiversity is even more intensive in an area where there is no recorded government forests or protected areas. A total of 145 households were surveyed to explore the agrobiodiversity status in the farmlands of Ullaparaupazillain Sirajganj District, Bangladesh, where protected areas do not exist. A total of 37 tree species belonging to 22 families including timber, fruits, fodder, fuelwood, and multi-purpose tree species (MPTS) were recorded. The most common species wasEucalyptus camaldulensis(83%) followed bySwietenia macrophylla(60%). The average tree density for the whole study area was 87.35 ± 9.28 trees per ha. The mean value of Shannon–Wiener index and evenness of species were 3.33 and 2.12, respectively, with larger farms having the highest tree species diversity and marginal farms having the lowest. Actual farm size and the species diversity were found positively correlated (Spearman’sρ = 0.33,n = 145,p ≤ 0.01). Five types of cereal crops and two types of common vegetables were grown. Mean production of all agriculture crops was the highest on the large farms. Chicken and duck were the major livestock in the study area. Farmland, like other agroforestry systems, maintains a level of tree species diversity along with crop and livestock diversity which may contribute to biodiversity conservation in least forest areas and supply diverse products and generate income for farmers as means of their existence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]