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Purpose – This study intends to scrutinize the relationship between oil and gold prices on Indonesia’s Islamic stock market before and during the war between Russia and Ukraine, and compare the nature of sharia and conventional stock during the period of study. Methodology – This study uses daily price data of oil price, gold, Islamic index, and LQ45 index. The period spans from 2020 to 2022, which is split into two sub-periods: pre-war and during the war period. Structural vector autoregression (SVAR) was used for data analysis. Findings – This study provided three main findings. First, the Islamic index was found to be more exogenous than conventional stock, implying the safe haven properties of Islamic stock. Second, oil prices have a negative and significant impact on both conventional and Islamic stocks. However, Islamic stocks are less affected by oil price shocks than conventional stocks. Lastly, Gold is a safe haven asset for both Islamic and conventional stocks. Implications – This study is expected to be beneficial for Islamic investors making investment decisions, particularly in the war period, which is still ongoing and more specific for taking advantage of diversification opportunities. Originality – Despite a huge number of studies that investigate the Islamic stock – oil price nexus, this study uncovers the impact of the most recent geopolitical tension during the Russia-Ukraine War.

The increasing population, deforestation and conversion of agricultural land to the built-up areas are putting pressure on land resources. Moreover, among land degradation, soil loss is one of the common issues that has had adverse consequences for natural ecosystems, thus affecting livelihoods. The Panjkora River Basin is selected as the study area due to its very fragile soil and having shown regular soil loss activity. In the study area, the scientific communities are consistently insisting on monitoring the LULC changes and exploring the extent of soil loss. To achieve the stated objectives, the RUSLE approach was applied to generate maps of soil loss for the years 1990, 2005 and 2020. The analysis revealed that during the past three decades (1990–2020), the built-up areas have been increased by 20%. Contrary to this, a decrease of 3% in barren land, 2% in area under water, 3% in snow cover and 13% in area under vegetation have been recorded. The analysis further revealed that the maximum actual annual soil loss consistently increased from 5,195 tons/ha/year in 1990 to 6,247 tons/ha/year in 2005 and 8,297 tons/ha/year in 2020. This research implies that geospatial technologies are effective tools for modeling the erosion of soil. HIGHLIGHTS The soil provides a diverse array of essential ecosystem services.; However, the degradation of land and soils has escalated significantly.; In the study area, erosion occurs at a relatively high intensity.; This study is unique in its assessment of soil erosion in this area, as no previous assessment of this kind has been conducted.; This paper will serve as a foundation for future research in the entire basin.;

Introduction: Rhodococcus is an extremely rare, gram positive, aerobic, coccobacillary organism, usually found in the soil or in dairy and livestock animals. It is most commonly affecting the immunocompromised. Only 15 % of cases have been reported in immunocompetent hosts. Case report: We bring forth the unusual case of a 45-year-old gem minor who had already undergone pericardial window due to pericardial effusion. He presented to us with recurrent pericardial effusion and anterior mediastinal mass diagnosed on Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiogram scan. He was diagnosed with Rhodococcus as being the causative organism of the condition on pericardial fluid cultures. This is an extremely rare manifestation of Rhodococcus infection, which has not yet been reported in literature to the best of our knowledge. Discussion: The first human case of Rhodococcus was reported in a young male upon steroidal therapy for autoimmune hepatitis who developed pneumonia in 1967. Rhodococci infections are usually common in immunocompromised hosts, and only 19 cases have been reported in immunocompetent hosts till now. The usual signs of presentation are cough, pleuritic chest pain, and fever; however, it varies according to the site of infection. The most common manifestation is pneumonia, although other presentations include osteomyelitis, brain abscess, wound infections, etc. Result: The diagnosis and treatment of Rhodococci is very difficult due to the rarity of presentation. Despite that, surgical intervention should be considered as the preferred modality for diagnostic purposes and in infections resistant to medical management.

AbstractThis study aims to examine the impact of ESG practices on the financial performance of the banking industry of Pakistan during the pre and COVID-19 periods. The data were collected from the annual reports of selected banks for the pre-COVID-19 period (2018) and the COVID-19 period (2020). Results of the t-test show that there is a significant difference in ESG disclosures between the pre and during-COVID-19 periods. The regression analysis shows that the formative ESG factor positively affected the financial performance of the banking industry during the pre-COVID-19 period. While the reflective factors (environmental and social) positively affected the financial performance of the banking industry in the pre-COVID-19 period. During the COVID-19 period, the formative factor of ESG was found to have a significant positive impact on the financial performance of the banking industry. Similarly, in this period, the reflective factors (social and governance) were also found to have a significant positive impact on the financial performance of the banking industry. Interestingly, environmental sustainability negatively impacted the financial performance during the COVID-19 period. It indicates that the banking industry ignored environmental sustainability practices during the COVID −19 period, negatively affecting their financial performance. It suggests that ignoring environmental sustainability practices will deteriorate financial performance following the COVID-19 period. These results have profound policy implications for practitioners and policymakers in the banking industry, which are discussed.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma, also known as cylindroma, is one of the rare and unexplored clinical presentations of lung cancer, for which existing knowledge is scarce. This case report discusses a presentation of this tumor in the right lung, which subsequently extended to the left atrium through the right superior pulmonary vein. The extension of this rare tumor into the left atrium makes this case both uniquely distinctive and clinically relevant. The management strategy opted for this case was a right posterolateral thoracotomy and right pneumonectomy with partial resection of the left atrium. The desired outcome of this report is to shed light on the unusual clinical pathophysiology, register its atypical extensions, and navigate surgeons who may encounter this manifestation in the future.

In medical environments, a wireless body sensor network (WBSN) is used to operate remotely, and sensor nodes are employed. It consists of sensor nodes installed on a human body to monitor a patient’s condition, such as heartbeat, temperature, and blood sugar level, and are functionalized and controlled by remote devices. A WBSN consists of nodes that are actually sensors in nature and are operated with a short range of communication. These sensor nodes are fixed with limited computation power and the main concern is energy consumption and path loss. In this paper, we propose a new protocol named energy-efficient distance- and link-aware body area (EEDLABA) with a clustering mechanism and compare it with the current link-aware and energy-efficient body area (LAEEBA) and distance-aware relaying energy-efficient (DARE) routing protocols in a WBSN. The proposed protocol is an extended type of LAEEBA and DARE in which the positive features have been deployed. The clustering mechanism has been presented and deployed in EEDLABA for better performance. To solve these issues in LAEEBA and DARE, the EEDLABA protocol has been proposed to overcome these. Path loss and energy consumption are the major concerns in this network. For that purpose, the path loss and distance models are proposed in which the cluster head (CH) node, coordinator (C) node, and other nodes, for a total of nine nodes, are deployed on a human body. The results have been derived from MATLAB simulations in which the performance of the suggested EEDLABA has been observed in assessment with the LAEEBA and DARE. From the results, it has been concluded that the proposed protocol can perform well in the considered situations for WBSNs.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have revolutionized the era of conventional computing into a digitized world, commonly known as “The Internet of Things”. WSN consists of tiny low-cost sensing devices, having computation, communication and sensing capabilities. These networks are always debatable for their limited resources and the most arguable and critical issue in WSNs is energy efficiency. Sensors utilize energy in broadcasting, routing, clustering, on-board calculations, localization, and maintenance, etc. However, primary domains of energy consumption at node level are three i.e. sensing by sensing-module, processing by microprocessor and communication by radio link. Extensive sensing, over-costs processing and frequent communication not only minimize the network life-time, but also affects the availability of these resources for other tasks. To increase life-time and provide an energy-efficient WSN, here we have proposed a new scheme called “A Content-based Adaptive and Dynamic Scheduling (CADS) using two ways communication model in WSNs”. CADS dynamically changes a node states during data aggregation and each node adapts a new state based on contents of the sensed data packets. Analyzer module at the Base-Station investigates contents of sensed data packets and regulates functions of a node by transmitting control messages in a backward direction. CADS minimizes energy consumption by reducing unnecessary network traffic and avoid redundant message-forwarding. Simulation results have been shown that it increases energy-efficiency in terms of network life-time by 9.65% in 100 nodes-network, 11.36% in 150 nodes-network and 0.94% in 300 nodes. The proposed scheme is also showing stability in terms of increasing cluster life by 87.5% for a network of 100 nodes, 94.73% for 150 nodes and 53.9% in 300 nodes.

The tremendous advancement in embedded systems, miniaturization, and wireless technology had allowed Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) to have overwhelming applications in e-healthcare, entertainment, sports/games training, etc. WBAN is a special type of wireless sensor network where bio-sensors are attached or embedded to a single human-body designed to connect various bio-sensors and applications, operate autonomously and observe different vital signs of a human body remotely. Despite its enormous benefits and applications, some of the key challenges in designing heterogeneous WBAN is their energy-efficiency, reliability, and fault-tolerance among the installed bio-sensors. Due to the criticality of services related to WBAN applications, it is imperative to have a high degree of reliability and fault-tolerance, especially in the case of health-care monitoring applications where continuous monitoring of patient's vital information is required for diagnosis. However, in health-care applications, interference and body fading occur, which affect the communication among nodes and gateway, which reduces the reliability and fault-tolerance of the network. To address these issues, in this paper, we have proposed an energy-efficient fault-tolerant scheme to improve the reliability of WBANs. The proposed scheme adopted the cooperative communication and network coding strategy to minimize channel impairment and body fading effect and hence reduces the ensued faults, bit error rate, and energy consumption. Based on the proposed scheme, a case study was designed for remote Sepsis monitoring. The system identifies tracking indicators using cooperative communication to reduce hospital re-admissions and mortality rates. The proposed scheme performance is also evaluated via extensive simulations using various metrics. From the results obtained, it is evident that the proposed scheme reduces energy consumption, delay, and bit error rate, thereby increasing the throughput and reliability in WBAN.

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors could lead to severe diarrhoea related to microscopic colitis. Few of such cases have been reported before and this serious problem, from a widely used class of drugs in hypertension and heart failure, needs to be more recognised. We describe the case of collagenous colitis related to ramipril use in the following case report. A 74-year-old farmer who had a history of triple vessel coronary artery disease was admitted to district general hospital with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. He had known alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis with chronic diarrhoea as a complication, which was managed with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. However, he developed severe worsening of diarrhoea causing bowel incontinence and nocturnal symptoms during his admission to hospital. The explosive and watery nature of diarrhoea with urgency was so troublesome that it delayed coronary revascularisation and lead him to have significant psychological distress and low mood while nocturnal bowel motions meant he was unable to sleep. He was compliant with his pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy during this period. Infective causes were ruled out by stool microbiology examination and coeliac disease by oesophagogastroscopy and biopsy. It was noticed that he was recently prescribed ramipril that was later stopped as a possible diarrhoea trigger. Diarrhoea started settling immediately and resolved to his baseline within a week. A colonoscopy was performed in the meantime and biopsies demonstrated microscopic colitis (MC). He did not tolerate budesonide well so was stopped. However, a follow-up colonoscopy with biopsy in two months showed resolution of MC.

Abstract Due to the lack of centralized identity management and the broadcast nature of wireless ad hoc networks, identity attacks are always tempting. The attackers can create multiple illegitimate (arbitrary or spoofed) identities on their physical devices for various malicious reasons, such as to launch Denial of Service attacks and to evade detection and accountability. In one scenario, the attacker creates more than one identity on a single physical device, which is called a Sybil attack. In the other one, the attacker creates cloned/replicated nodes. We refer collectively to these attacks as identity attacks. Using these malicious techniques, the attacker would perform activities in the network for which the attacker may not be authorized. In the existing literature, these attacks are often counteracted separately. However, in this paper, we propose a solution to counteract both attacks jointly. Our proposed scheme uses the received signal strength for the detection without using extra hardware (such as GPS, antennae or air monitors) and centralized entities (such as trusted third party or certification authority). Upon the detection of malicious identities, they will be quarantined and will be blacklisted for future data communication by the mobile nodes. Our proposed attack detector detects the presence of Sybil attacks and replication attacks locally by analysing the received signal strength captured by each node. Moreover, we propose a technique that will identify these attacks in the overall network. In both local and global cases, we evaluate our solutions theoretically and via simulation in NS-2. The obtained results demonstrate that it is possible to detect identity attacks with considerable accuracy without causing extra overhead in the form of extra hardware, periodic beacons or expensive localization operations in the wireless ad hoc networks.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that connects objects to provide seamless communication and contextual information to anyone, anywhere, at any time (AAA). These Internet-of-Things-enabled automated objects interact with visitors to present a variety of information during museum navigation and exploration. In this article, a smart navigation and information system (SNIS) prototype for museum navigation and exploration is developed, which delivers an interactive and more exciting museum exploration experience based on the visitor’s personal presence. The objects inside a museum share the information that assist and navigate the visitors about the different sections and objects of the museum. The system was deployed inside Chakdara Museum and experimented with 381 users to achieve the results. For results, different users marked the proposed system in terms of parameters such as interesting, reality, ease of use, satisfaction, usefulness, and user friendly. Of these 381 users, 201 marked the system as most interesting, 138 marked most realistic, 121 marked it as easy-in-use, 219 marked it useful, and 210 marked it as user friendly. These statistics prove the efficiency of SNIS and its usefulness in smart cultural heritage, including smart museums, exhibitions and cultural sites.

Due to the lack of centralized identity management and the broadcast nature, wireless ad hoc networks are always a palatable target for masquerading attacks. The attackers can spoof identities of privileged legitimate users for various malicious reasons, such as to launch DoS or DDoS attacks, to access unauthorized information, and to evade the detection and accountability. In the current and limited literature, masquerading attacks are mostly counteracted by signal-strength-based detection systems. However, these schemes are mostly proposed to work for infrastructure-based IEEE 802.11 wireless networks using fixed access points, air monitors, or fixed anchor nodes, which are not suitable for the ad hoc architecture. In this paper, we propose a detection system for masquerading attacks without using fixed anchor nodes or air monitors. We develop an anomaly detection model based on the statistical significant testing for our masquerading detection system that takes into consideration the signal strength fluctuation. We conduct a test bed of Samsung Galaxy-based smartphones in order to analyze the real-world signal strength variation. We also plug the real-world signal strength variation in our model for the evaluation of the detection accuracy. We propose the received signal-strength-based masquerading attack detection scheme, which is carried out first by each node in its one-hop vicinity and then extended to five-hop proximity for broader detection scope and improved accuracy. The proposed scheme is evaluated using an NS-2 network simulator for detection accuracy in different environments. The results obtained indicate that our proposed scheme produces more than 90% true positives.

Most of the corporate demises evidenced poor quality of financial information reporting. Besides others, this is due to inefficiency of board which couldn’t ensure effective monitoring of management. Subsequently, the regulators have focused independence of the board among others. Accordingly, the recently introduced Malaysian Code on corporate governance (MCCG 2012) also recommended independence of the board like many other CG regulations around the world. Therefore, this paper proposes to examine few attributes of the new code regarding independence of the board in relation to quality of financial information reporting. These attributes includes separate leadership, independent chair and proportion of independent directors on board and nomination committee. To find distinct impact of the code, the paper divides study period into 2 years pre (2010-11) and 2 years post (2013-14) context of the code. The proposed study will fill the literature gap particularly in developing economies like Malaysia. The study will also provide important guidance for regulators, shareholders, security commission, Bursa Malaysia and other stakeholders in Malaysia.

The rapid change in climate and the high cost of controlling it are the issues caught much attention around the world especially during the last two decades. The CCSU (Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization) is widely believed the mechanism to control both these issues to a great extent. However, the adoption, expansion, or development of CCSU isn’t yet common to counter these issues. The pace of CCSU adoption and development is greatly impaired by its high cost and non-availability of funds in both developed and developing countries of the world. The scenario in developing countries is worse as these countries have no mandatory obligation for carbon emissions like developed countries. Subsequently, most of the developing countries except few are not willing to carry out CCSU operations voluntarily. This paper, therefore, sheds light on various costs associated to CCSU operations and the potential sources of financing them in developing countries especially Malaysia. The paper concludes that public awareness is fundamental in persuading governments and other entities to finance CCSU operations and ensuring the feasibility, economic viability and success of these projects. The paper recommends that governments, environmental agencies, international financial institutions, and developed countries should support CCSU projects in developing countries by providing funds and capacity building measures. The paper contributes to the limited literature and policy making of CCSU funding especially in developing countries like Malaysia where the mechanism (CCSU) is yet in embryonic stage.

This paper investigated the quality of reporting regarding different dimensions (economic, environmental, social) of corporate sustainability (CS) in Malaysia. The paper examined the quality of CS disclosure on the basis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in a sample of 113 listed companies from REITs and property sectors for four years i.e. from 2010-2013. The data collected from websites and annual reports of these companies exhibit variations in quality and disclosure of different CS dimensions. The paper found that environmental dimension was less while social dimension was a highly focused aspect of CS. Moreover, most of the companies report sustainability for the sake of mere compliance to the relevant regulations. This paper is unique in terms to focus all the dimensions of CS as most of the previous literature addressed these separately. Moreover, being a first comprehensive study, particularly after 10th Malaysian Plan (2011-2015), the paper has important findings for regulators, academia, researchers and other stakeholders.

This paper investigated the quality of reporting regarding different dimensions (economic, environmental, social) of corporate sustainability (CS) in Malaysia. The paper examined the quality of CS disclosure on the basis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in a sample of 113 listed companies from REITs and property sectors for four years i.e. from 2010-2013. The data collected from websites and annual reports of these companies exhibit variations in quality and disclosure of different CS dimensions. The paper found that environmental dimension was less while social dimension was a highly focused aspect of CS. Moreover, most of the companies report sustainability for the sake of mere compliance to the relevant regulations. This paper is unique in terms to focus all the dimensions of CS as most of the previous literature addressed these separately. Moreover, being a first comprehensive study, particularly after 10th Malaysian Plan (2011-2015), the paper has important findings for regulators, academia, researchers and other stakeholders. Keywords: Corporate sustainability, Listed Companies, Malaysia JEL Classification: M000

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors could lead to severe diarrhoea related to microscopic colitis. Few of such cases have been reported before and this serious problem, from a widely used class of drugs in hypertension and heart failure, needs to be more recognised. We describe the case of collagenous colitis related to ramipril use in the following case report. A 74-year-old farmer who had a history of triple vessel coronary artery disease was admitted to district general hospital with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. He had known alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis with chronic diarrhoea as a complication, which was managed with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. However, he developed severe worsening of diarrhoea causing bowel incontinence and nocturnal symptoms during his admission to hospital. The explosive and watery nature of diarrhoea with urgency was so troublesome that it delayed coronary revascularisation and lead him to have significant psychological distress and low mood while nocturnal bowel motions meant he was unable to sleep. He was compliant with his pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy during this period. Infective causes were ruled out by stool microbiology examination and coeliac disease by oesophagogastroscopy and biopsy. It was noticed that he was recently prescribed ramipril that was later stopped as a possible diarrhoea trigger. Diarrhoea started settling immediately and resolved to his baseline within a week. A colonoscopy was performed in the meantime and biopsies demonstrated microscopic colitis (MC). He did not tolerate budesonide well so was stopped. However, a follow-up colonoscopy with biopsy in two months showed resolution of MC.