Scholars of modern South Asia have remained divided on the role of religion in the creation of Pakistan. Many have argued that Pakistan's “founder,” Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was a secularist, his argument for Pakistan resting on an abstract notion of Islam within an Enlightenment framework of conceiving minority, nation, and state. Why, then, did madrasa-trained Muslim scholars, the ulama, support his demand for Pakistan? This article explores the political thought of the most influential Muslim scholar immediately before partition, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani (d. 1949). I argue that Usmani viewed Pakistan as a particular kind of Islamic democracy. While he drew on medieval Muslim juridical and political discourses, Usmani's readings reveal his debt to Western political categories. By paying attention to the tensions and opportunities offered by this encounter of modern political conditions with Islamic intellectual thought, this article outlines an Islamic vision of the political that resonates beyond the politics of colonial India.

Religious laws do not usually forbid the use of psychotropic medication, but many do forbid the consumption of animal-based derivatives of bovine and/or porcine origin (e.g. gelatin and stearic acid) such as are found in many medications. Demonstrating awareness of this, combined with a genuine concern about how it affects the patient, may strengthen the doctor—patient relationship and avoid non-adherence. In this article, we outline dietary requirements of key religions and belief systems that may have a bearing when prescribing medication containing animal-based ingredients. We identify common psychotropics that contain animal-based derivatives and suggest alternative prescribing options and approaches to dealing with sensitive ethical issues.

In this paper, a new design of neural networks is introduced, which is able to generate oscillatory patterns in its output. The oscillatory neural network is used in a biped robot to enable it to learn to walk. The fundamental building block of the neural network proposed in this paper is O-neurons, which can generate oscillations in its transfer functions. O-neurons are connected and coupled with each other in order to shape a network, and their unknown parameters are found by a particle swarm optimization method. The main contribution of this paper is the learning algorithm that can combine natural policy gradient with particle swarm optimization methods. The oscillatory neural network has six outputs that determine set points for proportional-integral-derivative controllers in 6-DOF humanoid robots. Our experiment on the simulated humanoid robot presents smooth and flexible walking.

Introduction. The date palm tree is one of the fruit trees most cultivated in the Arabian Gulf States.Bioregulators were used for the quality and productivity improvement of date palm tree fruits. A study was conducted toassess the relative effectiveness of GA3, NAA, ethephon and a mixture of growth regulators on some fruitcharacteristics and productivity of the Barhee date palm tree cultivar. Materials and methods. Five selectedfemale uniform date palm trees of the cultivar Barhee were pollinated on March 5-15, 1994, 1995 and 1996, by placingeight fresh male strands on the female spadix center (flower cluster).Ten flower clusters were used on each tree anddivided into five groups of two flower clusters. Each of these groups was subjected to one of the following treatments:control (water), 150 mg GA3 × L-1, 100 mg NAA × L-1, 1 000 mg ethephon × L-1 and a mixture of these three growth regulators. Then the fruit setting, fruit flesh and dry matter percentages,the total soluble solids, the fruit ripening, and the fruit weight per bunch and per tree were measured. Resultsand discussion. The data showed that the application of GA3 or ethephon on flower clusters of Barhee date palm treeshad no constant effect on fruit characteristics and productivity of trees. NAA or growth regulator mixture applicationson Barhee flower clusters reduced the fruit dry matter and fruit ripening percentages and increased the fruit weight perbunch and per tree. Conclusion. Treatments of Barhee date palm flower clusters, 20 d after pollination, with NAA or thespecific growth regulator mixture decreased the dry matter percentage and the fruit ripening and increased the fruitflesh percentage and the date palm tree yield, therefore, these treatments could be recommended to improve theproductivity of date palm trees in the region.