The present research is concerned with the concept of significance in the context of Quran, and the importance of that significance for understanding verses correctly. The research states the legal evidence of that significance and the extent of scientists’ interest in it. It explains the concept of context which is used by Ibn Gozya Alkalby in his interpretation, and states the categories of Quran context and some rules of its preference and contrast between contextual evidence, then it states the preferences of Ibn Gozya, which are built on the significance of Quran context in the chapters of Fatihah, Al-Baqrah, Al-Omran and Alnsaa, stating the differences. The research compares the preferences of Ibn Gozya, with the significance of the Quran context to the preferences of other interpreters. The research consists of six chapters, where the first chapter includes the study plan and its structure, the second chapter is concerned with Ibn Gozya and his interpretation, then the linguistic concept of context, and its definition, then some interpreters. The research explains the importance of that significance and the scientists concern about it and its justification, then at the third chapter, the study explains the categories of Quran context, the rules of preference and contrast between context significances. The applied study commences from the fourth chapter, where the preferences of Ibn Gozya are followed by the context significance in Fatihah and Al-Baqrah, then at the fifth chapter with Al-Omran chapter to its end. The sixth chapter is concerned with the preferences in the significance of Quran context in Alnsaa chapter. The research is defined to the consequence of Ibn Gozya Alkalby preferences which are built on the significance of the Quran context at the stated chapters, and comparing them with the statements of some critical interpreters according to each position. The research applies the inference methodology for defining the significance concept, and investigating the preferences of Ibn Gozya, in addition to using the analytical methodology for explaining the influence of significance on preference, also it applies the comparative methodology, to compare his preference with the statements of some interpreters. The conclusions include the agreement of Ibn Gozya with many interpreters in a number of positions, the emergence of that significance importance in preference. The recommendations include, the completion of applied study on the rest of the interpretation, and defining Ibn Gozya weaknesses in context significance.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study of the issue of talf?q (concoction) in Islamic banking contracts. Many people believe that Islamic banking is merely a replication of conventional banking and does not meet the spirit (maq?sid) of shariah due to the similarities between Islamic finance products and conventional usurious products in their economic effects. The study is divided into five chapters, with the first chapter introducing the problem and the structure of the dissertation .The second chapter delves into the concepts of ijtih?d, taq?ld, and ift??, clarifying the terms and conditions related to each concept. The third chapter provides a detailed explanation of the concept of talf?q and its types, as well as the difference between talf?q and other related terms in Islamic jurisprudence .The fourth chapter discusses the emergence of Islamic banking and whether adopting an approach of h?lah in forming Islamic financial contracts is acceptable. It also explains why Islamic banks are forced to imitate conventional banking and the economic consequences of such imitation .The fifth chapter provides a critical analysis of the main Islamic financial contracts, including mur?baha, ig?rah muntahia bi’taml?k, and mush?rakah mutan?qisah. The study has adopted an inductive approach in gathering the related information. It also applied an analytic method to discuss the arguments and deduce its results. The study concludes that the main reason why Islamic banks are forced to imitate conventional ones is the banking system, where finance is connected with money creation. Therefore, adopting a different system that separates money creation from finance is necessary to provide authentic halal products.

Salafu? and K?al?fa scholars argue that the consent of the guardian (Wal?) is an essential condition for the validity of marriage. Recently, the Muslim community in Malaysia has witnessed a growing phenomenon related to marriages where the jurisdiction of marriage is transferred to a judge. Some Malaysians are traveling abroad to transfer the right of guardianship from their obligated guardians to an appointed judge, seeking their services to solemnize their marriages. This type of marriage is recognized as legally and religiously valid by Islamic institutions and Sharia courts in Malaysia. This recognition is based on the jurisprudence of the Sh?f?? school, the official school in the country. Based on this reality, a the researcher decided to conduct a study to determine the validity of marriages of Malaysians who seek to remove the right of guardianship from their closest relatives and transfer it to the ruler in southern Thailand, in accordance with the adopted opinion in the Sh?f?? school of jurisprudence. The researcher aimed to explain the motivations behind this behavior. To reach this conclusion, the researcher utilized both inductive and analytical methods, conducting field interviews to gather the opinions of scholars, judges, lawyers, muf?t??, academic experts, and members of the Islamic Religious Council in Malaysia and Thailand. The researcher concluded that the marriage of a runaway woman from her compelled guardian with the intention of transferring the guardianship to the judge in southern Thailand is invalid. This is due to the failure to meet the requirements and conditions for the validity of marriage under the judge’s jurisdiction, as outlined by Sh?f?? scholars. As a result, several negative consequences arise at the individual, familial, social, and legal levels. This behavior is considered one of the factors leading to the disintegration of family relationships and the collapse of the moral value system in Malaysian society as a whole. It is expected that this study will draw the attention of official authorities, responsible individuals, and experts to re-evaluate certain fatwas that do not align with the correct opinions endorsed in the Sh?f?? school of jurisprudence. Additionally, it aims to improve certain legal and administrative procedures for Malaysians who wish to solemnize their marriages through the ruler in Thailand. This is done to limit manipulation regarding the guardianship issue and to close the channels used by irresponsible individuals, such as unauthorized agents who seek profit without considering the potential negative consequences.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study of the issue of talf?q (concoction) in Islamic banking contracts. Many people believe that Islamic banking is merely a replication of conventional banking and does not meet the spirit (maq?sid) of shariah due to the similarities between Islamic finance products and conventional usurious products in their economic effects. The study is divided into five chapters, with the first chapter introducing the problem and the structure of the dissertation .The second chapter delves into the concepts of ijtih?d, taq?ld, and ift??, clarifying the terms and conditions related to each concept. The third chapter provides a detailed explanation of the concept of talf?q and its types, as well as the difference between talf?q and other related terms in Islamic jurisprudence .The fourth chapter discusses the emergence of Islamic banking and whether adopting an approach of h?lah in forming Islamic financial contracts is acceptable. It also explains why Islamic banks are forced to imitate conventional banking and the economic consequences of such imitation .The fifth chapter provides a critical analysis of the main Islamic financial contracts, including mur?baha, ig?rah muntahia bi’taml?k, and mush?rakah mutan?qisah. The study has adopted an inductive approach in gathering the related information. It also applied an analytic method to discuss the arguments and deduce its results. The study concludes that the main reason why Islamic banks are forced to imitate conventional ones is the banking system, where finance is connected with money creation. Therefore, adopting a different system that separates money creation from finance is necessary to provide authentic halal products.

This research represents an applied and theoretical study on the topic of provisioned funds in Islamic banking institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The problem of the study relates to the sources, identification, and management of these funds, including how they are spent and how to benefit from them. The research discusses the Shariah provisions related to provisioned funds and includes interviews with senior employees of selected institutions to understand how these funds are collected, the procedures followed in dealing with them until they are disbursed, and the extent of their commitment to the Shariah governance decisions. Additionally, a study was conducted to assess the possibility and feasibility of establishing a Waqf from the provisioned funds in the United Arab Emirates. The methodological approach used is qualitative, based mainly on data collected during interviews, and the use of previous studies and some related documents. The study findings show the sources of the selected institutions' provisioned funds, how they are managed, and where they are spent, which revealed disparities and differences in the institutions' dealings with these funds and highlighted the central role played by Shariah governance in organizing this sector and enhancing the Shariah compliance of these institutions. The study also found that it is possible to establish a Waqf from the Islamic banking institutions' provisioned funds in the UAE, subject to certain conditions. Some ideas were suggested and discussed to establish this Waqf. In conclusion, the study provides recommendations and solutions to these institutions on how to reduce provisioned funds as much as possible and encourages them to be more committed and disciplined towards governance standards and regulations.

The present research is concerned with the concept of significance in the context of Quran, and the importance of that significance for understanding verses correctly. The research states the legal evidence of that significance and the extent of scientists’ interest in it. It explains the concept of context which is used by Ibn Gozya Alkalby in his interpretation, and states the categories of Quran context and some rules of its preference and contrast between contextual evidence, then it states the preferences of Ibn Gozya, which are built on the significance of Quran context in the chapters of Fatihah, Al-Baqrah, Al-Omran and Alnsaa, stating the differences. The research compares the preferences of Ibn Gozya, with the significance of the Quran context to the preferences of other interpreters. The research consists of six chapters, where the first chapter includes the study plan and its structure, the second chapter is concerned with Ibn Gozya and his interpretation, then the linguistic concept of context, and its definition, then some interpreters. The research explains the importance of that significance and the scientists concern about it and its justification, then at the third chapter, the study explains the categories of Quran context, the rules of preference and contrast between context significances. The applied study commences from the fourth chapter, where the preferences of Ibn Gozya are followed by the context significance in Fatihah and Al-Baqrah, then at the fifth chapter with Al-Omran chapter to its end. The sixth chapter is concerned with the preferences in the significance of Quran context in Alnsaa chapter. The research is defined to the consequence of Ibn Gozya Alkalby preferences which are built on the significance of the Quran context at the stated chapters, and comparing them with the statements of some critical interpreters according to each position. The research applies the inference methodology for defining the significance concept, and investigating the preferences of Ibn Gozya, in addition to using the analytical methodology for explaining the influence of significance on preference, also it applies the comparative methodology, to compare his preference with the statements of some interpreters. The conclusions include the agreement of Ibn Gozya with many interpreters in a number of positions, the emergence of that significance importance in preference. The recommendations include, the completion of applied study on the rest of the interpretation, and defining Ibn Gozya weaknesses in context significance.

Salafu? and K?al?fa scholars argue that the consent of the guardian (Wal?) is an essential condition for the validity of marriage. Recently, the Muslim community in Malaysia has witnessed a growing phenomenon related to marriages where the jurisdiction of marriage is transferred to a judge. Some Malaysians are traveling abroad to transfer the right of guardianship from their obligated guardians to an appointed judge, seeking their services to solemnize their marriages. This type of marriage is recognized as legally and religiously valid by Islamic institutions and Sharia courts in Malaysia. This recognition is based on the jurisprudence of the Sh?f?? school, the official school in the country. Based on this reality, a the researcher decided to conduct a study to determine the validity of marriages of Malaysians who seek to remove the right of guardianship from their closest relatives and transfer it to the ruler in southern Thailand, in accordance with the adopted opinion in the Sh?f?? school of jurisprudence. The researcher aimed to explain the motivations behind this behavior. To reach this conclusion, the researcher utilized both inductive and analytical methods, conducting field interviews to gather the opinions of scholars, judges, lawyers, muf?t??, academic experts, and members of the Islamic Religious Council in Malaysia and Thailand. The researcher concluded that the marriage of a runaway woman from her compelled guardian with the intention of transferring the guardianship to the judge in southern Thailand is invalid. This is due to the failure to meet the requirements and conditions for the validity of marriage under the judge’s jurisdiction, as outlined by Sh?f?? scholars. As a result, several negative consequences arise at the individual, familial, social, and legal levels. This behavior is considered one of the factors leading to the disintegration of family relationships and the collapse of the moral value system in Malaysian society as a whole. It is expected that this study will draw the attention of official authorities, responsible individuals, and experts to re-evaluate certain fatwas that do not align with the correct opinions endorsed in the Sh?f?? school of jurisprudence. Additionally, it aims to improve certain legal and administrative procedures for Malaysians who wish to solemnize their marriages through the ruler in Thailand. This is done to limit manipulation regarding the guardianship issue and to close the channels used by irresponsible individuals, such as unauthorized agents who seek profit without considering the potential negative consequences.

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This study examines the performance of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) component political parties (i.e. PKR, PAS and DAP) in the 2011 Sarawak state elections. The 2011 Sarawak state elections was held in April 2011 and it was a tense battle between the ruling BN and the new comer opposition Pakatan Rakyat. The study is based on the assumption that there is a linkage between PR’s campaign strategies and election manifesto and the voters’ preference. Therefore, the study investigates the linkage between campaign strategies and manifesto of Pakatan Rakyat and its performance in the 2011 Sarawak State elections. It uses Martin Harrop and William L. Miller’s theory of competitive elections as a framework for analysis. This study uses qualitative method of research for analysis of data. The data were collected from the primary sources such as formal and informal interviews, party manifestos, newspapers, documents from the Election Commission (EC) and secondary sources such as books and scholarly articles. The study argues that the opposition for the first time collectively campaigned as a single opposition coalition under the name of Pakatan Rakyat. PR’s campaign strategies were quite sound and practical as it divided its campaign strategies into traditional and non-traditional campaign strategies. Besides that PR proposed several strategies which can be labeled as a new type of approach. The study found that even though PR did not get the two-thirds majority in the State Legislative Assembly, it succeeded to capture more seats; pointing to the fact that there is a shift of support from the incumbent BN government towards the opposition PR. However, the study also found that the main factor contributing to PR’s inability to capture more seats was its inability to reach an understanding with the local opposition political party: Sarawak National Party (SNAP). The study therefore, among others, recommends that PR should work out a strategy to integrate some important local political parties such as SNAP if it wants to control Sarawak state legislative assembly.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder that represents abnormality development of brain and its function. Few studies had seen the impact of early detection and intervention, and how it gives positive effect for the children to improve their life as good as other normal children. There are three major impairments of the autistic children namely: social interaction with others, communication and fine motor movements. A simple case of fine motor movements could be finger tapping, imitating other action and also managing their fingers towards objects. Many psychologists and psychiatrists diagnosed these autistic children as early as three years old. In Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies, finding shows the brain region such as prefrontal cortex (especially in the pre-motor cortex), occipital and etc, did involve in motor impairment in autistic children. Thus, it is possible to differentiate between normal and autistic children using motor imitation skills but all these process require the psychologists, psychiatrist or expert to monitor and make decision on their observations. However, fMRI is an expensive process and could not be automated and be used for masses. In this research, it aims to look at motor imitation skills for autistic children using electroencephalogram (EEG) approach. Preliminary result has shown great potential in identifying motor imitation skills impairment in autistic children. EEG device will be used to capture the brain signals, and two methods for analysis such as Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE). The Mutilayer Perceptron (MLP) will be adopted as the classifier. Although the MLP was used as classifier the end results shows great potential of using the EEG model approach based on the 2D affective space model (ASM) for early detection of motor imitation skills development disorder among autistic children.

This study is devoted to investigate the phase diagrams of 3-state Potts model with competing binary, ternary and quaternary interactions on Cayley tree. The 3-state Potts model was classified as the simplest quantum field-theory after Ising model and was an easily defined class of statistical mechanic model. The aim of this study is to analyze the phase diagrams of 3-state Potts model with competing interactions on Cayley tree of order 2 and 3. At vanishing temperature T, the phase diagrams are fully determined for all values of competing binary interactions J 1 , ternary interactions J t and quaternary interactions J q. The results show that there have significant change~ in the phase diagrams for the case of nonzero ]q. Lastly, we analyze in detail the set of modulated phases, with the phase being indicated by many different types of commensurate and incommensurate phases by plotting the wavevectors versus temperature. The Lyapunov exponent is computed to verify the stability of the large period phase in the narrow-interval modulated phase.

Femtocells are home access points installed by end consumers inside their houses which are an important and a promising technology in future wireless networks. It was proposed as a solution to the indoor propagation problems and to increase the indoor bandwidth. However, many challenges need to be addressed before deployment of femtocells. One of the most important challenges are assessing and mitigating the interference. In order to calculate the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), an accurate path loss model is required. Most of the studies in the open literature considered a two dimensional scenarios where the femtocell has specific location and uniformly distributed in the network. On the contrary, this research will consider more practical scenarios where the femtocell is randomly distributed in a three Dimensional (3-D) environment to accommodate interference from cells spaced horizontally on a terrestrial access or stacked vertically as in the case for office or residential towers. The vertical interference is still not considered in the open literature yet. The most important parameter that should be considered once calculating the interference is the path loss. Since femtocell is installed in an indoor environment, this thesis addresses only the indoor propagation channel. Most of the available propagation models are for long range communication networks like macro and micro cellular networks. Models for femtocell networks, where the effects of walls and floors are considered, appeared to be necessary. In this research six different models of indoor propagation were studied and compared with measured data. Comprehensive measurements were conducted in a four storey building using most popular frequencies for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks of 1.8 and 2.6 GHz. Three different scenarios with different numbers of penetrated walls and floors were considered. The results were analyzed statistically using linear and non-linear regression methods. Further, a three dimensional path loss model based on two distance concept is proposed for indoor femtocells. In this model, the path loss intercept is made equal to the free space losses. Two path loss exponents were proposed. The first one is the vertical exponent that equals 7.62, and was inferred based on the vertical propagation measurements. The second path loss exponent is the horizontal one (variable) and it is found to be a function of transmitter and receiver heights. This model is found to be suitable for applications in LTE wireless networks and maybe applied in both LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system level simulators. In addition, path loss has been evaluated in terms of various antenna aspects such as polarization and directivity. Finally a three dimensional system level simulator is developed and integrated into the famous Vienna LTE simulator in order to help the researcher in LTE femtocell field to analyze and investigate more real scenarios of femtocell deployment. The developed simulator allows the researcher to locate a multi-storey building in the region of interest, choose the number of floors, determine the ceiling height, and allocate the position of the femtocell inside the house. The proposed three dimensional indoor propagation model is implemented in the simulator and is used to assess and model interference. Different parameters such as Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), and throughput, were studied especially for vertically stacked femtocells. Results indicate the validity of the proposed 3-D model and confirm that it is a more realistic tool for assessment and model of femtocell interference.

3D maps in mobile devices for navigation aid have been created to overcome the weaknesses of conventional 2D maps which require users to interpret its various symbols and legends. Now it has become possible to render large and detailed 3D map of cities in mobile devices at interactive rates over 5fps (frame rate per second) to 30fps. Mobile devices with low computing resources may also use manipulated photos in order to give the illusion of 3D presentation. Owing to this recent development, the concept of 3D representation in mobile devices for multi-users interactive navigation aid is proposed. It is aimed at helping people to navigate in unfamiliar locations. In today’s world, mobility and communication have become essential. People may frequently find themselves asking: ‘Where am I right now?’, ‘How do I get from X to Y?’, and ‘How can I tell Z?” The proposed system of 3D maps in mobile devices for navigation aid allows several mobile device users to view their own and the other users’ locations at the same time, while being stationary or on-the-move. Voronoi diagram/Delaunay triangulation and A-star pathfinding are the algorithms for establishing user locations and their distances, apart from finding the shortest part from Location X to Y. A prototype of this system was developed to demonstrate the pros and cons of the practical application of this new concept. This research uses an observational research, field experiment, qualitative interview and quantitative survey to investigate navigation practices with 3D representation in mobile devices as a navigation aid. The research findings include discussion of the features of navigation practices with the aid of 3D representation in mobile devices and a critical assessment of the factors influencing its usage.

As the integration of IoT devices with SCADA systems increases, concerns about cyber security have become significant. This thesis addresses the challenge of data imbalance in developing an effective intrusion detection system (IDS) for SCADA systems. To tackle this issue, we employ the DeepInsight package in Python to convert traffic data into grayscale images. Four publicly available SCADA datasets are analyzed using exploratory data analysis (EDA) and principal component analysis (PCA). Our research evaluates two detectors: the first utilizes the Hurst parameter to differentiate between normal and attack image data, while the second employs a state-of-the-art CNN-LSTM algorithm—the Hurst Detector leverages self-similarity to identify abnormal network traffic data in conjunction with the CNN-LSTM model. For feature extraction, we propose a CNN and PCA approach applied to the converted grayscale images of the Morris Power dataset. The model includes input, hidden, and output layers with activation functions, while the RNN LSTM modifies the LSTM, dense, and output layers by incorporating appropriate activation functions. Additional layers for Batch Normalization (BN) and dropout enhance the model's performance. The performance of the detectors is evaluated using standard metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Results indicate that the combination of self-similarity Hurst index and Deep Learning (DL) achieves a detection accuracy of 98.2% for attacks, while the combined detectors utilizing CNN-LSTM achieve an accuracy of 99.92%. These findings provide valuable insights for security researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance cyber security in SCADA systems. Through an enhanced approach, this DL model has the potential to strengthen SCADA system security and effectively mitigate cyber attacks.

Studies have found that those diagnosed with cancer may experience loss and grief reactions to unexpected illness. Not much is known about their loss and grief experiences and how they deal with it. The literature review found that there is a lack of Islamic psycho-spiritual framework that deals with loss and grief, specifically among Muslim cancer patients. Therefore, this study aims to develop an Islamic Psycho-Spiritual framework to cope with loss and grief among cancer patients in Maldives. This study employs a Grounded Theory approach with data collected through in-depth interviews, observation/hanging out sessions and diary writing of 11 cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment. The analysis of data generated two major categories and five subcategories. The two major categories are 1) How Islamic Psycho-Spirituality helps to cope with loss and grief and its subcategory 1 – Outcomes of Islamic psycho-spiritual coping, 2) The components of Islamic psycho - spiritual coping methods to manage loss and grief with its four subcategories; Doing fardh and sunnah religious acts; Believing and internalising virtues of Islam; Having faith in Allah; and, Building Islamic knowledge. These findings are the underpinnings of the emergent theoretical framework, the “Islamic Psycho-Spiritual framework to deal with loss and grief among patients with cancer”, which offers strategies that patients with cancer could use to deal with their loss and grief experiences. While this study focuses on cancer patients, the framework could be used by counsellors, caretakers of the patients, treatment providers and policymakers to address the Islamic Psycho-Spiritual needs of patients in assisting them in dealing with the patients’ loss and grief experiences.

Studies have found that those diagnosed with cancer may experience loss and grief reactions to unexpected illness. Not much is known about their loss and grief experiences and how they deal with it. The literature review found that there is a lack of Islamic psycho-spiritual framework that deals with loss and grief, specifically among Muslim cancer patients. Therefore, this study aims to develop an Islamic Psycho-Spiritual framework to cope with loss and grief among cancer patients in Maldives. This study employs a Grounded Theory approach with data collected through in-depth interviews, observation/hanging out sessions and diary writing of 11 cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment. The analysis of data generated two major categories and five subcategories. The two major categories are 1) How Islamic Psycho-Spirituality helps to cope with loss and grief and its subcategory 1 – Outcomes of Islamic psycho-spiritual coping, 2) The components of Islamic psycho - spiritual coping methods to manage loss and grief with its four subcategories; Doing fardh and sunnah religious acts; Believing and internalising virtues of Islam; Having faith in Allah; and, Building Islamic knowledge. These findings are the underpinnings of the emergent theoretical framework, the “Islamic Psycho-Spiritual framework to deal with loss and grief among patients with cancer”, which offers strategies that patients with cancer could use to deal with their loss and grief experiences. While this study focuses on cancer patients, the framework could be used by counsellors, caretakers of the patients, treatment providers and policymakers to address the Islamic Psycho-Spiritual needs of patients in assisting them in dealing with the patients’ loss and grief experiences.

This study traces the history of the Malaysian Football League development from semi-pro to professional from 1989 until 2011. The discussions begin by examining how the roots of the football league in Malaysia began to form until it reached professional level. Football in Malaysia began to gain serious ground with the establishment of the HMS Malaya Cup in 1921. It grew when the semi-pro league appeared in 1989 as a preparation before entering the professional league. During that period, there were several changes to the league's system and format, in addition to the emergence of several major issues and matters that significantly impacted the local football landscape. The research continues by discussing the changes that took place during the semi-pro and professional eras in the Malaysian football league. Both went through a process that is very important in ensuring that the league's journey process runs smoothly. The changes that occur from one period to another indirectly lead to critical changes to the Malaysian football league, which includes relevant aspects of a professional league. The developments during the transition of these two eras also impacted several entities, such as the national squad, competing teams and clubs, players, supporters, and media. The study also highlights professionalism trends among the major football leagues in Malaysia, England, and Japan. It must be recognized that England and Japan appear as two prosperous examples of countries applying professionalism in their football league. The comparison among the three leagues in this country focuses on some big things in the development aspect of a professional league. The findings of this research will help in understanding the history of the Malaysian football league in a fresher and new narrative.

The number of working mothers has been increasing over the years. The issues concerning the rights of working mothers are crucial as researches show that high volume of women who stop working is due to problem related to childcare. The challenges worsen when the children get sick. Even though the issue is serious, there has been significantly few recognitions of the laws that protect the rights of working mothers and so they are not adequately protected under Malaysian laws. In pursuant thereto, this research examines the policies and laws governing working mothers in Malaysia, analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the policies and laws, benchmarks the legal frameworks of other jurisdictions in order to search for best practices practising the legal rights of working mothers and recommends for legal reform of related policies and laws affecting working women in Malaysia. This research is done based on doctrinal, quantitative and qualitative examination of governing statutes, reported cases, interviews, surveys and data obtained from the respective ministries and agencies. The issues are also examined from the Islamic perspective based on Qur’an, Sunnah, Islamic history and views of Muslim jurists. For the benchmarking analysis, the research also provides references to the laws and policies in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia and Maldives. The research finds that Malaysia has extensive policies on women empowerment that encourages women’s participation in the labour force and the laws governing working mothers in Malaysia are improving over the years. The research also discovers the best practices on the issues through the benchmarked jurisdictions that can be referred for legal reform in Malaysia. Hence, reforming the existing policies and laws governing working mothers in Malaysia is highly necessary in order to curb the current concerns related to working mothers and to prevent future problems.

ABSTRACT Optometrists are qualified to carry out the primary eye care (PEC) examination; however, their roles are still under-utilized and mainly limited to refractive services. It is the first study conducted in the Malaysian and Asian regions to explore the perceived challenges of optometrists in the private sector in implementing PEC examinations. This research is a mixed- methods with an exploratory sequential design. It contains three phases: phase 1 is qualitative interviews, phase 2 consists of the development and validation of the questionnaire, and the last phase is the administration and analysis of the questionnaire. The inclusion criteria were optometrists working in private retail with at least a year of experience. Phase 1: This phase aimed to explore the challenges and attitudes towards implementing PEC services among optometrists in Malaysian private sector. In-depth interviews were conducted using purposive sampling among 15 respondents. The interview protocol was developed, and a pilot study was conducted before the interviews. Data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The main themes of the challenges are 'working environment,' 'support and recognition,' 'self-sufficiency,' and 'customer influence,' while the main themes of the attitudes are 'motivation' and 'sense of responsibility.' Phase 2: Phase 2 aims to develop and validate a questionnaire on the "Challenges and Attitudes to Practice PEC among Optometrists in Private Practice, Malaysia" (CAPEC). The qualitative study findings were utilised to design questionnaire items, which were then pre-tested, piloted, and validated using the content validity index (CVI) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The validated questionnaire consists of 34 items with four domains of challenges ('working environment,' 'support and recognition,' 'self-sufficiency,' and 'customer influence') and two domains of attitudes ('motivation' and 'sense of responsibility'). Phase 3: This phase aimed to assess the prevalence of the challenges and attitudes in implementing PEC and their associated factors among optometrists in the Malaysian private sector. A total of 291 optometrists participated in the survey using the Google Forms link distributed online. The data were analyzed using SPSS for both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that 'support and recognition' recorded the highest mean of 3.57 (SD =0.53) among the challenges domains. For attitudes, the optometrists in this study reported a high 'motivation' (mean=3.74, SD=0.48) and 'sense of responsibility' (mean= 4.58, SD=0.42). Factorial MANOVA singled out 'support and recognition' as the only challenge significant (p=0.003), with the owners of the private practice felt significantly more challenged (p=0.027) (EMM=3.72, 95% CI=3.58, 3.86) than staff (EMM=3.47, 95% CI=3.36, 3.47). The final equation of Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) showed a significant contribution from 'support and recognition' (p<0.001), 'self-sufficiency' (p<0.001), and 'customer influence' (p<0.001) towards the attitudes in implementing PEC. Conclusion: This study found that the highest challenges come from the lack of 'support and recognition.' Nonetheless, the attitudes towards PEC remain high despite the challenges. Thus, it demonstrates that private sector optometrists are resilient and ready to incorporate PEC into their practices. It is recommended that the authorities galvanize all of the resources behind the profession to carry out PEC.

In this research, we consider the λ-model with and without competing interaction on Cayley tree of order two. Description of ground states becomes one of the main elements to study as phase diagram of Gibbs measure for a Hamiltonian is close to the phase diagram of isolated ground states of the Hamiltonian. For the λ-model on infinite Cayley tree, we describe the set of periodic and weakly periodic ground states corresponding normal subgroup of the Cayley tree group representation. We construct 81 different combination of configurations and classify the configurations under 10 different regions so that the configurations will achieve ground states. We describe periodic and weakly periodic ground states for the considered model by using periodic and weakly periodic configurations. For the second result of the research, we consider λ-model with competing Potts interaction on Cayley tree of order two. As explained in previous section, we describe the periodic ground states for the considered model. Note that for this model, we have 12 different regions for the configurations to achieve ground states. For some domain of interactions strength, the configuration of periodic ground states cannot be achieved. By using Kolmogorov criteria, Gibbs measures for this model was described by deriving infinite volume distribution using given finite-dimensional distributions and find the probability measures with given conditional probability. By considering translation invariant Gibbs measure, we analyse the system of equations derived and study the phase transition phenomenon by proving the existence of multiple translation-invariant solutions for the system of equations. Phase transitions occurs if there exist two or more solutions.