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Post-colonial reading looks at the description and analysis of literary works from a different window than the mainstream literature and science. From this theoretical approach, the works of Abdulrazak Gurnah contain important Factors that represent and describe the two worlds of the West and the East in different ways. To examine these Factors, five novels of Gurnah have been analyzed in this article. These stories are illustrative examples for the world of Gurnah’s writing and stories. To analyze the texts, I have used the categories of time, place, and language as ‘moments’ that articulate this world. The analysis shows that these variables have affected the content and theme, of his stories in different ways, of course with differences in quantity and quality. Despite the difference in the description of the two worlds that Gurnah has dealt with, with the passage of time his stories have tended towards globalization. The attitudes of these texts are mainly placed in an ‘in-between’ space and are not necessarily placed on one side of the border. In general, despite the relatively more positive representation of the western world, Gurnah has fulfilled his mission in raising the voice of subalterns to some extent.

Language learners find it hard to change a text’s wording and present it differently while maintaining the original meaning in the text. This research, therefore, examined the effect of concept mapping instruction on summarizing short stories for EFL learners. Two intact grade-eight classes were assigned to experimental (n = 20) and control (n = 18) groups randomly. They summarized a starter-level short story, Drive into danger, using a maximum of 450 words as a pretest. Next, the experimental group experienced concept-mapping instruction, whereas the latter group received the traditional way of teaching summarization, for six consecutive weeks. Both groups summarized the same story again, based on their instruction, into a 450-word text at a maximum as a posttest. Pretest and posttest summaries were assessed in terms of content, organization, vocabulary, and language use. The experimental group positively improved on overall performance, content, and organization, marginally improved on vocabulary, but did not improve on language use. Furthermore, the participants’ feedback on the instructional treatment supports the statistical results. The findings offer several instructional implications.

In the process of achieving a new Islamic civilization, one of the fundamental issues is clarifying the position and role of women in this civilizational movement. This article examines the role of women in shaping Islamic civilization from the perspective of Martyr Ayatollah Beheshti. The main research question is: ‘How is the role and status of women in realizing the construction of the new Islamic civilization explained from Beheshti's viewpoint?’ To answer this question, the present study employed a descriptive-analytical approach, drawing on library and documentary sources. The findings indicate that Beheshti, with a transformative perspective, considers women as key agents in building the Islamic civilization and emphasizes their intrinsic human dignity. According to him, the active participation of women in scientific, ethical, and social fields, alongside the preservation of Islamic identity, is essential to advancing Islamic civilization. He believes that redefining the status of women within the framework of authentic Islamic teachings is necessary and opposes any imitation of rigid traditions or Western feminist discourses. Beheshti considers the family as the central nucleus of civilization-building and emphasizes the importance of capable women in this context. Furthermore, he views the provision of educational and socio-political participation opportunities for women as essential for their effective presence in the path of realizing the new Islamic civilization. This article, by presenting a balanced Islamic model from Beheshti's perspective, proposes gender justice through the integration of Quranic principles with contemporary needs and, by critiquing both tradition and Western feminism, offers practical strategies for women's empowerment.

For Edmund Husserl, the crisis of the modern sciences consists in the reduction of beings and the world to the mathematically measurable. Yet the lifeworld with its things that we fashion and use with our hands is no less real than the objects of science, and the scientific attitude is always nested within this lived world. Martin Heidegger by contrast finds the major source of our crisis in the Cartesian conception of subject and world. This has culminated in Nietzschean theory of the will to power, which in its unity with technology has despoiled our environment. In all of this Heidegger retains a tenderness for the small-scale products of human handiwork, which are preferable to machines and machine tools. In his own philosophy of technology Gilbert Simondon shares some of these concerns, whilst contending that technological objects have untapped potentials in relation to those who invent, use and develop them. Common to all these philosophies is a worry about abstract theory and mechanization reducing our direct engagement with things. This worry is compounded by a sociocultural tendency identified by Matthew Crawford, a tendency to denigrate a career in the practical trades. Drawing on Crawford’s experience of manual engagement in the world, I argue that a revalorization of such skilled work and of caring and repairing would help to ameliorate the climate and pollution crises and improve our lives. Many of our problems come from the discarding of things through our carelessness or through planned obsolescence by their makers.

By the advent of the New Labour government in 1997, under Prime Minister Tony Blair, the UK became actively involved in various international conflicts, including the war in Kosovo (1998), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003). This article seeks to explore why the New Labour government under Blair engaged in multiple wars and conflicts, often experiencing limited material gains for its efforts. By focusing on social factors such as the desire for recognition and a sense of ontological security, the article hypothesizes that New Labour’s conflictual stance stemmed not solely from material considerations, but significantly from the UK government’s feeling of ontological insecurity within the international society. This article argues that once a state's sense of ontological security is disrupted, whether temporally or spatially, it often pushes states to prioritize reclaiming its lost national identity over safeguarding material gains and interests, aiming to restore its ontological security. Highlighting the determination of elite policymakers to stand closely aligned with the United States, the study will use a content analysis approach to analyze three key conflicts involving the New Labour government. Ultimately, the findings suggest that a profound sense of ontological insecurity played a crucial role in driving the UK government toward conflict-oriented behaviors.

Purpose : The purpose of this paper was to critically analyze the textbook "Management of Digital Libraries: A Practical Guide" written by Mitra Samiei (2023) from Chapar Publications and evaluate it based on the standards and criteria of university textbooks. Method : This was an applied research study in terms of purpose and mixed-method in terms of approach, which used critical qualitative analysis and descriptive survey. A checklist was employed for qualitative evaluation of the content and formal structures of the textbook on a 5-point Likert scale. Findings : According to the analysis results, the textbook scored 54/70 (72%) for formal criteria, which was acceptable. In contrast, it scored 40/70 (53.33%) and 47/70 (67.14%) for structural and writing criteria, respectively, which were unacceptable. It scored 66/95 (69.47%, almost 70%) for content criteria. In general, the textbook under criticism can be suitable and practical for students as a work that collects all the materials available in digital libraries by solving the stated problems. Conclusion : Among the factors that can help improve the present work are modifying photo captions, the publisher's innovative cover design, footnotes for jargon, required persons and concepts, citations, glossary and index, and a list of tables and figures. Therefore, the author is recommended to provide practical examples and new instances, employ up-to-date sources, reduce textbook volume, and avoid duplicate content to improve the current work in the next editions. Also, among the strengths of this textbook is a separate chapter dedicated to digital librarianship, organizational structure, human resources in digital libraries, and the author's credibility and expertise.

riting assessment literacy (WAL) for second or foreign language (L2) teachers, which refers to teachers’ knowledge, conceptions, and practice of writing assessment in L2 contexts, has lately received attention from scholars. Although there has been significant debate about the impact of contextual and conceptual factors on teachers’ assessment literacy, studies focusing on how such factors influence teachers’ WAL are lacking. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the way Iranian English writing teachers' conception of assessment, and macro, meso, and micro contextual variables, impact their writing assessment practice. It also looked at how writing teachers make assessment decisions in order to negotiate and find a compromise when their assessment views and beliefs diverge from the assessment policies in their local contexts. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten in-service L2 writing teachers in Iran. The findings show that participants had positive conceptions about formative writing assessments, but they stated that they mostly used summative assessments in writing classes. Macro-level contextual factors turned out to mostly impact teachers’ writing assessment practices and conceptions. The results underscored the role of school and work experience in shaping and changing writing assessment conceptions. The findings of this study contribute to our current understanding of WAL development and the provision of more efficient assessment training for language teachers in teacher education programs.

Introduction: The primary aim of this article is to explicate the key role of universities in cultivating moral virtues and promoting a moral culture within society. Nixon believes that universities ought to become environments for nurturing human virtues such as social justice, civic responsibility, honesty, authenticity, and magnanimity. Material and Methods: This study adopts a qualitative approach to the educational analysis of moral virtues in higher education from John Nixon’s perspective. To elucidate moral virtues from Nixon’s viewpoint, the “conceptual analysis method” is employed. The textual corpus of the present study is Nixon’s book Towards a Virtuous University. In addition, sources related to the ethical conditions of higher education systems - such as scholarly articles and research reports - are examined. Data collection tools include library resources, academic documents, and Nixon’s works. Conclusion: The findings emphasize the importance of promoting these virtues within higher education and creating ethically oriented learning environments. This can lead to the cultivation of committed and responsible individuals capable of active participation in building a more ethical society. Overall, the study underscores the significance of fostering moral virtues in universities and academic environments, as well as the role of these institutions in enhancing the moral culture of society.

Driver drowsiness detection plays a critical role in improving road safety, as drowsiness substantially increases the likelihood of traffic accidents. In this study, we propose a novel multi-modal framework within Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that leverages an Attention-Guided Siamese Network coupled with temporal modeling to accurately capture both spatial and temporal patterns of driver fatigue. The Siamese network processes paired facial images, enabling the extraction of discriminative features that highlight subtle changes in driver state. The attention mechanism is explicitly applied to the spatial feature maps within each branch of the Siamese network, allowing the model to focus selectively on key facial regions—such as eyes and mouth—that are most indicative of drowsiness, while also weighting complementary sensor modalities dynamically. Temporal modeling is incorporated through a sequential module (e.g., LSTM or temporal convolution) that analyzes the extracted features over time, capturing gradual and evolving signs of drowsiness that static frame-based methods often overlook. Extensive evaluations on benchmark datasets (YawDD, NTHUDDD) and a novel real-world driving dataset demonstrate superior accuracy exceeding 98.8%, along with strong cross-subject generalization. Ablation studies confirm the critical contributions of the attention mechanism in improving feature discrimination, and the temporal modeling module in enhancing sensitivity to progressive drowsiness. The proposed method surpasses traditional approaches in temporal awareness, data efficiency, and resilience to inter-subject and environmental variations, offering a robust and interpretable solution for real-time driver drowsiness monitoring in intelligent vehicles.

Social media offers a timely lens into public perceptions of emerging technologies. To assess public opinion on the Internet of Things (IoT), we analyzed a corpus of 824,845 IoT-related posts collected from X between 2013 and 2022. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we identified seven primary themes of discussion: Smart Home, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City, IoT Usage, Emerging Technologies, and Blockchain. We then applied an unsupervised machine-learning technique to evaluate sentiment toward each theme. Overall, public discourse was positive: 46.78% of tweets expressed positive sentiment, 43.41% were neutral, and 9.81% were negative. Although predictable, short-term shifts in tone occurred around specific events, interest in these themes remained consistent throughout the study period. These findings suggest that the Internet of Things is generally perceived favorably and demonstrate how large-scale social media analytics can capture authentic, real-time attitudes toward complex technologies. By linking public opinion to specific topics of discussion, our results provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and product teams seeking to align IoT development with societal expectations.

Introduction: The increasing proliferation of artificial intelligence systems and algorithmic decision-making in domains such as criminal justice, employment, resource allocation, and public policymaking has brought about wide-ranging ethical and social implications. Although these systems are often deployed with the aim of enhancing efficiency and neutrality, scientific research shows that algorithms can reproduce or intensify structural discrimination and historical inequalities. This review article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to survey the scholarly literature on the ethics of algorithmic decision-making and to analyze the role of algorithms in justice, discrimination, transparency, responsibility, and accountability. The article focuses on explicating ethical theoretical frameworks, examining social and political consequences, and identifying gaps and contradictions in prior research. Material and Methods: It is a narrative review article that focuses on the existing scholarly literature to analyze the ethical dimensions of algorithmic ethical decision-making. Previous studies were analyzed and then the subject was explained. Conclusion: The findings of this review indicate that addressing the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence requires moving beyond purely technical solutions and paying serious attention to social, institutional, and political contexts. Lack of transparency, diffusion of responsibility, and weak accountability mechanisms can lead to the legitimization of unjust algorithmic decisions. The article concludes that the development and deployment of fair artificial intelligence necessitate ethics-centered design, stakeholder participation, effective institutional oversight, and interdisciplinary, context-sensitive research, so that this technology can serve to reduce discrimination and promote social justice.

Postmodern tourism is gradually shifting away from mass tourism toward more personalized, experience-based, and interest-driven forms of travel. In response to this trend, many destinations are increasingly emphasizing local cuisine and developing culinary tourism as one of the most dynamic and creative sectors of the tourism industry. However, the successful development of culinary tourism is not possible without a clear understanding of culinary tourists’ behavior. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to explain the behavior of product-oriented culinary tourists, the most specialized segment of culinary tourism, by developing a behavioral model using a mixed-method approach. In the qualitative phase, a meta-synthesis method was applied, while the quantitative phase employed structural equation modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS 4 to identify key dimensions, components, and indicators, as well as to examine the relationships among them. The sample size was determined using the Cochran formula and consisted of 285 participants, who were randomly selected from saffron culinary tourists visiting the Qaenat region. The findings indicate that tourists’ motivation, destination image, and perceived service quality have direct effects on satisfaction and indirect effects on behavioral intentions. Notably, perceived service quality also shows a direct and significant influence on behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the results highlight several key destination characteristics that strongly influence the quality of culinary tourism tours. These include cultural and culinary involvement, accommodation quality, farm-based experiences, food and beverage quality, reliable service delivery, a sense of safety and tranquillity, effective tour organization, and the quality of tour guide services .

Objective : In the competitive global retail industry, achieving sustainable competitive advantage is a key factor for long-term success. This advantage arises when companies effectively utilize their unique resources and capabilities to outperform competitors. Operational efficiency and financial performance are critical for evaluating competitiveness and investment attractiveness. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a standard method for measuring efficiency, but classical DEA cannot fully rank efficient units. Integrating DEA with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods addresses this limitation, considering investor-relevant financial ratios. This study proposes a two-stage approach to evaluate and rank retail companies comprehensively.  Methodology: In the first stage, an input-oriented CCR model of DEA is applied, with assets, operating expenses, and the number of employees as inputs, and total revenue and net profit as outputs, to assess relative efficiency. In the second stage, financial indicators—asset turnover, dividend yield, return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and return on investment (ROI)—alongside DEA efficiency scores are evaluated using the PROMETHEE II method to generate a complete preference-based ranking of retailers. Results : DEA in the first stage provides relative efficiency insights but cannot rank efficient units. Employing PROMETHEE II in the second stage, and considering financial ratios, overcomes this limitation and produces a comprehensive ranking. Validation against DEA, hybrid DEA–PROMETHEE II, and hybrid DEA–AHP rankings demonstrates a strong alignment of the results with the actual market positions of retailers. Conclusion : The proposed method enables investors to identify high-performing companies and provides retailers with a strategic tool to monitor competitiveness, identify strengths and weaknesses, optimize resource allocation, and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Objective : This paper develops a single-objective and a bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model to optimize the post-earthquake relief logistics network involving transfer points, hospitals, and relief centers in Tehran, Iran. The primary aim is to minimize the total time required to transfer injured individuals through the system, while the bi-objective model additionally minimizes penalties for failing to transfer casualties due to capacity shortages.  Methodology: The methodology involves formulating location-allocation models in which demand points, transfer points, hospitals, and relief centers are represented by specific capacity and travel-time parameters. The models are applied to two earthquake scenarios in south-central Tehran: a magnitude-6 event with lower casualties and selective facility activation, and a magnitude-7 event requiring full capacity utilization and a 30% assumed increase in hospital capacity. Results : The model’s effectiveness in optimizing the relief network is demonstrated. For the magnitude-6 scenario, the model selects 10 transfer points, 15 hospitals, and 25 relief centers to minimize total transfer time. For the magnitude-7 scenario, utilizing all available facilities, the model optimally allocates casualties despite severe capacity constraints. Conclusion : The proposed models offer a practical decision-support tool for designing efficient humanitarian supply chains in earthquake-prone urban areas. They underscore the necessity of pre-disaster planning, including establishing transfer points with triage and outpatient capabilities, increasing hospital surge capacity, and ensuring public awareness to direct casualties to designated transfer points.

Objective : This study addresses the critical gap in understanding how Industry 4.0 technologies—Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and Extended Reality (XR)—synergistically transform customer-centric supply chains in creative industries (e.g., music, fashion, film). It moves beyond fragmented analysis to develop a unified framework for customer-integrated value delivery. Methodology: A systematic meta-synthesis was conducted following established seven-stage protocols. A targeted search across Scopus and Web of Science (2016–2025) identified relevant literature. After stringent screening and quality appraisal (the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist), 59 high-quality publications were analyzed through iterative coding and thematic analysis. Results : The analysis produced a novel framework of five interdependent components: (1) Customer-Integrated Value Creation (e.g., AI co-design), (2) Omnichannel & Immersive Fulfillment (e.g., XR commerce), (3) Dynamic Value Capture Models (e.g., fan-driven financing), (4) Algorithmic & Gamified Community Engagement , and (5) Networked Co-Creation Ecosystems . The framework demonstrates how AI, IoT, blockchain, and XR interconnect to transform linear supply chains into agile, experiential, community-integrated value networks. Conclusion : This study presents the first synthesized framework for Industry 4.0-enabled, customer-centric supply chains in creative industries. It bridges technology, culture, and operations management, offering researchers a structured model for future inquiry and providing practitioners with a strategic roadmap for building responsive, community-driven operations. The research fills a significant literature gap and offers a blueprint for competitive advantage in the digital creative economy.