The cultural-economic model and public relations in the Middle East: An examination of the Islamic banking system in Kuwait

This article adopts the cultural-economic model of public relations practice to analyze the communications through the websites of three prominent Islamic banks in Kuwait. The analysis extrapolates Islamic value orientations including respect for religious authority, affinity with the past, fatalism, communal kinship, attachment to the eternal life and spirituality and idealism. The orientations are then examined relative to public relations practice in the Middle East. The study advances the understanding of Islam and public relations in the Middle East, an understudied region in public relations literature, and illuminates the relationship between religion and public relations. It concludes with observations to guide public relations projects directed toward Muslims in the Middle East for professionals and scholars.     

Qualitative inquiry into women's menopause experiences in southeastern Iran

Menopause is defined as amenorrhea for one year. Signs and symptoms are categorized as physical and psychological changes, including depression, hot flushes and ageing. Woman's responses to menopause are governed by lifestyle factors. The purpose of this study was to determine how Iranian women experience menopause and hormone therapy. A qualitative inquiry was conducted through semistructured, in-depth interviews to explore study questions in 11 menopausal women. Participants had positive and negative menopause experiences. Negative menopause experiences are due to severity of symptoms. Menopause can be facilitated by increasing women's knowledge about this phase and ways to cope with it.     

A Simulation Study of Sequencing Rules in a Kanban-Controlled Flow Shop*

This paper addresses the problem of sequencing in decentralized kanban-controlled flow shops. The kanban production control system considered uses two card types and a constant withdrawal period. The flow shops are decentralized in the sense that sequencing decisions are made at the local workstation level rather than by a centralized scheduling system. Further, there are no material requirements planning (MRP)-generated due dates available to drive dispatching rules such as earliest due date, slack, and critical ratio. Local sequencing rules suitable for the decentralized kanban production-control environment are proposed and tested in a simulation experiment. These rules are designed so that they can be implemented with only the information available at the workstation level. Example sequencing problems are used to show why the shortest processing time rule minimizes neither average work-in-process inventory nor average finished-goods withdrawal kanban waiting time. Further, it is shown how work station supervisors can use the withdrawal period, in addition to the number of kanbans, to manage work-in-process inventories.     

A fractional version of the Cox–Ingersoll–Ross interest rate model and pricing double barrier option with Hurst index H∈(23,1)

In this work, we study the existence and uniqueness of the solution to a fractional version of the Cox–Ingersoll–Ross (fCIR) stochastic differential equation. The strong convergence of this equation is analyzed and according to it’s framework, we obtain the price of the double barrier option under transaction cost. Finally, we verify the effect of the parameters of the model on the value of the option.     

The two-sided power-binomial distribution for modeling binary count data

The two-sided power (TSP) distribution is a flexible two-parameter distribution having uniform, power function and triangular as sub-distributions, and it is a reasonable alternative to beta distribution in some cases. In this work, we introduce the TSP-binomial model which is defined as a mixture of binomial distributions, with the binomial parameter p having a TSP distribution. We study its distributional properties and demonstrate its use on some data. It is shown that the newly defined model is a useful candidate for overdispersed binomial data.     

Informal Giving in Turkey

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Scholarly research about philanthropy has de-emphasized informal giving to friends, neighbors and others in need. Yet,...     

A multilevel perspective of the identity transition to motherhood

This study examines the identity transition of women when they become mothers and return to work. Twenty‐two first‐time mothers were interviewed at two points in time: just after giving birth and on re‐entry into employment after maternity leave. The findings suggest that this transition is influenced by multiple factors on different levels which include individual factors, such as partner support and career aspirations, organizational factors such as family‐friendly work practices and role models, and societal factors such as social norms and attitudes towards the maternal body. The findings highlight the importance of context by stressing the interrelated nature of factors on the micro‐, meso‐ and macro‐level in order to better understand the identity transition to motherhood.