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Today, the presence of unwanted activities threatening the safety of the field, which has negative effects on daily life and social psychology, is increasing day by day. There is no doubt that it is inevitable to avoid these threats, but it is possible to take some measures to reduce the destructive power of these threats. Nowadays, increasing terrorist attacks increase the importance of field safety design in urban areas. There is a loss of life in attacks around the world. The subject of this study is to investigate the design criteria related to the built environment and the measures to be taken in the case of bomb attacks in the built environment. In this study, a checklist will designed to measure the security design process around the building. The checklist titles are taken mainly from the “Safety design and Landscape Architecture” series of the Landscape Architecture Technical Information Series/LATIS publications by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Risk Management Series of the Federal Emergency Management Agency/FEMA (FEMA, 2003, 2007; LATIS, 2016) and others. The checklist created as a result of literature review will be tested in Istanbul Sultanahmet Square. As a result of the study, it was determined that improvements should be made in the areas of vehicular and pedestrian access, parking lots, lighting and trash receptacle designs around Sultanahmet Square.

COVID-19 pandemic was a health crisis that plunged the world into economic turmoil due to its resultant national lockdowns across economies which brought business and market activities to a standstill. In order to adapt to ensuing restrictions owing to the pandemic, forge ahead in a new way of living, work and interactions with one another (new normal), digitizing business and market operations is considered a necessary option. Sukuk is an essential Islamic capital market product whose operations involve multiple parties/intermediaries alongside some technical financial, administrative and legal/shariah processes. On this note, this chapter aims to study and examine the need for digitizing and automating sukuk operations and related activities to pave way for innovation, development and better continuity of sukuk market. In conducting the study, a review of literature approach is employed where relevant works on sukuk and fintech were examined. Using content analysis, the chapter explored digitization of sukuk in the Islamic capital market via fintech and blockchain and associated benefits, including peculiar challenges therein. An interview was also conducted to better understand the Wethaq case study. The chapter reveals that digitizing sukuk issuance adds value to sukuk and remedies certain inadequacies associated with sukuk transactions; can increase transparency of underlying sukuk assets and cash flows and can reduce costs due to lesser number of intermediaries. Digitization is the future of sukuk issuance and will promote sukuk well through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented situation for Finland like never before. These are desperate times for Finland. And desperate times need desperate measures. The Government of Finland is pulling out all the stops and doing everything possible in its continued fight against COVID-19 virus. The crisis primarily erupted due to the initial delay in action and lack of preparedness required to tackle this kind of crisis. Communication channels were put to best use by the Finnish Government in an effort to reach out to all the people in Finland. The people living in Finland should strictly follow the guidelines and support the measures by the Government in full tandem to ensure that the COVID-19 virus is defeated and stops further transmission by breaking the chain. This paper portrays different possible trajectories and outcomes associated with the impacts of the pandemic in Finland.

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on the behavioral intentions of Fintech usage. The model incorporates perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norms, and the researcher has also included perceived risk and perceived trust. This study involved 192 respondents who were Jordanian citizens. An online questionnaire was used as the survey instrument for data collection. The proposed hypotheses were statistically tested using SmartPLS and SPSS software after examining the data based on initial assumptions. The outcome of the data analysis supports several published hypotheses, with all hypotheses being supported. The significant value of this research lies in its examination of the TPB in the Jordanian context, incorporating perceived risk and perceived trust. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has tested the TPB in the Jordanian setting by including perceived risk and trust to understand the behavioral expectations of Jordanian citizens regarding Fintech usage.

Shari'ah governance is a vital aspect that ensures internal shari'ah compliance function in Islamic financial industry, including the takaful industry. Shari'ah audit is a component of shari'ah governance in any Islamic institution as it independently attests the state of shari'ah compliance. Besides, it contributes towards shari'ah non-compliance risk management and enhances the quality of internal shari'ah audit function. The main aim for this chapter is to discuss the scopes and processes of shari'ah audit function in takaful operation. In addition, a discussion on applicable key controls in takaful operation is also provided. This chapter provides an insight into shari'ah audit implementation in a takaful operator, based on the information solicited from an interview session with its shari'ah auditor. This chapter provides fundamental aspects of shari'ah audit exercise in takaful operation and raises takaful operator's views on the challenges and adequacy of guidelines on shari'ah audit for its effective implementation.

Empowered patients are allies to the healthcare system, especially in emergency situations. Social media use has emerged to be a major means by which patients interact with the healthcare system, and in times such as the current COVID-19 situation social media has to play an even greater crisis management role by empowering patients. Social media channels serve numerous beneficial purposes, despite them also being blamed for the spread of misinformation during this crisis. In this Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) focused case study, we will discuss the increasingly greater role being played by the social media in healthcare in the region and how that empowers not just the patients but the system as a whole. In the GCC region, the healthcare sector is found to reflect a steady growth, leading to an increased drive for empowering patients by lowering the barriers to effective communication and consultation through online media. As of today, social media has become an element of the telehealth infrastructure being deployed in the region. During COVID-19, patients are seen to leverage it pointedly for online health consultations thereby lowering the stress on the healthcare system and adding to efficiencies.

This study groups mutual funds using k-means clustering analysis and compares the k-means clustering process with existing clustering techniques using mutual fund data for equity funds, general fixed-income funds, and balanced open-end mutual funds rated by the Association of Investment Management Companies. Data are from January 2016 to December 2020 for 60 months and includes information on prices, risks, and investment policies. The sample for this study comprises 173 funds from 10 asset management companies with the highest net assets. The tool used for analysis is the k-means technique using a statistical package set for k = 3. The funds can be divided into three groups: Group 1 has 5 mutual funds (2.89%), Group 2 has 24 mutual funds (13.87%), and Group 3 has a total of 144 mutual funds (83.24%). In Group 1, four of the five mutual funds are equity funds with a track record of beating the market, and fund managers have good market timing skills. Moreover, the efficiency of fund grouping using the k-means technique was compared with the existing grouping with close results at 57.23%. This work provides a methodology to obtain a better categorization of mutual funds by using k-means clustering, allowing the investors to know how mutual funds are. This categorization is very useful for improving the formulation of mutual funds, with the goal of further optimizing investment.

A decade after 2008 crisis, scholars in mainstream field of finance are yet to proffer lasting solutions to the menace that target the root cause of the crisis. Islamic finance offers a simple message for the whole episode and others similar to it: introduction of God consciousness, removal of interest from the system, and its replacement with profit and loss sharing together with establishment of an ethic base corporate governance structure. Absence of ethical considerations is the main factor for financial crisis in the past hundred years. Models utilized by Islamic finance industry for financing and sharing of risk are musharakah and mudarabah. This chapter provides an overview of risk management and governance in both Islamic and conventional finance in the process outlining similarities and differences between the systems. It dissected through developments in the two fields and highlighted recent controversial topics affecting the field of finance in the modern world.

Natural disasters occur all around the world, in the last two decades these natural disasters have brought sever damages to the world economy. Mostly developing countries bear severe consequences due to these natural disasters. In July 2010, Pakistan faced a massive flood, which affected almost all the countries. The disaster affected all sectors like daily life, transportation, infrastructure, etc., of the country. GOP did not have enough resources to cope with this giant disaster and called for international help. Local and international NGOs participated with GOP in the early phases of recovery. Millions of dollars were given away as the initial impact of this disaster, and GOP and other relief agents have spent other million to provide initial recovery and relief. GOP will need billions of dollars further to continue recovery from the disaster of 2010.