Search results for: sense of community

Authors: Neringa Bagdonaite

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Background: The main focus of this paper is to explore how self-determination interplays in suicidal and addictive context leading one to autonomously choose self-destructive addictive behaviour or suicidal intentions. Methods: Phenomenological descriptions of the experiential structure of self-determination in addiction and suicidal mental life are used. The phenomenological method describes structures of mental life from the first-person-perspective, with a focus on how an experienced object is given in a subject’s conscious experience. Results: A sense of self-determination in the context of suicidal and addictive behaviour is possibly impaired. In the context of suicide, it's proposed that suicide is always experienced at least minimally self-determined, as it's the last freely discovered self-efficient behaviour, in terms of radically changing one's desperate mental state. Suicide can never be experienced as fully self-determined because no future retrospective re-evaluation of behaviour is possible. Understanding self-determination in addiction is challenging because addicts perceive themselves and experience situations differently depending on: (I) their level of intoxication; (II) whether the situation is in the moment or in retrospect; and (III) the goals set out in that situation. Furthermore, within phenomenology addiction is described as an embodied custom, which‘s acquired and established while performing 'psychotropic technique'. The main goal of performing such a technique is to continue 'floating in an indifference state' or being 'comfortably numb'. Conclusions: Based on rich phenomenological descriptions of the studied phenomenon, this paper draws on the premise that to experience self-determination in both suicide and addiction, underlying desperate or negative emotional states are needed. Such underlying desperate or negative mental life experiences are required for one to pre-reflectively evaluate suicide or addictive behaviours as positive, relieving or effective in terms of changing one's emotional states. Such pre-reflective positive evaluations serve as the base for the continuation of behaviour and later are identified reflectively.

Keywords: addiction, phenomenology, self-determination, self-effectivity, suicide

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Authors: Teklu Urgessa, Joong Seek Lee

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Social media is becoming the primary choice of activists to make their voices heard. This fact is coupled by two main reasons. The first reason is the emergence web 2.0, which gave the users opportunity to become content creators than passive recipients. Secondly the control of the mainstream mass media outlets by the governments and individuals with their political and economic interests. This paper aimed at exploring twitter data of network actors talking about the marathon silver medalists on Rio2016, who showed solidarity with the Oromo protesters in Ethiopia on the marathon race finish line when he won silver. The aim is to discover important insight using social network analysis and mining. The hashtag #FeyisaLelisa was used for Twitter network search. The actors’ network was visualized and analyzed. It showed the central influencers during first 10 days in August, were international media outlets while it was changed to individual activist in September. The degree distribution of the network is scale free where the frequency of degrees decay by power low. Text mining was also used to arrive at meaningful themes from tweet corpus about the event selected for analysis. The semantic network indicated important clusters of concepts (15) that provided different insight regarding the why, who, where, how of the situation related to the event. The sentiments of the words in the tweets were also analyzed and indicated that 95% of the opinions in the tweets were either positive or neutral. Overall, the finding showed that Olympic stage protest of the marathoner brought the issue of Oromo protest to the global stage. The new research framework is proposed based for event-based social network analysis and mining based on the practical procedures followed in this research for event-based social media sense making.

Keywords: human rights, Olympics, social media, network analysis, social network ming

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Authors: Qusai Alshahwan

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The arbitrator’s duties of independence and impartiality play a significant role in delivering arbitral awards which legitimate the fundamental of arbitration concepts. For this reason, the international and national arbitration rules require arbitrators to be independent and impartial to solve the arbitration disputes fairly between the parties. However, solving the disputes fairly also requires arbitrators to disclose any existing conflicts of interest with the parties to avoid misunderstanding and late challenges. In contrary with the international and national arbitration rules, the English Arbitration Act 1996 does not include independence as a separate ground for arbitrator’s removal, and importantly the English Arbitration Act 1996 is deliberately silent to the arbitrator duty of disclosure. The absence of arbitrator duty of disclosure is an issue had generated uncertainty and concerns for the arbitration community under the English jurisdiction, particularly when the English courts rejected the IBA guidelines of arbitrator conflict of interest such as in case of Halliburton v Chubb for example. This article is highlighting on the legal consequences of the absence of arbitrator duty of disclosure under the English Arbitration Act 1996 and the arbitrator's contractual obligations.

Keywords: arbitration, impartiality, independence, duty of disclosure, English Arbitration Act 1996

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Authors: Taiebe Shokri, Shahram Yazdani, Leila Afshar, Soleiman Ahmadi

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Introduction: The importance of professionalism in higher education not only determines the appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and guides faculty members in the implementation of professional responsibilities, but also guarantees faculty members' adherence to professional principles and values, ensures the quality of teaching and facilitator will be the teaching-learning process in universities and will increase the commitment to meet the needs of students as well as the development of an ethical culture based on ethics. Therefore, considering the important role of medical education teachers to prepare teachers and students in the future, the need to determine the concept of professional teacher and teacher, and the characteristics of teacher professionalism, we have explained the concept of professionalism in teachers in this study. Methods: The concept analysis method used in this study was Walker and Avant method which has eight steps. Walker and Avant state the purpose of concept analysis as follows: The process of distinguishing between the defining features of a concept and its unrelated features. The process of concept analysis includes selecting a concept, determining the purpose of the analysis, identifying the uses of the concept, determining the defining features of the concept, identifying a model, identifying boundary and adversarial items, identifying the precedents and consequences of the concept, and defining empirical references. is. Results: Professionalism in its general sense, requires deep knowledge, insight, creating a healthy and safe environment, honesty and trust, impartiality, commitment to the profession and continuous improvement, punctuality, criticism, professional competence, responsibility, and Individual accountability, especially in social interactions, is an effort for continuous improvement, the acquisition of these characteristics is not easily possible and requires education, especially continuous learning. Professionalism is a set of values, behaviors, and relationships that underpin public trust in teachers.

Keywords: concept analysis, medical education, professionalism, faculty members

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Authors: Seyed Alireza Mirmohammadi

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Tehran Metro vendors are one of the working minorities in the capital, which is an essential cross-cultural case study. Today, with difficult economic conditions, subway vendors are increasing. Tehran metro vendors are in daily contact with many people in different metro stations. Due to the ban on their activities in this place and sometimes the humiliating look of some people, they experience special conditions compared to other people in the community. One of the most critical sources of shaping people's mentality toward their social status and identity in the media and, in the meantime, virtual social networks, due to various communication facilities such as Dualism and the possibility of high activity of users have a special place. Statistics have shown that virtual social networks have become an indispensable source of communication, information, and entertainment today. In this study, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 metro vendors in Tehran about their membership in various virtual social networks and their mental perception of using them. The research results indicate that the obtained mentality of metro peddlers towards themselves is negative in virtual social networks, and they do not receive a good image of themselves in these networks.

Keywords: metro, tehran, intercultural communication, metro vendors, self image

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Authors: Priya Sepaha

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Social media has loomed as the most effective tool in recent times to flag the causes, contents, opinions and direction of any social movement and has demonstrated that it will have a far-reaching effect on government as well. This study focuses on India which has emerged as the fastest growing community on social media. Social movement activists, in particular, have extensively utilized the power of digital social media to streamline the effectiveness of social protest on a particular issue through extensive successful mass mobilizations. This research analyses the role and impact of social media as a power to catalyze the social movements in India and further seeks to describe how certain social movements are resisted, subverted, co-opted and/or deployed by social media. The impact assessment study has been made with the help of cases, policies and some social movement which India has witnessed the assertion of numerous social issues perturbing the public which eventually paved the way for remarkable judicial decisions. The paper concludes with the observations that despite its pros and cons, the impacts of social media on the functioning of the Indian Government have demonstrated that it has already become an indispensable tool in the hands of social media-suave Indians who are committed to bring about a desired change.

Keywords: social media, social movements, impact, law, government

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Authors: Paola Villoria Sáez, Mercedes Del Río Merino, Jaime Santa Cruz Astorqui, Antonio Rodríguez Sánchez

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The Spanish construction industry generates large volumes of waste. However, despite the legislative improvements introduced for construction and demolition waste (CDW), construction waste recycling rate remains well below other European countries and also below the target set for 2020. This situation can be due to many difficulties. i.e.: The difficulty of onsite segregation or the estimation in advance of the total amount generated. Despite these difficulties, the proper management of CDW must be one of the main aspects to be considered by the construction companies. In this sense, some large national companies are implementing Integrated Management Systems (IMS) including not only quality and safety aspects, but also environment issues. However, although this fact is a reality for large construction companies still the vast majority of companies need to adopt this trend. In short, it is common to find in small and medium enterprises a decentralized management system: A single system of quality management, another for system safety management and a third one for environmental management system (EMS). In addition, the EMSs currently used address CDW superficially and are mainly focus on other environmental concerns such as carbon emissions. Therefore, this research determines and implements a specific best practice management system for CDW based on eight procedures in a Spanish Construction company. The main advantages and drawbacks of its implementation are highlighted. Results of this study show that establishing and implementing a CDW management system in building works, improve CDW quantification as the company obtains their own CDW generation ratio. This helps construction stakeholders when developing CDW Management Plans and also helps to achieve a higher adjustment of CDW management costs. Finally, integrating this CDW system with the EMS of the company favors the cohesion of the construction process organization at all stages, establishing responsibilities in the field of waste and providing a greater control over the process.

Keywords: construction and demolition waste, waste management, best practices, waste minimization, building, quality management systems

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Authors: A. Benedetto, P. Wong, N. Papouchis, L. W. Samstag

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Bowen’s concept of self-differentiation describes a healthy balance of autonomy and intimacy in close relationships, and it has been widely researched in the context of family dynamics. The current study aimed to clarify the impact of family dysfunction on self-differentiation by specifically examining conflict between parents, and by including young adults, an underexamined age group in this domain (N = 300; ages 18 to 30). It also identified a protective factor for offspring from conflictual homes. The 300 young adults (recruited online through Mechanical Turk) completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI), the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC), the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Analyses revealed that interparental conflict significantly impairs self-differentiation among young adult offspring. Specifically, exposure to parental conflict showed a negative impact on young adults’ sense of self, emotional reactivity, and interpersonal cutoff in the context of close relationships. Parental conflict was also related to increased psychological distress among offspring. Surprisingly, the study found that parental divorce does not impair self-differentiation in offspring, demonstrating the distinctly harmful impact of conflict. These results clarify a unique type of family dysfunction that impairs self-differentiation, specifically in distinguishing it from parental divorce; it examines young adults, a critical age group not previously examined in this domain; and it identifies a moderating protective factor (a strong parent-child bond) for offspring exposed to conflict. Overall, results suggest the need for modifications in parental behavior in order to protect offspring at risk of lasting emotional and interpersonal damage.

Keywords: divorce, family dysfunction, parental conflict, parent-child bond, relationships, self-differentiation, young adults

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Authors: Florence Ncube

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This paper examines the military and post-military experiences of soldiers who deserted from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and tried to make a living in South Africa. Because they are deserters, they try to hide their military identity, yet it is simultaneously somewhat coercively ascribed to them by the Rwandan state and can put them in potential danger. The paper attends to the constructions, experiences, practices, and subjective understanding of the deserters’ being in exile to examine how, under circumstances of perceived threat, these men navigate real or perceived state-sponsored surveillance and threat in non-military settings in South Africa where they have become potential political and disciplinary targets. To make sense of the deserters’ experiences in these circumstances, the paper stitches together a number of useful theoretical concepts, including Bourdieu’s (1992) theory of practice and Vigh’s (2009; 2018) concept of social navigation because no single approach can coherently analyze the specificity of this study. Conventional post-military literature privileges an understanding of army desertion as a malignancy and somewhat problematic. Little is known about the military and post-military experiences of deserters who believe that army desertion is in fact a building block towards achieving subjective peace, even in the context of exile. The paper argues that the presence of Rwandan state agents in South Africa strips the context of the exile of its capacity to provide the deserters with peace, safety, and security. This paper recenters army desertion in analyses of militarism, soldiering, and transition in African contexts and complicates commonsense understandings of army desertion which assume that it is entirely problematic. This paper is drawn from an ethnography conducted among 30 junior-rank Rwandan army deserters exiled in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The researcher employed life histories, in-depth interviews, and deep hangouts to collect data.

Keywords: army deserter, military, identity, exile, peacebuilding, South Africa

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Authors: Muhammad Sheeraz, Mehwish Ejaz

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This study endeavors to enhance the understanding of the determinants of oppositional brand loyalty, particularly within the context of fans of a sports brand. The primary focus is on investigating how oppositional brand loyalty fosters rivalry among the fans and exploring the interplay between various variables, namely self-congruence, consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, and narcissism, in influencing the likelihood of endorsing a rival team. The research adopts a cross-sectional survey methodology, employing a structured questionnaire distributed both online and onsite to gather responses from a representative sample of 460 PSL fans in Pakistan. The data collection process involved obtaining responses from diverse settings, including universities, shopping malls, and other public spaces frequented by PSL enthusiasts. Participants were prompted to indicate their allegiance to a specific PSL team and subsequently respond to the questionnaire based on their preferences. The findings of the study reveal that narcissism, as a moderating factor, exhibits no significant influence on consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, and oppositional brand loyalty. However, it does emerge as a significant moderator in the relationship between self-congruence and consumer brand identification. Particularly, consumers express brand identification through self-congruence, elucidating the existence of oppositional sentiments among PSL fans and their counterparts supporting rival teams. The implications of these results underscore the importance for marketers to establish a brand identity that resonates with consumers on a personal level. Such an approach fosters a strong sense of identification with the brand, prompting consumers to vigorously defend and support their favored brands, even in the face of opposition from rival teams. Marketers are encouraged to focus on cultivating long-term consumer loyalty, as it proves pivotal in maintaining a competitive advantage over industry counterparts.

Keywords: oppositional brand loyalty, consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, narcissism, self-congruence

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Authors: Gulnara N. Nabiyeva, Stephen M. Wheeler

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a multipurpose computer-based tool that provides a sophisticated ability to map and analyze data on different spatial layers. However, GIS is far more easily applied in some policy areas than others. This paper seeks to determine the areas of sustainable development, including environmental, economic, and social dimensions, where GIS has been used to date to support efforts to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to discuss potential areas where it might be used more. Based on an extensive analysis of published literature, we ranked the SDGs according to how frequently GIS has been used to study related policy. We found that SDG#15 “Life on Land” is most often addressed with GIS, following by SDG#11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, and SDG#13 “Climate Action”. On the other hand, we determined that SDG#2 “Zero Hunger”, SDG#8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, and SDG#16 “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions” are least addressed with GIS. The paper outlines some specific ways that GIS might be applied to the SDGs least linked to this tool currently.

Keywords: GIS, GIS application, sustainable community development, sustainable development goals

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Authors: Suman Dutta, Manish Agrawal, C. S. Jog

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Accurate computation of hydrodynamic forces on floating structures and their deformation finds application in the ocean and naval engineering and wave energy harvesting. This manuscript presents a monolithic, finite element strategy for fluid-structure interaction involving hyper-elastic solids partly submerged in an incompressible fluid. A velocity-based Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation has been used for the fluid and a displacement-based Lagrangian approach has been used for the solid. The flexibility of the ALE technique permits us to treat the free surface of the fluid as a Lagrangian entity. At the interface, the continuity of displacement, velocity and traction are enforced using the mortar method. In the mortar method, the constraints are enforced in a weak sense using the Lagrange multiplier method. In the literature, the mortar method has been shown to be robust in solving various contact mechanics problems. The time-stepping strategy used in this work reduces to the generalized trapezoidal rule in the Eulerian setting. In the Lagrangian limit, in the absence of external load, the algorithm conserves the linear and angular momentum and the total energy of the system. The use of monolithic coupling with an energy-conserving time-stepping strategy gives an unconditionally stable algorithm and allows the user to take large time steps. All the governing equations and boundary conditions have been mapped to the reference configuration. The use of the exact tangent stiffness matrix ensures that the algorithm converges quadratically within each time step. The robustness and good performance of the proposed method are demonstrated by solving benchmark problems from the literature.

Keywords: ALE, floating body, fluid-structure interaction, monolithic, mortar method

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Authors: Ahmad Ali, Muhammad Imran Ghani, Haiyan Ding, Zhihui Cheng, Muhammad Iqbal

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Background and Aims: In recent years, protected cultivation trend, especially in the northern parts of China, spread dynamically where production area, structure, and crops diversity have expanded gradually under plastic greenhouse vegetable cropping (PGVC) system. Under this growing system, continuous monoculture with excessive synthetic fertilizers inputs are common cultivation practices frequently adopted by commercial producers. Such long-term cumulative wild exercise year after year sponsor the continuous cropping obstacles in PGVC soil, which have greatly threatened the regional soil eco-sustainability and further impose the continuous assault on soil ecological diversity leading to the exhaustion of agriculture productivity. The aim of this study was to develop new allelopathic insights by exploiting available biological resources in the favor of sustainable PGVC to illuminate the continuous obstacle factors in plastic greenhouse. Method: A greenhouse study was executed under plastic tunnel located at the Horticulture Experimental Station of the College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, one of the prominent regions for intensive commercial PGVC in China. Post-harvest garlic residues (stalk, leaves) mechanically smashed, homogenized into powder size and incorporated at the ratio of 1:100; 3:100; 5:100 as a soil amendment in a replanted soil that have been used for continuous cucumber monoculture for 7 years (annually double cropping system in a greenhouse). Results: Incorporated C-rich garlic stalk significantly influenced the soil condition through various ways; organic matter decomposition and mineralization, moderately adjusted the soil pH, enhanced the soil nutrient availability, increased enzymatic activities, and promoted 20% more cucumber yield in short-time. Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal 18S rDNA genes, the current study revealed that addition of garlic stalk/residue could also improve the microbial abundance and community composition in extensively exploited soil, and contributed in soil functionality, caused prosper changes in soil characteristics, reinforced to good crop yield. Conclusion: Our study provided evidence that addition of garlic stalk as soil fertility amendment is a feasible, cost-effective and efficient resource utilization way for renovation of degraded soil health, ameliorate soil quality components and improve ecological environment in short duration. Our study may provide a better scientific understanding for efficient crop residue management typically from allelopathic source.

Keywords: garlic stalk, microbial community dynamics, plant growth, soil amendment, soil-plant system

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Authors: Akinyemi Eyitayo Oufunmilayo

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In every society, it is expected that adult education will help in meeting the needs of people in terms of economic and social lives and reveal their talents, culture, and political abilities. Participation in adult education programmes could be the ones offered by the Federal, state, and local governments or non-governmental organisations. This study, therefore, investigated how people’s participation in adult education programmes could change their social lives. A quantitative method was employed for the study. The study population consisted of 210 people randomly selected from the three Senatorial Districts in Ondo State. Data obtained was analysed using frequency counts and percentages and chi-square analysis. Findings revealed that members of the society responded to the benefits of adult education programmes made available, and there were positive changes to their social lives. It could be concluded that people’s participation in adult education programmes improved every aspect of their lives for better living. It is recommended that members of the society respond and make good use of any adult education programme made available in their community, while stakeholders and other opportune members of the society come to the aid of less privileged people in their society.

Keywords: adult education programmes, social change, participation, society

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Authors: Teera Intararuang

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This research aims to study guidelines to developed Sai Temple’ local boat museum to be as cultural tourism attraction and explored villagers requirement in term of type and format of interpretation which they want to promote their cultural tourism for Sai Temple, Kradangnga sub-district, Bang Khon Tee district, Samut Songkhram province. However, this article will explores only the requirement of type and format of interpretation which 40 villagers of Ruam Sai Pattana 789 purposed to promote Sai temple. The procedures are In-depth Interview, Observation, Focus Group by discussing ideas. After that the information received is synthesized and analyzed. From research result, it is revealed that the local community’ requirement on types and format of interpretation as brochure with up to date, faithfully and formally content to present Sai Temple which got the most demand score (3.82) considered as most wanted demand.

Keywords: museum, boat museum, cultural tourism, interpretation, brochure, Bangkhontee district, Samut Songkhram province

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Authors: Alex Konrad

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In 2017, about 4.5 million Muslims live in Germany. They can practice their faith openly, mostly in well-equipped community centers. At the same time, right-wing politicians and media allege that all Muslims tend to be radical and undemocratic. Both perspectives are rooted in an interacting development since the 1970s. German authorities closed the 'King Fahd Academy' international school in Bonn in summer 2017 because they accused the school administration of attracting Islamists. Only 30 years ago, German authorities and labor unions directed their requests for pastoral care of the Muslim communities in Germany to the Turkish and Saudi administrations. This study shows the leading and misleading tracks of Muslim life and its perception in Germany from a historical point of view. Most of the Muslims came as so-called 'Gastarbeiter' (migrant workers) from Turkey and Morocco to West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. Until the late 1970s, German society recognized them as workforce solely and ignored their religious needs broadly. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 caused widespread hysteria about Islamic radicalization. Likewise, it shifted the German perception of migrant workers in Germany. For the first time, the majority society saw them as religious people. Media and self-proclaimed 'experts' on Islam suspected Muslims in Germany of subversive and undemocratic belief. On the upside, they obtained the opportunity to be heard by German society and authorities. In the ensuing decades, Muslims and Islamophiles fought a discursive struggle against right-wing politicians, 'experts' and media with monolithic views. In the 1990s, Muslims achieved to establish a solid infrastructure of Islamic community center throughout Germany. Their religious life became present and contributed to diversifying the common monolithic images of Muslims as insane fundamentalists in Germany. However, the media and many 'experts' promoted the fundamentalist narrative, which gained more and more acceptance in German society at the same time. This study uses archival sources from German authorities, Islamic communities, together with local and national media to get a close approach to the contemporary historical debates. In addition, contributions by Muslims and Islamophiles in Germany, for example in magazines, event reports, and internal communication, revealing their quotidian struggle for more acceptance are being used as sources. The inclusion of widely publicized books, documentaries and newspaper articles about Islam as a menace to Europe conduces to a balanced analysis of the contemporary debates and views. Theoretically, the study applies the Third Space approach. Muslims in Germany fight the othering by the German majority society. It was their chief purpose not to be marginalized in both spatial meanings, discursively and physically. Therefore, they established realities of life as hybrids in Germany. This study reconstructs the development of the perception of Muslims in Germany. It claims that self-proclaimed experts and politicians with monolithic views maintained the hegemonic discursive positions and coined the German images of Muslims. Nevertheless, Muslims in Germany accomplished that Muslim presence in Germany’s everyday life became an integral part of society and the public sphere. This is how Muslims hybridized religious spaces in Germany.

Keywords: experts, fundamentalism, Germany, hybridization, Islamophobia, migrant workers

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Authors: Barbara Janari

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This paper focuses on temporality in J.M. Coetzee’s first novel, Dusklands, to argue that the novel’s fractured, disjointed temporality is intricately linked to the representations of the war in Vietnam and the colonial project in South Africa. The disrupted temporalities in the novel eschew chronological plots and linear time in favour of narratives that subvert the notion of historical progress to suggest instead the coextensive, multivalent ways in which the past and present interpenetrate one another. The disruption of temporal flow in the novel is evident in its form – the novel comprises two novellas that are juxtaposed, with the first part (‘The Vietnam War’) set centuries before the second part (‘The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee’). The juxtaposition of the two novellas suggests history’s sometimes overlapping and lateral, rather than linear, movement. The novel’s form is extended in its montage narrative structure, which works to extend its temporal range. The temporal disjunction is reinforced, firstly, by Coetzee’s textual strategies, which include the subversion and critique of realism, parody, repetition, and the narrative technique of montage, and secondly, by the novel’s thematic concerns, which focus on the ways in which American domination can be linked to the colonial quest from earlier times. The complex structure of various strands and levels of authorship slows down the narrative’s temporal flow, requiring the reader to spend a fair amount of time unraveling the various parts of the narrative and relating them to each other. The structure epitomizes reflexive referencing, in which the reader can only make sense of the narrative by going back and forth and connecting various parts of it. The narrative structure also emphasizes the underlying similarities in the brutality that marked these two distinct historical events, epitomized by the drive towards subjection and domination by the novel’s two protagonists, Eugene Dawn and Jacobus Coetzee. The links and overlapping strands between the two novellas emphasize the ways in which the historical truth of colonial discourse becomes as much a myth as the propaganda program in Vietnam.

Keywords: disjunction, juxtaposition, montage, temporality

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Authors: Koyar Rane

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Nano- to submicron size particles of narrow particle size distribution of semi-conducting TiO₂, ZnO, NiO, CuO, Fe₂O₃ have been synthesized by novel hydrazine method and tested for their gas sensing, photocatalytic and bactericidal activities and the behavior found to be enhanced when the oxides in the thin film forms, that obtained in a specially built spray pyrolysis reactor. Hydrazine method is novel in the sense, say, the UV absorption edge of the white pigment grade wide band gap (~3.2eV) TiO₂ and ZnO shifted to the visible region turning into yellowish particles, indicating modification occurring the band structure. The absorption in the visible region makes these oxides visible light sensitive photocatalysis in degrading pollutants, especially the organic dyes which otherwise increase the chemical oxygen demand of the drinking water, enabling the process feasible not under the harsh energetic UV radiation regime. The electromagnetic radiations on irradiation produce electron-hole pairs Semiconductor + hν → e⁻ + h⁺ The electron-hole pairs thus produced form Reactive Oxygen Species, ROS, on the surface of the semiconductors, O₂(adsorbed)+e⁻ → O₂• - superoxide ion OH-(surface)+h⁺ →•OH - Hydroxyl radical The ROS attack the organic material and micro-organisms. Our antibacterial studies indicate the metal oxides control the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) of drinking water which had beyond the safe level normally found in the municipal supply. Metal oxides in the thin film form show overall enhanced properties and the films are reusable. The results of the photodegradation and antibactericidal studies are discussed. Gas sensing studies too have been done to find the versatility of the multifunctional metal oxides.

Keywords: hydrazine method, visible light sensitive, photo-degradation of dyes, water/airborne pollutant

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Authors: Supattra Pranee

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The purposes of this research are to study the current business of health spa and to study the customers’ level of expectation as well as level of satisfaction of the health spa business in Ranong, Thailand. This paper drew upon data collected from health spa customers by using questionnaire. In addition, an in-depth interview was utilized to collect data from health spa entrepreneurs. The findings revealed that the health spa business is growing very fast and the coming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will ameliorate the business growth and increase the customer base. There is a need to improve staff’s ability to communicate in English. However, the economic size of Ranong province is still small which has resulted in the hesitation of investors to increase their investment in this business. The findings also revealed four categories of level of expectation and satisfaction as follows: (1) Service: overall, customers had a high expectation with a mean of 3.80 and 0.873 SD and a high level of satisfaction with a mean of 3.66 and 0.704 SD. (2) Staff: overall, customers had a high expectation with a mean of 3.95 and 0.865 SD and a high level of satisfaction with a mean of 3.84 and 0.783 SD. (3) Product, Equipment, and Tools: overall, customers had a high expectation with a mean of 4.02 and 0.913 SD and a high level of satisfaction with a mean of 3.88 and 0.772 SD. (4) Place, Atmosphere, and Environment: overall, customers had a high expectation with a mean of 3.95 and 0.906 SD and a high level of satisfaction with a mean of 3.86 and 0.785 SD.

Keywords: expectation, health spa business, satisfaction, ranong province

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Authors: Hela Ben Maallem

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Applications based on virtual reality offer many benefits to the heritage and tourism sector. Digital heritage mediation is a constantly emerging field that aims to reconstruct the history of heritage items and sites, while at the same time highlighting the identity of a community or region and encouraging public engagement. This research focuses on the analysis of a virtual reality application used in a heritage digital mediation project. The modality introduced is examined through a case study of Djerba View VR application. The aim of this study is to understand the nature and potential uses of this immersive technology and to focus on the study of the possibilities of this medium. The goal of this article is to analyze how 3D reconstruction and immersive storytelling can offer an immersive, interactive and engaging user experience, while meeting the expectations and needs of visitors in a context of technological transition and user-centred design.

Keywords: digital heritage mediation, technological transition, virtual reality, 3D reconstruction, immersive storytelling, user experience, user centered design, interactivity, immersion

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Authors: Claudia Borges Colcerniani

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The paper is about a qualitative study whose main objective is to know how labor, as a Brazilian constitutionally established social right, can promote the social inclusion of female heads of one-parent families in a situation of poverty. The participants are six women, mothers, and workers living in Rocinha, a community located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. According to the Brazilian Federal Constitution, social rights are based on the idea that socioeconomic inequalities should not limit or eliminate civil and political rights. In this perspective, labor can be a way to reach social justice, according to the theory of Nancy Fraser, the theoretical framework adopted in this research. Data were collected through socioeconomic questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews applied individually. The results analysis was made using the content analysis/categorical content analysis, according to Bardin's perspective. The results indicate that labor (as a social right) is considered, by the interviewed women, as an opportunity for social inclusion when there are the characteristics of the formality in accordance with the international labor regulations (Decent Work - International Labour Organization/United Nations).

Keywords: female labor, social justice, inclusion, women, decent work

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Authors: Taha Anjamrooz, Sareh Rajabi, Salwa Bheiry

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Procurement is a key process in construction project management. The present construction procurement practices have been extensively analyzed for disregarding sustainability in the project life cycle. Currently, there is a gap of information on status-quo of sustainable procurement in construction field. Thus, the aim of this study is to review sustainable procurement practices in the construction field. Disregard of three sustainability pillars is one of the major drawbacks of present construction procurement practices. Sustainable procurement is a developing idea that can enhance procurement practices and improve the sustainability performance of the construction projects. At present, sustainable procurement is still not entirely used in the construction projects. A comprehensive literature review indicated that the construction industry is still not entirely informed about the benefits and challenges of using sustainable procurement, and about important indicators that play major impacts on those benefits and challenges. This study assesses the major indicator, benefits and challenges encountered in applying sustainable procurement in the construction industry. In addition, this study investigates understanding of construction professionals on the benefits and challenges of utilizing sustainable procurement for construction projects through selected indicators that are categorized according to society and community needs.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable procurement, procurement, construction industry

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Authors: Jamid Ul Islam, Zillur Rahman

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The impulse for customer engagement research in online brand communities (OBCs) is largely acknowledged in the literature. Applying congruity theory, this study proposes a model of customer engagement by examining how two congruities viz. self-brand image congruity and value congruity influence customers’ engagement in online brand communities. The consequent effect of customer engagement on brand loyalty is also studied. This study collected data through a questionnaire survey of 395 students of a higher educational institute in India, who were active on Facebook and followed a brand community (at least one). The data were analyzed using structure equation modelling. The results revealed that both the types of congruity i.e., self-brand image congruity and value congruity significantly affect customer engagement. A positive effect of customer engagement on brand loyalty was also affirmed by the results. This study integrates and broadens extant explanations of different congruity effects on consumer behavior-an area that has received little attention. This study is expected to add new trends to engage customers in online brand communities and offer realistic insights to the domain of social media marketing.

Keywords: congruity theory, customer engagement, Facebook, online brand communities

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Authors: Elmamy Ahmedsalem

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The world has witnessed the collapse of many corporate giants as a result of unethical behavior in recent decades. This has induced a series of questions by the global community on why such occurrences could happen, even with corporate governance in place. This paper attempts to propose a philosophical approach from an Islamic perspective to be consolidated with current corporate governance in order to confront contemporary dilemmas. In this paper, ethical theories are presented as a discussion followed by their applications to modern cases of financial collapses. Virtue ethics by Aristotle, justice and fairness by John Rawls, deontology by Immanuel Kant, and utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill, are the four theories which can then be contrasted with the paradigm of Muslim scholars. Despite the differences between the fundamental principles of Islamic and Western worldviews, their ethical theories are aimed at making right decisions and solving ethical dilemmas based on what is good for society. Therefore, Islamic principles should be synthesized with Western philosophy to form a more coherent framework. The integration of Islamic and western ethical theories into business is important for sound corporate governance.

Keywords: business ethics, Islamic philosophy, western philosophy, Western and Islamic worldview of ethics

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Authors: G. Obrentri, C. Whajah, E. Yeboah Acheampong

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Professional status for African male players guarantees them socioeconomic benefits that may not necessarily be the case for female footballers. The study’s rationale is to understand how female footballers achieve professional status abroad. That contributes to analyzing how female players from Africa especially, Ghana, manage their professional status to improve their family’s social welfare and the community. Relying on football migration and feminization, we identify their migration process and its relevance to their social mobility in society. Analysis through interviews with some female footballers revealed the importance of playing professional abroad that goes to increase their social status and national identity. Findings show that some female footballers with secondary education achieved career empowerment and social independence via their profession. Thus becoming medical doctors and nurses, sports administrators, football coaches and welfare officers for clubs. These achievements of the female footballers can provide useful information and lessons for young female African players aspiring to play professionally abroad.

Keywords: empowerment, female footballers, football migration, professional status, social independence

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Talar Agopian

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Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) is a common practice in many Lebanese schools. However, ESL teaching is done in traditional ways. Methods such as constructivism are seldom used, especially in villages. Here lies the significance of this research which joins constructivism and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in ESL classes in Lebanese villages. The purpose of the present study is to explore the effects of applying constructivist student-centered strategies in teaching grammar, reading comprehension, and poetry on students in elementary ESL classes in two villages in Lebanon, Zefta in South Lebanon and Boqaata in Mount Lebanon. 20 English teachers participated in a training titled “Teaching English with Fun”, which focused on strategies that create a student-centered class where active learning takes place and there is increased learner engagement and autonomy. The training covered three main areas in teaching English: grammar, reading comprehension, and poetry. After participating in the training, the teachers applied the new strategies and methods in their ESL classes. The methodology comprised two phases: in phase one, practice-based research was conducted as the teachers attended the training and applied the constructivist strategies in their respective ESL classes. Phase two included the reflections of the teachers on the effects of the application of constructivist strategies. The results revealed the educational benefits of constructivist student-centered strategies; the students of teachers who applied these strategies showed improved engagement, positive attitudes towards poetry, increased motivation, and a better sense of autonomy. Future research is required in applying constructivist methods in the areas of writing, spelling, and vocabulary in ESL classrooms of Lebanese villages.

Keywords: active learning, constructivism, learner engagement, student-centered strategies

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Authors: Havish Nalapareddy, Mark V. Albert, Ranak Bansal, Avi Udash, Lin Lin

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Students engage in many course projects during their degree programs. However, impactful projects often need a time frame longer than a single semester. Ideally, projects are documented and structured to be readily accessible to future students who may choose to continue the project, with features that emphasize the local community, university, or course structure. The Research and Project Portal (RAPP) is a place where students can post both their completed and ongoing projects with all the resources and tools used. This portal allows students to see what other students have done in the past, in the same university environment, related to their domain of interest. Computer science instructors or students selecting projects can use this portal to assign or choose an incomplete project. Additionally, this portal allows non-computer science faculty and industry collaborators to document their project ideas for students in courses to prototype directly, rather than directly soliciting the help of instructors in engaging students. RAPP serves as a platform linking students across classes and faculty both in and out of computer science courses on joint projects to encourage long-term project efforts across semesters or years.

Keywords: education, technology, research, academic portal

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Authors: Mohammed Abu Shquier

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This paper introduces a word segmentation method using the novel BP-LSTM-CRF architecture for processing semantic output training. The objective of web morphological analysis tools is to link a formal morpho-syntactic description to a lemma, along with morpho-syntactic information, a vocalized form, a vocalized analysis with morpho-syntactic information, and a list of paradigms. A key objective is to continuously enhance the proposed system through an inductive learning approach that considers semantic influences. The system is currently under construction and development based on data-driven learning. To evaluate the tool, an experiment on homograph analysis was conducted. The tool also encompasses the assumption of deep binary segmentation hypotheses, the arbitrary choice of trigram or n-gram continuation probabilities, language limitations, and morphology for both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA), which provide justification for updating this system. Most Arabic word analysis systems are based on the phonotactic morpho-syntactic analysis of a word transmitted using lexical rules, which are mainly used in MENA language technology tools, without taking into account contextual or semantic morphological implications. Therefore, it is necessary to have an automatic analysis tool taking into account the word sense and not only the morpho-syntactic category. Moreover, they are also based on statistical/stochastic models. These stochastic models, such as HMMs, have shown their effectiveness in different NLP applications: part-of-speech tagging, machine translation, speech recognition, etc. As an extension, we focus on language modeling using Recurrent Neural Network (RNN); given that morphological analysis coverage was very low in dialectal Arabic, it is significantly important to investigate deeply how the dialect data influence the accuracy of these approaches by developing dialectal morphological processing tools to show that dialectal variability can support to improve analysis.

Keywords: NLP, DL, ML, analyser, MSA, RNN, CNN

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Authors: Mostafa Jafari

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How the people continually create and recreate the six dimensional inter- sub-cultural relationships from the strategic point of view? Can they engineer and direct it toward creating a set of peaceful subcultures? This paper answers to these questions. Our mental images shape the quantity and quality of our relationships. The six dimensions of mental images are: my mental image about myself, your mental image about yourself, my mental image about you, your mental image about me, my imagination about your image about me and your imagination about my mental image about you. Strategic engineering is dynamically shaping these images and imaginations.Methodology: This survey, which is based on object and the relation between the variables, is explanatory, correlative and quantitative. The target community members are 90 educated people from universities. The data has been collected through questionnaire and interview and has been analyzed by descriptive statistical techniques and qualitative method. Results: Our findings show that engineering and deliberatly managing the process of inter- sub-cultural transactions in the national and global level can enable us to continually reform a peaceful set of learner sub-culturals toward recreate a peaceful unit global Home.

Keywords: strategic engineering, mental image, six dimensional mental images strategy , cultural literacy, radar technique

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Authors: Arsalan Memon

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There are many challenges that a caregiver faces in average everyday life. One such challenge is coping with the stress and negative emotions of caregiving. The Stoics (i.e. Lucius Annaeus Seneca [4 B.C.E. - 65 C.E.], Epictetus [50-135 C.E.], and Marcus Aurelius [121-180 C.E.]) have provided coping techniques that are useful for dealing with stress and negative emotions. This paper lists and explains some of the fundamental coping techniques provided by the Stoics. For instance, some Stoic coping techniques thus follow (the list is far from exhaustive): a) mindfulness: to the best of your ability, constantly being aware of your thoughts, habits, desires, norms, memories, likes/dislikes, beliefs, values, and of everything outside of you in the world (b) constantly adjusting one’s expectations in accordance with reality, c) memento mori: constantly reminding oneself that death is inevitable and that death is not to be seen as evil, and d) praemeditatio malorum: constantly detaching oneself from everything that is so dear to one so that the least amount of suffering follows from the loss, damage, or ceasing to be of such entities. All coping techniques will be extracted from the following original texts by the Stoics: Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius, Epictetus’ Discourses and the Encheiridion, and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. One major finding is that the usefulness of each Stoic coping technique can be empirically tested by anyone in the sense of applying it one’s own life especially when one is facing real-life challenges. Another major finding is that all of the Stoic coping techniques are predicated upon, and follow from, one fundamental principle: constantly differentiate what is and what is not in one’s control. After differentiating it, one should constantly habituate oneself in not controlling things that are beyond one’s control. For example, the following things are beyond one’s control (all things being equal): death, certain illnesses, being born in a particular socio-economic family, etc. The conclusion is that if one habituates oneself by practicing to the best of one’s ability both the fundamental Stoic principle and the Stoic coping techniques, then such a habitual practice can eventually decrease the stress and negative emotions that one experiences by being a caregiver.

Keywords: care-giving, coping techniques, negative emotions, stoicism, stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 139