Search results for: eastern European countries

Authors: Chiung-Ju Huang

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This study utilizes a frequency domain approach over the period of 1996 to 2013 to examine the causal relationship between governance and economic growth in ten Asian countries, which have different levels of democracy; classified as “Free”, “Partly Free”, and “Not Free” countries. The empirical results show that there is no Granger causality running from governance to economic growth in “Not Free” countries and “Partly Free” countries with the exception of Singapore. As for “Free” countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, there is a one-way causality running from governance to economic growth. The findings of this study indicate that policy makers in South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore could use governance index to improve their predictions of the future economic growth.

Keywords: economic growth, frequency domain, governance, granger causality

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Authors: Jamel Boukhatem, Semia Rachid, Marmar Nasr

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Considering the differences between oil- and non-oil-producing countries, this paper aims to evaluate the impact of financial development (FD) and institutional quality (IQ) on CO2 emissions in 15 MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries over the period 1996-2018 using the Panel ARDL approach. We found evidence to support an unconditional long run effect of FD on environmental conditions (EC), with quite significant differences between the two groups of countries. While FD leads to environmental degradation (ED) in non-oil-producing countries, it helps protect the environment in oil-producing ones. Regarding the effects of IQ on EC, they are not significant in both short- and long run for non-oil-producing countries, but they are significant for oil-producing ones only in the long run. In the short run, IQ indicators haven’t significant effects on EC for the two groups of countries.

Keywords: financial development, institutional quality, environmental conditions, Panel ARDL

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Authors: Ana Campina, José Caramelo Gomes, Maria Emília Teixeira, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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In the pursuit of educational equity within Human Rights and European Fundamental Laws, the reality presents serious problems based on the psychologic, social understanding. Take into account the miscellaneous cultures in the global context and the nowadays numbers of Human mobilities, there are serious problems affecting the societies. This justifies the diagnosed need of a renew pedagogical and social education strategy to achieve the integration positive context preventing violence and discrimination, especially in Education systems. Consequently, it is important to have in mind the respect, acceptance, and integration of special needs students in all study degrees, as it is law but a complex reality. Despite the UN and International Human Rights, European Fundamental Chart, and all EU Treats, as the 28th EU State Member’s fundamental laws forecast the right of Education, the respect, the action and promotion of different cultures and the Education for ‘Difference’ integration – cultures; ideologies, Special Needs Students/Citizens – there are different and severe problems. Firstly, there are questions/contexts/problems not denounced by the lack of investments, political, social or ‘powers’ pressures, so, consequently, the authorities don’t have the action as laws demand and the transgressors haven´t any juridical or judicial punishment. Secondly, and our most important point: Governments, authorities and even victims hide these violations/violence/problems what disable the effective protection and law enforcement. Finally, the official and non-official strategies to get around the duties, break away the laws, failing the victims protection and consequently enable the problems increase dramatically. With this research, we observed that there are international Organizations/regions and States acting without respect to the Education right despite their democratic ideology and the generated external ‘image’ of law-abiding and Human Rights defenders. Nevertheless, it is urgent to develop a consistent Human Rights Education program aiming to protect, promote and implement the Right to be different and be respected by the law, the governments, institutions official and non-official, adapted to the needs in each society. The background of this research is the International and European laws, in accordance with the state’s legal systems. The approaches and the differences of the Education for Human and Fundamental Rights execution in the different EU countries, studying the pedagogy and social inclusion programs/strategies, with particular analysis of the Special Needs students. The results aim to construct a European Education profiling, with the governments and EU interventions need, as well as the panorama of the Special Needs Students effective integration achieving a renewed strategy to promote the respect of the Differences and an Inclusive School life.

Keywords: international human rights, culture, differences, European education profiling

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Authors: Yi-De Liu

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For many European cities, a key motivation in developing event strategies is to use event as a catalyst for urban regeneration. One type of event that is particularly used as a means of urban development is the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) initiative. Based on a case study of the 2008 ECOC Liverpool, this paper aims at conceptualising the significance of major event for a city’s economic, cultural and social regenerations. In terms of economic regeneration, the role of the ECOC is central in creating Liverpool’s visitor economy and reshaping city image. Liverpool planned different themes for eight consecutive years as a way to ensure economic sustainability. As far as cultural regeneration is concerned, the ECOC contributed to the cultural regeneration of Liverpool by stimulating cultural participation and interest from the demand side, as well as improving cultural provision and collaboration within the cultural sector from the supply side. So as to social regeneration, Liverpool treated access development as a policy guideline and considered the ECOC as an opportunity to enhance the sense of place. The most significant lesson learned from Liverpool is its long-term planning and efforts made to integrate the ECOC into the overall urban development strategy. As a result, a more balanced and long-term effect on urban regeneration could be achieved.

Keywords: cultural event, urban regeneration, european capital of culture, Liverpool

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Authors: Menglu Yang, Ani Beybutyan, Rocio Pina, Miguel Angel Soria

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Domestic violence against women is one of the most serious social problems in the world. Attitudes toward domestic violence against women play an important role in the perpetration of violence against women, the way that victims respond to the violence, and how the community responds to violence against women. China and Spain are countries which have been influenced by the culture which males hold power and dominance over the female for a long time. However, as more connected with other European countries, the legal enforcement related to domestic violence against women developed earlier in Spain, and consequently, social awareness of violence against women evolved differently in two countries. The present study aimed to explore and compare the attitudes toward domestic violence against women across China and Spain, and their influence factors, such as gender equality attitudes and coercive control. Totally 506 participants, 255 from China and 251 from Spain completed questionnaires, including attitudes toward domestic violence against women, definition of violence behavior, justification for violence, gender equity attitudes, and coercive control. Results demonstrated that Chinese participants were less aware of domestic violence against women issue but more agreed that such issue was a crime than Spanish participants. In addition to cultural difference, gender equality attitudes, coercive control, gender, and age also affected attitudes toward domestic violence against women. Our findings imply attitudes toward domestic violence against women differ from countries along with the difference in gender equity attitudes and coercive control; such a difference may arise from cultural, traditional belief and current justice system influence. Despite the developed justice system, male dominance culture may lead to maintain the belief that domestic violence is domestic and private issue which police and justice force may not get involved.

Keywords: cross-cultural differences, domestic violence, public attitudes, violence against women

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Authors: Benmessaoud Hassen

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We propose in this study to address the impact of socio-economic and environmental impact on the physical environment, especially their spatiotemporal dynamics in semi-arid and arid eastern Aurès. Including 11 municipalities, the study area spreads out over a relatively large surface area of about 60.000 ha. The hindsight is quite important and is determined by 03 days of analysis of environmental variation spread over thirty years (between 1987 and 2007). The multi-source data acquired in this context are integrated into a geographic information system (GIS).This allows, among other indices to calculate areas and classes for each thematic layer of the 4 layers previously defined by a method inspired MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use).The database created is composed of four layers of information (population, livestock, farming and land use). His analysis in space and time has been supplemented by a validation of the ground truth. Once the database has corrected it used to develop the comprehensive map with the calculation of the index of socio-economic and environmental (ISCE). The map supports and the resulting information does not consist only of figures on the present situation but could be used to forecast future trends.

Keywords: impact of socio-economic and environmental, spatiotemporal dynamics, semi-arid environments, GIS, Eastern Aurès

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Authors: R. Santos Jiménez, A. San-Antonio-González, M. del Río Merino, M. González Cortina, C. Viñas Arrebola

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On average, Europe generates around 890 million tons of construction and demolition waste (CDW) per year and only 50% of these CDW are recycled. This is far from the objectives determined in the European Directive for 2020 and aware of this situation, the European Countries are implementing national policies to prevent the waste that can be avoidable and to promote measures to increase recycling and recovering. In Spain, one of these measures has been the development of a CDW recycling guide for the manufacture of mortar, concrete, bricks and lightweight aggregates. However, there is still not enough information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. In view of the foregoing, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is creating a database with information on the possibility of incorporating CDW materials in the manufacture of gypsum products. The objective of this study is to improve this database by analysing the feasibility of incorporating two different CDW in a gypsum matrix: ceramic waste bricks (perforated brick and double hollow brick), and extruded polystyrene (XPS) waste. Results show that it is possible to incorporate up to 25% of ceramic waste and 4% of XPS waste over the weight of gypsum in a gypsum matrix. Furhtermore, with the addition of ceramic waste an 8% of surface hardness increase and a 25% of capillary water absorption reduction can be obtained. On the other hand, with the addition of XPS, a 26% reduction of density and a 37% improvement of thermal conductivity can be obtained.

Keywords: CDW, waste materials, ceramic waste, XPS, construction materials, gypsum

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Authors: Carolina B. A. Morais, Antonio Bob Santos

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In order to determine how innovation procurement can strengthen public efficiency and foster the modernization of public services, while at the same time promoting the opening of new private markets, this paper aims to present the two key instruments for the practice of innovation procurement at a European, national, and regional level – Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), and Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI). Thus, it starts with a theoretical framework on the emergence of this topic in the European Innovation Policy (Section 2), then continues with the identification and systematization of the main mechanisms for its effective adoption, both on the demand and supply side of the market (Section 3), as well as to expose and describe methods and tools for positioning innovation at the heart of public entities. The innovative projects best distinguished by the European Commission for their good practices in innovation procurement are identified, and the main methodology for the development and management of innovation procurement – Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) – is applied to them in a pioneering way (Section 4). The relevance of innovation in public procurement is systematized and reflected upon in Section 5.

Keywords: innovation procurement, innovation policy, innovation, pubic procurement

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Authors: Shamsu Abdu Dauda

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Mass Media have come to be identified as important agents of development all over the world, especially in conflict situations. In the North-eastern Nigeria, where the insurgency has plagued the population for more than a decade now, mass media as important stakeholders are also expected to showcase a high level of social responsibility in reconstructing, rebuilding, and reengineering the crises-ravaged people in the region. However, the intuition of the mass media can only discharge such important responsibility if they upheld professionalism and responsible journalism. This paper observes that professionalism and responsible journalism practice cannot be attained where there is no responsible media education, which is a basic requirement for transforming the region.

Keywords: media education, professionalism, responsible journalism, North-eastern Nigeria

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Authors: Yi-De Liu

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Destination branding is a popular practice adopted by many cities in the context of intensified tourism competition. However, branding for major event is a relatively new domain in the studies of destination marketing. Based on a case study of Liverpool as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, the aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of the key branding campaign - the ‘Look of the City’ programme. This study looks at quantitative data collected from on-street face-to-face survey. 611 questionnaires were distributed to and collected from local residents, visitors from the immediate hinterland, domestic tourists and overseas visitors. The analysis is done, first by investigating respondents’ impression on the Liverpool 08 brand and the branding campaign, and then by exploring the effects of campaign. The positioning of Liverpool compared with other similar cities is addressed in the end. The final section extracts lessons from this empirical investigation.

Keywords: destination branding, major event, European capital of culture, Liverpool

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Authors: Saeed S. Al-Sokari, Nasser A. Awadh Ali, Lianet Monzote

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Leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in at least 82 countries and considered to be a major public-health problem (1). The annual incidence of CL is 1–1.5 million cases of which 90% occur in only seven countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Syria (2). In Saudi Arabia, the disease was first described in 1973 by Moursy and Shoura (3). Currently, CL is common in the human population in different localities, including the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and in particular the Al-Hassa Oasis that is a known endemic area for CL (4). Five methanolic extracts obtained from Achillea biebersteinii (flower leaf), Euphorbia antiquorm, Solanum incanum (leaf and fruit extracts), collected from Albaha region and selected from ethno-botanical data, were screened for their anti-leishmanial activity against Leishmania amazonensis (6). The cytotoxic activity against normal peritoneal macrophages from normal BALB/c mice was also determined (6). The five extracts had IC50 values ranging from < 12.5 to 37.8 µg/ml against promastigotes. Achillea biebersteinii flower, Euphorbia antiquorm, Solanum incanum leaf extracts showed anti-leishmanial activities with IC50 between < 12.5 - 26.9µg/mL and acceptable selectivity indices of 8 - 5.

Keywords: plant extracts, Albaha, Leishmania amazonensis, Medicinal

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Authors: Djehich Mohamed Yousri

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The national sovereignty of states is now facing a dangerous situation that has witnessed a clear exacerbation of the restrictions that this sovereignty has known for quite some time, if not since the establishment of the sovereign national state in the first place, and things have reached this way to the extent that a group of analysts and commentators are talking about the demise or disappearance of the phenomenon of sovereignty Patriotism, a judgment that some consider exaggerated, although there is agreement on the seriousness of what has afflicted the national sovereignty of medium and small states in particular. In fact, the phenomenon of national sovereignty has not completely ended, as there is still a category of countries that are able to disagree with the American will without disappearing from the world map, as happened with the Soviet Union. China, some European countries, and some countries with leading regional roles are still able to deal with This administration, with rational and complex calculations, makes the restrictions on its sovereignty minimal, or at least draws a red line in front of the vital interests of those countries that the restrictions on sovereignty cannot cross, and it is certain that strengthening internal democratic development in countries will increase their ability to challenge external restrictions. On its sovereignty to the extent that this development creates a cohesive society in the face of external hegemony attempts, as well as to the extent that it eliminates some pretexts for interference in the internal affairs of states, including the claim of a lack of democracy or lack of respect for human rights in it. What led to transformations in the international arena in the wake of globalization and its effects on international aspects, including national sovereignty and the principle of state independence. Which was marred by several currents, which led to affecting it in a negative way, and this is what poor countries suffer from at the expense of rich countries, which led us to research the extent of the presence of national sovereignty on the international arena, and the extent to which the principle of non-interference in affairs is applied or existed. The internal affairs of states, which are stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations in the modern era, the theory of sovereignty has been subjected to substantial criticism and abandonment by many on the grounds that it is inconsistent with the current conditions of the international community. In fact, the theory of sovereignty has been misused to justify internal tyranny and international chaos. This theory has hindered the development of international law, the work of international organizations and the dominance of strong states over weak ones. At the present time, the concept of sovereignty has moved towards direction, as the transformations of the international system in the economic, political and military fields have led to the decline and erosion of the idea of the sovereignty of the national state.

Keywords: sovereignty, intervention, non-interference, globalization, humanitarian intervention

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Authors: Naci Büyükkaracığan, Murat Ahmet Ökmen

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In parallel with the population growth rate, the need of human being for energy sources in the world is gradually increasing incessant. The addition of this situation that demand for energy will be busier in the future, industrialization, the rise in living standards and technological developments, especially in developing countries. Alternative energy sources have aroused interest due to reasons such as serious environmental issues that were caused by fossil energy sources, potentially decreasing reserves, different social, political and economic problems caused by dependency on source providing countries and price instability. Especially in developed countries as European countries and also U.S.A particularly, alternative energy sources such as wind, geothermal, solar and biomass energy, hydrolic and hydrogen have been utilized in different forms, especially in electricity production. It includes a review of technical and environmental factors for energy sources that are potential replacements for fossil fuels and examines their fitness to supply the energy for a high standard of living on a worldwide basis. Despite all developments, fossil energy sources have been overwhelmingly used all around the world in primary energy sources consumption and they will outnumber other energy sources in the short term. Today, parallel to population growth and economy in Turkey, energy sources consumption is increasingly continuing. On one side, Turkey, currently 80% dependent on energy providing countries, has been heavily conducting fossil energy sources raw material quest within its own borders in order to lower the percentage, and the other side, there have been many researches for exploring potential of alternative energy sources and utilization. This case will lead to both a decrease in foreign energy dependency and a variety of energy sources. This study showed the current energy potential of Turkey and presents historical development of these energy sources and their share in electricity production. The research also seeked for answers to arguments that if the potential can be sufficient in the future. As a result of this study, it was concluded that observed geothermal energy, particularly active tectonic regions of Turkey, to have an alternative energy potential could be considered to be valuable on bass wind and solar energy.

Keywords: alternative energy sources, energy productions, hydroenergy, solar energy, wind energy

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Authors: Sean Goltz, Michael Mayo

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The purpose of this research is to use Global-Regulation.com database of the world laws, focusing on tax treaties between countries, in order to create an AI-driven tax simulator that will run an AI agent through potential tax scenarios across countries. The AI agent goal is to identify the scenario that will result in minimum tax liability based on tax treaties between countries. The results will be visualized by a three dimensional matrix. This will be an online web application. Multinational corporations are running their business through multiple countries. These countries, in turn, have a tax treaty with many other countries to regulate the payment of taxes on income that is transferred between these countries. As a result, planning the best tax scenario across multiple countries and numerous tax treaties is almost impossible. This research propose to use Global-Regulation.com database of word laws in English (machine translated by Google and Microsoft API’s) in order to create a simulator that will include the information in the tax treaties. Once ready, an AI agent will be sent through the simulator to identify the scenario that will result in minimum tax liability. Identifying the best tax scenario across countries may save multinational corporations, like Google, billions of dollars annually. Given the nature of the raw data and the domain of taxes (i.e., numbers), this is a promising ground to employ artificial intelligence towards a practical and beneficial purpose.

Keywords: taxation, law, multinational, corporation

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Authors: Naeemeh Silvari

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The tourism industry is important for different nations in two ways. Apart from economic benefits, it provides a basis for getting acquainted with the culture of different regions of the world. Depending on the capacities and contexts of their geography, countries try to attract more people to their country in different ways. Health tourism has been an important branch of the tourism industry in recent years, and many countries around the world are trying to make progress in this field and attract many tourists from around the world. Iran, like many developing countries in the Middle East and East Asia, is trying to improve and develop tourist attractions in the field of health. Due to the cheapness of providing medical services to tourists, many people have traveled to Iran for medical and health care. However, there is a long way to go before recognizing and reaching the desired position in this field. Due to the direct relationship between tourism and culture, the negative attitude towards the context of Iran has caused foreign travelers not to choose this country as their tourist destination. In this article, we tried to study the change in their attitude towards Iran by using semi-structured interviews of foreign travelers who traveled to Iran for treatment and medical services. The text of the interviews was coded and analyzed by MAX QDA software. Many of the people in the sample were from Middle Eastern and Arabic-speaking countries. Influenced by the media, they felt rejected by the Iranians before the trip. During their stay in Iran and in connection with the health care staff, in the first stage, they pointed out that many of their anxieties about the kind of treatment of Iranians have been allayed. In addition to the satisfaction with the medical services provided, they considered the atmosphere of Iranians' interaction with foreign travelers to be relatively appropriate, and some stated that Iran would be the destination of their leisure trip in the future. At the end of the research, policymakers were suggested that in order to resolve cultural contradictions rooted in values, they should first be recognized and seek to use other opportunities to resolve contradictions and form interactions with other cultures.

Keywords: cultural conflict, health tourism, cultural prejudice, advertising and media

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Authors: Bahram Fathi, Mahdi Khodaparast Mashhadi, Masuod Homayounifar

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According to 1404 forecasting documentation, among the most fundamental ways of Iran’s success in competition with other regional countries are innovations, efficiency enhancements and domestic productivity. Therefore, in this study, the energy consumption efficiency of Iran and the neighbor countries has been measured in the period between 2007-2012 considering the simultaneous economic activities, CO2 emission, and consumption of energy through data envelopment analysis of undesirable output. The results of the study indicated that the energy efficiency changes in both Iran and the average neighbor countries has been on a descending trend and Iran’s energy efficiency status is not desirable compared to the other countries in the region.

Keywords: energy efficiency, environmental, undesirable output, data envelopment analysis

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Authors: Saghar Heidari

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In this paper, we study the valuation problem of European continuous-installment options under Markov-modulated models with a partial differential equation approach. Due to the opportunity for continuing or stopping to pay installments, the valuation problem under regime-switching models can be formulated as coupled partial differential equations (CPDE) with free boundary features. To value the installment options, we express the truncated CPDE as a linear complementarity problem (LCP), then a finite element method is proposed to solve the resulted variational inequality. Under some appropriate assumptions, we establish the stability of the method and illustrate some numerical results to examine the rate of convergence and accuracy of the proposed method for the pricing problem under the regime-switching model.

Keywords: continuous-installment option, European option, regime-switching model, finite element method

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Authors: Emily Simango, T. Chitura

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Background: Bovine brucellosis is among the most neglected zoonotic diseases in developing countries, where it is endemic and a growing challenge to public health. The development of cost-effective control measures for the disease can only be affirmed by the knowledge of the disease epidemiology and the ability to define its risk profiles. The aim of the study was to document the trend of bovine brucellosis and the control measures adopted following reported cases during the period 2014 to 2019 in South Africa. Methods: Data on confirmed cases of bovine brucellosis was retrieved from the website of the World Organisation of Animal Health (WOAH). Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS, 2022) version 29.0. Descriptive analysis (frequencies and percentages) and the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized for statistical significance (p<0.05). Results: The data retrieved in our study revealed an overall average bovine brucellosis prevalence of 8.48. There were statistically significant differences in bovine brucellosis prevalence across the provinces for the years 2016 and 2019 (p≥0.05), with the Eastern Cape Province having the highest prevalence in both instances. Documented control measures for the disease were limited to killing and disposal of disease cases as well as vaccination of susceptible animals. Conclusion: Bovine brucellosis is real in South Africa, with the risk profiles differing across the provinces. Information on brucellosis control measures in South Africa, as reported to the WOAH, is not comprehensive.

Keywords: zoonotic, endemic, Eastern Cape province, vaccination

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Authors: Giorgia Carratta

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Since the beginning of mass production, plastic items have been crucial in our daily lives. Thanks to their physical and chemical properties, plastic materials have proven almost irreplaceable in a number of economic sectors such as packaging, automotive, building and construction, textile, and many others. At the same time, the disruptive consequences of plastic pollution have been progressively brought to light in all environmental compartments. The overaccumulation of plastics in the environment, and its adverse effects on habitats, wildlife, and (most likely) human health, represents a call for action to decision-makers around the globe. From a regulatory perspective, plastic production is an unprecedented challenge at all levels of governance. At the international level, the design of new legal instruments, the amendment of existing ones, and the coordination among the several relevant policy areas requires considerable effort. Under the pressure of both increasing scientific evidence and a concerned public opinion, countries seem to slowly move towards the discussion of a new international ‘plastic treaty.’ However, whether, how, and with which scopes such instrument would be adopted is still to be seen. Additionally, governments are establishing regional-basedstrategies, prone to consider the specificities of the plastic issue in a certain geographical area. Thanks to the new Circular Economy Action Plan, approved in March 2020 by the European Commission, EU countries are slowly but steadily shifting to a carbon neutral, circular economy in the attempt to reduce the pressure on natural resources and, parallelly, facilitate sustainable economic growth. In this context, the EU Plastic Strategy is promising to change the way plastic is designed, produced, used, and treated after consumption. In fact, only in the EU27 Member States, almost 26 million tons of plastic waste are generated herein every year, whose 24,9% is still destined to landfill. Positive effects of the Strategy also include a more effective protection of our environment, especially the marine one, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, a reduced need for imported fossil energy sources, more sustainable production and consumption patterns. As promising as it may sound, the road ahead is still long. The need to implement these measures in domestic legislations makes their outcome difficult to predict at the moment. An analysis of the current international and European Union legal framework on plastic pollution, binding, and voluntary instruments included, could serve to detect ‘blind spots’ in the current governance as well as to facilitate the development of policy interventions along the plastic value chain, where it appears more needed.

Keywords: environmental law, European union, governance, plastic pollution, sustainability

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Authors: Ronli Sifris

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The last Australian Parliamentary inquiry into surrogacy took place in 2016. Since then, a number of countries have reviewed their surrogacy laws, including countries such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, which traditionally have invoked similar legal approaches to Australia on a broad range of issues. The time is ripe to reform Australia’s surrogacy laws with a view to putting in place a system that best protects the rights of all parties to a surrogacy arrangement, and especially the rights of the child. There are two specific, linked issues which tend to be particularly contentious in the surrogacy context. The first relates to legal parentage. There are questions around whether the surrogate or the intended parents should be deemed the legal parents of a child born through surrogacy and what should be the process for any transfer of parentage. The second key issue relates to compensation and whether a surrogate should be compensated for the reproductive labour inherent in conceiving, gestating, and birthing a child. This paper will invoke a comparative analysis with a view to considering how different countries are regulating surrogacy and which approach best protects the rights all parties involved in the surrogacy arrangement, especially the rights of the children born through surrogacy. The specific countries to be considered are Australia, Canada, and California (United States). I have selected these countries for the following reasons: Australia is the jurisdiction where the author is based, it is, therefore, the jurisdiction with which she has the most familiarity. It allows altruistic surrogacy only and post-birth parentage orders in favour of the intended parents of children born through altruistic surrogacy California, as a jurisdiction allowing for compensated surrogacy and pre-birth parentage orders in favour of the intended parents, sits at the other end of the spectrum to Australia thereby providing an interesting point of comparison. Canada sits somewhere in the middle; it ostensibly allows only altruistic surrogacy, but in practice, many aspects of the Canadian process resemble compensated surrogacy. In addition to conducting a comparative analysis with other countries, the paper will also consider international human rights law as its overarching framework for determining the approach that best protects the rights of a child born through surrogacy. Particular attention will be paid to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as the key children’s rights treaty. The European Court of Human Rights will also be extensively considered as it has decided a number of cases relating to the rights of children born through surrogacy.

Keywords: surrogacy, children’s rights, australia, compensation, parentage

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Authors: Diana Ivanova Bakalova, Ekaterina Evtimova Dimitrova

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the predictive power of optimistic expectations and satisfaction with life in the country of origin and residence – Bulgaria, over the attitudes towards emigration among young Bulgarians with regard to their generational belonging and differences (i.e. Generation Y or Millennials, born between 1981-1995/6, and Generation Z or Zoomers, born between 1996/7-2012). Although the correlation between satisfaction with life and migration (attitudes) has been studied in some countries, it has neither been examined to date in Bulgaria – a sending rather than receiving Eastern European country, nor scrutinized in the light of generational differences. Within a national survey(N=1200), representative of young Bulgarians aged 18-35 years – Zoomers aged 18-25years (N=444) and Millennials aged 26-35 years (N=756), carried out in September-October 2021, optimistic expectations and satisfaction with life in Bulgaria were respectively measured by a 5-item and4-item scales. The scales were designed to measure optimistic expectations and satisfaction with life in the country, as both general constructs and in terms of specific areas of life (education, profession, career, and income). The findings suggest that the higher satisfaction with life in Bulgaria is associated with more optimistic expectations about one’s further professional, financial, and career growth in the country and reasonably, with more negative attitudes towards emigration of young Bulgarians. Although no significant differences were found between Millennials and Zoomers in their optimistic expectations and satisfaction with life in Bulgaria, Millennials are still significantly less likely to emigrate than Zoomers. Positively, the population of young Bulgarians demonstrates higher than average satisfaction with life and optimism for their prospects in the country combined with neutral to negative overall attitudes towards emigration. These findings have some important interdisciplinary psychological and demographic theoretical, applied, and policy implications. The survey is carried out under Project КП-06-Н35/4 “Psychological determinants of young people's attitudes to emigration and life planning in the context of demographic challenges in Bulgaria,” funded by the NSF - MES, Bulgaria.

Keywords: optimistic expectations, life satisfaction, emigration attitudes, young bulgerians

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Authors: Ali Arabkheradmand, Enayat A. Shabani, Shabnam Ranjbar Nikkhoo

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Historical and ancestral bonds of the countries in the Middle East have led to similarities in culture and context of their societies. In addition, economic resources, such as the oil industry, have generally been an integrative point in the region. Higher education of a country is influenced by different national and international factors and regarding the mentioned bonds, it is inviting to study the development of the countries of the Middle East in higher education and draw some practical implications which can be used in the educational policy-making of the region. This review includes a data analysis on the population of international students in the countries of the Middle East. As its second objective, a review study on the successful countries, that is those which host the highest number of international students and the strategies they have developed to reach this state among the countries of the region has been conducted. Suggestions are made as to the strategies in higher education systems of these countries which could prove useful and practical in the development of internationalization of higher education in the region, specifically with regard to the recruitment of international students.

Keywords: internationalization of higher education, international student recruitment, Middle East countries, educational policy making

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Authors: Mateusz Jeżowski, Jadwiga Fila, Paweł Poszytek

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This abstract summarizes the combined findings of several analyses carried out by the authors on the barriers to accessing international education mobility programs by people with fewer opportunities, especially those with a low level of cultural and social capital. Two flagship educational mobility initiatives of the European Union – the Erasmus+ Program and the European Solidarity Corps are aimed at equipping young people and participants of all ages with the qualifications and skills needed for their meaningful participation in a democratic society intercultural understanding and successful transition in the labour market. The heart of these programs is to come closer to people with fewer opportunities, including people with disabilities, migrants, as well as those facing socio-economic difficulties and displaying a low level of social and cultural capital. Still, people who participate in such initiatives usually demonstrate higher than average cultural and social capital, as understood by Pierre Bourdieu. First of all, the educational attainment of their parents is higher than the average. Secondly, they mostly live in large agglomerations, with good access to education and culture, which affects their foreign language skills as well as social and cultural competencies. Finally, participation in Erasmus+ Program or European Solidarity Corps is not their first educational mobility experience. It is therefore justified to state that their social and cultural capital, already high before taking part in Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps, becomes even higher once their international mobility activities have been over, at the expense of those people with fewer opportunities, who, in theory, could participate in those initiatives, nonetheless did not, for the following reasons: lack of sufficient information on such programs, financial obstacles or unappreciation of the value of international mobility. In their work, the authors will discuss what are, in the light of Bourdieu’s perception of social and cultural capital, the main obstacles for young people to participate in international mobility programs of the European Union and will offer comprehensive solutions rooted in their vast experience in management and implementation of Erasmus+ Program and European Solidarity Corps.

Keywords: cultural capital, educational mobility, Erasmus+, European solidarity corps, inclusion, social capital

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Authors: Agustinus Bandur, Dyah Budiastuti

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With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) in globalisation era, higher education (HE) internationalisation has become a worldwide phenomenon. However, even though various studies have been widely published in existing literature, the settings of these studies were taken places in developed countries. Accordingly, the major purpose of this article is to explore the current trends of higher education internationalisation programs with particular reference to identify the benefits and challenges confronted by participating staff and students. For these purposes, ethnographic qualitative study with the usage of NVivo 11 software was applied in coding, analyzing, and visualization of non-numeric data gathered from interviews, videos, web contents, social media, and relevant documents. Purposive sampling technique was applied in this study with a total of ten high-ranked accredited government and private universities in Indonesia. On the basis of thematic and cross-case analyses, this study indicates that while Australia has led other countries in dual-degree programs, partner universities from Japan and Korea have the most frequent collaboration on student exchange programs. Meanwhile, most visiting scholars who have collaborated with the universities in this study came from the US, the UK, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, and China. Other European countries such as Germany, French, and Norway have also conducted joint research with Indonesian universities involved in this study. This study suggests that further supports of government policy and grants are required to overcome the challenges as well as strategic leadership and management roles to achieve high impacts of such programs on higher education quality.

Keywords: higher education, internationalisation, challenges, Indonesia

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Authors: Ana Mouro, Ana Ramalheira

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Since 1989, with the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany has undergone a profound restructuring political and economic process. When the Euro Crisis broke out, Germany was no longer the “sick man” of Europe. Instead, it had recovered its dominance as the strongest and wealthiest economy within the European Union. With the European Debt Crisis, that has been taking place in the European Union since the end of 2009, Germany´s Chancellor Angela Merkel has gained the power of deciding, so to say, on the fate of the debtor nations, but she neither stands for binding German commitments, nor refuses assistance. A debate on whether Merkel’s hesitation has been deliberated and used as a means of coercion has arisen on international print media, and the Portuguese Press has been no exception. This study, which was conducted by using news reporting, opinion articles, interviews and editorials, published in the Portuguese weekly Expresso and the daily Público, from 2008 to 2015, tries to show how Merkel’s hesitation, depicted in the press by the term “Merkiavelli”, was perceived in Portugal, a country that had to embrace the austerity measures, imposed by the European Central Bank, but defined under Angela Merkel´s leading role.

Keywords: Euro crisis, “Merkiavelli”, cultural studies, Portuguese quality press

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Authors: Marref C., Marref S., Melakhssou M. A.

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The halophytic vegetation of Chott Gamra (Gadaïne Eco-complex, High Plateaus of Eastern Algeria) is characterized by a very rich cover. It is structured according to the variation in soil salinity and moisture. The objective of this study is to understand the biodiversity, distribution, and classification of halophytic vegetation. This wetland is characterized by a Mediterranean climate in the semi-arid to cool winter stage. The wetland area of the High Plateaus of Eastern Algeria constitutes a biodiversity reservoir. It is considered exceptional, although it remains little explored and documented to date. The study was conducted over consecutive spring seasons (2020/2021). Indeed, the inventory we established includes forty plant species belonging to fourteen different families, the majority of which are resistant to salinity and drought. These halophytic species that thrive there establish themselves in bands according to their tolerance threshold to salinity and their affinity to the hygroscopic level of the soil. Thus, other edaphic factors may come into play in the zonation of halophytes in saline environments. Species belonging to the Juncaceae and Poaceae families dominate by far the non-flooded vegetation cover of this site. These plants are perfectly adapted to saline environments.

Keywords: halophytes, biodiversity, salinity, wetland

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Authors: Chloe Fauchon

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In Europe, the right to a fair trial is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, signed in 1950, in its famous Article 6, and, in the field of the European Union, in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, binding since 2009. The right to a fair trial is, therefore, a fundamental right protected by all the relevant treaties. The right to a fair trial is an "umbrella right" which encompasses various sub-rights and principles. Although this right applies in all the proceedings, it gets a special relevance in criminal matters and, particularly, regarding the defendant. In criminal proceedings, the parties are not equal: the accusation is represented by a State-organ, with specific prerogatives, and the defense does not benefit from these specific powers and is often inexperienced in criminal law. Equality of arms, and consequently the right to a fair trial, needs some specific mechanisms to be effective in criminal proceedings. For instance, the defendant benefits from some procedural rights, such as the right to a lawyer, the right to be informed of the charges against them, the right to confront witnesses, and so on. These rights aim to give the defendant the tools to dispute the accusation. The role of the defense is, therefore, very important in criminal matters to avoid unjustified convictions. This specificity of criminal matters justifies that the focus will be put on them during this study. Then this paper will also focus on French and Spanish legal orders. Indeed, if the European Court and Convention on Human Rights are the most famous instruments to protect the right to a fair trial, this right is also guaranteed at a constitutional level in European national legal orders in Europe. However, this enshrinement differs from one country to the other: for instance, in Spain, the right to a fair trial is protected explicitly by the 1978 constitutional text, whereas, in France, it is more of a case-law construction. Nevertheless, this difference between both legal orders does not imply huge variations in the substantive aspect of the right to a fair trial. This can be specifically explained by the submission of both States to the European Convention on Human Rights. This work aims to show that, although the French and Spanish legal orders differ in the way they protect the right to a fair trial, this right eventually has the same substantive meaning in both legal orders.

Keywords: right to a fair trial, constitutional law, French law, Spanish law, European Court of Human Rights

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Authors: Yuhong Li, Luyu Mao

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Globalization has led to an increasingly interconnected international community and transmitted risks to every corner of the world through the chain of globalization. Security risks arising from international conflicts seem inescapable. Some countries have begun to build their capacity to deal with the globalization of security risks. They establish disembedding security mechanisms that transcend spatial or temporal boundaries and promote security cooperation with countries or regions that are not geographically close. This paper proposes four hypotheses of the phenomenon of "risks and security disembedding" in the post-Cold War international society and uses them to explain The United Kingdom’s behavior in the Bosnian War and the Russo-Ukrainian War. In the Bosnian War, confident in its own security and focused on maintaining European stability, The UK has therefore chosen to be cautious in its use of force in international frameworks such as the EU and to maintain a very limited intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina's affairs. In contrast, the failure of the EU and NATO’s security mechanism in the Russo-Ukrainian war heightened Britain's anxiety, and the volatile international situation led it to show a strong tendency towards security disembedding, choosing to conclude security communities with extra-territorial states. Analysis suggests that security mechanisms are also the starting point of conflict and that countries will rely more on disembedding mechanisms to counteract the global security risks. The current mechanism of security disembedding occurs as a result of the global proliferation of security perceptions as a symbolic token and the recognition of an expert system of security mechanisms formed by states with similar security perceptions.

Keywords: disembedding mechanism, bosnia war, the russian-ukrainian war, british security strategy

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Authors: S. Tebibel, C. Mechati, S. Messaoudi

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Algeria is currently experiencing the same rate of cancer progression as that registered these last years in the western countries. Colorectal cancer, constituting increasingly a major public health problem, is the most common form of cancer after breast and Neck-womb cancer at the woman and prostate cancer at the man. Our work is based on a retrospective study to determine the cases of colorectal cancer through eastern Algeria. Our goal is to carry out an epidemiological, histological and immune- histochemical study to investigate different techniques for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer and their interests and specific in detecting the disease. The study includes 110 patients (aged between 20 to 87 years) with colorectal cancer where the inclusions and exclusions criteria were established. In our study, colorectal cancer, expresses a male predominance, with a sex ratio of 1, 99 and the most affected age group is between 50 and 59 years. We noted that the colon cancer rate is higher than rectal cancer rate, whose frequencies are respectively 60,91 % and 39,09 %. In the series of colon cancer, the ADK lieberkunien is histological the most represented type, or 85,07 % of all cases. In contrast, the proportion of ADK mucinous (colloid mucous) is only 1,49% only. Well-differentiated ADKS, are very significant in our series, they represent 83,58 % of cases. Adenocarcinoma moderately and poorly differentiated, whose proportions are respectively 2,99 % and 0.05 %. For histological varieties of rectal ADK, we see in our workforce that ADK lieberkunien represent the most common histological form, or 76,74%, while the mucosal colloid is 13,95 %. Research of the mutation on the gene encoding K-ras, a major step in the targeted therapy of colorectal cancers, is underway in our study. Colorectal cancer is the subject of much promising research concern: the evaluation of new therapies (antiangiogenic monoclonal antibodies), the search for predictors of sensitivity to chemotherapy and new prognostic markers using techniques of molecular biology and proteomics.

Keywords: adenocarcinoma, age, colorectal cancer, epidemiology, histological section, sex

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Authors: Jongsoo Lee

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From the beginning of the conquest, the Spanish missionaries promoted indigenous intellectuality to prove that indigenous people were capable of receiving Christian doctrine. To prove indigenous intellectuality, Spanish missionaries focused on the highly advanced and complex level of indigenous political, religious, moral, artistic, and cultural practices. In this context, they frequently compared the Aztecs with European gentiles such as Greeks and Romans. In the chronicles of the Spanish missionaries such as Bernardino de Sahagún, indigenous wise men (tlamatinime) appear as clear evidence of indigenous civility and capability. As the pagan Greek and Roman philosophers, orators, rhetoricians, theologians, and physicians known as wise men in European history were responsible for the advanced level of social systems, some Spanish missionaries tried to identify those types of people, tlamatinime, in Aztec society. This paper examines how the Spanish colonizers invented European-style wise men in Prehispanic Mexico.

Keywords: Aztec, indigenous tradition, prehispanic Mexico, wise men

Procedia PDF Downloads 294