Search results for: psychological issues

Authors: Adebayo John Badeji

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This study examines some limiting factors in the dramaturgy of Irene Salami- Agunloye's Emotan. These factors are cultural, socio-political, and religious beliefs that play significant roles in gender balance, such that it establishes inequality between the sexes, giving male attributes greater value than that female ones subconsciously. This work draws its findings from the textual analysis method, and Stiwanism was employed as our theoretical framework. The theory is further discussed in the body of the work. By analysis, we subject this work to critical content analysis. Our findings revealed that most African feminist ideologies employ the ideology of revolt, which may not work on African soil. The play projects women's and men's issues in politics. This study exposes us to the fact that gender inequality is created by the male’s dominance in society. Also, the African women’s imitation of the cultural dictates of their fellow counterparts abroad is also affecting their own perspective on African soil. The study concludes that the African woman is looking at her freedom from the view of her counterparts in Europe and America, which is not right. As argued by Irene salami, women were active in societal development in Africa. This study, therefore, recommends that she should look at African women from the African perspective. This is because Queen Amina of Zazzau, Queen Idia of Benin, and Queen Moremi of Ife ruled when there were men, and they excelled.

Keywords: gender, identity, Emotan, factors

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Authors: Nora Alkharji, Wafa Fallatah

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Introduction: One of the major issues to consider when is deciding on what to feed a baby is the quality of the food itself. Whilst commercially prepared infant formulas are a nutritious alternative to breast milk, and even contain some vitamins and nutrients, most major medical organizations consider breastfeeding the best nutritional option for babies. Choosing whether to breastfeed or formula feed your baby is one of the first decisions expectant parents will make. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is in agreement with other organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Dietetic Association (ADA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) in recommending breastfeeding as the best nutrition for babies and best suited for a baby's digestive system. In addition, breastfeeding helps in the combatting of infections, prevention of allergies, and protection against various chronic conditions. The decision to breastfeed or formula feed one’s baby is a very personal one. However, certain points need to be clarified regarding the nutritional value of breastfeeding versus formula feeding to allow for informed decision-making. Methodology: -A formal debate about whether to breastfeed or formula feed babies as the better choice. -There will be two debaters, both lactation consultants -Arguments will be based on evidence-based medicine -Duration period of debated: 45 min Result: Clarification and heightened awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding. Conclusion: This debate will make the choice between breastfeeding or formula feeding a relatively easy one to make by both health worker and parents.

Keywords: breastmilk, formula milk, nutritional, comparison

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Authors: Greg Turner, Bin Lu, Cheer-Sun Yang

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As computing technology advances, smartphone applications can assist in student learning in a pervasive way. For example, the idea of using a mobile apps for the PA Common Trees, Pests, Pathogens, in the field as a reference tool allows middle school students to learn about trees and associated pests/pathogens without bringing a textbook. In the past, some researches study the mobile software Mobile Application Software Development Life Cycle (MADLC) including traditional models such as the waterfall model, or more recent Agile Methods. Others study the issues related to the software development process. Very little research is on the development of three heterogenous mobile systems simultaneously in a small university where the availability of developers is an issue. In this paper, we propose to use a hybride model of Waterfall Model and the Agile Model, known as the Relay Race Methodology (RRM) in practice, to reflect the concept of racing and relaying for scheduling. Based on the development project, we observe that the modeling of the transition between any two phases is manifested naturally. Thus, we claim that the RRM model can provide a de fecto rather than a de jure basis for the core concept in the MADLC. In this paper, the background of the project is introduced first. Then, the challenges are pointed out followed by our solutions. Finally, the experiences learned and the future work are presented.

Keywords: agile methods, mobile apps, software process model, waterfall model

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Authors: Ndje Ndje Mireille

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For some years in Cameroon, there has been an increase in violence in schools. This violence has gone from verbal to physical, sometimes going as far as murder. At the centre of this violence, we find the student who is a teenager in the midst of both physical and psychological changes. The unpredictable transformations of his body, the unexpected emotions arrouse when he encouters someonelse, intrusion, shortcomings, boredom, loneliness and self-deception are the threats to which the teenager faces daily. From the psychopathological point of view, the greatest threat in adolesence is probably the depresive threat. During adolescence and for several resons, the subject is confronted with the self image. He displays certantity which sometimes hides great uncertaintity about what leads him to manifest some particular behaviours or undertake certain actions. Faced with aggressiveness twards those he confronts, he feels more or less guilt. This can lead a certain number of adolescents to feel heplessness faced to their vis-à-vis, faced to life. This helplessness is sometimes reinforced by the social, cultural and economic context in which they are. The teeneger then feels threatens by this depression which, when it reaches its extreme, it is manifested by the feeling that he can no longer do anything. Generally, the depressive threats manifest itself in defensive forms vis-à-vis with the depression itself. Reason why, it is indeed a threat and not a threshold already crossed. This threat often manifests itself in inappropriate forms of attack on one’s own body as seen in a number of repetitive risky behaviours. We also see teenegers confront peers and even adults through physical attacks and often go as far as murder. All these behaviours appears as an absurd way of attacking and at the same time confronting the feeling of remaining alive. This depressive threats can also be expressed in forms of attacks on an individual’s thinking abilities or more explicitely in the form of accademic downfall. The depressive threats does not sum up all the problems of adolescence, but, undoubtly represents currently, one of the deepest form of unease adolescents face.

Keywords: violence, school, depression threats, adolescent, behavior

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Authors: Bhaumik Tyagi, Mandeep Kaur, Kanika Singla

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The advancement of blockchain has facilitated scholars to remodel e-voting systems for future generations. Server-side attacks like SQL injection attacks and DOS attacks are the most common attacks nowadays, where malicious codes are injected into the system through user input fields by illicit users, which leads to data leakage in the worst scenarios. Besides, quantum attacks are also there which manipulate the transactional data. In order to deal with all the above-mentioned attacks, integration of blockchain, convolutional neural network (CNN), and Quantum Key Distribution is done in this very research. The utilization of blockchain technology in e-voting applications is not a novel concept. But privacy and security issues are still there in a public and private blockchains. To solve this, the use of a hybrid blockchain is done in this research. This research proposed cryptographic signatures and blockchain algorithms to validate the origin and integrity of the votes. The convolutional neural network (CNN), a normalized version of the multilayer perceptron, is also applied in the system to analyze visual descriptions upon registration in a direction to enhance the privacy of voters and the e-voting system. Quantum Key Distribution is being implemented in order to secure a blockchain-based e-voting system from quantum attacks using quantum algorithms. Implementation of e-voting blockchain D-app and providing a proposed solution for the privacy of voters in e-voting using Blockchain, CNN, and Quantum Key Distribution is done.

Keywords: hybrid blockchain, secure e-voting system, convolutional neural networks, quantum key distribution, one-time pad

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Authors: Soo Hong Da, Ng Zheng Yao, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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The Healthcare sector is a business that consists of providing medical services, manufacturing medical equipment and drugs as well as providing medical insurance to the public. Most of the time, the data stored in the healthcare database is to be related to patient’s information which is required to be accurate when it is accessed by authorized stakeholders. In distributed systems, one important issue is concurrency in the system as it ensures the shared resources to be synchronized and remains consistent through multiple read and write operations by multiple clients. The problems of concurrency in the healthcare sector are who gets the access and how the shared data is synchronized and remains consistent when there are two or more stakeholders attempting to the shared data simultaneously. In this paper, a framework that is beneficial to distributed healthcare sector concurrent environment is proposed. In the proposed framework, four different level nodes of the database, which are national center, regional center, referral center, and local center are explained. Moreover, the frame synchronization is not symmetrical. There are two synchronization techniques, which are complete and partial synchronization operation are explained. Furthermore, when there are multiple clients accessed at the same time, synchronization types are also discussed with cases at different levels and priorities to ensure data is synchronized throughout the processes.

Keywords: resources, healthcare, concurrency, synchronization, stakeholders, database

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Authors: Irina-Ana Drobot

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Teaching English to Engineers is part of English for Specific Purposes, a domain which is under the attention of English students especially under the current conditions of finding jobs and establishing partnerships outside Romania. The paper will analyse the existing textbooks together with the teaching strategies they adopt. Teaching English to Engineering students can intersect with domains such as psychology and cultural studies in order to teach them efficiently. Textbooks for students of ESP, ranging from those at the Faculty of Economics to those at the Faculty of Engineers, have shifted away from using specialized vocabulary, drills for grammar and reading comprehension questions and toward communicative methods and the practical use of language. At present, in Romania, grammar is neglected in favour of communicative methods. The current interest in translation studies may indicate a return to this type of method, since only translation specialists can distinguish among specialized terms and determine which are most suitable in a translation. Engineers are currently encouraged to learn English in order to do their own translations in their own field. This paper will analyse the issue of the extent to which it is useful to teach Engineering students to do translations in their field using cognitive psychology applied to language teaching, including issues such as motivation and social psychology. Teaching general English to engineering students can result in lack of interest, but they can be motivated by practical aspects which will help them in their field. This is why this paper needs to take into account an interdisciplinary approach to teaching English to Engineers.

Keywords: cognition, ESP, motivation, psychology

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Authors: Livhuwani Muthelo, Tebogo Maria Mothiba, Rambelani Nancy Malema

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Background: Despite occupational legislation/standards being in place in the industry, there are many reported health and safety incidents, including both occupational injuries and illnesses in the South African mining industry. Purpose: This systematic literature review aimed to describe and identify the existing gaps in health and safety compliance within the South African mining industry and propose future research areas. Methodology: A systematic literature review was conducted using the key concepts of health and safety, compliance, standards, and mining. A total of 102 papers issued from 1994 to April 2020 were extracted from an online database search, which included a combination of South African and international government OHS legislation documents, policies, standards, reports from the mineral departments and international labour office, qualitative and quantitative journal articles, dissertations, seminars and conference proceedings. Results: The literature review revealed that, though there are laws, regulations, standards to guide the industry on health and safety issues in South Africa, the main challenge is with the compliance with the existing health and safety systems, wherein systems are not being implemented. Conclusion: Gaps between research, policy, and implementation in occupational health practice in the South African mining industry were also identified.

Keywords: circumstances, non-compliance, health and safety, standards, mining industry

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Authors: Sirajoddeen Al-Ameen

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Researchers seek to introduce development leading to technologies that address environmental problems and learn how to interact with stakeholders, managers, and policymakers for appropriate actions. One of the greatest strategies that African countries need to consider in realizing sustainable development is effective, efficient, credible, and lasting environmental sustainability and ensuring that future generations have access to natural resources to live in a better way. Therefore the coordinated set of participatory and continuously improving processes of analysis, capacity, planning, and investment seeks to integrate the social and environmental objectives of society, and this is not given priority in Nigeria. Environmental sustainability is a field where people can understand the natural environment and public works for sustainable development. Sustainable development requires shifts from ordinary ways of doing things to modern ways of executing activities ranging from low to high productivity, the creation and adoption of new strategies, new skills, and knowledge. It ensures a developed world with a secure and healthy environment for all; human beings, animals, and plants alike. This paper is to carry out a review of various literature sources to ascertain the potential strategy of environment and sustainable development reform using the content analysis method to discuss the environmental strategies towards sustainable development in Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to enable Nigerians to understand and have an orientation on how to manage environmental resources and avoid environmental impact on the ecosystem, and also to find sustainable solutions for environmental issues without compromising economic development.

Keywords: development, environment, strategies, sustainable

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Authors: Sharon Sibanda, Benny Motileng

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) identified the Sars-Cov-2 (COVID-19) as a pandemic on the 12ᵗʰ of March 2020, with South Africa recording its first case on the 5ᵗʰ of March 2020. The rapidly spreading virus led the South African government to implement one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns globally, resulting in the closing down of all institutions of higher learning effective March 18ᵗʰ 2020. Thus, this qualitative study primarily aimed to explore whether post-graduate psychology students were in a state of a depleted or cohesive self, post the psychological isolation of COVID-19 risk-adjusted level 5 lockdown. Semi-structured interviews from a qualitative interpretive approach comprising N=6 psychology post-graduate students facilitated a rich understanding of their intra-psychic experiences of the self. Thematic analysis of data gathered from the interviews illuminated how students were forced into the self by the emotional isolation of hard lockdown, with the emergence of core psychic conflict often defended against through external self-object experiences. The findings also suggest that lockdown stripped off this sample of psychology post-graduate students’ defensive escape from the inner self through external self-object distractions. The external self was stripped to the core of the internal self by the isolation of hard lockdown, thereby uncovering the psychic function of roles and defenses amalgamated throughout modern cultural consciousness that dictates self-functioning. The study suggests modelling reflexivity skills in the integration of internal and external self-experience dynamics as part of a training model for continued personal and professional development for psychology students.

Keywords: COVID-19, fragmentation, self-object experience, true/false self

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Authors: Asma Inge-Hanif, Ayyub Ansari Hanif

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The impact of conflicts, the subsequent refugee migration to America and their attempted use of societal resources implicate the lack of further humanitarian aid as a consequence of the abrupt decrease in services and policy changes stemming from new governmental mandates and Executive Orders. Statistical research data indicates a substantial decline in access to standardized health services by refugee women creating a significant alteration in the management of their maternal health care in America, previously shown to result in decreased mortality and morbidity. Studying nursing at Howard University in Washington, D.C., observed doctors were not always sensitive to the needs and modesty concerns of immigrant Muslim women - often unintentionally. Among health care professionals, the prevailing belief should be that every man, woman and child has the right to quality care in a dignified manner and the achievement of optimal health and well-being, regardless of race, creed, socio-economic level or status. In 1987 Muslimat Al Nisaa Health and Social Services Center was established to care for underserved and uninsured women and children. This Center, plus the subsequent shelter, provided direct access to those homeless, refugees, human trafficking and women victims of domestic violence was established and provides the data for this study. Understanding specific culture, social, economic and religious nuances respects their diversity and addressing their basic human needs that they achieve optimal success. The ultimate goal being to facilitate the rescue and housing of those whom escaped from a country/communities where girls are devalued, brought, sold and abused.

Keywords: women, refugee, domestic violence, health care

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Authors: Jayantha Withanaarachchi, Sujeeva Setunge, Sara Moridpour

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Gaps in strategic thinking and planning lead to critical transport infrastructure resilience. These gaps in strategic transport and land use development planning have an impact on communities and cities. Natural and man-induced disasters can be catastrophic to communities. After a disaster, many types of critical infrastructure, including transport infrastructure gets un-usable or gets damaged. This paper examines strategic thinking behind the resilience and protection of Critical Transport Infrastructure (CI) within transport networks by investigating the impact of disasters such as bushfires, hurricanes and earthquakes. A detailed analysis of three case studies have been conducted to identify the gaps in strategic transport planning and strategic decision making processes required to mitigate the impacts of disasters. Case studies will be analysed to identify existing gaps in road design, transport planning and decision making. This paper examines the effect of road designing, transport corridors and decision making during transport planning stages and how it impacts transport infrastructure as well as community resilience. A set of recommendations to overcome the shortcomings of existing strategic planning and designing process are presented. This research paper reviews transport infrastructure planning issues and presents the common approach suitable for future strategic thinking and planning which could be adopted in practices.

Keywords: community resilience, decision making , infrastructure resilience, strategic transport planning, transport infrastructure

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Authors: Amer Alzaidi

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Islamic banking is an alternative solution to those people who are worried about Riba (interest) in all forms of transaction while using banking services and products. Today, banks around the world have Islamic banking services and products the in one form or another. The use of Islamic banking is not only restricted to Muslims world but have reached to non-Muslim countries like UK, USA, Australia and Canada as well. Compared to conventional banking, the adoption rate of Islamic banking is low because of unawareness of customers, financial cost, and performance issues. The interest in Islamic banking by financial institutions as well as low adoption rate motivated us to look this matter into detail in order to identify Critical Success Factors, which are positively motivating customers to use Islamic banking services/ products and Critical Risk Factors, which have significantly negative effect on the adoption of Islamic banking. The CSFs and CRFs will be initially identified from the literature using methodology called Systematic Literature Review, followed by the empirical analysis of these factors using survey research method. Later, we will develop Islamic Banking Adoption Model (IBAM) to help banks to assess their Islamic banking strategic positioning and to improve their operational efficiency. The first potential contribution of this research study will be the development of IBAM protocol that will provide us guidelines for conducting our actual SLR. The second major contribution of this research will be the development of Islamic Banking Adoption Model (IBAM), and the third contribution of this research study will be the evaluation of the developed IBMA.

Keywords: Islamic banking, adoption model, protocol, technology

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Authors: R. Vidhya, M. Navamuniyammal M. Sivakumar, S. Reeta

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The unplanned urbanization affects the environment due to pollution, conditions of the atmosphere, decreased vegetation and the pervious and impervious soil surface. Considered to be a cumulative effect of all these impacts is the Urban Heat Island. In this paper, the urban heat island effect is studied for the Chennai city, TamilNadu, South India using satellite remote sensing data. LANDSAT 8 OLI and TIRS DATA acquired on 9th September 2014 were used to Land Surface Temperature (LST) map, vegetation fraction map, Impervious surface fraction, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) map. The relationship among LST, Vegetation fraction, NDBI, NDWI, and NDVI was calculated. The Chennai city’s Urban Heat Island effect is significant, and the results indicate LST has strong negative correlation with the vegetation present and positive correlation with NDBI. The vegetation is the main factor to control urban heat island effect issues in urban area like Chennai City. This study will help in developing measures to land use planning to reduce the heat effects in urban area based on remote sensing derivatives.

Keywords: land surface temperature, brightness temperature, emissivity, vegetation index

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Authors: Ching-Feng Chen, Ching-Chih Tsai

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With the size of the transistor gradually approaching the physical limit, it challenges the persistence of Moore’s Law due to the development of the high numerical aperture (high-NA) lithography equipment and other issues such as short channel effects. In the context of the ever-increasing technical requirements of portable devices and high-performance computing, relying on the law continuation to enhance the chip density will no longer support the prospects of the electronics industry. Weighing the chip’s power consumption-performance-area-cost-cycle time to market (PPACC) is an updated benchmark to drive the evolution of the advanced wafer nanometer (nm). The advent of two and half- and three-dimensional (2.5 and 3D)- Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) packaging based on Through Silicon Via (TSV) technology has updated the traditional die assembly methods and provided the solution. This overview investigates the up-to-date and cutting-edge packaging technologies for 2.5D and 3D integrated circuits (ICs) based on the updated transistor structure and technology nodes. The author concludes that multi-chip solutions for 2.5D and 3D IC packagings are feasible to prolong Moore’s Law.

Keywords: moore’s law, high numerical aperture, power consumption-performance-area-cost-cycle time to market, 2.5 and 3D- very-large-scale integration, packaging, through silicon via

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Authors: Kaori Mori Want

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American society is a racially diverse society and there are children books that tell the importance of respecting racial differences. Through reading books, children understand the world around them little by little along with their direct interaction with the world in reality. They find role models in books, strive to be like role models, and grow confidence in who they are. Books thus nurture the mind of children. On the other hand, because of their small presence, children books for multiracial Asian American children are scarce. Multiracial Asian American population is increasing but they are still minority in number. The lack of children’s books for these children may deprive the opportunities of them to embrace their multiraciality positively because they cannot find someone like them in any books. Children books for multiracial Asian American are still not that many, but a few have been being published recently. This paper introduces children books for multiracial Asian American children, and examines how they address issues pertaining to these children, and how they could nurture their self-esteem. Many states of the US used to ban interracial marriages and interracial families and their children once were discriminated against in American society. There was even a theory called the hybrid degeneracy theory which claimed that mixed race children were inferior mentally and physically. In this negative social environment, some multiracial Asian American people report that they had trouble embracing their multiracial identity positively. Yet, children books for these children are full of positive messages. This paper will argue the importance of children books for the mental growth of multiracial Asian American children, and how these books can contribute to the development of multiculturalism in the US in general.

Keywords: critical mixed race studies in the US, hapa children literature, interracial marriage, multiraciality

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Authors: Anindita Roy

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This paper offers a queer reading of the myth of Mohini and Ardhanarishvara in Indian mythology to explore the transformative capacity of gender performativity with a view to focusing on the notion of female and male as harmonious contributors in culture and nature. The qualitative study of these two narratives ponders on the issues of dualism in Indian mythology. These myths approach different queer experiences in different ways - the first, an incarnation of Vishnu into Mohini by body swapping and the latter, the myth of Ardhanarishvara in which one sacred body upholds two different biological identities together- male and female. Emphasizing on the transformation of sex, the present paper re-reads how these queer-transformations can become transformative in the society. The study is explained in three parts. The first one focuses on the two select myths to explore the idea of gender as performance and the concept of queer ecofeminism where nature/culture, heterosexuality/queer female/male dualism exist in a paradigm. The second segment analyzes whether these myths destabilize or promote the access of queer and the experience of ‘other’ in the society and resistance against domination. The third section inquires to rethink the whole world about the value and hierarchy of men over women, heterosexuality over queer, culture over nature to call for a recovery of the female/male, nature/culture principles as complementary. What the paper intends to investigate is if and how gender transformations in religious myths have the capacity to transform personal and social notions and practices of different hierarchies.

Keywords: dualism, Indian myth, queer, transformativity

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Authors: Fines Fatimah, SH. MH.

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Indonesia is one of the countries that has ratified the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). The ratification of this convention brings consequences on the adjustment of national legislation with the UNCRPD convention, where this ratification at the same time is a measure in the eyes of the international community that a state party could be consistent with the issues and problems of disability. Persons with disabilities often have little access to justice when they are forced to deal with the criminal justice system. Pursuit of justice through litigation are often not in their favor, therefore without any awareness of law enforcement/awareness of disability will further complicate access to justice for persons with disabilities. Under Article 13 of the UNCRPD, it appeared that the convention requires ratifying states to guarantee equal opportunity and treatment in justice for persons with disabilities. The States should also ensure that any judicial rules must be adapted to the circumstances of persons with disabilities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all stages of the trial court and, for example, as a witness. Finally, the state must provide training to understand these persons with disabilities (for those who work in the judiciary institution such as police or prison officials). Further, this paper aims to describe problem faced by persons with intellectual disabilities to access justice in Indonesian Criminal Justice System. This paper tries to find and propose the alternative solutions to promote the quality of law enforcement in Indonesia, especially for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Keywords: access to justice, Indonesian criminal justice system, intellectual disability, ratifying states

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Authors: Shahad Alkhalifah, Jonh Wright

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder associated, for 42% to 88% of people with ASD, with sensory processing disorders. Sensory processing disorders (SPD) impact daily functioning, and it is, therefore, essential to be able to diagnose them accurately. Currently, however, there is no assessment tool available for the Saudi Arabia (SA) population that would cover a wider enough age range. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Sensory Processing Measure Preschool-Home Form (SPM-P) when used in English, with a population of English-speaking Saudi participants. This was chosen due to time limitations and the urgency in providing practitioners with appropriate tools. Using a convenience sampling approach group of caregivers of typically developing (TD) children and a group of caregivers for children with ASD were recruited (N = 40 and N = 16, respectively), and completed the SPM-P Home Form. Participants were also invited to complete it again after two weeks for test-retest reliability, and respectively, nine and five agreed. Reliability analyses suggested some issues with a few items when used in the Saudi culture, and, along with interscale correlations, it highlighted concerns with the factor structure. However, it was also found that the SPM-P Home has good criterion-based validity, and it is, therefore, suggested that it can be used until a tool is developed through translation and cultural adaptation. It is also suggested that the current factor structure of SPM-P Home is reassessed using a large sample.

Keywords: autism, sensory, assessment, reliability, sensory processing dysfunction, preschool, validity

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Authors: Sandra Figueiredo, Margarida Alves Martins, Carlos Silva, Cristina Simões

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This study integrates a larger research empirical project that examines second language (SL) learners’ profiles and valid procedures to perform complete and diagnostic assessment in schools. 102 learners of Portuguese as a SL aged 7 and 17 years speakers of distinct home languages were assessed in several linguistic tasks. In this article, we focused on writing performance in the specific task of narrative essay composition. The written outputs were measured using the score in six components adapted from an English SL assessment context (Alberta Education): linguistic vocabulary, grammar, syntax, strategy, socio-linguistic, and discourse. The writing processes and strategies in Portuguese language used by different immigrant students were analysed to determine features and diversity of deficits on authentic texts performed by SL writers. Differentiated performance was based on the diversity of the following variables: grades, previous schooling, home language, instruction in first language, and exposure to Portuguese as Second Language. Indo-Aryan languages speakers showed low writing scores compared to their peers and the type of language and respective cognitive mapping (such as Mandarin and Arabic) was the predictor, not linguistic distance. Home language instruction should also be prominently considered in further research to understand specificities of cognitive academic profile in a Romance languages learning context. Additionally, this study also examined the teachers representations that will be here addressed to understand educational implications of second language teaching in psychological distress of different minorities in schools of specific host countries.

Keywords: home language, immigrant students, Portuguese language, second language, writing assessment

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Authors: Chaohong Pan

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Through public diplomacy on social media, governments have attempted to influence foreign public opinion. What is the impact of digital public diplomacy? Public diplomacy research often relies on content analysis to study the strategies employed by communicators but has rarely examined its actual impact on the audience. In addition, we do not know if giving a communicator an explicit label, as Twitter does with “government account”, would change the effects of the messages. Can the government label reduce the percussiveness of public diplomacy messages by sending a warning signal? Using a 2 × 2 survey experiment, the present paper contributes to the study of public diplomacy by randomly exposing American participants to four types of tweets from Chinese diplomats. The stimulus materials vary in terms of the tweets’ content (“positive-china” vs. “negative-US) and Twitter government labels (with vs. without the labels). I found that positive tweets about China have a significant positive effect on Americans’ attitudes toward China, whereas negative tweets about the US have little effect on their opinions. Furthermore, positive-China tweets are effective only on China-related issues, which indicates that Chinese diplomats’ tweets have limited effects on shaping a foreign audience’s attitudes toward their own country. Lastly, I find that labels largely have no impact on a diplomatic tweet’s effect. These results contribute to our understanding of the effects of public diplomacy in the digital age.

Keywords: public diplomacy, china, foreign public opinion, twitter

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Authors: Zwelenkani Mdlalose

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From the moment Covid 19 was declared a pandemic it became clear that conspiracy theories would significantly impact our response to the crisis that the virus was to become. Central to the interest in conspiracy theories evoked by a pandemic is a more general concern for the impact they have on society and social harmony. The specific brand of Conspiracy Theory that is in question is not any and all theories about conspiracies but rather those conspiracy theories which contradict official accounts. For example, where the official account on the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 is of a conspiracy involving 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the nature of conspiracy theory under study is the one contradicting this official account to the extent that its attributes the attacks not to al-Qaeda militants but to actors in the United States government itself. The study is not an investigation into the truth value of conspiracy theories but rather an attempt at observing the essential qualities of the type of belief that is belief in conspiracy theories compared to belief in official accounts provided by authoritative sources such as governments, experts and mainstream media. These qualities include the psychological, epistemic and socio-political foundations on which belief in conspiracy theories are established. Based on a foundational understanding of the sort of belief that are beliefs in conspiracy theories, we may then extrapolate implied ethical demands on both authoritative bodies and actors as well as believers in conspiracy theories. For example: in their unofficial ‘non-factual’ status, is there not some violation of epistemic right in the same way we observe in cases where people are prejudiced because of their religious beliefs? In other words, is there an epistemic injustice suffered by believers in conspiracy theories in the way their beliefs are rejected as illegitimate? Conversely, to what extent do believers bear an epistemic responsibility in their adoption of their beliefs in conspiracy theories. From this position, perhaps we can then develop responses to the problem that foster greater social harmony even in the midst of suspicion and distrust.

Keywords: conspiracy theories, subjugated knowledge, epistemic injustice, epistemic responsibility

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Authors: Murray Olowa

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This article examines the studies investigating the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) of secondary preservice teachers in Papua New Guinea based on probabilities. This research was conducted due to the continuous issues faced in the country in both primary and secondary education, like changes in curriculum, emphasis on mathematics and science education, and a decline in mathematics performance. Moreover, the mathematics curriculum doesn’t capture Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) or Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK). The two main domains that have been identified are SMK and PCK, which have been further sub-divided into Common Content Knowledge (CCK), Specialised Content Knowledge (SCK) and Horizon Content Knowledge (HCK), and Knowledge of Content and Students (KCS), Knowledge of Content and Teaching (KCT) and Knowledge of Content and Curriculum (KCC), respectively. The data collected from 15-_year-_ ones and 15-_year-_fours conducted at St Peter Chanel Secondary Teachers College revealed that there is no significant difference in subject matter knowledge between year one and year four since the P-value of 0.22>0.05. However, it was revealed that year fours have higher pedagogical content knowledge than year one since P-value was 0.007<0.05. Finally, the research has proven that year fours have higher MKT than year one. This difference occurred due to final year preservice teachers’ hard work and engagement in mathematics curriculum and teaching practice.

Keywords: mathematical knowledge for teaching, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, Papua New Guinea, preservice teachers, probability

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Authors: Hannah Yael Ephraim

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During reproductive age (between 15 and 44), women are particularly susceptible to psychiatric illness. Depression and anxiety disorders are especially common for women during reproductive age. Women of reproductive age are also at greater risk for multiple physical conditions during this time. Existing literature focuses on the impact of mental health on physical health, showing that people with anxiety and depression repeatedly show greater physical health risk among those with developing chronic medical illness. However, there is limited research on the impact physical health has on mental health in women of reproductive age, a large and vulnerable population. For this reason, the current study seeks to ask the following questions: are women of reproductive age with a diagnosis of a chronic physical condition more likely to experience symptoms of mental illness than women without a diagnosis of a chronic physical condition? Does the type of physical illness relate to signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety? A quasi-experimental research design was implemented to compare the mental health outcomes of women with the diagnosis of chronic medical conditions and women without the diagnosis of a chronic medical condition. Quantitative data was collected through an anonymous ten-minute Qualtrics survey. The survey was sent out through multiple online platforms. The sample includes two groups of women: one group with the diagnosis of a chronic medical illness, and one group without a diagnosis and/or symptoms (N = 541). Participants identify as a woman and are between the ages of 15 and 44. A comparison of women with a diagnosis of a chronic physical condition and those without a diagnosis will be conducted to explore differences in depression and anxiety symptoms between women with and without a chronic medical diagnosis. The impact race, SES, and occupation will also be addressed in relation to anxiety and/or depression in women of reproductive age. This study will further the understanding of the relationship between mental illness in women of reproductive age with chronic medical conditions. The results of this study will have implications for the integration of mental health care in women’s health centers and perhaps training of clinicians and physicians providing psychological and medical care to women of reproductive age.

Keywords: mental health, physical health, reproductive age, women

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Authors: Nancy Ayman Kamal Mohamed Mehrz

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Like the economies of other countries in the Mediterranean region, the tourism sector in our country has excellent economic prospects. Tourism companies are building tourism, a sector that faces various challenges in its activities. These problems have made business activities and competition between companies difficult. In this study, which was conducted to identify the problems of the tourism sector in the Central Anatolia region, most of the problems faced by the tourism sector and consumer information on consumer rights were used. The aim is to contribute to the awareness of workers and managers working in the tourism sector and to attract the attention of companies and legislators working in the tourism sector. E-tourism is one of the newest issues in the field of tourism. Infrastructure and Information Technology (or ICT) and partner government and tourism organizations are required to achieve this type of tourism. This study measures the views of managers and tourism managers in Leman City regarding e-tourism; In addition, the effect of the literacy level of the tourism management system on tourist attractions was also examined. This research has been carried out. One of the suburbs of Isfahan province. This research is a documentary research and source material that includes literature and surveys. The results obtained show that if managers use ICT, it can help the development of e-tourism in the region, and increasing managers' views about e-tourism and improving their literacy levels can affect the development of tourism.

Keywords: financial problems, the problems of tourism businesses, tourism businesses, internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management economic competitiveness, enhancing competitiveness

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Authors: Isha Sharawat, R. P. Dahiya, T. R. Sreekrishnan

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One of the environmental challenges in India is urban wastewater management as regulations and infrastructural development has not kept pace with the urbanization and growing population. The quality of life of people is also improving with the rapid growth of the gross domestic product. This has contributed to the enhancement in the per capita water requirement and consumption. More domestic water consumption generates more wastewater. The scarcity of potable water is making the situation quite serious, and water supply has to be regulated in most parts of the country during summer. This requires elaborate and concerted efforts to efficiently manage the water resources and supply systems. In this article, a system dynamics modelling approach is used for estimating the water demand and wastewater generation in a district headquarter city of North India. Projections are made till the year 2035. System dynamics is a software tool used for formulation of policies. On the basis of the estimates, policy scenarios are developed for sustainable development of water resources in conformity with the growing population. Mitigation option curtailing the water demand and wastewater generation include population stabilization, water reuse and recycle and water pricing. The model is validated quantitatively, and sensitivity analysis tests are carried out to examine the robustness of the model.

Keywords: system dynamics, wastewater, water pricing, water recycle

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Authors: Tabitha D. Hussein, Arigu M. Sunday

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This paper is an attempt to gauge the conception and misconception of mental health in the Gwafan community, Jos North Plateau State, Nigeria (West Africa), to ascertain which side of the scale the pendulum swings. Mental health education and awareness are necessary for healthy community development. However, in a society such as ours in Nigeria (Africa) that is not knowledge-based, it is easy for people to embrace hearsay, speculations, superstition, and the supernatural. The objectives of this paper are two folds: first, to examine the level of awareness of the people on mental health, or the lack of it; second, to ascertain their access to mental health services and good practices. The methodology adopted is qualitative research, and the instrument used is T-test related. The findings include, first, the fact that a larger population has misconceptions about Mental Health. Second, this misconception is a result of a lack of basic knowledge of Mental Health. Based on the aforementioned, the paper recommends that there is a need for more Mental Health Education among the populace and access to Mental Health services and practices (Preventative and Curative). The paper concludes that in a society that is not knowledgebase, every attempt should be made to shift people’s mindset from superstitious knowledge to evidence-based knowledge, which can empower them to make informed decisions not only on mental Health but on associative Health issues that can aid their wellbeing, livelihood and sustainable development as a whole.

Keywords: conceptions, misconceptions, mental health, knowledge, superstition, service delivery

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Authors: Leah Wright, Trevor Townsend

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Mode choice models are crucial instruments in the analysis of travel behaviour. These models show the relationship between an individual’s choice of transportation mode for a given O-D pair and the individual’s socioeconomic characteristics such as household size and income level, age and/or gender, and the features of the transportation system. The most popular functional forms of these models are based on Utility-Based Choice Theory, which addresses the uncertainty in the decision-making process with the use of an error term. However, with the development of artificial intelligence, many researchers have started to take a different approach to travel demand modelling. In recent times, researchers have looked at using neural networks, fuzzy logic and rough set theory to develop improved mode choice formulas. The concept of cloud theory has recently been introduced to model decision-making under uncertainty. Unlike the previously mentioned theories, cloud theory recognises a relationship between randomness and fuzziness, two of the most common types of uncertainty. This research aims to investigate the use of cloud theory in mode choice models. This paper highlights the conceptual framework of the mode choice model using cloud theory. Merging decision-making under uncertainty and mode choice models is state of the art. The cloud theory model is expected to address the issues and concerns with the nested logit and improve the design of mode choice models and their use in travel demand.

Keywords: Cloud theory, decision-making, mode choice models, travel behaviour, uncertainty

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Authors: Stanely Nsubuga

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Background In Uganda, injection drug use is a growing but less studied problem. Preventing the transition to injection drug use may help prevent blood-borne viral transmission, but little is known about when and how people transition to injection drug use. A greater understanding of this transition process may aid in the country’s efforts to prevent the continued growth of injection drug use, HIV, and hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection among people who inject drugs (PWID). Methods Using a rapid situation assessment framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews among 125 PWID (102 males and 23 females)—recruited through outreach and snow-ball sampling. Participants were interviewed about their experiences on when and how they transitioned into injection drug use and these issues were also discussed in 12 focus groups held with the participants. Results All the study participants started their drug use career with non-injecting forms including chewing, smoking, and sniffing before transitioning to injecting. Transitioning was generally described as a peer-driven and socially learnt behavior. The participants’ social networks and accessibility to injectable drugs on the market and among close friends influenced the time lag between first regular drug use and first injecting—which took an average of 4.5 years. By the age of 24, at least 81.6% (95.7% for females and 78.4% for males) had transitioned into injecting. Over 84.8% shared injecting equipment during their first injection, 47.2% started injecting because a close friend was already injecting, 26.4% desired to achieve a greater “high” (26.4%) which could reflect drug-tolerance, and 12% out of curiosity.

Keywords: People who Use Drugs, transition, injection drug use, Uganda

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Authors: Gülçin Akbas Uslu

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Honor cultures put importance on the sexual purity of women. Women are expected to avoid acts that may spoil their honor. The emphasis on honor leads to the subordination of women and the dominance of men. In order to protect and clean honor, women are exposed to physical and psychological violence. Therefore, understanding the motivations driving people to endorse honor bears importance. For this purpose, this study aims to explore honor endorsement from the joint perspective of System Justification Theory (SJT) and Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT). SJT asserts that people have a tendency to support and rationalize the system. The motivation to maintain the system may be a factor in the endorsement of honor. RFT proposes two distinct regulatory processes, namely promotion and prevention focus. Having a dominant prevention focus, such as a deep concern for responsibilities, risk avoidance, and minimizing negative outcomes, may have a role in honor. Data were collected conveniently from 366 participants (216 women; 150 men). Participants filled out Honor Endorsement Index, Honor Based System Justification Scale and Regulatory Focus Orientation Scale Results revealed that both regulatory focus and system justification play a role in understanding honor. One-way ANOVA findings showed that individuals with a dominant prevention focus endorse honor beliefs more than individuals with a dominant promotion focus. Besides, regression analysis revealed that prevention focus and system justification significantly and positively predict honor. Results provide clarifications for why honor has an important meaning in individuals’ life and why honor-based violence is approved. These findings bear great importance in Turkey, where emphasis on honor is high and can be used in reducing people’s adherence to honor, which is based on women’s sexuality and men’s power over women.

Keywords: honor, system justification theory, regulatory focus theory, prevention focus

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