Search results for: access to world wide web

Authors: Shailendra Kumar Singh

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In the 21st century, we are living through extraordinary times as we are linguistically blessed to live through an era in which the each sociolinguistic example of living appears to be refreshingly new without any precedence of the past. The word `New Linguistic World Order’ is no longer just the intangible fascination but an indication of the emerging reality that we are living through a time in which the word ‘linguistic purism’ no longer invokes the sense of self categorization and self identification. The contemporary world of today is linguistically rewarding. This is a time in which the very existence of global, powerful and local needs to be revisited in the context of power shift, demographic shift, social psychological shift and technological shift. Hence, the old linguistic world view has to be challenged in the midst of 21st century. The first years of the 21st century have thus far been marked by the rise global economy, technological revolution and demographic shift, now we are witnessing linguistic shift which is leading towards forming a new linguistic world order. On the other hand, with rising powers of China and India in Asia in tandem the notion of alternative west is set to become a lot more interesting linguistically. It comes at a point when the world is moving towards inclusive globalization due to vanishing power corridor of the west and ascending geopolitical impact of emerging superpower and superpower in waiting. Now it is a reality that the western world no longer continues to rise – in fact, it will have more pressure to act in situation when the alternative west is looking for balanced globalization. It is more than likely that demographically strong languages of alternative west will be in advantageous position. The paper challenges our preconceptions about the nature of sociolinguistic nature of world in the 21st century. It investigates what a linguistic world is likely to be in the future in contrast to what was a linguistic world before 21st century. In particular, the paper tries to answer the following questions: (a) What will be the common linguistic thread across world? (b) How unprecedented transformations can be mapped linguistically? (c) Do we need alternative linguistics to define inclusive globalization as the linguistic reality of the contemporary world has already been reshaped by increasingly integrated world economy, linguistic revolution and alternative west? (d) In which ways these issues can be addressed holistically? (e) Why linguistic world order is changing dramatically? (f) Is it true that the linguistic world around is changing faster than we can even really cope? (g) Is it true that what is coming next is linguistically greater than ever? (h) Do we need to prepare ourselves with new theoretical strategies to address emerging sociolinguistic reality?

Keywords: alternative linguistics, new linguistic world order, power shift, demographic shift, social psychological shift, technological shift

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Authors: Dan W. Rhodes, Juliane Hey, Magali Karagueuzian, Florianne Martinez, Yael Sandowski, Vanessa Roulet, Mahmoud Badawi, Mohammed-Amine Chakir, Valérie Simon, Jérémie Gautier, Françoise Le Boulaire, Catherine Coignard, Claire Vincent, Sandrine Greaume, Isabelle Voisin

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Background: Beckman Coulter, Inc. (BEC) has recently developed a fully automated second-generation anti-HCV test on a new immunoassay platform. The objective of this multicenter study conducted in Europe was to evaluate the performance of the ACCESS anti-HCV assay on the recently CE-marked DxI 9000 ACCESS Immunoassay Analyzer as an aid in the diagnosis of HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) infection and as a screening test for blood and plasma donors. Methods: The clinical specificity of the ACCESS anti-HCV assay was determined using HCV antibody-negative samples from blood donors and hospitalized patients. Sample antibody status was determined by a CE-marked anti-HCV assay (Abbott ARCHITECTTM anti-HCV assay or Abbott PRISM HCV assay) with an additional confirmation method (Immunoblot testing with INNO-LIATM HCV Score - Fujirebio), if necessary, according to pre-determined testing algorithms. The clinical sensitivity was determined using known HCV antibody-positive samples, identified positive by Immunoblot testing with INNO-LIATM HCV Score - Fujirebio. HCV RNA PCR or genotyping was available on all Immunoblot positive samples for further characterization. The false initial reactive rate was determined on fresh samples from blood donors and hospitalized patients. Thirty (30) commercially available seroconversion panels were tested to assess the sensitivity for early detection of HCV infection. The study was conducted from November 2019 to March 2022. Three (3) external sites and one (1) internal site participated. Results: Clinical specificity (95% CI) was 99.7% (99.6 – 99.8%) on 5852 blood donors and 99.0% (98.4 – 99.4%) on 1527 hospitalized patient samples. There were 15 discrepant samples (positive on ACCESS anti-HCV assay and negative on both ARCHITECT and Immunoblot) observed with hospitalized patient samples, and of note, additional HCV RNA PCR results showed five (5) samples had positive HCV RNA PCR results despite the absence of HCV antibody detection by ARCHITECT and Immunoblot, suggesting a better sensitivity of the ACCESS anti-HCV assay with these five samples compared to the ARCHITECT and Immunoblot anti-HCV assays. Clinical sensitivity (95% CI) on 510 well-characterized, known HCV antibody-positive samples was 100.0% (99.3 – 100.0%), including 353 samples with known HCV genotypes (1 to 6). The overall false initial reactive rate (95% CI) on 6630 patient samples was 0.02% (0.00 – 0.09%). Results obtained on 30 seroconversion panels demonstrated that the ACCESS anti-HCV assay had equivalent sensitivity performances, with an average bleed difference since the first reactive bleed below one (1), compared to the ARCHITECTTM anti-HCV assay. Conclusion: The newly developed ACCESS anti-HCV assay from BEC for use on the DxI 9000 ACCESS Immunoassay Analyzer demonstrated high clinical sensitivity and specificity, equivalent to currently marketed anti-HCV assays, as well as a low false initial reactive rate.

Keywords: DxI 9000 ACCESS Immunoassay Analyzer, HCV, HCV antibody, Hepatitis C virus, immunoassay

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Authors: Ana Mercedes Vernia Carrasco

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The objective of this work is to reflect through the theoretical framework on the access to the university for the formation of a degree in a teacher of primary education. The University Access Tests in Spain evaluate a series of skills and competencies in writing, which leave aside the sample of another set of skills and tools that this type of test cannot evaluate. In the last years, a very much diversified student body has arrived in the classrooms of the Universities. Nowadays, talking about special education means attending to the changes that are being experienced in this area. At present, the educational model focuses on the reinforcement by the educational institutions so that they form the students according to their personal characteristics and that it is not the students that must adapt to the system. A bibliographic review plus some years of experience in training for the future teacher allows us to make an initial assessment about the lack of rigor in the tests of access to the university. In conclusion, we can say that, although we are not a specialist in the type of Special Educational Needs that can manifest the students, therefore, we understand that teacher today needs training and support to develop their teaching with the best quality possible. These teacher and student needs also imply more institutional support.

Keywords: training, special needs, didactics, music

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Authors: Estela Mayra de Moura Vianna, Thiago José Tavares Ávila, Bruno Morais Silva, Diego Henrique Bezerra, Paulo Henrique Gomes Silva, Alan Pedro da Silva

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The Brazilian Federal Constitution defines the access to information as a crucial right of the citizen and the Law on Access to Public Information, which regulates this right. Accordingly, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2000, amended in 2009 by the “Law of Transparency”, began demanding a wider disclosure of public accounts for the society, including electronic media for public access. Thus, public entities began to create "Transparency Portals," which aim to gather a diversity of data and information. However, this information, in general, is still published in formats that do not simplify understanding of the data by citizens and that could be better especially available for audit purposes. In this context, a proposal of ontology about Brazilian Transparency Portal can play a key role in how these data will be better available. This study aims to identify and implement in ontology, the data model about Transparency Portal ecosystem, with emphasis in activities that use these data for some applications, like audits, press activities, social government control, and others.

Keywords: audit, government transparency, ontology, public sector

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Authors: Haniyeh Sameie

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In the process of globalization, geographical boundaries gradually lose their importance, and ethnic, local, and regional cultures are integrated with each other and even marginalized. Globalization has many manifestations and aspects, including economic, political, social, etc., but this paper has focused on the cultural aspect of globalization. From this point of view, one of the important issues that have always been raised is the assimilation of diverse and plural cultures, which are gradually disappearing and destroyed in the onslaught of global culture and are dissolved in global culture. In the postmodern paradigm, the tools of the globalized world can be used to preserve and strengthen cultural diversity. For example, the Internet, as a globalization tool, can play an important role in preserving and recognizing local cultures. In today's world, the world nations and ethnic groups are trying to revive their specific and native cultures in different ways in opposition to the rising cultural assimilation and challenge the globalization of culture. One of the manifestations of these actions is addressing the issue of tourism and, specifically, eco-tourism, which is being developed in Iran as well as in other parts of the world, relying on the powerful tool of globalization, the Internet. Considering the significant growth of the ecotourism industry in Iran in recent years, this paper focuses on the role of the Internet in the development of ecotourism in Iran as one of the manifestations of tourism in recent decades and how to preserve and survive diverse local cultures and strengthen local communities against global culture through it. One of the major challenges in the development of communication technology in Iran in the last decade has been the debate over the necessity or non-necessity of access to high-speed Internet in the villages of Iran. Some believe that accessing the broadband internet in the villages may lead to the disappearance of local cultures and can facilitate the spread of western culture among villagers. On the other hand, the speed of expansion of ecotourism in Iran in the last ten years is owed to the development of the Internet in villages. In this regard, we pay attention to the dual role of the Internet in cultural assimilation and, at the same time, the platform that the online space has created for the growth and development of ecotourism accommodations as a source of stable income for local communities, focusing on the Iranian experience in the recent decade.

Keywords: tourism, globalization, internet, ecotourism in Iran, cultural assimilation

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Authors: Hafiz Mehtab Gull Nasir

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Industrial development and urbanization have significant impacts on air emissions, and their relationship diverges at different stages of economic progress. The revolution further propelled these activities as principal paths to economic and social transformation; nevertheless, the paths also promoted environmental degradation. Resultantly, both developed and developing countries undergone through fast-paced development; in which developed countries implemented legislation towards environmental pollution control however developing countries took the advantage of technology without caring about the environment. In this study, meta-analysis is performed on production of particulate matter (i.e., PM10 and PM2.5) from urbanized cities of first, second and third world countries to assess the air quality. The cities were selected based on ranked set principles. In case of PM10, third world countries showed highest PM level (~95% confidence interval of 0.74-1.86) followed by second world countries but with managed situation. Besides, first, world countries indicated the lowest pollution (~95% confidence interval of 0.12-0.2). Similarly, highest level of PM2.5 was produced by third world countries followed by the second and first world countries. Hereby, level of PM2.5 was not significantly different for both second and third world countries; however, first world countries showed minimum PM load. Finally, the study revealed different that levels of pollution status exist among different countries; whereas developed countries also devised better strategies towards pollution control while developing countries are least caring about their environmental resources. It is suggested that although industrialization and urbanization are directly involved with interference in natural elements, however, production of nature appears to be more societal rather hermetical.

Keywords: meta-analysis, particulate matter, developing countries, urbanization

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Authors: K. A. Tharanga, K. H. H. Damayanthi

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Perception is an epistemological concept discussed in Philosophy. Perception, in other word, vision, is one of the ways that human beings get empirical knowledge after five senses. However, we face innumerable problems when achieving knowledge from perception, and therefore the knowledge gained through perception is uncertain. what we see in the external world is not real. These are the major issues that we face when receiving knowledge through perception. Sometimes there is no physical existence of what we really see. In such cases, the perception is relative. The following frames will be taken into consideration when perception is analyzed illusions and delusions, the figure of a physical object, appearance and the reality of a physical object, time factor, and colour of a physical object.seeing and knowing become vary according to the above conceptual frames. We cannot come to a proper conclusion of what we see in the empirical world. Because the things that we see are not really there. Hence the scientific knowledge which is gained from observation is doubtful. All the factors discussed in science remain in the physical world. There is a leap from ones existence to the existence of a world outside his/her mind. Indeed, one can suppose that what he/she takes to be real is just anmassive deception. However, depending on the above facts, if someone begins to doubt about the whole world, it is unavoidable to become his/her view a scepticism or nihilism. This is a certain reality.

Keywords: empirical, perception, sceptisism, nihilism

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Authors: Victor Emery David Jr., Jiang Wenchao, Daniel Mmereki, Yasinta John

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The fundamentals of public health are access to safe and clean drinking water. The presence of arsenic and other contaminants in drinking water leads to the potential risk to public health and the environment particularly in most developing countries where there’s inadequate access to safe and clean water and adequate sanitation. Liberia has taken steps to improve its drinking water status so as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of ensuring clean water and effective sanitation but there is still a lot to be done. The Sustainable Development Goals are a United Nation initiative also known as transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. It contains seventeen goals with 169 targets to be met by respective countries. Liberia is situated within in the gold belt region where there exist the presence of arsenic and other contaminants in the underground water due to mining and other related activities. While there are limited or no epidemiological studies conducted in Liberia to confirm illness or death as a result of arsenic contamination in Liberia, it remains a public health concern. This paper assesses the drinking water quality, the presence of arsenic in groundwater/drinking water in Liberia, and proposes strategies for mitigating contaminants in drinking water and suggests options for improvement with regards to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring clean water and effective sanitation in Liberia by 2030.

Keywords: arsenic, action plan, contaminants, environment, groundwater, sustainable development goals (SDGs), Monrovia, Liberia, public health, drinking water

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Authors: M. Kasusse, M. Rosette, E. Burke, C. Mwangi, R. Batamwita, N. Tumwesigye, S. Aisu

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A cross-sectional survey to ascertain the capacity of laboratory persons in using ICTs was conducted in 15 Ugandan districts (July-August 2013). A self-administered questionnaire served as data collection tool, interview guide and observation checklist. 69 questionnaires were filled, 12 interviews conducted, 45 HC observed. SPSS statistics 17.0 and SAS 9.2 software were used for entry and analyses. 69.35% of participants find it difficult to access a computer at work. Of the 30.65% who find it easy to access a computer at work, a significant 21.05% spend 0 hours on a computer daily. 60% of the participants cannot access internet at work. Of the 40% who have internet at work, a significant 20% lack email address but 20% weekly read emails weekly and 48% daily. It is viable/feasible to pilot informatics projects as strategies to build bridges develop skills for e-health landscape in laboratory services with a bigger financial muscle.

Keywords: ICT behavior, clinical laboratory persons, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda

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Authors: Bagul Abhijeet

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Background: Client-Server model is the backbone of today’s internet communication. In which normal user can not have control over particular website or server? By using the same processing model one can have unauthorized access to particular server. In this paper, we discussed about application scenario of hacking for simple website or server consist of unauthorized way to access the server database. This application emerges to autonomously take direct access of simple website or server and retrieve all essential information maintain by administrator. In this system, IP address of server given as input to retrieve user-id and password of server. This leads to breaking administrative security of server and acquires the control of server database. Whereas virus helps to escape from server security by crashing the whole server. Objective: To control malicious attack and preventing all government website, and also find out illegal work to do hackers activity. Results: After implementing different hacking as well as non-hacking techniques, this system hacks simple web sites with normal security credentials. It provides access to server database and allow attacker to perform database operations from client machine. Above Figure shows the experimental result of this application upon different servers and provides satisfactory results as required. Conclusion: In this paper, we have presented a to view to hack the server which include some hacking as well as non-hacking methods. These algorithms and methods provide efficient way to hack server database. By breaking the network security allow to introduce new and better security framework. The terms “Hacking” not only consider for its illegal activities but also it should be use for strengthen our global network.

Keywords: Hacking, Vulnerabilities, Dummy request, Virus, Server monitoring

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Authors: Vanphanom Sychareun, Viengnakhone Vongxay, Kongmany Chaleunvong, Pascale Hancart Petitet

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Background: Lao PDR still has challenges in preventing and managing health against risk of emerging and re-emerging diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria among pregnant women. Community-based intervention for mothers requires more evidences on awareness of such diseases and access to rapid diagnostic tests. The study aims to determine the awareness of pregnant women regarding HIV, TB and Malaria, the access to rapid diagnostic test of such diseases among pregnant women of local community and their factors related. Method: This is a cross sectional study using quantitative approach to explore the awareness of pregnant women on HIV/AIDS/TB and Malaria in Savannakhet province, Lao PDR in three remote districts (Phin, Thapangthong and Atsaphone) of Savannakhet province. The study targeted group was pregnant women at the community level. Sample size for primary data collection of pregnant women was 189. Face-to-face administered questionnaires were applied. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to determine the associated factors with awareness of pregnant women on HIV/AIDS/TB and Malaria. This study is under the HEALTH project/ Expertise France. Result: Most of our participants were pregnant at 28 – 42 weeks (50.3%); ranged 4 – 38 weeks. Mean age of pregnant women was 24.3 years old (range: 14 - 48 years old); 15.9% of whom were at age below 19 years. Around 94.2% of respondents works were farming, 54.5% were illiterate, 74.0% were Mon-Kmer ethnic, and 60% had income lower than average. Only 56.6% that have access to ANC, 39.1% started the access to ANC during the first trimester and only 19.6% had visited the ANC for at least four times. Almost pregnant women (and 92.1% and 93.1%) had low to moderate knowledge of HIV and TB respectively, while three-fourth of pregnant women (74.6%) had low to moderate knowledge of malaria. Slightly higher than half of participants (53.4% and 52.9%) had easy access to HIV and TB respectively ; while 72.5% had easy access to malaria. Majority of participants knew where to get tested for malaria (73.5%) and TB (54.5%), but 73.5% did not know where to get tested for HIV. Very few pregnant women (1.6%, 2.1% and 8.5%) experienced having tested for HIV/TB/malaria. respectively. Factors associated with awareness on HIV were occupation as staff, business (OR:5.9; 95% CI:1.2-28.1), upper secondary education (OR: 14.6; 95% CI:3.1-69.2); Mone-Khmer ethnic (OR: 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.8); and attending ANC more than 4 times (OR:4.1, 95%:1.7-9.7). Factors associated with awareness on TB were occupation as staff, business (OR:2.4; 95% CI: 0.7-8.0), upper secondary education (OR: 6.2; 95% CI: 1.9-20.5); Mone-Khmer ethnic (OR: 0.5, 95% CI:0.3-0.9); attending ANC more than 4 times (OR:2.8, 95%:1.2-6.4). Factors associated with awareness on malaria were upper secondary education (OR: 18.1; 95% CI: 2.3-142.9); Mone-Khmer ethnic (OR: 0.2, 95% CI:0.1-0.4); attending ANC more than 4 times (OR:3.6, 95%:1.5-8.8). Conclusion: A very low awareness on HIV, TB and malaria among pregnant women in rural community of Savannakhet triggers the requirement of comprehensive public health intervention on awareness and access to prevention against emerging diseases for all pregnant women. Future intervention should focus on providing more knowledge to pregnant women during ANC and encouraging them to attend ANC more than 4 times.

Keywords: pregnant women, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, awareness, Laos

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Authors: Komal Babbar

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Multiuser Detection is the intelligent estimation/demodulation of transmitted bits in the presence of Multiple Access Interference. The authors have presented the Bit-error rate (BER) achieved by linear multi-user detectors: Matched filter (which treats the MAI as AWGN), Decorrelating and MMSE. In this work, authors investigate the bit error probability analysis for Matched filter, decorrelating, and MMSE. This problem arises in several practical CDMA applications where the receiver may not have full knowledge of the number of active users and their signature sequences. In particular, the behavior of MAI at the output of the Multi-user detectors (MUD) is examined under various asymptotic conditions including large signal to noise ratio; large near-far ratios; and a large number of users. In the last section Authors also shows Matlab Simulation results for Multiuser detection techniques i.e., Matched filter, Decorrelating, MMSE for 2 users and 10 users.

Keywords: code division multiple access, decorrelating, matched filter, minimum mean square detection (MMSE) detection, multiple access interference (MAI), multiuser detection (MUD)

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Authors: Peter Okpamen

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Food security concentrates on the collective efforts of all nations to produce enough food to feed their people. Recently, though the emphasis shifted from food availability to accessibility constraints, which entails the difficulties undernourished people face in gaining access to food even when it is available. Broadly speaking, access to food depends on an individual’s access to resources, markets and food transfers. The opportunities to obtain food through these channels are entitlements, which when denied constitute food insecurity. Evidence shows that a significant percentage of Nigerians are undernourished with adverse implications for the fight against poverty. The greatest danger or consequence of food insecurity is malnutrition. Food insecurity as both an agent and consequence of poverty also increases the economic, political and social tensions in the country. The undernourished in Nigeria are marginalised in several ways to the extent that they are often ill; and because of illness, their work capacity is reduced with attendant reduction in their income. Without adequate income, they cannot save nor invest enough resources to take care of their basic needs. In this paper therefore, we used the political economy approach and statistical analysis to demonstrate that poverty alleviation in Nigeria would be a mirage if food security problems are not adequately resolved.

Keywords: alleviation, demographic, food insecurity, undernourished

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Authors: Naina S. Deshmukh, Manik P. Deosarkar

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With the wide production, consumption, and disposal of pesticides in the world, the concerns over their human and environmental health impacts are rapidly growing. Among developing treatment technologies, ultrasonication, as an emerging and promising technology for the removal of pesticides in the aqueous environment, has attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. The degradation of acephate in aqueous solutions was investigated under the influence of ultrasound irradiation (20 kHz) in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Zinc oxide (ZnO). The influence of various factors such as amount of catalyst (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25 g/l), initial acephate concentration (100, 200, 300, 400 mg/l), and pH (3, 5, 7, 9, 11) were studied. The optimum catalyst dose was found to be 1 g/l of TiO2 and 1.25 g/l of ZnO for acephate at 100 mg/l, respectively. The maximum percentage degradation of acephate was observed at pH 11 for catalyst TiO2 and ZnO, respectively.

Keywords: ultrasonic degradation, acephate, TiO2, ZnO, heterogeneous catalyst

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Authors: Mansi Chinchanikar

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Homoeopathy is the second most widely used medical system in the world, yet the homoeopaths of India and around the world are sick of reading or hearing about how homoeopathy is only a placebo effect and cannot cure or even manage any disease. However, individuals making such unfounded claims should explain to the group how a homoeopathic placebo, particularly one for a neurodevelopmental disease like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), can be effective in children, with studies to back it up their skeptics. This literary review work exhibits how homoeopathy with a multimodal approach may show a considerable proportion of ADHD patients in India and throughout the world successfully manageable and treatable according to growing study evidence, ruling out the hazardous conventional medicines. Indeed, homeopathy can help cure ADHD symptoms either on its own or in combination with other types of integrative systems.

Keywords: ADHD, adult ADHD, homoeopathy, integrative approach

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Authors: Toufic Sarieddine

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As the belt and road Initiative (henceforth, BRI) enters its 9th year, Iran and China are forging stronger ties on economic and military fronts, a development which has not only caused alarm in Washington but also risks staining China’s relationships with the oil-rich Gulf monarchies. World-systems theory has been used to examine the impact of the BRI on the current world order, with scholarship split on the capacity of China to emerge as a hegemon contending with the US or even usurping it. This paper argues the emergence of a new China-centered world-system comprised of states/areas and processes participating in the BRI and overlapping with the global world-system under (shaky) US hegemony. This world-system centers around China as core and hegemon via economic domination, capable new institutions (Shanghai Cooperation Council), legal modi operandi, the common goal of infrastructure development to rally support among developing states, and other indicators of hegemony outlined in world-systems theory. In this regard, while states like Pakistan could become peripheries to China in the BRI-bound world-system via large-scale projects such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Iran has greater capacities and influence in the Middle East, making it superior to a periphery. This paper thus argues that the increasing proximity between Iran and China sees the former becoming a semi-periphery with respect to China within the BRI-bound world-system, having economic dependence on its new core and hegemon while simultaneously wielding political and military influence on weaker states such as Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. The indicators for peripheralization as well as the characteristics of a semi-periphery outlined in world-systems theory are used to examine the current economic, political, and militaristic dimensions of Iran and China’s growing relationship, as well as the trajectory of these dimensions as part of the BRI-bound world-system.

Keywords: belt and road initiative, China, China-Middle East relations, Iran, world-systems analysis

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Authors: Mohammad Amin Mozaheb, Jalal Farzaneh Dehkordi, Khojasteh Hosseinzadehpilehvar

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English Language Teaching (ELT) is widely promoted across the world. ELT textbooks play pivotal roles in the mentioned process. Since biases of authors have been an issue of continuing interest to analysts over the past few years, the present study seeks to analyze an ELT textbook using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). To obtain the goal of the study, the listening section of a book called World English 3 (new edition) has been analyzed in terms of the cultures and countries mentioned in the listening section of the book using content-based analysis. The analysis indicates biases towards certain cultures. Moreover, some countries are shown as rich and powerful countries, while some others have been shown as poor ones without considering the history behind them.

Keywords: ELT, textbooks, critical discourse analysis, World English

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Authors: Young-Su Ryu, Kyung-Won Park, Jae-Hoon Song, Ki-Won Kwon

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In this paper, an embedded frequency modulation (FM) transmission control software (SW) for a low power battery system is designed and implemented. The simultaneous translation systems for various languages are needed as so many international conferences and festivals are held in world wide. Especially in portable transmitting and receiving systems, the ability of long operation life is used for a measure of value. This paper proposes an embedded FM transmission control SW for low power battery system and shows the results of the SW implemented on a portable FM transmission system.

Keywords: FM transmission, simultaneous translation system, portable transmitting and receiving systems, low power embedded control SW

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Authors: Pavel E. Golosov, Vladimir I. Gorelov, Oksana L. Karelova

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There are visible changes in the world organization, environment and health of national conscience that create a background for discussion on possible redefinition of global, state and regional management goals. Authors apply the sustainable development criteria to a hierarchical management scheme that is to lead the world community to non-contradictory growth. Concrete definitions are discussed in respect of decision-making process representing the state mostly. With the help of system analysis it is highlighted how to understand who would carry the distinctive sign of world leadership in the nearest future.

Keywords: decision-making, information technology, public administration

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Authors: G. S. Walia, H. P. Singh, D. Padma

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The integration of wide variety of communication services is made possible with invention of 3G technology. Code Division Multiple Access 2000 operates on various RF channel bandwidths 1.2288 or 3.6864 Mcps (1x or 3x systems). It is a 3G system which offers high bandwidth and wireless broadband services but its efficiency is lowered due to various factors like fading, interference, scattering, absorption etc. This paper investigates the effect of diversity (MRC), roll off factor in Root Raised Cosine (RRC) filter for the BPSK and QPSK modulation schemes. It is possible to transmit data with minimum Inter symbol Interference and within limited bandwidth with proper pulse shaping technique. Bit error rate (BER) performance is analyzed by applying diversity technique by varying the roll off factor for BPSK and QPSK. Roll off factor reduces the ISI and diversity reduces the Fading.

Keywords: CDMA2000, root raised cosine, roll-off factor, ISI, diversity, interference, fading

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Authors: Awatef Boubakri, Khaled Jebahi

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Using Text World Theory (TWT), we attempted to understand how mental representations (text worlds) and perceptions can be construed by readers of Quranic texts. To this end, Surah Al-Kahf was purposefully selected given the fact that while each of its stories is narrated, different levels of discourse intervene, which might result in a confused reader who might find it hard to keep track of which discourse he or she is processing. This surah was studied using specifically-designed text-world diagrams. The findings suggest that TWT can be used to help solve problems of ambiguity at the level of discourse in Quranic texts and to help construct a thinking reader whose cognitive constructs (text worlds / mental representations) are built through reflecting on the various and often changing components of discourse world, text world, and sub-worlds.

Keywords: Al-Kahf, Surah, cognitive, processing, discourse

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Authors: Somaya A. Abd El Mottaleb, Ahmed Abd El Aziz, Heba A. Fayed, Moustafa H. Aly

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In this paper, we present the performance of spectral amplitude coding optical code division multiple access using different detectors at different transmission distances using single photodiode detection technique. Modified double weight codes are used as signature codes. Simulation results show that the system using avalanche photo detector can move distance longer than that using positive intrinsic negative photo detector.

Keywords: avalanche photodiode, modified double weight, multiple access technique, single photodiode.

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Authors: Gaurav Vaidya, N. R. Mandal

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UN Summit, 2000 had resolved to provide access to sanitation to whole humanity as part of ‘Millennium Development Goals -2015’. However, more than one third of world’s population still did not have the access to basic sanitation facilities by 2015. Therefore, it will be a gigantic challenge to achieve goal-6 of ‘UN Sustainable Development Goal’ to ensure availability and sustainable management of sanitation for all by the year 2030. Countries attempt to find out own ways of meeting this challenge of providing access to safe sanitation and as part of monitoring the actions have prepared varied types of ‘performance assessment frameworks (PAF)’. India introduced Service Level Benchmarking (SLB) in 2010 to set targets and achieve the goals of NUSP. Further, a method of reviewing performance was introduced as ‘Swachh Sarvekshan’ (Cleanliness Surveys) in 2016 and in 2017 guidelines for the same was revised. This study, as a first step, reviews the documents in use in India with a conclusion that the frameworks adopted are based on target setting, financial allocation and performance in achieving the targets set. However, it does not focus upon sanitation needs holistically i.e., areas and aspects not targeted through projects are not covered in the performance assessment. In this context, as a second step, this study reviews literature available on performance assessment frameworks for urban sanitation in selected other countries and compares the same with that in India. The outcome of the comparative review resulted in identification of unaddressed aspects as well as inadequacy of parameters in Indian context. Thirdly, in an attempt to restructure the performance assessment process and develop an index in urban sanitation, researches done in other urban services such as health and education were studied focusing on methods of measuring under-performance. As a fourth step, a tentative modified framework is suggested with the help of understanding drawn from above for urban sanitation using stages of Urban Sanitation Service Chain Management (SSCM) and modified set of parameters drawn from the literature review in the first and second steps. This paper reviews existing literature on SSCM procedures, Performance Index in sanitation and other urban services and identifies a tentative list of parameters and a framework for measuring under-performance in sanitation services. This may aid in preparation of a Service Delivery Under-performance Index (SDUI) in future.

Keywords: assessment, performance, sanitation, services

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Authors: Katarzyna Logozna Wypych

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Being present in the world’s literature for centuries, cats are one of the most underappreciated and misunderstood species. The affluence of topics and taboos portrayed by cats in literature as well as in other means of art is noteworthy. Not only would the reality without the presence of a cat be less unpredictable, but also certain plot changes could not take place, as only the animal seems to have a causative activity. In radio drama, cats, just like in the real world, modify, bend, and adjust reality to their liking, regardless of human characters. Having only the soundscape at hand, radio drama provides a fascinating insight into the symbolic and disturbing world of the most ambiguous and volatile relationships the animal world and humankind have ever known, that is of cats and people. Compliant with the assumed mysterious ambiance of the show, a vast number of the 1399 episodes of The CBS Radio Mystery Theater starred cats, most of which are not portrayed in a favorable manner. Cats become the beginning, the main body, and the ending of the radio drama in one cat person.

Keywords: cats, felines, horror, mystery, radio drama

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Authors: Melek Göregenli, Işık Gürşimşek

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There has been a great deal of research in the past few decades examining attitudes toward homosexuals.Theoretic research has demonstrated that antihomosexual attitudes are expressed in cognitive, affective, behavioral and cultural components. Homophobia is generally defined as hostility towards or fear of LGBTI people, but can also refer to social and cultural ideologies which stigmatize homosexuality. Negative feelings or attitudes towards non-heterosexual behavior, identity, relationships and community can lead to homophobic behavior and is the root of the discrimination experienced by many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTI) people. Since the increase in number of hate crimes during the last decade, there has been a sense of urgency to respond to the problem of hate violence in Turkey. The LGBTI Rights Association KAOS-GL indicated that the most of lesbian, gay, bisexual, travesty and transsexuals reported some form of victimization in their lifetimes based on their sexual orientation in Turkey. This study explored the relations between homophobia, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and just world belief attitudes towards LGBTI individuals in a sample of 393 Turkish college students from Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. Data were collected with a questionnaire including the Homosexism Scale, the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, Social Dominance Orientation Scale and Just World Belief Scale. Participants completed a questionnaire containing the attitude measures and other several questions related with the socio-demographic variables. Consistent with the previous finding males were more homophobic than females. Contrary to this finding the main effects of other demographic variables (age, income, place of birth, class) were not statistically significant except the department of participants. These findings imply that efforts to garner wide-ranging support for policies designed to change negative attitudes to LGBT people and to enhance the given awareness on homophobia. The results of the study were discussed in cross-cultural and social psychological perspective considering cultural and social values of Turkey and current political circumstances of the country.

Keywords: homophobia, just world belief, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, Turkey

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Authors: Maja Jokić, Andrea Mervar, Stjepan Mateljan

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Peer review journals, as the main communication channel among researchers, fully achieve their objective if they are available to the global research community, which is accomplished through open access. In the EU countries, the idea of open access has spread over the years through various projects, initiatives, and strategic documents. Consequently, in this paper we want to analyze, using various bibliometric indicators, visibility, and significance of open access peer review journals compared to the conventional (non-open access) ones. We examine the sample of open access (OA) journals in 28 EU countries in addition to open access journals in three EU candidate countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Serbia), all indexed by Scopus (N=1,522). These journals comprise 42% of the total number of OA journals indexed by Scopus. The distribution of OA journals in our sample according to the subject fields indicates that the largest share has OA journals in Health Sciences, 29% followed by Social Sciences and Physical Sciences with 25%, and 21% in Life Sciences. At the same time, the distribution according to countries (N=31) shows the dominance of EU15 countries with the share of 68.3% (N=1041) while post-socialist European countries (EU11 plus three candidate EU countries) have the share of 31.6% (N=481). Bibliometric indicators are derived from the SCImago Journal Ranking database. The analysis of OA journals according to their quartile scores (that reflect the relation between number of articles and their citations) shows that the largest number of OA journals from our sample was in the third quartile in 2015. For comparison, the majority of all academic journals indexed in Scopus from the countries in our sample were in the same year in the first quartile. The median of SJR indicator (SCImago Journal Rankings) for 2015 that measures the journal's prestige, amounted 0.297 for OA journals from the sample, while it was modestly lower for all OA journals, 0.284. The value of the same indicator for all journals indexed by Scopus (N=11,086) from our group of countries was 0.358, which is significantly different from the one for OA journals. Apart from the number of OA journals we also confirm significant differences between EU15 and post-socialist countries in bibliometric status of OA journals. The median SJR indicator for 2015 for EU15 countries was 0.394, while for post-socialist countries it amounted to 0.226. The changes in bibliometric indicators: quartile score, SJR (SCImago Journal Rankings), SNIP (Sources Normalised Impact by Paper) and IPP (Impact per Publication) of OA journals during 2012-2015 period, as well as H-index for the main four subject fields (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Health Sciences) in the whole sample as well as in two main groups of European countries, show increasing trend of acceptance and visibility of OA journals within the academic community. More comprehensive insights into the visibility of OA journals could be reached by using additional qualitative research methods such as for example, interviews with researchers.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, European countries, journal evaluation, open access journals

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Authors: Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj

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'Digital Divide' is a concept that has existed in this paradigm ever since the discovery of the first-generation technologies. Before the turn of the century, it was basically used to describe the gap between those with telephone communication access and those without it. At present, it is plainly descriptive in itself to illustrate the cavity among those with Internet access and those without. Though the concept of digital divide has been merely lying in sight for as long as time itself, the friction it caused has not yet been fully realized to solve major crisis situations. Unlike well-developed countries, Sri Lanka is still in the verge of moving farther away from a developing country in the race towards reaching a developed state. Access to technological resources varies from region to region, even within the island itself, with one region having a considerable percentage of its community exposed to the Internet and its related technologies, and the other unaware of such. Thus, this paper intends to analyze the roots for the still-extant gap instigated based on the concept of ‘Digital Divide’ and explores the plausible potentials that could be brought about by narrowing this prevailing percentage among the population, specifically entrenching the advantages reaped towards an economic augmentation and culture or lifestyle revolution on the path towards development.

Keywords: communication, digital divide, society, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Mercy Marimirofa, Farai Machinga, Alfred Zvoushe, Tsitsidzaishe Musvosvi

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Adolescent Birth rate (ABR) is an important indicator of both gender equality and equity in the country. This is the number of births to women aged between 15 and 19 years per 1000 live births. There has been a decreasing trend in ABR in Zimbabwe since 2014. However, the difference between rural areas and urban areas has continued to widen. A secondary analysis was conducted to assess the differences in ABR between the rural areas of Zimbabwe and the urban areas. This was also done to determine the root causes of high ABR in rural areas compared to urban areas and the impact this may cause to the economic development of the nation. The analysis was done according to geographical characteristics (provinces). A total of 69,335 females aged 10 to 19 years had live births among a total population of 791,914 females aged 15 to 19 years. The total Adolescent Birth rate in Zimbabwe is 87/1000 live births, while in rural areas, it is 114.4/1000 live births compared to urban areas, which is 49.7/1000 live births. A decrease in the ABR trends has been recorded since 2014 from 143/1000 live births among adolescents in rural areas to 97/1000 live births in urban areas. This shows that rural areas still have high rates of ABR compared to their urban counterparts, and the gap is still wide. High ABR is a result of early child marriages, teenage pregnancies as well as poverty. Most of these marriages (46%) are intergenerational relationships and have resulted in an increase in gender-based violence cases among adolescents, poor health outcomes, including pregnancy complications such as eclampsia, Cephalous Pelvic Disproportion (CPD), and obstructed labour. Maternal deaths among adolescence is also high compared to adults. Furthermore, the increase of school dropouts among adolescent girls is on the rise due to teen pregnancies. These challenges are being faced mostly by rural adolescent girls as compared to their urban counterparts. The widening gap in ABR between urban areas and rural areas is a matter of concern and needs to be addressed. There is a need to inform policy, programming, and interventions targeting rural areas to address the challenges and gaps in reducing ABR. This abstract is to inform policymakers on the strategies and resources required to address the challenges currently distressing adolescents. There is a need to improve access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Services by adolescents and reduce the age of consent to access SRH services should be reduced from 18 years for ease access to young people to reduce teenage pregnancies. Comprehensive sexuality education, both in-school and out of school, should be strengthened to increase knowledge among young people on sexuality.

Keywords: adolescence birth rate, live birth, teenage pregnancies, SRH services

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Authors: Lipsa Dash, Gyanendra Sahu

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Intelligence is the cornerstone of humans, and now they have created a counterpart of themselves artificially. Our understanding of the word intelligence is a very perspective based and mostly superior understanding of what we read, write, perceive and understand the adversities around better. A wide range of industrial sectors have also started involving the technology to perceive, reason and act. Similarly, intellectual property is the product of human intelligence and creativity. The World Intellectual Property Organisation is currently working on technology trends across the globe, and AI tops the list in the digital frontier that will have a profound impact on the world, transforming the way we live and work. Coming to Intellectual Property, patents and creations of the AI’s itself have constantly been in question. This paper explores whether AI’s can fit in the flexibilities of Trade Related Intellectual Property Studies and gaps in the existing IP laws or rthere is a need of amendment to include them in the ambit. The researcher also explores the right of AI’s who create things out of their intelligence and whether they could qualify to be legal persons making the other laws applicable on them. Differentiation between AI creations and human creations are explored in the paper, and the need of amendments to determine authorship, ownership, inventorship, protection, and identification of beneficiary for remuneration or even for determining liability. The humans and humanoids are all indulged in matters related to Privacy, and that attracts another constitutional legal issue to be addressed. The authors will be focusing on the legal conundrums of AI, transhumanism, and the Internet of things.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, humanoids, healthcare, privacy, legal conundrums, transhumanism

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Authors: Ebru Ozgur Guler, Huseyin Guler, Sera Sanli

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Social Progress Index (SPI) whose fundamentals have been thrown in the World Economy Forum is an index which aims to form a systematic basis for guiding strategy for inclusive growth which requires achieving both economic and social progress. In this research, it has been aimed to determine the relations among “Basic Human Needs” (BHN) (including four variables of ‘Nutrition and Basic Medical Care’, ‘Water and Sanitation’, ‘Shelter’ and ‘Personal Safety’) and “Opportunity” (OPT) (that is composed of ‘Personal Rights’, ‘Personal Freedom and Choice’, ‘Tolerance and Inclusion’, and ‘Access to Advanced Education’ components) dimensions of 2016 SPI for 138 countries which take place in the website of Social Progress Imperative by carrying out canonical correlation analysis (CCA) which is a data reduction technique that operates in a way to maximize the correlation between two variable sets. In the interpretation of results, the first pair of canonical variates pointing to the highest canonical correlation has been taken into account. The first canonical correlation coefficient has been found as 0.880 indicating to the high relationship between BHN and OPT variable sets. Wilk’s Lambda statistic has revealed that an overall effect of 0.809 is highly large for the full model in order to be counted as statistically significant (with a p-value of 0.000). According to the standardized canonical coefficients, the largest contribution to BHN set of variables has come from ‘shelter’ variable. The most effective variable in OPT set has been detected to be ‘access to advanced education’. Findings based on canonical loadings have also confirmed these results with respect to the contributions to the first canonical variates. When canonical cross loadings (structure coefficients) are examined, for the first pair of canonical variates, the largest contributions have been provided by ‘shelter’ and ‘access to advanced education’ variables. Since the signs for structure coefficients have been found to be negative for all variables; all OPT set of variables are positively related to all of the BHN set of variables. In case canonical communality coefficients which are the sum of the squares of structure coefficients across all interpretable functions are taken as the basis; amongst all variables, ‘personal rights’ and ‘tolerance and inclusion’ variables can be said not to be useful in the model with 0.318721 and 0.341722 coefficients respectively. On the other hand, while redundancy index for BHN set has been found to be 0.615; OPT set has a lower redundancy index with 0.475. High redundancy implies high ability for predictability. The proportion of the total variation in BHN set of variables that is explained by all of the opposite canonical variates has been calculated as 63% and finally, the proportion of the total variation in OPT set that is explained by all of the canonical variables in BHN set has been determined as 50.4% and a large part of this proportion belongs to the first pair. The results suggest that there is a high and statistically significant relationship between BHN and OPT. This relationship is generally accounted by ‘shelter’ and ‘access to advanced education’.

Keywords: canonical communality coefficient, canonical correlation analysis, redundancy index, social progress index

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