Search results for: intergenerational similarities

Authors: Shuyu Zhang

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The waterfront historical district, as a type of historical districts on the verge of waters such as the sea, lake, and river, have a relatively special urban form. In the past preservation and renewal of traditional historic districts, there have been many discussions on the land range, and the waterfront and marginal spaces are easily overlooked. However, the waterfront space of the historic districts, as a cultural landscape heritage combining historical buildings and landscape elements, has strong ecological and sustainable values. At the same time, Suzhou and Venice, as sister water cities in history, have more waterfront spaces that can be compared in urban form and other levels. Therefore, this paper focuses on the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, establishes quantitative evaluation indicators for environmental perception, makes analogies, and promotes the renewal and activation of the entire historical district by improving the spatial quality and vitality of the waterfront area. First, this paper uses multi-source data for analysis, such as Baidu Maps and Google Maps API to crawl the street view of the waterfront historic districts, uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the proportion of cultural landscape elements such as green viewing rate in the street view pictures, and uses space syntax software to make quantitative selectivity analysis, so as to establish environmental perception evaluation indicators for the waterfront historic districts. Finally, by comparing and summarizing the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, it reveals their similarities and differences, characteristics and conclusions, and hopes to provide a reference for the heritage preservation and renewal of other waterfront historic districts.

Keywords: waterfront historical district, cultural landscape, perception, multi-source Data

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Authors: Mira Kaneva

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The ongoing migration crisis polemic opens up the debate to the ambivalent essence of borders due to both the legality and legitimacy of the displacement of vast masses of people across the European continent. In neoliberal terms, migration is seen as an economic opportunity, or, on the opposite, as a social disparity; in realist terms, it is regarded as a security threat that calls for mobilization; from a critical standpoint, it is a matter of discourse on democratic governance. This paper sets the objective of analyzing borders through the Foucauldian prism of biopolitics. It aims at defining the specifics of the management of the human body by producing both the irregular migrant as a subject (but prevalently as an object in the discourse) and the political subjectivity by exercising state power in repressive practices, including hate speech. The study relies on the conceptual framework of Bigo, Agamben, Huysmans, among others, and applies the methodology of qualitative comparative analysis between the cases of borders (fences, enclaves, camps and other forms of abnormal spatiality) in Italy, Spain, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria. The paper thus tries to throw light on these cross- and intra-regional contexts that share certain similarities and differences. It tries to argue that the governmentality of the masses of refugees and economic immigrants through the speech acts of their exclusion leads to a temporary populist backlash; a tentative finding is that the status-quo in terms of social and economic measures remains relatively balanced, whereas, values such as freedom, openness, and tolerance are consecutively marginalized.

Keywords: Balkans, biopolitical borders, cross- and intra-regional discourse analysis, irregular migration, Mediterranean Europe, securitization vs. humanitarianism

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Authors: Gheorghe Ionita, Sebastian Brad, Ioan Stefanescu

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In any fusion device, tritium plays a key role both as a fuel component and, due to its radioactivity and easy incorporation, as tritiated water (HTO). As for the ITER project, to reduce the constant potential of tritium emission, there will be implemented a Water Detritiation System (WDS) and an Isotopic Separation System (ISS). In the same time, during operation of fission CANDU reactors, the tritium content increases in the heavy water used as moderator and cooling agent (due to neutron activation) and it has to be reduced, too. In Romania, at the National Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies (ICIT Rm-Valcea), there is an Experimental Pilot Plant for Tritium Removal (Exp. TRF), with the aim of providing technical data on the design and operation of an industrial plant for heavy water depreciation of CANDU reactors from Cernavoda NPP. The selected technology is based on the catalyzed isotopic exchange process between deuterium and liquid water (LPCE) combined with the cryogenic distillation process (CD). This paper presents an updated review of activities in the field carried out in Romania after the year 2000 and in particular those related to the development and operation of Tritium Removal Experimental Pilot Plant. It is also presented a comparison between the experimental pilot plant and industrial plant to be implemented at Cernavoda NPP. The similarities between the experimental pilot plant from ICIT Rm-Valcea and water depreciation and isotopic separation systems from ITER are also presented and discussed. Many aspects or 'opened issues' relating to WDS and ISS could be checked and clarified by a special research program, developed within ExpTRF. By these achievements and results, ICIT Rm - Valcea has proved its expertise and capability concerning tritium management therefore its competence may be used within ITER project.

Keywords: ITER project, heavy water detritiation, tritium removal, isotopic exchange

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Authors: Kerem Rızvanoğlu, Serhat Güney, Emre Kızılkaya, Betül Aydoğan, Ayşegül Boyalı, Onurcan Güden

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This study addresses the re-construction and implementation process of the methodological framework developed to evaluate how locative media applications accompany the urban experiences of international students coming to Istanbul with exchange programs in 2022. The research design was built on a three-stage model. The research team conducted a qualitative questionnaire in the first stage to gain exploratory data. These data were then used to form three persona groups representing the sample by applying cluster analysis. In the second phase, a semi-structured digital diary study was carried out on a gamified task list with a sample selected from the persona groups. This stage proved to be the most difficult to obtaining valid data from the participant group. The research team re-evaluated the design of this second phase to reach the participants who will perform the tasks given by the research team while sharing their momentary city experiences, to ensure the daily data flow for two weeks, and to increase the quality of the obtained data. The final stage, which follows to elaborate on the findings, is the “Walk & Talk,” which is completed with face-to-face and in-depth interviews. It has been seen that the multiple methods used in the research process contribute to the depth and data diversity of the research conducted in the context of urban experience and locative technologies. In addition, by adapting the research design to the experiences of the users included in the sample, the differences and similarities between the initial research design and the research applied are shown.

Keywords: digital diary study, gamification, multi-model research, persona analysis, research design for urban experience, user-centered research, “Walk & Talk”

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Authors: Sanja O. Podunavac-Kuzmanović, Strahinja Z. Kovačević, Lidija R. Jevrić

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Prion is a protein substance whose certain form is considered as infectious agent. It is presumed to be the cause of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). The protein it is composed of, called PrP, can fold in structurally distinct ways. At least one of those 3D structures is transmissible to other prion proteins. Prions can be found in brain tissue of healthy people and have certain biological role. The structure of prions naturally occurring in healthy organisms is marked as PrPc, and the structure of infectious prion is labeled as PrPSc. PrPc may play a role in synaptic plasticity and neuronal development. Also, it may be required for neuronal myelin sheath maintenance, including a role in iron uptake and iron homeostasis. PrPSc can be considered as an environmental pollutant. The main aim of this study was to carry out the molecular modeling and calculation of molecular descriptors (lipophilicity, physico-chemical and topological descriptors) of structurally diverse compounds which can be considered as anti-prion agents. Molecular modeling was conducted applying ChemBio3D Ultra version 12.0 software. The obtained 3D models were subjected to energy minimization using molecular mechanics force field method (MM2). The cutoff for structure optimization was set at a gradient of 0.1 kcal/Åmol. The Austin Model 1 (AM-1) was used for full geometry optimization of all structures. The obtained set of molecular descriptors is applied in analysis of similarities and dissimilarities among the tested compounds. This study is an important step in further development of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, which can be used for prediction of anti-prion activity of newly synthesized compounds.

Keywords: chemometrics, molecular modeling, molecular descriptors, prions, QSAR

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Authors: Ioanna Garefi, Irene Kalemaki

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Education is not solely about preparing young people for the world of work but also about equipping them with competences that will enable them to become socially proactive, empowered, responsible, and engaged citizens who will collectively contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future. Hence, progress assessment towards competence development is an ongoing process where continuous efforts are needed. This paper abstract presents the work of the H2020 NEMESIS project that aims to investigate, experiment and co-create together with schools a model for introducing and embedding social innovation education (SIE henceforth) in European primary and secondary schools. All in all, during the 2018-2019 academic year, 8 schools from 5 European countries involving 56 teachers, 1030 students, and 80 external stakeholders, experimented with different methodologies for embedding SIE in their contexts. This paper captures briefly the impact of these efforts towards the cultivation and progression of students’ social innovation (SI henceforth) competences. As part of the model, 14 SI competences, whose progress was evaluated, have been introduced falling under 3 interrelated categories: competences for identifying opportunities for social and collective value creation, competences for developing collaborations and building meaningful relations and competences for taking action both on an individual and collective level. Methodologically wise, the evaluation strategy employed was informed by a realist approach, enabling the researchers to go beyond synthesizing 'what happened' and towards understanding 'why it happened', delving into ‘what works, for whom and in what circumstances’. The reason for choosing such an approach was because it goes beyond attempting to answer the basic yes or no question of evaluation and focus on an ‘explanatory quest’ tracing the limits of when and where intervention is effective. A rich mix of sources of evidence have been employed, from focus groups with 80 people from the 5 EU countries to an online survey to 206 students, classroom observations, students’ narratives granting them with the opportunity to freely express their opinions, short stories letting students express their feelings through their imagination and also, drawings so that younger children can express their perception of reality. All these evidences offered insights on the impact of SIE on the development of students’ competences. Research findings showed that students progressed in all 14 SI competences through their involvement in the different activities. This positive progression is attributed to the model’s three core principles: 1) the student-centered approach, rendering students active and self-determined producers of their own learning, 2) the co-creation process fostering intergenerational interactions, empowering thus students by making their voices heard and valued and also, 3) the transformative social action whereby through their projects, students are able to witness the impact they are bringing about with their actions. Concluding, these initial findings, together with the forthcoming evaluation research to a pool of 30 schools around Europe, have the potential to raise the dynamics of the under-investigated field of SIE and encourage its embeddedness in more schools around Europe.

Keywords: competence development, education, social innovation, students

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Authors: Shirin Ghatrehsamani

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Higher efficiency and lower environmental impact are the consequence of using advanced technology in farming. They also help to decrease yield variability by diminishing weather variability impact, optimizing nutrient and pest management as well as reducing competition from weeds. A better understanding of the pros and cons of applying technology and finding the main reason for preventing the utilization of the technology has a significant impact on developing technology adoption among farmers and producers in the digital agriculture era. The results from two surveys carried out in 2019 and 2021 were used to investigate whether the crop types had an impact on the willingness to utilize technology on the farms. The main focus of the questionnaire was on utilizing precision agriculture (PA) technologies among farmers in some parts of the united states. Collected data was analyzed to determine the practical application of various technologies. The survey results showed more similarities in the main reason not to use PA between the two crop types, but the present application of using technology in specialty crops is generally five times larger than in row crops. GPS receiver applications were reported similar for both types of crops. Lack of knowledge and high cost of data handling were cited as the main problems. The most significant difference was among using variable rate technology, which was 43% for specialty crops while was reported 0% for row crops. Pest scouting and mapping were commonly used for specialty crops, while they were rarely applied for row crops. Survey respondents found yield mapping, soil sampling map, and irrigation scheduling were more valuable for specialty crops than row crops in management decisions. About 50% of the respondents would like to share the PA data in both types of crops. Almost 50 % of respondents got their PA information from retailers in both categories, and as the second source, using extension agents were more common in specialty crops than row crops.

Keywords: precision agriculture, smart farming, digital agriculture, technology adoption

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Authors: Kara Rosenblatt, Kevin Badgett, James Eldridge

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There is a preponderance of information regarding the overall effectiveness of charter schools and their ability to increase academic achievement compared to traditional district schools. Most research on the topic is focused on comparing long and short-term outcomes, academic achievement in mathematics and reading, and locale (i.e., urban, v. Rural). While the lingering unanswered questions regarding effectiveness continue to loom for school leaders, data on charter schools suggests that enrollment increases by 10% annually and that charter schools educate more than 2 million U.S. students across 40 states each year. Given the increasing share of U.S. students educated in charter schools, it is important to better understand possible differences in student achievement defined in multiple ways for students in charter schools and for those in Independent School District (ISD) settings in the state of Texas. Data were retrieved from the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) repository that includes data organized annually and available on the TEA website. Specific data points and definitions of achievement were based on characterizations of achievement found in the relevant literature. Specific data points include but were not limited to graduation rate, student performance on standardized testing, and teacher-related factors such as experience and longevity in the district. Initial findings indicate some similarities with the current literature on long-term student achievement in English/Language Arts; however, the findings differ substantially from other recent research related to long-term student achievement in social studies. There are a number of interesting findings also related to differences between achievement for students in charters and ISDs and within different types of charter schools in Texas. In addition to findings, implications for leadership in different settings will be explored.

Keywords: charter schools, ISDs, student achievement, implications for PK-12 school leadership

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Authors: Lize Tibiriçá, Ronnie Lee, Samantha Behbahani

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Fibromyalgia (FM) is a musculoskeletal disorder affecting men and women of different ages and cultures. The cause of this disorder is unknown; however, studies suggest an etiology that involves biological and psychosocial factors. Few studies have shown that a personality type such as neuroticism is associated with chronic pain conditions. Past research has explored whether patients with FM present with a specific personality trait. However, studies have used different methods (i.e. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Sociotropy and Autonomy Scale (SAS) and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire or Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Karolinska scale of personality, Big Five Inventory or NEO Personality Inventory) to explore the connection between FM and a personality type. They have identified personality types that present similar characteristics but vary in the name (i.e. high harm avoidance and low novelty seeking, psychasthenia/muscular tension/somatic anxiety, neuroticism). Although Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire and the Big Five Inventory differ in terms of content and structure, both of them identify neuroticism as the personality type of FM patients, and the former also identifies these patients as having a low sociability personality trait. Previous research also shows a trend of sociotropic personality style with FM patients that also suffer from Major Depressive Disorder. Participants in these studies were, for the most part, adult female and researchers have recognized that as a limitation and whether their findings can be generalized to men and younger patients with FM. Furthermore, most studies reviewed were conducted in Europe (i.e. Spain) and had a cross-sectional design. Future research should replicate past studies in different countries and consider conducting a longitudinal study. Although it is suspected that FM course is modulated by FM patients’ personality, it is not known whether individuals with similar personalities will develop FM. This review sought to explain the differences and similarities between the personality types identified. Limitations in the studies reviewed were addressed, and considerations for future research and treatment were discussed.

Keywords: chronic pain, fibromyalgia, neuroticism, personality type

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Authors: Mathula Thangarajh

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe form of X-linked muscular dystrophy caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene resulting in progressive skeletal muscle weakness. Boys with DMD also have significant cognitive disabilities. The intelligence quotient of boys with DMD, compared to peers, is approximately one standard deviation below average. Detailed neuropsychological testing has demonstrated that boys with DMD have a global developmental impairment, with verbal memory and visuospatial skills most significantly affected. Furthermore, the total brain volume and gray matter volume are lower in children with DMD compared to age-matched controls. These results are suggestive of a significant structural and functional compromise to the developing brain as a result of absent dystrophin protein expression. There is also some genetic evidence to suggest that mutations in the 3’ end of the DMD gene are associated with more severe neurocognitive problems. Our working hypothesis is that (i) boys with DMD do not make gains in neurodevelopmental skills compared to typically developing children and (ii) women carriers of DMD mutations may have subclinical cognitive deficits. We also hypothesize that there may be an intergenerational vulnerability of cognition, with boys of DMD-carrier mothers being more affected cognitively than boys of non-DMD-carrier mothers. The objectives of this study are: 1. Assess the neurodevelopment in boys with DMD at 4-time points and perform baseline neuroradiological assessment, 2. Assess cognition in biological mothers of DMD participants at baseline, 3. Assess possible correlation between DMD mutation and cognitive measures. This study also explores functional brain abnormalities in people with DMD by exploring how regional and global connectivity of the brain underlies executive function deficits in DMD. Such research can contribute to a better holistic understanding of the cognition alterations due to DMD and could potentially allow clinicians to create better-tailored treatment plans for the DMD population. There are four study visits for each participant (baseline, 2-4 weeks, 1 year, 18 months). At each visit, the participant completes the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, a validated psychometric measure that is recommended by NIH Common Data Elements for use in DMD. Visits 1, 3, and 4 also involve the administration of the BRIEF-2, ABAS-3, PROMIS/NeuroQoL, PedsQL Neuromuscular module 3.0, Draw a Clock Test, and an optional fMRI scan with the N-back matching task. We expect to enroll 52 children with DMD, 52 mothers of children with DMD, and 30 healthy control boys. This study began in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this, there were subsequent delays in recruitment because of travel restrictions. However, we have persevered and continued to recruit new participants for the study. We partnered with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and helped advertise the study to interested families. Since then, we have had families from across the country contact us about their interest in the study. We plan to continue to enroll a diverse population of DMD participants to contribute toward a better understanding of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Keywords: neurology, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, muscular dystrophy, cognition, neurodevelopment, x-linked disorder, DMD, DMD gene

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Authors: Jawaher A. Alsultan, Allen Feldman

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With the rapid switch to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, science teachers were suddenly required to teach their classes online. This breakneck shift to eLearning raised the question of how teacher educators could support science teachers who wanted to use reform-based methods of instruction while using virtual technologies. In this retrospective self-study, we, two science teacher educators, examined our practice as we worked with science teachers to implement inquiry, discussion, and argumentation [IDA] through eLearning. Ten high school science teachers from a large school district in the southeastern US participated virtually in the COVID-19 Community of Practice [COVID-19 CoP]. The CoP met six times from the end of April through May 2020 via Zoom. Its structure was based on a model of action research called enhanced normal practice [ENP], which includes exchanging stories, trying out ideas, and systematic inquiry. Data sources included teacher educators' meeting notes and reflective conversations, audio recordings of the CoP meetings, teachers' products, and post-interviews of the teachers. Findings included a new understanding of the role of existing relationships, shared goals, and similarities in the participants' situations, which helped build trust in the CoP, and the effects of our paying attention to the science teachers’ needs led to a well-functioning CoP. In addition, we became aware of the gaps in our knowledge of how the teachers already used apps in their practice, which they then shared with all of us about how they could be used for online teaching using IDA. We also identified the need to pay attention to feelings about tensions between the teachers and us around the expectations for final products and the project's primary goals. We found that if we are to establish relationships between us as facilitators and teachers that are honest, fair, and kind, we must express those feelings within the collective, dialogical processes that can lead to learning by all members of the CoP, whether virtual or face-to-face.

Keywords: community of practice, facilitators, self-study, action research

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Authors: Kristina Gordon

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One in three children in the United States is a victim of a maltreatment investigation, and about one in nine children has a substantiated investigation. Home visiting is one of several preventative strategies rooted in an early childhood approach that fosters maternal, infant, and early childhood health, protection, and growth. In the United States, 88% of states report administering home visiting programs or state-designed models. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review on home visiting programs in the United States focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. This systematic review included 17 articles which found that most of the studies reported optimistic results. Common across studies was program content related to (1) typical child development, (2) parenting education, and (3) child physical health. Although several factors common to home visiting and parenting interventions have been identified, no research has examined the common components of manualized home visiting programs to prevent child maltreatment. Child maltreatment can be addressed with home visiting programs with evidence-based components and cultural adaptations that increase prevention by assisting families in tackling the risk factors they face. An innovative approach to child maltreatment prevention is bringing together at-risk families with the aging community. This innovative approach was prompted due to existing home visitation programs only focusing on improving skillsets and providing temporary relationships. This innovative approach can provide the opportunity for families to build a relationship with an aging individual who can share their wisdom, skills, compassion, love, and guidance, to support families in their well-being and decrease child maltreatment occurrence. Families would be identified if they experience any of the risk factors, including parental substance abuse, parental mental illness, domestic violence, and poverty. Families would also be identified as at risk if they lack supportive relationships such as grandparents or relatives. Families would be referred by local agencies such as medical clinics, hospitals, schools, etc., that have interactions with families regularly. The aging community would be recruited at local housing communities and community centers. An aging individual would be identified by the elderly community when there is a need or interest in a relationship by or for the individual. Cultural considerations would be made when assessing for compatibility between the families and aging individuals. The pilot program will consist of a small group of participants to allow manageable results to evaluate the efficacy of the program. The pilot will include pre-and post-surveys to evaluate the impact of the program. From the results, data would be created to determine the efficacy as well as the sufficiency of the details of the pilot. The pilot would also be evaluated on whether families were referred to Child Protective Services during the pilot as it relates to the goal of decreasing child maltreatment. The ideal findings will display a decrease in child maltreatment and an increase in family well-being for participants.

Keywords: child maltreatment, home visiting, neglect, preventative, abuse

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Authors: Liane Marcia Freitas Silva, Fernando Augusto Silva Marins, Maria Silene Alexandre Leite

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The adoption of a network structure, like in the supply chains, favors the increase of dependence between companies and, by consequence, their vulnerability. Environment disasters, sociopolitical and economical events, and the dynamics of supply chains elevate the uncertainty of their operation, favoring the occurrence of events that can generate break up in the operations and other undesired consequences. Thus, supply chains are exposed to various risks that can influence the profitability of companies involved, and there are several previous studies that have proposed risk classification models in order to categorize the risks and to manage them. The objective of this paper is to analyze and discuss thirty of these risk classification models by means a theoretical survey. The research method adopted for analyzing and discussion includes three phases: The identification of the types of risks proposed in each one of the thirty models, the grouping of them considering equivalent concepts associated to their definitions, and, the analysis of these risks groups, evaluating their similarities and differences. After these analyses, it was possible to conclude that, in fact, there is more than thirty risks types identified in the literature of Supply Chains, but some of them are identical despite of be used distinct terms to characterize them, because different criteria for risk classification are adopted by researchers. In short, it is observed that some types of risks are identified as risk source for supply chains, such as, demand risk, environmental risk and safety risk. On the other hand, other types of risks are identified by the consequences that they can generate for the supply chains, such as, the reputation risk, the asset depreciation risk and the competitive risk. These results are consequence of the disagreements between researchers on risk classification, mainly about what is risk event and about what is the consequence of risk occurrence. An additional study is in developing in order to clarify how the risks can be generated, and which are the characteristics of the components in a Supply Chain that leads to occurrence of risk.

Keywords: sisks classification, survey, supply chain management, theoretical discussion

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Authors: Suvalux Chaichuchote, Ratchadaporn Thonghem

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Pleurotus mushroom is one of popular edible mushrooms in Thailand. It is much favored by consumers due to its delicious taste and high nutrition. It is commonly used as an ingredient in several dishes. The commercially cultivated strain grown in most farms is the Pleurotus sp., Hed Bhutan, that is widely distributed to mushroom farms throughout the country and can be cultivated almost all year round. However, it demands different cultivated strains from mushroom growers, therefore, the improving mushroom strains should be done to their benefits. In this study, we used a di-mon mating method to hybrid production from Hed Bhutan (P-3) as dikaryon material and monokaryotic mycelium were isolated from basidiospores of other three Pleurotus sp. by single spore isolation. The 3 hybrids: P-3XSA-6, P-3XSB-24 and P-3XSE-5 were recognized from the 12 hybridized successfully. They were appropriate hybridized in terms of fruiting body performance in the three time cycles of cultivation such as the number of days until growing, time for pinning, color and shape of fruiting bodies and yield. For genetic study, genomic DNAs of both Hed Bhutan (P-3) and three hybrids were extracted. A couple of primer ITS1 and ITS4 were used to amplify the gene coding for ITS1, ITS2 and 5.8S rRNA. The similarities between these amplified genes and databases of DNA revealed that Hed Bhutan (P-3) was the Pleurotus pulmonarius as well as P-3XSA-6, P-3XSB-24 and P-3XSE-5 hybrids. Furthermore, Hed Bhutan (P3) and three hybrids were distributed to 3 small-scale farms, with mushroom farming experience, in the countryside. To address this, one hundred and twenty mushroom bags of each strain were supplied to them. The findings, by interview, indicated two mushroom farmers were satisfied with P-3XSA-6 hybrid and P-3XSB-24 hybrid, thanks to their simultaneous fruiting time and good yield. While the other was satisfied with P-3XSB-24 hybrid due to its good yield and P-3XSE-5 hybrids thanks to its gradually fruiting body, benefiting in frequent harvest. Overall, farmers adopted all hybrids to grow as commercially cultivated strains as well as Hed Bhutan (P-3) strain.

Keywords: dikaryon, monokaryon, pleurotus, strain improvement

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Authors: Mohammed Islam

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Graduate employability is a well debated topic by governments, employers, and higher education institutes (HEI) across the world. Much of the focus of these debates have centred around the skills that graduates bring or should bring to the job market, a point echoed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) policy makers and employers. While some research has been carried out on graduates' employability skills, little or no attention has been paid to the forces at play in developing employability policy and its subsequent implementation. The focus of debate has been on a perceived skills gap rather than policy. Recognising a gap in the literature, this paper details a study of UAE employability policy development. Taking a social constructionist approach, this case study views policy as discursive and socially constructed through interactions with key stakeholders. It is within the myriad of interdependent socio-political factors and social practices, particularly power relationships, that this paper explores UAE policy on graduate employability. In doing so, this adds to the debate on graduate employability from the perspective of policy and explores its roots in the interaction between human activity and the ‘system’. Data was collected from two main sources: documentary review and semi-structured interviews. Policies and publicly stated rhetoric on graduate employability were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. Semi-structured interviews with representatives from policy makers, HEIs, and employers were reviewed through Thematic Analysis. The theoretical framework for the discussion of findings draws from social practice theories and highlights the factors at play in access to employment for UAE graduates. This case study presents a methodological approach to policy studies that can be applied beyond the context under investigation. Education policy researchers are provided with an opportunity to compare similarities and differences with their own specific contexts.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, employability, methodology, policy, social constructionism

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Authors: Adrián P. Gómez Mañas

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Autonomous vehicles have already transformed urban policies and cities. This is the main assumption of our research, which aims to understand how the representations of the possible arrival of autonomous vehicles already transform priorities or actions in transport and more largely, urban policies. This research is done within the framework of a Ph.D. doctorate directed by Professor Xavier Desjardins at the Sorbonne University of Paris. Our hypotheses are: (i) the perspectives, representations, and imaginaries on autonomous vehicles already affect the stakeholders of urban policies; (ii) the discourses on the opportunities or threats of autonomous vehicles reflect the current strategies of the stakeholders. Each stakeholder tries to integrate a discourse on autonomous vehicles that allows them to change as little as possible their current tactics and strategies. The objective is to eventually make a comparison between three different cases: Paris, United Arab Emirates, and Bogota. We chose those territories because their contexts are very different, but they all have important interests in mobility and innovation, and they all have started to reflect on the subject of self-driving mobility. The main methodology used is to interview actors of the metropolitan area (local officials, leading urban and transport planners, influent experts, and private companies). This work is supplemented with conferences, official documents, press articles, and websites. The objective is to understand: 1) What they know about autonomous vehicles and where does their knowledge come from; 2) What they expect from autonomous vehicles; 3) How their ideas about autonomous vehicles are transforming their action and strategy in managing daily mobility, investing in transport, designing public spaces and urban planning. We are going to present the research and some preliminary results; we will show that autonomous vehicles are often viewed by public authorities as a lever to reach something else. We will also present that speeches are very influenced by local context (political, geographical, economic, etc.), creating an interesting balance between global and local influences. We will analyze the differences and similarities between the three cases and will try to understand which are the causes.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, self-driving mobility, urban planning, urban mobility, transport, public policies

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Authors: Abdul Ghani Khan

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This paper focuses on the Buddhist rock carvings in the Diamer-Basha reservoir area, Gilgit-Baltistan, which is perhaps the largest rock art province of the world. The study region has thousands of rock carvings, particularly of the stupa carvings, engraved by artists, devotees or pilgrims, merchants have left their marks in the landscape or for the propagation of Buddhism. The Pak-German Archaeological Mission prepared, documented, and published the extensive catalogues of these carvings. Though, to date, very little systematic or statistically driven analysis was undertaken for in-depth understandings of the Buddhist rock carving tradition of the study region. This paper had made an attempt to examine stupa carvings and their constituent parts from the five selected sites, namely Oshibat, Shing Nala, Gichi Nala, Dadam Das, and Chilas Bridge. The statistical analyses and classification of the stupa carvings and their chronological contexts were carried out with the help of modern scientific tools such as STATA, FileMaker Pro, and MapSource softwares. The study had found that the tradition of stupa carvings on the surfaces of the rocks at the five selected sites continued for around 900 years, from the 1st century BCE to 8th century CE. There is a variation within the chronological settings of each of selected sites, possibly impacted by their utilization within particular landscapes, such as political (for example, change in political administrations or warfare) landscapes and geographical (for example, shifting of routes). The longer existence of the stupa carvings' tradition at these specific locations also indicates their central position on the trade and communication routes, and these were possibly also linked with religious ideologies within their particular times. The analyses of the different architectural elements of stupa carvings in the study area show that this tradition had structural similarities and differences in temporal and spatial contexts.

Keywords: rock carvings, stupa, stupa carvings, Buddhism, Pak-German archaeological mission

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Authors: Maria Ines Azambuja

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Graphic displays of Age-Period-Cohort (APC) mortality trends generally uses data aggregated within 5 or 10-year intervals. Technology allows one to increase the amount of processed data. Displaying occurrences by 1-year intervals is a logic first step in the direction of attaining higher quality landscapes of variations in temporal occurrences. Method: 1) Comparison of UK mortality trends plotted by 10-, 5- and 1-year intervals; 2) Comparison of UK and US mortality trends (period X age and cohort X age) displayed by 1-year intervals. Source: Mortality data (period, 1x1, males, 1933-1912) uploaded from the Human Mortality Database to Excel files, where Period X Age and Cohort X Age graphics were produced. The choice of transforming age-specific trends from calendar to birth-cohort years (cohort = period – age) (instead of using cohort 1x1 data available at the HMD resource) was taken to facilitate the comparison of age-specific trends when looking across calendar-years and birth-cohorts. Yearly live births, males, 1933 to 1912 (UK) were uploaded from the HFD. Influenza references are from the literature. Results: 1) The use of 1-year intervals unveiled previously unsuspected period, cohort and interacting period x cohort effects upon all-causes mortality. 2) The UK and US figures showed variations associated with particular calendar years (1936, 1940, 1951, 1957-68, 72) and, most surprisingly, with particular birth-cohorts (1889-90 in the US, and 1900, 1918-19, 1940-41 and 1946-47, in both countries. Also, the figures showed ups and downs in age-specific trends initiated at particular birth-cohorts (1900, 1918-19 and 1947-48) or a particular calendar-year (1968, 1972, 1977-78 in the US), variations at times restricted to just a range of ages (cohort x period interacting effects). Importantly, most of the identified “scars” (period and cohort) correlates with the record of occurrences of Influenza A epidemics since the late 19th Century. Conclusions: The use of 1-year intervals to describe APC mortality trends both increases the amount of information available, thus enhancing the opportunities for patterns’ recognition, and increases our capability of interpreting those patterns by describing trends across smaller intervals of time (period or birth-cohort). The US and the UK mortality landscapes share many but not all 'scars' and distortions suggested here to be associated with influenza epidemics. Different size-effects of wars are evident, both in mortality and in fertility. But it would also be realistic to suppose that the preponderant influenza A viruses circulating in UK and US at the beginning of the 20th Century might be different and the difference to have intergenerational long-term consequences. Compared with the live births trend (UK data), birth-cohort scars clearly depend on birth-cohort sizes relatives to neighbor ones, which, if causally associated with influenza, would result from influenza-related fetal outcomes/selection. Fetal selection could introduce continuing modifications on population patterns of immune-inflammatory phenotypes that might give rise to 'epidemic constitutions' favoring the occurrence of particular diseases. Comparative analysis of mortality landscapes may help us to straight our record of past circulation of Influenza viruses and document associations between influenza recycling and fertility changes.

Keywords: age-period-cohort trends, epidemic constitution, fertility, influenza, mortality

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Authors: Saeideh Soltanmohammadlou, Pilar M Guerrieri, Amir Kianfar, Sara Sadeghian, Yasaman Nafezi, Emily Irvin

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Architecture is rooted in the experiences of the residents in a place. Its foundations are based on needs and circumstances of each territory in terms of climate, available materials, economics and governmental policies, and cultural ideals and ideas of the people that live there. The architectural history of Iran echoes these architectural origins and has revealed certain trends reflecting this territory and culture. However, in recent years, new architectural patterns are developing that diverge from what has previously been considered classic forms of Iranian architecture. This article investigates architectural elements that make up the architecture created by religious minorities after the Safavid dynasty (one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran (from 1501 to 1736) in Iranian cities: Isfahan, Tabriz, Kerman, and Uremia. Similarities and differences are revealed between the architecture that composes neighborhoods of religious minorities in Iran and common national architectural trends in each era after this dynasty. This dynasty is specific as a point of reference in this article because Islam was identified as the state religion of Iran during this era. This decision changed the course of architecture in the country to incorporate religious motifs and meanings. The study associated with this article was conducted as a survey that sought to find links between architecture of religious minorities with Iranian national architecture. Interestingly, a merging of architectural forms and trends occur as immigrants interact with Iranian Islamic meanings. These observations are significant within the context of modern architecture around the world and within Western discourse because what are considered religious minorities in Iran are the dominant religions in Western nations. This makes Iran’s architecture particularly unique as it creates a kind of inverse relationship, than that of Western nations, to the ways in which religion influences architectural history.

Keywords: architecture, ethnic architecture, national architecture, religion architecture

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Authors: Khaled Igbaria

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While Ba'albakī ceased writing or publishing since 1964, it is considerable and significant to investigate Ba'albakī's influence on others. This paper examines her influence on three Lebanese women writers: Emily Nasrallah, Muná Jabbūr, and Hanan al-Shaykh. However, the aim is not simply to examine the influence of the writer on these three authors, but rather to note similarities and differences in the challenges they faced and the agendas they followed in their fiction writing. For each of these writers, this article will describe elements of their literature, and then sketch out the influence which Ba'albakī has had on them. This paper relies on material from Sidawi because it includes interviews with the female writers discussed that are relevant to the current discussion. Sidawi asked them about Ba'albakī and her influence on them, the challenges they faced, and how they coped with them. This paper points out their comments using their own words. To be clear, examining these writers' notes and works is beyond the scope of this paper. To sum up, there are significant parallels between the life and work of Ba'albakī, and other Lebanese women writers such as Nasrallah, Jabbūr and al-Shaykh. Like Ba'albakī, Nasrallah and al-Shaykh also suffered in their struggle against their families. Nasrallah and al-Shaykh, like Ba'albakī, suffered because their society did not trust in their abilities and creativity. Ba'albakī opted for isolation because of her conflict with patriarchal society including the Lebanese women’s groups, while Nasrallah's isolation was because she preferred individualism and autonomy, and Jabbūr, as could be speculated, was not able to cope with the suffering caused by her role as a woman writer within Lebanese society. Whereas Ba'albakī isolated herself from the Lebanese women’s groups, focusing instead on her feminist writing and joining the Shi'r group, Al-Shaykh and the Lebanese women’s groups are able to cooperate in harmony. Furthermore, while Nasrallah and Al-Shaykh continued to publish fiction, Ba'albakī stopped publishing fiction in 1964. All of the above confirms not only that it is worthy to investigate deeply and academically both the biography and the works of Ba'albakī, but also that she deserves to include her throughout the top great Arab female writers, at the time, like Al-Shaykh and Nawal El Saadawi.

Keywords: feminist writing, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Laylá Ba'albakī, Lebanese women writers, Muná Jabbūr

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Authors: Maria Jose Granero Paris, Ana Isabel Jimenez Zarco, Agustin Pablo Alvarez Herranz

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In the industrial sector the collaboration along the supply chain is key especially in order to develop product, production methods or process innovations. The access to resources and knowledge not being available inside the company, the achievement of cost competitive solutions, the reduction of the time required to innovate are some of the benefits linked with the collaboration with suppliers. The big industrial manufacturers have a long tradition to collaborate with their suppliers to develop new products in the developed countries. Since they have increased their global supply chains and global sourcing activities, the objective of the research is to analyse if the same best practices, way of working, experiences, information technology tools, governance methodologies are applied when collaborating with suppliers in the developed world or in developing countries. Most of the current research focuses to analyse the Supply Chain Collaboration in the developed countries and in recent years the number of publications related to the Supply Chain Collaboration in developing countries has increased, but there is still a lack of research comparing both and analysing the similarities, differences and key success factors among the Supply Chain Collaboration practices in developed and developing countries. With this gap in mind, the research under preparation will focus on the following goals: -Identify the most important elements required for a successful supply chain collaboration in the developed and developing countries. -Set up the optimal governance framework to manage the supply chain collaboration in the developed and developing countries. -Define some recommendations about required improvements in the current supply chain collaboration business relationship practices in place. Following the case methodology we will analyze the way manufacturers and suppliers collaborate in the development of new products, production methods or process innovations and in the set up of new global supply chains in two industries with different level of technology intensity and collaboration history being the automotive and aerospace industries.

Keywords: global supply chain networks, Supply Chain Collaboration, supply chain governance, supply chain performance

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Authors: Priyajeet Kaur Kaleka

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Introduction: A dentist is often the first responder in the battle for a patient’s healthy body and maybe the first health professional to observe signs of child abuse, be it physical, emotional, and/or sexual mistreatment. Therefore, it is an ethical responsibility for the dental clinician to detect and report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect (CAN). The main reasons for not reporting suspected cases of CAN, with special emphasis on the third: 1) Uncertainty of the diagnosis, 2) Lack of knowledge of the reporting procedure, and 3) Child abuse and neglect somewhat remained the subject of ignorance among dental professionals because of a lack of advance clinical training. Given these epidemic proportions, there is a scope of further research about dental school curriculum design. Purpose: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of dentists in Canada regarding signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect (CAN), reporting procedures, and whether educational strategies followed by dental schools address this sensitive issue. In pursuit of that aim, this abstract summarizes the evidence related to this question. Materials and Methods: Data was collected through a specially designed questionnaire adapted and modified from the author’s previous cross-sectional study on (CAN), which was conducted in Pune, India, in 2016 and is available on the database of PubMed. Design: A random sample was drawn from the targeted population of registered dentists and dental students in Canada regarding their knowledge, professional responsibilities, and behavior concerning child abuse. Questionnaire data were distributed to 200 members. Out of which, a total number of 157 subjects were in the final sample for statistical analysis, yielding response of 78.5%. Results: Despite having theoretical information on signs and symptoms, 55% of the participants indicated they are not confident to detect child physical abuse cases. 90% of respondents believed that recognition and handling the CAN cases should be a part of undergraduate training. Only 4.5% of the participants have correctly identified all signs of abuse due to inadequate formal training in dental schools and workplaces. Although nearly 96.3% agreed that it is a dentist’s legal responsibility to report CAN, only a small percentage of the participants reported an abuse case in the past. While 72% stated that the most common factor that might prevent a dentist from reporting a case was doubt over the diagnosis. Conclusion: The goal is to motivate dental schools to deal with this critical issue and provide their students with consummate training to strengthen their capability to care for and protect children. The educational institutions should make efforts to spread awareness among dental students regarding the management and tackling of CAN. Clinical Significance: There should be modifications in the dental school curriculum focusing on problem-based learning models to assist graduates to fulfill their legal and professional responsibilities. CAN literacy should be incorporated into the dental curriculum, which will eventually benefit future dentists to break this intergenerational cycle of violence.

Keywords: abuse, child abuse and neglect, dentist knowledge, dental school curriculum, problem-based learning

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Authors: Tanya Keni

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Efforts to link culture and self, have been the focus, initially of Anthropology and later of Psychology in the first half of the 20th century. In doing so, cross-cultural researchers have endeavored to identify factors valuable for classifying cultures. One such central classification is that of individualism and collectivism which remains prominent. However, it overlooks certain other cultural dimensions that can be of interest and need attention. The current paper tries to move beyond this classic distinction, to cultures that are termed to be honor and dignity oriented. Both honor and dignity, refer to the worth of a person but bear different connotations and psychological consequences. While dignity is an independent concept of self-worth whose locus lies deep within the individual, honor is an interdependent concept that needs both personal as well as societal acknowledgment. This research takes an exploratory and qualitative approach to draw the individual, structural and contextual understanding of personal honor and dignity in broad cultures that are conceptualized as honor and dignity aimed. The aim is to understand the cultural influence on an individual’s self-worth, considering gender. 12 Focus group discussions were conducted across North India and Germany with four participants each. The research process was inspired by the approaches of social constructivism and critical realism. These discussions were transcribed and further analyzed using thematic analysis and the results have revealed differential themes for the concepts of honor and dignity. Certain dimensional similarities were also observed for both the cultural groups, however with differential usage of language. In particular, the North Indian group was seen using phrases that were oriented towards safeguarding against loss of honor or dignity. While the phrases of the German group were aligned towards worth-enhancement. The research also gives an illustration of how honor and dignity translate into behavioral practice that can exert an influence on important life decisions, especially about self and family for both males and females. In addition to these, the study also contributes to the literature on self-worth by developing the concept of ‘dignity’ for which there exists a dearth of research.

Keywords: culture, dignity, honor, self, self-worth

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Authors: Barbara Janari

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

Keywords: disjunction, juxtaposition, montage, temporality

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Authors: Jianghe Niu, Mu-Qing Huang

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This research applies qualitative approach to conduct literature review to explore and analyze the relationship between three pairs of female Chinese public figure with high levels of education and social recognitionto understand the role of male admiration in driving hostile response from the female pairs. Commonalities in the cases were found. Hong Huang and SuMang, both are coaches in the Chinese fashion industry, and their contemporaries are also editors-in-chief of major fashion publications. Lin Huiyin and XieBingxin are successful women in the field of literature and architecture. They are of similar age and share similar place of origin and family background; the former received high levels of male admiration, while the latter did not. Zhang Ailing and Su Qing, they are both highly established in the field of literature with very similar style, and they shared great admiration for each other’s talent once upon a time. Zhang’s husband used to be Su Qing's lover, and it was only through Su Qing that He met Zhang Ailing. Conclusion: The relationship between Chinese women, especially women with high levels of education and social recognition, the degree of similarities, and the closeness of relationship of these attributes (such as age, family background, education level, peer similarity, appearance, family, marriage) is positively correlated with increased level of discord, hostility, and hostility. This is observed across the three samples. The relationship between Chinese women, especially women with high levels of education and social recognition - if there are men romantically involved and the levels of male admiration is not equal between the two females - the imbalance of male admiration will act as a leverage that further drives up the levels of negative relationship between the women. This is the case with the first two examples above. The relationship between Chinese women, especially women with high levels of education and social recognition - if there is a man romantically involved and if he’s a previous lover to one woman - the transfer of male romantic interest from the first women to the second women, the new union will bring the hostile and negative relationship with the two females to a peak.

Keywords: Chinese, gender, relationship, women

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Authors: Mashael AlSalem

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While research into language assessment has expanded in recent years, few if any studies to date have targeted the nature of thought processes used by teachers when constructing classroom-based assessment. This study reports on teachers’ conceptions of English grammar assessment and their classroom assessment practices in their Saudi higher educational facilities. A mixed-method approach using both qualitative and quantitative research instruments was employed to elicit teachers’ perceptions of English grammar assessment and their relationship to their current practices. Participants of the study included EFL teachers from 4 different educational facilities: King Saudi University, Princess Noura University, Imam Mouhamed Islamic University, and Institute of Public Administration. Data collection involved questionnaire (N=100), semi-structured interviews (N=30), retrospective thinking (N=20), and document analysis (N=20). Activity theory is used as an interpretive framework to explore and investigate the entire system of constructing classroom-based assessment. Preliminary findings reveal several similarities and differences between the participants’ stated beliefs and their current practices of assessing English grammar. Findings also showed that teacher participant’s beliefs about how English grammar should be assessed are influenced mostly by prior learning experience as well as their teaching instruction practices. Their practices, on the other hand, was more guided by educational policies and lack of teacher training in the field of assessment, among other factors. This research makes a significant contribution to knowledge in three different areas: it enriches the literature on language teacher cognition; it builds on the body of research on language classroom assessment, and it expands on the possibilities to use AC to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices.

Keywords: activity theory, classroom-based assessment, language teacher cognition, mixed method approach

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Authors: Rorick Daniel Tovar Galvan

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The existence of different legal systems represents an important barrier for married couples that attempt to reside in another country. Each movement can cause important changes in the rights and obligations derived from the marriage since a different law could be used by the courts to solve legal disputes arising from their relationship. In a context in which it is increasingly common to move from one country to another, people cannot be certain about the outcomes of proceedings dealing with i.e., the dissolution of property regime, maintenance payments or time to wait to initiate divorce because a foreign – and in most cases unknown – law could apply every time they move. At first glance, the answer to this issue seems to be the harmonization of the legal systems: the greater the mobility of individuals inside a group of countries, the higher the similarities of their laws should be. Such a solution could be positive for spouses because a higher degree of legal certainty would be reached in case the same legal rules applied regardless of the place where the couple lives. However, the legal pluralism brings with it also advantages that could be appreciated when one looks closely at the economic rationale behind the legal institution of marriage. This contribution carries out an economic analysis of the existence of different legal systems in the area of marriage law and proposes another strategy to cope with the problems arising from legal pluralism. Far from eliminating the diversity of legal systems, one wishes to foster it, since significant advantages could arise from such diversity in case couples are permitted to choose the applicable law themselves. Based on the idea that the law could be seem as a product offered in the market as well as states and spouses as suppliers and consumers of this product, the paper shows the advantages of designing a legal framework that allows spouses to determine freely the law governing the legal effects of their marriage. Instead of promoting the harmonization of the substantive law, one explores the benefits of encouraging the regulatory competition at international level in the area of marriage law.

Keywords: conflict of laws, harmonization, international marriage law, law and economics, regulatory competition

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Authors: Amandeep Kaur

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All religions enlighten truth which provides spiritual tranquility. But, the language of these holy books is not easy to understand because these have divine language. That's why hermeneutical Study is necessary to understand these Scriptures. There is a separate theoretical framework to study all the disciplines of language, literature, religion etc. Similarly the discipline of interpretation has its own theoretical framework known as hermeneutics. It is a science of interpretation that put forward the best ways and methods of interpretation. But in this modern world, hermeneutics is considered as a theoretical-cum-philosophical discipline. It is vast study of understanding texts. Hermeneutics is especially related to the study of religious scriptures like the Bible, the Qur'an, the Vedas and the Shri Guru Granth Sahib and many more. It is mainly the Western concept which has a great old tradition because it used the Bible as the foremost holy scripture for definition and interpretation. The Discipline of the Indian hermeneutics was led by Mimamsa School. The reference of the word hermeneutics in works of Ancient Greek philosophers indicates towards the antiquity of this word. Shri Guru Granth Sahib's schools of interpretation like Udasi, Nirmala, Sevapanthi and Gyani came into existence to interpret the discourse of Shri Guru Granth Sahib. These are sects of Sikhism and have great contribution to interpret and preach Guru Granth Sahib's revelation. This research paper will represent the comparative study of these sects methods, tools and styles of interpreting the meaning of this holy book. Interpretation is basically textual based process. So, all these schools have chosen Guru Granth Sahib for textual study. Some of the schools have done a whole interpretation of Guru Granth Sahib. But, some of them have done only interpretation of prominent banies i.e Japuji Sahib, Anand Sahib, Assa-di-war etc. This study will also throw lights on sect's historical background and contribution. At last conclusion of this paper is that all the schools have done gurbani interpretation according to their own philosophical and theological point of view. These schools have many similarities and differences among their way of interpretation. It will be discussed briefly.

Keywords: Gyani, hermeneutics, Mimamsa, Nirmala, Sevapanthi, Udasi

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Authors: Ahmad Shahin, Fadi Chakik, Walid Moudani

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Our study is about elaborating a potential solution for a search engine that involves semantic technology to retrieve information and display it significantly. Semantic search engines are not used widely over the web as the majorities are still in Beta stage or under construction. Many problems face the current applications in semantic search, the major problem is to analyze and calculate the meaning of query in order to retrieve relevant information. Another problem is the ontology based index and its updates. Ranking results according to concept meaning and its relation with query is another challenge. In this paper, we are offering a light meta-engine (QESM) which uses Google search, and therefore Google’s index, with some adaptations to its returned results by adding multi-query expansion. The mission was to find a reliable ranking algorithm that involves semantics and uses concepts and meanings to rank results. At the beginning, the engine finds synonyms of each query term entered by the user based on a lexical database. Then, query expansion is applied to generate different semantically analogous sentences. These are generated randomly by combining the found synonyms and the original query terms. Our model suggests the use of semantic similarity measures between two sentences. Practically, we used this method to calculate semantic similarity between each query and the description of each page’s content generated by Google. The generated sentences are sent to Google engine one by one, and ranked again all together with the adapted ranking method (QESM). Finally, our system will place Google pages with higher similarities on the top of the results. We have conducted experimentations with 6 different queries. We have observed that most ranked results with QESM were altered with Google’s original generated pages. With our experimented queries, QESM generates frequently better accuracy than Google. In some worst cases, it behaves like Google.

Keywords: semantic search engine, Google indexing, query expansion, similarity measures

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Authors: Sana Ammad

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The tradition of linguistic analysis in Islam and Christianity has developed independently of each other in lieu of the social developments specific to their historical context. However, recently increasing number of Muslim academics educated in the West have tried to apply the Western tradition of linguistic interpretation to the Qur’anic text while completely disregarding the Islamic linguistic tradition used and developed by the traditional scholars over the centuries. The aim of the paper is to outline the linguistic tools and methods used by the traditional Islamic scholars for the purpose of interpretating the Holy Qur’an and shed light on how they contribute towards a better understanding of the text compared to their Western counterparts. This paper carries out a descriptive-comparative study of the linguistic tools developed and perfected by the traditional scholars in Islam for the purpose of textual analysis of the Qur’an as they have been described in the authentic works of Usul Al Fiqh (Jurisprudence) and the principles of textual analysis employed by the Western hermeneutical tradition for the study of the Bible. First, it briefly outlines the independent historical development of the two traditions emphasizing the final normative shape that they have taken. Then it draws a comparison of the two traditions highlighting the similarities and the differences existing between them. In the end, the paper demonstrates the level of academic excellence achieved by the traditional linguistic scholars in their efforts to develop appropriate tools of textual interpretation and how these tools are more suitable for interpreting the Qur’an compared to the Western principles. Since the aim of interpreters of both the traditions is to try and attain an objective understanding of the Scriptures, the emphasis of the paper shall be to highlight how well the Islamic method of linguistic interpretation contributes to an objective understanding of the Qur’anic text. The paper concludes with the following findings: The Western hermeneutical tradition of linguistic analysis developed within the Western historical context. However, the Islamic method of linguistic analysis is much more highly developed and complex and serves better the purpose of objective understanding of the Holy text.

Keywords: Islamic jurisprudence, linguistic analysis, textual interpretation, western hermeneutics

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