Search results for: social identity and preferences

Authors: Maryam Khazaee-Pool, Tahereh Pashaei, Koen Ponnet

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Background: The global prevalence and morbidity of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are high. Preventive behaviors are proven to reduce the damage caused by the disease. There is a paucity of information on determinants of preventive behaviors in response to COVID-19 in Mazandaran province, north of Iran. So, we aimed to evaluate the protection motivation theory (PMT) in promoting preventive behaviors of COVID-19 in Mazandaran province. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 1220 individuals participated. They were selected via social networks using convenience sampling in 2020. Data were collected online using a demographic questionnaire and a valid and reliable scale based on PMT. Data analysis was done using the Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression in SPSS V24. Result: The mean age of the participants was 39.34±8.74 years. The regression model showed perceived threat (ß =0.033, P =0.007), perceived costs (ß=0.039, P=0.045), perceived self-efficacy (ß =0.116, P>0.001), and perceived fear (ß=0.131, P>0.001) as the significant predictors of COVID-19 preventive behaviors. This model accounted for 78% of the variance in these behaviors. Conclusion: According to constructs of the PMT associated with protection against COVID-19, educational programs and health promotion based on the theory and benefiting from social networks could be helpful in increasing the motivation of people towards protective behaviors against COVID-19.

Keywords: questionnaire development, validation, intention, prevention, covid-19

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Authors: Emma J. Dale, Christina D. Buesching, Kevin R. Theis, David W. Macdonald

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This study investigates the oral and intestinal microbiomes of wild-living European badgers (Meles meles) and will relate inter-individual differences to social contact networks, somatic and reproductive fitness, varying susceptibility to bovine tuberculous (bTB) and to the olfactory advertisement. Badgers are an interesting model for this research, as they have great variation in body condition, despite living in complex social networks and having access to the same resources. This variation in somatic fitness, in turn, affects breeding success, particularly in females. We postulate that microbiota have a central role to play in determining the successfulness of an individual. Our preliminary results, characterising the microbiota of individual badgers, indicate unique compositions of microbiota communities within social groups of badgers. This basal information will inform further questions related to the extent microbiota influence fitness. Hitherto, the potential role of microbiota has not been considered in determining host condition, but also other key fitness variables, namely; communication and resistance to disease. Badgers deposit their faeces in communal latrines, which play an important role in olfactory communication. Odour profiles of anal and subcaudal gland secretions are highly individual-specific and encode information about group-membership and fitness-relevant parameters, and their chemical composition is strongly dependent on symbiotic microbiota. As badgers sniff/ lick (using their Vomeronasal organ) and over-mark faecal deposits of conspecifics, these microbial communities can be expected to vary with social contact networks. However, this is particularly important in the context of bTB, where badgers are assumed to transmit bTB to cattle as well as conspecifics. Interestingly, we have found that some individuals are more susceptible to bTB than are others. As acquired immunity and thus potential susceptibility to infectious diseases are known to depend also on symbiotic microbiota in other members of the mustelids, a role of particularly oral microbiota can currently not be ruled out as a potential explanation for inter-individual differences in infection susceptibility of bTB in badgers. Tri annually badgers are caught in the context of a long-term population study that began in 1987. As all badgers receive an individual tattoo upon first capture, age, natal as well as previous and current social group-membership and other life history parameters are known for all animals. Swabs (subcaudal ‘scent gland’, anal, genital, nose, mouth and ear) and fecal samples will be taken from all individuals, stored at -80oC until processing. Microbial samples will be processed and identified at Wayne State University’s Theis (Host-Microbe Interactions) Lab, using High Throughput Sequencing (16S rRNA-encoding gene amplification and sequencing). Acknowledgments: Gas-Chromatography/ Mass-spectrometry (in the context of olfactory communication) analyses will be performed through an established collaboration with Dr. Veronica Tinnesand at Telemark University, Norway.

Keywords: communication, energetics, fitness, free-ranging animals, immunology

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Authors: Nagwa Soliman

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Women for centuries have undergone gender discrimination under the pretext of patriarchy which is engraved in the culture and tradition of some societies. It is important to highlight that this condition has been encoded by the male gender to dominate and manipulate women. It is therefore necessary to draw attention to this important obstacle that stands in the way of women’s achievement of their full potential and humanity in the face of these cultural traditions. The appropriate style that was chosen for this literary analysis is a qualitative research method that relies on the feminist technique using Freud’s psychological theories. This article explores patriarchy and gender discrimination as portrayed in Ahdaf Soueif’s In The Eye of the Sun (1992) and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast (2002). It could be argued that those two novels describe a society that is feminist, patriarchal, and gender discriminatory. Moreover, it is important to assert that patriarchy and gender discrimination are part of the system’s social order which compels the female characters to adjust to society’s norms and conventions. This social order is supported by traditional and cultural masculine attitudes and results in sustaining gender inequality, female stereo typing and patriarchy which suppress women’s beliefs and dreams.

Keywords: gender discrimination, patriarchy, feminism, stereotype

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Authors: Hoora Dehghani, Meisam Shahbazi, Reza Zare

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During the previous decade, a significant evolution has occurred in the number of private educational centers and, accordingly, the increase in the number of providers and students of these centers around the world. The number of language teaching institutes in Iran that are considered private educational sectors is also growing exponentially as the request for learning foreign languages has extremely increased in recent years. This fact caused competition among the institutions in improving better services tailored to the students’ demands to win the competition. Along with the growth in the industry of education, higher education institutes should apply the marketing-related concepts and view students as customers because students’ outlooks are similar to consumers with education. Studying the influential factors in the selection of an institute has multiple benefits. Firstly, it acknowledges the institutions of the students’ choice factors. Secondly, the institutions use the obtained information to improve their marketing methods. It also helps institutions know students’ outlooks that can be applied to expand the student know-how. Moreover, it provides practical evidence for educational centers to plan useful amenities and programs, and use efficient policies to cater to the market, and also helps them execute the methods that increase students’ feeling of contentment and assurance. Thus, this study explored the influencing factors in the selection of a language learning institute by language learners and examined and compared the importance among the varying age groups and genders. In the first phase of the study, the researchers selected 15 language learners as representative cases within the specified age ranges and genders purposefully and interviewed them to explore the comprising elements in their language institute selection process and analyzed the results qualitatively. In the second phase, the researchers identified elements as specified items of a questionnaire, and 1000 English learners across varying educational contexts rated them. The TOPSIS method was used to analyze the data quantitatively by representing the level of importance of the items for the participants generally and specifically in each subcategory; genders and age groups. The results indicated that the educational quality, teaching method, duration of training course, establishing need-oriented courses, and easy access were the most important elements. On the other hand, offering training in different languages, the specialized education of only one language, the uniform and appropriate appearance of office staff, having native professors to the language of instruction, applying Computer or online tests instead of the usual paper tests respectively as the least important choice factors in selecting a language institute. Besides, some comparisons among different groups’ ratings of choice factors were made, which revealed the differences among different groups' priorities in choosing a language institute.

Keywords: choice factors, EFL institute selection, english learning, need analysis, TOPSIS

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Authors: John G. Skelly, Peter K. Dearden, Thomas W. R. Harrop, Sarah N. Inwood, Joseph Guhlin

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The Argentine stem weevil (ASW; L. bonariensis) is an economically important pasture pest in New Zealand, which causes about $200 million of damage per annum. Microctonus hyperodae (Mh), a parasite of the ASW in its natural range in South America, was introduced into New Zealand to curb the pasture damage caused by the ASW. Mh is an endoparasitic wasp that lays its eggs in the ASW halting its reproduction. Mh was initially successful at preventing ASW proliferation and reducing pasture damage. The effectiveness of Mh has since declined due to decreased parasitism rates and has resulted in increased pasture damage. Although the mechanism through which ASW has developed resistance to Mh has not been discovered, it has been proposed to be due to the different reproductive modes used by Mh and the ASW in New Zealand. The ASW reproduces sexually, whereas Mh reproduces asexually, which has been hypothesised to have allowed the ASW to ‘out evolve’ Mh. Other species within the Microctonus genus reproduce both sexually and asexually. Strains of Microctonus aethiopoides (Ma), a species closely related to Mh, reproduce either by sexual or asexual reproduction. Comparing the genomes of sexual and asexual Microctonus may allow for the identification of the mechanism of asexual reproduction and other characteristics that may improve Mh as a biocontrol agent. The genomes of Mh and three strains of Ma, two of which reproduce sexually and one reproduces asexually, have been sequenced and annotated. The French (MaFR) and Moroccan (MaMO) reproduce sexually, whereas the Irish strain (MaIR) reproduces asexually. Like Mh, The Ma strains are also used as biocontrol agents, but for different weevil species. The genomes of Mh and MaIR were subsequently upgraded using Hi-C, resulting in a set of high quality, highly contiguous genomes. A subset of the genes involved in mitosis and meiosis, which have been identified though the use of Hidden Markov Models generated from genes involved in these processes in other Hymenoptera, have been catalogued in Mh and the strains of Ma. Meiosis and mitosis genes were broadly conserved in both sexual and asexual Microctonus species. This implies that either the asexual species have retained a subset of the molecular components required for sexual reproduction or that the molecular mechanisms of mitosis and meiosis are different or differently regulated in Microctonus to other insect species in which these mechanisms are more broadly characterised. Bioinformatic analysis of the chemoreceptor compliment in Microctonus has revealed some variation in the number of olfactory receptors, which may be related to host preference. Phylogenetic analysis of olfactory receptors highlights variation, which may be able to explain different host range preferences in the Microctonus. Hi-C clustering implies that Mh has 12 chromosomes, and MaIR has 8. Hence there may be variation in gene regulation between species. Genome alignment of Mh and MaIR implies that there may be large scale genome structural variation. Greater insight into the genetics of these agriculturally important group of parasitic wasps may be beneficial in restoring or maintaining their biocontrol efficacy.

Keywords: argentine stem weevil, asexual, genomics, Microctonus hyperodae

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Authors: Ali Isa Danlami

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This study examined the coaching leadership behaviours preferred by athletes in individual and team sports in Nigeria that may lead to increased satisfaction and performance. Six leadership behaviours were identified; these are democratic, training and instruction, situational consideration, autocratic, social support and positive feedback. The six leadership behaviours relate to the preference of coaches by athletes that leads to increased performance were the focus of this study. The population of this study is comprised of male and female athletes of states sports councils in Nigeria. An ex-post facto research design was employed for this study. Stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the sampled states according to the six geo-political zones of the country. Two states (North Central (FCT, Nasarawa), North East (Bauchi, Gombe), North West (Kaduna, Sokoto), South East (Anambra, Imo), South west (Ogun, Ondo), South South (Delta, and Rivers) were selected from each stratum. A modified questionnaire was used to collect data for this study, and the data collected were subjected to a reliability test using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyse the data. A two sample Z-test procedure was used to test the significant differences because of the large number of subjects involved in the different groups. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha value. The findings of the study concluded that: Athletes in team and individual sports generally preferred coaches who were more disposed towards training and instructions, social support, positive feedback, situational consideration and democratic behaviours. It was also found that athletes in team sports have higher preference for coaches with democratic behaviour. The result revealed that athletes in team and individual sports did not have a preference for coaches disposed towards autocratic behaviour. Based on this, the following recommendations were made: Democratic behaviour by coaches should be encouraged in team and individual sports. Coaches should not be engaged in autocratic behaviours when coaching. These behaviours should be adopted by coaches to increase athletes’ satisfaction and enhancement in performance.

Keywords: leadership behaviour, preference, athletes, individual, team, coaches’

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Authors: Emmanuel Bole Akinpelu

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Festival is a social event that takes place every year which showcase culture and other social activities that usually take place in an environment or town. However, Oranyan Festival is an annual event organized and celebrated in Oyo town in honor of Oranyan the great who is reputed to be the overall head of the Kings of the Yoruba. This event is attended by people from all works of life. The Oyos are used to celebrating various cultural festivals; like Ogun, Oya, Sango, Egungun, Obatala and others. However, Oranyan festival in Oyo is a recent development in honour of Oranyan. He was said to be powerful and an embodiment of a unique cultural tradition. The study examined the significance of the festival to the Oyo Yoruba group. Oyo Yoruba cultural heritage include; Ewi, Ijala, Traditional food ‘Amala and Gbegiri’, Ekun Iyawo, (Bridal Chants), Traditional Music, Traditional Dance, Traditional Game ‘Ayo Olopon’ Eke (Traditional wrestling) and others. Data for this work was gathered through archival sources as journals and relevant publications on the various Oyo Yoruba Traditional Art and Culture. The study is of the opinion that the festival has influence over the religion, Political, economic and other aspects of the modern day traditions. The study also revealed that Oranyan Festival made people to have a better understanding of their rich Cultural Heritage and promoted unity among all and sundry. It also promotes peace among the people. Conclusively, it promotes the rich Cultural Heritage of Oyo Yoruba’s both within and outside NIGERIA and the world at large.

Keywords: Yoruba Oyo, arts and culture, Oranyan, festival

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Authors: Moshreka Aditi Huq

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This study shows how a progressive portion of civil intellectuals in Bangladesh contributed as the solidarity activist entities in a movement of tea workers that became the symbol of their unique moral struggle. Their passive yet sharp way of resistance, with the integration of mass tea workers of a tea estate, got demonstrated against certain private companies and government officials who approached to establish a special economic zone inside the tea garden without offering any compensation and rehabilitation for poor tea workers. Due to massive protests and rebellion, the authorized entrepreneurs had to step back and called off the project immediately. The extraordinary features of this movement generated itself from the deep core social need of indigenous tea workers who are still imprisoned in the colonial cage. Following an anthropological and ethnographic perspective, this study adopted the main three techniques of intensive interview, focus group discussion, and laborious observation, to extract empirical data. The intensive interviews were undertaken informally using a mostly conversational approach. Focus group discussions were piloted among various representative groups where observations prevailed as part of the regular documentation process. These were conducted among civil intellectual entities, tea workers, tea estate authorities, civil service authorities, and business officials to obtain a holistic view of the situation. The fieldwork was executed in capital Dhaka city, along with northern areas like Chandpur-Begumkhan Tea Estate of Chunarughat Upazilla and Habiganj city of Habiganj District of Bangladesh. Correspondingly, secondary data were accessed through books, scholarly papers, archives, newspapers, reports, leaflets, posters, writing blog, and electronic pages of social media. The study results find that: (1) civil intellectuals opposed state-sponsored business impositions by producing counter-discourse and struggled against state hegemony through the phases of the movement; (2) instead of having the active physical resistance, civil intellectuals’ strength was preferably in passive form which was portrayed through their intellectual labor; (3) the combined movement of tea workers and civil intellectuals reflected on social security of ethnic worker communities that contrasts state’s pseudo-development motives which ultimately supports offensive and oppressive neoliberal growths of economy; (4) civil intellectuals are revealed as having certain functional limitations in the process of movement organization as well as resource mobilization; (5) in specific contexts, the genuine need of protest by indigenous subaltern can overshadow intellectual elitism and helps to raise the voices of ‘subjugated knowledge’. This study is quite likely to represent two sets of apparent protagonist entities in the discussion of social injustice and oppressive development intervention. On the one, hand it may help us to find the basic functional characteristics of civil intellectuals in Bangladesh when they are in a passive mode of resistance in social movement issues. On the other hand, it represents the community ownership and inherent protest tendencies of indigenous workers when they feel threatened and insecure. The study seems to have the potential to understand the conditions of ‘subjugated knowledge’ of subalterns. Furthermore, being the memory and narratives, these ‘activism mechanisms’ of social entities broadens the path to understand ‘power’ and ‘resistance’ in more fascinating ways.

Keywords: civil intellectuals, resistance, subjugated knowledge, indigenous

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Authors: Sohail Bawani, Kausar S. Khan, Rozina Karmaliani, Shehnaz Mir

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Action research (AR) is one of the types of health systems research (HSR), and participatory action research (PAR) is known for being effective in health systems strengthening (HSS). The current literature on PAR for HSS cites numerous examples and case studies that led to improve health services; build child health information system; increase knowledge and awareness of people about health problems, and identify pathways for institutional and policy change by engaging people in research. But examples of marginalized communities being agents of change in health governance are not common in health systems research (HSR). This approach to PAR is at the heart of Paolo Freire’s Social Transformation Theory and Critical Consciousness building, which was used to design a community-based PAR study in the Northern/mountainous areas of Pakistan. The purpose of the study was to understand the place and role of marginalized communities in strengthening existing health governance structure (health facility and village health committees and health boards) by taking marginalized communities as partners. Community meetings were carried out to identify who is living at the social, political, cultural and economic margins in 40 different villages. Participatory reflection and analysis (PRA) tools were used during the meeting to facilitate identification. Focus group discussions were conducted with marginalized groups using PRA tools and family ethnographies with marginalized families identified through group discussions. Findings of the study revealed that for the marginalized health systems constitute more than just delivery of health services, but it also embraces social determinants that surround systems and its governance. The paper argues that from Frerian perspective people’s participation should not only be limited to knowledge generation. People must be seen active users of the knowledge that they generate for achieving better health outcomes that they want to achieve in the time to come. PAR provides a pathway to the marginalized in playing a role in health governance. The study dissemination planned shall engage the marginalized in a dialogue with service providers so that together a role for the marginalized can be outlined.

Keywords: participatory action research, health systems, marginalized, health services

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Authors: Daniela Pellin, Wilson Engelmann

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Brazil has sought to accelerate your development through technology and innovation as a response to the global influences, which has received in internal management practices. For this, it had edited the Brazilian Law of Innovation 13.243/2016. However observing the Law overestimated economic aspects the respective application will not consider the stakeholders and the technological risks because there is no legal treatment. The economic exploitation and the technological risks must be controlled by limits of democratic system to find better social development to contribute with the economics agents for making decision to conform with global directions. The research understands this is a problem to face given the social particularities of the country because there has been the literal import of the North American Triple Helix Theory consolidated in developed countries and the negative consequences when applied in developing countries. Because of this symptomatic scenario, it is necessary to create adjustment to conduct the management of the law besides social democratic interests to increase the country development. For this, therefore, the Government will have to adopt some conducts promoting side by side with universities, civil society and companies, informational transparency, catch of partnerships, create a Confort Letter document for preparation to ensure the operation, joint elaboration of a Manual of Good Practices, make accountability and data dissemination. Also the Universities must promote informational transparency, drawing up partnership contracts and generating revenue, development of information. In addition, the civil society must do data analysis about proposals received for discussing to give opinion related. At the end, companies have to give public and transparent information about investments and economic benefits, risks and innovation manufactured. The research intends as a general objective to demonstrate that the efficiency of the propeller deployment will be possible if the innovative decision-making process goes through the institutional logic. As specific objectives, the American influence must undergo some modifications to better suit the economic-legal incentives to potentiate the development of the social system. The hypothesis points to institutional model for application to the legal system can be elaborated based on emerging characteristics of the country, in such a way that technological risks can be foreseen and there will be global conformity with attention to the full development of society as proposed by the researchers.The method of approach will be the systemic-constructivist with bibliographical review, data collection and analysis with the construction of the institutional and democratic model for the management of the Law.

Keywords: development, governance of law, institutionalization, triple helix

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Authors: M. Arun, A. Kannan

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Textile industries cater to varied customer preferences and contribute substantially to the economy. However, these textile industries also produce a considerable amount of effluents. Prominent among these are the azo dyes which impart considerable color and toxicity even at low concentrations. Azo dyes are also used as coloring agents in food and pharmaceutical industry. Despite their applications, azo dyes are also notorious pollutants and carcinogens. Popular techniques like photo-degradation, biodegradation and the use of oxidizing agents are not applicable for all kinds of dyes, as most of them are stable to these techniques. Chemical coagulation produces a large amount of toxic sludge which is undesirable and is also ineffective towards a number of dyes. Most of the azo dyes are stable to UV-visible light irradiation and may even resist aerobic degradation. Adsorption has been the most preferred technique owing to its less cost, high capacity and process efficiency and the possibility of regenerating and recycling the adsorbent. Adsorption is also most preferred because it may produce high quality of the treated effluent and it is able to remove different kinds of dyes. However, the adsorption process is influenced by many variables whose inter-dependence makes it difficult to identify optimum conditions. The variables include stirring speed, temperature, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage. Further, the internal diffusional resistance inside the adsorbent particle leads to slow uptake of the solute within the adsorbent. Hence, it is necessary to identify optimum conditions that lead to high capacity and uptake rate of these pollutants. In this work, commercially available activated carbon was chosen as the adsorbent owing to its high surface area. A typical azo dye found in textile effluent waters, viz. the monoazo Acid Orange 10 dye (CAS: 1936-15-8) has been chosen as the representative pollutant. Adsorption studies were mainly focused at obtaining equilibrium and kinetic data for the batch adsorption process at different process conditions. Studies were conducted at different stirring speed, temperature, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentration settings. The Full Factorial Design was the chosen statistical design framework for carrying out the experiments and identifying the important factors and their interactions. The optimum conditions identified from the experimental model were validated with actual experiments at the recommended settings. The equilibrium and kinetic data obtained were fitted to different models and the model parameters were estimated. This gives more details about the nature of adsorption taking place. Critical data required to design batch adsorption systems for removal of Acid Orange 10 dye and identification of factors that critically influence the separation efficiency are the key outcomes from this research.

Keywords: acid orange 10, activated carbon, optimum adsorption conditions, statistical design

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Authors: Se-Hyuk Park, Hee-Jung Seo

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Previous studies have investigated effective coping strategies for excessive stress, positive adaptation, resilience, mental health, and personal growth. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, little research has been conducted to investigate how Koreans with physical disabilities deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to identify coping strategies and coping resources that Koreans with physical disabilities utilized during the COVID-19 crisis. This study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 15 participants. Data were qualitatively analyzed using the constant comparative method with content mapping and content mining questions. We identified three salient themes that were used by participants as coping strategies to deal with various COVID-related challenges: (a) engagement in meaningful activities, (b) improvement of social and emotional support, and (c) experience of resilience. The findings of the present study highlighted that Korean adults with SCI actively engaged in various leisure activities, maintained and developed closer social relationships, and experienced resilience to face COVID-19-related stressors. These coping strategies were noted as a catalyst for physical health as well as psychological well-being of individuals with SCI.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, covid-19 pandemic, coping strategies, coping resources, leisure

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Authors: Paula C. Ferreira, Ana Margarida Veiga Simão, Nádia Pereira, Aristides Ferreira, Alexandra Marques Pinto, Alexandra Barros, Vitor Martinho

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Cyberbullying is a phenomenon of worldwide concern regarding children and adolescents’ mental health and risk behavior. Bystanders of this phenomenon can help diminish the incidence of this phenomenon if they engage in pro-social behavior. However, different social-cognitive and affective bystander reactions may surface because of the lack of contextual information and emotional cues in cyberbullying situations. Hence, this study investigated how cyberbullying bystanders’ unpleasant emotions could be related to their personal moral beliefs and their behavioral intentions to cyberbully or defend the victim. It also proposed to investigate how their normative beliefs of perceived severity about cyberbullying behavior could be related to their personal moral beliefs and their behavioral intentions. Three groups of adolescents participated in this study, namely a first of group 402 students (5th – 12th graders; Mage = 13.12; SD = 2.19; 55.7% girls) to compute explorative factorial analyses of the instruments used; a second group of 676 students (5th – 12th graders; Mage = 14.10; SD = 2.74; 55.5% were boys) to run confirmatory factor analyses; and a third group (N = 397; 5th – 12th graders; Mage = 13.88 years; SD = 1.45; 55.5% girls) to perform the main analyses to test the research hypotheses. Self-report measures were used, such as the Personal moral beliefs about cyberbullying behavior questionnaire, the Normative beliefs of perceived severity about cyberbullying behavior questionnaire, the Unpleasant emotions about cyberbullying incidents questionnaires, and the Bystanders’ behavioral intentions in cyberbullying situations questionnaires. Path analysis results revealed that unpleasant emotions were mediators of the relationship between adolescent cyberbullying bystanders’ personal moral beliefs and their intentions to help the victims in cyberbullying situations. Moreover, adolescent cyberbullying bystanders’ normative beliefs of gravity were mediators of the relationship between their personal moral beliefs and their intentions to cyberbully others. These findings provide insights for the development of prevention and intervention programs that promote social and emotional learning strategies as a means to prevent and intervene in cyberbullying.

Keywords: cyberbullying, normative beliefs of perceived severity, personal moral beliefs, unpleasant emotions

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Authors: Abu Salim Mustafa

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Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease endemic in Kuwait. Human brucellosis can be caused by several Brucella species with Brucella melitensis causing the most severe and Brucella abortus the least severe disease. Furthermore, relapses are common after successful chemotherapy of patients. The classical biochemical methods of culture and serology for identification of Brucellae provide information about the species and serotypes only. However, to differentiate between relapse and reinfection/epidemiological investigations, the identification of genotypes using molecular methods is essential. In this study, four molecular methods [16S rRNA gene sequencing, real-time PCR, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR and multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA)-16] were evaluated for the identification and typing of 75 strains of Brucella isolated in Kuwait. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing suggested that all the strains were B. melitensis and real-time PCR confirmed their species identity as B. melitensis. The ERIC-PCR band profiles produced a dendrogram of 75 branches suggesting each strain to be of a unique type. The cluster classification, based on ~ 80% similarity, divided all the ERIC genotypes into two clusters, A and B. Cluster A consisted of 9 ERIC genotypes (A1-A9) corresponding to 9 individual strains. Cluster B comprised of 13 ERIC genotypes (B1-B13) with B5 forming the largest cluster of 51 strains. MLVA-16 identified all isolates as B. melitensis and divided them into 71 MLVA-types. The cluster analysis of MLVA-16-types suggested that most of the strains in Kuwait originated from the East Mediterranean Region, a few from the African group and one new genotype closely matched with the West Mediterranean region. In conclusion, this work demonstrates that B. melitensis, the most pathogenic species of Brucella, is prevalent in Kuwait. Furthermore, MLVA-16 is the best molecular method, which can identify the Brucella species and genotypes as well as determine their origin in the global context. Supported by Kuwait University Research Sector grants MI04/15 and SRUL02/13.

Keywords: Brucella, ERIC-PCR, MLVA-16, RT-PCR, 16S rRNA gene sequencing

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Authors: Zintle Kolo, Ndiko Ludidi

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The enzymatic activity of p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) synthesize caffeic acid from p-coumaric acid. We recently showed that exogenously applied caffeic acid confers salinity tolerance in soybean (Glycine max) by inducing antioxidant enzymatic activity to promote enhanced scavenging or reactive oxygen species, thus limiting salinity-induced oxidative stress. Recent evidence also establishes that pre-treatment of plants with exogenously supplied caffeic acid improves plant tolerance to osmotic stress by improving plant antioxidant capacity and enhancing biosynthesis of compatible solutes. We aimed to identify a C3H in maize (Zea mays) and evaluate the effect of drought on the spatial and temporal expression of the gene encoding the candidate maize C3H (ZmC3H). Primary sequence analysis shows that ZmC3H shares 71% identity with an Arabidopsis thaliana C3H that is implicated in the control of Arabidopsis cell expansion, growth, and responses to stress. In silico ZmC3H promoter analysis reveals the presence of cis-acting elements that interact with transcription factors implicated in plant responses to drought. Spatial expression analysis by semi-quantitative RT-PCR shows that ZmC3H is expressed in both leaves and roots under normal conditions. However, drought represses the expression of ZmC3H in leaves whereas it up-regulates its expression in roots. These changes in ZmC3H expression correlate with the changes in the content of caffeic acid in maize in response to drought. We illustrate the implications of these changes in the expression of the gene in relation to maize responses to drought and discuss the potential of regulating caffeic acid biosynthesis towards genetic improvement of maize tolerance to drought stress. These findings have implications for food security because of the potential of the implications of the study for drought tolerance in maize.

Keywords: caffeic acid, drought-responsive expression, maize drought tolerance, p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase

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Authors: Sahar El-Achkar, Mizan Ahmad

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Poor adaptation of developmental milestones over the lifespan can significantly impact emotional experiences and Satisfaction with Life (SWL) post-retirement. Thus, it is important to understand how adaptive behaviour over the life course can predict emotional experiences. Broadly emotional experiences are either Positive Affect (PA) or Negative Affect (NA). This study sought to explore the impact of successful adaptation of developmental milestones throughout one’s life on emotional experiences and satisfaction with life following retirement. A cross-sectional self-report survey was completed by 132 Australian retirees between the ages 55 and 70 years. Three hierarchical regression models were fitted, controlling for age and gender, to predict PA, NA, and SWL. The full model predicting PA was statistically significant overall, F (8, 121) = 17.97, p < .001, account for 57% of the variability in PA. Industry/Inferiority were significantly predictive of PA. The full model predicting NA was statistically significant overall, F (8, 121) = 12.00, p < .001, accounting for 51% of the variability in NA. Age and Trust/Mistrust were significantly predictive of NA. The full model predicting NA was statistically significant overall, F (8, 121) = 12.00, p < .001, accounting for 51% of the variability in NA. Age and Trust/Mistrust were significantly predictive of NA. The full model predicting SWL, F (8, 121) = 11.05, p < .001, accounting for 45% of the variability in SWL. Trust/Mistrust and Ego Integrity/Despair were significantly predictive of SWL. A sense of industry post-retirement is important in generating PA. These results highlight that individuals presenting with adaptation and identity issues are likely to present with adjustment challenges and unpleasant emotional experiences post-retirement. This supports the importance of identifying and understanding the benefits of successful adaptation and development throughout the lifespan and its significance for the self-concept. Most importantly, the quality of lives of many may be improved, and the future risk of continued poor emotional experiences and SWL post-retirement may be mitigated. Specifically, the clinical implications of these findings are that they support the promotion of successful adaption over the life course and healthy ageing.

Keywords: adaptation, development, negative affect, positive affect, retirement, satisfaction with life

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Authors: Haian Dukhan

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The death of Hafez al-Assad and the ascension of his son, Bashar, to rule brought an end to the state-society dynamics that his father worked on for decades. Hafez al-Assad built an authoritarian state that rests on patronage networks that connected his regime to the society. During Bashar’s reign, these patronage relationships have been affected by the policies of privatization and liberalization. Privatization and liberalisation of the economy have created new economic and social players that transformed the populist nature of the authoritarian regime into a regime that is connected mainly with bourgeoisie and the upper class neglecting the rural tribal constituency that was a vital part of Hafez al-Assad’s authoritarian state. Drawing on different data gathered through interviews as well as written literature, this paper will explore the policies that Bashar al-Assad carried out towards the Arab tribes in the period extended from 2000 until 2010. The paper starts by outlining how Bashar al-Assad narrowed the coalition of his rule to depend mainly on his family, the city merchants excluding the lower and middle strata in the periphery. It will then trace the disintegration of the social contract between the regime and the Arab tribe as a result of the latter’s failure to deliver adequate development services in their regions. Losing the support of the tribes undermined the stability of the regime resulting in different clashes between the tribes themselves, the tribes and the Kurds, the tribes and the druze (a sect of Islam situated in Southern Syria), which will be investigated in detail in this paper. In similar policies adopted by his father who used the tribes as leverage against the Islamists and the Kurds, Bashar al-Assad’s regime encouragement of Syrian tribal youth to join the Iraqi insurgency against the Americans will be explored in detail. The regime’s tolerance of Iran missionary activities in the tribal regions and its accommodation of Islamists group’s activities in those regions have erased the regime’s secular foundation. This paper will argue that Bashar al-Assad’s policies towards the Arab tribes have chipped away the regime’s ideological pillars and threatened the longer-term cohesion of its social base which paved the way for the uprising to start in the tribal regions.

Keywords: Syria, tribes, uprising, regime

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Authors: C. M. Cebola, V. H. Ferreira

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In the past decade mediation has been legally implemented in European legal systems, especially after the publication by the European Union of the Directive 2008/52/EC on certain aspects of mediation in civil and mercantile matters. Developments in international trade and globalization in this new century have led to an increase of the number of litigations, often cross-border, and the courts have failed to respond adequately. We do not advocate that mediation should be promoted as the solution for all justice problems, but as a means with its own specificities that the parties may choose to consider as the best way to resolve their disputes. Thus, the implementation of mediation should be based on the advantages of its application. From the economic point of view, competitive negotiation can generate negative external effects in social terms. A solution reached in a court of law is not always the most efficient one considering all elements of society (economic social benefit). On the other hand, the administration of justice adds in economic terms transaction costs that can be mitigated by the application of other forms of conflict resolution, such as mediation. In this paper, the economic benefits of mediation will be analysed in the light of various studies on the functioning of justice. Several theoretical arguments will be confronted with empirical studies to demonstrate that mediation has significant positive economic effects. The objective is to contribute to the dissemination of mediation between companies and citizens, but also to demonstrate the cost to governments and states of still limited use of mediation, particularly in the current economic crisis and propose actions to develop the application of mediation.

Keywords: economic impact, litigation costs, mediation, solutions

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Authors: Anželika Teresė

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In order to solve issues in sign language linguistics, address matters pertaining to maintaining high quality of sign language (SL) translation, contribute to dispelling misconceptions about SL and deaf people, and raise awareness and understanding of the deaf community heritage, this presentation discusses literature in Lithuanian Sign Language (LSL) and inherent metaphors that are created by using the phonological parameter –handshape, location, movement, palm orientation and nonmanual features. The study covered in this presentation is twofold, involving both the micro-level analysis of metaphors in terms of phonological parameters as a sub-lexical feature and the macro-level analysis of the poetic context. Cognitive theories underlie research of metaphors in sign language literature in a range of SL. The study follows this practice. The presentation covers the qualitative analysis of 34 pieces of LSL literature. The analysis employs ELAN software widely used in SL research. The target is to examine how specific types of each phonological parameter are used for the creation of metaphors in LSL literature and what metaphors are created. The results of the study show that LSL literature employs a range of metaphors created by using classifier signs and by modifying the established signs. The study also reveals that LSL literature tends to create reference metaphors indicating status and power. As the study shows, LSL poets metaphorically encode status by encoding another meaning in the same sign, which results in creating double metaphors. The metaphor of identity has been determined. Notably, the poetic context has revealed that the latter metaphor can also be identified as a metaphor for life. The study goes on to note that deaf poets create metaphors related to the importance of various phenomena significance of the lyrical subject. Notably, the study has allowed detecting locations, nonmanual features and etc., never mentioned in previous SL research as used for the creation of metaphors.

Keywords: Lithuanian sign language, sign language literature, sign language metaphor, metaphor at the phonological level, cognitive linguistics

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Authors: Francisco José Plácido da Cunha, Tassio Ferenzini Martins Sirqueira, Marx Leles Viana, Carlos José Pereira de Lucena

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Open Multiagent Systems (MASs) are societies in which heterogeneous and independently designed entities (agents) work towards similar, or different ends. Software agents are autonomous and the diversity of interests among different members living in the same society is a fact. In order to deal with this autonomy, these open systems use mechanisms of social control (norms) to ensure a desirable social order. This paper considers the following types of norms: (i) obligation — agents must accomplish a specific outcome; (ii) permission — agents may act in a particular way, and (iii) prohibition — agents must not act in a specific way. All of these characteristics mean to encourage the fulfillment of norms through rewards and to discourage norm violation by pointing out the punishments. Once the software agent decides that its priority is the satisfaction of its own desires and goals, each agent must evaluate the effects associated to the fulfillment of one or more norms before choosing which one should be fulfilled. The same applies when agents decide to violate a norm. This paper also introduces a framework for the development of MASs that provide support mechanisms to the agent’s decision-making, using norm-based reasoning. The applicability and validation of this approach is demonstrated applying a traffic intersection scenario.

Keywords: BDI agent, BDI4JADE framework, multiagent systems, normative agents

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Authors: Balkibekova Venera Serikpaevna

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Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) poses significant challenges in both diagnosis and treatment. Existing therapeutic interventions often target specific symptoms, necessitating the exploration of alternative approaches. This study investigates the RITM (Rhythm Integration Tapping Music) developed by Balkibekova, aiming to create imitation, social engagement and a wide range of emotions through brain development. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 100 participants diagnosed with ASD, aged 1 to 4 years. Participants were randomly assigned to either the RITM therapy group or a control group receiving standard care. The RITM therapy, rooted in tapping rhythm to music such as: marche on the drums, waltz on bells, lullaby on musical triangle, dancing on tambourine, polka on wooden spoons. Therapy sessions were conducted over a 3 year period, with assessments at baseline, midpoint, and post-intervention. Results: Preliminary analyses reveal promising outcomes in the RITM therapy group. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in social interactions, speech understanding, birth of speech, and adaptive behaviors compared to the control group. Careful examination of subgroup analyses provides insights into the differential effectiveness of the RITM approach across various ASD profiles. Conclusions: The findings suggest that RITM therapy, as developed by Balkibekova, holds promise as intervention for ASD. The integrative nature of the approach, addressing multiple domains simultaneously, may contribute to its efficacy. Further research is warranted to validate these preliminary results and explore the long-term impact of RITM therapy on individuals with ASD. This abstract presents a snapshot of the research, emphasizing the significance, methodology, key findings, and implications of the RITM therapy method for consideration in an autism conference.

Keywords: RITM therapy, tapping rhythm, autism, mirror neurons, bright emotions, social interactions, communications

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Authors: Lya Porto, Giulia Giacchè, Mario Aquino Alves

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The paper aims to describe the linkage between government and civil society proposing a study on agro-ecological agriculture policy and urban action in São Paulo city underling the main achievements obtained. The negotiation processes between social movements and the government (inputs) and its results on political regulation and public action for Urban Agriculture (UA) in São Paulo city (outputs) have been investigated. The method adopted is qualitative, with techniques of semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and documental analysis. The authors conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with organic farmers, activists, governmental and non-governmental managers. Participant observation was conducted in public gardens, urban farms, public audiences, democratic councils, and social movements meetings. Finally, public plans and laws were also analyzed. São Paulo city with around 12 million inhabitants spread out in a 1522 km2 is the economic capital of Brazil, marked by spatial and socioeconomic segregation, currently aggravated by environmental crisis, characterized by water scarcity, pollution, and climate changes. In recent years, Urban Agriculture (UA) social movements gained strength and struggle for a different city with more green areas, organic food production, and public occupation. As the dynamics of UA occurs by the action of multiple actresses and institutions that struggle to build multiple senses on UA, the analysis will be based on literature about solidarity economy, governance, public action and networks. Those theories will mark out the analysis that will emphasize the approach of inter-subjectivity built between subjects, as well as the hybrid dynamics of multiple actors and spaces in the construction of policies for UA. Concerning UA we identified four main typologies based on land ownership, main function (economic or activist), form of organization of the space, and type of production (organic or not). The City Hall registers 500 productive unities of agriculture, with around 1500 producers, but researcher estimated a larger number of unities. Concerning the social movements we identified three categories that differ in goals and types of organization, but all of them work by networks of activists and/or organizations. The first category does not consider themselves as a movement, but a network. They occupy public spaces to grow organic food and to propose another type of social relations in the city. This action is similar to what became known as the green guerrillas. The second is configured as a movement that is structured to raise awareness about agro-ecological activities. The third one is a network of social movements, farmers, organizations and politicians that work focused on pressure and negotiation with executive and legislative government to approve regulations and policies on organic and agro-ecological Urban Agriculture. We conclude by highlighting how the interaction among institutions and civil society produced important achievements for recognition and implementation of UA within the city. Some results of this process are awareness for local production, legal and institutional recognition of the rural zone around the city into the planning tool, the investment on organic school public procurements, the establishment of participatory management of public squares, the inclusion of UA on Municipal Strategic Plan and Master Plan.

Keywords: public action, policies, agroecology, urban and peri-urban agriculture, Sao Paulo

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Authors: Martina Curtin, Rosalind Herman

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Background: Deaf children can experience difficulties with understanding how social interaction works, particularly when communicating with unfamiliar hearing people. Deaf children often struggle with integrating into a mainstream, hearing environments. These negative experiences can lead to social isolation, depression and other mental health difficulties later in life. smiLE Therapy (Schamroth, 2015) is a video-based social communication intervention that aims to teach deaf children skills to confidently communicate with unfamiliar hearing people. Although two previous studies have reported improvements in communication skills immediately post intervention, evidence for maintenance of gains or generalisation of skills (i.e., the transfer of newly learnt skills to untrained situations) has not to date been demonstrated. Parental involvement has been shown to support deaf children’s therapy outcomes. Therefore, this study added parent training to the therapy children received to investigate the benefits to generalisation of children’s skills. Parents were also invited to present their perspective on the training they received. Aims: (1) To assess pupils’ progress from pre- to post-intervention in trained and untrained tasks, (2) to investigate if training parents improved their (a) understanding of their child’s needs and (b) their skills in supporting their child appropriately in smiLE Therapy tasks, (3) to assess if parent training had an impact on the pupil’s ability to (a) maintain their skills in trained tasks post-therapy, and (b) generalise their skills in untrained, community tasks. Methods: This was a mixed-methods, repeated measures study. 31 deaf pupils (aged between 7 and 14) received an hour of smiLE Therapy per week, for 6 weeks. Communication skills were assessed pre-, post- and 3-months post-intervention using the Communication Skills Checklist. Parents were then invited to attend two training sessions and asked to bring a video of their child communicating in a shop or café. These videos were used to assess whether, after parent training, the child was able to generalise their skills to a new situation. Finally, parents attended a focus group to discuss the effectiveness of the therapy, particularly the wider impact, i.e., more child participation within the hearing community. Results: All children significantly improved their scores following smiLE therapy and maintained these skills to high level. Children generalised a high percentage of their newly learnt skills to an untrained situation. Parents reported improved understanding of their child’s needs, their child’s potential and in how to support them in real-life situations. Parents observed that their children were more confident and independent when carrying out communication tasks with unfamiliar hearing people. Parents realised they needed to ‘let go’ and embrace their child’s independence and provide more opportunities for them to participate in their community. Conclusions: This study adds to the evidence base on smiLE Therapy; it is an effective intervention that develops deaf children’s ability to interact competently with unfamiliar, hearing, communication partners. It also provides preliminary evidence of the benefits of parent training in helping children to generalise their skills to other situations. These findings will be of value to therapists wishing to develop deaf children’s communication skills beyond the therapy setting.

Keywords: deaf children, generalisation, parent involvement, social communication

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Authors: Beste Ozcan, Valerio Sperati, Laura Romano, Tania Moretta, Simone Scaffaro, Noemi Faedda, Federica Giovannone, Carla Sogos, Vincenzo Guidetti, Gianluca Baldassarre

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+me is an experimental interactive toy with the appearance of a soft, pillow-like, panda. Shape and consistency are designed to arise emotional attachment in young children: a child can wear it around his/her neck and treat it as a companion (i.e. a transitional object). When caressed on paws or head, the panda emits appealing, interesting outputs like colored lights or amusing sounds, thanks to embedded electronics. Such sensory patterns can be modified through a wirelessly connected tablet: by this, an adult caregiver can adapt +me responses to a child's reactions or requests, for example, changing the light hue or the type of sound. The toy control is therefore shared, as it depends on both the child (who handles the panda) and the adult (who manages the tablet and mediates the sensory input-output contingencies). These features make +me a potential tool for therapy with children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ND), characterized by impairments in the social area, like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Language Disorders (LD): as a proposal, the toy could be used together with a therapist, in rehabilitative play activities aimed at encouraging simple social interactions and reinforcing basic relational and communication skills. +me was tested in two pilot experiments, the first one involving 15 Typically Developed (TD) children aged in 8-34 months, the second one involving 7 children with ASD, and 7 with LD, aged in 30-48 months. In both studies a researcher/caregiver, during a one-to-one, ten-minute activity plays with the panda and encourages the child to do the same. The purpose of both studies was to ascertain the general acceptability of the device as an interesting toy that is an object able to capture the child's attention and to maintain a high motivation to interact with it and with the adult. Behavioral indexes for estimating the interplay between the child, +me and caregiver were rated from the video recording of the experimental sessions. Preliminary results show how -on average- participants from 3 groups exhibit a good engagement: they touch, caress, explore the panda and show enjoyment when they manage to trigger luminous and sound responses. During the experiments, children tend to imitate the caregiver's actions on +me, often looking (and smiling) at him/her. Interesting behavioral differences between TD, ASD, and LD groups are scored: for example, ASD participants produce a fewer number of smiles both to panda and to a caregiver with respect to TD group, while LD scores stand between ASD and TD subjects. These preliminary observations suggest that the interactive toy +me is able to raise and maintain the interest of toddlers and therefore it can be reasonably used as a supporting tool during therapy, to stimulate pivotal social skills as imitation, turn-taking, eye contact, and social smiles. Interestingly, the young age of participants, along with the behavioral differences between groups, seem to suggest a further potential use of the device: a tool for early differential diagnosis (the average age of a child

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders, interactive toy, social interaction, therapy, transitional wearable companion

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Authors: Abdul Razzaq Azad, Muhammad Asad Razzaq

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The current study reveals that Muslim society losing their basics concepts of courtesy which are the part of Islam. It is known that Muslims played a key role for providing piece in society throughout the history. Humanities always accept the changes through time, ideologies, ethics and traditions, various religious changes, culture, social behaviors and social problems, attitudes, political situations, literature, historical stress, economic clashes, wars and daily routine’s life. It also observed that religious people have their mind set due to their different religious teachings. All the religions have their different religious teachings which have different approaches for their followers. All the religions have same lesson of peace and prosperity. After 09/11 the entire scenario changed, even tried to connect terrorism and extremism with Islam and Muslims. It created a gap among religions and there was not attempt to use for reducing that gap. There were many meetings called at different places of religious scholars in different countries, but not able to get acceptable results. It also created a gap within the country in different religious sects. In the last 15 years there were14000 people have been killed from different religious incidents and even in different sects’ activities. The current study based on survey from 25 Imams and 10 Khatibs from South Punjab. The results show that they knew the word interfaith harmony and the role of Imams and Khatibs for peace in the inter-religious societies.

Keywords: Islam, peace religion, terrorism, extremism, freedom, peace, prosperity and society

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Authors: Dianne Williams

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This study examined the peer/individual domain of the Risk Factor Prevention Paradigm (RFPP) to assess the risk and protective factors that impact criminal gang involvement among at-risk males residing in a juvenile home in Trinidad and Tobago. The RFPP allows for the identification of both risk and protective factors in a single, holistic framework to identify the relationship between risk factors, protective factors, and criminal gang involvement among at-risk male adolescents. Findings showed that having anti-social peers was the most significant risk factor associated with criminal gang involvement, while the most significant protective factor was having a positive social attitude. Moreover, while 65% of the boys reported never having been in a gang, 70% reported having hit, struck or used a weapon against someone, while 52% reported being involved in other violent incidents on more than two occasions. This suggests that while involvement with criminal gangs may not be common among this population, predisposing behavioral patterns are present. Results are expected to assist in the development of targeted strategies to reduce the attractiveness of gang membership.

Keywords: risk factor prevention paradigm, risk factors, protective factors, peer/individual domain, gang involvement, at-risk youth, trinidad and tobago, juvenile home

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Authors: Enwin Anthony Dornubari, Visigah Kpobari Peter

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This research has developed a framework for the provision of sustainable and affordable housing to accommodate the low-income population of Greater Port Harcourt City. The objectives of this study among others, were to: examine UN-Habitat guidelines for acceptable and sustainable social housing provision, describe past efforts of the Rivers State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria to provide housing for the poor in the Greater Port Harcourt City area; obtain a profile of prospective beneficiaries of the social housing proposed by this research as well as perceptions of their present living conditions, and living in the proposed self-sustaining social housing development, based on the initial simulation of the proposal; describe the nature of the framework, guideline and management of the proposed social housing development and explain the modalities for its implementation. The study utilized the mixed methods research approach, aimed at triangulating findings from the quantitative and qualitative paradigms. Opinions of professional of the built environment; Director, Development Control, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority; Directors of Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning; Housing and Property Development Authority and managers of selected Primary Mortgage Institutions were sought and analyzed. There were four target populations for the study, namely: members of occupational sub-groups for FGDs (Focused Group Discussions); development professionals for KIIs (Key Informant Interviews), household heads in selected communities of GPHC; and relevant public officials for IDI (Individual Depth Interview). Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held with members of occupational sub-groups in each of the eight selected communities (Fisherfolk). The table shows that there were forty (40) members across all occupational sub-groups in each selected community, yielding a total of 320 in the eight (8) communities of Mgbundukwu (Mile 2 Diobu), Rumuodomaya, Abara (Etche), Igwuruta-Ali(Ikwerre), Wakama(Ogu-Bolo), Okujagu (Okrika), Akpajo (Eleme), and Okoloma (Oyigbo). For key informant interviews, two (2) members were judgmentally selected from each of the following development professions: urban and regional planners; architects; estate surveyors; land surveyors; quantity surveyors; and engineers. Concerning Population 3-Household Heads in Selected Communities of GPHC, a stratified multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted: Stage 1-Obtaining a 10% (a priori decision) sample of the component communities of GPHC in each stratum. The number in each stratum was rounded to one whole number to ensure representation of each stratum. Stage 2-Obtaining the number of households to be studied after applying the Taro Yamane formula, which aided in determining the appropriate number of cases to be studied at the precision level of 5%. Findings revealed, amongst others, that poor implementation of the UN-Habitat global shelter strategy, lack of stakeholder engagement, inappropriate locations, undue bureaucracy, lack of housing fairness and equity and high cost of land and building materials were the reasons for the failure of past efforts towards social housing provision in the Greater Port Harcourt City area. The study recommended a public-private partnership approach for the implementation and management of the framework. It also recommended a robust and sustained relationship between the management of the framework and the UN-Habitat office and other relevant government agencies responsible for housing development and all investment partners to create trust and efficiency.

Keywords: development, framework, low-income, sustainable, social housing

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Authors: Matthew Yeager, Christopher Willy, John Bischoff

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The conceptualization and design phases of a system lifecycle consume a significant amount of the lifecycle budget in the form of direct tasking and capital, as well as the implicit costs associated with unforeseeable design errors that are only realized during downstream phases. Ad hoc or iterative approaches to generating system requirements oftentimes fail to consider the full array of feasible systems or product designs for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to: initial conceptualization that oftentimes incorporates a priori or legacy features; the inability to capture, communicate and accommodate stakeholder preferences; inadequate technical designs and/or feasibility studies; and locally-, but not globally-, optimized subsystems and components. These design pitfalls can beget unanticipated developmental or system alterations with added costs, risks and support activities, heightening the risk for suboptimal system performance, premature obsolescence or forgone development. Supported by rapid advances in learning algorithms and hardware technology, sensors and sensor systems have become commonplace in both commercial and industrial products. The evolving array of hardware components (i.e. sensors, CPUs, modular / auxiliary access, etc…) as well as recognition, data fusion and communication protocols have all become increasingly complex and critical for design engineers during both concpetualization and implementation. This work seeks to develop and utilize a non-deterministic approach for sensor system design within the multi-attribute tradespace exploration (MATE) paradigm, a technique that incorporates decision theory into model-based techniques in order to explore complex design environments and discover better system designs. Developed to address the inherent design constraints in complex aerospace systems, MATE techniques enable project engineers to examine all viable system designs, assess attribute utility and system performance, and better align with stakeholder requirements. Whereas such previous work has been focused on aerospace systems and conducted in a deterministic fashion, this study addresses a wider array of system design elements by incorporating both traditional tradespace elements (e.g. hardware components) as well as popular multi-sensor data fusion models and techniques. Furthermore, statistical performance features to this model-based MATE approach will enable non-deterministic techniques for various commercial systems that range in application, complexity and system behavior, demonstrating a significant utility within the realm of formal systems decision-making.

Keywords: multi-attribute tradespace exploration, data fusion, sensors, systems engineering, system design

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Authors: Hiba Alkhalaf

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Historic cities and places of cultural significance is continuously under the pressure of economic development and social change that threaten its natural and cultural environment. The challenge here is to find a balance between preserving the cultural character while ensuring the socio-economic gains and continuity of its uniqueness. That is by sustaining the use, character, meaning and social interaction associated with the place, in other words the sense of place. The main argument here is what we attempt to conserve is the cultural physical and non-physical dimensions of the historic city. It is based on the proposition that what give the historic city its character is its strong sense of place- whether it is historic or current. When properly identified, its various dimensions (use, meaning and form) would help determine what to sustain and what not by making the development meaningfully related to the uniqueness of the historic place. Accordingly, those socio-economic features within the context of a changing historic environment needed to be clarified. This paper, thus, explores the various perspectives of the role of sense of place within the historic city and its connection to cultural heritage. It also reviews urban conservation practice as it is currently understood in the context of historic city development. It concludes that sense of place lies in complex interrelated relationships between various users of the place and the physical, economic, cultural, political, and environmental contexts in which they interact. This calls for the need to sustain the sense of place as part of the overall urban development and conservation strategies.

Keywords: cultural heritage, historic urban areas, urban development, sense of place

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Authors: Sankar Majumder

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Development of Rural Entrepreneurs requires a holistic approach involving social, economic, political, technical, and environmental and many other issues. It needs a thorough understanding of the economy and society. It's true that agricultural development, rural development and many other social and right based development programmes have resulted in the growth of income in the rural sector. The development of rural entrepreneurs is necessary to utilise these opportunities. Many programmes and policies in the spheres of organisational, financial, infrastructural and technical supports have been taken to promote rural industries. But if one looks at the growth and development of rural industrial units, especially the manufacturing units, the picture is not promising. This paper aims at analysing the possible causes and its solutions in terms of (1) Mind set of the society towards business as a livelihood; (2) Sufficiency and appropriateness of the existing organisational, financial, infrastructural and technical supports. The paper is based on secondary data on various aspects of rural enterprises and the author’s experiences in the course of his work as a practitioner in this field. Growth of units and employment in the rural industries shows that the entrepreneurs are more inclined towards trading units than towards manufacturing ventures. The growth of rural industries is constrained not by the insufficiency of the supply of finance but by the insufficient demand for finance. The task is to increase the supply of entrepreneurs by creating an entrepreneurial environment. Incubation for rural entrepreneurs is the need of the hour.

Keywords: business mind set, entrepreneurial environment, supply of finance, technical support

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