Search results for: academic training

Authors: Pilly Joseph Kagosi

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The study aims at assessing challenges observed during implementation of participatory irrigation management (PIM) approach for food security in semi-arid areas of Tanzania. Data were collected through questionnaire, PRA tools, key informants discussion, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), participant observation and literature review. Data collected from questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS while PRA data was analyzed with the help of local communities during PRA exercise. Data from other methods were analyzed using content analysis. The study revealed that PIM approach has contribution in improved food security at household level due to involvement of communities in water management activities and decision making which enhanced availability of water for irrigation and increased crop production. However there were challenges observed during implementation of the approach including; minimum participation of beneficiaries in decision making during planning and designing stages, meaning inadequate devolution of power among scheme owners; Inadequate and lack of transparency on income expenditure in Water Utilization Associations’ (WUAs), water conflict among WUAs members, conflict between farmers and livestock keepers and conflict between WUAs leaders and village government regarding training opportunities and status; WUAs rules and regulation are not legally recognized by the National court and few farmers involved in planting trees around water sources. However it was realized that some of the mentioned challenges were rectified by farmers themselves facilitated by government officials. The study recommends that, the identified challenges need to be rectified for farmers to realize impotence of PIM approach as it was realized by other Asian countries.

Keywords: potentials of implementing participatory approach, challenges of participatory approach, irrigation management, Tanzania

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Authors: E. Maistrou, P. Themelis, D. Kosmopoulos, K. Boulougoura, A. M. Konidi, K. Moretti

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InterArch is an ongoing research project that is running since September 2020 and aims to propose a digital application for the enhancement of the cultural landscape, which emphasizes the contribution of physical space and time in digital data organization. The research case study refers to Ancient Messene in the Peloponnese, one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. The project integrates an interactive approach to the natural environment, aiming at a manifold sensory experience. It combines the physical space of the archaeological site with the digital space of archaeological and cultural data while, at the same time, it embraces storytelling processes by engaging an interdisciplinary approach that familiarizes the user to multiple semantic interpretations. The research project is co‐financed by the European Union and Greek national funds, through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH - CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: Τ2ΕΔΚ-01659). It involves mutual collaboration between academic and cultural institutions and the contribution of an IT applications development company. New technologies and the integration of digital data enable the implementation of non‐linear narratives related to the representational characteristics of the art of collage. Various images (photographs, drawings, etc.) and sounds (narrations, music, soundscapes, audio signs, etc.) could be presented according to our proposal through new semiotics of augmented and virtual reality technologies applied in touch screens and smartphones. Despite the fragmentation of tangible or intangible references, material landscape formations, including archaeological remains, constitute the common ground that can inspire cultural narratives in a process that unfolds personal perceptions and collective imaginaries. It is in this context that cultural landscape may be considered an indication of space and historical continuity. It is in this context that history could emerge, according to our proposal, not solely as a previous inscription but also as an actual happening. As a rhythm of occurrences suggesting mnemonic references and, moreover, evolving history projected on the contemporary ongoing cultural landscape.

Keywords: cultural heritage, digital data, landscape, archaeological sites, visitors’ itineraries

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Authors: Delna Shroff

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Merchant shipping is an occupation with a high rate of fatal injuries caused by organizational accidents and maritime disasters. In most accident investigations, the leader’s actions are under scrutiny and point out the necessity to investigate the leader’s decisions in critical conditions. While several leadership studies have been carried out in the past, there is a tendency for most research to focus on holders of formal positions. The unit of analysis in most studies has been the ‘individual.’ A need is, therefore, felt to adopt a practice-based perspective of leadership, understand how leadership emerges to affect maritime safety. This paper explores the phenomenon of distributed leadership among seafarers more holistically. It further examines the role of one form of distributed leadership, that is, planfully aligned leadership in the emergency response of the team. A mixed design will be applied. In the first phase, the data gathered by way of semi-structured interviews will be used to explore the seafarer’s implicit understanding of leadership. The data will be used to develop a conceptual framework of distributed leadership, specific to the maritime context. This framework will be used to develop a simulation. Experimental design will be used to examine the relationship between planfully aligned leadership and emergency response of the team members during navigation. Findings show that planfully aligned leadership significantly and positively predicts the emergency response of team members. Planfully aligned leadership leads to a better emergency response of the team members as compared to authoritarian leadership. In the third qualitative phase, additional data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews to further validate the findings to gain a more complete understanding of distributed leadership and its relation to emergency response. Above are the predictive results; the study expects to be a cornerstone of safety leadership research and has important implications for leadership development and training within the maritime industry.

Keywords: authoritarian leadership, distributed leadership, emergency response , planfully aligned leadership

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Authors: Che Hsiu Chen, Kuo Wei Tseng, Zih Jian Huang, Hon Wen Cheng

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A typical warm-up contains both stretching exercises and jogging. The static stretching prior to training or competition may cause detrimental effects to athletic performance. However, it is unclear whether different types of dynamic stretching exercises had different acute effects on knee flexors stiffness, flexibility, and strength. The purpose of this study was to analyze the knee flexors stiffness, flexibility, and strength gains after dynamic straight leg raise (DSLR) and dynamic modified toe-touch (MTT) stretching. Sixteen healthy university active men (height 176.27 ± 4.03 cm; weight 72.27 ± 8.90 kg; age 22.09 ± 2.31 years). After 5 minutes (8km/h) of running subjects performed 2 randomly ordered stretching protocols: DSLR and MTT stretching protocols. There were a total of six, 30 seconds bouts of dynamic stretching (15 repetitions) with 30seconds rest between bouts. The outcome measures were maximal voluntary isokinetic concentric hamstring strength (60°/s), muscle flexibility test by passive straight leg raise (PSLR), active straight leg raise (ASLR), and muscle stiffness using ultrasound Acoustic Radiation Forced Impulse (ARFI) elastography before and immediately after stretching. The muscle stiffness and concentric strength decreased significantly (p < .05), the flexibility no significant change after DSLR protocol (p > .05). The concentric strength decreased significantly (p < .05), the flexibility and muscle stiffness no significant change after MTT protocol (p > .05), whereas no significant differences were found for the DSLR and MTT. Our findings suggest that dynamic stretching (30s x 6 bouts) resulted in change in muscle stiffness or may be induced slack in the musculotendinous unit thereby, reducing force production. Therefore, 30s x 6 bouts of dynamic stretching adversely affects efforts of hamstring muscle maximal concentric strength.

Keywords: sport injury, ultrasound, eccentric exercise, performance

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Authors: Chiou-Shiue Ko

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As is explicitly stipulated in Article 7 of the Enforcement Rules of the Special Education Act as amended in 1998, "in principle, children with disabilities should be integrated with normal children for preschool education". Since then, all cities and counties have been committed to promoting preschool inclusive education. The Education Department, New Taipei City Government, has been actively recruiting advisory groups of professors to assist in the implementation of inclusive education in preschools since 2001. Since 2011, the author of this study has been guiding Preschool Rainbow to implement inclusive education. Through field observations, meetings, and teaching demonstration seminars, this study explored the process of how inclusive education has been successfully implemented in collaboration with teachers of special education classes and regular classes in Preschool Rainbow. The implementation phases for inclusive education in a single academic year include the following: 1) Preparatory stage. Prior to implementation, teachers in special education and regular classes discuss ways of conducting inclusive education and organize reading clubs to read books related to curriculum modifications that integrate the eight education strategies, early treatment and education, and early childhood education programs to enhance their capacity to implement and compose teaching plans for inclusive education. In addition to the general objectives of inclusive education, the objective of inclusive education for special children is also embedded into the Individualized Education Program (IEP). 2) Implementation stage. Initially, a promotional program for special education is implemented for the children to allow all the children in the preschool to understand their own special qualities and those of special children. After the implementation of three weeks of reverse inclusion, the children in the special education classes are put into groups and enter the regular classes twice a week to implement adjustments to their inclusion in the learning area and the curriculum. In 2013, further cooperation was carried out with adjacent hospitals to perform development screening activities for the early detection of children with developmental delays. 3) Review and reflection stage. After the implementation of inclusive education, all teachers in the preschool are divided into two groups to record their teaching plans and the lessons learned during implementation. The effectiveness of implementing the objective of inclusive education is also reviewed. With the collaboration of all teachers, in 2015, Preschool Rainbow won New Taipei City’s “Preschool Light” award as an exceptional model for inclusive education. Its model of implementing inclusive education can be used as a reference for other preschools.

Keywords: collaboration, inclusive education, preschool, teachers, special education classes, regular classes

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Authors: Thi Phuong Lan Nguyen

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The English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) in Vietnam is rapidly changing to address the new requirements of the globalization and socialization era. Although there has been a range of investments and innovation in policy and curriculum, tertiary educators and learners do not engage in the enactment. It is vital to understand the practices at the tertiary education level. The study is to understand the higher education curriculum development policy, both in theory and in practice across four representatives of ELTE institutions in the North of Vietnam. The lecturers’ perceptions about the extent to which the enacted curriculum is aligned with national standards will be explored. Nineteen policy documents, seventy surveys, and twelve interviews with lecturers and instructional leaders across these four Vietnamese Northern ELTE institutions have been analyzed to investigate how the policy shape the practice. The two most significant findings are (i) a low level of alignment between curriculum and soft-skills standards of the graduates required by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and (ii) incoherence between current national policy and these institutions’ implementation. In order to address these gaps, it is strongly recommended that curriculum needs to be further developed, focusing more on the institutional outcomes, MOET’s standards, and the social demands in times of globalization. More importantly, professional development in ELTE is vital for a range of curriculum and educational policy stakeholders. The study helps to develop the English teaching profession in Vietnam in a systematic way, from policymakers to implementers, and from instructors to learners. Its significance lies in its relevance to English teaching careers, particularly within the researcher’s specific context, yet also remains relevant to ELTE in other parts of Vietnam and in other EFL (English as a Foreign Language) countries.

Keywords: curriculum, English language teaching education, policy implementation, standard, teaching practice

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Authors: Hung Tran

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This interpretive qualitative study employed three theoretical lenses: Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological System of Human Development, Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory of Development, and Knowles’s (1970) Adult Learning Theory as the theoretical framework in connection with the constructivist research paradigm to investigate into positive and negative aspects of the extant English as a Foreign Language (EFL) faculty mentoring programs at four higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) of Vietnam. Four apprentice faculty members (mentees), four experienced faculty members (mentors), and two associate deans (administrators) from these HEIs participated in two tape-recorded individual interviews in the Vietnamese language. Twenty interviews were transcribed verbatim and translated into English with verification. The initial analysis of data reveals that the mentoring program, which is mandated by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, has been implemented differently at these HEIs due to a lack of officially-documented mentoring guidance. Other general themes emerging from the data include essentials of the mentoring program, approaches of the mentoring practice, the mentee – mentor relationship, and lifelong learning beyond the mentoring program. Practically, this study offers stakeholders in the mentoring cycle description of benefits and best practices of tertiary EFL mentorship and a suggested mentoring program that is metaphorically depicted as “a lifebuoy” for its current and potential administrators and mentors to help their mentees survive in the first years of teaching. Theoretically, this study contributes to the world’s growing knowledge of post-secondary mentorship by enriching the modest literature on Asian tertiary EFL mentorship.

Keywords: faculty mentorship, mentees, mentors, administrator, the MRD, Vietnam

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Authors: C. O’Brien, Chloe Reiss

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While South Africa has been the chosen host country for over 1,2 million asylum seekers/refugees it has at the same time, been struggling to address the needs of its own people who are still trapped in poverty with little prospects of employment. This limited exploratory, qualitative study was undertaken in Cape Town with a purposive sample of 21 key personnel from various NPOs providing a service to asylum seekers/refugees. Individual in-depth face to face interviews were carried out and the main findings were: Some of the officials at the Department of Home Affairs, health personnel, landlords, school principals, employers, bank officials and police officers were prejudicial in their practices towards asylum seekers/ refugees. The major constraints experienced by NPOs in this study were linked to a lack of funding and minimal government support, strained relationship with the Department of Home Affairs and difficulties in accessing refugees. And finally, the strategies adopted by these NPOs included networking with other service providers, engaging in advocacy, raising community awareness and liaising with government. Thus, more focused intervention strategies are needed to build social cohesion, address prejudices which fuels xenophobic attacks and raise awareness/educate various sectors about refugee rights. Given this burgeoning global problem, social work education and training should include curriculum content on migrant issues. Furthermore, larger studies using mixed methodology approaches would yield more nuanced data and provide for more strategic interventions.

Keywords: refugees and asylum seekers, constraints of service delivery, non-profit organisations, refugee challenges

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Authors: Mahmoud Ashraf Farouk

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Shipping transportation is the foremost imperative mode of transportation in universal coordination. At display, more than 2/3 of the full worldwide exchange volume accounts for shipping transportation. Ships are utilized as an implies of marine transportation, introducing large-power diesel motors with exhaust containing nitrogen oxide NOx, sulfur oxide SOx, carbo di-oxide CO₂, particular matter PM10, hydrocarbon HC and carbon mono-oxide CO which are the most dangerous contaminants found in exhaust gas from ships. Ships radiating a large amount of exhaust gases have become a significant cause of pollution in the air in coastal areas, harbors and oceans. Therefore, IMO (the International Maritime Organization) has established rules to reduce this emission. This experiment shows the measurement of the exhaust gases emitted from the Aida IV ship's main engine using marine diesel oil fuel (MDO). The measurement is taken by the Sensonic2000 device on 85% load, which is the main sailing load. Moreover, the paper studies different emission reduction technologies as an alternative fuel, which as liquefied natural gas (LNG) applied to the system and reduction technology which is represented as selective catalytic reduction technology added to the marine diesel oil system (MDO+SCR). The experiment calculated the amount of nitrogen oxide NOx, sulfur oxide SOx, carbon-di-oxide CO₂, particular matter PM10, hydrocarbon HC and carbon mono-oxide CO because they have the most effect on the environment. The reduction technologies are applied on the same ship engine with the same load. Finally, the study found that MDO+SCR is the more efficient technology for the Aida IV ship as a training and supply ship due to low consumption and no need to modify the engine. Just add the SCR system to the exhaust line, which is easy and cheapest. Moreover, the differences between them in the emission are not so big.

Keywords: marine, emissions, reduction, shipping

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Authors: Moyera Sanganeria

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In the highly competitive landscape of contemporary sports, sportspersons worldwide encounter formidable challenges, often practicing for extensive hours while contending with limited social and physical resources. A growing number of sportspersons globally are sharing their struggles with depression, anxiety, and stress arising from the complex journey and identity associated with being a sportsperson. This qualitative study aims to investigate the challenges faced by sportspersons in individual versus team sports and explore potential gender-based variations in coping strategies. It attempts to do so by recognizing the imperative to comprehend the root causes and coping mechanisms for these stressors. By employing purposive sampling, MMA and Kabaddi players from training academies across Mumbai were selected for the study. Twelve participants were interviewed through semi-structured interviews guided by an interview guide. Reflective thematic analysis was employed to discern diverse stressors and coping strategies. Key stressors encountered by young Indian sportspersons encompass injuries, socio-economic challenges, financial constraints, escalating competition, and performance anxiety. Notably, individuals engaged in team sports tended to adopt emotion-focused coping mechanisms, while those in individual sports leaned more towards problem-focused coping strategies in response to these stressors. There were no prominent gender differences found in coping strategies employed by sportspersons. This study underscores the critical issue of declining mental health among sportspersons in India, emphasizing the necessity for a structured and customized mental health intervention strategy tailored to the unique needs of this population.

Keywords: stressors, coping strategies, sports psychology, sportspersons, mental health

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Authors: Scott A. Ochsner, Christopher M. Watkins, Apollo McOwiti, David L. Steffen Lauren B. Becnel, Neil J. McKenna

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Understanding signaling by nuclear receptors (NRs) requires an appreciation of their cognate ligand- and tissue-specific transcriptomes. While target gene regulation data are abundant in this field, they reside in hundreds of discrete publications in formats refractory to routine query and analysis and, accordingly, their full value to the NR signaling community has not been realized. One of the mandates of the Nuclear Receptor Signaling Atlas (NURSA) is to facilitate access of the community to existing public datasets. Pursuant to this mandate we are developing a freely-accessible community web resource, Transcriptomine, to bring together the sum total of available expression array and RNA-Seq data points generated by the field in a single location. Transcriptomine currently contains over 25,000,000 gene fold change datapoints from over 1200 contrasts relevant to over 100 NRs, ligands and coregulators in over 200 tissues and cell lines. Transcriptomine is designed to accommodate a spectrum of end users ranging from the bench researcher to those with advanced bioinformatic training. Visualization tools allow users to build custom charts to compare and contrast patterns of gene regulation across different tissues and in response to different ligands. Our resource affords an entirely new paradigm for leveraging gene expression data in the NR signaling field, empowering users to query gene fold changes across diverse regulatory molecules, tissues and cell lines, target genes, biological functions and disease associations, and that would otherwise be prohibitive in terms of time and effort. Transcriptomine will be regularly updated with gene lists from future genome-wide expression array and expression-sequencing datasets in the NR signaling field.

Keywords: target gene database, informatics, gene expression, transcriptomics

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Authors: María José Benitez Jimenez

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This study seeks to make clear the importance of family reunification in order to establish consolidated habits of coexistence of immigrants, directly favoring the relationship of the family nucleus and indirectly the social integration of foreigners. In addition to the theoretical analysis of the subject, information has been reviewed by the National Institute of Statistics and Reports of Spanish organizations that compile data on immigrants and specifically on family reunification. The Spanish regulations on foreigners include the right of foreigners legally residing in Spain to regroup their families. The general conditions required to exercise this right are having legally resided in Spain for one year and having obtained authorization to reside for one more year. There are exceptions to the requirement of having resided for one year in our country. Article 39 of the Spanish Constitution, although it does not express what is to be understood as a family, does refer to the fact that ‘the public authorities ensure the social, economic and legal protection of the family’. Therefore for the Spanish State, the family institution, in a broad sense, enjoys a privileged treatment that is revealed in the Supreme Norm and that reflects the interest of our society to address the relationships that subjects have in their immediate environment. Although we are aware of the reluctant position of the Spanish Constitutional Court to consider as a fundamental right the right to family life despite being enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is questionable whether access to authorization for family reunification should be more uniform in terms of requirements related to nationality, employment or training of applicants in order to have an egalitarian character. The requirement of having resided one year in Spain to be able to request successful family reunification seems dispensable because if foreigners can obviate this requirement by having a certain status, its abolition would be feasible by equating all situations and benefiting foreigners in general. The achievement of this proposal would help to strengthen the family life of immigrants from the beginning of their life in Spain.

Keywords: family, immigrants, social integration, reunification

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Authors: Mehmet Savsar

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Industrial Engineering is one of the engineering disciplines that deal with analysis, design, and improvement of systems, which include manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, communication, and general service systems. Industrial engineers involve with comprehensive study of a given system, analysis of its interacting units, determination of problem areas, application of various optimization and operations research tools, and recommendation of solutions resulting in significant improvements. The Senior Design course in Industrial Engineering is the culmination of the Industrial Engineering Curriculum in a Capstone Design course, which fundamentally deals with systems analysis and design. The course at Kuwait University has been carefully designed with various course objectives and course outcomes in mind to achieve several program outcomes by practices and learning experiences, which are explicitly gained by systems analysis and design. The Senior Design Course is carried out in a selected industrial or service organization, with support from its engineering personnel, during a full semester by a team of students, who are usually in the last semester of their academic programs. A senior faculty member constantly administers the course to ensure that the students accomplish the prescribed objectives. Students work in groups to formulate issues and propose solutions and communicate, results in formal written and oral presentations. When the course is completed, they emerge as engineers that can be clearly identified as more mature, able to communicate better, able to participate in team work, able to see systems perspective in analysis and design, and more importantly, able to assume responsibility at entry level as engineers. The accomplishments are mainly due to real life experiences gained during the course of their design study. This paper presents methods, procedures, and experiences in teaching a Senior Design Course in Industrial Engineering Curriculum. A detailed description of the course, its role, its objectives, outcomes, learning practices, and assessments are explained in relation to other courses in Industrial Engineering Curriculum. The administration of the course, selected organizations where the course project is carried out, problems and solution tools utilized, student accomplishments and obstacles faced are presented. Issues discussed in this paper could help instructors in teaching the course as well as in clarifying the contribution of a design course to the industrial engineering education in general. In addition, the methods and teaching procedures presented could facilitate future improvements in industrial engineering curriculum.

Keywords: senior design course, industrial engineering, capstone design, education

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Authors: Angélique Laurent, Marie-Josée Letarte, Jean-Pascal Lemelin, Marie-France Morin

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This study aims at exploring teacher-child interactions within learning contexts in public prekindergartens of the province of Québec (Canada). It is based on previous research showing that teacher-child interactions in preschools have direct and determining effects on the quality of early childhood education and could directly or indirectly influence child development. However, throughout a typical preschool day, children experience different learning contexts to promote their learning opportunities. Depending on these specific contexts, teacher-child interactions could vary, for example, between free play and shared book reading. Indeed, some studies have found that teacher-directed or child-directed contexts might lead to significant variations in teacher-child interactions. This study drew upon both the bioecological and the Teaching Through Interactions frameworks. It was conducted through a descriptive and correlational design. Fifteen teachers were recruited to participate in the study. At Time 1 in October, they completed a diary to report the learning contexts they proposed in their classroom during a typical week. At Time 2, seven months later (May), they were videotaped three times in the morning (two weeks’ time between each recording) during a typical morning class. The quality of teacher-child interactions was then coded with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) through the contexts identified. This tool measures three main domains of interactions: emotional support, classroom organization, and instruction support, and10 dimensions scored on a scale from 1 (low quality) to 7 (high quality). Based on the teachers’ reports, five learning contexts were identified: 1) shared book reading, 2) free play, 3) morning meeting, 4) teacher-directed activity (such as craft), and 5) snack. Based on preliminary statistical analyses, little variation was observed within the learning contexts for each domain of the CLASS. However, the instructional support domain showed lower scores during specific learning contexts, specifically free play and teacher-directed activity. Practical implications for how preschool teachers could foster specific domains of interactions depending on learning contexts to enhance children’s social and academic development will be discussed.

Keywords: teacher practices, teacher-child interactions, preschool education, learning contexts, child development

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Authors: Adi Levy

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Military and security personnel defections during nonviolent resistance (NVR) campaigns are recognized as an effective way of undermining the regime’s power, but they also may generate moral dilemmas that contradict the moral standing of NVR tactics. NVR campaigns have been primarily praised for their adherence to moral and legal norms, yet some of NVR tactics raise serious ethical concerns. This paper focuses on NVR tactics that seek to promote defections and disobedience within military and security personnel to sustain their campaign. Academic literature regarding NVR tactics indicates that compared to violent forms of resistance, defections are more likely to occur when security forces confront nonviolent activists. Indeed, defections play a strategically fundamental role in nonviolent campaigns, particularly against authoritarian regimes, as it enables activists to undermine the regime’s central pillars of support. This study examines the events of the Arab Spring and discusses the ethical problems that arise in nonviolent activists’ promotion of defections and disobedience. The cases of Syria and Egypt suggest that the strategic promotion of defections and disobedience was significantly effective in sustaining the campaign. Yet, while such defections enhance nonviolent activists’ resilience, how they are promoted can be morally contentious and the consequences can be dire. Defections are encouraged by social, moral and emotional appeals that use the power disparities between unarmed civilians and powerful regimes to affect soldiers and security personnel’s process of decision-making. In what is commonly referred to as dilemma action, nonviolent activists deliberately entangle security forces in a moral dilemma that compels them to follow a moral code to protect unarmed civilians. In this way, activists sustain their struggle and even gain protection. Nonviolent activists are likely to be completely defeated when confronted with armed forces. Therefore they rely on the military and security personnel’s moral conscious of convincing them to refrain from using force against them. While this is effective, it also leaves soldiers and security forces exposed to the implications and punishments that might follow their disobedience or defection. As long as they remain nonviolent, activists enjoy civilian immunity despite using morally contentious tactics. But the severe implications brought upon defectors. As a result, demand a deep examination of this tactic’s moral permissibility and a discussion that assesses culpability for the moral implications of its application.

Keywords: culpability, defections, nonviolence, permissibility

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Authors: Zhou Congling

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The integration of private tutoring has emerged as an indispensable facet in the acquisition of language proficiency beyond formal educational settings. Notably, there has been a discernible surge in the demand for private English tutoring, specifically geared towards the preparation for internationally recognized gatekeeping examinations, such as IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT, and GRE. This trajectory has engendered an escalating need for English Language Teaching Assistants (ELTAs) operating within the realm of Private Tutoring Schools (PTSs). The objective of this study is to unravel the intricate process by which these ELTAs formulate their professional identities in the nascent stages of their careers as English educators, as well as to delineate their perceptions regarding their professional trajectories. The construct of language teacher identity is inherently multifaceted, shaped by an amalgamation of individual, societal, and cultural determinants, exerting a profound influence on how language educators navigate their professional responsibilities. This investigation seeks to scrutinize the experiential and influential factors that mold the identities of ELTAs in PTSs, particularly post the culmination of their language-oriented academic programs. Employing a qualitative narrative inquiry approach, this study aims to delve into the nuanced understanding of how ELTAs conceptualize their professional identities and envision their future roles. The research methodology involves purposeful sampling and the conduct of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten participants. Data analysis will be conducted utilizing Barkhuizen’s Short Story Analysis, a method designed to explore a three-dimensional narrative space, elucidating the intricate interplay of personal experiences and societal contexts in shaping the identities of ELTAs. The anticipated outcomes of this study are poised to contribute substantively to a holistic comprehension of ELTA identity formation, holding practical implications for diverse stakeholders within the private tutoring sector. This research endeavors to furnish insights into strategies for the retention of ELTAs and the enhancement of overall service quality within PTSs.

Keywords: China, English language teacher, narrative inquiry, private tutoring school, teacher identity

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Authors: F. O Anugom

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The general functions of the university amongst other things include teaching, research and community service. Universities are recognized as the apex of learning, accumulating and imparting knowledge and skills of all kinds to students to enable them to be productive, earn their living and to make optimum contributions to national development. This is equivalent to the production of human capital in the form of high level manpower needed to administer the educational society, be useful to the society and manage the economy. Quality has become a matter of major importance for university education in Nigeria. Accreditation is the systematic review of educational programs to ensure that acceptable standards of education, scholarship and infrastructure are being maintained. Accreditation ensures that institution maintain quality. The process is designed to determine whether or not an institution has met or exceeded the published standards for accreditation, and whether it is achieving its mission and stated purposes. Ensuring quality assurance in accreditation process falls in the hands of university management which justified the need for this study. This study examined accreditation and quality assurance: the management imperative. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The design was a correlation survey with a population of 2,893 university administrators out of which 578 Heads of department and Dean of faculties were sampled. The instrument for data collection was titled Programme Accreditation Exercise scale with high levels of reliability. The research questions were answered with Pearson ‘r’ statistics. T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses. It was found among others that the quality of accredited programme depends on the level of funding of universities in Nigeria. It was also indicated that quality of programme accreditation and physical facilities of universities in Nigeria have high relationship. But it was also revealed that programme accreditation is positively related to staffing in Nigerian universities. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommend that academic administrators should be included in the team of those who ensure quality programs in the universities. Private sector partnership should be encouraged to fund programs to ensure quality of programme in the universities. Independent agencies should be engaged to monitor the activities of accreditation teams to avoid bias.

Keywords: accreditation, quality assurance, national universities commission , physical facilities, staffing

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Authors: Olayinka Adeniyi, Melissa Omino

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The field of data privacy and data protection in Africa is still an evolving area, with many African countries yet to enact legislation on the subject. While African Governments are bringing their legislation to speed in this field, how patriarchy pervades every sector of African thought and manifests in society needs to be considered. Moreover, the laws enacted ought to be inclusive, especially towards women. This, in a nutshell, is the essence of data feminism. Data feminism is a new way of thinking about data science and data ethics that is informed by the ideas of intersectional feminism. Feminising data privacy and protection will involve thinking women, considering women in the issues of data privacy and protection, particularly in legislation, as is the case in this paper. The line of thought of women inclusion is not uncommon when even international and regional human rights specific for women only came long after the general human rights. The consideration is that these should have been inserted or rather included in the original general instruments in the first instance. Since legislation on data privacy is coming in this century, having seen the rights and shortcomings of earlier instruments, then the cue should be taken to ensure inclusive wholistic legislation for data privacy and protection in the first instance. Data feminism is arguably an area that has been scantily researched, albeit a needful one. With the spate of increase in the violence against women spiraling in the cyber world, compounding the issue of COVID-19 and the needful response of governments, and the effect of these on women and their rights, fast forward, the research on the feminism of data privacy and protection in Africa becomes inevitable. This paper seeks to answer the questions, what is data feminism in the African context, why is it important in the issue of data privacy and protection legislation; what are the laws, if any, existing on data privacy and protection in Africa, are they women inclusive, if not, why; what are the measures put in place for the privacy and protection of women in Africa, and how can this be made possible. The paper aims to investigate the issue of data privacy and protection in Africa, the legal framework, and the protection or provision that it has for women if any. It further aims to research the importance and necessity of feminizing data privacy and protection, the effect of lack of it, the challenges or bottlenecks in attaining this feat and the possibilities of accessing data privacy and protection for African women. The paper also researches the emerging practices of data privacy and protection of women in other jurisprudences. It approaches the research through the methodology of review of papers, analysis of laws, and reports. It seeks to contribute to the existing literature in the field and is explorative in its suggestion. It suggests a draft of some clauses to make any data privacy and protection legislation women inclusive. It would be useful for policymaking, academic, and public enlightenment.

Keywords: feminism, women, law, data, Africa

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Authors: Saeed Ullah Jan, Shaukat Ullah

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Purpose of the study: The main theme of this study is to explore the information literacy skills of the law practitioners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan under the heading "Information Literacy Skills of Legal Practitioners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan: An Empirical Study." Research Method and Procedure: To conduct this quantitative study, the simple random sample approach is used. An adapted questionnaire is distributed among 254 lawyers of Dera Ismail Khan through personal visits and electronic means. The data collected is analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software. Delimitations of the study: The study is delimited to the southern district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Dera Ismael Khan. Key Findings: Most of the lawyers of District Dera Ismail Khan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can recognize and understand the needed information. A large number of lawyers are capable of presenting information in both written and electronic forms. They are not comfortable with different legal databases and using various searching and keyword techniques. They have less knowledge of Boolean operators for locating online information. Conclusion and Recommendations: Efforts should be made to arrange refresher courses and training workshops on the utilization of different legal databases and different search techniques for retrieval of information sources. This practice will enhance the information literacy skills of lawyers, which will ultimately result in a better legal system in Pakistan. Practical implication(s): The findings of the study will motivate the policymakers and authorities of legal forums to restructure the information literacy programs to fulfill the lawyers' information needs. Contribution to the knowledge: No significant work has been done on the lawyers' information literacy skills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. It will bring a clear picture of the information literacy skills of law practitioners and address the problems faced by them during the seeking process.

Keywords: information literacy-Pakistan, infromation literacy-lawyers, information literacy-lawyers-KP, law practitioners-Pakistan

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Authors: Nagore Guerra Bilbao, Clemente Lobato Fraile

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This paper outlines the design and development of the MENDEPRO questionnaire, designed to analyze mentoring performance within a professional development process carried out with professors at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. The study took into account the international research carried out over the past two decades into teachers' professional development, and was also based on a thorough review of the most common instruments used to identify and analyze mentoring styles, many of which fail to provide sufficient psychometric guarantees. The present study aimed to gather empirical data in order to verify the metric quality of the questionnaire developed. To this end, the process followed to validate the theoretical construct was as follows: The formulation of the items and indicators in accordance with the study variables; the analysis of the validity and reliability of the initial questionnaire; the review of the second version of the questionnaire and the definitive measurement instrument. Content was validated through the formal agreement and consensus of 12 university professor training experts. A reduced sample of professors who had participated in a lifelong learning program was then selected for a trial evaluation of the instrument developed. After the trial, 18 items were removed from the initial questionnaire. The final version of the instrument, comprising 33 items, was then administered to a sample group of 99 participants. The results revealed a five-dimensional structure matching theoretical expectations. Also, the reliability data for both the instrument as a whole (.98) and its various dimensions (between .91 and .97) were very high. The questionnaire was thus found to have satisfactory psychometric properties and can therefore be considered apt for studying the performance of mentoring in both induction programs for young professors and lifelong learning programs for senior faculty members.

Keywords: higher education, mentoring, professional development, university teaching

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Authors: Tomas O. Ortega, Cecilia T. Reyes, Cecile O. Legaspi, Cylde G. Abayon, Anna Mae C. Relingo, Mary Eden M. Teruel

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A study was conducted to evaluate the performance in the delivery of environmental management programs of the local government of Malay, Aklan, Philippines. The samples were determined by adopting the Multi-Stage Random Probability Sampling technique. The 150 respondents were drawn from barangays with larger shares of the population based on the Philippine Statistical Authority’s Data on Census Population and Housing for the year 2015. The qualified sample respondents were selected using the Kish Grid. Female respondents were targeted for even numbered questionnaires while male respondents were targeted for odd numbers. The four major core concepts namely awareness, availment, satisfaction and need for action were used in measuring the rating of the respondents and presented in frequency and percentage distributions. The reasons for their response were likewise gathered. The study inferred that a large portion of the respondents was profoundly aware of the environmental management programs implemented by their local government unit especially the solid waste management and the clean-up programs/projects. Programs to control air pollution and waste water management obtained the least awareness ratings from the respondents. A high percentage of respondents had availed of environmental management programs, particularly solid waste management. Overall, majority of the respondents were satisfied with the environmental management programs rendered by the local government unit and therefore needs less action. It is recommended that the local government unit must strengthen air pollution control program. Appropriate action must be taken to support the people’s interest in this program most particularly to the individuals who burn their garbage. Seminars and training-workshops about appropriate waste disposal will most likely help settle this issue.

Keywords: availment, awareness, environmental management, need for action, satisfaction

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Authors: Jung-Il Kang, Jeon Eon Park, Yu-Jin Moon, Young-Seok Ahn, Eun-Sook Yoo, Hee-Kyoung Kang

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Undariopsis peterseniana, a seaweed native to Jeju Island, Korea, on the growth of hair. The dermal papilla cells (DPCs) have known to regulate hair growth cycle and length of hair follicle through interact with epithelial cells. When immortalized vibrissa DPCs were treated with the U. peterseniana extract, the U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the proliferation of DPCs. The effect of U. peterseniana extract on the growth of vibrissa follicles was also examined. U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the hair-fiber lengths of the vibrissa follicles. Hair loss is partly caused by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) binding to androgen receptor in hair follicles, and the inhibition of 5α-reductase activity can prevent hair loss through the decrease of DHT level. The U. peterseniana extract inhibited 5α-reductase activity. Minoxidil, a potent hair-growth agent, can induce proliferation in NIH3T3 fibroblasts by opening KATP channels. We thus examined the proliferative effects of U. peterseniana extract in NIH3T3 fibroblasts. U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the proliferation of NIH3T3 fibroblasts. Tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA), a K+ channel blocker, inhibited U. peterseniana-induced proliferation in NIH3T3 fibroblasts. These results suggest that U. peterseniana could have the potential to treat alopecia through the proliferation of DPCs, the inhibition of 5α-reductase activity and the opening of KATP channels. [Acknowledgement] This research was supported by The Leading Human Resource Training Program of Regional Neo industry through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning (2016H1D5A1908786).

Keywords: hair growth, Undariopsis peterseniana, vibrissa follicles, dermal papilla cells, 5α-reductase, KATP channels

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Authors: T. Obateru, Samuel Olaniran

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In an era when the new media is affording easy access to packaging and dissemination of information, the social media have become a popular avenue for sharing information for good or ill. It is evident that the traditional role of journalists as ‘news breakers’ is fast being eroded. People now share information on happenings via the social media like Facebook, Twitter and the rest, such that journalists themselves now get leads on happenings from such sources. Beyond the access to information provided by the new media is the erosion of the gatekeeping role of journalists who by their training and calling, are supposed to handle information with responsibility. Thus, sensitive information that journalists would normally filter is randomly shared by social media activists. This was the experience of journalists in Jos, Plateau State in January 2010 when another of the recurring ethnoreligious crisis that engulfed the state resulted in another widespread killing, vandalism, looting, and displacements. Considered as one of the high points of crises in the state, journalists who had the duty of covering the crisis also relied on some of these sources to get their bearing on the violence. This paper examined the role of Facebook in the work of journalists who covered the 2010 crisis. Taking the gatekeeping perspective, it interrogated the extent to which Facebook impacted their professional duty positively or negatively vis-à-vis the peace journalism model. It employed survey to elicit information from 50 journalists who covered the crisis using questionnaire as instrument. The paper revealed that the dissemination of hate information via mobile phones and social media, especially Facebook, aggravated the crisis situation. Journalists became news followers rather than news breakers because a lot of them were put on their toes by information (many of which were inaccurate or false) circulated on Facebook. It recommended that journalists must remain true to their calling by upholding their ‘gatekeeping’ role of disseminating only accurate and responsible information if they would remain the main source of credible information on which their audience rely.

Keywords: crisis, ethnoreligious, Facebook, journalists

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Authors: Ava Zarif Sanayei, Sedigheh Sina

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Despite the advancement of radiation-free interventions in the gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary fields, endoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) remain indispensable procedures that necessitate radiation exposure. ERCP, in particular, relies heavily on radiation-guided imaging to ensure precise delivery of therapy. Meanwhile, interventional radiology (IR) procedures also utilize imaging modalities like X-rays and CT scans to guide therapy, often under local anesthesia via small needle insertion. However, the complexity of these procedures raises concerns about radiation exposure to healthcare professionals, including nurses, who play a crucial role in these interventions. This study aims to assess the radiation exposure to the hands and fingers of nurses 1 and 2, who are directly involved in ERCP procedures utilizing (TLD-100) dosimeters at the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy department of a clinic in Shiraz, Iran. The dosimeters were initially calibrated using various phantoms and then a group was prepared and used over a two-month period. For personal equivalent dose measurement, two TLD chips were mounted on a finger ring to monitor exposure to the hands and fingers. Upon completion of the monitoring period, the TLDs were analyzed using a TLD reader, showing that Nurse 1 received an equivalent dose of 298.26 µSv and Nurse 2 received an equivalent dose of 195.39 µSv. The investigation revealed that the total radiation exposure to the nurses did not exceed the annual limit for occupational exposure. Nevertheless, it is essential to prioritize radiation protection measures to prevent potential harm. The study showed that positioning staff members and placing two nurses in a specific location contributed to somehow equal doses. To reduce exposure further, we suggest providing education and training on radiation safety principles, particularly for technologists.

Keywords: dose measurement, ERCP, interventional radiology, medical imaging

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Authors: Kalpeshkumar L. Gupta, Shivali Rathore

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India is home to over 30 crore rural poor, aware of the criticality of the situation that has made to come with an innovative business idea. Entrepreneurship in India is on the verge of explosive growth and which is actually need of an hour for employment generation, poverty elevation at grass root through developmental intervention. India economic progress has started from the development of its small and medium scale enterprises to ensure that the sectors continues to stay competitive and achieve sustained growth in the era of global economy many incubators centers has been established with the mission to give the encouragement to many innovative ideas. If we define an Incubator, it is simply an enclosed apparatus in which premature small babies are placed and which provides a controlled and protective environment for their care this gives them a chance to adjust to outside environment, and grow stronger before they face the outside world. In a similar way the startup entrepreneur’s business idea is incubated in the incubation centers. Entrepreneurship has been conventionally rated as risky career, to break the myth and to augment the supply of new entrepreneurs through education; research training the incubation centers has been established, their goal is to help create and grow young businesses by providing them with necessary support and financial and technical services. The startup companies spend on an average two years in a business incubator during which numerous benefits like funding, office space, equipment’s etc. is provided by the incubators to the startup business. Present paper will study the background, role, objectives of different incubators set up in Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) for our study.

Keywords: incubation centres, entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology

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Authors: Mauro Callejas-Cuervo, Andrea C. Alarcon-Aldana

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It is evident that there has been progress in the development and innovation of tools, techniques and methods in the development of software. Even so, there are few methodologies that include the human factor from the point of view of motivation, emotions and impact on the work environment; aspects that, when mishandled or not taken into consideration, increase the iterations in the requirements elicitation phase. This generates a broad number of changes in the characteristics of the system during its developmental process and an overinvestment of resources to obtain a final product that, often, does not live up to the expectations and needs of the client. The human factors such as emotions or personality traits are naturally associated with the process of developing software. However, most of these jobs are oriented towards the analysis of the final users of the software and do not take into consideration the emotions and motivations of the members of the development team. Given that in the industry, the strategies to select the requirements engineers and/or the analysts do not take said factors into account, it is important to identify and describe the characteristics or personality traits in order to elicit requirements effectively. This research describes the main personality traits associated with the requirements elicitation tasks through the analysis of the existing literature on the topic and a compilation of our experiences as software development project managers in the academic and productive sectors; allowing for the characterisation of a suitable profile for this job. Moreover, a psychometric test is used as an information gathering technique, and it is applied to the personnel of some local companies in the software development sector. Such information has become an important asset in order to make a comparative analysis between the degree of effectiveness in the way their software development teams are formed and the proposed profile. The results show that of the software development companies studied: 53.58% have selected the personnel for the task of requirements elicitation adequately, 37.71% possess some of the characteristics to perform the task, and 10.71% are inadequate. From the previous information, it is possible to conclude that 46.42% of the requirements engineers selected by the companies could perform other roles more adequately; a change which could improve the performance and competitiveness of the work team and, indirectly, the quality of the product developed. Likewise, the research allowed for the validation of the pertinence and usefulness of the psychometric instrument as well as the accuracy of the characteristics for the profile of requirements engineer proposed as a reference.

Keywords: emotions, human attitudes, personality traits, psychometric tests, requirements engineering

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Authors: Sheelagh Heugh, Michael Upton, Kriya Kalidas, Stephen Breen

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This article aims to create awareness of the opportunities and issues the artificial intelligence (AI) tool GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer-3) brings to higher education. Technological disruptors have featured in higher education (HE) since Konrad Klaus developed the first functional programmable automatic digital computer. The flurry of technological advances, such as personal computers, smartphones, the world wide web, search engines, and artificial intelligence (AI), have regularly caused disruption and discourse across the educational landscape around harnessing the change for the good. Accepting AI influences are inevitable; we took mixed methods through participatory action research and evaluation approach. Joining HE communities, reviewing the literature, and conducting our own research around Chat GPT-3, we reviewed our institutional approach to changing our current practices and developing policy linked to assessments and the use of Chat GPT-3. We review the impact of GPT-3, a high-powered natural language processing (NLP) system first seen in 2020 on HE. Historically HE has flexed and adapted with each technological advancement, and the latest debates for educationalists are focusing on the issues around this version of AI which creates natural human language text from prompts and other forms that can generate code and images. This paper explores how Chat GPT-3 affects the current educational landscape: we debate current views around plagiarism, research misconduct, and the credibility of assessment and determine the tool's value in developing skills for the workplace and enhancing critical analysis skills. These questions led us to review our institutional policy and explore the effects on our current assessments and the development of new assessments. Conclusions: After exploring the pros and cons of Chat GTP-3, it is evident that this form of AI cannot be un-invented. Technology needs to be harnessed for positive outcomes in higher education. We have observed that materials developed through AI and potential effects on our development of future assessments and teaching methods. Materials developed through Chat GPT-3 can still aid student learning but lead to redeveloping our institutional policy around plagiarism and academic integrity.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, Chat GPT-3, intellectual property, plagiarism, research misconduct

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Authors: Katarzyna Stoklosa

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Introduction: European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is an independent office in European Union which was established under the article 86 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by the Treaty of Lisbon following the method of enhanced cooperation. EPPO is aimed at combating crimes against the EU’s financial interest et fraud against the EU budgets on the one hand, EPPO will give a chance to effective fight with organized criminality, on the other it seems to be a threat for member-states which bound with justice the problem of sovereignty. It is a new institution that will become effective from 2020, which is why it requires prior analysis. Methodology: The author uses statistical and comparative methods by collecting and analyzing the work of current institutions such as Europol, Eurojust, as well as the future impact of EPPO on detection and prosecution of crimes. The author will also conduct questionnaire among students and academic staff involved in the perception of EU institutions and the need to create new entities dealing with inter-agency cooperation in criminal matters. Thanks to these research the author will draw up present ways of cooperation between member-states and changes in fighting with financial crimes which will grow up under new regulation. Major Finding of the Study: Analysis and research show that EPPO is an institution based on the principle of mutual recognition, which often does not work in cooperation between Member States. Distrust and problems with the recognition of judgments of other EU Member States may significantly affect the functioning of EPPO. Poland is not part of the EPPO, because arguments have been raised that the European Public Prosecutor's Office interferes too much with the Member States’ pro-active sovereignty and duplicates competences. The research and analyzes carried out by the author show that EPPO has completely new competences, for example, it may file indictments against perpetrators of financial crimes. However, according to the research carried out by the author, such competences may undermine the sovereignty and the principle of protecting the public order of the EU. Conclusion: After the analysis, it will be possible to set following thesis: EPPO is only possible way to effective fight with organized financial criminality. However in conclusion Polish doubts should not be criticized at all. Institutions as EPPO must properly respect sovereignty of member-states. Even instruments like that cannot provoke political contraventions, because there are no other ways to effective resolving of international criminality problem.

Keywords: criminal trial, economic crimes, European Public Prosecutor's Office, European Union

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Authors: H. Abas Nejad, A. R. Teymoori

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Facial expression recognition is one of the open problems in computer vision. Robust neutral face recognition in real time is a major challenge for various supervised learning based facial expression recognition methods. This is due to the fact that supervised methods cannot accommodate all appearance variability across the faces with respect to race, pose, lighting, facial biases, etc. in the limited amount of training data. Moreover, processing each and every frame to classify emotions is not required, as the user stays neutral for the majority of the time in usual applications like video chat or photo album/web browsing. Detecting neutral state at an early stage, thereby bypassing those frames from emotion classification would save the computational power. In this work, we propose a light-weight neutral vs. emotion classification engine, which acts as a preprocessor to the traditional supervised emotion classification approaches. It dynamically learns neutral appearance at Key Emotion (KE) points using a textural statistical model, constructed by a set of reference neutral frames for each user. The proposed method is made robust to various types of user head motions by accounting for affine distortions based on a textural statistical model. Robustness to dynamic shift of KE points is achieved by evaluating the similarities on a subset of neighborhood patches around each KE point using the prior information regarding the directionality of specific facial action units acting on the respective KE point. The proposed method, as a result, improves ER accuracy and simultaneously reduces the computational complexity of ER system, as validated on multiple databases.

Keywords: neutral vs. emotion classification, Constrained Local Model, procrustes analysis, Local Binary Pattern Histogram, statistical model

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Authors: Desiree Di Marco

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The aim of this work is to show through the lens of art first which kind of reality was the one represented through fascist maps, and second to study the impact of the fascist regime’s cartography (FRC) on observers eye’s. In this study, it is assumed that the FRC’s representation of reality was simplified, timeless, and even a-spatial because it underrates the concept of territoriality. Cubism and Picasso’s paintings will be used as counter-examples to mystify fascist cartography’s ideological assumptions. The difference between the gaze of an observer looking at the surface of a fascist map and the gaze of someone observing a Picasso painting is impressive. Because there is always something dark, hidden, behind and inside a map, the world of fascist maps was a world built starting from the observation of a “window” that distorted reality and trapped the eyes of the observers. Moving across the map, they seem as if they were hypnotized. Cartohypnosis is the state in which the observer finds himself enslaved by the attractive force of the map, which uses a sort of “magic” geography, a geography that, by means of symbolic language, never has as its primary objective the attempt to show us reality in its complexity, but that of performing for its audience. Magical geography and hypnotic cartography in fascism blended together, creating an almost mystical, magical relationship that demystified reality to reduce the world to a conquerable space. This reduction offered the observer the possibility of conceiving new dimensions: of the limit, of the boundary, elements with which the subject felt fully involved and in which the aesthetic force of the images demonstrated all its strength. But in the early 20th century, the combination of art and cartography gave rise to new possibilities. Cubism which, more than all the other artistic currents showed us how much the observation of reality from a single point of view falls within dangerous logic, is an example. Cubism was an artistic movement that brought about a profound transformation in pictorial culture. It was not only a revolution of pictorial space, but it was a revolution of our conception of pictorial space. Up until that time, men and women were more inclined to believe in the power of images and their representations. Cubist painters rebelled against this blindness by claiming that art must always offer an alternative. Indeed the contribution of this work is precisely to show how art can be able to provide alternatives to even the most horrible regimes and the most atrocious human misfortunes. It also enriches the field of cartography because it "reassures" it by showing how much good it can be for cartography if also for other disciplines come close. Only in this way researcher can increase the chances for the cartography of a greater diffusion at the academic level.

Keywords: cartography, Picasso, fascism, culture

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