Search results for: global labour relations

Authors: A. Guechi, M. Chegaar

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This study investigates how AlGaAs/GaAs thin film solar cells perform under varying global solar spectrum due to the changes of environmental parameters such as the air mass and the atmospheric turbidity. The solar irradiance striking the solar cell is simulated using the spectral irradiance model SMARTS2 (Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine) for clear skies on the site of Setif (Algeria). The results show a reduction in the short circuit current due to increasing atmospheric turbidity, it is 63.09% under global radiation. However increasing air mass leads to a reduction in the short circuit current of 81.73%.The efficiency decrease with increasing atmospheric turbidity and air mass.

Keywords: AlGaAs/GaAs, solar cells, environmental parameters, spectral variation, SMARTS

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Authors: Olanike A. Ojo, Akindele M. Ojo, Jacob H. Tsado, Ramatu U. Kutigi

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The study was carried out on analysis of the effect of farmers’ socio-economic factors on the net farm income of catfish farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from selected catfish farmers with the aid of well-structured questionnaire and a multistage sampling technique was used to select 102 catfish farmers in the area. The analytical techniques involved the use of descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the analysis of socio-economic characteristics of catfish farmers reveal that 60% of the catfish farmers in the study area were male gender which implied the existence of gender inequality in the area. The mean age of 47 years was an indication that they were at their economically productive age and could contribute positively to increased production of catfish in the area. Also, the mean household size was five while the mean year of experience was five. The latter implied that the farmers were experienced in fishing techniques, breeding and fish culture which would assist in generating more revenue, reduce cost of production and eventual increase in profit levels of the farmers. The result also revealed that stock capacity (X3), accessibility to credit (X7) and labour (X4) were the main determinants of catfish production in the area. In addition, farmer’s sex, household size, no of ponds, distance of the farm from market, access to credit were the main socio-economic factors influencing the net farm income of the catfish farmers in the area. The most serious constraints militating against catfish production in the study area were high mortality rate, insufficient market, inadequate credit facilities/ finance and inadequate skilled labour needed for daily production routine. Based on the findings, it is therefore recommended that, to reduce the mortality rate of catfish extension agents should organize training workshops on improved methods and techniques of raising catfish right from juvenile to market size.

Keywords: credit, income, stock, mortality

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Authors: Joanna Konstantinou

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The study is about the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in a crisis context and in turbulent economies. The scope is to determine which factors, if any, are related to the success of a new business venture, such as innovation, access to funding and capital, enhanced digital skills, employment relations and organizational culture as well as a company’s strategic orientation towards international markets. The crisis context has been recorded to have affected the number of SMEs in the Greek economy, the number of people employed as well as the volume of the output produced. Although not all SMEs have been equally impacted by the crisis, which has been identified to affect certain sectors more than others, and although research is not exhaustive in that end, employment relations and patterns, firm’s age, and innovation practices in relation to employees’ learning curve seem to have a positive correlation with the successful survival and resilience of the firm. The aim is to identify important factors that can contribute positively to the success of a startup business, and that will allow businesses to acquire resilience and survive economic adversities, and it will focus on businesses of the Greek economy, the country with the longer lasting economic crisis and the findings will be lessons to learn for other economies.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, crisis, challenges

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Authors: F. Berna Benli, Özgür Keskin

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Lately, many mathematicians have been studied the statistical convergence of a sequence of fuzzy numbers. We know that Lambda-statistically convergence is a kind of convergence between ordinary convergence and statistical convergence. In this paper, we will introduce the new kind of convergence such as λ-levelwise statistical convergence. Then, we will define the concept of the λ-levelwise statistical cluster and limit points of a sequence of fuzzy numbers. Also, we will discuss the relations between the sets of λ-levelwise statistical cluster points and λ-levelwise statistical limit points of sequences of fuzzy numbers. This work has been extended in this paper, where some relations have been considered such that when lambda-statistical limit inferior and lambda-statistical limit superior for lambda-statistically convergent sequences of fuzzy numbers are equal. Furthermore, lambda-statistical boundedness condition for different sequences of fuzzy numbers has been studied.

Keywords: fuzzy number, λ-levelwise statistical cluster points, λ-levelwise statistical convergence, λ-levelwise statistical limit points, λ-statistical cluster points, λ-statistical convergence, λ-statistical limit points

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Authors: Naziema B. Jappie

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Internationalization is very complex and multifaceted and has implications for the entire university sector, and the larger community which it serves. Higher education strategic plans require sustainability on all levels of academic engagement and internationalization contributes to the sustainability because of the global competition but, at the same time, ensures diversity on campuses. Universities all over the world are increasingly recognizing the challenges of globalization and the pressures towards internationalization. The past 25 years of internationalization has faded away, and new challenges have emerged. Although internationalization remains a central strategic objective for all universities, for many leaders and education practitioners it has remained a confused concept. It has various interpretations, and it intersects with numerous other national agendas in higher education domain; it often builds upon narrow notions limited to one of its facets –attracting international student fees for financial sustainability or for ensuring a diverse campus culture. It is essential to have clear institutional views, but it is imperative that everyone reflects on the values and beliefs that underpin the internationalization of higher education and have a global focus. This paper draws together the international experience locally and globally to explore the emerging patterns of strategy and practice in internationalizing higher education. This will highlight some critical notions of how the concepts of internationalization and globalization in the context of higher education is understood by those who lead universities and what new challenges are being created as universities seek to become more international. Institutions cannot simply have bullet points in the strategic plan about recruitment of international students; there has to be a complete commitment to an international strategy of inclusivity. This paper will further examine the leadership styles that ensure transformation together with the goals set out for internationalization. The interviews with the senior leadership are in-depth semi-structured recorded interviews of approximately one-hour to learn about their institutional experiences, promotion, and enhancement of the value of internationalisation to the tertiary education sector and initiating discussions around adding the international relations dimension to the curriculum. This paper will address the issues relevant to the cross-border delivery of higher education. To ensure anonymity throughout this study, the interviewees are identified only by their institutions.

Keywords: challenges, globalization, higher education, internationalization, strategic focus

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Authors: Kristen Erekson, Sarah Spendlove Caswell

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Nurse educators have the challenge of training future nurses that will provide compassionate care to an increasingly diverse population of patients in a culturally sensitive way. One approach to this challenge is an immersive public and global health experience as part of the nursing program curriculum. Undergraduate nursing students at our institution are required to participate in a Public and Global Health course. They participate in a didactic preparatory course followed by a 3-to-4-week program in one of the following locations: The Czech Republic, Ecuador, Finland/Poland, Ghana, India, Spain, Taiwan, Tonga, an Honor Flight to Washington D.C. with Veterans, or in local (Utah) communities working with marginalized populations (including incarcerated individuals, refugees, etc.). The students are required to complete 84 clinical hours and 84 culture hours (which involve exposure to local history, art, architecture, customs, etc.). As Faculty, we feel strongly that these public and global health experiences help cultivate cultural awareness in our students and prepare nurses who are better prepared to serve a diverse population of patients throughout their careers. This presentation will highlight our experiences and provide ideas for other nurse educators who have an interest in developing similar programs in their schools but do not know where to start. Suggestions about how to start building relationships that can lead to these opportunities, along with logistics for continuing the programs, will be highlighted.

Keywords: global health nursing, nursing education, clinical education, public health nursing

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Authors: Neha Asthana, Vishal Krishna Prasad

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Collaborative planning and forecasting are the innovative and systematic approaches towards productive integration and assimilation of data synergized into information. The changing and variable market dynamics have persuaded global business chains to incorporate collaborative planning and forecasting as an imperative tool. Thus, it is essential for the supply chains to constantly improvise, update its nature, and mould as per changing global environment.

Keywords: information transfer, forecasting, optimization, supply chain management

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Authors: Hui Wang, Huan Zhang

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This study uses systematic review and qualitative comparative analysis methods to comprehensively inquire about the recent street-level policy entrepreneurship research, to identify the characteristics and lessons we can learn from 20 years of street-level policy entrepreneurship literature, and the relations between political contexts and street-level policy entrepreneurs’ strategies. Using data from a systematic review of street-level policy entrepreneurship literature, we identify the sub-components of different political contexts and core strategies of street-level policy entrepreneurs and estimate the configurational relations between different political settings and street-level policy entrepreneurs’ strategies. Our results show that street-level policy entrepreneurs display social acuity, define the problem, and build team strategies when policy or political streams dominate. Street-level policy entrepreneurs will use lead-by-example strategies when both policy and political streams dominate. Furthermore, street-level policy entrepreneurs will use bureaucratic strategies, even if no stream dominates in the political context.

Keywords: policy entrepreneurs, qualitative comparative analysis, street-level bureaucracy, systematic review

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Authors: Najade Sheriff, Malaz Elsaddig, Kevin Jones

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Background: Death in the first month of life accounts for an increasing proportion of under-five mortality. Advancement to reduce this number is being made across the globe; however, progress is slowest in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives: The study aims to identify differences between neonatal deaths of inpatient babies born in a hospital facility in rural Uganda to those of neonates admitted from the community and to explore whether they can be used to risk stratify neonatal admissions. Results: A retrospective chart review was conducted on records for neonates admitted to the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) Kitovu Hospital from 1st July 2016 to 21st July 2017. A total of 442 babies were admitted and the overall neonatal mortality was 24.8% (40% inpatient, 37% community, 23% hospital referrals). 40% of deaths occurred within 24 hours of admission and the majority were male (63%). 43% of babies were hypothermic upon admission, a significantly greater proportion of which were inpatient babies born in labour ward (P=0.0025). Intrapartum related death accounted for ½ of all inpatient babies whereas complications of prematurity were the predominant cause of death in the community group (37%). Severe infection does not seem like a significant factor of mortality for inpatients (2%) as it does for community admissions (29%). Furthermore, with 52.5% of community admissions weighing < 1500g, very low birth weight (VLBW) may be a significant risk factor for community neonatal death. Conclusion: The neonatal mortality rate in this study is high, and the leading causes of death are all largely preventable. A high rate of inpatient birth asphyxiation indicates the need for good quality facility-based perinatal care as well as a greater focus on the management of hypothermia, such as Kangaroo care. Moreover, a reduction in preterm deliveries is necessary to reduce associated comorbidities, and monitoring for signs of infection is especially important for community admissions.

Keywords: community, mortality, newborn, Uganda

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Authors: Laetitia Dari

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The brand constitutes a source of differentiation between competitors. It highlights specific characteristics that create value for the enterprise. Today the concept of a brand is not just about the product but can concern territories. The competition between territories, due to tourism, research, jobs, etc., leads territories to develop territorial brands to bring out their identity and specificity. Some territorial brands are based on natural resources or products characteristic of a territory. In the French wood sector, we can observe the emergence of many territorial brands. Supported by the inter-professional organization, these brands have the main objective of showcasing wood as a source of solutions at the local level in terms of construction and energy. The implementation of these collective projects raises the question of the way in which relations between companies are structured and animated. The central question of our work is to understand how the territorial brand promotes the structuring of a sector and the construction of collective relations between actors. In other words, we are interested in the conditions for the emergence of the territorial brand and the way in which it will be a means of mobilizing the actors around a common project. The objectives of the research are (1) to understand in which context a territorial brand emerges, (2) to analyze the way in which the territorial brand structures the collective relations between actors, (3) to give entry keys to the actors to successfully develop this type of project. Thus, our research is based on a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews conducted with the main territorial brands in France. The research will answer various academic and empirical questions. From an academic point of view, it brings elements of understanding to the construction of a collective project and to the way in which governance operates. From an empirical point of view, the interest of our work is to bring out the key success factors in the development of a territorial brand and how the brand can become an element of valuation for a territory.

Keywords: brand, marketing, strategy, territory, third party stakeholder, wood

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Authors: Diptimayee Nayak

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Ecotourism has been recognised as a popular component of alternative tourism, which claims to guard host local environment and economy. This concept of ecological tourism (eco-tourism) has become more meaningful in evaluating the recreational function and services of any pristine ecosystem in context of ‘The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB)’. This ecotourism is said to be a local solution to the global problem of conserving ecosystems and optimising the utilisations of their services. This paper takes a case of recreational services of an Indian protected area ecosystems ‘Bhitarakanika mangrove protected area’ discussing how ecotourism is functioning taking the perspectives of different stakeholders. Specific stakeholders are taken for analysis, viz., tourists and local people, as they are believed to be the major beneficiaries of ecotourism. The stakeholders’ analysis is evaluated on the basis of travel cost techniques (by using truncated Poisson distribution model) for tourists and descriptive and analytical tools for local people. The evaluation of stakeholders’ analysis of ecotourism has gained its impetus after the formulation of Ecotourism guidelines by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Government of India. The paper concludes that ecotourism issues and challenges are site-specific and region-specific; without critically focussing challenges of ecotourism faced at local level the discourses of ecotourism at global level cannot be tackled. Mere integration and replication of policies at global level to be followed at local level will not be successful (top down policies). Rather mainstreaming the decision making process at local level with the global policy stature helps to solve global issues to a bigger extent (bottom up).

Keywords: ecosystem services, ecotourism, TEEB, economic valuation, stakeholders, travel cost techniques

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Authors: Mattia Testuzza

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Public health is a social endeavour, which involves many different actors: from extremely stratified, structured health systems to unofficial networks of people and knowledge. Health and diseases are an intertwined individual and social experiences. Both patients and health workers navigate this public space through relations of trust. Trust in healthcare goes from the personal trust between a patient and her/his doctor to the trust of both the patient and the health worker in the medical knowledge and the healthcare system. Trust it is not a given, but it is continuously negotiated, given and gained. The key to understand these essential relations of trust in health is to recognise them as a social practice, which therefore implies agency and power. In these terms, health is constantly public and made public, as trust emerges as a meaningfully political phenomenon. Trust as a power relation can be observed at play in the implementation of public health policies such as the WHO’s Directly-Observed Theraphy Short-course (DOTS), and with the increasing concern for drug-resistance that tuberculosis pose, looking at the role of trust in the healthcare delivery system and implementation of public health policies becomes significantly relevant. The ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in four months through observation of the daily practices at the National Tuberculosis Center of Nepal, and semi-structured interviews with MultiDrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients at different stages of the treatment, their relatives, MDR-TB specialised nurses, and doctors. Throughout the research, the role which trust plays in tuberculosis treatment emerged as one fundamental ax that cuts through all the different factors intertwined with drug-resistance development, unfolding a tension between the DOTS policy, which undermines trust, and the day-to-day healthcare relations and practices which cannot function without trust. Trust also stands out as a key component of the solutions to unforeseen issues which develop from the overall uncertainty of the context - for example, political instability and extreme poverty - in which tuberculosis treatment is carried out in Nepal.

Keywords: trust, tuberculosis, drug-resistance, politics of health

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Authors: Julia DeVoy, Olivia Berlin

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The United States exports over 1.6 billion pounds of post-consumer textiles every year, primarily to countries in the Global South. These textiles make their way to landfills and open-air dumps where they decompose, contaminating water systems and releasing harmful greenhouse gases. Through this inequitable system of waste disposal, countries with less political and economic power are coerced into accepting the environmental and health consequences of over-consumption in the Global North. Thus, the global trade of post-consumer textile waste represents a serious issue of environmental justice and a public health hazard. Our research located, characterizes, and quantifies the environmental and human health risks that occur when post-consumer textiles are left to decompose in landfills and open-air dumps in the Global South. In our work, we make use of United Nations International Trade Statistics data to map the global distribution of post-consumer textiles exported from the United States. Next, we present our landfill simulating reactor designed to measure toxicity of leachate resulting from the decomposition of textiles in developing countries and to quantify the related greenhouse gas emissions. This design makes use of low-cost and sustainable materials to promote frugal innovation and make landfill reactors more accessible. Finally, we describe how the data generated from these tools can be leveraged to inform individual consumer behaviors, local policies around textile waste disposal, and global advocacy efforts to mitigate the environmental harms caused by textile waste.

Keywords: sustainability, textile design, public health, built environment

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Authors: Michael Miller, G. David Gearhart

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The role of the American college presidency continues to evolve, increasingly incorporating varied elements of responsibility of institutional management. Once primarily focused on the academic operation of an institution, the role has changed to incorporate all of the business-related and public agency operations of an institution. This means that the modern college president must be capable of persuasively talking to legislators and donors, as well as students taking classes and the faculty who teach them. In addition to these dimensions, the contemporary college president must also be an expert on state and federal compliance issues, and must have the talent to steer marketing and public relations activities in a persuasive manner. This paper will report the findings of a spring 2020 survey of nearly 300 college presidents in the United States concerning their perceptions about the changing nature of the college presidency, with special consideration given to media relations, fundraising, business development, internationalization, and facility management.Survey results will be analyzed based on institutional type, gender, length of tenure in the presidential position, and career pathway to the presidency.

Keywords: college president, leadership, education management, neo-liberal higher education

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Authors: E. Zarei, M. Bazaei, A. seifi, A. Keshavarzi

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Contextuallism has been always the main component of urban science. It not only has great direct and indirect impact on behaviors, events and interactions, but also is one of the basic factors of an urban values and identity. Nowadays there might be some deficiencies in the cities. In the theories of environment designing, humanistic orientations with the focus on culture and cultural variables would enable us to transfer information. To communicate with the context in which human lives, he needs some common memories, understandable symbols and daily activities in that context. The configuration of a place can impact on human’s behaviors. The goal of this research is to review 7 projects in different parts of the world with various usages and some factors such as ‘sense of place’, ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘social and cultural relations’ will be discussed in these projects. The method used for research in this project is descriptive- analytic. Library information and Internet are the main sources of gathering information and the method of reasoning used in this project is inductive. The consequence of this research will be some data in the form of tables that has been extracted from mentioned projects.

Keywords: contextuallism with humanistic approach, sense of place, sense of belonging, social and cultural relations

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Authors: Kumaressan Ragunathan, Arisudhan Anantharachagan

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Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the subtype of diabetes that has been rapidly increasing in numbers in Australia. The annual percentage of GDM has increased more than 50 percent in the last decade. According to Diabetes Australia, more than five hundred thousand women in Australia will be diagnosed with GDM. Globally, the prevalence of GDM ranges from single-digit to more than 45%. The prevalence of GDM has increased significantly last five years after the introduction of new diagnostic criteria. Hence, we have decided to investigate the trend in GDM prevalence in a tertiary maternity unit at Western Australia and compare it to national prevalence. Data is derived from STORK Perinatal Database which has been used by Maternity services in Western Australia to populate information on pregnancy and labour. We have selected data from 2015 until 2020, which includes 17508 women. Among 17508 women, 3850 women were diagnosed with GDM. In 2015, we had a total of 2213 deliveries with 345 of them were complicated by GDM. GDM prevalence was 15.6% compared to the Australian national prevalence of 12%. In 2016, total deliveries increased to 2759 with 590 of were with GDM. GDM prevalence was 21.4% compared to the Australian national prevalence of 12%. In 2017, total deliveries further increased to 3049 with 675 with GDM. GDM prevalence was 22.1%, with an Australian national prevalence of 13%. In 2018, total deliveries continued to increase, with numbers reaching 3231 with 749 with GDM. GDM prevalence was 23.2%, with an Australian National prevalence of 14%. In 2019, total deliveries were 3110, with 712 complicated by GDM. GDM prevalence was 22.9%, with Australian national prevalence 14%. In 2020, total deliveries 3146 with 819 complicated by GDM. GDM prevalence increased to 26% and we were unable to compare this to national standard as national prevalence has not been released. Among 3890 women with GDM, 2482 (64%) of them required insulin. Apart from that, a total 1642(42%) from the GDM group were delivered via the Caesarean section. 2121 (55%) women with GDM required induction of labour. Overall, we demonstrated an increase in the prevalence of GDM in our unit from 2015 until 2020. Our prevalence is also higher compared to national prevalence. This could be contributed by the increasing number of obesity and in addition, our unit accepts referrals of women with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40. Hence, further studies are required to look at other risk factors like ethnicity, socio-economic status, health literacy and age, which could contribute to this high prevalence.

Keywords: gestational diabetes mellitus, prevalence, Western Australia, Australia

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Authors: EMMANUEL DWAMENA SASU

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International climate policy actions require countries under Paris Agreement to design instruments, provide support (financial and technical), and strengthen institutional capacity with tendency to transcending policy formulation to implementation and sustainability. Changes associated with moisture depletion has been a growing phenomenon; especially in developing countries with projected global GDP drop from 7% to 2% between 2005 and 2050. These developments have potential to adversely affect food production in feeding the growing world population, with corresponding rise in global hunger. Incongruously, there is global absence of a harmonized policy direction; capable of providing the required indicators on climate policies for monitoring sustainability of international agricultural development projects. We conduct extensive review and synthesis on existing limitations on global climate policy governance, agricultural food security and sustainability of international agricultural development projects, and conjecture the role of non-state and sub-national climate stakeholder engagements, and monitoring and evaluation strategies for improved climate policy action for sustaining international agricultural development projects.

Keywords: climate policy, agriculture, development projects, sustainability

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Authors: Ahmed Bux Jamali

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The purpose of this study is to examine and evaluate the overall counterterrorism cooperation during Obama Administration towards Pakistan. It aims and focuses on the performances and measures taken by United States of America during President Obama in office in order to eradicate terrorism from Pakistan. Being a grave national security threat, terrorism played a disastrous role in the domestic peace and stability of both countries. For the sake of curbing this menace in South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular, the role of Obama Administration is viable and results-oriented despite major ups and downs in Pakistan U.S Relations during that period of time. Obama administration formulated policies when he comes to office in 2009 by looking at the already efforts done by Bush Administration to counterterrorism from Pakistan. Obama’s foreign policy was revolving around defense and diplomacy when it comes to dealing with Pakistan. The concept of smart power was indeed a core principle of Obama’s administration to gain the strategic objectives in Pakistan. Obama’s strategies in terms of providing military aid packages and various assistance programs, working on institutional building and strengthening the economy helped Pakistan in strengthening the military capabilities to go for militant operation in the safe havens area in the tribal areas of Pakistan. It further helped building institutional mechanism in the governmental policies to counter terrorism and militancy. The training of combat forces, artillery, and equipment provided by US proved fatal for the militant terrorist organizations seeking hideouts in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Resultantly, many top leaders of al Qaeda and many affiliated militant groups were captured and given to US as well. Despite many ups and downs in the bilateral relations on various domestic and international issues, both countries didn’t compromise the elimination of terrorist phenomena from Pakistan which was indeed a great success of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategies in the long run.

Keywords: counterterrorism cooperation, national security strategy, Obama administration, Pakistan-US relations

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Authors: Mursidin Yusuf, Fitri Wulandari

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Indonesia has changed its curriculum ten times, starting from 1947 to 2022, and it might change in upcoming years. This comprehensive study delves into the global perspectives of educational leadership, with a specific focus on examining curriculum changes within the context of Indonesia. Against the backdrop of an increasingly interconnected educational landscape, the necessity to comprehend diverse leadership approaches becomes paramount. By employing a qualitative case study methodology, this research meticulously scrutinizes ten notable curriculum modifications within the Indonesian educational framework and evaluates their impacts on the sector. Utilizing document analysis, pertinent literature, and interviews with school principals, the study thoroughly explores the leadership dynamics that have influenced these alterations. The findings offer multifaceted insights into the strategies, challenges, and outcomes associated with curriculum reform initiatives in Indonesia, providing a nuanced understanding of the effects of these changes on the education sector.

Keywords: curriculum changes, educational leadership, global perspectives, Indonesia

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Authors: Shirka Kassam Jwasshaka

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Graduates from higher educational institutions in Nigeria need to leave with the necessary skills to be independent in the emergence work environment. The goal of this study is to develop a framework of digital skills that Nigerian graduates in building construction need to be proficient in various digital skills to comfortably fit into the global advances in a technological labour market. The descriptive survey design was used in this investigation. The study's population consisted of building construction experts selected from different sites within the North Central geographical zones of Nigeria. Using random sampling approaches, 120 seasoned experts were chosen. Three research questions raised by the researchers guided the study. The data was gathered using a 60-item, structured questionnaire. The questions were formulated around three key skill areas such as digital skills related to ICT, digital skills related to general workforce, and basic digital literacy skills that students should have. A building construction specialist validated the questionnaire. Winstep in conjunction with SPSS was used to determine the Cronbach Alpha reliability of the items' internal consistency and person separation,item measure, item fit based on PTMEA CORR, polarity items, misfit items, unidimensionality, and a person-item map. The Cronbach Coefficient reliability of items for the three sub constructs was 0.70. The results showed nearly every sub component within the three areas of digital skills was regarded as significant to be learn by experts. The researchers recommended among other things, that all parties involved in the education sector should work together to develop a curriculum that covers digital skills which can meet employer’s' needs.

Keywords: lifelong learning, digital skill, framework, building technology

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Authors: Heejin Song

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Employing a critical action research approach that rejects essentialist onto-epistemological orientations to research in English language teaching (ELT) and interrogates the hegemonic relations in the knowledge construction and reconstruction processes, this study illuminates how an action research-informed pedagogical practice can transform the English for academic purposes (EAP) teaching to be more culturally and linguistically inclusive and critically oriented for English language learners’ advancement in academic literacies skills. More specifically, this paper aims to showcase the action research-informed pedagogical innovations that emphasize multilingual learners’ multiliteracies engagement and experiential education-oriented learning to facilitate the development of learners’ academic literacies, intercultural communicative competence, and inclusive global citizenship in the context of Canadian university EAP classrooms. The pedagogical innovations through action research embarked in response to growing discussions surrounding pedagogical possibilities of plurilingualism in ELT and synchronous online teaching. The paper is based on two iterations of action research over the pandemic years between 2020 and 2022. The data includes student work samples, focus group interviews, anonymous surveys, teacher feedback and comments on student work and teaching reflections. The first iteration of the action research focused on the affordances of multimodal expressions in individual learners’ academic endeavors for their literacy skills development through individual online activities such as ‘my language autobiography,’ ‘multimodal expression corner’ and public speeches. While these activities help English language learners enhance their knowledge and skills of English-spoken discourses, these tasks did not necessarily require learners’ team-based collaborative endeavors to complete the assigned tasks. Identifying this area for improvement in the instructional design, the second action research cycle/iteration emphasized collaborative performativity through newly added performance/action-based innovative learning tasks, including ‘situational role-playing’, ‘my cooking show & interview’, and group debates in order to provide learners increased opportunities to communicate with peers who joined the class virtually from different parts of the world and enhance learners’ intercultural competence through various strategic and pragmatic communicative skills to collaboratively achieve their shared goals (i.e., successful completion of the given group tasks). The paper exemplifies instances wherein learners’ unique and diverse linguistic and cultural strengths were amplified, and critical literacies were further developed through learners’ performance-oriented multiliteracies engagement. The study suggests that the action research-informed teaching practice that advocates for collaborative multiliteracies engagement serves to facilitate learners’ activation of their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge and contributes to the development of learners’ academic literacy skills. Importantly, the study illuminates that such action research-informed pedagogical initiatives create an inclusive space for learners to build a strong sense of connectedness as global citizens with increased intercultural awareness in their community of language and cultural practices, and further allow learners to actively participate in the construction of ‘collaborative relations of power’ with their peers.

Keywords: action research, EAP, higher education, multiliteracies

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Authors: Mohamed Faslan

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This research examines the impact of the politicization of the fishing dispute on India-Sri Lanka relations, particularly the influence of internal and party politics. The maritime border is clearly demarcated between India and Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka signed bilateral agreements on maritime boundaries in 1974 and 1976 respectively. They signed the United Nations Law of the Sea- III as well. Despite this, fishing disputes persist between the two nations. Tamil Nadu politics is closely linked with Sri Lankan Tamil issues and Tamil Nadu has been playing a significant role in Indo-Lanka relations. This is due to the fact that many Indian trawlers involved in fishing activities in Sri Lankan waters are from Tamil Nadu. The Government of Tamil Nadu is also very concerned about the issue of fishing in Sri Lankan waters. During the ethnic war, Sri Lankan fishermen were restricted on fishing activities in the Northern sea by the Sri Lankan Government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). This created a vacuum in the Northern sea of Sri Lanka, and Indian trawlers filled the vacuum with the support of the LTTE. After the end of the war, Northern fishermen of Sri Lanka recommenced their fishing activities and realized that the Tamil Nadu trawlers had scooped their fishing resources. The Northern fishermen started to protest the invasion of Indian trawlers and pushed the Sri Lankan Government to stop the Indian trawlers. When Sri Lanka arrested Indian fishermen and confiscated their fishing boats, the Tamil Nadu Government used this as an opportunity to accuse Sri Lanka as having a Sinhalese government, to express feelings of hatred towards Sri Lanka due to the ethnic war against Tamils and tried to increase the voting bank by selling Tamil feelings. Thus, this research finds that Tamil Nadu does not associate this fishing dispute with Tamils in Sri Lanka but with the Sinhalese despite the status quo. This research has covered the Northern fishermen and stakeholders of Sri Lanka and could not do any field research in India due to visa restrictions. However, the researcher tries to balance the gap by referring to secondary sources and a few interviews with Indian scholars.

Keywords: Indo Lanka relations, fishing dispute, maritime border, Tamil Nadu & Sri Lankan waters

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Authors: Veerpal Kaur

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The present paper aims at investigating the role of dynamic externalities of agglomeration in the regional productivity growth of manufacturing sector in India and China. Taking 2-digit level manufacturing sector data of states and provinces of India and China respectively for the period of 1998-99 to 2011-12, this paper examines the effect of dynamic externalities namely – Marshall-Arrow-Romer (MAR) specialization externalities, Jacobs’s diversity externalities, and Porter’s competition externalities on regional total factor productivity growth (TFPG) of manufacturing sector in both economies. Regressions have been carried on pooled data for all 2-digit manufacturing industries for India and China separately. The estimation of Panel has been based on a fixed effect by sector model. The results of econometric exercise show that labour-intensive industries in Indian regional manufacturing benefit from diversity externalities and capital intensive industries gain more from specialization in terms of TFPG. In China, diversity externalities and competition externalities hold better prospectus for regional TFPG in both labour intensive and capital intensive industries. But if we look at results for coastal and non-coastal region separately, specialization tends to assert a positive effect on TFPG in coastal regions whereas it has a negative effect on TFPG of coastal regions. Competition externalities put a negative effect on TFPG of non-coastal regions whereas it has a positive effect on TFPG of coastal regions. Diversity externalities made a positive contribution to TFPG in both coastal and non-coastal regions. So the results of the study postulate that the importance of dynamic externalities should not be examined by pooling all industries and all regions together. This could hold differential implications for region specific and industry-specific policy formulation. Other important variables explaining regional level TFPG in both India and China have been the availability of infrastructure, level of competitiveness, foreign direct investment, exports and geographical location of the region (especially in China).

Keywords: China, dynamic externalities, India, manufacturing, productivity

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Authors: Yin Yuanling

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A Deep Feedback Recurrent Neural Network (DFRNN) and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) are designed to address the problem of low accuracy of traditional relationship extraction models. This method combines a deep feedback-based recurrent neural network (DFRNN) with a bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) approach. The method combines DFRNN, which extracts local features of text based on deep feedback recurrent mechanism, BiLSTM, which better extracts global features of text, and Self-Attention, which extracts semantic information. Experiments show that the method achieves an F1 value of 76.69% on the CEC dataset, which is 0.0652 better than the BiLSTM+Self-ATT model, thus optimizing the performance of the deep learning method in the event relationship extraction task.

Keywords: event relations, deep learning, DFRNN models, bi-directional long and short-term memory networks

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Authors: Humera Malik

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Gender inequality, as a societal issue, is prevalent in all spheres of life in Pakistan. It is world-wide understood that gender equality is a basic right of every human being as well as the source of development and prosperity for the whole country. In fact, many countries endeavor to ensure equal opportunities for men and women which will, in turn, help to attain sustainable growth in every field. Most of the women in Pakistan live their life under the societal pressure which is exerted by centuries old traditions. This archaic setup restricts women to stay at home because their survival is conditional to their total subjugation to the male member of the family. This patriarchal structure confers men the right to deal women as their property. It is not wrong to say that women endure severe discrimination in their whole life. No doubt, women are confronted with multifaceted discrimination in the field of education, health, politics, social status, etc. The main theme of this research is to ascertain the present condition of gender inequality in the field of economy in Pakistan. Pakistan’s poor ranking in Global Gender Gap Index, 2016 clearly depicts that women are deprived of fundamental rights as well as equal opportunities of development. This very state of affairs depicts the real picture of government’s commitment to women empowerment and gender equality. The nature of this research is descriptive which helps to determine the status of women in Pakistan on the basis of labour force participation, wage gap, estimated incomes, and ratio of high ranking positions secured by women. It is an endeavor to understand the reasons of economic inequality by following qualitative method of research. Moreover, few recommendations will be suggested to get rid of this issue.

Keywords: dismal, discrimination, feudal, patriarchal, wage gap

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Authors: Laidi Maamar, Achwak Madani, Abdellah El Ahdj Abdellah

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The aim of this work is to use Support Vector regression (SVR) combined with dragonfly, firefly, Bee Colony and particle swarm Optimization algorithm to predict global solar radiation on horizontal surfaces in some cities in Algeria. Combining these optimization algorithms with SVR aims principally to enhance accuracy by fine-tuning the parameters, speeding up the convergence of the SVR model, and exploring a larger search space efficiently; these parameters are the regularization parameter (C), kernel parameters, and epsilon parameter. By doing so, the aim is to improve the generalization and predictive accuracy of the SVR model. Overall, the aim is to leverage the strengths of both SVR and optimization algorithms to create a more powerful and effective regression model for various cities and under different climate conditions. Results demonstrate close agreement between predicted and measured data in terms of different metrics. In summary, SVM has proven to be a valuable tool in modeling global solar radiation, offering accurate predictions and demonstrating versatility when combined with other algorithms or used in hybrid forecasting models.

Keywords: support vector regression (SVR), optimization algorithms, global solar radiation prediction, hybrid forecasting models

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Authors: L. N. P. Wedikandage, Mohamed Razmi Zahir

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Technology is a global imperative because of its contributions to human existence and because it has improved global socioeconomic relations. As a result, the mobile phone has become the most important mode of communication today. Smartphones, Internet-enabled devices with built-in computer software and applications, are one of the most significant inventions of the twenty-first century. Technology is advantageous to many people, especially those involved in education. It is an important learning tool for today's schoolchildren. It enables students to access online learning platforms and course resources and interact digitally. Senior secondary students, in particular, have some of the most expensive and sophisticated mobile phones, tablets, and iPads capable of connecting to the internet and various social media platforms, other websites, and so on. At present, the use of mobile phones' potential for effective teaching and learning is growing. This is due to the benefits of mobile learning, including the ability to share knowledge without any limits in space or Time and the capacity to facilitate the development of critical thinking, participatory learning, problem-solving, and the development of lifelong communication skills. However, it is yet unclear how mobile devices may affect education and how they may affect opportunities for learning. As a result, the purpose of this research was to ascertain the relationship between mobile phone usage and the academic Performance of secondary-level students at an international school in Sri Lanka. The study's sample consisted of 523 secondary-level students from an international school, ranging from Form 1 to Upper 6. For the study, a survey research design and questionnaires were used. Google Forms was used to create the students' survey. There were three hypotheses tested to find out the relationship between mobile phone usage and academic preference. The findings show that there is a positive relationship between mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students (the number of students obtaining simple passes is significantly higher when mobile phones are being used for more than 7 hours), no relationship between mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students of different parents' occupations, and a relationship between the frequency of mobile phone usage and academic performance among secondary school students.

Keywords: mobile phone, academic performance, secondary level, international schools

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Authors: Sabri Arik

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In this paper, we study the global asymptotic robust stability of delayed neural networks with norm-bounded uncertainties. By employing the Lyapunov stability theory and Homeomorphic mapping theorem, we derive some new types of sufficient conditions ensuring the existence, uniqueness and global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point for the class of neural networks with discrete time delays under parameter uncertainties and with respect to continuous and slopebounded activation functions. An important aspect of our results is their low computational complexity as the reported results can be verified by checking some properties symmetric matrices associated with the uncertainty sets of network parameters. The obtained results are shown to be generalization of some of the previously published corresponding results. Some comparative numerical examples are also constructed to compare our results with some closely related existing literature results.

Keywords: neural networks, delayed systems, lyapunov functionals, stability analysis

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Authors: Antonia Syn

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Politicians’ outlooks on the nature of energy futures and an ‘Energy Transition’ have evolved considerably alongside a steady movement towards renewable energies, buttressed by lower technology costs, rising environmental concerns, and favourable national policy decisions. This paper seeks to examine the degree to which an energy transition has become an incontrovertible ‘status quo’ in parliament, and whether politicians share similar understandings of energy futures or narrate different stories under the same label. Parliamentarians construct different understandings of the same reality, in the form of co-existing and competing discourses, shaping and restricting how policy problems and solutions are understood and tackled. Approaching energy policymaking from a parliamentary discourse perspective draws directly from actors’ concrete statements, offering an alternative to policy literature debates revolving around inductive policy theories. This paper uses computer-assisted discourse analysis to describe fundamental discursive changes in British parliamentary debates around energy futures. By applying correspondence cluster analyses to Hansard transcripts from 1986 to 2010, we empirically measure the policy positions of Labour and Conservative politicians’ parliamentary speeches during legislatively salient moments preceding significant energy transition-related policy decisions. Results show the concept of a technology-based, market-driven transition towards fossil-free and nuclear-free renewables integration converged across Labour and the Conservatives within three decades. Specific storylines underwent significant change, particularly in relation to international outlooks, environmental framings, treatments of risk, and increases in rhetoric. This study contributes to a better understanding of the role politics plays in the energy transition, highlighting how politicians’ values and beliefs inevitably determine and delimit creative policymaking.

Keywords: quantitative discourse analysis, energy transition, renewable energy, British parliament, public policy

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Authors: X. Gumara Rigol, I. Martínez de Apellaniz Anzuola, A. Garcia Serrano, A. Franzi Cros, O. Vidal Calbet, A. Al Maruf

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Traditional federated architectures for data warehousing work well when corporations have existing regional data warehouses and there is a need to aggregate data at a global level. Schibsted Media Group has been maturing from a decentralised organisation into a more globalised one and needed to build both some of the regional data warehouses for some brands at the same time as the global one. In this paper, we present the architectural alternatives studied and why a custom federated approach was the notable recommendation to go further with the implementation. Although the data warehouses are logically federated, the implementation uses a single database system which presented many advantages like: cost reduction and improved data access to global users allowing consumers of the data to have a common data model for detailed analysis across different geographies and a flexible layer for local specific needs in the same place.

Keywords: data integration, data warehousing, federated architecture, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

Procedia PDF Downloads 236