Search results for: gateway communities

Authors: África Vicario, Fernando J. Álvarez, Felipe Parralejo, Fernando Aranda

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The irrigation systems of traditional agriculture, such as gravity-fed irrigation, produce a great waste of water because, generally, there is no control over the amount of water supplied in relation to the water needed. The AIRON Project tries to solve this problem by implementing an IoT-based system to sensor the irrigation plots so that the state of the crops and the amount of water used for irrigation can be known remotely. The IoT system consists of a sensor network that measures the humidity of the soil, the weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind and solar radiation) and the irrigation water flow. The communication between this network and a central gateway is conducted by means of long-range wireless communication that depends on the characteristics of the irrigation plot. The main objective of the AIRON project is to deploy an IoT sensor network in two different plots of the irrigation community of Aranjuez in the Spanish region of Madrid. The first plot is 2 km away from the central gateway, so LoRa has been used as the base communication technology. The problem with this plot is the absence of mains electric power, so devices with energy-saving modes have had to be used to maximize the external batteries' use time. An ESP32 SOC board with a LoRa module is employed in this case to gather data from the sensor network and send them to a gateway consisting of a Raspberry Pi with a LoRa hat. The second plot is located 18 km away from the gateway, a range that hampers the use of LoRa technology. In order to establish reliable communication in this case, the long-term evolution (LTE) standard is used, which makes it possible to reach much greater distances by using the cellular network. As mains electric power is available in this plot, a Raspberry Pi has been used instead of the ESP32 board to collect sensor data. All data received from the two plots are stored on a proprietary server located at the irrigation management company's headquarters. The analysis of these data by means of machine learning algorithms that are currently under development should allow a short-term prediction of the irrigation water demand that would significantly reduce the waste of this increasingly valuable natural resource. The major finding of this work is the real possibility of deploying a remote sensing system for irrigated plots by using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, easily scalable and adaptable to design requirements such as the distance to the control center or the availability of mains electrical power at the site.

Keywords: internet of things, irrigation water control, LoRa, LTE, smart farming

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Authors: Femi Elegbeleye, Omobayo Esan, Muienge Mbodila, Patrick Bowe

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This paper focused on cost effective storage architecture using fog and cloud data storage gateway and presented the design of the framework for the data privacy model and data analytics framework on a real-time analysis when using machine learning method. The paper began with the system analysis, system architecture and its component design, as well as the overall system operations. The several results obtained from this study on data privacy model shows that when two or more data privacy model is combined we tend to have a more stronger privacy to our data, and when fog storage gateway have several advantages over using the traditional cloud storage, from our result shows fog has reduced latency/delay, low bandwidth consumption, and energy usage when been compare with cloud storage, therefore, fog storage will help to lessen excessive cost. This paper dwelt more on the system descriptions, the researchers focused on the research design and framework design for the data privacy model, data storage, and real-time analytics. This paper also shows the major system components and their framework specification. And lastly, the overall research system architecture was shown, its structure, and its interrelationships.

Keywords: IoT, fog, cloud, data analysis, data privacy

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Authors: Shohreh Azizi, Memory Tekere, Wag Nel

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An evaluation of the characteristics of wastewater generated from small communities was carried out in relation to decentralized approach for domestic sewage treatment plant and design of biological nutrient removal system. The study included the survey of the waste from various individual communities such as a hotel, a residential complex, an office premise, and an educational institute. The results indicate that the concentration of organic pollutant in wastewater from the residential complex is higher than the waste from all the other communities with COD 664 mg/l, BOD 370.2 mg/l and TSS 248.8 mg/l. And the waste water from office premise indicates low organic load with COD428 mg/l, BOD 232mg/l and TSS 157mg/l. The wastewater from residential complex was studied under activated sludge process to evaluate this technology for decentralized wastewater treatment. The Activated sludge process was operated at different 12to 4 hrs hydraulic retention times and the optimum 6 hrs HRT was selected, therefore the average reduction of COD (85.92%) and BOD (91.28 %) was achieved. The issue of sludge recycling, maintenance of biomass concentration and high HRT reactor (10 L) volume are making the system non-practical for smaller communities.

Keywords: wastewater, small communities, activated sludge process, decentralized system

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Authors: Nicanor Garcia Alvarez, Belarmino Adenso-Diaz, Laura Calzada Infante

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In recent years, researchers have shown an interest in modelling maritime traffic as a complex network. In this paper, we propose a bipartite weighted network to model maritime traffic and detect port maritime communities. The bipartite weighted network considers two different types of nodes. The first one represents Spanish ports, while the second one represents the countries with which there is major import/export activity. The flow among both types of nodes is modeled by weighting the volume of product transported. To illustrate the model, the data is segmented by each type of traffic. This will allow fine tuning and the creation of communities for each type of traffic and therefore finding similar ports for a specific type of traffic, which will provide decision-makers with tools to search for alliances or identify their competitors. The traffic with the greatest impact on the Spanish gross domestic product is selected, and the evolution of the communities formed by the most important ports and their differences between 2019 and 2009 will be analyzed. Finally, the set of communities formed by the ports of the Spanish port system will be inspected to determine global similarities between them, analyzing the sum of the membership of the different ports in communities formed for each type of traffic in particular.

Keywords: bipartite networks, competition, infomap, maritime traffic, port communities

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Authors: Chih-Hsing Lin, Wen-Ching Chen, Chih-Ting Kuo, Gang-Neng Sung, Chih-Chyau Yang, Chien-Ming Wu, Chun-Ming Huang

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This paper proposes a cellular-based structure health monitoring device (HMD) for temporary bridge monitoring without the requirement of power line and internet service. The proposed HMD includes sensor node, power module, cellular gateway, and rechargeable batteries. The purpose of HMD focuses on short-term collection of civil infrastructure information. It achieves the features of low cost by using three 1-axis accelerometers with data synchronization problem being solved. Furthermore, instead of using data acquisition system (DAQ) sensed data is transmitted to Host through cellular gateway. Compared with 3-axis accelerometer, our proposed 1-axis accelerometers based device achieves 50.5% cost saving with high sensitivity 2000mv/g. In addition to fit different monitoring environments, the proposed system can be easily replaced and/or extended with different PCB boards, such as communication interfaces and sensors, to adapt to various applications. Therefore, with using the proposed device, the real-time diagnosis system for civil infrastructure damage monitoring can be conducted effectively.

Keywords: cellular-based structural health monitoring, cost-effective 1-axis accelerometers, short-term monitoring, structural engineering

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Authors: Jawid Ahmad Baktash, Tadashi Shiroma, Tomokazu Nagata, Yuji Taniguchi, Morikazu Nakamura

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The goal of this paper is to explore the use of formal methods for Dynamic Routing, The purpose of network communication with dynamic routing is sending a massage from one node to others by using pacific protocols. In dynamic routing connections are possible based on protocols of Distance vector (Routing Information Protocol, Border Gateway protocol), Link State (Open Shortest Path First, Intermediate system Intermediate System), Hybrid (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol). The responsibility for proper verification becomes crucial with Dynamic Routing. Formal methods can play an essential role in the Routing, development of Networks and testing of distributed systems. Event-B is a formal technique consists of describing rigorously the problem; introduce solutions or details in the refinement steps to obtain more concrete specification, and verifying that proposed solutions are correct. The system is modeled in terms of an abstract state space using variables with set theoretic types and the events that modify state variables. Event-B is a variant of B, was designed for developing distributed systems. In Event-B, the events consist of guarded actions occurring spontaneously rather than being invoked. The invariant state properties must be satisfied by the variables and maintained by the activation of the events.

Keywords: dynamic rout RIP, formal method, event-B, pro-B

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Authors: A. Melka, N. Slater, A. Mualem, Y. Louzoun

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Networks are often presented as containing a “core” and a “periphery.” The existence of a core suggests that some vertices are central and form the skeleton of the network, to which all other vertices are connected. An alternative view of graphs is through communities. Multiple measures have been proposed for dense communities in graphs, the most classical being k-cliques, k-cores, and k-plexes, all presenting groups of tightly connected vertices. We here show that the edge number thresholds for such communities to emerge and for their percolation into a single dense connectivity component are very close, in all networks studied. These percolating cliques produce a natural core and periphery structure. This result is generic and is tested in configuration models and in real-world networks. This is also true for k-cores and k-plexes. Thus, the emergence of this connectedness among communities leading to a core is not dependent on some specific mechanism but a direct result of the natural percolation of dense communities.

Keywords: cliques, core structure, percolation, phase transition

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Authors: Supannee Chaiumporn

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This article is to introduce the meaning and form of social quality moving process as indicated by members of two suburb communities with different social and cultural contexts. The form of social quality moving process is very significant for the community and social development, because it will make the people living together with sustainable happiness. This is a qualitative study involving 30 key-informants from two suburb communities. Data were collected though key-informant interviews, and analyzed using logical content description and descriptive statistics. This research found that on the social quality component, the people in both communities stressed the procedure for social quality-making. This includes the generousness, sharing and assisting among people in the communities. These practices helped making people to live together with sustainable happiness. Living as a family or appear to be a family is the major social characteristic of these two communities. This research also found that form of social quality’s moving process of both communities stress relation of human and nature; “nature overpower humans” paradigm and influence of religious doctrine that emphasizes relations among humans. Both criteria make the form of social’s moving process simple, adaptive to nature and caring for opinion sharing and understanding among each other before action. This form of social quality’s moving process is composed of 4 steps; (1) awareness building, (2) motivation to change, (3) participation from every party concerned (4) self-reliance.

Keywords: social quality, form of social quality moving process, happiness, different social and cultural context

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Authors: Heidi von Korff

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The electricity grid is changing in terms of flexibility. Distributed generation (DG) policy is being discussed worldwide and implemented. Developers and utilities are seeking a pathway towards Zero Net Energy (ZNE) communities and the interconnection to the distribution grid. Using the VISDOM platform for establishing a method for managing and monitoring energy consumption loads of ZNE communities as a capacity resource for the grid. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and energy security are primary policy drivers for incorporating high-performance energy standards and sustainability practices in residential households, such as a market transformation of ZNE and nearly ZNE (nZNE) communities. This research investigates how load data impacts ZNE, to see if there is a correlation to the daily load variations in a single ZNE home. Case studies will include a ZNE community in California and a nearly ZNE community (All – Electric) in the Netherlands, which both are in measurement and verification (M&V) phases and connected to the grid for simulations of methods.

Keywords: zero net energy, distributed generation, renewable energy, zero net energy community

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Authors: Zhichao Li

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This project has treated the waste-water that contains the nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, by using the phenol-induced microbial communities. The treatment of nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is a difficult problem for coking waste-water treatment. Pyridine, quinoline and indole are three kinds of most common nitrogen heterocyclic compounds in the f, and treating these refractory organics biologically has always been a research focus. The phenol-degrading bacteria can be used in the enhanced biological treatment effectively, and has a good treatment effect. Therefore, using the phenol-induced microbial communities to treat the coking waste-water can remove multiple pollutants concurrently, and improve the treating efficiency of coking waste-water. Experiments have proved that the phenol-induced microbial communities can degrade the nitrogen heterocyclic ring aromatic hydrocarbon efficiently.

Keywords: phenol, nitrogen heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenol-degrading bacteria, microbial communities, biological treatment technology

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Authors: Liu Yao

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With the acceleration of urbanization and the profound change in industrial structure, a large number of unused and abandoned industrial heritage has emerged in the city, and the industrial communities attached to them have also fallen into a state of decline. This decline is not only reflected in the aging and decay of physical space but also in the rupture and absence of historical and cultural veins. Therefore, in urban renewal, we should not only pay attention to the physical transformation and reconstruction but also think deeply about how to inherit the spiritual core of industrial heritage communities, how to awaken and reconstruct their place memory, and how to promote its organic integration with the process of urban redevelopment. This study takes the Jiangnan Cement Factory industrial heritage community as a typical case and analyzes the challenges and opportunities it faces in the process of renewal, protection and utilization. With the continuation of the spirit of place as the core, we are committed to realizing the sustainable development of the community's industry, space and culture. Based on this, we propose three types of regeneration strategies, including industrial activation, spatial restoration and spiritual continuity, in order to provide useful theoretical references and practical guidance for the future conservation of industrial heritage and the sustainable development of communities.

Keywords: spirit of place, industrial heritage communities, urban renewal, sustainable communities

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Authors: M. Makary

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Indigenous tourism is nowadays one of the fastest growing sections of the tourism industry. Nevertheless, it does not yet receive attention on the agenda of public tourism policies in Egypt; however, there are various tourism initiatives in indigenous areas throughout the country mainly in the Nubia region, which located in Upper Egypt, where most of Egypt's indigenous Nubians are concentrated. Considering indigenous tourism can lead to both positive and negative impacts on the indigenous communities the main aim of this study is to analyze the socio-cultural and economic impacts of the indigenous tourism on the indigenous communities in Egypt: the case study of Nubians. Qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection were designed and applied in conducting this study. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and the observations are the main preliminary data collection techniques used in this study while, the secondary data were sourced from articles, statistics, dissertations, and websites. The research concludes that indigenous tourism offers a strong motivation to save the identity of the indigenous communities and to foster their economic development. However, it also has negative impacts on their society.

Keywords: indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, Indigenous communities, Nubians

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Authors: Nardine El Bardisy, Wolf Reuter, Ayat Ismail

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In Egypt, there is continuous housing demand as a result of rapid population growth. In 1979, this forced the government to establish new urban communities in order to decrease stress around delta. New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) was formulated to take the responsibly of this new policy. These communities suffer from social life deficiency due to their typology, which is separated island with barriers. New urban communities’ typology results from the influence of neoliberalism movement and modern city planning forms. The lack of social interaction in these communities at present should be enhanced in the future. On a global perspective, sustainable development calls for creating more sustainable communities which include social, economic and environmental aspects. From 1960, planners were highly focusing on the promotion of the social dimension in urban development plans. The research hypothesis states: “It is possible to promote social interaction in new urban communities through a set of socio-spatial recommended strategies that are tailored for Greater Cairo Region context”. In order to test this hypothesis, the case of El-Sherouk city is selected, which represents the typical NUCA development plans. Social interaction indicators were derived from literature and used to explore different social dynamics in the selected case. The tools used for exploring case study are online questionnaires, face to face questionnaires, interviews, and observations. These investigations were analyzed, conclusions and recommendations were set to improve social interaction.

Keywords: new urban communities, modern planning, social interaction, social life

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Authors: Iman Abu-Rub

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This research paper examines if Artificial Intelligence is, in fact, racist or not. Different studies from all around the world, and covering different communities were analyzed to further understand AI’s true implications over different communities. The black community, Asian community, and Muslim community were all analyzed and discussed in the paper to figure out if AI is biased or unbiased towards these specific communities. It was found that the biggest problem AI faces is the biased distribution of data collection. Most of the data inserted and coded into AI are of a white male, which significantly affects the other communities in terms of reliable cultural, political, or medical research. Nonetheless, there are various research was done that help increase awareness of this issue, but also solve it completely if done correctly. Governments and big corporations are able to implement different strategies into their AI inventions to avoid any racist results, which could cause hatred culturally but also unreliable data, medically, for example. Overall, Artificial Intelligence is not racist per se, but the data implementation and current racist culture online manipulate AI to become racist.

Keywords: social media, artificial intelligence, racism, discrimination

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Authors: Oshienemen Albert, Dilanthi Amaratunga, Richard Haigh

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Globally, disasters of any form can affect the environment, built environment, the waterways, societies, nations and communities in diverse areas. The such impacts could cut across, economic loss, social setting, cultural and livelihood structures of affected population. Thus, the raise of disaster impacts across developing nations are alarming with decades impact due to the lack of hard and soft infrastructural development across communities, inconsistency in the governmental policy and implementation, making it difficult for disaster affected communities to bounce back when necessary, especially in Nigeria. The Nigeria disasters, especially oil spillages have affected diverse communities across the Niger Delta region for decades with little or nothing as external support for the broken livelihood structure, cultural and economic damages of the people. Though, in the spirit of contribution to the communities affected by oil spill and negative consequence of petroleum production, the federal government at different times established some impressionistic bodies and agencies to oversee the affairs of the region as with regards to oil spillages and development. Thus, the agencies contributions are yet to manifest in practice. This amplifies the quest for the structural clarities of the management systems and the resilience’s of the communities, to better equip the communities for any such disaster. Therefore, the study sets to explore the Nigerian disaster management systems and resilience concept at local community level. Thus, desk-based approach and interviews are employed for the synthesis while, drawing conclusion and recommendations.

Keywords: disaster, community, management, resilience

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Authors: David Maina Muthegethi

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The Victoria Basin is associated with gateway for migration to Southern part of Africa. Different communities migrated through the region including the Bantus and Nilotic communities that occupy present day Kenya and Tanzania. A distinct culture of dry-stone technology emerged around 15th century current era, a period associated with peopling of the western Kenya region. One of the biggest dry-stone walls enclosure is Thimlich Ohinga archaeological site. The site was constructed around fourteenth century current era. Architectural design was oval shaped stone structures that were around 4 meters and 2 meters in length and width respectively. The main subsistence strategies of the community that was crop faming, pastoralism, fishing, hunting and gathering. This paper attempts to examine gender dynamics of Thimlich Ohinga society. At that end, attempts are made to infer gender roles as manifested in archaeological record. Therefore, the study entails examination of material evidence excavated from the site. Also, ethnoarchaeological study of contemporary Luo community was undertaken in order to make inferences and analogies concerning gender roles of Thimlich Ohinga society. Overall, the study involved examination of cultural materials excavated from Thimlich Ohinga, extensive survey of the site and ethnography of Luo community. In total, an extensive survey and interviews of 20 households was undertaken in South Kanyamkango ward, Migori County in Western Kenya. The key findings point out that Thimlich Ohinga gender identities were expressed in material forms through architecture, usage of spaces, subsistence strategies, dietary patterns and household organization. Also, gender as social identity was dynamic and responsive to diversification of subsistence strategies and intensification of regional trade as documented in contemporary Luo community. The paper reiterates importance of ethnoarchaeological methods in reconstruction of past social organization as manifested in material record.

Keywords: ethnoarchaeological, gender, subsistence patterns, Thimlich Ohinga

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Authors: Gabriel A. Orozco

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The purpose of this article is to make an approach to the Security Studies, exposing their theories and concepts to understand the role that have had in the interpretation of the changes and continuities of the world order and their impact on policies or decision-making facing the problems of the 21st century. The aim is to build a bridge between the security studies as a subfield and the meaning that has been given to the world order. The idea of epistemic communities serves as a methodological proposal about the different programs of research in security studies, showing their influence in the realities of States, intergovernmental organizations and transnational forces, moving to implement, perpetuate and project a vision of the world order.

Keywords: security studies, epistemic communities, international, relations

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Authors: Yaprak Aydin

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The rural is no longer a space of only agricultural activities that gave into the global market demands; or an idyll to return after retirement; or only a reservoir of cultural values, but rather a vision to redefine the future in terms of production and consumption relations. Gulpınar in Turkey and Ashtarak in Armenia are two towns where a new ground of dialogue between two communities has been initiated: ‘energy democracy’, which is a significant driving force in a sense of gathering people of two historically conflicted communities around common future concerns; and in a sense of transforming the accepted knowledge on the rurality and all the social structures it represents. This paper seeks to provoke a discussion of to what extent such a rurality is attainable by contextualizing – through visits and meetings in person – two towns and two communities within a renewable energy project called 'Under the Same Sun' carried out by two local civil society organizations together at two public spaces.

Keywords: civil society, energy democracy, prosumer communities, renewable energy, transnational rurality

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Authors: Benjamin Ankomah-Asare, Richard Adade

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Sea level rise (SLR) poses a significant threat to coastal communities globally. Ghana has over the years implemented protective measures such as the construction of groynes and revetment to serve as barriers to sea waves in major cities and towns to prevent sea erosion and flooding. For vulnerable rural coastal communities, the planned retreat is often proposed; however, relocation costs are often underestimated as losses of future social and cultural value are not always adequately taken into account. Through a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative interviews, surveys, and spatial analysis, the study examined the experiences of coastal rural communities in Ghana and assess the effectiveness of relocation strategies in addressing the socio-economic and environmental challenges posed by sea level rise. The study revealed the devastating consequences of sea level rise on these communities, including increased flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion into freshwater sources. Moreover, it highlights the adaptive capacities within these communities and how factors such as infrastructure, economic activities, cultural heritage, and governance structures shape their resilience in the face of environmental change. While relocation can be an effective strategy in reducing the risks associated with sea level rise, the study recommends that proper implementation of this adaptation strategy can be achieved when coupled with community-led planning, participatory decision-making, and targeted support for vulnerable groups.

Keywords: sea level rise, relocation, socio-ecological impacts, rural communities

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Authors: Radhia Toujani, Jalel Akaichi

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Social Networks generally present a hierarchy of communities. To determine these communities and the relationship between them, detection algorithms should be applied. Most of the existing algorithms, proposed for hierarchical communities identification, are based on either agglomerative clustering or divisive clustering. In this paper, we present a hybrid hierarchical clustering approach for community detection based on both bottom-up and bottom-down clustering. Obviously, our approach provides more relevant community structure than hierarchical method which considers only divisive or agglomerative clustering to identify communities. Moreover, we performed some comparative experiments to enhance the quality of the clustering results and to show the effectiveness of our algorithm.

Keywords: agglomerative hierarchical clustering, community structure, divisive hierarchical clustering, hybrid hierarchical clustering, opinion mining, social network, social network analysis

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Authors: Stephen Osei Akyiaw, Divine Kwabena Atta Kyere-Owusu

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Malaria has been a worldwide menace of a health condition to human beings for several decades with majority of people on the African continent with most causalities where Ghana is no exception. Therefore, this study employed the use of animation to enhance awareness creation on the spread and prevention of Malaria in Effutu Communities in the Central Region of Ghana. Working with the interpretivist paradigm, this study adopted Art-Based Research, where the AIDA Model and Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) served as the theories underpinning the study. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed in selecting sample for the study. The data collection instruments included document review and interviews. Besides, the study developed an animation using the local language of the people as the voice over to foster proper understanding by the rural community folks. Also, indigenous characters were used for the animation for the purpose of familiarization with the local folks. The animation was publicized at Health Town Halls within the communities. The outcomes of the study demonstrated that the use of animation was effective in enhancing the awareness creation for preventing and controlling malaria disease in rural communities in Effutu Communities in the Central Region of Ghana. Health officers and community folks expressed interest and desire to practice the preventive measures outlined in the animation to help reduce the spread of Malaria in their communities. The study, therefore, recommended that animation could be used to curtail the spread and enhanced the prevention of Malaria.

Keywords: malaria, animation, prevention, communities

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Authors: Virginia Dickson-Swift, Amanda Kenny, Jane Farmer, Sarah Larkins, Karen Carlisle, Helen Hickson

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In this presentation, we will focus on the methods of Remote Services Futures (RSF), an evidence-based method of community participation that was developed in Scotland. Using oral health as the focus, we will discuss the ways that RSF can be used to achieve sustainable engagement with stakeholders from various parts of the community. We will describe our findings of using RSF methods to engage with rural communities, including the steps involved and what happened when we asked people about the oral health services that they thought were needed in their community. We found that most community members started by thinking that a public dental clinic was required in every community, which is not a sustainable health service delivery option. Through a series of facilitated workshops, communities were able to discuss and prioritise their needs and develop a costed plan for their community which will ensure sustainable service delivery into the future. Our study highlights the complexities of decision making in rural communities. It is important to ensure that when communities participate in health care planning that the outcomes are practical, feasible and sustainable.

Keywords: community participation, sustainable health planning, Remote Services Futures, rural communities

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Authors: Asim Majeed, Anwar Ul Haq, Ayesha Asim, Mike Lloyd-Williams, Arshad Jamal, Usman Butt

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This study aims to investigate the impact of data leak of M&S customers on digital communities. Modern businesses are using digital communities as an important public relations tool for marketing purposes. This form of communication helps companies to build better relationship with their customers which also act as another source of information. The communication between the customers and the organizations is not regulated so users may post positive and negative comments. There are new platforms being developed on a daily basis and it is very crucial for the businesses to not only get themselves familiar with those but also know how to reach their existing and perspective consumers. The driving force of marketing and communication in modern businesses is the digital communities and these are continuously increasing and developing. This phenomenon is changing the way marketing is conducted. The current research has discussed the implications on M&S business performance since the data was exploited on digital communities; users contacted M&S and raised the security concerns. M&S closed down its website for few hours to try to resolve the issue. The next day M&S made a public apology about this incidence. This information was proliferated on various digital communities and it has impacted negatively on M&S brand name, sales and customers. The content analysis approach is being used to collect qualitative data from 100 digital bloggers including social media communities such as Facebook and Twitter. The results and finding provide useful new insights into the nature and form of security concerns of digital users. Findings have theoretical and practical implications. This research will showcase a large corporation utilizing various digital community platforms and can serve as a model for future organizations.

Keywords: Digital, communities, performance, dissemination, implications, data, exploitation

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Authors: Donald Ouko

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For decades, Africa has been home to several foreign companies doing business in various sectors. In recent years, China has consistently positioned itself as a development partner powerhouse among African nations. However, this has not been felt as equally beneficial to the local communities where the partnerships bloom in extractives trading. This paper explores the impact of Chinese involvement in mining on the local communities in three African countries, the factors that enable the sector to thrive amid the impacts, and what could be done differently for the local communities to experience a different outcome. It suggests alternative terms of engagement that aim at transparency, accountability, and anti-corruption to ensure inclusive social and economic development, and sound governance both at state and corporate levels.

Keywords: law and society, social development, corporate governance, China-Africa ties, human rights, socio-economic development, accountability, transparency

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Authors: Mahtab Talafian

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With the advent of technology over the last decades, participation in online communities and discussion forums has become increasingly popular. Many studies have been done on the negative role of the online world on human beings’ psychological well-being and mental health, while relatively less attention has been given to the potentially positive role of technology in promoting mental health. Miscarriage is a common and emotionally challenging experience for women, and online communities seem to be a potential source of support for them. This study aimed to firstly find the most common types of support communicated in online communities of women who have miscarried and, secondly, investigate if there is a relationship between participation in online communities and mental health outcomes after miscarriage. In this study, three research methodologies, including content analysis, survey and interview, were employed to answer the research questions. With the analysis of 158 messages, including postings and comments in the online community of Mumsnet, it can be concluded that informational support and emotional support are the most prevalent types of support women share in the online community. Analysis of data gathered from the survey of 19 women who had experienced a miscarriage during the last year showed that participation in online communities makes a significant improvement in their mental health. Interviews also highlighted the helpful role of the online community in relieving emotional disorders, such as trauma, hopelessness, loneliness, stress, depression and anxiety about miscarriage.

Keywords: mental health, miscarriage, online community, support

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Authors: Chandralal Shrestha

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In the developing countries like Nepal, the community based forest management approach has often been glorified as one of the best forest management alternatives to maximize the forest benefits. Though the approach has succeeded to construct a local level institution and conserve the forest biodiversity, how the local communities perceived about the forest benefits, the question always remains silent among the researchers and policy makers. The paper aims to explore the understanding of forest benefits from the perspective of local communities who used the forests in terms of institutional stability, equity and livelihood opportunity, and ecological stability. The paper revealed that the local communities have mixed understanding over the forest benefits. The institutional and ecological activities carried out by the local communities indicated that they have better understanding over the forest benefits. However, inequality while sharing the forest benefits, low pricing strategy and its negative consequences in valuation of forest products and limited livelihood opportunities indicated the poor understanding.

Keywords: community based forest management, forest benefits, lowland, Nepal

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Authors: Denver E. Severt, Cynthia Mejia

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With a grey wave sweeping across the world and people living longer than ever, more individuals will reside in retirement communities in unprecedented numbers. Enhancing the resident stay within these communities is imperative to reduce past stigmas associated with senior communities. This exploratory quantitative investigation examined interview contents of employees and residents to see if empathy was observed. The results showed the employees across all ranges had a much better grasp of affective empathy, yet with greater experience and age, it was clear that cognitive empathy had to be used with affective empathy in order to gain better trust across the community of residents. Outcomes from the study suggest that future training programs for employees are operationalized to include both affective and cognitive empathy practices. This study is unique in that two scales of empathy were transformed into qualitative questions, and in-depth employee and resident interviews were conducted. The study answers many calls of research to provide more specific studies in senior living communities.

Keywords: senior living community, transformational service research, qualitative research

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Authors: Dogan Can Hatunoglu, Cengiz Hakan Gurkanlı, Hatice Merve Demirci

Abstract:

Today, the maker movement is regarded as a socio-cultural movement that represents designing and building objects for innovations. In these creativity-based activities of the movement, individuals from different backgrounds such as; inventors, programmers, craftspeople, DIY’ers, tinkerers, engineers, designers, and hackers, form a community and work collaboratively for mutual, open-source innovations. Today, with the accessibility of recently emerged technologies and digital fabrication tools, the Maker Movement is continuously expanding its scope and has evolved into a new experience, and for many, it is now considered as new kind of industrial revolution. In this new experience, makers create new things within their community by using new digital tools and technologies in spots called makerspaces. In these makerspaces, activities of learning, experience sharing, and mentoring are evolved into maker events. Makers who share common interests in making benefit from makerspaces as meeting and working spots. In literature, there are many sources on Maker Movement, maker communities, and their activities, especially in the field of business administration. However, there is a gap in the literature about the maker communities in Turkey. This research aims to be an information source on the dynamics and process design of “making” activities in Turkish maker communities and also aims to provide insights to sustain and enhance local maker communities in the future. Within this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with founders and facilitators from selected Turkish maker communities. (1) The perception towards Maker Movement, makers, activity of making, and current situation of maker communities, (2) motivations of individuals who participate the maker communities, and (3) key drivers (collaboration and decision-making in design processes) of maker activities from the perspectives of main actors (founders, facilitators) are all examined deeply with question on personal experiences and perspectives. After a qualitative approached data analysis concerning the maker communities in Turkey, this research reveals that there are two main conclusions regarding (1) the foundation of the Turkish maker mindset and (2) emergence of self-sustaining communities.

Keywords: Maker Movement, maker community, makerspaces, open-source design, sustainability

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Authors: Hsiu-Hua Cheng, Chi-Wei Chen

Abstract:

Lurking behaviour is common in information-seeking oriented communities. Transferring users with lurking behaviour to be contributors can assist virtual communities to obtain competitive advantages. Based on the ecological cognition framework, this study proposes a model to examine the antecedents of lurking behaviour in information-seeking oriented virtual communities. This study argues desire for emotional support, desire for information support, desire for performance-approach, desire for performance -avoidance, desire for mastery-approach, desire for mastery-avoidance, desire for ability trust, desire for benevolence trust, and desire for integrity trust effect on lurking behaviour. This study offers an approach to understanding the determinants of lurking behaviour in online contexts.

Keywords: lurking behaviour, the ecological cognition framework, Information-seeking oriented virtual communities, desire

Procedia PDF Downloads 278

Authors: Dyego Ramos Henrique, Viviane Pimentel, Katia Souto, Ana Valéria Mendonça, Andrea Gallassi

Abstract:

Socioeconomic inequalities in Brazil have accentuated the aggravations of poverty among the most vulnerable populations, among which are the quilombola communities. The objective was to reflect on a situation of food and nutritional security in two Brazilian quilombola communities. The data were collected by means of reports of experience through the production of talk wheels in two quilombola communities (Itamatatiua and Mesquita), located in the cities of Alcântara and Cidade Ocidental. Access to health services and health promotion actions were still incipient in the quilombola communities visited. The perceptions of the participants of the quilombolas revealed that there are still repressed demands that have rendered the fulfillment of the principles of equity, universality and integrality, both for access to health and for access and availability of food. They recognize in governmental instances a socioeconomic-cultural valorization and nutritional qualities intrinsic to the foods produced by them. Although they have been used as communities of quilombolas live and their level of access to services and programs, dealing with quilombola communities does not mean dealing with 'isolated groups or a strictly homogeneous population.' It demands a great need of attention in relation to the access and availability of food, besides overcoming barriers that made it an unfeasible valuation of social, economic and cultural precepts, intrinsic to the thought about food and nutritional security in Brazilian quilombos.

Keywords: access to services, food and nutrition security, health promotion, quilombo population

Procedia PDF Downloads 227