Search results for: development of parental role

Authors: Marko Kolakovic

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Creative industries are an important sector of growth and development of knowledge economies. They have a positive impact on employment, economic growth, export and the quality of life in the areas where they are developed. Creative sectors include architecture, design, advertising, publishing, music, film, television and radio, video games, visual and performing arts and heritage. Following the positive trends of development of creative industries on the global and European level, this paper analyzes creative industries in general and specific characteristics of creative entrepreneurship. Special focus in this paper is put on the influence of the information communication technology on the development of new creative business models and protection of the intellectual property rights. One part of the paper is oriented on the analysis of the status of creative industries and creative entrepreneurship in Croatia. The main objective of the paper is by using the statistical analysis of creative industries in Croatia and information gained during the interviews with entrepreneurs, to make conclusions about potentials and development of creative industries in Croatia. Creative industries in Croatia are at the beginning of their development and growth strategy still does not exist at the national level. Statistical analysis pointed out that in 2015 creative enterprises made 9% of all enterprises in Croatia, employed 5,5% of employed people and their share in GDP was 4,01%. Croatian creative entrepreneurs are building competitive advantage using their creative resources and creating specific business models. The main obstacles they meet are lack of business experience and impossibility of focusing on the creative activities only. In their business, they use digital technologies and are focused on export. The conclusion is that creative industries in Croatia have development potential, but it is necessary to take adequate measures to use this potential in a right way.

Keywords: creative entrepreneurship, knowledge economy, business models, intellectual property

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Authors: Joanna Apps, Elena Markova

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Concepts of the ideal mother and ideal mothering are disseminated through familial experiences, religious and cultural depictions of mothers and the national media. In recent years social media can also be added to the channels by which mothers and motherhood are socially constructed. However, the gulf between these depictions, -or in the case of social media ‘self-curations’ - of motherhood and lived experience has never been wider, particularly for women in disadvantaged or difficult circumstances. We report on a study of four lone mothers who were living with one or more of the following: limiting long term illness, large families, in temporary accommodation and on low incomes. The mothers were interviewed 3 times and invited to take a series of photos reflecting their lives in between each of the interviews. These photographs were used to ground the interviews in lived experience and as stimuli to discuss how the images within them compared to portrayals of mothers and motherhood that participants were exposed to on social media. The objectives of the study were to explore how mothers construct their identity in challenging and disadvantaged circumstances; to consider what their photographs of everyday life tell us about their experiences and understand the impact idealised images of motherhood have on real mothers in difficult circumstances. The results suggested that the mothers both strived to adhere to certain ideals of motherhood and acknowledged elements of these as partially or wholly impossible to achieve. The lack of depictions, in both national and social media, of motherhood that corresponded with their lived experience inhibited the mothers’ use of social media. Other themes included: lack of control, frustration and strain; and parental pride, love, humour, resilience, and hope.

Keywords: motherhood, social media, photography, poverty

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Authors: Zheng Lulin, Xiong Guoping

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In recent years, agriculture, rural development, and peasants are among the top concerns and priorities of the Chinese Government. Several related issues have been paid many attentions by academic communities, including the impacts of corresponding policies on the rural villages, the mechanisms of these impacts, and the future development of rural society. However, most of the researchers focus on single rural policy instead of integral rural policy system. Hence, this dissertation focused on the mechanisms of policies’ influence on rural changes through a case study from Changfu Village in central Guangxi Province, China, to propose the optimized suggestions for rural development. Forty-three relevant pivotal policies of significant influence on rural development are summarized from literature and documents, covering five aspects of agricultural production, rural living security, open rural markets, rural household registration systems, and farmland transferring. Besides, having been live in this area for more than 20 years, researchers obtain the basic information about changing the social connection between citizens and villagers, the habitat of villagers by years of informal interviews. Furthermore, more than 200 questionnaires are given to villagers to analyze the changing of their personal and family information. The summary of rural policies revealed that the development trend of public rural policies followed the U-shape curve and these policies are characterized by economic intentions and operative economy. Report of questionnaires and interviews show that the development of rural economy was promoted greatly by public policies. Firstly, Social communication and rural culture were affected to a certain extent. Secondly, the educational level of rural individuals was significantly enhanced, whereas the quality of population had limited progress. Finally, the freedom of occupational choice for rural individuals into cities was greater than before, but still restricted by the class solidification of social background, resulting in more obstacles for rural individuals to settle down in cities. From what we discuss about, we may reach the conclusion on several perspectives: Firstly, the impact of the rural policies has a significant role in promoting the economy development of the rural area. However, separations between rural and urban area are still a major problem since rural policy contributed little to improve the rural population quality. Therefore, in the future, providing high quality educational facilities including teachers, libraries, and opportunities of broadening their knowledge base are key issues of future rural policy. Secondly, the development of rural economy would be a lack of driving force for further improvement owning to the fact that working hard couldn’t get more improvement. In the future, public policies should support the rural development of culture, technology, and personal qualities to create favorable social environment for the free increase of rural population.

Keywords: changing of rural area, rural development of China, rural policy, social environment

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

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

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

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Authors: Seppo Sirkemaa

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Information systems infrastructure is the basis of business systems and processes in the company. It should be a reliable platform for business processes and activities but also have the flexibility to change business needs. The development of an infrastructure that is robust, reliable, and flexible is a challenge. Understanding technological capabilities and business needs is a key element in the development of successful information systems infrastructure.

Keywords: development, information technology, networks, technology

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Authors: Anisa Luli, Alessandra Santona

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Wanting a child and experiencing the impossibility to conceive is a painful condition that often is linked to infertility and often leads infertile individuals to experience psychological, relational and social problems. In this situation, infertile couples have to review their choices and take into consideration new ones. Few studies have focused on the decision-making style used by infertile individuals to solve their problem and on the factors that influences it. The aim of this paper is to define the style of decision-making used by infertile persons to give a solution to the “problem” and the predictive role of the attachment, of the representations of the relationship with parents in childhood and of the dyadic adjustment. The total sample is composed by 251 participants, divided in two groups: the experimental group composed by 114 participants, 62 males and 52 females, age between 25 and 59 years, and the control group composed by 137 participants, 65 males and 72 females, age between 22 and 49 years. The battery of instruments comprises: General Decision Making Style (GDMS), Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire Revised (ECR-R), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R). The results from the analysis of the samples showed a prevalence of the rational decision-making style for both males and females, experimental and control group. There have been founded significant statistical relationships between the attachment scales, the representations of the parenting style, the dyadic adjustment and the decision-making styles. These results contribute to enrich the literature on the subject of decision-making in infertile people and show the relationship between the attachment and decision-making styles, confirming the few results in literature.

Keywords: attachment, decision-making style, infertility, dyadic adjustment

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Authors: Ammar Alrefaei

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Sporting directors in football clubs plays a prominent and important role in managing and controlling many issues related to the affairs of professional players. In view of this great importance of the role of the sporting directors, the Saudi regulation of the professional players and their transfers took over the organization and control of many aspects related to the conditions that must be met by the sporting director and the obligations that fall on his responsibility with the sport club or the Saudi Football Association. However, this regulation does not avoid ambiguity at times and shortcomings at other times in many places, as some of the texts contained in regulation raise many questions, some of which point out to the need to find more comprehensive and accurate treatment than those in the current regulations, accordingly this study comes to shed light on the aspects related to the sporting directors in sport clubs and the development of provisions.

Keywords: professional contract, sporting directors, professional player, labor law

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Authors: Julija Konstantinavičienė, Vlada Vitunskienė

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The role of sustainable biomass, including wood biomass, is becoming more important because of European Green Deal. The New EU Forest strategy is a flagship element of the European Green Deal and a key action on the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030. The first measure of this strategy is promoting sustainable forest management, including encouraging the sustainable use of wood-based resources. The first aim of this research was to develop and present a new approach to the concept of forest wood biomass potential in terms of sustainable development, distinguishing theoretical, technical and sustainable potential and detailing its constraints. The second aim was to prepare the methodology outline of sustainable forest wood biomass potential assessment and empirically check this methodology, considering economic, social and ecological constraints. The basic methodologies of the research: the review of research (with a combination of semi-systematic and integrative review methodologies), rapid assessment method and statistical data analysis. The developed methodology of assessment of forest wood potential in terms of sustainable development can be used in Lithuania and in other countries and will let us compare this potential a different time and spatial levels. The application of the methodology will be able to serve the development of new national strategies for the wood sector.

Keywords: assessment, constraints, forest wood biomass, methodology, potential, sustainability

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Authors: Driss Kettani

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ICT4D actors are naturally attempted to include AI in the range of enabling technologies and tools that could support and boost the Development process, and to refer to these as AI4D. But, doing so, assumes that AI complies with the very specific features of ICT4D context, including, among others, affordability, relevance, openness, and ownership. Clearly, none of these is fulfilled, and the enthusiastic posture that AI4D is a natural part of ICT4D is not grounded and, to certain extent, does not serve the purpose of Technology for Development at all. In the context of Development, it is important to emphasize and prioritize ICT4D, in the national digital transformation strategies, instead of borrowing "trendy" waves of the IT Industry that are motivated by business considerations, with no specific care/consideration to Development.

Keywords: AI, ICT4D, technology for development, position paper

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Authors: Marndarath Suksanga

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The purposes and policies applied to sabbatical leave, along with the cost of using sabbatical leave. The potential benefits of the use of sabbatical leave to enhance organizational commitment are then examined. The focuses on the role of the sabbatical leave in the development, satisfaction, and productivity of faculty in institutions. An examination of the origin, definition, purposes, and outcomes of sabbatical leaves reviewed in the literature clarifies the role and benefits of the sabbatical leave. The result of this review can be used to determine the need for further study of how sabbatical leave might be used in higher education in universities level to the benefit of the faculty, students and organizations. The result of this review can be used to determine the need for further study of how sabbatical leave might be used in professional-technical and community colleges to the benefit of the faculty, students and organizations.

Keywords: return on investment, ROI, sabbatical leave, higher education

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Authors: Seyedeh Mersedeh Banijamali, Ali Rajabzadeh

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Industrial development in recent centuries has been replaced by a sustainable development. The industry executives, particularly in the development countries are looking for procedures to protect the environment, improve their organization's performance. One of these approaches is the green supply chain management. Green supply chain management approach as a comprehensive approach to environmental management that contains all flows from suppliers to producers and ultimately to consumers, in many industries, particularly in the Steel industry, which has a strategic role in the country's industrial and economic development, has been receiving significant attention. The purpose of this study is examining the impact of green supply chain on chain operational performance in the Steel industry and formulating model for it. In this way, first the components of green supply chain (in 5 dimensions, planning, sourcing, making, delivery and return) have been prioritized through TOPSIS decision technique and then impact of these components on operational performance has been modeled with model dynamic systems and Vensim software. This research shows that green supply chain has a positive impact on operational performance and improve it.

Keywords: green supply chain, the dimensions of the green supply chain, operational performance, steel industry, dynamical systems

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Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

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Institutions can play a key role in coordinating how natural resources are effectively used without over-exploitation. Institutions are the laws, policies, and organizational arrangements that permit, forbid or regulate human action. The aim of this study was to look into the roles of formal and informal institutions, as well as their interactions, in water resource governance in Ethiopia's Central Rift Valley (CRV), where water scarcity is a concern. Key informant interviews, group discussions, in depth-interview, and secondary data sources were used to generate relevant data. The study revealed that formal and informal institutions were involved in water resource governance in the study area. However, the influence of informal institutions on formal institutions or vice versa is trivial to change the action of water users. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities of actors, weak capacity and lack of meaningful decentralization and participation of key actors in policy development, lack of synergy and incongruence between formal and informal institutions, and absence of enforcement mechanisms including incentives are attributed to inefficient use of water resources in the CRV. Enhancing the interplay of formal and informal institutions in the water resource policy development and meaningful decentralization and key stakeholders' engagement is recommended for sustainable water use.

Keywords: institutions, governance, institutional interplay, water users

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Authors: Tharsinithevy Kirupananthan, Thivahary Geretharan

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Since creation of agricultural enterprises going to reflect the micro and macro level development of Sri Lanka, it is vey important to study the entrepreneurial trends of Agricultural Undergraduates. Likert scale scoring method was used to assess the responses of involvement, Role model effect, aware of demands, confidence and willingness. 37.8% were strongly agreed to do full time business. The average score for to do agriculture businesses were between agree and strongly agree. The average scores for role model effects were less than agree. Average score for aware of needs of society was less than agree. 75.7% of them were able to identify the demands of the society. The demands identified were human capital, self sufficient domestic production, safe and nutritional foods. The confidence of having enough skills score was less than agree. 64.1% of them were owned special skills to carry out entrepreneurial activities. Such skills were possession of different human capitals management skills. The willingness responses scores were more than agree. 61.5% of them were discussed their business plan. Their dream plans were development of new food products, Quality planting materials, harmless method of cultivation and floricultural industry. Those were supported by government policies and other related organizations.

Keywords: agricultural undergraduates, entrepreneurial trends, likert scale Sri Lanka

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Authors: Xie Weifan, Wang Zhongde

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Everyday landscape in the countryside has long played an important role as a cultural representation of the countryside and a link between the countryside and social relations. In the transformation of modernization, the daily landscape in the countryside needs to change with the transformation of daily life in countryside therefore, interpreting the daily landscape in the countryside and understanding the basic characteristics and value perception of the daily landscape from the villagers' perspective can help to understand the daily landscape in the countryside and its conservation and development. Taking Lizi Village in Qianjiang District, Chongqing Municipality, China, as a case study, we collected important daily landscapes in villagers' perceptions through in-depth interviews, categorized them into personal living space, public affairs space, and public activity space, and analyzed the characteristics of the spatial distribution of daily landscapes. The perceptual characteristics of the villagers' perceptions are analyzed and divided into four major types, namely, physical environment perception, atmosphere and culture perception, emotional feelings, and behavioral preferences, and their perceptual characteristics are analyzed respectively to understand the important characteristics of the villagers' perceptions of the daily landscapes. Finally, it is proposed that the protection and development of daily landscape in villages need to improve the mechanism of discovering and evaluating daily landscape, encourage residents to participate in the construction of daily landscape, protect the high-value daily landscape, and promote the innovative development of daily landscape.

Keywords: rural landscape, everyday landscape, landscape perception, conservation and development

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Authors: Kherbache Radhwane

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We currently live in the world pressed by technological developments necessary for the construction, where the concept of sustainable development is truly rooted in recent years. Construction or demolitions of buildings necessarily generate environmental pollution, both inside and outside the site. Depending on the size and nature of work and the context surrounding these problems can be more or less important as is the case here in Algeria. They may affect the smooth running of the site. Moreover, there are regulations exist or are under development and should be taken into account by the various players in the act of building. This is, for example, the case of new obligations in terms of sorting and recycling of construction waste. Given this situation, it appears increasingly necessary to integrate the building sites in an effort to better respect the environment and its regulation. Several operations were performed according to this principle. The success of a project is that respects its environment through the involvement of each actor of the operation of the site with a low nuisance. As such, the client assisted by his driver and its operating contractor and the company plays a central role as an initiator of the process. It must ensure the establishment of appropriate means of organizational plans and contract.

Keywords: evolution, sustainable development, construction, demolition, building, nuisance, environmental, tailings, construction, regulations

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Authors: Dost Muhammad Halepoto, Laila AL-Ayadhi

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Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism can cause lifelong disability. Genetic and environmental factors are believed to contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but relatively few studies have considered potential environmental risks. Several industrial chemicals and other environmental exposures are recognized causes of neurodevelopmental disorders and subclinical brain dysfunction. The toxic effects of such chemicals in the developing human brain are not known. This review highlights the role of environmental risk factors including drugs, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, vaccines, and other suspected neurotoxicants including persistent organic pollutants for ASD. It also provides information about the environmental toxins to yield new insights into factors that affect autism risk as well as an opportunity to investigate the relation between autism and environmental exposure.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, environmental factors, neurodevelopmental disorder

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Authors: Tissa Ravinda Perera

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An open economic policy was introduced by Sri Lanka in 1977, before many other countries in Asia to align her economy to world economic trends and it was affected indigenous businesses since they had to compete with foreign products, processes, technology, innovations and businesses. The year 2010 was a milestone in Sri Lankan history to achieve the developmental goals when Foxbuisness rated Sri Lanka as the best performing global economy. However, Sri Lanka missed her chances of achieving development with the political and social chaos, consequent the regime change in 2015. This paper argues that to support the development of the country, Sri Lanka must develop an entrepreneurial culture. In this endeavor, creativity and innovation will play a pivotal role to achieve the desired level of development. In this study, it was used secondary data from various local and international sources to understand and explore the existing scenario of Sri Lankan economy, state of entrepreneurial culture and innovation, and challenges and competencies for the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Sri Lanka. The data was collected from secondary sources were depicted in tables in this paper in a meaningful manner. Based on the tables many findings were aroused and conclusions were made to support the argument in this paper. This paper revealed that the development of an entrepreneurial culture has to be associated with creativity and innovation to gain a competitive advantage over the development strategies of other countries. It is exposed that an entrepreneurial culture will help minorities, women and underprivileged societies to empower themselves. This product will help to confront and manage youth unrest which has created anarchy in the country from time to time. Throughout this paper, it was highlighted the past, present and future scenario of Sri Lankan economy along with modification to be done to it through the development of an entrepreneur culture in light of innovation and creativity to achieve the desired level of development.

Keywords: economy, industry, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture

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Authors: Ahmet Diken, Meral Erdirençelebi

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Similar to economies in many countries; family-owned enterprises have a significant role in the development of Turkish economy. Although they have a large share in economic terms, their lifetime is limited to working life of their founders. Failure in achieving their sustainability deeply affects not only these businesses but also the economy. Therefore, two basic elements of family owned enterprises, family and organizational culture and especially entrepreneurship culture, should be examined closely. The degree of effectiveness of parents in instilling their children with entrepreneurship culture and their effects on children's profession choices are examined through face-to-face surveys with the managers owning family businesses randomly chosen among family-owned enterprises registered in Konya Chamber of Industry, which are active in specific sectors and which had different generations in their management.

Keywords: family businesses, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture, family culture

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Authors: Maria Tsouroufli, Andrea Mondokova, Subashini Suresh

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Background: The under-representation of women and consequent failure to fulfil their potential contribution to Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medicine (STEMM) subjects in the UK is an issue that the Higher Education sector is being encouraged to address. Focus: The aim of this research is to investigate the barriers, facilitators, and incentives that influence diverse groups of women who have embarked upon a related career in STEMM subjects. The project will address a number of interconnected research questions: 1. How do participants perceive the barriers, facilitators and incentives for women in terms of research, teaching and management/leadership at each stage of their development towards forging a career in STEMM? 2. How might gender intersect with ethnicity, pregnancy/maternity and academic grade in the career experiences of women in STEMM? 3. How do participants perceive the example of female role models in emulating them as a career model? 4. How do successful females in STEMM see themselves as role models and what strategies do they employ to promote their careers? 5. How does institutional culture manifest itself as a barrier or facilitator for women in STEMM subjects in the institution? Methodology and Theoretical framework: A mixed-methodology will be employed in a case study of one university. The study will draw on extant quantitative data for context and involve conducting a qualitative inquiry to discover the perceptions of staff and students around the key concepts under study (career progression, sense of belonging and tenure, role-models, personal satisfaction, perceived gender in/equality, institutional culture). The analysis will be informed by an intersectionality framework, feminist and gender theory, and organisational psychology and human resource management perspectives. Implications: Preliminary findings will be collected in 2017. Conclusions will be drawn and used to inform recruitment and retention, and the development and implementation of initiatives to enhance the experiences and outcomes of women working and studying in STEMM subjects in Higher Education.

Keywords: under-representation, women, STEMM subjects, intersectionality

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Authors: Naomi Weiner-Levy

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The Mofet Institute of Research, established a School of Professional Development, the only one of its kind in Israel and throughout the world. It offers specialized programs for teacher educators, providing them with the professional knowledge and skills. The studies aim at updating teachers about rapidly changing knowledge and skills. Teacher educators are conceptualized as shifting from first order practitioners (school teachers) to second order practitioners. Those who train teachers are referred to as third order practitioners. The instructors in the School of Professional Development are third-order practitioners – teacher educators specializing in teaching their colleagues. Collegial guidance by teachers’ college staff members is no simple task: Tutors must be expert in their field of specialization, as well as in instruction. Moreover, although colleagues, they have to position themselves within the group as authoritative figures in terms of instruction and knowledge. To date, the role and professional identity of these third-order practitioners, has not been studied. To understand the nature and development of professional identity, a qualitative study was conducted in which 12 tutors of various subjects were interviewed. These were analyzed by categorical content analysis. The findings, assessed professional identity through a post-modern prism, while examining the interplay among events that tutors experienced, the knowledge they acquired and the structuring of their professional identity. The Tutors’ identity transformed through negotiating with ‘self’ and ‘other’ in the class, and constructed by their mutual experiences as tutors and learners. Understanding the function and identity of tutors facilitates comprehension of this unique training process for teacher educators.

Keywords: professional development, professional identity, teacher education, tutoring

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Authors: Gulnaz Erkomaishvili

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Introduction: There are some of the biggest technological shifts happening in the modern world. The introduction of digital technologies, information, and communication services has given rise to unprecedented global socio-political and economic changes. The role of digital technologies in increasing productivity and national competitiveness is increasing. Today, it is used in almost every area of the economy. E-commerce, organizational process in computerized management, and digital infrastructure's pace of growth is remarkably high and is a key instrument of economic development. Methodology: Different research methods are applied in the presented paper; statistical, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison ones. Works by local and foreign scientists, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, as well as various organizations' studies and reports were used as a theoretical basis for research and variety of laws, government decrees and orders, and the publications of the National Statistics Office of Georgia were used as an informational basis. Conclusions: The paper deals with the processes and challenges in Georgia in the digital economy. Access to current resources in Georgia and current processes are described. Digital technology for the development of the required environmental conditions is described, how the Internet and communications are available for the population in the regions of Georgia. The pros and cons of the digital economy development and its impact on the country's economy are analyzed. The main difficulties of implementation of the digital economy in Georgia, government involvement, and future action plans are presented.

Keywords: digital economy, digital technologies, internet, communications, economic policy

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Authors: Alexis Winfield, Carly Sugar, Barbara Fenesi

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The COVID-19 pandemic uprooted regular routines forcing many children to learn from home, requiring many adults to work from home, and cutting families off from support outside the home. Public health restrictions associated with the pandemic caused widespread psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, increased fear, panic, and stress. These trends are particularly concerning for families raising neuroatypical children, such as those with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as these children are already more likely than their typically developing peers to experience comorbid mental health issues and to experience greater distress when required to stay indoors. Families with children who have ADHD are also at greater risk for experiencing heightened familial stress due to the challenges associated with managing ADHD behavioural symptoms, greater parental discord and divorce, and greater financial difficulties compared to other families. The current study engaged families comprised of at least one child diagnosed with ADHD to elucidate 1) the unique ways that the COVID-19 pandemic affected their mental health and 2) the specific barriers these families faced to maintaining optimal mental wellbeing. A total of 33 participants (15 parent-child dyads) engaged in virtual interviews. Content analysis revealed that the most frequently identified mental health effects for families were increased child anxiety and disconnectedness, as well as deteriorating parental mental health. The most frequently identified barriers to maintaining optimal mental well-being were lack of routine, lack of social interaction and social support, and uncertainty and fear. Findings underscore areas of need during times of large-scale social isolation, bring voice to the families of children with ADHD, and contribute to our understanding of the pandemic’s impact on the wellbeing of vulnerable families. This work contributes to a growing body of research aimed at creating safeguards to support mental wellbeing for vulnerable families during times of crisis.

Keywords: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, COVID-19, mental health, vulnerable families

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Authors: Rapuane Eric Jan Pule

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Sport participation plays a significant role in learners’ well-being and lifestyle. Learners spend most of their time in the school environment, where they are monitored, guided and advised by teachers. Teachers have a good relationship with the learners, therefore they can play a major role in promoting and influencing learners to participate in physical activities, both competitive and recreational purposes. Their influence and involvement could assist in increasing the number learners' involvement in physical activities, sport and recreation at Township schools. The national sport and recreation plan in South Africa, recommends that promotion of sport and physical activities at primary and secondary schools should play an important role in helping learners commit to a live-long participation in sport, recreational and physical activities. Schoolteachers could play an influential role in ensuring that learners spent their leisure time productively through physical and recreational activities. However, the role and the influence of teachers in promoting physical and recreational activities have been previously overlooked in the literature. Part of this study focuses on the in-depth challenges encountered by primary and secondary school teachers at Township schools in promoting and influencing learners’ involvement in sport, recreation and physical activities. 109 primary and secondary teachers at Township schools agreed to participate in the study through the provision of informed consent. The participants consisted of 49 primary school teachers and 60 secondary school teachers. Quantitative approach was followed using validated structured questionnaire comprising 12 close-ended items were used. Findings indicated that teachers' can play a significant role in influencing and encouraging learners to participate in sport, recreation or physical activities. Teachers view physical activity as an important developmental component for learners. Primary school teachers believe that they have a significant role to play in encouraging and promoting physical activities, sport and recreation, as compared to the secondary school teachers. Both group of teachers at primary and secondary schools, believe that infrastructure development, financial support, and extra incentives could motivate them to promote physical, recreational and sporting activities at schools. Teachers also acknowledge that schools are facing challenges in implementing and coordinating physical activities and recreational programmes as required by the Department of sport and recreation South Africa. It is recommended that the Department of Basic Education and Sport and Recreation South Africa revise their policies regarding the role of teachers in promoting and administering physical and recreational activities at schools.

Keywords: township, physical activities, sport and recreation participation, learners, teachers, primary and secondary schools, physical education

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Authors: A. M. Sultana, Norhirdawati Binti Mhd Zahir, Norzalan Hadi Yaacob

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Recently in Malaysia, women's participation in teaching profession has increased. The increasing trend of women’s participation in the teaching profession poses challenges in families, especially in the developing countries like Malaysia. One of these challenges, concerns in balancing their role between family and job responsibility that faced by many women teachers. The purpose of this study is to discover how women teachers' impact on family happiness and the challenges faced by them in balancing their role between family and job responsibility. The findings presented in this study are based on survey research in a secondary school Dato’ Bijaya Setia in the district of Gugusan Manjoi which is located in Kedah, Malaysia. The study found that employment of women in economic activity has several beneficial impacts of improving the economic condition of the family. The results also revealed that in low income earning families, both husbands and wives’ employment contribute to the family income that less likely to experience of family poverty. The study also showed despite women's teachers’ significant role towards the overall development of the family, the majority of women teachers encountered a number of difficulties in balancing their role between family and job responsibility especially when they need to work more than the normal working time. Therefore, it is common for the majority of women suffering from psychological stress when they are unable to complete the task at a fixed time. The present study also suggests implication of family friendly policy and its appropriate practice to support the women teachers who are significantly contributing to family, community and the country.

Keywords: emotional exhaustion, family friendly policy, work family conflict, women teacher

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Authors: Yadi Xu, Qingping Luo

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Currently, there is a great tendency that more and more villages in China are trying to increase income by development of tourism. 'Beautiful Rural Construction' provides an excellent opportunity for the development of tourism. In this context, development orientation, transportation routes, and tourism service facilities are analyzed under the perspective of existing landscape utilization and regional integration based on the development tourism industry of the Nanliangdu Village in Jingxing Town, Shijiazhuang Province as a research object. In the program, the biggest issue is the contradiction between the ecological development and protection of the river and the development of economy. How to deal with the relationship between protection and development is the key to the design of this case. Furthermore, the streets and courtyard space, existing buildings, public environment, specific landscape of the ancient village with a history of thousands of years have strong regional characteristics. The article is actively exploring for suggestions and countermeasures to promote the development premised on protection and based on a regional view.

Keywords: development, integration, protection, rural tourism

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Authors: Melissa Dickinson

Abstract:

In the context of intense global competitiveness and urban transformations, today’s cities are faced with enormous challenges. There is increasing pressure among cities and regions to respond promptly and efficiently to fierce market progressions, to offer a competitive advantage, higher flexibility, and to be pro-active in creating future markets. Consequently, competition among cities and regions within the dynamics of a worldwide spatial economic system is growing fiercer, amplifying the importance of intangible capital in shaping the competitive and dynamic economic performance of organisations and firms. Accordingly, this study addresses how intangible capital influences urban economic development within an urban environment. Despite substantial research on the economic, and strategic determinants of urban economic development this multidimensional phenomenon remains to be one of the greatest challenges for economic geographers. The research provides a unique contribution, exploring intangible capital through the lenses of entrepreneurial capital and social-network capital. Drawing on business surveys and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the case of the three UK Core Cities Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. This paper critically considers how entrepreneurial capital and social-network capital is a crucial source of competitiveness and urban economic development. This paper deals with questions concerning the complexity of operationalizing ‘network capital’ in different urban settings and the challenges that reside in characterising its effects. The paper will highlight the role of institutions in facilitating urban economic development. Particular emphasis will be placed on exploring the roles formal and informal institutions have in delivering, supporting and nurturing entrepreneurial capital and social-network capital, to facilitate urban economic development. Discussions will then consider how institutions moderate and contribute to the economic development of urban areas, to provide implications in terms of future policy formulation in the context of large and medium sized cities.

Keywords: urban economic development, network capital, entrepreneurialism, institutions

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Authors: Yating Yang, Xue Zhang, Chengli Zhao

Abstract:

Technology capability refers to the comprehensive ability that influences all factors of technological development. Among them, researchers’ resources serve as the foundation and driving force for technology capability, representing a significant manifestation of a country/region's technological capability. Therefore, the cross-border transfer behavior of researchers to some extent reflects changes in technological capability between countries/regions, providing a unique research perspective for technological capability assessment. This paper proposes a technological capability assessment model based on personnel transfer networks, which consists of a researchers' transfer network model and a country/region role evolution model. It evaluates the changes in a country/region's technological capability roles from the perspective of researcher transfers and conducts an analysis using artificial intelligence as a case study based on literature data. The study reveals that the United States, China, and the European Union are core nodes, and identifies the role evolution characteristics of several major countries/regions.

Keywords: transfer network, technological capability assessment, central-peripheral structure, role evolution

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Authors: Mohammad Sadeghi, Mahdieh Saniee

Abstract:

Nowadays, development laws have become a major branch of engineering science, laws help humankind achieve his/her basic needs, and it is attracted to the attention of the nations. Therefore, lawyers have been invited to contemplate legislator's approaches respecting legislating countries' economic, social and cultural development plans and to observe the reliance of approaches on two elements of distributive justice and transitional justice in light of legal rationality. Legal rationality in development planning has encountered us with this question that whether a rational approach and existing models in the Iran development planning system approximate us to the goal of development laws respecting the rationalist approach and also regarding wisely decision-making model. The present study will investigate processes, approaches, and damages of development planning in the legislation of country development plans to answer this question.

Keywords: rationality, decision-making process, policymaking, development

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Authors: Pawel Sowa, Joachim Bargiel, Bogdan Mol, Katarzyna Luszcz

Abstract:

The article raises the issue of the development of local renewable energy sources and the production of distributed energy in context of improving the reliability of the Polish Power System and the beneficial impact on local and national energy security. The paper refers to the current problems of local governments in the process of investment in the area of distributed energy projects, and discusses the issues of the future role and cooperation within the local power plants and distributed energy. Attention is paid to the local communities the chance to raise their own resources and management of energy fuels (biomass, wind, gas mining) and improving the local energy balance. The material presented takes the issue of the development of the energy potential of municipalities and future cooperation with professional energy. As an example, practical solutions used in one of the communes in Silesia.

Keywords: distributed generation, mini centers energy, renewable energy sources, reliability of supply of rural commune

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Authors: Iacopo Odoardi, Emanuele Felice, Dario D'Ingiullo

Abstract:

We investigate the role of human capital in the Chinese inland-coastal inequality and how the consequences of the 2007-2008 crisis may induce China to refocus its development path on human capital. We compare panel data analyses for two periods for the richer/coastal and the relatively poor/inland provinces. Considering the rapid evolution of the Chinese economy and the changes forced by the international crisis, we wonder if these events can lead to rethinking local development paths, fostering greater attention on the diffusion of higher education. We expect that the consequences on human capital may, in turn, have consequences on the inland/coastal dualism. The focus on human capital is due to the fact that the growing differences between inland and coastal areas can be explained by the different local endowments. In this respect, human capital may play a major role and should be thoroughly investigated. To assess the extent to which human capital has an effect on economic growth, we consider a fixed-effects model where differences among the provinces are considered parametric shifts in the regression equation. Data refer to the 31 Chinese provinces for the periods 1998-2008 and 2009-2017. Our dependent variable is the annual variation of the provincial gross domestic product (GDP) at the prices of the previous year. Among our regressors, we include two proxies of advanced human capital and other known factors affecting economic development. We are aware of the problem of conceptual endogeneity of variables related to human capital with respect to GDP; we adopt an instrumental variable approach (two-stage least squares) to avoid inconsistent estimates. Our results suggest that the economic strengths that influenced the Chinese take-off and the dualism are confirmed in the first period. These results gain relevance in comparison with the second period. An evolution in local economic endowments is taking place: first, although human capital can have a positive effect on all provinces after the crisis, not all types of advanced education have a direct economic effect; second, the development path of the inland area is changing, with an evolution towards more productive sectors which can favor higher returns to human capital. New strengths (e.g., advanced education, transport infrastructures) could be useful to foster development paths of inland-coastal desirable convergence, especially by favoring the poorer provinces. Our findings suggest that in all provinces, human capital can be useful to promote convergence in growth paths, even if investments in tertiary education seem to have a negative role, most likely due to the inability to exploit the skills of highly educated workers. Furthermore, we observe important changes in the economic characteristics of the less developed internal provinces. These findings suggest an evolution towards more productive economic sectors, a greater ability to exploit both investments in fixed capital and the available infrastructures. All these aspects, if connected with the improvement in the returns to human capital (at least at the secondary level), lead us to assume a better reaction (i.e., resilience) of the less developed provinces to the crisis effects.

Keywords: human capital, inland-coastal inequality, Great Recession, China

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