Search results for: culture sustainability

Authors: Dalia Kubiliūtė

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Lithuania is known as a trusted location for global business institutions, and it attracts investors with it’s competitive environment for financial service providers. Along with the aspiration to offer a strong results-oriented and innovations-driven environment for financial service providers, Lithuanian regulatory authorities consistently implement the European Union's high regulatory standards for financial activities, including sustainability-related disclosures. Since European Union directed its policy towards transition to a climate-neutral, green, competitive, and inclusive economy, additional regulatory requirements for financial market participants are adopted: disclosure of sustainable activities, transparency, prevention of greenwashing, etc. The financial sector is one of the key factors influencing the implementation of sustainability objectives in European Union policies and mitigating the negative effects of climate change –public funds are not enough to make a significant impact on sustainable investments, therefore directing public and private capital to green projects may help to finance the necessary changes. The topic of the study is original and has not yet been widely analyzed in Lithuanian legal discourse. There are used quantitative and qualitative methodologies, logical, systematic, and critical analysis principles; hence the aim of this study is to reveal the problem of the implementation of the regulation on sustainability in the Lithuanian financial sector. Additional regulatory requirements could cause serious changes in financial business operations: additional funds, employees, and time have to be dedicated in order for the companies could implement these regulations. Lack of knowledge and data on how to implement new regulatory requirements towards sustainable reporting causes a lot of uncertainty for financial market participants. And for some companies, it might even be an essential point in terms of business continuity. It is considered that the supervisory authorities should find a balance between financial market needs and legal regulation.

Keywords: financial, legal, regulatory, sustainability

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Authors: Oluwagbemiga Paul Agboola, Cornelius Olatunji Omojola, Dayo Martins Oyeshomo

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The role of a recreational park in human and environmental development has attracted much interest in the recent time. Recreation parks' development could act as an effective planning strategy to enhance environmental sustainability, social cohesiveness, and users' quality of life. Similarly, parks enhance neighbourhood's aesthetics, refresh the air and enhance humans' contact with nature. In this connection, recreation parks create natural surroundings of rural areas for leisure, relaxation, recreation, psychological and physical comfort of the people. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the two recreational parks' development as a strategy for neighbourhood's environmental improvement, sustainability and the recreationists' cohesiveness. A total number of 158 survey questionnaires were distributed to the tourists at Ikogosi cold and warm spring in Ekiti state as well as Olumirin waterfalls, Erin-Ijesa, Osun State, in South-West, Nigeria. The quantitative results of the analyzed data with Relative Importance Index (RII) revealed that recreation parks provide optimum opportunities for users' social cohesiveness and well-being while parks' sustainable environment could be enhanced base on the provision of essential facilities, services, and future developmental plans. It is recommended that for recreation parks to realize their full potential in environmental sustainability, adequate maintenance and provision of essential facilities becomes imperative.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, neighbourhood development, recreational park, Nigeria

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Authors: Neeru Deep, Kimberly McAlister

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Mental health issues have been increasing worldwide for many decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought mental health issues into the spotlight. Within higher education, promoting the well-being of students has dramatically increased in focus. The Northwestern State University of Louisiana opened the Center for Positivity, Well-being, and Hope using the action research process of reflecting, planning, acting, and observing. The study’s purpose is two-fold: First, it highlights how to create a collaborative team to reflect, plan, and act to develop a well-being culture in higher education institutions. Second, it investigates the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researchers shared their experience in the first three phases of the action research process and then applied an identical concurrent mixed methods design. A purposive sample evaluated the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researcher administered PERMA-Profiler Measure, the PERMA-Profiler Measure overview, the CoPWH Evaluation I, and the CoPWH Evaluation II questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The thematic analysis for qualitative and descriptive statistics for quantitative data concluded that the center creates a well-being culture and promotes well-being in college students. In conclusion, this action research shares the successful implementation of the cyclic process of research in promoting a well-being culture in higher education with the implications for promoting a well-being culture in various educational settings, workplaces, and communities.

Keywords: action research, mixed methods research design, Seligman, well-being.

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Authors: Briante Barretto, Haley Carreon, Anesha-Maelene Ignacio

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This research paper explores the dynamic process of cultural resilience within the context of the modern tourism of two traditional island communities (Bali, Indonesia and Guam, Micronesia). It asks the question: How do indigenous people hold on to their foundational values that define their culture while moving forward in the modern world? Both Bali and Guam serve as famous destinations for tourists from all over the world, with millions of visitors on an annual basis. Both are continually being shaped in profound ways by the forces of modernity through globalization. And both are demonstrating cultural resilience while striving to find creative ways to sustain, preserve and strengthen their values and traditions within the context of a thriving modern tourist economy. This research paper, drawing on ethnographic methodologies, and in particular participant observation and in-depth interviews, explores the many challenges both communities face and the strategies and approaches they are learning to employ that help promote sustainable tourism while contributing to cultural preservation. Drawing on the insights gained from field work in both island communities, as well as the growing literature in this field study, the paper posits important lessons that can guide and inform indigenous communities that are being drawn into the global tourism market. One powerful idea emerges in the research and one that seems to guide and shape tourism policy both indigenous communities - that this current generation should be thought of as the ancestors of future generations, and thus they have a weighty responsibility to continue to learn and strive to sustain and preserve their cultures and traditions, their natural environments, and spiritual foundations for the future.

Keywords: bali, culture, environment, guam, tourism, values

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Authors: Benjamin Anabaraonye, Okafor Joachim Chukwuma, Olamire James

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The impacts of climate change are greatly felt on Nigeria’s agricultural sector which in turn affects the economy of the nation. There is an urgent need to educate farmers and fishermen in rural areas in Nigeria on climate change adaptation and mitigation for sustainable development. Through our literature and participant observation, it has been discovered that many farmers and fishermen in rural areas in Nigeria have little or no knowledge about climate change adaptation and mitigation. This paper seeks to draw the attention of policy makers in government, private sectors, non-governmental organizations and interested individuals to the need to seek for innovative ways of educating farmers and fishermen in rural areas about climate change adaptation and mitigation for global sustainability. This study also explores the effective methods of bridging the communication gaps through efficient information dissemination, intensive awareness outreach, use of climate change poems and blogs, innovative loan scheme to farmers and fishermen, etc. to help ensure that farmers and fishermen in rural areas in Nigeria are adequately educated about climate change adaptation and mitigation for global sustainability.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change, farmers, fishermen

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Authors: Prompassorn Chunhabunyatip

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The objectives of this research were to study the factors affecting the participation of local people and the obstacles and recommendations towards local people’s participation in illuminated boat procession culture. The study looked at both qualitative, and quantitative data were collected by in-depth interview and analyzed by the descriptive approach. The 296 samplings were a local community who participated in constructing the illuminated boat in each community for 14 communities. The results of this study showed that the factor that encourages local people’s participation in illuminated both procession is the awareness of an importance of cultural uniqueness in the local. The problems and obstacles to the participation in illuminated boat procession include the resources for constructing illuminated both such as bamboos are run out of and price increasing, lack of proper cooperation between local people and government officers and conflict in interests between in local government office. So, the result of this study recommended that the government officers should be taken into account about community participation in the illuminated boat procession culture because without local people, the uniqueness culture of Nakhon Phanom Province would not exist and they would not reach the sustainable tourism goal.

Keywords: illuminated both culture, community participation, sustainable tourism management, Nakhon Phanom province

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Authors: Tzay-An Shiau, Kuan-Lin Ho

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This study developed sustainability and quality of life indicators for urban passenger transportation by using Social Construction of Technology (SCOT). The initial indicators were proposed by referring to literatures and were summarized by using impact-based framework. Subsequently, the stakeholders were defined according to their interest, power and then classified into scientific, operational, policy making, policy monitoring and nonprofessional frames. The scientific frame consisted of nine scholars in transportation field. Ten representatives from Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and bus operators were grouped into the operational frame. The policy making frame comprised of ten representatives from Department of Transportation, Taipei City Government (DOT, TCG), Department of Railways and Highways, Ministry of Transportation and Communication (DORH, MOTC), Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Transportation and Communication (DGOH, MOTC) and Institute of Transportation, Ministry of Transportation and Communication (IOT, MOTC). The policy monitoring frame consisted of 15 representatives from Taipei City Councilor, legislator and reporter. The nonprofessional frame comprised of 72 Taipei citizens. The stakeholders were asked to evaluate the relative importance of indicators using Delphi survey method. Social construction of 14 transport sustainability indicators and 12 transport quality of life indicators were obtained.

Keywords: sustainability, quality of life, Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), stakeholder

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Authors: Rania Mousa, Peterson Ozili

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A key agenda of policymakers in developed and developing countries is to increase the level of financial inclusion. Microlending institutions have been recognized as important agents of financial inclusion, which have the potential to achieve this objective and help move toward a more accessible, inclusive, and equitable path to financial sustainability. In that respect, this case study attempts to identify and assess the key initiatives undertaken by Grameen America as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of selected United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (UN’s SD Goals). This study goes beyond the stated objective by using the vulnerable group theory and special agent theory of financial inclusion to support the analysis of financial and non-financial information collected from Grameen America’s Annual Reports and audited financial statements. The study follows a qualitative content analysis method to precisely gauge the shift in Grameen’s strategy and focus, as well as to assess the impact of its initiatives on the small business community before and after the pandemic. The findings showcase that Grameen’s longstanding mission to alleviate poverty is in line with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goal 1. Furthermore, Grameen’s commitment to creating partnerships with external organizations to offer credit and non-credit services and support is consistent with UN’s Sustainability Development Goal 17. The study suggests that policymakers should foster the creation of more member-based financial and non-financial institutions which are ethically and morally responsible to their members in both good and bad times.

Keywords: COVID-19, financial inclusion, microfinance, sustainable development, microlending

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Authors: Fasil Wagnew, Kerri Viney, Kefyalew Addis Alene, Matthew Kelly, Darren Gray

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Background: Undernutrition is a risk factor for tuberculosis (TB), including poor treatment outcomes. However, evidence regarding the effect of undernutrition on TB treatment outcomes is not well understood. We aimed to evaluate the effect of undernutrition on sputum culture conversion and treatment outcomes among people with multi-drug resistance (MDR)-TB. Methods: We searched for publications in the Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science databases without restrictions on geography or year of publication. We conducted a random-effect meta-analysis to estimate the effects of undernutrition on sputum culture conversion and treatment outcomes. Two reviewers independently assessed the study eligibility, extracted the necessary information, and assessed the risk of bias. Depending on the nature of the data, odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to summarize the effect estimates. Potential publication bias was checked using funnel plots and Egger’s tests. Results: Of 2358 records screened, 59 studies comprising a total of 31,254 people with MDR-TB were included. Undernutrition was significantly associated with a lower sputum culture conversion rate (HR 0·7, 95% CI 0·6–0·9, I2=67·1%) and a higher rate of mortality (OR 2·9, 95%CI 2·1–3·8, I2=23·7%) and unfavourable treatment outcomes (OR 1·8, 95%CI 1·5–2·0, I2=72·7%). There was no statistically significant publication bias in the included studies. Three studies were low, forty-two studies were moderate, and fourteen studies were high quality. Interpretations: Undernutrition was significantly associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes, including mortality and lower sputum culture conversion among people with MDR-TB. These findings have implications for supporting targeted nutritional interventions alongside standardised second-line TB drugs.

Keywords: undernutrition, MDR-TB, sputum culture conversion, treatment outcomes, meta-analysis

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Authors: Cai Yiting

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As China's globalization has accelerated, Chinese films have begun to explore and express foreign cultures with greater frequency while simultaneously disseminating Chinese culture. Films shot abroad, including Finding Mr. Right (2013), Somewhere Only We Know (2015), and Wolf Warrior 2 (2017), and others, can be viewed as a reflection of how Chinese cinema conceptualizes and represents foreign countries in the context of globalization. Furthermore, they facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign cultures in the context of China's ‘going out’ policy and the Belt and Road Initiative. Nevertheless, it is apparent that these films are primarily motivated by commercial considerations with regard to their initial release. The consistent placement of the Chinatown Detective' film series in the Chinese New Year slot is indicative of the significant influence of the cultural industry on the series' creation. Moreover, the series represents Chen Sicheng's inaugural venture into filming in a multitude of international locations. This paper examines the film series Detective Chinatown through the lens of the cultural industry, analyzing how its production and presentation cater to the demands of the cultural industry by presenting Orientalism and contributing new connotations to it. The series, a product of standardized mass production, commodification and global appeal, reflects Orientalist representations through the exoticization of Chinese culture and the stereotypical and commercial-oriented imagination of Bangkok, New York and Tokyo. This study provides an understanding of the film series' role in contributing to contemporary Orientalism in the context of the culture industry.

Keywords: orientalism, culture industry, Chinese globalisation, Detective Chinatown

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Authors: Cansu Kandemir, Marco Franchino

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To attain sustainability goals, the manufacturing industries must assess and improve their processes, adopt the latest technologies, and ensure minimal environmental impact. Ongoing debates claim that the definition of sustainability and its assessment is vague. Companies struggle with understanding which processes they should prioritise and necessitate a methodology to aid decision-making. For that reason, our investigation focused on defining a prioritisation guide to help to manufacture engineers identify areas of a facility to prioritise de-carbonisation efforts based on existing sources of data. The authors at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) worked with a range of major businesses, including Food and Drink (Moy Park), Automotive (Nissan), Aerospace and Defence (BAE, Meggitt, Leonardo, and GKN) and Technology (Accenture and Intellium AI). Collected information has been integrated into a prioritisation guide framework that helps process comparison and decision-making. The framework developed in this study aims to ensure that companies have guidance on where to focus their efforts whilst striving to fulfil their environmental and societal obligations.

Keywords: decision making, sustainability, carbon emissions, manufacturing

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Authors: Luz Hurtado, Rodrigo Rojas, Jaime Romero, Christopher Concha

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The culture of the marine fish red cusk eel Genypterus chilensis is currently considered a priority for Chilean aquaculture which is a Chilean native species of high gastronomic demand and market value. The microbiota was analyzed in terms of diversity and structure using massive Illumina sequencing. The analysis of alpha diversity was performed in samples of G. chilensis larvae of 6, 18 and 32 dph (days post-hatching) and it was observed that there were significant differences (P = 0.05) between the days of culture for the Chao1 index, being the larvae of 18 dph the one with the highest index followed by the larvae of 6 dph, The lowest value for this index was presented in larvae of 32 dph. There were no significant differences in larvae between the days of culture for the Shannon (P=0.0857) and Simpson (P=0.0714) indices. In general, the larvae of G. chilensis have high rates of diversity. When analyzing the beta diversity, a differentiation between the bacterial communities is observed depending on the day of the culture of the larvae. Considering the PCoA elaborated from the unweighted UniFrac statistic, the explained variance was 46.2% (PC1 29.2% and PC2 17.0%) and in the case of the PCoA elaborated with the weighted UniFrac statistic; the explained variance was 65.5% (PC1 41.8% and PC2 23.7%) these differences were significant based on the Permanova statistical analysis (P= 0.002 and 0.037 respectively). When analyzing the taxonomic composition of the microbiota of the larvae in the different days of culture it was observed that at the phyla level the most abundant in the larvae of 6 dph were Proteobacteria (57%) Verrucomicrobia (24%) and Firmicutes (14%), for the larvae of 18 dph the predominant phyla were Proteobacteria (90%), Dependientiae (5%), Actinobacteria (2%) and Plactomyces (2%), for the larvae of 32 dph the phyla that presented the highest relative abundance were Proteobacteria (57%), Firmicutes (29%), Verrucomicrobia (5%) and Actinobacteria (5%), when comparing the larvae between the days it was observed that the phylum Proteobacteria was the most abundant in the samples of larvae of 6, 18 and 32 dph being the larvae of 18 dph those that present the highest relative abundance, the larvae of 6 dph were those that presented the highest relative abundance for the phylum Verrucomicrobia and in the larvae of 32 dph was observed greater abundance of the phylum Firmicutes compared to the other days of larval culture. At the level of genera, those with the highest relative abundance in larvae of 6 dph were Rubritalea (30%), Psychrobacter (28%), staphylococcus (17%) and Ralstonia (10%), for the larvae of 18 dph the genera with the highest abundance were Psychrobacter (47%), Litoreibacter (13%), Nautella (9%) and Cohesibacter (8%), for the larvae of 32 dph the most abundant genera were Alloiococcus (25%), Dialister (14%), Neptunomonas (13%) and Piscirickettsia (11%). When observing the taxonomic composition of the larvae between the days of larval culture, it is observed that there are differences between them.

Keywords: microbiota, diversity, G. Chilensis, larvae

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Authors: Rituparna Pal, Faiz Ahmed

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Neighbourhood energy efficiency is a newly emerged term to address the quality of urban strata of built environment in terms of various covariates of sustainability. The concept of sustainability paradigm in developed nations has encouraged the policymakers for developing urban scale cities to envision plans under the aegis of urban scale sustainability. The concept of neighbourhood energy efficiency is realized a lot lately just when the cities, towns and other areas comprising this massive global urban strata have started facing a strong blow from climate change, energy crisis, cost hike and an alarming shortfall in the justice which the urban areas required. So this step of urban sustainability can be easily referred more as a ‘Retrofit Action’ which is to cover up the already affected urban structure. So even if we start energy efficiency for existing cities and urban areas the initial layer remains, for which a complete model of urban sustainability still lacks definition. Urban sustainability is a broadly spoken off word with end number of parameters and policies through which the loop can be met. Out of which neighbourhood energy efficiency can be an integral part where the concept and index of neighbourhood scale indicators, block level indicators and building physics parameters can be understood, analyzed and concluded to help emerge guidelines for urban scale sustainability. The future of neighbourhood energy efficiency not only lies in energy efficiency but also important parameters like quality of life, access to green, access to daylight, outdoor comfort, natural ventilation etc. So apart from designing less energy-hungry buildings, it is required to create a built environment which will create less stress on buildings to consume more energy. A lot of literary analysis has been done in the Western countries prominently in Spain, Paris and also Hong Kong, leaving a distinct gap in the Indian scenario in exploring the sustainability at the urban strata. The site for the study has been selected in the upcoming capital city of Amaravati which can be replicated with similar neighbourhood typologies in the area. The paper suggests a methodical intent to quantify energy and sustainability indices in detail taking by involving several macro, meso and micro level covariates and parameters. Several iterations have been made both at macro and micro level and have been subjected to simulation, computation and mathematical models and finally to comparative analysis. Parameters at all levels are analyzed to suggest the best case scenarios which in turn is extrapolated to the macro level finally coming out with a proposal model for energy efficient neighbourhood and worked out guidelines with significance and correlations derived.

Keywords: energy quantification, macro scale parameters, meso scale parameters, micro scale parameters

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Authors: T. Mersmann, P. Nyhuis

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In the current economic climate, for many businesses it is generally no longer sufficient to pursue exclusively economic interests. Instead, integrating ecological and social goals into the corporate targets is becoming ever more important. However, the holistic integration of these new goals is missing from current factory planning approaches. This article describes the conceptual framework for a planning methodology for sustainable factories. To this end, the description of the key areas for action is followed by a description of the principal components for the systematization of sustainability for factories and their stakeholders. Finally, a conceptual framework is presented which integrates the components formulated into an established factory planning procedure.

Keywords: factory planning, stakeholder, systematization, sustainability

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Authors: Shravanth Vasisht M., Balachandra P., Dasappa S.

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Electric mobility (e-mob) is one of the significant actions proposed for sustainable urban transport in India. The current efforts are aimed at reducing the carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions and environmental pollution through a smooth transition from fossil-fueled mobility (f-mob) to e-mob. The study summarizes the e-mob landscape in India, its roadmap, the expected challenges relevant to the consumer preferences and perceptions. In addition to the challenges of transition from f-mob to e-mob, the sustainability of e-mob is more crucial as it involves addressing challenges related to three dimensions, namely, environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The critical factors in each of these dimensions are analyzed. The recommendations for attaining sustainability are suggested to enable a successful transition from f-mob to e-mob. The specific objectives of the research include a detailed synthesis of urban mobility landscape, analyses of various stakeholders' behaviors, drivers, and barriers influencing the transition, measures to boost the drivers and mitigate the barriers. The study also aims to arrive at policy recommendations and strategies for a successful and sustainable transition from f-mob to e-mob, reducing the carbon footprint due to transportation.

Keywords: electricmobility, urbanmobility, transportation, consumerbehaviour, carbonemission

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Authors: Honey Fadaie, Vahid Parhoodeh

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This paper concentrates on the result of research based on studies on parameters of sustainability in Persian Garden design as a traditional Iranian landscape and in a contemporary park, Jamshidieh in Iran as a new experience of re-creation of Persian Gardens’ sustainable design. Since, sustainable development has three parts: social, economic and environmental. The complexities of each part are too great to discuss in a paper of this length, thus the authors decided to analyze the design of Persian garden by considering their environmental sustainability. By the analysis of sustainable features and characteristics of traditional gardens, and exploration of parameters of sustainability in Iranian modern landscape, Such as Jamshideh Park, the main objective of this research is to identify the strategies for sustainable landscaping and parameters of creating sustainable green spaces for contemporary cities. The results demonstrate that in Persian Gardens, sustainable parameters such as productive networks and local renewable materials have been used to achieve sustainable development. At the conclusion, guidelines and recommendations for sustainable landscaping are presented.

Keywords: Jamshidieh park, Persian garden, sustainable landscape, urban green space

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Authors: Onyeka Nkwonta, Christopher Iheukwumere

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It is a waste to irrigate with great quantities of drinking water when plants thrive on used water containing small bits of compost. Unlike a lot of ecological stopgap measures, greywater reuse is a part of the fundamental solution to many ecological problems and will probably remain essentially unchanged in the distant future. Water is abused and wasted by both the wealthy and the poor. Education about water conservation is also needed. This study gives an outline of the sources of grey water in our home and provides a process of creating awareness on the importance of re-using grey water in our home, in order to achieve the 7th aim of the millennium development goals by 2015, which is ensuring environmental sustainability.

Keywords: tickling filter, education, grey water, environmental sustainability

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Authors: Mohamed Haffar, Loredana Perez

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Significant attention has recently been paid to the cross-cultural negotiations due to the growth of international businesses. Despite the substantial body of literature examining the influence of national culture (NC) dimensions on negotiations, there is a lack of studies comparing the influence of NC in Latin America with a Western European countries, In particular, an extensive review of the literature revealed that a contribution to knowledge would be derived from the comparison of the influence of NC dimensions on negotiations in UK and Venezuela. The primary data was collected through qualitative interviews, to obtain an insight about the perceptions and beliefs of Venezuelan and British business managers about their negotiating styles. The findings of this study indicated that NC has a great influence on the negotiating styles. In particular, Venezuelan and British managers demonstrated to have opposed negotiating styles, affecting the way they communicate, approach people and their willingness to take risks.

Keywords: national culture, negotiation, international business, Venezula, UK

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Authors: Rene A. Salmingo

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In pursuing higher educational institution’s transition to sustainable future, this research initiative was conducted. The study aimed to determine the level of sustainability, environmental impact and life cycle phase assessment of the industrial technology research projects at the Institute of Information Technology, Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC), Alijis Campus, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines. The research method was descriptive utilizing a researcher made questionnaire to assess the ten (10) industrial technology completed research projects. Mean was used to treat the data and instrument for Good and Scates’ validity through revisions and consultations from the environmental experts, technology specialists; and Cronbach Alpha was used to measure reliability. Results indicated that the level of sustainability and life cycle phase assessment was very high while the environmental impact of the industrial research projects was rated low. Moreover, the current research projects and environmental education courses in the college were relevant to support sustainable industrial technology research projects in the future. Hence, this research initiative will contribute to the transformation of CHMSC as a greening higher educational institution and as a center for sustainable development in the region.

Keywords: environmental impact, industrial technology research projects, life cycle phase assessment, sustainability

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Authors: Filip Majetić, Dražen Šimleša, Jelena Puđak, Anita Bušljeta Tonković, Svitlana Pinchuk

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This paper focuses on the self-sustainability aspect of social entrepreneurship (SE). We define SE as a form of entrepreneurship that is social/ecological mission oriented. It means SE organizations start and run businesses and use them to accomplish their social/ecological missions i.e. to solve social/ecological problems or fulfill social/ecological needs. Self-sustainability is defined as the capability of an SE organization to operate by relying on the money earned through trading its products in the free market. For various reasons, the achievement of self-sustainability represents a fundamental (business) challenge for many SE organizations. Those that are not able to operate using the money made through commercial activities, in order to remain active, rely on alternative, non-commercial streams of income such as grants, donations, and public subsidies. Starting from this widespread (business) challenge, we are interested in exploring elements that (could) influence the self-sustainability in SE organizations. Therefore, the research goal is to empirically investigate some of the self-sustainability factors of two notable SE organizations from different socio-economic contexts. A qualitative research, using the multiple case study approach, was conducted. ACT Group Čakovec (ACT) from Croatia was selected for the first case because it represents one of the leading and most self-sustainable SE organization in the region (in 2015 55% of the organization’s budget came from commercial activities); Friskis&Svettis Stockholm (F&S) from Sweden was selected for the second case because it is a rare example of completely self-sustainable SE organization in Europe (100% of the organization’s budget comes from commercial activities). The data collection primarily consists of conducting in-depth interviews. Additionally, the content of some of the organizations' official materials are analyzed (e.g. business reports, marketing materials). The interviewees are selected purposively and include: six highly ranked F&S members who represent five different levels in the hierarchy of their organization; five highly ranked ACT members who represent three different levels in the hierarchy of the organization. All of the interviews contain five themes: a) social values of the organization, b) organization of work, c) non-commercial income sources, d) marketing/collaborations, and e) familiarity with the industry characteristics and trends. The gathered data is thematically analyzed through the coding process for which Atlas.ti software for qualitative data analysis is used. For the purpose of creating thematic categories (codes), the open coding is used. The research results intend to provide new theoretical insights on factors of SE self-sustainability and, preferably, encourage practical improvements in the field.

Keywords: Friskis&Svettis, self-sustainability factors, social entrepreneurship, Stockholm

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Authors: Sagar Jitendra Mahendrakar

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Integrating quality assurance (QA) practices into DevOps culture has become increasingly important in modern software development environments. Collaboration, automation and continuous feedback characterize the seamless integration of DevOps development and operations teams to achieve rapid and reliable software delivery. In this context, quality assurance plays a key role in ensuring that software products meet the highest quality, performance and reliability standards throughout the development life cycle. This brief explores key principles, challenges, and best practices related to quality assurance in a DevOps culture. This emphasizes the importance of quality transfer in the development process, as quality control processes are integrated in every step of the DevOps process. Automation is the cornerstone of DevOps quality assurance, enabling continuous testing, integration and deployment and providing rapid feedback for early problem identification and resolution. In addition, the summary addresses the cultural and organizational challenges of implementing quality assurance in DevOps, emphasizing the need to foster collaboration, break down silos, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. It also discusses the importance of toolchain integration and capability development to support effective QA practices in DevOps environments. Moreover, the abstract discusses the cultural and organizational challenges in implementing QA within DevOps, emphasizing the need for fostering collaboration, breaking down silos, and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement. It also addresses the importance of toolchain integration and skills development to support effective QA practices within DevOps environments. Overall, this collection works at the intersection of QA and DevOps culture, providing insights into how organizations can use DevOps principles to improve software quality, accelerate delivery, and meet the changing demands of today's dynamic software. landscape.

Keywords: quality engineer, devops, automation, tool

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Authors: Sumayyah Qaed J. Alsulami

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English as a foreign language (EFL) in Saudi Arabia is still new and evolving. Recently, many of the university language centres that provide intensive and mandatory English courses for the preparatory-year students have been working to develop English teaching. These centres emphasise teaching using 'special editions' textbooks for Saudi students. While the government has been working to provide social and economic policies that intend to open up and communicate widely with the world, there is a need to educate Saudi citizens to be aware and understand others in order to promote tolerance and accept others, especially in a conservative culture like Saudi Arabia. In this study, the data will be English teachers’ views on teaching culture using the special edition textbooks that will be conducted by semi-structured interviews. Teachers’ views will manifest to what extent these textbooks are used interculturally to teach the students.

Keywords: EFL, intercultural teaching, teachers' views, textbooks

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Authors: María de los Ángeles Zárate López, Juan Antonio Pitones Rubio

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Quality of life and sustainability in cities are among the most important challenges faced by designers, city planners and urban managers. The Mexican city of Tijuana has a particular dynamic in its demographics which has been accelerated by its border city condition, putting to the test the ability from authorities to provide the population with the necessary services to aspire for a deserving quality of life. In the recent story of Tijuana, we found that the housing policy and the solutions presented by private housing developers have not met the best living conditions for end users by far, thereby adding issues to current social problems which impact the whole metropolitan area, including damage to the natural environment. Therefore this research presents the case study about the situation of a suburban housing development near Tijuana named “Villa del Campo” and exposes the problems of this specific project (originally labelled as a “sustainable” proposal) demonstrating that, once built, the place does not reflect the quality of life that it promised as a project. Currently, this housing development has a number of problematic issues such as the faulty operating conditions of public utilities and serious cases of crime inside the neighborhood. There is no intention to only expose the negative side of this case study, but to explore some alternatives which could help solving the most serious problems at the place, considering possible architectural and landscape interventions within the housing complex to help achieve the optimal conditions of livability and sustainability required by their inhabitants.

Keywords: suburban, housing, quality of life, sustainability, Tijuana, demographics

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Authors: Tulasi Acharya

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The paper is a qualitative analysis of status of women and women in politics and administration in Nepal Himalaya. The paper reviews data of women in civil service and in administrative levels. Looking at the Nepali politics and administration from the social constructivist perspective, the paper highlights some social and cultural issues that have othered women as “second sex.” As the country is heading towards modernity, gender friendly approaches are being instituted. Although the data reflects on the progress on women’s status and on women’s political and administrative participation, the data is not enough to predict the democratic gender practices in political and administrative levels. The political and administrative culture of Nepal Himalaya should be changed by promoting gender practices and deconstructing gender images in administrative culture through representative bureaucracy and by introducing democratic policies.

Keywords: politics, policy, administration, culture, women, Nepal, democracy

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Authors: Rashmi Uchil, A. H. Sequeira

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Post-liberalization era in India has seen an unprecedented growth of mergers, both domestic as well as cross-border deals. Indian organizations have slowly begun appreciating this inorganic method of growth. However, all is not well as is evidenced in the lowering value creation of organizations after mergers. Several studies have identified that organizational culture is one of the key factors that affects the success of mergers. But very few studies have been attempted in this realm in India. The current study attempts to identify the factors in the organizational culture variable that may be unique to India. It also focuses on the difference in the impact of organizational culture on merger of organizations in the manufacturing and service sectors in India. The study uses a mixed research approach. An exploratory research approach is adopted to identify the variables that constitute organizational culture specifically in the Indian scenario. A few hypotheses were developed from the identified variables and tested to arrive at the Grounded Theory. The Grounded Theory approach used in the study, attempts to integrate the variables related to organizational culture. Descriptive approach is used to validate the developed grounded theory with a new empirical data set and thus test the relationship between the organizational culture variables and the success of mergers. Empirical data is captured from merged organizations situated in major cities of India. These organizations represent significant proportions of the total number of organizations which have adopted mergers. The mix of industries included software, banking, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and financial services. Mixed sampling approach was adopted for this study. The first phase of sampling was conducted using the probability method of stratified random sampling. The study further used the non-probability method of judgmental sampling. Adequate sample size was identified for the study which represents the top, middle and junior management levels of the organizations that had adopted mergers. Validity and reliability of the research instrument was ensured with appropriate tests. Statistical tools like regression analysis, correlation analysis and factor analysis were used for data analysis. The results of the study revealed a strong relationship between organizational culture and its impact on the success of mergers. The study also revealed that the results were unique to the extent that they highlighted a marked difference in the manner of internalization of change of organizational culture after merger by the organizations in the manufacturing sector. Further, the study reveals that the organizations in the service sector internalized the changes at a slower rate. The study also portrays the industries in the manufacturing sector as more proactive and can contribute to a change in the perception of the said organizations.

Keywords: manufacturing industries, mergers, organizational culture, service industries

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Authors: Tsai-Hsiu Lin

Abstract:

Dan C. Lortie’s Schoolteacher: A sociological study is one of the best works on the sociology of teaching since W. Waller’s classic study. It is a book worthy of review. Following the tradition of symbolic interactionists, Lortie demonstrated the qualities who studied the occupation of teaching. Using several methods to gather effective data, Lortie has portrayed the ethos of the teaching profession. Therefore, the work is an important book on the teaching profession and teacher culture. Though outstanding, Lortie’s work is also flawed in that his perspectives and methodology were adopted largely from symbolic interactionism. First, Lortie in his work analyzed many points regarding teacher culture; for example, he was interested in exploring “sentiment,” “cathexis,” and “ethos.” Thus, he was more a psychologist than a sociologist. Second, symbolic interactionism led him to discern the teacher culture from a micro view, thereby missing the structural aspects. For example, he did not fully discuss the issue of gender and he ignored the issue of race. Finally, following the qualitative sociological tradition, Lortie employed many qualitative methods to gather data but only foucused on obtaining and presenting interview data. Moreover, he used measurement methods that were too simplistic for analyzing quantitative data fully.

Keywords: education reform, teacher culture, teaching profession, Lortie’s Schoolteacher

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Authors: Siti Dewi Aisyah

Abstract:

Islamic Modest Fashion has become one of the emerging industries. It is said that social media has making a role in its development. From designers, hijabi bloggers and then instagrammers, they are often seen posting their everyday outfits. They want to combine their faith with cutting-edge fashion trend. Muslim consumers has become a potential targeted market due to the increasing of people wearing hijab. Muslim consumers are projected to spend $327 bilion on clothing by 2020. Indonesia, as the biggest Muslim majority country, has targeted to be The World’s Center for Muslim Fashion in the world as its national branding by 2020. This study will examine how social media especially Blog and Instagram can lead the movement of Islamic Modest Fashion in Indonesia, how it also brings consumer culture to hijabi and as the result it triggers Indonesia to brand itself and how all the elements in Indonesia including the designers, bloggers or instagrammers and also Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy together work to make its dream come true. This research will be conducted through interviews with several elements mentioned, and internet, blog, Instagram and Youtube analysis through visual analysis that also examine the semiotic meaning behind the picture that are posted by the people on the social media especially about the Islamic Modest Fashion trend. This research also contains a literature review of a diverse group of works on topics related to the study. This research will be examined through several theoretical frameworks including the study of social media, fashion culture and consumer culture. Fashion and consumer culture are also two main topics because fashion furthermore leads to consumer culture. The possible benefit of this research is to be a reference literature of Islamic Modest Fashion and social media’s role especially in an Indonesian context.

Keywords: blog, instagram, consumer culture, modest fashion, social media, visual analysis

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Authors: Nazia Khan

Abstract:

The paper explores the cultural rights accommodation by the state which has left many unresolved problems. The cultural rights sometimes violate the basic individual rights of the members inside the community like women. The paper further explicates certain cultural norms and practices which violates the rights of women inside the community in the name of culture.

Keywords: women, culture, communities, rights, vulnerable, accomadation

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Authors: Patrick Innocenti, Elias Montini, Silvia Menato, Marzio Sorlini

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Documented experiences of industrial symbiosis are always triggered and driven only by economic goals: environmental and (even rarely) social results are sometimes assessed and declared as effects of virtuous behaviours, but are merely casual and un-pursued side externalities. Even worse: all the symbiotic project candidates entailing economic loss for just one of the (also dozen) partners are simply stopped without considering the overall benefit for the whole partnership. The here-presented approach aims at providing methodologies and tools to effectively manage these situations and fostering the implementation of virtuous symbiotic investments in manufacturing aggregations for a more sustainable production.

Keywords: business model, industrial symbiosis, industrial agglomerations, sustainability

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Authors: N. Adjlane, N. Haddad

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The American foulbrood is one of the most serious diseases that may affect brood of larvae and pupae stages. The causative organism is a gram positive bacterium Paaenibacillus larvae. American foulbrood infected apiaries suffer from severe economic losses, resulting from significant decreases in honeybee populations and honey production. The aim of this study was to detect Paenibacillus larvae in the remains collected at the bottom of the hive from the suspected hives by direct PCR and culture growth. A total of 56 suspected beehive wax debris samples collected in 40 different apiaries located in the central region of Algeria. MYPGP the culture medium is used during all the identifications of the bacterium. After positive results on samples, biochemical confirmation tests (test of catalase, presence hydrolysis of casein) and microscopic (gram stain) are used in order to verify the accuracy of the initial results. The QIAamp DNA Mini Kit is used to identify the DNA of Paaenibacillus larvae. Paaenibacillus larvae were identified in 14 samples out of 16 by the PCR. A suspected culture-negative sample was found positive through evaluation with PCR. This research is for the bacterium Paaenibacillus larvae in the debris of the colony is an effective method for diagnosis of the pathology of American foulbrood.

Keywords: Paenibacillus larvae, honeybee, PCR, microbiological method

Procedia PDF Downloads 411