Search results for: muslim world

Authors: Zeytu G. Asfaw, Serkalem K. Abrha, Demisew G. Degefu

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Background: HIV/AIDS remains a major public health problem in Ethiopia and heavily affecting people of productive and reproductive age. We aimed to compare the performance of Parametric Survival Analysis and Bayesian Survival Analysis using simulations and in a real dataset application focused on determining predictors of HIV patient survival. Methods: A Parametric Survival Models - Exponential, Weibull, Log-normal, Log-logistic, Gompertz and Generalized gamma distributions were considered. Simulation study was carried out with two different algorithms that were informative and noninformative priors. A retrospective cohort study was implemented for HIV infected patients under Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in Alamata General Hospital, North Ethiopia. Results: A total of 320 HIV patients were included in the study where 52.19% females and 47.81% males. According to Kaplan-Meier survival estimates for the two sex groups, females has shown better survival time in comparison with their male counterparts. The median survival time of HIV patients was 79 months. During the follow-up period 89 (27.81%) deaths and 231 (72.19%) censored individuals registered. The average baseline cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) cells count for HIV/AIDS patients were 126.01 but after a three-year antiretroviral therapy follow-up the average cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) cells counts were 305.74, which was quite encouraging. Age, functional status, tuberculosis screen, past opportunistic infection, baseline cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) cells, World Health Organization clinical stage, sex, marital status, employment status, occupation type, baseline weight were found statistically significant factors for longer survival of HIV patients. The standard error of all covariate in Bayesian log-normal survival model is less than the classical one. Hence, Bayesian survival analysis showed better performance than classical parametric survival analysis, when subjective data analysis was performed by considering expert opinions and historical knowledge about the parameters. Conclusions: Thus, HIV/AIDS patient mortality rate could be reduced through timely antiretroviral therapy with special care on the potential factors. Moreover, Bayesian log-normal survival model was preferable than the classical log-normal survival model for determining predictors of HIV patients survival.

Keywords: antiretroviral therapy (ART), Bayesian analysis, HIV, log-normal, parametric survival models

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Authors: Murad A. Channa, Mehdi Khiadani. Yasir Al-Abdeli

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Considering the severity of water scarcity around the world and its widening at an alarming rate, practical improvements in desalination techniques need to be engineered at the earliest. Atomization is the major aspect of flashing phenomena, yet it has been paid less attention to until now. There is a need to test efficient ways of atomization for the flashing process. Flash evaporation together with reverse osmosis is also a commercially matured desalination technique commonly famous as Multi-stage Flash (MSF). Even though reverse osmosis is massively practical, it is not economical or sustainable compared to flash evaporation. However, flashing evaporation has its drawbacks as well such as lower efficiency of water production per higher consumption of power and time. Flash evaporation is simply the instant boiling of a subcooled liquid which is introduced as droplets in a well-maintained negative environment. This negative pressure inside the vacuum increases the temperature of the liquid droplets far above their boiling point, which results in the release of latent heat, and the liquid droplets turn into vapor which is collected to be condensed back into an impurity-free liquid in a condenser. Atomization is the main difference between pool and spray flash evaporation. Atomization is the heart of the flash evaporation process as it increases the evaporating surface area per drop atomized. Atomization can be categorized into many levels depending on its drop size, which again becomes crucial for increasing the droplet density (drop count) per given flow rate. This review comprehensively summarizes the selective results relating to the methods of atomization and their effectiveness on the evaporation rate from earlier works to date. In addition, the reviewers propose using centrifugal atomization for the flashing application, which brings several advantages viz ultra-fine droplets, uniform droplet density, and the swirling geometry of the spray with kinetically more energetic sprays during their flight. Finally, several challenges of using rotary bell atomizer (RBA) and RBA Sprays inside the chamber have been identified which will be explored in detail. A schematic of rotary bell atomizer (RBA) integration with the chamber has been designed. This powerful centrifugal atomization has the potential to increase potable water production in commercial multi-stage flash evaporators, where it would be preferably advantageous.

Keywords: atomization, desalination, flash evaporation, rotary bell atomizer

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Authors: Victoria L. Nkosi, Parvaneh Farhangpour

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Often a Grade 12 certificate is perceived as a passport to tertiary education and the minimum requirement to enter the world of work. In spite of its importance, many students do not make this milestone in South Africa. It is important to find out why so many students still fail in spite of transformation in the education system in the post-apartheid era. Given the complexity of education and its context, this study adopted a case study design to examine one historically underperforming high school in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa in 2013. The aim was to gain a understanding of the inner and outer school contextual factors associated with the high failure rate among Grade 12 students.  Government documents and reports were consulted to identify factors in the district and the village surrounding the school and a student survey was conducted to identify school, home and student factors. The randomly-sampled half of the population of Grade 12 students (53) participated in the survey and quantitative data are analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. The findings showed that a host of factors is at play. The school is located in a village within a municipality which has been one of the poorest three municipalities in South Africa and the lowest Grade 12 pass rate in the Mpumalanga province.   Moreover, over half of the families of the students are single parents, 43% are unemployed and the majority has a low level of education. In addition, most families (83%) do not have basic study materials such as a dictionary, books, tables, and chairs. A significant number of students (70%) are over-aged (+19 years old); close to half of them (49%) are grade repeaters. The school itself lacks essential resources, namely computers, science laboratories, library, and enough furniture and textbooks. Moreover, teaching and learning are negatively affected by the teachers’ occasional absenteeism, inadequate lesson preparation, and poor communication skills. Overall, the continuous low performance of students in this school mirrors the vicious circle of multiple negative conditions present within and outside of the school. The complexity of factors associated with the underperformance of Grade 12 students in this school calls for a multi-dimensional intervention from government and stakeholders. One important intervention should be the placement of over-aged students and grade-repeaters in suitable educational institutions for the benefit of other students.

Keywords: inner context, outer context, over-aged students, vicious cycle

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Authors: Josh Felton

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There’s a common misconception that sports is an escape from the reality of life, and that it is what disconnects us from the agendas of tomorrow. While this may be true for a select few, there’s more to sports than just competition and banter. The bearing and impact society has on the sports we know and love has always existed and is greater than ever. However, to many in the national media, it is almost seen as a taboo subject. Whether one realizes it or not, sports and society intersect at every turn and it’s not a coincidence. In collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, a video and podcast series titled Intersection of sports and society (ISS), dedicated to studying some of the most polarizing and some of the least recognized issues in the world of sports that have a powerful social bearing on every demographic will debut in the Summer of 2023. Issues like race, gender, and sexuality, as well as how they have been challenged and addressed historically in the sports realm will be discussed to a great extent in the series. With the collaboration of many authors, researchers, and former athletes, the podcast will be a platform for them to not only share their discoveries but to have an extensive dialogue on the impact their work and current events have had on the issues. Set to be released in the summer of 2023, the series will have a list of great researchers and authors, headlined by New York Times writer and best-selling author Jonathan Abrams, who in 2017, published a book titled Boys Among Men: How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution. His expertise on the matters of the high school and collegiate sports will be reflected in a very important conversation on the evolution of the high school-to-professional route, the historic exploitation of black student athletes by the NCAA, and how the new rules allowing for greater freedom of choice for young athletes has benefitted minority athletes coming from impoverished backgrounds. This episode is just a preview of a list of important topics that to the author’s best knowledge aren't typically discussed by the national media. Many more topics include women’s sports representation, the struggle for achieving fair minority representation in NFL coaching and front office positions, the story of race and baseball within the Boston Red Sox organization, and what the rise of the black quarterback means for America. Many people fail to realize how the sports we all know and love have any social bearing on them and the athletes who play them. The hope with this project is to shed light on the social relevance that exists in the realm of sports, where we have for years failed to see and acknowledge a connection between sports and society.

Keywords: sports, society, race, gender

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Authors: Yufeng Wu, Yifan Gu, Bin Li, Wei Wang

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Resource recycling process contains a subsystem with interactions of three dimensions including coupling allocation of primary and secondary resources, responsibility coordination of stakeholders in forward and reverse supply chains, and trans-boundary transfer of hidden resource and environmental responsibilities between regions. Overlap or lack of responsibilities is easy to appear at the intersection of the three management dimensions. It is urgent to make an overall design of the policy system for recycling resources. From theoretical perspective, this paper analyzes the unique external differences of resource and environment in various dimensions and explores the reason why the effects of trans-dimensional policies are strongly correlated. Taking the example of the copper resources contained in the waste electrical and electronic equipment, this paper constructs reduction effect accounting model of resources recycling and set four trans-dimensional policy scenarios including resources tax and environmental tax reform of the raw and secondary resources, application of extended producer responsibility system, promotion of clean development mechanism, and strict entry barriers of imported wastes. In these ways, the paper simulates the impact effect of resources recycling process on resource deduction and emission reduction of waste water and gas, and constructs trans-dimensional policy mix scenario through integrating dominant strategy. The results show that combined application of various dimensional policies can achieve incentive compatibility and the trans-dimensional policy mix scenario can reach a better effect. Compared with baseline scenario, this scenario will increase 91.06% copper resources reduction effect and improve emission reduction of waste water and gas by eight times from 2010 to 2030. This paper further analyzes the development orientation of policies in various dimension. In resource dimension, the combined application of compulsory, market and authentication methods should be promoted to improve the use ratio of secondary resources. In supply chain dimension, resource value, residual functional value and potential information value contained in waste products should be fully excavated to construct a circular business system. In regional dimension, it should give full play to the comparative advantages of manufacturing power to improve China’s voice in resource recycling in the world.

Keywords: resource recycling, trans-dimension, policy design, incentive compatibility, life cycle

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Authors: A. H. Taghdisi, M. Mirmohammadi, S. Kamali

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Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L.) is a biennial and herbaceous and one of the most important species of medicinal plants in the world. due to the production of unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, etc. in its seeds and roots, and compounds such as kaempferol in its leaves, Evening primrose has important medicinal efficiency such as reducing premenstrual problems, acceleration of wound healing, inhibiting platelet aggregation, sedation of cardiovascular diseases, and treatment of viral infections. The sap of the plant is used to treat warts, and the plant itself is used as a charm against mental and spiritual diseases and poisonous animals. Its leaves have significant antibacterial activity against yellow staphylococci. It is also used in the treatment of poisoning, especially the toxication caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages, in the treatment of arteriosclerosis and diseases caused by liver cell insufficiency. Low germination and production speed are the problems of evening primrose growth and propagation. In the present study, extracts were obtained from four components (flowers, stems, seeds, leaves) of the evening primrose plant using the Soxhlet apparatus. To measure the antibacterial properties against MDR bacteria, microbial methods, including dilution, cultivation on a plate containing nutrient agar culture medium, and disc diffusion in agar, were performed using Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria on all four extracts. The maximum antibacterial activity related to the dilution method was obtained in all extracts. In the plate culture method, antibacterial activity was obtained for all extracts in the nutrient agar medium. The maximum diameter of the non-growth halo was obtained in the disc diffusion method in agar in the leaf extract. The statistical analysis of the microbial part was done by one-way ANOVA test (SPSS). By comparing the amount of omega-3 in extracts of Iranian and foreign oils available in the market and the extracts extracted from evening primrose plant samples with gas chromatography, it is shown that the stem extract had the most omega-3 (oleic acid) and compared to the extract of the mentioned oils, it had the highest amount of omega-3 overall. Also, the amount of omega-3 in the extract of Iranian oils was much higher than in the extract of foreign oils. It should be noted that the extract of foreign oils had a more complete composition of omega-3 than the extract of Iranian oils.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, MDR bacteria, evening primrose, omega-3

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Authors: Olatawura O. Ladipo-Ajayi

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The concept of gender equality is not new, nor are the efforts and movements toward achieving this concept. The idea of gender equality originates from the early feminist movements of the 1880s and its subsequent waves, all fighting to promote gender rights and equality focused on varying aspects and groups. Nonetheless, the progress and achievement of gender equality are not progressing at similar rates across the world and groups. This uneven progress is often due to varying social, cultural, political, and economic factors- some of which underpin intersectional identities and influence the perceptions of gender and associated gender roles that create gender inequality. In assessing perceptions of gender and assigned roles or expectations that cause inequalities, intersectionality provides a framework to interrogate how these perceptions are molded and reinforced to create marginalization. Intersectionality is increasingly becoming a lens and approach to understanding better inequalities and oppression, gender rights and equality, the challenges towards its achievement, and how best to move forward in the fight for gender rights, inclusion, and equality. In light of this, this paper looks at intersectional representations of gender in the media within cultural/social contexts -particularly entertainment media- and how this influences perceptions of gender and impacts progress toward achieving gender equality and advocacy. Furthermore, the paper explores how various identities and, to an extent, personal experiences play a role in the perceptions of and representations of gender, as well as influence the development of policies that promote gender equality in general. Finally, the paper applies qualitative and auto-ethnographic research methods building on intersectional and social construction frameworks to analyze gender representation in media using a literature review of scholarly works, news items, and cultural/social sources like Nigerian movies. It concludes that media influences ideas and perceptions of gender, gender equality, and rights; there isn’t enough being done in the media in the global south in general to challenge the hegemonic patriarchal and binary concepts of gender. As such, the growth of feminism and the attainment of gender equality is slow, and the concepts are often misunderstood. There is a need to leverage media outlets to influence perceptions and start informed conversations on gender equality and feminism; build collective consciousness locally to improve advocacy for equal gender rights. Changing the gender narrative in everyday media, including entertainment media, is one way to influence public perceptions of gender, promote the concept of gender equality, and advocate for policies that support equality.

Keywords: gender equality, gender roles/socialization, intersectionality, representation of gender in media

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Authors: Christine Winberg, James Garraway

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Many key university documents, such as vision and mission statements and strategic plans, are aspirational and future-oriented. There is a wide range of future-oriented methods that are used in planning applications, ranging from mathematical modelling to expert opinions. Many of these methods have limitations, and planners using these tools might, for example, make the technical-rational assumption that their plans will unfold in a logical and inevitable fashion, thus underestimating the many complex forces that are at play in planning for an unknown future. This is the issue that this study addresses. The overall project aim was to assist a new university of technology in developing appropriate responses to its social responsibility, graduate employability and research missions in its strategic plan. The specific research question guiding the research activities and approach was: how might the use of innovative future-oriented planning tools enable or constrain a strategic planning process? The research objective was to engage collaborating groups in the use of an innovative tool to develop and assess future scenarios, for the purpose of developing deeper understandings of possible futures and their challenges. The scenario planning tool chosen was ‘fictive scripting’, an analytical technique derived from Technology Forecasting and Innovation Studies. Fictive scripts are future projections that also take into account the present shape of the world and current developments. The process thus began with a critical diagnosis of the present, highlighting its tensions and frictions. The collaborative groups then developed fictive scripts, each group producing a future scenario that foregrounded different institutional missions, their implications and possible consequences. The scripts were analyzed with a view to identifying their potential contribution to the university’s strategic planning exercise. The unfolding fictive scripts revealed a number of insights in terms of unexpected benefits, unexpected challenges, and unexpected consequences. These insights were not evident in previous strategic planning exercises. The contribution that this study offers is to show how better choices can be made and potential pitfalls avoided through a systematic foresight exercise. When universities develop strategic planning documents, they are looking into the future. In this paper it is argued that the use of appropriate tools for future-oriented exercises, can help planners to understand more fully what achieving desired outcomes might entail, what challenges might be encountered, and what unexpected consequences might ensue.

Keywords: fictive scripts, scenarios, strategic planning, technological forecasting

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Authors: Paulo Sérgio Ribeiro de Araújo Bogas

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Although several studies have assumed (at least implicitly) that learners' approaches to learning develop into deeper approaches to higher education, there appears to be no clear theoretical basis for this assumption and no empirical evidence. As a scientific contribution to this discussion, a pedagogical intervention of a quasi-experimental nature was developed, with a mixed methodology, evaluating the intervention within a single curricular unit of Marketing, using cases based on real challenges of brands, business simulation, and customer projects. Primary and secondary experiences were incorporated in the intervention: the primary experiences are the experiential activities themselves; the secondary experiences result from the primary experience, such as reflection and discussion in work teams. A diversified learning relationship was encouraged through the various connections between the different members of the learning community. The present study concludes that in the same context, the student's responses can be described as students who reinforce the initial deep approach, students who maintain the initial deep approach level, and others who change from an emphasis on the deep approach to one closer to superficial. This typology did not always confirm studies reported in the literature, namely, whether the initial level of deep processing would influence the superficial and the opposite. The result of this investigation points to the inclusion of pedagogical and didactic activities that integrate different motivations and initial strategies, leading to the possible adoption of deep approaches to learning since it revealed statistically significant differences in the difference in the scores of the deep/superficial approach and the experiential level. In the case of real challenges, the categories of “attribution of meaning and meaning of studied” and the possibility of “contact with an aspirational context” for their future professional stand out. In this category, the dimensions of autonomy that will be required of them were also revealed when comparing the classroom context of real cases and the future professional context and the impact they may have on the world. Regarding the simulated practice, two categories of response stand out: on the one hand, the motivation associated with the possibility of measuring the results of the decisions taken, an awareness of oneself, and, on the other hand, the additional effort that this practice required for some of the students.

Keywords: experiential learning, higher education, mixed methods, reflective learning, marketing

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Authors: Inas Hussein

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Communication in the modern world is increasingly becoming multimodal due to globalization and the digital space we live in which have remarkably affected how people communicate. Accordingly, Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) is an emerging paradigm in discourse studies with the underlying assumption that other semiotic resources such as images, colours, scientific symbolism, gestures, actions, music and sound, etc. combine with language in order to  communicate meaning. One of the effective multimodal media that combines both verbal and non-verbal elements to create meaning is political cartoons. Furthermore, since political and social issues are mirrored in political cartoons, these are regarded as potential objects of discourse analysis since they not only reflect the thoughts of the public but they also have the power to influence them. The aim of this paper is to analyze some selected cartoons on the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital by the American President, Donald Trump, adopting a multimodal approach. More specifically, the present research examines how the various semiotic tools and resources utilized by the cartoonists function in projecting the intended meaning. Ten political cartoons, among a surge of editorial cartoons highlighted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States - as publications in different Arabic-language newspapers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Iran and UK, were purposively selected for semiotic analysis. These editorial cartoons, all published during 6^th–18^th December 2017, invariably suggest one theme: Jewish and Israeli domination of the United States. The data were analyzed using the framework of Visual Social Semiotics. In accordance with this methodological framework, the selected visual compositions were analyzed in terms of three aspects of meaning: representational, interactive and compositional. In analyzing the selected cartoons, an interpretative approach is being adopted. This approach prioritizes depth to breadth and enables insightful analyses of the chosen cartoons. The findings of the study reveal that semiotic resources are key elements of political cartoons due to the inherent political communication they convey. It is proved that adequate interpretation of the three aspects of meaning is a prerequisite for understanding the intended meaning of political cartoons. It is recommended that further research should be conducted to provide more insightful analyses of political cartoons from a multimodal perspective.

Keywords: Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), multimodal text, political cartoons, visual modality

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Authors: Volker Landersheim, Daria Manushyna, Thinh Pham, Dai-Duong Tran, Thomas Geury, Omar Hegazy, Steven Wilkins

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Air pollution is one of the emerging problems in our society. Targets of reduction of CO₂ emissions address low-carbon and resource-efficient transport. (Plug-in) hybrid electric propulsion concepts offer the possibility to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and emissions for public transport vehicles (e.g., bus application). In this context, typically, diesel engines are used to form the hybrid propulsion system of the vehicle. Though the technological development of diesel engines experience major advantages, some challenges such as the high amount of particle emissions remain relevant. Gaseous fuels (i.e., compressed natural gases (CNGs) or liquefied petroleum gases (LPGs) represent an attractive alternative to diesel because of their composition. In the framework of the research project 'Optimised Real-world Cost-Competitive Modular Hybrid Architecture' (ORCA), which was funded by the EU, two different hybrid-electric propulsion concepts have been investigated: one using a diesel engine as internal combustion engine and one using CNG as fuel. The aim of the current study is to analyze specific benefits for the aforementioned hybrid propulsion systems for predefined driving scenarios with regard to emissions and total cost of ownership in bus application. Engine models based on experimental data for diesel and CNG were developed. For the purpose of designing optimal energy management strategies for each propulsion system, maps-driven or quasi-static models for specific engine types are used in the simulation framework. An analogous modelling approach has been chosen to represent emissions. This paper compares the two concepts regarding their CO₂ and NOx emissions. This comparison is performed for relevant bus missions (urban, suburban, with and without zero-emission zone) and with different energy management strategies. In addition to the emissions, also the downsizing potential of the combustion engine has been analysed to minimize the powertrain TCO (pTCO) for plug-in hybrid electric buses. The results of the performed analyses show that the hybrid vehicle concept using the CNG engine shows advantages both with respect to emissions as well as to pTCO. The pTCO is 10% lower, CO₂ emissions are 13% lower, and the NOx emissions are more than 50% lower than with the diesel combustion engine. These results are consistent across all usage profiles under investigation.

Keywords: bus transport, emissions, hybrid propulsion, pTCO, CNG

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Authors: Celina Nowak

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The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and a consequent growth of cyberspace have become a reality of modern societies. The newest addition to this complex structure has been Internet of Things which is due to the appearance of smart devices. IoT creates a new dimension of the network, as the communication is no longer the domain of just humans, but has also become possible between devices themselves. The possibility of communication between devices, devoid of human intervention and real-time supervision, generated new societal and legal challenges. Some of them may and certainly will eventually be connected to criminal law. Legislators both on national and international level have been struggling to cope with this technologically evolving environment in order to address new threats created by the ICT. There are legal instruments on cybercrime, however imperfect and not of universal scope, sometimes referring to specific types of prohibited behaviors undertaken by criminals, such as money laundering, sex offences. However, the criminal law seems largely not prepared to the challenges which may arise because of the development of IoT. This is largely due to the fact that criminal law, both on national and international level, is still based on the concept of perpetration of an offence by a human being. This is a traditional approach, historically and factually justified. Over time, some legal systems have developed or accepted the possibility of commission of an offence by a corporation, a legal person. This is in fact a legal fiction, as a legal person cannot commit an offence as such, it needs humans to actually behave in a certain way on its behalf. Yet, the legislators have come to understand that corporations have their own interests and may benefit from crime – and therefore need to be penalized. This realization however has not been welcome by all states and still give rise to doubts of ontological and theoretical nature in many legal systems. For this reason, in many legislations the liability of legal persons for commission of an offence has not been recognized as criminal responsibility. With the technological progress and the growing use of IoT the discussions referring to criminal responsibility of corporations seem rather inadequate. The world is now facing new challenges and new threats related to the ‘smart’ things. They will have to be eventually addressed by legislators if they want to, as they should, to keep up with the pace of technological and societal evolution. This will however require a reevaluation and possibly restructuring of the most fundamental notions of modern criminal law, such as perpetration, guilt, participation in crime. It remains unclear at this point what norms and legal concepts will be and may be established. The main goal of the research is to point out to the challenges ahead of the national and international legislators in the said context and to attempt to formulate some indications as to the directions of changes, having in mind serious threats related to privacy and security related to the use of IoT.

Keywords: criminal law, internet of things, privacy, security threats

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Authors: Nigatu Tadesse, Li Juan, Liuhong Ming

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Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common and fourth deadly cancer in the world with limited treatment options at late advanced stage in which surgical therapy is not recommended with chemotherapy remain as the mainstay of treatment. However, the occurrence of chemoresistance as well as intera-tumoral and inter-tumoral heterogeneity of response to targeted and immunotherapy underlined a clear unmet treatment need in gastroenterology. Several molecular and cellular alterations ascribed for chemo resistance in GC including cancer stem cells (CSC) and tumor microenvironment (TME) remodeling. Cancer cells including CSC bears higher metabolic demand and major changes in TME involves alterations of gut microbiota interacting with nutrients metabolism. Metabolic upregulation in lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids biosynthesis pathways identified as a common hall mark in GC. Metabolic addiction to methionine metabolism occurs in many cancer cells to promote the biosynthesis of S-Adenosylmethionine (SAM), a universal methyl donor molecule for high rate of transmethylation in GC and promote cell proliferation. Targeting methionine metabolism found to promotes chemo-sensitivity with treatment non-heterogeneity. Methionine restriction (MR) promoted the arrest of cell cycle at S/G2 phase and enhanced downregulation of GC cells resistance to apoptosis (including ferroptosis), which suggests the potential of synergy with chemotherapies acting at S-phase of the cell cycle as well as inducing cell apoptosis. Accumulated evidences showed both the biogenesis as well as intracellular metabolism of exogenous methionine could be safe and effective target for therapy either alone or in combination with chemotherapies. This review article provides an over view of the upregulation in methionine biosynthesis pathway and the molecular signaling through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR-c-MYC axis to promote metabolic reprograming through activating the expression of L-type aminoacid-1 (LAT1) transporter and overexpression of Methionine adenosyltransferase 2A(MAT2A) for intercellular metabolic conversion of exogenous methionine to SAM in GC, and the potential of targeting with novel therapeutic agents such as methioninase (METase), Methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (MAT2A), c-MYC, methyl like transferase 16 (METTL16) inhibitors that are currently under clinical trial development stages and future perspectives.

Keywords: gastric cancer, methionine metabolism, pi3k/akt/mtorc1-c-myc axis, gut microbiota, MAT2A, c-MYC, METTL16, methioninase

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Authors: Sa'ad Ali

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This study explores wasta as an example of a social network and how it impacts business practice in the Arab Middle East, drawing links with social network impact in different regions of the world. In doing so, particular attention will be paid to the socio-economic and cultural influences on business practice. In exploring relationships in business, concepts such as social network analysis, social capital and group identity are used to explore the different forms of social networks and how they influence business decisions and practices in the regions and countries where they prevail. The use of social networks to achieve objectives is known as guanxi in China, wasta in the Arab Middle East and blat in ex-Soviet countries. Wasta can be defined as favouritism based on tribal and family affiliation and is a widespread practice that has a substantial impact on political, social and business interactions in the Arab Middle East. Within the business context, it is used in several ways, such as to secure a job or promotion or to cut through bureaucracy in government interactions. The little research available is fragmented, and most studies reveal a negative attitude towards its usage in business. Paradoxically, while wasta is widely practised, people from the Arab Middle East often deny its influence. Moreover, despite the regular exhibition of a negative opinion on the practice of wasta, it can also be a source of great pride. This paper addresses this paradox by conducting a positional literature review, exploring the current literature on wasta and identifying how the identified paradox can be explained. The findings highlight how wasta, to a large extent, has been treated as an umbrella concept, whilst it is a highly complex practice which has evolved from intermediary wasta to intercessory wasta and therefore from bonding social capital relationships to more bridging social capital relationships. In addition, the research found that Islam, as the predominant religion in the region and the main source of ethical guidance for the majority of people from the region, plays a substantial role in this paradox. Specifically, it is submitted that wasta can be viewed positively in Islam when it is practised to aid others without breaking Islamic ethical guidelines, whilst it can be viewed negatively when it is used in contradiction with the teachings of Islam. As such, the unique contribution to knowledge of this study is that it ties together the fragmented literature on wasta, highlighting and helping us understand its complexity. In addition, it sheds light on the role of Islam in wasta practices, aiding our understanding of the paradoxical nature of the practice.

Keywords: Islamic ethics, social capital, social networks, Wasta

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Authors: Priya Sepaha

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Commercial Surrogacy refers to a contract in which a woman carries a pregnancy for intended parents. There are two types of surrogacy; first, Traditional Surrogacy, in which, sperm of the donor or father is artificially inseminated in the women and carries the fetus till birth. Second, Gestational Surrogacy, in which the egg and sperm of the intended parent are collected for artificial fertilization through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique and after the embryo formation, it is transferred into the womb of a surrogate mother with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technique. Surrogacy has become so widespread in India that it has now been nicknamed the "rent-a-womb" capital of the world due to relatively low cost and lack of stringent regulatory legalisation. The legal aspects surrounding surrogacy are complex, diverse and mostly unsettled. Although this appears to be beneficial for the parties concerned, there are certain sensitive issues which need to be addressed to ensure ample protection to all stakeholders. Commercial surrogacy is an emerging business and a new means of human trafficking particularly in India. Poor and illiterate women are often lured in such deals by their spouse or broker for earning easy money. Traffickers also use force, fraud, or coercion at times to intimidate the probable surrogate mothers. A major chunk of money received from covert surrogacy agreement is taken away by the brokers. The Law Commission of India has specifically reviewed the issue as India is emerging as a major global surrogacy destination. The Supreme Court of India held in the Manji's case in 2008, that commercial surrogacy can be permitted with certain restrictions but had directed the Legislature to pass an appropriate Law for governing Surrogacy in India. The draft Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART) Bill, 2010 is still pending for approval. At present, the Surrogacy Contract between the parties and the ART Clinics Guidelines are perhaps the only guiding force. The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956 and Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 are perhaps the only existing laws, which deal with human trafficking. Yet, none of these provisions specifically deal with the serious issue of trafficking for the purpose of Commercial Surrogacy. India remains one of the few countries that still allow commercial surrogacy. International Surrogacy involves bilateral issues, where the laws of both the nations have to be at par in order to ensure that the concerns and interests of parties involved get amicably resolved. There is urgent need to pass a comprehensive law by incorporating the latest developments in this field in order to make it ethical on the one hand and to curb disguised human trafficking on the other.

Keywords: business, human trafficking, legal, surrogacy

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Authors: Shamir Balderman Orit, Shamir Michal

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Israel often deals with crisis situations, but most have been characterized as security crises (e.g., war). This is the first time that the Israel has dealt with a health and social emergency as part of a global crisis. The crisis began in January 2020 with the emergence of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), which was defined as a pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020) and arrived in Israel in early March 2020. This study examined how single mothers by choice (SMBC) experience state anxiety (SA), social support, work–family conflict (WFC), and happiness. This group has not been studied in the context of crises in general or a global crisis. Using a snowball sample, 386 SMBCanswered an online questionnaire. The findings show a negative relationship between income and level of state anxiety. State anxiety was also negatively associated with social support, level of happiness, and WFC. Finally, a stepwise regression analysis indicated that happiness explained 34% of the variance in SA. We also found that most of the women did not turn to formal support agencies such as social workers, other Government Ministries, or municipal welfare. A positive and strong correlations was also found between SA and WFC. The findings of the study reinforce the understanding that although these women made a conscious and informed decision regarding the choice of their family cell, their situation is more complex in the absence of a spouse support. Therefore, this study, as other future studies in the field of SMBC, may contribute to the improvement of their social status and the understanding that they are a unique group. Although SMBC are a growing sector of society in the past few years, there are still special needs and special attention that is needed from the formal and informal supports systems. A comparative study of these two groups and in different countries would shed light on SA among mothers in general, regardless of their relationship status and location. Researchers should expand this study by comparing mothers in relationships and exploring how SMBC coped in other countries. In summary, the findings of the study contribute knowledge on three levels: (a) knowledge about SMBC in general and during crisis situations; (b) examination of social support using tools assessing receipt of assistance and support, some of which were developed for the present study; and (c) insights regarding counseling, accompaniment, and guidance of welfare mechanisms.

Keywords: single mothers by choice, state anxiety, social support, happiness, work-family conflict

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Authors: Sunita Boro, Saurabh Kumar Dixit

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Terroir, an intricate fusion of geography, climate, soil, and human expertise, has long been acknowledged as a defining factor in the character of wines and foods. This research embarks on an exploration of terroir's profound influence on gastronomic tourism, shedding light on the intricate interplay between the physical environment and culinary artistry. Delving into the intricate science of terroir, we scrutinize its role in shaping the sensory profiles of wines and foods, emphasizing the profound impact of specific regions on flavor, aroma, and texture. We deploy a multifaceted methodology, amalgamating sensory analysis, chemical profiling, geographical information systems, and qualitative interviews to unearth the nuanced nuances of terroir expression. Through an exhaustive review of the literature, we elucidate the historical roots of terroir, unveil the intricate cultural dimensions shaping it, and provide a comprehensive examination of prior studies in the field. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of terroir in promoting regional identities, enhancing the economic viability of locales, and attracting gastronomic tourists. The paper also dissects the marketing strategies employed to promote terroir-driven food and wine experiences. We elucidate the utilization of storytelling, branding, and collaborative endeavors in fostering a robust terroir-based tourism industry. This elucidates both the potential for innovation and the challenges posed by oversimplification or misrepresentation of terroir. Our research spotlights the intersection of terroir and sustainability, emphasizing the significance of environmentally conscious practices in terroir-driven productions. We discern the harmonious relationship between sustainable agriculture, terroir preservation, and responsible tourism, encapsulating the essence of ecological integrity in gastronomic tourism. Incorporating compelling case studies of regions and businesses excelling in the terroir-based tourism realm, we offer in-depth insights into successful models and strategies, with an emphasis on their replicability and adaptability to various contexts. Ultimately, this paper not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of terroir's role in the world of food and wine tourism but also provides actionable recommendations for stakeholders to leverage terroir's allure, preserve its authenticity, and foster sustainable and enriching culinary tourism experiences.

Keywords: terroir, food tourism, wine tourism, sustainability

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Authors: Oluwaseun Ijiwade, Chris Davison, Kelvin Gregory

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In Australia, like other parts of the world, the debate on how to enhance teachers using assessment data to inform teaching and learning of English as an Additional Language (EAL, Australia) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL, United States) have occupied the centre of academic scholarship. Traditionally, this approach was conceptualised as ‘Formative Assessment’ and, in recent times, ‘Assessment for Learning (AfL)’. The central problem is that teacher-made tests are limited in providing data that can inform teaching and learning due to variability of classroom assessments, which are hindered by teachers’ characteristics and assessment literacy. To address this concern, scholars in language education and testing have proposed a uniformed large-scale computer-based assessment program to meet the needs of teachers and promote AfL in language education. In Australia, for instance, the Victoria state government commissioned a large-scale project called 'Tools to Enhance Assessment Literacy (TEAL) for Teachers of English as an additional language'. As part of the TEAL project, a tool called ‘Reading and Vocabulary assessment for English as an Additional Language (RVEAL)’, as a diagnostic language assessment (DLA), was developed by language experts at the University of New South Wales for teachers in Victorian schools to guide EAL pedagogy in the classroom. Therefore, this study aims to provide qualitative evidence for understanding beliefs about the diagnostic language assessment (DLA) among EAL teachers in primary and secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. To realize this goal, this study raises the following questions: (a) How do teachers use large-scale assessment data for diagnostic purposes? (b) What skills do language teachers think are necessary for using assessment data for instruction in the classroom? and (c) What factors, if any, contribute to teachers’ beliefs about diagnostic assessment in a large-scale assessment? Semi-structured interview method was used to collect data from at least 15 professional teachers who were selected through a purposeful sampling. The findings from the resulting data analysis (thematic analysis) provide an understanding of teachers’ beliefs about DLA in a classroom context and identify how these beliefs are crystallised in language teachers. The discussion shows how the findings can be used to inform professional development processes for language teachers as well as informing important factor of teacher cognition in the pedagogic processes of language assessment. This, hopefully, will help test developers and testing organisations to align the outcome of this study with their test development processes to design assessment that can enhance AfL in language education.

Keywords: beliefs, diagnostic language assessment, English as an additional language, teacher cognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Suci Lestari Yuana, Shofi Fatihatun Sholihah, Derarika Ensta Jesse

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Textile is one of buyer-driven industry which rely on label trust from the consumers. Most of textile manufacturers produce textile and textile products based on consumer demands. The company’s policy is highly depend on the dynamic evolution of consumers behavior. Recently, ecofriendly has become one of the most important factor of western consumers to purchase the textile and textile product (TPT) from the company. In that sense, companies from developing countries are encouraged to follow western consumers values. Some examples of ecolabel certificate are ISO (International Standard Organisation), Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (Indonesian Ecolabel Instution) and Global Ecolabel Network (GEN). The submission of national company to international standard raised a critical question whether this is a reflection towards the legitimation of global norms into national policy or it is actually a practical strategy of the company to gain global consumer. By observing one of the prominent textile company in Indonesia, this research is aimed to discuss what kind of impetus factors that cause a company to use ecolabel and what is the meaning behind it. Whether it comes from normative power or the strategy of the company. This is a qualitative research that choose a company in Sukoharjo, Central Java, Indonesia as a case study in explaining the pratice of ecolabelling by textitle company. Some deep interview is conducted with the company in order to get to know the ecolabelling process. In addition, this research also collected some document which related to company’s ecolabelling process and its impact to company’s value. The finding of the project reflected issues that concerned several issues: (1) role of media as consumer information (2) role of government and non-government actors as normative agency (3) role of company in social responsibility (4) the ecofriendly consciousness as a value of the company. As we know that environmental norms that has been admitted internationally has changed the global industrial process. This environmental norms also pushed the companies around the world, especially the company in Sukoharjo, Central Java, Indonesia to follow the norm. The neglection toward the global norms will remained the company in isolated and unsustained market that will harm the continuity of the company. So, in buyer-driven industry, the characteristic of company-consumer relations has brought a fast dynamic evolution of norms and values. The creation of global norms and values is circulated by passing national territories or identities.

Keywords: ecolabeling, waste management, CSR, normative power

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Authors: Isabella Maria Beil

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The International Geosciences and Geoparks Programme (IGGP) were officially created in 2015 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to enhance the protection of the geological heritage and fill the gaps on the World Heritage Convention. According to UNESCO, a Global Geopark is an unified area where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed based on a concept of sustainable development. Tourism is seen as a main activity to develop new sources of revenue. Currently (November 2022), UNESCO recognized 177 Global Geoparks, of which more than 50% are in Europe, 40% in Asia, 6% in Latin America, and the remaining 4% are distributed between Africa and Anglo-Saxon America. This picture shows the existence of a much uneven geographical distribution of these areas across the planet. Currently, there are three Geoparks in Brazil; however, the first of them was accepted by the Global Geoparks Network in 2006 and, just fifteen years later, two other Brazilian Geoparks also obtained the UNESCO title. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an overview of the current geopark situation in Brazil and to identify the main challenges faced by the implementation of these areas in the country. To this end, the Brazilian history and its main characteristics regarding the development of geoparks over the years will be briefly presented. Then, the results obtained from interviews with those responsible for each of the current 29 aspiring geoparks in Brazil will be presented. Finally, the main challenges related to the implementation of Geoparks in the country will be listed. Among these challenges, the answers obtained through the interviews revealed conflicts and problems that pose hindrances both to the start of the development of a Geopark project and to its continuity and implementation. It is clear that the task of getting multiple social actors, or stakeholders, to engage with the Geopark, one of UNESCO’s guidelines, is one of its most complex aspects. Therefore, among the main challenges, stand out the difficulty of establishing solid partnerships, what directly reflects divergences between the different social actors and their goals. This difficulty in establishing partnerships happens for a number of reasons. One of them is that the investment in a Geopark project can be high and investors often expect a short-term financial return. In addition, political support from the public sector is often costly as well, since the possible results and positive influences of a Geopark in a given area will only be experienced during future mandates. These results demonstrate that the research on Geoparks goes far beyond the geological perspective linked to its origins, and is deeply embedded in political and economic issues.

Keywords: Brazil, geoparks, tourism, UNESCO

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Authors: Ece Cigdem Mutlu, Burak Alakent

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Maintaining the quality of manufactured products at a desired level depends on the stability of process dispersion and location parameters and detection of perturbations in these parameters as promptly as possible. Shewhart control chart is the most widely used technique in statistical process monitoring to monitor the quality of products and control process mean and variability. In the application of Xbar control charts, sample standard deviation and sample mean are known to be the most efficient conventional estimators in determining process dispersion and location parameters, respectively, based on the assumption of independent and normally distributed datasets. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the real-world data would be normally distributed. In the cases of estimated process parameters from Phase I data clouded with outliers, efficiency of traditional estimators is significantly reduced, and performance of Xbar charts are undesirably low, e.g. occasional outliers in the rational subgroups in Phase I data set may considerably affect the sample mean and standard deviation, resulting a serious delay in detection of inferior products in Phase II. For more efficient application of control charts, it is required to use robust estimators against contaminations, which may exist in Phase I. In the current study, we present a simple approach to construct robust Xbar control charts using average distance to the median, Qn-estimator of scale, M-estimator of scale with logistic psi-function in the estimation of process dispersion parameter, and Harrell-Davis qth quantile estimator, Hodge-Lehmann estimator and M-estimator of location with Huber psi-function and logistic psi-function in the estimation of process location parameter. Phase I efficiency of proposed estimators and Phase II performance of Xbar charts constructed from these estimators are compared with the conventional mean and standard deviation statistics both under normality and against diffuse-localized and symmetric-asymmetric contaminations using 50,000 Monte Carlo simulations on MATLAB. Consequently, it is found that robust estimators yield parameter estimates with higher efficiency against all types of contaminations, and Xbar charts constructed using robust estimators have higher power in detecting disturbances, compared to conventional methods. Additionally, utilizing individuals charts to screen outlier subgroups and employing different combination of dispersion and location estimators on subgroups and individual observations are found to improve the performance of Xbar charts.

Keywords: average run length, M-estimators, quality control, robust estimators

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Authors: Ifeanyi Adigwe

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The influence of television on adolescents is prevalent and widespread because television is a powerful sex educator for adolescents. This study examined the relationship between viewing sexual content on television and sexual behaviour of adolescents in public senior secondary schools in Lagos, Nigeria. The study employed a survey research design with a structured questionnaire as instrument. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. Firstly, purposive sampling was adopted in selecting 3 educational districts namely: Agege, Maryland, and Agboju. These educational districts were chosen for convenience and its wide coverage area of public senior secondary schools in Lagos State. Secondly, the researcher adopted systematic sampling to select the schools. The schools were listed in alphabetical order in each district and every 10th school were selected, yielding 13 schools altogether. A total of 501 copies of questionnaire were administered to the students and a total 491 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved. Only 453 copies of the questionnaire met the inclusion criteria and were used for analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation, Principal components analysis, and regression analysis. Results of correlation analysis showed a positive and significant relationship between adolescent sexual belief and their preference for sexual content in television (r =0.117, N =453, p=0.13), viewing sexual content on television and adolescent sexual behavior, (r =-0.112, N =453, p<0.05), adolescent television preference and their preference for sexual content in television (r =0.328, N =453, p<0.05), adolescent television preference and adolescent’s sexual behavior (r=0.093, N =453, p<0.05). However, a negative but significant relationship exists between adolescent’s sexual knowledge and their sexual behavior (r=-122, N=453, p=0.0009). Pearson’s correlation between adolescents’ sexual knowledge and sexual behavior shows that there is a positive significant but strong relationship between adolescent’s sexual knowledge and their sexual behavior (r=0.967, N=453, p<0.05). The results also show that adolescent’s preference for sexual content in television informs them about their sexuality, development and sexual health. The descriptive and inferential analysis of data revealed that the interaction among adolescent sexual belief, knowledge and adolescents’ preference of sexual in television and its resultant effect on adolescent sexual behavior is apparent because sexual belief and norms about sex of an adolescent can induce his television preference of sexual content on television. The study concludes that exposure to sexual content in television can impact on adolescent sexual behaviour. There is no doubt that the actual outcome of television viewing and adolescent sexual behavior remains controversial because adolescent sexual behavior is multifaceted and multi-dimensional. Since behavior is learned overtime, the frequency of exposure and nature of sexual content viewed overtime induces and hastens sexual activity.

Keywords: adolescent sexual behavior, Nigeria, sexual belief, sexual content, sexual knowledge, television preference

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Homyr L. Garcia, Jr., Anne Margaret A. Rendon, Carla Michaela B. Taguinod

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Nothing is constant in this world but change. This is the reality wherein a lot of people fail to recognize and maybe, it is because of the fact that some see things that are happening with little value or no value at all until it’s gone. For the past years, Egypt was known for its stable government. It was able to withstand a lot of problems and crisis which challenged their country in ways which can never be imagined. In the present time, it seems like in just a snap of a finger, the said stability vanished and it was immediately replaced by a crisis which resulted to a failure in some parts of their government. In addition, this problem continued to worsen and the current situation of Egypt is just a reflection or a result of it. On the other hand, as the researchers continued to study the reasons why the government of Egypt is unstable, they concluded that there might be a possibility that they will be able to produce ways in which their country could be helped or improved. The instability of the government of Egypt is the product of combining all the problems which affects the lives of the people. Some of the reasons that the researchers found are the following: 1) unending doubts of the people regarding the ruling capacity of elected presidents, 2) removal of President Mohamed Morsi in position, 3) economic crisis, 4) a lot of protests and revolution happened, 5) resignation of the long term President Hosni Mubarak and 6) the office of the President is most likely available only to the chosen successor. Also, according to previous researches, there are two plausible scenarios for the instability of Egypt: 1) a military intervention specifically the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or SCAF, resulting from a contested succession and 2) an Islamist push for political power which highlights the claim that religion is a hindrance towards the development of their country and government. From the eight possible reasons, the researchers decided that they will be focusing on economic crisis since the instability is more clearly seen in the country’s economy which directly affects the people and the government itself. In addition, they made a hypothesis which states that stable economy is a prerequisite towards a stable government. If they will be able to show how this claim is true by using the Social Autopsy Research Design for the qualitative method and Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the quantitative method, the researchers might be able to produce a proposal on how Egypt can stabilize their government and avoid such problems. Also, the hypothesis will be based from the Rational Action Theory which is a theory for understanding and modeling social and economy as well as individual behavior.

Keywords: Pearson’s correlation coefficient, rational action theory, social autopsy research design, supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF)

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Everard van Kemenade

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Many quality improvement activities are planned. Leaders are strongly involved in missions, visions and strategic planning. They use, consciously or unconsciously, the PDCA-cycle, also know as the Deming cycle. After the planning, the plans are carried out and the results or effects are measured. If the results show that the goals in the plan have not been achieved, adjustments are made in the next plan or in the execution of the processes. Then, the cycle is run through again. Traditionally, the PDCA-cycle is advocated as a means to an end. However, PDCA is especially fit for planned, ordered, certain contexts. It fits with the empirical and referential quality paradigm. For uncertain, unordered, unplanned processes, something else might be needed instead of Plan-Do-Check-Act. Due to the complexity of our society, the influence of the context, and the uncertainty in our world nowadays, not every activity can be planned anymore. At the same time organisations need to be more innovative than ever. That provides leaders with ‘wicked tendencies’. However, that raises the question how one can innovate without being able to plan? Complexity science studies the interactions of a diverse group of agents that bring about change in times of uncertainty, e.g. when radical innovation is co-created. This process is called emergence. This research study explores the role of leadership in the emergence paradigm. Aim of the article is to study the way that leadership can support the emergence of innovation in a complex context. First, clarity is given on the concepts used in the research question: complexity, emergence, innovation and leadership. Thereafter a literature search is conducted to answer the research question. The topics ‘emergent leadership’ or ‘complexity leadership’ are chosen for an exploratory search in Google and Google Scholar using the berry picking method. Exclusion criterion is emergence in other disciplines than organizational development or in the meaning of ‘arising’. The literature search conducted gave 45 hits. Twenty-seven articles were excluded after reading the title and abstract because they did not research the topic of emergent leadership and complexity. After reading the remaining articles as a whole one more was excluded because the article used emergent in the limited meaning of ‗arising‘ and eight more were excluded because the topic did not match the research question of this article. That brings the total of the search to 17 articles. The useful conclusions from the articles are merged and grouped together under overarching topics, using thematic analysis. The findings are that 5 topics prevail when looking at possibilities for leadership to facilitate innovation: enabling, sharing values, dreaming, interacting, context sensitivity and adaptivity. Together they form In Dutch the acronym Medusa.

Keywords: complexity science, emergence, leadership in the emergence paradigm, innovation, the Medusa principles

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Authors: Caja Thimm

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Already well before the Corona pandemic hit the world, ‘fake news‘ were no longer regarded as harmless twists of the truth but as intentionally composed disinformation, often with the goal of manipulative populist propaganda. During the Corona crisis, particularly conspiracy narratives have become a worldwide phenomenon with dangerous consequences (anti vaccination myths). The success of these manipulated news need s to be counteracted by trustworthy news, which in Europe particularly includes public broadcasting media and their social media channels. To understand better how the main public broadcasters in Germany, the UK, and France used Instagram strategically, a comparative study was carried out. The study – comparative analysis of Instagram during the Corona Crisis In our empirical study, we compared the activities by selected formats during the Corona crisis in order to see how the public broadcasters reached their audiences and how this might, in the longer run, affect journalistic strategies on social media platforms. First analysis showed that the increase in the use of social media overall was striking. Almost one in two adult online users (48 %) obtained information about the virus in social media, and in total, 38% of the younger age group (18-24) looked for Covid19 information on Instagram, so the platform can be regarded as one of the central digital spaces for Corona related information searches. Quantitative measures showed that 47% of recent posts by the broadcasters were related to Corona, and 7% treated conspiracy myths. For the more detailed content analysis, the following categories of analysis were applied: • Digital storytelling and instastories • Textuality and semantic keys • links to information • stickers • videochat • fact checking • news ticker • service • infografics and animated tables Additionally to these basic features, we particularly looked for new formats created during the crisis. Journalistic use of social media platforms opens up immediate and creative ways of applying the media logics of the respective platforms, and particularly the BBC and ARD formats proved to be interactive, responsive, and entertaining. Among them were new formats such as a space for user questions and personal uploads, interviews, music, comedy, etc. Particularly the fact checking channel got a lot of attention, as many user questions were focused on the conspiracy theories, which dominated the public discourse during many weeks in 2020. In the presentation, we will introduce eight particular strategies that show how public broadcasting journalism can adopt digital platforms and use them creatively and, hence help to counteract against conspiracy narratives and fake news.

Keywords: fake news, social media, digital journalism, digital methods

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Shobrina Silmi Qori Tarlita, Fariz Kukuh Harwinda

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Indonesia has 81.000 kilometers coastal line and 70% water surface which is known as the country who has a huge potential in fisheries sector and also which is able to support more than 50 % of Gross Domestic Product. But according to Department of Marine and Fisheries data, fisheries sector supported only 20% of Total GDP in 1998. Not only that, the highest decline in fisheries sector income occured in 2009. Those conditions occur, because of some factors contributed to the lack of integrated working platform for the fisheries and marine management in some areas which have a high productivity to increase the economical profit every year for the country, especially Indonesia, besides the labor requirement for every company, whether a big company or smaller one, depends on the natural condition that makes a lot of people become unemployed if the weather condition or any other conditions dealing with the natural condition is bad for creating fisheries and marine management, especially in aquaculture and fish – captured operation. Not only those, a lot of fishermen, especially in Indonesia, mostly make their job profession as an additional job or side job to fulfill their own needs, although they are averagely poor. Another major problem are the lack of the sustainable developmental program to stabilize the productivity of fisheries and marine natural source, like protecting the environment for fish nursery ground and migration channel, that makes the low productivity of fisheries and marine natural resource, even though the growth of the society in Indonesia has increased for years and needs more food resource to comply the high demand nutrition for living. The development of Minapolitan Area is one of the alternative solution to build a better place for aqua-culturist as well as the fishermen which focusing on systemic and business effort for fisheries and marine management. Minapolitan is kind of integration area which gathers and integrates the ones who is focusing their effort and business in fisheries sector, so that Minapolitan is capable of triggering the fishery activity on the area which using Minapolitan management intensively. From those things, finally, Minapolitan is expected to reinforce the sustainable development through increasing the productivity of fish – capturing operation as well as aquaculture, and it is also expected that Minapolitan will be able to increase GDP, the earning for a lot of people and also will be able to bring prosperity around the world. From those backgrounds, this paper will explain more about the Minapolitan Area and the design of reinforcing the Minapolitan Area by zonation in the Fishery and Marine exploitation area with high productivity as well as low productivity. Hopefully, this solution will be able to answer the economical and social issue for declining food resource, especially fishery and marine resource.

Keywords: Minapolitan, fisheries, economy, Indonesia

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Authors: S. Mamoucha, J. Rahul, N. Christodoulakis

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Introduction: Nature has been the source of medicinal agents since the dawn of the human existence on Earth. Currently, millions of people, in the developing world, rely on medicinal plants for primary health care, income generation and lifespan improvement. In Greece, more than 5500 plant taxa are reported while about 250 of them are considered to be of great pharmaceutical importance. Among the plants used for medical purposes, Vitex agnus-castus L. (Verbenaceae) is known since ancient times. It is a small tree or shrub, widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin up to the Central Asia. It is also known as chaste tree or monks pepper. Theophrastus mentioned the shrub several times, as ‘agnos’ in his ‘Enquiry into Plants’. Dioscorides mentioned the use of V. agnus-castus for the stimulation of lactation in nursing mothers and the treatment of several female disorders. The plant has important medicinal properties and a long tradition in folk medicine as an antimicrobial, diuretic, digestive and insecticidal agent. Materials and methods: Leaves were cleaned, detached, fixed, sectioned and investigated with light and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Histochemical tests were executed as well. Specific histochemical reagents (osmium tetroxide, H2SO4, vanillin/HCl, antimony trichloride, Wagner’ s reagent, Dittmar’ s reagent, potassium bichromate, nitroso reaction, ferric chloride and di methoxy benzaldehyde) were used for the sub cellular localization of secondary metabolites. Results: Light microscopical investigations of the elongated leaves of V. agnus-castus revealed three layers of palisade parenchyma, just below the single layered adaxial epidermis. The spongy parenchyma is rather loose. Adaxial epidermal cells are larger in magnitude, compared to those of the abaxial epidermis. Four different types of capitate, secreting trichomes, were localized among the abaxial epidermal cells. Stomata were observed at the abaxial epidermis as well. SEM revealed the interesting arrangement of trichomes. Histochemical treatment on fresh and plastic embedded tissue sections revealed the nature and the sites of secondary metabolites accumulation (flavonoids, steroids, terpenes). Acknowledgment: This work was supported by IKY - State Scholarship Foundation, Athens, Greece.

Keywords: Vitex agnus-castus, leaf anatomy, histochemical reagents, secondary metabolites

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Authors: Inje Cho

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The leading health risks threatening the world today are associated with a modern lifestyle characterized by sedentary behavior, stress, anxiety, and an obesogenic food environment. To counter this alarming trend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have proffered Physical Activity guidelines to bolster physical engagement. Concurrently, the burgeon of smartphones and mobile applications has witnessed a proliferation of fitness applications aimed at invigorating exercise adherence and real-time activity monitoring. Grounded in the Uses and gratification theory, this study delves into the technological affordances of mobile fitness applications, discerning the mediating influences of escapism and social outcome expectations on attitudes and exercise intention. The theory explains how individuals employ distinct communication mediums to satiate their exigencies and desires. Technological affordances manifest as attributes of emerging technologies that galvanize personal engagement in physical activities. Several features of mobile fitness applications include affordances for goal setting, virtual rewards, peer support, and exercise information. Escapism, denoting the inclination to disengage from normal routines, has emerged as a salient motivator for the consumption of new media. This study postulates that individual’s perceptions technological affordances within mobile fitness applications, can affect escapism and social outcome expectations, potentially influencing attitude, and behavior formation. Thus, the integrated model has been developed to empirically examine the interrelationships between technological affordances, escapism, social outcome expectations, and exercise intention. Structural Equation Modelling serves as the methodological tool, and a cohort of 400 Fitbit users shall be enlisted from the Prolific, data collection platform. A sequence of multivariate data analyses will scrutinize both the measurement and hypothesized structural models. By delving into the effects of mobile fitness applications, this study contributes to the growing of new media studies in sport management. Moreover, the novel integration of the uses and gratification theory, technological affordances, via the prism of escapism, illustrates the dynamics that underlies mobile fitness user’s attitudes and behavioral intentions. Therefore, the findings from this study contribute to theoretical understanding and provide pragmatic insights to developers and practitioners in optimizing the impact of mobile fitness applications.

Keywords: technological affordances, uses and gratification, mobile fitness apps, escapism, physical activity

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Authors: Madeleine Elder, Aye Htun

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Background: Myiasis is the parasitic infestation of body tissues by fly larvae. It predominantly occurs in poor socioeconomic regions of tropical and subtropical countries where it is associated with poor hygiene and sanitation. Cutaneous and wound myiasis are the most common presentations whereas urogenital myiasis is rare, with few reported cases. Case: a 26-year-old primiparous woman with a low-risk pregnancy presented to the emergency department at 37+3-weeks’ gestation after passing a 2cm black larva during micturition, with 2 weeks of mild vulvar pruritus and dysuria. She had travelled to India 9-months prior. Examination of the external genitalia showed small white larvae over the vulva and anus and a mildly inflamed introitus. Speculum examination showed infiltration into the vagina and heavy white discharge. High vaginal swab reported Candida albicans. Urine microscopy reported bacteriuria with Enterobacter cloacae. Urine parasite examination showed myiasis caused by Clogmia albipunctata species of fly larvae from the family Psychodidae. Renal tract ultrasound and inflammatory markers were normal. Infectious diseases, urology and paediatric teams were consulted. The woman received treatment for her urinary tract infection (which was likely precipitated by bladder irritation from local parasite infestation) and vaginal candidiasis. She underwent daily physical removal of parasites with cleaning, speculum examination and removal, and hydration to promote bladder emptying. Due to the risk of neonatal exposure, aspiration pneumonitis and facial infestation, the woman was steroid covered and proceeded to have an elective caesarean section at 38+3-weeks’ gestation, with delivery of a healthy infant. She then proceeded to have a rigid cystoscopy and washout, which was unremarkable. Placenta histopathology revealed focal eosinophilia in keeping with the history of maternal parasites. Conclusion: Urogenital myiasis is very rare, especially in the developed world where it is seen in returned travellers. Treatment may include systemic therapy with ivermectin and physical removal of parasites. During pregnancy, physical removal is considered the safest treatment option, and discussion around the timing and mode of delivery should consider the risk of harm to the foetus.

Keywords: urogenital myiasis, parasitic infection, infection in pregnancy, returned traveller

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Authors: Mohamed Ahmed M. Azab

Abstract:

The shortage of fresh water is a major problem in several areas of the world such as arid regions and coastal zones in several countries of Arabian Gulf. Fortunately, arid regions are exposed to high levels of solar irradiation most the year, which makes the utilization of solar energy a promising solution to such problem with zero harmful emission (Green System). The main objective of this work is to conduct a feasibility study of utilizing small autonomous water desalination units powered by photovoltaic modules as a green renewable energy resource to be employed in different isolated zones as a source of drinking water for some scattered societies where the installation of huge desalination stations are discarded owing to the unavailability of electric grid. Yanbu City is chosen as a case study where the Renewable Energy Center exists and equipped with all sensors to assess the availability of solar energy all over the year. The study included two types of available water: the first type is brackish well water and the second type is seawater of coastal regions. In the case of well water, two versions of desalination units are involved in the study: the first version is based on day operation only. While the second version takes into consideration night operation also, which requires energy storage system as batteries to provide the necessary electric power at night. According to the feasibility study results, it is found that utilization of small autonomous desalinations unit is applicable and economically accepted in the case of brackish well water. While in the case of seawater the capital costs are extremely high and the cost of desalinated water will not be economically feasible unless governmental subsidies are provided. In addition, the study indicated that, for the same water production, the utilization of energy storage version (day-night) adds additional capital cost for batteries, and extra running cost for their replacement, which makes the unit price not only incompetent with day-only unit but also with conventional units powered by diesel generator (fossil fuel) owing to the low prices of fuel in the kingdom. However, the cost analysis shows that the price of the produced water per cubic meter of day-night unit is similar to that produced from the day-only unit provided that the day-night unit operates theoretically for a longer period of 50%.

Keywords: solar energy, water desalination, reverse osmosis, arid regions

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