Search results for: cyber threats

Authors: Noor Us Saher

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Oceans and Marine areas have a great importance, mainly regarding food resources, fishery products and reliance of livelihood. Aquatic pollution is common due to the incorporation of various chemicals mainly entering from urbanization, industrial and commercial facilities, such as oil and chemical spills. Many hazardous wastes and industrial effluents contaminate the nearby areas and initiate to affect the marine environment. These contaminated conditions may become worse in those aquatic environments situated besides the world’s largest cities, which are hubs of various commercial activities. Heavy metal contamination is one of the most important predicaments for marine environments and during past decades this problem has intensified due to an increase in urbanization and industrialization. Coastal regions of Pakistan are facing severe threats from various organic and inorganic pollutants, especially the estuarine and coastal areas of Karachi city, the most populated and industrialized city situated along the coastline. Metal contamination causes severe toxicity in biota resulting the degradation of Marine environments and depletion of fishery resources and sustainability. There are several abiotic (air, water and sediment) and biotic (fauna and flora) indicators that indicate metal contamination. However, all these indicators have certain limitations and complexities, which delay their implementation for rehabilitation and conservation in the marine environment. The inadequate evidences have presented on this significant topic till the time and this study discussed metal pollution and its consequences along the marine environment of Pakistan. This study further helps in identification of possible hazards for the ecological system and allied resources for management strategies and decision making for sustainable approaches.

Keywords: coastal and estuarine environment, heavy metals pollution, pollution indicators, Pakistan

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Authors: Amaal Ali Al-Gamde

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The Syrian revolution is a major issue in the Middle East, which draws in world powers and receives a great focus in international mass media since 2011. The heavy global reliance on cyber news and digital sources plays a key role in conveying a sense of bias to a wide range of online readers. Thus, based on the assumption that media discourse possesses ideological implications, this study investigates the representation of Syrian revolution in online media. The paper explores the discursive constructions of anti and pro-government powers in Syrian revolution in 1000,000-word corpus of Fars online reports (an Iranian news agency), issued between 2013 and 2015. Taking a corpus assisted discourse analysis approach, the analysis investigates three types of lexicosemantic relations, the semantic macrostructures within which the two social actors are framed, the lexical collocations characterizing the news discourse and the discourse prosodies they tell about the two sides of the conflict. The study utilizes computer-based approaches, sketch engine and AntConc software to minimize the bias of the subjective analysis. The analysis moves from the insights of lexical frequencies and keyness scores to examine themes and the collocational patterns. The findings reveal the Fars agency’s ideological mode of representations in reporting events of Syrian revolution in two ways. The first is by stereotyping the opposition groups under the umbrella of terrorism, using words such as (law breakers, foreign-backed groups, militant groups, terrorists) to legitimize the atrocities of security forces against protesters and enhance horror among civilians. The second is through emphasizing the power of the government and depicting it as the defender of the Arab land by foregrounding the discourse of international conspiracy against Syria. The paper concludes discussing the potential importance of triangulating corpus linguistic tools with critical discourse analysis to elucidate more about discourses and reality.

Keywords: discourse prosody, ideology, keyness, semantic macrostructure

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Authors: I. Agboola Julius, Christopher A. Kumolu-Johnson, O. Kolade Rafiu, A. Saba Abdulwakil

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This work elucidates on mangrove diversity, trends of change, factors responsible for loss over the years and implications for sustainable livelihoods of locals in four villages (Ajido (L1), Tarkwa bay (L2), University of Lagos (L3), and Ikosi (L4)) along the coast of Lagos, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through field survey, questionnaires, interviews, and review of existing literature. Field observation and data analysis reveals mangrove diversity as low and varied on a spatial scale, where Margalef’s Diversity Index (D) was 0.368, 0.269, 0.326, and 0.333, respectively for L1, L2, L3, and L4. Shannon Weiner’s Index (H) was estimated to be 1.003, 1.460, 1.160, 1.046, and Specie Richness (E) 0.913, 0.907, 0.858, and 0.015, respectively, for the four villages. Also, The Simpson’s index of diversity was analyzed to be 0.632, 0. 731, 0.647, 0.667, and Simpson’s reciprocal index 2.717, 3.717, 3.060, and 3.003, respectively, for the four villages. Chi-square test was used to analyze the impact of mangrove loss on the sustainable livelihood of coastal communities. Calculated Chi-square (X2) value (5) was higher than tabulated value (4.30), suggesting that loss of mangrove wetlands impacted on local communities’ livelihood at the four villages. Analyses of causes and trends of mangrove wetland loss over the years suggest that urbanization, fuel wood and agricultural activities are major causes. Current degradation observed in mangrove wetlands on the Lagos coast suggest a reduction in mangroves biodiversity and associated fauna with potential cascading effects on higher trophic levels such as fisheries. Low yield in fish catch, reduction in income and increasing cases of natural disaster has culminated in threats to sustainable livelihoods of local communities along the coast of Lagos.

Keywords: Mangroves, lagos coast, fisheries, management

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Authors: Emmanuel Iyamuremye, Edouard Singirankabo, Alexis Habineza, Yunvirusaba Nelson

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Temperature is one of the most important climatic factors for crop production. However, severe temperatures cause drought, feverish and cold spells that have various consequences for human life, agriculture, and the environment in general. It is necessary to provide reliable information related to the incidents and the probability of such extreme events occurring. In the 21st century, the world faces a huge number of threats, especially from climate change, due to global warming and environmental degradation. The rise in temperature has a direct effect on the decrease in rainfall. This has an impact on crop growth and development, which in turn decreases crop yield and quality. Countries that are heavily dependent on agriculture use to suffer a lot and need to take preventive steps to overcome these challenges. The main objective of this study is to model the statistical behaviour of extreme maximum temperature values in Rwanda. To achieve such an objective, the daily temperature data spanned the period from January 2000 to December 2017 recorded at nine weather stations collected from the Rwanda Meteorological Agency were used. The two methods, namely the block maxima (BM) method and the Peaks Over Threshold (POT), were applied to model and analyse extreme temperature. Model parameters were estimated, while the extreme temperature return periods and confidence intervals were predicted. The model fit suggests Gumbel and Beta distributions to be the most appropriate models for the annual maximum of daily temperature. The results show that the temperature will continue to increase, as shown by estimated return levels.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, extreme value theory, rwanda, temperature, generalised extreme value distribution, generalised pareto distribution

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Authors: Andrew Couch, Nicholas Loyd, Nathan Tenhundfeld

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The rapid emergence of technology observably induces disruptive effects that carry implications for internal organizational dynamics as well as external market opportunities, strategic pressures, and threats. An examination of the historical tendencies of technology innovation shows that the body of managerial knowledge for addressing such disruption is underdeveloped. Fundamentally speaking, the impacts of innovation are unique and situationally oriented. Hence, the appropriate managerial response becomes a complex function that depends on the nature of the emerging technology, the posturing of internal organizational dynamics, the rate of technological growth, and much more. This research considers a particular case of mismanagement, the BP Texas City Refinery explosion of 2005, that carries notable discrepancies on the basis of human factors principles. Moreover, this research considers the modern technological climate (shaped by Industry 4.0 technologies) and seeks to arrive at an appropriate conceptual lens by which human factors principles and Industry 4.0 may be favorably integrated. In this manner, the careful examination of these phenomena helps to better support the sustainment of human factors principles despite the disruptive impacts that are imparted by technological innovation. In essence, human factors considerations are assessed through the application of principles that stem from usability engineering, the Swiss Cheese Model of accident causation, human-automation interaction, signal detection theory, alarm design, and other factors. Notably, this stream of research supports a broader framework in seeking to guide organizations amid the uncertainties of Industry 4.0 to capture higher levels of adoption, implementation, and transparency.

Keywords: Industry 4.0, human factors engineering, management, case study

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Authors: Yulan Wu

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The spread of fake news on social media has posed significant societal harm to the public and the nation, with its threats spanning various domains, including politics, economics, health, and more. News on social media often covers multiple domains, and existing models studied by researchers and relevant organizations often perform well on datasets from a single domain. However, when these methods are applied to social platforms with news spanning multiple domains, their performance significantly deteriorates. Existing research has attempted to enhance the detection performance of multi-domain datasets by adding single-domain labels to the data. However, these methods overlook the fact that a news article typically belongs to multiple domains, leading to the loss of domain knowledge information contained within the news text. To address this issue, research has found that news records in different domains often use different vocabularies to describe their content. In this paper, we propose a fake news detection framework that combines domain knowledge and expert knowledge. Firstly, it utilizes an unsupervised domain discovery module to generate a low-dimensional vector for each news article, representing domain embeddings, which can retain multi-domain knowledge of the news content. Then, a feature extraction module uses the domain embeddings discovered through unsupervised domain knowledge to guide multiple experts in extracting news knowledge for the total feature representation. Finally, a classifier is used to determine whether the news is fake or not. Experiments show that this approach can improve multi-domain fake news detection performance while reducing the cost of manually labeling domain labels.

Keywords: fake news, deep learning, natural language processing, multiple domains

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Authors: J. E. O. Hernandez

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In the next 20 years, energy production by burning fuels will increase and so will the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and its well-known threats to life on Earth. The technologies available for capturing CO2 are still dubious and this keeps fostering an interest in bio-inspired approaches. The leading one is the application of carbonic anhydrase (CA) –a superfast biocatalyst able to convert up to one million molecules of CO2 into carbonates in water. However, natural CA underperforms when applied to real smoky CO2 in chimneys and, so far, the efforts to create superior CAs in the lab rely on screening methods running under pristine conditions at the micro level, which are far from resembling those in chimneys. For the evolution of man-made enzymes, selection rather than screening would be ideal but this is challenging because of the need for a suitable artificial environment that is also sustainable for our society. Herein we present the stepwise design and construction of a bioprocess (from bench-scale to semi-pilot) for evolutionary selection experiments. In this bioprocess, reaction and adsorption took place simultaneously at atmospheric pressure in a spray tower. The scrubbing solution was fed countercurrently by reusing municipal pressure and it was mainly prepared with water, carbonic anhydrase and calcium chloride. This bioprocess allowed for the enzymatic carbonation of smoky CO2; the reuse of process water and the recovery of solid carbonates without cooling of smoke, pretreatments, solvent amines and compression of CO2. The average yield of solid carbonates was 0.54 g min-1 or 12-fold the amount produced in serum bottles at lab bench scale. This bioprocess could be used as a tailor-made environment for driving the selection of superior CAs. The bioprocess and its match CA could be sustainably used to reduce global warming by CO2 emissions from exhausts.

Keywords: biological carbon capture and sequestration, carbonic anhydrase, directed evolution, global warming

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Authors: Leila Kharrat, Younes Boujelbene

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In recent decades, solid waste management (SWM) has become a global concern because rapid population growth and overexploitation of non-renewable resources have generated enormous amounts of waste far exceeding carrying capacity; too, it poses serious threats to the environment and health. However, it is still difficult to combat the growing amount of solid waste before assessing the condition of people. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitudes, perception, and practices on the separation of solid waste in Sfax City. Nowadays, GDS is essential for sustainable development, hence the need for intensive research. Respondents from seven different districts in the city of Sfax were analyzed through a questionnaire survey with 342 households. This paper presents a qualitative exploratory study on the behavior of the citizens in the field of waste separation. The objective knows the antecedents of waste separation and the representation that individuals have about sorting waste on a specific territory which presents some characteristics regarding waste management in Sfax city. Source separation is not widely practiced and people usually sweep their places throwing waste components into the streets or neighboring plots. The results also indicate that participation in solid waste separation activities depends on the level of awareness of separating activities in the area, household income and educational level. It is, therefore, argued that increasing quality of municipal service is the best means of promoting positive attitudes to solid waste separation activities. One of the effective strategies identified by households that can be initiated by policymakers to increase the rate of participation in separation activities and eventually encourage them to participate in recycling activities is to provide a financial incentive in all residential areas in Sfax city.

Keywords: solid waste management, waste separation, public policy, econometric modelling

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Authors: Akhatjon Nasullaev, Raffaella Manzini, Vincent Frigant

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The prior research largely discussed open innovation practices both in large and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Open Innovation compels firms to observe and analyze the external environment in order to tap new opportunities for inbound and/or outbound flows of knowledge, ideas, work in progress innovations. As SMEs are different from their larger counterparts, they face several limitations in utilizing open innovation activities, such as resource scarcity, unstructured innovation processes and underdeveloped innovation capabilities. Technology intelligence – the process of systematic acquisition, assessment and communication of information about technological trends, opportunities and threats can mitigate this limitation by enabling SMEs to identify technological and market opportunities in timely manner and undertake sound decisions, as well as to realize a ‘first mover advantage’. Several studies highlighted firm-level barriers to successful implementation of open innovation practices in SMEs, namely challenges in partner selection, intellectual property rights and trust, absorptive capacity. This paper aims to investigate the question how technology intelligence can be useful for SMEs to overcome the barriers to effective open innovation. For this, we conduct a case study in four Estonian life-sciences SMEs. Our findings revealed that technology intelligence can support SMEs not only in inbound open innovation (taking into account inclination of most firms toward technology exploration aspects of open innovation) but also outbound open innovation. Furthermore, the results of this study state that, although SMEs conduct technology intelligence in unsystematic and uncoordinated manner, it helped them to increase their innovative performance.

Keywords: technology intelligence, open innovation, SMEs, life sciences

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Authors: Linda Frazer

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A pluralistic methodology focuses on promoting an understanding that an alternative juridical framework for the regulation of transnational business negotiations (TBN) between private business parties is fundamentally required. This paper deals with the evolving assessment of the doctoral research of the author which demonstrated that due to insufficient juridical tools, negotiations are commonly misunderstood within the complexity of pluralistic and conflicting legal regimes. This inadequacy causes uncertainty in the enforcement of legal remedies, leaving business parties surprised. Consequently, parties cannot sufficiently anticipate when and how legal rights and obligations are created, often counting on oral or incomplete agreements which may lead to the misinterpretation of the extent of their legal rights and obligations. This uncertainty causes threats to business parties for fear of creating unintended legal obligations or, conversely, that law will not enforce intended agreements for failure to pass the tests of contractual validity. A need to find a manner to set default standards of communications and standards of conduct to monitor our evolving global trade would aid law to provide the security, predictability and foreseeability during alternative dispute resolution required by TBN parties. The conclusion of this study includes a proposal of new trade mechanisms, termed 'Bills of Negotiations' (BON) to enhance party autonomy and promote the ability for TBN parties to self-regulate within the boundaries of law. BON will be guided by a secure juridical institutionalized setting that caters to guiding communications during TBN and resolving disputes that arise along the negotiation processes on a fast track basis.

Keywords: alternative resolution disputes, ADR, good faith, good faith, juridical security, legal regulation, trade mechanisms, transnational business negotiations

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Authors: Samuel Ntsanwisi

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This study investigates the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the preservation of endangered African languages. The study is contextualized within the film and television industry, highlighting disparities in screen representation for certain languages in South Africa, underscoring the need for increased visibility and preservation efforts; with globalization and cultural shifts posing significant threats to linguistic diversity, this research explores approaches to language preservation. By leveraging AI technologies, such as speech recognition, translation, and adaptive learning applications, and integrating VR for immersive and interactive experiences, the study aims to create a framework for teaching and passing on endangered African languages. Through digital documentation, interactive language learning applications, storytelling, and community engagement, the research demonstrates how these technologies can empower communities to revitalize their linguistic heritage. This study employs a dual-method approach, combining a rigorous literature review to analyse existing research on the convergence of AI, VR, and language preservation with primary data collection through interviews and surveys with ten filmmakers. The literature review establishes a solid foundation for understanding the current landscape, while interviews with filmmakers provide crucial real-world insights, enriching the study's depth. This balanced methodology ensures a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between AI, VR, and language preservation, offering both theoretical insights and practical perspectives from industry professionals.

Keywords: language preservation, endangered languages, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, interactive learning

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Authors: Abara Onu, Augustine Mina Ephraim, Emmanuel Teidi

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Terrorism has been a major challenge and is so dare to the Nigerian government in recent times. The actions and activities of the Islamic sect known as Boko Haram had led to enormous loss of lives and properties in the country, mostly the Northern part of Nigeria. Some of these activities entails bombings, suicide attacks, intimidations, sporadic gunfire of the unarmed, blameless and innocent Nigerians, burning of police stations and churches, kidnappings, raping of school girls and women. Nigeria has also been included amongst one of the terrorist countries of the world. This has serious implications for the development of Nigerian economy. Although, Nigeria had made several worried hard work to deal with these challenges masqueraded by terrorism and insecurity in the country but the rate of insurgency and insecurity is still worrisome. The study looks at exploring the determinants of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigerian security systems and economy. Data used for the study work was from questionnaire administered, using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method to analyse the data. The result shows that Ideology and funding are significant basic factors that propelled the Boko Haram group in Nigeria. The Boko Haram disaster poses a significant threat to Nigeria’s economy and the military is the best option and solution in tackling the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria. The work x-rayed the following recommendations; government should declare war on terrorism and as well seek support and cooperation from international communities who in time or the other might have faced with this kind ugly experience and challenge and were able to tackle it. Nigerian Military needs to be more empowered with high dangerous weapons to combat the insurgency as well as beef up security across the Country to curb the threats.

Keywords: terrorism, economy, Boko Haram, Nigeria

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Authors: Mohammed Ahmed Ahmed Odah

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DNA barcoding is a crucial method for assessing and monitoring species diversity amidst escalating threats to global biodiversity. The author explores DNA barcoding's potential as a robust and reliable tool for biodiversity assessment. It begins with a comprehensive review of existing literature, delving into the theoretical foundations, methodologies and applications of DNA barcoding. The suitability of various DNA regions, like the COI gene, as universal barcodes is extensively investigated. Additionally, the advantages and limitations of different DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools are evaluated within the context of DNA barcoding. To evaluate the efficacy of DNA barcoding, diverse ecosystems, including terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats, are sampled. Extracted DNA from collected specimens undergoes amplification and sequencing of the target barcode region. Comparison of the obtained DNA sequences with reference databases allows for the identification and classification of the sampled organisms. Findings demonstrate that DNA barcoding accurately identifies species, even in cases where morphological identification proves challenging. Moreover, it sheds light on cryptic and endangered species, aiding conservation efforts. The author also investigates patterns of genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships among different taxa through the analysis of genetic data. This research contributes to the growing knowledge of DNA barcoding and its applicability for biodiversity assessment. The advantages of this approach, such as speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness, are highlighted, along with areas for improvement. By unlocking the genetic code, DNA barcoding enhances our understanding of biodiversity, supports conservation initiatives and informs evidence-based decision-making for the sustainable management of ecosystems.

Keywords: DNA barcoding, biodiversity assessment, genetic code, species identification, taxonomic resolution, next-generation sequencing

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Authors: Jansen Ang, Andrew Neo, Dawn Chia

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Border Security is unlike mainstream policing in that officers are essentially in static deployment, working round the clock every day and every hour of the year looking for illegitimate entry of persons and goods. In Singapore, Border Security officers perform multiple functions to ensure the nation’s safety and security. They are responsible for safeguarding the borders of Singapore to prevent threats from entering the country. Being the first line of defence in ensuring the nation’s border security officers are entrusted with the responsibility of screening travellers inbound and outbound of Singapore daily. They examined 99 million arrivals and departures at the various checkpoints in 2014, which is a considerable volume compared to most immigration agencies. The officers’ work scopes also include cargo clearance, protective and security functions of checkpoints. The officers work in very demanding environment which can range from the smog at the land checkpoints to the harshness of the ports at the sea checkpoints. In addition, all immigration checkpoints are located at the boundaries, posing commuting challenges for officers. At the land checkpoints, festive seasons and school breaks are peak periods as given the surge of inbound and outbound travellers at the various checkpoints. Such work provides unique challenges in comparison to other law enforcement duties. This paper assesses the current stressors faced by officers of a border security agency through the conduct of ground observations as well as a perceived stress survey as well as recommendations in combating stressors faced by border security officers. The findings from the field observations and surveys indicate organisational and operational stressors that are unique to border security and recommends interventions in managing these stressors. Understanding these stressors would better inform border security agencies on the interventions needed to enhance the resilience of border security officers.

Keywords: border security, Singapore, stress, operations

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Authors: Anastasia V. Lazareva

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Nowadays in the light of the evolving multifocal challenges in the sphere of environmental and social difficulties and despite the strong opposition of globalist and anti-globalist movements, we are facing the urgent need of the creation of a vast pool of educated environmentalists through the implementation of relevant university faculties and programs. Considering the threats humanity has tackled these years portrayed in every tiny detail in AGENDA – 2030 –namely, poverty, biodiversity loss, marine and terrestrial pollution, lack of sanitation, and equal rights for all, we must admit that professionals are required to address them all. With this purpose, we have conducted research based on the questionnaires of students, faculty members, and companies’ chief executives and human resources managers on what particular disciplines should be incorporated into the programs in universities and higher institutions to meet the millennium goals and tests. The research is based on the Linkert scale and covers various age groups of students. The topicality of this issue is predetermined by modern reality. The subject of the research is a questionnaire database filled in by 97 students, 17 faculty members of MGIMO University, and 14 companies’ representatives concerning their attitudes towards the implementation of environmental programs of studies in universities and the choice of disciplines required. The study has a limitation -it is based only on one university students' and faculty members’ questionnaires. The methods applied are a questionnaire, content analysis, sampling, and categorization. The findings of this survey imply that all three groups of respondents admit the necessity of implementing environmental programs for studies in higher education. Nevertheless, different groups favor various programs and disciplines to be incorporated into the curriculum.

Keywords: ecology, university studies, environmentalists, education, global challenges

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Authors: Eka Darbaidze

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Due to its important geopolitical location and strategic economic situation, the South Caucasus has been a region that has been a crossroads of interests between different states and empires since ancient times. Over the centuries, the forms of international relations with regard to the South Caucasus region have been constantly changing, however, the national interests of the Caucasian nations as well as the interests of the regional hegemonic powers in relation to the countries of the South Caucasus have remained almost unchanged. The conflict-ridden South Caucasus's attempt to create a new format of regional cooperation has a rather rich history, dating back to the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, despite the diversity of initiatives, they do not deviate from the format of political statements and it is natural that the case was never settled before their implementation, as none of the previous cooperation initiatives was able to reach all members of the region. The current regional co-operation platform is linked to the name of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke out about the initiative during a visit to Azerbaijan. The so-called 3 + 3 platform for regional cooperation involves cooperation between three countries in the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) and three "big neighbors" - Russia, Turkey and Iran. Very soon, the initiative received a positive response from the authorities of Azerbaijan, Iran and Armenia. According to them, this cooperation platform will strengthen cooperation between the countries involved in the regional platform and will focus on security, economic and transport issues. Our goal is to determine the interests of the main regional actors involved in the South Caucasus Cooperation Platform (3 + 3): Iran, Russia and Turkey. Our goal is also to determine what threats, risks or benefits may be associated with the involvement of the three countries of the South Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in this platform and what will be the consequences for Georgia, whose 20% of its internationally recognized borders are still occupied by Russia and whose territory is still under creeping occupation.

Keywords: South Caucasus, Georgia's interest, the interests of Iran, the interests of Turkey, Russian interests, Georgia's occupation

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Authors: M. C. Teng, M. C. Ke, C. Y. Yang, S. S. Ke

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There are more than one thousand times a year of felt earthquakes in Taiwan. Because earthquakes are disaster threats to urban infrastructure, they often disrupt infrastructure services. For example, the highway system is very important to transportation infrastructure; however, it is vulnerable to earthquakes and typhoons in Taiwan. When a highway system is damaged by disaster, it will create a major impact on post-disaster communications and emergency relief and affect disaster relief works. In a study case on September 18th, 2022, the Taitung Chihshang earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale with a depth of 7 km, caused one death; 171 people were injured and had a significant urban infrastructure impact. Hualien and Taitung areas have a large number of surface ruptures, road disruptions due to the collapses, over ten cases of bridges failure or closed, partial railroad section service shutdown, building collapses, and casualties. Taitung Chihshang earthquake, the peak ground acceleration is 585 gal (cm/s²), and the seismic intensity is Level 6 Upper(6+)in Chishang, Taitung County. After the earthquakes, we conducted on-site disaster investigation works in the disaster area; the disaster investigation works included a public and private building survey, a transportation facility survey, a total of ten damaged bridges, and one railroad station damaged were investigated in this investigation. The results showed that the affected locations were mainly concentrated along the Chihshang fault and the Yuli fault in the Huatung Longitudinal Valley. We recorded and described the impact and assessed its influence region in terms of its susceptibility to and the consequences of earthquake attacks. In addition, a lesson is learned from this study regarding the key issues after the Taitung Chihshang earthquake.

Keywords: earthquake, infrastructure, disaster investigation, lesson learned

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Authors: Serkan Tezgel

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Effectively managing threats and power that transcend national boundaries requires a reformulation from the traditional post-modern navy to an adaptive and institutional transnational navy. By analyzing existing soft power concept, post-modern navy, and sea power, this study proposes the transnational navy, founded on the triangle of main attributes of transnational companies, 'Global Competitiveness, Local Responsiveness, Worldwide Learning and Innovation Sharing', a new model which will lead to a positive peace with an institutional network. This transnational model necessitates 'Transnational Navies' to help establish peace with collective and transnational understanding during a transition period 'Reactive Postmodern Navy' has been experiencing. In this regard, it is fairly claimed that a new paradigm shift will revolve around sea power to establish good order at sea with collective and collaborative initiatives and bound to breed new theories and ideas in the forthcoming years. However, there are obstacles to overcome. Postmodern navies, currently shaped by 'Collective Maritime Security' and 'Collective Defense' concepts, can not abandon reactive applications and acts. States deploying postmodern navies to realize their policies on international platforms and seapower structures shaped by the axis of countries’ absolute interests resulted in multipolar alliances and coalitions, but the establishment of the peace. These obstacles can be categorized into three tiers in establishing a unique transnational model navy: Strategic, Organizational and Management challenges. To overcome these obstacles and challenges, postmodern navies should transform into cooperative, collective and independent soft transnational navies with the transnational mentality, global commons, and institutional network. Such an adaptive institution can help the world navigate to a positive peace.

Keywords: postmodern navy, transnational navy, transnational mentality, institutional network

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Authors: Bara' Al-Mistarehi

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Documentation and assessment of conservation state of an archaeological structure is a significant procedure in any management plan. However, it has always been a challenge to apply this with a low coast and safe methodology. It is also a time-demanding procedure. Therefore, a low cost, efficient methodology for documenting the state of a structure is needed. In the scope of this research, this paper will employ digital photogrammetry and laser scanner to one of highly significant structures in Germany, The Old Castle (German: Altes Schloss). The site is well known for its unique features. However, the castle suffers from serious deterioration threats because of the environmental conditions and the absence of continuous monitoring, maintenance and repair plans. Digital photogrammetry is a generally accepted technique for the collection of 3D representations of the environment. For this reason, this image-based technique has been extensively used to produce high quality 3D models of heritage sites and historical buildings for documentation and presentation purposes. Additionally, terrestrial laser scanners are used, which directly measure 3D surface coordinates based on the run-time of reflected light pulses. These systems feature high data acquisition rates, good accuracy and high spatial data density. Despite the potential of each single approach, in this research work maximum benefit is to be expected by a combination of data from both digital cameras and terrestrial laser scanners. Within the paper, the usage, application and advantages of the technique will be investigated in terms of building high realistic 3D textured model for some parts of the old castle. The model will be used as diagnosing tool of the conservation state of the castle and monitoring mean for future changes.

Keywords: Digital photogrammetry, Terrestrial laser scanners, 3D textured model, archaeological structure

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Authors: Saima Akbar, Tahseen Ullah Khan

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The analysis of the climate change impact on flood frequency represents an important issue for water resource management and flood risk mitigation. This research was conducted to address the effects of climate change on flood incidents of Pakistan and find out gaps in existing policies to reducing the environmental aspects on floods and effects of global warming. The main objective of this research was to critically analyses the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Federal Flood Commission (FFC) and Vision 2025, as an effective policy document which is not only hitting the target of a climate resilient Pakistan but provides room for efficient and flexible policy implementation. The methodology integrates projected changes in monsoon patterns (since last 20 years and overall change in rainfall pattern since 1901 to 2015 from Pakistan Metrological Department), glacier melting, decreasing dam capacity and lacks in existing policies by using SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) model in order to explore the relative impacts of global warming on the system performance. Results indicate the impacts of climate change are significant, but probably not large enough to justify a major effort for adapting the physical infrastructure to expected climatic conditions in Vision 2025 which is our shared destination to progress, ultimate aspiration to see Pakistan among the ten largest economies of the world by 2047– the centennial year of our independence. The conclusion of this research was to adapt sustainable measures to reduce flood impacts and make policies as neighboring countries are adapting for their sustainability.

Keywords: climatic factors, monsoon, Pakistan, sustainability

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Authors: Sankaran Potti Narasimhan

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Costal Karnataka is sandwiched between Arabian Sea and the biodiversity hotspot of Western Ghats. This has provided a rich vegetation, canopy and humidity for the sustainable growth and evolution of many orchid populations. Similar to many other biodiversity hostpot regions of India and the world, this region also faces threat from anthropogenic activities and climate change. Hence, there is a need to study the current orchid diversity and trends in population as well as an effective conservation strategy. Costal belt of Karnataka state of India extends over 325 kilometers and an area of 18,000 km2. The region encompasses two national parks such as the Anshi National Park and the Kudremukh National Park. The study regions also include two Wild Life Sanctuaries such as the Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary and Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary. The estimated number of orchids in the region includes 30 genera and 45 species. Both terrestrial and epiphytic orchids are found in this region. The region contains many red listed orchids such as Trias stocksii (Critically endangered), Eriad alzellii (Lower risk vulnerable) and Dendrobnium ovatum (Vulnerable). The important terrestrial orchids of the region are Geodorum, Habenaria, Lipparis, Malaxis, Nervilia, Pachystoma, Pectelis, Peristylus, Tropidia and Zeuxine. The epiphytic forms includes Acampe, Aerides, Bulbophyllum, Cleisostoma, Conchidum, Cottonia, Cymbidium, Dendronium, Eria, Flickingeria, Gastrochilus, Kingidium, Luisia, Oberonia, Phalaenopsis, Pholidota, Porpax, Rhynchostylis, Sirhookera and Trias. The current paper discusses the population strength and changes in the population structure of these orchids along with proposed conservation strategies.

Keywords: orchid diversity, bulbophyllum, dendrobium, orchid conservation

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Authors: Noah G. Akhimien, Eshrar Latif

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The natural environment is in need for an urgent rescue due to dilapidation and recession of resources. Passive design strategies have proven to be one of the effective ways to reduce CO₂ emissions and to improve building performance. On the other hand, there is a huge drop in material availability due to poor recycling culture. Consequently, building waste pose environmental hazard due to unrecycled building materials from construction and deconstruction. Buildings are seen to be material banks for a circular economy, therefore incorporating circular economy into passive housing will not only safe guide the climate but also improve resource efficiency. The study focuses on incorporating a circular economy in passive design strategies for an affordable energy and resource efficient residential building in Nigeria. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration is still on the increase as buildings are responsible for a significant amount of this emission globally. Therefore, prompt measures need to be taken to combat the effect of global warming and associated threats. Nigeria is rapidly growing in human population, resources on the other hand have receded greatly, and there is an abrupt need for recycling even in the built environment. It is necessary that Nigeria responds to these challenges effectively and efficiently considering building resource and energy. Passive design strategies were assessed using simulations to obtain qualitative and quantitative data which were inferred to case studies as it relates to the Nigeria climate. Building materials were analysed using the ReSOLVE model in order to explore possible recycling phase. This provided relevant information and strategies to illustrate the possibility of circular economy in passive buildings. The study offers an alternative approach, as it is the general principle for the reworking of an economy on ecological lines in passive housing and by closing material loops in circular economy.

Keywords: building, circular, efficiency, environment, sustainability

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Authors: Aminu Ololade Matilda

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Child abuse is a significant issue worldwide, affecting the socio-development and mental and physical health of young individuals. It is the maltreatment of a child by an adult or a child. This paper focuses on child abuse in Communities in Lagos State. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of child abuse and its impact on the mood, social activities, self-worth, concentration, and academic performance of children in Communities in Lagos State. The primary research instrument used in this study was the interview (Forensic), which consisted of two sections. The first section gathered data on the details of the child and the forms and impacts of abuse experienced, while the second section focused on parental style. The study found that children who experienced various forms of abuse, such as emotional, neglect, physical, or sexual abuse, were hesitant to report it out of fear of threats or even death from the abuser. These abused children displayed withdrawn behaviour, depression, and low self-worth and underperformed academically compared to their peers who did not experience abuse. The findings align with socio-learning and intergenerational transmission of violence theories, which suggest that parents and caregivers who engage in child abuse often do so because they themselves experienced or witnessed abuse as children, thereby normalizing violence. The study highlights the prevalent issue of child abuse in Lagos State and emphasizes the need for advocacy programs and capacity building to raise awareness about child abuse and prevention. The distribution of the Child’s Rights Act in various sectors is also recommended to underscore the importance of protecting the rights of children. Additionally, the inclusion of courses on child abuse in the school curriculum is proposed to ensure children are educated on recognizing and reporting abuse.

Keywords: abuse, child, awareness, effects, emotional, neglect, physical, psychological, sexual, recognize, reporting, right

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Authors: Akbar Zeb, Shujaul Mulk Khan, Habib Ahmad, Manzoor Hussain, Mujtaba Shah

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An ethnobotanical project was carried out in the Dughalgay valley District Swat in Hindu Kush region. The Local population not only use indigenous knowledge to use medicinal plants for curing various diseases but also earn their live hood by selling some of them in the local markets. An ethnobotanical project was carried out in the Doghalgay valley of upper Swat. The Local population not only use indigenous medicinal plants for curing various diseases but also earn their live hood by selling some of them in the local market. 102 of these medicinal plants were reported to be used in the region during questionnaire survey in spring 2007. Out of them 10 species are used as diuretic, 9 in stomachic and laxative each. Similarly 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, and 4 species of them are used as antiseptic, Anthelmintic, Carminative, Expectorant, Astringent and purgative respectively, while the remaining species have one or more than one medicinal use in the local community. 30 of these species are collected for marketing purposes, in which these medicinal plants such as Berberis lycium, Origanum vulgare, Bergenia ciliata, Aesculus indica, Podophyllum emodi, Pteredium aquilinum, Bergenia himalyca, Viola spp., Ajuga bracteosa, Morchella esculenta, Paeonia emodi, Atropa acuminate, Aconitum violaceum, Polygonum amplexicaulis, Bupleurum longicaule, Juglans regia, Diospyrus lotus, and Mentha longifolia are important. Study concluded that availability of medicinal plants is decreasing day by day due to human population pressure, marketing pressure, grazing and unwise collection. Therefore it is recommended that Governmental organizations and non Governmental organization should pay possible attention to make aware the local people about the future threats.

Keywords: indigenous knowledge, ethnomedicinal uses, marketing, Hindu Kush

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Authors: Olayinka Adeniyi, Melissa Omino

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The field of data privacy and data protection in Africa is still an evolving area, with many African countries yet to enact legislation on the subject. While African Governments are bringing their legislation to speed in this field, how patriarchy pervades every sector of African thought and manifests in society needs to be considered. Moreover, the laws enacted ought to be inclusive, especially towards women. This, in a nutshell, is the essence of data feminism. Data feminism is a new way of thinking about data science and data ethics that is informed by the ideas of intersectional feminism. Feminising data privacy and protection will involve thinking women, considering women in the issues of data privacy and protection, particularly in legislation, as is the case in this paper. The line of thought of women inclusion is not uncommon when even international and regional human rights specific for women only came long after the general human rights. The consideration is that these should have been inserted or rather included in the original general instruments in the first instance. Since legislation on data privacy is coming in this century, having seen the rights and shortcomings of earlier instruments, then the cue should be taken to ensure inclusive wholistic legislation for data privacy and protection in the first instance. Data feminism is arguably an area that has been scantily researched, albeit a needful one. With the spate of increase in the violence against women spiraling in the cyber world, compounding the issue of COVID-19 and the needful response of governments, and the effect of these on women and their rights, fast forward, the research on the feminism of data privacy and protection in Africa becomes inevitable. This paper seeks to answer the questions, what is data feminism in the African context, why is it important in the issue of data privacy and protection legislation; what are the laws, if any, existing on data privacy and protection in Africa, are they women inclusive, if not, why; what are the measures put in place for the privacy and protection of women in Africa, and how can this be made possible. The paper aims to investigate the issue of data privacy and protection in Africa, the legal framework, and the protection or provision that it has for women if any. It further aims to research the importance and necessity of feminizing data privacy and protection, the effect of lack of it, the challenges or bottlenecks in attaining this feat and the possibilities of accessing data privacy and protection for African women. The paper also researches the emerging practices of data privacy and protection of women in other jurisprudences. It approaches the research through the methodology of review of papers, analysis of laws, and reports. It seeks to contribute to the existing literature in the field and is explorative in its suggestion. It suggests a draft of some clauses to make any data privacy and protection legislation women inclusive. It would be useful for policymaking, academic, and public enlightenment.

Keywords: feminism, women, law, data, Africa

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Authors: Justin A. Udie, Subhes C. Bhatthacharyya, Leticia Ozawa-Meida

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The impact of climate change is severe in the Niger Delta and critical oil and gas infrastructures are vulnerable. This is partly due to lack of specific impact assessment framework to assess impact indices on both existing and new infrastructures. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the assessment of climate change impact on critical oil and gas infrastructure in the region. Comparative and documentary methods as well as analysis of frameworks were used to develop a flexible, integrated and conceptual four dimensional framework underpinning; 1. Scoping – the theoretical identification of inherent climate burdens, review of exposure, adaptive capacities and delineation of critical infrastructure; 2. Vulnerability assessment – presents a systematic procedure for the assessment of infrastructure vulnerability. It provides real time re-scoping, practical need for data collection, analysis and review. Physical examination of systems is encouraged to complement the scoped data and ascertain the level of exposure to relevant climate risks in the area; 3. New infrastructure – consider infrastructures that are still at developmental level. It seeks to suggest the inclusion of flexible adaptive capacities in original design of infrastructures in line with climate threats and projections; 4. The Mainstreaming Climate Impact Assessment into government’s environmental decision making approach. Though this framework is designed specifically for the estimation of exposure, adaptive capacities and criticality of vulnerable oil and gas infrastructures in the Niger Delta to climate burdens; it is recommended for researchers and experts as a first-hand generic and practicable tool which can be used for the assessment of other infrastructures perceived as critical and vulnerable. The paper does not provide further tools that synch into the methodological approach but presents pointers upon which a pragmatic methodology can be developed.

Keywords: adaptation, assessment, conceptual, climate, change, framework, vulnerability

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Authors: Lubem Matthew Kwaghkor

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Terrorism, which remains one of the largest threats faced by various nations and communities around the world, including Nigeria, is the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population to attain particular goals that might be political, religious, or economical. Several terrorist groups are currently active in Nigeria, leading to attacks on both civil and military targets. Among these groups, Boko Haram is the deadliest terrorist group operating majorly in Borno State. The southern part of Borno State in North-Eastern Nigeria has been plagued by terrorism, insurgency, and conflict for several years. Understanding the dynamics of terrorism is crucial for developing effective strategies to mitigate its impact on communities and to facilitate peace-building efforts. This research aims to develop a mathematical model that captures the dynamics of terrorism within the southern part of Borno State, Nigeria, capturing both government and local community intervention strategies as control measures in combating terrorism. A compartmental model of five nonlinear differential equations is formulated. The model analyses show that a feasible solution set of the model exists and is bounded. Stability analyses show that both the terrorism free equilibrium and the terrorism endermic equilibrium are asymptotically stable, making the model to have biological meaning. Optimal control theory will be employed to identify the most effective strategy to prevent or minimize acts of terrorism. The research outcomes are expected to contribute towards enhancing security and stability in Southern Borno State while providing valuable insights for policymakers, security agencies, and researchers. This is an ongoing research.

Keywords: modelling, terrorism, optimal control, susceptible, non-susceptible, community intervention

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Authors: Govind Kumar

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The concept of ‘e-governance’ that was brought about by the new wave of reforms, namely ‘LPG’ in the early 1990s, has been enabling governments across the globe to digitally transform themselves. Digital transformation is leading the governments with qualitative decisions, optimization in rational use of resources, facilitation of cost-benefit analyses, and elimination of redundancy and corruption with the help of ICT-based applications interface. ICT-based applications/technologies have enormous potential for impacting positive change in the social lives of the global citizenry. Supercomputers test and analyze millions of drug molecules for developing candidate vaccines to combat the global pandemic. Further, e-commerce portals help distribute and supply household items and medicines, while videoconferencing tools provide a visual interface between the clients and hosts. Besides, crop yields are being maximized with the help of drones and machine learning, whereas satellite data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing help governments with the detection of illegal mining, tackling deforestation, and managing freshwater resources. Such e-applications have the potential to take governance an extra mile by achieving 5 Es (effective, efficient, easy, empower, and equity) of e-governance and six Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign and remanufacture) of sustainable development. If such digital transformation gains traction within the government framework, it will replace the traditional administration with the digitalization of public administration. On the other hand, it has brought in a new set of challenges, like the digital divide, e-illiteracy, technological divide, etc., and problems like handling e-waste, technological obsolescence, cyber terrorism, e-fraud, hacking, phishing, etc. before the governments. Therefore, it would be essential to bring in a rightful mixture of technological and humanistic interventions for addressing the above issues. This is on account of the reason that technology lacks an emotional quotient, and the administration does not work like technology. Both are self-effacing unless a blend of technology and a humane face are brought in into the administration. The paper will empirically analyze the significance of the technological framework of digital transformation within the government set up for the digitalization of public administration on the basis of the synthesis of two case studies undertaken from two diverse fields of administration and present a future framework of the study.

Keywords: digital transformation, electronic governance, public administration, knowledge framework

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Authors: Jin-Feng Hu

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Over the past decades, the global biodiversity has continued to decline. The threats to the terrestrial plant species have increased under anthropogenic activities and other massive ecological change impacts. The situation is much more serious in China, the third richest countries regarding plant biodiversity in the world. It was not until 1992 that the first volume of the China Plant Red Data Book was published. Nowadays, a significant number of Chinese endemic plants have been threatened (The IUCN Red List). Nevertheless, plant-originated natural products (NPs) have continued to play a crucial role in the drug discovery and development process. The opportunity for identifying new chemical entities for emerging and malignant diseases depends on a diversity of drug-producing species. Several statistical surveys unveiled that the rare and endangered plants (REPs) have proven to be better sources for drug discovery than other botanic sources. The identification of bioactive NPs from REPs reveals the importance of conservation efforts in preventing species diversity loss and addressing human diseases at the same time. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate these fragile REPs. Since 2013, our group has initially launched a special program to systematically identify bioactive/novel NPs from REPs native to China. The selected plant species were generally collected from the remote Mountain areas, and have never been chemically or pharmacologically investigated. Due to the difficult collection of the mass-limited samples of REPs, studies on the secondary metabolites of REPs-associated endophytes would provide a promising alternative potential solution. This presentation details the achievements that related to a series of “Phytochemical and biological studies on rare and endangered plants endemic to China”.

Keywords: bioactive naturally-occrring compounds, rare and endengered plants (REPs), plant endophytes, drug discovery

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Authors: Ali Alshumrani, Nathan Clarke, Bogdan Ghite, Stavros Shiaeles

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Digital forensics has become an essential tool in the investigation of cyber and computer-assisted crime. Arguably, given the prevalence of technology and the subsequent digital footprints that exist, it could have a significant role across almost all crimes. However, the variety of technology platforms (such as computers, mobiles, Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), Internet of Things (IoT), databases, drones, cloud computing services), heterogeneity and volume of data, forensic tool capability, and the investigative cost make investigations both technically challenging and prohibitively expensive. Forensic tools also tend to be siloed into specific technologies, e.g., File System Forensic Analysis Tools (FS-FAT) and Network Forensic Analysis Tools (N-FAT), and a good deal of data sources has little to no specialist forensic tools. Increasingly it also becomes essential to compare and correlate evidence across data sources and to do so in an efficient and effective manner enabling an investigator to answer high-level questions of the data in a timely manner without having to trawl through data and perform the correlation manually. This paper proposes a Unified Forensic Analysis Tool (U-FAT), which aims to establish a common language for electronic information and permit multi-source forensic analysis. Core to this approach is the identification and development of forensic analyses that automate complex data correlations, enabling investigators to investigate cases more efficiently. The paper presents a systematic analysis of major crime categories and identifies what forensic analyses could be used. For example, in a child abduction, an investigation team might have evidence from a range of sources including computing devices (mobile phone, PC), CCTV (potentially a large number), ISP records, and mobile network cell tower data, in addition to third party databases such as the National Sex Offender registry and tax records, with the desire to auto-correlate and across sources and visualize in a cognitively effective manner. U-FAT provides a holistic, flexible, and extensible approach to providing digital forensics in technology, application, and data-agnostic manner, providing powerful and automated forensic analysis.

Keywords: digital forensics, evidence correlation, heterogeneous data, forensics tool

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