Search results for: human factor issues

Authors: Piyanee Khumpao

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Under the Thai Penal Code and Customs Act, sex toys are criminalized and completely prohibited through the legal interpretation as obscene objects by law enforcement, despite there is no explicit legal sanction against them. The purpose of preventing people from accessing sex toys is to preserve public morals. However, sex toys are still available, exposed, and sold publicly in main cities throughout Thailand. They are easily observed by people of any age. This paper argues that sexuality is human nature and human right. Human deserves sexual pleasure as long as getting sexual pleasure does not inflict any harm on others. Using sex toys in private (individually and/or as a couple with mutual consent) does not constitute any harm nor degrade public moral. Therefore, the complete ban of sex toys shall be lifted and decriminalized. Nevertheless, the economic analysis illustrates that criminalization and prohibition of sex toys would lead to its black market – higher price and lower quantity. Although it is socially desirable to have fewer sex toys in the market, there will usually be high demand for them because sexual pleasure is natural and, hence, people have a lower price elasticity of demand for such things, including pornography. Thus, its deterrent effect is not very effective. Moreover, sex toys vendors still always exist because higher price incentivizes them to act illegally and may gain benefits from selling low-quality sex toys. Consequently, consumers do not have a choice to select high-quality sex toys at a reasonable price. Then, they are forced to purchase low quality sex toys at a higher price. They also may suffer from health issues as well as other harms from its dangerous/toxic substances since lower quality products are manufactured poorly to save costs. A law and economics approach supports the decriminalization of sex toys in Thailand. Other measures to control its availability shall be adopted to protect the vulnerable, such as children. Options are i) zoning or regulation on-premises selling sex toys as in Singapore, Japan, and China, ii) regulations of sex toys as medical apparatus like in the state of Alabama, and iii) the prevention of sex toys exposure in the real (physical) appearance (i.e., allowing virtual exposure of sex toys) like in India.

Keywords: human nature, law and economics approach, sex toys, sexual pleasure

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Authors: H. C. Nguyen

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This contribution considers seismic effects on the stability of slope and footing resting on a slope. The seismic force is simply treated as static inertial force through the values of acceleration factor. All domains are assumed to be plasticity deformations approximated using node-based smoothed finite element method (NS-FEM). The failure mechanism and safety factor were then explored using numerical procedure based on upper bound approach in which optimization problem was formed as second order cone programming (SOCP). The data obtained confirm that upper bound procedure using NS-FEM and SOCP can give stable and rapid convergence results of seismic stability factors.

Keywords: upper bound analysis, safety factor, slope stability, footing resting on slope

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Authors: Zeynep Üskül Engin

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Looking upon the world’s history, one can easily understand that the most drastic and evil comes to the human from his own kind. Human, proving that Hobbs was actually right, finally have agreed on taking some necessary measures after the destructive effects of the great World Wars. Surely after this, human rights have been more commonly mentioned in written form and now the priority of the values and goals of a democratic society is to protect its individuals. Due to this fact, the right of living is found to be valuable and all the existing forms of torture, anti-human and humiliating activities have been banned. Turkey, having signed the international papers of human rights, has aimed for eliminating torture through changing its laws and regulations to a certain extent. Monitoring Turkey’s experience, it is likely to say that during certain periods of time systematic torture has been applied. The urge to enter the European Union and verdicts against Turkey, have led to considerable progress in human rights. Besides, changes in law and the comprehensive training for the police, judges, medical and prison staff have resulted in positive improvement related to this issue. Certainly, this current legal update does not completely mean the total elimination of the practice of torture; however, in the commitment of this crime, the ones who have committed are standing a trial and facing severe punishments. In this article, Turkey, with a notorious reputation in international arena is going to be examined through its policy towards torture and defects in practice.

Keywords: torture, human rights, impunity of torture, sociology

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Authors: Ana C. V. Freitas, Luciana B. M. Pires, Joao P. Martins

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In recent years, fire dynamics in deforestation areas of tropical forests have received considerable attention because of their relationship to climate change. Climate models project great increases in the frequency and area of drought in the Amazon region, which may increase the occurrence of fires. This study analyzes the historical record number of fire outbreaks in 2017 using satellite-derived data sets of active fire detections, burned area, precipitation, and data of the Fire Program from the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies (CPTEC/INPE). A downward trend in the number of fire outbreaks occurred in the first half of 2017, in relation to the previous year. This decrease can be related to the fact that 2017 was not an El Niño year and, therefore, the observed rainfall and temperature in the Amazon region was close to normal conditions. Meanwhile, the worst period in history for fire outbreaks began with the subsequent arrival of the dry season. September of 2017 exceeded all monthly records for number of fire outbreaks per month in the entire series. This increase was mainly concentrated in Bolivia and in the states of Amazonas, northeastern Pará, northern Rondônia and Acre, regions with high densities of rural settlements, which strongly suggests that human action is the predominant factor, aggravated by the lack of precipitation during the dry season allowing the fires to spread and reach larger areas. Thus, deforestation in the Amazon is primarily a human-driven process: climate trends may be providing additional influences.

Keywords: Amazon forest, climate change, deforestation, human-driven process, fire outbreaks

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Authors: Jose Carlos Montemayor, Kendrick Thomas Angelo Santos

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Filipinos have been divided on President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership ever since his election in 2016. This study aimed to gain a thorough, in-depth understanding of the opinions of Filipinos from different age and income brackets on these issues in order to address the lack of studies analysing the current Philippine political landscape. An interview tackling relevant national issues were conducted with twelve respondents from the intersections of four age groups and three income brackets. The government’s handling of some issues received mixed opinions, some had neutral viewpoints, while others had more unfavorable ones. The responses differed on three levels: (1) the general stance on an issue; (2) the strength of a stance; and (3) the factoring in of an issue in forming an overall perception on the administration’s performance. Contrary to previous studies on political thought, opinions varied greatly such that no unique set of viewpoints could be attributed to any of the defined age or income groups. These results will be most useful to political science researchers, political analysts, and candidates shaping their platforms for the upcoming elections. Future studies are recommended to tackle more national issues and to consider other factors that may affect political opinions and behavior.

Keywords: age groups, opinion formation, socioeconomic brackets, Philippine politics, Rodrigo Duterte

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Authors: Milad Mirzaei Aminiyan, Abdolreza Akhgar, Farzad Mirzaei Aminiyan

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Water quality is the critical factor that influence on human health and quantity and quality of grain production in semi-humid and semi-arid area. Pistachio is a main crop that accounts for a considerable portion of Iranian agricultural exports. Give that pistachio tree is a tolerant type of tree to saline and alkaline soil and water conditions, but groundwater and irrigation water quality play important roles in main production this crop. For this purpose, 94 well water samples were taken from 25 wells and samples were analyzed. The results showed give that region’s geological, climatic characteristics, statistical analysis, and based on dominant cations and anions in well water samples (piper diagram); four main types of water were found: Na-Cl, K-Cl, Na-SO4, and K-SO4. It seems that most wells in terms of water quality (salinity and alkalinity) and based on Wilcox diagram have critical status. The analysis suggested that more than eighty-seven percentage of the well water samples have high values of EC that these values are higher than into critical limit EC value for irrigation water, which may be due to the sandy soils in this area. Most groundwater were relatively unsuitable for irrigation but it could be used by application of correct management such as removing and reducing the ion concentrations of Cl‾, SO42‾, Na+ and total hardness in groundwater and also the concentrated deep groundwater was required treatment to reduce the salinity and sodium hazard. Given that irrigation water quality in this area was relatively unsuitable for most agriculture production but pistachio tree was adapted to this area conditions. The integrated management of groundwater for irrigation is the way to solve water quality issues not only in Rafsanjan area, but also in other arid and semi-arid areas.

Keywords: groundwater quality, irrigation water quality, salinity, alkalinity, Rafsanjan plain, pistachio

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Authors: A. Porshnev, A. Zaporozhtchuk

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Motivation regarded as a key factor of labor turnover, is especially important for volunteers working on an altruistic basis in NGO. Despite the motivational letter, candidate selection depends on the impression of the selection committee, which can be subject to human bias. We expect that structured and unstructured information provided in motivation letters could be used to improve candidate selection procedures. In our paper, we perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of 2280 motivation letters, create logistic regression, and build a decision tree to improve selection procedures. Our analysis showed that motivation factors are significant and enable human resources department to forecast labor turnover and provide extra information to demographic, professional and timing questions. In spite of the average level of accuracy the model demonstrates the selection procedures of company of under consideration can be improved. We also discuss interrelation between answers to open and closed motivation questions, recommend changes in motivational letter templates to ensure more relevant information about applicants and further steps to create more accurate model.

Keywords: decision trees, logistic regression, model, motivational letter, non-governmental organization, retention, turnover

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Authors: Abdull Halim Abdul, Muhaimin Sulam

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This paper is about a subsurface study of Taman Pudu Ulu, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur with emphasize of Geo mechanic properties based on stratum index factor in humanities environment. Subsurface drilling and seismic data were used to understand the subsurface condition of the study area such as the type and thickness of the strata. Borehole and soil samples were recovered Geo mechanic properties of the area by conducting number of experiments. Taman Pudu Ulu overlies the Kuala Lumpur Limestone formation that is known for its karstic features such as caves and cavities. Hence by knowing the Geo mechanic properties such as the normal strain and shear strain we can plan a safer and economics construction that is plan at the area in the future.

Keywords: stratum, index factor, geo mechanic properties, humanities environment

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Authors: Renata Roma, Christine Tardif-Williams

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Engaging in daily walks with a dog (f.e. Canis lupus familiaris) during the COVID-19 pandemic may be linked to feelings of greater social-connectedness and global self-worth, and lower stress after controlling for mental health issues, lack of physical contact with others, and other stressors associated with the current pandemic. Therefore, maintaining a routine of dog walking might mitigate the effects of stressors experienced during the pandemic and promote well-being. However, many dog owners do not walk their dogs for many reasons, which are related to the owner’s and the dog’s personalities. Note that the consistency of certain personality characteristics among dogs demonstrates that it is possible to accurately measure different dimensions of personality in both dogs and their human counterparts. In addition, behavioural ratings (e.g., the dog personality questionnaire - DPQ) are reliable tools to assess the dog’s personality. Clarifying the relevance of personality factors in the context of young adult-dog relationships can shed light on interactional aspects that can potentially foster protective behaviours and promote well-being among young adults during the pandemic. This study examines if and how nine combinations of dog- and young adult-related personality characteristics (e.g., neuroticism-fearfulness) can amplify the influence of personality factors in the context of dog walking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses to an online large-scale survey among 440 (389 females; 47 males; 4 nonbinaries, Mage=20.7, SD= 2.13 range=17-25) young adults living with a dog in Canada were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). As extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, measured through the five-factor model (FFM) inventory, are related to maintaining a routine of physical activities, these dimensions were selected for this analysis. Following an approach successfully adopted in the field of dog-human interactions, the FFM was used as the organizing framework to measure and compare the human’s and the dog’s personality in the context of dog walking. The dog-related personality dimensions activity/excitability, responsiveness to training, and fearful were correlated dimensions captured through DPQ and were added to the analysis. Two questions were used to assess dog walking. The actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used to check if the young adult’s responses about the dog were biased; no significant bias was observed. Activity/excitability and responsiveness to training in dogs were greatly associated with dog walking. For young adults, high scores in conscientiousness and extraversion predicted more walks with the dog. Conversely, higher scores in neuroticism predicted less engagement in dog walking. For participants high in conscientiousness, the dog’s responsiveness to training (standardized=0.14, p=0.02) and the dog’s activity/excitability (standardized=0.15, p=0.00) levels moderated dog walking behaviours by promoting more daily walks. These results suggest that some combinations in young adult and dog personality characteristics are associated with greater synergy in the young adult-dog dyad that might amplify the impact of personality factors on young adults’ dog-walking routines. These results can inform programs designed to promote the mental and physical health of young adults during the Covid-19 pandemic by highlighting the impact of synergy and reciprocity in personality characteristics between young adults and dogs.

Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, dog walking, personality, structural equation modeling, well-being

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Authors: John M. Basey, Clinton D. Francis, Maxwell B. Joseph

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After gathering data from experimental procedures, inquiry-oriented-science labs often allow students the freedom to stay and complete the write up in class or leave lab early and complete the write up later. Teachers must decide whether to allow students this freedom to self-regulate this time. Student interviews have indicated four time-target strategies that may influence how students utilize this time: grade-target-A, grade-target-C, time-limited, and proficiency. The hypothesis tested was that variability in class composition relative to the four grade-target strategies has an impact on when students leave class, which in turn may influence their overall learning as exemplified by grades. Students were divided into the four indicated groups with a survey. Class composition and the GTA teaching the class had significant impacts on how long students stayed in class with class composition having the greatest impact. A factor analysis identified two factors. Factor 1 included classes with percentages of grade-target students opposite time-limited/proficiency students and explained 43% of the variance. Factor 2 included classes with percentages of grade-target-A/proficiency students opposite grade-target-C students and explained 33% of the variance. Students who stayed longer received significantly higher grades (P = 0.008) with no significant relationships between grade and Factor 1 or Factor 2 (P > 0.05). The time students stayed in class was significantly positively related to Factor 1 (P = 0.006) and significantly negatively related to Factor 2 (P = 0.008). These results support the hypothesis and indicate that teachers may want to know the composition of student-target strategies before deciding on how to have students allocate study time at the end of inquiry-oriented labs. According to these results, ideal classes for self-regulation have a high proportion of proficiency and time-limited students and a low proportion of grade-target students, or a high proportion of grade-target-A and proficiency students and a low proportion of grade-target-C students. Non-ideal classes for self-regulation were comprised of the inverse proportions.

Keywords: grades, inquiry lab design, synergism in student motivation, class composition

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Authors: Damiano Omari, Topirian Kerempe, Dibo Sama, Walter Wafula, Sharon Chepkoech, Chrispine Juma, Gilbert Kirui, Simon Mburu, Susan Keino

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The One Health concept was officially adopted by the international organizations and scholarly bodies in 1984. It aims at combining human, animal and environmental components to address global health challenges. Using collaborative efforts optimal health to people, animals, and the environment can be achieved. One health approach plays a significant approach role in prevention and control of zoonosis diseases. It has also been noted that 75% of new emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic. In Kenya, one health has been embraced and strongly advocated for by One Health East and Central Africa (OHCEA). It was inaugurated on 17th of October 2010 at a historic meeting facilitated by USAID with participants from 7 public health schools, seven faculties of veterinary medicine in Eastern Africa and 2 American universities (Tufts and University of Minnesota) in addition to respond project staff. The study was conducted in Loitoktok Sub County, specifically in the Amboseli Ecosystem. The Amboseli ecosystem covers an area of 5,700 square kilometers and stretches between Mt. Kilimanjaro, Chyulu Hills, Tsavo West National park and the Kenya/Tanzania border. The area is arid to semi-arid and is more suitable for pastoralism with a high potential for conservation of wildlife and tourism enterprises. The ecosystem consists of the Amboseli National Park, which is surrounded by six group ranches which include Kimana, Olgulului, Selengei, Mbirikani, Kuku and Rombo in Loitoktok District. The Manyatta of study was Osiram Cultural Manyatta in Mbirikani group ranch. Apart from visiting the Manyatta, we also visited the sub-county hospital, slaughter slab, forest service, Kimana market, and the Amboseli National Park. The aim of the study was to identify the one health issues facing the community. This was done by a conducting a community needs assessment and prioritization. Different methods were used in data collection for the qualitative and numerical data. They include among others; key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We also guided the community members in drawing their Resource Map this helped identify the major resources in their land and also help them identify some of the issues they were facing. Matrix piling, root cause analysis, and force field analysis tools were used to establish the one health related priority issues facing community members. Skits were also used to present to the community interventions to the major one health issues. Some of the prioritized needs among the community were water scarcity and inadequate markets for their beadwork. The group intervened on the various needs of the Manyatta. For water scarcity, we educated the community on water harvesting methods using gutters as well as proper storage by the use of tanks and earth dams. The community was also encouraged to recycle and conserve water. To improve markets; we educated the community to upload their products online, a page was opened for them and uploading the photos was demonstrated to them. They were also encouraged to be innovative to attract more clients.

Keywords: Amboseli ecosystem, community interventions, community needs assessment and prioritization, one health issues

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Authors: Bayar Shahab

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The fast development of technology that has advanced neuroscience and human interaction with computers has enabled solutions to various problems, and issues of this new era have been found and are being found like no other time in history. Brain-computer interface so-called BCI has opened the door to several new research areas and have been able to provide solutions to critical and important issues such as supporting a paralyzed patient to interact with the outside world, controlling a robot arm, playing games in VR with the brain, driving a wheelchair or even a car and neurotechnology enabled the rehabilitation of the lost memory, etc. This review work presents state-of-the-art methods and improvements of canonical correlation analyses (CCA), which is an SSVEP-based BCI method. These are the methods used to extract EEG signal features or, to be said in a different way, the features of interest that we are looking for in the EEG analyses. Each of the methods from oldest to newest has been discussed while comparing their advantages and disadvantages. This would create a great context and help researchers to understand the most state-of-the-art methods available in this field with their pros and cons, along with their mathematical representations and usage. This work makes a vital contribution to the existing field of study. It differs from other similar recently published works by providing the following: (1) stating most of the prominent methods used in this field in a hierarchical way (2) explaining pros and cons of each method and their performance (3) presenting the gaps that exist at the end of each method that can open the understanding and doors to new research and/or improvements.

Keywords: BCI, CCA, SSVEP, EEG

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Authors: Faith Samkange, Juliet Chipumuro, Henry Wanyama

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Business development and entrepreneurship constitute a major part of economic and human development for many countries within the Southern Africa Development Communities (SADC). While a marked increase in entrepreneurship activity has been registered, more than 70% of these business enterprises are still failing particularly in their conceptual years. One of the major reasons for this failure is that project process trends have tended to be fragmented and linear in approach while focusing primarily on isolated articulation of development aspects such as marketing, operations, accounting and human resources management with limited integration. Given the complexity of environmental, economic and human development issues in the SADC region, a multi-disciplinary, transformative, systematic and coordinated approach towards entrepreneurship development may be a more useful approach. This paper develops a proposed conceptual framework for an innovative and sustainable food production and food consumption Agritech entrepreneurship project in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa based on a systematic review of existing literature. A thematic analysis of the literature reviewed is applied to develop this theoretical contribution to knowledge. The conceptual framework will be tested in a research driven intervention project designed to improve the quality of life for marginalized indigenous African communities by addressing poverty alleviation, unemployment and gender inequality as stipulated in the global sustainable development goals by the United Nations in 2018.

Keywords: innovative entrepreneurship, sustainability, food production and consumption, marginalised communities, poverty alleviation

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Authors: Oti Ibiam, Alexanda O. Kalu

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Human Resource Accounting is the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to interested parties in order to meaningful investment decisions. In recent time, firms focus has shifted to human resource accounting so as to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. This study focused on the effect of human resource accounting on the financial performance of Banks in Nigerian. The problem that led to the study revolves around the current trend whereby Nigeria banks do not efficiently account for the input of human resource in their annual statement, thereby instead of capitalizing human resources in their statement of financial position; they expend it in their income statement thereby reducing their profit after tax. The broad objective of this study is to determine the extent to which human resource accounting affects the financial performance and value of Nigerian Banks. This study is therefore considered significant because, there are still universally, grey areas to be sorted out on the subject matter of human resources accounting. In the bid to achieve the study objectives, the researcher gathered data from sixteen commercial banks. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources using an ex-post facto research design. The data collected were then tabulated and analyzed using the multiple regression analysis. The result of hypothesis one revealed that there is a significant relationship between Capitalized Human Resource Cost and post capitalization Profit before tax of banks in Nigeria. The finding of hypothesis two revealed that the association between Capitalized Human Resource Cost and post capitalization Net worth of banks in Nigeria is significant. The finding in Hypothesis three reveals that there is a significant difference between pre and post capitalization profit before tax of banks in Nigeria. The study concludes that human resources accounting positively influenced financial performance of banks in Nigeria within the period under study. It is recommended that standards should be set for human resources identification and measurement in the banking sector and also the management of commercial banks in Nigeria should have a proper appreciation of human resource accounting. This will enable managers to take right decision regarding investment in human resource. Also, the study recommends that policies on enhancing the post capitalization profit before tax of banks in Nigeria should pay great attention to capitalized human resources cost, net worth and total asset as the variables significantly influenced post capitalization profit before tax of the studied banks in Nigeria. The limitation of the study centers on the limited number of years and companies that was adopted for the study.

Keywords: capitalization, human resources cost, profit before tax, net worth

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Authors: Igor Bilenko, Artem Shitikov, Michael Gorodetsky

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Optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators combine very high optical quality factor (Q) with small size. Resonators made from low loss crystalline fluorites (CaF2, MgF2) may have Q as high as 1010 that make them unique devices for modern applications including ultrasensitive sensors, frequency control, and precision spectroscopy. While silicon is a promising material transparent from near infrared to terahertz frequencies, fundamental limit for Si WGM quality factor was not reached yet. In our paper, we presented experimental results on the preparation and testing of resonators at 1550 nm wavelength made from crystalline silicon grown and treated by different techniques. Q as high as 3x107 was demonstrated. Future steps need to reach a higher value and possible applications are discussed.

Keywords: optical quality factor, silicon optical losses, silicon optical resonator, whispering gallery modes

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Authors: Neha Singh

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The incidence of skin cancer has been rising worldwide due to excessive exposure to sun light. Climatic changes and depletion of ozone layer allow the easy entry of UV rays on earth, resulting skin damages such as sunburn, premature skin ageing, allergies and skin cancer. Researches have suggested many modes for protection of human skin against ultraviolet radiation; avoidance to outdoor activities, using textiles for covering the skin, sunscreen and sun glasses. However, this paper gives an insight about how textile material specially woven and knitted cotton can be efficiently utilized for protecting human skin from the harmful ultraviolet radiations by combining reactive dyes with Aloe Vera. Selection of the fabric was based on their utility and suitability as per the climate condition of the country for the upper and lower garment. A standard dyeing process was used, and Aloe Vera molecules were applied by in-micro encapsulation technique. After combining vat dyes with Aloe Vera excellent UPF (Ultra violet Protective Factor) was observed. There is a significant change in the UPF of vat dyed cotton fabric after treatment with Aloe Vera.

Keywords: UV protection, aloe vera, protective clothing, reactive dyes, cotton, woven and knits

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Authors: J. Sánchez-Beaskoetxea

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The analysis of accidents, such as marine accidents, is one of the most useful instruments to avoid future accidents. In the case of marine accidents, from a simple collision of a small boat in a port to the wreck of a gigantic tanker ship, the study of the causes of the accidents is the basis of a great part of the marine international legislation. Some countries have official institutions who investigate all the accidents in which a ship with their flag is involved. In the case of the USA, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for these researches. The NTSB, after a deep investigation into each accident, publishes a Marine Accident Report with the possible cause of the accident. This paper analyses all the Marine Accident Reports published by the NTBS and focuses its attention especially in the Human Errors that led to reported accidents. In this research, the different Human Errors made by crew members are cataloged in 10 different groups. After a complete analysis of all the reports, the statistical analysis on the Human Errors typology in marine accidents is presented in order to use it as a tool to avoid the same errors in the future.

Keywords: human error, marine accidents, ship crew, USA

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Authors: S. Zev Kalifon

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The question of polygamy for Moslem minorities in Western nations has often been raised in the political and social discourse. Can polygamy be tolerated as a religious or human right in the West. For example, before the 2015 election in Israel, changes were made in the electoral system, which encouraged three small Arab parties to merge into one list. This “Unity List” included the socially liberal Communist list and a socially conservative Islamist list. Two members of the Islamist list were polygamists. Some rival politicians called for the election board to disqualify these men (and even the whole list) from the election process. This request was denied by the courts, and the men were elected to the parliament. Their subsequent seating in the parliament was questioned by many on both the liberal and conservative sides of the political spectrum. Some political commentators went so far as to describe polygamy as a “mark of disgrace” (a term usually reserved for people convicted on corruption charges). There are also problems in other areas of society; these include the rights of these families for welfare and social services (public policy issues) and residence in Israel. Using qualitative methods (primarily historical and archival data), this paper will analyze at the historic and cultural processes which created the intense opposition to polygamy in Judaism (for Israel) and Christianity (for the Western world). It will look at the debate over the "religious right" of polygamy for Moslem citizens in Israel and other Western cultures. Finally, it will examine the political, cultural, and demographic pressures which encourage polygamy in these minorities. This paper will demonstrate that the debate over polygamy is more than a question of religious freedom or human rights or multi-culturalism. It is a central symbol of modernity and the Western worldview.

Keywords: human rights, Judaism, multi-culturalism, polygamy, western values

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Authors: Ryan Chalk, G. M. Shafiullah

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Climate change is a pertinent issue facing governments and societies around the world. The industrial revolution has resulted in a steady increase in the average global temperature. The mining and energy production industries have been significant contributors to this change prompting government to intervene by promoting low emission technology within these sectors. This paper initially reviews the energy problem in Australia and the mining sector with a focus on the energy requirements and production methods utilised in Western Australia (WA). Renewable energy in the form of utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV) provides a solution to these problems by providing emission-free energy which can be used to supplement the existing natural gas turbines in operation at the proposed site. This research presents a custom renewable solution for the mining site considering the specific township network, local weather conditions, and seasonal load profiles. A summary of the required PV output is presented to supply slightly over 50% of the towns power requirements during the peak (summer) period, resulting in close to full coverage in the trench (winter) period. Dig Silent Power Factory Software has been used to simulate the characteristics of the existing infrastructure and produces results of integrating PV. Large scale PV penetration in the network introduce technical challenges, that includes; voltage deviation, increased harmonic distortion, increased available fault current and power factor. Results also show that cloud cover has a dramatic and unpredictable effect on the output of a PV system. The preliminary analyses conclude that mitigation strategies are needed to overcome voltage deviations, unacceptable levels of harmonics, excessive fault current and low power factor. Mitigation strategies are proposed to control these issues predominantly through the use of high quality, made for purpose inverters. Results show that use of inverters with harmonic filtering reduces the level of harmonic injections to an acceptable level according to Australian standards. Furthermore, the configuration of inverters to supply active and reactive power assist in mitigating low power factor problems. Use of FACTS devices; SVC and STATCOM also reduces the harmonics and improve the power factor of the network, and finally, energy storage helps to smooth the power supply.

Keywords: climate change, mitigation strategies, photovoltaic (PV), power quality

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Authors: Phani Kiran, Prabodha Manas Yarlagadda

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This paper attempts to treat Shakespeare’s tragic hero, Hamlet as an existential hero who faces many dilemmas in the process of taking revenge for his father’s murder. Hamlet can be considered as a predecessor of existentialism, and Shakespeare, as a pioneer, focused on some serious existential issues in the play much before they were fully developed in 20th century. Hamlet's internal struggles reflect existential themes such as alienation, despair, and the quest for authenticity. Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, "To be, or not to be," is a quintessential expression of existential ponderings, contemplating the choice between life and death and the uncertainty of what lies beyond. Hamlet grapples with existential questions like the purpose and meaninglessness of life, the nature of morality, the inevitability of death, and the existence of an afterlife. He doubts the authenticity of appearance and the reliability of his own perceptions, highlighting the inherent ambiguity and uncertainty of existence. Overall, "Hamlet" aligns with existential philosophy by exploring the complexities of human existence, the search for meaning, and the individual's struggle to find their place in an inherently uncertain and perplexing world. The character of Hamlet and the play's exploration of existential themes continue to resonate with audiences and provoke contemplation on the nature of life and the human experience.

Keywords: to be or not to be, death, dilemmas, illusion and reality

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Authors: Isabel Roiz, Alejandra Cossio

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This essay will talk about the problems of forced prostitution, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation in the Netherlands. This work conveys information from different sources stating the numbers and statistics of human trafficking throughout Europe and the different types of sexual exploitation as well as the means used for coercing victims into this illegal net. The research aims to inform and compare the way this business is handled and the ways used by criminals to lure and retain victims in spite of the law. It also tries to compare the laws in the Netherlands and Sweden regarding prostitution affects the illegal migration problems and how they change the ways those who work as prostitutes are treated. The aim of the paper is to take all of these aspects into consideration and reach a decision of what laws would most beneficiate the victims.

Keywords: human trafficking, prostitution, laws of migration, Amsterdam

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Authors: D. Songpol, K. Taweesak, T. Sookyuen

Abstract:

A social enterprise is an organization that operates commercial business as a source of income with the aim of addressing social and environmental issues. Though it is clear that this kind of organization will benefit society and environment but in practice, it is found that most of social enterprises’ goals cannot be achieved. The most success factors of social enterprises usually rely on individual characteristics of entrepreneurs, especially in educational business. This study aims to find out the magnitude of influence from the components of entrepreneur competencies to social enterprises in education. There are developmental models of research demonstrating that knowledge, skills and attributes affect the success of social enterprises in term of sustainability, social opportunities and innovation leadership. The 5-scale questionnaire was used to collect data from the social entrepreneurs in education who operates in the South East Asian region of 135 samples and then processed by the methods of structural equation models. The results show that the competency of entrepreneurs in attributes has the greatest impact on the success of social enterprises while the skills and knowledge have respectively impact on the social enterprises’ success as well. The reason why attributes of entrepreneurs have the greatest impact on social enterprise success is because, social enterprise is an organization that does not motivate or provide attractive financial incentives to the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs, who succeed in developing their organizations, therefore need attribute factor higher than normal entrepreneurs, especially those in education sector that have somewhat few human resources to operate their businesses. More importantly, attribute’s traits such as entrepreneurial passion, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial identity and, innovativeness and perseverance will significantly affect the ideology and tolerance of the entrepreneurs once facing the problem in doing business. In conclusion, the education social enterprise would be successful depending on the performance of the entrepreneurs which derives from higher attributes competency.

Keywords: education, entrepreneur competencies, social enterprise, South East Asia

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Authors: Hyun-E Yeom

Abstract:

Patients’ views about the cause of hypertension may influence their present and proactive behaviors to regulate high blood pressure. This study aimed to examine the internal structure underlying the causal beliefs about hypertension and the influence of causal beliefs on self-care intention and medical compliance in Korean patients with hypertension. The causal beliefs of 145 patients (M age = 57.7) were assessed using the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised. An exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the factor structure of the causal beliefs, and the factors’ influence on self-care intention and medication compliance was analyzed using multiple and logistic regression analyses. The four-factor structure including psychological, fate-related, risk and habitual factors was identified and the psychological factor was the most representative component of causal beliefs. The risk and fate-related factors were significant factors affecting lower intention to engage in self-care and poor compliance with medication regimens, respectively. The findings support the critical role of causal beliefs about hypertension in driving patients’ current and future self-care behaviors. This study highlights the importance of educational interventions corresponding to patients’ awareness of hypertension for improving their adherence to a healthy lifestyle and medication regimens.

Keywords: hypertension, self-care, beliefs, medication compliance

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Authors: Aamar Ilyas

Abstract:

Value of firm does not only depend upon its financial and material resources rather human resource is also a significant contributor in success of organizations by achieving competitive advantage. Human resource is an important asset so it is the main responsibility of employers to get the best use of this resource. Hence, this paper will explore the human resource practices used by entrepreneurs in the informal economy in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, Pakistan. In this study three major sectors are randomly selected. Snowball sampling technique was applied to collect data. Survey was conducted through interviews of 45 respondents working in the informal sector. The results show that informal sector in Pakistan is not using any formal human resource practices as done by formal enterprises. Findings suggest that there should be the implementation of the human resource practices that help the firm to increase its productivity and ensure the betterment of the employees. The main limitation of the study was short time period to cater all sectors of informal economy of Pakistan which limits the extent of its generalizability. The rationale behind this study is to uncover the facts regarding management practices of human capital in the informal sector.

Keywords: HR practices, informal economy, working condition, recruitment, training, employee motivation, welfare

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Authors: Lian Liu

Abstract:

By analyzing the content of the New York Times' China-related energy reports, this study aims to explore the construction of China's national image by the mainstream media in the United States. The study analyzes three aspects of the coverage: topics, reporting tendencies, and countries involved. The results of the study show that economic issues are the main focus of the New York Times’ China-related energy coverage, followed by political issues and environmental issues. Overall, the coverage tendency was mainly negative, but positive coverage was dominated by science and technology issues. In addition, the study found that U.S.-China relations and Sino-Russian relations were important contexts for the construction of China's national image in the NYT's China-related energy coverage. These stories highlight China's interstate interactions with the United States, Japan, and Russia, which serve as important links in the coverage. The findings of this study reveal some characteristics and trends of the U.S. mainstream media's country image of China, which are important for a deeper understanding of the U.S.-China relationship and the media's influence on the construction of the country's image.

Keywords: media coverage, China, content analysis, visualization technology

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Authors: Hui-Ling Huang, Tamara Vasylenko, Phasit Charoenkwan, Shih-Hsiang Chiu, Shinn-Ying Ho

Abstract:

The knowledge of the human transporters is still limited due to technically demanding procedure of crystallization for the structural characterization of transporters by spectroscopic methods. It is desirable to develop bioinformatics tools for effective analysis of available sequences in order to identify human transmembrane transporter proteins (HMTPs). This study proposes a scoring card method (SCM) based method for predicting HMTPs. We estimated a set of propensity scores of dipeptides to be HMTPs using SCM from the training dataset (HTS732) consisting of 366 HMTPs and 366 non-HMTPs. SCM using the estimated propensity scores of 20 amino acids and 400 dipeptides -as HMTPs, has a training accuracy of 87.63% and a test accuracy of 66.46%. The five top-ranked dipeptides include LD, NV, LI, KY, and MN with scores 996, 992, 989, 987, and 985, respectively. Five amino acids with the highest propensity scores are Ile, Phe, Met, Gly, and Leu, that hydrophobic residues are mostly highly-scored. Furthermore, obtained propensity scores were used to analyze physicochemical properties of human transporters.

Keywords: dipeptide composition, physicochemical property, human transmembrane transporter proteins, human transmembrane transporters binding propensity, scoring card method

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Authors: Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Rajesh Srivastava

Abstract:

Human resource is the key point of success of any economy. From the past few decades, policies started to move in the route of expanding inclusive education with effective involvement of government.Governments of developing nations are generating policies for educational upliftment. Applying educational policies, the motive of the government is to maintain and develop the effective human resource within a society. The attention of the government includes primary education to higher education. It also involves professional training programmes related to every discipline. The aim of this paper is to find out the government policies in terms of expenditure and achievements for inclusive education to develop human resources in developing countries. A case of Indian experience has been taken into consideration. This approach generates a picture as to how India is enriching its educational system for human resource development and this research study will be useful for the policy makers to determine the appropriate level of overall spending of government and achievements in the education system for human resource development. Analytical research methodology has been adopted.

Keywords: government policies, inclusive education, National Educational Policy, NCERT

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Authors: M. Jebali, M. Jemni

Abstract:

This work is the part of vision based hand gesture recognition system for Natural Human Computer Interface. Hand tracking and segmentation are the primary steps for any hand gesture recognition system. The aim of this paper is to develop robust and efficient hand segmentation algorithm such as an input to another system which attempt to bring the HCI performance nearby the human-human interaction, by modeling an intelligent sign language recognition system based on prediction in the context of dialogue between the system (avatar) and the interlocutor. For the purpose of hand segmentation, an overcoming occlusion approach has been proposed for superior results for detection of hand from an image.

Keywords: HCI, sign language recognition, object tracking, hand segmentation

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Authors: C. V. Chen, Y. H. Jeng, S. J. Wang

Abstract:

Leadership is essential to enhancing followers’ psychological empowerment and has an effect on their willingness to take on extra-role behavior and aim for greater performance. Authentic leadership is confirmed to promote employees’ positive affect, psychological empowerment, well-being, and performance. Employees’ spontaneous undertaking of organizationally desired behaviors allows organizations’ gaining the edge in the fiercely competitive business environment. Apart from the contextual factor of leadership, individuals’ goal orientation is found to be highly related to his/her performance. To better understand the psychological process and potential moderation of personal goal orientation, this study investigates the effect of authentic leadership on employees’ task performance and organizational citizenship behavior by including psychological empowerment as the mediating factor and goal orientation as the moderating factor.

Keywords: authentic leadership, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, goal orientation

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Authors: Felipe Osorio Ospina, Maria Adelaida Mejia Arango, Esteban Onésimo Vallejo Agudelo, Victoria Lucía Dávila Osorio, Natalia Vargas Grisales, Lina María Martínez Sanchez, Camilo Andrés Agudelo Vélez, Ángela Maria Londoño García, Isabel Cristina Ortiz Trujillo

Abstract:

Excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation, has shown to be a risk factor for photodamage, alteration of the immune mechanisms to recognize malignant cells and cutaneous pro-inflamatorios States and skin cancers. Objective: Identify the time of exposure to ultraviolet radiation for the production of chromosomal damage in human lymphocytes. Methodology: We conducted an in vitro study serial, in which samples were taken from heparinized blood of healthy people, who do not submit exposure to agents that could induce chromosomal alterations. The samples were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum, penicillin and streptomycin antibiotic. Subsequently, they were grouped and exposed to ultraviolet light for 1 to 20 seconds. At the end of the treatments, cytology samples were prepared, and it was colored with Giemsa (5%). Reading was carried out in an optical microscope and 100 metaphases analysed by treatment for posting chromosomal alterations. Each treatment was conducted at three separate times and each became two replicas. Results: We only presented chromosomal alterations in lymphocytes exposed to UV for a groups 1 to 3 seconds (p<0.05). Conclusions: Exposure to ultraviolet radiation generates visible damage in chromosomes from human lymphocytes observed in light microscopy, the highest rates of injury was observed between two and three seconds, and above this value, the reduction in the number of mitotic cells was evident.

Keywords: ultraviolet rays, lymphocytes, chromosome breakpoints, photodamage

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