Search results for: ethnic relations in Swedish social work education

Authors: Hoora Dehghani, Meisam Shahbazi, Reza Zare

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During the previous decade, a significant evolution has occurred in the number of private educational centers and, accordingly, the increase in the number of providers and students of these centers around the world. The number of language teaching institutes in Iran that are considered private educational sectors is also growing exponentially as the request for learning foreign languages has extremely increased in recent years. This fact caused competition among the institutions in improving better services tailored to the students’ demands to win the competition. Along with the growth in the industry of education, higher education institutes should apply the marketing-related concepts and view students as customers because students’ outlooks are similar to consumers with education. Studying the influential factors in the selection of an institute has multiple benefits. Firstly, it acknowledges the institutions of the students’ choice factors. Secondly, the institutions use the obtained information to improve their marketing methods. It also helps institutions know students’ outlooks that can be applied to expand the student know-how. Moreover, it provides practical evidence for educational centers to plan useful amenities and programs, and use efficient policies to cater to the market, and also helps them execute the methods that increase students’ feeling of contentment and assurance. Thus, this study explored the influencing factors in the selection of a language learning institute by language learners and examined and compared the importance among the varying age groups and genders. In the first phase of the study, the researchers selected 15 language learners as representative cases within the specified age ranges and genders purposefully and interviewed them to explore the comprising elements in their language institute selection process and analyzed the results qualitatively. In the second phase, the researchers identified elements as specified items of a questionnaire, and 1000 English learners across varying educational contexts rated them. The TOPSIS method was used to analyze the data quantitatively by representing the level of importance of the items for the participants generally and specifically in each subcategory; genders and age groups. The results indicated that the educational quality, teaching method, duration of training course, establishing need-oriented courses, and easy access were the most important elements. On the other hand, offering training in different languages, the specialized education of only one language, the uniform and appropriate appearance of office staff, having native professors to the language of instruction, applying Computer or online tests instead of the usual paper tests respectively as the least important choice factors in selecting a language institute. Besides, some comparisons among different groups’ ratings of choice factors were made, which revealed the differences among different groups' priorities in choosing a language institute.

Keywords: choice factors, EFL institute selection, english learning, need analysis, TOPSIS

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Authors: Roman Asatryan

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The decision-making processes in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among firms in general and airlines in particular have to do with the benefits that accrue through those investments. The crux of the matter is not whether to invest in CSR or not, but rather, how firms can quantify the benefits derived from such investments. This paper analyzes the cost benefit adjustment strategies for firms in the airline industry in their CSR strategy adoption and implementation. The adjustment strategies identified will enable firms in the airline industry to have a basis for determining the worth of such CSR investments. This paper discusses the cost and benefit analysis model in order to understand the ways airlines can reduce costs and increase returns on CSR, or balance the cost and benefits. The analysis from this study points to the fact that economic concepts especially the CBA are useful, though they are not without challenges. The challenge arises when it is problematic to express the real impact of the externality in monetary terms. The use of rational maximization of the gains may seem to be a rather optimistic goal mainly because of environmental variability, perceptual uncertainty, and imperfect knowledge about the potential externality. This paper concludes that the CBA model gives a basic understanding of the motivations for investing in intangible assets like CSR. Consequently, it sets the tone for formulating relevant hypothesis in empirical studies in investment in CSR in particular and other intangible assets in business operations.

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis, corporate social responsibility, airline industry

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Authors: L. Vujičić, Ž. Ivković, Ž. Boneta

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There is a widespread belief in everyday discourse that science subjects (physics, chemistry and biology) are, along with math, the most difficult school subjects in the education of an individual. This assumption is usually justified by the following facts: low GPA in these subjects, the number of pupils who fail these subjects is high in comparison to other subjects, and the number of pupils interested in continuing their studies in the fields with a focus on science subjects is lower compared to non-science-oriented fields. From that perspective, the project: “Could it be different? How do children explore it?” becomes extremely interesting because it is focused on young children and on the introduction of new methods, with aim of arousing interest in scientific literacy development in 10 kindergartens by applying the methodology of an action research, with an ethnographic approach. We define scientific literacy as a process of encouraging and nurturing the research and explorative spirit in children, as well as their natural potential and abilities that represent an object of scientific research: to learn about exploration by conducting exploration. Upon project completion, an evaluation questionnaire was created for the parents of the children who had participated in the project, as well as for those whose children had not been involved in the project. The purpose of the first questionnaire was to examine the level of satisfaction with the project implementation and its outcomes among those parents whose children had been involved in the project (N=142), while the aim of the second questionnaire was to find out how much the parents of the children not involved (N=154) in this activity were interested in this topic.

Keywords: documenting, early childhood education, evaluation questionnaire for parents, scientific literacy development

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Authors: Ling Qi, Matloob Khushi, Josiah Poon

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This paper introduces a pre-trained Masked Candlestick Model (MCM) for trading time-series data. The pre-trained model is based on three core designs. First, we convert trading price data at each data point as a set of normalized elements and produce embeddings of each element. Second, we generate a masked sequence of such embedded elements as inputs for self-supervised learning. Third, we use the encoder mechanism from the transformer to train the inputs. The masked model learns the contextual relations among the sequence of embedded elements, which can aid downstream classification tasks. To evaluate the performance of the pre-trained model, we fine-tune MCM for three different downstream classification tasks to predict future price trends. The fine-tuned models achieved better accuracy rates for all three tasks than the baseline models. To better analyze the effectiveness of MCM, we test the same architecture for three currency pairs, namely EUR/GBP, AUD/USD, and EUR/JPY. The experimentation results demonstrate MCM’s effectiveness on all three currency pairs and indicate the MCM’s capability for signal extraction from trading data.

Keywords: masked language model, transformer, time series prediction, trading prediction, embedding, transfer learning, self-supervised learning

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Authors: Muhamad Azani Yahya, Vikneswaran Munikanan, Mohammed Alias Yusof

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There is the need to take the holistic approach in achieving sustainable construction for a contemporary practice. Sustainable construction is the practice that involved method of human preservation of the environment, whether economically or socially through responsibility, management of resources and maintenance utilizing support. This paper shows the correlation of achieving rapid construction with sustainable concepts using lean principles. Lean principles being used widely in the manufacturing industry, but this research will demonstrate the principles into building construction. Lean principle offers the benefits of stabilizing work flow and elimination of unnecessary work. Therefore, this principle contributes to time and waste reduction. The correlation shows that pulling factor provides the improvement of progress curve and stabilizing the time-quality relation. The finding shows the lean principles offer the elements of rapid construction synchronized with the elements of sustainability.

Keywords: sustainable construction, rapid construction, time reduction, lean construction

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Authors: Ganfeng Yu, Yuefeng Ma, Shanliang Yang

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The word discovery is a key problem in text information retrieval technology. Methods in new word discovery tend to be closely related to words because they generally obtain new word results by analyzing words. With the popularity of social networks, individual netizens and online self-media have generated various network texts for the convenience of online life, including network words that are far from standard Chinese expression. How detect network words is one of the important goals in the field of text information retrieval today. In this paper, we integrate the word embedding model and clustering methods to propose a network word discovery framework based on sentence semantic similarity (S³-NWD) to detect network words effectively from the corpus. This framework constructs sentence semantic vectors through a distributed representation model, uses the similarity of sentence semantic vectors to determine the semantic relationship between sentences, and finally realizes network word discovery by the meaning of semantic replacement between sentences. The experiment verifies that the framework not only completes the rapid discovery of network words but also realizes the standard word meaning of the discovery of network words, which reflects the effectiveness of our work.

Keywords: text information retrieval, natural language processing, new word discovery, information extraction

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Authors: Abdullah Erden, Filiz Erden

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In the present information society era, a change is seen in every field together with changing technology. Along with this change, importance given to information and human who is the producer of information increased. Work life and working conditions included in these changes have also been affected. The most important factors that disturb employees in offices are lighting, ventilation, noise and office furniture. Upon arrangement of these according to ergonomic principles, performance and efficiency of employees will increase. Fatigue and stress resulting from office environment are harmful for employees. Attention and efficiency of employee who feels bad will decrease. It should be noted that office employees are human and affected from environment. It should be allowed them to work in comfortable, healthy and peaceful environment. As a result, efficiency will increase and target will be reached. In this study, it has been focused on basic concepts such as office management and efficiency, effects of ergonomics on office efficiency has been examined. Also, a place is given to the factors affecting operational efficiency and effects of physical environment on employees.

Keywords: ergonomics, efficiency, office design, office

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Authors: Alan (Avi) Kirschenbaum, Carmit Rapaport

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The behavior of bystanders in emergencies and disasters have been examined for over 50 years. Such acts have been cited as contributing to saving lives in terms of providing first responder help until official emergency units can arrive. Several reasons have been suggested for this type of behavior but most focused on a broad segment of individual psychological decision-making processes. Recent theoretical evidence suggests that the external factors for such bystander decisions, mainly disaster community based social contexts factors, are also important. We aim to test these competing arguments. Specifically, we examine alternative explanatory perspectives by focusing on self-efficacy as a proxy for the accepted individual psychological case and contrast it with potential bystander characteristics of the individual as well factors as embedded in the social context of the disaster community. To do so, we will utilize a random sampling of the population from a field study of an urban community in Israel that experienced five years of continuous terror attacks. The results strongly suggest that self-efficacy, as well as external factors: preparedness and having skills for intervention during emergencies along with gender best, predict potential helping behaviors. These results broaden our view of bystander behavior and open a window for enhancing this phenomenon as another element in disaster and crisis management.

Keywords: bystander behavior, disasters emergencies, psychological motivation to help, social context for helping

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Authors: Aleme Mekuria, Samuel Mathewos

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Background: Teenage pregnancy has long been a worldwide social, economic and educational concern for the developed, developing and underdeveloped countries. Studies on adolescent sexuality and pregnancy are very limited in our country. Therefore, this study aims at assessing the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and its determinants among school adolescents of Arba Minch town. Methods: Institution- based, cross-sectional study was conducted from 20-30 March 2014. Systematic sampling technique was used to select a total of 578 students from four schools of the town. Data were collected by trained data collectors using a pre-tested, self-administered structured questionnaire. The analysis was made using the software SPSS version 20.0 statistical packages. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of teenage pregnancy. Results: The prevalence of teenage pregnancy among school adolescents of Arba Minch town was 7.7%. Being grade11(AOR=4.6;95%CI:1.4,9.3) and grade12 student (AOR=5.8;95% CI:1.3,14.4), not knowing the correct time to take emergency contraceptives(AOR=3.3;95%CI:1.4,7.4), substance use(AOR=3.1;95%CI:1.1,8.8), living with either of biological parents (AOR=3.3;95%CI:1.1,8.7) and poor parent-daughter interaction (AOR=3.1;95%CI:1.1,8.7) were found to be significant predictors of teenage pregnancy. Conclusion: This study revealed a high level of teenage pregnancy among school adolescents of Arba Minch town. A significant number of adolescent female school students were at risk of facing the challenges of teenage pregnancy in the study area. School-based reproductive health education and strong parent-daughter relationships should be strengthened.

Keywords: adolescent, Arba minch, risk factors, school, southern Ethiopia, teenage pregnancy

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Authors: Inese Trusina, Elita Jermolajeva, Viktors Gopejenko, Viktor Abramov

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Global challenges require a transition from the existing linear economic model to a model that will consider nature as a life support system for the development of the way to social well-being in the frame of the ecological economics paradigm. The objective of the article is to present the results of the analysis of socio-economic systems in the context of sustainable development using the systems power (energy flows) changes analyzing method and structural Kaldor's model of GDP. In accordance with the principles of life's development and the ecological concept was formalized the tasks of sustainable development of the open, non-equilibrium, stable socio-economic systems were formalized using the energy flows analysis method. The methodology of monitoring sustainable development and level of life were considered during the research of interactions in the system ‘human - society - nature’ and using the theory of a unified system of space-time measurements. Based on the results of the analysis, the time series consumption energy and economic structural model were formulated for the level, degree and tendencies of sustainable development of the system and formalized the conditions of growth, degrowth and stationarity. In order to design the future state of socio-economic systems, a concept was formulated, and the first models of energy flows in systems were created using the tools of system dynamics. During the research, the authors calculated and used a system of universal indicators of sustainable development in the invariant coordinate system in energy units. In order to design the future state of socio-economic systems, a concept was formulated, and the first models of energy flows in systems were created using the tools of system dynamics. In the context of the proposed approach and methods, universal sustainable development indicators were calculated as models of development for the USA and China. The calculations used data from the World Bank database for the period from 1960 to 2019. Main results: 1) In accordance with the proposed approach, the heterogeneous energy resources of countries were reduced to universal power units, summarized and expressed as a unified number. 2) The values of universal indicators of the life’s level were obtained and compared with generally accepted similar indicators.3) The system of indicators in accordance with the requirements of sustainable development can be considered as a basis for monitoring development trends. This work can make a significant contribution to overcoming the difficulties of forming socio-economic policy, which is largely due to the lack of information that allows one to have an idea of the course and trends of socio-economic processes. The existing methods for the monitoring of the change do not fully meet this requirement since indicators have different units of measurement from different areas and, as a rule, are the reaction of socio-economic systems to actions already taken and, moreover, with a time shift. Currently, the inconsistency or inconsistency of measures of heterogeneous social, economic, environmental, and other systems is the reason that social systems are managed in isolation from the general laws of living systems, which can ultimately lead to a systemic crisis.

Keywords: sustainability, system dynamic, power, energy flows, development

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Authors: Sandabad Sara, Sayd Tahri Yassine, Hammouch Ahmed

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The development of science has allowed computer scientists to touch the medicine and bring aid to radiologists as we are presenting it in our article. Our work focuses on the detection and localization of tumors areas in the human brain; this will be a completely automatic without any human intervention. In front of the huge volume of MRI to be treated per day, the radiologist can spend hours and hours providing a tremendous effort. This burden has become less heavy with the automation of this step. In this article we present an automatic and effective tumor detection, this work consists of two steps: the first is the image filtering using the filter Nl-means, then applying the expectation maximization algorithm (EM) for retrieving the tumor mask from the brain MRI and extracting the tumor area using the mask obtained from the second step. To prove the effectiveness of this method multiple evaluation criteria will be used, so that we can compare our method to frequently extraction methods used in the literature.

Keywords: MRI, Em algorithm, brain, tumor, Nl-means

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Authors: Peter Shi

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Algorithmic trading is a rapidly expanding domain within quantitative finance, constituting a substantial portion of trading volumes in the US financial market. The demand for rigorous and robust mathematical theories underpinning these trading algorithms is ever-growing. In this study, the author establishes a new stock market model that integrates the Efficient Market Hypothesis and the statistical arbitrage. The model, for the first time, finds probabilistic relations between the rational price and the market price in terms of the conditional expectation. The theory consequently leads to a mathematical justification of the old market adage: buy-low and sell-high. The thresholds for “low” and “high” are precisely derived using a max-min operation on Bayes’s error. This explicit connection harmonizes the Efficient Market Hypothesis and Statistical Arbitrage, demonstrating their compatibility in explaining market dynamics. The amalgamation represents a pioneering contribution to quantitative finance. The study culminates in comprehensive numerical tests using historical market data, affirming that the “buy-low” and “sell-high” algorithm derived from this theory significantly outperforms the general market over the long term in four out of six distinct market environments.

Keywords: efficient market hypothesis, behavioral finance, Bayes' decision, algorithmic trading, risk control, stock market

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Authors: F. Waffo Tchuimmo, G. S. Kwandio Dongoua, C. U. Yves Mbono Samba, O. Dafounansou, L. Nana

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The strength criterion is an important condition of great interest to guarantee the stability of the structural elements. The present work is based on the study of the free vibration of Euler’s Bernoulli column of equal strength in compression while considering its own weight and the axial load in compression and tension subjected to symmetrical boundary conditions. We use the differential quadrature method to investigate the first fifth naturals frequencies parameters of the column according to the different forms of geometrical sections. The results of this work give help in making a judicious choice of type of cross-section and a better boundary condition to guarantee good stability of this type of column in civil constructions.

Keywords: free vibration, equal strength, self-weight, tip force, differential quadrature method

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Authors: Abdelaadim Bidaoui

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As one of the most important linguistic inquiries, the topic of the intertwined relationship between language, the mind, and the world has attracted many scholars. In the fifties, Sapir and Whorf advocated the hypothesis that language shapes our cultural realities as an early attempt to provide answers to this linguistic inquiry. Later, discursive psychology views the linguistic behavior as “a dynamic form of social practice which constructs the social world, individual selves and identity.” (Jorgensen & Phillips 2002, 118). Discursive psychology also considers discourse as a trigger of social action and change. Building on discursive psychology and motivation theory, this paper examines the impact of linguistic behavior of the Moroccan coach Walid Reggragui on the Moroccan team’s exceptional performance in Qatar 2022 Soccer World Cup. The data used in the research is based on interviews conducted by the Moroccan coach prior and during the World Cup. Using a discourse analysis of the linguistic behavior of Reggragui, this paper shows how the linguistic behavior of Reggragui provided support for the three psychological needs: sense of belonging, competence, and autonomy. As any CDA research, this paper uses a triangulated theoretical framework that includes language, cognition and society.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, motivation theory, discursive psychology, linguistic behavior

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Authors: Shashi Bhushan, Sucharita Sen

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In India, forest and people are inextricably linked since millions of people live adjacent to or within protected areas and harvest forest products. Indian forest has their own legacy to sustain by its own climatic nature with several social, economic and cultural activities. People surrounding forest areas are not only dependent on this resource for their livelihoods but also for the other source, like religious ceremonies, social customs and herbal medicines, which are determined by the forest like agricultural land, groundwater level, and soil fertility. The assumption that fuelwood and fodder extraction, which is the part of local livelihood leads to deforestation, has so far been the dominant mainstream views in deforestation discourses. Given the occupational division across social groups in Kaimur reserve forest, the differential nature of dependence of forest resources is important to understand. This paper attempts to assess the nature of dependence and impact of forest degradation on rural households across various social groups. Also, an additional element that is added to the enquiry is the way degradation of forests leading to scarcity of forest-based resources impacts the patterns of dependence across various social groups. Change in forest area calculated through land use land cover analysis using remote sensing technique and examination of different economic activities carried out by the households that are forest-based was collected by primary survey in Kaimur reserve forest of state of Bihar in India. The general finding indicates that the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities, the most socially and economically deprived sections of the rural society are involved in a significant way in collection of fuelwood, fodder, and fruits, both for self-consumption and sale in the market while other groups of society uses fuelwood, fruit, and fodder for self-use only. Depending on the local forest resources for fuelwood consumption was the primary need for all social groups due to easy accessibility and lack of alternative energy source. In last four decades, degradation of forest made a direct impact on rural community mediated through the socio-economic structure, resulting in a shift from forest-based occupations to cultivation and manual labour in agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Thus there is a need to review the policies with respect to the ‘community forest management’ since this study clearly throws up the fact that engagement with and dependence on forest resources is socially differentiated. Thus tying the degree of dependence and forest management becomes extremely important from the view of ‘sustainable’ forest resource management. The statization of forest resources also has to keep in view the intrinsic way in which the forest-dependent population interacts with the forest.

Keywords: forest degradation, livelihood, social groups, tribal community

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Authors: Yu-Hsien Lin, Yu-Ru Lin, Yung-Chun Wu

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This work demonstrates the ultra-thin poly-Si (polycrystalline Silicon) nanowire junctionless thin film transistors (NWs JL-TFT) with nickel silicide contact. For nickel silicide film, this work designs to use two-step annealing to form ultra-thin, uniform and low sheet resistance (Rs) Ni silicide film. The NWs JL-TFT with nickel silicide contact exhibits the good electrical properties, including high driving current (>10⁷ Å), subthreshold slope (186 mV/dec.), and low parasitic resistance. In addition, this work also compares the electrical characteristics of NWs JL-TFT with nickel silicide and non-silicide contact. Nickel silicide techniques are widely used for high-performance devices as the device scaling due to the source/drain sheet resistance issue. Therefore, the self-aligned silicide (salicide) technique is presented to reduce the series resistance of the device. Nickel silicide has several advantages including low-temperature process, low silicon consumption, no bridging failure property, smaller mechanical stress, and smaller contact resistance. The junctionless thin-film transistor (JL-TFT) is fabricated simply by heavily doping the channel and source/drain (S/D) regions simultaneously. Owing to the special doping profile, JL-TFT has some advantages such as lower thermal the budget which can integrate with high-k/metal-gate easier than conventional MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors), longer effective channel length than conventional MOSFETs, and avoidance of complicated source/drain engineering. To solve JL-TFT has turn-off problem, JL-TFT needs ultra-thin body (UTB) structure to reach fully depleted channel region in off-state. On the other hand, the drive current (Iᴅ) is declined as transistor features are scaled. Therefore, this work demonstrates ultra thin poly-Si nanowire junctionless thin film transistors with nickel silicide contact. This work investigates the low-temperature formation of nickel silicide layer by physical-chemical deposition (PVD) of a 15nm Ni layer on the poly-Si substrate. Notably, this work designs to use two-step annealing to form ultrathin, uniform and low sheet resistance (Rs) Ni silicide film. The first step was promoted Ni diffusion through a thin interfacial amorphous layer. Then, the unreacted metal was lifted off after the first step. The second step was annealing for lower sheet resistance and firmly merged the phase.The ultra-thin poly-Si nanowire junctionless thin film transistors NWs JL-TFT with nickel silicide contact is demonstrated, which reveals high driving current (>10⁷ Å), subthreshold slope (186 mV/dec.), and low parasitic resistance. In silicide film analysis, the second step of annealing was applied to form lower sheet resistance and firmly merge the phase silicide film. In short, the NWs JL-TFT with nickel silicide contact has exhibited a competitive short-channel behavior and improved drive current.

Keywords: poly-Si, nanowire, junctionless, thin-film transistors, nickel silicide

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Authors: Qiongzi Zheng, Lewis Cornwell, Neal Peres Da Costa

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Drawn on Confucian and Taoist philosophy and long-established tradition of aesthetic ideals, the Art of the Chinese Zither (Xishan Qinkuang), a classic work by Chinese music scholar Xu Shangyin in 1643, distilled twenty-four practicing principles for the Chinese zither. This work has influenced the practice of guzheng to the present day. Whilst the principles were described in detail, how they can actually be achieved on a technical level remains to be explored. This study focuses on three key practicing principles: yuan (roundness), liu (fluidness), and su (swiftness), and examines how the playing techniques developed by Master Zhao Manqin contribute to the implementation of the principles. The study concludes that knowledge of the technicality of fingering positioning before and after plucking motion is critical to the realization of these principles.

Keywords: Chinese music aesthetics, practicing principles of the Chinese zither, guzheng playing techniques, Zhao Manqin’s fingering techniques, Xishan Qinkuang

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Authors: Mohammed Aljoma, Eblal Zakzok

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Safety is a science that seeks to protect and avoid humans from risks in any field and prevent losses in properties and lives as much as possible. On the other hand, occupational safety goals aim to protect workers from risks which can occur during work execution. The main purpose of occupational safety is to ultimately protect people, properties and the environment by reducing accidents and injuries that may cause losses and damages. To achieve this goal, we must remove the direct and indirect reasons which cause accidents and injuries; some of the reasons of accidents are the unsafe cases and inept behavior or both of them. This research focuses on the manner of providing instant protection from the very first beginning to people, properties and the environment by: -Inserting safety demands in the planning and designing works by identifying risk levels in every task of the project, -Using a new risk managing system or modifying or changing a previously-used one.

Keywords: planning, scheduling, risk management, project duration, site safety

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Authors: Adewale Oladapo, Carolyn A. Afolami

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Agricultural production should be the major financial contributor to the Nigerian economy; however, the petroleum sector had taken the importance attached to this sector. The situation tends to be more worsening unless necessary attention is given to adequate credit supply among food crop farmers. This research analyses the effect of credit use on the technical efficiency of cassava farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from two hundred randomly selected cassava farmers through a multistage sampling procedure in the study area. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Findings revealed that 95.0% of the farmers were male while 56.0% had no formal education and were married. The SFA showed that cassava farmer’s efficiency increased with farm size, herbicide and planting material at 5%,10% and 1% respectively but decreased with fertilizer application at 1% level while farmers’ age, education, household size, experience and access to credit increased technical inefficiency at 10%. The study concluded that cassava farmers are technically inefficient in the use of farm resources and recommended that adequate and workable agricultural policy measures that will ensure availability and efficient fertilizer distribution should be put in place to increase efficiency. Furthermore, the government should encourage youth participation in cassava production and ensure improvement in farmer’s access to credit to increase farmer’s technical efficiency.

Keywords: agriculture, access to credit, cassava farmers, technical efficiency

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Authors: Jessica Leigh Doyle

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In recent years there has been increasing academic and policy interest in domestic violence (DV) and in the implications of DV for the physical and psychological well-being of those who experience it. Yet, despite this interest, very few detailed empirical explorations of these issues have been conducted to date. Of the detailed empirical work that does exist, most studies have focused narrowly on physical violence and the impact of physical violence on rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use. This has often been to the exclusion of wider experiences of DV in relation to psychological, sexual and financial abuse, and of broader victim self-perceptions of psychological well-being that include self-esteem, social participation and quality of life as core components. This paper contributes towards filling this gap by examining these issues on the basis of comprehensive empirical evidence from the Northern Ireland context. Using qualitative methods, the paper presents the findings from 63 semi-structured interviews with women victims of DV from across Northern Ireland. The findings discuss the varied types of violence (physical, psychological, sexual, and financial) that women experience, how these experiences shape their broad physical and psychological well-being and capacity to live active and fulfilling lives and the processes of recovery from IPV. The implications of these findings for research and policy are then discussed.

Keywords: domestic violence, gender equality, intimate partner violence, violence against women, well-being

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Authors: Sterlyn Poueriet Gil

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Through the years, the construction of cultural identity in the Dominican Republic has been subject to multiple unfavorable conditions fostered by the elites. These conditions have led to the loss of a pattern that lasts over time; leaving this as a result of inconsistency and the diversity of elements that at first are theses and antitheses and gives form to the complexity of what we can call: "the culture of a people that tries to reinvent itself in each social-historical moment". Religion is one of those cultural elements that does not escape the will of the elites. In the country, there are multiple religious groups that, in one way or another, represent what the people are, their ancestral customs, their philosophy, and even their strengths as groups of a certain social environment. However, these have always been marginalized and discriminated against by the country's official religion and their respective denominations. The objective of this research was to verify to what extent interreligious discrimination was real, moving from the assumption to scientific evidence through the application of research techniques such as the survey, fieldwork, and qualitative analysis of the collected evidence, the supremacy of the dominant religion condemns its rites and in many cases the person himself. In many communities, freedom of worship is reserved for traditional groups, having cases in the country where the manifestations of rites such as the "gagá" and the "prillé" have been prohibited, considering them as diabolical and primitive practices; this seeks to deny the roots of a people marked by poverty and social conflicts but remains firm in the will to be.

Keywords: cultural identity, freedom of worship, gagá, popular demonstrations

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Authors: Caroline Kim

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The designation autism spectrum disorder (ASD) groups complex disorders in the development of the brain. Autism is defined essentially as a condition in which an individual lacks a theory of mind. The theory of mind, in this sense, explains the ability of an individual to attribute feelings, emotions, or thoughts to another person. An autistic patient is characteristically unable to determine what an interlocutor is feeling, or to understand the beliefs of others. However, it is possible that autism cannot plausibly characterized as the lack of theory of mind in an individual. Genes, the bran, and its interplay with environmental factors may also cause autism. A mutation in a gene may be hereditary, or instigated by diseases such as mumps. Though an autistic patient may experience abnormalities in the cerebellum and the cortical regions, these are in fact only possible theories as to a biochemical explanation behind the disability. The prevailing theory identifying autism with lacking the theory of mind is supported by behavioral observation, but this form of observation is itself determined by socially constructed standards, limiting the possibility for empirical verification. The theory of mind infers that the beliefs and emotions of people are causally based on their behavior. This paper demonstrates the fallacy of this inference, critiquing its basis in socially constructed values, and arguing instead for a biochemical approach free from the conceptual apparatus of language and social expectation.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, sociology of psychology, social construction, the theory of mind

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Authors: Yessenia Parrado, Ana Barbosa, Daniela Mahe, Sebastian Toro, Jhon Garcia

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Public innovation has gained strength in recent years in response to the need to find new strategies or mechanisms to interact between government entities and citizens. In this way, the Colombian government has been promoting policies aimed at strengthening innovation as a fundamental aspect in the work of public entities. However, in order to potentiate the capacities of public servants and therefore of the institutions and organizations to which they belong, it is necessary to be able to understand the context under which they operate in their daily work. This article aims to compile the work developed by the laboratory of innovation, creativity, and new technologies LAB101 of the National University of Colombia for the National Department of Planning. A case study was developed in the central region of Colombia made up of five departments, through the construction of instruments based on quantitative techniques in response to the item combined with qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews to understand the perception of possible barriers to innovation and the obstacles that have prevented the acceleration of transformation within public organizations. From the information collected, different analyzes are carried out that allows a more robust explanation to be given to the results obtained, and a set of categories are established to group different characteristics associated with possible difficulties that officials perceive to innovate and that are later conceived as barriers. Finally, a proposal for an indicator was built to measure the degree of innovation within public entities in order to be able to carry a metric in future opportunities. The main findings of this study show three key components to be strengthened in public entities and organizations: governance, knowledge management, and the promotion of collaborative workspaces.

Keywords: barriers, enablers, management, public innovation

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Authors: Sarah Müller-Sägebrecht

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Today’s volatile environment challenges executives to make the right strategic decisions to gain sustainable success. Entrepreneurship scholars postulate mainly positive effects of environmental changes on entrepreneurship behavior, such as developing new business opportunities, promoting ingenuity, and the satisfaction of resource voids. A strategic solution approach to overcome threatening environmental changes and catch new business opportunities is business model innovation (BMI). Although this research stream has gained further importance in the last decade, BMI research is still insufficient. Especially BMI barriers, such as inefficient strategic decision-making processes, need to be identified. Strategic decisions strongly impact organizational future and are, therefore, usually made in groups. Although groups draw on a more extensive information base than single individuals, group-interaction effects can influence the decision-making process - in a favorable but also unfavorable way. Decisions are characterized by uncertainty and risk, whereby their intensity is perceived individually differently. The individual risk-willingness influences which option humans choose. The special nature of strategic decisions, such as in BMI processes, is that these decisions are not made individually but in groups due to their high organizational scope. These groups consist of different personalities whose individual risk-willingness can vary considerably. It is known from group decision theory that these individuals influence each other, observable in different group-interaction effects. The following research questions arise: i) How does group interaction shape BMI decision-making from managers’ perspective? ii) What are the potential interrelations among managers’ risk-willingness, group biases, and BMI decision-making? After conducting 26 in-depth interviews with executives from the manufacturing industry, applied Gioia methodology reveals the following results: i) Risk-averse decision-makers have an increased need to be guided by facts. The more information available to them, the lower they perceive uncertainty and the more willing they are to pursue a specific decision option. However, the results also show that social interaction does not change the individual risk-willingness in the decision-making process. ii) Generally, it could be observed that during BMI decisions, group interaction is primarily beneficial to increase the group’s information base for making good decisions, less than for social interaction. Further, decision-makers mainly focus on information available to all decision-makers in the team but less on personal knowledge. This work contributes to strategic decision-making literature twofold. First, it gives insights into how group-interaction effects influence an organization’s strategic BMI decision-making. Second, it enriches risk-management research by highlighting how individual risk-willingness impacts organizational strategic decision-making. To date, it was known in BMI research that risk aversion would be an internal BMI barrier. However, with this study, it becomes clear that it is not risk aversion that inhibits BMI. Instead, the lack of information prevents risk-averse decision-makers from choosing a riskier option. Simultaneously, results show that risk-averse decision-makers are not easily carried away by the higher risk-willingness of their team members. Instead, they use social interaction to gather missing information. Therefore, executives need to provide sufficient information to all decision-makers to catch promising business opportunities.

Keywords: business model innovation, cognitive biases, group-interaction effects, strategic decision-making, risk-willingness

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Authors: Yasser El-Henawy, M. Abd El-Kader, Gamal H. Moustafa

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A theoretical study of a humidification dehumidification solar desalination unit has been carried out to increase understanding the effect of weather conditions on the unit productivity. A humidification-dehumidification (HD) solar desalination unit has been designed to provide fresh water for population in remote arid areas. It consists of solar water collector and air collector; to provide the hot water and air to the desalination chamber. The desalination chamber is divided into humidification and dehumidification towers. The circulation of air between the two towers is maintained by the forced convection. A mathematical model has been formulated, in which the thermodynamic relations were used to study the flow, heat and mass transfer inside the humidifier and dehumidifier. The present technique is performed in order to increase the unit performance. Heat and mass balance has been done and a set of governing equations has been solved using the finite difference technique. The unit productivity has been calculated along the working day during the summer and winter sessions and has compared with the available experimental results. The average accumulative productivity of the system in winter has been ranged between 2.5 to 4 kg/m2.day, while the average summer productivity has been found between 8 to 12 kg/m2 day.

Keywords: solar desalination, solar collector, humidification and dehumidification, simulation, finite difference, water productivity

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Authors: Bruno Mazorra Roig

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In the realm of cost-sharing mechanisms, the vulnerability to Sybil strategies, where agents can create fake identities to manipulate outcomes, has not yet been studied. In this paper, we delve into the intricacies of different cost-sharing mechanisms proposed in the literature, highlighting its non-Sybil-resistance nature. Furthermore, we prove that under mild conditions, a Sybil-proof cost-sharing mechanism for public excludable goods is at least (n/2 + 1)−approximate. This finding reveals an exponential increase in the worst-case social cost in environments where agents are restricted from using Sybil strategies. We introduce the concept of Sybil Welfare Invariant mechanisms, where a mechanism maintains its worst-case welfare under Sybil strategies for every set of prior beliefs with full support even when the mechanism is not Sybil-proof. Finally, we prove that the Shapley value mechanism for public excludable goods holds this property and so deduce that the worst-case social cost of this mechanism is the nth harmonic number Hn under the equilibrium of the game with Sybil strategies, matching the worst-case social cost bound for cost-sharing mechanisms. This finding carries important implications for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), indicating that they are capable of funding public excludable goods efficiently, even when the total number of agents is unknown.

Keywords: game theory, mechanism design, cost sharing, false-name proofness

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Authors: Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa

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Vietnam currently has about two million five hundred deaf/hard of hearing people. Although the issue of Vietnamese Sign Language (VSL) education has received attention from the State, there are still many issues that need to be resolved, such as policies, teacher training in both knowledge and teaching methods, education programs, and textbook compilation. Furthermore, the issue of research on VSL has not yet attracted the attention of linguists. Using the quantitative description method, the article will analyze, synthesize, and compare to find methods to create signed words in VSL, such as based on external shape characteristics, operational characteristics, operating methods, and basic meanings, from which we can see the special nature of signed words, the division of word types and the morphological meaning of creating new words through sign methods. From the results of this research, the aspect of ‘visual culture’ will be clarified in Vietnamese Deaf Culture. Through that, we also develop a number of vocabulary teaching methods (such as teaching vocabulary through a group of methods of forming signed words, teaching vocabulary using mind maps, and teaching vocabulary through culture...), with the aim of further improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning VSL in Vietnam. The research results also provide deaf people in Vietnam with a scientific and effective method of learning vocabulary, helping them quickly integrate into the community. The article will be a useful reference for linguists who want to research VSL.

Keywords: Vietnamese sign language (VSL), signed word, teaching, method

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Authors: Markus Stralla

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This study employs a GMM framework to examine the impact of potential regulatory intervention regarding the occupations of supervisory board members in cooperative banking. To achieve insights, the study proceeds in two different ways. First, it investigates the changes in board structure prior and following to the German Act to Strengthen Financial Market and Insurance Supervision (FinVAG). Second, the study estimates the influence of Ph.D.Share, professional concentration and supervisory power on bank-risk changes in consideration of the implementation of FinVAG. Therefore, the study is based on a sample of 246 German cooperative banks from 2006-2011 while applying four different measures of bank risk, namely credit-, equity-, liquidity-risk, and Z-Score, with the former three also being addressed in FinVAG. Results indicate that the implementation of FinVAG results in (most likely unintentional) structural changes, especially at the expense of farmers, and affects all risk measures and relations between risk measures and supervisory board characteristics in a risk-reducing and therefore intended way. To disentangle the complex relationship between board characteristics and risk measures, the study utilizes two-step system GMM estimator to account for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity in order to reduce endogeneity problems. The findings may be especially relevant for stakeholders, regulators, supervisors and managers.

Keywords: bank governance, bank risk-taking, board of directors, regulation

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Authors: Malathi Balakrishnan, Cheng Lee Ooi, Chander Vengadasalam

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The purpose of this study is to explore a case study of trainee teachers’ learning experience on innovating traditional games during the traditional game carnival. It explores issues arising from multiple case studies of trainee teachers learning experiences in innovating traditional games. A qualitative methodology was adopted through observations, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals’ content analysis of trainee teachers’ learning experiences creating and implementing innovative traditional games. Twelve groups of 36 trainee teachers who registered for Sports and Physical Education Management Course were the participants for this research during the traditional game carnival. Semi structured interviews were administrated after the trainee teachers learning experiences in creating innovative traditional games. Reflective journals were collected after carnival day and the content analyzed. Inductive data analysis was used to evaluate various data sources. All the collected data were then evaluated through the Nvivo data analysis process. Inductive reasoning was interpreted based on the Self Determination Theory (SDT). The findings showed that the trainee teachers had positive game participation experiences, game knowledge about traditional games and positive motivation to innovate the game. The data also revealed the influence of themes like cultural significance and creativity. It can be concluded from the findings that the organized game carnival, as a requirement of course work by the Institute of Teacher Training Malaysia, was able to enhance teacher trainers’ innovative thinking skills. The SDT, as a multidimensional approach to motivation, was utilized. Therefore, teacher trainers may have more learning experiences using the SDT.

Keywords: learning experiences, innovation, traditional games, trainee teachers

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Authors: Malathi Balakrishnan, Gananathan M. Nadarajah, Saraswathy Vellasamy, Evelyn Gnanam William George

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The purpose of the study is to explore how the fun game-learning approach enhances teacher trainers’ higher order thinking skills. Two-day fun filled fun game learning-approach was introduced to teacher trainers as a Continuous Professional Development Program (CPD). 26 teacher trainers participated in this Transformation of Teaching and Learning Fun Way Program, organized by Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia. Qualitative research technique was adopted as the researchers observed the participants’ higher order thinking skills developed during the program. Data were collected from observational checklist; interview transcriptions of four participants and participants’ reflection notes. All the data were later analyzed with NVivo data analysis process. The finding of this study presented five main themes, which are critical thinking, hands on activities, creating, application and use of technology. The studies showed that the teacher trainers’ higher order thinking skills were enhanced after the two-day CPD program. Therefore, Institute of Teacher Education will have more success using the fun way game-learning approach to develop higher order thinking skills among its teacher trainers who can implement these skills to their trainee teachers in future. This study also added knowledge to Constructivism learning theory, which will further highlight the prominence of the fun way learning approach to enhance higher order thinking skills.

Keywords: constructivism, game-learning approach, higher order thinking skill, teacher trainer

Procedia PDF Downloads 277