Search results for: role play

Authors: Gracia Lwanzo Kasongo

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In the realm of cultural heritage, few issues loom larger than the ongoing battle for restitution faced by European and African museums. In Belgium, this contentious process was set in motion by two pivotal events. Firstly, the resounding revelations of the French report on restitution, which boldly declared that 'over 90% of African cultural heritage resides outside of Africa Secondly, the seismic impact of the Black Lives Matter movement following the tragic death of George Floyd. These two events unleashed a wave of outrage among Afro-descendants, who viewed the possession of colonial collections as an enduring symbol of colonial dominance and a stark validation of the systemic racism deeply ingrained within Belgian society. The instrumentalization of cultural property as a means of wielding political power is by no means a novel concept. Its roots can be traced back to the constructed justifications that emerged in the 1950s, during which the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren played a pivotal role as the self-proclaimed 'guardian of Congolese cultural heritage'. This legacy of legitimizing colonial presence permeates the fabric of Belgium's museum reform policies and the structural management of museums in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Employing a dialectical approach, I embark on an exploration of the intricate historical interplay between the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Institute of National Museums of Congo. From this vantage point, I delve into the arduous struggles faced by museums in both the DRC and Belgium as they grapple with the complex and contentious issue of cultural heritage restitution. Central to these struggles is the profound quest for meaning and (re)definition of museums, particularly for Congolese and Afro-descendant communities whose identities and narratives have long been marginalized and suppressed. As the narrative unfolds, I shed light on the prospects for cooperation that have emerged from my extensive fieldwork. Within the interplay of historical entanglements, struggles for restitution, and the search for a more inclusive and equitable museum landscape, glimmers of hope emerge. Collaborative efforts and potential avenues for mutual understanding between Belgium and the DRC begin to take shape, offering a beacon of possibility amidst the often tumultuous discourse surrounding cultural heritage.

Keywords: restitution, museum stuggles, belgium, DRCongo

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Authors: E. Njuguna, S. Ilovi, P. Muiruri, K. Mutai, J. Kinuthia, P. Njoroge

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Introduction: Cervical cancer is the commonest cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality among women in developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Screening for cervical cancer in all women regardless of HIV status is crucial for the early detection of cancer of the cervix when treatment is most effective in curing the disease. It is particularly more important to screen HIV infected women as they are more at risk of developing the disease and progressing faster once infected with HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). We aimed to determine the factors affecting the utilization of cervical cancer screenings among HIV infected women above 18 years of age at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) Comprehensive Care Center (CCC). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional mixed quantitative and qualitative study involving randomly and purposefully selected HIV positive female respectively was conducted. Qualitative data collection involved 4 focus group discussions of eligible female participants while quantitative data were acquired by one to one interviewer administered structured questionnaires. The outcome variable was the utilization of cervical cancer screening. Data were entered into Access data base and analyzed using Stata version 11.1. Qualitative data were analyzed after coding for significant clauses and transcribing to determine themes arising. Results: We enrolled a total of 387 patients, mean age (IQ range) 40 years (36-44). Cervical cancer screening utilization was 46% despite a health care provider recommendation of 85%. The screening results were reported as normal in 72 of 81 (88.9%) and abnormal 7 of 81(8.6%) of the cases. Those who did not know their result were 2 of 81(2.5%). Patients were less likely to utilize the service with increasing number of years attending the clinic (OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.86-0.99, p-value 0.02), but more likely to utilize the service if recommendation by a staff was made (OR 10, 95% CI 4.2-23.9, p<0.001), and if cervical screening had been done before joining KNH CCC (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7-4.9, p < 0.001). Similarly, they were more likely to rate the services on cervical cancer screening as good (OR 5.0, 95% CI 1.7-3.4, p <0.001) and very good (OR 8.1, 95% CI 2.5-6.1, p<0.001) if they had utilized the service. The main barrier themes emerging from qualitative data included fear of screening due to excessive pain or bleeding, lack of proper communication on screening procedures and increased waiting time. Conclusions: Utilization of cervical cancer screening services was low despite health care recommendation. Patient socio-demographic characteristics did not influence whether or not they utilized the services, indicating the important role of the health care provider in the referral and provision of the service.

Keywords: cervical, cancer, HIV, women, comprehensive care center

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Authors: Ewa Toloczko

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Studies show that developing writing skills throughout years of formal foreign language instruction does not necessarily result in rewarding accomplishments among learners, nor an affirmative attitude they build towards written assignments. What causes this apparently wide-spread bias to writing might be a diminished relevance students attach to it, as opposed to the other productive skill — speaking, insufficient resources available for them to succeed, or the ways writing is approached by instructors, that is inapt teaching techniques that discourage rather that inflame learners’ engagement. The assumption underlying this presentation is that psychological and psycholinguistic factors constitute a key dimension of every writing process, and hence should be seriously considered in both material design and lesson planning. The author intends to demonstrate research in which writing tasks were conceived of as attitudinal rather than technical operations, and consequently turned into meaningful and socially-oriented incidents that students could relate to and have an active hand in. The instrument employed to achieve this purpose and to make writing even more interactive was the format of a project, a carefully devised series of tasks, which involved students as human beings, not only language learners. The projects rested upon the premise that the presence of peers and the teacher in class could be taken advantage of in a supportive rather than evaluative mode. In fact, the research showed that collaborative work and constant meaning negotiation reinforced not only bonds between learners, but also the language form and structure of the output. Accordingly, the role of the teacher shifted from the assessor to problem barometer, always ready to accept the slightest improvements in students’ language performance. This way, written verbal communication, which usually aims to merely manifest accuracy and coherent content for assessment, became part of the enterprise meant to emphasise its social aspect — the writer in real-life setting. The samples of projects show the spectrum of possibilities teachers have when exploring the domain of writing within school curriculum. The ideas are easy to modify and adjust to all proficiency levels and ages. Initially, however, they were meant to suit teenage and young adult learners of English as a foreign language in both European and Asian contexts.

Keywords: projects, psycholinguistic/ psychological dimension of writing, writing as a social enterprise, writing skills, written assignments

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Authors: Pinzón Uribe Luis Felipe, Chávez Porras Álvaro, Ruge Castellanos Liliana Constanza

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According to global data, solid waste management of has low economic investment for its management in underdeveloped countries; being the main factor the advanced technologies acknowledge for proper operation and at the same time the technical development. Has been evidenced that communities have a distorted perception of the role and legalized final destinations for waste or "Landfill" places specific management; influenced primarily by their physical characteristics and the information that the media provide of these, as well as their wrong association with "open dumps". One of the major inconveniences in these landfills is the leachate sludge management from treatment plants; as this exhibit a composition highly contaminating (physical, chemical and biological) for the natural environment due to improper handling and disposal. This is the case Landfill Doña Juana (RSDJ), Bogotá, Colombia, considered among the largest in South America; where management problems have persisted for decades, since its creation being definitive on the concept that society has acquired about this form of waste disposal and improper leachate handling. Within this research process for treating phytoremediation alternatives were determined by using plants that are able to degrade heavy metals contained in these; allowing the resulting sludge to be used as a seal in the final landfill cover; within a restoration process, providing option to solve the landscape contamination problem, as well as in the communities perception and conflicts that generates landfill. For the project chemical assays were performed in sludge leachate that allowed the characterization of metals such as chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg), in order to meet the amount in the biosolids regard to the provisions of the USEPA 40 CFR 503. The evaluations showed concentrations of 102.2 mg / kg of Cr, 0.49 mg / kg Pb, 0.390 mg / kg of As and 0.104 mg / kg of Hg; being lower than of the standards. A literature review on native plant species suitable for an alternative process of phytoremediation, these metals degradation capable was developed. Concluding that among them, Vetiveria zizanioides, Eichhornia crassipes and Limnobium laevigatum, for their hiperacumulativas in their leaves, stems and roots characteristics may allow these toxic elements reduction of in the environment, improving the outlook for disposal.

Keywords: health, filling slurry of leachate, heavy metals, phytoremediation

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Authors: Nayira Ahmed Galal Elden Hassan

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The management of Intellectual Property (IP) in museums can be complex and challenging, as it requires balancing access and control. On the one hand, museums must ensure that they have balanced permissions to display works in their collections and make them accessible to the public. On the other hand, they must also protect the rights of creators and owners of works and ensure that they are not infringing on IP rights. Intellectual property has become an increasingly important aspect of museum operations in the digital age. Museums hold a vast array of cultural assets in their collections, many of which have significant value as IP assets. The balanced management of IP in museums can help generate additional revenue and promote cultural heritage while also protecting the rights of the museum and its collections. Digital technologies have greatly impacted the way museums manage IP, providing new opportunities for revenue generation through e-commerce and licensing while also presenting new challenges related to IP protection and management. Museums must take a comprehensive approach to IP management, leveraging digital technologies, protecting IP rights, and engaging in licensing and e-commerce activities to maximize income and the economy of countries through the strong management of cultural institutions. Overall, the balanced management of IP in museums is crucial for ensuring the sustainability of museum operations and for preserving cultural heritage for future generations. By taking a balanced approach to identifying museum IP assets, museums can generate revenues and secure their financial sustainability to ensure the long-term preservation of their cultural heritage. We can divide IP assets in museums into two kinds: collection IP and museum-generated IP. Certain museums become confused and lose sight of their mission when trying to leverage collections-based IP. This was the case at the German State Museum in Berlin when the museum made 100 replicas from the Nefertiti bust and wrote under the replicas all rights reserved to the Berlin Museum and issued a certificate to prevent any person or Institution from reproducing any replica from this bust. The implications of IP in museums are far-reaching and can have significant impacts on the preservation of cultural heritage, the dissemination of information, and the development of educational programs. As such, it is important for museums to have a comprehensive understanding of IP laws and regulations and to properly manage IP to avoid legal liability, damage to reputation, and loss of revenue. The research aims to highlight the importance and role of intellectual property in museums and provide some illustrative examples of this.

Keywords: intellectual property, museum, cultural assets, sustainability, IP management

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Authors: Arash Dalili, Hamed Tahmouressi, Mina Hoorfar

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Advances in lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices have led to significant advances in the manipulation, separation, and isolation of particles and cells. Among the different active and passive particle manipulation methods, dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been proven to be a versatile mechanism as it is label-free, cost-effective, simple to operate, and has high manipulation efficiency. DEP has been applied for a wide range of biological and environmental applications. A popular form of DEP devices is the continuous manipulation of particles by using co-planar slanted electrodes, which utilizes a sheath flow to focus the particles into one side of the microchannel. When particles enter the DEP manipulation zone, the negative DEP (nDEP) force generated by the slanted electrodes deflects the particles laterally towards the opposite side of the microchannel. The lateral displacement of the particles is dependent on multiple parameters including the geometry of the electrodes, the width, length and height of the microchannel, the size of the particles and the throughput. In this study, COMSOL Multiphysics® modeling along with experimental studies are used to investigate the effect of the aforementioned parameters. The electric field between the electrodes and the induced DEP force on the particles are modelled by COMSOL Multiphysics®. The simulation model is used to show the effect of the DEP force on the particles, and how the geometry of the electrodes (width of the electrodes and the gap between them) plays a role in the manipulation of polystyrene microparticles. The simulation results show that increasing the electrode width to a certain limit, which depends on the height of the channel, increases the induced DEP force. Also, decreasing the gap between the electrodes leads to a stronger DEP force. Based on these results, criteria for the fabrication of the electrodes were found, and soft lithography was used to fabricate interdigitated slanted electrodes and microchannels. Experimental studies were run to find the effect of the flow rate, geometrical parameters of the microchannel such as length, width, and height as well as the electrodes’ angle on the displacement of 5 um, 10 um and 15 um polystyrene particles. An empirical equation is developed to predict the displacement of the particles under different conditions. It is shown that the displacement of the particles is more for longer and lower height channels, lower flow rates, and bigger particles. On the other hand, the effect of the angle of the electrodes on the displacement of the particles was negligible. Based on the results, we have developed an optimum design (in terms of efficiency and throughput) for three size separation of particles.

Keywords: COMSOL Multiphysics, Dielectrophoresis, Microfluidics, Particle separation

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Authors: Olga Mironiuk, Małgorzata Kossowska

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of Situational Attribution Training on reducing automatic in-group stereotyping in females. The experiment was conducted with the control of age and level of prejudice. 90 female participants were randomly assigned to two conditions: experimental and control group (each group was also divided into younger- and older-aged condition). Participants from the experimental condition were subjected to more extensive training. In the first part of the experiment, the experimental group took part in the first session of Situational Attribution Training while the control group participated in the Grammatical Training Control. In the second part of the research both groups took part in the Situational Attribution Training (which was considered as the second training session for the experimental group and the first one for the control condition). The training procedure was based on the descriptions of ambiguous situations which could be explained using situational or dispositional attributions. The participant’s task was to choose the situational explanation from two alternatives, out of which the second one presented the explanation based on neutral or stereotypically associated with women traits. Moreover, the experimental group took part in the third training session after two- day time delay, in order to check the persistence of the training effect. The main hypothesis stated that among participants taking part in the more extensive training, the automatic in-group stereotyping would be less frequent after having finished training sessions. The effectiveness of the training was tested by measuring the response time and the correctness of answers: the longer response time for the examples where one of two possible answers was based on the stereotype trait and higher correctness of answers was considered to be a proof of the training effectiveness. As the participants’ level of prejudice was controlled (using the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory), it was also assumed that the training effect would be weaker for participants revealing a higher level of prejudice. The obtained results did not confirm the hypothesis based on the response time: participants from the experimental group responded faster in case of situations where one of the possible explanations was based on stereotype trait. However, an interesting observation was made during the analysis of the answers’ correctness: regardless the condition and age group affiliation, participants made more mistakes while choosing the situational explanations when the alternative was based on stereotypical trait associated with the dimension of warmth. What is more, the correctness of answers was higher in the third training session for the experimental group in case when the alternative of situational explanation was based on the stereotype trait associated with the dimension of competence. The obtained results partially confirm the effectiveness of the training.

Keywords: female, in-group stereotyping, prejudice, situational attribution training

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Authors: Selin Kara-Bahçekapılı, Bengisu Nehir Aydın

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Objective: In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between childhood traumas (overprotection-control, emotional/physical/sexual abuse, emotional/physical neglect), age, emotional regulation difficulties, and the tendency of violence in adults. In the study, the direct and indirect effects of 6 sub-factors of childhood traumas, emotion regulation difficulties, and age on tendency to violence are evaluated on a model that theoretically reveals. Method: The population of this cross-sectional study consists of individuals between the ages of 18-65 living in Turkey. The data from 527 participants were obtained by online surveys and convenience sampling method within the scope of the study. As a result of exclusion criteria and then outlier data analysis, the data of 443 participants were included in the analysis. Data were collected by demographic information form, childhood trauma scale, emotion regulation difficulty scale, and violence tendency scale. Research data were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS using correlation, path analysis, direct and indirect effects. Results: According to the research findings, the variables in the model explained 28.2% of the variance of the mean scores of the individuals' tendency to violence. Emotion regulation difficulties have the most direct effect on the tendency to violence (d=.387; p<.01). The effects of excessive protection and control, emotional neglect, and physical neglect variables on the tendency to violence are not significant. When the significant and indirect effects of the variables on tendency to violence over emotion regulation difficulties are examined, age has a negative effect, emotional neglect has a positive effect, emotional abuse has a positive effect, and overprotection-control has a positive effect. The indirect effects of sexual abuse, physical neglect, and physical abuse on tendency to violence are not significant. Childhood traumas and age variables in the model explained 24.1% of the variance of the mean scores of the individuals’ emotion regulation difficulties. The variable that most affects emotion regulation difficulties is age (d=-.268; p<.001). The direct effects of sexual abuse, physical neglect, and physical abuse on emotion regulation difficulties are not significant. Conclusion: The results of the research emphasize the critical role of difficulty in emotion regulation on the tendency to violence. Difficulty in emotion regulation affects the tendency to violence both directly and by mediating different variables. In addition, it is seen that some sub-factors of childhood traumas have direct and/or indirect effects on the tendency to violence. Emotional abuse and age have both direct and indirect effects on the tendency to violence over emotion regulation difficulties.

Keywords: childhood trauma, emotion regulation difficulties, tendency to violence, path analysis

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Authors: Mariam Kutateladze

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In the twenty-first century, in the customer service settings for hospitality institution’s employee management and their well-being have become a core issue since it is linked to the customers' increased demand for high-quality service. Employees' positive attitude to customers plays an essential role in the serving process; for this reason, in the hospitality institutions service with a smile is a job requirement. This research is devoted to the issues of employee management systems improvement and its effect of the genuine smile as a positive attitude expressed by the employees to the customer. Different researchers work about the effect of the genuine smile, which is analyzed in the present paper. Based on it, the link between satisfied employees from service climate and their genuine smile is determined. An investigation in local resort hotels which are located in the regions of Georgia is conducted. In the methodology of the paper, we have used linkage research, which stated that employee satisfaction in a working place depends on the existing service climate in an organization. We have prepared questioners according to eight dimensions of good service climate by linkage research, and extra questions about the effect of the smile on customers were added. Questionnaires were distributed among employees, and the results have shown that dissatisfaction from organizations’ service climate led to employees' false smile toward customers. Demanding positive emotions from frustrated employees was the mistake of the hotel management. The false smile was easily recognized by the customers, and the frustrated employee with a false smile could not provide high-quality service. The findings of the paper will help managers to realize the importance of forming the positive service climate within the institutions since it is linked to employees' well-being who are the creators of high-quality service. The conclusion drawn from this study indicates there are core issues those managers need to take into account when planning their organizations’ profit. Managers should know their employees very well, their feelings and attitudes toward work before asking them expressing a smile since forced smile does not have a good result and quite often has bad outcomes; therefore, first of all, managers should investigate service climate in the organization. Managers should take into consideration employees’ opinions about the service climate in the organization, motivate their employees, and respect their ideas. Also, they should satisfy employees' basic needs and stress more value on extrinsic goals such as competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Managers should create a positive working environment, positive service climate, which will lead to employee satisfaction and genuine feelings, as well as improve the working environment since negative working climate will cause customers disappointment because of low-quality service provided by the unsatisfied employees.

Keywords: employee management, hotel, quality of service, service climate

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Authors: Hamzeh Alipour, Masoumeh Bagheri, Abbasali Raz, Javad Dadgar Pakdel, Kourosh Azizi, Aboozar Soltani, Mohammad Djaefar Moemenbellah-Fard

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Background: Maggot debridement therapy is an appropriate, effective, and controlled method using sterilized larvae of Luciliasericata (L.sericata) to treat wounds. Netrin-A is an enzyme in the Laminins family which secreted from salivary gland of L.sericata with a central role in neural regeneration and angiogenesis. This study aimed to production of new recombinant Netrin-A protein of Luciliasericata larvae by baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) in SF9. Material and methods: In the first step, gene structure was subjected to the in silico studies, which were include determination of Antibacterial activity, Prion formation risk, homology modeling, Molecular docking analysis, and Optimization of recombinant protein. In the second step, the Netrin-A gene was cloned and amplified in pTG19 vector. After digestion with BamH1 and EcoR1 restriction enzymes, it was cloned in pFastBac HTA vector. It was then transformed into DH10Bac competent cells, and the recombinant Bacmid was subsequently transfected into insect Sf9 cells. The expressed recombinant Netrin-A was thus purified in the Ni-NTA agarose. This protein evaluation was done using SDS-PAGE and western blot, respectively. Finally, its concentration was calculated with the Bradford assay method. Results: The Bacmid vector structure with Netrin-A was successfully constructed and then expressed as Netrin-A protein in the Sf9 cell lane. The molecular weight of this protein was 52 kDa with 404 amino acids. In the in silico studies, fortunately, we predicted that recombinant LSNetrin-A have Antibacterial activity and without any prion formation risk.This molecule hasa high binding affinity to the Neogenin and a lower affinity to the DCC-specific receptors. Signal peptide located between amino acids 24 and 25. The concentration of Netrin-A recombinant protein was calculated to be 48.8 μg/ml. it was confirmed that the characterized gene in our previous study codes L. sericata Netrin-A enzyme. Conclusions: Successful generation of the recombinant Netrin-A, a secreted protein in L.sericata salivary glands, and because Luciliasericata larvae are used in larval therapy. Therefore, the findings of the present study could be useful to researchers in future studies on wound healing.

Keywords: blowfly, BEVS, gene, immature insect, recombinant protein, Sf9

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Authors: Hamideh Sadat Zekri, Seyed Mojtaba Hosseinalipour, Mohammadreza Hafezi

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Nowadays, an organization cannot usually overcome all tasks singly due to the increasing complexity and vast expanse of projects, increment in uncertainty of activities, fast advances in technology, advent and influence of various factors in decision-making and implication of projects, and competitive atmosphere of different affairs. Thus, firms proceed to outsource the tasks to subcontractors. Nevertheless, large Iranian contracting companies suffer from extra consumed costs and time owing to conflicts between the activities of suppliers and subcontractors. The paucity of coordination in planning and execution, scarcity of coordination among suppliers, subcontractors, and the main contractor during the implementation of construction activities and also the lack of proper management of the aforesaid situation result in the growth of contradictions, number of claims, and legal issues in a project and consequently impose enormous expenses on those companies. Regarding the prosperity of supply chain management in other industries, its importance is increasingly getting appreciated in the field of construction. The ultimate aim of supply chain management is an effective delivery of the best value for customers, which is achievable by encouraging the members to interact and collaborate. In the present research, there was an effort to obtain a set of relevant challenges in the managing of subcontractors by identifying the main contractors and subcontractors and their role in the execution of projects and the supply chain management in the construction industry. Then, some of those challenges were selected in accordance with the views of industry professionals and academic experts. In the next step, a questionnaire was prepared and completed based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the challenges were prioritized. When it comes to subcontractors, the findings of the research demonstrate that difficulties in timely payments, alterations in approved drawings and the lack of rectification of job after completion by the subcontractor, paucity of a predetermined and legal process for qualifications of subcontractors, neglecting the supply chain processes in material procurement from producers, and delays in delivery of works by a subcontractor are the most significant problems. Finally, some solutions for encountering, eradicating, or reducing of mentioned problems are presented in accordance with previous studies and a survey from specialists.

Keywords: main contractors, subcontractors, supply chain management, construction supply chain, analytic hierarchy process, solution

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Authors: Fulufhelo Oscar Maphiri-Makananise

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The main purpose of this paper is to explore and provide substantiated evidence based on the usage patterns of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by females in the Vhembe District in Limpopo-Province, South Africa. The study presents a broader picture and understanding about the usage of ICTs from female’s perspective. The significance of this study stems from the need to discover the role, relevance and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, computers, laptops, and iPods, internet and social networking sites among females following the trends of new media technologies in the society. The main objective of the study was to investigate the usability and accessibility of ICTs to empower the Vhembe District females in South Africa. The study used quantitative research method together with elements of qualitative research to determine the major ideas, perceptions and usage patterns of ICTs by females in the District. Data collection involved structured and self-administered questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Two groups of respondents participated in this study. Media Studies female students (n=50) at the University of Venda provided their ideas and perceptions about the usefulness and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, internet and computers at the university level, while the second group were (n=50) Makhado comprehensive school learners who also provided their perceptions and ideas about the use of ICTs at the high school level. Also, the study provides a more balanced, accurate and rational results on the pertinent issues that concern the use of ICTs by females in the Vhembe District. The researcher also believes that the findings of the study are useful as a guideline and model for ICT intervention that work as an empowerment to women in South Africa. The study showed that the main purpose of using ICTs by females was to search information for writing assignments, conducting research, dating, exchanging ideas and networking with friends and relatives that are also members of social networking sites and maintaining existing friends in real life. The study further revealed that most females were using ICTs for social purposes and accessing the internet than entertaining themselves. The finding also indicated a high number of females that used ICTs for e-learning (62%) and social purposes (85%). Moreover, the study centred on providing strong insightful information on the females’ usage patterns and their perceptions of ICTs in the Vhembe district of Limpopo province.

Keywords: female users, information and communication technologies, internet, usage patterns

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Authors: Antonio Piga

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The study of language strategies in financial and corporate discourse has always been vital for understanding how companies manage to communicate effectively with a wider customer base and offers new perspectives on how companies interact with key stakeholders, not only to convey transparency and an image of trustworthiness, but also to create affiliation and attract investment. In the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics, the purpose of this study is to examine and analyse the annual reports of Asian and Western joint-stock companies involved in oil refining and power generation from the point of view of the functions and frequency of grammatical metaphors. More specifically, grammatical metaphor - through the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) - is used as a theoretical tool for analysing a synchronic cross-cultural study of the communicative strategies adopted by Asian and Western companies to communicate social and environmental sustainability and showcase their ethical values, performance and competitiveness to local and global communities and key stakeholders. According to Systemic Functional Linguistics, grammatical metaphor can be divided into two broad areas: ideational and interpersonal. This study focuses on the first type, ideational grammatical metaphor (IGM), which includes de-adjectival and de-verbal nominalisation. The dominant and more effective grammatical tropes used by Asian and Western corporations in their annual reports were examined from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The aim was to categorise and explain how ideational grammatical metaphor is constructed cross-culturally and presented through structural language patterns involving re-mapping between semantics and lexico-grammatical features. The results show that although there seem to be more differences than similarities in terms of the categorisation of the ideational grammatical metaphors conceptualised in the two case studies analysed, there are more similarities than differences in terms of the occurrence, the congruence of process types and the role and function of IGM. Through the immediacy and essentialism of compacting and condensing information, IGM seems to be an important linguistic strategy adopted in the rhetoric of corporate annual reports, contributing to the ideologies and actions of companies to report and promote efficiency, profit and social and environmental sustainability, thus advocating the engagement and investment of key stakeholders.

Keywords: corporate annual reports, cross-cultural perspective, ideational grammatical metaphor, rhetoric, systemic functional linguistics

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Authors: Bahman Ghorashi

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The immense awareness of the global climate change has compelled traditional fossil fuel companies to develop strategies to reduce their carbon footprint and simultaneously consider the production of various sources of clean energy in order to mitigate the environmental impact of their operations. Similarly, supply chain issues, the scarcity of certain raw materials, energy costs as well as market needs, and changing consumer expectations have forced the traditional chemical industry to reexamine their time-honored modes of operation. This study examines how such transformative change might occur through the applications of agile principles as well as industry 4.0 technologies. Clearly, such a transformation is complex, costly, and requires a total commitment on the part of the top leadership and the entire management structure. Factors that need to be considered include organizational speed of change, a restructuring that would lend itself toward collaboration and the selling of solutions to customers’ problems, rather than just products, integrating ‘along’ as well as ‘across’ value chains, mastering change and uncertainty as well as a recognition of the importance of concept-to-cash time, i.e., the velocity of introducing new products to market, and the leveraging of people and information. At the same time, parallel to implementing such major shifts in the ethos, and the fabric of the organization, the change leaders should remain mindful of the companies’ DNA while incorporating the necessary DNA defying shifts. Furthermore, such strategic maneuvers should inevitably incorporate the managing of the upstream and downstream operations, harnessing future opportunities, preparing and training the workforce, implementing faster decision making and quick adaptation to change, managing accelerated response times, as well as forming autonomous and cross-functional teams. Moreover, the leaders should establish the balance between high-value solutions versus high-margin products, fully implement digitization of operations and, when appropriate, incorporate the latest relevant technologies, such as: AI, IIoT, ML, and immersive technologies. This study presents a summary of the agile principles and the relevant technologies and draws lessons from some of the best practices that are already implemented within the chemical industry in order to establish a roadmap to agility. Finally, the critical role of educational institutions in preparing the future workforce for Industry 4.0 is addressed.

Keywords: agile principles, immersive technologies, industry 4.0, workforce preparation

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Authors: Zainab Algharibi, Julie McAdam, Catherine Fagan

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The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how Omani children in the first grade experience their needs during their transition to primary school. Theoretically, the paper was built on two perspectives: Dewey's concept of continuity of experience and the boundary objects introduced by Vygotsky (CHAT). The methodology of the study is based on the crucial role of children’s agency which is a very important activity as an educational tool to enhance the child’s participation in the learning process and develop their ability to face various issues in their life. Thus, the data were obtained from 45 children in grade one from 4 different primary schools using drawing and visual narrative activities, in addition to researcher observations during the start of the first weeks of the academic year for the first grade. As the study dealt with children, all of the necessary ethical laws were followed. This paper is considered original since it seeks to deal with the issue of children's transition from kindergarten to primary school in Oman, if not in the Arab region. Therefore, it is expected to fill an important gap in this field and present a proposal that will be a door for researchers to enter this research field later. The analysis of drawing and visual narrative was performed according to the social semiotics approach in two phases. The first is to read out the surface message “denotation,” while the second is to go in-depth via the symbolism obtained from children while they talked and drew letters and signs. This stage is known as “signified”; a video was recorded of each child talking about their drawing and expressing themself. Then, the data were organised and classified according to a cross-data network. Regarding the researcher observation analyses, the collected data were analysed according to the model was developed for the "grounded theory". It is based on comparing the recent data collected from observations with data previously encoded by other methods in which children were drawing alongside the visual narrative in the current study, in order to identify the similarities and differences, and also to clarify the meaning of the accessed categories and to identify sub-categories of them with a description of possible links between them. This is a kind of triangulation in data collection. The study came up with a set of findings, the most vital being that the children's greatest interest goes to their social and psychological needs, such as friends, their teacher, and playing. Also, their biggest fears are a new place, a new teacher, and not having friends, while they showed less concern for their need for educational knowledge and skills.

Keywords: children’s academic needs, children’s social needs, transition, primary school

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Authors: Ali Alahmari

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Urban drainage in Saudi Arabia is an increasingly challenging issue due to factors such as climate change and rapid urban expansion. The existing infrastructure, based on traditional drainage systems, is not always able to cope with the increased precipitation, sometimes leading to rainwater runoff and floods causing disturbances and damage to property. Therefore, there is a need to find new ways of managing drainage, such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). The research has highlighted the main driving forces behind the need for change, revealed by the participants, to the need to adopt new ideas and approaches for urban drainage. However, while moving towards this, certain factors that may hinder the aim of using the experiences of other countries and taking advantage of innovative solutions. The research illustrates an initial conceptual model for these factors emerging from the analysis. It identifies some of the fundamental issues affecting the resistance to change towards the adoption of the concept of sustainability in Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh city as a case study. This was by using a qualitative approach, whereby, through two phases of fieldwork during 2013 and 2014, twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with a number of representative officials and professionals from key government departments and organisations related to urban drainage management. Grounded Theory approach was followed to analyse the qualitative data obtained. Resistance to change was classified to: firstly: individual inertia (e.g. familiarity with the conventional solutions and approaches, lack of awareness, and considering sustainability as a marginal matter in urban planning). This resulted in not paying the desired attention, and impact on planning and setting priorities for development. Secondly: institutionalised inertia (e.g. lack of technical and design specifications for other unconventional drainage solutions, lack of consideration by decision makers in other disciplines such as contributions from environmental and geographical studies, and routine work and bureaucracy). This contributes to the weakness of decision-making, weakness in the role of research, and a lack of human resources. It seems that attitudes towards change may have reduced the ability to move forward towards sustainable development, in addition to contributing towards difficulties in some aspects of the decision-making process. Thus, the chapter provides insights into the current situation in Saudi Arabia and contributes to understanding the decisions that are made regarding change.

Keywords: climate change, new knowledge and approaches, resistance to change, Saudi Arabia, SUDS, urban drainage, urban expansion

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Authors: Raymond Treacy, Paul Humphreys, Ronan McIvor, Trevor Cadden, Alan McKittrick

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This study employed event study methodology to examine the role of institutions, resources and dynamic capabilities in the relationship between the Environmental Management System ISO 14001 adoption and firm performance. Utilising financial data from 140 ISO 14001 certified firms and 320 non-certified firms, the results of the study suggested that the UK and Irish manufacturers were not implementing ISO 14001 solely to gain legitimacy. In contrast, the results demonstrated that firms were fully integrating the ISO 14001 standard within their operations as certified firms were able to improve both financial and operating performance when compared to non-certified firms. However, while there were significant and long lasting improvements for employee productivity, manufacturing cost efficiency, return on assets and sales turnover, the sample firms operating cycle and fixed asset efficiency displayed evidence of diminishing returns in the long-run, underlying the observation that no operating advantage based on incremental improvements can be everlasting. Hence, there is an argument for investing in dynamic capabilities which help renew and refresh the resource base and help the firm adapt to changing environments. Indeed, the results of the regression analysis suggest that dynamic capabilities for innovation acted as a moderator in the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and firm performance. This, in turn, will have a significant and symbiotic influence on sustainability practices within the participating organisations. The study not only provides new and original insights, but demonstrates pragmatically how firms can take advantage of environmental management systems as a moderator to significantly enhance firm performance. However, while it was shown that firm innovation aided both short term and long term ROA performance, adaptive market capabilities only aided firms in the short-term at the marketing strategy deployment stage. Finally, the results have important implications for firms operating in an economic recession as the results suggest that firms should scale back investment in R&D while operating in an economic downturn. Conversely, under normal trading conditions, consistent and long term investments in R&D was found to moderate the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and firm performance. Hence, the results of the study have important implications for academics and management alike.

Keywords: supply chain management, environmental management systems, quality management, sustainability, firm performance

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Authors: N. Jena, Nitin Seth

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Globalization and free trade has forced the organizations to continuously rethink and rework on the increasing cost of logistics. World wide, it is visualized that on one side the steel sector is witnessing rapid growth and on the other side it is facing huge challenges in terms of availability of raw materials for uninterrupted production. Inbound logistics also gains significant importance for ensuring the timely availability of raw materials. It is seen that in Indian steel sector logistic cost is still very large and challenging. Effectively managing the inbound logistics in steel decides the profitability and serviceability of the organization. Effective management of inbound logistics also has a major role on the inventory of the organization. Since, the logistics for the steel industry in India is evolving rapidly and it is the interplay of infrastructure, technology and new types of service providers that will define whether the industry is able to help its customers to reduce their logistics costs. Integration of Logistics has been treated as one of the most potential area for the companies to provide a base for cost reduction. In spite of the proven area for benefits for the industry, it is very surprising that none of the researchers have explored this area. Although, many researchers explored the subject of logistics in steel industry, but their perspective varied from exploring and understanding the associated cost and finding out the relations between them. Visualizing a potential gap, the present research is under taken to explore the integration opportunities in inbound logistics for steel sector. Typically in Indian steel sector where in most of the manufacturers depend on imported materials for processing the logistics is very challenging and accounts for transactions at supplier – who is situated in different country, shipper- who is transporting the material to the host country, regulators in both countries-that include customs and various clearing agents, local logistics service providers and local transporters/handlers. It is seen that In bound logistics cost in the steel sector is very high and accounts for about 15-16% of the turn over, integration of information across different channels provides and opportunity for improvements and growth of the organization. In the present paper, a case of leading steel manufacturer has been taken and the potentials for integration of information across various partners have been identified. The paper provides the identification of grey area in steel sector for major improvements in cycle time and lowering the inventories by integration of information. Finally, based on integration of information, the paper presents a business information framework for steel sector.

Keywords: integration, steel sectors, suppliers, shippers, customs and cargo agents, transporters

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Authors: Lalita Subedi, Jae Kyoung Chae, Yong Un Park, Cho Kyo Hee, Lee Jae Hyuk, Kang Min Cheol, Sun Yeou Kim

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Neuroinflammation may mediate the relationship between low levels of estrogens and neurodegenerative disease. Estrogens are neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory in neurodegenerative disease models. Due to the long term side effects of estrogens, researches have been focused on finding an effective phytoestrogens for biological activities. Daidzein present in soybeans and its active metabolite equol (7-hydroxy-3-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-chroman) bears strong antioxidant and anticancer showed more potent anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective role in neuroinflammatory model confirmed its in vitro activity with molecular mechanism through NF-κB pathway. Three major CNS cells Microglia (BV-2), Astrocyte (C6), Neuron (N2a) were used to find the effect of equol in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase (COX-2), MAPKs signaling proteins, apoptosis related proteins by western blot analysis. Nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) was measured by the Gries method and ELISA, respectively. Cytokines like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6 were also measured in the conditioned medium of LPS activated cells with or without equol. Equol inhibited the NO production, PGE-2 production and expression of COX-2 and iNOS in LPS-stimulated microglial cells at a dose dependent without any cellular toxicity. At the same time Equol also showed promising effect in modulation of MAPK’s and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) expression with significant inhibition of the production of proinflammatory cytokine like interleukin -6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor -α (TNF-α). Additionally, it inhibited the LPS activated microglia-induced neuronal cell death by downregulating the apoptotic phenomenon in neuronal cells. Furthermore, equol increases the production of neurotrophins like NGF and increase the neurite outgrowth as well. In conclusion the natural daidzein metabolite equol are more active than daidzein, which showed a promising effectiveness as an anti-neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective agent via downregulating the LPS stimulated microglial activation and neuronal apoptosis. This work was supported by Brain Korea 21 Plus project and High Value-added Food Technology Development Program 114006-4, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Keywords: apoptosis, equol, neuroinflammation, phytoestrogen

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Authors: Pratima Thapa

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Background: It is very critical to understand that awareness of family planning and proper utilization of contraceptives is an important indicator for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. It also plays an important role in promoting reproductive health of the women in an underdeveloped country like ours. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices of contraception among married women of reproductive age group in selected wards of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 209 married women of reproductive age. Simple random sampling was used to select the wards, population proportionate sampling for selecting the sample numbers from each wards and purposive sampling for selecting each sample. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to interpret the data considering p-value 0.05. Results: The mean ± SD age of the respondents was 30.01 ± 8.12 years. Majority 92.3% had ever heard of contraception. Popular known method was Inj. Depo (92.7%). Mass media (85.8%) was the major source of information. Mean percentage score of knowledge was 45.23%.less than half (45%) had adequate knowledge. Majority 90.4% had positive attitude. Only 64.6% were using contraceptives currently. Misbeliefs and fear of side effects were the main reason for not using contraceptives. Education, occupation, and total income of the family was associated with knowledge regarding contraceptives. Results for Binary Logistic Regression showed significant correlates of attitude with distance to the nearest health facility (OR=7.97, p<0.01), education (OR=0.24, p<0.05) and age group (0.03, p<0.01). Regarding practice, likelihood of being current user of contraceptives increased significantly by being literate (OR=5.97, p<0.01), having nuclear family (OR=4.96, p<0.01), living in less than 30 minute walk distance from nearest health facility (OR=3.34, p<0.05), women’s participation in decision making regarding household and fertility choices (OR=5.23, p<0.01) and husband’s support on using contraceptives (OR=9.05, p<0.01). Significant and positive correlation between knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice and attitude-practice were observed. Conclusion: Results of the study indicates that there is need to increase awareness programs in order to intensify the knowledge and practices of contraception. The positive correlation indorses that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and hence good practice. Further, projects aiming to increase better counselling about contraceptives, its side effects and the positive effects that outweighs the negative aspects should be enrolled appropriately.

Keywords: attitude, contraceptives, knowledge, practice

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Authors: Raluca-Ioana Antonescu

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The paper treats about the Korean public diplomacy and national branding strategies, and how the Korean language textbooks were used in order to construct the Korean national image. The field research of the paper stands at the intersection between Linguistics and Political Science, while the problem of the research is the role of language and culture in national branding process. The research goal is to contribute to the literature situated at the intersection between International Relations and Applied Linguistics, while the objective is to conceptualize the idea of national branding by emphasizing a dimension which is not much discussed, and that would be the education as an instrument of the national branding and public diplomacy strategies. In order to examine the importance of language upon the national branding strategies, the paper will answer one main question, How is the Korean language used in the construction of national branding?, and two secondary questions, How are explored in literature the relations between language and national branding construction? and What kind of image of South Korea the language textbooks for foreigners transmit? In order to answer the research questions, the paper starts from one main hypothesis, that the language is an essential component of the culture, which is used in the construction of the national branding influenced by traditional elements (like Confucianism) but also by modern elements (like Western influence), and from two secondary hypothesis, the first one is that in the International Relations literature there are little explored the connections between language and national branding, while the second hypothesis is that the South Korean image is constructed through the promotion of a traditional society, but also a modern one. In terms of methodology, the paper will analyze the textbooks used in Romania at the universities which provide Korean Language classes during the three years program B.A., following the dialogs, the descriptive texts and the additional text about the Korean culture. The analysis will focus on the rank status difference, the individual in relation to the collectivity, the respect for the harmony, and the image of the foreigner. The results of the research show that the South Korean image projected in the textbooks convey the Confucian values and it does not emphasize the changes suffered by the society due to the modernity and globalization. The Westernized aspect of the Korean society is conveyed more in an informative way about the Korean international companies, Korean internal development (like the transport or other services), but it does not show the cultural changed the society underwent. Even if the paper is using the textbooks which are used in Romania as a teaching material, it could be used and applied at least to other European countries, since the textbooks are the ones issued by the South Korean language schools, which other European countries are using also.

Keywords: confucianism, modernism, national branding, public diplomacy, traditionalism

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Authors: Nataliya L. Ogurechnikova

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The paper aims to clarify the function of articles in the English speech and specify their place and role in the English language, taking into account the use of articles for delimitation of speech. A focus of the paper is the use of the definite and the indefinite articles with different types of noun phrases which comprise either one noun with or without attributes, such as the King, the Queen, the Lion, the Unicorn, a dimple, a smile, a new language, an unknown dialect, or several nouns with or without attributes, such as the King and Queen of Hearts, the Lion and Unicorn, a dimple or smile, a completely isolated language or dialect. It is stated that the function of delimitation is related to perception: the number of speech units in a text correlates with the way the speaker perceives and segments the denotation. The two following combinations of words the house and garden and the house and the garden contain different numbers of speech units, one and two respectively, and reveal two different perception modes which correspond to the use of the definite article in the examples given. Thus, the function of delimitation is twofold, it is related to perception and cognition, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to grammar, if the subject of grammar is the structure of speech. Analysis of speech units in the paper is not limited by noun phrases and is amplified by discussion of peripheral phenomena which are nevertheless important because they enable to qualify articles as a syntactic phenomenon whereas they are not infrequently described in terms of noun morphology. With this regard attention is given to the history of linguistic studies, specifically to the description of English articles by Niels Haislund, a disciple of Otto Jespersen. A discrepancy is noted between the initial plan of Jespersen who intended to describe articles as a syntactic phenomenon in ‘A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles’ and the interpretation of articles in terms of noun morphology, finally given by Haislund. Another issue of the paper is correlation between description and denotation, being a traditional aspect of linguistic studies focused on articles. An overview of relevant studies, given in the paper, goes back to the works of G. Frege, which gave rise to a series of scientific works where the meaning of articles was described within the scope of logical semantics. Correlation between denotation and description is treated in the paper as the meaning of article, i.e. a component in its semantic structure, which differs from the function of delimitation and is similar to the meaning of other quantifiers. The paper further explains why the relation between description and denotation, i.e. the meaning of English article, is irrelevant for noun morphology and has nothing to do with nominal categories of the English language.

Keywords: delimitation of speech, denotation, description, perception, speech units, syntax

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Authors: Merve Denizci Nazligul

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Dancers seem to have much higher risk levels for the development of eating disorders, compared to non-dancing counterparts. In a remarkably competitive nature of dance environment, perfectionism and emotion regulation difficulties become inevitable risk factors. Moreover, early maladaptive schemas are associated with various eating disorders. In the current study, it was aimed to investigate the mediating role of difficulties with emotion regulation on the relationship between perfectionism and disordered eating behaviors, as well as on the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and disordered eating behaviors. A total of 70 volunteer dancers (n = 47 women, n = 23 men) were recruited in the study (M age = 25.91, SD = 8.9, range 19–63) from the university teams or private clubs in Turkey. The sample included various types of dancers (n = 26 ballets or ballerinas, n =32 Latin, n = 10 tango, n = 2 hiphop). The mean dancing hour per week was 11.09 (SD = 7.09) within a range of 1-30 hours. The participants filled a questionnaire set including demographic information form, Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, three subscales (Emotional Inhibition, Unrelenting Standards-Hypercriticalness, Approval Seeking-Recognition Seeking) from Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form-3 and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The mediation hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. The findings revealed that emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between three distinct subtypes of perfectionism and emotional eating. The results of the Sobel test suggested that there were significant indirect effects of self-oriented perfectionism (b = .06, 95% CI = .0084, .1739), other-oriented perfectionism (b = .15, 95% CI = .0136, .4185), and socially prescribed perfectionism (b = .09, 95% CI = .0104, .2344) on emotional eating through difficulties with emotion regulation. Moreover, emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between emotional inhibition and emotional eating (F(1,68) = 4.67, R2 = .06, p < .05). These results seem to provide some evidence that perfectionism might become a risk factor for disordered eating behaviors when dancers are not able to regulate their emotions. Further, gaining an understanding of how inhibition of emotions leads to inverse effects on eating behavior may be important to develop intervention strategies to manage their disordered eating patterns in risk groups. The present study may also support the importance of using unified protocols for transdiagnostic approaches which focus on identifying, accepting, prompting to express maladaptive emotions and appraisals.

Keywords: dancers, disordered eating, emotion regulation difficulties, perfectionism

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Authors: Swati Arun

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The present paper argues that Balance of Power (BOP) needs to conjugate with certain contingencies like geography. It is evident that sea powers (‘insular’ for better clarity) are not balanced (if at all) in the same way as land powers. Its apparent that artificial insularity that the US has achieved reduces the chances of balancing (constant) and helps it maintain preponderance (variable). But how precise is this approach in assessing the dynamics between China’s rise and reaction of other powers and US. The ‘evolved’ theory can be validated by putting China and US in the equation. Systemic Relation between the nations was explained through the Balance of Power theory much before the systems theory was propounded. The BOP is the crux of functionality of ‘power relation’ dynamics which has played its role in the most astounding ways leading to situations of war and peace. Whimsical; but true that, the BOP has remained a complicated and indefinable concepts since Hans. Morganthau to Kenneth Waltz. A challenge of the BOP, however remains; “ that it has too many meanings”. In the recent times it has become evident that the myriad of expectations generated by BOP has not met the practicality of the current world politics. It is for this reason; the BoP has been replaced by Preponderance Theory (PT) to explain prevailing power situation. PT does provide an empirical reasoning for the success of this theory but fails in a abstract logical reasoning required for making a theory universal. Unipolarity clarifies the current system as one where balance of power has become redundant. It seems to reach beyond the contours of BoP, where a superpower does what it must to remain one. The centrality of this arguments pivots around - an exception, every time BOP fails to operate, preponderance of power emerges. PT does not sit well with the primary logic of a theory because it works on an exception. The evolution of such a pattern and system where BOP fails and preponderance emerges is absent. The puzzle here is- if BOP really has become redundant or it needs polishing. The international power structure changed from multipolar to bipolar to unipolar. BOP was looked at to provide inevitable logic behind such changes and answer the dilemma we see today- why US is unchecked, unbalanced? But why was Britain unchecked in 19th century and why China was unbalanced in 13th century? It is the insularity of the state that makes BOP reproduce “imbalance of power”, going a level up from off-shore balancer. This luxury of a state to maintain imbalance in the region of competition or threat is the causal relation between BOP’s and geography. America has applied imbalancing- meaning disequilibrium (in its favor) to maintain the regional balance so that over time the weaker does not get stronger and pose a competition. It could do that due to the significant parity present between the US and the rest.

Keywords: balance of power, china, preponderance of power, US

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Authors: Lu-Chiu Huang, Pei-Pei Chen, Li-Chin Yu, Chiao-Wen Kuo, Tsui-Tao Liu, Rung-Chuang Feng

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Purpose: People put increasing emphasis on demands of medical quality and protecting their interests. Patients' or family's dissatisfaction with medical care may easily lead to medical dispute. Physician-family communication plays an essential role in medical care. A sound communication cannot only strengthen patients' belief in the medical team but make patient have definite insight into treatment course of the disease. A family meeting provides an effective platform for communication between clinical staff, patients and family. Decisions and consensuses formed in family meetings can promote patients' or family's satisfaction with medical care. Clinical staff's attitudes toward family meeting may determine behavioral intentions to hold family meeting. This study aims to explore clinical staff's difficulties in holding family meeting and evaluate how their attitudes and behavior influence the effect of family meetings. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. It was conducted at a regional teaching hospital in Taipei city. The research team developed its own structural questionnaires, whose expert validity was checked by the nursing experts. Participants filled in the questionnaires online. Data were collected by convenience sampling. A total of 568 participants were invited. They included doctors, nurses, social workers, and so on. Results: 1) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s attitudes to family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.898). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It indicated that clinical staff had positive attitudes toward family meetings, 2) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s behavior to family meetings’ was 5.61 (SD=0.937). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It meant clinical staff tended to have positive behavior at the family meeting, and 3) The average score of ‘Difficulty in conducting family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.897). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. The higher the score was, the less difficulty the clinical staff felt. It demonstrated clinical staff felt less difficulty in conducting family meetings. Clinical staff's identification with family meetings brought favored effects. Persistent and active promotion for family meetings can bring patients and family more benefits. Implications for practice: Understanding clinical staff's difficulty in participating family meeting and exploring their attitudes or behavior toward physician-family communication are helpful to develop modes of interaction. Consequently, quality and satisfaction of physician-family communication can be increased.

Keywords: clinical staff, communication, family meeting, physician-family

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Authors: Denise Ben-Porath, Tracy Masterson

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In the past, individuals who struggled with and sought treatment for mental health difficulties were stigmatized. However, the current generation holds more open attitudes around mental health issues. Indeed, public figures such as Demi Lovato, Naomi Osaka, and Simone Biles have taken to social media to break the silence around mental health, discussing their own struggles and the benefits of treatment. Thus, there is considerable reason to believe that this generation would hold fewer stigmatizing attitudes toward mental health difficulties and treatment compared to previous ones. In this study, we explored possible changes in stigma on mental health diagnosis and treatment seeking behavior between two generations: Gen Z, the current generation, and Gen X, those born between 1965-1980. It was hypothesized that Gen Z would hold less stigmatizing views on mental illness than Gen X. To examine possible changes in stigma attitudes between these two generations, we conducted a cross-generational cohort design by using the same methodology employed 20 years ago from the Ben-Porath (2002) study. Thus, participants were randomly assigned to read one of the following four case vignettes employed in the Ben-Porath (2002) study: (a) “Tom” who has received psychotherapy due to depression (b) “Tom” who has been depressed but received no psychological help, (c) “Tom” who has received medical treatment due to a back pain, or (d) “Tom” who had a back pain but did not receive medical attention. After reading the vignette, participants rated “Tom” on various personality dimensions using the IFQ Questionnaire and answered questions about their frequency of social media use and willingness to seek mental health treatment on a scale from 1-10. Identical to the results 20 years prior, a significant main effect was found for diagnosis with “Tom” being viewed in more negative terms when he was described as having depression vs. a medical condition (back pain) [F (1, 376) = 126.53, p < .001]. However, in the study conducted 20 years earlier, a significant interaction was found between diagnosis and help-seeking behavior [F (1, 376) = 8.28, p < .005]. Specifically, “Tom” was viewed in the most negative terms when described as depressed and seeking treatment. Alternatively, the current study failed to find a significant interaction between depression and help seeking behavior. These findings suggest that while individuals who hold a mental health diagnosis may still be stigmatized as they were 20 years prior, seeking treatment for mental health issues may be less so. Findings are discussed in the context of social media use and its impact on destigmatization.

Keywords: stigma, mental illness, help-seeking, social media

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Authors: Yegnanew A. Shiferaw

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Background: commodity price volatility originating from excessive commodity price fluctuation has been a global problem especially after the recent financial crises. Volatility is a measure of risk or uncertainty in financial analysis. It plays a vital role in risk management, portfolio management, and pricing equity. Objectives: the core objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the prices of agricultural commodities with oil price, gas price, coal price and exchange rate (USD/Rand). In addition, the paper tries to fit an appropriate model that best describes the log return price volatility and estimate Value-at-Risk and expected shortfall. Data and methods: the data used in this study are the daily returns of agricultural commodity prices from 02 January 2007 to 31st October 2016. The data sets consists of the daily returns of agricultural commodity prices namely: white maize, yellow maize, wheat, sunflower, soya, corn, and sorghum. The paper applies the three-state Markov-switching (MS) regression, the standard single-regime GARCH and the two regime Markov-switching GARCH (MS-GARCH) models. Results: to choose the best fit model, the log-likelihood function, Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and deviance information criterion (DIC) are employed under three distributions for innovations. The results indicate that: (i) the price of agricultural commodities was found to be significantly associated with the price of coal, price of natural gas, price of oil and exchange rate, (ii) for all agricultural commodities except sunflower, k=3 had higher log-likelihood values and lower AIC and BIC values. Thus, the three-state MS regression model outperformed the two-state MS regression model (iii) MS-GARCH(1,1) with generalized error distribution (ged) innovation performs best for white maize and yellow maize; MS-GARCH(1,1) with student-t distribution (std) innovation performs better for sorghum; MS-gjrGARCH(1,1) with ged innovation performs better for wheat, sunflower and soya and MS-GARCH(1,1) with std innovation performs better for corn. In conclusion, this paper provided a practical guide for modelling agricultural commodity prices by MS regression and MS-GARCH processes. This paper can be good as a reference when facing modelling agricultural commodity price problems.

Keywords: commodity prices, MS-GARCH model, MS regression model, South Africa, volatility

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Authors: Philippa Saunders, Claire Fletcher

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INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer is the most prevalent malignancy affecting Western males. It is initially an androgen-dependent disease: androgens bind to the androgen receptor and drive the expression of genes that promote proliferation and evasion of apoptosis. Despite reduced androgen dependence in advanced prostate cancer, androgen receptor signaling remains a key driver of growth. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is, therefore, a first-line treatment approach and works well initially, but resistance inevitably develops. Abiraterone and Enzalutamide are drugs widely used in ADT and are androgen synthesis and androgen receptor signaling inhibitors, respectively. The shortage of other treatment options means acquired resistance to these drugs is a major clinical problem. MicroRNAs (miRs) are important mediators of post-transcriptional gene regulation and show altered expression in cancer. Several have been linked to the development of resistance to ADT. Manipulation of such miRs may be a pathway to breakthrough treatments for advanced prostate cancer. This study aimed to validate ADT resistance-implicated miRs and their clinically relevant targets. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Small RNA-sequencing of Abiraterone- and Enzalutamide-resistant C42 prostate cancer cells identified subsets of miRs dysregulated as compared to parental cells. Real-Time Quantitative Reverse Transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to validate altered expression of candidate ADT resistance-implicated miRs 195-5p, 497-5p and 29a-5p in ADT-resistant and -responsive prostate cancer cell lines, patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) and primary prostate cancer explants. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: This study suggests a possible role for miR-497-5p in the development of ADT resistance in prostate cancer. MiR-497-5p expression was increased in ADT-resistant versus ADT-responsive prostate cancer cells. Importantly, miR-497-5p expression was also increased in Enzalutamide-treated, castrated (ADT-mimicking) PDXs versus intact PDXs. MiR-195-5p was also elevated in ADT-resistant versus -responsive prostate cancer cells, while there was a drop in miR-29a-5p expression. Candidate clinically relevant targets of miR-497-5p in prostate cancer were identified by mining AGO-PAR-CLIP-seq data sets and may include AVL9 and FZD6. CONCLUSION: In summary, this study identified microRNAs that are implicated in prostate cancer resistance to androgen deprivation therapy and could represent novel therapeutic targets for advanced disease.

Keywords: microRNA, androgen deprivation therapy, Enzalutamide, abiraterone, patient-derived xenograft

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Authors: Freya Willicks

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The society of the 21st century is characterized by dynamic and complexity, developments that also shape universities and university life. The Bologna reform, for example, has led to restructuring at many European universities. Today's university teachers, therefore, have to meet many expectations: Their tasks include not only teaching but also the general improvement of the quality of teaching, good research, the management of various projects or the development of their own personal skills. This requires a high degree of flexibility and openness to change. The resulting pressure can often lead to exhaustion. Coaching can be a way for university teachers to cope with these pressures because it gives them the opportunity to discuss stressful situations with a coach and self-reflect on them. As a result, more and more universities in Europe offer to coach to their teachers. An analysis of the services provided at universities in Germany, however, quickly reveals an immense disagreement with regard to the understanding of ‘coaching’. A variety of terms is used, such as coaching, counselling or supervision. In addition, each university defines its offer individually, from process-oriented consulting to expert consulting, from group training to individual coaching. The biographic backgrounds of those who coach are also very divergent, both external and internal coaches can be suitable. These findings lead to the following questions: Which structural characteristics for coaching at universities have been proven successful? What competencies should a good coach for university lecturers have? In order to answer these questions, a qualitative study was carried out. In a first step, qualitative semi-structured interviews (N = 14) were conducted, on the one hand with coaches for university teachers and on the other hand with university teachers who have been coached. In a second step, the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Mayring's qualitative content analysis. The study shows how great the potential of coaching can be for university teachers, who otherwise have little opportunity to talk about their teaching in a private setting. According to the study, the coach should neither be a colleague nor a superior of the coachee but should take an independent perspective, as this is the only way for the coachee to openly reflect on himself/herself. In addition, the coach should be familiar with the university system, i.e., be an academic himself/herself. Otherwise, he/she cannot fully understand the complexity of the teaching situation and the role expectations. However, internal coaches do not necessarily have much coaching experience or explicit coaching competencies. They often come from the university's own didactics department, are experts in didactics, but do not necessarily have a certified coaching education. Therefore, it is important to develop structures and guidelines for internal coaches to support their coaching. In further analysis, such guidelines will be developed on the basis of these interviews.

Keywords: coaching, university coaching, university didactics, qualitative interviews

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Authors: Mary Rosa Espinosa-Ochoa

Abstract:

The study of overgeneralization in inflectional morphology provides evidence for understanding how a child's mind works when applying linguistic patterns in a novel way. High-frequency inflectional forms in the input cause inappropriate use in contexts related to lower-frequency forms. Children learn verbs as lexical items and new forms develop only gradually, around their second year: most of the utterances that children produce are closely related to what they have previously produced. Spanish has a complex verbal system that inflects for person, mood, and tense. Approximately 200 verbs are irregular, and bare roots always require an inflected form, which represents a challenge for the memory. The aim of this research is to investigate i) what kinds of overgeneralization errors children make in verb production, ii) to what extent these errors are related to verb forms previously produced, and iii) whether the overgeneralized verb components are also frequent in children’s linguistic inventory. It consists of a high-density longitudinal study of a middle-class girl (1;11,24-2;02,24) from Mexico City, whose utterances were recorded almost daily for three months to compile a unique corpus in the Spanish language. Of the 358 types of inflected verbs produced by the child, 9.11% are overgeneralizations. Not only are inflected forms (verbal and pronominal clitics) overgeneralized, but also verbal roots. Each of the forms can be traced to previous utterances, and they show that the child is detecting morphological patterns. Neither verbal roots nor inflected forms are associated with high frequency patterns in her own speech. For example, the child alternates the bare roots of an irregular verb, cáye-te* and cáiga-te* (“fall down”), to express the imperative of the verb cá-e-te (fall down.IMPERATIVE-PRONOMINAL.CLITIC), although cay-ó (PAST.PERF.3SG) is the most frequent form of her previous complete inventory, and the combined frequency of caer (INF), cae (PRES.INDICATIVE.3SG), and caes (PRES.INDICATIVE.2SG) is the same as that of as caiga (PRES.SUBJ.1SG and 3SG). These results provide evidence that a) two forms of the same verb compete in the child’s memory, and b) although the child uses her own inventory to create new forms, these forms are not necessarily frequent in her memory storage, which means that her mind is more sensitive to external stimuli. Language acquisition is a developing process, given the sensitivity of the human mind to linguistic interaction with the outside world.

Keywords: inflection, morphology, child language acquisition, Spanish

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