Search results for: social patterns

Authors: Amanda Abbott-Jones

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Adult students with dyslexia in higher education can receive support for their cognitive needs but may also experience negative emotion such as anxiety due to their dyslexia in connection with their studies. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that adult dyslexic learners have a higher prevalence of academic and social anxiety than their non-dyslexic peers. A quantitative approach was used to measure differences in academic and social anxiety between 102 students with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia compared to 72 students with no history of learning difficulties. Academic and social anxiety was measured in a questionnaire based on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Findings showed that dyslexic students showed statistically significant higher levels of academic, but not social anxiety in comparison to the non-dyslexic sample. Dyslexic students in higher education show academic anxiety levels that are well above what is shown by students without dyslexia. The implications of this for the dyslexia practitioner is that delivery of strategies to deal with anxiety should be seen equally as important, if not more so, than interventions to deal with cognitive difficulties.

Keywords: Academic, Anxiety, Dyslexia, Quantitative

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Authors: Marija Zulić, Vanda Hájková, Nina Brkić–Jovanović, Srećko Potić, Sanja Tomić

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The name cerebral palsy comes from the word cerebrum, which means the brain and the word palsy, which means seizure, and essentially refers to the movement disorder. In the clinical picture of cerebral palsy, basic neuromotor disorders are associated with other various disorders: behavioural, intellectual, speech, sensory, epileptic seizures, and bone and joint deformities. Motor speech disorders are among the most common difficulties present in people with cerebral palsy. Social participation represents an interaction between an individual and their social environment. Quality of social participation of the students with cerebral palsy at school is an important indicator of their successful participation in adulthood. One of the most important skills for the undisturbed social participation is ability of good communication. The aim of the study was to determine relation between social participation of students with cerebral palsy and presence of their speech impairment in primary schools in the Czech Republic. The study was performed in the Czech Republic in mainstream schools and schools established for the pupils with special education needs. We analysed 75 children with cerebral palsy aged between six and twelve years attending up to sixth grade by using the first and the third part of the school function assessment questionnaire as the main instrument. The other instrument we used in the research is the Gross motor function classification system–five–level classification system, which measures degree of motor functions of children and youth with cerebral palsy. Funding for this study was provided by the Grant Agency of Charles University in Prague.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, social participation, speech disorders, The Czech Republic, the school function assessment

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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: I. Putu Eka N. Kencana, I. Wayan Mertha

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A variety of research’s evidence suggests that community involvement is one of the vital elements in the development of sustainable tourism. As an entity of the tourism system, local communities are considered have better understanding of their region as well as influenced positively or negatively by the tourism activities in the region. This study elaborates role of community involvement in the development of ecotourism in Kintamani Bali from two perspectives of view, namely participation in the process of initiatives development and participation in the economic benefits of tourism. As one element of social capital form, community participation on the development and management of ecotourism in Kintamani, could be expected maintain its sustainability.

Keywords: community involvement, ecotourism, participation, social capital

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Authors: Mary Funke Olabanji, Thando Ndarana, Nerhene Davis, Sylvester Okechukwu Ilo

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Scientific evidence indicates that climate change is already being experienced by farmers, and its impacts are felt on agricultural and food systems. Understanding the perceptions of farmers on climate change and how they respond to this change is essential to the development and implementation of appropriate policies for agriculture and food security. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of farmers’ perceptions of climate change, adopted coping strategies, long-term implications of their adaptation choices, and barriers to their decisions to adapt. Data were randomly collected from 73 respondents in five districts located in the Olifants catchment of South Africa. A combination of descriptive statistics and Chi-Square statistical tests using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyse the data obtained from the survey. Results show that smallholder farmers have an in-depth perception of climate change. The most significant changes perceived by farmers were increased temperature and low rainfall. The results equally revealed that smallholder farmers in the Olifants catchment had adopted several adaptation strategies in response to the perceived climate change. The significant adaptation strategies from the results include changing cropping patterns and planting date, use of improved seed variety, and chemical fertilizers. The study, therefore, concludes that crop diversification and agroforestry were more effective and sustainable in mitigating the impact of climate change.

Keywords: adaptation, climate change, perception, smallholder farmers

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Authors: Shi-Bo Feng, Sheng-Jie Zhang, Jin Zhou

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The relationship between microbial diversity and algal bloom has received considerable attention for decades. Microbes undoubtedly affect annual bloom events and impact the physiology of both partners, as well as shape ecosystem diversity. However, knowledge about interactions and network correlations among broader-spectrum microbes that lead to the dynamics in a complete bloom cycle are limited. In this study, pyrosequencing and network approaches simultaneously assessed the associate patterns among bacteria, archaea, and microeukaryotes in surface water and sediments in response to a natural dinoflagellate (Alexandrium sp.) bloom. In surface water, among the bacterial community, Gamma-Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes dominated in the initial bloom stage, while Alpha-Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Actinobacteria become the most abundant taxa during the post-stage. In the archaea biosphere, it clustered predominantly with Methanogenic members in the early pre-bloom period while the majority of species identified in the later-bloom stage were ammonia-oxidizing archaea and Halobacteriales. In eukaryotes, dinoflagellate (Alexandrium sp.) was dominated in the onset stage, whereas multiply species (such as microzooplankton, diatom, green algae, and rotifera) coexistence in bloom collapse stag. In sediments, the microbial species biomass and richness are much higher than the water body. Only Flavobacteriales and Rhodobacterales showed a slight response to bloom stages. Unlike the bacteria, there are small fluctuations of archaeal and eukaryotic structure in the sediment. The network analyses among the inter-specific associations show that bacteria (Alteromonadaceae, Oceanospirillaceae, Cryomorphaceae, and Piscirickettsiaceae) and some zooplankton (Mediophyceae, Mamiellophyceae, Dictyochophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae) have a stronger impact on the structuring of phytoplankton communities than archaeal effects. The changes in population were also significantly shaped by water temperature and substrate availability (N & P resources). The results suggest that clades are specialized at different time-periods and that the pre-bloom succession was mainly a bottom-up controlled, and late-bloom period was controlled by top-down patterns. Additionally, phytoplankton and prokaryotic communities correlated better with each other, which indicate interactions among microorganisms are critical in controlling plankton dynamics and fates. Our results supplied a wider view (temporal and spatial scales) to understand the microbial ecological responses and their network association during algal blooming. It gives us a potential multidisciplinary explanation for algal-microbe interaction and helps us beyond the traditional view linked to patterns of algal bloom initiation, development, decline, and biogeochemistry.

Keywords: microbial community, harmful algal bloom, ecological process, network

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Authors: B. Niez, B. Moulia, J. Dlouha, E. Badel

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Trees adjust their development to the environmental conditions they experience. Storms events of last decades showed that acclimation of trees to mechanical stresses due to wind is a very important process that allows the trees to sustain for long years. In the future, trees will experience new wind patterns, namely, more often strong winds and fewer daily moderate winds. Moreover, these patterns will go along with drought periods that may interact with the capacity of trees to adjust their growth to mechanical stresses due to wind. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms of wood functional acclimations to environmental conditions in order to predict their behaviour and in order to give foresters and breeders the relevant tools to adapt their forest management. This work aims to study how trees adjust the mechanical and hydraulic functions of their wood to environmental stresses and how this acclimation may be beneficial for the tree to resist to future stresses. In this work, young poplars were grown under controlled climatic conditions that include permanent environmental stress (daily mechanical stress of the stem by bending and/or hydric stress). Then, the properties of wood formed under these stressed conditions were characterized. First, hydraulic conductivity and sensibility to cavitation were measured at the tissue level in order to evaluate the changes in water transport capacity. Secondly, bending tests and Charpy impact tests were carried out at the millimetric scale to locally measure mechanical parameters such as elastic modulus, elastic limit or rupture energy. These experimental data allow evaluating the impacts of mechanical and water stress on the wood material. At the stem level, they will be merged in an integrative model in order to evaluate the beneficial aspect of wood acclimation for trees.

Keywords: acclimation, environmental stresses, hydraulics, mechanics, wood

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Authors: Chia-Ling Hsieh, Kankanit Potikit

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Metadiscourse refers to linguistic resources employed by writers to organize text and interact with readers. While metadiscourse has received considerable attention within the field of discourse analysis, few studies have explored the use of metadiscourse in email, one of the most popular forms of computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, the diversity of cross-linguistic research required to uncover the influence of cultural factors on metadiscourse use is lacking. The present study compares metadiscourse markers employed in Chinese and Thai-language request emails with the purpose of discovering cross-cultural similarities and differences that are meaningful and applicable to foreign language teaching. The analysis is based on a corpus of 200 request emails: 100 composed in Chinese and 100 in Thai, with half of the emails from each language data set addressed to professors and the other half addressed to classmates. Adopting Hyland’s model as an analytical framework, two primary categories of metadiscourse are identified. Textual metadiscourse helps to create text coherence, while interpersonal metadiscourse functions to convey authorial stance. Results of the study make clear that both Chinese and Thai-language emails use significantly more interpersonal markers than textual markers, indicating that email, as a unique communicative medium, is characterized by high degrees of concision and interactivity. Users of both languages further deploy similar patterns in writing emails to recipients of different social statuses. Compared with emails addressed to classmates, emails addressed to professors are notably longer and include more transition and engagement markers. Nevertheless, cultural factors do play a role. Emails composed in Thai, for example, include more textual markers than those in Chinese, as Thai favors formal expressions and detailed explanations, while in contrast, emails composed in Chinese employ more interpersonal markers than those in Thai, since Chinese tends to emphasize recipient involvement and attitudinal warmth. These findings thereby demonstrate the combined effects of email as a communicative medium, social status, and cultural values on metadiscourse usage. The study concludes by applying these findings to pedagogical suggestions for teaching email writing to Chinese and Thai language learners based on similarities and differences in metadiscourse strategy between the two languages.

Keywords: discourse analysis, email, metadiscourse, writing instruction

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Authors: Kenneth N. Ohei, Roelien Brink

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For decades, teaching and learning processes have centered on the traditional approach (Web 1.0) that promoted teacher-directed pedagogical practices. Currently, there is a realization that the traditional approach is not adequate to effectively address and improve all student-learning outcomes. The subsequent incorporation of social software, Information, and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in universities may serve as complementary to support educational goals, offering students the affordability and opportunity to educational choices and learning platforms. Consequently, educators’ inability to incorporate these instructional ICT tools in their teaching and learning practices remains a challenge. This will signify that educators still lack the ICT skills required to administer lectures and bridging learning gaps. This study probes a methodological concept with the aim of developing a framework towards the adoption of social software in HES to help facilitate business processes and can build social presence among students. A mixed method will be appropriate to develop a comprehensive framework needed in Higher Educational System (HES). After research have been conducted, the adoption of social software will be based on the developed comprehensive framework which is supposed to impact positively on education and approach of delivery, improves learning experience, engagement and finally, increases educational opportunities and easy access to educational contents.

Keywords: blended and integrated learning, learning experience and engagement, higher educational system, HES, information and communication technology, ICT, social presence, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

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Authors: E. Elhan Özus, Melek Tufan, Filiz Erden

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Cloth is a special wearing style of a society for a period or of a profession. Clothes reflect the social status difference than the fashion. Within this context, society forms a wearing style in the direction of its customs, usage, traditions and social structure. One of the properties of a society indicating the social levels and cultural differences differing the societies from each other is clothing style. Clothing is one of the most important needs in life depending on the individual and social attributes. The clothing which first emerged as protection means is a social fact complementing the physical and psychological existence of human being, changing forms depending on technological developments and phases, and continuously changing under the affect of fashion today. Clothing is an aesthetic value fed by the feelings of individuals. So, clothing has an indispensable place in the structure and communication of cultural and social identity within this direction. The traditional Turkish clothing has a rich ethnography. It is also possible to see the winds coming from our predecessors in these cultural assets reflecting the feelings and thoughts of Anatolian women. When the long history of our nation and the cultures interacted by our nation are taken into account, it is seen that the magnificence of our nation has also reflected into the clothing culture.For this reason, we tried to keep the traditional women’s clothing of Tekirdağ region alive by investigating and documenting them. In this study, it is purposed to contribute a little bit to protect our culture and form a source for the future generations, to carry our national cultural values from the past up to now and to the future and deliver to the young people.

Keywords: Turkish, traditional, culture, clothing

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Authors: D. M. Koers, A. J. Groen, P. D. Englis, R. Harms

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We are witnessing the largest level of displacement of people since World War II. Refugees want to become independent as quickly as possible and build a new, safe future; however, access to the labor market is difficult and they face many problems that are not easily solved. This makes self-employment including social entrepreneurship a valuable alternative. Our research studied refugee-based entrepreneurship and examined whether prior knowledge, unmet personal needs and contextual factors influence how refugees recognize opportunities and if this influences their social orientation. In addition, we examine the barriers refugees face when starting up a company in the Netherlands. We use a case study design with a mixed-method approach, combining in-depth interviews and survey data. Data was collected from two Dutch entrepreneurial training programs in the Netherlands. We have a sample size of 27 latent refugee entrepreneurs. Our results show that refugees score high on the social entrepreneurial measures. They perceive themselves as having a strong social vision and are determined to defend a social need. They also score high on sustainability and state that their business ideas improve the quality of life on the long run. Based on these findings, we did not expect that only 5 participants had business ideas with a social orientation. In this group, 37,5% started a company before and 77.8% used their personal experience to come up with this business idea. Another 70,3% had the higher professional education or academic education. In the interviews, we found that they often copy and paste their gained experience from a previous profession on their new context and expect that it would work well. The social aspect lies in their cultural values and personal beliefs but is not reflected in their business models. One of the reasons could be that the context in which the refugee operates as a moderator suppressing the social mission and social value creation opportunities. Refugees are first and foremost focused on their survival. They do not want to be on social welfare and feel a strong need to be independent. Since they cannot access the labor market easily and face labor market discrimination they want to start a company. Another factor that explains lack of the social orientation in their business ideas is that social entrepreneurship is not a known concept in their home countries. Their idea of entrepreneurship differs substantially. We found that a huge barrier for refugees is their expectations about setting up a business, which are often not realistic because they have little knowledge about the system, institutions and corresponding red tape. In those instances, can the institutional configuration of a country, cultural differences, and perspective on entrepreneurship hinders social entrepreneurship. In conclusion, there might be latent potential for social entrepreneurship in refugees but there are many barriers to overcome. Overcoming these barriers can enhance local communities and enhance integration. In addition it has a positive financial impact on the host country because it reduces the pressure on the social system and stimulate the economy.

Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurship, refugee entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, prior experience, opportunity recognition

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Authors: Kumiko Inagaki

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Qualitative changes to the undergraduate education have recently become the focus of attention in Japan. This is occurring against the backdrop of declining birthrate and increasing university enrollment, as well as drastic societal changes of advance toward globalization and a knowledge-based society. This paper describes the cases of Japanese universities that promoted various forms of experiential learning around the theme of social participation. The opportunity of learning through practical experience, where students turn their attention to social problems and take pains to consider means of resolving them, creates opportunities to demonstrate “human power” applicable to all sorts of activities the following graduation, thereby guaranteeing students’ continuous growth throughout their careers.

Keywords: career education, experiential learning, subjective learning, university education

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Authors: Liu Jiaxin

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This paper seeks to do an in-depth investigation on the phenomenon of Early Modern era (1500-1700s) Livonian werewolves. Noting their uniqueness in comparison to contemporaneous werewolves hailing from other geographic areas, the paper suggests that the Livonian werewolf is a metaphor for Livonian society at that time, one which was characterized by social turmoil and strict class hierarchy. This metaphor was utilized by different classes to establish their own interests in society, and thus the paper concludes that the werewolf is a mutable artifact whose value is contingent on its social context. This is demonstrated by the particular case of Old Thiess—a poor, elderly Livonian peasant who gave an unorthodox and anomalous testimony when accused of being a werewolf. In his court statement, it is shown how Thiess was, in fact, alluding to social tensions by lambasting the rich German elite and establishing the righteousness of the peasantry, of which he was a member. A close reading method was utilized on the trial transcript of Old Thiess with heavy reference to Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln’s collaborative work Old Thiess, a Livonian werewolf: a classic case in comparative perspective. Through a contextual reading of Livonia’s social atmosphere, the paper draws connections between the content of the trial to wider societal disturbances happening at the time. The thesis—that the werewolf is a flexible metaphor for the social milieu—is further buttressed by numerous contemporaneous sources that had similar messages as Thiess’ transcript, which are discussed as well.

Keywords: early-modern baltic, Livonia, Old Thiess, social history, werewolves

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Authors: Nengi A. H. Ejiobih

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Conflict is one of the defining features of human societies. Often, the use or misuse of language in interaction is the genesis of conflict. As such, it is expected that when people use language they do so in socially determined ways and with almost predictable social effects. The objective of this paper was to examine the interest at work as manifested in language choice and collocations in conflict discourse. It also scrutinized the implications of linguistic features in conflict discourse as it concerns ideology and power relations in political discourse in Nigeria. The methodology used for this paper is an approach from Critical discourse analysis because of its multidisciplinary model of analysis, linguistic features and its implications were analysed. The datum used is a text from the Sunday Sun Newspaper in Nigeria, West Africa titled Akunyili Memo: State of the Nation. Some of the findings include; different ideologies are inherent in conflict discourse, there is the presence of power relations being produced, exercised, maintained and produced throughout the discourse and the use of pronouns in conflict discourse is valuable because it is used to initiate and maintain relationships in social context. This paper has provided evidence that, taking into consideration the nature of the social actions and the way these activities are translated into languages, the meanings people convey by their words are identified by their immediate social, political and historical conditions.

Keywords: conflicts, discourse, language, linguistic features, social context

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Authors: Cristina Costa-Lobo, Ana Martins, Maria Das Dores Formosinho, Ana Campina, Filomena Ponte

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This paper is a report on the findings of a study conducted at an international leading food group. Documentary analysis and discourse analysis techniques were used to examine how corporate social responsibility and career education are valued by this international group. The Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility and Career Education was used, with 18 open-ended questions, the first six related to Corporate Social Responsibility and the last 12 related to Education for the Career. The Survey on the Social Emergency Fund was made up of 16 open-ended questions. The Social Welfare Survey was used to investigate the contribution of social workers in this area, as well as to understand their status. The sample of this investigation is composed by the Director of the development area, by the Coordinator and two Social Assistants of the Social Emergency Fund. Their collaboration was the provision of information in the form of an interview where the two main axes of this study were explored: Corporate Social Responsibility and Career Education. With regard to the analysis of data obtained from interviews, it was accomplished through the content analysis according to the Bardin's method (2004), through the pre-analytical, exploratory and qualitative treatment and interpretation of responses. Critical review of documents was also used. The success and effectiveness of this international group are marked by ambition, ability to resist difficulties, sharing of values, spirit of unity and team sense that is shared in its different companies, its leadership position is also due to the concern to see reinforced and developed values of work, discipline, rigor and competence, its management is geared towards responding to immediate challenges from a Corporate Social Responsibility perspective that is characteristic of it, incorporating concerns about impacts both in the medium and long term. In addition to internal training, it directs investments for external training by promoting actions such as participation in seminars and congresses worldwide and the creation of partnerships in various areas of management with prestigious teaching entities. Findings indicate the creation of a training school, with initiatives for internal and external training, in partnerships with prestigious teaching entities. Of particular note is the Management Trainees Program, developed for more than 25 years, characterized by building a career by obtaining knowledge and skills acquired in the combination of on-the-job experience and a training program.

Keywords: career education, corporate social responsibility, training school, management trainees program

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Authors: Yuyun Wabula, B. J. Dewancker

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In the past decade, the social networking app has been growing very rapidly. Geolocation data is one of the important features of social media that can attach the user's location coordinate in the real world. This paper proposes the use of geolocation data from the Twitter social media application to gain knowledge about urban dynamics, especially on human mobility behavior. This paper aims to explore the relation between geolocation Twitter with the existence of people in the urban area. Firstly, the study will analyze the spread of people in the particular area, within the city using Twitter social media data. Secondly, we then match and categorize the existing place based on the same individuals visiting. Then, we combine the Twitter data from the tracking result and the questionnaire data to catch the Twitter user profile. To do that, we used the distribution frequency analysis to learn the visitors’ percentage. To validate the hypothesis, we compare it with the local population statistic data and land use mapping released by the city planning department of Makassar local government. The results show that there is the correlation between Twitter geolocation and questionnaire data. Thus, integration the Twitter data and survey data can reveal the profile of the social media users.

Keywords: geolocation, Twitter, distribution analysis, human mobility

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Authors: W. C. Lucas, S. Titus, M. E. M. Young

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Gymnastics is the umbrella term that represents seven different and unique disciplines of gymnastics. Men and women of all ages and abilities practice this sport, and participation in gymnastics can develop both gross and fine motor skills, strength, flexibility, coordination and balance. There are various social factors, such as a family’s socioeconomic status or accessibility to sports facilities that may play a role in affecting levels of participation. The aim of this study is to investigate the social factors that have an influence on gymnastics participation in the Western Cape. To this end, a qualitative approach is adopted to collect data. This study also adopts the ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework, and is used to analyze and interpret current social factors that directly or indirectly influence participation in gymnastics. The study’s objectives were to ascertain which social factors hinder participation, and which social factors promote participation, thus, coaches, parents and gymnasts participated in focus group discussions. Key informant interviews took place with experts in the field of gymnastics in the Western Cape. A thematic analysis was conducted on transcriptions from the focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Social factors investigated in this study occurred in the chronosystem, macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem, and had both a direct and indirect influence on the gymnast’s continued participation. These systems are defined as the environment of the individual, in which they grow and develop. The research findings of this paper are used to draw conclusions and make specific recommendations for practice and further research. The information gathered in this study can assist all stakeholders within the field of gymnastics, such as parents, judges, coaches, gymnasts, and the supporting community which surround the participating gymnast.

Keywords: developing child, ecological systems theory, facilities, federation, gymnastics, influence, participation, social factors, socioeconomic status, sport

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Authors: Damien P. Fevre, Peter K. Dearden

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Honeybee population sustainability is a critical concern for environmental stability and human food security. The success of a colony relies heavily on the egg-laying capacity of the queen, as it determines the production of thousands of worker bees who, in turn, perform essential functions in foraging and transforming food to make it digestible for the colony. The main sources of nutrition for honeybees are nectar, providing carbohydrates, and pollen, providing protein. This study delves into the impact of the proportion of these macronutrients on the food consumption patterns of nurse bees responsible for feeding the queen and how it affects the characteristics of the eggs produced. Using nutritional geometry, qRT-PCR, and RNA-seq analysis, this study sheds light on the pivotal role of nutrition in influencing gene expression in nurse bees, honeybee queen egg-laying capacity and embryonic development. Interestingly, while nutrition is crucial, the queen's genotype plays an even more significant role in this complex relationship, highlighting the importance of genotype-by-environment interactions. Understanding the interplay between genotype and nutrition is key to optimizing beekeeping management and strategic queen breeding practices. The findings from this study have significant implications for beekeeping practices, emphasizing the need for an appropriate nutrition to support the social nutrition of Apis mellifera. Implementing these insights can lead to improved colony health, increased productivity, and sustainable honeybee conservation efforts.

Keywords: honeybee, egg-laying, nutrition, transcriptomics

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Authors: Adolfo Cangas, Noelia Navarro

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The current study shows the assessment made by university students of a video game entitled Stigma-Stop where the characters present different mental disorders. The objective is that players have more real information about mental disorders and empathize with them and thus reduce stigma. The sample consisted of 169 university students studying degrees related to education, social care and welfare (i.e., Social Education, Psychology, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and Social Work). The participants valued the video game positively, especially in relation to utility, being somewhat lower the score awarded to the degree of entertainment. They detect the disorders and point out that in many occasions they felt the same (particularly in the case of depression, being lower in agoraphobia and bipolar disorder, and even lower in the case of schizophrenia), most students recommend the use of the video game. They emphasize that Stigma-Stop offers intervention strategies, information regarding the symptomatology and sensitizes against stigma.

Keywords: schizophrenia, social stigma, students, mental health

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Authors: Payal Bose

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The impact of music on consumers' attention and emotions at different parts of the day are rarely/never studied. Music has been widely studied in different parameters, such as in-store music and its atmospheric effects, to understand consumer arousal, in-store traffic, perceptions of visual stimuli, and actual time spent in the store. Further other parameters such as tempo, shopper's age, volume, music preference, and its usage as foreground or background music acting as a mediator and impacting consumer behavior is also well researched. However, no study has traversed the influence of music on social media advertisements and its impact on the consumer mind. Most studies have catered to the influence of music on consumers conscious. A recent study found that playing pleasant music is more effective on weekdays in enhancing supermarkets' sales than on weekends. This led to a more pertinent question about the impact of music on different parts of the day and how it impacts the attention and emotion in the consumers’ mind is an interesting question to be asked given the fact that there is a high usage of social media advertisement consumption in the recent past on a day-to-day basis. This study would help brands on social media to structure their advertisements and engage more consumers towards their products. Prior literature has examined the effects or influence of music on consumers largely in retail, brick-and-mortar format. Hence most of the outcomes are favorable for physical retail environments. However, with the rise of Web 3.0 and social media marketing, it would be interesting to see how consumers' attention and emotion can be studied with the effects of music embedded in an advertisement during different parts of the day. A smartphone is considered a personal gadget, and viewing social media advertisements on them is mostly an intimate experience. Hence in a social media advertisement, most of the viewing happens on a one-on-one basis between the consumer and the brand advertisement. To the best of our knowledge, little or no work has explored the influence of music on different parts of the day (per the circadian rhythm) in advertising research. Previous works on social media advertisement have explored the timing of social media posts, deploying Targeted Content Advertising, appropriate content, reallocation of time, and advertising expenditure. Hence, I propose studying advertisements embedded with music during different parts of the day and its influence on consumers' attention and emotions. To address the research objectives and knowledge gap, it is intended to use a neuroscientific approach using fMRI and eye-tracking. The influence of music embedded in social media advertisement during different parts of the day would be assessed.

Keywords: music, neuromarketing, circadian rhythm, social media, engagement

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Authors: Montasser Mohamed Abdelwahab Mahmoud, Abdelwahab Saber Esawi

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The language of the Qur’an has a wide range of understanding, reflection, and meanings. Therefore, translation of the Qur’an is inevitably nothing but a translation of the interpretation of the meanings of the Qur’an. It requires special competencies and skills for translators so that they can get close to the intended meaning of the verse of the Qur’an and convey it with precision. In the Arabic language, the verbal noun “AlMasdar” is a very important derivative that properly expresses the verbal idea in the form of a noun. It sounds the same as the base form of the verb with minor changes in the vowel pattern. It is one of the important topics in morphology. The morphologists divided verbal nouns into auditory and analogical, and they stated that that the verbal nouns (Masadars) originating from three-letter verbs are auditory, although they set controls for some of them in order to preserve them. As for the lexicographers, they mentioned the verbal nouns while talking about the lexical materials, and in some cases, their explanation of them exceeded that made by the morphologists, especially in their discussion of structures that the morphologists did not refer to in their books. The verb kafara (disbelief), for example, has three patterns, namely: al-kufْr, al-kufrān, and al-kufūr, and it was mentioned in the Holy Qur’an with different connotations. The verb ṣāma (fasted) with his two patterns (al-ṣaūm and al-ṣīām) was mentioned in the Holy Qur’an while their semantic meaning is different. The problem discussed in this research paper lied in the "linguistic loss" committed by translators when dealing with Islamic religious texts, especially the Qur'an. The study tried to identify the strategy adopted by translators of the Holy Qur'an in translating words that were classified as verbal nouns through analyzing the translation rendered by five translations of the Qur’an into English: Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, Mohsin Khan, Muhammad Sarwar, and Shakir. This study was limited to the verbal nouns in the Quraan that originate from three-letter verbs and have different semantic meanings.

Keywords: pattern, three-letter verbs, translation of the Quran, verbal nouns

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Authors: Dejana Bouillet, Vlatka Domović

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Both policymakers and researchers recognize that participating in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is useful for all children, especially for those who are exposed to the high risk of social exclusion. Social exclusion of children is understood as a multidimensional construct including economic, social, cultural, health, and other aspects of disadvantage and deprivation, which individually or combined can have an unfavorable effect on the current life and development of a child, as well as on the child’s development and on disadvantaged life chances in adult life. ECEC institutions should be able to promote educational approaches that portray developmental, cultural, language, and other diversity amongst children. However, little is known about the ways in which Croatian ECEC institutions recognize and respect the diversity of children and their families and how they respond to their educational needs. That is why this paper is dedicated to the analysis of the capacities of ECEC professionals to respond to the demands of educational needs of this very diverse group of children and their families. The results obtained in the frame of the project “Models of response to educational needs of children at risk of social exclusion in ECEC institutions,” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, will be presented. The research methodology arises from explanations of educational processes and risks of social exclusion as a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. The preliminary results of the qualitative data analysis of educational practices regarding capacities to identify and appropriately respond to the requirements of children at risk of social exclusion will be presented. The data have been collected by interviewing educational staff in 10 Croatian ECEC institutions (n = 10). The questions in the interviews were related to various aspects of inclusive institutional policy, culture, and practices. According to the analysis, it is possible to conclude that Croatian ECEC professionals are still faced with great challenges in the process of implementation of inclusive policies, culture, and practices. There are several baselines of this conclusion. The interviewed educational professionals are not familiar enough with the whole complexity and diversity of needs of children at risk of social exclusion, and the ECEC institutions do not have enough resources to provide all interventions that these children and their families need.

Keywords: children at risk of social exclusion, ECEC professionals, inclusive policies, culture and practices, quallitative analysis

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Authors: Anoop Kumar Suraj

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Dr Rammanohar Lohia (1910-67), a radical Indian socialist thinker, left an unfinished and critical oeuvre of works on ‘Social Revolution’, argued for the necessity of fundamentally reordering our social structures and offered the ideological framework for such a radical change. An alternative kind of democratic political action called Saat Krantiya, or ‘seven revolutions’, sought to establish socialism with a strong cultural and historical foundation in Indian society. Lohia cautiously adopted civil disobedience [a Gandhian tool] as a means of seven revolutions as a mode of revolution. He saw Indian youth as the vanguard of the social revolution and claimed that the ideas of ‘constructive militancy’ and ‘militant construction’ were at the core of such a revolution. This paper demonstrates that Lohia presented a unique short theoretical paradigm to interpret history and revolution, and Sapta Kranti was a normative framework to arrive at an egalitarian society.

Keywords: Rammanohar Lohia, Sapt Kranti, matter and spirit, caste-class, human approximation

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Authors: Felix Boehnisch, Alexander Lutz

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Based on the number of users and the amount of content posted daily, Facebook is considered the largest social network in the world. This content includes images or text posts from companies but also private persons, which are also commented on by other users. However, it can sometimes be difficult for companies to keep track of all the posts and the reactions to them, especially when there are several posts a day that contain hundreds to thousands of comments. To facilitate this, the following paper deals with the possible applications of sentiment analysis to social media comments in order to be able to support the work in social media marketing. In a first step, post comments were divided into positive and negative by a subjective rating, then the same comments were checked for their polarity value by the two german python libraries TextBlobDE and SentiWS and also grouped into positive, negative, or even neutral. As a control, the subjective classifications were compared with the machine-generated ones by a confusion matrix, and relevant quality criteria were determined. The accuracy of both libraries was not really meaningful, with 60% to 66%. However, many words or sentences were not evaluated at all, so there seems to be room for optimization to possibly get more accurate results. In future studies, the use of these specific German libraries can be optimized to gain better insights by either applying them to stricter cleaned data or by adding a sentiment value to emojis, which have been removed from the comments in advance, as they are not contained in the libraries.

Keywords: Facebook, German libraries, polarity, sentiment analysis, social media comments

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Authors: Kaisy Xinhong Ye, Su Lin Lim, Jialiang Li, Lei Feng

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background: Multiple healthful dietary patterns have been linked with dementia, but limited studies have looked at the role of diet in cognitive health in Asians whose eating habits are very different from their counterparts in the west. This study aimed to derive a dietary pattern that is associated with the risk of cognitive impairment (CI) in the Singaporean population. Method: The analysis was based on 719 community older adults aged 60 and above. Dietary intake was measured using a validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Reduced rank regression (RRR) was used to extract dietary pattern from 45 food groups, specifying sugar, dietary fiber, vitamin A, calcium, and the ratio of polyunsaturated fat to saturated fat intake (P:S ratio) as response variables. The RRR-derived dietary patterns were subsequently investigated using multivariate logistic regression models to look for associations with the risk of CI. Results: A dietary pattern characterized by greater intakes of green leafy vegetables, red-orange vegetables, wholegrains, tofu, nuts, and lower intakes of biscuits, pastries, local sweets, coffee, poultry with skin, sugar added to beverages, malt beverages, roti, butter, and fast food was associated with reduced risk of CI [multivariable-adjusted OR comparing extreme quintiles, 0.29 (95% CI: 0.11, 0.77); P-trend =0.03]. This pattern was positively correlated with P:S ratio, vitamin A, and dietary fiber and negatively correlated with sugar. Conclusion: A dietary pattern providing high P:S ratio, vitamin A and dietary fiber, and a low level of sugar may reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in old age. The findings have significance in guiding local Singaporeans to dementia prevention through food-based dietary approaches.

Keywords: dementia, cognitive impairment, diet, nutrient, elderly

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Authors: Qiuying Li

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It is a shared opinion that sustainable development requires a system discontinuity, meaning that radical changes in the way we produce and consume are needed. Within this framework there is an emerging understanding that an important contribution to this change can be directly linked to decisions taken in the design phase of products, services and systems. Design schools have therefore to be able to provide design students with a broad knowledge and effective Design for Sustainability tools, in order to enable a new generation of designers in playing an active role in reorienting our consumption and production patterns.

Keywords: design for sustainability, services, systems, materials, ecomaterials

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Authors: Emelia Noronha, Milind Malshe

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The phatic function of communication is a vital element of any conversation. This research paper looks into this function with respect to personal blogs maintained by Indian bloggers. This paper is a study into the phenomenon of phatic communication maintained by bloggers through their blogs. Based on a linguistic analysis of the posts of twenty eight Indian bloggers, writing in English, studied over a period of three years, the study indicates that though the blogging phenomenon is not conversational in the same manner as face-to-face communication, it does make ample provision for feedback that is conversational in nature. Ordinary day to day offline conversations use conventionalized phatic utterances; those on the social media are in a perpetual mode of innovation and experimentation in order to sustain contact with its readers. These innovative methods and means are the focus of this study. Though the personal blogger aims to chronicle his/her personal life through the blog, the socializing function is crucial to these bloggers. In comparison to the western personal blogs which focus on the presentation of the ‘bounded individual self’, we find Indian personal bloggers engage in the presentation of their ‘social selves’. These bloggers yearn to reach out to the readers on the internet and the phatic function serves to initiate, sustain and renew social ties on the blogosphere thereby consolidating the social network of readers and bloggers.

Keywords: personal blogs, phatic, social-selves, blog readers

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Authors: Kalsoom Sumra

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The increasing concern of public sector reforms brings new challenges to public service ethics in developing countries not only at central level but also at local level. This paper aims to identify perceptions on public service ethics of public officials and examines more generally the understanding of public servants in Pakistan towards public service ethics in local public organizations. The study uses an independently administered structured questionnaire to collect data to know the extent of the recognition of public service ethics in local organizations. A total of 150 completed questionnaires are analyzed received from public servants working at the local level in Pakistan. The analysis explores how traditional, social patterns and cultural ethics can provide us with a rounded picture of the main antecedents, moderators of public service ethics in Pakistan. Moreover, the findings of this study contribute in association of public service ethics which are crucial in ongoing political and administrative culture of Pakistan, the most crucial core for public organizational ethical climate. This study also has numerous implications for local public administration and it highlights the importance of expanding research agenda on public service ethics in developing settings with challenging institutional contexts with imperfect training and operating environments. This study may well be particularly important for practice of public service ethics in developing countries in public administration. To the best of author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to provide an initial step in practical implications to emphasize relevant public service ethics in public administration in developing transparent and accountable organization.

Keywords: public service ethics, accountability and transparency, public service reforms, public administration, organizational ethical climate

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Authors: Mir Jalil Razavi, Tianming Liu, Xianqiao Wang

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Cortical folding, characterized by convex gyri and concave sulci, has an intrinsic relationship to the brain’s functional organization. Understanding the mechanism of the brain’s convoluted patterns can provide useful clues into normal and pathological brain function. During the development, the cerebral cortex experiences a noticeable expansion in volume and surface area accompanied by tremendous tissue folding which may be attributed to many possible factors. Despite decades of endeavors, the fundamental mechanism and key regulators of this crucial process remain incompletely understood. Therefore, to taking even a small role in unraveling of brain folding mystery, we present a mechanical model to find mechanism of 3-hinges formation in a growing brain that it has not been addressed before. A 3-hinge is defined as a gyral region where three gyral crests (hinge-lines) join. The reasons that how and why brain prefers to develop 3-hinges have not been answered very well. Therefore, we offer a theoretical and computational explanation to mechanism of 3-hinges formation in a growing brain and validate it by experimental observations. In theoretical approach, the dynamic behavior of brain tissue is examined and described with the aid of a large strain and nonlinear constitutive model. Derived constitute model is used in the computational model to define material behavior. Since the theoretical approach cannot predict the evolution of cortical complex convolution after instability, non-linear finite element models are employed to study the 3-hinges formation and secondary morphological folds of the developing brain. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element analyses on a multi-layer soft tissue model which mimics a small piece of the brain are performed to investigate the fundamental mechanism of consistent hinge formation in the cortical folding. Results show that after certain amount growth of cortex, mechanical model starts to be unstable and then by formation of creases enters to a new configuration with lower strain energy. By further growth of the model, formed shallow creases start to form convoluted patterns and then develop 3-hinge patterns. Simulation results related to 3-hinges in models show good agreement with experimental observations from macaque, chimpanzee and human brain images. These results have great potential to reveal fundamental principles of brain architecture and to produce a unified theoretical framework that convincingly explains the intrinsic relationship between cortical folding and 3-hinges formation. This achieved fundamental understanding of the intrinsic relationship between cortical folding and 3-hinges formation would potentially shed new insights into the diagnosis of many brain disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, lissencephaly and polymicrogyria.

Keywords: brain, cortical folding, finite element, three hinge

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Authors: Sherin Ahmed El-Badry Sadek

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In this research, it is scientifically examined what contribution the professionalization of teachers can make to the development of a future-oriented vocational education and training system in Egypt. For this purpose, a needs assessment of the Egyptian vocational training system with the central actors and prevailing structures forms the foundation of the study, which theoretically underpinned with the attempt to resolve to some extent the tension between Luhmann's systems theory approach and the actor-centered theory of professional teacher competence. The vocational education system, in particular, must be adaptable and flexible due to the rapidly changing qualification requirements. In view of the pace of technological progress and the associated market changes, vocational training is no longer to be understood only as an educational tool aimed at those who achieve poorer academic performance or are not motivated to take up a degree. Rather, it is to be understood as a cornerstone for the development of society, and international experience shows that it is the core of lifelong learning. But to what extent have the education systems been able to react to these changes in their political, social, and technological systems? And how effective and sustainable are these changes actually? The vocational training system, in particular, has a particular impact on other social systems, which is why the appropriate parameters with the greatest leverage must be identified and adapted. Even if systems and structures are highly relevant, teachers must not hide behind them and must instead strive to develop further and to constantly learn. Despite numerous initiatives and programs to reform vocational training in Egypt, including the EU-funded Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) reform phase I and phase II, the fit of the skilled workers to the needs of the labor market is still insufficient. Surveys show that the majority of employers are very dissatisfied with the graduates that the vocational training system produces. The data was collected through guideline-based interviews with experts from the education system and relevant neighboring systems, which allowed me to reconstruct central in-depth structures, as well as patterns of action and interpretation, in order to subsequently feed these into a matrix of recommendations for action. These recommendations are addressed to different decision-makers and stakeholders and are intended to serve as an impetus for the sustainable improvement of the Egyptian vocational training system. The research findings have shown that education, and in particular vocational training, is a political field that is characterized by a high degree of complexity and which is embedded in a barely manageable, highly branched landscape of structures and actors. At the same time, the vocational training system is not only determined by endogenous factors but also increasingly shaped by the dynamics of the environment and the neighboring social subsystems, with a mutual dependency relationship becoming apparent. These interactions must be taken into account in all decisions, even if prioritization of measures and thus a clear sequence and process orientation are of great urgency.

Keywords: competence orientation, educational policies, education systems, expert interviews, globalization, organizational development, professionalization, systems theory, teacher training, TVET system, vocational training

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