Search results for: private narrative

Authors: Uzma Rashid, Mommnah Asad

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As more and more people fall victim to the intolerance that has become a plague globally, academicians are faced with the herculean task of sowing the roots for more tolerant individuals. Being the multilayered task that it is, promoting an acceptance of diversity and pushing an agenda to push back hate requires efforts on multiple levels. Not only does the curriculum need to be in line with such goals, but teachers also need to be trained to cater to the sensitivities surrounding conversations of tolerance and diversity. In addition, institutional support needs to be there to provide conducive conditions for a diversity driven learning process to take place. In reality, teachers have to struggle with forwarding ideas about diversity and tolerance which do not sound particularly risky to be shared but given the current socio-political and religious milieu, can put the teacher in a difficult position and can make the task exponentially challenging. This paper is based on an auto-ethnographic account of teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at a private university in Pakistan. These courses were aimed at teaching tolerance to adult learners through classes focused on key notions pertaining to religion, culture, gender, and society. Authors’ classroom experiences with the students in these courses indicate a marked heightening of religious sensitivities that can potentially threaten a teacher’s life chances and become a hindrance in deep, meaningful conversations, thus lending a superficiality to the whole endeavor. The paper will discuss in detail the challenges that this teacher dealt with in the process, how those were addressed, and locate them in the larger picture of how tolerance can be materialized in current times in the universities in Pakistan and in similar contexts elsewhere.

Keywords: tolerance, diversity, gender, Pakistani Universities

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Authors: Gysele Lima Ricci, Jose Miguel Rodriguez Anton

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Companies in the tourism sector need to achieve competitive advantages for their survival in the market. In this way, the models based on association, cooperation, complementarity, distribution, exchange and mutual assistance arise as a possibility of organizational development, taking as reference the concept of networks. Many companies seek to partner in local networks as clusters to act together and associate. The main objective of the present research is to identify the specificities of management and the practices of cooperation in the tourist destination of São Paulo - Brazil, and to propose a new management model with possible cluster of tourism. The empirical analysis was carried out in three phases. As a first phase, a research was made by the companies, associations and tourism organizations existing in São Paulo, analyzing the characteristics of their business. In the second phase, the management specificities and cooperation practice used in the tourist destination. And in the third phase, identifying the possible strengths and weaknesses that potential or potential tourist cluster could have, proposing the development of the management model of the same adapted to the needs of the companies, associations and organizations. As a main result, it has been identified that companies, associations and organizations could be looking for synergies with each other and collaborate through a Hiperred organizational structure, in which they share their knowledge, try to make the most of the collaboration and to benefit from three concepts: flexibility, learning and collaboration. Finally, it is concluded that, the proposed tourism cluster management model is viable for the development of tourism destinations because it makes it possible to strategically address agents which are responsible for public policies, as well as public and private companies and organizations in their strategies competitiveness and cooperation.

Keywords: cluster, management model, networks, tourism sector

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Authors: Mohd Noah A. Rahman, Afzaal H. Seyal, Sharul T. Tajuddin, Hartiny Md Azmi

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Taking into consideration the real time situation specifically the higher academic institutions, small, medium to large companies, public to private sectors and the remaining sectors, do experience the inventory or asset shrinkages due to theft, loss or even inventory tracking errors. This happening is due to a zero or poor security systems and measures being taken and implemented in their organizations. Henceforth, implementing the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology into any manual or existing web-based system or web application can simply deter and will eventually solve certain major issues to serve better data retrieval and data access. Having said, this manual or existing system can be enhanced into a mobile-based system or application. In addition to that, the availability of internet connections can aid better services of the system. Such involvement of various technologies resulting various privileges to individuals or organizations in terms of accessibility, availability, mobility, efficiency, effectiveness, real-time information and also security. This paper will look deeper into the integration of mobile devices with RFID technologies with the purpose of asset tracking and control. Next, it is to be followed by the development and utilization of MongoDB as the main database to store data and its association with RFID technology. Finally, the development of a web based system which can be viewed in a mobile based formation with the aid of Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), MongoDB, Hyper-Text Markup Language 5 (HTML5), Android, JavaScript and AJAX programming language.

Keywords: RFID, asset tracking system, MongoDB, NoSQL

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Authors: Samaneh Arasteh

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Neighbourhood satisfaction and safety are the two main components of urban life and have a substantial impact on residents’ quality of life. The relationship between these two components, especially in areas surrounding our individual private dwellings, is highly influential on many social, economic, and wellbeing activities that may benefit neighbourhood residents. Neighbourhood and urban design – which are liable to be affected by the perceived quality of local public spaces – are likely to be significant factors influencing broader residents’ feelings of safety. With this in mind, this study reviews recent normative literature on how these design processes have influenced neighbourhood satisfaction including perceived safety with a focus on different aspects of public spaces including planning, management, and design in a mix-tenure neighbourhood. Following the study aim, Riverwood in Sydney’s southwest was chosen as a case study to gain a detailed understanding of the context by engaging with community members, residents, non-government organisations, and experts. Moreover, archival studies on neighbourhood satisfaction and safety, expert interviews, and resident questionnaires are presented to shed light on the relationship between neighbourhood satisfaction and perception of safety. The study argues that for the safer neighbourhood in urban areas, social-cultural factors need to be aligned toward strengthening physical factors and since making the environments safer, it is important to understand practical and achievable mechanisms which are required to improve existing estates. Findings show that increasing the clarity of community social and physical environmental involvements can promote residents’ feelings of safety and following neighbourhood satisfaction.

Keywords: neighbourhood satisfaction, public space, Riverwood, urban safety

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Authors: Faiza Babur Khan, Sohail Asghar

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With an emergence of distributed environment, cloud computing is proving to be the most stimulating computing paradigm shift in computer technology, resulting in spectacular expansion in IT industry. Many companies have augmented their technical infrastructure by adopting cloud resource sharing architecture. Cloud computing has opened doors to unlimited opportunities from application to platform availability, expandable storage and provision of computing environment. However, from a security viewpoint, an added risk level is introduced from clouds, weakening the protection mechanisms, and hardening the availability of privacy, data security and on demand service. Issues of trust, confidentiality, and integrity are elevated due to multitenant resource sharing architecture of cloud. Trust or reliability of cloud refers to its capability of providing the needed services precisely and unfailingly. Confidentiality is the ability of the architecture to ensure authorization of the relevant party to access its private data. It also guarantees integrity to protect the data from being fabricated by an unauthorized user. So in order to assure provision of secured cloud, a roadmap or model is obligatory to analyze a security problem, design mitigation strategies, and evaluate solutions. The aim of the paper is twofold; first to enlighten the factors which make cloud security critical along with alleviation strategies and secondly to propose an intrusion detection model that identifies the attackers in a preventive way using machine learning Random Forest classifier with an accuracy of 99.8%. This model uses less number of features. A comparison with other classifiers is also presented.

Keywords: cloud security, threats, machine learning, random forest, classification

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Authors: Ahmad Khoirul Umam, Iin Mayasari

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Indonesia is blessed with rich natural resources and frequently dubbed as the 6th richest country in the world in terms of mining resources, including minerals and coal. Mining can contribute to the socio-economic development by generating state revenue for development, elevating poverty through employment, opening and developing remote areas, putting in basic infrastructure and creating new centres of developments. However, favouritism and rent-seeking behaviour committed by government officials, politicians, and business players in licensing and permit giving in mining and forestry sectors have resisted reforms. Even though Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) successfully targeted untouchable actors, public criticism continues to focus on questions of why corruption apparently remains systemic in mining industry in the country? This paper revealed that structural anomalies, as well as legacies of the Soeharto era’s power inequities, have severely inhibited Indonesia’s bureaucratic arrangements that continue to influence adversely the elements of transparency and accountability in mining industry governance. In the more liberalized and decentralized political system, the deficiencies have gradually assisted vested interest groups to band together, thus creating a coalition that can challenge, resist, and contain anti-graft actions. Therefore, Indonesia needs much more serious anti-corruption actions that would require eliminating the monopoly over power, enhancing competition, limiting discretion, and clarifying the rules of business and political competition in the mining sector in the country.

Keywords: anti-corruption, public integrity, private integrity, mining industry, democratization

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Authors: Hayat Omar

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Languages provide speakers with a wide range of linguistic units to organize and deliver information. There are several ways to verbally express the mental representations of events. According to the linguistic tools they have acquired, speakers select the one that brings out the most communicative effect to convey their message. Our study focuses on two markers, -mm and dämmo, in Amharic (Ethiopian Semitic language). Our aim is to examine, from a developmental perspective, how they are used by speakers. We seek to distinguish the communicative and pragmatic functions indicated by means of these markers. To do so, we created a corpus of sixty narrative productions of children from 5-6, 7-8 to 10-12 years old and adult Amharic speakers. The experimental material we used to collect our data is a series of pictures without text 'Frog, Where are you?'. Although -mm and dämmo are each used in specific contexts, they are sometimes analyzed as being interchangeable. The suffix -mm is complex and multifunctional. It marks the end of the negative verbal structure, it is found in the relative structure of the imperfect, it creates new words such as adverbials or pronouns, it also serves to coordinate words, sentences and to mark the link between macro-propositions within a larger textual unit. -mm was analyzed as marker of insistence, topic shift marker, element of concatenation, contrastive focus marker, 'bisyndetic' coordinator. On the other hand, dämmo has limited function and did not attract the attention of many authors. The only approach we could find analyzes it in terms of 'monosyndetic' coordinator. The paralleling of these two elements made it possible to understand their distinctive functions and refine their description. When it comes to marking a referent, the choice of -mm or dämmo is not neutral, depending on whether the tagged argument is newly introduced, maintained, promoted or reintroduced. The presence of these morphemes explains the inter-phrastic link. The information is seized by anaphora or presupposition: -mm goes upstream while dämmo arrows downstream, the latter requires new information. The speaker uses -mm or dämmo according to what he assumes to be known to his interlocutors. The results show that -mm and dämmo, although all the speakers use them both, do not always have the same scope according to the speaker and vary according to the age. dämmo is mainly used to mark a contrastive topic to signal the concomitance of events. It is more commonly used in young children’s narratives (F(3,56) = 3,82, p < .01). Some values of -mm (additive) are acquired very early while others are rather late and increase with age (F(3,56) = 3,2, p < .03). The difficulty is due not only because of its synthetic structure but primarily because it is multi-purpose and requires a memory work. It highlights the constituent on which it operates to clarify how the message should be interpreted.

Keywords: acquisition, cohesion, connection, contrastive topic, contrastive focus, discourse marker, pragmatics

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Authors: Jaballah Jamil

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KLD (Peter Kinder, Steve Lydenberg and Amy Domini) research & analytics is an independent intermediary of social performance information that adopts an investor-pay model. KLD rating agency does not have an explicit monitoring on the rated firm which suggests that KLD ratings may not include private informations. Moreover, the incapacity of KLD to predict accurately the extra-financial rating of Enron casts doubt on the reliability of KLD ratings. Therefore, we first investigate whether KLD ratings affect investors' perception by studying the effect of KLD rating changes on firms' financial performances. Second, we study the impact of the Enron scandal on investors' perception of KLD rating changes by comparing the effect of KLD rating changes on firms' financial performances before and after the failure of Enron. We propose an empirical study that relates a number of equally-weighted portfolios returns, excess stock returns and book-to-market ratio to different dimensions of KLD social responsibility ratings. We first find that over the last two decades KLD rating changes influence significantly and negatively stock returns and book-to-market ratio of rated firms. This finding suggests that a raise in corporate social responsibility rating lowers the firm's risk. Second, to assess the Enron scandal's effect on the perception of KLD ratings, we compare the effect of KLD rating changes before and after the Enron scandal. We find that after the Enron scandal this significant effect disappears. This finding supports the view that the Enron scandal annihilates the KLD's effect on Socially Responsible Investors. Therefore, our findings may question results of recent studies that use KLD ratings as a proxy for Corporate Social Responsibility behavior.

Keywords: KLD social rating agency, investors' perception, investment decision, financial performance

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Authors: Piyaphan Changwatchai

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Global value chain is important for current world economy through foreign direct investment. Multinational enterprises' efficient location seeking for each stage of production lead to global production network and more global value chain participation of several countries. Global value chain participation has several effects on participating countries in several aspects including the environment. The effect of global value chain participation on the environment is ambiguous. As a result, this research aims to study the effect of global value chain participation on countries' CO₂ emission and methane emission by using quantitative analysis with secondary panel data of sixty countries. The analysis is divided into two types of global value chain participation, which are forward global value chain participation and backward global value chain participation. The results show that, for forward global value chain participation, GDP per capita affects two types of pollutants in downward bell curve shape. Forward global value chain participation negatively affects CO₂ emission and methane emission. As for backward global value chain participation, GDP per capita affects two types of pollutants in downward bell curve shape. Backward global value chain participation negatively affects methane emission only. However, when considering Asian countries, forward global value chain participation positively affects CO₂ emission. The recommendations of this research are that countries participating in global value chain should promote production with effective environmental management in each stage of value chain. The examples of policies are providing incentives to private sectors, including domestic producers and MNEs, for green production technology and efficient environment management and engaging in international agreements in terms of green production. Furthermore, government should regulate each stage of production in value chain toward green production, especially for Asia countries.

Keywords: CO₂ emission, environment, global value chain participation, methane emission

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Authors: Haripriya Chakraborty

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The healthcare system in the United States is considered to be one of the most inefficient and expensive systems when compared to other developed countries. Consequently, there are persistent concerns regarding the overall functioning of this system. For instance, the large number of uninsured individuals and high premiums are pressing issues that are shown to have a negative effect on health outcomes with possible life-threatening consequences. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010, was aimed at improving some of these inefficiencies. This paper aims at providing a computational mechanism to examine some of these inefficiencies and the effects that policy proposals may have on reducing these inefficiencies. Agent-based modeling is an invaluable tool that provides a flexible framework to model complex systems. It can provide an important perspective into the nature of some interactions that occur and how the benefits of these interactions are allocated. In this paper, we propose a novel and versatile agent-based model with realistic assumptions to simulate the dynamics of a health insurance marketplace that contains a mixture of private and public insurers and individuals. We use this model to analyze the characteristics, motivations, payoffs, and strategies of these agents. In addition, we examine the effects of certain policies, including some of the provisions of the ACA, aimed at reducing the uninsured rate and the cost of premiums to move closer to a system that is more equitable and improves health outcomes for the general population. Our test results confirm the usefulness of our agent-based model in studying this complicated issue and suggest some implications for public policies aimed at healthcare reform.

Keywords: agent-based modeling, healthcare reform, insurance markets, public policy

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Authors: Cristian Pauna

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Trading the financial markets is a widespread activity today. A large number of investors, companies, public of private funds are buying and selling every day in order to make profit. Algorithmic trading is the prevalent method to make the trade decisions after the electronic trading release. The orders are sent almost instantly by computers using mathematical models. This paper will present a price prediction methodology based on a multi-dimensional neural network. Using the Fisher transform, the neural network will be instructed for a low-latency auto-adaptive process in order to predict the price evolution for the next period of time. The model is designed especially for algorithmic trading and uses the real-time price series. It was found that the characteristics of the Fisher function applied at the nodes scale level can generate reliable trading signals using the neural network methodology. After real time tests it was found that this method can be applied in any timeframe to trade the financial markets. The paper will also include the steps to implement the presented methodology into an automated trading system. Real trading results will be displayed and analyzed in order to qualify the model. As conclusion, the compared results will reveal that the neural network methodology applied together with the Fisher transform at the nodes level can generate a good price prediction and can build reliable trading signals for algorithmic trading.

Keywords: algorithmic trading, automated trading systems, financial markets, high-frequency trading, neural network

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Authors: Rahmat Irawan, Mundhir Hanifsyam Harahap, Andar Ristabet Hesda

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As a public sector organization in Indonesia, Directorate General of State Asset Management (DGSAM) which is a unit under the Ministry of Finance of The Republic of Indonesia, has many constraints in managing its employees. While private organizations are able to conduct a human resource management as the best practice, DGSAM is limited by many regulations, especially about punishment and lay off policy for under-performance employees. Therefore, since 2015, DGSAM tries to implement a new and uncommon approach considering employees’ preference to encourage the motivation and performance of employees. DGSAM’s employees may propose the job places, and DGSAM considers them in deciding employees deployment. This study tries to determine the impact of preference-based approach toward employees’ satisfaction and organizational performance. This study uses quantitative approaches by regression analysis to measure the impact of deployment toward satisfaction of deployed employees and performance change of related units in DGSAM. The result of this study shows that preference-based approach significantly improves employees’ satisfaction and performance of related units as well. Based on the results of this study, it can be suggested that the approach is able to be implemented in the wider scope of the Ministry of Finance of The Republic of Indonesia and whole public sector organization in Indonesia. However, this study only focuses on short term measurement, so it is suggested to do further study to analyze the long-term impact.

Keywords: employee deployment, employee satisfaction, human resource management, organizational performance, preference-based approach

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Authors: Pragya Paneru

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This paper explores ten primary teachers’ views on gender representation in primary-level textbooks altogether. Data was collected from the teachers who taught in private schools in Kailali and Kathmandu District. This research uses a semi-structured interview method to obtain information regarding teachers’ attitudes toward gender representations in textbook content. The interview data were analysed by using critical skills of qualitative research analysis methods, as suggested by Saldana and Omasta (2018). The findings revealed that most of the teachers were unaware and regarded gender issues as insignificant to discuss in primary-level classes. Most of them responded to the questions personally and claimed that there were no gender issues in their classrooms. Some of the teachers connected gender issues with contexts other than textbook representations, such as school discrimination in the distribution of salary among male and female teachers, school practices of awarding girls rather than boys as the most disciplined students, following girls’ first rule in the assembly marching, encouraging only girls in the stage shows, and involving students in gender-specific activities such as decorating works for girls and physical tasks for boys. The interview also revealed teachers’ covert gendered attitudes in their remarks. Nevertheless, most of the teachers accepted that gender-biased contents have an impact on learners, and this problem can be solved with more gender-centred research in the education field, discussions, and training to increase awareness regarding gender issues. Agreeing with the suggestion of teachers, this paper recommends proper training and awareness regarding how to confront gender issues in textbooks.

Keywords: content analysis, gender equality, school education, critical awareness

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Authors: Faith Eweluegim Enahoro-Ofagbe

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Worldwide, every nation is experiencing the effects of global warming. In developing countries, due to the heavy reliance on agriculture for socioeconomic growth and security, among other things, these countries are more affected by climate change, particularly with the availability of water. Floods, droughts, rising temperatures, saltwater intrusion, groundwater depletion, and other severe environmental alterations are all brought on by climatic change. Life depends on water, a vital resource; these ecological changes affect all water use, including agriculture and household water use. Therefore adequate and adaptive water usage strategies for sustainability are essential in developing countries. Therefore, this paper investigates Nigeria's challenges due to climate change and adaptive techniques that have evolved in response to such issues to ensure water management and sustainability for irrigation and provide quality water to residents. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents in the study area, central Nigeria, for quantitative evaluation of sustainable water resource management techniques. Physicochemical analysis was done, collecting soil and water samples from several locations under investigation. Findings show that farmers use different methods, ranging from intelligent technologies to traditional strategies for water resource management. Also, farmers need to learn better water resource management techniques for sustainability. Since more residents obtain their water from privately held sources, the government should enforce legislation to ensure that private borehole construction businesses treat water sources of poor quality before the general public uses them.

Keywords: developing countries, irrigation, strategies, sustainability, water resource management, water usage

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Authors: Aqsa Butt, Nida Zafar

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The study assesses the relationship between impulsivity, emotional regulation, problematic mukbang watching, and eating disorders in university students. It was hypothesized there is likely to be a relationship between impulsivity, emotional regulation, problematic mukbang watching, and eating disorders in university students; impulsivity and emotional regulation would predict problematic mukbang watching in university students; problematic mukbang watching would predict eating disorders in university students. A correlational research design was used. A sample of 200 students was taken from different public and private universities in Lahore. Emotional regulation questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003), Abbreviated Barrat Impulsiveness Scale (Christopher et al., 2014), Problematic Mukbang Watching Scale (Kircaburun et al., 2020), and Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (Stice et al., 2004) were used for assessment. Results showed a significant positive relationship between impulsivity and expressive suppression with problematic mukbang watching. However, there is a significant negative relationship between cognitive reappraisal and problematic mukbang watching. Problematic mukbang is significantly positively related to bulimia nervosa and binge eating. Furthermore, impulsivity and expressive suppression are significant positive predictors of problematic mukbang watching, and cognitive reappraisal is a significant negative predictor of problematic mukbang watching. Additionally, problematic mukbang watching significantly positively predicts bulimia nervosa and binge eating. The research has important implications for university students to understand that excessive watching of such videos can lead to eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and binge eating. This research provides an understanding of the effects of Mukbang watching, and it also adds to the existing body of knowledge on eating disorders.

Keywords: impulsivity, emotional regulation, problematic Mukbang watching eating disorders, students

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Authors: Dina Tareq Ismail, Alexandria A. Proff

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a nation seeking to advance in all fields, particularly education. One area of focus for UAE 2021 agenda is to restructure UAE schools and universities by equipping them with highly developed technology. The agenda also advises educational institutions to prepare students with applicable and transferrable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. Despite the emphasis on ICT and computer literacy skills, there exists limited empirical data on the use of M-Learning in the literature. This qualitative study explores the motivation of higher primary Arabic teachers in private schools toward implementing and integrating M-Learning apps in their classrooms. This research employs a phenomenological approach through the use of semistructured interviews with nine purposefully selected Arabic teachers. The data were analyzed using a content analysis via multiple stages of coding: open, axial, and thematic. Findings reveal three primary themes: (1) Arabic teachers with high levels of procedural knowledge in ICT are more motivated to implement M-Learning; (2) Arabic teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy influence their motivation toward implementation of M-Learning; (3) Arabic teachers implement M-Learning when they possess high utility and/or intrinsic value in these applications. These findings indicate a strong need for further training, equipping, and creating buy-in among Arabic teachers to enhance their ICT skills in implementing M-Learning. Further, given the limited availability of M-Learning apps designed for use in the Arabic language on the market, it is imperative that developers consider designing M-Learning tools that Arabic teachers, and Arabic-speaking students, can use and access more readily. This study contributes to closing the knowledge gap on teacher-motivation for implementing M-Learning in their classrooms in the UAE.

Keywords: ICT skills, m-learning, self-efficacy, teacher-motivation

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

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Rice yields among agro-ecological zones are heterogeneous. Farmers, researchers and policy makers are making frantic efforts to bridge rice yield gaps between agro-ecological zones through the promotion of improved agricultural technologies (IATs). Farmers are also modifying these IATs and blending them with indigenous farming practices (IFPs) to form farmer innovation systems (FISs). Also, different metafrontier models have been used in estimating productivity performances and their drivers. This study used the two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the productivity performances of rice farmers and their determining factors in GSZ, FSTZ and CSZ. The study used both primary and secondary data. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergized adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still have the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest TGR. It is recommended that government through the ministry of food and agriculture, development partners and individual private companies promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergize the adoption of the whole package. Contract farming concept and agricultural extension intensification should be vigorously pursued to the latter.

Keywords: efficiency, farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, two-step stochastic metafrontier approach

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Authors: Boikanyego Sebina

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The present study investigates the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on the Setswana speech rhythm of Batswana (citizens) children aged 6-7 years with typical development born and residing in Botswana. Botswana is a country in which there is a diglossic Setswana/English language setting, where English is the dominant high-status language in educational and public contexts. Generally, children from low SES have lower linguistic and cognitive profiles than their age-matched peers from high SES. A greater understanding of these variables would allow educators to distinguish between underdeveloped language skills in children due to impairment and environmental issues for them to successfully enroll children in language development enhancement programs specific to the child’s needs. There are 20 participants: 10 high SES private English-medium educated early sequential Setswana-English bilingual children, taught full-time in English (L2) from the age of 3 years, and for whom English has become dominant; and 10 low SES children who are educated in public schools for whom English is considered a learner language, i.e., L1 Setswana is dominant. The aim is to see whether SES and bilingualism, have had an effect on the Setswana speech rhythm of children in either group. The study primarily uses semi-spontaneous speech based on the telling of the wordless picture storybook. A questionnaire is used to elicit the language use pattern of the children and that of their parents, as well as the education level of the parents and the school the children attend. A comparison of the rhythm shows that children from high SES have a lower durational variability than those from low SES. The findings of the study are that the low durational variability by children from high SES may suggest an underdeveloped rhythm. In conclusion, the results of the present study are against the notion that children from high SES outperform those from low SES in linguistic development.

Keywords: bilingualism, Setswana English, socio-economic status, speech-rhythm

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Authors: Daiva Skuciene

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The Baltic States turned to free market and capitalism after independency. The new socioeconomic system, democracy and priorities about the welfare of citizens formed. The researches show that Baltic states choose the neoliberal development. Related to this neoliberal path, a few questions arouse: how do people evaluate the results of such policy and socioeconomic development? What are their priorities? And what are the values of the Baltic societies that support neoliberal policy? The purpose of this research – to analyze the socioeconomic context and the priorities and the values of the Baltics societies related to neoliberal regime. The main objectives are: firstly, to analyze the neoliberal socioeconomic features and results; secondly, to analyze people opinions and priorities about the results of neoliberal development; thirdly, to analyze the values of the Baltic societies related to the neoliberal policy. For the implementation of the purpose and objectives, the comparative analyses among European countries are used. The neoliberal regime was defined through two indicators: the taxes on capital income and expenditures on social protection. The socioeconomic outcomes of neoliberal welfare regime are defined through the Gini inequality and at risk of the poverty rate. For this analysis, the data of 2002-2013 of Eurostat were used. For the analyses of opinion about inequality and preferences on society, people want to live in, the preferences for distribution between capital and wages in enterprise data of Eurobarometer in 2010-2014 and the data of representative survey in the Baltic States in 2016 were used. The justice variable was selected as a variable reflecting the evaluation of socioeconomic context and analyzed using data of Eurobarometer 2006-2015. For the analyses of values were selected: solidarity, equality, and individual responsibility. The solidarity, equality was analyzed using data of Eurobarometer 2006-2015. The value “individual responsibility” was examined by opinions about reasons of inequality and poverty. The survey of population in the Baltic States in 2016 and data of Eurobarometer were used for this aim. The data are ranged in descending order for understanding the position of opinion of people in the Baltic States among European countries. The dynamics of indicators is also provided to examine stability of values. The main findings of the research are that people in the Baltics are dissatisfied with the results of the neoliberal socioeconomic development, they have priorities for equality and justice, but they have internalized the main neoliberal narrative- individual responsibility. The impact of socioeconomic context on values is huge, resulting in a change in quite stable opinions and values during the period of the financial crisis.

Keywords: neoliberal, inequality and poverty, solidarity, individual responsibility

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Authors: Signe Voltelen, Kristin Astrup Aas

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In the Scandinavian cities, there is a raised focus on the potential of using urban agriculture in city development, both as a tool for handling challenges provoked by climate change and to develop new, and stronger social communities. During the last couple of years, Copenhagen has experienced an increase in extreme weather resulting in dramatical floods with huge humanitarian and economic consequences. As an approach for climate adaption and mitigation the government has made a strategy for changing a significant amount of the cities hard surfaces into green and absorbing surfaces. Including urban farms and gardens. In close collaboration with the municipality, it has been possible to implement citizen-run gardens under the different concepts climate adaption and food literacy. Like other European cities, Copenhagen has a historical tradition of small-scale farming for food security inside the city, and in the outskirts of the urban area. Lately, this tradition has gotten new relevance, and new initiatives are popping up. In addition to providing local food, the urban farm becomes a semi-public, semi-private room that invites to community and integration across ethnicity, social background, and age. The direct interaction in the process of farming creates a connection between the urban and the rural and are educational for people growing up and living their whole life in the dense city. In the paper, three local example models of urban agriculture are presented, and the experiences of their potential as tools for developing social and environmental sustainable cities is examined.

Keywords: city development, climate mitigation, community building, urban agriculture, urban- rural transition, food security

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Authors: Bushra Jamil, Nudrat Baqri, Muhammad Hassan Saeed

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Entrepreneurship is creating or setting up a business not only for the purpose of generating profit but also for providing job opportunities. Entrepreneurs are problem solvers and product developers. They use their financial asset for hiring a professional team and combine the innovation, knowledge, and leadership leads to a successful startup or a business. To be a successful entrepreneur, one should be people-oriented and have perseverance. One must have the ability to take risk, believe in his/her potential, and have the courage to move forward in all circumstances. Most importantly, have the ability to take risk and can assess the risk. For STEM students, entrepreneurship is of specific importance and relevance as it helps them not just to be able to solve real life existing complications but to be able to recognize and identify emerging needs and glitches. It is becoming increasingly apparent that in today’s world, there is a need as well as a desire for STEM and entrepreneurship to work together. In Pakistan, entrepreneurship is slowly emerging, yet we are far behind. It is high time that we should introduce modern teaching methods and inculcate entrepreneurial initiative in students. A course on entrepreneurship can be included in the syllabus, and we must invite businessmen and policy makers to motivate young minds for entrepreneurship. This must be pitching competitions, opportunities to win seed funding, and facilities of incubation centers. In Pakistan, there are many good public sector research institutes, yet there is a void gap in the private sector. Only few research institute are meant for research and development. BJ Micro Lab is one of them. It is SECP registered company and is working in academia to promote and facilitate research in STEM. BJ Micro Lab is a women led initiative, and we are trying to promote research as a passion, not as an arduous burden. For this, we are continuously arranging training workshops and sessions. More than 100 students have been trained in ten different workshops arranged at BJ Micro Lab.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, STEM, challenges, oppurtunties

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Authors: Katharina Kargel, Frederic Vobbe

Abstract:

Sexual online grooming is generally defined as digital interactions for the purpose of sexual exploitation of children or minors, i.e. as a process for preparing and framing sexual child abuse. Due to its conceptual history, sexual online grooming is often associated with perpetrators who are previously unknown to those affected. While the strategies of perpetrators and the perception of those affected are increasingly being investigated, the instrumentalisation of digital media has not yet been researched much. Therefore, the present paper aims at contributing to this research gap by examining in what kind of ways perpetrators instrumentalise digital media. Our analyses draw on 46 case documentations and 18 interviews with those affected. The cases and the partly narrative interviews were collected by ten cooperating specialist centers working on sexualized violence in childhood and youth. For this purpose, we designed a documentation grid allowing for a detailed case reconstruction i.e. including information on the violence, digital media use and those affected. By using Reflexive Grounded Theory, our analyses emphasize a) the subjective benchmark of professional practitioners as well as those affected and b) the interpretative implications resulting from our researchers’ subjective and emotional interaction with the data material. It should first be noted that sexualized online grooming can result in both online and offline sexualized violence as well as hybrid forms. Furthermore, the perpetrators either come from the immediate social environment of those affected or are unknown to them. The perpetrator-victim relationship plays a more important role with regard to the question of the instrumentalisation of digital media than the question of the space (on vs. off) in which the primary violence is committed. Perpetrators unknown to those affected instrumentalise digital media primarily to establish a sexualized system of norms, which is usually embedded in a supposed love relationship. In some cases, after an initial exchange of sexualized images or video recordings, a latent play on the position of power takes place. In the course of the grooming process, perpetrators from the immediate social environment increasingly instrumentalise digital media to establish an explicit relationship of power and dependence, which is directly determined by coercion, threats and blackmail. The knowledge of possible vulnerabilities is strategically used in the course of maintaining contact. The above explanations lead to the conclusion that the motive for the crime plays an essential role in the question of the instrumentalisation of digital media. It is therefore not surprising that it is mostly the near-field perpetrators without commercial motives who initiate a spiral of violence and stress by digitally distributing sexualized (violent) images and video recordings within the reference system of those affected.

Keywords: sexualized violence, children and youth, grooming, offender strategies, digital media

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Authors: Laila Niklasson

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The aim of the study is to critically discuss how partner schools are engaged during Initial teacher education, ITE. The background is an experiment in Sweden where the practicum organization is reorganized due to a need to enhance quality during practicum. It is a national initiative from the government, supported by the National Agency of Education and lasts 2014-2019. The main features are concentration of students to school with a certain amount of mentors, mentors who have a mentor education and teachers with relevant subject areas and where there could be a mentor team with a leader at the school. An expected outcome is for example that the student teachers should be engaged in peer-learning. The schools should be supported by extra lectures from university teachers during practicum and also extra research projects where the schools should be engaged. A case study of one university based ITE was carried out to explore the consequences for the schools not selected. The result showed that from engaging x schools in a region, x was engaged. The schools are both in urban and rural areas, mainly in the latter. There is also a tendency that private schools are not engaged. On a unit level recruitment is perceived as harder for schools not engaged. In addition they cannot market themselves as ´selected school´ which can affect parent´s selection of school for their children. Also, on unit level, but with consequences for professional development, they are not selected for research project and thereby are not fully supported during school development. The conclusion is that from an earlier inclusive approach concerning professions where all teachers were perceived as possible mentors, there is a change to an exclusive approach where selected schools and selected teachers should be engaged. The change could be perceived as a change in governance mentality, but also in how professions are perceived, and development work is pursued.

Keywords: initial teacher education, practicum schools, profession, quality development

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Authors: Yoshifumi Hino

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An infinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma is a typical model that represents teamwork situation. If both players choose costly actions and contribute to the team, then both players are better off. However, each player has an incentive to choose a selfish action. We analyze the game under costly observation. Each player can observe the action of the opponent only when he pays an observation cost in that period. In reality, teamwork situations are often costly observation. Members of some teams sometimes work in distinct rooms, areas, or countries. In those cases, they have to spend their time and money to see other team members if they want to observe it. The costly observation assumption makes the cooperation difficult substantially because the equilibrium must satisfy the incentives not only on the action but also on the observational decision. Especially, it is the most difficult to cooperate each other when the stage-game is prisoner's dilemma because players have to communicate through only two actions. We examine whether or not players can cooperate each other in prisoner’s dilemma under costly observation. Specifically, we check whether symmetric Pareto efficient payoff vectors in repeated prisoner’s dilemma can be approximated by sequential equilibria or not (efficiency result). We show the efficiency result without any randomization device under certain circumstances. It means that players can cooperate with each other without any randomization device even if the observation is costly. Next, we assume that public randomization device is available, and then we show that any feasible and individual rational payoffs in prisoner’s dilemma can be approximated by sequential equilibria under a specific situation (folk theorem). It implies that players can achieve asymmetric teamwork like leadership situation when public randomization device is available.

Keywords: cost observation, efficiency, folk theorem, prisoner's dilemma, private monitoring, repeated games.

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Authors: Kayondoamunmose Kamafrika

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Experimental based Engineering education approach plays a vital role in the development of student’s deep understanding of both social and physical sciences. Experimental based education approach through laboratory class activities prepare students to meet national demand for high-tech skilled individuals in the government and private sector. However, students across the country are faced with difficulties in classes that involve laboratory activities: poor experimental based exposure in their early development of student’s education-life-cycle, lack of student engagement in scientific method practical thinking approach, lack of communication between students and the instructor during class, a large number of students in one classroom, lack of instruments and improper equipment calibration. The purpose of this paper is to help students develop their own scientific knowledge and understanding, develop their methodologies in the design of experiments, collect and analyze data, write laboratory reports, present and explain their findings. Experimental based laboratory activities allow students to learn with high-level understanding as well as engage in the design processes of constructing knowledge through practical means of doing science. Experimental based education systems approach will act as a catalyst in the development of practical-based-educational methodologies in social and physical science and engineering domain of learning; thereby, converting laboratory classes into pilot industries and students into professional experts in finding a solution for complex problems, research, and development of super high- tech systems.

Keywords: experimental, engineering, innovation, practicability

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Authors: Dukali Abujnah, Mokhtar Blgacem Halbuda

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Water is one of the world's natural resources. It is an essential source for the maintenance of human, animal, and plant life. It has a significant impact on the country's economy and all human activities. Over the past twenty years, pressure on water resources has increased due to population and industrial growth and increasing demand for agricultural and household products, which has become a major concern of the international community. The aim of this study is the physical and bacteriological analysis of drinking water in the city of Value. The study covered different locations in the city. Thirty-six groundwater samples were taken from wells and various tanks owned by the State and private wells, and the Ain Thalia spring and other samples were taken from underground water tanks. It fills up with rainwater during the rainy season. These samples were analyzed for their physical, chemical, and biological status and the results were compared to Libyan and World Health Organization drinking water specifications to assess the quality of drinking water in the city of Value. Physical and chemical analysis of water samples showed acceptable values for acidity and electrical conductivity, and turbidity was found in water samples collected from underground reservoirs compared to Libyan and World Health Organization standards. The highest levels of electrical conductivity and alkalinity, TDS, and water hardness in the samples collected were below the maximum acceptable levels for drinking water as recommended by Libyan and World Health Organization specifications. The biological test results also showed that the water samples were free of intestinal bacteria.

Keywords: quality, agriculture, region, reservoir, evaluation

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Authors: Roien Qiam, Shoshi Mizokami

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Parking demand in the Central Business District (CBD) has enlarged with the increase of the number of private vehicles due to rapid economic growth, lack of an efficient public transport and traffic management system. This has resulted in low mobility, poor accessibility, serious congestion, high rates of traffic accident fatalities and injuries and air pollution, mainly because people have to drive slowly around to find a vacant spot. With parking pricing and enforcement policy, considerable advancement could be found, and on-street parking spaces could be managed efficiently and effectively. To evaluate parking demand and making parking policy, it is required to understand the current parking condition and driver’s behavior, understand how drivers choose their parking type and location as well as their behavior toward finding a vacant parking spot under parking charges and search times. This study illustrates the result from an observational, revealed and stated preference surveys and experiment. Attained data shows that there is a gap between supply and demand in parking and it has maximized. For the modeling of the parking decision, a choice model was constructed based on discrete choice modeling theory and multinomial logit model estimated by using SP survey data; the model represents the choice of an alternative among different alternatives which are priced on-street, off-street, and illegal parking. Individuals choose a parking type based on their preference concerning parking charges, searching times, access times and waiting times. The parking assignment model was obtained directly from behavioral model and is used in parking simulation. The study concludes with an evaluation of parking policy.

Keywords: CBD, parking demand forecast, parking policy, parking choice model

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Authors: Scarlet Tabot Enanga Longsti

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Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) schemes have been proposed as a possible means to achieve affordable health care in low-and lower-middle-income countries. The existing evidence provides mixed results on the impact of CBHI schemes on healthcare utilisation and out -of-pocket payments (OOPP) for healthcare. Over 900 CBHI schemes have been implemented in underdeveloped countries, and these schemes have undergone different modifications over the years. Prior reviews have suggested that different designs of CBHI schemes may result in different outcomes. Objectives: This review sought to determine the interventions that affect the impact of CBHI schemes on OOPP and health service utilisation. Interventions in this study referred to any action or modification in the design of a CBHI scheme that affected the impact of the scheme on OOPP and/or healthcare utilization. Methods: Any CBHI study that was done in a lower middle-income country, that used an experimental design, that included OOPP or health care utilisation as outcome variables, and that was published in either English or French was included in this study. Studies were searched for in MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, EconLit, IBSS, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Global Index Medicus from July to August 2023. Bias was assessed using Joanna Brigs Institute tools for quality assessment for randomized control trials and quasi experimental studies. A narrative synthesis was done. Results: 12 studies were included in the review, with a total of 69 villages, 13,653 households, and 62,786 participants. Average premium collection was 4.8 USD/year. Most CBHI schemes had flat rates. The study revealed that a range of interventions impact OOPP and health care utilisation. Five categories of interventions were identified. The intervention with the highest impact on OOPP and utilisation was “Audit visits”. Next in line came external funds, training scheme workers, and engaging community leaders and village heads to advertise the scheme. Free healthcare led to a significant increase in utilisation of health services, a significant reduction in Catastrophic health expenditure, but an insignificant effect on OOPP among insured compared with uninsured. Conclusions: Community-Based Health Insurance could pave the way for Universal Health Care in low and middle-income countries. However, this can only be possible if careful thought is given to how schemes are designed. Due to the heterogeneity of studies and results on CBHI schemes, there is need for further research for more effective designs to be developed.

Keywords: community based health insurance, developing countries, health service utilisation, out of pocket payment

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Authors: Alonso-Cañadas J., Galán-Valdivieso F., Saraite-Sariene L., García-Tabuyo M., Alonso-Morales N.

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Green Public Procurement (GPP) has recently gained attention in the academic and policy arenas since climate change has shown the need to be addressed by both private companies and public entities. Such growing interest motivates this article, aiming to explore the most influential journals, publishers, categories, and topics, as well as the recent trends and future research lines in GPP. Based on the Web of Science database, 578 articles from 2004 to February 2022 devoted to GPP are analyzed using Bibliometrix, an R-tool to perform bibliometric analysis, and Google’s Big Query and Data Studio. This article introduces a variety of findings. First, the most influential journals by far are “Journal of Cleaner Production” and “Sustainability,” differing in that the latter is open access while the former publishes via traditional subscription. This result also occurs regarding the main publishers (Elsevier and MDPI). These features lead us to split the sample into open-access journals and traditional journals to deepen into the similarities and differences between them, confirming that traditional journals exhibit a higher degree of influence in the literature than their open-access counterparts in terms of the number of documents, number of citations and impact (according to the H index). Second, this research also highlights the recent emergence of green-related terms (sustainable, environment) and, parallelly, the increase in categorizing GPP papers in “green” WoS categories, particularly since 2019. Finally, a number of related topics are emerging and will lead the research, such as food security, infrastructures, and implementation barriers of GPP.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, green public procurement, open access, traditional journals

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Authors: Iacopo Carnacina, Mohammad Keshtpoor, Richard Yablonsky

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Non-structural protection measures against flooding are becoming increasingly popular flood risk mitigation strategies. In particular, coastal flood insurance impacts not only private citizens but also insurance and reinsurance companies, who may require it to retain solvency and better understand the risks they face from a catastrophic coastal flood event. In this context, a framework is presented here to assess the risk for coastal flooding across the UK. The area has a long history of catastrophic flood events, including the Great Flood of 1953 and the 2013 Cyclone Xaver storm, both of which led to significant loss of life and property. The current framework will leverage a technology based on a hydrodynamic model (Delft3D Flexible Mesh). This flexible mesh technology, coupled with a calibration technique, allows for better utilisation of computational resources, leading to higher resolution and more detailed results. The generation of a stochastic set of extra tropical cyclone (ETC) events supports the evaluation of the financial losses for the whole area, also accounting for correlations between different locations in different scenarios. Finally, the solution shows a detailed analysis for the Thames River, leveraging the information available on flood barriers and levees. Two realistic disaster scenarios for the Greater London area are simulated: In the first scenario, the storm surge intensity is not high enough to fail London’s flood defences, but in the second scenario, London’s flood defences fail, highlighting the potential losses from a catastrophic coastal flood event.

Keywords: storm surge, stochastic model, levee failure, Thames River

Procedia PDF Downloads 232