Search results for: symbolic meaning of nature

Authors: Liou Shyhnan, Chia Han Yang

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The study aims to investigate the promotion of innovation in the development of cultural and creative industries (CCI) and apply research on culture and creativity to this promotion. Using the research perspectives of culture and creativity as the starting points, this study has examined the challenges, trends, and opportunities that have emerged from the development of the CCI until the present. It is found that a definite context of cause and effect exist between them, and that a homologous theoretical basis can be used to understand and interpret them. Based on the characteristics of the aforementioned challenges and trends, this study has compiled two main theoretical systems for conducting research on culture and creativity: (i) reciprocal process between creativity and culture, and (ii) a mechanism for innovation involving multicultural convergence. Both theoretical systems were then used as the foundation to arrive at possible research propositions relating to the two developmental systems. This was respectively done through identification of the theoretical context through a literature review, and interviews and observations of actual case studies within Taiwan’s CCI. In so doing, the critical factors that can address the aforementioned challenges and trends were discovered. Our results indicated that, for reciprocal process between creativity and culture, we recognize that culture serves as creative resources in cultural and creative industries. According to shared consensus, culture provides symbolic meanings and emotional attachment for products and experiences offered by CCI. Besides, different cultures vary in their effects on creativity processes and standards, thus engendering distinctive preferences for and evaluations of the creative expressions and experiences of CCIs. In addition, we identify that creativity serves as the engine for driving the continuation and rebirth of cultures. Accounting for the core of culture, the employment of technology, design, and business facilitates the transformation and innovation mechanism for promoting culture continuity. In addition, with cultural centered, the digital technology, design thinking, and business model are critical constitutes of the innovation mechanism to promote the cultural continuity. Regarding cultural preservation and regeneration of local spaces and folk customs, we argue that the preservation and regeneration of local spaces and cultural cultures must embody the interactive experiences of present-day life. And cultural space and folk custom would regenerate with interact and experience in modern life. Regarding innovation mechanism for multicultural convergence, we propose that innovative stakeholders from different disciplines (e.g., creators, designers, engineers, and marketers) in CCIs rely on the establishment of a cocreation mechanism to promote interdisciplinary interaction. Furthermore, CCI development needs to develop a cocreation mechanism for enhancing the interdisciplinary collaboration among CCI innovation stakeholders. We further argue multicultural mixing would enhance innovation in developing CCI, and assuming an open and mutually enlightening attitude to enrich one another’s cultures in the multicultural exchanges under globalization will create diversity in homogenous CCIs. Finally, for promoting innovation in developing cultural and creative industries, we further propose a model for joint knowledge creation that can be established for enhancing the mutual reinforcement of theoretical and practical research on culture and creativity.

Keywords: culture and creativity, innovation, cultural and creative industries, cultural mixing

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Authors: M. Dehestani, F. Kamali, M. Klantari Pour, L. Zeidabadi-Nejad

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Chemical bonding between polyethylene glycol (PEG) with pharmaceutical proteins called pegylation is one of the most effective methods of improving the pharmacological properties. The covalent attachment of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to proteins will increase their pharmacologic properties. For the formation of a combination of pegylated protein should first be activated PEG and connected to the protein. Interferons(IFNs) are a family of cytokines which show antiviral effects in front of the biological and are responsible for setting safety system. In this study, the nature and properties of the interaction between active positions of IFNs and polyethylene glycol have been investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. The main aspect of this theoretical work focuses on the achievement of valuable data on the reaction pathways of PEG-IFNs and the transition state energy. Our results provide a new perspective on the interactions, chemical properties and reaction pathways between IFNs and PEG.

Keywords: interaction, interferons, molecular dynamics simulation, polyethylene glycol

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Authors: Azhar Alhasawi, Vasu D. Appanna

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Chitin, the second most abundant bio-polymer in nature after cellulose, composed of β (1→4) linked N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), is a major structural component in the cell walls of fungi and the shells of crustaceans. Chitin and its derivatives are gaining importance of economic value due to its biological activity and its industrial and biomedical applications. There are several methods to hydrolyze chitin to NAG, but they are typically expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Chitinase which catalyzes the breakdown of chitin to NAG has received much attention owing to its various applications in biotechnology. The presented research examines the ability of the versatile soil microbe, Pseudomonas fluorescens grown in chitin medium to produce chitinase and a variety of value-added products under abiotic stress. We have found that with high pH, Pseudomonas fluorescens enable to metabolize chitin more than with neutral pH and the overexpression of chitinase was also increased. P-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMAB) assay for NAG production will be monitored and a combination of sodium dodecyl polyacrylamide gels will be used to monitor the proteomic and metabolomic changes as a result of the abiotic stress. The bioreactor of chitinase will also be utilized.

Keywords: Pseudomonas fluorescens, chitin, DMAB, chitinase

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Authors: Mark Harmon, Abdolghani Ebrahimi, Patrick Lucey, Diego Klabjan

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In this paper, we predict the likelihood of a player making a shot in basketball from multiagent trajectories. Previous approaches to similar problems center on hand-crafting features to capture domain-specific knowledge. Although intuitive, recent work in deep learning has shown, this approach is prone to missing important predictive features. To circumvent this issue, we present a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach where we initially represent the multiagent behavior as an image. To encode the adversarial nature of basketball, we use a multichannel image which we then feed into a CNN. Additionally, to capture the temporal aspect of the trajectories, we use “fading.” We find that this approach is superior to a traditional FFN model. By using gradient ascent, we were able to discover what the CNN filters look for during training. Last, we find that a combined FFN+CNN is the best performing network with an error rate of 39%.

Keywords: basketball, computer vision, image processing, convolutional neural network

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Amin Jahangard, Milad Samavat, Saeid Homayoun

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In the modern competitive business environment, one cannot overstate the importance of corporate social responsibility. The controversial link between the social and financial performance of firms has become a topic of interest for scholars. Hence, this study examines the social and financial performance link by taking into account the mediating role of innovation performance. We conducted the Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) method on an international sample of firms provided by the ASSET4 database. In this research, to explore the black box of the social and financial performance relationship, we first examined the effect of social performance separately on financial performance and innovation; then, we measured the mediation role of innovation in the social and financial performance link. While our results indicate the positive effect of social performance on financial performance and innovation, we cannot document the positive mediating role of innovation. This possibly relates to the long-term nature of benefits from investments in innovation.

Keywords: ESG, financial performance, innovation, social performance, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Noor-ul-Amin, Lubna Nawab, Sabiha Sultana

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Geopolymer with different silica to alumina ratio with iron have been synthesized using sodium silicate, aluminum, and iron salts as a source of silica, alumina and iron source, and sodium/potassium hydroxide as an alkaline medium. The iron source will be taken from iron (III) salts and laterite clay samples. Laterite has been used as a natural source of iron in modified geopolymer. The synthesized iron modified geopolymer was submitted to the different aggressive environment, including chloride and sulphate solutions in different concentration. Different experimental techniques, including XRF, XRD, and FTIR, were used to study the bonding nature and effect of aggressive environment on geopolymer. The major phases formed during geopolymerization are sodalite (Na₄Al₃Si₃O₁₂Cl), albite (NaAlSi₃O₈), hematite (Fe₂O₃), and chabazite as confirmed from the XRD results. The resulting geopolymer showed greater resistance to sulphate and chloride as compared to the normal geopolymer.

Keywords: modified geopolymer, laterite, chloride, sulphate

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Authors: Sima Modirkhameneh, Mohammad Mohammadpanah

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In the process of EFL teachers’ development, self-led reflection (SLR) is thought to have an imperative role because it may help teachers analyze, evaluate, and contemplate what is happening in their classes. Such contemplations can not only enhance the quality of their instruction and provide better learning environments for learners but also improve the quality of their classroom management (CM). Accordingly, understanding the effect of teachers’ SLR practices may help us gain valuable insights into what possible modifications SLR may bring about in all aspects of EFL teachers' practitioners, especially their CM. The main purpose of this case study was, thus, to investigate the impact of SLR practices of 12 Iranian EFL teachers on their CM based on the universal classroom management checklist (UCMC). In addition, another objective of the current study was to have a clear image of EFL teachers’ perceptions of their own SLR practices and their possible outcomes. By conducting repeated reflective interviews, observations, and feedback of the participants over five teaching sessions, the researcher analyzed the outcomes qualitatively through the process of meaning categorization and data interpretation based on the principles of Grounded Theory. The results demonstrated that EFL teachers utilized SLR practices to improve different aspects of their language teaching skills and CM in different contexts. Almost all participants had positive comments and reactions about the effect of SLR on their CM procedures in different aspects (expectations and routines, behavior-specific praise, error corrections, prompts and precorrections, opportunity to respond, strengths and weaknesses of CM, teachers’ perception, CM ability, and learning process). Otherwise stated, results implied that familiarity with the UCMC criteria and reflective practices contributes to modifying teacher participants’ perceptions about their CM procedure and utilizing the reflective practices in their teaching styles. The results are thought to be valuably beneficial for teachers, teacher educators, and policymakers, who are recommended to pay special attention to the contributions as well as the complexity of reflective teaching. The study concludes with more detailed results and implications and useful directions for future research.

Keywords: classroom management, EFL teachers, reflective practices, self-led reflection

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Authors: Jagbir Singh Kadyan, C. A. Suman Kadyan

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The researchers attempts to establish whether a relationship exists between the social activities undertaken & the funds that has been spent by the selected corporate organisations. Corporate listed on the (NSE) National Stock Exchange of India, under different categories shall be selected as a sample for the purpose of this study. The researches shall also study the dynamics of corporate social responsibility funding, financing & management of corporate social responsibility funds by the above selected organisations in the Indian context. The rationale behind selecting & undertaking specific corporate social responsibility activities shall be analysed & interpreted to discover the real drivers of corporate social responsibility. Besides above, an attempt shall further make an effort to understand & analyse the nature of impact on the selected corporate organisations on its overall performances due to the activities undertaken under their specific corporate social responsibility programs.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, organisational performance, national stock exchange, sustainability, society, health, education, sanitation, environment

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Authors: Alexandre Beaupré-Lavallée, Pier-André Bouchard St-Amant, Nathalie Beaulac

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The question of internal governance of universities is a political and scientific debate in the province of Quebec (Canada). Governments have called or set up inquiries on the subject on three separate occasions since the complete overhaul of the educational system in the 1960s: the Parent Commission (1967), the Angers Commission (1979) and the Summit on Higher Education (2013). All three produced reports that highlight the constant tug-of-war for authority and legitimacy within universities. Past and current research that cover Quebec universities have studied several aspects regarding internal governance: the structure as a whole or only some parts of it, the importance of certain key aspects such as collegiality or strategic planning, or of stakeholders, such as students or administrators. External governance has also been studied, though, as with internal governance, research so far as only covered well delineated topics like financing policies or overall impacts from wider societal changes such as New Public Management. The latter, NPM, is often brought up as a factor that influenced overall State policies like “steering-at-a-distance” or internal shifts towards “managerialism”. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, there is not study that specifically maps how the Quebec State formally influences internal governance. In addition, most studies about the Quebec university system are not comparative in nature. This paper presents a portion of the results produced by a 2022- 2023 study that aims at filling these last two gaps in knowledge. Building on existing governmental, institutional, and scientific papers, we documented the legal and regulatory framework of the Quebec university system and of twenty-one other university systems in North America and Europe (2 in Canada, 2 in the USA, 16 in Europe, with the addition of the European Union as a distinct case). This allowed us to map the presence (or absence) of mandatory structures of governance enforced by States, as well as their composition. Then, using Clark’s “triangle of coordination”, we analyzed each system to assess the relative influences of the market, the State and the collegium upon the governance model put in place. Finally, we compared all 21 non-Quebec systems to characterize the province’s policies in an internal perspective. Preliminary findings are twofold. First, when all systems are placed on a continuum ranging from “no State interference in internal governance” to “State-run universities”, Quebec comes in the middle of the pack, albeit with a slight lean towards institutional freedom. When it comes to overall governance (like Boards and Senates), the dual nature of the Quebec system, with its public university and its coopted yet historically private (or ecclesiastic) institutions, in fact mimics the duality of all university systems. Second, however, is the sheer abundance of legal and regulatory mandates from the State that, while not expressly addressing internal governance, seems to require de facto modification of internal governance structure and dynamics to ensure institutional conformity with said mandates. This study is only a fraction of the research that is needed to better understand State-universities interactions regarding governance. We hope it will set the stage for future studies.

Keywords: internal governance, legislation, Quebec, universities

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Authors: Arash Gharibi

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Mankind has always used models to solve problems. Essentially, models are simplified versions of reality, whose need stems from having to deal with complexity; many processes or phenomena are too complex to be described completely. Thus a fundamental model requirement is that it contains the characteristic features that are essential in the context of the problem to be solved or described. Models are used in virtually every scientific domain to deal with various problems. During the recent decades, the number of models has increased exponentially. Publication of models as part of original research has traditionally been in in scientific periodicals, series, monographs, agency reports, national journals and laboratory reports. This makes it difficult for interested groups and communities to stay informed about the state-of-the-art. During the modeling process, many important decisions are made which impact the final form of the model. Without a record of these considerations, the final model remains ill-defined and open to varying interpretations. Unfortunately, the details of these considerations are often lost or in case there is any existing information about a model, it is likely to be written intuitively in different layouts and in different degrees of detail. In order to overcome these issues, different domains have attempted to implement their own approaches to preserve their models’ information in forms of model documentation. The most frequently cited model documentation approaches show that they are domain specific, not to applicable to the existing models and evolutionary flexibility and intrinsic corrections and improvements are not possible with the current approaches. These issues are all because of a lack of unified standards for model documentation. As a way forward, this research will propose a new standard for capturing and managing models’ information in a unified way so that interoperability and reusability of models become possible. This standard will also be evolutionary, meaning members of modeling realm could contribute to its ongoing developments and improvements. In this paper, the current 3 of the most common metamodels are reviewed and according to pros and cons of each, a new metamodel is proposed.

Keywords: metamodel, modeling, interoperability, reuse

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Authors: Trisha Malhotra

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Sentiment analysis is a recent field of study that computationally assesses the emotional nature of a body of text. To assess its test-validity, sentiment analysis was carried out on the emotional corpus of text from a personal 15-day mood diary. Self-reported mood scores varied more or less accurately with daily mood evaluation score given by the software. On further assessment, it was found that while sentiment analysis was good at assessing ‘global’ mood, it was not able to ‘locally’ identify and differentially score synonyms of various emotional words. It is further critiqued for treating the intensity of an emotion as universal across cultures. Finally, the software is shown not to account for emotional complexity in sentences by treating emotions as strictly positive or negative. Hence, it is posited that a better output could be two (positive and negative) affect scores for the same body of text.

Keywords: analysis, data, diary, emotions, mood, sentiment

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Authors: Petra Hurbišová, Monika Davidová

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The article deals with the readiness of military professionals for challenging situations. It discusses higher requirements on the psychical endurance of military professionals arising from the specific nature of the military occupation, which is typical for being very difficult to maintain regularity, which is in accordance with the hygiene of work alternated by relaxation. The soldier must be able to serve in the long term and constantly intense performance that goes beyond human tolerance to stress situations. A challenging situation is always associated with overcoming difficulties, obstacles and complicated circumstances or using unusual methods, ways and means to achieve the desired (expected) objectives, performing a given task or satisfying an important need. This paper describes the categories of challenging situations, their classification and characteristics. Attention is also paid to the formation of personality in challenging situations, coping with stress in challenging situations, Phases of solutions of stressful situations, resistance to challenging life situations and its factors. Finally, the article is focused on increasing the readiness of military professionals for challenging situations.

Keywords: coping, challenging situations, stress, stressful situations, military professionals, resilience

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Authors: Fatemeh Ghaemi, Padideh Feyzi, Zohreh Dortaj

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Cancer is one of the common diseases that may cause death due to malignancy. The physical problems of cancer patients can have an impact on the psychological and social aspects of their lives. Depression is one of these problems that threaten the lives of these patients and can also reduce their quality of life. Helping patients with cancer to find meaning in life can increase their level of health and improve their quality of life. This study thus examines the effectiveness of group logotherapy on the depression and quality of life of women with cancer. Depression was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and quality of life was measured using Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQL) with acceptable and reliable indicators in the pre-test and post-test stages. The experimental group received group therapy in eight, sixty-minute sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention. After collecting the questionnaires, the mean and standard deviations were used to describe the data and the statistical method of multivariate analysis of covariance was used at the significant level (P≤0.05). The results were analyzed using SPSS(22). The results showed that there was a significant difference between post-test depression scores in the experimental group and the control group. Also, there was a significant difference between the post-test scores of quality of life and its components (psychological, physical, social and environmental health) in the experimental group and control group. The findings of this study showed the effectiveness of group logotherapy in decreasing depression and improving the quality of life of cancer patients. By focusing the minds of the people on the present and changing the attitude of the human being towards themselves, life and environment can help the depressed people, and by influencing the individual's view of himself, accepting responsibility, accepting life with purpose, paying attention to life uniformly, it allows a person to maintain his quality of life even with cancer. Therefore, it is recommended that this approach be used as a group intervention in hospitals and care units for cancer patients and even in people with certain diseases.

Keywords: cancer, depression, group psychiatry, quality of life

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Authors: Miang Hong Ngerng, Noor Diyana Jasme, May Jin Theong

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Volatile market environment is inevitable. Fund managers are struggling to choose the right strategy to survive and overcome uncertainties and adverse market movement. Therefore, finding certainty in the mist of uncertainty future is one of the key performance objectives for fund managers. Current available theoretical results are not practical due to strong reliance on the investment assumption made. This paper is to identify the component that can be forecasted in Ex-ante setting which is the realistic situation facing a fund manager in the actual execution of asset allocation in portfolio management. Partial lease square method was used to generate an index with 10 years accounting data from 191 companies listed in KLSE. The result shows that the index reflects the inner nature of the business and up to 30% of the stock return can be explained by the index.

Keywords: active portfolio management, asset allocation ex-ante investment, asset class, partial lease square

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Authors: Andrea Miconi

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The research will focus on the results of the Tempus European Project eMEDia dedicated to Cross-Media Journalism. The project is founded by the European Commission as it involves four European partners - IULM University, Tampere University, University of Barcelona, and the Mediterranean network Unimed - and three Tunisian Universities – IPSI La Manouba, Sfax and Sousse – along with the Tunisian Ministry for Higher Education and the National Syndicate of Journalists. The focus on Tunisian condition is basically due to the role played by digital activists in its recent history. The research is dedicated to the relationship between political participation, news-making practices and the spread of social media, as it is affecting Tunisian society. As we know, Tunisia during the Arab Spring had been widely considered as a laboratory for the analysis the use of new technologies for political participation. Nonetheless, the literature about the Arab Spring actually fell short in explaining the genesis of the phenomenon, on the one hand by isolating technologies as a casual factor in the spread of demonstrations, and on the other by analyzing North-African condition through a biased perspective. Nowadays, it is interesting to focus on the consolidation of the information environment three years after the uprisings. And what is relevant, only a close, in-depth analysis of Tunisian society is able to provide an explanation of its history, and namely of the part of digital media in the overall evolution of political system. That is why the research is based on different methodologies: desk stage, interviews, and in-depth analysis of communication practices. Networked journalism is the condition determined by the technological innovation on news-making activities: a condition upon which professional journalist can no longer be considered the only player in the information arena, and a new skill must be developed. Along with democratization, nonetheless, the so-called citizen journalism is also likely to produce some ambiguous effects, such as the lack of professional standards and the spread of information cascades, which may prove to be particularly dangerous in an evolving media market as the Tunisian one. This is why, according to the project, a new profile must be defined, which is able to manage this new condition, and which can be hardly reduced to the parameters of traditional journalistic work. Rather than simply using new devices for news visualization, communication professionals must also be able to dialogue with all new players and to accept the decentralized nature of digital environments. This networked nature of news-making seemed to emerge during the Tunisian revolution, when bloggers, journalists, and activists used to retweet each other. Nonetheless, this intensification of communication exchange was inspired by the political climax of the uprising, while all media, by definition, are also supposed to bring some effects on people’s state of mind, culture and daily life routines. That is why it is worth analyzing the consolidation of these practices in a normal, post-revolutionary situation.

Keywords: cross-media, education, Mediterranean, networked journalism, social media, Tunisia

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Authors: I. Pina, M. Painho

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Increased knowledge about the nature of place and the conditions under which space becomes place is a key factor for better urban planning and place-making. Although there is a broad consensus on the relevance of this knowledge, difficulties remain in relating the theoretical framework about place and urban management. Issues related to representation of places are among the greatest obstacles to overcome this gap. With this critical discussion, based on literature review, we intended to explore, in a common framework for geographical analysis, the potential of stories to spell out place meanings, bringing together qualitative text analysis and text mining in order to capture and represent the singularity contained in each person's life history, and the patterns of social processes that shape places. The development of this reasoning is based on the extensive geographical thought about place, and in the theoretical advances in the field of Geographic Information Science (GISc).

Keywords: discourse analysis, geographic information science place, place-making, stories

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Authors: Bangkit Adhi Nugraha, Bambang Suripto

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On September 2016 Bank Indonesia (BI) release regulation no.18/18/PBI/2016 that permit bank clients for using the FX option call spread USD/IDR. Basically, this product is a combination between clients buy FX call option (pay premium) and sell FX call option (receive premium) to protect against currency depreciation while also capping the potential upside with cheap premium cost. BI classifies this product as a structured product. The structured product is combination at least two financial instruments, either derivative or non-derivative instruments. The call spread is the first structured product against IDR permitted by BI since 2009 as response the demand increase from Indonesia firms on FX hedging through derivative for protecting market risk their foreign currency asset or liability. The composition of hedging products on Indonesian FX market increase from 35% on 2015 to 40% on 2016, the majority on swap product (FX forward, FX swap, cross currency swap). Swap is formulated by interest rate difference of the two currency pairs. The cost of swap product is 7% for USD/IDR with one year USD/IDR volatility 13%. That cost level makes swap products seem expensive for hedging buyers. Because call spread cost (around 1.5-3%) cheaper than swap, the most Indonesian firms are using NDF FX call spread USD/IDR on offshore with outstanding amount around 10 billion USD. The cheaper cost of call spread is the main advantage for hedging buyers. The problem arises because BI regulation requires the call spread buyer doing the dynamic hedging. That means, if call spread buyer choose strike price 1 and strike price 2 and volatility USD/IDR exchange rate surpass strike price 2, then the call spread buyer must buy another call spread with strike price 1’ (strike price 1’ = strike price 2) and strike price 2’ (strike price 2’ > strike price 1‘). It could make the premium cost of call spread doubled or even more and dismiss the purpose of hedging buyer to find the cheapest hedging cost. It is very crucial for the buyer to choose best optimum strike price before entering into the transaction. To help hedging buyer find the optimum strike price and avoid expensive multiple premium cost, we observe ten years 2005-2015 historical data of USD/IDR volatility to be compared with the price movement of the call spread USD/IDR using Garman–Kohlhagen Model (as a common formula on FX option pricing). We use statistical tools to analysis data correlation, understand nature of call spread price movement over ten years, and determine factors affecting price movement. We select some range of strike price and tenor and calculate the probability of dynamic hedging to occur and how much it’s cost. We found USD/IDR currency pairs is too uncertain and make dynamic hedging riskier and more expensive. We validated this result using one year data and shown small RMS. The study result could be used to understand nature of FX call spread and determine optimum strike price for hedging plan.

Keywords: FX call spread USD/IDR, USD/IDR volatility statistical analysis, Garman–Kohlhagen Model on FX Option USD/IDR, Bank Indonesia Regulation no.18/18/PBI/2016

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Authors: Zachary Bolo Awino

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The need to gain and sustain a competitive advantage is overwhelming for businesses, especially now with cut throat competition. Innovation has been suggested as one way of gaining the advantage sustainably. But innovation can only happen within certain enabling environment and cultures. This study had one hypothesis: that there is no relationship between innovation and performance. This research was a cross sectional survey in which variables of interest are not controlled or manipulated. The cross sectional survey design is also appropriate for this study as it improves accuracy in generalizing findings, since it involves detailed study of a unit. Also known as one shot study, this design enhances uniform data collection and comparison across respondents. The population of the study was the 55 publicly quoted corporations in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) as at October 2013.The number was initially envisaged to be 60 but 5 firms were delisted or suspended during the year, hence leaving 55 firms as the population of study. The rationale for the choice for these firms is because they cut across the key economic sectors in Kenyan economy which include agriculture, commercial and services, manufacturing, finance and investment. This was a census survey and targeted all the firms listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange as of October 2013. The primary data for the study was collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. A five point type Likert scale ranging from 1 - denoting to a less event to 5 - denoting to a greater extent was used. Respondents were from senior management of NSE. From the analyses, the study established that there was a strong positive relationship between innovation and performance, and organization innovation significantly contributes to employee engagement. Also there was a moderate positive relationship between innovation and performance. The study drew expressions of interrelations between various variables, offered generalization of understanding and meaning of these relationships, thus expanding the frontiers of knowledge both theoretical and practical with respect to innovation and firm performance. Major conclusion in this study was that there is a positive strong relationship between innovation and major measures of firm performance.

Keywords: emperical, innovation, NSE, organizations, performance

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Authors: Sarah Isabelle S. Torres

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This study evaluated the curriculum and implementation of the Special Program in Journalism (SPJ). By conducting surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews and by analyzing the school publication of five national high schools, the researcher found out that SPJ is ineffective in instilling media literacy to the students. Media Literacy will help the students understand how media operates, thus, they will be able to produce outputs that are socially relevant, critical, and in-depth. For one, the curriculum includes lessons and activities that are mostly technical in nature. There are no theoretical topics such as ethics, history of the press, or media ownership. Second, most of the SPJ teachers have little background on Journalism and they are not trained enough to teach the program effectively. Third, most of the students are not really inclined in Journalism and do not see themselves as media practitioners in the future. Lastly, the Department of Education’s budget for the program is far from what the curriculum needs. All of these lead to the low Media Literacy levels of the students. SPJ, therefore, has to be reevaluated and amended. In conclusion, Media Literacy should be added in the curriculum so the students will not only be equipped with technical skills but with theoretical knowledge, as well.

Keywords: education, journalism, media, media literacy

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Authors: Daningsih Sulaeman, Achmad Sjarmidi, Djoko T. Iskandar

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Komodo National Park can be associated with the implementation of ecotourism program. The result of Principal Components Analysis is synthesized, tested, and compared to the basic concept of ecotourism with some field adjustments. Principal aspects of professional management should involve ecotourism and wildlife welfare. The awareness should be focused on the future of the Natural Park as 7^th Wonder Natural Heritage and its wildlife components, free from human wastes and beneficial to wildlife and local people. According to perceptions and expectations of visitors from various results of tourism programs, the visitor’s perceptions showed that the tourism management in Komodo National Park should pay more attention to visitor's satisfaction and expectation and gives positive impact directly to the ecosystem sustainability, local community and transparency to the conservation program.

Keywords: 7th wonders of nature, ecotourism, Komodo dragon, visitor’s perceptions, wildlife management

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Authors: Monica Dantas

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At what socio-economic costs can the food industry offer products at low prices? This research seeks to understand and to explore how we attribute competence and meaning, what enables the outcomes of agriculture and what institutions provides validation regarding food production. This study objective is to explain and interpret conditions of the present state of agriculture in Brazil centring on two distinct segments, agribusiness and family farming, as the Brazilian, rapidly changing political environment unfolds. The approach is grounded in multidisciplinary literature drawing from the politics of development, the sociology of food, the sustainability framework and the conceptual differences between agribusiness and family farming regarding the innate purpose of the two segments. In addition, a quantitative portion of the research includes secondary data analysis from statistical measurements, economic indicators, federal budget information, and census data to compare the two segments, conveying a general snapshot of the conditions investigated. The results raised questions about the perceived image of the success of agribusiness, against some contradicting economic checks and balances. Analyzing how public funds are invested in agriculture shed light on what can enable or undermine the development of food systems in Brazil. It also revealed how politics, ideology, and corporations might influence the Brazilian Federal. In the 2000-2018 observed timeline of annual federal spending on agriculture in Brazil, there is variation in the amount invested in family farming that seems to 'coincide' with the ideological direction of the federal government in power. It was also observed that significant changes in the institutional framework and financial support either promoted or purposely undermined family farming importance using public institutions to validate support for agribusiness.

Keywords: food politics, sustainability, family farming, food system, public budget

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Authors: Damian Islas

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Debates on realism in science concern two different questions: (I) whether the unobservable entities posited by theories can be known; and (II) whether any knowledge we have of them is objective or not. Question (I) arises from the doubt that since observation is the basis of all our factual knowledge, unobservable entities cannot be known. Question (II) arises from the doubt that since scientific representations are inextricably laden with the subjective, idiosyncratic, and a priori features of human cognition and scientific practice, they cannot convey any reliable information on how their objects are in themselves. A way of understanding scientific realism (SR) is through three lines of inquiry: ontological, semantic, and epistemological. Ontologically, scientific realism asserts the existence of a world independent of human mind. Semantically, scientific realism assumes that theoretical claims about reality show truth values and, thus, should be construed literally. Epistemologically, scientific realism believes that theoretical claims offer us knowledge of the world. Nowadays, the literature on scientific realism has proceeded rather far beyond the realism versus antirealism debate. This stance represents a middle-ground position between the two according to which science can attain justified true beliefs concerning relational facts about the unobservable realm but cannot attain justified true beliefs concerning the intrinsic nature of any objects occupying that realm. That is, the structural content of scientific theories about the unobservable can be known, but facts about the intrinsic nature of the entities that figure as place-holders in those structures cannot be known. There are two possible versions of SR: Epistemological Structural Realism (ESR) and Ontic Structural Realism (OSR). On ESR, an agnostic stance is preserved with respect to the natures of unobservable entities, but the possibility of knowing the relations obtaining between those entities is affirmed. OSR includes the rather striking claim that when it comes to the unobservables theorized about within fundamental physics, relations exist, but objects do not. Focusing on ESR, questions arise concerning its ability to explain the empirical success of a theory. Empirical success certainly involves predictive success, and predictive success implies a theory’s power to make accurate predictions. But a theory’s power to make any predictions at all seems to derive precisely from its core axioms or laws concerning unobservable entities and mechanisms, and not simply the sort of structural relations often expressed in equations. The specific challenge to ESR concerns its ability to explain the explanatory and predictive power of successful theories without appealing to their substantive ontologies, which are often not preserved by their successors. The response to this challenge will depend on the various and subtle different versions of ESR and OSR stances, which show a sort of progression through eliminativist OSR to moderate OSR of gradual increase in the ontological status accorded to objects. Knowing the relations between unobserved entities is methodologically identical to assert that these relations between unobserved entities exist.

Keywords: eliminativist ontic structural realism, epistemological structuralism, moderate ontic structural realism, ontic structuralism

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Authors: Tanu Aneja, Harsha Malaviya

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Capturing pose information in cricket shots poses several challenges, such as low-resolution videos, noisy data, and joint occlusions caused by the nature of the shots. In response to these challenges, we propose a CondDGConv-based framework specifically for cricket shot prediction. By analyzing the spatial-temporal relationships in batsman shot sequences from an annotated 2D cricket dataset, our model achieves a 97% accuracy in predicting shot types. This performance is made possible by conditioning the graph network on batsman 2D poses, allowing for precise prediction of shot outcomes based on pose dynamics. Our approach highlights the potential for enhancing shot prediction in cricket analytics, offering a robust solution for overcoming pose-related challenges in sports analysis.

Keywords: action recognition, cricket. sports video analytics, computer vision, graph convolutional networks

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Authors: Rute Abreu, Fátima David, Liliane Cristina Segura

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The Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) and its communication with the Society, in general, and with the deposit client of Financial Institutions, in particular, is discussed through the challenges of the accounting and financial report. The Bank of Portugal promotes the Portuguese Deposit Guarantee Fund (PDGF) as a financial institution that enhanced the market confidence and stability on the deposit-insurance system. Due to the nature of their functions, it must be subject to regulation and supervision that provides a first line of defense against adversely affect confidence on the Portuguese financial market. First, this research provides evidence of the effectiveness of the protection mechanisms on the deposit insurance system, which provides high and equal protection to all stakeholders. Second, it emphasizes the need of requirements of rigorous accounting process and effective financial report to reduce the moral hazard implications. Third, this research focuses on the need of total disclosure of the financial information which gives higher transparency and protection to deposit client of financial institutions.

Keywords: deposit guarantee fund, Portugal, accounting, financial report

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Authors: Mamman Jimoh Ahmadu, Sanusi Abubakar Sadiq, Eldah Ephraim Buba

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In modern societies, stress has become a widespread phenomenon and therefore an issue of major concern to employees, organizations, and the state. As senior management of an organization, executives are not immune to this problem because they carry out lots of activities while on duty. This paper is centered on the benefits of Tourism, Leisure and Recreation to the management of executive stress. Executives work has always been considered to be stressful. The key objective of the research is to gain a better understanding of the causes of stress among executives and to find out how tourism, leisure, and recreational activities could be used as a means to managing stress. Interview and observation data were analyzed using SPSS. The major finding revealed that that human system has specific limitations and nature cannot be cheated. It is recommended that executives should take regular and mandatory vacation of least forty days in a year. The only answer then is rest. The research recommends that a break tends to improves and relaxes, refreshes the mind and enhances performance.

Keywords: executive, recreation, stress, tourism

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Authors: Kalyani Gandhi

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The eighteenth century in Britain saw a great burst of activity in writing (letters, journals, newspapers, essays); often these modes of writing had a public-spirited bent in-step with the prevailing intellectual atmosphere. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the leading intellectuals of that period who utilized letter writing to convey her thoughts on the exciting political developments of the late eighteenth century. Fusing together her anxieties and concerns about humanity in general and herself in particular, Wollstonecraft’s views of the world around her are filtered through the lens of her subjectivity. Thus, Wollstonecraft’s letters covered a wide range of topics on both the personal and political level (for the two are often entwined in Wollstonecraft’s characteristic style of analysis) such as sentiment, gender, nature, peasantry, the class system, the legal system, political duties and rights of both rulers and subjects, death, immortality, religion, family and education. Therefore, this paper intends to examine the manner in which Wollstonecraft utilizes letter-writing to constitute and develop Romantic self-hood, understand the world around her and illustrate her ideas on the political and social happenings in Europe. The primary text analyzed will be Mary Wollstonecraft's Letters Written During a Short Stay in Sweden, Denmark and Norway (1796) and the analysis of this text will be supplemented by researching 18th-century British letter writing culture, with a special emphasis on the epistolary habits of women. Within this larger framework, this paper intends to examine the manner in which this hybrid of travel and epistolary writing aided Mary Wollstonecraft's expression on Romantic selfhood and how it was complicated by ideas of gender. This paper reveals Wollstonecraft's text to be wrought with anxiety about the world around her and within her; thus, the personal-public nature of the epistolary format particularly suits her characteristic point of view that looks within and without. That is to say, Wollstonecraft’s anxieties about gender and self, are as much about the women she sees in the world around her as much as they are about her young daughter and herself. Wollstonecraft constantly explores and examines this anxiety within the different but interconnected realms of politics, economics, history and society. In fact, it is her complex technique of entwining these aforementioned concerns with a closer look at interpersonal relationships among men and women (she often mentions specific anecdotes and instances) that make Wollstonecraft's Letters so engaging and insightful. Thus, Wollstonecraft’s Letters is an exemplar of British Romantic writing due to the manner in which it explores the bond between the individual and society. Mary Wollstonecraft's nuances this exploration by incorporating her concerns about women and the playing out of gender in society. Thus, Wollstonecraft’s Letters is an invaluable contribution to the field of British Romanticism, particularly as it offers crucial insight on female Romantic writing that can broaden and enrich the current academic understanding of the field.

Keywords: British romanticism, letters, feminism, travel writing

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Authors: Poojan Gharat, Haridas Pal, Sharmistha Dutta Choudhury

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Tuning photophysical properties of guest dyes through host-guest interactions involving macrocyclic hosts are the attractive research areas since past few decades, as these changes can directly be implemented in chemical sensing, molecular recognition, fluorescence imaging and dye laser applications. Excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) is an intramolecular prototautomerization process display by some specific dyes. The process is quite amenable to tunability by the presence of different macrocyclic hosts. The present study explores the interesting effect of p-sulfonatocalix[n]arene (SCXn) and cyclodextrin (CD) hosts on the excited-state prototautomeric equilibrium of Chrysazine (CZ), a model antitumour drug. CZ exists exclusively in its normal form (N) in the ground state. However, in the excited state, the excited N* form undergoes ESIPT along with its pre-existing intramolecular hydrogen bonds, giving the excited state prototautomer (T*). Accordingly, CZ shows a single absorption band due to N form, but two emission bands due to N* and T* forms. Facile prototautomerization of CZ is considerably inhibited when the dye gets bound to SCXn hosts. However, in spite of lower binding affinity, the inhibition is more profound with SCX6 host as compared to SCX4 host. For CD-CZ system, while prototautomerization process is hindered by the presence of β-CD, it remains unaffected in the presence of γCD. Reduction in the prototautomerization process of CZ by SCXn and βCD hosts is unusual, because T* form is less dipolar in nature than the N*, hence binding of CZ within relatively hydrophobic hosts cavities should have enhanced the prototautomerization process. At the same time, considering the similar chemical nature of two CD hosts, their effect on prototautomerization process of CZ would have also been similar. The atypical effects on the prototautomerization process of CZ by the studied hosts are suggested to arise due to the partial inclusion or external binding of CZ with the hosts. As a result, there is a strong possibility of intermolecular H-bonding interaction between CZ dye and the functional groups present at the portals of SCXn and βCD hosts. Formation of these intermolecular H-bonds effectively causes the pre-existing intramolecular H-bonding network within CZ molecule to become weak, and this consequently reduces the prototautomerization process for the dye. Our results suggest that rather than the binding affinity between the dye and host, it is the orientation of CZ in the case of SCXn-CZ complexes and the binding stoichiometry in the case of CD-CZ complexes that play the predominant role in influencing the prototautomeric equilibrium of the dye CZ. In the case of SCXn-CZ complexes, the results obtained through experimental findings are well supported by quantum chemical calculations. Similarly for CD-CZ systems, binding stoichiometries obtained through geometry optimization studies on the complexes between CZ and CD hosts correlate nicely with the experimental results. Formation of βCD-CZ complexes with 1:1 stoichiometry while formation of γCD-CZ complexes with 1:1, 1:2 and 2:2 stoichiometries are revealed from geometry optimization studies and these results are in good accordance with the observed effects by the βCD and γCD hosts on the ESIPT process of CZ dye.

Keywords: intermolecular proton transfer, macrocyclic hosts, quantum chemical studies, photophysical studies

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Authors: Sujani B. Y. Abeywardena, Srimala Perera, K. M. Nalin De Silva, S. Walpalage

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Surface modifications are vital to accomplish the moisture management property in highly demanded synthetic fabrics. Biomimetic and bio-inspired surface modifications are identified as one of the fascinating areas of research. In this study, nature’s way of cooling elephants’ body temperature using mud bathing was mimicked to create a superior wettable nylon fabric with improved comfortability. For that, bentonite nanoclay was covalently grafted on nylon fabric using silane as a coupling agent. Fourier transform infrared spectra and Scanning electron microscopy images confirmed the successful grafting of nanoclay on nylon. The superior wettability of surface modified nylon was proved by standard protocols. This fabric coating strongly withstands more than 50 cycles of laundry. It is expected that this bio-inspired wettable nylon fabric may break the barrier of using nylon in various hydrophilic textile applications.

Keywords: bentonite nanoclay, biomimetic, covalent modification, nylon fabric, surface, wettability

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Authors: Simon Samwel Msanjila

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Networked environments which provides platforms and environments for business organizations are configured in different forms depending on many factors including life time, member characteristics, communication structure, and business objectives, among others. With continuing advances in digital technologies the distance has become a less barrier for business minded collaboration among organizations. With the need and ease to make business collaborate nowadays organizations are sometimes forced to co-work with others that are either unknown or less known to them in terms of history and performance. A promising approach for sustaining established collaboration has been establishment of trust relationship among organizations based on assessed trustworthiness for each participating organization. It has been stated in research that trust in organization is dynamic and thus assessment of trust level must address such dynamic nature. This paper assess relevant aspects of trust and applies the concepts to propose a semi-automated system for assessing the Sustainability and Evolution of trust in organizations participating in specific objective in a networked organizations environment.

Keywords: trust evolution, trust sustainability, networked organizations, dynamic trust

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Authors: Krizette Ladera

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Fathers are there not only to provide the financial stability of a family but a father is also there to provide the love and support that usually people would see as the mother’s responsibility. To describe the lived experiences and how fathers make sense of their lived experiences with their children who have cerebral palsy is the main objective of the study. A qualitative research using a thematic analysis was used for the study. The qualitative research focused on the personal narratives, self-report and expression of the participant’s memory in terms of how they tell their stories. The interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to focus on the experience of the participants on how they will describe their experiences, and to also add on that the IPA will also attempt to describe and explain the meaning of human experiences using interview, specifically on the father who have a child that suffers from cerebral palsy. For the sampling technique, the snowball technique was used to gather participants from the referral of other participants. The five non-randomly selected fathers will be served as the participants for the research. A self-made interview with an open-ended question was used as the research instrument; it includes profiling of the respondent as well as their experiences in taking care of their child that suffers from cerebral palsy. In analyzing a data, the researcher used the thematic analysis where in the interview was made into a transcript, then it was organized and divided themes. After that, the relations of each themes, was identified and it was later documented and translated into written text format using thematic grouping. Finally, the researcher analyzed each data according to its themes and put it in a table to be presented in the result section of the study And as for the result of the study, the researcher was able to come up with the four (4) main themes that most of the participants experienced and those are: The experiences in finding out about the condition of the Child, disclosing the condition of the child to the family and its emotional effect, The experiences of living the day of day realities in providing the physical, financial, emotional and a well balanced environment to the child, and the religious perspectives of the fathers. Along with those four (4) themes comes the subtheme which explains the themes in a more detailed explanation.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, children, fathers, lived experiences

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