Search results for: crisis and social media

Authors: Mariko Hara, Mari Aoki, Takako Ito, Masao Sugita

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Social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 crisis had a severe impact on music and art practices based in community settings. They had to re-think how to connect with their dispersed community using online tools. As the social distancing continues, there is an urgent need to investigate the possibilities of online community music and art practices. Are they sustainable actions that can have positive impacts on the community and the quality of lives of people over time? The Online Lindgren Café (hereafter ‘OLC’) is a monthly online literature event which started in June 2020. In the OLC, up to 14 members meet online to discuss the works of Astrid Lindgren and similar authors. Members come from various places in Japan and Norway, with a variety of expertise from music therapy, music education, psychotherapy, music sociology, storytelling, and theatre, and their family members join them. In these meetings, music and arts activities emerged in response to interests among the members. The resources and experiences of the members helped to develop these activities further. This paper first introduces one of the music and art activities in one specific event, a collaborative picture book-making with music, which was initiated and led by the second author. The third author chose the music, and the activity itself was recorded. This is followed by the description of a reflecting event, where the recording of the collaborative picture book-making activity was shared to facilitate further creations (drawings, haiku, and fabric weaving) as well as group reflections on the trajectories of the Online Lindgren Café. Finally, we will discuss the preliminary findings using the data collected at the reflecting event. Key findings suggest that the resource-driven approach of the OLC leveled the relationships among the intergenerational, multi-cultural, and interdisciplinary members. This enabled the members to set aside their professional and/or predominant identities, which allowed them to discover their own and others’ resources. The relaxed, unstructured, and liminal phenomenon at OLC can be regarded as a form of communitas, where members gain a sense of liberation and belonging in a different way from in-person communications. Participation from one’s home, as well as a video conferencing function that allowed the members to position themselves among the other participants in equal-sized windows, seems to have enabled members to feel safe to express themselves openly at the same time feel a sense of belonging. Furthermore, in the OLC, music and arts activities acted to inclusively connect and re-connect dispersed, intergenerational members with each other. For instance, in a music and drawing activity, music acted as a means for each member to engage in their own ‘drawing space’ while still feeling connected with the others. The positive experiences from these activities inspired the members to use similar approaches outside of the OLC. The finding suggests that, because of its resource-driven approach supported by the music and arts activities, the OLC could be developed further as a permeable and sustainable action even after any current social distancing measures are lifted.

Keywords: communitas, COVID-19, musical affordances, online community of practices, resource-driven approach

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Authors: Guilherme Oliveira

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The assimilation of images and their potential symbolism into lived experiences is inherent. It is through this exercise of recognition via imagistic records that the questioning of the origins of a constant narrative stimulated by the media arises. The construction of the "Man" archetype and the reflections of active masculine imagery in the 21st century, when conveyed through media channels, could potentially have detrimental effects. Addressing this systematic behavioral chronology of virile cisgender, permeated imagistically through these means, involves exploring potential resolutions. Thus, an investigation process is initiated into the potential representation of the 'hero' in this media emulation through idols contextualized in the political sphere, with the purpose of elucidating the processes of simulation and emulation of narratives based on mythical, historical, and sacred accounts. In this process of sharing, the narratives contained in the imagistic structuring offered by information dissemination channels seek validation through a process of public acceptance. To achieve this consensus, a visual set adorned with mythological and sacred symbolisms adapted to the intended environment is promoted, thus utilizing sociocultural characteristics in favor of political marketing. Visual recognition, therefore, becomes a direct reflection of a cultural heritage acquired through lived human experience, stimulated by continuous representations throughout history. Echoes of imagery and narratives undergo a constant process of resignification of their concepts, sharpened by their premises, and adapted to the environment in which they seek to establish themselves. Political figures analyzed in this article employ the practice of taking possession of symbolisms, mythological stories, and heroisms and adapt their visual construction through a continuous praxis of emulation. Thus, they utilize iconic mythological narratives to gain credibility through belief. Utilizing iconic mythological narratives for credibility through belief, the idol becomes the very act of release of trauma, offering believers liberation from preconceived concepts and allowing for the attribution of new meanings. To dissolve this issue and highlight the subjectivities within the intention of the image, a linguistic, semiotic, and anthropological methodology is created. Linguistics uses expressions like 'Blaming the Image' to create a mechanism of expressive action in questioning why to blame a construction or visual composition and thus seek answers in the first act. Semiotics and anthropology develop an imagistic atlas of graphic analysis, seeking to make connections, comparisons, and relations between modern and sacred/mystical narratives, emphasizing the different subjective layers of embedded symbolism. Thus, it constitutes a performative act of disarming the image. It creates a disenchantment of the superficial gaze under the constant reproduction of visual content stimulated by virtual networks, enabling a discussion about the acceptance of caricatures characterized by past fables.

Keywords: image, heroic narrative, media heroism, virile politics, political, myth, sacred performance, visual mythmaking, characterization dynamics

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Authors: Sohanur Rahman, Elisabeth Sinnewe, Larelle (Ellie) Chapple, Sarah Osborne

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Greater political attention to global climate change exposes firms to a higher level of political uncertainty, which can lead to adverse capital market consequences. However, a higher level of discourse on environment-specific political risk (EPR) between management and investors can mitigate information asymmetry, followed by less stock price crash risk. This study examines whether EPR discourse in discourse in the earnings conference calls (ECC) reduces firm-level stock price crash risk in the US market. This research also explores if adverse disclosures via media channels further moderates the association between EPR on crash risk. Employing a dataset of 28,933 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2020, the empirical analysis reveals that EPR discourse in ECC reduces future stock price crash risk. However, adverse disclosures via media channels can offset the favourable effect of EPR discourse on crash risk. The results are robust to the potential endogeneity concern in a quasi-natural experiment setting.

Keywords: earnings conference calls, environment, environment-specific political risk discourse, environmental disclosures, information asymmetry, reputation risk, stock price crash risk

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Authors: David Kramsky, Barbora Vegrichtova

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The prison facility is generally considered as an environment having a corrective purpose. Besides the social sense of remedy, prison is also an environment that potentially determines and affects socially dangerous behavior. The authors, based on long-term empirical research, present the significant indicators that are directly related to the transformation of personality attitudes, motivations and behavior associating with a process of radicalization. One of the most significant symptoms of radicalization is a particular social moral decision making. Individuals in the radicalism process primarily prefer utilitarian manners of decision-making more than personal aspects like empathy for others. The authors will present the method of social moral profiling of the subject in radicalization process as an effective prevention system reducing security risks in society.

Keywords: indicators, moral decision, radicalism, social profile

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Authors: Satish Kumar, Nisha Goyal

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In the stock market, individual investors exhibit different kinds of behaviour. Traditional finance is built on the notion of 'homo economics', which states that humans always make perfectly rational choices to maximize their wealth and minimize risk. That is, traditional finance has concern for how investors should behave rather than how actual investors are behaving. Behavioural finance provides the explanation for this phenomenon. Although finance has been studied for thousands of years, behavioural finance is an emerging field that combines the behavioural or psychological aspects with conventional economic and financial theories to provide explanations on how emotions and cognitive factors influence investors’ behaviours. These emotions and cognitive factors are known as behavioural biases. Because of these biases, investors make irrational investment decisions. Besides, the emotional and cognitive factors, the social influence of media as well as friends, relatives and colleagues also affect investment decisions. Psychological factors influence individual investors’ investment decision making, but few studies have used qualitative methods to understand these factors. The aim of this study is to explore the behavioural factors or biases that affect individuals’ investment decision making. For the purpose of this exploratory study, an in-depth interview method was used because it provides much more exhaustive information and a relaxed atmosphere in which people feel more comfortable to provide information. Twenty investment advisors having a minimum 5 years’ experience in securities firms were interviewed. In this study, thematic content analysis was used to analyse interview transcripts. Thematic content analysis process involves analysis of transcripts, coding and identification of themes from data. Based on the analysis we categorized the statements of advisors into various themes. Past market returns and volatility; preference for safe returns; tendency to believe they are better than others; tendency to divide their money into different accounts/assets; tendency to hold on to loss-making assets; preference to invest in familiar securities; tendency to believe that past events were predictable; tendency to rely on the reference point; tendency to rely on other sources of information; tendency to have regret for making past decisions; tendency to have more sensitivity towards losses than gains; tendency to rely on own skills; tendency to buy rising stocks with the expectation that this rise will continue etc. are some of the major concerns showed by experts about investors. The findings of the study revealed 13 biases such as overconfidence bias, disposition effect, familiarity bias, framing effect, anchoring bias, availability bias, self-attribution bias, representativeness, mental accounting, hindsight bias, regret aversion, loss aversion and herding bias/media biases present in Indian investors. These biases have a negative connotation because they produce a distortion in the calculation of an outcome. These biases are classified under three categories such as cognitive errors, emotional biases and social interaction. The findings of this study may assist both financial service providers and researchers to understand the various psychological biases of individual investors in investment decision making. Additionally, individual investors will also be aware of the behavioural biases that will aid them to make sensible and efficient investment decisions.

Keywords: financial advisors, individual investors, investment decisions, psychological biases, qualitative thematic content analysis

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Authors: Aria Teimourzadeh, Marc Favier, Samaneh Kakavand

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The emergence of social networks has revolutionized the exchange of information. Every behavior on these platforms contributes to the generation of data known as social network data that are processed, stored and published by the social network service providers. Hence, it is vital to investigate the role of these platforms in user data by considering the privacy measures, especially when we observe the increased number of individuals and organizations engaging with the current virtual platforms without being aware that the data related to their positioning, connections and behavior is uncovered and used by third parties. Performing analytics on social network datasets may result in the disclosure of confidential information about the individuals or organizations which are the members of these virtual environments. Analyzing separate datasets can reveal private information about relationships, interests and more, especially when the datasets are analyzed jointly. Intentional breaches of privacy is the result of such analysis. Addressing these privacy concerns requires an understanding of the nature of data being accumulated and relevant data privacy regulations, as well as motivations for disclosure of personal information on social network platforms. Some significant points about how user's online information is controlled by the influence of social factors and to what extent the users are concerned about future use of their personal information by the organizations, are highlighted in this paper. Firstly, this research presents a short literature review about the structure of a network and concept of privacy in Online Social Networks. Secondly, the factors of user behavior related to privacy protection and self-disclosure on these virtual communities are presented. In other words, we seek to demonstrates the impact of identified variables on user information disclosure that could be taken into account to explain the privacy preservation of individuals on social networking platforms. Thirdly, a few research directions are discussed to address this topic for new researchers.

Keywords: information disclosure, privacy measures, privacy preservation, social network analysis, user experience

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Authors: Payal Maheshwari, Bansari Shah

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The research aimed to study the level of emotional intelligence (EI) and organizational role stress (ORS) of fire-fighters and the relationship between the two variables. Hundred and twenty fire-fighters were selected from different fire stations of Mumbai by purposive sampling. The firefighters who had the basic training, a minimum experience of 2 years and had been on the field during a crisis situation were selected for the study. The firefighters selected ranged from 23-58 years of age, and the number of years of experience ranged from 2 to 33 years. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the firefighters perceived themselves to be at an above average (57) and high (58) level of EI (M=429.35, SD=38.712). Domain-wise analysis disclosed that compared to self-awareness (92) and relationship management (93), more number of participants perceived themselves in the high category in the domains of self-management (108) and social management (106). Further, examination of the subdomain scores conveyed that a large number of participants rated themselves in the average level of these skills of accurate self-assessment (50), emotional self-control (50), adaptability (56) initiative (41), influence (66), change catalyst (53), and conflict management (50). With relation to the stress variable, it was found that almost half the number of the participants (59) rated themselves as having an average level of stress (M=137.44, SD=28.800). In most of the domains, majority of the participants perceived themselves as having an average level of stress, while in the domain of role isolation, self-role distance, and role ambiguity, majority of the firefighters rated themselves as having a low level of stress. A strong negative correlation (r=-.360**, p=.000) was found between EI and ORS. This study is a contribution to the literature and has implications for fire-fighters at the personal level, for the policymakers, and the fire department.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, organizational role stress, firefighters, relationship

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Authors: Leticia Lengler, Jefferson Oliveira, Vania Estivalete, Jordana Marques Kneipp, Lucia Regina Da Rosa Gama Madruga

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The way social entrepreneurs act and can positively impact on our society engages the interest of academics, companies and governments, who seek solutions to solve or alleviate issues related to the abuse of natural resources, as well as the increase of poverty (social aspects). Studies on social entrepreneurship have been characterized by diverse ramifications and their transdisciplinary character, permeating various disciplines and approaches. Different bibliometric studies were conducted within the theme of social entrepreneurship. In this context, because it is a topic in development and multifaceted, the aim of this article is to present the main interfaces of the studies on the Social Entrepreneur figure in relation to the social concern of sustainability, highlighting the relevant researches and their trends, as well as their relationship with the organizations. Aiming to achieve this purpose, the specific goals are: to identify the most cited authors and articles, to verify the authors and journals with the greatest number of publications and their approaches and to point out their affiliations, countries, and languages of publications. It is still a secondary objective to identify the emerging trends in relation to the social entrepreneur and his social concern stemming from the discussions on sustainability. This way, we analyzed articles from two international databases (Scopus and Web of Science), from 2004 to 2016. The main results were the increase in the number of publications, with most of them in English language, coming mainly from the United States institutions (such as Indiana University and Harvard University) and the United Kingdom (whose main institutions are University of London and Robert Gordon University). Although publications in Spanish and Portuguese are the least expressive in quantity, some tendencies point to publications that discuss the social entrepreneur in terms of gender (that relates to female entrepreneurship) and social class (that relates to the need of building communities that contemplate the Social entrepreneur at the base of the pyramid). It should be noted that the trends of the themes emerged from the analysis of the publication titles only in Portuguese, since this is the native language of the authors who carry out their studies mainly in Brazil. When considering articles in Portuguese (57 indicated by WOS and 9 by Scopus), a previous analysis of the titles was carried out to identify how researchers were approaching the theme social entrepreneur in a joint way to the social dimension of sustainability. However, the analysis of the titles themselves brought a limitation to our study, since it was felt a need to carry out a qualitative study, in which it could be possible to consider the abstracts of the available articles.

Keywords: base of pyramid, social dimension, social entrepreneur, sustainability

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Authors: Tripti Singh

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Digital tools are merging boundaries of different mediums as endeavoured artists exploring new areas. Digital fabric printing has motivated artists to create prints by combining images acquired by photograph, scanned images, computer graphics and microscopic imaginary etc to name few, with traditional media such as hand drawing, weaving, hand printed patterns, printing making techniques and so on. It opened whole new world of possibilities for artists to search, research and combine old and contemporary mediums for their unique art prints. As artistic medium digital art fabrics have aesthetic values which have impact and influence on not only on a personality but also interiors of a living or work space. In this way it can be worn, as fashion statement and also an interior decoration. Digital art fabric prints gives opportunity to print almost everything on any fabric with long lasting prints quality. Single edition and limited editions are possible for maintaining scarcity and uniqueness of an art form. These fabric prints fulfill today’s need, as they are eco-friendly in nature and they produce less wastage compared to traditional fabric printing techniques. These prints can be used to make unique and customized curtains, quilts, clothes, bags, furniture, dolls, pillows, framed artwork, costumes, banners and much, much more. This paper will explore the procedure, process, and progress techniques of digital art fabric printing in depth with suitable pictorial examples.

Keywords: digital art, fabric prints, digital fabric prints, new media

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Authors: Auliya Adzillatin Uzhma, Ismu Rini Dwi Ari, I. Nyoman Suluh Wijaya

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme in Pantai Harapan Jaya village is cultivation of mangrove and fishery capital distribution, to achieve the goal the CSR programme needed participation from the society in it. Moeliono in Fahrudin (2011) mentioned that participation from society is based by intrinsic reason from inside people it self and extrinsic reason from the other who related to him or from connection with other people. The fundamental connection who caused more boundaries from action which the organization can do called the social structure. The purpose of this research is to know the form of public participation and the density of the villager and people who is participated in CSR programme. This research use Social Network Analysis method by knew the Rate of Participation and Density. The result of the research is people who is involved in the programme is lived in Dusun Pondok Dua and they work in fisheries field. Rate of Participation is 11,61 and that means people involved in 11 or 12 activites of CSR Programme. The rate of participation of CSR Programme is categorized as high rate participation. The density value from the participant is 0.516 it’s mean that 51.6% of the people that participated is involved in the same step of CSR programme.

Keywords: community participation, social network analysis, corporate social responsibility, urban and regional studies

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Authors: Vajiheh Javani

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Hosting sport event result in both economic and socio-psychological impacts on host communities. Economic impacts, which are considered by many scholars and the social impacts of tourism based on hosting sports events have also been somehow investigated. But, investigating perceived social impacts based on host community perceptions has been paid not with little attention enough. Therefore, this study aims to study the beneficiary social impact of hosting sport event from residents’ perceptions. The participations for this research were 50 residents of Tabriz city who were recruited by judgment sampling method. focused group interviews were used for gathering the data. Then thematic analysis was utilized for interview analysis. Extracted perceived beneficiary social impacts include (1) economic benefits; (2) community pride; (3) community development. This study highlighted the perceived social beneficiary impacts and could contribute to a better understanding of how local residents of the studied community view the impacts associated with a sport event.

Keywords: socio-psychological impacts, sport event, community development, hosting

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Authors: Amit Kumar, Amanpreet Chander, Ashish Sahani

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This paper presents our recent work on real-time human activity detection based on the media pipe pipeline and machine learning algorithms. The proposed system can detect human activities, including running, jumping, squatting, bending to the left or right, and standing still. This is a robust solution for developing a yoga, dance, metaverse, and fitness application that checks for the correction of the pose without having any additional monitor like a personal trainer. MediaPipe solution offers an open-source cross-platform which utilizes a two-step detector-tracker ML pipeline for live detection of key landmarks on our body which can be used for motion data collection. The prediction of real-time poses uses a variety of machine learning techniques and different types of analysis. Without primarily relying on powerful desktop environments for inference, our method achieves real-time performance on the majority of contemporary mobile phones, desktops/laptops, Python, or even the web. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the existing method in terms of accuracy and real-time capability, achieving an accuracy of 99.92% on testing datasets.

Keywords: human activity detection, media pipe, machine learning, metaverse applications

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Authors: Edo O. Ekanem, Eme S. Ndeh, Ubong M. Nkok

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The role of educational technology in teaching is of great importance because of its systematic way of conceptualizing the execution and evaluation of Educational process. This study therefore examines the use of Educational Technology for teaching in Colleges of Education in south south geo-political zone of Nigeria. Four specific purposes, four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive research design of the survey type. A sample of 295 lecturers from six colleges of education was selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The data for this study were collected through a self-designed questionnaire and was analyzed using frequency counts, percentage scores and t-test statistics. The hypotheses for the study were tested at 0.05 significance. Findings from the study reveal that Educational Technology facilities such as Internet, electronic notice boards and projectors were not adequately used for teaching in the Colleges. It was also found that most lecturers use more of visual media than electronic/digital media in the classrooms. Moreover, the study shows that lecturers’ use of educational technology is influenced by their highest academic qualification while their level of awareness about the value of technology in education is not gender based. Lecturers’ lack of competence, inadequate Educational Technology facilities and Power are among the factors that inhibit the adequate use of the facilities. Based on the findings, recommendations were made on how to ensure effective use of Educational Technology for teaching in the Colleges in Nigeria.

Keywords: colleges of education, educational technology, teaching, Nigeria

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Authors: Tony Wilson

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This paper sets out a practices perspective or practices theory, which has become pervasive from business to sociological studies. In doing so, it locates the perspective historically (in the work of the philosopher Heidegger) and provides a contemporary illustration of its application to communication, consumer and cultural studies as central to this conference theme. The structured account of practices (as articulated in eight ‘axioms’) presented towards the conclusion of this paper is an initial statement - planned to encourage further detailed qualitative and systematic research in areas of interest to the conference. Practice theories of equipped and situated construction of participatory meaning (as in media and marketing consuming) are frequently characterized as lacking common ground, or core principles. This paper explores whether by retracing a journey to earlier philosophical underwriting, a shared territory promoting new research can be located as current philosophical hermeneutics. Moreover, through returning to hermeneutic first principles, the paper shows that a series of spatio-temporal metaphors become available - appropriate to analyzing communication as a process across disciplines in which it is considered. Thus one can argue, for instance, that media users engage (enter) digital text from their diverse ‘horizons of expectation’, in a productive enlarging ‘fusion’ of horizons of understanding, thereby ‘projecting’ a new narrative, integrated in a ‘hermeneutic circle’ of meaning. A politics of communication studies may contest a horizon of understanding - so engaging in critical ‘distancing’. Marketing’s consumers can occupy particular places on a horizon of understanding. Media users pass over borders of changing, revised perspectives. Practices research can now not only be discerned in multiple disciplines but equally crosses disciplines. The ubiquitous practice of media use by managers and visitors in a shopping mall - the mediatization of malls - responds to investigating not just with media study expertise, but from an interpretive marketing perspective. How have mediated identities of person or place been changed? Emphasizing understanding of entities in a material environment as ‘equipment’, practices theory enables the quantitative correlation of use and demographic variable as ‘Zeug Score’. Human behavior is fundamentally habitual - shaped by its tacit assumptions - occasionally interrupted by reflection. Practices theory acknowledges such action to be minimally monitored yet nonetheless considers it as constructing narrative. Thus presented in research, ‘storied’ behavior can then be seen to be (in)formed and shaped from a shifting hierarchy of ‘horizons’ or of perspectives - from habituated to reflective - rather than a single seamless narrative. Taking a communication practices perspective here avoids conflating tacit, transformative and theoretical understanding in research. In short, a historically grounded and unifying statement of contemporary practices theory will enhance its potential as a tool in communication, consumer and cultural research, landscaping interpretative horizons of human behaviour through exploring widely the culturally (in)formed narratives equipping and incorporated (reflectively, unreflectively) in people’s everyday lives.

Keywords: communication, consumer, cultural practices, hermeneutics

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Authors: Albandary Alamer, Noura Alaskar, Sana Bukhamseen, Jawaher Alkhamis, Enas Alghamdi, Almaha Almulhim, Hina Gull, Rachid Zagrouba, Madeeha Saqib

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A good and healthy seed will always produce a nice fruit, whereas an infected seed will produce an infected fruit. The same concept applies to the children, and the healthier the environment in which the kids grow, the more likely they become valuable members of society. Kiddo project introduces us to a mobile application that focuses on enhancing the sense of responsibility from a young age and makes raising kids fun and easy. The application aims to enhance the communication between parents and their children and to enrich the good habits of the kid. Kiddo Application enables kids to share their accomplishments with their peers in an interactive environment full of enjoyment, followed by parental monitoring to handle what their kids are posting and friends following. Kiddo provides the kids' and parents’ society with a safe platform free of cyberbullying and inappropriate content with parents' fun engagement.

Keywords: kids social media, educational app, child-raising, parental control, cyberbullying, parent-child relationship, good habits

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Authors: Abdelkader Guendouz, Fatima Zohra Adel

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Since about two decades, the Algerian government created a new instrument in the field of its fiscal policy, which is the FRR (Fonds de Régulation des Recettes). The FRR is a sovereign fund, which the initial role was saving the surplus generated by the fixation of a referential oil price to establish the state budget in the aim equilibrium between budgetary incomes and public expenditures. After a while, the government turns to use this instrument in boosting the public investment more than keeping for funding a deficit budget in periods of crisis. This lead to ask some justified questions about the efficiency of this sovereign fund and its real role.

Keywords: FRR sovereign fund, public expenditures, public investment, efficiency

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Authors: P. Christodoulou, M. Gerasimou, S. Mantzoukis, N. Varsamis, G. Kolliopoulou, N. Zotos

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Abstract— Purpose: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment is conducive to the growth of microorganisms. A variety of microorganisms gain access to the intravascular area and are transported throughout the circulatory system. Therefore, examination of the catheters used in ICU patients is of paramount importance. Material and Method: The culture medium is a catheter tip, which is enriched with Tryptic soy broth (TSB). After one day of incubation, the broth is passaged in the following selective media: Blood, Mac conkey No. 2, chocolate, Mueller Hinton, Chapman, and Saboureaud agar. The above selective media is incubated for 2 days. After this period, if any number of microbial colonies is detected, gram staining is performed and then the microorganisms are identified by biochemical techniques in the automated Microscan (Siemens) system followed by a sensitivity test in the same system using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) technique. The sensitivity test is verified by a Kirby Bauer test. Results: In 2017, the Microbiology Laboratory received 84 catheters from the ICU. 42 were found positive. Of these, S. epidermidis was identified at 8, A. baumannii in 10, K. pneumoniae in 6, P. aeruginosa in 6, P. mirabilis in 3, S. simulans in 1, S. haemolyticus in 4, S. aureus in 3 and S. hominis in 1. Conclusions: The results show that the placement and maintenance of the catheters in ICU patients are relatively successful, despite the unfavorable environment of the unit.

Keywords: culture, intensive care unit, microorganisms, vascular catheters

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Authors: Elena V. Syurina, Sophie Renckens, Martina Valente

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Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of the conversation around orthorexia nervosa (ON) on Instagram. Methods: The present study was conducted using mixed methods, combining a concurrent triangulation and sequential explanatory design. First, 3027 pictures posted on Instagram using #Orthorexia were analyzed. Then, a questionnaire about Instagram use related to ON was completed entirely by 185 respondents. These two quantitative data sources were statistically analyzed and triangulated afterwards. Finally, 9 interviews were conducted, to more deeply investigate what is being said about ON on Instagram and what the motivations to post about it are. Results: Four main categories of pictures were found to be represented in Instagram posts about ON: ‘food’, ‘people’, ‘text’, and ‘other.’ Savory and unprocessed food was most highly represented within the food category, and pictures of people were mostly pictures of the account holder. People who self-identify as having ON were more likely to post about ON, and they were significantly more likely to post about ‘food’, ‘people’ and ‘text.’ The goal of the posts was to raise awareness around ON, as well as to provide support for people who believe to be suffering from it. Conclusion: Since the conversation around ON on Instagram is supportive, it could be beneficial to consider Instagram use in the treatment of ON. However, more research is needed on a larger scale.

Keywords: orthorexia nervosa, Instagram, social media, disordered eating

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Authors: José Francisco Urrutia Reyes, Judith Espinosa Real

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This paper is meant to re-examine the role of street art in the contemporary world. By studying this form of art in Brussels, it can be explained how murals show the socio-political reality of a given community and influence on its interaction. Through the definitions of street art, murals and street artists, and analysing their role in Brussels, it is possible to understand how this counter culture movement serves as an engine of social development, as it interacts with its surroundings sending a clear message to a wider audience. Street art impacts on its environment because it interacts with the people who occupies the day-to-day public space. This has proven to be effective in the arouse of social consciousness, up to the point of being adopted by the government of Brussels to promote social movements such as the AIDS-HIV campaign along with the Plate-Forme Prévention Sida. It can be concluded that street art has evolved since its vandalic beginnings, to become a form of art that has not lost it counter official status, but now has a critical vision that can promote social awakening. Street art is now a global trend that uses visual inputs to create a positive impact.

Keywords: street art, Brussels, social impact, political perspective

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Authors: K. Bose

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India is one of the largest democracies in the global south, which demonstrates the highest social enterprise activities in the subcontinent. Although there has been a meteoric rise in social enterprise activities, it is not a new phenomenon, as it dates back to Vinoba Bhave's Land Gift movement in 1950. India also has a rich history of a welfare mix where non-governmental organisations played a significant role in the public welfare provision. Lately, the government’s impetus on entrepreneurship has contributed to a burgeoning social enterprise sector in the country; however, there is a lack in understanding of how social enterprises are constructed in India. Social entrepreneurship as practice has been conceptualised as a multi-dimensional concept, which is predominantly explained through the characteristics of a social entrepreneur. Social enterprise organisation, which is a component of social entrepreneurship practice are also classified through the role of the social entrepreneur; thus making social entrepreneur a vital unit shaping organisation and practice. Hence, individual identity of the social entrepreneur acts as a steering agent for defining organisation and practice. Individual identity does not operate in a vacuum and different isomorphic pressures (resource-rich actors/institutions) leads to negotiation in these identities. Dey and Teasdale's work investigated this identity work of non-profit practitioners within the practice of social enterprises in England. Furthermore, the construction of social enterprises is predominantly understood through two approaches i.e. an institutional logic perspective emerging from Europe and process and outcome perspective derived from the United States. These two approaches explain social enterprise as an inevitable institutional outcome in a linear and simplistic manner. Such linear institutional transition is inferred from structural policy reforms and austerity measures adopted by the government, which led to heightened competition for funds in the non-profit sector. These political and economic challenges were specific to the global north, which is different from transitions experienced in the global south, thus further investigation would help understand social enterprise activities as a contextual phenomenon. There is a growing interest in understanding the role of the context within the entrepreneurship literature, additionally, there is growing recognition in entrepreneurship research that economic behaviour is realised far better within its historical, temporal, institutional, spatial and social context, as these contexts provide boundaries to individuals in terms of opportunities and actions. Social enterprise phenomenon too is realised as contextual phenomenon though it differs from traditional entrepreneurship in terms of its dual mission (social and economic), however, the understanding of the role of context in social entrepreneurship has been limited. Hence, this work in progress study integrates identity work of social entrepreneur and the role of context. It investigates the identities of social entrepreneur and its negotiation within its context. Further, how this negotiated identity transcends into organisational practice in turn shaping how social enterprises are constructed in a specific region. The study employs a qualitative inquiry of semi-structured interviews and ethnographic institutionalism. Interviews were analysed using critical discourse analysis and the preliminary outcomes are currently a work in progress.

Keywords: context, Dey and Teasdale, identity, social entrepreneurs, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship

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Authors: Louis Nyahunda, Frans Koketso Matlakala, Jabulani Calvin Makhubele

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Climate change is among the most vital environmental aspects that the human community is endowed with. Climate as a factor of life is particularly strong to low income rural communities whose livelihoods heavily depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture like Makonde communal lands. The purpose of social work within the context of climate change is to enhance community expertise and empower members for participation in the decision-making process through all stages of risk assessment, rescue, planning and intervention for recovery and preparedness. This paper sought to explore the role of social workers in mitigating the effects of climate change in Makonde communal lands of Zimbabwe. The objectives of the study were to identify what roles if any are social workers playing in mitigating the effects of climate change and if not, what are the impediments in that sphere. A qualitative research approach was followed within the traditional framework of descriptive and exploratory designs. Simple random, purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to gather twenty-five participants in the study. The Thematic Content Analysis was followed to analyse data inductively. The study found that Social Workers are not directly involved in climate change interventions in the Makonde area owing it to lack of training on climate change issues. The study recommends that climate change falls within the purview of the social work practice therefore social workers must take the lead in supporting families and communities affected by climate change following the values, knowledge base, skills and principles of the profession.

Keywords: role, social workers, mitigation, climate change, Makonde communal lands

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Authors: Feyzan Tuzkaya, Nihan S. Soylu, Caglar Solak, Mehmet Peker, Hilal Peker, Kemal Ozeralp, Ceren Mete, Ezgi Mehmetoglu, Mehmet Karasu, Cihan Elci, Ece Akca, Melek Goregenli

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Perception, evaluation and representation of the environment have been the subject of many disciplines including psychology, geography and architecture. In environmental and social psychology literature there are several evidences which suggest that cognitive representations about a place consisted of not only geographic items but also social and cultural. Mental representations of residence area or a country is influenced and determined by social-demographics, the physical and social context. Thus, all mental representations of a given place are also social representations. Cognitive maps are the main and common instruments that are used to identify spatial images and the difference between physical and subjective environments. The aim of the current study is investigating the mental and social representations of Turkey in university students’ minds. Data was collected from 249 university students from different departments (i.e. psychology, geography, history, tourism departments) of Ege University. Participants were requested to reflect Turkey in their mind onto the paper drawing sketch maps. According to the results, cognitive maps showed geographic aspects of Turkey as well as the context of symbolic, cultural and political reality of Turkey. That is to say, these maps had many symbolic and verbal items related to critics on social and cultural problems, ongoing ethnic and political conflicts, and actual political agenda of Turkey. Additionally, one of main differentiations in these representations appeared in terms of the East and West side of the Turkey, and the representations of the East and West was varied correspondingly participants’ cultural background, their ethnic values, and where they have born. The results of the study were discussed in environmental and social psychological perspective considering cultural and social values of Turkey and current political circumstances of the country.

Keywords: cognitive maps, East, West, politics, social representations, Turkey

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Authors: Kasmaoui Kamal, Makhlouf farid

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This article seeks to assess the role of the level of interpersonal trust in a country in the remittance landscape. Using historical data from the 2010-2014 wave of the World Value Survey (WVS) for interpersonal trust, our findings underline the substitution role played by the interpersonal trust with remittances. More accurately, remittances tend to drop when the rate of interpersonal trust in the country of origin is high. Overall, a rise in trust is likely to underpin social cohesion, limiting, therefore, the need for remittances. These results are still fairly solid and unambiguous after controlling for confounding factors and possible reverse causality.

Keywords: interpersonal trust, remittances, social capital, social cohesion

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Authors: Yaser Al-Anii, Abdulmajeed Almaneea, Jonathan L. Summers, Harvey M. Thompson, Nikil Kapur

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The natural convection cooling system of a fully immersed server in a dielectric liquid is studied numerically. In the present case study, the dielectric liquid represents working fluid and it is in contact with server inside capsule. The capsule includes electronic component and fluid which can be modeled as saturated porous media. This medium follow Darcy flow regime and assumed to be in balance between its components. The study focus is on role of spatial parameters on thermal behavior of convective heat transfer. Based on server known unit, which is 1U, two parameters Ly and S are changed to test their effect. Meanwhile, wide-range of modified Rayleigh number, which is 0.5 to 300, are covered to better understand thermal performance. Navier-Stokes equations are used to model physical domain. Furthermore, successive over-relaxation and time marching techniques are used to solve momentum and energy equation. From obtained correlation, the in-between distance S is more effective on Nusselt number than distance to edge Ly by approximately 14%. In addition, as S increases, the average Nusselt number of the upper unit increases sharply, whereas the lower one keeps on the same level.

Keywords: convective cooling of server, Darcy flow, liquid-immersed server, porous media

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Authors: D. H. Tejavathi

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Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products. Wild populations of many medicinal plants are facing threat of extinction because of their narrow distribution, endemicity, and degradation of specific habitats. Micropropagation is an established in vitro technique by which large number of clones can be obtained from a small bit of explants in a short span of time within a limited space. Mycorrhization can minimize the transient transplantation shock, experienced by the micropropagated plants when they are transferred from lab to land. AM fungal association improves the physiological status of the host plants through better uptake of water and nutrients, particularly phosphorus. Consequently, the growth performance and biosynthesis of active principles are significantly enhanced in AM fungal treated plants. Bacopa monnieri, Andrographis paniculata, Agave vera-curz, Drymaria cordata and Majorana hortensis, important medicinal plants used in various indigenous systems of medicines, are selected for the present study. They form the main constituents of many herbal formulations. Standard in vitro techniques were followed to obtain the micropropagated plants. Shoot tips and nodal segments were used as explants. Explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog, and Phillips and Collins media supplemented with various combinations of growth regulators. Multiple shoots were obtained on a media containing both auxins and cytokinins at various concentrations and combinations. Multiple shoots were then transferred to rooting media containing auxins for root induction. Thus, obtained in vitro regenerated plants were subjected to brief acclimatization before transferring them to land. One-month-old in vitro plants were treated with AM fungi, and the symbiotic effect on the overall growth parameters was analyzed. It was found that micropropagation coupled with mycorrhization has significant effect on the enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of active principles in these selected medicinal plants. In vitro techniques coupled with mycorrhization have opened a possibility of obtaining better clones in respect of enhancement of biomass and biosynthesis of active principles. Beneficial effects of AM fungal association with medicinal plants are discussed.

Keywords: cultivation, medicinal plants, micropropagation, mycorrhization

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Authors: Azadeh Yaraghchi, Reza Bagherian Sararoodi, Niknaz Salehi Moghadam, Mohammad Hossein Mandegar, Adis Kraskian Mujembari, Omid Rezaei

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Background: Quality of life is one of the most important consequences of disease in psychosomatic disorders. Many psychological factors are considered in predicting quality of life in patients with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). The present study was aimed to determine the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life in patients with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Methods: The population included 82 patients who had undergone CABG from October 2014 to May 2015 in four different hospitals in Tehran. The patients were evaluated with Multi-dimension scale of perceived social support (MSPSS) and after three months follow up were evaluated by Short-Form quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). The obtained data were analyzed through Pearson correlation test and multiple variable regression models. Findings: A relationship between perceived social support and quality of life in patients with CABG was observed (r=0.374, p<0.01). The results showed that 22.4% of variation in quality of life is predicted by perceived social support components (p<0.01, R2 =0.224). Conclusion: Based on the results, perceived social support is one of the predictors of quality of life in patients with coronary artery bypass graft. Accordingly, these results can be useful in conceiving proactive policies, detecting high risk patients and planning for psychological interventions.

Keywords: coronary artery bypass graft, perceived social support, psychological factors, quality of life

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Authors: Hasan Taştan, Ayşen Ciravoğlu

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The rapid growth of the human population and the environmental degradation associated with increased consumption of resources raises concerns on sustainability. Social sustainability constitutes one of the three dimensions of sustainability together with environmental and economic dimensions. Even though there is not an agreement on what social sustainability consists of, it is a well known fact that it necessitates user participation. The fore, this study aims to observe and analyze the role of user participation on social sustainability. In this paper, the links between user participation and indicators of social sustainability have been searched. In order to achieve this, first of all a literature review on social sustainability has been done; accordingly, the information obtained from researches has been used in the evaluation of the projects conducted in the developing countries considering user participation. These examples are taken as role models with pros and cons for the development of the checklist for the evaluation of the case studies. Furthermore, a case study over the post earthquake residential settlements in Turkey have been conducted. The case study projects are selected considering different building scales (differing number of residential units), scale of the problem (post-earthquake settlements, rehabilitation of shanty dwellings) and the variety of users (differing socio-economic dimensions). Decisionmaking, design, building and usage processes of the selected projects and actors of these processes have been investigated in the context of social sustainability. The cases include: New Gourna Village by Hassan Fathy, Quinta Monroy dwelling units conducted in Chile by Alejandro Aravena and Beyköy and Beriköy projects in Turkey aiming to solve the problem of housing which have appeared after the earthquake happened in 1999 have been investigated. Results of the study possible links between social sustainability indicators and user participation and links between user participation and the peculiarities of place. Results are compared and discussed in order to find possible solutions to form social sustainability through user participation. Results show that social sustainability issues depend on communities' characteristics, socio-economic conditions and user profile but user participation has positive effects on some social sustainability indicators like user satisfaction, a sense of belonging and social stability.

Keywords: housing projects, residential areas, social sustainability, user participation

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Authors: Yulmaida Amir, Fahrul Rozi, Insany C. Kamil, Fanny Aryani

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ODAPUS (Orang dengan Lupus) is an Indonesian term for people with Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease in which immune system of the body becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue. The number of ODAPUS indicate an increase in Indonesia, thereby helping to improve their quality of life to be important to help their recovery. This study aims to examine the effect of resilience, self-esteem, and social support on the quality of life of women who had been diagnosed as having Lupus. Data were collected from 64 ODAPUS in Indonesia, using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL), Resilience Scale from Wagnil and Young (1993), self-esteem scale (developed from Coopersmith’s theory), and Social Support Questioner from Northouse (1988). Regression data analysis showed that resilience, social support, and self-esteem predict the quality of life of the ODAPUS simultaneously. If the variable was analysed individually, self-esteem did not significantly contribute to the quality of life. Resilience contributed most significantly to the quality of life, followed by social support. Of five sources of social supports included in the research, support from family members (parents and brother/sisters) has the most significant contribution to the quality of life, followed by support from spouse, and from friends. Interestingly, social support from medical personnel (medical doctors and nurses) had not a significant contribution to the quality of life of ODAPUS. As a conclusion, this research showed that the ability of ODAPUS to cope with difficulty in life, and support from family members, spouse, and friends were the significant predictors for their quality of life.

Keywords: quality of life, resilience, self-esteem, social supports

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Authors: Taimaz Larimian, Negin Sadeghi

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Very little is known about the impacts of urban security on the level of social sustainability within the cities of developing countries. Urban security is still struggling to find its position in the social sustainability agenda, despite the significant role of safety and security on different aspects of peoples’ lives. This paper argues that urban safety and security should be better integrated within the social sustainability framework. With this aim, this study investigates the hypothesized relationship between social sustainability and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) approach at the neighborhood scale. This study proposes a model of key influential dimensions of CPTED analyzed into localized factors and sub-factors. These factors are then prioritized using pairwise comparison logic and fuzzy group Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in order to determine the relative importance of each factor on achieving social sustainability. The proposed model then investigates social sustainability in six case study neighborhoods of Isfahan city based on residents’ perceptions of safety within their neighborhood. Mixed method of data collection is used by using a self-administered questionnaire to explore the residents’ perceptions of social sustainability in their area of residency followed by an on-site observation to measure the CPTED construct. In all, 150 respondents from selected neighborhoods were involved in this research. The model indicates that CPTED approach has a significant direct influence on increasing social sustainability in neighborhood scale. According to the findings, among different dimensions of CPTED, ‘activity support’ and ‘image/ management’ have the most influence on people’s feeling of safety within studied areas. This model represents a useful designing tool in achieving urban safety and security during the development of more socially sustainable and user-friendly urban areas.

Keywords: crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), developing countries, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), social sustainability

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Authors: Badran Leena, Rimmerman Arie

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Arab society in Israel is undergoing modernization and secularization. However, its approach to disability and mental illness is still dominated by religious and traditional stereotypes, as well as folk remedies and community practices. The present study examines differences in Muslim social workers' and Imams' recommendations in marriage/divorce and child custody cases of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) or mental illness. The study has two goals: (1) To examine differences in recommendations between Imams and Muslim social workers; (2) To explore variables related to their differential recommendations as observed in their responses to vignettes—a quantitative study using vignettes resembling existing Muslim religious (Sharia) court cases. Muslim social workers (138) and Imams (48) completed a background questionnaire, a religiosity questionnaire, and a questionnaire that included 25 vignettes constructed by the researcher based on court rulings adapted for the study. Muslim social workers tended to consider the religious recommendation when the family of a person with ID or mental illness was portrayed in the vignette as religious. The same applied to Imams, albeit to a greater extent. The findings call for raising awareness among social workers and academics regarding the importance of religion and tradition in formulating professional recommendations.

Keywords: child custody, intellectual and developmental disability, marriage/divorce, mental illness, sharia court, social workers

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