Search results for: factors of collaboration

Authors: Vijay Kumar, Ron Bird

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The study investigates the effect of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of conventional and Islamic banks. Our sample comprises 1,781 bank-year observations of 205 banks from four countries in the Asian region for the period 2004-2014. Our results suggest that credit quality, cost management and bank size are the keys factors that contribute positively to bank profitability in Asia. The banks with high non-performing loans and high cost-to-income ratio are more likely to be exposed to losses. The impacts of the bank-specific variables are stronger than are the industry-specific and macroeconomic variables. We find that Malaysian banks are the least profitable compared to the banks in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. There is strong evidence to suggest that conventional banks are more profitable than Islamic banks. Our results suggest that the impact of capital adequacy ratio and bank size and loan to deposit ratio vary across Islamic and conventional banks and across different subsamples.

Keywords: capital adequacy ratio, Islamic banks, non-performing loan ratio, ownership

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Authors: Elena Sherstoboeva, Elena Karzanova

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This paper explores the impact of the annexation of Crimea on the regulation of live performances and tour management of Russian pop music performers in Ukraine and of Ukrainian performers in Russia. Without a doubt, the cultural relationship between Russia and Ukraine is not limited to this issue. Yet concert markets tend to respond particularly rapidly to political, economic, and social changes, especially in Russia and Ukraine, where the high level of digital piracy means that the music businesses mainly depend upon income from performances rather than from digital rights sales. This paper argues that the rules formed in both countries after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 have contributed to the separation of a single cultural space that had existed in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine before the annexation. These rules have also facilitated performers’ self-censorship and increased the politicisation of the music businesses in the two neighbouring countries. This study applies a comparative socio-legal approach to study Russian and Ukrainian live events and tour regulation. A qualitative analysis of Russian and Ukrainian national and intergovernmental legal frameworks is applied to examine formal regulations. Soviet and early post-Soviet laws and policies are also studied, but only to the extent that they help to track the changes in the Russian–Ukrainian cultural relationship. To identify and analyse the current informal rules, the study design includes in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 live event or tour managers working in Russia and Ukraine. A case study is used to examine how the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual international competition, has played out within the Russian–Ukrainian conflict. The study suggests that modern Russian and Ukrainian frameworks for live events and tours have developed Soviet regulatory traditions when cultural policies served as a means of ideological control. At the same time, contemporary regulations mark a considerable perspective shift, as the previous rules have been aimed at maintaining close cultural connections between the Russian and Ukrainian nations. Instead of collaboration, their current frameworks mostly serve as forms of repression, implying that performers must choose only one national market in which to work. The regulatory instruments vary and often impose limitations that typically exist in non-democratic regimes to restrict foreign journalism, such as visa barriers or bans on entry. The more unexpected finding is that, in comparison with Russian law, Ukrainian regulations have created more obstacles to the organisation of live tours and performances by Russian artists in Ukraine. Yet this stems from commercial rather than political factors. This study predicts that the more economic challenges the Russian or Ukrainian music businesses face, the harsher the regulations will be regarding the organisation of live events or tours in the other country. This study recommends that international human rights organisations and non-governmental organisations develop and promote specific standards for artistic rights and freedoms, given the negative effects of the increasing politicisation of the entertainment business and cultural spheres to freedom of expression and cultural rights and pluralism.

Keywords: annexation of Crimea, artistic freedom, censorship, cultural policy

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Authors: Yun-Ching Tu, Yu-Chun Chih

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People with aphasia (PWA) may have communicative difficulties in their daily lives, but research on functional communication in aphasia is still limited in Taiwan. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of aphasia-related factors on functional communication assessment. This study adopted a convenience sampling method. Thirty aphasic participants participated in the study. During the test, the examiner would ask questions that are encountered in daily life and record the participant‘s responses. Some questions would provide pictures to simulate situations in daily life. The results showed that the non-fluent aphasia group performed significantly worse than the fluent aphasia group. In addition, patients with severe aphasia performed significantly lower scores than patients with moderate aphasia and mild aphasia. However, group differences in the chronic stage and acute stage were not significant. In sum, since communication in daily life is diverse and language is still needed in the communication process, patients with aphasia who have better language ability may have relatively better functional communication. In contrast, the more severely impaired the language ability of a patient with aphasia is, the more functional communication will be affected, resulting in poor communication performance in daily life.

Keywords: adult, aphasia, assessment, functional communication

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Authors: Mihaela Munteanu Pila

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Abstract The Republic of Moldova has a high potential for commercial growth of fish, due to its rich natural resources. Every year, national actions are implemented for the development and improvement of wetlands through acclimatization of hydrobionts, cleaning of adjacent waste areas and repopulation with valuable fish species. Due to aggressive environmental factors, anthropogenic factors, poaching or insufficient financial resources allocated to the authorities, there is a strong degradation of aquatic resources in the area. The main issue of the study is to identify priority areas for the development of fish farming in the area and maintain potential reserves to increase the efficiency of fish production in the pond. The rational operation of pond-type reservoirs will make it possible to maintain the breeding base of many fish species and will in future become a valuable source of local marketable products, in order to increase the productivity of fish in ponds and exploit the region's resources. The research looked at the problems that led to a decline in local fish production and identified a number of long-term measures needed to develop aquaculture.

Keywords: Development, , Republic of Moldova, , fisheries, , productivity

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Authors: Alireza Saviz, Sedigheh Zarei

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. Developing countries, emerging economies and countries in transition have come increasingly to see FDI as a source of economic development modernization, income growth and employment. FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. Exploratory research is being conducted here. The data for the study is collected from secondary sources like research papers, journals, websites and reports. This paper aim was to generate knowledge on Iran’s situation through these factors after lifting sanction in comparison to Turkey. Although the most important factors that influence foreign investor decisions vary depending on the countries, sectors, years, and the objective of investor, nowadays governments should pay more attention to human resources education, marketing, infrastructure and administrative process in order to attracting foreign investors. A proper understanding of these findings will help governments to create appropriate policies in order to encourage more foreign investors

Keywords: foreign direct investment, host country, competitive advantage, FDI

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Authors: Amylyn F. Labasano, M. S. Econ

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The study predicts the impact of collective bargaining agreement and its related factors on employees’ perceived productivity in terms of union-management relation’s climate, income, fringe benefits, and job satisfaction of the employees. It also determines whether there are significant differences in the employees’ perceived productivity based on the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The results revealed that the relationship climate which exists between the union and the management is found to have significant adverse effect on the average unpaid hours spent by employees working within the college. On the other hand, the total monthly wage earnings of employees have negative effect on the average hours an employee spent in bringing his work home while job satisfaction positively influences the overall productivity level of employees. The result further shows significant differences in the productivity level of employees across civil status and current designation.

Keywords: perceived productivity, collective bargaining agreement, union, union-management relations climate, income, fringe benefits, job satisfaction

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Authors: Syed Hassan Amjad

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In today’s competitive environment, in order for a company to exist, it must continually improve its Performance by reducing cost, improving quality and productivity, and easy access to market.The purpose of this thesis is to check the firm financial growth and performance and which type of factors affect the firm financial performance. This paper examines the key determinants of firm financial performance. We will differentiate between financial and non financial drivers of the firm financial performance. For the measurement of the firm financial performance there are many ways but all the measure had been taken in aggregation, such as debt, tax rate, operating expenses, earning per share and economic conditions. This study has also been done in developed countries but these researches show that foreign companies face many difficulties inimproving the firm financial performance. In findings we found that marketing expenditures and international diversification had a positive impact on firm valuation. In research also found that a firm's ownership composition, particularly the level of equity ownership by Domestic Financial Institutions and Dispersed Public Shareholders, and the leverage of the firm, tax rate and economic conditions were important factors affecting its financial performance.

Keywords: debt, tax rate, firm financial performance, operating expenses, dividend per share, economic conditions

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Authors: Lauren Booker

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In the United States, over 2.5 million children have incarcerated parents. Recent studies have shown 13% of young adults and one-fourth of African Americans will experience parental incarceration. The increasing numbers of incarcerated citizens have left these children as collateral damage and are often forgotten, their special needs inadequately meet or understood. Parental arrest and incarceration creates a uniquely traumatic experience in childhood and has long-term consequences for these children. Until recently, the eating and sleeping habits following parental incarceration had been nonexistent in the literature. However, even this groundbreaking study on eating habits and sleeping disorders following parental incarceration did not touch on the root causes of unhealthy eating which may be influenced by food and housing insecurity and environmental factors that may impact a child’s healthy eating and sleeping behaviors. This study will examine those factors as it could greatly aid in the policies and programs that affect children’s health and development. This proposed study will examine the impact of traumatic stress reactions to parental incarceration by studying sleep and eating habits as the hypothesis is that parental incarceration will lead to disordered eating and sleep disturbances in early adolescents.

Keywords: parental incarceration, eating disorder, trauma, family instability

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Authors: Muhammad Tahir, Mushtaq Muhammad

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Capital structure is one of the key decisions taken by the financial managers. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing capital structure decision in Oil and Gas industry of Pakistan using secondary data from published annual reports of listed Oil and Gas Companies of Pakistan. This study covers the time-period from 2008-2014. Capital structure can be affected by profitability, firm size, growth opportunities, dividend payout, liquidity, business risk, and ownership structure. Panel data technique with Ordinary least square (OLS) regression model has been used to find the impact of set of explanatory variables on the capital structure using the Stata. OLS regression results suggest that dividend payout, firm size and government ownership have the most significant impact on financial leverage. Dividend payout and government ownership are found to have significant negative association with financial leverage however firm size indicated positive relationship with financial leverage. Other variables having significant link with financial leverage includes growth opportunities, liquidity and business risk. Results reveal significant positive association between growth opportunities and financial leverage whereas liquidity and business risk are negatively correlated with financial leverage. Profitability and managerial ownership exhibited insignificant relationship with financial leverage. This study contributes to existing Managerial Finance literature with certain managerial implications. Academically, this research study describes the factors affecting capital structure decision of Oil and Gas Companies in Pakistan and adds latest empirical evidence to existing financial literature in Pakistan. Researchers have studies capital structure in Pakistan in general and industry at specific, nevertheless still there is limited literature on this issue. This study will be an attempt to fill this gap in the academic literature. This study has practical implication on both firm level and individual investor/ lenders level. Results of this study can be useful for investors/ lenders in making investment and lending decisions. Further, results of this study can be useful for financial managers to frame optimal capital structure keeping in consideration the factors that can affect capital structure decision as revealed by this study. These results will help financial managers to decide whether to issue stock or issue debt for future investment projects.

Keywords: capital structure, multicollinearity, ordinary least square (OLS), panel data

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Authors: Jann-Eike Saathoff, Kirill Alexander Schmoor, Martin Achmus, Mauricio Terceros

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By using partial factors of safety, uncertainties due to the inherent variability of the soil properties and loads are taken into account in the geotechnical design process. According to the reliability index concept in Eurocode-0 in conjunction with Eurocode-7 a minimum safety level of β = 3.8 for reliability class RC2 shall be established. The reliability of the system depends heavily on the choice of the prespecified safety factor and the choice of the characteristic soil properties. The safety factors stated in the standards are mainly based on experience. However, no general accepted method for the calculation of a characteristic value within the current design practice exists. In this study, a laterally loaded monopile is investigated and the influence of the chosen quantile values of the deterministic system, calculated with p-y springs, will be presented. Monopiles are the most common foundation concepts for offshore wind energy converters. Based on the calculations for non-cohesive soils, a recommendation for an appropriate quantile value for the necessary safety level according to the standards for a deterministic design is given.

Keywords: asymptotic sampling, characteristic value, monopile foundation, probabilistic design, quantile values

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Authors: Leng Jian-Wei, Wang Lai-Jun, Li Ye

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In order to measure and analyze the transportation situation within the counties of Shaanxi province over a certain period of time and to promote the province's future transportation planning and development, this paper proposes a reasonable layout plan and compares model rationality. The study uses entropy weight method to measure the transportation advantages of 107 counties in Shaanxi province from three dimensions: road network density, trunk line influence and location advantage in 2013 and 2021, and applies spatial autocorrelation analysis method to analyze the spatial layout and development trend of county-level transportation, and conducts ordinary least square (OLS)regression on transportation impact factors and other influencing factors. The paper also compares the regression fitting degree of the Geographically weighted regression(GWR) model and the OLS model. The results show that spatially, the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province generally show a decreasing trend from the Weihe Plain to the surrounding areas and mainly exhibit high-high clustering phenomenon. Temporally, transportation advantages show an overall upward trend, and the phenomenon of spatial imbalance gradually decreases. People's travel demands have changed to some extent, and the demand for rapid transportation has increased overall. The GWR model regression fitting degree of transportation advantages is 0.74, which is higher than the OLS regression model's fitting degree of 0.64. Based on the evolution of transportation advantages, it is predicted that this trend will continue for a period of time in the future. To improve the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province increasing the layout of rapid transportation can effectively enhance the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province. When analyzing spatial heterogeneity, geographic factors should be considered to establish a more reliable model

Keywords: traffic dominance, GWR model, spatial autocorrelation analysis, temporal and spatial evolution

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Authors: Maria Cherepanova, Svetlana Maximova

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Background And Aims: Suicide is among ten most common causes of death of the working-age population in the world. According to the WHO forecasts, by 2025 suicide will be the third leading cause of death, after cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In 2019, the global suicide rate in the world was 10,5 per 100,000 people. In Russia, the average figure was 11.6. However, in some depressed regions of Russia, such as Buryatia and Altai, it reaches 35.3. The aim of this study was to develop models based on the regional factors of social well-being deprivation that provoke the suicidal risk of various age groups of Russian population. We also investigated suicidal risk prevention in modern Russia, analyzed its efficacy, and developed recommendations for suicidal risk prevention improvement. Methods: In this study, we analyzed the data from sociological surveys from six regions of Russia. Totally we interviewed 4200 people, the age of the respondents was from 16 to 70 years. The results were subjected to factorial and regression analyzes. Results: The results of our study indicate that young people are especially socially vulnerable, which result in ineffective patterns of self-preservation behavior and increase the risk of suicide. That is due to lack of anti-suicidal barriers formation; low importance of vital values; the difficulty or impossibility to achieve basic needs; low satisfaction with family and professional life; and decrease in personal unconditional significance. The suicidal risk of the middle-aged population is due to a decrease in social well-being in the main aspects of life, which determines low satisfaction, decrease in ontological security, and the prevalence of auto-aggressive deviations. The suicidal risk of the elderly population is due to increased factors of social exclusion which result in narrowing the social space and limiting the richness of life. Conclusions: The existing system for lowering suicide risk in modern Russia is predominantly oriented to a medical treatment, which provides only intervention to people who already committed suicide, that significantly limits its preventive effectiveness and social control of this deviation. The national strategy for suicide risk reduction in modern Russian society should combine medical and social activities, designed to minimize possible situations resulting to suicide. The strategy for elimination of suicidal risk should include a systematic and significant improvement of the social well-being of the population and aim at overcoming the basic aspects of social disadvantages such as poverty, unemployment as well as implementing innovative mental health improvement, developing life-saving behavior that will help to counter suicides in Russia.

Keywords: social factors, suicide, prevention, Russia

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Authors: Mina Dousti

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Like many women worldwide, and especially those living in the Middle East, Iranian women are struggling to have equal rights as men. The Islamic Republic regime, established in 1979, made this path even more difficult for Iranian women. Media and the Islamic Republic's powerful propaganda are the main factors and advertisers in omitting women's social rights and civic activities. Also, the hijab (veil), which became obligatory immediately after the revolution based on the Qur'an and religious Hadiths, was another way of suppressing women. Since the Islamic Republic Revolution and the following Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), the Iranian female community has been experiencing different social and legal challenges. Aside from the Islamic regime's role in ignoring women, their families have also contributed to this limitation via unreasonable zeals and religious prejudices. Subsequently, all these factors led to pushing Iranian women to the corner and public dormancy. During the eight-year war, many Iranian women directly participated in the war front line. Although they became martyred, the regime intentionally ignored their public presence employing Islamic justifications and Sharia as an excuse. The government did these actions to justify censorship and unfairness toward women.

Keywords: Iranian women, Islamic Republic Regime, hijab, revolution, Iran-Iraq war, Martyr

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Authors: Fariba Ebrahimi, Mehdi Ghorbani, Ali Salajegheh

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Comprehensively water management considers economic, environmental, technical and social and also sustainability of water resources for future generations. Grassland management implies cooperative approach and involves all stakeholders and also introduces issues to managers, decision and policy makers. Solving these issues needs integrated and system approach. According to the recognition of actors or key persons in necessary to apply cooperative management of Water. Therefore, based on stakeholder analysis and social network analysis can be used to demonstrate the most effective actors for environmental decisions. In this research, social powers according are specified to social network approach at Water utilizers’ level of Natural in Jirood catchment of Latian basin. In this paper, utilizers of water resources were recognized using field trips and then, trust and collaboration matrix produced using questionnaires. In the next step, degree centrality index were Examined. Finally, geometric position of each actor was illustrated in the network. The results of the research based on centrality index have a key role in recognition of cooperative management of Water in Jirood and also will help managers and planners of water in the case of recognition of social powers in order to organization and implementation of sustainable management of Water.

Keywords: social network analysis, water co-management, social power, centrality index, local stakeholders network, Jirood catchment

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Authors: Winita Kitisak, Boontarika Panyomoon, Siriyakorn Nilpoun, Nithit Yosit, Peeraya Somsak

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The purpose of this study will affect the marketing mix that influences the consumers’ behavior towards beverage purchasing from retail stores. It aims to study the consumers and to better understand their behaviors and factors influencing their decision making on buying beverage in retail stores. We study the example of 400 consumers in Chiang Mai. The study shows that most of the respondents were male, 50 percent is 20-30 year old, and 36.66 percent is 31-40 year old, only 2.66 percent is upper 50 years old, bachelor’s degree holders, working in business field and student with 10,001-15,000 Baht income. Most buyers spend 4-6 times a week buying cheap beverage from retail stores. The consumer bought alcoholic beverages, green tea drinks, and soft drinks, but the mainly purchased product was beer. The results indicate that the brand of the product motivates more on consumers’ demand. While shelf displays, products presentation, and sales promotion affect the most on the consumers’ decision to purchase from the retail stores, the promotions moderately impact the consumers’ decision on purchasing from retail stores.

Keywords: consumer behavior, beverage, retail stores, convenience store

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Authors: Amirreza Razzaghipour Sorkhab

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The exploration of the connection between cognition and Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) holds significant value. Individuals with APD experience challenges in processing auditory information through the central auditory nervous system's varied pathways. Understanding the importance of auditory attention in individuals with APD, as well as the primary diagnostic tools such as language and auditory attention tests, highlights the critical need for assessing their auditory attention abilities. While not all children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) show deficits in auditory attention, there are often deficiencies in cognitive and attentional performance. The link between various types of attention deficits and APD suggests impairments in sustained and divided auditory attention. Research into the origins of APD should also encompass higher-level processes, such as auditory attention. It is evident that investigating the interaction between APD and auditory and cognitive functions holds significant value. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that APD tests may be influenced by cognitive factors, but despite signs of auditory attention interaction with auditory processing skills and the influence of cognitive factors on tests for this disorder, auditory attention measures are not typically included in APD diagnostic protocols. Therefore, incorporating attention assessment tests into the battery of tests for individuals with auditory processing disorder will be beneficial for obtaining useful insights into their attentional abilities.

Keywords: auditory processing disorder, auditory attention, central auditory processing disorder, top-down pathway

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Authors: Dessy Laksyana Utami

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The sick building syndrome comprises of various nonspecific symptoms that occur in the occupants of a building. It is commonly increases sickness absenteeism and causes a decrease in productivity of the workers. Evidence suggests that what is called the Sick Building Syndrome are at least three separate entities, which has at least one cause. The following are some of the factors that might be primarily responsible for Sick Building Syndrome such as: Chemical contaminants, Biological contaminants, Inadequate ventilation and Electromagnetic radiation. In many cases it is due to insufficient maintenance of the HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system in the building. As this syndrome is increasingly becoming a major occupational hazard. It was used the analytic cross-sectional design. Based on data obtained 80% of respondents reported significant ongoing health problems in the eyes, head, and the nose. 60% had bad symptoms in the throat, the stomach and cough, 50% had gastrointestinal disorders, 40% fatigue and 25% occurred all symptoms sick building syndrome. The 40 respondents were recruited to the study, with a mean age of 35 years (range 20-55). To support the evidence of Sick Building Syndrome, further checks are needed for some of the factors in next research, i.e. measurement of Chemical contaminants, Biological contaminants, inadequate ventilation & Electromagnetic radiation.

Keywords: indoor air pollution, sick building syndrome, indoor air quality, oil gas polution

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Authors: Ngoc T. Bui

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The key issue for teachers of a modern foreign language is the creation of a pedagogic environment, and this means that an understanding of context is vital. A pedagogic environment addresses the following: time, feedback, relations with other people, curriculum integration, forms of knowledge, resources and control in the pedagogic relationship. In this light, the multiple case study of the implementation of a modern foreign language curriculum focuses on exploring Vietnamese contexts and participants’ perceptions of factors that may affect their implementation process in order to examine thoroughly how the communicative language teaching (CLT) curriculum is being implemented in second language classrooms. A mixed methods approach is utilized to investigate contextual and personal factors that may affect teachers’ implementation of curriculum and pedagogical reform in Vietnam. This project therefore has the capability to inform stakeholders of useful information and identify further changes and measures to solve potential problems to ensure the achievement of the curriculum goals. The expected outcomes may also lead to intercultural language teaching guidelines to support english as a foreign language (EFL) teachers with curriculum design, planning and how to create pedagogic environment to best implement it.

Keywords: communicative language teaching, context, curriculum implementation, modern foreign language, pedagogic environment

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Authors: Chloé Kernaléguen, Laura Kundun, Tessie Lery, Ryan Laleg, Zhangyun Tan

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This study explores global disparities in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis incidence among children aged 0-2 years, focusing on the human development index (HDI) as a key determinant. RSV bronchiolitis poses a significant health risk to young children, influenced by factors, including socio-economic conditions captured by the HDI. Through a comprehensive systematic review and dataset selection (Switzerland, Brazil, United States of America), we formulated an HDI-SEIRS numerical model within the SEIRS framework. Results show variations in RSV bronchiolitis dynamics across countries, emphasizing the influence of HDI. Modelling reveals a correlation between higher HDI and increased bronchiolitis spread, notably in the USA and Switzerland. The ratios HDIcountry over HDImax strengthen this association, while climate disparities contribute to variations, especially in colder climates like the USA and Switzerland. The study raises the hypothesis of an indirect link between higher HDI and more frequent bronchiolitis, underlining the need for nuanced understanding. Factors like improved healthcare access, population density, mobility, and social behaviors in higher HDI countries might contribute to unexpected trends. Limitations include dataset quality and restricted RSV bronchiolitis data. Future research should encompass diverse HDI datasets to refine HDI's role in bronchiolitis dynamics. In conclusion, HDI-SEIRS models offer insights into factors influencing RSV bronchiolitis spread. While HDI is a significant indicator, its impact is indirect, necessitating a holistic approach to effective public health policies. This analysis sets the stage for further investigations into multifaceted interactions shaping bronchiolitis dynamics in diverse socio-economic contexts.

Keywords: bronchiolitis propagation, HDI influence, respiratory syncytial virus, SEIRS model

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Authors: Hosen Tilat Mahal, Monir Hossain

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Despite being a food-sufficient country after revolutionary changes in agricultural inputs, Bangladesh still has food insecurity and undernutrition. This study examines the association between agricultural practices (as social practices) and food security concentrating on the potential impact of sociodemographic factors and climate change. Using data from the 2012 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS), this study shows how modifiedagricultural practices are strongly associated with climate change and different sociodemographic factors (land ownership, religion, gender, education, and occupation) subsequently affect the status of food security in Bangladesh. We used linear and logistic regression models to analyze the association between modified agricultural practices and food security. The findings indicate that socioeconomic statuses are significant predictors of determining agricultural practices in a society like Bangladesh and control food security at the household level. Moreover, climate change is adversely impactingeven the modified agricultural and food security association version. We conclude that agricultural practices must consider climate change while boosting food security. Therefore, future research should integrate climate change into the agriculture and food-related mitigation and resiliency models.

Keywords: food security, agricultural productivity, climate change, bangladesh

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Authors: Jummai Aliyu Mohammed

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The Sapir-Whorfian hypothesis postulates that the structure of a language determines the way in which species of that language view the world. It also states that the culture of a people finds reflection in their language. Consequently language becomes a vehicle of thought; a channel through which negative stereotypes of women is created and also one through which such images are dispelled. Women are generally portrayed as weaker vessels and inferior to men; a position which draws a counter reaction from women through their writings. In their writings, they attempt to reinvent womanhood and liberate the woman from the hitherto negative light they were portrayed. This position best describes the term feminism which argues that women be given equal rights in all spheres of life as men. This paper attempts to evaluate Ba’s ‘So Long a Letter’ and Alkali’s ‘The Stillborn’ with the view to identify the relationship between language and feminism. In evaluating this relationship, the paper concludes that there are several factors responsible for the variation in the speech pattern of male and female. All of these factors favour the male gender and further condemns the woman to oppression. Although the writers come from two different cultural backgrounds, the works amplify feminism and captured them as apostles of feminism.

Keywords: feminism, language, politics, Sapir-Whorfian hypothesis

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Authors: Pei Luen Jiang

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Oysters (Ostreidae) and hard clams (Meretrix lusoria) are important shallow sea-cultured shellfish in Taiwan, and are mainly farmed in Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan. As these shellfish are fed primarily on natural plankton, the artificial feed is not required, leading to high economic value in aquatic farming. However, in recent years, though mariculture production areas have expanded steadily, large-scale deaths of farmed shellfish have also become increasingly common due to climate change and human factors. Through studies over the past few years, our research team has determined the impact of nitrogen deprivation on growth and morphological variations in algae and sea anemones (Actiniaria) and identified the target genes affected by adverse environmental factors. In mariculture, high-density farming is commonly adopted, which results in elevated concentrations of nitrogenous waste in the water. In addition, excessive carbon dioxide from the atmosphere also dissolves in seawater, causing a steady decrease in the pH of seawater, leading to acidification. This study to observe the impact of high concentrations of nitrogen sources and carbon dioxide on algae.

Keywords: algae, shellfish, nitrogen, acidification

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Authors: S. Perera, T. R. Walsh, M. Solvang

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The structure-property relationships of calcium aluminosilicate (CAS) glass surfaces are of scientific and technological interest regarding dissolution phenomena. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide atomic-scale insights into the structure and properties of the CAS interfaces in vacuo as the first step to conducting computational dissolution studies on CAS surfaces. However, one limitation to date is that although the bulk properties of CAS glasses have been well studied by MD simulation, corresponding efforts on CAS surface properties are relatively few in number (both theoretical and experimental). Here, a systematic computational protocol to create CAS surfaces in vacuo is developed by evaluating the sensitivity of the resultant surface structure with respect to different factors. Factors such as the relative thickness of the surface layer, the relative thickness of the bulk region, the cooling rate, and the annealing schedule (time and temperature) are explored. Structural features such as ring size distribution, defect concentrations (five-coordinated aluminium (AlV), non-bridging oxygen (NBO), and tri-cluster oxygen (TBO)), and linkage distribution are identified as significant features in dissolution studies.

Keywords: MD simulation, CAS glasses, surface structure, structure-property, CAS interface

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Authors: Bouthayna Hayou, Mohamed Mouloud Haddak

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In road accidents in French overseas territories have been understudied, with relevant data often collected late and incompletely. Although these territories account for only 3% to 4% of road traffic injuries in France, their unique characteristics merit closer attention. Despite lower mobility and, consequently, lower exposure to road risks, the actual road risk in Overseas France is as high or even higher than in Metropolitan France. Significant disparities exist not only between Metropolitan France and Overseas territories but also among the overseas territories themselves. The varying population densities in these regions do not fully explain these differences, as each territory has its own distinct vulnerabilities and road safety challenges. This analysis, based on BAAC data files from 2005 to 2018 for both Metropolitan France and the overseas departments and regions, examines key variables such as gender, age, type of road user, type of obstacle hit, type of trip, road category, traffic conditions, weather, and location of accidents. Logistic regression models were built for each region to investigate the risk factors associated with fatal road accidents, focusing on the probability of being killed versus injured. Due to insufficient data, Mayotte and the Overseas Communities (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) were not included in the models. The findings reveal that road safety is worse in the overseas territories compared to Metropolitan France, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and motorized two-wheelers. These territories present an accident profile that sits between that of Metropolitan France and middle-income countries. A pressing need exists to standardize accident data collection between Metropolitan and Overseas France to allow for more detailed comparative analyses. Further epidemiological studies could help identify the specific road safety issues unique to each territory, particularly with regard to socio-economic factors such as social cohesion, which may influence road safety outcomes. Moreover, the lack of data on new modes of travel, such as electric scooters, and the absence of socio-economic details of accident victims complicate the evaluation of emerging risk factors. Additional research, including sociological and psychosocial studies, is essential for understanding road users' behavior and perceptions of road risk, which could also provide valuable insights into accident trends in peri-urban areas in France.

Keywords: multivariate logistic regression, overseas France, road safety, road traffic accident, territorial inequalities

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Authors: Martina Kanciruk, Jac J. W. Andrews, Tyrone Donnon

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The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of maternal smoking for the development of childhood overweight and/or obesity. Accordingly, a systematic literature review of English-language studies published from 1980 to 2012 using the following data bases: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Dissertation Abstracts International was conducted. The following terms were used in the search: pregnancy, overweight, obesity, smoking, parents, childhood, risk factors. Eighteen studies of maternal smoking during pregnancy and obesity conducted in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis of these studies indicated that maternal smoking during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for overweight and obesity; mothers who smoke during pregnancy are at a greater risk for developing obesity or overweight; the quantity of cigarettes consumed by the mother during pregnancy influenced the odds of offspring overweight and/or obesity. In addition, the results from moderator analyses suggest that part of the heterogeneity discovered between the studies can be explained by the region of world that the study occurred in and the age of the child at the time of weight assessment.

Keywords: childhood obesity, overweight, smoking, parents, risk factors

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Authors: Prapin Nuchpiam

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The importance of social innovation has become increasingly significant as the process of developing effective solutions to social problems and being a force of change for people’s better quality of life. In order to promote social innovation, active collaboration between government, business organizations, and the civil society sector is needed. A proper legal framework also plays an important role in building the social innovation ecosystem. Currently, there is no specific law designed for social innovation or a so-called “social innovation law”. One of the legal frameworks for social innovation is the development of hybrid legal forms for social enterprises such as the UK’s Community Interest Company (CIC), the US’s Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) and the US’s Benefit Corporation (B-Corp), among others. This is because social enterprise is recognized as an organizational form of social innovation with its aim for social benefit goals and the achievement of financial sustainability. Nonetheless, there has been a debate over the differences and similarities between social innovation and social enterprise. Thus, social enterprise law might not fit well with social innovation, resulting in a search for a legal framework specially designed for social innovation. This paper aims to study the interrelationship between social innovation, social enterprise, and the role of law to see whether we need a specific law for social innovation. If so, what should such a legal framework look like? The paper will provide a critical analysis of innovative legal forms for social enterprise as a type of social innovation law. A proper legal framework for social innovation could help promote the sector, which could result in finding new solutions to social problems. It will also bring about a greater common understanding of the exciting development of legal scholarship in this way, which will, in turn, serve as a productive basis or direction for further research on this increasingly important topic.

Keywords: social innovation, social enterprise, legal framework, regulation

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Authors: Glenn Guira

Abstract:

Domestic violence is an international pandemic that has affected women from all walks of life. The World Health Organization (2016), announced that recent global prevalence of violence against women indicates that 1 in 3 (35 %) women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner violence in their lifetime. It further said that violence against women is a major public health problem and violations of women’s human rights. Furthermore, the agency said that the factors associated in an increased risk of experiencing intimate partner and sexual violence include low education, child maltreatment or exposure to violence between parents, abuse during childhood, attitudes accepting violence and gender inequality. This is an integrative review of domestic violence focusing on four themes namely types of domestic violence against women, predictors of domestic violence against women, effects of domestic violence against women and strategies in addressing domestic violence against women. This integrative research study was conducted to identify relevant themes on domestic violence that was conducted and published. This study is geared toward understanding further domestic violence as a public health concern. Using the keywords domestic violence, Google Scholar, MEDLINE PLUS, and Ingenta Connect were searched to identify relevant studies. This resulted in 3,467 studies that fall within the copyright year 2006 – 2016. The studies were delimited to domestic violence against women because there are other types of violence that can be committed such as senior citizens abuse, child abuse, violence against males and gay/lesbian abuse. The significant findings of the research study are the following: the forms of domestic violence against women include physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, economic, spiritual and conflict-related violence against, the predictors of domestic violence against women include demographic, health-related, psychological, behavioral, partner-related and social-stress factors, the effects of domestic violence against women include victim-related factors and child-related factors and the strategies addressing domestic violence against women include personal-related strategies, education-related strategies, health-related strategies, legal-related strategies and judicial-related strategies. Consequent to the foregoing findings, the following conclusions are drawn by the researcher that there are published researches that presented different forms, predictors, effects and strategies addressing domestic violence committed by perpetrators against women. The researcher recommended that the summarized comprehensive data should be use to educate people who are potential victims of domestic violence and that future researchers should continue to conduct research for the development of pragmatic programs aimed at reducing domestic violence.

Keywords: domestic violence, physical abuse, intimate partner violence, sexual violence

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Authors: Ben Cheikh Asma, Bouafia Nabiha, Ammar Asma, Ezzi Olfa, Meddeb Khaoula, Chouchène Imed, Boussarsar Hamadi, Njah Mansour

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Background: Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) constitutes an important worldwide health problem. It was associated with high mortality rate in intensive care units (ICU). This study aimed to determine HAI mortality rate in Tunisian intensive care units and identify its risk factors. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational cohort study over a 12 months period (September 15th 2015 to September 15 th 2016) in the adult medical ICU of University Hospital-Farhat Hached (Sousse-Tunisia). All patients admitted in the ICU for more than 48 hours were included in the study. We used an anonymous standardized survey record form to collect data by a medical hygienist assisted by an intensivist. We adopted definitions of Center for Diseases Control and prevention of Atlanta to detect HAI, Kaplan Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression to identify independent risk factor of HAI mortality. Results: Of 171 patients, 67 developed ICU-acquired infection (global incidence rate=39.2%). The mean age of patients was 59 ± 21.2 years and 60.8% were male. The most frequently identified infections were pulmonary acquired infection (ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and infected atelectasis with density rates 21.4 VAP/1000 days of mechanical ventilation and 9.4 infected atelectasis /1000 days of mechanical ventilation; respectively) and central venous catheter associated infection (CVC - AI) with density rate 28.4 CVC-AI / 1000 CVC-days). HAI mortality rate was 66.7% (n=44). The median survival was 20 days 3.36, 95% Confidential Interval [13.39 – 26.60]. Specific mortality rates according to infectious site were 65.5%, 36.4% and 4.5% respectively for VAP, CVC associated infection and infected atelectasis. In univariate analysis, a significant associations between mortality and cardiovascular history (p=0.04) tracheotomy (p=0.00), peripheral venous catheterization (p=0.04), VAP (p=0.04) and infected atelectasis (p=0.04) were detected. Independent risk factors for HAI mortality were VAP with Hazard Ratio = 3.14, 95% Confidential Interval [1.63 – 6.05] (p=0.001) and tracheotomy (Hazard Ratio=0.22, 95% Confidential Interval [0.10 – 0.44], p=0.000). Conclusions: In the present study, hospital acquired infection mortality rate was relatively high. We need to intensify the fight against these infections especially ventilator-associated pneumonia that is associated with higher risk of mortality in many studies. Thus, more effective infection control interventions were necessary in our hospital.

Keywords: hospital acquired infection, intensive care unit, mortality, risk factors

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Authors: Mansour Hadji Hosseinlou, Alireza Mahdavi

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Transportation is one of any society's needs which have developed after improving economically and socially and is one of civilization symbols today. Although it is so useful for human, it leads to many serious harms and injuries. The development of communication system and building new roads has resulted in increasing the rate of accidents; therefore, in practice, this increasing rate has decreased the advantages of transportation. Traffic accidents are one of the causes of death, serious financial and bodily harms and its significant social, economic and cultural consequences threatens the societies seriously. Iran's ground transportation system is one of the most eventful transportation systems in the world and mortality rate and financial harms cost too much for the country in national aspect. Therefore, we have presented a data collection by referring to recorded statistics of the accidents occurred in freeways from 2013 to 2015. These statistics are recorded in different related databases, generally police and road transportation system. The data is separated and arranged in tables and after preparing, processing and prioritizing the factors, the achieved collection is presented to the departments, managers and researchers to help them suggest practical solutions.

Keywords: freeways’ accidents, humane causes, death, tiredness, drowsiness

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Authors: Dewi Hardiningtyas Sugiono

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Concerning towards the quality of air comfort and safety to pedestrians in the University area should be increased as Indonesia economics booming. Hence, the University management needs guidelines of thermal comfort to innovate a new layout building. The objectives of this study is to investigate and then to evaluate the distribution of thermal comfort which is indicated by predicted mean vote (PMV) index at the University of Brawijaya (UB), Malang. The PMV figures are used to evaluate and to redesign the UB layout. The research is started with study literature and early survey to collect all information of building layout and building shape at the University of Brawijaya. The information is used to create a 3D model in CAD software. The model is simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to measure the PMV factors of air temperature, relative humidity and air speed in some locations. Validation is done by comparing between PMV value from observation and PMV value from simulation. The resuls of the research shows the most sensitive of microclimatic factors is air temperature surrounding the UB building. Finally, the research is successfully figure out the UB layout and provides further actions to increase the thermal comfort.

Keywords: thermal comfort, heat index (HI), CFD, layout

Procedia PDF Downloads 305