Search results for: psychological issues

Authors: Azza Taha Zaki

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The position Eugene O’Neill occupies in the history of American drama is undisputable. Critics have agreed that the American theatre was waiting for O’Neill to give it substance, character, and value. The American dramatist continues to be considered as a major influence on the body of dramatic repertoire across the globe. The American theatre before O’Neill knew playwrights who were mostly viewed as entertainers. The serious drama had to wait until O’Neill started his career with expressionistic and social drama. His breakthrough, however, came in 1925 when he published Desire Under the Elms, described as the first important tragedy to be written in America. Mourning Becomes Electra, published in 1931, further reinforced the reputation of Eugene O’Neill and was described as his 'magnum opus'. Aspiring to portray the essence of life and man’s innermost conflicts, O’Neill turned to the classical model, rather than to social realistic drama, to create modern tragedies with the aid of the then-new science of psychology. The present paper aims to undertake an in-depth study of how overtones from classical tragedies by the classical masters Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides resonate through O’Neill’s two plays. The paper shows how leaning on classical themes and concepts interpreted in terms of psychological forces have added depth and tragic substance to a modern milieu and produced masterpieces of dramaturgy.

Keywords: classical, drama, O'Neill, modern, tragic

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Authors: Luisa Carrer, Lorenzo De Masi

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In this paper, we exploit the massive amount of information from Facebook to build a measure of gender attitudes in Italy at a previously impossible resolution—the municipal level. We construct our index via a machine learning method to replicate a benchmark region-level measure. Interestingly, we find that most of the variation in our Gender Norms Index (GNI) is across towns within narrowly defined geographical areas rather than across regions or provinces. In a second step, we show how this local variation in norms can be leveraged for identification purposes. In particular, we use our index to investigate whether these differences in norms carry over to the policy activity of politicians elected in the Italian Parliament. We document that females are more likely to sit in parliamentary committees focused on gender-sensitive matters, labor, and social issues, but not if they come from a relatively conservative town. These effects are robust to conditioning the legislative term and electoral district, suggesting the importance of social norms in shaping legislators’ policy activity.

Keywords: gender equality, gender norms index, Facebook, machine learning, politics

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Authors: Norah Mohammed Alshahrani, Abdulaziz Almaleh

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition related to issues with brain development that affects how a person recognises and communicates with others which results in difficulties with interaction and communication socially and it is constantly growing. Early recognition of ASD allows children to lead safe and healthy lives and helps doctors with accurate diagnoses and management of conditions. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a method that will achieve good results and with high accuracy for the measurement of ASD in children. In this paper, ASD datasets of toddlers and children have been analyzed. We employed the following machine learning techniques to attempt to explore ASD and they are Random Forest (RF), Decision Tree (DT), Na¨ıve Bayes (NB) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Then Feature selection was used to provide fewer attributes from ASD datasets while preserving model performance. As a result, we found that the best result has been provided by the Support Vector Machine (SVM), achieving 0.98% in the toddler dataset and 0.99% in the children dataset.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, machine learning, feature selection, support vector machine

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Authors: Muhammad Waqas Baqai, Noman Shahzad, Rehman Alvi

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Communication among health care givers is the essence of quality patient care and any compromise results in errors and inefficiency leading to cumbersome outcomes. The use of smartphone among health professionals has increased tremendously. Almost every health professional carries it and majority of them uses a third party communication software called whatsApp for work related communications. It gives instant access to the person responsible for any particular query and therefore helps in efficient and timely decision making. It is also an easy way of sharing medical documents, multimedia and provides platform for consensual decision making through group discussions. However clinical communication through whatsApp has some demerits too including reduction in verbal communication, worsening professional relations, unprofessional behavior, risk of confidentiality breach and threats from cyber-attacks. On the other hand the traditional pager device being used in many health care systems is a unidirectional communication that lacks the ability to convey any information other than the number to which the receiver has to respond. Our study focused on these two widely used modalities of communication among doctors of the largest tertiary care center of Pakistan i.e. The Aga Khan University Hospital. Our aim was to note which modality is considered better and has fewer threats to medical data. Approval from ethical review committee of the institute was taken prior to conduction of this study. We submitted an online survey form to all the interns and residents working at our institute and collected their response in a month’s time. 162 submissions were recorded and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Only 20% of them were comfortable with using pagers exclusively, 52% with whatsApp and 28% with both. 65% think that whatsApp is time-saving and quicker than pager. 54% of them considered whatsApp to be causing nuisance from work related notifications in their off-work hours. 60% think that they are more likely to miss information through pager system because of the unidirectional nature. Almost all (96%) of residents and interns found whatsApp to be useful in terms of saving information for future reference. For urgent issues, majority (70%) preferred pager over whatsApp and also pager was considered more valid in terms of hospital policies and legal issues. Among major advantages of whatsApp as listed by them were; easy mass communication, sharing of clinical pictures, universal access and no need of carrying additional device. However the major drawback of using whatsApp for clinical communication that everyone shared was threat to patients’ confidentiality as clinicians usually share pictures of wounds, clinical documents etc. Lastly we asked them if they think there is a need of a separate application for instant communication dedicated to clinical communication only and 90% responded positively. Therefore, we concluded that both modalities have their merits and demerits but the greatest drawback with whatsApp is the risk of breach in patients’ confidentiality and off-work disturbance. Hence, we recommend a more secure, institute-run application for all intra hospital communications where they can share documents, pictures etc. easily under a controlled environment.

Keywords: WhatsApp, pager, clinical communication, confidentiality

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Authors: Ha Hai Duong, Amnon Levy Livermore, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran, Oleg Yerokhin

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The issues of economic development, the environment and human health have been investigated since 1990s. Previous researchers have found different empirical evidences of the relationship between income and environmental pollution, health as determinant of economic growth, and the effects of income and environmental pollution on health in various regions of the world. This paper concentrates on integrative relationship analysis of GDP, carbon dioxide emissions, and health services and population health in context of Vietnam. We applied the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on datasets of Vietnam’s sixty-three provinces for the years 2000-2010. Our results show the significant positive effect of GDP on emissions and the dependence of population health on emissions and health services. We find the significant relationship between population health and GDP. Additionally, health services are significantly affected by population health and GDP. Finally, the population size too is other important determinant of both emissions and GDP.

Keywords: economic development, emissions, environmental pollution, health

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Authors: Abdulrahman M. Alhowikan, Nadra E. Elamin, Sarah S. Aldayel, Sara A. AlSiddiqi, Fai S. Alrowais, Laila Y. Al-Ayadhi

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Background: A growing body of research has suggested that physical activities (PA) have important implications for improving the performance of ASD children. They revealed that the physiological, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral functioning had improved after performing some physical activities. Methods: We compared the sedentary behavior and physical activities between children with autism spectrum disorder (n=21) and age-matched control group (n=30), using the ActiGraph GT3X+ for the assessments. Results: Our results revealed that the total time spent in sedentary activity and the total sedentary activity counts were highly significant in the control group compared to the ASD group (p < 0.001, p=0.001, respectively). ASD spent a significantly longer time than the controls engaging on vigorous physical activity (VPA) (p=0.017). The results also indicated that there were no significant differences between both groups for the total counts and time spent in light physical activity (LPA) and moderate physical activity (MPA). Conclusion: The finding highlights the importance of physical activity intervention for ASD children, using accurate and precise measurement tools to record all activities.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders, motor skills, physical activity, ActiGraph GT3X+, moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity

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Authors: Shilpi Bora, Abhirup Chatterjee, Debkumar Chakrabarti

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Organizations of all the sectors around the world are increasingly revisiting their workplace strategies with due concern for women working therein. Limited office space and rigid work arrangements contribute to lesser job satisfaction and greater work impoundments for any organization. Flexible workspace strategies are indispensable to accommodate the progressive rise of modular workstations and involvement of women. Today’s generation of employees deserves malleable office environments with employee-friendly job conditions and strategies. The workplace nowadays stands on rapid organizational changes in progressive and flexible work culture. Occupational well-being practices need to keep pace with the rapid changes in office-based work. Working at the office (workspace) with awkward postures or for long periods can cause pain, discomfort, and injury. The world is stirring towards the era of globalization and progress. The 4000 women police personnel constitute less than one per cent of the total police strength of India. Lots of innovative fields are growing fast, and it is important that we should accommodate women in those arenas. The timeworn trends should be set apart to set out for fresh opportunities and possibilities of development and success through more involvement of women in the workplace. The notion of women policing is gaining position throughout the world, and various countries are putting solemn efforts to mainstream women in policing. As the role of women policing in a society is budding, and thus it is also notable that the accessibility of women at general police stations should be considered. Accordingly, the impact of workspace at police station on the employee productivity has been widely deliberated as a crucial contributor to employee satisfaction leading to better functional motivation. Thus the present research aimed to look into the office workstation design of police station with reference to womanhood specific issues to uplift occupational wellbeing of the policewomen. Personal interview and individual responses collected through administering to a subjective assessment questionnaire on thirty women police as well as to have their views on these issues by purposive non-probability sampling of women police personnel of different ranks posted in Guwahati, Assam, India. Scrutiny of the collected data revealed that office design has a substantial impact on the policewomen job satisfaction in the police station. In this study, the workspace was designed in such a way that the set of factors would impact on the individual to ensure increased productivity. Office design such as furniture, noise, temperature, lighting and spatial arrangement were considered. The primary feature which affected the productivity of policewomen was the furniture used in the workspace, which was found to disturb the everyday and overall productivity of policewomen. Therefore, it was recommended to have proper and adequate ergonomics design intervention to improve the office design for better performance. This type of study is today’s need-of-the-hour to empower women and facilitate their inner talent to come up in service of the nation. The office workspace design also finds critical importance at several other occupations also – where office workstation needs further improvement.

Keywords: office workspace design, policewomen, womanhood concerns at workspace, occupational wellbeing

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Authors: James Moir

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This paper considers the political controversy in Britain, both pre- and post-EU referendum, concerning claims over welfare benefit tourism and immigration in the UK. These claims were seen to be a significant reason for the vote for Brexit despite evidence to the contrary that benefit tourism was not, and is not, implicated in the migration of East Europeans to the UK. Populist rhetoric is analysed alongside studies that contradict such views. These contentious issues are examined with respect to the agenda set by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) concerning anti-EU and anti-immigrant sentiment and the notion of cultural differences as the basis for supporting Brexit. The paper also examines the paradoxical claim that East European migrants are taking British jobs and driving down wages. Taken together, it is argued that these two kinds of claims effectively contribute to anti-immigration discourse based on the logic of economics, but also at the same time conceal more irrational fears of adapting to change through the inclusion of others. Such fears are considered as being founded upon a challenge to the stability of totems of national life and identity.

Keywords: benefits, Brexit, immigration, tourism, welfare

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Authors: Zebider Asire Munyelet, Yibeltal Chanie Manie

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In the modern digital landscape, the increase of social media platforms has become identical to the evolution of online consumer behavior. This study investigates the complicated relationship between social media and the purchasing decisions of online buyers. Through an extensive review of existing literature and empirical research, the aim is to comprehensively analyze the multidimensional impact that social media exerts on the various stages of the online buyer's journey. The investigation encompasses the exploration of how social media platforms serve as influential channels for information dissemination, product discovery, and consumer engagement. Additionally, the study investigates into the psychological aspects underlying the role of social media in shaping buyer preferences, perceptions, and trust in online transactions. The methodologies employed include both quantitative and qualitative analyses, incorporating surveys, interviews, and data analytics to derive meaningful insights. Statistical models are applied to distinguish patterns in online buyer behavior concerning product awareness, brand loyalty, and decision-making processes. The expected outcomes of this research contribute not only to the academic understanding of the dynamic interplay between social media and online buyer behavior but also offer practical implications for marketers, e-commerce platforms, and policymakers.

Keywords: consumer Behavior, social media, online purchasing, online transaction

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Authors: Zaqiatul Mardiah, Afdol Tharik Wastono, Abdul Muta'ali

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In general, the Arabic preposition ‘ala encodes the sense of UP-DOWN schema. However, the use of the preposition ‘ala can has many extended schemas that still have relation to its primary sense. In this paper, we show how the framework of cognitive linguistics (CL) based on image schemas can be applied to analyze the spatial semantic of the use of preposition ‘ala in the horizontal and vertical axes. The preposition ‘ala is usually used in the locative sense in which one physical entity is UP-DOWN relation to another physical entity. In spite of that, the cognitive analysis of ‘ala justifies the use of this preposition in many situations to seemingly encode non-up down-related spatial relations, and non-physical relation. This uncovers some of the unsolved issues concerning prepositions in general and the Arabic prepositions in particular the use of ‘ala as a sample. Using the Arabic corpus data, we reveal that in many cases and situations, the use of ‘ala is extended to depict relations other than the ones where the Trajector (TR) is actually in up-down relation to the Landmark (LM). The instances analyzed in this paper show that ‘ala encodes not only the spatial relations in which the TR and the LM are horizontally or vertically related to each other, but also non-spatial relations.

Keywords: image schema, preposition, spatial semantic, up-down relation

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Authors: Ruth Shapira

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Introduction: The rapid urbanization of the last century confronts planners, regulatory bodies, developers and most of all – the public with seemingly unsolved conflicts regarding values, capital, and wellbeing of the built and un-built urban space. This is reflected in the quality of the urban form and life which has known no significant progress in the last 2-3 decades despite the on-growing urban population. It is the objective of this paper to analyze some of these fundamental issues through the case study of a relatively small town in the center of Israel (Kiryat-Ono, 100,000 inhabitants), unfold the deep structure of qualities versus disruptors, present some cure that we have developed to bridge over and humbly suggest a practice that may be generic for similar cases. Basic Methodologies: The OBJECT, the town of Kiryat Ono, shall be experimented upon in a series of four action processes: De-composition, Re-composition, the Centering process and, finally, Controlled Structural Disintegration. Each stage will be based on facts, analysis of previous multidisciplinary interventions on various layers – and the inevitable reaction of the OBJECT, leading to the conclusion based on innovative theoretical and practical methods that we have developed and that we believe are proper for the open ended network, setting the rules for the contemporary urban society to cluster by. The Study: Kiryat Ono, was founded 70 years ago as an agricultural settlement and rapidly turned into an urban entity. In spite the massive intensification, the original DNA of the old small town was still deeply embedded, mostly in the quality of the public space and in the sense of clustered communities. In the past 20 years, the recent demand for housing has been addressed to on the national level with recent master plans and urban regeneration policies mostly encouraging individual economic initiatives. Unfortunately, due to the obsolete existing planning platform the present urban renewal is characterized by pressure of developers, a dramatic change in building scale and widespread disintegration of the existing urban and social tissue. Our office was commissioned to conceptualize two master plans for the two contradictory processes of Kiryat Ono’s future: intensification and conservation. Following a comprehensive investigation into the deep structures and qualities of the existing town, we developed a new vocabulary of conservation terms thus redefying the sense of PLACE. The main challenge was to create master plans that should offer a regulatory basis to the accelerated and sporadic development providing for the public good and preserving the characteristics of the PLACE consisting of a tool box of design guidelines that will have the ability to reorganize space along the time axis in a coherent way. In Conclusion: The system of rules that we have developed can generate endless possible patterns making sure that at each implementation fragment an event is created, and a better place is revealed. It takes time and perseverance but it seems to be the way to provide a healthy framework for the accelerated urbanization of our chaotic present.

Keywords: housing, architecture, urban qualities, urban regeneration, conservation, intensification

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Authors: Siti Juryiah Mohd Khalid, Norazlina Dol

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Academic libraries in Malaysia are still not prepared for disaster even though several occasions have been reported. The study sets out to assess the current status of preparedness in disaster management among Malaysian academic libraries in the State of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. To obtain a base level of knowledge on disaster preparedness of current practices, a questionnaire was distributed to chief librarians or their assignees in charge of disaster or emergency preparedness at 40 academic libraries and 34 responses were received. The study revolved around the current status of preparedness, on various issues including existence of disaster preparedness plan among academic libraries in Malaysia, disaster experiences by the academic libraries, funding, risk assessment activities and involvement of library staff in disaster management. Frequency and percentage tables were used in the analysis of the data collected. Some of the academic libraries under study have experienced one form of disaster or the other. Most of the academic libraries do not have a written disaster preparedness plan. The risk assessments and staff involvement in disaster preparedness by these libraries were generally adequate.

Keywords: academic libraries, disaster preparedness plan, disaster management, emergency plan

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Authors: Ryan Messina, Mehedi Hasan

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This research is to examine the impacts of using data to generate performance requirements for automation in visual inspections using machine vision. These situations are intended for design and how projects can smooth the transfer of tacit knowledge to using an algorithm. We have proposed a framework when specifying machine vision systems. This framework utilizes varying levels of automation as contingency planning to reduce data processing complexity. Using data assists in extracting tacit knowledge from those who can perform the manual tasks to assist design the system; this means that real data from the system is always referenced and minimizes errors between participating parties. We propose using three indicators to know if the project has a high risk of failing to meet requirements related to accuracy and reliability. All systems tested achieved a better integration into operations after applying the framework.

Keywords: automation, contingency planning, continuous engineering, control theory, machine vision, system requirements, system thinking

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Authors: Meshari Aljohani, Stephan Olariu, Ravi Mukkamala

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Data is essential for enhancing the quality of life. Its value creates chances for users to profit from data sales and purchases. Users in data marketplaces, however, must share and trade data in a secure and trusted environment while maintaining their privacy. The first main contribution of this paper is to identify enabling technologies and challenges facing the development of decentralized data marketplaces. The second main contribution is to propose a decentralized data marketplace framework based on blockchain technology. The proposed framework enables sellers and buyers to transact with more confidence. Using a security deposit, the system implements a unique approach for enforcing honesty in data exchange among anonymous individuals. Before the transaction is considered complete, the system has a time frame. As a result, users can submit disputes to the arbitrators which will review them and respond with their decision. Use cases are presented to demonstrate how these technologies help data marketplaces handle issues and challenges.

Keywords: blockchain, data, data marketplace, smart contract, reputation system

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Authors: Rumman M. D. Raihanuzzaman, Lee Chang Chuan, Zonghan Xie, Reza Ghomashchi

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Cemented carbides, owing to their excellent mechanical properties, have been of immense interest in the field of hard materials for the past few decades. A number of processing techniques have been developed to obtain high quality carbide tools, with a wide range of grain size depending on the application and requirements. Microwave sintering is one of the heating processes, which has been used on a wide range of materials including ceramics. The complete understanding of microwave sintering and its contribution towards control of grain growth and on deformation of the resulting carbide materials needs further studies and attention. In addition, the effect of binder materials and their behaviour as a function of microwave sintering is another area that requires clear understanding. This review aims to focus on microwave sintering, providing information of how the process works and what type of materials it is best suited for. In addition, a closer look at some microwave sintered Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt samples will be taken and discussed, addressing some of the key issues and challenges faced in the research.

Keywords: cemented carbides, consolidation, microwave sintering, mechanical properties

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Authors: Aparajita Mukherjee, D. P. Mukherjee

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This paper critically assessed pollution problems in small and medium enterprises with unique references to foundries and sponge iron industries to survey the adverse impact on human societies and the environment. The objective of this paper was to show how cleaner production concept was implemented in one foundry through improvisation of existing technology in India. Incremental advancement of existing technology minimized environmental issues and resource utilization. This study depicted that poor fiscal help, poor enforcement of government regulations, owners’ attitude and lacking specialized technical workers were the significant hindrances towards cleaner production. The paper explored the possible ways to overcome these hindrances for cleaner production. On a more general level, findings raise important questions regarding the need for a new paradigm for the implementation of cleaner production. Improvisation of existing technology in these enterprises would be cost effective towards sustainable development.

Keywords: SME pollution, ecological crisis, sustainable development, cleaner production, training

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Authors: Cosette Maiky

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Background: In the context of the Syrian crisis, the past few years have witnessed an exponential growth in the number of refugee mental health studies, which have essentially focused either on the affected Syrian population and/or host communities. However, the Palestinian communities in the region did not receive sufficient that much of attention. Aim: The study aimed at identifying trends and patterns of mental health and and psychosocial conditions among Palestinian refugees in the context of the Syrian crisis, including the recognition of gaps in appropriate services. Methods: The research model comprised a systematic documentary review, a mapping of available contextual analyses, a quantitative survey, focus group discussions as well as key informant interviews (with relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries). Findings: Content analysis revealed multiple effects of transgenerational transmission of trauma among Palestinian refugees in the context of the Syrian crisis, which showed to be neither linear nor one-dimensional occurrence. In addition to highlights on exposure to traumatic events and psychological sequelae, the review outlines the most prevailing coping mechanisms and essential protective factors. Conclusion: Away from a trauma-centered or symptom-focused exercise, practitioners may take account of the present study to better focus research and intervention methodologies.

Keywords: Palestine refugees, Syria crisis, psychosocial, mental health

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Authors: Ali Abojassim, Nabeel Kadhim, Adil Jaber, Ali Hussein

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Water quality index (WQI) is valuable and unique rating to depict the total water quality status in a single term that is helpful for the selection of appropriate treatment technique to meet the concerned issues. Fifteen surface water samples were collected from the Euphrates river within AlHaydria is sub district of AL-Najaf (Iraq). The quality of surface water were evaluated by testing various physicochemical parameters such as pH, Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), , Calcium, Chloride, Sulphate and Electrical conductivity. The WQI for all samples were found in the range of 25.92 to 47.22. The highest value of WQI was observed in the Ali Hajj Hassan(SW4,SW8), El Haj Abdel Sayed (SW 10 to SW 12)and Hasan alsab(SW 14) sampling locations. Most of the water samples within study area were found good to moderate categories. most of the water samples for study area were found good as well as moderate categories

Keywords: water quality index, GIS, physicochemical parameters, Iraq Standards for irrigation purpose 2012

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Authors: S. Cheragh Dar, M. Saljooghi, A. Babrgir

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In the last couple of decades researchers' attitudes were focused on developing and enhancing heat transfer processes by using new components or cellular solids that divide into stochastic structures and periodic structures. Open-cell metal foams are part of stochastic structures families that they can be considered as an avant-garde technology and they have unique properties, this porous media can have tremendous achievements in thermal processes. This paper argues and surveys postulating possible in industrial thermal issues which include: compact electronic cooling, heat exchanger, aerospace, fines, turbo machinery, automobiles, crygen tanks, biomechanics, high temperature filters and etc. Recently, by surveying exponential rate of publications in thermal open-cell metal foams, all can be demonstrated in a holistic view which can lead researchers to a new level of understanding in different industrial thermal sections.

Keywords: heat transfer, industrial thermal, cellular solids, open cell metal foam

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Authors: Zhang Xue

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Urban public green spaces have evolved from classical private gardens and have expanded into multi-dimensional space value attributes such as scale and property rights. Among them, ecological, environmental value, social interaction value, and commercial, economic value have become consensual value characteristics. From the perspective of institutional economics, urban public green spaces, as a type of non-exclusive and non-competitive public good, express the social connotation of spatial "publicness" and multiple values are its important attributes. However, due to the positive externality characteristics of public green spaces, the cost-benefit functions between subjects are inconsistent, leading to issues such as the "anti-commons tragedy" of transitional management, lack of public sense of space responsibility, and weakened public nature. It is necessary to enhance the "publicness" of urban public green spaces through effective institutional arrangements, inclusive planning participation, and humane management measures, promoting urban public openness and the enhancement of multiple values.

Keywords: public green spaces, publicness, governance, institutional economics

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Authors: Omar Alshehri, Vic Lally

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This paper examined the attitudes of using social media tools to support learning at a university in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it investigated the students’ current usage of these tools and examined the barriers they could face during the use of social media tools in the education process. Participants in this study were 42 university students. A web-based survey was used to collect data for this study. The results indicate that all of the students were familiar with social media and had used at least one type of social media for learning. It was found out that all students had very positive attitudes towards the use of social media and welcomed using these tools as a supplementary to the curriculum. However, the results indicated that the major barriers to using these tools in learning were distraction, opposing Islamic religious teachings, privacy issues, and cyberbullying. The study recommended that this study could be replicated at other Saudi universities to investigate factors and barriers that might affect Saudi students’ attitudes toward using social media to support learning.

Keywords: barriers to social media use, benefits of social media use, higher education, Saudi Arabia, social media

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec, Vesna Bosilj Vukšić, Ljubica Milanović Glavan

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Business process management (BPM) is a well-known holistic discipline focused on managing business processes with the intention of achieving higher level of BPM maturity and better organizational performance. In recent period, traditional BPM faced some of its limitations like model-reality divide and lost innovation. Following latest trends, as an attempt to overcome the issues of traditional BPM, there has been an introduction of applying the principles of social software in managing business processes which led to the development of social BPM. However, there are not many authors or studies dealing with this topic so this study aims to contribute to that literature gap and to examine the link between the level of BPM maturity and the usage of social BPM. To meet these objectives, a survey within the companies with more than 50 employees has been conducted. The results reveal that the usage of social BPM is higher within the companies which achieved higher level of BPM maturity. This paper provides an overview, analysis and discussion of collected data regarding BPM maturity and social BPM within the observed companies and identifies the main social BPM principles.

Keywords: business process management, BPM maturity, process performance index, social BPM

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Authors: Farah Vierra

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Following the 2016 US presidential election and the advancement of the Brexit referendum, the concept of “post-truth,” defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief,” came into prominent use in public, political and educational circles. What this essentially entails is that in this age, individuals are increasingly confronted with subjective perpetuations of truth in their discourse spheres that are informed by beliefs and opinions as opposed to any form of coherence to the reality of those to who this truth claims concern. In principle, a subjective delineation of truth is progressive and liberating – especially considering its potential to provide marginalised groups in the diverse communities of our globalised world with the voice to articulate truths that are representative of themselves and their experiences. However, any form of human flourishing that seems to be promised here collapses as the tenets of subjective truths initially in place to liberate have been distorted through post-truth to allow individuals to purport selective and individualistic truth claims that further oppress and silence certain groups within society without due accountability. The evidence of this is prevalent through the conception of terms such as "alternative facts" and "fake news" that we observe individuals declare when their problematic truth claims are being questioned. Considering the pervasiveness of post-truth and the ethical issues that accompany it, educators and scholars alike have increasingly noted the need to adapt educational practices and pedagogies to account for the diminishing objectivity of truth in the twenty-first century, especially because students, as digital natives, find themselves in the firing line of post-truth; engulfed in digital societies that proliferate post-truth through the surge of truth claims allowed in various media sites. In an attempt to equip students with the vital skills to navigate the post-truth age and oppose its proliferation of social injustices, English educators find themselves having to contend with a complex question: how can the teaching of English equip students with the ability to critically and ethically scrutinise truth claims whilst also mediating the subjectivity of truth in a manner that does not undermine the voices of diverse communities. In order to address this question, this paper will first examine the challenges that confront students as a result of post-truth. Following this, the paper will elucidate the role English education can play in helping students overcome the complex demands of the post-truth age. Scholars have consistently touted the affordances of literary texts in providing students with imagined spaces to explore societal issues through a critical discernment of language and an ethical engagement with its narrative developments. Therefore, this paper will explain and demonstrate how literary texts, when used alongside a critical-ethical post-truth pedagogy that equips students with interpretive strategies informed by literary traditions such as literary and ethical criticism, can be effective in helping students develop the pertinent skills to comprehensively examine truth claims and overcome the challenges of the post-truth age.

Keywords: post-truth, pedagogy, ethics, english, education

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Authors: Zeeshan Hamid, Asher Ramish

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The purpose of this paper is to focus on security and safety issues facing by pharmaceutical industry globally when counterfeit drugs are in question. Hence, there is an intense need to secure and authenticate pharmaceutical products in the emerging counterfeit product market. This paper will elaborate the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) in pharmaceutical industry and to identify its key benefits for patient’s care. The benefits are: help to co-ordinate the stream of supplies, accuracy in chains of supplies, maintaining trustworthy information, to manage the operations in appropriate and timely manners and finally deliver the genuine drug to patient. It is discussed that how RFID supported supply chain information sharing (SCIS) helps to combat against counterfeit drugs. And a solution how to tag pharmaceutical products; since, some products prevent RFID implementation in this industry. In this paper, a proposed model for pharma industry distribution suggested to combat against the counterfeit drugs when they are in supply chain.

Keywords: supply chain, RFID, pharmaceutical industry, counterfeit drugs, patients care

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Authors: Ankur Sachan

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Carbon dioxide being the most anthropogenic greenhouse gas,it needs to be isolated from entering into atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage is process that captures CO2 emitted from various sources, separates it from other gases and stores it in a safe place preferably in underground geological formations for large period of time. It is then purified and monitored so that can be made to reuse. Monoethanolamine, zeolitic imidazolate framework, microalgae, membranes etc are utilized to capture CO2. Post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion along with chemical looping combustion are technologies for scrubbing CO2. The properties of CO2 being easily miscible and readily dissolving in oil with impurities makes it capable for numerous applications such as in producing oil by enhanced oil recovery (EOR), Bio CCS Algal Synthesis etc. CO2-EOR operation is capable to produce million barrels of oil and extend the field's lifetime as in case of Weyburn Oil Field in Canada. The physical storage of CO2 is technically the most feasible direction provided that the associated safety and sustainability issues can be met and new materials for CCUS process at low cost are urgently found so that so that fossil based systems with carbon capture are cost competitive.

Keywords: carbon capture, CCUS, sustainability, oil

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Authors: Estela Díaz

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This article aims to make three contributions. First, build on the literature on ethical decision-making literature by exploring factors that influence the intention of adopting veganism. Second, study the superiority of extended models of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for understanding the process involved in forming the intention of adopting veganism. Third, analyze the moderating effect of gender on TPB given that attitudes and behavior towards animals are gender-sensitive. No study, to our knowledge, has examined these questions. Veganism is not a diet but a political and moral stand that exclude, for moral reasons, the use of animals. Although there is a growing interest in studying veganism, it continues being overlooked in empirical research, especially within the domain of social psychology. TPB has been widely used to study a broad range of human behaviors, including moral issues. Nonetheless, TPB has rarely been applied to examine ethical decisions about animals and, even less, to veganism. Hence, the validity of TPB in predicting the intention of adopting veganism remains unanswered. A total of 476 non-vegan Spanish university students (55.6% female; the mean age was 23.26 years, SD= 6.1) responded to online and pencil-and-paper self-reported questionnaire based on previous studies. TPB extended models incorporated two background factors: ‘general attitudes towards humanlike-attributes ascribed to animals’ (AHA) (capacity for reason/emotions/suffer, moral consideration, and affect-towards-animals); and ‘general attitudes towards 11 uses of animals’ (AUA). SPSS 22 and SmartPLS 3.0 were used for statistical analyses. This study constructed a second-order reflective-formative model and took the multi-group analysis (MGA) approach to study gender effects. Six models of TPB (the standard and five competing) were tested. No a priori hypotheses were formulated. The results gave partial support to TPB. Attitudes (ATTV) (β = .207, p < .001), subjective norms (SNV) (β = .323, p < .001), and perceived control behavior (PCB) (β = .149, p < .001) had a significant direct effect on intentions (INTV). This model accounted for 27,9% of the variance in intention (R2Adj = .275) and had a small predictive relevance (Q2 = .261). However, findings from this study reveal that contrary to what TPB generally proposes, the effect of the background factors on intentions was not fully mediated by the proximal constructs of intentions. For instance, in the final model (Model#6), both factors had significant multiple indirect effect on INTV (β = .074, 95% C = .030, .126 [AHA:INTV]; β = .101, 95% C = .055, .155 [AUA:INTV]) and significant direct effect on INTV (β = .175, p < .001 [AHA:INTV]; β = .100, p = .003 [AUA:INTV]). Furthermore, the addition of direct paths from background factors to intentions improved the explained variance in intention (R2 = .324; R2Adj = .317) and the predictive relevance (Q2 = .300) over the base-model. This supports existing literature on the superiority of enhanced TPB models to predict ethical issues; which suggests that moral behavior may add additional complexity to decision-making. Regarding gender effect, MGA showed that gender only moderated the influence of AHA on ATTV (e.g., βWomen−βMen = .296, p < .001 [Model #6]). However, other observed gender differences (e.g. the explained variance of the model for intentions were always higher for men that for women, for instance, R2Women = .298; R2Men = .394 [Model #6]) deserve further considerations, especially for developing more effective communication strategies.

Keywords: veganism, Theory of Planned Behavior, background factors, gender moderation

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Authors: Eko Budi Santoso

Abstract:

There is a growing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues in developing countries such as Indonesia. Firms disclose their CSR activities, and some provide assurance to gain recognition as socially responsible firms. However, several of those socially responsible firms involve in tax scandals and raise a question of whether CSR disclosure is used to disguise firm misconduct or as a reflection of socially responsible firms. Specifically, whether firms engage in CSR disclosure and its assurance also responsible for their tax matters. This study examines the association between CSR disclosure and tax aggressiveness and the role of sustainability reporting assurance to the association. This research develops a modified index according to global reporting initiatives to measure CSR disclosure and various measurement for tax aggressiveness. Using a sample of Indonesian go public companies issued CSR disclosure, the empirical result shows that there is an association between CSR disclosure and tax aggressiveness. In addition, results also indicate sustainability reporting assurance moderate those association. The findings suggest that stakeholder in developing countries should examine carefully firms with active CSR disclosure before label it as socially responsible firms. JEL Classification: M14

Keywords: CSR disclosure, tax aggressiveness, assurance, business ethics

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Authors: K. A.Tharanga, K. H. H. Damayanthi

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Perception is an epistemological concept discussed in Philosophy. Perception, in other word, vision, is one of the ways that human beings get empirical knowledge after five senses. However, we face innumerable problems when achieving knowledge from perception, and therefore the knowledge gained through perception is uncertain. what we see in the external world is not real. These are the major issues that we face when receiving knowledge through perception. Sometimes there is no physical existence of what we really see. In such cases, the perception is relative. The following frames will be taken into consideration when perception is analyzed illusions and delusions, the figure of a physical object, appearance and the reality of a physical object, time factor, and colour of a physical object. seeing and knowing become vary according to the above conceptual frames. We cannot come to a proper conclusion of what we see in the empirical world. Because the things that we see are not really there. Hence the scientific knowledge which is gained from observation is doubtful. All the factors discussed in science remain in the physical world. There is a leap from ones existence to the existence of a world outside his/her mind. Indeed, one can suppose that what he/she takes to be real is just a massive deception. However, depending on the above facts, if someone begins to doubt about the whole world, it is unavoidable to become his/her view a scepticism or nihilism. This is a certain reality.

Keywords: empirical, perception, sceptisism, nihilism

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Authors: Nandita Chaube, S. S. Nathawat

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Sleep paralysis is a state of sleep disturbance in which people experience hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations marked by an inability to move their bodies or speak out while reporting the consciousness about their surroundings. Philosophical explanation of sleep paralysis has been quoted in the ancient texts in terms of incubus and succubus. However, pathologically, it has been linked to several disorders including narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea but it can also occur in isolation. Some other significant factors may include perceived stress, spiritual and paranormal beliefs, etc. Hence, a qualitative analysis of five such cases reporting symptoms of sleep disturbances with the criterion of sleep paralysis has been reported here. The study considered various psychological factors like stressful life events, feelings of inadequacy, spirituality, and paranormal beliefs. Results disclosed that four of the five cases were inclined towards the paranormal beliefs and the entire sample indicated a noticeably augmented level of spirituality and feelings of inadequacy. Furthermore, three cases reported experiencing greater stress following life events. Among other factors, all the cases were characterized with sleeping in the supine position, sleeping alone, an experience of fear, a sense of pressure on their chest, a presence of someone in the room and increased level of feelings of inadequacy.

Keywords: genesis, inadequacy, paranormal, sleep-paralysis, spiritual, stress

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Authors: Minakshi Jain, I. P. Singh

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Due to the era of outstanding technology and modern lifestyle, human beings are debasing their physical, psychological, and mental well-being. The effect of this leads to a trail of chronic diseases like anxiety, loneliness, and depression, especially in children and young adults. This is visible in individuals who suffer from clinical depression, which leads to impaired mood and distortion of cognition, particularly in children. The Members of the WHO European Region made a declaration to provisioning each child with access to healthy and safe environments by 2020, and the decision was taken at the Conference on Environment and Health in 2010 as an initiative to improve access to green spaces in cities which provides universal access for quality spaces for both social interaction and human well-being. In line with this, the paper aims to establish a prospective study on linking green spaces and CBT (Cognitive behavior therapy) in order to treat disorders with reference to children and young adults. A questionnaire was adopted to explore the possibility of green spaces as additive measures for the existing modes of therapy. The results adapted from the questionnaire show that certain species of vegetation have a significant effect in enhancing effective mental well-being.

Keywords: CBT, therapeutic gardens UCLA loneliness scale, anxiety, depression, green spaces, biophilia, environmental psychology

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