Search results for: aging society

Authors: Ly Thi Hai Yen

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The Internet in Vietnam has developed significantly over the last 20 years and made impressive advances, permeating into every part of daily life, changing people's habits as well as the way people's communication. Under this situation, social media have become useful tools for the citizen to get and share information. About 10 years ago, most Vietnamese people got the information through state media, but thanks to the development of the Internet, nowadays, social media have been giving them rich sources of information at any area of society. By using case study research methods, documentary research method and in-depth interviews conducted with social media users, NGO activists, and Vietnamese scholars in 2017, the paper found that social media has been bringing a cyber public sphere to whom wish to discuss social and political issues. And, more importantly, it gives them a chance to connect with the government and policy makers quickly and effectively. Moreover, people use social media to supervise activities in society to prevent social evils and corruption in Vietnam. However, besides these positive points, people also have to cope with the rising situation of fake news which causing consequences for the society, such as pulling off crimes or cheating money and others. The paper concluded that social media plays important roles in the change of Vietnamese society, giving citizens a cyber public sphere unrestrictedly to discuss social and political issues but also bringing many bad risks to citizens.

Keywords: Vietnamese, social media, politics-society

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Authors: Raj Kumar Kama, Rajshree Kamat

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Traffic congestion is a serious problem that is to be considered, and it is increasing day-by-day in urban areas that is seriously affecting the urban society. From the study, it is understood that increased urbanization and growth of population are the principal causes of congestion. It has adverse effects on society, economy, environment, and health. This study mainly focussed on studying and understanding the causes of congestion, consequences faced by urban society, and planning solutions to mitigate congestion. Techniques like transit oriented development (TOD) and integrated transport systems are more effective in mitigating traffic congestion.

Keywords: traffic congestion, transit oriented development, integrated transport system, urbanization

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Authors: Mohinder Kumar

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Sports are considered as the very prominent social institution in almost every society because it reflects the mores, values, and general culture of a society. Sports activity tend to pave the foundation for learning acceptable values and beliefs and for acquiring desirable character traits such as self-discipline, sportsmanship, and an appreciation for hard work, fairness, self-respect, leadership, followership, justice, perseverance, competition, and goal attainment. The present study focuses on ideal ways of socializing youngsters into sports. Influences of some socializing agents (e.g. family, school, community) are reviewed and suggestions made as to how these socializing agents can be oriented and made effective in carrying out functional processes toward target ends.

Keywords: sports, socializing, family, community, society

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Authors: Weihsuan Lin

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The Swiss Bethlehem Mission Society (BMS) in Taiwan has influenced and made an important contribution to religion and social work in Taidong. This German-speaking Catholic missionary society is located in Taidong, which is the political and economic periphery of Taiwan but is the cultural center of the Chinese and many different Austronesian ethnic groups, including Amis, Paiwan, Puyuma, Yami, Bunun, and Rukai. Through document analysis and fieldwork, this research aims to explore the result of the confrontation, exchange, and innovation between the BMS and other ethnic groups. Further, based upon Michael Foucault’s discussion of two modalities of constructing individuals, namely ‘discipline’ and ‘care of the self,’ this research will analyze the ‘discipline’ and ‘care of the self’ mechanisms of and between BMS Fathers, Brothers, and Church followers at the scale of individuals. At the scale of groups, the ‘autonomy’ and ‘been governed’ of the BMS in relationship to the Catholic Church in Taiwan and the world will also be examined.

Keywords: Bethlehem Mission Society, Religion and Geography, Spirituality, Foucault

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Authors: Ramin Barati, Atefeh Salemi

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In Victorian era, the society had been surrounded by extreme class ranking in order to identify the people of the classes and to intensify power relationships due to the growth of industry in Charles Dickens's (1812-1870) Great Expectations (2003) in which he illustrates the clash and dichotomy in the 19th century London. The classes in Victorian period have socially divided the population into two parts, the lower and the upper class of the community. In such a panopticon society, the major character Pip was the best example of the working class who was under the domination of violence, malice, and abuse of Miss Havisham as a member of the ruling class in order to take revenge on her failures. The conflict and disunity represented in vindictiveness and the sense of revenge applied by Miss Havisham against his victim Pip, made him experience alienation and eventually suffer from identity crisis. This paper considers New Historicism based on the theories of the French critic Michel Foucault (1926-1984). The social concept, panopticism, was called after the panopticon society, basically elaborated by Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish (1975) and he considers the panopticon as a sign of punitive community of surveillance. This paper evaluates the problems of a dual society to show that the people of the lower class are under the domination of capitalist society.

Keywords: class, identity crisis, violence, panoptic society, domination

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Authors: Rohtash

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Academically, the concept of Justice in the literature is vast, and theories are voluminous and definitions are numerous but it is very difficult to define. Through the ages, justice has been evolving and developing reasoning that how individuals and communities do the right thing that is just and fair to all in that society. Justice is a relative and dynamic concept, not absolute one. It is different in different societies based on their morality and ethics. The idea of justice cannot arise from a single morality but interaction of competing moralities and contending perspectives. Justice is the conditional and circumstantial term. Therefore, justice takes different meanings in different contexts. Justice is the application of the Laws. It is a values-based concept in order to protect the rights and liberties of the people. It is a socially created concept that has no physical reality. It exists in society on the basis of the spirit of sharing by the communities and members of society. The conception of justice in society or among communities and individuals is based on their social coordination. It can be effective only when people’s judgments are based on collective reasoning. Their behavior is shaped by social values, norms and laws. People must accept, share and respect the set of principles for delivering justice. Thus justice can be a reasonable solution to conflicts and to coordinate behavior in society. The subject matter of distributive justice is the Public Good and societal resources that should be evenly distributed among the different sections of society on the principles developed and established by the State through legislation, public policy and Executive orders. The Socioeconomic transformation of the society is adopted by the constitution within the limit of its morality and gives a new dimension to transformative justice. Therefore, both Procedural and Transformative justice is part of Distributive justice. Distributive justice is purely an economic phenomenon. It concerns the allocation of resources among the communities and individuals. The subject matter of distributive justice is the distribution of rights, responsibilities, burdens and benefits in society on the basis of the capacity and capability of individuals.

Keywords: distributive justice, constitutionalism, institutionalism, constitutional morality

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Authors: Taufik Hidayah

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Wayang is a traditional puppet show originated from Java. This traditional art is characterized by distinctive Hinduism influence. Wayang reflects the social life of the Javanese society. It contains Javanese philosophy, myths, magical stories, and religion, as well as educational media and transmission for noble values of Javanese society conveyed through the story. Nowadays, the performance of wayang has faced a new challenge to maintain its existence in the public life of Javanese society. Modernity has penetrated into every shape of culture. Many people consider traditional culture as old fashioned, particularly the young generation. That is one of the reasons why many people have left traditional culture. For maintaining the existence of wayang, a new art called ‘wayang hip hop’ has arisen. Wayang hip hop seeks to modify wayang show into a more modern form, but without removing any principles and main functions of wayang art. This article will discuss theoretically the changes and traditional continuity in wayang hip hop based on a literature review and qualitative approaches. Wayang hip hop uses hip-hop music as the background music in the show. It will discuss about the impact that comes with the existential strengthening of wayang hip hop especially among the Javanese society and discuss the opportunities that arise regarding the function of wayang hip-hop as a medium of education, social criticism, and cultural revitalization of the Javanese society.

Keywords: cultural revitalization, social criticism, education, continuity and change

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Authors: Horng-Jyh Chen, Yi-Fang Chen, Chien-Liang Lin

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In this paper, the authors try to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention of the blended e-learning course for senior students at the Active Ageing University in Taiwan. Due to lower proficiency in the use of computers and less experience on learning styles of the blended e-learning course for senior students will be expected quite different from those for most young students. After more than five weeks course for two years the questionnaire survey is executed to collect data for statistical analysis in order to understand the determinants of the behavioral intention for senior students. The object of this study is at one of the Active Ageing University in Taiwan total of 84 senior students in the blended e-learning for the ceramics teaching course. The research results show that only the perceived usefulness of the blended e-learning course has significant positive relationship with the behavioral intention.

Keywords: Active Aging University, blended e-learning, ceramics teaching course, behavioral intention

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Authors: Muqarrab Akbar

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Pakistan is considered as a state confronting different internal and external challenges. Extremism is one of the most vital internal challenges faced by Pakistani society. The state’s contradictory policies, political instability, socio-economic injustice, absence of the rule of law are the major reasons behind the proliferation of violence and extremism in society. The fall of the Shah of Iran, the Iranian revolution, the 1979 Afghan war of 1979, the emergence of Al-Qaeda, Talibanisation, war against terrorism, and involvement of Saudia and Iran have further aggravated the culture of violence and extremism in Pakistan. The absence of a narrative of peaceful coexistence and harmony has created a vacuum for youth in Pakistani society. In the contemporary era, civil society and the government of Pakistan has initiated different steps to introduce a narrative to counter violent extremism. These narratives have helped a lot in creating community resilience to promote peace and harmony among Pakistani society in general and to bridge the gap between the Sunni Shia divide in particular. This paper will highlight those factors in detail that threw the society into extremism and violence, particularly with reference to Sunni Shia divide in Pakistan. This paper explores the impact of sectarian violence in Pakistan and highlights the different initiatives and their impacts on Pakistani society at large. A quantitative method has been adopted to explore the results. Empirical study used in the paper was based on the survey conducted by distributing questionnaires among 300 people from both community Sunni and Shia in Pakistan. Some interviews of the religious scholars of both communities are also conducted for this research. The recent developments on the government level and society levels have created community resilience. The results of the survey show that Pakistani society in the contemporary era is more peaceful and tolerant as compared to the past. The research concludes that the counter-narrative approach is positively affecting the peaceful environment in Pakistan.

Keywords: extremism, Pakistan, Shia, Sunni, violence

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Authors: Camille Charlebois-Plante, Marie-Ève Bourassa, Gaelle Dumel, Meriem Sabir, Louis De Beaumont

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To the extent of our knowledge, there has been little interest in the chronic effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on cognition during normal aging. This is rather surprising considering the impacts on daily and social functioning. In addition, sustaining a mTBI during late adulthood may increase the effect of normal biological aging in individuals who consider themselves normal and healthy. The objective of this study was to characterize the persistent neuropsychological repercussions of mTBI sustained during late adulthood, on average 12 months prior to testing. To this end, 35 mTBI patients and 42 controls between the ages of 50 and 69 completed an exhaustive neuropsychological assessment lasting three hours. All mTBI patients were asymptomatic and all participants had a score ≥ 27 at the MoCA. The evaluation consisted of 20 standardized neuropsychological tests measuring memory, attention, executive and language functions, as well as information processing speed. Performance on tests of visual (Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Revised) and verbal memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and WMS-IV Logical Memory subtest), lexical access (Boston Naming Test) and response inhibition (Stroop) revealed to be significantly lower in the mTBI group. These findings suggest that a mTBI sustained during late adulthood induces lasting effects on cognitive function. Episodic memory and executive functions seem to be particularly vulnerable to enduring mTBI effects.

Keywords: cognitive function, late adulthood, mild traumatic brain injury, neuropsychology

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Authors: Young Sik Kim, Tae Kwon Ha

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High strength Fe-36Ni-base Invar alloys containing Al contents up to 0.3 weight per cent were cast into ingots and thermodynamic equilibrium during solidification has been investigated in this study. From the thermodynamic simulation using Thermo-Calc®, it has been revealed that equilibrium phases which can be formed are two kinds of MC-type precipitates, MoC, and M2C carbides. The mu phase was also expected to form by addition of aluminum. Microstructure observation revealed the coarse precipitates in the as-cast ingots, which was non-equilibrium phase and could be resolved by the successive heat treatment. With increasing Al contents up to 0.3 wt.%, tensile strength of Invar alloy increased as 1400MPa after cold rolling and thermal expansion coefficient increased significantly. Cold rolling appeared to dramatically decrease thermal expansion coefficient.

Keywords: Invar alloy, transition metals, phase equilibrium, aging behavior, microstructure, hardness

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Authors: Zahra Kazemi Saleh, Bénédicte Poulin-Charronnat, Annie Vinter

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This study examines the effects of aging on visual statistical learning, using eye-tracking techniques to investigate this cognitive phenomenon. Visual statistical learning is a fundamental brain function that enables the automatic and implicit recognition, processing, and internalization of environmental patterns over time. Some previous research has suggested the robustness of this learning mechanism throughout the aging process, underscoring its importance in the context of education and rehabilitation for the elderly. The study included three distinct groups of participants, including 21 young adults (Mage: 19.73), 20 young-old adults (Mage: 67.22), and 17 old-old adults (Mage: 79.34). Participants were exposed to a series of 12 arbitrary black shapes organized into 6 pairs, each with different spatial configurations and orientations (horizontal, vertical, and oblique). These pairs were not explicitly revealed to the participants, who were instructed to passively observe 144 grids presented sequentially on the screen for a total duration of 7 min. In the subsequent test phase, participants performed a two-alternative forced-choice task in which they had to identify the most familiar pair from 48 trials, each consisting of a base pair and a non-base pair. Behavioral analysis using t-tests revealed notable findings. The mean score for the first group was significantly above chance, indicating the presence of visual statistical learning. Similarly, the second group also performed significantly above chance, confirming the persistence of visual statistical learning in young-old adults. Conversely, the third group, consisting of old-old adults, showed a mean score that was not significantly above chance. This lack of statistical learning in the old-old adult group suggests a decline in this cognitive ability with age. Preliminary eye-tracking results showed a decrease in the number and duration of fixations during the exposure phase for all groups. The main difference was that older participants focused more often on empty cases than younger participants, likely due to a decline in the ability to ignore irrelevant information, resulting in a decrease in statistical learning performance.

Keywords: aging, eye tracking, implicit learning, visual statistical learning

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Authors: Elaine Wong Yee-Sing

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Older adults are at high risk of chronic health conditions in Singapore. A closer examination at all facets of their aging process has revealed that they may not be necessary aging well. This demands for an increasing healthcare services brought to their home environment due to limited mobility and in the interest of time management. The home environment is an ideal setting to implement self-directed health promoting activities at their convenience and enable family’s support and motivation. This research protocol aims to explore their healthcare concerns, and creation of age appropriate interventions targeted to improve their chronic disease biomarkers. Convenience sampling of 130 families residing in private housing within five major districts in Singapore will be selected to participate in the health intervention. Statistical Package for Social Science 25 will be used to examine the pre and post screening results of their lipid, glycaemia and anthropometric outcomes. Using focus interviews, data results will be translated and transcribed to investigate on enablers, barriers and improvement on these services. Both qualitative and quantitative research outcomes are crucial to examine the impact of these services for these older adults living in private housing as they are not exposed to government subsidized community health programs. It is hypothesized that provision of relevant yet engaging health programs at their homes may mitigate the rising burden of chronic health conditions and result in successful aging outcomes among older Singaporeans.

Keywords: chronic diseases, health program, older adults, residential homes

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Authors: Govindan Sudha, Mathumitha Subramaniam, Alamelu Govindasamy, Sasikala Gunasekaran

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The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of Hypsizygus ulmarius polysaccharides (HUP) on reducing oxidative stress, cognitive impairment and neurotoxicity in D-galactose induced aging mice. Mice were subcutaneously injected with D-galactose (150 mg/kg per day) for 6 weeks and were administered HUP simultaneously. Aged mice receiving vitamin E (100 mg/kg) served as positive control. Chronic administration of D-galactose significantly impaired cognitive performance oxidative defence and mitochondrial enzymes activities as compared to control group. The results showed that HUP (200 and 400 mg/kg) treatment significantly improved the learning and memory ability in Morris water maze test. Biochemical examination revealed that HUP significantly increased the decreased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), mitochondrial enzymes-NADH dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase (MDH), isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), Na+K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ATPase activities, elevated the lowered total anti-oxidation capability (TAOC), glutathione (GSH), vitamin C and decreased the raised acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities, malondialdehyde (MDA), hydroperoxide (HPO), protein carbonyls (PCO), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) levels in brain of aging mice induced by D-gal in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, present study highlights the potential role of HUP against D-galactose induced cognitive impairment, biochemical and mitochondrial dysfunction in mice. In vitro studies on the effect of HUP on scavenging DPPH, ABTS, DMPD, OH radicals, reducing power, B-carotene bleaching and lipid peroxidation inhibition confirmed the free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity of HUP. The results suggest that HUP possesses anti-aging efficacy and may have potential in treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: aging, antioxidants, mushroom, neurotoxicity

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Authors: Mustafina-Bredikhina Diana, Kuznetsova Olga

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Corruption as a social phenomenon is obviously a serious barrier to the development of a prosperous society and the economic development of the country as a whole. It is extremely important to analyze the influence of culture on the level of corruption in different countries and assesses the influence of culture, religion, and mentality on corrupt behavior and their perception in society. Corruption should be considered in relation to the public consciousness, which is formed in certain socio-historical conditions and cultural traditions. Often, society, formally condemning corruption, reproduces obvious corrupt behavior at the personal level of its individual members. Based on a brief analysis of the major corruption scandals and the corruption counting system of countries, the authors conclude that culture, mentality, and religion, while playing an important role in the formation of public consciousness of the concept of "corrupt behavior" are not decisive. It is more important to build a dialogue between the authorities and society, creating a uniform rejection of corrupt behavior.

Keywords: corruption, culture, corrupt behavior, perception of corruption, religion

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Authors: Ipenyi Peter

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Discipline is an issue that tends to undermine the provision of quality education in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This is because the overall goals of tertiary institutions, as enunciated in the National Policy of Education, can hardly be achieved by all the stakeholders without strict conformity and adherence to the rules and regulations and the ideals of the entire society. The adherence is essential for the general welfare of the society. This paper critically X-rayed the causes of indiscipline in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Such courses include laxity in home control and parental supervision, school, teacher and societal factors as well as government influence. The paper recommended among others such strategies as enculturation, acculturation as well as the acquisition of a certain number of generic skills for dealing with discipline and ethical issues in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Keywords: discipline, education, tertiary institutions, society

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Authors: Krisztina Szegedi, Gyula Fülöp, Ádám Bereczk

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The shared goal of social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and social innovation is the advancement of society. The business model of social enterprises is characterized by unique strategies based on the competencies of the entrepreneurs, and is not aimed primarily at the maximization of profits, but rather at carrying out goals for the benefit of society. Corporate social responsibility refers to the active behavior of a company, by which it can create new solutions to meet the needs of society, either on its own or in cooperation with other social stakeholders. The objectives of this article are to define concepts, describe and integrate relevant theoretical models, develop a model and introduce some examples of international practice that can inspire initiatives for social development.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, CSR, social innovation, social entrepreneurship

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Authors: Haoyi Sheng

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China's aging tendency is becoming increasingly severe, which leads to the embarrassing situation of "getting old before getting wealthy". The traditional pension model does not comply with the need of today. Relying on "Internet Plus", it can efficiently integrate information and resources and meet the personalized needs of elderly care. It can reduce the operating cost of community elderly care facilities and lay a technical foundation for providing better services for the elderly. The key for providing help for the elderly in the future is to effectively integrate technology, make good use of technology, and improve the efficiency of elderly care services. The effective integration of traditional home care, community care, intelligent elderly care equipment and medical resources to create the "Internet Plus" community intelligent pension service mode has become the future development trend of aging care. The research method of this paper is to collect literature and conduct theoretical research on community pension firstly. Secondly, the combination of suitable aging design and "Internet Plus" is elaborated through research. Finally, this paper states the current level of intelligent technology in old-age care and looks into the future by understanding multiple levels of "Internet Plus". The development of community intelligent pension mode and content under "Internet Plus" has enormous development potential. In addition to the characteristics and functions of ordinary houses, residential design of endowment housing has higher requirements for comfort and personalization, and the people-oriented is the principle of design.

Keywords: ageing tendency, 'Internet Plus', community intelligent elderly care, elderly care service model, technology

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Authors: Wenlong Liu, Ru Zhang, Wangjie Li, Shenghui Sang

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The boom of smart cities in the age of population aging has caused concerns about the subjective well-being of the elderly. By employing the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015, this study uses an ordinary least square to analyze the influence of smart city development on the subjective well-being of the elderly in China. The results of this study suggest that smart cities will improve the life satisfaction of the elderly but reduce their happiness of them. In terms of the moderating effect, social capital negatively moderates the impact of the smart city on the subjective well-being of the elderly. Combined with the results of heterogeneous analysis, it is found that smart city has a stronger impact on the subjective well-being of the elderly with lower levels of personal social capital. To sum up, in the context of the country's vigorous promotion of smart city development, society and families should actively help the elderly to improve their social capital level, enhance the subjective well-being of the elderly, and alleviate the negative effects of smart city development, thereby improving the quality of life of the elderly.

Keywords: the elderly, smart city, social capital, subjective well-being

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Authors: Kenneth Lee

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During Buddha’s time in the 5th century BCE, the Indian society was organized by a social stratification system called “the caste system” (Skt. varna), which still exists today. The origination of the caste system can be traced back to 1500 BCE within the ancient Vedic texts of the Aryans, the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated and settled in the Indus Valley region. However, the four-tiered hierarchical nature of the caste system created inequality, privilege, and discrimination based on hereditary transmission. After renouncing his royal status as a prince, Siddhartha Gautama spent six years in the forest, practiced austerities, mastered meditation, and eventually realized enlightenment. Thereupon, now referred to as “Shakyamuni Buddha” or “sage from the tribe of Shakya who has become awake,” the Buddha founded the Sangha, a community of monks, nuns, and lay followers, where everyone was equal and treated equally. After providing a brief overview of Buddha’s time, this talk will examine Buddha’s Dharma or teachings on equality and his creation of the Sangha as “society within a society, which had a dissolving effect on society.

Keywords: equality, women, buddhism, discrimination

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Authors: Haga Elimam

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The study has contributed to determine the degree to which the women of Saudi Arabia play an imperative role in the developmental processes. This research provided a twofold objective to motivate Saudi females to take part in the development of society. The quantitative design has been implied for assessing outcomes through descriptive statistics techniques. The data has been analyzed by regression analysis. The outcomes of the study showed that when women were provided with health and educational necessities and adequate opportunities, they were able to contribute effectively in achieving desired developmental objectives for the nation. Saudi women constitute approximately half of the society; thus, they are equally provided health and justice rights. It has been concluded through the results of the study that the nature of Saudi society, customs, traditions, and beliefs affect the role played by women of Saudi Arabia. This study examines the tangible changes that comprised all aspects of life due to international exposure.

Keywords: social development, social service, sustainable development, civil society and educational sector

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Authors: Szerena Vajkovszki

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Among the relatively large volume of literature, the role and perception of women in Buddhism have been examined from various perspectives such as theology, history, anthropology, and feminism. When Buddhism spread to the West, women had a major role in its adaption and development. The meeting of different cultures and social structures had the fruit of a necessity to change. As Buddhism gained attention in the West, it produced a Buddhist feminist identity across national and ethnic boundaries. So globalization produced a contemporary cross-cultural Buddhist Women. The aim of the research is to find out the new role of such a Buddhist woman in aging societies. More precisely to understand what effect this contemporary Buddhist religion may have, direct or indirect, on fertility. Our worldwide aging society, especially in developed countries, including members of EU, raise sophisticated sociological and economic issues and challenges to be met. As declining fertility has outstanding influence underlying this trend, numerous studies have attempted to identify, describe, measure and interpret contributing factors of the fertility rate, out of which relatively few revealed the impact of religion. Among many religious guidelines, we can separate two major categories: direct and indirect. The aim of this research was to understand what are the most crucial identified (family values, gender related behaviors, religious sentiments) and not yet identified most influential contributing contemporary Buddhist religious factors. Above identifying these direct or indirect factors, it is also important to understand to what extent and how do they influence fertility, which requires a wider (inter-discipline) perspective. As proved by previous studies religion has also an influential role in health, mental state, well-being, working activity and many other components that are also related to fertility rates. All these components are inter-related, hence direct and indirect religious effects can only be well understood, if we figure out all necessary fields and their interaction. With the help of semi-structured opened interviews taking place in different countries, it was showed that indeed Buddhism has significant direct and indirect effect on fertility, hence the initial hypothesis was proved. However, the interviews showed an overall positive effect, the results could only serve for a general understanding about how Buddhism affects fertility. Evolution of Buddhism’s direct and indirect influence may vary in different nations and circumstances according to their specific environmental attributes. According to the local patterns, with special regard to women’s position and role in the society, outstandingly indirect influences could show diversifications. So it is advisory to investigate more for a deeper and clearer understanding of how Buddhism function in different socioeconomic circumstances. For example, in Hungary after the period of secularization more and more people tended to be attracted toward some transcendent values which could be an explanation for the rising number of Buddhists in the country. The present research could serve as a general starting point or a common basis for further specific national investigations how contemporary Buddhism affects fertility.

Keywords: contemporary Buddhism, cross-cultural woman, fertility, gender roles, religion

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Authors: Arun Karoriya, Mrinal Agrawal

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Health is one of the basic requirements of human being. And today India is facing a major degradation of health at every age group. As society evolves and flourishes, there are different types of rules, norms, standards which are required to control the conduct of the human being for its well-being and growth. Right to health is one of those aspects that can be counted, discovered and examined under the purview of constitutional provisions of India. The condition of health is at downfall despite the fact that there are several policies framed by the government. There is an urgent call for rigid public health laws to ensure safe and disease free society. The effectiveness of health law has to be examined by keeping in mind that it is hampering growth and economy and society establishment. Health in any society is a main social aspect as it plays a major role for economic development. The multidimensional approach to determine it is by discussing i) rational selection and use of medicines ii) sustainable adequate financing iii) affordable prices iv)reliable health and supply systems.

Keywords: degradation, flourish, multidimensional, policies

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Authors: Yu Pu, Chien-Ping Hsiao, Chien-Chang Huang, Chieh-Lun Cheng

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Free radicals can accelerate aging on human skin by causing lipid oxidation, protein denaturation, and even DNA mutation. Substances with the ability of anti-free radicals can be used as functional components in cosmetic products. Research are attracted to develop new anti-free radical components for cosmetic application. This study was aimed to evaluate the microbial metabolites on free radical scavenging ability. Two microorganisms, PU-01 and PU-02, were isolated from soil of hot spring environment and grew in LB agar at 50°C for 24 h. The suspension was collected by centrifugation at 4800 g for 3 min, The anti-free radical activity was determined by DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging assay. The result showed that the growth medium of PU-01 presented a higher DPPH scavenging effect than that of PU-02. This study presented potential anti-free radical components from microbial metabolites that might be applied in anti-aging cosmetics.

Keywords: anti-ageing, anti-free radical, biotechnology, microorganism

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Authors: Yoon Chung Kim

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In this coming aging society, medical device industry is expected to become one of the major industries. Since developing medical devices usually requires technology convergence, research collaboration is important, especially for some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that do not have enough R&D resources in each related field. Collaboration in medical device development has some unique properties. Since it requires convergence technology, collaboration with different fields, and different types of people are often required. Since it requires clinical test, the development process usually takes longer and collaboration with hospitals is also required. However, despite these importance and uniqueness, collaboration in medical device development has not yet been widely studied. Thus, our research focuses on investigating collaborations in medical device development. For our research, we conducted surveys and interviews, especially with SMEs’ perspective in Korea. The result and discussion will be presented with a major impact factors for collaboration result, as well as future strategies that will improve and strengthen collaboration process in medical devices.

Keywords: medical device, SME, research collaboration, development, clinical

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Authors: Daniel Sava, Dragos Gudovan, Iulia Alexandra Gudovan, Ioana Ardelean, Maria Sonmez, Denisa Ficai, Laurentia Alexandrescu, Ecaterina Andronescu

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Graphene and graphene oxide have been intensively studied due to the very good properties, which are intrinsic to the material or come from the easy doping of those with other functional groups. Graphene and graphene oxide have known a broad band of useful applications, in electronic devices, drug delivery systems, medical devices, sensors and opto-electronics, coating materials, sorbents of different agents for environmental applications, etc. The board range of applications does not come only from the use of graphene or graphene oxide alone, or by its prior functionalization with different moieties, but also it is a building block and an important component in many composite devices, its addition coming with new functionalities on the final composite or strengthening the ones that are already existent on the parent product. An attempt to improve the mechanical properties of polyamide elastomers by compounding with graphene oxide in the parent polymer composition was attempted. The addition of the graphene oxide contributes to the properties of the final product, improving the hardness and aging resistance. Graphene oxide has a lower hardness and textile strength, and if the amount of graphene oxide in the final product is not correctly estimated, it can lead to mechanical properties which are comparable to the starting material or even worse, the graphene oxide agglomerates becoming a tearing point in the final material if the amount added is too high (in a value greater than 3% towards the parent material measured in mass percentages). Two different types of tests were done on the obtained materials, the hardness standard test and the tensile strength standard test, and they were made on the obtained materials before and after the aging process. For the aging process, an accelerated aging was used in order to simulate the effect of natural aging over a long period of time. The accelerated aging was made in extreme heat. For all materials, FT-IR spectra were recorded using FT-IR spectroscopy. From the FT-IR spectra only the bands corresponding to the polyamide were intense, while the characteristic bands for graphene oxide were very small in comparison due to the very small amounts introduced in the final composite along with the low absorptivity of the graphene backbone and limited number of functional groups. In conclusion, some compositions showed very promising results, both in tensile strength test and in hardness tests. The best ratio of graphene to elastomer was between 0.6 and 0.8%, this addition extending the life of the product. Acknowledgements: The present work was possible due to the EU-funding grant POSCCE-A2O2.2.1-2013-1, Project No. 638/12.03.2014, code SMIS-CSNR 48652. The financial contribution received from the national project ‘New nanostructured polymeric composites for centre pivot liners, centre plate and other components for the railway industry (RONERANANOSTRUCT)’, No: 18 PTE (PN-III-P2-2.1-PTE-2016-0146) is also acknowledged.

Keywords: graphene, graphene oxide, mechanical properties, dopping effect

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Authors: H. C. Laltleipuii, Lalruatdiki Siakeng

Abstract:

Mizo is a language spoken by the natives of Mizoram in North-East India. The Mizo society is a patriarchal society and hence is encumbered with trails of sexism in its language. Sexist language expresses discrimination on the basis of gender. While women are primarily affected, it is not however limited to just the female gender. This paper focuses on the sexist language that reflects the discrimination of women in the male-dominated, male-centered society of the Mizo. The main purpose of this paper is to emphasize with details, sexism that can be found in three aspects of language: in the naming of animate and inanimate objects or words in general, in the idioms and phrases and proverbs. This study will also take into account the gender neutral terms that are in use in the language.

Keywords: gender, Mizo, patriarchy, sexism

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Authors: Najim Akorede Babalola

Abstract:

Adult Education is a multi and interdisciplinary in nature that cut across different fields of study which includes education, social sciences, engineering even information technologies that dominate the contemporary world among others. In the past, Adult Education has been used as an instrument of civilization by teaching people how to read and write as well as earning a better living. The present world has witnessed a transition from industrial age to information age which is also known as knowledge society needs Adult Education for knowledge acquisition and update of existing knowledge. An individual needs Adult Education in either of its various forms (on-the-job-training, in-service training, extramural classes, vocational education, continuing education among others) in order to develop towards the information society trends; this is because Adult Education is a process of transforming an individual through acquisition of relevant skills and knowledge for personal as well as societal development. Evidence abounds in the literature that Adult Education has not only assisted people in the medieval period but still assisting people in this modern society in changing and transforming their lives for a better living. This study, therefore, raised a salient question that with different ideas and innovations brought by the contemporary world, is Adult Education relevant? It is on this basis that this study intends to examine the relevance of Adult Education in the past and present in order to determine its future relevance.

Keywords: adult education, multi and inter-disciplinary, knowledge society, skill acquisition

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Authors: Manee Arpanantikul, Pennapa Unsanit, Dolrat Rujiwatthanakorn, Aporacha Lumdubwong

Abstract:

In order to continuously perform self-care based on the sufficiency economy philosophy for the length of women’s lives is not easy. However, there are different ways that women can use to carry out self-care activities regularly. Some women individually perform self-care while others perform self-care in groups. Little is known about ways to sustaining self-care of women based on the fundamental principle of Thai culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to sustaining self-care based on the sufficiency economy philosophy of Thai middle-aged women living in the community in order to achieve future healthy aging. This study employed a qualitative research design. Twenty women who were willing to participate in this study were recruited. Data collection were conducted through in-depth interviews with tape recording, doing field notes, and observation. All interviews were transcribed verbatim, and data were analyzed by using content analysis. The findings showed ways to sustaining self-care of Thai community women to achieve future healthy aging consisting of 7 themes: 1) having determination, 2) having a model, 3) developing a leader, 4) carrying on performing activities, 5) setting up rules, 6) building self-care culture, and 7) developing a self-care group/network. The findings of this study suggested that in order to achieve self-care sustainability women should get to know themselves, have intention and belief, together with having the power of community and support. Therefore, having self-care constantly will prevent disease and promote healthy in women’s lives.

Keywords: qualitative research, sufficiency economy philosophy, Thai middle-aged women, ways to sustaining self-care

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Authors: Björn de Kruijf, Arjen Edzes, Sietske Waslander

Abstract:

In an ever-quickly changing society, lifelong development is seen as a solution to labor market problems by politicians and policymakers. In this paper, we investigate how policy instruments are used to increase participation in lifelong development and on which behavioral principles policy is based. Digitization, automation, and an aging population change society and the labor market accordingly. Skills that were once most sought after in the workforce can become abundantly present. For people to remain relevant in the working population, they need to continue adapting new skills useful in the current labor market. Many reports have been written that focus on the role of lifelong development in this changing society and how lifelong development can help keep people adapt and stay relevant. Inspired by these reports, governments have implemented a broad range of policies to support participation in lifelong development. The question we ask ourselves is how government policies promote participation in lifelong development. This stems from a complex interplay of policy instruments and learning. Regulation, economic and soft instruments can be combined to promote lifelong development, and different types of education further complex policies on lifelong development. Literature suggests that different stages in people’s lives might warrant different methods of learning. Governments could anticipate this in their policies. In order to influence people’s behavior, the government can tap into a broad range of sociological, psychological, and (behavioral) economic principles. The traditional economic assumption that behavior is rational is known to be only partially true, and the government can use many biases in human behavior to stimulate participation in lifelong development. In this paper, we also try to find which biases the government taps into to promote participation if they tap into any of these biases. The goal of this paper is to analyze government policies intended to promote participation in lifelong development. To do this, we develop a framework to analyze the policies on lifelong development. We specifically incorporate the role of learning and the behavioral principles underlying policy instruments in the framework. We apply this framework to the case of the Netherlands, where we examine a set of policy documents. We single out the policies the government has put in place and how they are vertically and horizontally related. Afterward, we apply the framework and classify the individual policies by policy instrument and by type of learning. We find that the Dutch government focuses on formal and non-formal learning in their policy instruments. However, the literature suggests that learning at a later age is mainly done in an informal manner through experiences.

Keywords: learning, lifelong development, policy analysis, policy instruments

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