Search results for: computational social science

Authors: Wafa Unus

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Science journalism has been vanishing from America’s national newspapers for decades. Reportage on scientific topics is limited to only a handful of newspapers and of those, few employ dedicated science journalists to cover stories that require this specialized expertise. News organizations' lack of readiness to convey complex scientific concepts to a mass populace becomes particularly problematic when events like the Covid-19 pandemic occur. The lack of coverage of Covid-19 prior to its onset in the United States, suggests something more troubling - that the deprioritization of reporting on hard science as an educational tool in favor of political frames of coverage, places dangerous blinders on the American public. This research looks at the disparity between voices of health and science experts in news articles and the voices of political figures, in order to better understand the approach of American newspapers in conveying expert opinion on Covid-19. A content analysis of 300 articles on Covid-19 by major newspapers in the United States between January 1st, 2020 and April 30th, 2020 illuminates this investigation. The Boston Globe, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times are included in the content analysis. Initial findings reveal a significant disparity in the number of articles that mention Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the number that make reference to political figures. Covid-related articles in the New York Times that focused on health topics (as opposed to economic or social issues) contained the voices of 54 different politicians who were mentioned a total of 608 times. Only five members of the scientific community were mentioned a total of 24 times (out of 674 articles). In the Boston Globe, 36 different politicians were mentioned a total of 147 times, and only two members of the scientific community, one being Anthony Fauci, were mentioned a total of nine times (out of 423 articles). In the Los Angeles Times, 52 different politicians were mentioned a total of 600 times, and only six members of the scientific community were included and were mentioned a total of 82 times with Fauci being mentioned 48 times (out of 851 articles). Results provide a better understanding of the frames in which American journalists in Covid hotspots conveyed information of expert analysis on Covid-19 during one of the most pressing news events of the century. Ultimately, the objective of this study is to utilize the exploratory data to evaluate the nature, extent and impact of Covid-19 reporting in the context of trustworthiness and scientific expertise. Secondarily, this data will illuminate the degree to which Covid-19 reporting focused on politics over science.

Keywords: science reporting, science journalism, covid, misinformation, news

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Authors: Mohamed Elkhouli

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This research sets out to identify some social factors or variables that may need to be controlled in order to decrease the volume of unemployed in Egypt. As well as, it comes to investigate the relationship between a set of social variables and unemployment issue in Egypt in the sake of determining the most important social variables influencing the rise of unemployed during the time series targeted (2002-2012). Highlighting the unemployment issue is becoming an increasingly important topic in all countries throughout the world resulting from expand their globalization efforts. In general, the study tries to determine what the most social priorities are likely to adopt seriously by the Egypt's government in order to solve the unemployed problem. The results showed that the low value for both of small projects and the total value of disbursed social security respectively have significant impact on increasing the No. of unemployed in Egypt, according to the target period by the current study.

Keywords: Egypt, social status, unemployment, unemployed

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Authors: Young-Kwang Lee, Eun-Gu Ji, Min-Joo Kim, Seung-Jae Oh

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The purpose of this study is to develop a social participation activity scale for the elderly. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood method using bundled items. In conclusion, thirteen items of social participation activity scale seemed appropriate. Finally, convergent validity and discriminant validity were verified on the scale with the fit. The convergent validity was based on the variance extracted value. In other words, the hypothesis that the variables are the same is rejected and the validity is confirmed. This study extensively considered the measurement items of the social participation activity scale used to measure social participation activities of the elderly. In the future, it will be meaningful that it can be used as a tool to verify the effectiveness of services in organizations that provide social welfare services to elderly people such as comprehensive social welfare centers and the elderly comprehensive social welfare centers.

Keywords: elderly, social participation, scale development, validity

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Authors: Michel Wakim, Rodrigo Rivera Tinoco

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Supersonic ejector is an economical device that use high pressure vapor to compress a low pressure vapor without any rotating parts or external power sources. Entrainment ratio is a major characteristic of the ejector performance, so the ejector performance is highly dependent on its geometry. The aim of this paper is to design ejector geometry, based on pre-specified operating conditions, and to study the flow behavior inside the ejector by using computational fluid dynamics ‘CFD’ by using ‘ANSYS FLUENT 15.0’ software. In the first section; 1-D mathematical model is carried out to predict the ejector geometry. The second part describes the flow behavior inside the designed model. CFD is the most reliable tool to reveal the mixing process at different parts of the supersonic turbulent flow and to study the effect of the geometry on the effective ejector area. Finally, the results show the effect of the geometry on the entrainment ratio.

Keywords: computational fluids dynamics, ejector, entrainment ratio, geometry optimization, performance

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Authors: Zair Mohammed El Amine, Chemouri Hafida, Derbal Habak Hassina

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Organic photovoltaic cells are electronic devices that convert sunlight into electricity. To this end, the number of studies on organic photovoltaic cells (OVCs) is growing, and this trend is expected to continue. Computational studies are still needed to verify and prove the capability of CVOs, specifically the nanometer molecule PCBM, based on successful experimental results. In this paper, we present a theoretical and computational investigation of PCBM and PC71BM derivatives using the DFT method. On this basis, we employ independent and time-dependent density theories. HOMO, LUMO and GAPH-L energies, ionization potentials and electronic affinity are determined and found to be in agreement with experiments. Using DFT theory based on B3LYP and M062X methods with bases 6-31G (d,p) and 6-311G (d), calculations show that the most efficient acceptors are presented in the group of PC71BM derivatives and are in substantial agreement with experiments. The geometries of the structures are optimized by Gaussian 09.

Keywords: PCBM, P3HT, organic cell solar, DFT, TD-DFT

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Authors: Mohamad Ibrahim Al Ladan

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Social networks, such as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They provide attractive means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The various personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. However, these practices have resulted in ample concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Addressing these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Existing security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some guidelines should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this paper, we have investigated and discussed the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social networks. Moreover, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the implications of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of guidelines as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues and concerns.

Keywords: social networks privacy issues, social networks security issues, social networks privacy precautions measures, social networks security precautions measures

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Authors: Nipawan Tharasak, Ladda Hirunyava

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The objective of the research was to study factors affecting working efficiency and the relationship between working environment, satisfaction to human resources management and operation employees’ working efficiency of Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The sample size of the research was based on 33 employees of Faculty of Management Science. The researcher had classified the support employees into 4 divisions by using Stratified Random Sampling. Individual sample was randomized by using Simple Random Sampling. Data was collected through the instrument. The Statistical Package for the Windows was utilized for data processing. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, the t-test, One-way ANOVA, and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient were applied. The result found the support employees’ satisfaction in human resources management of Faculty of Management Science in following areas: remuneration; employee recruitment & selection; manpower planning; performance evaluation; staff training & developing; and spirit & fairness were overall in good level.

Keywords: faculty of management science, operational factors, practice performance, staff working

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Authors: Yingxu Wang, Jianhua Lu, Jun Peng, Jiawei Zhang

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The fundamental demand in contemporary intelligent science towards Autonomous AI (AI*) is the creation of unprecedented formal means of Intelligent Mathematics (IM). It is discovered that natural intelligence is inductively created rather than exhaustively trained. Therefore, IM is a family of algebraic and denotational mathematics encompassing Inference Algebra, Real-Time Process Algebra, Concept Algebra, Semantic Algebra, Visual Frame Algebra, etc., developed in our labs. IM plays indispensable roles in training-free AI* theories and systems beyond traditional empirical data-driven technologies. A set of applications of IM-driven AI* systems will be demonstrated in contemporary intelligence science, AI*, and cognitive computers.

Keywords: intelligence mathematics, foundations of intelligent science, autonomous AI, cognitive computers, inference algebra, real-time process algebra, concept algebra, semantic algebra, applications

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Authors: Mahmood Salahi, Fatemeh Abbasi

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Increasing urbanization will be one of the defining features of the 21st century. This produces particular environmental challenges, but also creates opportunities for urban development that can contribute to broader goals of improving the quality of life for urban residents while achieving greater levels of global sustainability. Half of the world’s population already lives in urban areas, with a growing number of these people living in towns and cities in low and middle-income countries. As well as being a demographic phenomenon, urbanisation is intricately linked with economic, social and environmental transitions. The increasing proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas has been driven by the growing concentration of new investment and employment opportunities. In general, nations with the most rapid and sustained economic growth have urbanized most.2 Urban centres provide opportunities for a range of social and cultural activities, as well as being critical for innovations in science, technology and education. Indeed, urban areas are of critical importance for social and economic development: as the Cities Alliance recognizes, 'only sustained urban growth has the capacity to lift both rural and urban populations out of poverty'.

Keywords: environment, urban planning, management, urbanization

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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: D. Thawinkarn, S. Wongbutlee

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The Social Change Leadership model is strongly aligned with administration’s mission. This research aims to examine the elements of social change leadership, build and develop leadership for social change, and evaluate effectiveness of leadership development model for social change. The research operation has 3 phases: model studies by in-depth interviews and survey research; drafting and creating model which verified by the experts; and trial of model in schools. The results showed that administrators and teachers have the elements of leadership for social change in moderate level. These elements are ranged descending from consciousness of self, common purpose, congruence, collaboration, commitment, citizenship, and controversy with civility. Model of leadership for social change is included the principles, objectives, content, process. Workshop process: Results show that the model of leadership development for social change in administrators and teachers leads to higher score in leadership evaluation prior to administering the operation.

Keywords: leadership, social change model, organization, administrators

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Authors: Y. Bablu Singh, B. S. Purkayashtha, Chungkham Yashawanta Singh

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Morphological analysis forms the basic foundation in NLP applications including syntax parsing Machine Translation (MT), Information Retrieval (IR) and automatic indexing in all languages. It is the field of the linguistics; it can provide valuable information for computer based linguistics task such as lemmatization and studies of internal structure of the words. Computational Morphology is the application of morphological rules in the field of computational linguistics, and it is the emerging area in AI, which studies the structure of words, which are formed by combining smaller units of linguistics information, called morphemes: the building blocks of words. Morphological analysis provides about semantic and syntactic role in a sentence. It analyzes the Manipuri word forms and produces several grammatical information associated with the words. The Morphological Analyzer for Manipuri has been tested on 3500 Manipuri words in Shakti Standard format (SSF) using Meitei Mayek as source; thereby an accuracy of 80% has been obtained on a manual check.

Keywords: morphological analysis, machine translation, computational morphology, information retrieval, SSF

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Authors: Saeed Ullah Jan, Shafaq, Sumbul

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Anxiety is one of the most common emotions and is a normal reaction to danger or a threat. It is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention. The prime aim of this study was to examine the level of anxiety of Library and Information Science students at the Department of Library and Information Science, Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak. A survey method was used for the completion of this study. The response of male respondents was better than female LIS students at the Department of Library and Information Science, Khushal Khan Khattak University Karak. The librarians should have to focus on the information needs of the university students. Special training needs to be arranged for female students to improve their library usage and readership rate.

Keywords: library-anxiety, library anxiety-students, library anxiety -students-Pakistan, stress

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Authors: Gintaras Mitrulevičius

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This text, which is based on the conference report, seeks to briefly examine the relationship between the concepts of social democracy and democratic socialism, drawing attention to the essential aspects of its development and, in particular, discussing the contradictions in the relationship between these concepts in the modern period. In the preparation of this text, such research methods as historical, historical-comparative methods were used, as well as methods of analyzing, synthesizing, and generalizing texts. The history of the use of terms in social democracy and democratic socialism shows that these terms were used alternately and almost synonymously. At the end of the 20th century, traditional social democracy was transformed into the so-called "new social democracy." Many of the new social democrats do not consider themselves democratic socialists and avoid the historically characteristic identification of social democracy with democratic socialism. It has become quite popular to believe that social democracy is a separate ideology from democratic socialism. Or that it has become a variant of the ideology of liberalism. This is a testimony to the crisis of ideological self-awareness of social democracy. Since the beginning of the 21st century, social democracy has also experienced a growing crisis of electoral support. This, among other things, led to her slight shift to the left. In this context, some social democrats are once again talking about democratic socialism. The rise of the ideas of democratic socialism in the United States was catalyzed by Bernie Sanders. But the proponents of democratic socialism in the United States have different concepts of democratic socialism. In modern Europe, democratic socialism is also spoken of by leftists of non-social democratic origin, whose understanding is different from that of democratic socialism inherent in classical social democracy. Some political scientists also single out the concepts in question. Analysis of the problem shows that there are currently several concepts of democratic socialism on the spectrum of the political left, both social-democratic and non-social-democratic.

Keywords: democratic socializm, socializm, social democracy, new social democracy, political ideologies

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Authors: Nilüfer Kuru, Berrin Akman

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In this study, science process skills of children with ages varying between 48-months and 66-months are analyzed. Science process skills of children are investigated in terms of factors including gender of children, attendance of children to the previous educational institution and duration of their attendance, educational background of their parents, ages of children and teachers, professional experience of teachers, educational background, and department of graduation of teachers, type of pre-school education institution of teachers and children. Sample of research consists of 250 children aged between 48-months and 66-months who attend state and private kindergartens under the Ministry of National Education, nursery classes of elementary schools and kindergartens of establishments in central districts of Ankara and 50 teachers who serve in these children’s classes. Science Observation Form, reached from the website of Alaska Department of Education & Early, are analyzed in terms of language, content, construct validity, and reliability by the researchers. Additionally, Personal Information Form is also developed by the researchers. Data obtained in the study are analyzed with SPSS 16.0 package program to obtain percentage and frequency, Kruskal Wallis H-test, and Mann- Whitney U test, which are one of the non-parametric tests, are used. Within the context of this study it has been seen that independent variables of age, type of school attending and status of attendance to pre-school education, educational background of children’s father are meaningful expositive in gaining science process skills for children. It has been seen that period of service of teachers, duration of attendance to pre-school education for children, gender of children and educational background of children’s mother are not meaningful expositive in gaining science process skills for children.

Keywords: preschool, science process skills, early childhood education, science

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Authors: David Gottlieb, Jason Yoder

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The feeling of loneliness is not uncommon in modern society, and yet, there is a fundamental lack of understanding in its origins and purpose in nature. One interpretation of loneliness is that it is a subjective experience that punishes a lack of social behavior, and thus its emergence in human evolution is seemingly tied to the survival of early human tribes. Still, a common counterintuitive response to loneliness is a state of hypervigilance, resulting in social withdrawal, which may appear maladaptive to modern society. So far, no computational model of loneliness’ effect during evolution yet exists; however, agent-based models (ABM) can be used to investigate social behavior, and applying evolution to agents’ behaviors can demonstrate selective advantages for particular behaviors. We propose an ABM where each agent contains four social behaviors, and one goal-seeking behavior, letting evolution select the best behavioral patterns for resource allocation. In our paper, we use an algorithm similar to the boid model to guide the behavior of agents, but expand the set of rules that govern their behavior. While we use cohesion, separation, and alignment for simple social movement, our expanded model adds goal-oriented behavior, which is inspired by particle swarm optimization, such that agents move relative to their personal best position. Since agents are given the ability to form connections by interacting with each other, our final behavior guides agent movement toward its social connections. Finally, we introduce a mechanism to represent a state of loneliness, which engages when an agent's perceived social involvement does not meet its expected social involvement. This enables us to investigate a minimal model of loneliness, and using evolution we attempt to elucidate its value in human survival. Agents are placed in an environment in which they must acquire resources, as their fitness is based on the total resource collected. With these rules in place, we are able to run evolution under various conditions, including resource-rich environments, and when disease is present. Our simulations indicate that there is strong selection pressure for social behavior under circumstances where there is a clear discrepancy between initial resource locations, and against social behavior when disease is present, mirroring hypervigilance. This not only provides an explanation for the emergence of loneliness, but also reflects the diversity of response to loneliness in the real world. In addition, there is evidence of a richness of social behavior when loneliness was present. By introducing just two resource locations, we observed a divergence in social motivation after agents became lonely, where one agent learned to move to the other, who was in a better resource position. The results and ongoing work from this project show that it is possible to glean insight into the evolutionary advantages of even simple mechanisms of loneliness. The model we developed has produced unexpected results and has led to more questions, such as the impact loneliness would have at a larger scale, or the effect of creating a set of rules governing interaction beyond adjacency.

Keywords: agent-based, behavior, evolution, loneliness, social

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Authors: Pekka Makkonen, Georgios Lampropoulos, Kerstin Siakas

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This paper examines the impact of social media on knowledge work. It discloses and highlights which specific aspects, areas and tasks of knowledge work can be improved by the use of social media. Moreover, the study includes a survey about higher education students’ viewpoints in regard to the use of social media as a means to enhance knowledge work and knowledge sharing. The analysis has been conducted based both on empirical data and on discussions about the sources dealing with knowledge work and how it can be enhanced by using social media. The results show that social media can improve knowledge work, knowledge building and maintenance tasks in which communication, information sharing and collaboration play a vital role. Additionally, by using social media, personal, collaborative and supplementary work activities can be enhanced. Based on the results of the study, we suggest how knowledge work can be enhanced when using the contemporary information and communications technologies (ICTs) of the 21^st century and recommend future directions towards improving knowledge work.

Keywords: knowledge work, social media, social media services, improving work performance

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Authors: Mohd Adib Abd Muin, Shuhairimi Abdullah, Azizan Bahari

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Problem: The research problem is lacking of model on social entrepreneurship that focus on Islamic perspective. Objective: The objective of this paper is to analyse the existing model on social entrepreneurship and to identify the research gap on Islamic perspective from existing models. Research Methodology: The research method used in this study is literature review and comparative analysis from 6 existing models of social entrepreneurship. Finding: The research finding shows that 6 existing models on social entrepreneurship has been analysed and it shows that the existing models on social entrepreneurship do not emphasize on Islamic perspective.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, Islamic perspective, research gap, business management

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Authors: Jehnyne Lalaine Bautista, Marquise Baldemor, Ciara Mendoza

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This study is an attempt to investigate the extent to which pre-teens engage in social media, the effects of social media use on the different facets of their identity development such as physical, social, cognitive, aspirations, and personality, as well as the effects of parental regulation on their identity formation. Twelve Filipino children, ages from 9-12 years old and are either regulated, semi-regulated, or unregulated on social media use, participated in this study along with their parent or guardian. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews with the participants and were analyzed through the use of thematic analysis. Results show that despite accessing similar social media applications, the effects of these on children from different types of parental regulation vary since they have different levels of exposure to social media content. Those who have parents with high parental regulation on the use of social media tend to perform better in school, to find time for extracurricular activities, and to develop positive identity formation. The results of this study suggest that parental regulation on social media use has the positive influence on the identity development of children while there are dangers to unregulated use of social media.

Keywords: identity formation, parental regulation, pre-teens, social media

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Authors: Maya Kagan, Michal Itzick, Patricia Tal-Katz

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Social workers hold a variety of roles and practices, and one of these involves the care, treatment, and rehabilitation of disabled people. The current study assesses the association between demographic factors, attitudes towards social workers, the stigma attached to seeking social worker help, perceived social support, and psychological distress - and the self-reported likelihood of seeking social worker help, among people with physical disabilities (PWPD) in Israel. Data collection utilized structured questionnaires, administered to a sample of 435 PWPD. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS software. The findings suggest that women, older respondents, people with more positive attitudes towards social workers, with higher levels of psychological distress and of social support, and with a lower level of stigma, reported a greater likelihood of seeking social worker help. The study's conclusion is that there are certain avoidance factors among PWPD that might discourage them from seeking professional social worker help. Therefore, it is important that social workers identify these factors and develop interventions aimed at encouraging PWPD to seek professional social worker help in case of need, and also develop practices adjusted to PWPD's unique needs.

Keywords: attitudes towards social workers, people with physical disabilities, perceived social support, psychological distress, seeking help, stigma

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Authors: Samah Laalej, Abdelfattah Bouatem

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In the field of wind turbine blades, it is complicated to evaluate the aerodynamic performances through experimental measurements as it requires a lot of computing time and resources. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid BEM-CFD numerical technique is developed to predict power and aerodynamic forces acting on the blades. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted to calculate the drag and lift forces through Ansys software using the K-w model. Then an enhanced BEM code was created to predict the power outputs generated by the wind turbine using the aerodynamic properties extracted from the CFD approach. The numerical approach was compared and validated with experimental data. The power curves calculated from this hybrid method were in good agreement with experimental measurements for all velocity ranges.

Keywords: blade element momentum, aerodynamic forces, wind turbine blades, computational fluid dynamics approach

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Authors: Lara Góes Da Costa

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This paper analyzes the social dimension of the empowerment of women in Brazil, following the principles of human development of the UN WOMEN, in particular the sixth principle, which establishes the promotion of gender equality through social policy initiatives and activism in general aimed at community. In Brazil, women's empowerment has taken social networks through the creation of avatars and pages of dissemination and promotion of gender equality, as well as denunciations and educational posts such as 'Observe Gender', 'Empower Two Women', 'Black Intellectual Women', among others. At the same time, women's social inclusion bills in various sectors are trailing in the legislative apparatus, with little or no relation to the current discussion of gender diversity and intersectionality. In this sense, this article establishes an analytical parallel between the media manifestations of social networks and the social distance of the representatives of the legislative power. This parallelly shows the political failing to meet the social demands of inclusion, as to multiply the creation of laws and the effectiveness of the principle of promoting gender equality.

Keywords: gender, rights, justice, social networks

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Authors: Deepika Verma, Runa Sarkar

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One of the prominent debates in the social entrepreneurship literature has been to establish whether entrepreneurial work for social well-being by for-profit organizations can be classified as social entrepreneurship or not. Of late, the scholarship has reached a consensus. It concludes that there seems little sense in confining social entrepreneurship to just non-profit organizations. Boosted by this research, increasingly a lot of businesses engaged in filling the social infrastructure gaps in developing countries are calling themselves social enterprise. These organizations are diverse in their ownership, size, objectives, operations and business models. The lack of a comprehensive definition of social enterprise leads to three issues. Firstly, researchers may face difficulty in creating a database for social enterprises because the choice of an entity as a social enterprise becomes subjective or based on some pre-defined parameters by the researcher which is not replicable. Secondly, practitioners who use ‘social enterprise’ in their vision/mission statement(s) may find it difficult to adjust their business models accordingly especially during the times when they face the dilemma of choosing social well-being over business viability. Thirdly, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship attract a lot of donor funding and venture capital. In the paucity of a comprehensive definitional guide, the donors or investors may find assigning grants and investments difficult. It becomes necessary to develop an exhaustive and objective definition of social enterprise and examine whether the understanding of the academicians and practitioners about social enterprise match. This paper develops a dictionary of words often associated with social enterprise or (and) social entrepreneurship. It further compares two lexicographic definitions of social enterprise imputed from the abstracts of academic journal papers and trade publications extracted from the EBSCO database using the ‘tm’ package in R software.

Keywords: EBSCO database, lexicographic definition, social enterprise, text mining

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Authors: Momoh Omeiza Sheidu

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Finite element method as a method of providing solutions to problems in computational bio mechanics provides a framework for modeling the function of tissues that integrates structurally from cell to organ system and functionally across the physiological processes that affect tissue mechanics or are regulated by mechanical forces. In this paper, we present an integrative finite element strategy for solution to problems in tissue bio mechanics as a case study.

Keywords: finite element, biomechanics, modeling, computational biomechanics

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Authors: Hariz Halilovich

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Based on conventional and digital ethnography, this paper discusses the ways Bosnian refugees utilise digital technologies and new media to recreate, synchronise and sustain their identities and memories in the aftermath of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and genocide and in the contexts of their new emplacements and home-making practices in diaspora. In addition to discussing representations of displacement and emplacement in the ‘digital age’, the paper also aims to make a contribution to the understanding and application of digital ethnography as an emerging method of inquiry in anthropology and related social science disciplines. While some researchers see digital ethnography as an exclusively online–based research, the author of this paper argues that it is critical to understand the online world in the context of the real world—made of real people, places, and social relations.

Keywords: Bosnia, cyber villages, digital diaspora, refugees

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Authors: Dina L. DiSantis

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Development and implementation of a place-based watershed science course for high school students will prove to be a valuable experience for both student and teacher. By having students study and assess the watershed dynamics of a local stream, they will better understand how human activities affect this valuable resource. It is important that students gain tangible skills that will help them to have an understanding of water quality analysis and the importance of preserving our Earth's water systems. Having students participate in real world practices is the optimal learning environment and can offer students a genuine learning experience, by cultivating a knowledge of place, while promoting education for sustainability. Additionally, developing a watershed science course for high school students will give them a hands-on approach to studying science; which is both beneficial and more satisfying to students. When students conduct their own research, collect and analyze data, they will be intimately involved in addressing water quality issues and solving critical water quality problems. By providing students with activities that take place outside the confines of the indoor classroom, you give them the opportunity to gain an appreciation of the natural world. Placed-based learning provides students with problem-solving skills in everyday situations while enhancing skills of inquiry. An overview of a place-based watershed science course and its impact on student learning will be presented.

Keywords: education for sustainability, place-based learning, watershed science, water quality

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Authors: Bashaiar Alsanaa

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Social media have totally converged with social life all around the globe. Using social media applications and mobile phones have become somewhat of an addiction to most people. Driving while using mobile applications falls under such addiction when usage is not of urgency. This study aims to investigate the impact of using such applications while driving in the small rich state of Kuwait, where most people juggle more than one phone for different purposes. Positive and negative effects will be explored in detail as well as causes for these effects and possible reasons. A full range of recommendations will be presented so as to give other countries a specific case study upon which to build solutions and remedies to this emerging and dangerous social phenomenon.

Keywords: social media, driving, mobile applications, communication

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Authors: Alvin Uchenna Ugwu

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The United Nation’s 2030 agenda and Global Action Programme (GAP) for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has mandated all sectors in the societies, including education, to develop strategies towards actualizing sustainability in all facets of the society, by the year 2030. Education is no doubt a key tool for social change. However, educational institutions in most African nations need a paradigmatic shift to strike a balance between policies (curricular) and practices, with regards to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The paradigm shift in this regard is described as whole-institution/school approach. The whole institution approaches advocate action-focused ESD. In other words, ESD policy and curriculum makers, formal and non-formal education institutions, need to ‘practice what they preach’. This paper is developed from an ongoing study carried out by the author and guided by two research questions: -What are the views of intermediate phase science and technology preservice teachers on the ESD content included in the science and technology modules? -What challenges or enable intermediate phase science and technology pre-service teachers to learn about ESD in science and technology modules? The study drew from the views and experiences of preservice science teachers, learning about ESD in a university’s college of education in South Africa. Using qualitative case study research design, the research data were generated via questionnaires and focus group discussions. Analysis of generated data indicates that universities and institutions of higher learning need to demonstrate practical involvement while implementing ESD in societies, rather than just standing as knowledge media. Findings of the study further suggest that natural sciences and technology courses in teacher education programmes and other institutions of higher learning, should be perceived as key transformative tools in shaping the consciousness of students towards integrating and fostering ESD in developing countries such as South Africa. Thus, this paper seeks to promote ‘Whole Institution Involvement’ in teacher education colleges in South Africa, as a measure of improving ESD in higher education settings. The paper suggests that in order to achieve ESD in higher education settings and beyond, policies and practices should be reexamined beyond rhetoric and buzzwords. The paper further argues that implementation of ESD is largely influenced by context, hence two different contexts should be examined empirically.

Keywords: education for sustainable development, higher education institutions, pre-service science teachers, qualitative case study research, whole institution involvement

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Authors: Raya Hamed Hilal Al Maamari

Abstract:

The Gulf societies have been undergoing radical changes due to the technology transfer. It altered the humanities attitudes, especially, youth habits as they have become an addicted to using social media. This study aimed to find out the ratio of social media in guiding youth to participate with government’s institutions in decision-making and developing their societies. The study considered a descriptive study, social survey method was used on a sample of 100 young from different gulf countries, using an electronic questionnaire, as well as, some interviews with famous leaders of youth groups. Finally, the researcher suggested some effective ways activate youth efforts using social media in an effective manner to plan for the development policy in the community. The findings illustrated that social media plays a vital role in encouraging youth to participate enthusiastically in providing services. Noticeably, social media contains large numbers of youth. Therefore, the influences will be widely and feasible. Moreover, the study indicated the fact that most of the youth teamwork started in social media. Then, it has been growing in the real society.

Keywords: community, participation, social media, youth

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Authors: Luis Fernando Calvo Prieto, Raul Herrero Martínez, Mónica Santamarta Llorente, Sergio Paniagua Bermejo

Abstract:

The project that is presented starts from the questioning about the compartmentalization of knowledge that occurs in university higher education. There are several authors who describe the problems associated with this reality (Rodamillans, M) indicating a lack of integration of the knowledge acquired by students throughout the subjects taken in their university degree. Furthermore, this disintegration is accentuated by the enrollment system of some Faculties and/or Schools of Engineering, which allows the student to take subjects outside the recommended curricular path. This problem is accentuated in an ostentatious way when trying to find an integration between humanistic subjects and the world of experimental sciences or engineering. This abrupt separation between humanities and sciences can be observed in any study plan of Spanish degrees. Except for subjects such as economics or English, in the Faculties of Sciences and the Schools of Engineering, the absence of any humanistic content is striking. At some point it was decided that the only value to take into account when designing their study plans was “usefulness”, considering the humanities systematically useless for their training, and therefore banishing them from the study plans. forgetting the role they have on the capacity of both Leadership and Civic Humanism in our professionals of tomorrow. The teaching guides for the different subjects in the branch of science or engineering do not include any competency, not even transversal, related to leadership capacity or the need, in today's world, for social, civic and humanitarian knowledge part of the people who will offer medical, pharmaceutical, environmental, biotechnological or engineering solutions to a society that is generated thanks to more or less complex relationships based on human relationships and historical events that have occurred so far. If we want professionals who know how to deal effectively and rationally with their leadership tasks and who, in addition, find and develop an ethically civic sense and a humanistic profile in their functions and scientific tasks, we must not leave aside the importance that it has, for the themselves, know the causes, facts and consequences of key events in the history of humanity. The words of the humanist Paul Preston are well known: “he who does not know his history is condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.” The idea, therefore, that today there can be men of science in the way that the scientists of the Renaissance were, becomes, at the very least, difficult to conceive. To think that a Leonardo da Vinci can be repeated in current times is a more than crazy idea; and although at first it may seem that the specialization of a professional is inevitable but beneficial, there are authors who consider (Sánchez Inarejos) that it has an extremely serious negative side effect: the entrenchment behind the different postulates of each area of knowledge, disdaining everything. what is foreign to it.

Keywords: STEM, higher education, social sciences, history

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