Search results for: metropolitan entities

Authors: B. Mendonça, D. Sandwell

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The Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo (MRSP) has suffered from serious water scarcity. Consequently, the most convenient solution has been building wells to extract groundwater from local aquifers. However, it requires constant vigilance to prevent over extraction and future events that can pose serious threat to the population, such as subsidence. Radar imaging techniques (InSAR) have allowed continuous investigation of such phenomena. The analysis of data in the present study consists of 23 SAR images dated from October 2007 to March 2011, obtained by the ALOS-1 spacecraft. Data processing was made with the software GMTSAR, by using the InSAR technique to create pairs of interferograms with ground displacement during different time spans. First results show a correlation between the location of 102 wells registered in 2009 and signals of ground displacement equal or lower than -90 millimeters (mm) in the region. The longest time span interferogram obtained dates from October 2007 to March 2010. As a result, from that interferogram, it was possible to detect the average velocity of displacement in millimeters per year (mm/y), and which areas strong signals have persisted in the MRSP. Four specific areas with signals of subsidence of 28 mm/y to 40 mm/y were chosen to investigate the phenomenon: Guarulhos (Sao Paulo International Airport), the Greater Sao Paulo, Itaquera and Sao Caetano do Sul. The coverage area of the signals was between 0.6 km and 1.65 km of length. All areas are located above a sedimentary type of aquifer. Itaquera and Sao Caetano do Sul showed signals varying from 28 mm/y to 32 mm/y. On the other hand, the places most likely to be suffering from stronger subsidence are the ones in the Greater Sao Paulo and Guarulhos, right beside the International Airport of Sao Paulo. The rate of displacement observed in both regions goes from 35 mm/y to 40 mm/y. Previous investigations of the water use at the International Airport highlight the risks of excessive water extraction that was being done through 9 deep wells. Therefore, it is affirmed that subsidence events are likely to occur and to cause serious damage in the area. This study could show a situation that has not been explored with proper importance in the city, given its social and economic consequences. Since the data were only available until 2011, the question that remains is if the situation still persists. It could be reaffirmed, however, a scenario of risk at the International Airport of Sao Paulo that needs further investigation.

Keywords: ground subsidence, Interferometric Satellite Aperture Radar (InSAR), metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, water extraction

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Authors: Cindy Woods

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After years of implacable neoliberal globalization, multinational corporations have moved from the periphery to the center of the international legal agenda. Human rights advocates have long called for greater corporate accountability in the international arena. The creation of the Global Compact in 2000, while aimed at fostering greater corporate respect for human rights, did not silence these calls. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to adopt a set of norms relating to the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations, the United Nations succeeded in 2008 with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles). The Guiding Principles, praised by some within the international human rights community for their recognition of an individual corporate responsibility to respect human rights, have not escaped their share of criticism. Many view the Guiding Principles to be toothless, failing to directly impose obligations upon corporations, and call for binding international obligations on corporate entities. After decades of attempting to promulgate human rights obligations for multinational corporations, the existing legal frameworks in place fall short of protecting individuals from the human rights abuses of multinational corporations. The Global Compact and Guiding Principles are proof of the United Nations’ unwillingness to impose international legal obligations on corporate actors. In June 2014, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to draft international legally binding human rights norms for business entities; however, key players in the international arena have already announced they will not cooperate with such efforts. This Note, through an overview of the existing corporate accountability frameworks and a study of Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga project in Peru, argues that binding international human rights obligations on corporations are necessary to fully protect human rights. Where states refuse to or simply cannot uphold their duty to protect individuals from transnational businesses’ human rights transgressions, there must exist mechanisms to pursue justice directly against the multinational corporation.

Keywords: business and human rights, Latin America, international treaty on business and human rights, mining, human rights

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Authors: Pratima Thapa

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Background: It is very critical to understand that awareness of family planning and proper utilization of contraceptives is an important indicator for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. It also plays an important role in promoting reproductive health of the women in an underdeveloped country like ours. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices of contraception among married women of reproductive age group in selected wards of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 209 married women of reproductive age. Simple random sampling was used to select the wards, population proportionate sampling for selecting the sample numbers from each wards and purposive sampling for selecting each sample. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to interpret the data considering p-value 0.05. Results: The mean ± SD age of the respondents was 30.01 ± 8.12 years. Majority 92.3% had ever heard of contraception. Popular known method was Inj. Depo (92.7%). Mass media (85.8%) was the major source of information. Mean percentage score of knowledge was 45.23%.less than half (45%) had adequate knowledge. Majority 90.4% had positive attitude. Only 64.6% were using contraceptives currently. Misbeliefs and fear of side effects were the main reason for not using contraceptives. Education, occupation, and total income of the family was associated with knowledge regarding contraceptives. Results for Binary Logistic Regression showed significant correlates of attitude with distance to the nearest health facility (OR=7.97, p<0.01), education (OR=0.24, p<0.05) and age group (0.03, p<0.01). Regarding practice, likelihood of being current user of contraceptives increased significantly by being literate (OR=5.97, p<0.01), having nuclear family (OR=4.96, p<0.01), living in less than 30 minute walk distance from nearest health facility (OR=3.34, p<0.05), women’s participation in decision making regarding household and fertility choices (OR=5.23, p<0.01) and husband’s support on using contraceptives (OR=9.05, p<0.01). Significant and positive correlation between knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice and attitude-practice were observed. Conclusion: Results of the study indicates that there is need to increase awareness programs in order to intensify the knowledge and practices of contraception. The positive correlation indorses that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and hence good practice. Further, projects aiming to increase better counselling about contraceptives, its side effects and the positive effects that outweighs the negative aspects should be enrolled appropriately.

Keywords: attitude, contraceptives, knowledge, practice

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Authors: Fazal-e-Amin, Abdullah S. Alghamdi, Iftikhar Ahmad

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Software ecosystems’ concept is an inspiration from the natural ecosystem. Software ecosystems refer to large systems developed on top of a platform composed of different components developed by different entities of that ecosystem. Ecosystems improve information access, dissemination and coordination considerably. The ability to evolve and accommodate new subsystems gives a boost to the software ecosystems. In this paper, Saudi education software ecosystem is discussed and its need and potential benefits are highlighted. This work will provide a basis for further research in this area and foundation in development of Saudi education ecosystem.

Keywords: software ecosystem, education software, framework, software engineering

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Authors: Rosely Sichieri, Bruna K. Hassan, Michele Sgambato, Barbara S. N. Souza, Rosangela A. Pereira, Edna M. Yokoo, Diana B. Cunha

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Obesity is increasing at a fast rate in low and middle-income countries where few school-based obesity interventions have been conducted. Results of obesity prevention studies are still inconclusive mainly due to underestimation of sample size in cluster-randomized trials and overestimation of changes in body mass index (BMI). The pooled analysis in the present study overcomes these design problems by analyzing 4,448 students (mean age 11.7 years) from three randomized behavioral school-based interventions, conducted in public schools of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The three studies focused on encouraging students to change their drinking and eating habits over one school year, with monthly 1-h sessions in the classroom. Folders explaining the intervention program and suggesting the participation of the family, such as reducing the purchase of sodas were sent home. Classroom activities were delivered by research assistants in the first two interventions and by the regular teachers in the third one, except for culinary class aimed at developing cooking skills to increase healthy eating choices. The first intervention was conducted in 2005 with 1,140 fourth graders from 22 public schools; the second, with 644 fifth graders from 20 public schools in 2010; and the last one, with 2,743 fifth and sixth graders from 18 public schools in 2016. The result was a non-significant change in BMI after one school year of positive changes in dietary behaviors associated with obesity. Pooled intention-to-treat analysis using linear mixed models was used for the overall and subgroup analysis by BMI status, sex, and race. The estimated mean BMI changes were from 18.93 to 19.22 in the control group and from 18.89 to 19.19 in the intervention group; with a p-value of change over time of 0.94. Control and intervention groups were balanced at baseline. Subgroup analyses were statistically and clinically non-significant, except for the non-overweight/obese group with a 0.05 reduction of BMI comparing the intervention with control. In conclusion, this large pooled analysis showed a very small effect on BMI only in the normal weight students. The results are in line with many of the school-based initiatives that have been promising in relation to modifying behaviors associated with obesity but of no impact on excessive weight gain. Changes in BMI may require great changes in energy balance that are hard to achieve in primary prevention at school level.

Keywords: adolescents, obesity prevention, randomized controlled trials, school-based study

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Authors: Jiri Barta

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This paper deals with the prevention and management of emergencies. It focuses on the protection of assets of the critical infrastructure entities that are important to preventing, preparing for and management of emergencies and crisis situations. The paper defines assets and specifies their use and place in the process of crisis management and planning. Critical assets that are protected from the negative effects of emergency or crisis situation we can use in crisis management and response. This basic rule applies mainly to the substantial assets used in the protection of critical infrastructure processes.

Keywords: asset, continuity, critical infrastructure, crisis management process

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Authors: Ujjawal Kumar Bhagat, Kamaluddin, Rama Krishna Peddinti

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The Huisgen’s 1,3-dipolar [3+2] cycloaddition of organic azides and alkynes often give the mixtures of both the regioisomers 1,4- and 1,5- disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles. Later, in presence of metal salts (click chemistry) such as copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) was used for the synthesis of 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles as a sole products regioselectively. Also, the ‘click reactions’ of Ruthenium-catalyzed azides-alkynes cycloaddition (RuAAC) is used for the synthesis of 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles as a single isomer. The synthesis of 1,4- and 1.5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles has become the gold standard of ‘click chemistry’ due to its reliability, specificity, and biocompatibility. The 1,4- and 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles have emerged as one of the most powerful entities in the varieties of biological properties like antibacterial, antitubercular, antitumor, antifungal and antiprotozoal activities. Some of the 1,4,5-trisubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles exhibit Hsp90 inhibiting properties. The 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles also play a big role in the area of material sciences. The triazole-derived oligomeric, polymeric structures are the potential materials for the preparation of organic optoelectronics, silicon elastomers and unimolecular block copolymers. By the virtue of hydrogen bonding and dipole interactions, the 1,2,3-triazole moiety readily associates with the biological targets. Since, the 4-aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles are stable entities, they are chemically robust and very less reactive. In this regard, the addition of 4-aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles as nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carbonyls and nucleophilic substitution with the epoxides constitutes a powerful and challenging synthetic approach for the generation of disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles. Herein, we have developed aza-Michael addition of 4-aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles to 2-cycloalken-1-ones in the presence of an organic base (DABCO) in acetonotrile solvent leading to the formation of disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles. The reaction provides 1,4-disubstituted triazoles, 3-(4-aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)cycloalkanones in major amount along with 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles, minor regioisomers with excellent combined chemical yields (upto99%). The nucleophilic behavior of 4-aryl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles was also tested in the ring opening of meso-epoxides in the presence of organic bases (DABCO/Et3N) in acetonotrile solvent furnishing the two regioisomers1,4- and 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles. Thus, the novelty of this methodology is synthesis of diversified disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles under metal free condition.The results will be presented in detail.

Keywords: aza-Michael addition, cycloalkenones, epoxides, triazoles

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Authors: Safar Ghaedrahmati, Leila Soltani

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Population centralization in urban area and metropolitans, especially in developing countries such as Iran increase metropolitan's problems. For few decades, the population of cities in developing countries, including Iran had a higher growth rate than the total growth rate of countries’ population. While in developed countries, the development of the big cities began decades ago and generally allowed for controlled and planned urban expansion, the opposite is the case in developing countries, where rapid urbanization process is characterized by an unplanned existing urban expansion. The developing metropolitan cities have enormous difficulties in coping both with the natural population growth and the urban physical expansion. Iranian cities are usually the heart of economic and cultural changes that have occurred after the Islamic revolution in 1979. These cities are increasingly having impacts via political–economical arrangement and chiefly by urban management structures. Structural features have led to the population growth of cities and urbanization (in number, population and physical frame) and the main problems in them. On the other hand, the lack of birth control policies and the deceptive attractions of cities, particularly big cities, and the birth rate has shot up, something which has occurred mainly in rural regions and small cities. The population of Iran has increased rapidly since 1956. The 1956 and 1966 decennial censuses counted the population of Iran at 18.9 million and 25.7 million, respectively, with a 3.1% annual growth rate during the 1956–1966 period. The 1976 and 1986 decennial censuses counted Iran’s population at 33.7 and 49.4 million, respectively, a 2.7% and 3.9% annual growth rate during the 1966–1976 and 1976–1986 periods. The 1996 count put Iran’s population at 60 million, a 1.96% annual growth rate from 1986–1996 and the 2006 count put Iran population at 72 million. A recent major policy of urban economic and industrial decentralization is a persistent program of the government. The policy has been identified as a result of the massive growth of Tehran in the recent years, up to 9 million by 2010. Part of the growth of the capitally resulted from the lack of economic opportunities elsewhere and in order to redress the developing primacy of Tehran and the domestic pressures which it is undergoing, the policy of decentralization is to be implemented as quickly as possible. Type of research is applied and method of data collection is documentary and methods of analysis are; population analysis with urban system analysis and urban distribution system

Keywords: population centralization, cities of Iran, urban centralization, urban system

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Authors: Lawal Abdulkareem

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Asabiyyah prejudice is one of the causes of enmity, hatred and disharmony among Muslims. It is man’s supporting of his people to whom he belongs, whether they are right or wrong, oppressing or oppressed. This belonging can be due to kith and kin, ethnicity, color, birth place, citizenship, school of thought, or a group of people with common interest. The prejudice in its different forms and kinds is one of the deadly diseases that transformed the once unified, merciful, and cohesive Muslim community into differing, conflicting and warring entities. This has been witnessed within the Muslims from the earliest generations to the present. It is against this background that this research is undertaken to examine the major types of Asabiyyah prejudice and their harmful effects on Muslim community.

Keywords: Asabiyyah, causes, enmity, hatred

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Authors: Pushplata Garg

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Mobility, is an integral part of living and sustainability of urban mobility, is essential not only for, but also for addressing global warming and climate change. However, very little is understood about the obstacles/hurdles and likely challenges in the success of plans for sustainable urban mobility in Indian cities from the public perspective. Whereas some of the problems and issues are common to all cities, others vary considerably with financial status, function, the size of cities and culture of a place. Problems and issues similar in all cities relate to availability, efficiency and safety of public transport, last mile connectivity, universal accessibility, and essential planning and design requirements of pedestrians and cyclists are same. However, certain aspects like the type of means of public transportation, priority for cycling and walking, type of roadside activities, are influenced by the size of the town, average educational and income level of public, financial status of the local authorities, and culture of a place. The extent of public awareness, civic sense, maintenance of public spaces and law enforcement vary significantly from large metropolitan cities to small and medium towns in countries like India. Besides, design requirements for shading, location of public open spaces and sitting areas, street furniture, landscaping also vary depending on the climate of the place. Last mile connectivity plays a major role in success/ effectiveness of public transport system in a city. In addition to the provision of pedestrian footpaths connecting important destinations, sitting spaces and necessary amenities/facilities along footpaths; pedestrian movement to public transit stations is encouraged by the presence of quality roadside public spaces. It is not only the visual attractiveness of streetscape or landscape or the public open spaces along pedestrian movement channels but the activities along that make a street vibrant and attractive. These along with adequate spaces to rest and relax encourage people to walk as is observed in cities with successful public transportation systems. The paper discusses problems and issues of pedestrians for last mile connectivity in the context of Delhi, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, and Roorkee- four Indian cities representing varying urban contexts, that is, of metropolitan, large and small cities.

Keywords: pedestrianisation, roadside public spaces, last mile connectivity, sustainable urban mobility

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Authors: Ignatio Madanhire, Charles Mbohwa

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Efficiency in manufacturing is critical in raising the value of exports so as to gainfully trade on the regional and international markets. There seems to be increasing popularity of continuous improvement strategies availed to manufacturing entities, but this research study established that there has not been a similar popularity accorded to the Six Sigma methodology. Thus this work was conducted to investigate the applicability, effectiveness, usefulness, application and suitability of the Six Sigma methodology as a competitiveness option for discrete manufacturing entity. Development of Six-sigma center in the country with continuous improvement information would go a long way in benefiting the entire industry

Keywords: discrete manufacturing, six-sigma, continuous improvement, efficiency, competitiveness

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Authors: Harri Jalonen

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Social media has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate and connect with each other. It has also influenced our habits of consuming sports. Social media has allowed direct interaction between sponsoring companies, athletes/players and fans. Drawing on the service dominant logic of value co-creation, the conceptual paper identifies three operant resources which are beneficial for value co-creation: i) social identity and sense of community, ii) congruence and brand personality, and iii) participatory culture and fan activation. The paper contributes to the theoretical discussion on how social can be media used for value co-creation purposes in the sports industry.

Keywords: sports, value co-creation, social media, service

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Authors: Giorgi Goguadze, Jakub Zajączkowski

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This paper is written due to overview the connection between fragile states and non-state actors, we should take into account that fragile states may vary from weak, failing and failed. In this paper we will discuss about two countries, one of them is weak (Colombia/ second one is already failed- Somalia. We will try to understand what feeds ill non-state actors such as: terrorist organizations, criminal entities and other cells in these countries, what threats are they representing and how to eliminate these dangers in both national and international scope. This paper is mainly based on literature overview and personal attitude and doesn’t claim to be in scientific chain.

Keywords: fragile States, terrorism, tribalism, Somalia

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Authors: Felicia Iyabode Olasehinde, Michael Maiye Olumorin

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To achieve a liveable and sustainable city, decision makers must engage in holistic approach to the planning and development of infrastructure such as roads. From observation there is great disparity in the development of roads in the northern part of the city while the south is being starved with this infrastructure. This paper attempts to make a comparison between the natures of roads in the north as against the south. The methodology to be adopted is survey research using clusters in the four local government making Kaduna Metropolis. The analysis of the road will be based on existing planning standards for roads in urban areas. This will now provide useful information for critical stakeholders at all levels of governance responsible for achieving liveable and sustainable cities.

Keywords: infrastructure, liveable, sustainable, urbanroads

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Authors: S. Pesina, T. Solonchak

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An analysis of word semantics focusing on the invariance of advanced imagery in several pressing problems. Interest in the language of imagery is caused by the introduction, in the linguistics sphere, of a new paradigm, the center of which is the personality of the speaker (the subject of the language). Particularly noteworthy is the question of the place of the image when discussing the lexical, phraseological values and the relationship of imagery and metaphors. In part, the formation of a metaphor, as an interaction between two intellective entities, occurs at a cognitive level, and it is the category of the image, having cognitive roots, which aides in the correct interpretation of the results of this process on the lexical-semantic level.

Keywords: image, metaphor, concept, creation of a metaphor, cognitive linguistics, erased image, vivid image

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Authors: Sophia Liang Zhou

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For investors, businesses, consumers, and governments, an accurate assessment of future housing prices is crucial to critical decisions in resource allocation, policy formation, and investment strategies. Previous studies are contradictory about macroeconomic determinants of housing price and largely focused on one or two areas using point prediction. This study aims to develop data-driven models to accurately predict future housing market trends in different markets. This work studied five different metropolitan areas representing different market trends and compared three-time lagging situations: no lag, 6-month lag, and 12-month lag. Linear regression (LR), random forest (RF), and artificial neural network (ANN) were employed to model the real estate price using datasets with S&P/Case-Shiller home price index and 12 demographic and macroeconomic features, such as gross domestic product (GDP), resident population, personal income, etc. in five metropolitan areas: Boston, Dallas, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The data from March 2005 to December 2018 were collected from the Federal Reserve Bank, FBI, and Freddie Mac. In the original data, some factors are monthly, some quarterly, and some yearly. Thus, two methods to compensate missing values, backfill or interpolation, were compared. The models were evaluated by accuracy, mean absolute error, and root mean square error. The LR and ANN models outperformed the RF model due to RF’s inherent limitations. Both ANN and LR methods generated predictive models with high accuracy ( > 95%). It was found that personal income, GDP, population, and measures of debt consistently appeared as the most important factors. It also showed that technique to compensate missing values in the dataset and implementation of time lag can have a significant influence on the model performance and require further investigation. The best performing models varied for each area, but the backfilled 12-month lag LR models and the interpolated no lag ANN models showed the best stable performance overall, with accuracies > 95% for each city. This study reveals the influence of input variables in different markets. It also provides evidence to support future studies to identify the optimal time lag and data imputing methods for establishing accurate predictive models.

Keywords: linear regression, random forest, artificial neural network, real estate price prediction

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Authors: Lakshmi Shenoy

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In today’s era of Globalization, arises the need that students and professionals relocate temporarily or permanently to another country in order to pursue their respective academic and career goals. This involves not only learning the local language of the country but also integrating oneself into the native culture. This paper explains the method of understanding a nation’s culture through the study of its language. The method uses language not as a series of rules that connect words together but as a social practice in which one can actively participate. It emphasizes on how culture provides an environment in which languages can flourish and how culture dictates the interpretation of the language especially in case of German. This paper introduces language and culture as inseparable entities, as two sides of the same coin.

Keywords: language and culture, sociolinguistics, Ronald Wardhaugh, German

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Authors: Meral Yucel, Vildan Ok

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This study indicates the wind effects of 49-storey height four towers on a high-density urban area-consisting of 10-12 storey height buildings called Goztepe in Istanbul, Turkey. For this purpose, four towers and close environments are modeled in 1/500 scale for wind tunnel test. Three neighboring buildings are chosen to find out the pressure coefficient changes on the surfaces of the buildings according to the construction order of these four towers and wind directions. Results were compared with the 'TS 498 Wind Standard of Tall Buildings in Istanbul' which is prepared by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in 2009.

Keywords: high rise buildings, pressure coefficients, wind tunnel experiments, wind standard of tall buildings

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Authors: In Su Na, Dongyeon Seo, Hwanyong Kim

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This research focuses on new town planning methodology in aspects of Neighborhood Unit Formula and New Urbanism. In Korea, there were built many new towns since 1980’s. The urban design concepts also shifted variously in land use, transportation, open spaces and architectural design. This research aims to find out urban design planning and factors in each new town planning through comparison of four new town cases in aspects of land use, transportation and building design of metropolitan area of Seoul. In conclusion the recent new town has created an area with a unique place that has not been seen in the early new town, and it has a certain aspect that is in line with the planning principles of New Urbanism.

Keywords: compact city, neighborhood unit formula, new town planning, new urbanism

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Authors: D. Tloczynski

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The main aim of this article is to present a balance of the decade of Polish air transport market in the European Union having taking into account selected entities of the aviation market. This article analyzes the functioning of the Polish air transport market after the Polish accession to the European Union. During the study two main areas were pointed: shipping activity and activity of the airports. The most important benefits of integration and the benefits of introducing of the open sky policy were indicated. The last part of the article presents the perspectives of development of air traffic.

Keywords: air transport, airports, development air transport, European Union, Poland

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Authors: Sanaa Riaz

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Spirits occupy a world that simultaneously dwells between the divine and the earthly binary while speaking to all forces of nature, marginality, and extremity in between. This paper examines the conceptualizations, interactions with, and experience of spiritual beings in relation to the concept of self and social agency, defined as a continuum of cooperation leaving those involved with an enhanced or diminished perception of self-agency. To do justice to the diverse mythological and popular interpretations of spirit entities, ethnographic examples from Africa, in particular, will be used. An examination of the nature and role of spirits in Africa allows one to understand the ways in which colonial influences brought by Catholicism and Islam added to the pre-colonial repertoire and syncretic imaginations of spirits. A comprehensive framework to analyze spirits requires situating them as a cognitive configuration of humans to communicate with other humans and forces of nature to receive knowledge about the normative in social roles, conduct, and action. Understanding spirits also requires a rethinking of the concept of self as not one encapsulated in the individual but one representing positionalities in collective negotiations, adversity, and alliances. To use the postmodern understanding of identity as a far from a coherent collection of selves fluidly moving between and dialoguing with gravitational and contradictory social forces, benevolent and maleficent spirit forces represent how people make sense of their origin, physiological and ecological changes, subsistence, and political environment and social relations. A discussion on spirits requires examining the rituals and mediational forces and their performance that allow participants to tackle adversity, voicelessness and continue to work safely and morally for the collective good. Moreover, it is important to see the conceptualization of spirits in unison with sorcery and spirit possession, central to voodoo practices, also because they speak volumes about the experiences of slavery and marginalization. This paper has two motives: It presents a critical literature review of ethnographic accounts of spirit entities in African spiritual experiences to examine the ways in which spirits become mediums through which the self is conceptualized and asserted. Second, the paper highlights the ways in which spirits become a medium to represent political and sociocultural ambiguities and desires along a spectrum of social agencies, including joint agency, vicarious agency, and interfered agency.

Keywords: spirits, social agency, self, ethnographic case studies

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Authors: Chiyoung Kim, Jaegeol Yim

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Bus service is often either main or the only public transportation available in cities. In metropolitan areas, both subways and buses are available whereas in the medium sized cities buses are usually the only type of public transportation available. Bus Information Systems (BIS) provide current locations of running buses, efficient routes to travel from one place to another, points of interests around a given bus stop, a series of bus stops consisting of a given bus route, and so on to users. Thanks to BIS, people do not have to waste time at a bus stop waiting for a bus because BIS provides exact information on bus arrival times at a given bus stop. Therefore, BIS does a lot to promote the use of buses contributing to pollution reduction and saving natural resources. BIS implementation costs a huge amount of budget as it requires a lot of special equipment such as road side equipment, automatic vehicle identification and location systems, trunked radio systems, and so on. Consequently, medium and small sized cities with a low budget cannot afford to install BIS even though people in these cities need BIS service more desperately than people in metropolitan areas. It is possible to provide BIS service at virtually no cost under the assumption that everybody carries a smartphone and there is at least one person with a smartphone in a running bus who is willing to reveal his/her location details while he/she is sitting in a bus. This assumption is usually true in the real world. The smartphone penetration rate is greater than 100% in the developed countries and there is no reason for a bus driver to refuse to reveal his/her location details while driving. We have developed a mobile app that periodically reads values of sensors including GPS and sends GPS data to the server when the bus stops or when the elapsed time from the last send attempt is greater than a threshold. This app detects the bus stop state by investigating the sensor values. The server that receives GPS data from this app has also been developed. Under the assumption that the current locations of all running buses collected by the mobile app are recorded in a database, we have also developed a web site that provides all kinds of information that most BISs provide to users through the Internet. The development environment is: OS: Windows 7 64bit, IDE: Eclipse Luna 4.4.1, Spring IDE 3.7.0, Database: MySQL 5.1.7, Web Server: Apache Tomcat 7.0, Programming Language: Java 1.7.0_79. Given a start and a destination bus stop, it finds a shortest path from the start to the destination using the Dijkstra algorithm. Then, it finds a convenient route considering number of transits. For the user interface, we use the Google map. Template classes that are used by the Controller, DAO, Service and Utils classes include BUS, BusStop, BusListInfo, BusStopOrder, RouteResult, WalkingDist, Location, and so on. We are now integrating the mobile app system and the web app system.

Keywords: bus information system, GPS, mobile app, web site

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Authors: L. R. Valencia Pérez, A. Morita Alexander, Peña A. Juan Manuel, A. Lamadrid Álvarez

Abstract:

This research shows the reflection and identification of explanatory variables and their relationships between different variables that are involved with educational technology, all of them encompassed in macro-concepts which are: cognitive inequality, economy, food and language; These will give the guideline to have a more detailed knowledge of educational systems, the communication and equipment, the physical space and the teachers; All of them interacting with each other give rise to what is called educational technology management. These elements contribute to have a very specific knowledge of the equipment of communications, networks and computer equipment, systems and content repositories. This is intended to establish the importance of knowing a global environment in the transfer of knowledge in poor countries, so that it does not diminish the capacity to be authentic and preserve their cultures, their languages or dialects, their hierarchies and real needs; In short, to respect the customs of different towns, villages or cities that are intended to be reached through the use of internationally agreed professional educational technologies. The methodology used in this research is the analytical - descriptive, which allows to explain each of the variables, which in our opinion must be taken into account, in order to achieve an optimal incorporation of the educational technology in a model that gives results in a medium term. The idea is that in an encompassing way the concepts will be integrated to others with greater coverage until reaching macro concepts that are of national coverage in the countries and that are elements of conciliation in the different federal and international reforms. At the center of the model is the educational technology which is directly related to the concepts that are contained in factors such as the educational system, communication and equipment, spaces and teachers, which are globally immersed in macro concepts Cognitive inequality, economics, food and language. One of the major contributions of this article is to leave this idea under an algorithm that allows to be as unbiased as possible when evaluating this indicator, since other indicators that are to be taken from international preference entities like the OECD in the area of education systems studied, so that they are not influenced by particular political or interest pressures. This work opens the way for a relationship between involved entities, both conceptual, procedural and human activity, to clearly identify the convergence of their impact on the problem of education and how the relationship can contribute to an improvement, but also shows possibilities of being able to reach a comprehensive education reform for all.

Keywords: relationships macro-concepts, cognitive inequality, economics, alimentation and language

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Authors: Shan Zhou, Wenju Li, Kehui Chai

Abstract:

Along with economic globalization, marketization and regional development, strengthen planning and construction of the New Town, which is always the main way to optimize the structure and function of metropolitan spatial configuration. But, the new town is often of high-intensity development, bringing a series of natural, ecological and environmental issues, so it is difficult to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, taking the administrative center of Jiangping in Dongxing as an example. It is analyzed from the following three aspects：Vertical design of road traffic，Space layout of mountain buildings，and the design of landscape. The purpose is to elaborate the hillside design methods guided by low-intensity damage, and explore the guiding significance of sustainable development of the hillside construction in the future.

Keywords: low-intensity damage, new town construction，hillside，sustainable development, natural, ecology

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Authors: Koyangbo Guere Monguia Michel Alex Emmanuel

Abstract:

In e-government and especially recruitment, many researches have been conducted to build a trustworthy and reliable online or application system capable to process users or job applicant files. In this research (Government Recruitment Agency), cloud computing, identity management and public key encryption have been used to management domains, access control authorization mechanism and to secure data exchange between entities for reliable procedure of processing files.

Keywords: cloud computing network, identity management systems, public key encryption, access control and authorization

Procedia PDF Downloads 326

Authors: Yared Pawlos Woldeyes

Abstract:

Public Relations often referred to as ‘PR’, is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or organization, such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization, and the public. Public Relations are important because they help organizations or entities cultivate and maintain meaningful connections with society at large through platforms like print media and social media. Individuals that identify as public relation specialists establish and maintain relationships with an organization’s target audiences, relevant media sources, and opinion leaders. With regard to the challenges, when trying to practice public relations for government institutions, the priority for specialists is often to help members of society exercise a positive attitude and impression of a country’s political systems and practices. If you consider the case of public relations for government entities in Ethiopia there are several factors to consider. First, public relations in Ethiopia are very much driven by a desire to create a good image of the country and prevent the spread of any information that creates a bad image of Ethiopia. Also, the current ruling party dominates public relations in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, this means that more often than not, public relations specialists are forced by the government to spread and mass communicate false information to the public instead of the truth. Any opposition to government’s agenda will result in seriously negative repercussions for public relations specialists. Although public relations is supposed to create a positive and honest relationship between an organization or the government with the public, in Ethiopia, that is not the case. As a result, very few people express an interest in practicing public relations here. Despite this, there is an opportunity for the development of an accountable public relation affairs in developing nations, taking Ethiopian’s case. For instance, the fact that Public relations are provided as a field of study in college or university to produce competent and trained specialists, the enormous contribution of good communication to the public developmental efforts linking the government to the people, and the better payment to employees of public relation officers are some of them. Therefore, there is a need by the respective stakeholders to work in coalition in raising awareness of the youth regarding the importance of a responsible public relations officer to the country’s developmental efforts, encouragement of Civil Society Organizations working in promoting free press and expression of ideas, improving the governmental structure to be transparent and that allows independent officers, and hosting international conferences on public relations practice so that the specialists can exchange knowledge and skills.

Keywords: developing nations, Ethiopia, public relations, public relations specialist

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Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Choudhuri

Abstract:

This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, unorganized sector

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Authors: Cristina Costa-Lobo, Ana Martins, Maria Das Dores Formosinho, Ana Campina, Filomena Ponte

Abstract:

This paper is a report on the findings of a study conducted at an international leading food group. Documentary analysis and discourse analysis techniques were used to examine how corporate social responsibility and career education are valued by this international group. The Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility and Career Education was used, with 18 open-ended questions, the first six related to Corporate Social Responsibility and the last 12 related to Education for the Career. The Survey on the Social Emergency Fund was made up of 16 open-ended questions. The Social Welfare Survey was used to investigate the contribution of social workers in this area, as well as to understand their status. The sample of this investigation is composed by the Director of the development area, by the Coordinator and two Social Assistants of the Social Emergency Fund. Their collaboration was the provision of information in the form of an interview where the two main axes of this study were explored: Corporate Social Responsibility and Career Education. With regard to the analysis of data obtained from interviews, it was accomplished through the content analysis according to the Bardin's method (2004), through the pre-analytical, exploratory and qualitative treatment and interpretation of responses. Critical review of documents was also used. The success and effectiveness of this international group are marked by ambition, ability to resist difficulties, sharing of values, spirit of unity and team sense that is shared in its different companies, its leadership position is also due to the concern to see reinforced and developed values of work, discipline, rigor and competence, its management is geared towards responding to immediate challenges from a Corporate Social Responsibility perspective that is characteristic of it, incorporating concerns about impacts both in the medium and long term. In addition to internal training, it directs investments for external training by promoting actions such as participation in seminars and congresses worldwide and the creation of partnerships in various areas of management with prestigious teaching entities. Findings indicate the creation of a training school, with initiatives for internal and external training, in partnerships with prestigious teaching entities. Of particular note is the Management Trainees Program, developed for more than 25 years, characterized by building a career by obtaining knowledge and skills acquired in the combination of on-the-job experience and a training program.

Keywords: career education, corporate social responsibility, training school, management trainees program

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Authors: Paulo Castro, J. R. Croca, M. Gatta, R. Moreira

Abstract:

Owing to the development of quantum mechanics, we will contextualize the foundations of the theory on the Fourier analysis framework, thus stating the unavoidable philosophical conclusions drawn by Niels Bohr. We will then introduce an alternative way of describing the undulatory aspects of quantum entities by using gaussian Morlet wavelets. The description has its roots in de Broglie's realistic program for quantum physics. It so happens that using wavelets it is possible to formulate a more general set of uncertainty relations. A set from which it is possible to theoretically describe both ends of the behavioral spectrum in reality: the indeterministic quantum trajectorial foam and the perfectly drawn Newtonian trajectories.

Keywords: philosophy of quantum mechanics, quantum realism, morlet wavelets, uncertainty relations, determinism

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Chaudhuri

Abstract:

This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, and unorganized sector.

Procedia PDF Downloads 38