Search results for: Participation and Politics.

Authors: Azizeh Chalak, Firouzeh Baktash

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Reticence is a prominent and complex phenomenon which occurs in foreign language classrooms and influences students’ oral passivity. The present study investigated the extent in which students experience reticence in the EFL classrooms and explored the underlying factors triggering reticence. The participants were 104 Iranian freshmen undergraduate male and female EFL students, who enrolled in listening and speaking courses, all majoring in English studying at Islamic Azad University Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch and University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. To collect the data, the Reticence Scale-12 (RS-12) questionnaire which measures the level of reticence consisting of six dimensions (anxiety, knowledge, timing, organization, skills, and memory) was administered to the participants. The statistical analyses showed that the reticent level was high among the Iranian EFL undergraduate students, and their major problems were feelings of anxiety and delivery skills. Moreover, the results revealed that factors such as low English proficiency, the teaching method, and lack of confidence contributed to the students’ reticence in Iranian EFL classrooms. It can be implied that language teachers’ awareness of learners’ reticence can help them choose more appropriate activities and provide a friendly environment enhancing hopefully more effective participation of EFL learners. The findings can have implications for EFL teachers, learners and policy makers.

Keywords: Reticence, reticence scale, anxiety, Iranian EFL learners.

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Authors: Marco Sernaglia, Augusto M. P. Carreira, Helena M. L. Carvalho, Pedro B. Água, Armindo Frias, Manuel Carrasqueira

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The existence of mismatches between the qualification requirements of professionals in the maritime industry and existing higher education offers was verified within the scope of the European project MarLEM (Maritime Logistics Engineering and Management). Professionals in the maritime industry today and in the future face additional obstacles as a result of the sector's global nature as well as the sector's rapid technological and social evolution. As a result, they feel the need to update their skills and knowledge. A professional-oriented master's program was developed to fill this gap. The NOVA School of Science and Technology and the Portuguese Naval School co-developed this Master's program with the active participation of MarLEM project partners from academia and industry. In this work, the principles and approach used to design the master's program are presented. Its design and a concise synopsis of the courses' content are shown. In addition, other international courses covering the same topic are compared. As a result of this work, the teaching materials related to maritime logistics are improved and the assumptions and methodology that guided the creation of an international master's program in maritime logistics are disseminated.

Keywords: Education, maritime logistics, shipping, industrial engineering, management, soft skills.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Tabatabaei, Mohammad Bagher Haddadi, Mojtaba Saeedimoghadam, Ali Vaseghi Ardekani

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Economic Dispatch (ED) is one of the most challenging problems of power system since it is difficult to determine the optimum generation scheduling to meet the particular load demand with the minimum fuel costs while all constraints are satisfied. The objective of the Economic Dispatch Problems (EDPs) of electric power generation is to schedule the committed generating units outputs so as to meet the required load demand at minimum operating cost while satisfying all units and system equality and inequality constraints. In this paper, an efficient and practical steady-state genetic algorithm (SSGAs) has been proposed for solving the economic dispatch problem. The objective is to minimize the total generation fuel cost and keep the power flows within the security limits. To achieve that, the present work is developed to determine the optimal location and size of capacitors in transmission power system where, the Participation Factor Algorithm and the Steady State Genetic Algorithm are proposed to select the best locations for the capacitors and determine the optimal size for them.

Keywords: Economic Dispatch, Lagrange, Capacitors Placement, Losses Reduction, Genetic Algorithm.

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Authors: Mutshinye Manguvhewa, Maria Florence, Mansoo Yu

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Substance use among pregnant women is a perennial problem in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. There are many influential elements related with substance use among women of childbearing-age. Factors associated with substance use during pregnancy were explored using qualitative research approach and bio-ecological theoretical framework was utilised to guide the study. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Participants accessed from the Department of Social Development who met the inclusion criteria of the study were interviewed using semi structured interviews. Participants were referred for psychological intervention during the interview if deemed necessary. Braun and Clarke’s six phases of thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The study adhered to ethical measures for the participants’ protection. Participants had been knowledgeable about the study earlier than the initiation of the interviews and the important points of their voluntary participation had been explained. The key findings from this study illustrate that social factors, individual area and romantic relationship are the major contributing factors to substance use among pregnant ladies in this sample. Recommendations arising from the study encompass that the stakeholders, rehabilitation centers, Department of Health and future researchers ought to act proactively against substance use all through pregnancy.

Keywords: Bio-ecological factors, pregnancy risk awareness, antenatal care, substance use.

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Authors: Zoaib Mirza

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Pakistan is an Islamic country that got its partition from India in 1947 so that the people could practice the religion of Islam. The political slogan to strive for independence was “What does Pakistan mean? There is no God but Allah”. The ideology of Pakistan was based on the notion that sovereignty only belonged to God Almighty (in Arabic, God means “Allah”), and Muslims will live in accordance with Islam principles. The Quran (Holy Book) and Sunnah (authentic practices of Prophet Mohammad, Peace Be Upon Him, that explains the application of the Quran) are foundations of the Islamic principles. It has been over 75 years, but unfortunately, Pakistan, due to its own political, social, and economic mistakes, is responsible for not being able to become a true Islamic nation to justify its partition from India. The rationale for writing this paper is to analyze the factors that led to changes in the democratic movements impacting the country's political, social, and economic growth. The methodology to examine the historical and political context of Pakistan’s history is by referencing the scholarly work of Israr Ahmed. He focused on Islamic theology, philosophy, and studies, offering insights into the historical and political context of the country. While from a Western perspective, Karl Marx, Mar Weber, Hannah Arendt, Sheldon Wolin, Paulo Freire, and Jacques Ranciere's philosophies specific to totalitarianism, politics, military rule, religion, capitalism, and superpower are used as the framework to analyze Pakistan’s democracy. The study's findings conclude that Pakistan's democracy is unstable and has been impacted by military and civilian governance, which led to political, social, and economic downfall. To improve the current situation, the citizens of Pakistan have to realize that the success of a nation is only dependent on the level of consciousness of the leader and not the political system. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every citizen to be conscious of how they select their leader and take responsibility for the current situation in Pakistan.

Keywords: Pakistan, Islam, democracy, totalitarianism, military, religion, capitalism.

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Authors: Kuyucu Helvacioglu Asli Deniz, Tektas Arzu

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European Union candidate status provides a strong motivation for decision-making in the candidate countries in shaping the regional development policy where there is an envisioned transfer of power from center to the periphery. The process of Europeanization anticipates the candidate countries configure their regional institutional templates in the context of the requirements of the European Union policies and introduces new instruments of incentive framework of enlargement to be employed in regional development schemes. It is observed that the contribution of the local actors to the decision making in the design of the allocation architectures enhances the efficiency of the funds and increases the positive effects of the projects funded under the regional development objectives. This study aims at exploring the performances of the three regional development grant schemes in Turkey, established and allocated under the pre-accession process with a special emphasis given to the roles of the national and local actors in decision-making for regional development. Efficiency analyses have been conducted using the DEA methodology which has proved to be a superior method in comparative efficiency and benchmarking measurements. The findings of this study as parallel to similar international studies, provides that the participation of the local actors to the decision-making in funding contributes both to the quality and the efficiency of the projects funded under the EU schemes.

Keywords: Efficiency, European Union Funds, RegionalDevelopment, Turkey

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Authors: Lei Dou, Mitsuhiro Nakagawa, Fei Yan, Ping Li

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Participation in global trade means that Chinas vegetables and fruits industry faces international food safety standards and increased scrutiny worldwide. The objectives of this paper were to investigate how existing food safety standards and regulations in the importing countries impact the export of vegetables and fruits from China. This paper discussed the current and historical situations of Chinas vegetables and fruits export from 1996 to 2010, analyzed the Maximum Residual Limit (MRL) standards of pesticides imposed by importing countries, quantitatively estimated the impacts of food safety standards on Chinas vegetables and fruits export based on a gravity model. The results showed that although transportation distance between trade partners and tariff rates on vegetables and fruits were still the importantly resistant factors for China export, vegetables and fruits export was sensitive to the number of regulated pesticides, the strictness, and the level of food safety standards imposed by importing countries, which showed a significant trade flow effect, stricter food safety standards, increased number of regulated pesticides significantly inhibit China export of vegetables and fruits. Moreover, Chinas food safety standards also showed a significantly effect on vegetables and fruits export, which inhibited export to some extent. KeywordsFood safety standards, MRL, Vegetables, Fruits, Export.

Keywords: Food safety standards, MRL, Vegetables, Fruits, Export.

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Authors: K. Durairaj, I. N. Umar

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The asynchronous discussion forum is one of the most widely used activities in learning management system environment. Online forum allows participants to interact, construct knowledge, and can be used to complement face to face sessions in blended learning courses. However, to what extent do the students perceive the benefits or advantages of forum remain to be seen. Through content and social network analyses, instructors will be able to gauge the students’ engagement and knowledge construction level. Thus, this study aims to analyze the students’ level of knowledge construction and their participation level that occur through online discussion. It also attempts to investigate the relationship between the level of knowledge construction and their social interaction patterns. The sample involves 23 students undertaking a master course in one public university in Malaysia. The asynchronous discussion forum was conducted for three weeks as part of the course requirement. The finding indicates that the level of knowledge construction is quite low. Also, the density value of 0.11 indicating the overall communication among the participants in the forum is low. This study reveals that strong and significant correlations between SNA measures (in-degree centrality, out-degree centrality) and level of knowledge construction. Thus, allocating these active students in different group aids the interactive discussion takes place. Finally, based upon the findings, some recommendations to increase students’ level of knowledge construction and also for further research are proposed.

Keywords: Asynchronous Discussion Forums, Content Analysis, Knowledge Construction, Social Network Analysis.

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Authors: Supannee Chaiumporn

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This article is to introduce the meaning and form of social quality moving process as indicated by members of two suburb communities with different social and cultural contexts. The form of social quality moving process is very significant for the community and social development, because it will make the people living together with sustainable happiness. This is a qualitative study involving 30 key-informants from two suburb communities. Data were collected though key-informant interviews, and analyzed using logical content description and descriptive statistics. This research found that on the social quality component, the people in both communities stressed the procedure for social qualitymaking. This includes the generousness, sharing and assisting among people in the communities. These practices helped making people to live together with sustainable happiness. Living as a family or appear to be a family is the major social characteristic of these two communities. This research also found that form of social quality’s moving process of both communities stress relation of human and nature; “nature overpower humans” paradigm and influence of religious doctrine that emphasizes relations among humans. Both criteria make the form of social’s moving process simple, adaptive to nature and caring for opinion sharing and understanding among each other before action. This form of social quality’s moving process is composed of 4 steps; (1) awareness building, (2) motivation to change, (3) participation from every party which is concerned (4) self-reliance.

Keywords: Social quality, form of social quality moving process, happiness, different social and cultural context.

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Authors: Mananya Meenakorn

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This research aims to investigate: (1) Relationship between the quality of working life and organizational commitment of municipal employee in Samut Sakhon Province. (2) To compare the quality of working life and the organizational commitment of municipal employee in Samut Sakhon Province by the gender, age, education, official experience, position, division, and income. This study is a quantitative research; data was collected by questionnaires distributed to the municipal employee in Samut Sakhon province for 241 sample by stratified random sampling. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistic including t-test, F-test and Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. Finding showed that the quality of working life and the organizational commitment of municipal Employee in Samut Sakhon province in terms of compensation and fair has a positive correlation (r = 0.673) and the comparison of the quality of working life and organizational commitment of municipal employees in Samut Sakhon province by gender. We found that the overall difference was statistically significant at the 0.05 level and we also found stability and progress in career path and the characteristics are beneficial to society has a difference was statistically significant at the 0.01 level, and the participation and social acceptance has a difference was statistically significant at the 0.05 level.

Keywords: Quality of working life, organizational commitment, municipal employee, Samut Sakhon province.

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Authors: Sapfo A. Mortaki

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This article examines the presence of Greek immigrant artists (painters and sculptors) in Paris during 1970-2010. The aim is to highlight their presence in the French capital through archival research in the daily and periodical press as well as present the impact of their artistic activity on the French intellectual life and society. At the same time, their contribution to the development of cultural life in Greece becomes apparent. The integration of those migrant artists into an environment of cultural coexistence and the understanding of the social phenomenon of their migration, in the context of postmodernity, are being investigated. The cultural relations between the two countries are studied in the context of support mechanisms, such as the Greek community, cultural institutions, museums and galleries. The recognition of the Greek artists by the French society and the social dimension in the context of their activity in Paris, are discussed in terms of the assimilation theory. Since the 1970s, and especially since the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, in opposition to the prior situation, artists' contacts with their homeland have been significantly enhanced, with most of them now travelling to Paris, while others work in parallel in both countries. As a result, not only do the stages of the development of their work through their pursuits become visible, but, most importantly, the artistic world becomes informed about the multifaceted expression of art through the succession of various contemporary currents. Thus, the participation of Greek artists in the international cultural landscape is demonstrated.

Keywords: Artistic migration, cultural impact, Greek artists, postmodernity, theory of assimilation.

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Authors: Feyzan Tuzkaya, Nihan S. Soylu, Çağlar Solak, Hilal Peker, Mehmet Peker, Kemal Özeralp, Ceren Mete, Ezgi Mehmetoğlu, Mehmet Karasu, Cihan Elçi, Ece Akca, Melek Göregenli

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Perception, evaluation and representation of the environment have been the subject of many disciplines including psychology, geography and architecture. In environmental and social psychology literature there are several evidences which suggest that cognitive representations about a place consisted of not only geographic items but also social and cultural. Mental representations of residence area or a country are influenced and determined by social-demographics, the physical and social context. Thus, all mental representations of a given place are also social representations. Cognitive maps are the main and common instruments that are used to identify spatial images and the difference between physical and subjective environments. The aim of the current study is investigating the mental and social representations of Turkey in university students’ minds. Data was collected from 249 university students from different departments (i.e. psychology, geography, history, tourism departments) of Ege University. Participants were requested to reflect Turkey in their mind onto the paper drawing sketch maps. According to the results, cognitive maps showed geographic aspects of Turkey as well as the context of symbolic, cultural and political reality of Turkey. That is to say, these maps had many symbolic and verbal items related to critics on social and cultural problems, ongoing ethnic and political conflicts, and actual political agenda of Turkey. Additionally, one of main differentiations in these representations appeared in terms of the East and West side of the Turkey, and the representations of the East and West was varied correspondingly participants’ cultural background, their ethnic values, and where they have born. The results of the study were discussed in environmental and social psychological perspective considering cultural and social values of Turkey and current political circumstances of the country.

Keywords: Cognitive maps, East and West, politics, social representations, Turkey.

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Authors: Anju Luthra, Rajender Lal, Dhananjoy Shaw

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Participation in games and sports in the contemporary times has become more competing with the developed scientific knowledge, skills and methods, along with the equipment and applied research in the field. In spite of India being a large country having vast resources and potential, its performance in the world of sports on the whole needs sincere attention for better achievements. Beside numerous factors responsible for the dismal performance of a sportsperson, the physique and body composition, including the size, shape and form are known to play a significant role. The present investigation was undertaken to study the specific morphological characteristics of Indian female Track and Field athletes. A total of 300 athletes were randomly selected as sample for the purpose of the study from the six events having 50 athletes in each event including 100m., 400m., Shot Put, Discus Throw, Long Jump and High Jump. The study included body weight, body fat percentage, lean body weight, endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy as variables. The data were computed statistically by using Mean, Standard Deviation and Analysis of Variance. The post-hoc analysis was conducted where the F-ratio was found to be significant at .05 level. The study concluded that there is a significant difference with regard to the selected variables among the Indian female athletes of different track and field events.

Keywords: Indian female athletes, body composition, morphology, somatotypes, track and field.

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Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

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This paper presents an assessment study conducted among the distance learners in India. Open and distance learning systems have traveled a long way since its inception and its journey has witnessed the evolution and adoption of different generations of technology. This study focuses on the distant learners in India. Sampling for this study has been derived from the mass enrollment from Tamil Nadu area, a southern state of India. Learners were chosen from dual mode universities, private universities, Tamil Nadu Open University and IGNOU. The main focus of the study is to examine the coverage and appropriation of students support services and learning aids. It explores two aspects: the facilities available and the awareness and use of such services. It includes, self-learning materials, face-to-face counseling, multimedia learning materials, website, e-learning, radio and television services etc. While exploring the student-s perspective on these learning aspects, it is important to understand the perspectives of the teachers. Two different interests are visible among the teachers. Majority of the teachers support faceto- face counseling. However, the young teachers are in favour of online learning and multimedia supports in teaching. Through the awareness is somewhat high, the actual participation in online is very low. This is due to the inadequate infrastructure as well as the traditional attitudes of the teachers. Still the face-to-face sessions remain popular than online.

Keywords: Face-to-face session, online session, distance learning, multimedia

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

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As of 2017, many online learning professionals, institutions, and journals are still wondering how instructors can keep student engaged in the online learning environment to facilitate active learning effectively. The purpose of this qualitative single-case and narrative research is to explore whether online professors understand their role as mentors and facilitators of students’ academic success by keeping students engaged in active learning based on personalized experience in the field. Data collection tools that were used in the study included an NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software, an interview protocol, a digital audiotape, an observation sheet, and a transcription. Seven online professors in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online teaching techniques from previous research were used as the study framework. Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to achieve saturation. About 85.7% of professors agreed on rubric as the preferred online grading technique. About 57.1% agreed on professors logging in daily, students logging in about 2-5 times weekly, knowing students to increase accountability, email as preferred communication tool, and computer access for adequate online learning. About 42.9% agreed on syllabus for clear class expectations, participation to show what has been learned, and energizing students for creativity.

Keywords: Class facilitation, class management, online teaching, online education, pedagogy.

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Authors: Daniel Schwarz, Jan Fivaz, Alessia Neuroni

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Although digitization is a buzzword in almost every election campaign, the political parties leave voters largely in the dark about their specific positions on digital issues. In the run-up to the 2019 elections in Switzerland, the ‘Digitization Monitor’ project (DMP) was launched in order to change this situation. Within the framework of the DMP, all 4,736 candidates were surveyed about their digital policy positions and values. The DMP is designed as a digital policy supplement to the existing ‘smartvote’ voting advice application. This enabled a direct comparison of the digital policy attitudes according to the DMP with the topics of the ‘smartvote’ questionnaire which are comprehensive in content but mainly related to conventional policy areas. This paper’s main research goal is to analyze and visualize possible differences between conventional and digital policy areas in terms of response patterns between and within political parties. The analysis is based on dimensionality reduction methods (multidimensional scaling and principal component analysis) for the visualization of inter-party differences, and on standard deviation as a measure of variation for the evaluation of intra-party unity. The results reveal that digital issues show a lower degree of inter-party polarization compared to conventional policy areas. Thus, the parties have more common ground in issues on digitization than in conventional policy areas. In contrast, the study reveals a mixed picture regarding intra-party unity. Homogeneous parties show a lower degree of unity in digitization issues whereas parties with heterogeneous positions in conventional areas have more united positions in digital areas. All things considered, the findings are encouraging as less polarized conditions apply to the debate on digital development compared to conventional politics. For the future, it would be desirable if in further countries similar projects to the DMP could emerge to broaden the basis for conclusions.

Keywords: Comparison of political issue dimensions, digital awareness of candidates, digital policy space, party positions on digital issues.

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Authors: Timothy Yoonsuk Lee, Joonhyoup Lee, Yoojin Chung

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As an adult man and woman love each other and come to have faith in each other as their spouse, they marry each other. Recently people-s economic life has become individualized and women are enjoying a high education level and increased participation in social activities, and these changes are creating environment favorable for single life. Thus, an increasing number of people are choosing celibacy, and many people prefer cohabitation to marriage. Nevertheless, marriage is still regarded as a must-to-do in our thought. Most of people throughout the world admit marriage as one of natural processes of life, and is an important passage rite in life that all people experience as we can see everywhere in the world despite the diversity of lifestyles. With regard to wedding ceremony, however, each country and culture has its own unique tradition and style of festival. It is not just a congratulatory ceremony but contains multiple concepts representing the age, country or culture. Moreover, the form and contents of wedding ceremony changes over time, and such features of wedding ceremony are well represented in films. This study took note of the fact that films reflect and reproduce each country-s historicity, culturality and analyzed four films, which are believed to show differences between Eastern and Western wedding ceremonies. The selected films are: A Perfect Match (2002), Marriage Is a Crazy Thing (2001), Bride Wars (2009) and 27 Dresses (2008). The author attempted to examine wedding ceremonies described in the four films, differences between the East and the West suggested by the films, and changes in their societies.

Keywords: Wedding ceremony, Korean films, Hollywood films, semiotics

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Authors: P.J. Du Toit, P. Janse Van Vuuren , S. Le Roux , E. Henning, M. Kleynhans, H.C. Terblanche, D. Crafford, C. Grobbelaar, P.S. Wood, C.C. Grant, L. Fletcher

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Introduction: Visual performance is an important factor in sport excellence. Visual involvement in a sport varies according to environmental demands associated with that sport. These environmental demands are matched by a task specific motor response. The purpose of this study was to determine if sport specific exercises will improve the visual performance of male rugby players, in order to achieve maximal results on the sports field. Materials & Methods: Twenty six adult male rugby players, aged 16-22, were chosen as subjects. In order to evaluate the effect of sport specific exercises on visual skills, a pre-test - post-test experimental group design was adopted for the study. Results: Significant differences (p≤0.05) were seen in the focussing, tracking, vergence, sequencing, eye-hand coordination and visualisation components Discussion & Conclusions: Sport specific exercises improved visual skills in rugby players which may provide them with an advantage over their opponents. This study suggests that these training programs and participation in regular on-line EyeDrills sports vision exercises (www.eyedrills.co.za) aimed at improving the athlete-s visual coordination, concentration, focus, hand-eye co-ordination, anticipation and motor response should be incorpotated in the rugby players exercise regime.

Keywords: Rugby players, sport specific exercises, visual skills.

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Authors: Aïssa Rezzoug

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This paper is aimed to bring new elements that demonstrate the tide caused the groundwater to rise in the shoreline band, on which the urban areas occurs, especially in the western coastal cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia like Jeddah. The reason for the last events of Jeddah inundation was the groundwater rise in the city coupled at the same time to a strong precipitation event. This paper will illustrate the tide participation in increasing the groundwater level significantly. It shows that the reason for internal groundwater recharge within the urban area is not only the excess of the water supply coming from surrounding areas, due to the human activity, with lack of sufficient and efficient sewage system, but also due to tide effect. The research study follows a quantitative method to assess groundwater level rise risks through many in-situ measurements and mathematical modelling. The proposed approach highlights groundwater level, in the urban areas of the city on the shoreline band, reaching the high tide level without considering any input from precipitation. Despite the small tide in the Red Sea compared to other oceanic coasts, the groundwater level is considerably enhanced by the tide from the seaside and by the freshwater table from the landside of the city. In these conditions, the groundwater level becomes high in the city and prevents the soil to evacuate quickly enough the surface flow caused by the storm event, as it was observed in the last historical flood catastrophe of Jeddah in 2009.

Keywords: Flood, groundwater rise, Jeddah, tide.

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Authors: Mohsen Noroozi, Maryam Khalili

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Creating cities, objects and spaces that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable and which meet the challenge of social interaction and generation change will be one of the biggest tasks of designers. Social sustainability is about how individuals, communities and societies live with each other and set out to achieve the objectives of development model which they have chosen for themselves. Urban lightning as one of the most important elements of urban furniture that people constantly interact with it in public spaces; can be a significant object for designers. Using intelligence by internet of things for urban lighting makes it more interactive in public environments. It can encourage individuals to carry out appropriate behaviors and provides them the social awareness through new interactions. The greatest strength of this technology is its strong impact on many aspects of everyday life and users' behaviors. The analytical phase of the research is based on a multiple method survey strategy. Smart lighting proposed in this paper is an urban lighting designed on results obtained from a collective point of view about the social sustainability. In this paper, referring to behavioral design methods, the social behaviors of the people has been studied. Data show that people demands for a deeper experience of social participation, safety perception and energy saving with the meaningful use of interactive and colourful lighting effects. By using intelligent technology, some suggestions are provided in the field of future lighting to consider the new forms of social sustainability.

Keywords: Behavior model, internet of things, social sustainability, urban lighting.

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Authors: Matías Micheletto, Rodrigo Santos, Sergio F. Ochoa

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In developing countries, most roads in rural areas are dirt road. They require frequent maintenance since they are affected by erosive events, such as rain or wind, and the transit of heavy-weight trucks and machinery. Early detection of damages on the road condition is a key aspect, since it allows to reduce the maintenance time and cost, and also the limitations for other vehicles to travel through. Most proposals that help address this problem require the explicit participation of drivers, a permanent internet connection, or important instrumentation in vehicles or roads. These constraints limit the suitability of these proposals when applied into developing regions, like Latin America. This paper proposes an alternative method, based on unattended crowdsensing, to determine the quality of dirt roads in rural areas. This method involves the use of a mobile application that complements the road condition surveys carried out by organizations in charge of the road network maintenance, giving them early warnings about road areas that could be requiring maintenance. Drivers can also take advantage of the early warnings while they move through these roads. The method was evaluated using information from a public dataset. Although they are preliminary, the results indicate the proposal is potentially suitable to provide awareness about dirt roads condition to drivers, transportation authority and road maintenance companies.

Keywords: Dirt roads automatic quality assessment, collaborative system, unattended crowdsensing method, roads quality awareness provision.

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Authors: Md. SajadulAlam, I. Ahmed, A. Naqib Jimmy, M. Haque Munna, N. Ahsan Khan

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The construction of coastal polders to reduce salinity ingress at greater Khulna-Jashore region area was initiated in the 1960s by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). Although successful in a short run the, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) and its predecessors are often held accountable for the entire ecological disasters that affected many people. To overcome the water-logging crisis the first Tidal River Management (TRM) at Beel Bhaiana, Bhabodaho was implemented by the affected local people in an unplanned. TRM is an eco-engineering, low cost and participatory approach that utilizes the natural tidal characteristics and the local community’s indigenous knowledge for design and operation of watershed management. But although its outcomes were overwhelming in terms of reducing water-logging, increasing navigability etc. at Beel Bhaina the outcomes of its consequent schemes were debatable. So this study aims to examine the effectiveness and impact of the TRM schemes. Primary data were collected through questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) so as to collect mutually complementary quantitative and qualitative information along with extensive literature review. The key aspects that were examined include community participation, community perception on effectiveness and operational challenges.

Keywords: Sustainable, livelihood, salinity, water-logging, shrimp fry collectors, coastal region.

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Authors: Mpai Mokoena, Nsenda Lukumwena

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South Africa is one of the driest countries in the world and is facing a water crisis. In addition to inadequate infrastructure and poor planning, the country is experiencing high rates of water wastage due to pipe leaks. This study outlines the level of water wastage and develops a smart solution to efficiently manage and reduce the effects of pipe leaks, while monitoring the situation before and after fixing the pipe leaks. To understand the issue in depth, a literature review of journal papers and government reports was conducted. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to the general public. Additionally, the municipality office was contacted from a managerial perspective. The analysis from the study indicated that the majority of the citizens are aware of the water crisis and are willing to participate positively to decrease the level of water wasted. Furthermore, the response from the municipality acknowledged that more practical solutions are needed to reduce water wastage, and resources to attend to pipe leaks swiftly. Therefore, this paper proposes a specific solution for municipalities, local plumbers and citizens to minimize the effects of pipe leaks. The solution provides web and mobile application platforms to report and manage leaks swiftly. The solution is beneficial to the country in achieving water security and would promote a culture of responsibility toward water usage.

Keywords: Urban Distribution Networks, leak management, mobile application, responsible citizens, water crisis, water security.

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Authors: Ana Paula Melchiors Stahlschmidt

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This paper discusses the role of music as a ludic activity and constituent element of voice in the construction and consolidation of the relationship of the baby and his/her mother or caretaker, evaluating its implications in his/her psychic structure and constitution as a subject. The work was based on the research developed as part of the author’s doctoral activities carried out from her insertion in a project of the Music Department of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, which objective was the development of musical activities with groups of babies from 0 to 24 months old and their caretakers. Observations, video recordings of the meetings, audio testemonies, and evaluation tools applied to group participants were used as instruments for this research. Information was collected on the participation of 195 babies, among which 8 were more focused on through interviews with their mothers or caretakers. These interviews were analyzed based on the referential of French Discourse Analysis, Psychoanalysis, Psychology of Development and Musical Education. The results of the research were complemented by other posterior experiences that the author developed with similar groups, in a context of a private clinic. The information collected allowed the observation of the ludic and structural functions of musical activities, when developed in a structured environment, as well as the importance of the musicality of the mother’s voice to the psychical structuring of the baby, allowing his/her insertion in the language and his/her constitution as a subject.

Keywords: Music and babies, maternal voice, Psychoanalysis and music, Psychology and music.

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Authors: Afia Shahid

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The writing of Samuel Beckett is associated with meaning in the meaninglessness and the production of what he calls ‘literature of unword’. The casual escape from the world of words in the form of silences and pauses, in his play Waiting for Godot, urges to ask question of their existence and ultimately leads to investigate the theory behind their use in the play. This paper proposes that these absences (silence and pause) in Beckett’s play force to think ‘beyond’ language. This paper asks how silence and pause in Beckett’s text speak for the emergence of poststructuralist text. It aims to identify the significant features of the philosophy of deconstruction in the play of Beckett to demystify the hostile complicity between literature and philosophy. With the interpretive paradigm of poststructuralism this research focuses on the text as a research data. It attempts to delineate the relationship between poststructuralist theoretical concerns and text of Beckett. Keeping in view the theoretical concerns of Poststructuralist theorist Jacques Derrida, the main concern of the discussion is directed towards the notion of ‘beyond’ language into the absences that are aimed at silencing the existing discourse with the ‘radical irony’ of this anti-formal art that contains its own denial and thus represents the idea of ceaseless questioning and radical contradiction in art and any text. This article asks how text of Beckett vibrates with loud silence and has disrupted language to demonstrate the emptiness of words and thus exploring the limitless void of absences. Beckett’s text resonates with silence and pause that is neither negation nor affirmation rather a poststructuralist’s suspension of reality that is ever changing with the undecidablity of all meanings. Within the theoretical notion of Derrida’s Différance this study interprets silence and pause in Beckett’s art. The silence and pause behave like Derrida’s Différance and have questioned their own existence in the text to deconstruct any definiteness and finality of reality to extend an undecidable threshold of poststructuralists that aims to evade the ‘labyrinth of language’.

Keywords: Différance, language, pause, poststructuralism, silence, text.

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Authors: Yousef Bakhbakhi, Mourad Boumaza

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Only recently have water ethics received focused interest in the international water community. Because water is metabolically basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. Water ethics at once express human society-s approach to water and act as guidelines for behaviour. Ideas around water are often implicit and embedded as assumptions. They can be entrenched in behaviour and difficult to contest because they are difficult to “see". By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society-s relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention by human society. In recent decades, improved understanding of water-s importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supplyfocused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment and thus water or water Resources management per se. An ethical approach is a legitimate, important, and often ignored approach to effect change in environmental decision making. This qualitative research explores principles of water ethics and examines the underlying ethical precepts of selected water policy examples. The constructed water ethic principles act as a set of criteria against which a policy comparison can be established. This study shows that water Resources management is a progressive issue by embracing full public participation and a new planning model, and knowledgegeneration initiatives.

Keywords: water resources, environmental management, publicparticipation.

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Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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Due to growing concern about environmental and social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing. This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers (Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation; Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective implementation of sustainable manufacturing.

Keywords: Drivers, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), India, Sustainable Manufacturing (SM).

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Authors: N. Talisa, K. Rungsarid, P. Chakrit

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The objectives of the research are to study the existing agricultural patterns, and to evaluate the sustainability of agricultural on economic, social and environmental aspects. The samplings were the representatives of the agriculturist group from Ban Paew district, Samut Sakorn province by purposive sampling method of 30 households. The tools being used were interview forms together with the Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and the Participation Rural Appraisal (PRA). The information collected was analyzed with the principle of Content Analysis andusing Descriptive Statistics. After that all the information gotten was analyze the sustainability on the household level and village level. The research result can be concluded as follows: The agricultural Patterns: For most of the cultivation main crop was fruit trees planted and the supplement crop was around the patch or added other plants in the trenches. There were trenches for the cultivating water. The product distribution was by selling (97.5%) and the selling to middle man was the highest number (62.5%). Evaluating the sustainability of the agricultural by the indicators which were appropriate to the area: For the agricultural sustainability on the household level it was found that only one household had sustainable, others household had conditioned sustainable. For on the village level it was found that the sustainability on the issue of agricultural knowledge training had the lowest level (Sustainability index = 31.67%). Secondary was the acknowledging about soil information (Sustainability index = 35.0), and the household labors on agriculture, net return over cash cost (Sustainability index = 55.0%) respectively. Performance percentage is 48.81 %. It was brought to the conclusion that this area did not have the agricultural sustainability.

Keywords: Sustainability of agricultural, sustainability indicators, sustainability index.

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Authors: Andreas L. Savvides

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These This paper looks into frameworks which aim at furthering the discussion of the role of regenerative design practices in a city-s historic core and the tool of urban design to achieve urban revitalization on the island of Cyprus. It also examines the region-s demographic mix, the effectiveness of its governmental coordination and the strategies of adaptive reuse and strategic investments in older areas with existing infrastructure. The two main prongs of investigation will consider the effect of the existing and proposed changes in the physical infrastructure and fabric of the city, as well as the catalytic effect of sustainable urban design practices. Through this process, the work hopes to integrate the contained potential within the existing historic core and the contributions and participation of the migrant and immigrant populations to the local economy. It also examines ways in which this coupling of factors can bring to the front the positive effects of this combined effort on an otherwise sluggish local redevelopment effort. The data for this study is being collected and organized as part of ongoing urban design and development student workshop efforts in urban planning and design education. The work is presented in graphic form and includes data collected from interviews with study area organizations and the community at large. Planning work is also based on best practices initiated by the staff of the Nicosia Master Plan task force, which coordinates holistic planning efforts for the historic center of the city of Nicosia.

Keywords: Urban Design, Urban Development, Urban Regeneration, Historic Core, Cultural Planning.

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Authors: Tolga Yazici

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As a matter of the fact that online social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace have experienced an extensive growth in recent years. Social media offers individuals with a tool for communicating and interacting with one another. These social networks enable people to stay in touch with other people and express themselves. This process makes the users of online social networks active creators of content rather than being only consumers of traditional media. That’s why millions of people show strong desire to learn the methods and tools of digital content production and necessary communication skills. However, the booming interest in communication and interaction through online social networks and high level of eagerness to invent and implement the ways to participate in content production raise some privacy and security concerns. This presentation aims to open the assumed revolutionary, democratic and liberating nature of the online social media up for discussion by reviewing some recent political developments in Turkey. Firstly, the role of Internet and online social networks in mobilizing collective movements through social interactions and communications will be questioned. Secondly, some cases from Gezi and Okmeydanı Protests and also December 17-25 period will be presented in order to illustrate misinformation and manipulation in social media and violation of individual privacy through online social networks in order to damage social unity and stability contradictory to democratic nature of online social networking.

Keywords: Online, social media networks, democratic participation, social polarization, privacy of individuals, Turkey.

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