This study explores the impact of financial inclusions on financial resilience. In doing so, we utilize the World Bank’s data on global financial inclusions. Our study confirms that the respondents with financial accounts are more resilient than those without accounts. The chances of being financially resilient are around 1.4 times higher for the account holders than their counterparts. We find a significant relationship between gender and financial resilience; males are 1.4 times more resilient than females when other covariates are considered in the regression model.

This study measures key indicators of perceived precarity and decent working conditions and their relative effects on life satisfaction of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises. Using a random sample survey, we interviewed 103 workers in four districts of Sylhet division in Bangladesh. Utilizing Smart PLS application for structural equation modeling, we iterated the samples 1000 times which resulted in a new sample size standing at 499. We used a Likert-type five-point scaling technique, with appropriate items related to the latent constructs of the model, for path analysis. We found perceived precariousness has the highest causal relations with a path coefficient of 0.706 with social dialogue (an indicator of decent working conditions) followed by 0.539 with working hour issue, 0.345 with life satisfaction and 0.301 with the unacceptable work issue. The importance-performance map analysis confirms that perceived precarity is the most critical construct for worker’s life satisfaction. Thus, in a ceteris paribus situation, an increase of one point in the performance on the perceived precarity is expected to increase in the performance on the life satisfaction by a total effect level of 0.428. Therefore, we recommend further attention should be paid by the policymakers to the issue of consciousness of the precarity at the workplace for a better life satisfaction of workers.

Sustainability, sustainable development and education for sustainable development are increasingly central concepts, both in social practice and in the field of scientific knowledge. Sociology, and in particular Sociology of Education as a specialised Sociology, can provide relevant contributions in its promotion. This article aims to explore the importance of Sociology of Education in promoting sustainability literacy in higher education, using the Sustainable Development Goals and key competencies (United Nations and UNESCO) as the central reference in this field, and intends, thus, to become an added contribution for this discussion. The article seeks to demonstrate that the learning of sustainability literacy would benefit from the use of a sociological stance throughout this whole process that considers dimensions that are often not directly emphasised and articulated between each other, such as: interconnection of scale levels, sociological imagination, multi-paradigmatic nature, heuristic interdisciplinarity, reflexivity and use of Sociology for action.

Land price sustainability issues have been addressed by many authors in the past. Most of these researchers used land prices (from land price maps) as the primary data source in their studies. Only a few papers analysed official land price maps, which are available very rarely. For this reason, we studied the spatial and temporal changes of land prices in the city of Olomouc based on an analysis of official land price maps from 1993 to 2017. We proposed several research hypotheses to confirm some general statements about land price development. We concluded that some macroeconomic indicators had a significant impact on changes in land prices. In the residential and commercial areas and historical centre, land prices are significantly higher than in other monitored aspects (land-use types). We also concluded that no link existed between land-use stability and land price stability. Surprisingly, no long-term stable areas were found in the area of interest. The analysis also confirmed that land price and its change over time varied in different spatial aspects. Surprisingly, the smallest influence was reflected in the economic aspect. Regarding natural events in recent decades, we observed a significant drop in land prices in the vicinity of watercourses threatened by flooding. These findings can assist in better understanding local development and changes in land price.

This article investigates how the “constructivist turn” in public policy and international political economy informs the interaction of global ideas and local practice in water governance. We use the implementation of ideas associated with Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Lower Mekong river basin. This article provides some explanation of the attitudes in the villages in Cambodia due to the Sesan 2 Dam, which would see the relocation of thousands of people, damage fisheries, and inflict high coping costs on villagers. Based on 24 in-depth interviews with villagers, commune heads and local community leaders, we find diverse narratives which transcend the “pro or anti” dam narrative. We find four narrative types - myths, stories, noise and informed opinion, which relate to each other in degrees of social meaning and ideational force. Of these, the first two are more likely to be useful in terms of mobilization and policy-making. This typology provides a framework for analysis of social change in the studied villages and other context of policy translation. We should state that these four types are not separate from each other but are linked along two axis which together conscribe the four types of narratives outlined.

The Internet use has become an integral part of daily life, adolescents are especially at a higher risk to develop problematic Internet use (PIU). Although one of the most well-known comorbid conditions of PIU is sleep disturbance, little is known about the sex disparity in this association. This school-based survey in students of grades 7-9 was conducted to estimate the prevalence of PIU and sleep disturbance among Chinese adolescents, to test the association between PIU and sleep disturbance, and to investigate the role of the child’s sex in this association. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used to recruit participants, and a two-level logistic regression models were fitted. The mean Internet addiction test scores was 37.2 (SD: 13.2), and 15.5% (736) met the criteria for PIU. After adjusting for control variables, problematic Internet users were at a higher risk of sleep disturbance (adjusted odds ratio=2.41, 95% CI=2.07-3.19). Sex-stratified analyses also demonstrated that association was greater in girls than boys. In this respect, paying more attention to the sleep patterns of adolescents who report excessive Internet use is recommended, and this early identification may be of practical importance for schools, parents, and adolescents themselves.

A key concern in an ageing society is citizens’ mobility. As populations age, disability impairments can affect active ageing, health-related wellbeing and quality of life. In this paper, we present the on-going research project SeriousGiggle—Game-based learning for triggering active ageing. Its goal is to assess the potential of game-based learning for active ageing and contribute to a sense of wellbeing and quality of life. It also seeks to improve the mobility of older adults by creating a set of journey plans with route guidance that are rated in terms of safety, community support, environment and age-friendliness. Drawn on our field work with 33 co-designers, 40 end users and 10 semi-structured interviews with Subject Matter Experts, we identify a set of necessary design requirements to an Age-friendly Playable City. This study recommends the use of gamification and playful techniques to engage the end-users to provide information about local traffic signs, pavement conditions, wayfinding and, therefore, help to create route guidance and walking assistance that are personalized to older adults’ context in terms of location, travel fitness, mobility impairments and motivations.

This study assesses the pursued impacts of Tulsi value chain development intervention on the livelihoods of rural poor in Uttarakhand state of India. Tulsi as an alternative livelihood, particularly for the rural poor, is less explored. With increased crop depredation of major cereal crops grown in the district by wild animals and pests, and decreasing availability of water agriculture, attempts were made to improve earnings from Tulsi as an alternative livelihood. Findings suggest that the average households’ gross profit from Tulsi farming increases by more than double within a span of two years. Total crop income of beneficiary farmers’ increases by 0.8 percent for every 1 percent increase in Tulsi income. Intervention helped enhance productivity of Tulsi, thereby enhancing earnings from Tulsi farming. Most importantly, intervention has shown a tremendous adoption rate. Towards the end of the intervention, the value chain work was out-scaled to another 19 villages in Chamoli district, thereby reaching out to more than 400 households.

Recent evidence suggests the existence of shared neural resources for rhythm processing in language and music. Such overlaps could be the basis of the facilitating effect of regular musical rhythm on spoken word processing previously reported for typical children and adults, as well as adults with Parkinson’s disease and children with developmental language disorders. The present study builds upon these previous findings by examining whether musical rhythmic priming also influences visual word processing, and the extent to which such cross-modal priming effect of rhythm is related to individual differences in musical aptitude and reading skills. EEG was recorded while participants listened to a rhythmic tone prime, followed by a visual target word with a stress pattern that either matched or mismatched the rhythmic structure of the auditory prime. Participants were also administered standardized assessments of musical aptitude and reading achievement. ERPs elicited by target words with a mismatching stress pattern showed an increased fronto-central negativity. Additionally, the size of the negative effect correlated with individual differences in musical rhythm aptitude and reading comprehension skills. Results support the existence of shared neurocognitive resources for linguistic and musical rhythm processing, and have important implications for the use of rhythm-based activities for reading interventions.

There is much discussion regarding the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) capacity to promote inclusive development. While some argue that they represent an opportunity for collaborative goal-led and evidence-based governance, other voices express concerns as they perceive them as techno-managerial framework, that measures development according to quantitatively defined parameters and does not allow for local variation. We argue that the extent to which the positive or negative aspects of the SDGs prevail depends on the monitoring system’s ability to account for multiple and intersecting inequalities. Attention to the role of inequalities for SDG monitoring is of particular importance for SDG 11 due to the additional methodological challenge posed by the need for sub-nationally (urban) representative indicators – especially in cities with intra-urban inequalities related to socio-spatial variations among neighbourhoods. Investigating the extent to which its representativeness is vulnerable to inequalities we systematically analyse the current methodological proposals for the SDG 11 indicator framework. The outcome is a call for 1) a more explicit attention to intra-urban inequalities, 2) the development of a methodological approach to “recalibrate” the city-level indicators to account for the degree of intra-urban inequalities, and 3) an alignment between methodologies and data practices applied for monitoring SDG 11 and the extent of the underlying inequalities within the city that is being assessed. This would enable an informed decision regarding the trade-off in indicator representativeness between conventional data sources, such as censuses and household surveys, and emerging methods, such as participatory geospatial methods and citizen-generated data practices.

The development of dispersed urbanism in Spain ran parallel to the real estate boom and consolidated a new model of city sprawl based on the expansion of suburban areas. This process, which started in the mid 1980s, came to a halt with the onset of the economic crisis in 2007. With it, construction stopped, mobility fell and urban growth came to a standstill. The purpose of this article is to carry out an analysis of the recent evolution and chronology of the expansion of dispersed urbanism in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR) in order to gain an insight into some of the explanatory factors of such expansion and to deal with the future prospects of middle-term development of dispersed urbanism in the BMR and in Spain. To do this, we examine the trends in the housing market, in residential mobility and we take stock of the impact of business cycles. The conclusion is that dispersed areas retain their appeal in the stages of creation and expansion of households. For this reason, an effective economic recovery and a renewed rise in the price of housing in denser cities may contribute to an upturn in the popularity of the dispersed residential model, which nowadays could be considered to be in a ‘lethargic’ stage, waiting for certain factors to coincide and re-activate its expansion.

Stemborer pests contribute to significant maize crop yield loses incurred by the smallholder famers in Ethiopia. The problem requires requires concerted effort to learn and adopt new innovations to find a long lasting solution. In this study, the on-farm implementation of the push-pull technology (PPT) was used as a platform for interaction and enhancing the social learning among the stakeholders in the maize growing Woredas of Bako Tibe, Jimma Arjo and Yayu in the Oromia region. The main stakeholders were the smallholder maize farmers, researchers and the extension staffs. The study took place between August 2014 to May 2015. The PPT is a biological based strategy addresses the stemborer pest problem in maize crop. Under the strategy, maize crop is intercropped with a stemborer moth repellent fodder legume, Desmodium (the push) together with an attractant trap plant, Napier/Brachiaria grass (the pull) planted around maize-legume intercrop. The study was implemented based on the transdisciplinary action research approach and qualitative data collected during focus group discussions, key informant interviews, stakeholder workshops, participant observations and on-farm PPT demonstrations. The findings show that, the involvement of different stakeholders in joint PPT activities in an interactive environment is an innovation in itself. It creates opportunities for the stakeholders’ empowerment as well as deliberating on the contributions from each other to overcome uncertainties about the technology and create new knowledge. The intercropping strategy of maize with Desmodium and Napier/Brachiaria is used to reintroduce the traditional mixed cropping system of smallholder agriculture as strategy for control of pests.

Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) as a behavioral progress monitoring tool can be designed as longitudinal assessment with only short intervals between measurement points. The reliability of these instruments has been evaluated mostly in observational studies with small samples based on generalizability theory. However, for standardized use in the pedagogical field, a larger and broader sample is required in order to assess measurement invariance between different participant groups and over time. Therefore, we constructed a DBR with multiple items to measure the occurrence of specific externalizing and internalizing student classroom behaviors on a Likert scale (1 = never to 7 = always). In a pilot study, two trained raters observed 16 primary school students and rated the student behavior over all items with a satisfactory reliability. In the main study, 108 regular primary school students, 97 regular secondary school students and 14 students in a clinical setting were rated daily over one week (five measurement points). IRT analyses confirmed the instrument’s technical adequacy, and latent growth models demonstrated the instrument’s stability over time. Further development of the instrument and study designs to implement DBRs are discussed.

The city of Barcelona, ​​like other cities in the world, suffers strong internal socio-economic inequalities. Numerous works have sought to detect, quantify, characterize and / or map existing intra-urban differences, almost always based on quantitative methodologies. With this contribution, we intend to illuminate the complementary role that qualitative methodologies can play in studies on urban socio-environmental vulnerability. We consider aspects that are not quantifiable but that may be inherent to many such vulnerable spaces, both in the constructed environment and in the social ambit. These questions are considered through selected neighborhoods of Barcelona which have been shown (in prior works, mainly studies of quantitative manufacturing) to possess elements of vulnerability including a high presence of immigrants from less-developed countries, low per capita income, aging populations, or low educational levels. The results reveal the multidimensionality of vulnerability in the neighborhoods analyzed, as well as the essential complementarity among methodologies that detect and support possible public actions aimed at reducing or eliminating intra-urban inequalities.

Students who had been actively engaged in mediated collaborative activities, were asked for their perceptions about the sustainable peer feedback they had received and provided. Their views were then analyzed and categorized in terms of receiver and provider feedback, cognitive feedback and previously acquired feedback to further knowledge about sustainable education processes. A peer supported feedback questionnaire was created and validated, and its categories were correlated. The questionnaire was then aligned with the activities used to foster peer feedback between the pre-service students from the three bachelor’s degrees. The perceptions the students had of the feedback processes were analyzed using defined peer support feedback categories and the results showed a correlation between cognitive feedback and both provider and receiver self-efficacy feedback. In addition, there was a further correlation between both provider and receiver self-efficacy feedback as well as provider and receiver involvement and feedback structure. However, the results also revealed that neither receiver nor provider autonomy support were significant categories for supportive feedback.

This study aims to understand the current state of research in urban resilience and to open a discussion about multi-level perspectives for this concept. Starting with the history of the concept of resilience, we identify three main stages in resilience concept’s evolution: conceptualization, contextualization and operationalization. Confusion occurs between sustainability and resilience, therefore we clearly separate these two concepts by creating conceptual maps. Such maps also underline the specificities of urban and regional resilience discourses. We illustrate that urban resilience research, operating within intra-urban processes, is oriented towards natural disasters, while regional resilience research, operating mostly within inter-urban processes, is oriented towards economic shocks. We show that these two approaches to resilience – urban and regional – are complementary, and we propose to integrate them into a multi-level perspective. By combining these two discourses, we propose a multi-level approach to urban resilience that takes into account both top-down and bottom-up resistance processes. In the discussion section, we propose to take the panarchy perspective as a theoretical framework for multi-level urban resilience, that explains the interactions between different levels through adaptive cycles, relationships between which can help to explain urban resilience.

Background: The financial austerity policy imposed to Portugal by Troika - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund in 2011, led to a tremendously social crisis. Under these dominant trends in Europe, which were felt especially in certain countries, such as Portugal, we feel ourselves forced into an analysis and reflection on the impact of this conjuncture in social workers, especially analyzing the role played by social workers and its critical consciousness relative to this neoliberal model and imposed austerity policies. Methods: This article results from an analysis of empirical data collected after the entry of Troika in Portugal, during 2013. Were conducted 26 in-depth interviews to front line social workers, with the purpose of obtaining a narrative of their daily work practice and with the concern of encouraging reflection on them. Results: Analysis shows the predominance of a maintenance role at the expense of more emancipatory approaches and thus, this results point to the relationship of this maintenance role with the sociological paradigm of social regulation and shows also, how social work is still attached to a conservative agenda. Secondly, one finds a weak critical reflection among social workers, being very afraid to speak out against the system, taking on a submissive attitude and subservient to the policies of social cuts imposed. The analysis then raises the challenge for social workers to develop a critical reflexivity Conclusion: The results highlight several important observations in terms of social woker role and that a critical activity is urgently required to social workers.

Cleaning wastewater and using it again for secondary purposes is a measure to address water scarcity in urban areas. However, upscaling of recycled water schemes is challenging due to the possible emergence of various barriers. Based on a review of the governance literature we suggest that a set of five governance conditions is necessary for a successful upscaling of recycled water schemes; (1) policy leadership, (2) policy coordination, (3) availability of financial resources, (4) awareness of a problem, and (5) the presence of a public forum. In order to elaborate on the practical relevance of these conditions we studied a recycled water scheme currently being upscaled in Sabadell, Spain. We reviewed policy documents, conducted a set of 21 semi-structured interviews, and attended two policy meetings about the subject. Our results suggest that Sabadell meets the required conditions for upscaling reused water to a certain extent. However, the presence of a public forum is lacking. We discuss the implications of the absence of the venue and procedures for public participation in Sabadell and how it could be strengthened. Following this discussion, we conclude with some lessons for other cities that plan to upscale their recycled water schemes.

The penetration of modern supermarkets is believed to be the cause of the declining role of traditional markets and street vendors in Indonesia. But the competition between state-promoted markets and traditional markets is rarely discussed. This investigation focuses on traditional markets as social institutions, which continuously have developed a variety of strategies in order to remain competitive in the midst of intense rivalry. Firstly, we will outline a theoretical understanding of the traditional markets positioning along the concepts of flexibility and market devices. Secondly, we empirically reflect the strategies of four traditional vegetable markets in the District of Malang, East Java Province, as case studies. We show that the traditional markets build flexibility without governmental support by: (1) specifying commodities, (2) segmenting customers, (3) managing the load time, (4) modifying transportation to operate more efficiently, and (5) minimizing transaction costs by leveraging social capital. We argue that traditional vegetable markets institutionally reduce the potential of transaction costs to be competitive and avoid problems of coordination by building social capital through networks. All in all, market institutions supported by market devices are flexibly capable of adapting to the pressures of both selfishness among actors and competition with other markets.

Simulator training for image-guided surgical interventions may benefit from artificial intelligence systems that control the evolution of task skills in terms of time and precision of a trainee's performance on the basis of fully automatic feed-back systems. At the earliest stages of training, novice trainees frequently focus on getting faster at the task, and may thereby compromise the optimal evolution of the precision of their performance. For automatically guiding them towards attaining an optimal speed-accuracy trade-off, an effective control system for the reinforcement/correction of strategies must be able to exploit the right individual performance criteria in the right way, reliably detect individual performance trends at any given moment in time, and alert the trainee, as early as necessary, when to slow down and focus on precision, or when to focus on getting faster. This article addresses several aspects of this challenge for speed-accuracy controlled simulator training before any training on specific surgical tasks or clinical models should be envisaged. Analyses of individual learning curves from the simulator training sessions of novices and benchmark performance data of one expert surgeon, who had no specific training in the simulator task, validate the suggested approach.

The Global Carbon Budget is the cumulative carbon emissions that human activities can generate while limiting the global temperature increase to less than 2°C. On this basis, most countries ratified the Paris Agreement 2015, pledging to reduce national emissions and the impacts of climate change. The European Union has planned to reduce emissions by 80% of their 1990 value by 2050 but such a target needs to be coupled with a further constraint on the cumulative greenhouse gases released along the path to 2050. The aim and the novelty of this study are to propose, for the first time, a carbon budget for the European Union, which represents the most significant physical characteristic to assess the feasibility of current EU-28 greenhouse gas reduction objectives under the goals of the 2015 Paris treaty

Background: Exercise is increasingly understood as an important resource for people with harmful substance use, including those in prison. Little is known about how inmates adopt various health behaviors during incarceration, without interventions. Methods: This study analyzed self-reports from 1468 inmates in Norwegian prisons, compared them according to harmful substance use pre-incarceration, and explored changes in exercise and nicotine use during incarceration. Results were presented in accordance with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. Results: Inmates with harmful substance use reported higher rates of smoking, smokeless tobacco, and physical inactivity pre-incarceration than inmates without harmful use. However, inmates with harmful use also exhibited more behavioral changes: they adopted exercise, ceased smoking, and adopted smokeless tobacco at higher rates during incarceration than the non-harmful group. Conclusions: Exercise is being taken up by a significant proportion of inmates, and may in particular be a replacement behavior for substance use. However, unhealthy behaviors are also begun or maintained. If prisons were used as an arena to facilitate healthy behaviors, the public health benefits to a marginalized group such as substance-using inmates could be substantial.

Evacuation is the primary and most important preparedness initiative to save people from the devastating effects of a cyclone. For proper evacuation, a route is specifically chosen that will play a role during cyclones. In this study, Geographic information system has been applied for evacuation route planning for Mirzaganj Union, Patuakhali, Bangladesh. The study is based on questionnaire surveys; direct observation and literature review on the existing sheltering system and develops an evacuation route using the shortest distance analysis. This study provides us an idea how we can manage our population to find out suitable nearby shelters and the limitations that we should focused on. The result shows that only 12% of the total population gets shelter opportunity with the existing official shelter capacity by identifying evacuation route with the shortest distance and the shortest time needed. Shortest distance and time have been calculated for each cyclone shelters. If we consider the low vulnerable infrastructures as shelter, 75% of the total population can be accommodated. This study demonstrates the utilization of an ideal evacuation route planning in the coastal parts of Bangladesh.

Taking into account Bar-On’s postulations about social-emotional intelligence, the aim of the current work is to find out the differences in the five dimensions of this intelligence between children that practice organized sport and those children that do not practice it at elementary school level, to show that an increasing in the number of hours per day performing this activity causes differences in some of these dimensions. Hence, a sample of 940 children from elementary schools, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old, attending different schools from the Autonomous Community of Extremadura (Spain), was used. Results showed that children who practiced organized sport had better coping abilities for stress, adaptability, and mood states, and that they are more emotionally intelligent than those who did not. Moreover, children who practiced for fewer hours daily (up to 2 hours) had better stress coping than those who practiced more. To conclude, it is important to promote the sport federative practice in elementary education, in order to ensure that children learn to better regulate and manage their emotions, without increasing it to an excessive number of hours per day, which may generate greater stress that might be difficult to control.

This paper discusses a significant public-private partnership (PPP) formed by the government and Taiwanese Farmer Associations. Particularly, it will investigate a pattern of the PPP that has successfully promoted rural development and agricultural modernization in Taiwan since 1950s. Taiwanese Farmer Associations (hereafter TFAs), similar to agricultural cooperatives in South Korea and Japan, have played a policy agent in fostering rural development in this island state since 1950s. TFA’s performance inherently came from Japanese Cooperatives before World War II. The Performances of those farmer organizations are combinations of economic, social, and educational synergies. The rural development experiences in Taiwan demonstrate that success of rural modernization is carried out by a special public-private partnership (PPP). First, this paper discusses formation and development of farmer cooperative organizations in East Asian societies and compare the similarities and differences of practice of those organizations and their relations to the governments among Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Secondly, this paper examines collaborative mold and process in which both the government and Taiwan Farmer Associations have been extensively involved. A specific cooperative apparatus between the government and TFA functioning and operating as a perfect PPP has been formed under administrative guidance of the state. Thirdly, this paper looks at input and various supports in financial and policy perspective by the public sector. Fourthly, the paper discusses legal framework, administrative apparatus, and governance pattern for TFA. Fifthly, the paper discuses that a specific PPP successfully involving in rural modernization in Taiwan is significantly derived from the state’ guidance that properly regulates a collaboration between the government and TFA. So-call East Asian model of PPP in agricultural modernization and rural community development may become a valuable experience for most of developing countries.

Despite the rapid adoption of bilingual programs (English-Chinese) in China's higher education institutions (HEIs), concerns have been raised on perceived language hindrance to students’ academic comprehension and then performance. In response to this, this paper investigates the effects of bilingual instruction on content-based learning and provides empirical evidence after testing related influential factors in bilingual environment. Analyzing a sample of 498 undergraduate students enrolling in a fundamental business course in a sample university in China, we find insignificant statistical difference in students' academic performance between bilingual and L1 classes. We attribute this to the English language support provided by the university and show that learning competence can help students to minimize language barrier and furthermore solve the common learning problems confronted by both bilingual and L1 students. Overall, our paper aims to identify key determinants of students' academic performance in bilingual instruction and provide policy implication for developing desirable bilingual programs in HEIs.

The chapter presents the current state of research concerning the development of the BE + past participle constructions from Latin to Spanish. Starting from the description in Rosemeyer (2014) and the theoretical background collated in Kailuweit & Rosemeyer (2015), it will be shown that the functional change does not follow traditional grammaticalisation paths. Several concepts that deal with cases contradicting traditional grammaticalisation theory will be discussed. ‘Exaption’ (Lass 1990, 1997) focussing on total defunctionalisation does not account for the fact that the resultative value of the BE + past participle construction, marginal in Latin, becomes central in Mediaeval Spanish. ‘Refunctionalisation’ Smith (2008) captures this aspect in a more appropriate way. However, the development of the construction could be also conceived as the opposite of what Pountain (2000) describes as ‘capitalisation’: a process of ‘decapitalisation’ by which a feature is exploited not for wider, but for more restricted purposes.

Agricultural land conversion (ALC) is an incentive–driven process. In this paper we further investigate the inter–relationship between land economic value (LEV) and ALC. To achieve this goal, we calculated LEV for agricultural and non-agricultural (housing) uses in two areas in East Java, Indonesia. The first area represents suburban agriculture, facing rapid urbanization and experiencing high rate of ALC. The second area represents rural agriculture with zero ALC. Furthermore, we identified factors affecting LEV in both areas for both uses. The resut of this study show that agricultural land yielded higher economic benefit in rural area. Conversely, comparing to agricultural land, housing creates 7 times higher value in urban area. Moreover, agricultural land shown to create higher profit after converted. Ironically, the similar comparison doesn’t exists in rural area. Agricultural land only yielded 19% more value, indicate that agricultural land can be easily converted. It is also proven by the growing number of new urban core in the periphery area. There are several factors affecting land economic value, for agricultural use, soil fertility, accessibility, and cropping pattern are important variables. While accessibility and location in urban area increases land value for housing.

Children’s motor competence (MC) has declined in the past decades, while sedentary behavior (SB) has increased. This study examined the association between MC and physical activity (PA) levels among primary schoolchildren. Demographics, body height and weight, MC (Athletic Skills Track) and PA levels (ActiGraph, GT3X+) were assessed among 595 children (291 boys, mean age = 9.2 years, SD = 1.1). MC was standardized into five categories: from very low to very high. PA levels were classified into sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Mixed model analyses were conducted with PA levels as dependent variables and MC as the independent variable, while adjusting for age, gender, and BMI z-score on the individual level. Additional moderation analyses between covariates and MC and PA levels were also conducted. A negative association between MC and SB (β = -3.17) and a positive association between MC and MVPA (β =1.41) were found. The strength of both associations increased as children expressed lower or higher levels of MC. Increased age and being a girl were significant predictors of higher levels of SB and lower levels of MVPA. Non-overweight children spent significantly more minutes in MVPA compared with overweight children. No moderating effects of BMI, gender, and age were found on the association between MC and PA levels. MC is an important correlate of both SB and MVPA, particularly for children with very high or low MC. Developing and improving children’s MC may contribute to spending less time in SB and more time in MVPA, particularly for high-risk groups, i.e. children with low MC. Moreover, addressing MC development and PA promotion simultaneously might create positive feedback loops for both children’s MC and PA levels.

This study is framed on the Information Theory as a constructive criterion to generate probabilistic distributions –through the elaboration of Bayesian Networks- and to reduce the uncertainty in the occurrence and relationship between two key psychological variables associated with the sports’ performance: Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety. We analyzed 674 universitary students/athletes who competed in the 2017 Universitary Games (Universiade) in México, from 44 universities, with an average age of 21 years old (SD = 2.07), and with a sportive experience of 8.61 years of average (SD = 5.15). Methods: Regarding the data analysis, first of all a CHAID algorithm was carried out for to know the independence links among variables, and then two Bayesian networks (BN) were elaborated. The validation of the BN revealed AUC values ranging from 0.5 to 0.92. Subsequently, various instantations were carried out with hypothetical values applied to the “bottom” variables. Results showed two probability trees that have Extrinisic Motivation and Amotivation at the top, while the anxiety/activation due to the worry for performance was at the bottom of probabilities. The instantiations carried out support the existence of these probabilistic relationships, demonstrating the little influence on the competition anxiety generated by the intrinsic motivation. In conclusion, the reduction of the uncertainty made up by the restricted BN may aloe to re-introduce Information Theory principles in psychosocial studies, allowing authors to obtain useful probabilities values upon target psychological variables related with sportive performance.

Under optimal conditions, just 3–6 ms of visual stimulation suffices for humans to see motion. Motion perception on this time scale implies that the visual system under these conditions reliably encodes, transmits, and processes neural signals with near-millisecond precision. Motivated by in vitro evidence for high temporal precision of motion signals in the primate retina, we investigated how neuronal and perceptual limits of motion encoding relate. Specifically, we examined the correspondence between the time scale at which cat retinal ganglion cells in vivo represent motion information and temporal thresholds for human motion discrimination. The time scale for motion encoding by ganglion cells ranged from 4.6–91 ms, depended nonlinearly on temporal frequency but not on contrast. Human psychophysics revealed that minimal stimulus durations required for perceiving motion direction were similarly brief, 5.6–65 ms, similarly depended on temporal frequency but, above ~10%, not on contrast. Notably, physiological and psychophysical measurements corresponded closely throughout (r = 0.99), despite more than a 20-fold variation in both human thresholds and optimal time scales for motion encoding in the retina. These results demonstrate that neural circuits for motion vision in cortex can maintain and make use of the high temporal fidelity of the retinal output signals.

From physics to the social sciences, information is now seen as a fundamental component of reality. However, a form of information seems still underestimated, perhaps precisely because it is so pervasive that we take it for granted: the information encoded in the very environment we live in. We still do not fully understand how information takes the form of cities, and how our minds deal with it in order to learn about the world, make daily decisions, and take part in the complex system of interactions we create as we live together. This paper addresses three related problems that need to be solved if we are to understand the role of environmental information: (1) the physical problem: how can we preserve information in the built environment? (2) The semantic problem: how do we make environmental information meaningful? And (3) the pragmatic problem: how do we enact environmental information in our daily lives? Attempting to devise a solution to these problems, we introduce a three-layered model of information in cities, namely environmental information in physical space, environmental information in semantic space, and the information enacted by interacting agents. We propose forms of calculating entropy in these different layers, and apply these measures to archetypal urban cases and simulated scenarios. Our results suggest that ordered spatial structures and diverse land use patterns encode information, and that aspects of physical and semantic information affect coordination in interaction systems.

Education and awareness raising are the primary tools of global health policy to change public behaviour. Considering the limitations of awareness agenda and the lack of social research to inform alternative approaches, our objective was to generate new empirical evidence on the consequences of antibiotic-related awareness raising in a low-income country context. We implemented an educational activity in two Lao villages to share general antibiotic-related messages, but also to learn about people’s conceptions and health behaviours. Two rounds of census survey data enabled us to assess the activity’s outputs, its knowledge outcomes, and its immediate behavioural impacts in a difference-in-difference design. Our panel data covered 1,130 adults over two rounds, including 58 activity participants and 208 villagers exposed indirectly via conversations in the village. We found that activity-related communication circulated among more privileged groups, which limited its indirect effects. Among participants, the activity influenced the awareness and understanding of “drug resistance,” while effects on attitudes were minor. Evidence on behavioural impacts was sparse and mixed, but the range of possible consequences included a disproportionate uptake of antibiotics from formal healthcare providers. Our study casts doubt on the continued dominance of awareness raising as a behavioural tool to address antibiotic resistance.

Despite a global push in the development and implementation of widespread alternative energy use, significant disparities exist across given nation-states. These disparities reflect both technical and economic factors, as well as the social, political, and ecological gaps between how communities see energy development and national/global policy goals. Known as the “local-national gap,” many nations struggle with fostering meaningful conversations about the role of alternative energy technologies within communities. Mitigation of this problem first requires understanding the distribution of existing alternative energy technologies at the local level of policymaking. Using the State of Georgia, U.S.A. as a case study, we present a model for analyzing how existing adoption trends enable/limit conversation at the scale of local governance (i.e., county governments). Leveraging existing work on the Gini Coefficient as a metric for measuring energy inequity, we argue these tools can be applied to analyze where gaps exist in ongoing solar adoption trends. As we demonstrate, communities that adopt solar tend to be concentrated in a few counties, indicating existing conversations are limited to a circumscribed set of social networks. This information and the model we demonstrate can enable focused qualitative analyses of existing solar trends, not only amongst high-adoption areas but within communities where little to no adoption has occurred.

Disputes on authorships or the order of authors on publications are among the most common conflicts in science, particularly where multi-author papers have become the norm. Here, I propose an adaptable and generalizable method to rationalize and democratize decisions about authorships, which can be applied in diverse scientific areas. In the process, the authors of a manuscript collect, discuss, score, and weight their contributions to the final manuscript. The decision process is assisted by a simple spreadsheet-based “authorship matrix”, which helps to break down the complexity of different contributions and their importance. The matrix generates a score s describing the percentage of the author’s total contributions and can be used to determine authorship and their order. The transparency and simplicity score s can reduce conflicts and thus increase productivity in collaborations.

In the process of sustainable development in the future, human society faces problems such as severe population load, economic transition, and lack of educational measures. One of the root causes of these problems is the shortage of innovative talents. Therefore, how to cultivate learners with multi-disciplinary integration and innovation ability is the key point that should be paid attention to in promoting the concept of quality education and coping with the future sustainable development process. This paper uses questionnaire survey method and literature analysis method to analyze the development of many educational institutions with STEAM concept as the core in China since 2017. It is found that the existing STEAM educational institutions generally have the following problems: the lack of team composition、difficulty in independent research and development、single course content and insufficient validation of course effectiveness. In order to more effectively promote the sustainable development of China's future course, STEAM education institutions should focus on strengthening the following development strategy: gradient team building, continuous independent research and development, cutting-edge projects curriculum transformation mechanism and multi-angle course effectiveness verification.

The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produces new global spatial information, evidence-based analytics and knowledge describing the human presence on the planet based mainly on two quantitative factors: i) the spatial distribution (density) of built-up structures and ii) the spatial distribution (density) of resident people. Both factors are observed in the long-term temporal domain and per uniform surface units in order to support trends and indicators for monitoring the implementation of international framework agreements. The GHSL uses various input data including global, multi-temporal archives of fine-scale satellite imagery, census data, and volunteered geographic information. In this paper, we present the characteristics of GHSL information to demonstrate how original frameworks of data and tools rooted on Earth Observation could support Sustainable Development Goals monitoring. In particular, we demonstrate the reach of gridded, open and free, local yet globally consistent, multi-temporal data in filling the data gap for the Sustainable Development Goal 11. Our experiments produce a global estimate for the Land Use Efficiency indicator (SDG 11.3.1) for 10,000 urban centers, calculating the ratio of land consumption to population growth rate that took place between 1990 and 2015. The results of our research demonstrate that there is a potential to lift SDG 11.3.1 from a tier 2 as GHSL provides a global baseline for the essential variables called by the SDG 11.3.1 metadata.

Native Americans are the single most underrepresented racial group in American higher education today; those enrolled in college are also disproportionately first-generation students. In order to help universities attract and retain Native American students, this study utilizes the four R’s of indigenous research to document the motivations of first-generation Native American students to attend and remain at a mid-sized public university in the northwest. Student participants report that social and cultural support were key factors in their decisions to attend and remain at their institution. Implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations are made to higher education institutions seeking to attract and retain Native American students.

The language we use to describe the past can have a strong influence on the audience’s interpretation of our story. In our experiment, we explore, using 3 different conditions, how the framing and language of an accident report can affect the audience’s proposed solutions to manage the problems found. We find that the approach used to create an accident report can have a powerful influence on the audience’s decision making. Whether we are describing an accident in a similar manner to a crime, using a systems approach or we are accepting of multiple stories which are not linear or coherent, the methods we use to capture and communicate the story have a profound impact on the actions decided upon by the reader.

The article presents the concept of sustainable development of socio-cultural capital with particular emphasis of the role of cultural institutions as factors influencing their development in a human being. In the article, the concept of social capital and cultural capital have been treated as complementary to each other, which is why they have been identified as a socio-cultural capital. Sustainable development of this capital in many cities of the world meets a number of problems reflected in the quality of life of its residents. In this article, a part of the town is analyzed which, due to political decisions made at the end of the First World War, has been divided for a hundred years into Cieszyn on the Polish side of the border and Czech Cieszyn (Český Těšín). This area is an example of how historical, political, demographic and educational conditions form the basis for the quality of socio-cultural capital. It is also an example of cooperative activities between local government institutions and third sector organizations. Despite many differences between the residents of Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn, the conducted analysis points to the formation of a socio-cultural capital of a combining character, according to how Robert Putnam wrote about such phenomena, without neglecting the diversity of goals and interaction groups.

Two sufi women take part in activities related to sufism and create an attraction point in the secular side in Turkey.The most striking point is that both women do not wear headscarves although they are muslim women. This article attempts to show how sufi women Cemalnur Sargut and Hayatnur Artıran have idealized a Muslim woman's identity, the work they are doing to achieve this ideal, their attidue toward Rebublic values, and the effects of these attidues on their followers. This article was created from my doctoral thesis and based on Qualitative research which has been established on the basis of 2-year long participant observation and data obtained from in-depth and focus interviews. 31 women and 20 men were interviewed in depth and focus interviews.The main conclusions of my qualitative research are that the influence of theese sufi women is related with process of modernization by accelerating the establishment of the republic in Turkey. It seems that a perception has established concerning that “public apparency’’ of woman will disappear if the “apparency of body’’ disappears and the woman will return to its role which had relapsed into silence for centuries. Besides not using the headscarf, religious conversation have been created by theese sufi women in the balance of religion, philosophy and science and the fact that they are conducting their works under secular institutions such as foundations and associations have also been observed to have a very important effect on seculer side.

AGI could arise within the next decades, promising a decisive strategic advantage. This paper discusses risks, associated with the development of AGI: destabilizing effects on strategic balance, underestimating risks in the interest of victory in the race, egoistically exploiting the huge benefits by a tiny minority. Further: Developed AGI could be beyond human control. Human goals could not be implemented and an intelligence explosion to superintelligence could take place leading to a total loss of control and power. If competition for AGI is non-transparent, secret, uncontrolled and not regulated, it’s possible that risks could not be managed and would lead to catastrophic consequences. The danger corresponds to that of nuclear weapons. It is crucial that the key actors of a possible AI Race agree at an early stage on the prevention and transparent regulation of a possible AI Race - similar to measures to secure strategic stability, on arms control measures, disarmament, and prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The realization that an uncontrolled AI race can lead to the extinction of humanity - this time even independent of human will – requires analogous measures to contain, prevent, regulate and secure an AI race within the framework of AGI development.

Knowledge management gains space within the school organization and can contribute satisfactorily to the quality of teaching. In everyday life the school manager intuitively uses knowledge management practices without exploiting the potentials they offer or allow. In this context, the purpose of this work is to identify the level of implementation of knowledge management practices aimed at structuring the organizational processes used by the public school manager. The methodology adopted was exploratory, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. For data collection, an already validated instrument with twenty-seven questions was used. Respondents to the questionnaires, one hundred and eleven managers of the basic education schools that make up the public school system in a city in the northwestern region of Paraná, Southern Brazil. In analyzing the results, it was only at this point that we investigated only those practices that were related to the structuring of organizational processes. This decision is justified because of the responsibilities of the school manager in the execution of his work. The results indicated that the school in its daily life, makes use of practices of Knowledge Management related to the structuring of the organizational processes and that many are already applied by the managers.

In this paper, we analyze data from the 2012 Encuesta de Integración Social y Salud (Social Integration and Health Survey) of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spanish National Institute of Statistics) to obtain profiles created by combining disability, poverty and social exclusion. We hypothesize that the probability that people will experience social exclusion increases if they have a disability, chronic illness or limitation in conducting everyday activities, and that this probability is greater for women than for men. To conduct our analysis, we constructed a social exclusion model based on a series of social determinants that acts as a dependent variable. In this context, social exclusion is understood to go beyond the concept of financial poverty. We performed bivariate analyses, in which we calculated the Odds Ratios (OR) for certain variables considered to be predictors of social exclusion. We also performed a means comparison test and an ANOVA test to observe differences between individuals with recognized disability and those without. Finally, we conducted logistic regression analysis to determine which vulnerability profiles are most likely to experience a situation of social exclusion. We also discuss the limitations of our study, and suggest areas in, which the relationships between health, social exclusion and disability can be further investigated.

El Niño is a quasi-periodic pattern of climate variability and extremes often associated with hazards and disease. While El Niño links to individual diseases have been examined, less is known about the cluster of multi-disease risk referred to as an ecosyndemic, which emerges during extreme events. The objective of this study was to explore a mapping approach to represent the spatial distribution of ecosyndemics in Piura, Peru at the district-level during the first few months of 1998. Using geographic information systems and multivariate analysis, two methodologies were employed to map disease overlap of 7 climate-sensitive diseases and construct an ecosyndemic index, which was then mapped and applied to another El Niño period as proof of concept. The main findings showed that many districts across Piura faced multi-disease risk over several weeks in the austral summer of 1998. The distribution of ecosyndemics were spatially clustered in western Piura among 11 districts. Furthermore, the ecosydemic index in 1998 when compared to 1983 showed a strong positive correlation, demonstrating the utility of the index. The study supports PAHO efforts to develop multi-disease based and interprogrammatic approaches to control and prevention, particularly for climate and poverty-related infections in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Over the last twenty years, library publishing has emerged in higher education as a new class of publisher. Conceived as a response to commercial publishing practices that have strained library budgets and prevented scholars from openly licensing and sharing their works, library publishing is both a local service program and a broader movement to disrupt the current scholarly publishing arena. It is growing both in numbers of publishers and numbers of works produced. The commercial publishing framework which determines the viability of monetizing a product is not necessarily applicable for library publishers who exist as a common good to address the needs of their academic communities. Like any business venture, however, library publishers must develop a clear service model and business plan in order to create shared expectations for funding streams, quality markers, as well as technical and staff capacity. As the field is maturing from experimental projects to full programs, library publishers are formalizing their offerings and limitations. The anatomy of a library publishing business plan is presented and includes the principles of the program, scope of services, and staffing and governance requirements. Other aspects include production policies, financial structures, and measures of success.

In contrast to physical sustainable measures carried out in homes, such as insulation, the installation of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) has no direct and immediate energy-saving effect. A HEMS gives insight into resident behaviour regarding energy use. When this is linked to the appropriate feedback, the resident is in a position to change his or her behaviour. This should result in reduced gas and/or electricity consumption. The aim of our study is to contribute towards the effective use of home energy management systems (HEMS) by identifying types of homeowners in relation to the use of HEMS. The research methods used were a literature review and the Q-method. A survey using the Q-method was conducted among 39 owners of single-family homes in various Rotterdam neighbourhoods. In order to find shared views among respondents, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed. Five different types of homeowner could be distinguished: the optimists, the privacy-conscious, the technicians, the sceptics, and the indifferent. Their opinions vary as regards the added value of a HEMS, what characteristics a HEMS should have, how much confidence they have in the energy-saving effect of such systems, and their views on the privacy and safety of HEMS. The target group classification can be used as input for a way in which local stakeholders, e.g. a municipality, can offer HEMS that is in line with the wishes of the homeowner.

Most of the research of mental fatigue evaluation mainly concentrated on some indexes that require sophisticate and large instruments which make the detection of mental fatigue cumbersome, time-consuming, and difficult to apply on a large scale. A quick and sensitive mental fatigue detection index is necessary so that mental workers can be alerted in time and take corresponding countermeasures. But to date, no studies have compared the sensitivity of common objective evaluation indexes. To solve these problems this study recruited 56 human subjects. These subjects were evaluated using six fatigue indexes: the Stanford sleepiness scale, digital span, digital decoding, short-term memory, critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF), and speed perception deviation. The results of fatigue tests before and after mental fatigue were compared, and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the speed perception deviation. The result indicated the significance of this index. Considering individual differences, the relative fatigue index (RFI) was proposed to compare the sensitivity of the indexes. The results showed that when the self-rated fatigue grade changed from non-fatigue to mild fatigue, the ranges of RFI values for digital span, digital decoding, short-term memory and CFF were 0.175–0.258, 0.194–0.316, 0.068–0.139, and 0.055–0.075, respectively. Correspondingly, when the self-rated fatigue grade changed from non-fatigue to severe fatigue, the ranges of RFI values for the above indexes were 0.175–0.258, 0.194–0.316, 0.068–0.139, and 0.055–0.075, respectively. These results suggest that the sensitivity of the digital decoding, digital span, short-term memory, and CFF decreased sequentially when the self-evaluated fatigue grade changed from no fatigue to mild or severe fatigue. The RFI individuality of the speed perception deviation is highly variable and is not suitable as an evaluation index. In mental fatigue testing, digital decoding testing can provide faster, more convenient, and more accurate results.

The present study examines inner and outer suburban ring attainment outcomes among racial and ethnic groups residing in the nation’s metropolitan areas. The main objective is to evaluate the extent to which the relationship between racial and ethnic group’s socioeconomic status characteristics and residence between inner and outer suburban rings conforms to the tenets of the spatial assimilation model. Using micro-level data from the 5-year 2012-2016 American Community Survey, the author calculates multinomial logistic regression models to determine the effects of SES and other relevant predictors on residence within the nation’s metropolitan area’s suburban inner and outer rings. The results both confirm and contradict the main tenets of the spatial assimilation model. To the extent that income, education, and homeownership are positively related to residence in both suburban rings, the findings also suggest that access to inner and outer rings is hierarchically stratified by race and ethnicity.

This study attempts to investigate a method for creating an index from mobility data that not only correlates with the number of people who relocate to a place but also has causal influence on the number of such individuals. By creating an index based on human mobility data, it becomes possible to predict the influence of urban development on future residential movements. In this paper, we propose a method called the travel cost method for multiple places (TCM4MP) by extending the conventional travel cost method (TCM). We assume that the opportunity cost of travel time on non-working days reflects the convenience and amenities of a neighborhood. However, conventional TCM does not assume that the opportunity cost of travel time varies according to the departure place. In this paper, TCM4MP is proposed to estimate the opportunity cost of travel time with respect to the departure place. We consider such estimation to be possible due to the use of massive mobility data. We assume that the opportunity cost of travel time on non-working days reflects the convenience and amenities of the neighborhood. Therefore, we consider that the opportunity cost of travel time has a causal influence on future residential mobility. In this paper, the validity of the proposed method is tested using the smart card data of public transportation in Western Japan. Our proposed method is beneficial for urban planners in estimating the effects of urban development and detecting the shrinkage and growth of a population.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) had become a priority in many school systems. Geography has a tradition of investigating human-environment interactions and geography education is vital in order to make sense of sustainable development (SD). In this paper, the authors aimed to contribute to the implementation of ESD and SD in middle school geography, in The People’s Republic of China. This research employed a series of methods to analyze the content in (SD) in middle school geography standards and textbooks. The research surveyed geography teachers (n=237) and assessed geography students (n=246). Results exemplified both positive and negative conclusions from the data. Primarily, the findings suggested that geography education was important to ESD implementation, although the requirements for SD are low in Chinese middle schools. The SD content was reflected clearly in the content standards and textbooks, but it was not evenly distributed in geography education. Many geography teachers in China have ample geography and interdisciplinary knowledge and they can use textbooks and other teaching methods to teach SD. The students’ performance, in a sample of four key schools, was considered “OK”, however there was still room for improvement. Most students were familiar with people, resources, environmental problems and climate change, however most were unable to grasp the factual knowledge about SD, such as international events and documents, latest predicted data and research on global warming, as well as the indicators used in the specific SD assessment. Suggestions include providing students with more practical activities and a chance to do hands-on experiments, as well as building student organizations and clubs; improve Teachers’ knowledge and understanding through teacher training program and build a platform for communicating ideas of SD through modern communication technology. Ideas of SD should be integrated into students’ daily life.

Introduction: Sex with animals is a male practice with a social acceptance in many areas of the Colombian Atlantic coast; however, this behavior has been little studied. The aim of this study was to characterize the practice of sex with animals in a group of men living in Cordoba department, Colombia. Methods: descriptive quantitative study was made. Forty-seven adults were interviewed. The information was collected through a survey which asked about sociodemographic aspects, characteristics and beliefs around the behavior. Results: Total participants knew about the practice, 68,1% stated to have had it and they said it happened between the ages of 7 and 30 years old, for an average time of seven years gap; 65,6% had it in presence of friends and relatives. 87,6% said the practice feels really good at the first time; 35,6% stated it was a beneficial practice and 37,5% said they would like their sons to experience it. Conclusion: Having sex with animals is a social accepted behavior and it is thought to be positive since it helps the correct psychosexual development and it prevents other behaviors, not culturally accepted, such as drug use or homosexuality.

As the necessity for safety and aesthetic of nightscape have arisen, the importance of nightscapes (i.e., nighttime landscape) planning has garnered the attention of mainstream consciousness. Therefore, this study is to suggest the guideline for nightscape planning using electroencephalography (EEG) technology and survey for recognizing the characteristics of a nightscape. Furthermore, we verified the EEG method as a tool for landscape evaluation. This study analyzed the change of relative alpha power and relative beta power and self-reporting of participants in order to investigate the correlation between EEG and fear according to twelve nightscape settings. Our findings indicated the corresponding measures of fear vary accordance with whether there was people or not, and the environmental settings (Built Nightscape Images; BNI vs Natural Nightscape Images; NNI). Based on our physiological EEG experiment, we provided a new analytic view of the nightscape. The approach we utilized enables a deeper understanding of emotional perception and fear among human subjects by identifying the physical environment which impacts how they experience nightscapes.

In this study, 6 residents of a long-term care facility were asked to try on Virtual Reality glasses and report their first experiences with Virtual Reality. The results show that Virtual Reality is of great interest to elderly residents of in-patient long-term care facilities. The wearing period was longer than expected and no symptoms of cyber sickness occurred. For the residents it was exciting to explore the virtual environments. Austrian destinations, nature scenes in the mountains and forests but also trips to the zoo, the museum, in churches or even densely populated areas like shopping streets or train stations would be places for the residents, they would like to explore virtually. Far-off destinations such as Rio de Janeiro or the Caribbean are more of an exception. Biographically relevant places such as the parental home or the location of their wedding were not named. Concerning the usability, an adjustment of the VR glasses is necessary for a longer-term use in any case.

Irish beef farms have experienced poor viability longitudinally, with officially acknowledged ‘crisis’ levels in 2013. In response, beef Producer Organisation (PO) legislation was introduced. Through the lens of international evidence in the literature about how POs function, this paper presents an analysis of Irish stakeholders’ views in the context of a public consultation process. While stakeholders indicate the need for individual POs to collaborate, little emphasis is placed on other factors necessary for success: collaboration with other chain actors; and market differentiation of products. Stakeholders identified primary threats as poor engagement on the part of both farmers and processors/purchasers.

Although there has been research regarding the response of horses to human behaviour, there is still a gap concerning the knowledge about the interaction of horses and humans in showing individual responses to different human behaviour in the same situation. In this work, the horses´ individual responses to different humans were examined to close this research gap and to identify whether or not horses actually respond differently to different people. To this end, 29 interactions between horses and humans, where the humans were supposed to lead the horse through a training course (including two identical exercises in each situation) were videoed and then transcribed in the style of the action-oriented system of notations HANOS (Handlungsorientiertes Notationssystem). The qualitative content analysis was appropriated on the basis of Mayring. Just nonverbal interactions between each person and one horse were focused. In total, just under 600 interactions were analyzed and categorized. The categories were then put into a chi-square-test (quantitative analyses). Based on these analyses, it can be assumed that each human individual received an individual, different feedback from the horses.

Theoretical studies propose an association between family violence and low self-control in adolescence, yet empirical findings of this association are inconclusive. The aim of the present research was to systematically summarize available findings on the relation between family violence and self-control across adolescence. We included 27 studies with 143 effect sizes, representing more than 25,000 participants of eight countries from early to late adolescence. Applying a multi-level meta-analyses, taking dependency between effect sizes into account while retaining statistical power, we examined the magnitude and direction of the overall effect size. Additionally, we investigated whether theoretical moderators (e.g., age, gender, country), and methodological moderators (cross-sectional/longitudinal, informant) influenced the magnitude of the association between family violence and self-control. Our results revealed that family violence and self-control have a small to moderate significant negative association (r = -.191). This association did not vary across gender, country, and informants. The strength of the association, however, decreased with age and in longitudinal studies. This finding provides evidence that researchers and clinicians may expect low self-control in the wake of family violence, especially in early adolescence. Recommendations for future research in the area are discussed.

Fracking in the UK has yet to reach full industrial development but it is still subject to significant opposition. This study uses Beck’s Risk Society theory and anti-politics to examine the views voiced by opponents to fracking in Yorkshire, England. A qualitative approach was used; local newspaper reports were evaluated alongside semi-structured interviews with protesters to provide a thematic analysis. Although there are signs of post-materialist concerns with the environment these issues did not dominate the discussion. Scientists were not held responsible for the risks involved in fracking. Instead economic greediness of politicians and austerity measures were perceived as putting the environment and people’s health at risk. Interviewees thought fossil fuel energy production was economically advantaged over more sustainable energy and jobs in the low carbon economy. Protesters’ trust in politicians had been eroded but faith in democracy remained. It is suggested a citizen-led deliberative approach to all the concerns raised, not simply those relating to scientific risk, might achieve some level of resolution over fracking in the UK.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of discoursal approach on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability. Quick Placement Test (QPT) was used to select 60 intermediate EFL learners as the participants of this study. Then, they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Each consisted of 30 learners. Prior to the treatment, the participants of both groups were given a pretest to ensure their reading comprehension. The experimental group was exposed to the Hymes’ model. In the control group the researcher used placebo for teaching reading skill. Then a posttest was administered to both groups. An Independent samples t-test between posttests of the study and a paired-samples t-test between the pretest and posttest of the groups of the study were run. The results of the study revealed and emphasized that the Hymes’ model improved the learners’ reading comprehension.

Social plasticity, defined as the ability to adaptively change the expression of social behavior according to previous experience and to social context, is a key ecological performance trait that should be viewed as crucial for Darwinian fitness. The neural mechanisms for social plasticity are poorly understood, in part due to skewed reliance on rodent models. Fish model organisms are relevant in the field of social plasticity for at least two reasons: first, the diversity of social organization among fish species is staggering, increasing the breadth of evolutionary relevant questions that can be asked. Second, that diversity also suggests translational relevance, since it is more likely that “core” mechanisms of social plasticity are discovered by appealing to a wider variety of social arrangements than relying on a single species. We analyze examples of social plasticity across fish species with different social organizations, concluding that a “core” mechanism is the initiation of behavioral shifts through the modulation of a conserved “social decision-making network”, along with other relevant brain regions, by monoamines, neuropeptides, and steroid hormones, as well as the consolidation of these shifts via neurogenomic adjustments and regulation of the expression of plasticity molecules.

The processes of an ageing population are becoming a challenge in the context of social, technological, and research policy. Also, according to the perspective 2080, Poland belongs to the group of counties with the prognosticated number of citizens over 65 to account for one-third of the population. Different strategies aimed at dealing with the mentioned demographic challenges include widespread use of humanoids in care for older people. As the research of such nature was the first in Poland, this article aimed to identify the factors and their interlinks that determine the attitude and the future use of humanoids by older people of the Polish society. Based on the specific attributes of humanoid technology, the model hypothesises that an attitude to technology can be directly predicted by four perceived technology attributes, namely an impact on the quality of life, technological impact, ethical and social problems, while user attitude towards humanoid technology is predicted to have an indirect influence on the future intention of use. A survey method was used to collect research data. An electronic questionnaire was used to conduct confidential interviews. Finally, 643 filled questionnaires were received. Results received via a regression analysis confirmed that the most important factor influencing human attitudes was a positive social impact achieved using humanoids in the care of lonely people and improving the safety of older people. Another important factor was a technological impact from the use of humanoids performing functions desired by respondents. The technology in question could be useful for reminding older people about taking medication, informing family members about the health condition of their older people and calling for help on their behalf.

There are now a wide variety of global metrics. To find the degree of overlap between these different measures, we employ a principal components analysis (PCA) to 15 indices across 145 countries. Our results demonstrate that the most important underlying dimension highlights that economic development and social progress go hand in hand with state stability. The results are used to produce categorical divisions of the world. The threefold division identifies a world composed of what we describe and map as Rich, Poor and Middle countries. A five-group classification provided a more nuanced categorization described as; The Very Rich, Free and Stable, Affluent and Free, Upper Middle, Lower Middle, and Poor and Not Free.

This short paper raises and answers a question related to orthographic lexicography in general and its reference to efforts in making contemporary dictionary portals. As orthographic dictionaries have not yet been researched as a specialized lexicographic variety, part of their metalexicographic description in those European languages that have online normative orthographic dictionaries is presented. Metalexicographic elements that are analyzed were chosen from the perspective of casual and professional users and online dictionary visitors. Regardless of the fact that this is a specific kind of dictionary, as well as of the fact that European orthographic tradition and practice is quite heterogeneous, the belief that the European Dictionary Portal should also include available online orthographic dictionaries is defended. An argument in favor of this could contribute to an awareness of the importance of orthography for online dictionary users, even in those languages whose written form greatly corresponds to the spoken form.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a trait describing inter-individual differences in sensitivity to environments, both positive and negative ones. SPS has attracted growing societal interest. However, (neuro)scientific evidence is lagging behind. We critically discuss how to measure SPS, how it relates to other theories of Environmental Sensitivity and other temperament and personality traits, how SPS interacts with environments to influence (a)typical development, what the underlying aetiologies and mechanisms are, and its relation to mental disorders involving sensory sensitivities. Drawing on the diverse expertise of the authors, we set an agenda for future research to stimulate the field. We conclude that SPS is a heritable, evolutionarily conserved trait, linked to increased risk for psychopathology and stress-related problems in response to negative environments, as well as to greater benefits (e.g., intervention responsivity, positive mood) in positive environments. We need advances in objective assessment of SPS, understanding mechanisms, differentiating it from (seemingly) related mental disorders, to exploit the potential of SPS to improve mental health, preserve human capital, and prevent adverse effects.

Purpose: Young transgender and non-binary are exposed to situations of discrimination and have a greater risk of violence. The purpose of this study is to analyze which protective, violence and health and well-being factors have more influence on transgender and non-binary people compared to cisgender people. Method: The sample comprised 856 people between 14 and 25 years old. A survey including questions about sociodemographic information and protective, violence and health and well-being factors was designed ad hoc for this study. Results: The results show non-binary group received the least support from family and friends, higher risk of suffering cyberbullying and a higher feel isolated and unhappy. Non-binary and transgender have suffered more verbal attacks both inside and outside their school and physical attacks at school than cisgender young. Conclusions: These results are important and may contribute to promote public policies and clinical interventions to favor the integration of non-binary and transgender people in our society.

Education and awareness raising are the primary tools of global health policy to change public behaviour. Considering the limitations of awareness agenda and the lack of social research to inform alternative approaches, our objective was to generate new empirical evidence on the consequences of antibiotic-related awareness raising in a low-income country context. We implemented an educational activity in two Lao villages to share general antibiotic-related messages, but also to learn about people’s conceptions and health behaviours. Two rounds of census survey data enabled us to assess the activity’s outputs, its knowledge outcomes, and its immediate behavioural impacts in a difference-in-difference design. Our panel data covered 1,130 adults over two rounds, including 58 activity participants and 208 villagers exposed indirectly via conversations in the village. We found that activity-related communication circulated among more privileged groups, which limited its indirect effects. Among participants, the activity influenced the awareness and understanding of “drug resistance,” while effects on attitudes were minor. Evidence on behavioural impacts was sparse and mixed, but the range of possible consequences included a disproportionate uptake of antibiotics from formal healthcare providers. Our study casts doubt on the continued dominance of awareness raising as a behavioural tool to address antibiotic resistance.

The research is carried out to assess factor affecting the health condition of the elderly people in the slum areas in Sylhet City. This research was quantitative type. In Quantitative approach, primary data were collected and used from the randomly selected elderly people in the Sylhet City slum areas. The secondary data were collected from many articles, documents, newspaper, magazine etc. By analyzing the survey data, it is illustrated that the slum dwellers are deprived from the basic needs. Meanwhile, elderly people can‟t fulfill their medical treatment due to their financial condition because of their work incompatibility. This study identifies the factor affecting health condition such as financial condition, lack of knowledge about proper medical facilities, communication gap between the authority and patient, unemployment, and so on. These factors also affect their health situation. Many diseases like asthma, heart disease are occurred. This study also mentions about the livelihood of slum people are so poor in condition. Due to financial condition, aged people can‟t take their proper treatment and their family member can‟t afford it. This study also understands that the people from slum areas are getting concerned about their medical care. They are easily going to the hospital and take their service because of low pricing. On the other hand, people are meanwhile stopped their treatment of financial situation. This study finds the health situation of elderly people at slum areas in metropolitan city and their consciousness.

Since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect, both UNESCO and other international organisations recommend empowering youth to implement the SDGs in universities. Getting started with the SDGs at university level is of special relevance in pre-service teacher training since future teachers are powerful agents of change in the lives of young people. Future teachers need to acquire competencies in sustainability to be able to promote meaningful changes in sustainable behaviour. To that end, holistic approaches to facilitate their acquirement need to be developed. The aim of this study is to explore which teaching methodologies are suitable for the development of competencies in sustainability in Higher Education (HE) and how to empower students to take a leading role in implementing the SDGs in universities. The participants in the study are a group of 23 students in pre-service teacher training. The experimental educational model used for the development of sustainable competencies consists of a methodological sequence of Project-Oriented Learning (POL) and a Cross-disciplinary Workshop on Sustainable Food. This study provides evidence that a holistic approach is appropriate for developing sustainable competencies and contributes to empowering students to implement SDG 12 at their university.

The unsustainability of the services related to water, sanitation and hygiene in informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa services is deeply embedded in current societal and governance structures, cultures and practices; it is context-dependent and involves numerous actors with different interests. The field of sustainability transitions research addresses such persistent and large scale societal challenges, with transition management being one of its widely applied governance approach. By drawing on an analysis of the root causes of unsustainability and unreliability of WASH services in three case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (Arusha-Tanzania, Dodowa-Ghana, Kampala-Uganda), we explore how a transition management approach can be designed to support a transition towards sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Sub-Saharan Africa. We distinguish the following contextual dimensions related to the unsustainability of WASH services: a) Multiplicity of WASH practices, structures and arrangements, b) Governance capacities for WASH services and maintenance, c) Landownership for sustainable access to WASH, d) Public participation in decision-making related to WASH, e) socio-economic structures governing access to WASH. These dimensions prompt the identification of conceptual and application challenges for transition management. Based on these challenges, recommendations were formulated for the design of a prescriptive transition management process that is not only functional but also emancipatory of character.

The language we use to describe the past can have a strong influence on the audience’s interpretation of our story. In our experiment, we explore, using 3 different conditions, how the framing and language of an accident report can affect the audience’s proposed solutions to manage the problems found. We find that the approach used to create an accident report can have a powerful influence on the audience’s decision making. Whether we are describing an accident in a similar manner to a crime, using a systems approach or we are accepting of multiple stories which are not linear or coherent, the methods we use to capture and communicate the story have a profound impact on the actions decided upon by the reader.

Cheating during examination is now day serious problem spatially in Ethiopia where many students sit in one class to exam. When cheating occurs in medical schools, it has serious consequences for human life, social values, and the economy. Even though, cheating on exams has existed in any department, with unknown reason, prevalence of cheater among 2^nd year laboratory students were high. So that assessing factors and improving cheating behavior of the students are mandatory to create competitive graduated students. To identify factors and to improve cheating behavior action research study design was conducted among 2^nd year medical laboratory student. Criterion sampling technique was used to selects sixteen cheater students among 2^nd year laboratory students. To gather necessary data, we used focus group discussions, individual interview, open-ended questionnaire and observation and collected information by using hand writing notes. During exam different cheating methods used by students like using a system of signals, writing on hands, desks and copy the other students answer. While the compelling reasons for cheating were like hard courses, hard exams, time pressure and fear of failure. To improve cheating behavior of the student’s different action strategies were taken like prepared exam by using code, arrangement sitting style during exam and sit with brainy students during class, reading and discussion. Most students were trying to done exam by themselves but their results are not good as previously. So that, we need more future action plan to avoid cheating behavior of the students. During, the next action plan we will be taken the remaining main action strategies and action evaluation we will be expected 50% of participants will be avoided their cheater behavior and done exam independently without forced by the environment.

How perceptual limits can be overcome has long been examined by psychologists. This study investigated whether visual cues, blindfolding, visual-auditory synesthetic experience and music training could facilitate a smaller frequency difference limen (FDL) in a gliding frequency discrimination test. It was hoped that the auditory limits could be overcome through visual facilitation, visual deprivation, involuntary cross-modal sensory experience or music practice. Ninety university students, with no visual or auditory impairment, were recruited for this one-between (blindfold/visual cue) and one-within (control/experimental session) designed study. A MATLAB program was prepared to test their FDL by an alternative forced-choice task (gliding upwards/gliding downwards/no change) and two questionnaires (Vividness of Mental Imagery Questionnaire & Projector-Associator Test) were used to assess their tendency to synesthesia. Participants with music training showed a significantly smaller FDL; on the other hand, being blindfolded, being provided with visual cues or having synesthetic experience before could not significantly reduce the FDL. However, the result showed a trend of reduced FDLs through blindfolding. This indicated that visual deprivation might slightly expand the limits in auditory perception. Overall, current study suggests that the inter-sensory perception can be enhanced through training but not though reallocating cognitive resources to certain modalities. Future studies are recommended to verify the effects of music practice on other perceptual limits.

The speech-to-song illusion is a type of auditory illusion that the repetition of a part of a sentence would change people’s perception tendency from speech-like to song-like. The study aims to examine how pace, emotion, and language tonality affect people’s experience of the speech-to-song illusion. It uses a between-subject (Pace: fast, normal, vs. slow) and within-subject (Emotion: positive, negative, vs. neutral; language tonality: tonal language vs. non-tonal language) design. Sixty Hong Kong college students were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions characterized by pace. They listened to 12 audio stimuli, each with repetitions of a short excerpt, and rated their subjective perception of the presented phrase, whether it sounded like a speech or a song, on a five-point Likert-scale. Paired-sample t-tests and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. The findings reveal that a faster speech pace could strengthen the tendency of the speech-to-song illusion. Neither emotion nor language tonality show a statistically significant influence on the speech-to-song illusion. This study suggests that the perception of sound should be in a continuum and facilitates the understanding of song production in which speech can turn into music by having repetitive phrases and to be played in a relatively fast pace.

Background: Alcohol is a psychoactive substance that leads to dependence and harmful drinking in worldwide. Alcohol use is the most prevalent among age from 13 to 29 year particularly in high school, college, and university students. It affected students mentally, physically, economically and their social issues. In low and middle-income countries particularly in Ethiopia, there is lack of data in systematic review and meta-analysis regarding the prevalence of alcohol use and associated factors among students. Methods: We will search studies using computerized search engine, main electronic databases and other applicable sources. PubMed/Medline, Global Health, Africa-wides, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and direct Google search will be searched to retrieve studies written in English language from 2010 to 2017. Observational studies (case control, cross-sectional, cohort or longitudinal survey, and surveillance reports) on the prevalence of alcohol use and associated factors among students in Ethiopia will be eligible. Data will be extracted by two authors independently. Data synthesis and statistical analysis will be carried out. Pooled estimate will be done to determine the prevalence of alcohol use by using comprehensive meta-analysis software. Protocol registration PROSPERO: 2017: CRD42018083222.

Academic publishing appears to be the most important key of the academic functions (academic research, excellence in teaching and learning and community services). Selecting the right journal to publish research results is a challenge to academics. Yet, there is inadequate knowledge about a model specifically directed at the topic of the journal selection process with a mathematical certainty. The objectives of this research are: to identify the main factors that an author or researchers consider when selecting an academic journal for submitting a manuscript, and, to develop a mathematical algorithm of journal selection that provide the best journal choice with a mathematical certainty based on difficulty of each factor. Quantitative research through questionnaires has been applied as an appropriate instrument base to address the researcher’s identification of the factors that should be considered when selecting a journal. Questionnaire developed and emailed to academics in 31 public and private universities in the developing countries. Academics reported that the most important publication difficulty factors were publishing in reputable journals, and publishing in a journal that has an impact factor. However, the most least publication difficulty factors were found to be: number of issues per year and if the journal is an open access. The proposed mathematical algorithm of journal’s publication difficulty factors was developed and tested.

Panic disorder (PD) is characterized by recurrent and unexpected panic attacks associated with behavioral changes and/or persistent anxiety due to the attacks. The development of behavioral models in animals is important for the understanding of the psychobiological and behavioral bases of PD. The present article reviews the main models used in the current literature. The elevated T-maze, used in rats, presents good predictive validity, but its face validity has been questioned. Models using electrical stimulation of the periaqueductal gray present good face validity, but lesser construct validity. Models relying on predator exposure present good predictive and construct validity. These three approaches seek coherence with theories on PD as a way to increase its translational potential; thus, while the elevated T-maze is supported by the Deakin/Graeff theory, the mouse defense test battery relies on the concept of defensive distance, and periaqueductal gray stimulation is based on the functional neuroanatomy of PD. Moreover, to higher or lower degree the three models are supported by an “etho-experimental” approach, with careful observation of animal behavior as a way of discriminating different defensive strategies that model different aspects of anxiety, fear, and panic. Finally, an alternative/complementary model is proposed that uses zebrafish alarm reaction to study this disorder.

Based on the total scholarly article output of Norway, we investigated the coverage and degree of openness according to three bibliographic services 1) Google Scholar, 2) oaDOI by Impact Story and 3) 1findr by 1science. According to Google Scholar, we find that more than 70% of all Norwegian articles are openly available. However, degrees are profoundly lower according to oaDOI and 1findr, respectively 31% and 52%. Varying degrees are mainly caused by different interpretations of openness, with oaDOI being most restrictive. Furthermore, open shares vary considerably by discipline, with the Medcine and Health sciences at the upper and the Humanities at the lower end. We also determined the citation frequencies using Cited-by values as of Google Scholar, applying year and subject normalization. We find a significant citation advantage for open articles. However, this is not the case for all types of openness. In fact, the category Open Access journals was by far lowest cited, indicating that young journals with a declared open access policy still lack recognition.

We introduce tools to capture the dynamics of three different pathways, in which the synchronization of human decision making could lead to turbulent periods and contagion phenomena in financial markets. The first pathway is caused when stock market indices, seen as a set of coupled integrate-and-fire oscillators, synchronize in frequency. The integrate-and-fire dynamics happens due to "change blindness", a trait in human decision making where people have the tendency to ignore small changes, but take action when a large change happens. The second pathway happens due to feedback mechanisms between market performance and the use of certain (decoupled) trading strategies. The third pathway occurs through the effects of communication and its impact on human decision making. A model is introduced in which financial market performance has an impact on decision making through communication between people. Conversely, the sentiment created via communication has an impact on financial market performance.

Determination of the parameters of the movement of surrounding objects, and in particular their speed, is one of the basic skills of a human being. The study of development of basic concepts of motion has been done for years with different methods and in different contexts. We have analyzed the effect of the physical/scientific image of the world introduced to children by school education and its long- and short-term cognitive consequences. Our studies showed that children differentiate the concept of speed into two more specific concepts: average speed and instantaneous velocity. In the present work we present how the gender context is superimposed on this general picture. We found that initial, genuine pre-school concept of speed of girls and boys is, on average, different. Our analysis shows also that this gender effect vanishes quickly together with the appearance of physical definitions of kinematical quantities in physics/science curricula. We discuss also methodological aspect of the statistical ‘gender gap’ measure and we calculated the gender effect chance probability, p-value, to be slightly less than 0.001. The importance of observed effect for the sustainable science teaching processes is discussed.

From physics to the social sciences, information is now seen as a fundamental component of reality. However, a form of information seems still underestimated, perhaps precisely because it is so pervasive that we take it for granted: the information encoded in the very environment we live in. We still do not fully understand how information takes the form of cities, and how our minds deal with it in order to learn about the world, make daily decisions, and take part in the complex system of interactions we create as we live together. This paper addresses three related problems that need to be solved if we are to understand the role of environmental information: (1) the physical problem: how can we create and preserve information in the built environment? (2) The semantic problem: how do we make environmental information meaningful? And (3) the pragmatic problem: how do we enact environmental information in our lives? Attempting to devise a solution to these problems, it proposes a framework to approach how information bridges minds, environment and society, and helps us create large-scale systems of interaction.

This study aims to find a communication model of contingency plan for disaster risk management of Sinabung Volcano eruption, in North Sumatera. The object of the research is communication and coordination across the government, non-government organization, and community. This study used planning theory, the concept of communication planning, and types of disaster management plan as tools for analysing. Descriptive qualitative is used as the method. Data collection was obtained from the focus group discussion (FGD), in-depth interviews, observation, and study documentation. There are three stages in descriptive qualitative research that is data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. An analysis was conducted qualitatively on the program and competence actors. The results found the communication model of disaster risk management through documents of contingency planning to overcome the threat of Mount Sinabung eruption. During the emergency response period a core model was used to reduce the impact of the Mount Sinabung eruption. The contingency plan becomes the Karo District Government’s document. This document were authorized by an authorized official and is ready to be applied to the Emergency Response Operation Plan. Plans for emergency response operations are carried out based on information regarding damage and the need to obtain results of a quick review. Contingency plans are submitted to the legislature for political commitment and support and budget allocation.

This study presents the validation process of the Questionnaire on Academic Stress in Secondary Education –QASSE-, designed to assess the wide variety of school sources and situations related to academic stress in adolescence, and their relationship with students’ physical and psychological well-being. Participants were 860 Spanish high school students (52.9% girls) with an average age of 14.62 years (SD = 1.8). Through a cross-validation process, EFA and CFA supported QASSE multifactorial structure with four first-order factors -academic overload, interaction with classmates, family pressure, and future-oriented perspective- and a second-order factor of academic stress, showing a significant and intense relationship with adolescents’ psychological and physical well-being. Results also highlight the effects of the gender*educational level interaction on the students’ stress, with girls showing higher levels of stress in the transition courses between educational phases (sophomore and junior years). The QASSE demonstrates good validity and reliability, showing potential for both research and educational application. The results show the high impact of the QASSE dimensions on psychological and physical well-being in adolescence, highlighting its special usefulness for designing and adjusting educational prevention and intervention actions in this area to the students’ specific characteristics and needs

Chemical communication of predation risk has evolved multiple times in fish species, with the conspecific alarm substance (CAS) contemporaneously being the most well understood mechanism. CAS is released after epithelial damage, usually when prey fish is captured by a predator, and elicits neurobehavioral adjustments in conspecifics which increase the probability of avoiding predation. As such, CAS is a partial predator stimulus, eliciting risk assessment-like and avoidance behaviors, and disrupting the predator sequence. The present paper reviews the distribution and putative composition of CAS in fish, and presents a model for the neural processing of these structures by the olfactory and the brain aversive systems. Applications of CAS in the behavioral neurosciences and neuropharmacology are also presented, exploiting the potential of model fish (e.g., zebrafish, guppies, minnows) on neurobehavioral research.

This study attempts to investigate a method for creating an index from mobility data that not only correlates with the number of people who relocate to a place but also has causal influence on the number of such individuals. By creating an index based on human mobility data, it becomes possible to predict the influence of urban development on future residential movements. In this paper, we propose a method called the travel cost method for multiple places (TCM4MP) by extending the conventional travel cost method (TCM). We assume that the opportunity cost of travel time on non-working days reflects the convenience and amenities of a neighborhood. However, conventional TCM does not assume that the opportunity cost of travel time varies according to the departure place. In this paper, TCM4MP is proposed to estimate the opportunity cost of travel time with respect to the departure place. We consider such estimation as possible due to the use of massive mobility data. We assume that the opportunity cost of travel time on non-working days reflects the convenience and amenities of the neighborhood. Therefore, we consider that the opportunity cost of travel time has a causal influence on future residential mobility. In this paper, the validity of the proposed method is tested using the smart card data of public transportation in Western Japan. Our proposed method is beneficial for urban planners in estimating the effects of urban development and detecting the shrinkage and growth of a population.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of an International conflict, i.e. East Pakistan Crisis, 1971, and reveals that unequal development creates conflict in society. Natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation can also become a source of conflict, so marginalised and excluded people fight for their rights through non-peaceful means. This essay supports the theoretical approaches of poverty, environment, and conflict nexus and reveals that unequal development and resource scarcity deepens the poverty and creates conflicts in the society, causing harm to the environment. The degraded environment increases the poverty as environment and poverty are interlinked, and the poor have limited choices other than to degrade the environment for their survival. This vicious downward spiral link between poverty and degradation of the environment requires working extensively for poverty alleviation to reverse the environmental decline.

Objective: To determine demographic predictors and comorbidities in hospitalized children with conduct disorder. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed using Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2012–2014). All patients were ≤18 years and cases with primary diagnosis of conduct disorder (N = 32345) and a comparison group with another psychiatric diagnosis (N = 410,479) were identified using ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. A logistic regression model was used to generate the Odds Ratio (OR) between both groups. Results: Children <11 years old have five times greater chances of admission for conduct disorder than adolescent (OR 5.339). African American males are more likely to be admitted for conduct disorder. Children with conduct disorder from low-income families have a 1.5 times higher likelihood for inpatient admission compared to high-income families. These children have about eleven times higher odds of comorbid psychosis (OR 11.810) and seven times for depression (OR 7.093) compared to the comparison group. Conclusion: Conduct disorders are more debilitating for children and families than many providers realize. African American male under 11 years is at the highest risk for inpatient management for conduct disorder. These patients have a higher risk of comorbid psychosis and depression which may further deteriorate the severity of illness and require acute inpatient care.

Spirit of science is one of the important components of science education theory. It not only directly affects the level of science education, but also indirectly affects the selection, education and evaluation of scientific researchers, and the development of science and technology in a country or region. Although more than a century ago, the researchers began to discuss the topic of spirit of science. However, to date, the research of the definition, attribute, structural model and its characteristics of the spirit of science has not yet made a breakthrough. Based on the detailed literature review, the related theoretical analysis and the research of the structural model of the spirit of science, this paper puts forward the new definition, the attribute and the establishment of the structural model of the spirit of science, and analyzes the match the situation from new structural model of the spirit of science and the scientific nature published by the American Society for the Advancement of Science. The results of this study are of great significance for raising the level of scientific education and cultivating future scientific researchers, enhancing their motivation and skills in innovation in scientific research and promoting the development of future scientific undertakings.

Over the last twenty years, library publishing has emerged in higher education as a new class of publisher. Conceived as a response to commercial publishing practices that have strained library budgets and prevented scholars from openly licensing and sharing their works, library publishing is both a local service program and a broader movement to disrupt the current scholarly publishing arena. It is growing both in numbers of publishers, quality of publications, and numbers of works produced. The commercial publishing framework which determines the viability of monetizing a product is not necessarily applicable for library publishers who exist as a common good to address the needs of their academic communities. Like any business venture, however, library publishers must develop a clear service model and business plan in order to create shared expectations for funding streams, quality markers, as well as technical and staff capacity. As the field is maturing from experimental projects to full programs, library publishers are formalizing their offerings and limitations. The anatomy of a library publishing business plan is presented and includes the principles of the program, scope of services, and staffing and governance requirements. Other aspects include production policies, financial structures, and measures of success.

In this contribution, we aim to show that opinion dynamics and population balance modeling can benefit from an exchange of problems and methods. To support this claim, the Deffuant-Weisbuch model, a classical approach in opinion dynamics, is formulated as a population balance model. This new formulation is subsequently analyzed in terms of moment equations, and conservation of the first and second order moment is shown. Exemplary results obtained by our formulation are presented and agreement with the original model is found. Also the influence of the initial distribution is studied. Additionally, the Deffuant-Weisbuch model is transferred to engineering and interpreted as mass transfer between liquid droplets which results in a more flexible formulation compared to alternatives from the literature. On the one hand, it is concluded that the transfer of opinion-dynamics problems to the domain of population balance modeling offers some interesting insights as well as stimulating challenges for the population-balance community. On the other hand, it is inferred that population-balance methods can contribute to the solution of problems in opinion dynamics. In a broad outlook, some further possibilities of how the two fields can possibly benefit from a close interaction are outlined.

As overeating, overweight and obesity remain public health concerns, it is crucial to design satiety-enhancing foods that suppress appetite and lower snack intake. Existing research identifies oro-sensory targets to promote satiation and satiety within the “satiety cascade” yet it remains unclear as to whether it is ‘chewing’ or ‘oral lubrication’ that might amplify satiation signals.Here we have combined techniques from experimental psychology, food material science and mechanical engineering to measure the role of chewing and lubrication using novel, model foods as preloads on subjective appetite and intake of a salty snack. Three mint flavoured hydrogels were engineered to vary in their texture (fracture stress) and lubrication (inverse of friction coefficient) properties, and a control group received a mint tea. Results showed that snack intake was suppressed by 32% after eating the low chewing/high lubricating preload as compared to the high chewing/low lubricating preload (p<0.05). No other significant effects were found for snack intake. Hunger ratings decreased from t1 to t3 (p<0.05), however differences between conditions were subtle and not significant. Thus, this proof-of-concept study demonstrates that manipulating oral lubrication is a promising new construct to reduce snack intake that merits future research in the oro-sensory satiety domain.

A statistical analysis of semantic memory should reflect the complex, multifactorial structure of the relations among its items. Still, a dominant paradigm in the study of semantic memory has been the idea that the mental representation of concepts is structured along a simple branching tree spanned by superordinate and subordinate categories. We propose a generative model of item representation with correlations that overcomes the limitations of a tree structure. The items are generated through "factors" that represent semantic features or real-world attributes. The correlation between items has its source in the extent to which items share such factors and the strength of such factors: if many factors are balanced, correlations are overall low; whereas if a few factors dominate, they become strong. Our model allows for correlations that are neither trivial nor hierarchical, but may reproduce the general spectrum of correlations present in a data-set of nouns. We provide an estimate of the number of concepts that can be stored and retrieved by a large-scale cortical network, the Potts network, which is perhaps approximately 10⁷ with human cortical parameters. When this storage capacity is exceeded, however, retrieval fails completely only for balanced factors; above a critical degree of imbalance, a phase transition leads to a regime where the network still extracts considerable information about the cued item, even if not recovering its detailed representation: partial categorization seems to emerge spontaneously as a consequence of the dominance of particular factors, rather than being imposed ad hoc. We argue this to be a relevant model of semantic memory resilience in Tulving’s remember/know paradigms.

By studying game theory, we find that the Nash equilibrium does not exist in some games or, if there is in one, does not describe a real event. Here we show that the matching pennies game with pure strategy has the solution, but this solution is a game that happens simultaneously with this game. Using this solution, we will answer the Brookings Institution's question of boycotting the elections whether the opposition's boycott of elections is, in different circumstances, a defeated strategy. A strategy that its result in most cases is a failure or political suicide and the least possible consequence by the opposition. The findings of this article show that in general, it can be concluded that the election boycott strategy is a dominated strategy, and most of the opposition groups that have used it have failed and they donated the playground to the ruling group.

Our paper examines the place of Pan-Africanism as an educational, political, and cultural movement which had a lasting impact on the on the relationship between liberation and people of African descent, in the continent of Africa and the Diaspora. We also show its evolution, beginning with formerly enslaved Africans in the Americas, to the colonial borders of the 1884 Berlin Conference, and conclude with the independence movements in Africa. For formerly enslaved Africans, Pan-Africanism was an idea that helped them see their commonalities as victims of racism. That is, they realized that they were enslaved because they came from the same continent and shared the same racial heritage. They associated the continent of Africa with freedom. The partitioning of Africa at the Berlin Conference (colonialism) created pseudo-nation states out of what was initially seen as an undivided continent. Pan-Africanism provided an ideology for rallying Africans at home and abroad against colonialism, and the creation of colonial nation-states did not erase the idea of a united Africa. As different African nations gained political independence, they took it upon themselves to support those countries fighting for their independence. The belief, then, was that as long as one African nation was not free, the continent could not be viewed as free. The existence of nation-states did not imply the negation of Pan-Africanism. The political ideas we examine include those of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and Thabo Mbeki.

Objective: The goal of this study was to analyse the attitudes and perceptions of emergency and mental health nurses through the validation of the SM-GIBED scale in specialised care in Spain on alcoholics and other drug-dependent patients. Design and Setting: This cross-sectional study was developed using the Spanish hospital version of the Seaman-Mannello scale to denominate the SM-GIBED scale. Participants: 170 Emergency and Mental Health Nursing from five Spanish Hospitals. Intervention: Self-administered questionnaire to analiyse the perceptions and attitudes about the drug addict and the alcoholic. Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: A descriptive and inferential analysis of the study variables was carried out. A psychometric analysis was performed to validate the scale. Results: A total of 170 questionnaires were collected from 257 healthcare workers. Overall, 99.1% of the participants had contact with drug-dependent patients during their professional experience. Nearly 75% had difficulties in treating them. The psychometric analysis of the SM-GIBED scale in the Spanish context obtained values of KMO = 0.655 and Bartlett's test p < 0.000. Cronbach's alpha of 0.738 was obtained from the reliability analysis. A reliability analysis of each of the SM-GIBED questions found no case with an alpha lower than 0.71. In conclusion, positive aspects include an ingratiating attitude and subject-to-subject communication when nurses self-define as empathic and non-paternalistic. Among the negative aspects, there is a lack of communication skills and assertiveness with these patients. This highlights a certain degree of resignation and dissatisfaction when working with drug addicts.

We develop and apply a systematic literature review methodology to identify and characterize the ways in which the peer-reviewed literature depicts how climate change adaptation is occurring in Australia. We reviewed the peer-reviewed, English-language literature between January 2005 and January 2018 for examples of documented adaptation actions. Our results challenge previous assumptions that adaptation action is not happening in Australia and describes adaptation processes that are underway. For the most part, actions can be described as preliminary or groundwork, with a particular focus on documenting stakeholder perspectives on climate change and adaptation, and modelling or scenario planning in the coastal zone, agriculture and health sectors. Where concrete adaptations are reported, they are usually in the agricultural sector and are most common in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s food basket. The findings of the review advance our understanding of adaptation to climate change as a process and the need to consider different stages in the process when tracking adaptation.

In the last decades there has been a progressive aging of the population, known as “demographic revolution” or “demographic transition”. As a consequence of the worldwide progressive aging of population and of the increasing of general life expectancy, the relationship between aging and disability became a very important one and received a huge interest in research for its consequences on participation, inclusion and quality of life of ageing people and for its consequences on socio-sanitary organizations. The aim of this paper is to analyze this relationship and to discuss consequences on participation, inclusion and quality of life of ageing people, according to recent conceptual models of disability and active ageing. According to previous papers this relationship could be considered in two ways: ageing with disability (which refers to people living with long-term effects of disabling conditions acquired from birth to middle age) and disability with ageing (which refers to people which disabling conditions acquired later or age-related conditions), but newer papers proposed a convergence of these two approaches, taking into account the similarities and the differences between the two ways.

One of the most serious concerns about mega event-related changes to small cities is how to effectively utilize newly developed public attractions after the Olympic Games. Making connections with existing local amenities and forming attraction networks can be effective strategies for continuing a city’s revitalization. However, despite the expected benefits, attraction network research shows that these benefits often fail to materialize. With the case of Gangneung, a 2018 winter Olympic hosting city, this study investigated visitation patterns to nineteen selected attractions using network analysis. The results indicate that the most influential nodes are located on the northern coast, the eastern coast, and in the south downtown area, those nodes being the central locations where the strongest of connections are made. New attractions such as the Olympic Park and Walwha Linear Park were rather isolated. While seasonal and periodic variations, visitors’ residences, and destination choice attitudes had a significant effect on visitation patterns, the attraction networks, modes of transportation, proximity to region, and type similarity were not significant factors in the forming of visitation patterns. The results make a methodological contribution to tourist behavior and network research. In addition, beyond individual attraction development, the results provide practical implications in regard to networking and cooperation between multiple attractions using temporal and spatial strategies such as management/investment prioritizing, travel route development, and program scheduling.

Videogames have become educational, communicative and social tools among the youngest, favouring the acquisition of skills, abilities and values, encompassing an endless number of themes, and help to experience and to face, in the first person, a great diversity of environmental situations and ecology problems. Thus, the present article aims: a) the evaluation of a sample of 20 educational videogames about water, making use of some empirical criteria of quality; and b) the design, validation and application of an integrate quality indicator of educational videogames on water, based on the aspects of narrative, gameplay and didactics to that sample, which allows us to obtain a ranking. The findings reflect a ranking of games allows to suggest that the nature of the game (simulation, adventures, platforms or questions) does not determine the quality of the game, although generally simulations and adventure games are placed in a range of medium or high quality, as well as those games that pursue objectives related to the design and management of a territory in a sustainable way. The paper provides teachers with quality criteria based on narrative and gameplay that complement and enriches the pedagogical dimension.

This paper examines the most prominent “progressive” American religious groups’ (as defined by those that liberalized early on the issue of birth control, circa 1930) views of women between the first and second waves of the feminist movement (1930-1965). We find that some groups have indeed had a long and outspoken support for women’s equality. Using their modern-day names, these groups, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Church, and to a lesser extent, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, professed strong support for women’s issues, early, and often. However, we also find that prominent progressive groups –the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Presbyterian Church, were virtually silent on the issue of women’s rights – even as the second wave of the feminist movement was picking up steam – as late as 1965.

Lack of physical activity participation for adults with a disability remain a large public health concern. For those with existing, or newly acquired disability, increased sedentary behavior stemming from physical impairments often results in the development of secondary chronic health conditions (e.g., obesity or osteoarthritis) which leads to participation restrictions within major life roles. Without intervention these secondary conditions further increase physical impairment which, in turn, sets these populations up for continuous negative health trajectories over their remaining lifespan. Physical activity can attenuate the development of secondary health conditions and optimize health outcomes within these populations. However, those with disability often do not possess the necessary physical capacity to maintain physically active lifestyles. Therefore, exercise programs specifically designed to increase physical functioning have been identified as a necessary intermediate step to reduce physical limitations prior to adoption of physically active lifestyles. Adoption of exercise program participation remains a difficult task for both the general population and those with disability alike. Based on current rates of physical inactivity, it is clear that traditional health behavior change models do not adequately address the complexity of this issue. This paper highlights some of the limitations within the current health behavior change models as they relate to exercise behavior. Additionally, a novel conceptual framework is presented for the intent of its incorporation within research and health promotion interventions targeting exercise behavior within disability populations.