Abstract: In recent years, interest in ecogenetic and biomedical problems related to the effects on the population of radon and its daughter decay products has increased significantly. Of particular interest is the assessment of the consequence of irradiation at hazardous radon areas, which includes the Almaty region due to the large number of tectonic faults that enhance radon emanation. In connection with the foregoing, the purpose of this work was to study the genetic effects of exposure to supernormal radon doses on the alpha-radiation model. Irradiation does not affect the growth of the cell, but rather its ability to differentiate. In addition, irradiation can lead to somatic mutations, morphoses and modifications. These damages most likely occur from changes in the composition of the substances of the cell. Such changes are epigenetic since they affect the regulatory processes of ontogenesis. Variability in the expression of regulatory genes refers to conditional mutations that modify the formation of signs of intraspecific similarity. Characteristic features of these conditional mutations are the dominant type of their manifestation, phenotypic asymmetry and their instability in the generations. Currently, the terms “morphosis” and “modification” are used to describe epigenetic variability, which are maintained in Drosophila melanogaster cultures using linkaged X- chromosomes, and the mutant X-chromosome is transmitted along the paternal line. In this paper, we investigated the epigenetic effects of alpha particles, whose source in nature is mainly radon and its daughter decay products. In the experiment, an isotope of plutonium-238 (Pu238), generating radiation with an energy of about 5500 eV, was used as a source of alpha particles. In an experiment in the first generation (F1), deformities or morphoses were found, which can be called "radiation syndromes" or mutations, the manifestation of which is similar to the pleiotropic action of genes. The proportion of morphoses in the experiment was 1.8%, and in control 0.4%. In this experiment, the morphoses in the flies of the first and second generation looked like black spots, or melanomas on different parts of the imago body; "generalized" melanomas; curled, curved wings; shortened wing; bubble on one wing; absence of one wing, deformation of thorax, interruption and violation of tergite patterns, disruption of distribution of ocular facets and bristles; absence of pigmentation of the second and third legs. Statistical analysis by the Chi-square method showed the reliability of the difference in experiment and control at P ≤ 0.01. On the basis of this, it can be considered that alpha particles, which in the environment are mainly generated by radon and its isotopes, have a mutagenic effect that manifests itself, mainly in the formation of morphoses or deformities.
Abstract: Bengal has a long history (8th century A.D. onwards) of decorating the wall of brick-built temples with curved terracotta plaques on a diverse range of subjects. These could be considered as one of the most significant visual archives to understand the various facets of the then contemporary societies. The temples under focus include Char-bangla temple complex (circa 1755 A.D.), Bhavanishvara temple (circa 1755 A.D.) and the Gangeshvara Shiva Jor-bangla temple (circa 1753 A.D.), located within a part of the river Bhagirathi basin in Baranagar, Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. Though, a diverse range of subjects have been intricately carved mainly on the front façades of the Baranagar temple cluster, the study specifically concentrates on depictions related to religious and non-religious acts performed by practitioners of various religious sects of late medieval Bengal with the intention to acquire knowledge about the various facets of their life. Apart from this, the paper also mapped the spatial location of these religious performers on the temples’ façades to examine if any systematic plan or arrangement had been employed for connoting a particular idea. Further, an attempt is made to provide a commentary on the attire worn by followers of various religious sects of late medieval Bengal. The primary materials for the study comprise the depictions which denote religious activities carved on the terracotta plaques. The secondary material has been collected from published and unpublished theses, journals and books. These data have been further supplemented with photographic documentation, some useful line-drawings and descriptions in table format to get a clear understanding of the concerned issues.
Abstract: Outbound tourism in Morocco, as in the majority of developing countries, reveals some of the aspects of inequality between the north and the south. Considered by some researchers as one of the facets of the development crisis, access to tourism and especially international tourism is a chance for a small minority with financial means, while the vast portions of the population dream rather of immigrating to a developed country for the sake of improving their standard of living. The right to travel is also limited by visa requirements, procedures in host countries, security and technical measures and creates discrimination in the practice of tourism. These conditions do not seem to be favorable to the democratization of the practice of international tourism for the populations of the southern countries. This paper is a contribution to the reading of the trends of outbound tourism in developing countries through the example of Morocco. It highlights the different aspects of Moroccan outbound tourism, destinations and the behavior of tourists through an analysis of the offer of a sample of 50 travel agencies. In the same vein, it offers a reading grid of the possibilities offered for the development of outbound tourism and the various existing obstacles to the democratization of international outbound tourism in the southern countries. This reading reveals the transformation in the behavior of Moroccan international tourists as well as the profound changes in Moroccan society, through a model of statistical analysis.
Abstract: Universities and higher education institutes are finding it increasingly difficult to engage students fruitfully through traditional pedagogic tools. Web 2.0 technologies comprising social networking sites (SNSs) offer a platform for students to collaborate and share information, thereby enhancing their learning experience. Despite the potential and reach of SNSs, its use has been limited in academic settings promoting higher education. The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of social networking sites among business school students in India and analyze its role in enhancing quality of student experiences in a business school leading to the proposal of an agenda for future research. In this study, more than 300 students of a reputed business school were involved in a survey of their preferences of different social networking sites and their perceptions and attitudes towards these sites. A questionnaire with three major sections was designed, validated and distributed among a sample of students, the research method being descriptive in nature. Crucial questions were addressed to the students concerning time commitment, reasons for usage, nature of interaction on these sites, and the propensity to share information leading to direct and indirect modes of learning. It was further supplemented with focus group discussion to analyze the findings. The paper notes the resistance in the adoption of new technology by a section of business school faculty, who are staunch supporters of the classical “face-to-face” instruction. In conclusion, social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide new avenues for students to express themselves and to interact with one another. Universities could take advantage of the new ways in which students are communicating with one another. Although interactive educational options such as Moodle exist, social networking sites are rarely used for academic purposes. Using this medium opens new ways of academically-oriented interactions where faculty could discover more about students' interests, and students, in turn, might express and develop more intellectual facets of their lives. hitherto unknown intellectual facets. This study also throws up the enormous potential of mobile phones as a tool for “blended learning” in business schools going forward.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to understand the dynamics of the increase in incivility through social relations (gender, race, class, sexual orientation, etc.), which hide inequalities in the form of treatment and opportunities within the organizational sphere. For this, we will examine works that address incivility at work, as well as studies that deviate from the mainstream, bringing more obscure organizational facets to light in connection with a critical approach to this issue. Next, some results of a bibliometric study shall be exposed, to analyze contributions connected to the theme and demonstrate gaps for future research. Then, models that facilitate reflection on the dynamics of violence shall be discussed. Finally, a broader concept of incivility in interpersonal relationships in the workplace shall be exposed considering the multiple approaches discussed.
Abstract: Wildlife crime is a complex problem with many interconnected facets, which are generally responded to in parts or fragments in efforts to “break down” the complexity into manageable components. However, fragmentation increases complexity as coherence and cooperation become diluted. A whole-of-society approach has been developed towards finding a common goal and integrated approach to preventing wildlife crime. As part of this development, research was conducted in rural communities adjacent to conservation areas in South Africa to define and comprehend the challenges faced by them, and to understand their perceptions of wildlife crime. The results of the research showed that the perceptions of community members varied - most were in favor of conservation and of protecting rhinos, only if they derive adequate benefit from it. Regardless of gender, income level, education level, or access to services, conservation was perceived to be good and bad by the same people. Even though people in the communities are poor, a willingness to stop rhino poaching does exist amongst them, but their perception of parks not caring about people triggered an attitude of not being willing to stop, prevent or report poaching. Understanding the nuances, the history, the interests and values of community members, and the drivers behind poaching mind-sets (intrinsic or driven by transnational organized crime) is imperative to create sustainable and resilient communities on multiple levels that make a substantial positive impact on people’s lives, but also conserve wildlife for posterity.
Abstract: There are positive significant relationships between the Need for Cognitive Closure (NFC) and Religious Fundamentalism (RF) among students. The preliminary assumption of the current study was: There would be a stronger pattern of association between these constructs, if the participants of the study are more exposed to the study's main concept which is religiosity. In other words, close-mindedness would be more related to homogeneous samples of practicing devotees of monotheistic religions compared to student samples. The main hypothesis was that concerning the Muslim sample, there will be a significant and positive correlation between the need for closure (and all facets of it, except decisiveness) and RF. Both the student sample (n=88), and the Muslim practicing mosque attending sample (n=40), were administrated three scales of Need for Closure (NFCS), Religious Fundamentalism (RFS), and Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness (FBDRS). The results of the study moderately confirmed the hypothesis and showed a positive correlation between NFCS and RFS with the Muslim sample. Specifically, preference for order, preference for predictability and discomfort with ambiguity facets of the NFCS positively correlated with RFS. However, with regards to the student sample such relationships between the constructs were not found.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the different facets of growth among micro, small and medium-sized firms in Croatia and to analyze the differences between models designed for all micro, small and medium-sized firms and those in creative industries. Three growth prediction models were designed and tested using the growth of sales, employment and assets of the company as dependent variables. The key drivers of sales growth are: prudent use of cash, industry affiliation and higher share of intangible assets. Growth of assets depends on retained profits, internal and external sources of financing, as well as industry affiliation. Growth in employment is closely related to sources of financing, in particular, debt and it occurs less frequently than growth in sales and assets. The findings confirm the assumption that growth strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in creative industries have specific differences in comparison to SMEs in general. Interestingly, only 2.2% of growing enterprises achieve growth in employment, assets and sales simultaneously.
Abstract: An exploration of the related literature reveals that all
instruction methods aim at training autonomous learners. After the
turn of second language pedagogy toward learner-oriented strategies,
learners’ needs were more focused. Yet; the historical, social and
political aspects of learning were still neglected. The present study
investigates the notion of autonomous learning and explains its
various facets from a pedagogical point of view. Furthermore;
different elements, fields and scopes of autonomous learning will be
explored. After exploring different aspects of autonomy, it is
postulated that liberatory autonomy is highlighted since it not only
covers social autonomy but also reveals learners’ capabilities and
human potentials. It is also recommended that learners consider
different elements of autonomy such as motivation, knowledge,
confidence, and skills.
Abstract: Social Business Process Management (SBPM)
promises to overcome limitations of traditional BPM by allowing
flexible process design and enactment through the involvement of
users from a social community. This paper proposes a meta-model
and architecture for socially driven business process management
systems. It discusses the main facets of the architecture such as goalbased
role assignment that combines social recommendations with
user profile, and process recommendation, through a real example of
a charity organization.
Abstract: Bringing change to the housing industry requires
multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any
resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and
resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach
consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the
industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In
Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but
the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger
fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the
developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for
the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement
of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from
the government and local industry and the effect of competitive
advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo
in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand,
organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost
escalation would hinder a faster progress.
Abstract: The growing interest on national heritage
preservation has led to intensive efforts on digital documentation of
cultural heritage knowledge. Encapsulated within this effort is the
focus on ontology development that will help facilitate the
organization and retrieval of the knowledge. Ontologies surrounding
cultural heritage domain are related to archives, museum and library
information such as archaeology, artifacts, paintings, etc. The growth
in number and size of ontologies indicates the well acceptance of its
semantic enrichment in many emerging applications. Nowadays,
there are many heritage information systems available for access.
Among others is community-based e-museum designed to support the
digital cultural heritage preservation. This work extends previous
effort of developing the Traditional Malay Textile (TMT) Knowledge
Model where the model is designed with the intention of auxiliary
mapping with CIDOC CRM. Due to its internal constraints, the
model needs to be transformed in advance. This paper addresses the
issue by reviewing the previous harmonization works with CIDOC
CRM as exemplars in refining the facets in the model particularly
involving TMT-Artifact class. The result is an extensible model
which could lead to a common view for automated mapping with
CIDOC CRM. Hence, it promotes integration and exchange of
textile information especially batik-related between communities in
e-museum applications.
Abstract: As a result of the daily workflow in the design
development departments of companies, databases containing huge
numbers of 3D geometric models are generated. According to the
given problem engineers create CAD drawings based on their design
ideas and evaluate the performance of the resulting design, e.g. by
computational simulations. Usually, new geometries are built either
by utilizing and modifying sets of existing components or by adding
single newly designed parts to a more complex design.
The present paper addresses the two facets of acquiring
components from large design databases automatically and providing
a reasonable overview of the parts to the engineer. A unified
framework based on the topographic non-negative matrix
factorization (TNMF) is proposed which solves both aspects
simultaneously. First, on a given database meaningful components
are extracted into a parts-based representation in an unsupervised
manner. Second, the extracted components are organized and
visualized on square-lattice 2D maps. It is shown on the example of
turbine-like geometries that these maps efficiently provide a wellstructured
overview on the database content and, at the same time,
define a measure for spatial similarity allowing an easy access and
reuse of components in the process of design development.
Abstract: Solidarity and kinship has long been an intangible
emblem to Malay community especially in the rural area. It is visibly
seen through the dependability among each unit of the community
either in religious and social events including the matrimonial or
wedding. Nevertheless, the inevitable phenomenon, modernization
legitimately alters every facets of human life not only the routines,
traditions, rituals, norms but also to the daily activities and the
specific occasion. Using triangulation approach of interview and self
completed questionnaire this study empirically examine the level of
alteration of Malays wedding foodways which relate to the
preparation and consumption of it and its impact on the community
social bonding. Some meaningful insights were obtained whereby
modernization through technology (modern equipments) and social
factors (education, migration, and high disposal income) significantly
contribute to the alteration of wedding foodways from preparation up
to consumption stages. The domino effect of this alteration
consequently leads to the fragility of social kinship or somehow
reduced cohesiveness and interaction among the individual of Malay
society in the rural area.
Abstract: Education, as the most important resource in any country, has multiplying effects on all facets of development in a society. The new social realities, particularly the interplay between democratization of education; unprecedented developments in IT sector; emergence of knowledge society, liberalization of economy and globalization have greatly influenced the educational process of all nations. This turbulence entails upon education to undergo dramatic changes to keep up with the new expectations. Growth of entrepreneurship among Indian women is highly important for empowering them and this is highly essential for socio-economic development of a society. Unfortunately in India there is poor acceptance of entrepreneurship among women as unfounded myths and fears restrain them to be enterprising. To remove these inhibitions, education system needs to be re-engineered to make entrepreneurship more acceptable. This paper empirically analyses the results of a survey done on around 500 female graduates in North India to measure and evaluate various entrepreneurial traits present in them. A formative model has been devised in this context, which should improve the teaching-learning process in our education system, which can lead to sustainable growth of women entrepreneurship in India.
Abstract: High employee turnover rate in Malaysia-s retail industry has become a major issue that needs to be addressed. This study determines the levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention of employees in a retail company in Malaysia. The relationships between job satisfaction and organizational commitment on turnover intention are also investigated. A questionnaire was developed using Job Descriptive Index, Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and Lee and Mowday-s turnover intention items and data were collected from 62 respondents. The findings suggested that the respondents were moderately satisfied with job satisfaction facets such as promotion, work itself, co-workers, and supervisors but were unsatisfied with salary. They also had moderate commitment level with considerably high intention to leave the organization. All satisfaction facets (except for co-workers) and organizational commitment were significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. Based on the findings, retention strategies of retail employees were proposed.
Abstract: The request for a sustainable development challenges
both managers and consumers to rethink habitual practices and
activities. While consumers are challenged to develop sustainable
consumption patterns, companies are asked to establish managerial
systems and structures considering economical, ecological, and social
issues. As this is in particular true for housing associations, this paper
aims first, at providing an understanding of sustainability strategy in
residential trade and industry (RTI) by identifying relevant facets of
this construct and second, at conceptually analyzing the impact of
sustainability strategy in RTI on operational efficiency and
performance of municipal housing companies. The author develops a
model of sustainability strategy in RTI and its effects and further,
sheds light in priorities for future research.
Abstract: An ecofriendly Citrus paradisipeel extract mediated synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles is reported under sonication. U.V.-vis, Transmission electron microscopy, Dynamic light scattering, and X-ray analyses are performed to characterize the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles. It is almost spherical in shape, having a size of 60–140 nm and the XRD peaks at 2θ = 25.363° confirm the characteristic facets for anatase form. The synthesized nanocatalyst is highly active in the decomposition of methyl orange (64 mg/L) in sunlight (~73%) for 2.5h.
Abstract: Never has a revolution affected all aspects of
humanity as the communication revolution during the past two
decades. This revolution, with all its advances and utilities, swept the
world thus becoming an integral part of our lives, hence giving way
to emerging applications at the social, economic, political, and
educational levels. More specifically, such applications have changed
the delivery system through which learning is acquired by students.
Interaction with educators, accessibility to content, and creative
delivery options are but a few facets of the new learning experience
now being offered through the use of technology in the educational
field. With different success rates, third world countries have tried to
pace themselves with use of educational technology in advanced
parts of the world. One such country is the small rich-oil state of
Kuwait which has tried to adopt the e-educational model, however,
an evaluation of such trial is yet to be done. This study aimed to fill
the void of research conducted around that topic. The study explored
students' acceptance of incorporating communication technologies in
higher education in Kuwait. Students' responses to survey questions
presented an overview of the e-learning experience in this country,
and drew a framework through which implications and suggestions
for future research were discussed to better serve the advancement of
e-education in developing countries.
Abstract: This paper proposes a declarative language for
knowledge representation (Ibn Rochd), and its environment of
exploitation (DeGSE). This DeGSE system was designed and
developed to facilitate Ibn Rochd writing applications. The system
was tested on several knowledge bases by ascending complexity,
culminating in a system for recognition of a plant or a tree, and
advisors to purchase a car, for pedagogical and academic guidance,
or for bank savings and credit. Finally, the limits of the language and
research perspectives are stated.