E-Jurnal Universitas Tunas Husada Tasikmalaya
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Ethnic Diversity, Social Norms and Elite Capture: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia
No full textElite capture is a natural concern regarding decentralisation. We highlight the effects of ethnic diversity and social norms on the extent of such capture. Ethnic diversity, through differences in the preference for public goods, facilitates capture. However, this may be counteracted by social norms which promote cooperative behaviour within communities. We test these theoretical predictions using community-level data from the 1997 and 2007 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) rounds with fiscal decentralisation being implemented in between. We exploit a particular institutional feature of Indonesian communities — namely, the observance of traditional " Adat " laws to proxy coordination across ethnic groups. Overall, we find that ethnic diversity depresses community-level development spending after decentral-isation, particularly where Adat laws (which promote an ethic of mutual cooperation) are not followed. The opposite is observed for spending on non-developmental items
Tickle me on WeChat Moments: the role of brand love
No full textPurposeThis study aims to expand the understanding of the implicit exposure of brands in Web dramas with congruent branding messages shared on social media Moments. This study also aims to examine the mediating role of word of mouth (WOM) and brand love in the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and viewers’ intention to spend and spending per week.Design/methodology/approachA total of 657 usable questionnaires were gathered from Chinese participants who watch the famous weekly drama “My Huckleberry Friends” and make weekly purchases from McDonald’s. Partial least squares regression was used to test the theoretical model of the study.FindingsResults of this study reveal that WOM and brand love mediate the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and intention to spend on the exposed brand. Intention to spend mediates the relationship between brand love and spending. WOM mediates the relationship between Web-drama connectedness and spending.Originality/valueTencent’s WeChat is a well-known Chinese social media platform with a history of forbidding advertising. Users constantly flood social media with Web-drama content, influencing consumers’ spending habits. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of the first attempts to develop an understanding of Web-drama connectedness, brand love, WOM and behavioural intention by tracing the spending on advertised brands. This study highlights how brands maintain consumer spending by enhancing brand love via Web-drama advertising and instigating ticklish moments as “print screens” of WOM on social media
Pericytes' circadian clock affect endothelial cells' synchronization and angiogenesis in a 3D tissue engineered scaffold
No full textCOVID-19 health information needs of older adults from ethnic minority groups in the UK: a qualitative study
No full textObjective: This study aimed to identify COVID-19 health information needs of older adults from ethnic minority groups in the UK.Study Design: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviewsSetting and Participants: Indian and Nepalese older adults (≥ 65 years), their families (≥18 years), and healthcare professionals (HCPs) (≥18 years) engaging with these communities. Participants were recruited between July and December 2020 from Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) through community organisationsResults: 24 participants took part in the study; 13 older adults; seven family members, and four HCPs. Thirteen participants were female, and the majority (n=17) spoke a language other than English at home. Older participants mostly lived in multi-generational households, and family and community were key for providing support and communicating about healthcare needs. Participants’ knowledge of COVID-19 varied widely; some spoke confidently about the subject, while others had limited information. Language and illiteracy were key barriers to accessing health information. Participants highlighted the need for information in multiple formats and languages and discussed the importance of culturally-appropriate avenues, such as community centres and religious sites, for information dissemination.Conclusion: This study, undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, provides broader insights into how health information can be optimised for ethnic minority older adults in terms of content, format and cultural relevance. The study highlights that health information interventions should recognise the intersection between intergenerational living, family structure, and the health and wellbeing of older adults, and should promote intergenerational discussion
Content Trading in the Future Decentralized Creative Economy: Exploring Current Weaknesses and Potential Resolutions
No full textWireless Communication Systems Based on DCT-OFDM with Index Modulation
No full text"Conventional DFT-based OFDM has been widely used in the industry from wired communications to wireless communications, providing higher and higher data through- put together with other techniques. However, along with emerging of a new territory called vertical market, where low power, low costs, robustness to imperfections and huge amount of connected devices etc., become the new critical focus and challenges, DFT-OFDM may not be the most efficient solution to handle these challenges. Instead, a new variant which is DCT based seems more suitable for the demands while holding inherited advantages of DFT-OFDM as one of multi-carrier modulation forms. The variant needs to be constructed where both prefix and suffix are added at the transmitter in order to keep circular property of the transmit signal, and an optimum receiver can be designed with a prefilter to enable a one-tap equalizer and followed by a maximum-likelihood (ML) receiver, resulting in the so-called EDCT-OFDM. And several benefits of the EDCT-OFDM are justified compared with its conventional counterpart, such as doubled number of the subcarriers in the same bandwidth, better BER performance, lower complexity, and robustness to frequency offset etc.And the variant can be further improved by exploiting the so-called index modulation techniques, i.e., EDCT-OFDM-IM, by creating a new dimension to convey information. In addition to the advantages of EDCT-OFDM over the conventional OFDM systems, EDCT-OFDM-IM reduces its PAPR and achieves a robust performance enhancement. These merits enable its perfect application scenario, i.e., machine-type communications in the vertical market. Due to its special structure, it is difficult to derive the accurate bit error probability upper bound, which is the essential for the performance evaluation. However, we cross the hurdle by using a method called the moment-generating-function (MGF) and a tight upper bound is derived theoretically. The analysis is validated by simulation results and proven to be very accurate.Since the main potential target application scenarios of the DCT-based OFDM variant is for machine-type communication in the vertical market, low cost and low power consumption at the end devices is the main focus and most critical demand. However, at the downlink direction, a bit more complex scheme may be exploited in the BS transmitter because the pressure from a long battery life and a low cost is set to the devices, therefore, employing transmit diversity is desirable at the downlink direction, and this motivates us to study on enhancements such as the transmit diversity applied to EDCT-OFDM-IM. Our studies have identified a harmonised combination of index modulation and transmit diversity, resulting in a novel supplementary index bit aided transmit diversity (SIB-TD) approach. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is capable of providing significant performance gains over the conventional EDCT-OFDM-IM, even under the imperfect channel estimation.
Isolation of functional bacterial strains from chromium-contaminated site and bioremediation potentials
No full textIn this study, two Cr(VI)-reducing functional bacterial strains (TJ-1 and TJ-5) were successfully isolated and screened from the chromium-contaminated soil from a real site. The 16S rRNA gene sequences were analysed, which showed high similarity (>99%) with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (TJ-1) and Brucella intermedius (TJ-5) species. The optimum growth for the two bacteria to reduce Cr(VI) were achieved at pH 7.0 and initial inoculation amount of 5%. The two strains were applied to real contaminated soil samples and showed better Cr removal when external carbon sources were added. Using sawdust as a solid-phase carbon source supplement, both TJ-1 and TJ-5 showed higher remediation efficiency (99.77% and 93.86%) than using glucose as the carbon source (68.56% and 70.87%). Results of the stability of soil Cr(VI) bioremediation revealed that the water-soluble Cr(VI) content of bioremediated sample remained unchanged, indicating that Cr(VI) is not easily released after death of the strains. Solid-phase carbon source supplements may help the cells to attach and grow into biofilms, creating a better growth condition which improved the remediation efficiency. Column experiments showed that the total remediation efficiencies by the two strains were 34.23% and 20.63%, respectively, within a short time period (76 h). Therefore, the two strains showed great bioremediation potentials for chromium-contaminated sites and can be used in future application of in-situ bioremediation
Introduction to the special issue on regulating the circular economy: Gaps, insights and an emerging research agenda
No full textSupport for a transition to a ‘Circular Economy’ (CE) has rapidly gained momentum over the last decade, driven to a large extent by the strong commitment of some public authorities – particularly the Chinese government and the European Union (Su et al., 2013; European Commission, 2015; McDowall et al., 2017) – to move away from the linear business model of ‘take-make-waste’ that is no longer sustainable. In the wake of an unprecedented level of attention to the risks related to waste management and plastic pollution, and a consequential rise in related policies around the world, CE regulation is an expanding element of the political and regulatory agenda. Many countries have elaborated comprehensive CE policy packages which include legislative proposals aimed at keeping resources in use as long as possible, extracting maximum value from them, minimizing waste and promoting resource efficiency (Fitch-Roy et al., 2020). CE policies promise to “reshape global industrial systems” by promoting the policy objective of a zero-waste economy and “revert societal and environmental effects to earlier stages in which planetary boundaries were not exceeded” (Borrello et al., 2020)
Two-stage hybrid microalgal electroactive wetland-coupled anaerobic digestion for swine wastewater treatment in South China: Full-scale verification
No full textConstructed wetlands have been widely used for organic wastewater treatment owing to low operating costs and simple maintenance. However, there are some disadvantages such as unstable efficiency in winter. In this study, a microalgal electroactive biofilm-constructed wetland was coupled with anaerobic digestion for full-scale treatment of swine wastewater. In a 12-month outdoor trial, the overall removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, ammonium, nitrate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and nitrite reached 98.26%/95.14%, 97.96%/92.07%, 85.45%/66.04%, 95.07%/91.48%, 91.44%/91.52%, and 85.45%/84.67% in summer/winter, respectively. Hydrolytic bacteria were dominant in the anaerobic digestion part, and Cyanobium, Shewanella, and Azoarcus were enriched in the microalgal electroactive biofilm. The operating cost of the entire system was approximately 0.118 /m3 of wastewater. These results confirm that the microalgal electroactive biofilm significantly enhances the efficiency and stability of constructed wetlands. In conclusion, the anaerobic digestion-microalgal electroactive biofilm-constructed wetland is technically and economically feasible for the treatment of swine wastewater.[Display omitted]•Constructed wetlands are widely used for aquaculture wastewater treatment.•Microalgal electroactive biofilm-constructed wetland coupled with anaerobic digestion was tested.•COD, NH4+-N, NO3−-N, TN, TP, & NO2−-N treatment were enhanced, even in winter.•Cyanobium, Shewanella &Azoarcus dominated microalgal electroactive biofilm.•The operating cost of the entire system was approximately 0.118 /m3 of wastewater
‘Progression capitals’: How homeless health peer advocacy impacts peer advocates
No full textThis article presents analysis from a qualitative evaluation of a homeless health peer advocacy (HHPA) service in London, United Kingdom. Whilst evidence is growing for the impact of peer programming on clients, understanding of the impact on peers themselves is limited in the context of homelessness. Research here is vital for supporting sustainable and effective programmes. Analysis of interview data with 14 current and former peer advocates, 2 members of staff and 3 external stakeholders suggests peer advocacy and its organizational setting can generate social, human, cultural and physical resources to help peer advocates fulfil their own life goals. We explore these with reference to ‘recovery capital’, reframed as ‘progression capitals’ to reflect its relevance for pursuits unrelated to clinical understandings of recovery. Progression capitals can be defined as resources to pursue individually determined goals relating to self-fulfilment. We find engagement with, and benefits from, a peer advocacy service is most feasible among individuals already possessing some ‘progression capital’. We discuss the value of progression capitals for peers alongside the implications of the role being unsalaried within a neoliberal political economy, and comment on the value that the progression capitals framework offers for the development and assessment of peer interventions more broadly. Highlights:HHPA can support advocates to ‘recover’ from health issues and fulfil self-defined life goals.Reframing ‘recovery capital’ as ‘progression capitals’ better captures HHPA's impact on peers.Progression capitals are resources to pursue self-determined goals relating to fulfilment.Organizations should maximize the progression capitals such programmes can enable for peers.Progression capitals offer a framework for developing/assessing peer programmes across sectors.</ul