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Science and sanctions: lessons learned from twelve years of collaboration with the DPRK (North Korea)
Get PDFThe use of international sanctions has increased dramatically since the end of the second World War (Figure 1) and these have become more complex due to their multinational nature when implemented through the United Nations or European Union. However, over this same period, science has become more international, with multinational collaborations becoming the norm. This apparent paradox of simultaneously restricting and encouraging international collaboration creates many challenges for scientists and gives rise to the following questions: How do international sanctions affect scientific collaboration? What are the most effective avenues to maintain scientific collaboration during times of geopolitical strain? This paper investigates the unintended impacts of sanctions on scientific collaboration based primarily on the author’s experiences of collaborative research at a time of sanction development and implementation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, the formal name for North Korea)
"Contains Scenes of Mild Peril": The state of digital preservation across seven million articles
No full textDigital preservation underpins the persistence of scholarly links and citations through the DOI system. But we do not currently know, at scale, the extent to which articles assigned a DOI are adequately preserved. In this talk, I describe our efforts to construct a database of preservation information from original archival sources and then to examine the preservation statuses of 7,438,037 DOIs in a random sample.
Our work reveals an alarming preservation deficit. Only 0.96% of Crossref members (n=204) can be confirmed to digitally preserve over 75% of their content in 3 or more of the archives that we studied. A slightly larger proportion – 8.5% (n=1,797) – preserved over 50% of their content in 2 or more archives. Many members – 57.7% (n=12,257) – though, only met the threshold of having 25% of their material in a single archive. Most worryingly, 32.9% (n=6,982) of Crossref members seem not to have any adequate digital preservation in place, against the recommendations of the Digital Preservation Coalition.
In light of these findings, I suggest a number of currently lacking infrastructural mechanisms that we need to improve the state of digital preservation. If we want the digital scholarly record to persist beyond the twenty-first century, we are still quite some way from guaranteeing this
A framework for understanding agribusiness stakeholders decision-making dynamics in the pesticide industry of Pakistan
No full textThe main objective of the current investigation is to define the use and importance of pesticides in Pakistan and explain the determinant of farmers’ protective behavior concerning pesticide use. Following a thorough review of literature, the researcher developed a conceptual framework that expands on Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB), which is a well-accepted theory for forecasting consumer behaviour. A quantitative study was conducted to accomplish the research objectives. The primary data was collected structured close-ended questionnaire from 385 vegetable and fruits farmer from South Punjab, Pakistan via close-ended structured questionnaire. The researcher used the SPSS 23.0 and Smart PLS for statistical analysis of the collected data. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM path analysis was run to test the proposed hypothesis. According to the findings from the present study, there is a significant positive impact of knowledge of pesticide use and past health experience with pesticides on the protective behavior concerning pesticides. On the other hand, the intention to reduce pesticide use does not have any effect on farmer’s protective behavior concerning pesticide use. Moreover, mediation analysis showed the significant mediating effect of attitude towards pesticide use on the relationship between knowledge of pesticide use and protective behavior concerning pesticide use. Similarly, there was a significant mediating effect of
attitude on the relationship between past health experience with pesticide and protective behavior concerning pesticide use. Contrary, the study showed that attitude towards pesticide use does not mediate the relationship between intention to reduce pesticide use and protective behavior concerning pesticide use. The present study adds into the literature of TPB by exploring the factors determining the adoption of protective behavior. In a practical perspective the present study helps in developing the pool of knowledge among farmers and other farm workers about the pesticides use and their potential benefits and drawbacks to developing protective behavior in their farm practices and pesticide application
Accountability systems of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs): case study from Ghana
Get PDFIn the past few decades, NGOs have become a vital part of the organisational landscape, and accountability is an essential aspect of their work. The concept of accountability refers to the obligation of an organisation to account for its actions, decisions, and performance to its stakeholders. NGOs are accountable to two main stakeholders—donors and beneficiaries—in what is called upward and downward accountability, respectively. Various environmental and institutional pressures have altered and designed the face of NGOs’ answer to accountability as a coping strategy; thus far, this dimension is undeveloped in the literature. Therefore, the current study examined the accountability dimensions system within NGOs in Ghana. Expanding on the new institutional sociology theory, predominantly the normative forces, including the media and the other identified bodies, the study assumed an in-depth interpretive case study approach in Ghana using a single community-based organisation. Interviews and documentary reviews were used to attain data. A total of 35 interviews were conducted with various groups, both outside and within the case organisation. The study findings are analysed and interpreted from the view of institutional theory, predominantly the new institutional sociology. It was found that in examined NGOs, the dominant accountability systems are upward towards donors. Moreover, downward accountability is not given significant prominence by NGOs in Ghana, mostly due to absence of donor’s commitment. From the study, it is evident that NGOs accountability systems are shaped by institutional pressures. The result has consequences on understanding the reporting and operational systems of NGOs, principally, in developing countries such as Ghana. It is said that NGOs can deliberately and vigorously respond to these institutional pressures for legitimacy
Assessing the impact of customer engagement on brand performance: the mediating role of customer-based brand equity (CBBE)
No full textThe study aimed to investigate the relationship between customer engagement, customer-based brand equity, and brand market performance in the alcoholic Bitters industry in Ghana. The study found that customer engagement has a significant positive impact on brand performance, which suggests that actively engaging with customers can contribute to improving a brand's market performance. Additionally, the study identified brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand association as key factors that mediate the relationship between customer engagement and brand performance, implying that enhancing these customer-based brand equity variables can further strengthen the relationship
between customer engagement and brand performance. Moreover, study found a high consumption rate of alcoholic Bitters among respondents surveyed, with an estimated overall consumption rate of 89%. This information may be useful for companies operating in this industry, as it suggests that there
is a strong market demand for alcoholic Bitters in Ghana. Overall, the study's findings provide valuable insights into the factors that influence brand market performance in the alcoholic Bitters industry in Ghana and may be useful for companies looking to improve their brand performance and customer engagement strategies in this market
Prologue: we shall dance better
Get PDFAn introductory prologue to the anthology Decolonising Political Concepts, this piece argues that the decolonial turn was not intended as a sociological type but as a combative intervention to explode the framework within which the political and social sciences as well as the humanist arts of law, visuality, and literature have been practiced since at least early modern times. It brings forward the creolised and critical kind of humanist republicanism that emerged from the "encounter" between Christian Europeans and so-called Amerindians resisting ideas of pre-set destination or progress from within bio-cultural philosophical, non-dogmatic, arts of non-mastery
Interlocution not conclusion: farewell letter to a dead philosopher on Cornell's negotiations
Get PDFThis is a farewell letter to Drucilla Cornell, the political and legal philosopher with whom I collaborated and form whom I learned for over a decade and a half. It is also an attempt to bring together some of the different strands of her critical approach to political philosophy and jurisprudence as well as our trans-disciplinary explorations. The result is a transpositional twist in contemporary political and legal philosophy that we called "fantastic critique"
University-industry co-creation for innovation: models, best practice and evidence gaps
No full textUniversity-industry co-creation – that involves integrating their knowledge, skills, resources and networks to simultaneously generate business, social and academic value – is a mechanism used to generate innovation and address grand challenges. There is a lack of knowledge on how the crucial elements – such as models adopted for co-creation, best practices, dynamic capabilities, financial sustainability and scalability, roles and composition of the team, motivations/resources, the use of intellectual property rights, and the use of resources – may vary by the type and the stage of co-creation project. As policy missions have become a more important tool for providing strategic direction for government funders, it is important to fill this gap in our knowledge
The Pinwill Sisters
Get PDFThis study of the Pinwill Sisters traces their woodcarving designs across Cornwall and Devon, emphasizing their place as part of a wider aesthetic revolution. It addresses in particular the skill and craft of Violet Pinwill (1874–1957), studying her artistry alongside other woodcarvers such as Grinling Gibbons (1648–1721), as well as artists later into the twentieth century (Barbara Hepworth and John Skeaping)
Looking at a painting: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Get PDFThis research explores the experience of looking at art, specifically that of viewing a single painting. Five participants each selected a previously unseen painting from a selection provided and were interviewed about their experiences as they viewed it. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore the idiographic detail of the resulting interviews. Personal Experiential Themes (PETs) were developed independently for each participant and these individual cases were subsequently compared to form a structure of Group Experiential Themes (GETs). Three GETs, Elements of Engagement, Deeper Exploration and Vulnerability and Intimacy resulted. These themes represented in turn, early interactions, subsequent more considered imaginative and interpretative engagements, and the feelings evoked by encountering emotive content or questioning the voracity of one’s reactions. The first GET is reported in detail here and recounts viewers’ initial engagements with their chosen painting such as their experiences of first noticing’s, their curiosities, and the formation of early impressions. The viewers’ accounts of engagement involved senses of dynamism and sometimes physical force shaping the relationship between themselves and the painting. Three subthemes, Groping Out, Attracting Attention and Drawing In, detail the different experiential qualities of these engagements
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