Culture Aspects of Inforaction

The adequate attitude to the information models and information objects in the culture context is one of the main problems to be investigated on the threshold of information society. The goal of this paper is to outline some problems connected with the main styles of perceiving of the mental and artificially generated information models stored in the information objects and used in the processes of the Information Interaction or simply – in the Inforaction. The culture influence on inforaction is discussed

Ethnicity, 2011/4 : Ethnic Identities and Integration of the Society

"Ethnicity" – a peer-reviewed journal was established by the Institute of Social Investigations (Daugavpils University, Latvia) and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (University of Latvia). The journal publishes original works about ethnicity in different fields of knowledge – sociology, history, social linguistics, social psychology, law, political science.The articles published in this issue analyse the problem of the integration of social and ethnic identities

Work ethic and job satisfaction among emergency medical services personnel

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there was a relationship between work ethic and job satisfaction among full-time, volunteer emergency fire-rescue personnel. In addition, this study sought to determine whether or not participants\u27 demographics had any impact on work ethic and job satisfaction. Surveys were administered to gather data from the entire population (N=300) of full-time volunteer emergency fire-rescue personnel from nine rescue squads located in Calvert County, Maryland. A total of 173 responses yielded an overall response rate of 58% on the two surveys and demographics section. Part I of the survey determined participants\u27 work ethic using an instrument deduced by Dawson in 1999. Part II determined participants’ job satisfaction using an instrument developed by Koeske in 1994. Part III gathered data on a researcher designed instrument. Univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to determine significant differences among participants\u27 work ethic scale scores and job satisfaction scale scores and the variables of (a) position, (b) years of EMS experience, (c) years in current position, (d) level of education, (e) gender, and (f) age. A scatter diagram indicated a relationship between work ethic and job satisfaction, and Pearson was applied to illuminate the relationship. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to predict the magnitude of effect between work ethic scale scores and job satisfaction scale scores Findings showed that (a) participants\u27 were similar (homogeneous) in their responses, (b)demographic data had no effect on work ethic or job satisfaction, (c) job satisfaction was related to work ethic by loyalty (model one) and by loyalty and carefulness (model two). To conclude, findings indicated that the traits of commitment and responsibleness were highly valued by the fire-rescue squads represented by the participants of this study, and that participants’ similarness resulted from group affiliation and assimilation of organizational social and cultural mores

Problem space of modern society: philosophical-communicative and pedagogical interpretations. Part II

This collective monograph offers the description of philosophical bases of definition of communicative competence and pedagogical conditions for the formation of communication skills. The authors of individual chapters have chosen such point of view for the topic which they considered as the most important and specific for their field of study using the methods of logical and semantic analysis of concepts, the method of reflection, textual reconstruction and comparative analysis. The theoretical and applied problems of modern society are investigated in the context of philosophical, communicative and pedagogical interpretations

Ecotourism: An environmental concern or a new diversification of the mass tourism market, the case of Crete.

Crete has experienced rapid tourism development since late 1960s when the growth in international tourism and broader socio economic changes disturbed past equilibrium patterns. Tourism has become a leading economic sector but also caused negative economic, environmental and sociocultural impacts, prompting tourism authorities to develop plans aimed at the achievement of sustainable development while continuing to promote tourism in the island. A critical review of the literature shows that the concept of ecotourism is closely associated with other concepts, such as nature, ecology, protection, culture, small scale, alternative, and others. Whilst a variety of ecotourism typologies and development patterns have been produced by academics derived from the residents’ perspectives, our knowledge is still limited because of the absence of the industry’s perspectives; thus the meanings of ecotourism from those responsible for its development remains incomplete. This study explores the industry’s perspective of ecotourism and its development in Crete and discusses its impacts. To this end, qualitative interviews (20) were undertaken with local and regional authorities, hoteliers, tour operators, and managers of tourism related enterprises. Data was analysed using the ‘comparative analysis’ approach, where responses of interviews were checked to identify similarities and differences to allow main themes and categories to emerge. The study's findings questioned the established argument of ecotourism as small scale, environmentally friendly, nature driven tourism activity. It produced some novel findings. The analysis suggests that eco-tourism in Crete is product driven, where the local industry perceives it as market extension, profit motivated economic activity that has little to do with nature. Hence, from the industry’s perspective, ecotourism is spontaneous and adhoc development concerned more with satisfying increasing consumers’ needs for seemingly authentic ecotourism products than with environmental issues. The analysis revealed that genuine nature driven ecotourism has yet to be demonstrated and practiced in Crete and that ecotourism is an entrepreneurial ploy, rebranding mass tourism to increase economic growth in a region ravaged by unemployment and stagnation

Stochastic dynamics of migrating cells

Cell migration is critical in many physiological phenomena, including embryogenesis, immune response, and cancer. In all these processes, cells face a common physical challenge: they navigate confining extra-cellular environments, in which they squeeze through thin constrictions. The motion of cells is powered by a complex machinery whose molecular basis is increasingly well understood. However, a quantitative understanding of the functional cell behaviours that emerge at the cellular scale remains elusive. This raises a central question, which acts as a common thread throughout the projects in this thesis: do migrating cells exhibit emergent dynamical 'laws' that describe their behavioural dynamics in confining environments? To address this question, we develop data-driven approaches to infer the dynamics of migrating cells directly from experimental data. We study the migration of cells in artificial confinements featuring a thin constriction across which cells repeatedly squeeze. From the experimental cell trajectories, we infer an equation of cell motion, which decomposes the dynamics into deterministic and stochastic contributions. This approach reveals that cells deterministically drive themselves into the thin constriction, which is in contrast to the intuition that constrictions act as effective barriers. This active driving leads to intricate non-linear dynamics that are poised close to a bifurcation between a bistable system and a limit cycle oscillator. We further generalize this data-driven framework to detect and characterize the variance of migration behaviour within a cell population and to investigate how cells respond to varying confinement size, shape, and orientation. We next investigate the mechanistic basis of these dynamics. Cell migration relies on the concerted dynamics of several cellular components, including cell protrusions and adhesive connections to the environment. Based on the experimental data, we systematically constrain a mechanistic model for confined cell migration. This model indicates that the observed deterministic driving is a consequence of the combined effects of the variable adhesiveness of the environment and a self-reinforcement of cell polarity in response to thin constrictions. These results suggest polarity feedback adaptation as a key mechanism in confined cell migration. Finally, we investigate the dynamics of interacting cells. To enable inference of cell-cell interactions, we develop Underdamped Langevin Inference, an inference method for stochastic high-dimensional and interacting systems. We apply this method to experiments of confined pairs of cells, which repeatedly collide with one another. This reveals that non-cancerous (MCF10A) and cancerous (MDA-MB-231) cells exhibit distinct interactions: while the non-cancerous cells exhibit repulsion and effective friction, the cancerous cells exhibit attraction and a surprising 'anti-friction' interaction. These interactions lead to non-cancerous cells predominantly reversing upon collision, while the cancer cells are able to efficiently move past one another by relative sliding. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of cadherin-mediated molecular contacts on cell-cell interactions in collective migration. Taken together, the data-driven approaches presented in this thesis may help to provide a new avenue to uncover the emergent laws governing the stochastic dynamics of migrating cells. We demonstrate how these approaches can provide key insights both into underlying mechanisms as well as emergent cell behaviours at larger scales.Zellmigration ist ein Kernelement vieler physiologischer Phänomene wie der Embryogenese, dem Immunsystem und der Krebsmetastase. In all diesen Prozessen stehen Zellen vor einer physikalischen Herausforderung: Sie bewegen sich in beengten Umgebungen, in denen sie Engstellen passieren müssen. Die Zellbewegung wird von einer komplexen Maschinerie an- getrieben, deren molekulare Komponenten immer besser verstanden werden. Demgegenüber fehlt ein quantitatives Verständnis des funktionalen Migrationsverhaltens der Zelle als Ganzes. Die verbindende Fragestellung der Projekte in dieser Arbeit lautet daher: gibt es emergente dynamische 'Gesetze', die die Verhaltensdynamik migrierender Zellen in beengten Umgebungen beschreiben? Um dieser Frage nachzugehen, entwickeln wir datengetriebene Ansätze, die es uns erlauben, die Dynamik migrierender Zellen direkt aus experimentellen Daten zu inferieren. Wir untersuchen Zellmigration in künstlichen Systemen, in denen Zellen Engstellen wiederholt passieren müssen. Aus den experimentellen Zelltrajektorien inferieren wir eine Bewegungsgleichung, die die Dynamik in deterministische und stochastische Komponenten trennt. Diese Methode zeigt, dass sich Zellen deterministisch 'aktiv' in die Engstellen hineinbewegen, ganz entgegen der intuitiven Erwartung, dass Engstellen als Hindernis fungieren könnten. Dieser aktive Antrieb führt zu einer komplexen nichtlinearen Dynamik im Übergangsbereich zwischen einem bistabilen System und einem Grenzzyklus-Oszillator. Wir verallgemeinern diesen datenbasierten Ansatz, um die Varianz des Migrationsverhaltens innerhalb einer Zellpopulation zu quantifizieren, und analysieren, wie Zellen auf die Größe, Form und Orientierung ihrer Umgebung reagieren. Darauf aufbauend untersuchen wir die zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen dieser Dynamik. Zellmigration basiert auf verschiedenen zellulären Komponenten, wie unter Anderem den Zellprotrusionen und der Adhäsion mit der Umgebung. Auf Basis der experimentellen Daten entwickeln wir ein mechanistisches Modell für Zellmigration in beengten Systemen, welches zeigt, dass der beobachtete aktive Antrieb eine Konsequenz zweier Effekte ist: Einer variierenden Adhäsion mit der Umgebung und einer Zellpolarität, die sich in Engstellen selbst verstärkt. Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Anpassung der Zellpolarität an die lokale Geometrie ein Schlüsselmechanismus in beengter Zellmigration ist. Schließlich analysieren wir die Dynamik interagierender Zellen. Um Zell-Zell Interaktionen zu inferieren, entwickeln wir die Underdamped Langevin Inference, eine Inferenzmethode für stochastische hochdimensionale und interagierende Systeme. Wir wenden diese Methode auf Daten von eingeschlossenen Zellpaaren an, welche wiederholt miteinander kollidieren. Dies zeigt, dass gesunde (MCF10A) und krebsartige (MDA-MB-231) Zellen unterschiedliche Interaktionen aufweisen: Während gesunde Zellen mit Abstoßung und effektiver Reibung interagieren, zeigen Krebszellen Anziehung und eine überraschende 'Anti-Reibung'. Diese Interaktionen führen dazu, dass gesunde Zellen nach Kollisionen primär umkehren, während Krebszellen effizient aneinander vorbeigleiten. Darüberhinaus analysieren wir die Effekte von Cadherin-basierten Molekularkontakten auf Zell-Zell Interaktionen in kollektiver Migration. Zusammenfassend könnten die in dieser Arbeit präsentierten datengetriebenen Ans ̈atze dabei helfen, ein besseres Verständnis der emergenten stochastischen Dynamik migrierender Zellen zu erlangen. Wir zeigen, wie diese Methoden wichtige Erkenntnisse sowohl über die zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen als auch über das emergente Zellverhalten liefern können

Leadership and Performance of the Brewery Industry in Nigeria

One of the most pressing concerns for business organizations remains the need to seek leaders who can manage employee effectively and efficiently to improve business performance. Guided by the principles of transformational leadership theory, this correlational study examined the relationship between leadership and non-financial performance at the brewery industry in Nigeria. I relied on primary data collected using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire -MLQ, job satisfaction scale-JSS, three-components commitment scale- JCS and six-item Turnover Intention Scale (TIS-6) to measure leadership, job satisfaction, employee commitment and turnover intention. Four hundred participants who were senior and junior manager at Nigerian Breweries Plc. were recruited using the stratified sampling approach. I determined how the participants related to questions connected to the independent variable which is leadership and the dependent variables consisting of employee satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover intention. Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results of the statistical analysis for the first research hypothesis revealed that leadership has a significant relationship with job satisfaction and predicted employee satisfaction. Analysis for the second research hypothesis established that leadership has a significant relationship with job commitment, but does not predict employee commitment. Results of the statistical analysis for the third research hypothesis demonstrated that leadership has a significant relationship with turnover intention and predicted employee turnover intention. The study findings could promote positive social change by encouraging the brewery industry to train leaders in effective behaviors and style that can enhance employee satisfaction, job commitment and lower turnover intention

IV Міжнародний науковий конгрес "Society of Ambient Intelligence - 2021" (ISCSAI 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 12-16 квітня 2021 року

IV Міжнародний науковий конгрес "Society of Ambient Intelligence - 2021" (ISCSAI 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 12-16 квітня 2021 року - матеріали.IV International Scientific Congress “Society of Ambient Intelligence – 2021” (ISCSAI 2021). Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, April 12-16, 2021 - proceedings