A Psycho-semiotic Study of Lexical Choice in Urdu News Media

Language is the primary means of human communication in which the addresser uses a given linguistic sign to arouse a specific set of meaning(s) in the addressee. The term meaning is used here to refer to the images, interpretations and feelings or signification aroused by a particular sign or lexical item. In other words, communication takes place when there is a correspondence of meaning/ signification between the communicator and the receiver.   Lexical diversity is a significant aspect of Urdu news media. It occurs due to the fact that the news editors, belonging to diverse news agencies, choose from diverse lexical resources at their disposal to convey the same message in their own style and as per their own needs. However, it needs to be considered that the linguistic signs/ words are not just useless or insignificant entities that are used haphazardly and randomly. They have a certain role and signification and are used with certain intent by the news editors while framing the news items. It is clear that meaning of these signs/lexical items depends upon a host of factors including their collocation, socio-cultural setting and context of use. As such, these language symbols are selected and utilized very consciously and systematically by the news editors and, in doing so, they chose and exploit the lexical items in a planned manner to convey the intended message to the audience.   Given this backdrop, the present paper aims to undertake a psycho-semiotic analysis of Urdu news media to throw light on the selective use of lexical items by the news editors according to their background, purpose, and intention

The Effectiveness of Sanctions as a Tool for Resolving Armed Conflicts: An Analysis of Syria and Yemen

The use of sanctions as a tool for resolving armed conflicts has been a topic of debate for many years. This paper undertakes a critical retrospective analysis of the sanctions imposed on Syria and Yemen in resolving armed conflicts. The study examines the types of sanctions imposed on the two countries and the impact of these sanctions on the conflict resolution process. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for the use of sanctions as a tool for resolving armed conflicts in the future. The findings of the study suggest that sanctions can be effective in resolving armed conflicts, however, it is subject to various factors such as the nature of the conflict, the level of cooperation from the targeted country, and the level of international support. The study puts particular emphasis on the role of the United Nations Security Council, international cooperation among the states, and the timeliness as well as duration of sanctions as key determinants of the success of sanctions. This study seeks to contribute to the decision-making process behind imposing sanctions, both in ongoing and future conflicts by highlighting the best practices and strategies to improve the effectiveness of the sanctions

Women Entrepreneurship Behind the Veil: Strategies and Challenges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This paper highlights the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and their future prospects. The emergence of women entrepreneur and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in Saudi Arabia. Women have become aware of their existence, their rights & their work situations. Though women entrepreneurship and the formation of women business networks is growing rapidly, still there are a number of challenges like lack of finances, economic issues, cultural issues,  fierce competition, the negative international outlook, cash flow etc. The study utilized a survey questionnaire in gathering primary data. The sample of 278 women entrepreneurs were surveyed. The study found out that the basic issue prioritized by the women entrepreneurs was training and development; the characteristic of approaches in dealing with their ventures, practices and activities. Women entrepreneurs should make a success of their organization and help for economic progress of their countries. Recent developments indicate a clear strategic direction of policy makers and development plans in Saudi Arabia towards an even greater role for women in public life and into top leadership positions in public domains. This paper attempts to identify the challenges and opportunities that women entrepreneur face in Saudi Arabia.

A Study and Estimation a Lost Person Behavior in Crowded Areas Using Accelerometer Data from Smartphones

As smartphones become more popular, applications are being developed with new and innovative ways to solve problems in the day-to-day lives of users. One area of smartphone technology that has been developed in recent years is human activity recognition (HAR). This technology uses various sensors that are built into the smartphone to sense a person\u27s activity in real time. Applications that incorporate HAR can be used to track a person\u27s movements and are very useful in areas such as health care. We use this type of motion sensing technology, specifically, using data collected from the accelerometer sensor. The purpose of this study is to study and estimate the person who may become lost in a crowded area. The application is capable of estimating the movements of people in a crowded area, and whether or not the person is lost in a crowded area based on his/her movements as detected by the smartphone. This will be a great benefit to anyone interested in crowd management strategies. In this paper, we review related literature and research that has given us the basis for our own research. We also detail research on lost person behavior. We looked at the typical movements a person will likely make when he/she is lost and used these movements to indicate lost person behavior. We then evaluate and describe the creation of the application, all of its components, and the testing process

Reliability of the tools used to examine psychological distress, fear of COVID-19 and coping amongst migrants and non-migrants in Australia

Study tools examining psychological distress, fear of COVID-19 and coping amongst migrants and non-migrants in Australia are very limited. The aim of this research was to assess the psychometric properties and correlation of the English version of Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCSV-19S), and Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) tools during the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Australia. Data from a cross-sectional survey (n = 516) were utilized to examine reliability; 299 (57.9%) were migrants. High internal consistency, as evidenced by Cronbach’s alpha, was found for the K-10 (0.92), FCV-19S (0.87) and BRCS (0.66) tools. The corresponding values for migrants and non-migrants were (0.92, 0.87, 0.67) and (0.92, 0.86, 0.63), respectively. Item-total correlations ranged 0.57-0.78 for K-10, 0.62–0.69 for FCV-19S, and 0.39–0.50 for BRCS tools. EFA retained a single factor for each tool with adequate factor loadings. The scoring of K-10 was significantly predicted by the scoring of FCV-19S (r = 0.284, P < 0.001) and BRCS tool (r = 0.132, P < 0.01). Therefore, these tools can be used reliably amongst both migrant and non-migrant population in Australia. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Muhammad Aziz Rahman and Wendy Cross" is provided in this record*

Avalanches in stars and at finite temperature

We study two related but distinct aspects of avalanches in physical systems. The first is the study of avalanches that we have observed in stars. We apply results from the mean field avalanche model to observations made by the \emph{Kepler} spacecraft and the VIRGO instrument, looking at several stars including our own Sun and Tabby's star. In this examination, we use the stars' light curve, their integrated flux as a function of time, to extract avalanche information. Dimming events on the Sun are fairly well understood, and we find that there is scaling even in the Sun's data, likely caused by sunspots or combinations of such spots. We also look at Tabby's star, where the anomalous dimming has not been explained, and show that there is also avalanche scaling seen in this extraordinary star. We then look at avalanches at finite but low temperature in plastic deformation. The slow plastic deformation of materials under stress, known as creep motion, has long been studied in material's science. We hypothesize that at low temperatures, this deformation is the result of temperature activated avalanches. In order to explore this idea, we develop an extension of the mean field model to incorporate temperature. This model poses a problem since it requires exponentially many evaluations of rate constants when simulated using a kinetic monte carlo algorithm. We solve this problem by using a recursive strategy to pair down the number of evaluations and effectively choose the appropriate rate constants. Finally, we evaluate theoretically the interevent time distribution between these thermally activated avalanches. We identify high and low temperature regimes, at which the character of the distributions changes dramatically. We use simulations to verify our results, and connect them to experimental efforts currently underway to determine these distributions