Authoritarianism in Russian Politics: State Reformation at Stake?

Russia’s political development has been mixed since the fall of Soviet Union in 1991. An optimistic burst of activity in the early 1990s pushed the country from Soviet rule toward a greater emphasis on individual rights, but the country is now widely considered to be under authoritarian rule, or at least to be moving decisively toward centralization. At best, Russia can be seen as a "hybrid regime" or "competitive authoritarianism" that blends in some elements of electoral democracy. Russia’s trajectory since 1991 is one in which a democratizing moment has been followed by a return to more centralized power and decision making by a closed set of economic and political elites (Dickovick and Eastwood, 2015: 533). However, the central argument of this study is that the current Russian order is not participatory, democratic, and liberal enough due to personalization and centralization of political and economic powers by the executive body. As a result, the Russian political culture is struggling to construct a democratic fabric for the citizens based on equality, justice, rule of law, freedom, separation of powers, and egalitarian distribution. Institutional reform or re-design in the executive body, especially in the chief executive, would be a great initiative in order to visualize as well as build a democratic and liberal Russian order

Bangladesh's Space Age: A Strategic Turnover?

Bangladesh’s space age has begun with the successful launch of the Bangabandhu-1 satellite by SpaceX into orbit on 11 May, providing Bangladesh the status of one of the 57 nations having own satellite. As the country is developing in terms of economic development, growth, GDP, women empowerment, human resource development, expanding connectivity, improving communications as well as technological advancement but the future space-based Bangladesh might be going to face some sort of mixed experiences. Obviously, the satellite is going to construct our dreamt ‘Digital Bangladesh’ providing huge prospects for the nation but several internal, external, and strategic challenges cannot be ignored

Data analytics on key indicators for the city's urban services and dashboards for leadership and decision-making

Cities are continuously evolving human settlements. Our cities are under strain in an increasingly urbanized world, and planners, decision-makers, and communities must be ready to adapt. Data is an important resource for municipal administration. Some technologies aid in the collection, processing, and visualization of urban data, assisting in the interpretation and comprehension of how urban systems operate. The relationship between data analytics and smart cities has come to light in recent years as interest in both has grown. A sophisticated network of interconnected systems, including planners and inhabitants, is what is known as a smart city. Data analysis has the potential to support data-driven decision-making in the context of smart cities. Both urban managers and residents are becoming more interested in city dashboards. Dashboards may collect, display, analyze, and provide information on regional performance to help smart cities development having sustainability. In order to assist decision-making processes and enhance the performance of cities, we examine how dashboards might be used to acquire accurate and representative information regarding urban challenges. This chapter culminates Data Analytics on key indicators for the city's urban services and dashboards for leadership and decision-making. A single web page with consolidated information, real-time data streams pertinent to planners and decision-makers as well as residents' everyday lives, and site analytics as a method to assess user interactions and preferences are among the proposals for urban dashboards. Keywords: -Dashboard, data analytics, smart city, sustainability

Enhancing Prediction and Analysis of UK Road Traffic Accident Severity Using AI: Integration of Machine Learning, Econometric Techniques, and Time Series Forecasting in Public Health Research

This research investigates road traffic accident severity in the UK, using a combination of machine learning, econometric, and statistical methods on historical data. We employed various techniques, including correlation analysis, regression models, GMM for error term issues, and time-series forecasting with VAR and ARIMA models. Our approach outperforms naive forecasting with an MASE of 0.800 and ME of -73.80. We also built a random forest classifier with 73% precision, 78% recall, and a 73% F1-score. Optimizing with H2O AutoML led to an XGBoost model with an RMSE of 0.176 and MAE of 0.087. Factor Analysis identified key variables, and we used SHAP for Explainable AI, highlighting influential factors like Driver_Home_Area_Type and Road_Type. Our study enhances understanding of accident severity and offers insights for evidence-based road safety policies.Comment: 3

Laluan pengembangan pelaburan di Malaysia 1970-1998

Ide Laluan Pengembangan Pelaburan [LDP] telah diperkenalkan oleh Dunning pada talum 1979. Hipofesis IDP menyatakan bahawa terdapat hubungan Glllara tingkat pembcUlgunan sesebuah negara (diproksikan oleh Keluaran Negara Kasar per kapita) dengan kedudukan pelaburan antarabangsanya (stok pelaburan langsung asing (PDf) bersih, iaitu FDI keillar dito/ak FDI l1lasuk). Artikel ini adalah bertujuan untuk menguji ide IDP ini bagi kes Malaysia. Hllbrmgan antara pelaburan dengan pembangunan ini akan dilihat berasaskan kajian empirikal bagi tempoh 1970-1998. Tujuannya ialah untuk menentukan sama ada PDf di Malaysia menepati jangkaan seperti apa yang disarankan dalam teorem IDP. Analisis regresi menunjukkan bahawa FDI di Malaysia memasuki tahap I dan tahap 2 daripada 5 tahap paradigma IDP dan dapatan ini menyokong paradigma IDP di Malaysia

EFL Learners’ Participation in Primary Schools of Coastal Areas in Bangladesh

Despite numerous initiatives by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, primary level students’ skills in English language are still below the expected level in Bangladesh (Hamid & Honan, 2012; Sultana, 2010). Our study examined reasons behind the limited participation of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in primary level classrooms in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. To conduct the research, we followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design (Creswell, 2014; Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Ivankova & Stick, 2007). We collected data from 37 male and 23 female students in grades four and five through questionnaire surveys and three focus group discussions (FGDs). We also collected data from five teachers through interviews and three class observations. We found that teachers had less motivation to create an interactive learning environment for the students due to heavy teaching loads and administrative assignments. Many of the students had low academic expectations and motivation, lived in poor socio-economic conditions that required them to work, and were impacted by frequent natural disasters that interrupted their regular classes. The results of our research provide insights for educationists and policymakers related to primary education in disaster-prone coastal areas as well as other rural parts of the country