Pay transparency and a cultural shift for real gender pay equality

This paper depicts a picture of the gender pay gap in Malta, which continued to increase to 12.2% in 2017. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of women in employment, but this has mainly been in the lower-end salary scales of the labour market and in part-time work, which have both partially contributed to a widening of the gender pay gap. Maltese women’s traditional role has been as a housemaker: even for those who were in the labour market, the expectations usually were and possibly continue to be, that it is the woman who leaves her job to take up the responsibilities of the family - children, the elderly and other relatives. Although legislation in terms of equal pay has been in place since 1976, there are many issues, which continue to impede real gender pay equality, including a patriarchal culture, strong male networks, family-friendly measures mainly taken up by females, career breaks, lack of transparency in pay structures, job segregation, and societal gender biases.peer-reviewe

VUV PROPERTIES OF Eu3+- DOPED YBO3 PHOSPHOR PREPARED VIA ALDO-KETO AND SOLID-STATE PROCESS

The Eu3+ doped YBO3 was prepared by the novel aldo-keto method. The structure and VUV luminescence properties of the title compound were studied and compared to the corresponding properties of the materials prepared by a conventional solid state reaction. The use of novel aldo-keto method in preparation lowered the reaction threshold temperature by c.a. 300oC. The YBO3 phosphor from the aldo-keto method look like evenly sized spherical structures, whereas those from the solid-state process look like some agglomerates of little spheres. The Eu3+-doped YBO3 phosphors prepared by both methods showed the red emission with peak around 592, 611 and 627 nm at excitations wavelengths 147 and172 nm, which corresponds to the transitions from the excited 5D0 level to the 7FJ (J = 1, 2, 3, 4) levels of Eu3+ activators. However, the emission intensity of the Eu3+ doped YBO3 from the aldo-keto system is about 2 times as much as that from the sold-state process

Information resources : a holistic approach

Geoportal technologies and the Processes behind the Metadata Editor highlighted that the progress achieved to data entailed steps as the issue of a prototype of a discovery view client for metadata both in JRC and in Malta, where an option would be to use Mapinfo or Arcinfo to export the metadata and then make it INSPIRE compliant. There is potential to have one metadata client across for all Europe, in addition creating a 2-way system, where the national clients feed the European client. Two options also exist in transmission where the metadata xml is uploaded to one repository (url) or else to create a csw system. MT can take the option to upload all its metadata to the JRC folder as in the case of the EEA CDR function.peer-reviewe

Brexit and the UK-Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Aid Relationship

Debates about Brexit draw on powerful discursive mechanisms that have important implications for the UK–Africa, Caribbean and Pacific aid relationship. Some of these narratives can be characterized in the following ways: First, that Brexit is an opportunity to recreate a Global Britain after a period of EU membership that saw the UK neglect its former partners, particularly the Commonwealth. Second, the costs of EU membership are profligate and these funds could be better utilized by the national government. Third the Brexit ‘divorce bill’ is a penalty exacted by the EU for the UK’s decision to leave. This article explores these claims via the EU-ACP relationship, and proposes three counter arguments. First, the discourse of ‘neglect’ overlooks the external relationships the UK has maintained through EU membership. Second, these relationships have provided ‘value for money’ for the UK. Third, these contributions represent a significant proportion of the Brexit ‘divorce bill’ and are on-going financial commitments that the UK was central to establishing. The article then reviews the potential impact of Brexit on UK aid, arguing that rather than reinvigorating Global Britain Brexit threatens to undermine the UK’s position in global development, current levels of aid and longstanding commitments to eradicate poverty

The position of the Church on the European pillar of social rights

On behalf of His Grace Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, Archbishop of Malta, I would like to thank the UHM, Voice of the Workers, for inviting the Church in Malta to participate in today’s seminar on the European Pillar of Social Rights. Article 17(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU encourages EU institutions to enter into an open, transparent and regular dialogue with Church leaders who are also committed to the common good of society. The Church engages in a dialogue with political leaders, trade unions and civil society not to favour its own interests as an institution, but to contribute to the construction of Europe as a project of peace based on the respect for human dignity, the protection of human rights and the pursuit of the common good. As the German political thinker Jürgen Habermas points out, in a modern, democratic and pluralistic society, all voices, including the religious one, can contribute to the wellbeing of society. The Church, as an important stakeholder in society, has the right and the duty to participate in the public square because it is also concerned with the defence of the dignity of every individual, irrespective of one’s characteristics.peer-reviewe

Providing Feedback on the Lexical Use of ESP Students’ Academic Presentations: Teacher Training Considerations

This chapter offers a description of a methodology for providing training to pre-service English for Academic and Specific Purposes (EAP/ESP) teacher trainees in giving evidence-based feedback on the lexical composition of ESP students’ academic presentations. It also discusses a study based on the analysis of the mock feedback provided by the EAP/ESP teacher trainees (n=20) to ESP students’ presentations with a focus on the effects of training. The results revealed that the training was successful in areas such as raising the teacher trainees’ awareness of how to evaluate various lexical categories in an ESP presentation, how to incorporate their evaluation into the feedback they give to the students, how to highlight relevant lexical deviations in an evidence-based manner, etc. There were, however, a couple of areas that needed to be emphasised more in the training process. The results confirmed that providing training on evidence-driven feedback to teacher trainees planning to teach in an EAP/ESP context is a necessary component of ESP teacher education