Social Actors and the Language of Othering: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of the Representation of Covid-19 in Selected Western and Asian English Newspapers

As of May 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused approximately 3.5 million deaths and 168 million confirmed cases worldwide. Unfortunately, this crisis has not only resulted in a devastating loss of human life but has also given rise to racism, national insecurity, and general xenophobia. This phenomenon can be understood through the concept of ”othering,” which refers to the exclusion of individuals or entire groups based on their ascribed or enacted identities. This study aims to investigate how social actors are constructed by selected Western and Asian English newspapers in relation to Covid-19. Specifically, it seeks to examine whether language of othering is used by different English users (West vs. Asia, inner circle vs. outer circle) in representing the 2020’s deadliest pandemic. To achieve this, the researcher has custom-collected six different newspapers: New Straits Times (Malaysia), The Straits Times (Singapore), Philippines Daily Inquirer (Philippines), The New York Times (US), The Guardian (UK), and The Australian (Australia). A simple corpus query language is used to analyze common nouns in the corpus, focusing on proper nouns and possessive nouns, which will be ranked by frequency. The semantic preference of the most frequent nomination strategy for social actors will be further explored through tagging and categorization of collocates. This study aims to reveal if any social actors were dehumanized or discriminated against through the language used in relation to Covid-19 across the selected Western and Asian newspapers. Keywords: Covid-19, othering, newspapers, social actors, corpu

An assessment of MNCs distributors capability for performance improvement

This dissertation is an empirical study of multi-national company’s (MNC) distributors capability assessment, which discusses expectation of MNCs with regards to its distributor and suggests ways that MNCs could effectively assess the distributors capabilities for performance improvement. This study is backed by the data from a US based MNC which could be leveraged by other MNCs to discover insights on distributors capabilities and measures to improve performance for order growth. It provides an up-to-date, comprehensive synthesis and evaluation of the existing literature on multinational firms and their distributors. Through a chronological description comparing traditional researches and most recent reviews, it presents the authors findings and understanding of the business relationship for a firm with its distributors. With the knowledge acquired, data from the company is mapped to the adapted assessment model, analyzed and applied in solving a real-life business problem. At the end of data analysis, analysis was made based on the findings and lessons learnt for distributors management optimization and ensuring sustainable order growth were discussed. Overall, the goal of this empirical study is to enable a MNCs or small to medium enterprises (SME) to leverage the model and learnings to assess the performance of distribution channel partners, identify gaps and opportunity, with the goal to grow order ultimately

An investigation into the application of Claims Analysis to evaluate usability of a digital library interface

There is a need for tools that help developers evaluate the usability of digital library interfaces. The potential for using Claims Analysis to help developers in this way has been investigated in three linked case studies. The first explored the design rationale of an existing design with its developers. This showed that they had considered positive consequences for novice uses but that they found it difficult to identify negative effects. The second study explored the detailed design of an add-on feature. A scenario and sample claims were introduced to evaluate exploratory use within an action cycle of planning, execution and evaluation. This framework provided an effective stimulus to enable the developers to evaluate the design and explore opportunities for redesign. Finally, some novice users explored the digital library and the findings from this were used to validate a user scenario and claims

Dose-Dependent Cholesterolemic Activity of Tocotrienols and α-Tocopherol

Tocotrienols and tocopherols are isoforms of vitamin E. Vitamin E may exhibit antioxidant, prooxidant and non-antioxidant activities depending upon circumstances. In this study, the effect of tocotrienols and α-tocopherol on the activities of HMG CoA reductase and cholesterol 7 α-hydroxylase was investigated. Pure tocotrienols were isolated from palm fatty acid distillate and pure α-tocopherol was obtained commercially. Guinea pigs were treated with different dosages of tocotrienols and α-tocopherol. After the treatment period, animals were sacrificed and liver microsomes were prepared. HMG CoA reductase and cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase were assayed using tracer techniques. Our results showed that the effects of tocotrienols and α-tocopherol on the activities of both the enzymes were dose-dependent. At low dosages, both tocotrienols and α-tocopherol exhibited an inhibitory effect on both the enzymes. Moreover, tocotrienols were a much stronger inhibitors than α-tocopherol. At high dosages, on the other hand, tocotrienols and α-tocopherol showed opposite effects on the enzymes. While tocotrienols continued to exhibit an inhibitory effect, α-tocopherol actually exhibited a stimulatory effect on both the enzymes. A possible explanation for this observation is suggested

L'île de Saint-Barthélemy (Petites Antilles) : une destination du tourisme de luxe

International audienceWithin thirty years, the small island of Saint-Barthelemy (25 km²) is out of its secular isolation to be among major luxury tourism destinations in the world. In this study, the idea is to identify structural element and different cyclical factors that help to understand Saint-Barthelemy tourism situation. The small size of the territory itself can be seen as a fundamental handicap or, conversely, as a considerable asset. Everything depends on development project. It is necessary to know how to take advantage of specific characteristics of this type of territory. In Saint-Barthelemy case, scarcity is coveted; this coveted rarity is accessible only for rich people. The coveted rarity leads to luxury. Isolation is relative: this destination is not accessible to the jumbo jets. The airline market is controlled essentially by two small local companies and the airspace is open to charter flies and private aircrafts. Some other companies provide more or less regular flights from nearby airports of San Juan (Puerto Rico), Sint-Maarten and Guadeloupe. Luxury cannot be decreed, it is not planned. Luxury tourism is the election of a territory by elites who gather there to enjoy away from the rest of the world.En l’espace de trente ans, la petite île de Saint-Barthélemy (25 km²) est sortie de son isolement séculaire pour s’imposer parmi les grandes destinations du tourisme de luxe dans le monde. Dans le cadre de cette étude, l’idée est d’identifier les éléments structurels et les différents facteurs conjoncturels qui permettent de comprendre la situation touristique de Saint-Barthélemy. L’exiguïté du territoire en lui-même peut être perçue comme un handicap fondamental ou, inversement, comme un atout considérable. Tout dépend du projet de développement. Il faut savoir tirer profit des spécificités du territoire considéré. Dans le cas de Saint-Barthélemy, l’exiguïté favorise la rareté et cette rareté convoitée n’est accessible qu’aux personnes les plus argentées. La rareté convoitée conduit au luxe. L’isolement est relatif : cette destination n’est pas accessible aux avions gros porteurs, l’essentiel du marché aérien est contrôlé par deux petites compagnies locales et l’espace aérien est ouvert aux petits avions privés. Le luxe ne se décrète pas, il ne se planifie pas. Le tourisme de luxe, c’est l’élection d’un territoire par des élites qui s’y retrouvent pour jouir de leur fortune à l’écart du monde

A precarious balance: Resources, trade and environment in the upper mekong borderlands

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Risk assessment of Kuala Lumpur municipal landfills - Delphi Approach

Most of the sol id waste disposal sites in Malaysia are either open dumps or controlled tipping. The risks from these sites are expected to be high especially the contamination of soil, air, surface and underground water, and also the i mp acts on flora and fauna. All these impacts have direct and indirect links to human being. The risks associated with solid waste disposal sites involved three compartments or media, i.e. the atmosphere, water and soil. This 'Cross media' or 'Multimedia' impacts phenomenon has made risk assessment of landfill site as a complicated process. This study discusses the development of a simple risk assessment systems for landfill sites by using the Delphi Approach, which emphasises the development of weight age for different parameters selected in the risk assessment procedures. The environmental conditions and risks of all closed and active disposal sites in Kuala Lumpur are assessed based on nine criteria representing the multi-media components of the environment, i.e. water quality, social , gas emissions, landuse, hydrology, geology, ecotoxicology, plant ecology and chemical constituents in soil and groundwater. These criteria have gathered 59 parameters and each parameter was assigned a weightage of importance which was then assessed with the actual situation of the landfill sites. The final scores can be aggregated according to individual criteria or across the multi-criteria for the overall environmental conditions. The results of assessments indicated that most of the solid waste disposal sites in the study area showed significant level of risks especially the still active site, i.e. Taman Beringin landfill site. This study also presents the evaluations of the pollution levels of all the disposal sites in terms of water and soil contamination by selected chemicals, and also air pollution by selected gases emitted from the sites. Landfill Pollution Index (LPI) was also developed in this study and were calculated for each disposal site i n the study area. The results show that Taman Beringin was the most polluted landfill with the LPI of 719.5576, followed by Jinjang Utara (383.5085), Paka 1 (197.6589), Brickfields (128.8949), Paka 2 (113.7235), Sri Petaling (30.8083) and Sungei Besi (17.8656). In summary, new evaluation systems had been introduced in this study in order to produce simple and reliable tools to evaluate or assess the pollution and risk levels for municipal waste landfill sites in Malaysia. B sed on the assessment of Kuala Lumpur landfill sites, it can be concluded that the risk and pollution levels of landfill sites in Kuala Lumpur area are relatively high, but it is site-specific and various from one landfill site to another

The Effects Of Buying Task Characteristics On Buyer-seller Conflict Management Behavior

Organizational buying is a complex decision-making process involving extensive interactions between buying and selling organizations. The two organizations may have different goals, capabilities, perceptions, and values, from which conflict can arise in their relationship during buying transactions.;Drawing from the behavioral theory of the firm and the organizational buying behavior and conflict literatures, this study examines how five approaches to conflict management (collaboration, accommodation, sharing, competition, and avoidance) used by buying organizations during purchase transactions can be explained by (1) the buying organization\u27s perceptions of buying task characteristics, and (2) the buyer-seller perceptual differences of buying task characteristics.;Data were gathered from a cross-sectional survey of 2064 Purchasing Management Association of Canada (PMAC) members working in for-profit organizations in Ontario, and 296 managers in selling organizations identified by the purchasing respondents.;Two causal models of buyer-seller conflict management were developed conceptually. These models were specified and their parameters estimated using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling developed by Herman Wold.;The results show that (1) the buying organization\u27s perceptions and buyer-seller perceptual differences of buying task characteristics can explain an average of 5.6% and 15.0%, respectively, of the variances in the use of the five conflict management approaches by buying organizations; (2) some of the important predictors of the buying organization\u27s use of conflict management approaches are purchase importance, relative size of expenditure, and time pressure; (3) the buying organization\u27s use of the conflict management approaches of collaboration, sharing, and avoidance tends to enhance its satisfaction with the purchase and with the supplier relationship, while its use of accommodation and competition tends to lead to less satisfaction; and (4) in general, buyer-seller perceptual differences of buying task characteristics tend to lead to less use of collaboration, sharing, and avoidance by the buying organization.;This knowledge of the functionality/dysfunctionality of the five conflict management approaches as well as their important predictors can provide insights for developing industrial marketing strategies and for improving the purchasing management process

The determinants of credit risk in an emerging market

The aim of this study is to examine the determinants of credit risk management in an emerging market by using Malaysian listed companies. The sample of the study is selected using paired sample method. In order to adjust for earning management portions, the discretionary accrual model is used to calculate the abnormal accruals of firms. Furthermore, logistic regression is applied to determine the accuracy of unadjusted and adjusted model in predicting financial distress. Based on the empirical result, the liquidity ratio is proof to be significant at 5percent significance level in determining financial distress before and after earnings management is adjusted. Meanwhile, the productivity ratio is only showing its significance before the earnings management is adjusted and the profitability ratio is significant after the earnings management is adjusted. On the other hand, this study indicates that both unadjusted and adjusted models are having the same level of Type I error (23.3%). Out of the total 30 distressed observations, 23 are classified as distressed observations resulting in 76.6 percent of success classification and 7 are classified as non-distressed observations resulting in a 23.3 percent failure. However, for the Type II error, the non-adjusted model is performing better with a 16.7 percent failure compared to a 26.7 percent failure of adjusted model. As a result, by considering the cost for both Type I and Type II errors, the unadjusted model is better and more appropriate in predicting financial distress firms in Malaysian market compared to the adjusted model. This indicates that the unadjusted model helps in improving credit management among market participants in Malaysi