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As COVID-19 hounds the world, the common cause of finding a swift solution to manage the pandemic has brought together researchers, institutions, governments, and society at large. The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) — including Machine Learning (ML) and Big Data analytics — as well as Robotics and Blockchain, are the four decisive areas of technological innovation that have been ingenuity harnessed to fight this pandemic and future ones. While these highly interrelated smart and connected health technologies cannot resolve the pandemic overnight and may not be the only answer to the crisis, they can provide greater insight into the disease and support frontline efforts to prevent and control the pandemic. This paper provides a blend of discussions on the contribution of these digital technologies, propose several complementary and multidisciplinary techniques to combat COVID-19, offer opportunities for more holistic studies, and accelerate knowledge acquisition and scientific discoveries in pandemic research. First, four areas where IoT can contribute are discussed, namely, i) tracking and tracing, ii) Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) by Wearable IoT (WIoT), iii) Personal Digital Twins (PDT), and iv) real-life use case: ICT/IoT solution in Korea. Second, the role and novel applications of AI are explained, namely: i) diagnosis and prognosis, ii) risk prediction, iii) vaccine and drug development, iv) research dataset, v) early warnings and alerts, vi) social control and fake news detection, and vii) communication and chatbot. Third, the main uses of robotics and drone technology are analyzed, including i) crowd surveillance, ii) public announcements, iii) screening and diagnosis, and iv) essential supply delivery. Finally, we discuss how Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), of which blockchain is a common example, can be combined with other technologies for tackling COVID-19.

Introducción.Este artículo parte del reconocimiento del Derecho como estructura de poder, así como del carácter androcéntrico y patriarcal del Derecho y de la Ciencia Jurídica. Se aborda la urgencia de usar el género como herramienta de análisis en todos los procesos jurídicos y por parte de todos los operadores que intervienen en ellos. Objetivos. Demostrar la importancia de introducir la formación, y sensibilización, en dicha perspectiva en la enseñanza del Derecho y en la investigación jurídica. Ello habrá de tener una especial proyección en la aplicación e interpretación del Derecho, y, por tanto, en la garantía efectiva de los derechos humanos de las mujeres. Metodología. Análisis de la normativa vigente, de las aportaciones doctrinales iusfeministas, usando el género como categoría crítica. Resultados. Hemos constatado las enormes carencias en la formación y sensibilización con perspectiva feminista en el ámbito jurídico. Conclusiones y discusión. La urgencia de tomarnos en serio el "mainstreaming de género" en la docencia e investigación jurídicas. ; Introduction. This paper is based on the recognition of law as a power structure and the androcentric and patriarchal character of the Law and Legal Science. I will address how it is urgent to use gender as a tool for analysing reality in all legal processes and by all operators involved in them. Objectives. To demonstrate the importance of introducing training and awareness-raising in this perspective in law teaching and legal research. This will have a special bearing on the application and interpretation of the law, and therefore on the effective guarantee of women's human rights. Methodology. Analysis of current legislation, of feminist doctrinal contributions, using gender as a critical category. Results. We have found enormous deficiencies in training and awareness with a feminist perspective in the legal field. Conclusions and discussion. The urgency of taking gender mainstreaming seriously in legal teaching and research.

[EN] Stereotype is a type of social bias massively present in texts that computational models use. There are stereotypes that present special difficulties because they do not rely on personal attributes. This is the case of stereotypes about immigrants, a social category that is a preferred target of hate speech and discrimination. We propose a new approach to detect stereotypes about immigrants in texts focusing not on the personal attributes assigned to the minority but in the frames, that is, the narrative scenarios, in which the group is placed in public speeches. We have proposed a fine-grained social psychology grounded taxonomy with six categories to capture the different dimensions of the stereotype (positive vs. negative) and annotated a novel StereoImmigrants dataset with sentences that Spanish politicians have stated in the Congress of Deputies. We aggregate these categories in two supracategories: one is Victims that expresses the positive stereotypes about immigrants and the other is Threat that expresses the negative stereotype. We carried out two preliminary experiments: first, to evaluate the automatic detection of stereotypes; and second, to distinguish between the two supracategories of immigrants¿ stereotypes. In these experiments, we employed state-of-the-art transformer models (monolingual and multilingual) and four classical machine learning classifiers. We achieve above 0.83 of accuracy with the BETO model in both experiments, showing that transformers can capture stereotypes about immigrants with a high level of accuracy. ; The work of the authors from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia was funded by the Spanish MICINN under the research project MISMIS-FAKEnHATE on Misinformation and Miscommunication in social media: FAKE news and HATE speech (PGC2018-096212-B-C31). The work of Paolo Rosso was done also in the framework of the research project PROMETEO/2019/121 (DeepPattern) funded by the Generalitat Valenciana. ; Sánchez-Junquera, J.; Chulvi-Ferriols, MA.; Rosso, P.; Ponzetto, SP. ...

Biomaterials have had an increasingly important role in recent decades, in biomedical device design and the development of tissue engineering solutions for cell delivery, drug delivery, device integration, tissue replacement, and more. There is an increasing trend in tissue engineering to use natural substrates, such as macromolecules native to plants and animals to improve the biocompatibility and biodegradability of delivered materials. At the same time, these materials have favourable mechanical properties and often considered to be biologically inert. More importantly, these macromolecules possess innate functions and properties due to their unique chemical composition and structure, which increase their bioactivity and therapeutic potential in a wide range of applications. While much focus has been on integrating these materials into these devices via a spectrum of cross-linking mechanisms, little attention is drawn to residual bioactivity that is often hampered during isolation, purification, and production processes. Herein, we discuss methods of initial material characterisation to determine innate bioactivity, means of material processing including cross-linking, decellularisation, and purification techniques and finally, a biological assessment of retained bioactivity of a final product. This review aims to address considerations for biomaterials design from natural polymers, through the optimisation and preservation of bioactive components that maximise the inherent bioactive potency of the substrate to promote tissue regeneration. ; This publication has emanated from research supported in part by a Grant from Science Foundation Ireland and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund under Grant number 13/RC/2073_P2. The authors would like to acknowledge the College of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences Scholarship, NUI Galway. This project has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program iPSpine under the grant agreement No. 825925 and under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813263. The authors would like to thank Dr Raghvendra Bohara for proof-reading this manuscript and Maciej Doczyk for preparation of the original figures. ; peer-reviewed

Although testamentary freedom is an important principle in succession law, legislators and judges across the world have recognized the importance of certain family members by granting them mandatory claims in the inheritance of their deceased relative (in spite of wishes of the deceased). This article focuses on these rights. The goal is to introduce the Dutch framework of imperative succession law and to demonstrate the possibilities of combining the legal and economic discipline to deepen knowledge on these provisions. Whilst examples will focus upon succession law, the concepts will be described in a general manner. This might inspire researchers to apply a similar interdisciplinary approach in other fields of law. The imperative provisions that currently exist for family members in the Netherlands can be divided into two types of claims. The first is the legitime, a fixed claim for children of the deceased. The second type are the other statutory entitlements that cover a specified range of situations in which judges have freedom in deciding upon the requests of family members. However, this discretion raises many questions on the way judges should handle such claims. A combination of law and economics can aid in describing and interpreting the law, for example by defining the need for support that is often required for a successful claim. By relying on economic data and theory, judges can come to a more consistent and substantiated way of establishing the need for support. The interdisciplinary methodology can also improve comparative legal research. The functional approach that is common in comparative legal research, assumes that law fulfills certain functions. Economic figures provide an objective basis that demonstrates what functions a law fulfills and to what extent this is done efficiently. This information can be used to compare the functioning of laws in different countries.

This paper emphasizes the importance of characteristic leaders in post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Leadership is the influence and process of influencing people so that they rapidly and enthusiastically strive to achieve group goals. The most important leadership factor is the leader himself, who puts himself at the forefront to encourage others to achieve the set goals. Some of the characteristics of leaders are the ability to use power successfully and responsibly (without abuse), the ability to understand human beings have different motives, and the ability to inspire or stimulate motivation. Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free-market-oriented capitalist economies. Post-communism in Central and Eastern Europe came after the fall of the Berlin wall. This was the time when transitions occurred through Europe, behind the so-called iron curtain. In this paper, we have singled out the significant leaders of post-communism in Central and Southeastern Europe. Each of them has expressed skills in their own way through the various difficulties that befell them. This thesis aims to analyze the keywords and adjectives being used to describe these post-communistic leaders, such as independent, strong, father, nationalist, patriot, brave, and so on. This research will aim to define 20-30 such words and define the frequency in which words are used to describe these leaders. Moreover, this research aims to describe what words are used the most for which leader to achieve a complete understanding of the public perception of different leaders in different post-communistic countries. This analysis will provide specific results in the most frequent words used to describe post-communistic leaders. ; Ovaj rad naglašava važnost karakterističnih vođa u postkomunističkim zemljama Srednje i Istočne Europe. Vodstvo je utjecaj i proces utjecaja na ljude ...

Kako je tema ideologije europskih stranki populističke i radikalne desnice u literaturi vrlo opširna, u radu se pokušava kroz analizu diskursa i programa istražiti moguća povezanost fašizma i radikalne i ekstremne desnice; na koji način i ako uopće, desne organizacije i stranke rehabilitiraju fašističke ideje. Kratkom uvodu u kojemu se objašnjava cilj istraživanja, slijedi teorijsko-konceptualni okvir u kojem se najprije definiraju pojedini važni pojmovi – ideologija fašizma i današnje desnice pa onda i razlikovanje ekstremne i radikalne desnice. Drugi se dio okvira odnosi na prikazivanje veza različitih europskih ekstremnih i radikalnih stranaka i grupacija s fašizmom. Na primjeru nekoliko europskih stranaka utvrđeno je kako postoji razlika između ekstremnih i radikalnih organizacija iako nije uvijek moguće točno odrediti granicu budući da nerijetko takve stranke prilagođavaju ideologiju u skladu s vremenom kako bi osvojile vlast. Nakon glavnoga dijela prikazuje se kratki zaključak s istaknutim nedostatcima i prijedlozima za poboljšanjem. ; As the topic of the ideology of the European populist and radical right parties is extensive in academic research, the possible connection between fascism and the radical and extreme right through the analysis of discourses and programs will be explored; how and if at all, right-wing organizations and parties rehabilitate fascist ideas. A short introduction explaining the aim of the research is followed by a theoretical-conceptual framework in which certain important concepts are defined - the ideology of fascism and present-day right along with the distinction between the extreme and radical right. The second part of the framework shows the links between various European extreme and radical parties and groups with fascism. The example of several European parties has shown that there is a difference between extreme and radical organizations, although it is not always possible to determine the exact distinction, as often such parties adjust their ideology in accordance with ...

Research background: Seeking to ensure competitiveness in the global market, the EU is constantly improving its innovation policy. Compared to other EU initiatives, the Framework Programs for Research and Innovation (FPs) act as the main instrument with the longest history and the largest budget to boost member states' innovation performance. Despite the initial presumptions that these financial inflows should bring positive and constructive effects, the results significantly diverge across the countries with highly uneven and incoherent progress. Therefore, complex and reliable tools must be adopted to evaluate the long-term influence of EU investment and the reasons which distort the innovation performance in separate member states. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the influence of EU investment on its member states' innovation performance by using a redeveloped national innovative capacity framework and including technological, non-technological and commercial innovative output. Methods: Panel unit root tests were used to assess the time series stationarity. Autoregressive distributed lag models helped in calculating the long-term influence of EU investment on member states' innovation performance. Finally, by employing dummies, it was analysed how this influence varied over time and across different countries. Findings & value added: The findings provide evidence that EU investment exerts positive long-term influence on the technological innovative output proxied as total, business and higher education institutions' patent applications as well as product and process innovations. The effects were also positive on trademarks and marketing, and organisational innovations. However, small but negative influence was found in the case of patent applications by the government sector and the exports of hi-tech products and knowledge-intensive services. These insights may serve in the designing process of the specific instruments and the future innovation policies, which would bring the maximum benefit for the society and economy.

This study aims to determine the knowledge, utilization, application and impact of tax incentives on MSMEs on business continuity. This research was motivated by MSMEs experiencing difficulties with the Covid-19 pandemic. The government provides tax incentive facilities to relieve the community. This tax incentive provides convenience for business actors in carrying out their business activities. This type of research uses descriptive qualitative. The sampling technique used is interactive analysis technique, namely descriptive technique. The samples used were 6 MSMEs including My Optic, Caffe Pool.co, Ishoma, Niored Printing, Photocopy and Print Shops, and the "Maju Lancar" Mie Association. Data collection techniques are interviews, observations and documentation. The results of the study show that 1) Knowledge and utilization of tax incentive policies provided by the government are known and then used and there are those who do not know and have not provided benefits. 2) Obstacles in obtaining tax incentives that there are no obstacles in obtaining tax incentives so that they can be obtained easily. 3) Turnover 1 month before and after the Covid-19 pandemic there is a huge decrease in monthly income. 4) The application of tax incentives to businesses to use facilities as well as possible to support their business activities. 6) The provision of tax incentives is useful to improve the sustainability of businesses that are experiencing a decline in turnover, so that the impact of giving these tax incentives affects business continuity. 7) Changes in business continuity before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the decrease in turnover from sales every month. ; Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengetahuan, pemanfaatan, penerapan serta dampak insentif pajak pada UMKM terhadap keberlangsungan usaha. Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi dengan UMKM mengalami kesulitan dengan adanya pandemi Covid-19. Pemerintah memberikan fasilitas insentif pajak untuk meringankan masyarakat. Insentif pajak ini memberikan ...

The growing interest in social protection in Africa over the past two decades has led to a renewal of academic research and institutional literature, rang-ing from technical and evaluation approaches to political economy studies. The latter have the analyt-ical singularity of linking the outcomes of social pro-tection policies to their modalities of political inser-tion and appropriation rather than to their original conception and the manner in which they are im-plemented.As such, this report is an original contribution to the analysis of public policies in countries under foreign aid regimes. Considering the 'political construction of public policies' as a determinant of their success, we present here an empirical analysis of the elabo-ration of Madagascar's new social protection policy. The study of the relationships between stakeholders reveals the coalitions of actors involved and their role in the ongoing changes in orientation.The empirical strategy we have chosen combines and applies the policy network and advocacy coali-tion framework (ACF) approaches by testing them with the tools of social network analysis. It is in line with the research on developed or emerging coun-tries that is rare or non-existent in low-income countries. The inter-organisational network data is drawn from a sociometric and qualitative survey carried out in 2018 and 2019 among the member organisations of the Groupe de travail sur la protec-tion sociale – GTPS (Social Protection Working Group). Under the auspices of the Ministry of Popu-lation, this group is responsible for drafting social protection policy in Madagascar.Joining the ACF and Policy Network methodological approaches, two complementary steps support our original empirical strategy. The first step deals with a structural analysis of social protection networks, using three cumulative criteria to identify coalitions of political actors. Foremost, a coalition necessary brings together structural equivalent actors within the network of collaborations (we applied one of ...

International audience ; The positive effects of adapted physical activity (PA) in patients with chronic illness are scientifically recognized, and PA promotion is part and parcel of public policy. In this context, one task in public health research consists in improving knowledge of PA practice in persons with chronic illnesses. As a complement to studies evaluating the importance of various determinants of PA practice, qualitative research is called for. In this framework, the present article will propose a theoretical analytical framework for study of PA in chronic illness. It will be built around two key concepts, namely the "standards of life" drawn from the notion of health in the philosophy of Georges Canguilhem and the "illness trajectory" drawn from the interactionist sociology of Anselm Strauss. We will attempt to improve understanding of the important yet frangible "labor" of patients at work in transformation of their habits and life standards involving PA professionals. ; Les effets positifs sur la santé d'une activité physique adaptée au cours d'une maladie chronique sont aujourd'hui reconnus scientifiquement et sa promotion s'inscrit dans la politique publique. Dans ce contexte, l'une des tâches de la recherche en santé publique est de pouvoir mieux connaître la pratique de l'activité physique des personnes malades. En complément des études mesurant l'importance de certains déterminants de cette pratique, des recherches peuvent l'appréhender qualitativement. Dans cette perspective, cet article proposera un cadre théorique analytique de l'activité physique dans la maladie s'appuyant sur deux concepts clés : les « normes de vie » issues de la philosophie de la santé de Georges Canguilhem et « la trajectoire de maladie » issue de la sociologie interactionniste d'Anselm Strauss. Il s'agit de pouvoir mieux comprendre l'important et fragile « travail » des patients à l'œuvre dans la transformation de leurs habitudes et normes de vie en lien avec les professionnels de l'activité physique.

This work studies the feasibility of using automated drip irrigation based on the volumetric soil water content measured with capacitance probes in early maturing nectarine trees (Prunus persica L. Batsch, cv. 'Flariba') grown in a clay–loam soil in Mediterranean conditions. An automated irrigation treatment (AUTO), based on the management allowed depletion (MAD) concept (with a feed-back control system), was compared with an irrigation-scheduling method based on the conventional crop evapotranspiration (100% ETc) as Control, under high (HWA) and low (LWA) water availability scenarios, each during three consecutive growing seasons. With HWA (no water restriction), the AUTO treatment maintained the soil water content at near field capacity (α = 10% depletion of available soil water content), and there were no significant differences between treatments in terms of the plant–soil water status, nectarine yield, or fruit quality parameters. Under LWA conditions (water deficit), the AUTO treatment (α = 10% during pre-harvest and 30% post-harvest) provided 43% less water than the Control, promoting a moderate plant water deficit, which led to a decrease in vegetative growth (winter pruning and tree canopy cover) but no significant differences in total yield and fruit quality parameters (although the total soluble solid content increased). The water use efficiency values in the AUTO treatment increased by an average of 34%. It was concluded that automated irrigation, based on MAD seasonal threshold values and monitored by means of real-time soil water content sensors, could be considered a promising tool for application in semi-arid Mediterranean agro-systems subjected to water scarcity. ; This research was supported by the Spanish Research Agency, co-financed with European Union FEDER funds (AGL2013-49047-C02-2R, and AGL2016-77282-C03-1R), PID2019-106226RB-C21/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and the Seneca Foundation of the Region of Murcia (19903/GERM/15) projects. M.R. Conesa acknowledges the postdoctoral financial support received from the Juan de la Cierva Spanish Postdoctoral programme (FJCI-2017-32045)

Based on Article 72 of the Indonesia Limited Company Law, companies are allowed to distribute dividends before the company closes the annual book and the General Meeting of Shareholders (GMS) by giving temporary dividends (interim). In this case, if the company suffers a loss at the closing of the annual book according to the Indonesia Limited Company Law, the shareholders must return the dividends they have received. If the shareholders do not return it, the directors and commissioners must be joint responsibility to cover company losses. Based on these reasons, the researcher examined the useful aspects of the interim dividend arrangement in Article 72 of the Indonesia Limited Company Law based on Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism theory and found the form of norms regarding the return of interim dividends in Indonesian legislation using Hans Kallsen's Hierarchy theory. This research is a normative study with a conceptual approach. The results of the study suggest that; Article 72 paragraphs 1 to 4 of the Indonesia Limited Company Law can benefit the public because Bentham places benefits on individual happiness on a materialistic basis and practical social goals that can balance various interests. However, paragraphs 5 and 6 discussing the return of interim dividends that have been distributed, if, at the end of the closing of the book the company suffers a loss, in terms of the principle of benefit, Bentham does not provide benefits because it cannot provide a happiness effect for many people. The form of regulation on the distribution and return of interim share dividends in Indonesia is Statutes and Bylaws (C & B). C & B are a creative dimension in the form of living law or actions taken by the community. In terms of civil law, C & B has the same position as the law but cannot apply to the public.

This study focuses on women's integration in the military through sports, and particularly coed sports in the Hellenic Military Higher Education Institutions: 1) the Hellenic Army Academy, 2) the Hellenic Military Academy of Corps Officers, 3) the Hellenic Military Nursing Academy, 4) the Hellenic Naval Academy, and 5) the Hellenic Air Force Academy. We argue that coed sports (mixed-gender teams) can be used as an integration tool in military institutions, although research on this topic is scarce. Our study begins with a literature review on gender, the military, and sport combining a qualitative and quantitative approach to facilitate a better understanding of how women and men navigate and perceive the meaning of their mixed-gender military sport experience in the Hellenic Military Higher Education Institutions. Initially, twelve Greek women, active officers in the Armed Forces, took part in a series of semi-structured interviews. The twelve women, all high-ranking military officers today—between the ages of 25 to 49—were randomly chosen. Subsequently, a total of 120 active officers of both genders responded to the Greek version of the "Group Environment Questionnaire" (Angelonidis, 1995). From a total of 18 questions, nine were selected to examine gender integration through sport. The main research question is whether sport in the five military higher education academies/schools in Greece contributes to gender integration as perceived and understood by the 120 participants (female and male officers). The findings showed that integration is a process involving non-isolation, meaning acceptance of the gender subject (the officer cadet/military student) regardless of his/her gender into the team, as opposed to his/her exclusion, and as a result the union-unity-acceptance in a sport team of all the subjects (officer cadets of both genders). According to the results of the analysis, there is a statistically significant interaction between the variables 'joint participation of men and women in sports' and the ...

Disability is a natural part of the human experience and therefore should not affect the rights of individuals to live independently, contribute to society, enjoy full inclusion in education and pursue a meaningful career. However, youth with disabilities (YWDs) in Elgeyo Marakwet Kenya face socio-economic discrimination communally. Exclusion, isolation, abuse and lack of educational opportunities exist in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. They do not enjoy the same human rights or equal access to goods and services as their peers without disabilities. The main objective of this study was to assess the influence of employment on personal development of youth with disabilities in Elgeyo-Marakwet County Kenya. Two theories, Catherine Sanderson's (2010) theory of socio-cultural perspective and Adams Stacy's (1965) equity theory were studied to enable an understanding of the influence of the socio-cultural support services on personal development of youth with disabilities. A mixed methodology, using a triangulation design with both quantitative and qualitative research was employed in this study to realize the objectives. The study targeted a total population of 492 of youth with disabilities, 320 parents of youth with disabilities in and out of school and 19 government officers. Sample size determination formula by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) was used to obtain the required sample of the youth with disabilities and their parents. Simple random sampling was used to select youth with disabilities and parents while purposive sampling was used to select government officers (key informants). A sample of 289 youth with disabilities, 175 parents and 19 government officers were picked for the study. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedule and an observation checklist. To determine content validity of the instruments, the supervisors were presented with the research instruments prior to the actual study. Their comments were adopted in modifying the instruments. The reliability of the instruments was ...