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American public benefit provision bears little resemblance to a safety net capable of preventing people from experiencing economic devastation. It is not a carefully planned machinery of complementary programs but individual threads of support, some of which connect, many of which do not. The increased need for public benefit provision during the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed national and state policy debates on the importance of a comprehensive system of public investment in children. This volume draws on perspectives from various academic disciplines, both to identify the public supports that children need to thrive and to analyze existing models of complementary public support provision that do benefit children. The persistence of individual program-based support provisions and administrative burdens make it difficult for the current system to operate as a comprehensive safety net, but recent innovations offer hope: these include the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and collaborations between public agencies and organizations that help integrate aspects of service delivery. Missing, however, is the political will at all levels of government to invest in an infrastructure of support.

Variety of research has shown that footwork training could be beneficial for various aspects of fitness components required for the game of badminton. The main purpose of the current study is to test whether footwork training is beneficial for the strength and agility of colleges badminton players. The sample of the study consisted of 40 college badminton players who were equally divided into two different groups n=20 Experimental Group (EG) and n=20 Control Group (CG). A pre-test and post-test experimental research design was used to conduct the study. Handgrip dynamometer was used to measure the strength of the participants while, Illinois Agility Test (IAT) was applied to measure the agility of the participants. Paired sample-test was used to test the hypotheses. Results indicated significant improvement in the agility of the experimental group (p < .05), however; the control group did not produce any significant improvement (p > .05. It is concluded that footwork training that continued for 6 weeks produced effective results on strength and agility of badminton players at the college level.

This study aims at investigating the theatrical aspects of SamuelFyzee-Rahamin's play text Daughter of Ind. The playwright's theatricality comprises of a variety of distancing devices that are artistically positioned to realize the intended sociopolitical goals. To pop up the spectacle dimension of the said text, various situations, episodes, and personages are shrewdly juxtaposed against each other. This phenomenon inevitably necessitates the sense of urgency, immediacy, and the unfolding of the dialogic filters. A paradigm of analogies is introduced intentionally to complement and reinforce the dialectical configurations. Histrionic expressions and actions push the characters and the discourses towards the stagy world of acting. Theatrical imagery, the intervention of supernatural elements, the polyphony of competitive ideologies, and the narrational voice are the other features of theatricality that smartly challenge the coercive structures like patriarchy,colonialism, and the marginalization of the weak sections of the Indian society.Naivety is a common technique used by political dramatists to successfully enlist the attention of the audience. A theoretical framework for this study consists of postmodern theories on theater, especially Wladimir Krysinski'sessay Changed Textual Signs in Modern Theatricality.

The article examines the problem of sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan through the prism of Kazakh-Russian interstate relations. The key conclusions made by the authors are that, first of all, Kazakh-Russian relations are based on the post-Soviet model and the concept of the sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which retains significant elements of the Soviet constitutional model of relations between the Union center and the republics; secondly, as part of this sovereignty model, the Republic of Kazakhstan has to make concessions in the economic, financial and other forms of sovereignty. However, the Republic of Kazakhstan makes no concessions in matters of territorial integrity and other fundamental aspects of its sovereignty. Thirdly, it was easier for the Republic of Kazakhstan to maintain the image of the Russian Federation as a strategic partner between 1991 and the mid-2000s, but since that time, the Russian Federation has been pursuing an openly neo-imperial policy in the post-Soviet space, thus, the increasing securitization of the relations with the Russian Federation requires great efforts from the Republic of Kazakhstan to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The philosophical stance about the existence of being and the meaning of life has been a widely discussed subject among philosophers and critics. Existentialism says that a man can construct his own meaning of life by making judicious use of his awareness, free wills and personal responsibilities, but absurdism believes that there is no meaning of life out there. The focus of this study is to explore the absurdist and existential aspects in Kafka's fiction The Metamorphosis (1915) and The Trial (1925). This is qualitative comparative research, and the data which have been collected for this purpose is through purposive sampling techniques. In this study, Camus' theory of absurdism and theory of existentialism has been adopted as a theoretical framework. The study explores in what ways the traces of absurdism and existentialism are present in Kafka's fiction The Metamorphosis and The Trial. The findings show that characteristics of absurdism and existentialism are found in both the works of Kafka and are comparable with each other. For future recommendations, a comparative stylistic analysis of these selected novels can be carried out.

Magical realism is a genre of literature where fantasy and magic are normalized in reality, and the real world has an undercurrent of magical elements going on. The research is based on the qualitative method within the framework of the theory of Magical Realism presented by Wendy B. Faris (2004). The study at hand explores different aspects of magical realism in the selected novel by analyzing major themes according to Faris's theory of Magical Realism. The research aims to show how the typical presences of people in the novel have been super naturalized through heavenly magical realist segments. Moreover, the significance of this study lies in the fact that it explored seemingly opposite phenomena of 'magic' and 'realism' and established a connection between them. The study seeks to find how each character of the novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is enduring in their own particular manner, representing the suffering of individuals in the real world considering the situation after World Wars. This research will open the ways for future researchers to work in the direction of magical realism and enhance its scope in general.

The present article has attempted to discuss the essential Eurocentrism of the Anglophone Pakistani writer Zulfikar Ghose that has shaped his subjective identity as well as literary outlook. The argument has used Frantz Fanon's theorization about the colonized intellectual whose exposure to foreign culture engenders anxiety and eventually becomes a precondition for his cognitive maturation. However, reading Ghose's prose, we find no traces of any such conflict in his subjective and artistic expression as he chooses to call himself a native-alien with an ambivalence which, turns many times, into an alienation, even outright rejection of his native identity as an Indian-Pakistani. The article concludes that instead of coming to terms with his native subjectivity, Ghose's voice remains Eurocentric as it is predominantly based on an explicit admiration and identification with the dominant English culture and his simultaneous distance from his native culture and its historical memory.

In February 1938, a monarchical regime was established in Romania. In order to strengthen the power of the monarch and his discretionary control over the administration, a new administrative law was drafted. Administrative law no. 2919, published in the Official Monitor no. 187 from August 14, 1938 grouped the 71 counties of Romania into 10 regions. The region was a territorial circumscription, endowed with legal personality.
According to the Administrative law from August 14, 1938, the county became a simple district of control and deconcentration of the central administration, losing its legal personality. The prefect was authorized to exercise the control of the local administration in the urban and rural communes of the county. One form of the control over the work of local authorities was their regular inspection. In April 1940, the prefect of the Cahul County, colonel Dumitru Dobrescu, inspected the county communes, clarifying various aspects of the activities of local administrations. The results of these inspections make it possible to create a true picture of the realities of the Bessarabian villages to months before the territorial abduction in June 1940.

In February 1938, a monarchical regime was established in Romania.
In order to strengthen the power of the monarch and his discretionary control over the
administration, a new administrative law was drafted. Administrative law no. 2919,
published in the Official Monitor no. 187 from August 14, 1938, grouped the 71 counties
of Romania into 10 regions. The region was a territorial circumscription, endowed with
legal personality.
According to the Administrative law from August 14, 1938, the county became
a simple district of control and deconcentration of the central administration, losing its
legal personality. The prefect was authorized to exercise the control of the local
administration in the urban and rural communes of the county. One form the control
over the work of local authorities was their regular inspection. In April 1940, the prefect
of the Cahul County, colonel Dumitru Dobrescu, inspected the county communes,
clarifying various aspects of the activities of local administrations. The results of these
inspections make it possible to create a true picture of the realities of the Bessarabian
villages to months before the territorial abduction in June 1940.

Literature has served as one of the most convincing tools for developing emancipatory thinking among Americans, particularly the colored people in the antebellum period. The current research paper is an attempt to study and explore how emancipatory thinking was developed through literature which is, generally considered to be more fictional than factual. Through the close reading of the selected narratives written during the period, the researcher has attempted to unearth various aspects and relate them with the factual accounts of the time in order to investigate their closer relationship with each other. This required a theoretical framework that would enable us to juxtapose the literary and non-literary texts to have an actual picture of the situation; therefore, the non-literary journalistic writings during that period have been studied parallel to the literary narratives. The findings and discussion developed in this study also suggest that further studies may also be conducted in order to dispel the misconception ascribed to narratives of the antebellum period that narratives are imaginary scattered accounts of the authors which are much exaggerated than to have elements of realism.

Russia under Vladimir Putin's leadership has assumed a personalised character which has drastically transformed its domestic and defence policy as well as its global grand strategy. The main contour of the grand strategy is a strategic rebalancing in the places of its influence including its near abroad and its area of interest including Asia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Putin's leadership and psychological orientation have a fundamental role in the materialisation of this transformation and the study of this factor serves as a lens to explain Russia's resurgence and also provides a guide to Russia's future foreign policy. One of the significant aspects of the strategic rebalancing is Russia's increasing influence in South Asia and the projects of building transport and trade corridor. While China remains another significant powerful player with similar geostrategic and geoeconomic plans; states such as Pakistan foresee great challenges as well as opportunities which emerge as a result of the increasing influence of Russia and China in the region and the lingering dissonance in Pakistan's relations with the United States of America.

This paper investigates how Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column presents the oppression of women in the socio-political and cultural contexts of the Indo-Pak society. Patricia Collins's views of intersectionality and matrix of domination and Wrede's concept of agency serve as a theoretical framework for this research. Intersectionality works through a matrix of domination that includes four domains of power: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal, which further serves to organize, regulate, maintain and internalize oppression. The study is significant as it intends to unravel the fact that in Sunlight on a Broken Column, gender is not the only factor causing subjugation. Oppression keeps on multiplying with the inclusion of several aspects of individual identity in general and female identity in particular, including age, color, creed, religion, race and sexual orientation. The research establishes that despite intersecting forces of suppression, there still is room for the female agency as the character of Laila foregrounds the fact that the existing situation can be challenged and reverted by few individuals found inside the suppressed groups.

This research unfolds the spiritual essence of literature and the worth of Punjabi Sufi literature within the periodical era of world literature. It explains the pivotal points of divergence and similarity between the opposing heroic concepts of eastern philosophy.The study highlights the philosophy of eastern literature through the portrayal of heroes. The researcher also pivots differences with theological, spiritual and institutional aspects of epics in general. By this discrepancy portrayal of heroes, the research exposes their concept of being or not along with the recipient of Divine illumination. The description of the hero of the selected work i.e. the Prince Saif-ul-Malook, from Saif-ul-Malook, explains the settings and situations of a given time and place. The hero accomplishes his definitive goal toward the infinite reality.He is a man who possesses superman renderings but becomes unable to prove himself as a recipient of Divine illumination. The main and ultimate aim of this research is to prove the extent of assimilation of Divine illumination and auxiliary to meet the infinite reality.

Evolution deniers do not need to establish their own scientific position but merely cast doubt on some aspect of evolution or obtain a small amount of legitimacy for creationism or intelligent design to sow sufficient doubt in the mainstream. This doubt is one of three pillars, along with demands for equal time and the incompatibility of science and religion, that Eugenie Scott has argued define contemporary anti-evolution efforts. High school biology teachers play a crucial role in whether a high school biology course reinforces the scientific consensus or whether it confers legitimacy on creationist perspectives with pedagogical strategies consistent with the three pillars. As we have shown elsewhere, many public school teachers do contribute to public opinion on evolution. But where do these norms come from? This article begins to answer this question, using data from our 2007 National Survey of High School Biology Teachers and new data from a series of focus groups with preservice teachers. We find that, as early as in the preservice college years, teachers develop attitudes and pedagogical coping mechanisms that lead to support for the anti-evolution movement.

AbstractHealth Canada reviewed national and international literature to develop a framework that identifies best practices for developing and implementing Heat Alert and Response Systems (HARS) to protect citizens from extreme heat events. A comparative case study was conducted based upon the framework and the experiences of two Canadian jurisdictions that piloted many of the best practices in the development of new HARS. Table-top exercises, heat-health vulnerability assessments, and community consultations were used to inform the development and implementation of HARS plans. Implementation of the framework by local authorities revealed different and unique challenges facing rural and urban communities in protecting people from extreme heat events. Opportunities within each pilot for taking effective public health adaptive actions that draw upon existing strengths and resources were also identified. Key aspects of HARS development including those related to education and engagement, development of an alert protocol, creation of a heat response plan, and identification of communication activities should be tailored to the needs of individual communities or regions and be informed by specific characteristics related to existing and future vulnerability.