scholarly journals Entrepreneurship and Innovation Events during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The User Preferences of VirBELA Virtual 3D Platform at the SHIFT Event Organized in Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3802
Author(s):  
Jussi S. Jauhiainen

The COVID-19 pandemic brought abrupt changes for international events that promote entrepreneurship and innovation. Usually, such events bring together thousands of participants to provide them with information about ongoing and emerging trends in their fields, to network with old and new colleagues and get ideas that can develop into innovations. In 2020, most such events were cancelled. Few events were organized virtually, that is without participants physically coming together. Compared with physical face-to-face events, virtual events reduce the travel-related emissions and consumption, thereby supporting sustainability. This article studies the SHIFT entrepreneurship and innovation event held virtually in October 2020 and organized in Finland. For this article, the author gathered data about user preferences from surveying participants, speakers, presenters and organizers, almost all of whom were first-time users of VirBELA’s 3D virtual platform. Furthermore, participant observation and interviews via avatars were conducted during the event. At the virtual event, 68% of respondents talked with former acquaintances, and 68% also talked with new acquaintances, and 53% opinioned that using the virtual platform can support the emergence of innovations. Virtual entrepreneurship and innovation events have potential to support networking, novel ideas and thus innovations, but issues of trust and confidentiality arose concerns among some participants.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7665
Author(s):  
Rafael Melo de Brito ◽  
Valente José Matlaba ◽  
Vera Lúcia Imperatriz-Fonseca ◽  
Tereza Cristina Giannini

Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) are increasingly being considered in decisions by policy-makers because of their relevance to the well-being of people. Learning the value of nature from the perception of communities can help to define priorities and to guide the development of public policies for environmental conservation. The objective of this study was to analyze the perception of the importance, benefits, and problems of NCP among residents of five rural communities, and their opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, considering their socioeconomic characteristics. The method consisted of conducting questionnaire-based, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of 214 randomly selected households in five rural communities of Parauapebas (Pará, Eastern Amazon). We used appropriate statistical tests for data analysis. The main results show that the communities were highly homogeneous and that 52% of the households had low income (below a minimum wage of USD 250). A high proportion of respondents gave the highest importance to all categories of NCP (2/3 of respondents for material, 3/4 for non-material, and 4/5 for regulating NCP). The most commonly mentioned benefits of NCP referred to subsistence or livelihood and quality of life (40% of total mentions). Environmental degradation problems were the most cited (38% of total mentions). Almost all respondents stated that they had a positive opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, despite underusing them. This study is relevant because it analyses, for the first time, the perceptions of NCP among residents of rural communities in the Eastern Amazon, an essential aspect for decision-and public policy-making.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Bibiana Motey Bilon@Senang ◽  
Noria Tugang

This paper aims to discuss about the offering ceremony, which is one of the traditional cultures performed by the Iban in Sarawak. Miring is performed to give honor to their Gods (Petara), Holy Spirit (Orang Panggau & Bunsu Antu) and souls of their dead ancestors (Petara Aki-Ini) whom they invited to their various festivals. If the supernatural is not fed, they will not obtain the necessary kindness in which will cause disaster. The arrival of Christianity led to the fact that almost all the Iban left their pagan religion. At the same time, the Iban community today is less aware of the offering ceremony procedure. Fieldwork was carried out at several locations in Saratok, Betong, Sarawak. The data are collected through participant observation technique and through face-to-face interview with the informants. The interviewed informants were selected based on their expertise in the origins, customs and cultures of the Iban community. Results show that not all of the Iban perform the miring ceremony. Lack of ritual specialists and conversion to Christianity among the Iban are the causes of this ritual to be less performed. The Iban community today faces many challenges in maintaining and practicing the traditions inherited by their ancestors. Even though there are changes and differences of miring performed by the Iban community in Sarawak, their aims and needs remained the same, and that is to beg for the gods’ protection and avoid unwanted or bad thingsto happen.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
M. Harja Efendi

Covid-19 is a disease caused by a new type of corona virus that appeared at the end of 2019 for the first time in Wuhan, China which is currently causing a pandemic in almost all over the world. The main symptoms of Covid-19 are cough, fever and shortness of breath (Ministry of Health, 2020). Covid-19 infection also causes quite high mortality in various countries. The Covid-19 pandemic which is currently endemic to the world is currently paralyzing all sectors including the world of education, where children have to carry out distance learning activities carried out at their respective homes via the internet. This creates new problems where some areas have not been reached by internet facilities. Online learning that has not been properly prepared certainly has an impact on the learning methods used by educators. Likewise, the acceptance of learning from students is also very diverse, often they do not understand the material or delivery from the teacher. The Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem Makarim, together with 3 other ministers, namely the Minister of Religion, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Home Affairs, made an agreement to allow face-to-face schools starting in January 2021. Higher education as an institution that has the responsibility to be able to provide knowledge to the community should carry out Community Service activities as a form of the tri dharma of higher education


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tebogo Mokgehle ◽  
Ntakadzeni Madala ◽  
Wilson Gitari ◽  
Nikita Tavengwa

AbstractSolanum plants (Solanaceae) are renowned source of nutraceuticals and have widely been explored for their phytochemical constituents. This work investigated the effects of kosmotropic and chaotropic salts on the number of phytochemicals extracted from the leaves of a nutraceutical plant, Solanum retroflexum, and analyzed on the ultra-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to a quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometer (UPLC-QTOF-MS) detector. Here, a total of 20 different compounds were putatively characterized. The majority of the identified compounds were polyphenols and glycoalkaloids. Another compound, caffeoyl malate was identified for the first time in this plant. Glycoalkaloids such as solanelagnin, solamargine, solasonine, β-solanine (I) and β-solanine (II) were found to be extracted by almost all the salts used herein. Kosmotrope salts, overall, were more efficient in extracting polar compounds with 4 more polyphenolic compounds extracted compared to the chaotropes. Chaotropes were generally more selective for the extraction of less polar compounds (glycoalkaloids) with 3 more extracted than the kosmotropes. The chaotrope and the kosmotrope that extracted the most metabolites were NaCl and Na2SO4, respectively, with 12 metabolites extracted for each salt. This work demonstrated that a comprehensive metabolome of S. retroflexum, more than what was previously reported on the same plant, can be achieved by application of kosmotropes and chaotropes as extractants with the aid of the Aqueous Two Phase Extraction approach. The best-performing salts, Na2SO4 or NaCl, could potentially be applied on a commercial scale, to meet the ever-growing demand of the studied metabolites. The Aqueous Two Phase Extraction technique was found to be efficient in simultaneous extraction of multiple metabolites which can be applied in metabolomics.


Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Yue Su ◽  
Yanyou Wu ◽  
Haitao Li ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
...  

The nutrient metabolism, growth and development of plants are strongly affected by its nutrient plunder, and plants have different adaptive mechanisms to low-nutrient environments. The electrophysiological activities involve almost all life processes of plants. In this study, the active transport flow of nutrient (NAF) and nutrient plunder capacity (NPC) of plants were defined based on leaf intrinsic impedance (IZ), capacitive reactance (IXc), inductive reactance (IXL) and capacitance (IC) to evaluate the nutrient plunder capacity of plants for the first time. The results indicate that Orychophragmus violaceus had higher (p < 0.01) NPC and IC and lower (p < 0.01) IR, IXc, IXL and IZ as compared to Brassica napus L., which supports a superior ion affinity and that it could be better adapted to low-nutrient environments. UAF and NPC of plants exhibited good correlations with crude protein, crude ash and water content, and precisely revealed the plunder capacity and adaptive strategies of plants to nutrients. The present work highlights that O. violaceus had superior NPC and ion affinity compared with B. napus, and provided a novel, rapid, reliable method based on the plant’s electrophysiological information for real-time determination of the nutrient plunder capacity of plants.


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-204
Author(s):  
Brice C. Jones
Keyword(s):  

AbstractThis article publishes for the first time the extant remains of a Sahidic Coptic manuscript containing portions of Luke 17-19. Almost all of the special Lukan pericope concerning Jesus and Zacchaeus is preserved (19:1-10), as well as most of the parable of the Dishonest Judge (18:1-8). The edition includes a transcription, translation, palaeographical analysis, critical apparatus, as well as images of the fragment.


Dermatology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Joachim W. Fluhr ◽  
Annie Gueguen ◽  
Delphine Legoupil ◽  
Emilie Brenaut ◽  
Claire Abasq ◽  
...  

The French government imposed the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown from March 17 until May 11, 2020. Only emergency cases and teledermatology (TD) were allowed in outpatient settings. A standardized questionnaire was developed to compare the satisfaction level of patients and their treating physicians. Our main question was whether the patients would perceive TD as a valid alternative for direct physical face-to-face consultation. Eighty-two patients and their 4 treating dermatologists from one dermatology department participated in the study (43 females, 39 males) with a mean age of 46.6 years (SD ±23.9). The reason for TD was a chronic disease in the majority (87.8%), and mainly as a follow-up (96.3%). Regarding satisfaction, almost all categories rated around 9 on a 0–10 verbal analogue scale. The same level of global satisfaction could be seen between the patients and the physicians as well as for the quality of the patient-physician relation and whether all questions could be addressed during the TC. Physicians showed significantly higher scores than patients only for the category of “length” of the consultation. Gender, age, as well as distance between the clinic and home of the patient were not influencing factors for satisfaction. Regarding the technical parameters, the evaluation was mostly comparable for patients and physicians, but overall lower than the relational satisfaction parameters, especially for image quality. Patients were significantly more motivated to continue the TD after the lockdown than their treating dermatologists. We see an interest for implementing TD in specialized centers with chronic patients coming from remote places for regular follow-ups. TD cannot replace in-person patient-physician interaction, but was helpful during the lockdown. As a result, TD might become part of dermatology training to prepare for future lockdown situations.


Author(s):  
Edbert Jay M. Cabrillos ◽  
◽  
Rowena S. Cabrillos ◽  

Pottery is seen as creation of ornamentals, cooking and storing materials. Yet, while economic gains are often considered from producing these materials, the artistic and linguistic aspects have been ignored. This study discusses the factors influencing the culture of pottery, the processes of pottery making, and seeks to uncover the language used in processes of pottery making in Bari, Sibalom, Antique. A qualitative research employing ethnographic study with participant observation and face to face interviews using photo documentation, video recording and open-ended questions in gathering the data was employed. There were five manugdihon, or potters, purposively selected as key informants of the study. The study revealed that environmental factors influenced the culture of pottery making in the barangay. There were seven main processes in pottery making. These included gathering and preparing of materials, mixing the needed materials, cleaning the mixed clay, forming of desired shape, detaching, drying, and polishing and varnishing. Further findings indicate that, together the other processes, the language used in poterry making was archaic Kinaray-a, the language of the province. This language pattern suggests a specialized pottery making. Ultimately, the study suggest that the manugdihon should continue their artistic talents so that the language may be preserved. The educational institutions of the province may provide ways to include pottery making in the curriculum so that the art and language of pottery making will be preserved and promoted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Nonhlahla Mamba ◽  
Oslinah B Tagutanazvo

Background/Aims Women have different and varying experiences of labour and their coping strategies vary as well. Having support during labour may help women feel in control of their labour. This study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of first-time mothers during the first stage of labour. Methods The study used a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design. A purposive sample of nine first-time postpartum mothers were selected to participate following normal vaginal delivery at Mbabane Government Hospital. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and analysed thematically. Open coding was used to analyse data. Results Four themes emerged: 1. Ignorance of the signs of labour 2. Anxiety related to fear 3. Maintaining adequate nutrition 4. Coping with labour pains. Each theme had several subcategories. Most participants were ignorant of the signs of labour and reported anxiety related to fear of the unknown and practiced different ways of coping with labour pains. Conclusions First-time mothers require adequate preparation for labour, as many women in this study were ignorant of the signs of labour and reported anxiety related to fear of the unknown. Pregnant women should be educated about the physiological aspects of the first stage of labour and oriented in the labour ward during the prenatal period.


1968 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Lonsdale

This paper attempts to provide a frame of reference for evaluating the role of ordinary rural Africans in national movements, in the belief that scholarly preoccupation with élites will only partially illumine the mainsprings of nationalism. Kenya has been taken as the main field of enquiry, with contrasts and comparisons drawn from Uganda and Tanganyika. The processes of social change are discussed with a view to establishing that by the end of the colonial period one can talk of peasants rather than tribesmen in some of the more progressive areas. This change entailed a decline in the leadership functions of tribal chiefs who were also the official agents of colonial rule, but did not necessarily mean the firm establishment of a new type of rural leadership. The central part of the paper is taken up with an account of the competition between these older and newer leaderships, for official recognition rather than a mass following. A popular following was one of the conditions for such recognition, but neither really achieved this prior to 1945 except in Kikuyuland, and there the newer leaders did not want official recognition. After 1945 the newer leadership, comprising especially traders and officials of marketing co-operatives, seems everywhere to have won a properly representative position, due mainly to the enforced agrarian changes which brought the peasant face to face with the central government, perhaps for the first time. This confrontation, together with the experience of failure in earlier and more local political activity, resulted in a national revolution coalescing from below, co-ordinated rather than instigated by the educated élite.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document