Developmental Plan Research Articles

Optimum Project Portfolio Selection for Developmental Plans Using Goal Programming

In vision-driven development plans, such as the Kuwait Mid-Range Development Plan 2015/2016–2019/2020, themes and pillars are derived from the plan's vision, and global indices are assigned by international organizations to accurately measure the performance against the vision's themes. This allows for comparison with other countries, and it also set targets for progression over time. One or more projects are assigned to the indicators of these global indices. A Multi-Criteria Mathematical Programming Technique (e.g., Goal Programming) is used with multiple goals and priorities where an Optimal Portfolio of Projects is found that satisfied the selection criteria.

Measurement of the Importance of 11 Sustainable Development Criteria: How Do the Important Criteria Differ among Four Asian Countries and Shift as the Economy Develops?

Understanding the criteria underlying development in a country is crucial to formulating developmental plans. However, it is not always clear which criteria are more important than others in different countries and at different times. The relationship between developmental criteria and the stage of economic development is also unclear in many countries. Therefore, we devised an indirect stated preference approach for the measurement of the importance of developmental criteria and employed it in four Asian countries—Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam—to measure the importance of sustainable development (SD) criteria perceived by the general public. Specifically, we evaluated the importance of 58 national goals linked to 1 of 11 SD criteria. Security, efficiency, accessibility, capability, and environmental capacity were perceived as relatively important by respondents in all four countries. The respondents perceived that the currently important criteria would be important in the future as well. The order of the importance in each country differed. For example, environmental capacity was ranked lower, and inclusiveness was ranked higher as the gross domestic product of a country increased. Thai and Vietnamese respondents had similar perceptions and, overall, tended to have higher levels of importance than South Korean and Japanese respondents, who also had similar perceptions of importance.

From Bipotent Neuromesodermal Progenitors to Neural-Mesodermal Interactions during Embryonic Development.

To ensure the formation of a properly patterned embryo, multiple processes must operate harmoniously at sequential phases of development. This is implemented by mutual interactions between cells and tissues that together regulate the segregation and specification of cells, their growth and morphogenesis. The formation of the spinal cord and paraxial mesoderm derivatives exquisitely illustrate these processes. Following early gastrulation, while the vertebrate body elongates, a population of bipotent neuromesodermal progenitors resident in the posterior region of the embryo generate both neural and mesodermal lineages. At later stages, the somitic mesoderm regulates aspects of neural patterning and differentiation of both central and peripheral neural progenitors. Reciprocally, neural precursors influence the paraxial mesoderm to regulate somite-derived myogenesis and additional processes by distinct mechanisms. Central to this crosstalk is the activity of the axial notochord, which, via sonic hedgehog signaling, plays pivotal roles in neural, skeletal muscle and cartilage ontogeny. Here, we discuss the cellular and molecular basis underlying this complex developmental plan, with a focus on the logic of sonic hedgehog activities in the coordination of the neural-mesodermal axis.

Counter narrative of President Buhari’s narrative on Nigerian youths with visual images and texts on Facebook

This paper interrogates the visual images and texts Nigerians posted on social media – Facebook as a counter-narrative to President Buhari’s narrative that ‘we have a very young population, a lot of them have not been to school, and they are claiming they should sit and do nothing but get housing, health care, and education free’. The narrative of Muhammadu Buhari was interpreted by Nigerians as suggesting that the youths are lazy. This attracted a swift reaction from Nigerians, who used social media platforms as the medium through which to present their counter-narrative not merely to the President but global consumers that Nigerian youths are not lazy. In doing this, eight visual images that show young Nigerians engaged in different socio-economic activities were analysed and some interactive texts that convey counter-narrative were interpreted. The analysis reveals that despite government failure in providing a developmental plan for the youths in Nigeria, they are either acquiring skills in furniture making or fashion designs. Some others engage in hawking of different products as a means of livelihood. Besides, a group of young men waiting under the sun on motorcycles in another visual image reflects commercial motorcycle transporters. We concluded that the visual images demonstrate that young Nigerians are not lazy but hardworking and energetic.

Developing an Islamic Corporate Governance framework to examine sustainability performance in Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions

Academic and industry interest in sustainable development has increased significantly, which is evident from the number of publications in recent years. To develop the field further, this study conceptualizes a framework to establish the nexus of Islamic Corporate Governance (ICG) and Sustainability Performance (SP) in Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (IBFIs). Although strong corporate governance practices are crucial for maintaining financial stability and development. Nevertheless, scant practical guidance is available on how multidimensional functions of Islamic CG affect the IBFIs' sustainability performance. A conscientious examination of the extant ICG literature facilitates the development of a research framework consisting of several research propositions. This study has derived the most influential Islamic CG mechanisms from the theoretical perspective of Agency Theory, Institutional Theory, and Legitimacy Theory and established their relationship with sustainability performance. Explicitly, this research focuses primarily on the key elements of Islamic corporate governance - namely Shariah board attributes and ownership structure - and aims to examine its impact on economic, social, and environmental SP. This study posits the ordinary least square (OLS) for the anticipated analysis. This study offers a rationale way for future research. In theory, Islamic CG's impact on sustainability performance has been elusive and needs more academic consideration. In this study, a total number of six propositions were developed to provide responsible decision-making opportunities to enhance sustainability performance. The research framework and propositions were developed to address the need for Islamic corporate governance procedures to encourage sustainable banking for maintaining financial stability and sustainable growth. This research is likely to add to the existing developmental plans of the Islamic development bank and other concerned authorities in addressing sustainability-related issues. This study provides policy insights to policymakers, practitioners, and corporate boards of the IBFIs to promote sustainable and cleaner operations through Islamic corporate governance. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that extends the current literature by establishing the nexus of Islamic corporate governance and triple bottom line performance in IBFIs.

Food Security Under The Era Of Climate Change Threat

Food Security Under The Era Of Climate Change Threat

Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Role in Developmental Care for Infants With Heart Disease.

Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Role in Developmental Care for Infants With Heart Disease.

Understanding disaster risk and development of resilience as one of the fundamental drivers of sustainable development in India with special reference to supercyclone Amphan

Disaster like the supercyclone Amphan which devastated the states of West Bengal and Odisha in India caused severe disruption to the life, and led to widespread economic losses which surpassed the proficiency of the society to overcome with sustenance from its own assets. The main prospect for disaster risk reduction lies in decreasing susceptibility and exposure to such hazards. In our study, we targeted identification and lessening the factors driving the risk, to understand risks of hazards such as Amphan. Thereafter, we explained the pathways of understanding disaster risks and ways of building resilience involving every section of society, government, nongovernmental organizations including the private sector which may influence sustainable development. We summarized that disaster mitigation required a people-oriented multi-sector methodology which may help build resilience to manifold, surging and interrelating hazards and generating principles of deterrence and resilience through all societal sections. The developmental plan of actions discussed to ensure disaster resilience, needs to permeate through all societal levels including the financial structure, risk-sharing strategies and social safety device mechanisms. Significant prospects to achieve synergies between actions intended to strengthen resilience may help to achieve progress towards the achievement of disaster risk reduction. Understanding the risk of a disaster like Amphan, developing resilience against it to create sustainable development had not been explored previously. The paper reported insight into the ways adapted by central & state government and the local bodies to reduce the risk and build resilience against a disaster like Amphan.

Differentiation of Sensory Neuron Lineage During the Late First and Early Second Trimesters of Human Foetal Development

Sensory neurons within DRGs are broadly divided into three types that transmit nociceptive, mechanical, and proprioceptive signals. These subtypes are established during in utero development when sensory neurons differentiate into distinct categories according to a complex developmental plan. Most of what we know about this developmental plan comes from studies in rodents and little is known about this process in humans. The present study documents the expression of key genes involved in human sensory neuron development during the late first and early second trimesters (9-16WG). We observed a decrease in the expression of SOX10 and BRN3A, factors associated with migration and proliferation of sensory neurons, towards the end of the first trimester. Small and large sensory neuron populations also emerged at the end of the first trimester, as well as the transcription factors responsible for defining distinct sensory neuron types. NTRK1, which is expressed in nociceptive neurons, emerged first at ~11 WG followed by NTRK2 in mechanoreceptors at ~12 WG, with NTRK3 for proprioceptors peaking at ~14 WG. These peaks were followed by increased expression of their respective neurotrophic factors. Our results show significant differences in the expression of key signalling molecules for human DRG development versus that of rodents, most notably the expression of neurotrophins that promote the survival of sensory neuron types. This highlights the importance of examining molecular changes in humans to better inform the application of data collected in pre-clinical models.

Assessing the Accuracy of ALOS/PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-1 Radar Images in Estimating the Land Subsidence of Coastal Areas: A Case Study in Alexandria City, Egypt

Recently, the Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) technique is widely used for quantifying the land surface deformation, which is very important to assess the potential impact on social and economic activities. Radar satellites operate in different wavelengths and each provides different levels of vertical displacement accuracy. In this study, the accuracies of Sentinel-1 (C-band) and ALOS/PALSAR-2 (L-band) were investigated in terms of estimating the land subsidence rate along the study area of Alexandria City, Egypt. A total of nine Sentinel-1 and 11 ALOS/PALSAR-2 scenes were used for such assessment. The small baseline subset (SBAS) processing scheme, which detects the land deformation with a high spatial and temporal coverage, was performed. The results show that the threshold coherence values of the generated interferograms from ALOS-2 data are highly concentrated between 0.2 and 0.3, while a higher threshold value of 0.4 shows no coherent pixels for about 80% of Alexandria’s urban area. However, the coherence values of Sentinel-1 interferograms ranged between 0.3 and 1, with most of the urban area in Alexandria showing coherent pixels at a 0.4 value. In addition, both data types produced different residual topography values of almost 0 m with a standard deviation of 13.5 m for Sentinel-1 and −20.5 m with a standard deviation of 33.24 m for ALOS-2 using the same digital elevation model (DEM) and wavelet number. Consequently, the final deformation was estimated using high coherent pixels with a threshold of 0.4 for Sentinel-1, which is comparable to a threshold of about 0.8 when using ALOS-2 data. The cumulative vertical displacement along the study area from 2017 to 2020 reached −60 mm with an average of −12.5 mm and mean displacement rate of −1.73 mm/year. Accordingly, the Alexandrian coastal plain and city center are found to be relatively stable, with land subsidence rates ranging from 0 to −5 mm/year. The maximum subsidence rate reached −20 mm/year and was found along the boundary of Mariout Lakes and former Abu Qir Lagoon. Finally, the affected buildings recorded during the field survey were plotted on the final land subsidence maps and show high consistency with the DInSAR results. For future developmental urban plans in Alexandria City, it is recommended to expand towards the western desert fringes instead of the south where the present-day ground lies on top of the former wetland areas.

3D Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage Sites as an Educational Approach. The Sanctuary of Delphi

In the field of cultural heritage, three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of monuments is a usual activity for many professionals. The aim in this paper focuses on the new technology educational application combining science, history, and archaeology. Being involved in almost all stages of implementation steps and assessing the level of participation, university students use tools of computer gaming platform and participate in ways of planning the virtual environment which improves their education through e-Learning. The virtual 3D environment is made with different imaging methods (helium-filled balloon, Structure for motion, 3D repository models) and a developmental plan has been designed for use in many future applications. Digital tools were used with 3D reconstructed buildings from the museum archive to Unity 3D for the design. The pilot study of Information Technology work has been employed to introduce cultural heritage and archaeology to university syllabuses. It included students with a questionnaire which has been evaluated accordingly. As a result, the university students were inspired to immerse themselves into the virtual lab, aiming to increasing the level of interaction. The results show a satisfactory learning outcome by an easy to use and real 3D environment, a step forward to fill in needs of contemporary online sustainable learning demands.

Regional tourism axes identification using GIS and TOPSIS model (Case study: Hormozgan Province, Iran)


 Purpose
 
 This paper aims to identify and determine regional tourism axes in Hormozgan Province, Iran, as a region with significant potential
 
 
 
 Design/methodology/approach
 
 The research method is quantitative and uses the fuzzy accreditation tool and TOPSIS model; the identification, determination and ranking of regional tourism axes have been performed by analyzing the spatial distribution of tourism attractions in the GIS environment.
 
 
 
 Findings
 
 The results show that given the capacities of Hormozgan Province, at least 15 axes are recognizable. This paper highlights regional tourism planning as a tool for urban and rural socio-economic development in potential provinces such Hormozgan.
 
 
 
 Originality/value
 
 This study provides a number of practical implications for regional tourism development as follows: it identifies some of the most important potential axes in Hormozgan Province, which can be considered as investment areas in the national and regional tourism development strategy. The spatial results of this study could be embedded in all urban and rural developmental plans in the province. Tourism investment should shift its spatial concentration from the spot approach, especially islands and cities, to the axis approach while equipping those axes as comprehensive spatial strategic regional tourism plans. Sectoral tourism in each sector including sports, economy and nature could be planned as if sectoral institutions and organizations are going to develop their own tourism goals.
 

English

The design of a sustainable waste management system is pivoted on the ability to generate and compute real-time operational data for a strategic developmental decision plan. The real-time waste data generated at the University of Lagos Campus waste management system was used to develop a mathematical model with three operational indicators, namely, Total Cost Indicator (TCI), to show the overall daily cost for managing one metric ton of mixed municipal waste in the system from collection to final disposal, Lost Revenue Indicator (LRI), to show revenue loss for each metric ton of residual waste landfilled, and Material Recovery Indicator (MRI), to show the fraction of recyclable materials recovered from collected mixed waste. All three indicators were calculated at different recyclable materials recovery efficiencies to determine the cost implication on the system’s operational parameters. The model revealed that the present municipal solid waste (MSW) system operates at a recyclables recovery efficiency rate of approximately 3% but can be increased at optimum capacity to 18%. This performance improvement will result in a cost reduction of $0.32/ton when daily sorters’ capacity, material revenue potential and result-based financing recycling operations are determined using this model as a strategic management planning tool. The model provides an adaptable framework for the development of MSW management decision plans for cities in a developing nation.   Key words: Material recovery, municipal solid waste, cost minimization model.

A developmental plan for a task-based English class instruction model for elementary schools through YouTube and AI chatbot

A developmental plan for a task-based English class instruction model for elementary schools through YouTube and AI chatbot

Challenges of Solid Waste Management and Policy Implications in the Indian Himalayan Region: A Scientific Review

According to Census of India (2011), total 377 million populations were residing in urban area which is 31% of the total population. During 1961-2011, the urban population was increased from 18 to 31.2% (Census of India, 2011b). India which is an agriculture-based economy is shifting towards service-oriented country as more of the population is shifting towards urban areas. Due to diverse geographical and climatic regions the people living here have different consumption and waste generation patterns. Towards sustainable urban development efficient municipal solid waste management is a vital constituent. Municipal solid waste management includes source segregation of waste, storage, collection, relocation, carry-age, processing, and disposal of solid waste for lessening its harmful impact on environment. Unplanned and short-term developmental plans increases industrialization and urbanization in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and have led to tons of solid waste being sent to dump-yards and remained untreated. Due to this, solid waste management is becoming challenging issue in the IHR. In this review, various challenges and issues of solid waste management and probable solutions are suggested, particularly for the IHR.

The origin of animals: an ancestral reconstruction of the unicellular-to-multicellular transition.

How animals evolved from a single-celled ancestor, transitioning from a unicellular lifestyle to a coordinated multicellular entity, remains a fascinating question. Key events in this transition involved the emergence of processes related to cell adhesion, cell-cell communication and gene regulation. To understand how these capacities evolved, we need to reconstruct the features of both the last common multicellular ancestor of animals and the last unicellular ancestor of animals. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the characterization of these ancestors, inferred by comparative genomic analyses between the earliest branching animals and those radiating later, and between animals and their closest unicellular relatives. We also provide an updated hypothesis regarding the transition to animal multicellularity, which was likely gradual and involved the use of gene regulatory mechanisms in the emergence of early developmental and morphogenetic plans. Finally, we discuss some new avenues of research that will complement these studies in the coming years.

Levels of economic growth and cross-province spread of the COVID-19 in China

BackgroundAfter the first COVID-19 case detected on 8 December 2019 in Wuhan, the Provincial Capital of Hubei, the epidemic quickly spread throughout the whole country of China. Low developmental levels...

Fisheries governance in the tropical archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar – opinions and strategies for sustainable management

Globally, marine fisheries sector provides livelihood, food security and employment to the fishers engaged in subsistence, artisanal and industrial fishing activities. The dependency on marine fish supplies keeps rising globally leading to intense competition, fishery conflicts and unsustainable fishing practices which threatens the sustainability and leading to the depletion of marine fishery resources. Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) in India is a tropical archipelago cited as an example where marine fishery resources were considered to be highly underutilized vis-a-vis the harvestable potential. Developmental plans often envisage the enormous scope to harness the oceanic fishery resources however, the overriding issues which affect the sustainable fishery management were least understood or addressed. Offshore fisheries were trade and economy based whereas small scale fisheries are livelihood and food security-based, operating with small to medium scale commercial prospects. Radical management approaches in artisanal and industrial fisheries is essential to foster community resilience and sustainable fishery management. The emerging body of evidence suggests the critical need to reliably estimate the fish catches and population dynamics for sustainable fisheries management. Comprehensive opinions on prevailing issues, complexities in governance, challenges faced and the management strategies that need to be adopted were discussed to ensure the robust governance and sustainability of marine fisheries sector.

Economical Study for the Efficiency of Agricultural Investment in Egypt , After Modification

Investment is one of the main pillars in the implementation of developmental plans and is an important tool for achieving self-sufficiency, reducing unemployment and achieving the goals of developmental plans. It also help in improving the level of the living, by increasing investment in agriculture and non-agriculture, we are ensuring the achievement of many economic, social and environmental development objectives, the research aims to measure the efficiency of certain economic criteria and to examine the development of national and agricultural investments in Egypt during the period 2005-2018.The problem of research has been the inefficiency of investment in agriculture and its decline in relation to national investment, which hampers the role of agriculture in achieving developmental goals. the average value of national investment in Egypt during the period 2005-2018 was about 136.3 billion Egyptian pounds, the minimum investment level was 85.4 billion pounds in 2005, while the maximum investment value was 172.5 billion pounds in 2018, and the relative importance of agricultural investments ranged from 2.1% - 9.4% with an average of 5.3%, the relative importance of agricultural investments was lowest in 2005 at 2.1% of national investment and at a maximum of 9.4% in 2018, the results of the study showed that both total and agricultural investment were not efficient, so the study recommended that plans should be drawn up to boost the national economy and support the financing of projects to play their part in achieving developmental goals and thereby achieving sustainable developmental goals.

أثر مؤشّر التنمیة البشریّة على معدّل الجریمة ومعدّل جریمة المخدرات فی الأردن للفترة 2009 -2018 The Impact of the Human Development Index on the Crime Rate and Drug-Related Crimes Rate in Jordan during the Period (2009-2018)

تهدف الدراسة تعرف أثر مؤشر التنمية البشرية على معدل الجريمة ومعدل جريمة المخدرات في الأردن للفترة (2009-2018) ويتمثل مجتمع الدراسة من جميع البيانات الجاهزة التي تعکس مؤشر التنمية البشرية ومعدل الجريمة ومعدل جريمة المخدرات في الأردن بناء على ما ورد في تقارير (التنمية البشرية/ البرنامج الإنمائي للأمم المتحدة، وزارة التربية والتعليم، إدارة المعلومات الجنائية)؛ وعليه فإن عينة الدراسة تتمثل بالبيانات الجاهزة الواردة في التقارير المشار إليها للفترة (2009-2018). واعتمدت الدراسة المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، وللإجابة عن أسئلة الدراسة تم استخدام اختبار الانحدار البسيط، وأظهرت النتائج وجود أثر دال إحصائيا لمؤشر التنمية البشرية على معدل الجريمة ومعدل جريمة المخدرات، وتوصي الدراسة ضرورة التطوير النوعي للتعليم للحد الذي يسهم به في تحقيق التنمية البشرية المنشودة، وتوخي عدالة توزيع نصيب الفرد من الناتج المحلي الإجمالي، وضمان إتاحة الخدمات الصحية ذات الجودة العالية، ووضع الخطط التنموية لاحتواء الفقر والبطالة. The present study aimed to explore the impact of the human development index on crime rate and drug-related crimes rate in Jordan during the period (2009-2018). The study’s population consists of all the data that are related to human development index, crime rate and drug-related crimes rate in Jordan. Such data were obtained from the human development reports and reports drafted by the UN developmental program, the Ministry of Education, and the Criminal Information Department. The study’s sample consists of the relevant data that are listed in the aforementioned reports and related to the period (2009-2018). The researcher of the present study adopted a descriptive analytical approach. To answer the study’s questions, the simple regression analysis was conducted. It was found that human development index has a statistically significant impact on crime rate and drug-related crimes rate. The researcher recommends improving the quality of education in order to increase the degree of achieving human development. It is recommended that achieving more justice in terms of gross domestic product per capita. The study also recommended providing all people with access to healthcare services of high quality. The researcher also recommended making developmental plans for fighting against poverty and unemployment.